Considering A Course in Miracles’ Version of the Lord’s Prayer

“Forgive us our illusions, Father, and help us to accept our true relationship with You, in which there are no illusions, and where none can ever enter.  Our holiness is Yours.  What can there be in us that needs forgiveness when Yours is perfect?  The sleep of forgetfulness is only the unwillingness to remember Your forgiveness and Your Love.  Let us not wander into temptation, for the temptation of the Son of God is not Your Will.  And let us receive only what You have given, and accept but this into the minds which You created and which You love.  Amen.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-16.VII.12)

This prayer was recognized by Helen, the scribe of A Course in Miracles, as ACIM’s version of the Lord’s Prayer.  If we read it carefully, we will all see why.

The prayer starts with a plea for forgiveness.  And, later on, continues with a plea that we not wander into temptation.  The words are different, but the message of this prayer is very akin to the Lord’s Prayer in the New Testament.

We have illusions here, but we would not have it so.  God would not have it for us, either.  We are holy like God, though we strive mightily to hide this awareness from ourselves, and we often just outright don’t believe it.  We have been asleep, in the “sleep of forgetfulness.”  And God would have us awaken, for his channels are closed to Him, and in ACIM He is said to be lonely without the minds that He created being in communication with Him.  We need to receive the great gifts of God, in joy and the abundance that he offers to us, freely, always.

Let’s take a look at the Lord’s Prayer, as found in the King James Version of the Bible (the version used in A Course in Miracles), from Matthew 6:9-13:

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

“Give us this day our daily bread.

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:  For thine in the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen.”