Communion with God

“As long as perception lasts, prayer has a place. Since perception rests on lack, those who perceive have not totally accepted the Atonement and given over themselves to truth. Perception is a separated state, and the perceiver does need healing. Communion, not prayer, is the natural state of those who know. God and His miracles are inseparable.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-3.VII.15:1-5)

This quotation gives us an understanding of the movement from traditional prayer, as supplication, when we are perceiving, into communion with God, when we know instead of perceive. This is an important distinction, because we need to comprehend very precisely, or we will feel bereft, without a God to Whom we can appeal when things get rough. And they will still sometimes get rough.

When we commune with God, we go into a very deep place that is calm and tranquil. We never frantically try to get His attention, something that we are prone to do in supplication when we are distraught. The God we are seeking is deep within us, so deep that we had lost sight of Him earlier, when the ego ruled.

But now we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, an Intermediary Who leads us into God’s presence when we still cling to tendrils of fear of Him. Later on, in the age of Christ (actually where we are now), we will approach God directly, for we no longer will be fearful of His Being. We will know that we are in a right relationship to Him, and we will not foolishly think that He is going to judge us for trying, in illusion, to be separate from Him.

So we seek communion with God now. This is the blessed state all the saints enjoyed. And it is here for all of us now.