Forgiveness means that the balance of power has passed from the traumatic event to the victim. The victim chooses the direction of the future, and does not follow the trajectory laid out by the traumatic event.
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The decision to forgive is the ritual act that proclaims the freedom of the survivor to have a different future.
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The ability to decide to forgive comes from the restoration of human that is the grace of reconciliation.
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Forgiveness is an acknowledgement that the victim is now a new creation, and in a position to imagine a different future.

- Robert J. Schreiter, C.PP.S., The Ministry of Reconciliation; Spirituality & Strategies.,(New York: Orbis Books, 1998), 59-61.-