Review by Celia Hales. Revised with new title and reprinted from Miracles (publisher Jon Mundy).
Williamson, Marianne. Everyday Grace; Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness, and Making Miracles. Riverside Books, 2002. ISBN 1-57322-230-5. Available from <http://www.marianne.com>.
There is a passage in A Course in Miracles that spotlights the way of the seeker and the mystic in this world, a way of being in the world but not of it. The passage reads, mysteriously,
There is a way of living in this world that is not here. . .you smile more frequently. Your forehead. . .serene, your eyes. . .quiet. And the ones who walk the world as you do recognize their own. (W-p1.155.1:1-4).
Marianne’s gift to us in this book first spells out her powerful view of the theory behind this way of living: miracles happen; we are helped (Marianne says by angels); judgment blocks the way; love is the best means to get to a worthy end; we need to be in silence rather than do all the time. She then moves on in the bulk of the book to a very practical application of her truisms: She takes us through a mythical, hour by hour, day of practical effects, and she always follows through on the hard questions (never leaving us to wonder, what did she mean by that?). Marianne concludes her manual of graceful living by heartfelt meditations on the value of meaningful ritual in our lives, really keeping the Sabbath, the real observation of holidays, a way through thorny relationship problems to the gem of a holy relationship, and, finally, the world as our community, the place for our spiritual activism.
How close does Marianne adhere to A Course in Miracles? Very close indeed. True, she uses the word “magic” to connote a sense of wonder (unlike ACIM), and she frankly appropriates the term “mystical” to the way of living in this world that she proposes (also something ACIM doesn’t do). But I am reminded always in Marianne’s writing of the passage in A Course in Miracles:
There is a course for every teacher of God. The form of the course varies greatly. So do the particular teaching aids involved. But the content of the course never varies. (M-1.3:1-4)
In Everyday Grace, published in 2002, Marianne returns to her roots as a student and teacher of A Course in Miracles more than any of her books to that point since her first, A Return to Love. In content and tone (always prayerful, ever gentle), Everyday Grace is more akin to Illuminata than any other. (She is appropriately billed as the author of Illuminata on the book jacket.)
Marianne is now a mature woman, a “wise woman,” if you will. She expresses a sincere humility with still a willingness to learn, but it is clear that she has now walked far along the mystic’s path. She has seen darkness, but she has also seen some light, and it is her gift to us that she herein does not put her light under a bushel, but claims the power she now has through the understanding her pathway has thus far given her. It is clear that Marianne’s Everyday Grace comes from the heart, a heart honed by prayer, meditation, A Course in Miracles, and the common bonds and wisdom of spirituality’s gentle messages.
A gem of a book–not to be missed!
MIRACLES EACH DAY 