In his letter to a friend, Francis de Paola (1416-1507) writes this timely advice as it relates to bitterness and forgiveness:
Put aside your hatred and bitter, combative spirit. Make the effort to refrain from saying sharp words. If they escape from your lips, do not be ashamed to let your lips also provide for the needy, since they are what have caused the wounds. Forgive one another, so that later on you will have forgotten the injury ever occurred. For the recollection of an injury is wrong in itself. It only adds to our anger, nurtures our sin, and hates what is good.
It is like a rusty arrow which poisons the soul, putting all virtue to flight. Or it is like a worm within the mind that confuses our speech and tears to shreds our petitions to God. Indeed, it is quite foreign to charity, and remains embedded within the soul like a nail. It is a wickedness that never sleeps, sin that never stops acting negatively. It is indeed a daily death of the soul.
This timely excerpt is taken from Letters of Faith through the Seasons, edited by James M. Houston. Some five centuries later, we may still read this and learn something about the way of Godliness.
I captured this from my daily reading during the violent times of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy on us all.
Curriculum of the Spiritual Life 