"There is no other way." In situations filled with suffering and complexity there is only one path forward: FORGIVENESS. Revenge only deepens the wound. Mahatma Gandhi once said: "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." Only through FORGIVENESS can we break the endless cycle of vengeance and self-destruction. Without FORGIVENESS, there is no hope for a new beginning. 

"He is free because he forgives." The words of St. Silouan the Athonite (1866–1938) resonate here: "Where there is FORGIVENESS … there is freedom." If we compel ourselves to forgive - or at the very least, desire to forgive - we find ourselves in what the Psalms call a "place of respite" or "a place of freedom": "We went through fire and water, but You brought us into a place of abundance" (Psalm 65:12). Only FORGIVENESS allows us to enter what St. Paul describes as "the glorious freedom of the children of God" (Romans 8:21).

Yet how hard, how painfully hard, it is to forgive and to be forgiven! To borrow from another Orthodox Christian voice, Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh (1914–2003): "FORGIVENESS is not a small stream marking the boundary between slavery and freedom; it is as wide and deep as the Red Sea." Similarly, Abba Evagrius Ponticus (346–399), one of the Desert Fathers, reminds us: "Do not think you have attained virtue unless you have struggled for it to the point of shedding blood." The same applies to FORGIVENESS. Sometimes, our struggle to forgive is nothing less than an inner martyrdom, a shedding of our very being.

At the end of FORGIVENESS Vespers, believers bow before one another, asking for and granting FORGIVENESS. What happens the next day, the first day of Lent, known as Clean Monday? In many places, there is a tradition of going out into the hills for an outing. During this annual outdoor celebration, children and adults fly kites together. There is a deep, spiritual parallel here. The moment we begin to forgive, we experience an inner transformation—a transition into springtime. We emerge from darkness into sunlight, from self-imprisonment into the open air of freedom.

We ascend the hills, let the wind blow upon our faces, and release the kites of our hearts—kites of imagination, hope, and joy.

Excerpts from Metropolitan's Article on Forgiveness Sunday.

Why Am I Here (raison d'etre)?

Do you think of this? Why do I exist? What is my purpose in life? What am I about and what am I to be doing with my life?

Do you believe that there is an eternal life or that the life we have here is all that we have so we should just "... eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"?

In a small book by Archimandrite George, Abbot of Gregorius Monastery on Mt. Athos we find the following:

The question of the destiny of our lives is very serious, as it concerns the most important question for man: for what purpose are we placed on earth? If man takes a correct stance on this issue; if he finds his true destiny; then he will be able to take a correct viewpoint in relation to particular questions that arise in our daily life; in our relationships with our fellow men; in our studies, profession, marriage and the bearing and upbringing of children. If he does not relate correctly to this basic issue, then he will also fail in life's particular purposes, for what meaning can a particular purpose have if human life as a whole has no meaning?

In a word, the true purpose of our life is Theosis: ... for man to be united with God, not in an external or a sentimental manner but ontologically, in a real way.

If you want to know more click here.