“[The Treatise] will. . .be conclusive. . . .[I]t will do this only to reach a conclusion of certainty from which you can live. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 1.2)”
Affirmation: “May I live with certainty.”
Reflections:
The Treatise on the New is the fourth and last treatise in the second volume of A Course of Love, and the entire volume is entitled, Treatises of a Course of Love. This final treatise is written to prepare us for the final book in the trilogy, the Dialogues. The Treatise on the New is a preparatory book to lead into a new age for us in our knowledge of living as the elevated Self of form. At this point, at the beginning of the Treatise on the New, we are not yet ready to turn to inner knowledge only. We still need external guidance in the form of these words.
We are trying to reach a certainty about how to live that will serve us well in a sometimes alienating world. This certainty has eluded all of us, perhaps particularly those of us who are drawn to A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love. Many of us have been seekers all of our lives, and elsewhere Jesus specifically addresses this point. We have always thought that understanding (and knowledge) would be found in the “next” book or the “next” speaker or the “next” experience of religion.
Jesus would have to step back and to reassess. He says here and elsewhere, repeatedly, that the seeking is to come to an end. There are things that we know, in the most inward way, and yet we still do not trust our knowing. Jesus would have us to leave all of this foolishness behind, and to trust that we do have the certainty that he is, once again, showing us in this treatise. Once again, he is trying to get his message across, this time with a finality that was not fully accepted by us through studying both the New Testament and A Course in Miracles.
Always we have sought a way to be sure, to be certain. In the Twenty-First Century, we do have new readings that point the way for our time and place.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
May I live today with the certainty that You love me. May I live with the certainty that, soon, the seeking will reach a glorious conclusion. I do not have to look always for the “next” pathway, the one that will give me peace and reassurance, ultimately. The time for this reassurance is at hand.
Thank You for these words of Jesus. May I read and interpret correctly. And may you stay by my right hand always in these moments, guiding my thoughts to fuller understanding.
Amen.
ACIM Workbook Lesson for Day 143:
My mind holds only what I think with God.
In quiet I receive God’s Word today.
All that I give is given to myself.
