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Forgiveness, the Passionate Journey

Nine Steps of Forgiving through Jesus' Beatitudes

by Flora Slosson Wuellner

Paperback

Spiritual Practice

Why does forgiveness, so central in Jesus' life and teaching, seem much more difficult today?

Why are we so often told we should forgive but so seldom shown the steps toward forgiveness?

"Forgiveness is a perilous and volatile subject because it is so deeply intertwined with our communal and individual wounds," Flora Wuellner writes in the introduction. She explores how Jesus' Beatitudes promise us release from these wounds.

You are invited to begin your journey to forgiveness with these hope-filled meditations on each of the Beatitudes.

Whether you have deep wounds or are worn down by a multitude of seemingly small grievances, let Wuellener's unique insights into the Beatitudes introduce you to the renewed and healed life Jesus offers. Each of the 11 chapters includes a guided meditation to help you bring the truth of Jesus' words into your own life.

Discover an open door to new, healed ways of relating to God, others, yourself, the communities around you, and future generations.

Product Details
About the Author

Format:	Paperback
ISBN:	978-0-8358-0945-0
Publisher:	The Upper Room
Imprint:	Upper Room Books
Publication Date:	08/01/2001
Pages:	160
Dimensions:	8.5000 x 5.2500 x 0.3470

Flora Slosson Wuellner, a retired ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, is well known throughout the United States and Europe for her writings and retreat leadership that focus on the inner healing that God freely offers through Christ. She has been involved in the specialized ministry of spiritual renewal for over 40 years and has written 14 books on inner healing and renewal. Educated at the University of Michigan and at Chicago Theological Seminary, Wuellner has served pastorates in Wyoming, Idaho, and Illinois. She currently lives in Fair Oaks, California.

Reviews

"Flora Slosson Wuellner is a prolific and enormously helpful writer. In this book, she again demonstrates her unusual insight into the human condition. She writes this time from a somewhat different perspective, using the Beatitudes as a vehicle to deal with forgiveness. Having personally experienced her teaching in a Five-Day Academy for Spiritual Formation, it is a joy to review her latest book.

Mrs. Wuellner deals with a number of issues, such as:

1. We all are wounded in some way and need to name our hurt(s) and face it (them) clearly.
2. We need to listen to God, self, and others and be willing to learn, grow, and change.
3. Our strength for healing and the giving and receiving of forgiveness is found in the living Christ. Our pain and hurt can be transformed by the God we come to know in Christ.
4. Abusive relationships are used a great deal in this book to illustrate woundedness and the place of forgiveness. Wuellner believes people can see the "others" (the abusers) through God's eyes and can understand what makes them what they are. Although this does not excuse their actions, it may help lead us to forgiveness.

We can be what Wuellner calls "Shalom bringers," people who can bring Shalom to situations where forgiveness and healing are needed. She believes we would be wise to be more concerned with healing and transforming our destructive energies than trying to destroy them.

For Mrs. Wuellner, intercessory prayer is a powerful force in the process of forgiveness and healing. She believes we need to be healed ourselves before we can intercede for others. Forgiveness is not only a journey but also a relationship with Christ to which we are "called."

At the end of most chapters are meditations that are helpful in understanding and giving and receiving forgiveness. The author is careful to point out that you should not force yourself to use them if you are no ready to do so. In chapter six, which focuses on "Blessed are the merciful," Mrs. Wuellner says, "The major point of this book is that the whole journey of healing and release is the path of forgiveness," thus summing up her thesis.

Flora Slosson Wuellner is a strongly biblically based writer. This book is worth reading, not only for her treatment of woundedness, forgiveness, and healing, but also for her insight into the Beatitudes."

-- Charles L. Myers
Retired clergy, South Indiana Conference
The United Methodist Church