Grace of God

“Thank you Father-Mother God for giving me life.  Thank you for being as you are:  pure mercy, pure companion.  Thank you, each path of my life, for bringing me here where I can dwell forever in the sweetness of love.  I leave you with my blessing as I continue now on this new path at whose doors I find myself.  You have left me here and cannot come with me.  I bless you in the name of love. 

“After having blessed everything lived, known, taught, and experienced, we let it go forever and begin a new path, a path without past, without plans, without pre-conceived ideas.  We are carried by the Grace of God.”  Choose Only Love bk. 6, 1:I

The first paragraph of the quotation above is set apart as a prayer to God.  He listens, though we know not how.  We are embarking on a new path, a path beyond anything we have known before completely before.  We are seeking to “be,” to walk on the path of being. 

We have long thought that to please God, we need to be busy bees, going about his work with a busy mind.  Part of this traditional thinking comes from St. Paul in the New Testament, when he says that faith without works is dead.  But “being” doesn’t mean we are idle.  We will still work for God, but in a new and different way that is without strain or bother.  We will tap into guidance of a new approach to Self, the Self who is merged with God.  God will then give us our marching orders.

The Grace of God is a magnificent thing.  We have previously struggled to please Him, but this is not what we ought to be about.  He will gently guide; He will gently make us aware of the next step.  Premeditation is not necessary; living in the moment is.  We cease from wearying plans, but we don’t cease from doing all the good that He recommends.  Our stance of “being” informs us what to do, what to say, even what to think.  Our heart informs our mind.  We are safe in His arms.

Benevolence of Creation

“Remember once again that this problem that concerns you so much, I will solve it.  That paralyzing fear has no reason to be.  What you think will happen will not.  Rather you will see for yourself the benevolence of creation.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 4:III

Jesus is here referring to something specific, I think, in Sebastian’s (the receiver) life.  His “paralyzing fear” was without reason.  But now, in our world, we can take solace in these words as well as imagine that Sebastian did.  “What  you think will happen will not.”  So often we get ourselves tangled up in knots with anticipation of the worst.

It is true that sometimes the worst does happen.  Yet God gives us the grace to survive it.  He gives us the grace to be sustained through the worst of it.

God will always do this.  We can count on him.  We can know that He means what He says.  Creation is benevolent, though in our turmoil we cannot always see this.

Healing from God

“Embed yourself in the solace of perfect grace.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 10:I)

This wonderful sentence gives comfort whenever and wherever comfort is needed.  Each word is meaningful, but particularly “solace” and “grace.”  In these hard times, we need to know that God is near, living through us.  We can have this reassurance, for it is true and can be shown to us.  We feel a warmth in our very bodies, which is the presence of God making Himself known.  If we doubt God, we may feel that the warmth is just the balmy air of our heated room.  But if we venture to let go of doubts, we can open to the possibility that something else is going on, that God is with us, and He is making Himself known.

God abides with us and in us, and His presence ensures us that we are being blessed, even while we may have our doubts. 

If we “embed” the solace, it is then a part of us.  We are then the recipients of the grace of God.  This word, “grace,” means that He is favoring us with His healing Presence.  We know that we are blessed.  We feel it in our bodies, our minds, our hearts. 

His warmth assures us.  We know that we are never alone, with a Presence such as this.

Sea of Peace

“Each sane moment that you have experienced. . . each moment of grace-filled joy that you have ever known. . .has come because you have allowed your mind to slip into the sea of peace. There you have merely abided, empty, wanting nothing, seeking nothing, being merely the presence of what you are.” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 7, Page 86)

When we are living sane moments, we are fully and completely in a state of peace. It is the “peace of God that passeth understanding.” And we live in an unlimited fashion, with true intimacy with our significant others, in joy. There is no better way to live.

Make no mistake about it: We have been in madness for a very long time. Of course, our secular world would not call us mad and we wouldn’t be certifiably insane. But still when the ego is dominant in our minds, we are living an insane life. It is only when we make repeated gestures to turn aside from the ego, that glimpses of Awakening start to dawn on our previously deluded minds, and sanity also begins to dawn.

We have stopped seeking at such times. Seeking, too, can be an obsessive compulsion, and this too is insane. We need to simply be who we are, no persona, no “ideal” state of mind as we try to be what we are not. We are “good enough” as we are. Sure, we still make mistakes, but God loves His children even as they falter and fall.

We may not believe that we are good enough as we are. And we can improve our persona, but the truth is that we are still innocent creatures of God. Mistakes only, not uncorrectable “sins.” And as we move to correct our mistakes, we accept ourselves better. We come to believe that maybe we truly are “alright.”

And we are. Just as we are.

Be Gentle with the Self

Do we really choose, on some level, what we experience? The Course is uncompromising in its insistence that we do. “Suffer, and you decided sin was your goal. Be happy, and you gave the power of decision to Him [i.e., the Holy Spirit] Who must decide for God for you.” (T-21.II.3:5-6)

If this concept is helpful, it is because we see the light at the end of the tunnel. If it makes us feel guilty, we are misusing the words on behalf of the ego’s insanity. All of us are still at least partially insane, ruled by the ego. It is not practical to think, under these circumstances, that we always and consistently follow the Holy Spirit. The little self that occupies this world is still imperfect. Be gentle with that self, even as your Self would be, and perhaps say quietly (if it is helpful), “There is another way of looking at the world.” (W-pI.33.h)

When I fall from Grace into karma, I think, “I have done this thing to somebody else, sometime, somewhere.” I allow myself to feel the pain, but I try not to wallow in it. It is sometimes helpful, if the “sin” (in illusion) seems to be perpetrated by another, to remember, “you always attack yourself first,” (T-10.II.4:5) substituting the offender’s name for the “you.” Then I feel compassion for this fellow traveler, my brother sent to me by God, for we will find the way out together or not at all.

Ease of Living that Holy Grace Inspires

“There are many lesser conditions that are nonetheless extremely trans¬formative, such as the replacement of special relationship with the devotion of holy relationship that we have already spoken of. Another replacement is that of control with grace. This occurs as you give up the control you have but thought you exerted over your life and its circumstances, and live in a state of grace, meeting grace with grace by accepting what is given for your regeneration.” (ACOL, D:Day7.12)

Jesus is speaking here of the transformations that will occur as we move ever closer to an elevated Self of form, a form that is embodied by the inner Christ-Self, who is now running things. Our transformation will ultimately mean Christ-consciousness, sustained. No more trying to be in control of what happens in our lives, but simply being in a flow that Jesus here calls grace. Our relationships will be holy, in that we recognize that the specialness we saw in them was of the ego, and we would have this egoic emphasis no longer. Our lives will take on new meaning, as we live in grace and amid holiness with everyone surrounding us. Does this not sound very much akin to what has often been called heaven on earth?

If heaven on earth seems far from us, there are things that we can do to bring it closer. We can live with an equanimity that refuses to respond to attack with attack. Our angers can lessen, as we recognize that there is no reason to give in to anger and its attendant emotional charges that so debilitate us. The way back to God is not hard when we realize that we actually have never left His side. He is within us, living life through us. Would we not want to give God Himself a good day? Would we not want to give God Himself the means to live a good and fruitful life through us?

Grace is a very positive virtue. So is holy love. In this quotation for today, Jesus links the two, giving all of us something to think about that will be transformative in and of itself. Our mind and heart will fall in line with the ease of living that holy grace inspires. We do not need to struggle so. We do not need to fall into depressed moods, ruing our days. That way of living never gave us peace—never. Now we are encouraged to live a better way, putting into practice what we know to be true. We are asked to live in utmost commitment to the way of life and love that Jesus is here outlining.

If we put a new way of living and loving into practice, nothing will ever be the same. We will never be the same.

Prayer

Dear God,

Thank You for easing any and all burdens by suggesting a way of life that is grace-filled and love-filled. I know that I will not always be superbly happy, but I also know that that is my aim. And the goal becomes closer as I live close to You. Your business with me transforms me and my day. Your love for me is palpable. Sensing Your love is a blessing that grant happiness in and of itself.

Be with me for the remainder of this glorious day. Be with me, to comfort, to give me solace, to lift my spirits very high, into Your arms. Knowing that You are constantly living through me is a very great bit of information that in and of itself takes me home to You.

Amen.

Abide in Love, for That Is Our Saving Grace

“Life-everlasting in form is not your only choice. As many of you believed that I was the Son of God and more than a man before my birth, during my lifetime and after my death and resurrection, so are you. So are all who came before me and all who came after me. All that being a Son of God means is that you represent the continuity of creation and that your fulfillment lies in the acceptance of your true inheritance.” (ACOL, T4:5.1)

In the quotation for yesterday, we seemed to be encouraged to live our lifetimes in form on earth, the elevated Self of form, embodying Christ-consciousness. Here, though, in this quotation for today, Jesus indicates that life on earth is not our only option for the future. We can be like him, living on other planes. Jesus indicates that being a Son (or Daughter) of God is our inheritance, our sole inheritance, and we have previously turned aside from that inheritance. I think it safe to say that Jesus certainly hopes that we won’t turn aside any longer.

Jesus frequently discusses in A Course of Love our equality with him. We are of the same Self, of course, as we realize that All are One in God. But we might have even more trouble recognizing that the man we have honored with our love is just of the same substance as are we. He just chose right sooner, in time, and time, as we know, is an illusion.

We don’t have to make a choice now as to whether to reincarnate in other physical bodies in the future, or continue our journey without distance on other planes. It is far too soon to make such a decision, and we don’t have all the facts. We are, instead, simply to abide in Love, knowing that the true and right decision will, in revelation, come to us at the right time. Revelation is the knowing that all of us will experience, the immediate knowing, when we have reached Christ-consciousness. Deep self-analysis was of the ego (though self-centeredness has also been a necessary part of our journey to enlightenment).

If we continue to have fears, we won’t make it. We must be fearless. We must also be free of judgment, in a state of forgiveness of everyone and everything for what actually has NOT been done to us. We made our choices. We have always been in the driver’s seat, and nothing about that has changed except that we have turned aside from the ego.

Rest in God’s Love. Know that whatever seems nebulous and veiled now will ultimately be as clear as a day with the noontime sun and a cloudless sky. Re-surrender to God each and every day, and see if life doesn’t start smoothing out, right here, right now. We need expect nothing less.

Prayer

I do re-surrender to You. I do this each and every day, and my days are getting to be much better. I long for the knowledge, through revelation, that only You can give me. Correct my trajectory if I am going off on tangents—ever. Keep me safe in Your love.

Thank You for reassuring me that all is indeed well, that I need have no fears, that my fears will not save me. Thank You also for letting me realize that forgiveness of what has not actually happened, in true reality, is very easy indeed. This allows me to drop judging my brothers and sisters, as well as my Self.

Be with me today as I seek, as always, to walk the path that You point out.

Amen.

Flow with What Comes, in Grace

“The injunction that you resign as your own teacher originated in A Course in Miracles and was furthered here. Along with this resignation is the concept of receiving rather than planning. Your feeling that a specific role is required of you, or that you have a specific thing to do of which you need to be aware, are functions of the pattern of the planning process that once so ruled your mind. To be willing to receive instead of plan is to break the pattern of planning.” (ACOL, T3:22.5)

All of us still try to plan our days, and these days stretch into weeks and months, with planning for our lives being a prominent feature. But Jesus says that planning is misguided. Indeed, in A Course in Miracles, planning that was not prompted by the Holy Spirit was said to be one way that we would fall off the pathway, one way that we would fail to reach Awakening. (The other two ways were attack and making judgments.) Now Jesus continues the line of thought from ACIM. He extends his words of advice to a directive to “receive” instead of plan. And with this receiving, we are ensuring that we are falling in line with God’s will, a will that is actually our own true will.

Receive today rather than plan. Don’t try to be predictive about the future; Jesus doesn’t. Just take what comes with the grace in which it is given.

Prayer

I want to show grace today in all my dealings. I have such high hopes, and I sometimes don’t measure up. Help me to accept Your grace that all is well. Help me to know that You are smoothing the way, always.

Be with me as this day unfolds. Help me to apologize if I need to, and the to drop it. Mistakes happen, but I make a mistake, again, when I cling to a mistake.

Thank You for guiding me aright. Thank You for A Course of Love.

Amen.

Living in the State of Grace

“How will you know when you have achieved the state of grace in which you were created, and that you are living in relationship? You will know by the certainty you feel. If you do not feel this certainty, what can you do?

“You are ready now, and all that will prevent you from living a life of love is unwillingness to do so. There is only one remaining source of such unwillingness. Your willingness will now depend on whether or not you trust. Do you trust these words? Do you trust in God? Can you trust in your Self?” (ACOL, C:27.20 – 27.21)

Trust is the bedrock of A Course of Love as well as A Course in Miracles (ACIM covers this in the Manual). Jesus says that we are ready, and that if we trust, we will be willing to reach toward Christ-consciousness. It is only ourselves who hold us back, thinking that we are not good enough, worthy enough, or we cling to fear in a misguided notion that it can save us from all the perils in this difficult world. The world does not have to be difficult. Though we may have pain, and see pain in others, we do not have to let this escalate into suffering. There is a better way, and this better way is made abundantly clear in both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love.

How might we woo willingness? My answer is that we open ourselves up to this willingness by surrendering to God in prayer. Surrendering is elsewhere in ACOL pointed out as the way to God. We acknowledge that we don’t know enough to get home by ourselves; we need help. And this help is abundantly present in the Self, inwardly, the part of us that is God. We project the outer world, which is not real, but this projection does not hurt us when it is transformed into “extension,” or the movement of God into the outer world. We will be home even in this world when we attend to our heart, and Jesus makes this assertion abundantly clear when he appeals to the heart in ACOL.

We need to just recognize the necessity to leave unwillingness behind. We are ready. Jesus has said it.

And so it is.

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to keep my willingness fresh today, an abundant willingness that finds root in the Christ Self deep within me. This is true for all people as well. I need to accept Your grace that I am good enough just as I am, good enough for enlightenment. “Goodness” is such a relative term, and desire is the means that we use to reach You. Help me to live in a positive way, to turn aside from all that would hold me back, and to lean toward You in all respects.

Amen.

A Warm Heart Is a Gift of Grace

“As long as you do not want to be forgiven you will not feel the gentle touch of forgiveness upon you and your world. While there is no need in truth for this forgiveness, as there is no truth to this big change that you believe you have undergone, your desire to be forgiven is a first step away from your belief that you can fix things by yourself and in so doing earn your way back into your Father’s home. Being willing to be forgiven is the precursor of atonement, the state in which you allow your errors to be corrected for you.” (ACOL, C:9.35)

Forgiveness is said in this passage actually to be unnecessary. While we believe that it is necessary, however, we will not take steps toward receiving the atonement until we have opened ourselves to this forgiveness. And we do want the atonement, which is the undoing of all that has gone before, including especially egoic consciousness. Jesus has led the way to the atonement. Would we not be foolish to refuse the forgiveness that will make every pathway toward the atonement smooth and easy?

We cannot correct our own errors. This may seem a radical statement, but if we recall how many times we have tried to correct errors, only to have the same mistake crop up again and again, we will see the validity of what Jesus is telling us. We will be gently and easily led to remove a mistake-prone inclination. But we would be egoic indeed if we thought that we were making ourselves better all the while. And we are trying to diminish the ego in ourselves, not build it up.

We cannot fix things ourselves and thereby win back the Father’s home, heaven. But we can open ourselves to change and thereby become the recipients of our inheritance, which includes heaven. Our inheritance has been waiting for us for eons. And now we are on a smooth pathway, heading for what we have wanted most in all the world. We must not jinx the matter now. We must not try to take things in our own hands, for we would surely foul it up.

Jesus will guide us gently and in an encouraging manner. He is doing just this in A Course of Love, a course that doesn’t demand a studious attitude, for its words are entering our heart. Call upon him now, today, this moment. See if a warmth doesn’t overtake you.

This warmth is the gift of grace to which we have all been heading since time began. We simply didn’t recognize it until now.

Rest in God’s Grace

“Seekers are but another category of those who at the precipice act as if they have hit a wall rather than come across a bridge. It is precisely the place at which you stopped that you must return to. Those who continue to seek may have left teachings of the Course or of one or another spiritual or religious tradition only to find another and still another. For those intent on seeking there is always more to seek, but those who find must stop to realize what they have found and to realize that they seek no more.” (ACOL, C:P.23)

A Course of Love represents the final thing sought; we are home again when we have read it all—or so Jesus hopes.

We have long sought, most of us. And there is always another mountaintop of seeking awaiting us, if that is what we wish to find. Jesus knows that this is compulsive behavior for which we need an end. And he provides that end in A Course of Love.

We need to realize that we are The Accomplished. Not in an egoic sense, of course; we have moved far beyond this. But we need to see that at the precipice of the mountain we have found a bridge to the Promised Land, not “hit a wall” (as Jesus warns we are prone to believe).

We don’t have to keep seeking, and is this not welcome news? We have found, and Jesus points that out in ACOL, our final way home. Others have other pathways, but we have selected ours, and ACOL does works for those of us who have chosen it.

There is a proviso, though, one that I have been pointing out for several days now. Not all of us will reach enlightenment when we finish reading A Course of Love, and we may encounter a yearning that is very uncomfortable. Ask for help if this comes to us. Just ask for help. God’s helpers, and God Himself, will be right there with us, taking away the yearning (at least momentarily), and giving us an ease of mind.

This is the best way to be: Not seeking, but just surrendering to God’s grace to come when it may. Just surrender to God. He will do the rest—which may not be Christ-consciousness right away. But he will take away the pain of no reaching where we would go. He will keep us patient and happy in our daily walk with Him.

We Were Created Perfect

“God in His devotion to you created you devoted to everything, and gave you what you are devoted to. Otherwise you would not have been created perfect. Reality is everything, and you have everything because you are real. You cannot make the unreal because the absence of reality is fearful, and fear cannot be created. As long as you believe that fear is possible, you will not create.
Opposing orders of reality make reality meaningless, and reality is meaning.” (ACIM, T-9.I.13)

We have been given everything, each of us. And so there is never any reason for envy. Of course, we do not all have everything at any given point in time, but we do have everything in eternity. We cannot really make the unreal, which are illusions. We cannot make nothing out of nothing. We can see illusions, but we can never make them real. And in that sense we are desirous of returning to true reality, for in our heart we recognize that this is all there is. It is the true meaning of anything and everything that is actually real. Illusions, being unreal, are inferior props for experiencing an untrue reality. And this is all that we can experience until we open to God and His way to salvation.

We were created perfect, and it is only in illusion that we fell from grace. We are still perfect in our innocence—not in the illusion, but in reality. So there has really been no separation from God, for we are part of Him, and to separate in reality would be impossible. But we can not “know” God in His entirety, in a mystical sense, when we are lost in attack and anger, and all other negative emotions that spring from fear. Fear is unreal, but we don’t recognize this, and so we think that we experience it. The truth of reality is far bigger and far better than anything fear would introduce into our world. Love has a way of creating the happiness that we all crave. And in the love do we find true reality.

Tomorrow’s blog posting will take up the term, “love.”

Spirit Is in a State of Grace Forever

“You are free to establish your kingdom where you see fit, but the right choice is inevitable if you remember this:

“Spirit is in a state of grace forever.
“Your reality is only spirit.
“Therefore you are in a state of grace forever.” (ACIM, T-1.III.5)

Jesus likes syllogisms, using them from time to time in A Course in Miracles. Because our reality is always and only spirit, we are healed when the physical, illusory, body is not healed. Or does not appear to be so.

But we live in a state of grace. We can call upon God at any time, though in ACIM, the emphasis is upon calling on the Holy Spirit, Who mediates between God and us. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher, our Guide, God’s Voice with us. Only in A Course of Love do we move to seeing the inner Christ Self as the source of guidance.

But we are focusing on what reality really is, and we see that it is spirit. Our spirit animates our bodies. And assures us survival beyond death of the body. Life everlasting is a real gift that we sometimes question. But here we see the bottom line: Spirit survives the death of the body.

Our spirits are in a state of grace. What a blessing! This in itself gives us a good day, just to dwell on that truth. We have been justified in the sight of God. We have nothing to fear, nothing at all.

This quotation places reality in the realm of the non-physical, where it will always and only be. The physical is an illusory reality, not true reality at all. So when we see pain in the physical, we can know, right off, that it is illusory. We create our own reality, and in this spirit reality, we are always and forever one with God. We are a part of Him.

We need dwell on nothing more. God animates us.

Would you give God a good day today?

You Did Not Separate from God Out of Defiance

[Y]ou believed that every step in the advancement of your separated state was a step away from God and your real Self. This belief was based in logic, but the logic of the illusion in which you believed you chose to separate from God out of defiance and a desire to be one with God no longer. This could not be further from the truth and is the cause of all your suffering, for contained within this belief was the belief that with each successful step toward independence came a corresponding step away from God. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 2.5)”

Affirmation: “I can be independent and yet one with God.”

Reflections:

1 – Fall from Grace

We for a long time have believed, almost in the marrow of our bones, that we fell from grace by willfully separating from God. And that this fall made the suffering which we have known. We have lamented this lapse of ours, this lapse in good judgment, and we have sought to return to God.

2 – More Benign Separation

But might not there be a more benign way to view the separation, seeing it as separation even as it is also seen as ultimately illusory?

3 – Ruth Montgomery

Ruth Montgomery’s Guides told her (in automatic writing) that we were sparks sent out from God to experience all that we might wish to experience, returning eventually to God as enlightened beings who had known what it was to explore. It seems likely to me that this interpretation holds something akin to what Jesus tells us in A Course of Love. Of course, he does not use the same terms, but the concept is very similar.

4 – A Choice by God

In the interpretation which Ruth gave us, we were sent out from God by Himself. He chose for us to depart from Him. We did not fall from grace. We found a way to develop independence and to gain experience of good and evil. This is part of the doctrine of the “fortunate fall.” And so not so unlike traditional theologies of Christianity.

5 – Do Not Lament the Past

Jesus is about to say that we ought not to lament what has transpired in illusion and in the past. We can move forward in the sunlight today. He will be out Guide, until the our own Christ Self steps forth. And our own transformation into Christ-consciousness happens. (Remember that Christ-consciousness is elsewhere called the Awakening–in ACIM–and enlightenment–in Eastern faiths.

6 – Do Not Lament the Separation

So do not lament the separation. But know that it can be overcome without giving up any at all of our treasured independence, as long as that independence is informed by our heart as trusted guidance. As long as the ego-mind is in the ascendancy, we will not trust guidance, and we will seek to use our own judgment to make decisions. By now we have in all likelihood recognized some of the fallacy involved in such thinking, but remnants may still remain. As long as we know that we cannot know all the facts–past, present, and future–in anything at all, we will be led gently to put our faith in a deeper truth available to us, frequently, as intuition.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would pray today, I would pray a great deal. You know that I need to do so. And the blessings that I pray for others, I find, come back to me. While this does not sound very selfless, it is Your way. You bless us in proportion to how much we ask for blessings for others. But this is personal interpretation, or personal experience, and I do not know if it is always Your way.

May I move closer to Christ-consciousness today. I am patient, in my better moments. The glimpses You have given me, the guidance that You give me moment-by-moment, is indeed a joyous happening. And I would wish for my significant others, today, the same joy which I feel. And that joy is great indeed.

Thank You for holding me tightly to Yourself.

Amen.

Wholeheartedness

“No matter which path you follow, the path of the mind or the path of the heart, you will not get where you are wanting to go until they are joined.  You might imagine three paths–one path representing mind, one path representing heart, and one path representing wholeheartedness.  The path of neither mind nor heart alone will take you where the path of unity will take you, and the journey will not be the same.  (A Course of Love, 21.7)”

Affirmation:  “I choose the path of wholeheartedness today.”

Reflections:

1 – Combining Mind and Heart

We have previously been emphasized following the heart, which was necessary as a contrast to following the mind.  But now Jesus is ready to guide us to combine the two, mind and heart.  And this combination results in what he terms “wholeheartedness.”  Our mind is no longer ruled by the ego, and so this is a safe combination.  We need the mind while living in this world.  We also need the heart.  And the two combined give us true direction in this sometimes difficult world.

2 – A Path of Unity

We must join the two–mind and heart.  The passage for today makes this necessity absolutely clear.  We do want to know where we are going.  And it is a path of unity.

3 – Unity as Defined Here

Unity is here used in a different sense than the “unity and relationship” that defines our connection of others in our world.  Unity here is strictly of the mind and heart, within ourselves.  But when we combine the two within ourselves, we are ready to reach out to others.  We are ready for the unity and relationship with our brothers and sisters, with Jesus, and with God.  We can follow the correct path no other way.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I am ready to join mind and heart into wholeheartedness.  You have prepared the way for me, and I know that when I ask Your help in coming mind and heart, I am asking in our joint will.  Help me not to inaccurately think that my heart can do better without my mind.  My heart, being the seat of emotions, can, without the rational, sane mind, lead astray.  I would not be led astray today.  Help me to stay on Your pathway.

Thank You for the emphasis on wholeheartedness that comes near the conclusion of A Course of Love.  There is a reason for this, and I suspect that it is because we have heretofore been far too dependent on the mind.  So You brought us to a dependence upon the heart, which knows without laborious and insane thinking.  Now You would combine easy and sane thinking with the emotions of the heart to form a unity.  What a glorious plan this is!  We are indebted to Jesus for bringing us this truth in a form which is easily accessible and easily accepted.

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.