So says, Michael Leach, the editor-at-large of Orbis Books and a new blogger at whystaycatholic.com. A snip from the aforementioned blog that really appealed to me:

Amazon.com lists 160,510 books on the topic of forgiveness. That’s 31,629 more than on sexuality. What does that tell us about the human heart and what it hungers for most?

As a publisher I ask authors to write on topics that interest me deeply. Over the years I’ve asked more authors to write on the topic of forgiveness than any other. That’s because I want to get it right in my own life. Nothing is more important. Who of us doesn’t desire the freedom that comes when we let go of resentments that sear our souls, or the joy that makes our hearts soar when we ourselves experience forgiveness?

Indeed. He cites a new book that I just bought called Radical Forgiveness by Antoinette Bosco who had a son murdered and another who committed suicide. Her main point is to free ourselves from anger and resentments that keep us in pain and prisoner to those who have hurt us.

Can we forgive? More importantly I think the question stems from whether we believe that we are forgiven ourselves. Often we find it hard to believe that God could forgive us–that we know ourselves well and know our dark spaces of our hearts–how could we believe that God could just wash it all away?

These are age old questions. And one of the ways I think of it is to believe that God is perfect and therefore can forgive perfectly. That resentment is the burden that we hold onto even when we crave for forgiveness ourselves and to forgive others.

Check out a bunch of other good reads that Michael points us to at whystaycatholic.com as well.