Phases of Womanhood Seminar Focuses on Turning to God for Help with Forgiveness

 

 

Dr. Lisa Klewicki, a clinical Psychologist and Fr. Jamie Workman, parochial vicar at Blessed Sacrament Parish presented an excellent Forgiveness Seminar for women on Saturday, July 26^th at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, as part of a conference series sponsored by the Phases of Womanhood non-profit organization.  The organization was founded by a group of Catholic lay women in 2003, dedicated to offering an authentic vision of womanhood through concrete ideas and information about the issues that matter most in the lives of women.[1]  For more information about the Phases of Womanhood organization, visit their website at:  http://www.phasesofwomanhood.org/about.html

 

 

Fr. Jamie Workman focused on the spiritual side while Dr. Klewicki focused on the psychological side of forgiveness. Both emphasized that forgiveness was not something that happened over night but that it was a process that begins with recognizing that you need God’s help, knowing yourself through faith and the sacraments and choosing to forgive by letting go of your hurts and sufferings.

Many people hold onto forgiveness out of pride because they believe it gives them a power in a relationship or lack thereof, according to Fr. Workman.  When something tragic happens in our lives, we realize that we need God’s help and turn to prayer thereby deepening our spiritual lives and relationship with God.  Fr. Workman gave an example of a man whose son was killed by another man who was so involved with drugs and alcohol that he did not realize what he had done until he was in prison and had the time to reflect on his crime. 

The father in his sorrow for the loss of his son turned to his faith to ask God to help him with his grief. In doing so he realized he needed to let go of his sorrow. By saying yes to God and deepening his spiritual life, he began to understand what the biblical readings were about, “Come to me all you who labor and I will give you rest.” He desired to understand and have empathy for prisoners, like the man who killed his son.  While in his prison ministry, the prisoner who killed his son apologized for his act without realizing that he was the man’s father and in this rare case, the father was able to say “I forgive you.”

Dr. Klewicki compared the stages of grief and suffering; denial, anger, doubt in God, accepting God’s will, forgiveness and complete trust in God to Christ’s love for us through his suffering and death on the cross.  Once we realize God’s love for us, through prayer and the sacraments we can love others and forgive them. 

Often our thoughts affect our feelings, behavior and finally our actions.  We need to pray and meditate in order to literally give our hurt to God, forgive ourselves and realize that we can’t change the past.  Dr. Klewicki suggested that we take at least five minutes each day imagining ourselves being loved by God.  By meditating on this physical image we can begin to be compassionate, finding good in ourselves, letting go of anger and sufferings.  For everything we want to change in our lives, we should find three things we are thankful for because often times we are angry at others because there is something within ourselves we are angry about.

Dr. Klewicki offered some book resources for participants such as:

15 Steps to Spiritual Healing, Making Peace with Yourself, by Kathryn J. Hermes, FSP

And

The Choosing to Forgive Workbook, by Les Carter, PhD. & Frank Minirth, M.D.

For more information about the work of Dr. Klewicki you can visit her website at:  http://www.fountainoflife.us, where she also has CD’s on available for purchase.

 

Date Published: 2008-07-30 04:15:00

Section: Health,