These talks help us understand why our efforts to forgive often fail and how reconciliation can be advanced by meditation. Our efforts fail, Laurence Freeman says, because they often are misdirected. Forgiveness is not an act of moral superiority directed at the culprit. It is a subtle process of healing for the victim, of letting go of the bitterness that hurt can create. But the ego that is hurt cannot let go. 

Letting go is part of a deeper process of prayer. It is a response to Jesus’ call to leave self behind, which is the work of Christian meditation, Laurence Freeman says. Meditation is a spiritual discipline that takes us beyond the ego to our deepest centre, our heart where God’s love can touch us. Vengeance then is no longer an issue. We let go of grudges, and forgiveness happens.