The following Collect prayer could also be an individual’s forgiveness prayer:
Almighty and most gentle God, who brought forth from the rock a fountain of living water for your thirsty people, bring forth, we pray, from the hardness of our heart, tears of sorrow, that we may lament our sins and merit forgiveness from your mercy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Collect from the Mass for the Forgiveness of Sins
There have been too many instances where I have let down people I considered friends. Looking back, I realize I was only sometimes aware of these failures much later after we drifted apart. Offering a sincere apology is my only solution in these situations. Fortunately, our conscience constantly encourages us in the right direction because it does not let us forget when we went in the wrong direction. It serves as our reminder not to repeat past mistakes. The judgment of our conscience is enduring, and it encourages us to seek conversion and grace from God when our acts are contrary to truth, conscience, and reason.
Brothers and sisters:
Cor 12:31–13:13
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.
But I shall show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in human and angelic tongues,
but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy,
and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own,
and if I hand my body over so that I may boast,
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
it is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease;
if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
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