It takes a great deal of self-awareness and personal growth to move from making a mistake and repeating it to making a public apology because you are directly opening yourself and being vulnerable to everyone's opinions and judgment while risking it being rejected entirely.

A good and genuine apology is a recipe, a concoction for each situation, but must always contain an acknowledgment of the action taken and resulting pain inflicted upon the victim(s), it provides a plan of action for how they will right the wrong, and lastly, it showcases an actual change in behavior that the past will not be repeated.

This is a good apology, and the Unbound Lord will tell you when you Cleanse yourself of your misdeeds in such a manner, your redemption only counts when your promise to not repeat the behavior is accompanied with honest effort to continually show change and remorse.

It is at this point that one must wait and allow the victim(s) and the angered some time to digest the apology and to come to terms with whether they can accept it or not. However, their decision does not change the new path you've set yourself on - the right path to be a better person because of learning from your mistake.

Don't respond to the rejection of your apology; accept their feelings for what they are, and go on doing better with your life. But don't make it worse by crowding their spaces or demanding they change their perspective of you because in such cases, only actions will speak louder than any words you bring, as now they must.

How and why to properly accept an apology?

If the person is making a sincere effort to apologise, thank them for the apology, regardless of your feelings, because swallowing pride and ego and learning from our or others' mistakes is not something everyone is mentally and emotionally capable of. Consider that instead of apologising they could have left things as they stood and not cared enough to apologise in the first place and moved on with their life or worse, repeated the crime remorselessly. Think of the effort it took and avoid brushing off the person's apology by saying "It's fine" or reiterating in a viciously cyclical manner the details of the mistake.

Without anger, explain your feelings were/remain hurt after thanking them for the apology because this will indicate that you are being honest about your emotions as well - instead of lashing out with words against them because this will show your greater capacity of emotional intelligence. "Thank you for apologising. I was really hurt when you lied to me /(or:) I still miss my friend/family and cannot find it in my heart to accept your apology right now."

Take time to heal, regroup with loved ones, but allow space in your heart and mind for change. Give them a chance to show that they are capable of the remorse and change they are apologising for and if they fail to be consistent in that change then you are perfectly within your rights to both lower them from your regard as a respectable person and disengage them from your life altogether.

There are many things regarding Cleansing and Redemption that the Unbound Lord can teach and all are welcome to learn or ask questions of His Faithful.

Church, as I see your apology is genuine and I see you have offered your life and unending service to your victims, I invite you to find shelter on Lord Damariel's blessed isle, Barre Arevat, amongst our other refugees and our caretaker will attend you as she does all who seek refuge until such a time comes where you find your footing again.

Sincerely,
His Faithful

Penned by my hand on Closday, the 14th of Haernos, in the year 497 MA.