You're listening to Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, Spouts.

Today is Thursday, August 5th, 2021.

Now, all week we are talking about the fifth beatitude,

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

We've already talked about how God is mercy,

the combination of love and forgiveness that will never end.

We've talked about how loving other people is the greatest way to invite God's love and mercy into our lives.

And through the example of St. John Viena yesterday,

reminded ourselves of the

sacrament of mercy reconciliation. And I once again encourage you to go. So today we are going to talk

specifically about forgiveness. Why is forgiving other people so important? And it's important not only for our

relationships with them, it's important for our relationship with God. Now, when we offer

forgiveness to another person, we of course are starting again. We're healing your relationship,

but we're also saying something about what God thinks and feels about this other person.

When we forgive them, when we have been genuinely hurt by someone and we forgive them, What we are saying is not only do I trust

and love you, but you are a child of God and you can be converted and loved by God. That is what

we're saying to someone. When we offer forgiveness,

oftentimes we're reminding them of God's goodness. It is such a powerful act to forgive someone.

In fact, when we refuse to forgive someone, now in many families, there are ancient grudges, things that

happened many years ago that people are still mad about and that they will just not forgive.

Now, when we choose to hold a grudge like that, now what are we saying in that situation about that person? We're telling them

...