Forgiveness Part 3
November 5, 2025
Forgiveness Part 3
As reflected about yesterday, we need divine super qualities to do things we cannot do on our own. So, forgiveness and self-forgiveness require divine qualities of self-compassion and grace, which the ego and personal willpower alone cannot supply. This is done through a process of spiritual alchemy.
The alchemical restructuring of our spirit occurs by combining these super qualities with our heart, mind, and body, held by our soul. How does this process of spiritual alchemy work? How do we receive these qualities into our spirit, reconstruct our spirit, and embody and express these qualities?
The term “spiritual alchemy” is not as mysterious as it may sound. It is a term for the age-old process that we already know about and use in some form. Simply put, spiritual alchemy is the restructuring of the spirit that results from submitting our lives to intimate communication with the Divine. Often this process takes place in the container of prayer.
Here is a prayer for self-forgiveness. May it guide you as you tailor-make it into your personal prayer for the freedom and peace of a forgiven soul:
My Creator,
I kneel before you. My heart is heavy with grief because of the hurt and harm I have caused. It weighs me down with regret and guilt. Whatever excuses I may make for myself are inconsequential compared to the sorrow I feel over my actions. No longer can I walk in this world with the weight and sorrow.
You have forgiven me for my actions, and I am so humbly thankful. However, I have not followed you by forgiving myself. The weight continues regardless of my will to forgive myself.
I confess the lack the capacity to be merciful to myself. Filled with disgust and self-condemnation, I continue to punish myself. I pray for the love and self-compassion to allow me to move forward in freedom.
But standing in the way is the fact that I cannot accept that I did these things; I am not someone who could have done them. I pray for you to help me admit that I am indeed that person, light and dark, aware and unaware, beautiful and broken. Please pour the strength and compassion to accept the truth that I am this self. Transform my spirit to have as much mercy on myself as I have for others and that you have so graciously given me.
Oh Creator, I pray to see myself as you see me, an imperfect child who, like all children, deserves the cleansing gifts of love and affirmation. I pray to see myself as any child who is growing and worthy of forgiveness. Transform me to realize that neither I nor my transgressions are unforgivable. I pray to internalize these knowings as elements of my spirit. Please make overflowing compassion for myself a part of my spirit.
For those to whom I have caused harm, I pray that they will be healed and made whole. If I am to be involved in this healing, please guide my heart, mind, and body to make this happen.
Amen
