Comfort Ye

From Ann Glover O’Dell’s Midwifing the Soul:

Comfort

comfort ye my people

comes command

and yet perhaps more

confirmation of

the character of

creaturehood

than mandate for life mission.

From whence comes true compassion?

Perhaps as we spring

fully formed

in soul-made grandeur

from the womb of Him

who birthed all sacred life.

So we endowed

with angel flight

and special birthing splendor

hold secretly sequestered

in dark reaches

heretofore unspermed

conception capabilities

of such elaboration

angelic choirs

would sing our praise

and we magnificats would raise

were we to witness and display

peculiar parity with God

as in immaculate conceiving

we give birth

to God’s own wombness

passioning with those begotten ones

who need some mending of their wings.

Personal Relationship with Jesus

“Just as you express love to your friends, children, or spouse, that is how I ask you to love me too.  I invite you to give me a kiss every morning, to greet me when you wake up, to tell me good morning, or to say good night before going to sleep.”  Choose Only Love bk.2, 21:II

Jesus is inviting us into a very personal relationship with him.  Here he is emphasizing his human, rather than divine, characteristics. 

Perhaps we don’t know how to love Jesus.  We think this sounds too old-fashioned for us in the New Age.  A “personal relationship” with Jesus may have turned some of us off.

But give it a try.  We know that he is available to us as a friend, and here he invites something even closer, a family member.  There is great comfort in this, great comfort indeed.

We walk a cold and cruel world, at least part of the time.  Until we know that we are right with God, we won’t be satisfied for long with anything we find in our daily walk.  Jesus is here pointing out a very practical way to end dissatisfaction.  Just make friends with him, he says.  Know that when we express love for him as we would to any close companion, we are doing something that feels right.

We are having a personal relationship with Jesus.  This is something he is now asking of us.

Delights of God’s Heart Embellish the World

“Let us observe together how the delights of God’s heart embellish not only the soul, but the whole world.  To make them present in the world is to bring Heaven to Earth.”  COL bk.2, 15:III

Sometimes we get so caught up in our own neuroses that we forget that there is a whole world out there needing our help.  This, with the coronavirus, is such a difficult time for just about everybody.  But God is still God, and His way is joyful.  If we listen to the promptings, the quiet promptings, of our heart, we will know the truth of a joy that never ends.

If we seek to embody God’s joy, we will necessarily be a good force in this world.  And the world is crying out for understanding and comfort now.  Let us let go of our own hang-ups and instead walk the happier path, metaphorically holding God’s hand, remembering His delights.

God is not responsible for the bad things that happen in our world.  Our mindset has fallen, even as our free will has remained constant.  And God does not interfere with free will.  That is an axion never broken.

If we open our hearts to a never-ending love, we will understand what these “delights of God’s heart” really are.  And, as the quotation says, not only will our own soul be embellished, but also the whole world.

The world needs us now.  Let us reach out and heal, first ourselves, and then our circle in this world, and then, beyond that, to the much larger community.

We can do this.  It just takes the proper mindset. 

And with have within our power the means to uplift our mindset.

We Are Not Alone

“Rest assured, you are not alone.  In any moment, you need only call upon me, and I am with you.  And I do not come alone!  For some of you, then, we would highly suggest that in those moments when you feel like you need a little help, when fear seems to be coming up, but you know you must go ahead, whatever it be, whatever you think you are fearing, simply say:

“Legions of angels and masters and friends, whose number is infinite beyond comprehension, you who are sent directly of God to assist me over the ditch, come now, because I declare it and I receive it.  And therefore it is!

“Then take the step that is necessary to take.  It will not be your imagination.  We will be with you.  And the perfect end is certain.  Fear is nothing more than the illusion you have chosen to value in order to experience what it is like to feel separate from Love.  That is all.  You merely waved your cosmic magic wand and said, ‘Let there be fear so I can experience it.’”  (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 12, Page 150)

This lengthy quotation has a lot to say to us.  Basically, we can get help if we are besieged by fear.  Legions of angels, masters, and friends will come to us, offering us the unseen help that we need.

Can we believe this?  Our life would be a lot more peaceful if we could.  If we could know that we have help at every turn, just for the asking.

Open the mind and heart a little, and see if we can adopt this consideration as a fact of life.  See if we can believe that many unseen forces help us when we fall in the “ditch.”

I sense unseen beings in the middle of the night, if I awaken and can’t get back to sleep.  The comfort soothes me, and often I do drift off again.  Believing that we are surrounded by loving spirits is a very empowering belief to have.

Try it out.  See if it makes sense to us.

God Offers Comfort

The third law of chaos affirms that God must accept His Son’s belief about what he has become, and hate him for it. This illusion seems to be humility, saying, in effect, that we are miserable sinners in need of grace. But this is actually arrogance that would seek to circumvent the Creator. Now do we dare not turn to God for comfort, because He has become our enemy. Salvation, under this law, seems actually impossible. The ego cannot help in escape from this interpretation, but the Course was made that we might choose another way.

The fourth law of chaos is that you have what you have taken from another. By his loss, we win. This illusion says that there is a finite amount of treasure in the world, and if we gain treasure, we have it because we have taken it from our brother. In its most extreme form, this law says that we must destroy our brother to save ourselves. But Jesus affirms that we can only take away from ourselves. Instead of an “enemy” having our treasure, from whom we must wrest it, we are in firm control, and it is we who would deny ourselves. The enemy does not hold our inheritance away from us—it is we who have rejected it for the dubious “values” of the ego. There is a portion of this law that believes that we act unkindly because our brother has been unkind to us—forcing us into justified attack. But all of this illusion!

Finally, the last law of chaos is that there is a substitute for genuine love. This substitute is given us by the ego when we take back from our brother what we feel is rightfully ours. This is the ego’s secret gift. This secret gift has apparently been torn from us by our brother, and must be reclaimed if we are to have the ego’s notion of salvation. Our brother, by tearing this gift from us, has kept salvation from us. This is why enmity, one to another, can be seen as salvation.

When studied carefully and dispassionately, we can see clearly that these laws of chaos do not make sense. The illusions upon which they are based can be seen as illusions, and thus identifying the “laws” that illusions have, we are in a better position to seek further for the true laws—God’s laws—creating reality. Because these laws do not make sense, we are free to discard them for something better. Therein lies our true salvation. We have used our intellect to help us out, and while intellect is never enough (love and forgiveness, emotions of the heart, are required fundamentally), it is a start. And the lack of a satisfying worldview has kept many a skeptic in his darkness. I can imagine nagging Jesus for just such an elucidation of ultimate Truth that Course provides for us. “. . .seek, and ye shall find,” ((Luke 11:9 – KJV)and the world was finally ready in 1975 (the year A Course in Miracles was published) for this new way.

The Course declares that we think we do not believe in these laws. When articulated bluntly, their insanity becomes evident. But do we believe in these laws on an unconscious level? It is only their plain statement that allows us to reject them. Normally the actual intent is well-hidden. If, when raised to the light of day, we do reject the laws of chaos, then Jesus has done us a great service. It becomes clear that these laws govern chaos (illusion), never reality. A crucial three sentences explain: “There is no life outside of Heaven. Where God created life, there life must be. In any state apart from Heaven life is illusion.” (T-23.II.19:1-3)

Comfort in Creation

“Therefore, the pathway of awakening—The Way of the Heart—must start with the decision to embrace the Truth that is true always:
“I am a creator of all that I think and see and experience. I am free always. Nothing impinges upon me, but the thoughts I have chosen to hold within. Nothing imprisons me, but my own perception of imprisonment. Nothing limits me at any level or dimension of experience, save that which I have chosen.” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Chapter 2, Page 13 – 14)

This quotation elaborates on the thesis that we create our own reality (begun in this blog recently). This idea has the potential to be very, very comforting, but it also has the potential to scare us. How can we control what we think? And isn’t it thought that brings our reality to us, in the law of attraction?

We must remember that we have help, the help of the Spirit within, the Holy Spirit as a mediator between ourselves and God, or the Christ-Self, Who is merged with God deep within each of us. We are beset by both subconscious and conscious wishes, and that is why what we want does not always materialize into a belief that will draw the blessing to us. Our soul knows the whole pathway. We don’t. And we trip ourselves up with part-knowledge.

“I am the creator of all that I think and see and experience.” There is satisfaction in those words if we listen aright. We are not at the mercy of any outside force, nor of any person outside ourselves. We are in the driver’s seat. And we can create joyous moments through a contemplation of the Love that God pours out upon all of us.

We aren’t victims of anything or anybody. This alone ought to give us solace. If we are hurting, our souls know why—though we may not know why on this side of the veil of death. Yet knowing that there is an Answer we will know ultimately must give us a particular comfort.

Comfort in the Eternal

“It will come to pass that you will know the perfect peace of empty-headedness, not-knowingness. You will know what it means to be relieved of time and to be comforted by what is eternal. Never once let yourself think that you are alone. It is nonsense for you to think that I am not with you. You have asked. I have responded. We are in communication. That is the way it is. And that is the way it will be until the end of all illusion.” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Chapter 1, Page 10)

I find Jesus’ reassurance about his closeness very comforting. He says in A Course in Miracles that he will come to us upon “a single unequivocal call.” Now, right now, he is extending this promise to an even greater presence, perhaps, because we have asked. The passage from ACIM seems to me to imply that we are in dire straits when we send out a single “unequivocal” call. But we don’t have to be in hot water to reach out to Jesus. He loves and welcomes us always.

When we don’t know something, in “empty-headedness, not-knowingness,” then we have opened up the “spacious self” (from A Course of Love) to receive. We are open, sure that we are in ignorance. And so there is a space to be filled with God’s knowledge. And Jesus is the conduit, here in The Christ Mind Trilogy (WOM).

Our comfort in the eternal will be profound, a feeling of depth that will offer us the solace that we sometimes seem to lack. The things of time all pass away, of course, and we sometimes make our selves afraid with the understanding that things will change, things that we love may leave us. And people may leave us. So we very much need the sense of the eternal.

And that is God and His Love.

Joyous Discoveries

“The first is that what you will be discovering, what you will be coming to know, will be coming to you from the state of unity, which is a shared state. Although what you will be coming to know is already known to you, it will still come in the form of a surprising discovery, a joyous discovery of the previously known but long forgotten identity of the Self and all that lives along with you. This knowing will, for a while yet, be surprising because it will be reversing the insanity of your life as you have known it thus far. These reversals will be among the first revelations and will seem quite simple and pleasing as they enter your awareness, but they may come to be seen as quite complicated as you begin the practice of living with what you come to know. (ACOL, D:13.3)

The quotation for today seeks to give us solace and comfort as the very ground is shifting beneath our feet. We are coming to know from a space beyond us, a space of unity, a space of the Self of union. This Self is not really distinct from the inner Christ-Self whom we all have. There is a flow from one to the other, and we can imagine that the flow from the larger Self of union happens more frequently than that our thoughts and feelings get communicated to It (an interpretation, not stated in A Course of Love). If it is true that we “hear” from the Self of union increasingly, then it stands to reason that we ought to open ourselves, totally, open to this knowledge. Knowledge is of God; perception is our own rendering of what we “see,” even during the previous time when we were egoic.

Surprising discoveries of that which we have always known, remembering (as it were), is a wonderful spot to invite. We are told in this quotation that we will know joy as we come to discover what we have actually always known, what we are now remembering. And don’t we all wish for joy?

Let the joy sink upon our heads, and go deeper, into our minds and hearts. As one Self, we will intuit from each other as well as the larger Self of union. And this can only give us comfort and solace, as, as one Body and Mind and Spirit, we are joining with wholeness. Wholeness will be the way from now on.

Prayer

I ask for Your comfort and solace today. I ask for the joyous discovery of that which I have forgotten. Guide my thoughts in the art of thought, the prayer, the miracle-mindedness, the miracle-readiness, the miracle itself.

May I stop being a hare, as the fable talks about. The tortoise will catch up with me. May I take things one at a time, producing for You, and producing without forming a new ego that would trip me up big time.

Thank You for guiding my life.

Amen.

Comfort in a World of Sorrow

“Have you never felt as if you would wrap your arms around the world and bring it comfort if you could? This you can do. Not with physical arms, but with the arms of love. Have you never cried for the state of the world as you would for one small child in need of love?” (ACOL, C:20.19)

Indeed, we do not blame victims for their plight; this is said elsewhere in A Course of Love. And our hearts go out to the world and all people in it, for we too have lived through some difficult times. Because we too have known some suffering, we know where the problems are coming from. We don’t understand all things, all reasons for suffering, but we understand enough to draw the world around us and comfort it and its people.

Love IS the answer. Elsewhere we are told that if love were described as some new discovery that science had made, we might be more likely to sit up and take notice. But because we have heard that Love is the answer from all of our religious traditions, we tend to downplay its efficacy.

This we need not to do. Of course, we say to ourselves. But do we really understand that reaching out, in imagination, will cure all ills? We cannot solve all problems, but we can solve some of them. And the suffering that these problems lead us into can be risen above by a simple expediency: Love changes our attitude. We no longer feel sorry for ourselves. And with this change in attitude, our suffering ceases to be suffering and becomes simply pain.

This may not sound like much of a change, but it is gigantic in implication. Yes, we must transmute our pain, also, but, first things first. If we love God and one another, we will walk in the path illumined by light. And this light will make all the difference.

Prayer

Dear Father/Mother,

Sometimes when we are feeling low, “just do it,” when it comes to a given action, is best. You taught me this just this morning, when my attitude needed to be changed. And you changed it! Thank You so much.

May all of our problems that lead to suffering be lightened by the power of a changed attitude. May we not only transmute suffering, but pain itself. And may we hug the world to us as we would one small child in need of comfort.

Be with us today as we walk in a difficult world. The way will become easy with You at the helm.

Amen.

Comfort for Our Troubled Hearts

“Look not to figures from the past to show you the way beyond illusions to the present. Look within to the one in you who knows the way. Christ is within you and you rest within God. I vowed to never leave you and to never leave you comfortless. The Holy Spirit has brought what comfort you would accept to your troubled mind. Now turn to me to comfort your troubled heart.” (ACOL, C:2.15)

Jesus offers his best to us, the comfort that we all long for and are entitled to have. He is part of the Christ Mind which we all share. And in this passage, he is offering his healing to us. Would we not be foolish indeed to turn aside from this healing?

Christ is within us. And as we emerge from the time of the Holy Spirit into the time of Christ, we need to begin looking within for our answers, looking within for our guidance. We can do so, and we will not be disappointed with what we find. We may not be certain any longer whether our guidance comes from the Holy Spirit or comes from the inner Christ Self, but the All is a part of God, and so why would it even matter which? Jesus is leading us to a new understanding of what the Christ really means.

Our hearts have been troubled, our hearts as well as our minds. Today let us walk a new way back to God. Try a fresh approach. Talk to Jesus in your mind and heart, asking him for his blessing as we seek to come to understand. He will not disappoint us. He is always there, though we don’t understand how he can clone himself for everyone who might ask at any given point.

We don’t have to understand cloning to believe that there is a mystery that we don’t get. But Jesus says that he will come in response to “one unequivocal call,” and I believe him. His promise is one of the great blessings of my life, and the fact that I believe him keeps me on an even keel.

I would wish that even keel for all of us. Turn aside from the ridiculous notions of insanity. Let Jesus talk to you internally, for he can do so. This is what a savior is for. It is not an inconvenience to him to reach out to us. He wants us awakening to the new world that he would have us create.

Be sure that our wishes for a better future are the same wishes that Jesus would have for us. Leave insanity behind by touching the best that is within. And this best is the inner Christ that we share with Jesus.

When You Are Afraid, Be Still and Know that God Is Real

“You are part of reality, which stands unchanged beyond the reach of your ego but within easy reach of spirit. When you are afraid, be still and know that God is real, and you are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. (T55)”

Affirmation: “When you are afraid, be still”

Reflections:

1 – Comfort

This is a comforting passage to recall in times of fear, and, especially, if we feel that we have wronged a brother. God loves us still, and all mistakes are correctable. We are His beloved Son (or Daughter) in whom He is well pleased. What a statement that is! In fact, it compares God’s love for us with the familiar passage from the New Testament, in which Jesus received God’s blessing as His beloved son. We do not usually think of ourselves in this light. We do not usually compare ourselves to Jesus, especially when in the grip of the ego–for the egoic interpretation would have us reach toward pride, a characteristic that even the ego knows is to be avoided. The whole attitude encompassed in the passage for today would seem to be arrogant to the ego, but actually our spirit knows that we can still be humble and accept such words as these from Jesus.

2 – The World We Made Is an Illusion

There is a theoretical aspect to this passage as well: the image of “reality,” as opposed to the world that we made, which is actually, as seen by the A Course in Miracles, an illusion. The ego lives in this world of illusion, and so naturally if we are listening to the ego, we will believe that we have wronged a brother, and we will be afraid accordingly. The ego feeds upon such imaginings. We do not really understand the assertion in ACIM that we made (not created) this world in which we live. This is a theological underpinning that is beyond our scope. Yet if Jesus says it, I can recognize that there is something here that speaks to me though I do not understand it. I can recognize that my mind can indeed weave illusions, and, according to Jesus in ACIM, that is exactly what my mind has done. And all our minds. We are caught in a mass hallucination (an interpretation, not stated in ACIM).

3 – Insane World

Actually we cannot truly wrong a brother in his (or her) reality, and when we move beyond the ego to the spirit, we know this. Note that reality is within “easy” reach of spirit. This reminder we may need often, as we go about in an insane world. God never leaves us alone, though; we are always shadowed by His inner essence in ourselves, and we always have the Holy Spirit for guidance. Individuals of faith have long recognized the spark of divinity that is within us all, and that is what is meant here. We can reach to true reality, though we may get only glimpses for a long while. When Awakening dawns, we walk a new earth in the real world.

4 – Fear

It is comforting to know that we can be still and ease the fear. An advanced individual does not normally feel the fear that most of us do. But until we become that advanced individual, we still need the comfort that only God can provide.

4 – Be Still

Stillness will quell fear. This is important to remember. We need to realize that we do not have to let our worried and frantic minds exacerbate conflict. We can cease the turmoil by a turning inward, buttressed by prayer.

Prayer:

Dear Father,

When I am afraid, help me to realize that You are there for me. I do not have to retain the emotion of fear; I only need to realize that You will lead me out of that emotion.

I am within easy reach of spirit. Let me always remember this. And thank you.

Amen.

A Receptive Heart

“You are coming home to the way of the heart.  What you gain by sharing with others is a situation in which you ‘learn’ in unity through the receptivity of the heart.  (Addendum to A Course of Love:  Learning in the Time of Christ)”

Affirmation:  “May I share with others today.”

Reflections:

1 – Heart

May my heart be receptive today.  May I share with others, to the extent that You would wish.  May I share accurately, and may my heart dictate the words that I write.  Only when the heart is engaged do we really come to realize that we are really alright the way that we are, that all is well with us, and that we can correct the faults of our personality simply by willing these faults to disappear.

2 – Unity

All of us are One.  This is what “unity” means.  And we are one not only with our brothers and sisters, but with God and His helpers, and with ourselves, our deepest Self.  May this assurance bring us comfort today.  May we realize that the oneness of our being means that we are never alone, and therefore we do not have to fear isolation.  We are not meant to be isolated, however introverted we may be.  Everyone needs some companionship, and it is in the assurance that we are One that we know that we are not alone.

3 – Observe

May our hearts be receptive today.  When our hearts are open, we can observe (the replacement for learning) in a way that we cannot otherwise.  May today be a good day, a receptive day, that lends us credence for a safe world in which all of us abide under God’s care.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for the intuitive indications You have given me today.  They provide much solace, much comfort.  May I not depend on intuition to live my life totally, but may I know that the solution is always with the problem, and so the answer is there for me to find–immediately.

When I listen to my heart, I am the better off for it.  May I encourage others to have a good day, listening also to their hearts.

Amen.

You Are Home

“Thus we end this Course with love given and love received in truth.  You are the learner here until you realize that you are Love.  You then become the teacher of what you are.  Your mind and heart join in wholeheartedness in the embrace.  You are home, and there you will forever stay.  (A Course of Love, 32.3)”

Affirmation:  “I am home.”

Reflections:

1 – Comfort

What a glorious statement of our place in this world!  Being “home” is a comforting thought, and it the place toward which we have longed to come for such a long, long time.  Eons have been spent in searching for what can only be found within, the God within.  And to find God, we must give up the version of our personal self that is the ego.

2 – Definition of the Ego

This assertion does not mean that we will fall apart on the inside.  The ego, as defined in A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, is a false view of self, having no basis in reality.  It is not as Freud thought, the integrator of the essence of ourselves.  Instead, while a part of our belief about ourselves, it is the home of lies about our real Self.

3 – Elevated Self of Form

When we have truly integrated, we will become the elevated Self of form, and we will know what Jesus is talking about.  This is the Christ-consciousness that so often we have longed to experience.

4 – Soon

May the day be soon for all of us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I am eager today to be completely at home with You, not that I want to die but that I want to live in Your blessing always, as the best that You can make of me.  “Home” is heaven on earth, and that I long for with all my heart.

Be with us as we seek to do Your bidding.  Your bidding is actually what we ourselves would always choose, because Your will is our real will.

May my brothers and sisters find You today, even as I too seek.

Amen.

The Embrace II

“The embrace can now be likened to the starting point of a shared language, a language shared by mind and heart and by all people.  It is a language of images and concepts that touch the one heart and serve the one mind.  (A Course of Love, 21.6)”

Affirmation:  “May I sense the embrace of Jesus today.”

Reflections:

1 – Beautiful Passage

The passage about the embrace of Jesus with us is in my opinion the most beautiful portion of all three volumes of A Course of Love.  We are bade to lay our head on Jesus’s shoulder, and we are comforted completely.  We know no fear in the embrace, and we are at peace and perfectly tranquil.  Jesus is not exclusive to any of us, but embraces us all.  And there is nothing untoward in this embrace.  It is a chaste embrace, something that is perhaps not entirely clear upon first reading in ACOL.

2 – Jesus, Our Companion

Jesus is not our lover, but he is our companion.  And ultimately in ACOL he will cease to be our teacher, but become our equal.  This may be a welcome change for him, so long praised by the world and so long set apart.  Here he rejoins us, and we are, like him, both human and divine.  Our elevated Self of form has reached beyond the ego in the mind to the place of the heart in our exalted body.  We trust in him, and we walk a new and infinitely better path.

3 – No Fear of Jesus

Be with me as we seek to comprehend the ramifications of the embrace of Jesus.  May we not fear him at all.  And fear has been an accompaniment of the long years of egoic rule.  We were afraid of Jesus.  And now we know that we need not to have this uncertainty about him ever again.  He is our friend extraordinaire.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I rest in the embrace of Jesus, my companion, as he is the companion of all who so choose.  May I know no fear, because Jesus is with me.  May I be comforted, as Jesus intends.  The joy of the moment may surround me with a certainty that all will be well, all manner of things will be well.

Thank You.

Amen.

The Embrace

“This is a call to move now into my embrace and let yourself be comforted.  Let the tears fall and the weight of your shoulders rest upon mind.  Let me cradle your head against my breast as I stroke your hair and assure you that it will be all right.  Realize that this is the whole world, the universe, the all of all in whose embrace you literally exist.  Feel the gentleness and the love.  Drink in the safety and the rest.  Close your eyes and begin to see with an imagination that is beyond thought and words.  (A Course of Love, 20.2)”

Affirmation: “May I feel the embrace today.”

Reflections:

1 – Most Beloved Passage

This passage for today is one of the most beloved of all passages in A Course of Love.  In it, Jesus is speaking personally to every reader, but he is also speaking from a more universal perspective, saying that the universe is safe and holds us within its embrace.

2 – Gentleness, Love, Safety, Rest

The personal aspect will appeal to some; the more universal, to others.  We are bade to feel the gentleness and love of the embrace, the safety and the rest.  Jesus invites us to close our eyes and imagine what cannot be seen.  Often we have been told (in A Course in Miracles as well as A Course of Love) that our physical eyes cannot have “vision.”  We only have vision for the real world, which is not physical in the way that the illusory world is physical.  The physical world is seen differently in vision, and that is all that we really need to know.

3 – Comfort

This passage is comforting in the extreme, and it would be helpful to return to it over and over when we are ill-at-ease or distraught.  Life does throw us curves sometimes, and we would do well to take advantage of all that Jesus is offering to us.  He is with us, when we make one “unequivocal call” (from ACIM).  Can we understand this?  No, we can’t.  But, somehow, Jesus transcends ordinary physical laws and is with all of us as need arises.

4 – Personal

Do I believe this, truly?  Absolutely.

5 – A Blessing

And I hope that we will all come to believe this blessing also.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I have felt the presence of a person who seemed, to my mind, to be Jesus.  There was a comfort to this presence that I have felt from nobody else.

Be with me today as I seek to work out my intellectual doubts.  There are natural laws about which our science, as yet, knows nothing.  And I think that Jesus’s presence with us is one of those natural laws.  He comes in response to one unequivocal call, as A Course in Miracles tells us.

Thank You.

Amen.

Solace for Our Hearts

“Into this battlefield you have bravely marched.  The war rages by day and by night and you have grown weary.  Your heart cries out for solace and does not go unheard.  Help is here.  (A Course of Love, 2.20)”

Affirmation:  “Help is here.”

Reflections:

1 – “Help Is Here”

In this “help,” Jesus is referring to himself.  In some senses, he is a much more present help in A Course of Love than we found in A Course in Miracles.  In the latter, ACIM, he was appealing to our minds in an intellectual sense (especially in the Text and Manual, and less so in the Workbook).  He was dislodging the ego, which is a concept of the mind.  But here, in ACOL, Jesus is stressing the heart, a concept which we all can understand and which does need the empathy that Jesus offers to us.  We need to know that we are supported when we delve into heart-related matters.  And Jesus offers us that support.

2 – We Need Comfort

Our hearts want solace; we want to know that we are loved.  And we are, far more than we can return the love.  Our emotions are blunted from too many long years of pain and sometimes suffering.  We need the comfort that only someone like Jesus can provide.

3 – Battlefield

Jesus sees this world as a “battlefield,” and we might do the same.  If we have not voiced the word, “battlefield,” we have surely thought it without verbal identity.  Maybe we just called this world a “hell,” which is the vernacular that is more commonly used.  We have made of this world a “hell,” but, if we follow Jesus’s message in ACIM and ACOL, we can, quite literally, turn this world into a heaven.  What more could we ask?

4 – We Are Weary

We are very weary of the trials of this world.  We are weary of our own trials, which have come to us to allow a better choice to be made this time around (an ACIM tenet).  May we spend today seeking ways to go beyond our trials, to turn a situation around for the better not far off in the distance, but immediately, now.  And may we turn this world into a heaven.  Grant us the understanding and belief that such a turnabout is not only possible, but probable.  If we follow Jesus’s word.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Today is a time for comfort.  Today is a time for solace for our hearts.  

We are weary of this world and its battles, this hell that we have sometimes made for ourselves.  May we turn today to both Jesus and to You, for with the turning to an elder brother, and with the turning inward to the Divine, we are finally taking steps that will turn our world into the heaven that we have been led to understand that this world can be.

Be with me today as I seek to live a better way.  May I choose “another way,” as the co-scribes of A Course in Miracles, Helen and Bill, learned together.  And may my good feeling not be long in coming, for I am impatient to know the way that You would show, in all your graciousness, to me.  Thanking You in advance, I am Yours.

Amen.

Enjoying Comfort in Living

ACIM Workbook Lesson 90 – for Saturday, March 31, 2012

 

Affirmation:  “Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.”

Selected Passage:

“The problem is a grievance; the solution is a miracle.  And I invite the solution to come to me through my forgiveness of the grievance, and my welcome of the miracle that takes its place.  (WB155)”

Reflections:

This lesson builds on the one for yesterday.  Yes, all problems are forms of grievances, or we would not perceive them as problems at all.  Our problems can be solved, and solved this very day.  Sometimes the best solution is internal, and no external matter has to change at all for the blessing to come down upon us.

Affirmation:  “Let me recognize my problems have been solved.”

Selected Passage:

“I do not see the problem and the answer as simultaneous in their occurrence.  That is because I do not yet realize that God has placed the answer together with the problem, so that they cannot be separated by time.  The Holy Spirit will teach me this, if I will let Him.  And I will understand it is impossible that I could have a problem which has not been solved already.  (WB155)”

Reflections:

This passage may sound utopian, too unrealistic to be believed.  But there are many things in ACIM that sound too good to be true.  Be patient a bit, and study, and see how the Holy Spirit brings the happy dreams (an ACIM tenet).  We think our problems are real, but we live in illusion, and therefore no problem at all is truly “real.”  A careful study of the passage selected for today will prove to be comforting in the extreme.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would have a comforting day today, and to have this comforting day, all that is needed is to turn to You.  You will replace my grievances with the forgiveness that I need to give all, and then this becomes the miracle that I need.  I need Your miracles, and I thank You for so generously offering them to me.

Be with us today as we go about our world.  I know that the real world is something different from the illusions that I look upon.  I would clear my mind and spirit of illusions, and let my heart take over to provide solutions to all that I view as problems.  Be with me today, in Your comfort.

Amen.

Think of Jesus Holding Your Hand

“If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you.  And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy.  (WB120)”

Affirmation:  “I hold Jesus’s hand today.”

Reflections:

1 – Is Jesus Limited by Time/Space?

What does this promise from Jesus really mean?  I think that it means just what it says.  Jesus is a risen Master, who is available to all of us at any time.  His presence is not limited by time nor space.

2 – Imagination?

But you do not have to believe this to still get comfort from Jesus.  You can believe that holding Jesus’s hand is only imagination, but is not this a strong master?  Joan of Arc said that her voices were her imagination, that this was how God speaks to us.  We would be wise to test out the indications that we get from the imagination, because an overwrought mind, especially in times of turmoil, can have us misperceive the situation.  First, we need to calm ourselves in any way that we have found works:  prayer, communion with God, inspirational reading, A Course in Miracles, A Course of Love, the helpful ear of a friend or family member.  And we must find our own way in regard to what comforts us into calm.  But all of us already have some experience in this.  Now is the time to put our calming techniques into practice.

3 – Jesus Holding Our Hand

When we need his help, Jesus promises that visualizing him holding our hand and leading us will be no “idle fantasy.”  What a great promise this is!  His love shows through in every word.  He will be there for us, even when all the rest in the world do not seem to care.

4 – Greatest Comfort

Jesus will lead us.  He will make the pathway smooth.  This is one of the best promises of the Course, one of the greatest comforts..

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I will not try to go ahead of You, trying to understand things that in this world are not understandable.  I will not try to assess whether the comfort and consolation that I feel from Jesus is only my imagination or something more.  In the final analysis, would not worry about this be a theological dividing tactic among us who follow A Course in Miracles?

I will use my guidance today to sense the presence of Jesus, even as I sense Your presence in my better moments.  He is with us in a way that we do not comprehend intellectually, but we can accept what we do not understand, stilling our intellect from questions that, in this world, have no answers.

Thank You for indicating to me that Jesus is available in some way that I cannot fully comprehend, given my limited sight in this world.

Amen.