“Two things are happening at once that make this year’s Lent not only new, but Lent like never before. They both ask us to consider doing one of the most important things we can do during lent: forgiving someone.”
During this latter part of Lent, I am writing a weekly series of articles on forgiveness for the Diocese of St. Cloud and the “Everyday Discipleship” section in Central Minnesota Catholic magazine. If you know me, you know I am a big fan of the “everyday ordinary” as the wellspring of divine revelation that can transform our very being. By no small coincidence today’s Gospel reading about someone walking to an everyday ordinary well with one thing in mind and then walking from the well a deeply changed person, is exactly that kind of situation and experience (see John 4:5-42). It’s important to me that people realize that the most everyday ordinary people, the most numerous people in this world, hold the awesome power of forgiveness within themselves, with the potential to change their world. Maybe, that’s important to you too.
These articles will focus on Lenten themes of mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and accompaniment. Each article, in order, will also guide readers through a process to forgive another person as part of Lenten devotion. I hope you will read the first article in this series and consider trying out the guided experience of forgiveness yourself.
The first article is entitled “A season like never before!” and can be accessed at Central Minnesota Catholic magazine.
This article is an original work of the author and was not composed by or with artificial intelligence (AI). The author is solely responsible for the contents of this article and the opinions and perspectives expressed in the article are solely those of the author. © 2026 Thomas Delaney. All rights reserved.
photo: David Waterfall, Judean Desert, (Ein Gedi), Jan Helebrant, 2010
If your parish or faith community is seeking a deeper experience of wellness and forgiveness for inner renewal and spiritual growth, Live and Forgive is here to help. To begin the conversation, email Live and Forgive presenter and facilitator Tom Delaney at tom@liveandforgive.com — he will be glad to connect with you for a conversation.
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