REVERENCE BORN OF LOVE

 An Appreciation of Book One from Choose Only Love

Published in Miracles magazine for May – June 2020 (Jon Mundy, publisher); also on Amazon.

Reviewed by Celia Hales

Miraculously receiving in Argentina from the angelic realm, Sebastian Blaksley has bestowed upon us a marvelous gift in Choose Only Love:  Echoes of Holiness.  This book, the first published in a series of seven by Take Heart Publications, is emblematic of all great books that inform us of ultimate truth.  We will be primed to move to Awakening or Christ-consciousness through an infusion of the energy of Love.  Reading it, we will discover that few other books touch us with such an overwhelmingly reverent, worshipful feeling.

Sebastian describes himself as merely a “pencil in the hands of the love.”   His Roman Catholic faith brings passion to the words of the book.  I “hear” words coming through a very devout individual, one “in the world” but not “of it,” a man whose sincerity is palpable.  Yes, Choose Only Love:  Echoes of Holiness will move us to a receptive frame of mind and heart, inviting the mellow feeling that characterizes Awakening. 

            Sebastian’s experience of channeling is unique.  He hears choirs of angels singing, then finds himself in the company of Archangels Raphael and Gabriel.  Jesus and Mary are present from time to time in the channeling.  Sebastian absorbs the message from the Voice of Christ, then later transcribes it into words, first Spanish, and then he receives again, this time in English.  The Archangels oversee that the meaning is correct.  Afterwards Sebastian rests, for he is very fatigued from the influx of great energy.

            Each of the 21 chapters begins with the words, “A message from the Voice of Christ through a Choir of Angels in the presence of Archangel Raphael and Archangel Gabriel.”  As we proceed, we find quite a bit of metaphysics, an explanation of ultimate reality.  We come to understand how and why we were created by God, and we discover what caused our illusory separation from Him. We find that Love can transform, and, indeed, end all suffering.  We read that creation is actually neutral, that what we experience we write upon it.  Our purpose is to “be who we are,” not to struggle to become an ideal image of ourselves.  In other words, we do not actually have to labor to change ourselves.  We are beloved by God just as we are.  We are heading into an experience of freedom as Awakened individuals, a blessed state of mind and heart that has been overshadowed by the ego and its fear for eons.  We are invited just to “be” the Self who we are, and that Self is Christ.  Many of us keep hearing that Love is the Answer, and this book echoes this idea with certainty.  Its heartfelt message will help us to absorb Love deeply, taking us to the truth of what Love can do for us.  If we are devotees of A Course of Love, as Sebastian is, we will see the influence of that gift first received by Mari Perron around the turn of the century 2000 (also published by Take Heart Publications). 

Jesus, the risen Christ, and Mary, his mother (equal to her son), are greatly revered by the angels who visit Sebastian.  The angels recognize purity of love.  We are encouraged to follow Jesus and Mary as we seek to walk more closely with God.  And, yes, Jesus and Mary are only a call away from us.  We can believe as does Sebastian, who has heard from Jesus: “Our love story will never end.”

If we want an intense spiritual experience in the moment, we could do no better than read Sebastian’s gift slowly and meditatively.  In my estimation, this series is a prime choice for our morning and evening devotionals.  We cannot read it rapidly, or its beneficent meaning will be lost to us.  But we can read at a measured pace, and our receptivity will bloom.  We will live the words.  Remember:  Read slowly.

Thank you, Sebastian, for your faithfulness to this calling from God, this calling from Love, to contribute a universal message to humankind.

Reverence for the Mystery that Is Life

“Now, does that mean that one should become cold-hearted, unconscious, and blind to . . . [others’] actions? Of course not, for part of awakening means to realize one’s interconnection with the web of all relationships. It means awakening a reverence for the mystery that is Life.” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 9, Page 107)

Many, many people haven’t awakened yet; in fact, most people have not. But some have seen glimpses of what lies ahead, and what lies ahead in an ineffable atmosphere of love in calmness. We may see clearly, but we do not denounce the actions of others, even the actions with which we disagree. We all need to be given slack.

We recognize that reverence is required of us as we walk in God’s way. This much we know. Life is a great mystery, and it behooves us to speak softly as we talk of this mystery.

We are connected to all people. When we give slack, we also give slack to ourselves—and this means forgiveness of others and ourselves as well. It is a web, an allusion that Jesus uses in A Course of Love also.

Ask today to have an awakening to the mystery that is Life.

And we will have a spectacular day.

Inviting Light

“It is absolutely essential that you understand completely that behavior is erratic until a firm commitment to one or the other is made. Yet a firm commitment to darkness or nothingness is impossible. Nobody has ever lived who has not experienced some light and some of everything. This has made everybody genuinely unable to deny truth totally, even if he deceives himself in this connection most of the time. That is why those who live largely in darkness and emptiness never find any lasting solace.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-3.IV.2:1-5)

When we feel reverence in our daily life, we are sensing reality. And this reverent feeling is Light. When we don’t invite Light consistently, we are erratic in our behavior. When we fall into egoic thinking, we are erratic, for this is darkness. While darkness cannot be experienced totally, it can be experienced just enough to unsettle us. This we do not want.

We have lived a very secular life in this world, in this culture. We do not have to find God in religiosity, but we do need to find a reverence for life that will allow us to experience the best. And the best is a sense of loving ourselves, all created beings, nature, and, of course, God Himself/Herself. This reverent attitude will give us peace. It will swell our hearts in gratitude for the beauty of the world in which we reside. It will warm us, soothe us, comfort us. Reverence works.

We do not have solace in darkness, and everything of the ego is dark. Ask today that we might drop egoic orientation and walk into the sunlight of God’s creation.

Invite Reverence & Closeness with God

“Does this work of acceptance seem never ending? It is until it is replaced by reverence, just as learning was unending until it was replaced by accep¬tance. The conditions, however, of this time of acceptance are not the conditions of the time of learning, and so you will soon see that the diffi-culty of the time of learning truly is behind you.” (ACOL, D:Day6.32)

Acceptance means an acquiescence, or, as a Buddhist master said, “Be willing to have it so.” But there is a paradox here: Acceptance, and being willing to have it so, are not passive states. Instead, in the scenario that A Course of Love is presenting to us, we will be very busy about our Father’s business in changing and/or creating a new world. This new world is the culminating thought of ACOL, what we will spend our time changing/creating once Christ-consciousness has been sustained in us. First we have glimpses of Awakening, then we maintain that state over time, but after that we truly do move into the sustenance of enlightenment. And, with that, nothing is ever the same again.

Communing with our Maker gives us, often, the sense of reverence to which Jesus refers. It is a harmonious state, a mellow state, a few moments of true relaxation that invite our desire to have these states of being be permanent in us. Reverence and awe are due to God, but awe, especially, is due nobody but God. Reverence, on the other hand, can be a feeling that engulfs us when we are feeling especially loving and especially loved. Reverence is close to holiness, and who among us would not want to experience the truth that we are indeed, right now, beings who are holy? Time has no meaning in eternity, and we are, as Jesus has affirmed often in ACOL, the “accomplished.” We ought to think about that assertion when we have an especially difficult day.

We are leaving learning behind, in that we need to accept that our seeking should be at an end. We have indeed found, now, and referring to the learned wisdom of the past, to authorities of the past, will not do it for us. We are in a new time, a new day. Our source of wisdom now is from within, the authority of the Christ-Self whom we are now just coming to know. Our union with the Self who embodies everyone will allow thoughts from beyond ourselves to take up residence within us. And often, this guidance will seem so apropo that we won’t realize that we are drawing on union to find our answers.

Invite reverence today. Allow it to become our naturally manifesting state of mind and heart. Reverence is healing, and in its wake we will come to know much that has been veiled from us.

Prayer

Dear God,

I want to live differently now than I have lived in the past. I want to be at your beck and call, irregardless of what my little self would plan for the day. Take me at my word, and give me my marching orders. Then the way will be clear for me to wrap myself in a cocoon of Your love. What more could I ask?
Thank You for this beautiful world. May those living on it become harmonized with the call for Love that is sent out from the heavens.

Amen.

Reverence for God

“Desire asks for a response. From where is this response sought? You now must understand the fullness of the well of your heart, the interre¬lationship of desire and fulfillment. The interrelationship of desire and fulfillment is what occurs at the threshold. Beyond the threshold is the state in which desire has passed and been replaced by reverence. To revere is to feel awe, which, it has been stated, is due nothing and no one but God. To move beyond desire to reverence is to move into the state of communion with God, full oneness with God, wholeness.” (ACOL, D:17.19)

This is the final result of communing with God—the final emotion that Jesus relays to us: reverence in God’s Presence. Jesus’s use of the word “reverence” in this context reminds me of Albert Schweitzer’s credo: reverence for life. And is not another word for God really just Life (with a capital “L”). When we get quiet, go within, and reach to the farthest depth that we can muster, we are reaching toward God, Who is found in our depths. In my experience, though, to go this deep, we have to be quiet and peaceful, in harmony and also in joy, and then the secrets of the universe open up to us. There is nothing hid when we are in deep communion, nothing that we can’t mystically comprehend. Few of us ever each this level, though, but the attempt can reap great benefits.

When we feel reverence for God, we are in awe, something that Jesus says is due nothing and nobody except God. When we wish to feel wholeness, we need to try to go deeply into our mind and heart—to the center of our being. What we see there may surprise us, and it may change us. Indeed, we may never be the same again, but in a good way. Communion with God gives the best moment that this life affords us, and so we do well when we try, for trying is all that is asked of us.

We can use our desire for God to go deeply within to find this Spirit. Our desire will give us much in this lifetime, and when that desire is molded to an intense, fever pitch, for the Almighty, we may find God when we least expect it. It only takes a moment to have a mystical experience of God.

I dare us to have such a moment now.

Dear God,

Be with me as I seek for You. I know that You won’t let me down, even if now is not the right time for You to come through in a mystical moment. I will wait for another good moment, sure that eventually You will feel ready to fill me with Your bountiful love. May I revere You, and hold You in awe—unlike any feeling that I hold for anyone else.

I long for Your Love to enfold me now. I long to sense Your Presence. You fill me with warmth often, and for this I am very grateful. I ask for Your warmth now.

Thank You.

Amen.

Reverence for God

1 – True Self

“We now will discuss being the true self while becoming the true self—the time in between your awareness and access to Christ-consciousness, or unity, and your sustainability of Christ-consciousness, or unity, in form. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day Six)”

2 – Inbetween

We are in an inbetween time now. We are seeking Christ-consciousness, though “seeking” is not quite what we ought to be doing. Seeking is a harbinger of the old way of learning, and no individual can set his/her time of Awakening (Christ-consciousness). We are now the true self, but we are not all that we can become.

3 – Sustainability of Christ-consciousness

It may take some time to reach sustainability of Christ-consciousness. We do, for most of us, see glimpses, or satori, long before we sustain Christ-consciousness. The sustainability is what our elevated Self of form will achieve, but it is not achievement as we understand achievement of egoic things. It will come about through the grace of God, though we can do things that will prepare. Having thoughts that we do not think will lead the way.

4 – Help

These thoughts that we do not think are a form of thought transfer into the mind and heart. They come from either God, our subconscious, our Self, or entities on the Other Side. We are not nearly as alone as we think. There is always someone there who will help.

5 – Becoming

“As was said earlier: To realize the state of becoming is to realize that an in between exists between the time of learning and the time of being the elevated Self of form. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day Six)”

6 – Repetition

This simply reinforces what we have read previously. Jesus uses repetition to lodge thoughts in our minds.

7 – Music

“In all stages of its creation, the piece of music exists in relationship to its creator. . . .Only when it is a complete and full and true expression of the artist’s idea, however, will it and the artist be one.

“You are a work of art headed for this oneness of full and true expression. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day Six)”

8 – Example of Music

Jesus, previously, uses the composing of music as a metaphor for the transformation that we are undergoing. The music first exists as an idea in the mind of the composer, but once he/she has set the idea to musical notes, the composer and the piece of music become one through the expression of the music in being played.

9 – Oneness with God

We are like that. We are heading toward full expression of our Oneness with God, our Christ Self.

10 – Colleagues

“Thinking of our relationship as that of colleagues as well as companions, as fellow workers or work-mates with a task to accomplish, as well as conversationalists, is not an erroneous way to think of our relationship. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day Six)”
11 – Jesus

Jesus describes his relationship to us in these 40 days and 40 nights as a colleague, a companion, a fellow-work, a work-mate, and the two of us—he and us—are conversationalists engaged in a meaningful dialogue.

12 – Equals

We have long thought of Jesus as our teacher, but he relinquishes that role with us on the mountaintop which we are ascending with him. He wants us to see ourselves as equals with him, and this a very lofty thought indeed. How can we so see without arrogance. Drop egocentric thinking, and then we will not be arrogant in following Jesus’s train of thought in making us equals to him.

13 – Drop Egocentric Thinking

How do we drop egocentric thinking? It is frequently a long process, over much time, but it need not be. We can genuinely long to drop egotistical thoughts and actions from their expression, and we will find ourselves making progress every day. Occasionally there is a quick and irreversible transformation at one juncture, and this happens when we quickly and irrevocably give up our own judgment about what to say and do. As A Course in Miracles points out, usually the giving up of judgment is a fairly slow process, not because it is difficult, but because we find it personally insulting. The world has trained for reliance upon judgment to make good decisions, but Jesus goes to some lengthy in ACIM to let us see that good judgment, lacking guidance from the Holy Spirit, is simply not possible because we can’t know all of the past, present, and future decisions and happenings that will impinge on the any given decision.

14 – Acceptance

“Does this work of acceptance seem never ending? It is until it is replaced by reverence, just as learning was unending until it was replaced by acceptance. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day Six)”

15 – Reverence

When we feel reverence, we are at our best, close to God, communing with God. This welcomes the Presence of God, and when we do so, we will have days of good flow, serene and untroubled. So we do not need to “work” at acceptance for long, if we develop the right attitude toward our Maker. When we feel reverent, we are home free.

16 – Difficulty

“What you are going to realize from this time of seeming difficulty is an end to difficulty and the growth of your ability to do whatever you do peacefully and to be who you are in whatever situation you find yourself in. (A Course of Love: Dialogues, p. 128)”

17 – Time of Becoming

We are in the “time of becoming” on the metaphorical mountain top with Jesus as our companion, but not our “teacher” any longer–for the time of learning has passed, and we are in the time of discovery. We are becoming the true self of Christ-consciousness, the elevated Self of form. But there is an in between state of trying to maintain rather than the sustaining of Christ-consciousness, and we are called to this in between state right now in this 40 days and nights of preparation.

18 – Composer

Jesus makes a comparison to an artist composing a piece of music. There is a time when the music may or may not “flow” into him or her, and then eventually, there is a feeling that completion is needed. All along the way, the artist may make the decision to share his music, either early or late in the process of preparation. We are reaching out to our brothers and sisters in love, with the thought that we are heading toward a greater understanding while in the midst of daily life. These 40 days and nights are not meant to take us “out” of life; the optimal situation is to remain in our normal lives. We may think that a removal would be advantageous, but Jesus asserts not.

19 – Calm

We need a created place of calm within; that is a main reason why we are not told to try to remove ourselves from normal life. We are the created becoming the creator of our lives. The passage for today emphasizes the ease with which life will be lived when we have attained Christ-consciousness. We reach for this without strain or effort; we allow Jesus to guide us at all times in this mountain top experience.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to be patient on this mountain top with Jesus. I long for peace, and I long to be who I really am without strain. I have strained so often. It is a great blessing to learn that all of that can be put behind me now.

May the remainder of this day go well. This I frequently ask of You. It is important to me to have good days, and as I go through the mountain top experience once more, I appeal to YOu to be with me. Keep my mind clear and my emotions calm. Give me right thinking and right interpretations. Help me do my part, knowing that You will do yours. May I have peace above all else, inner peace with You at the helm. Thank You.

May I create a place of calm within myself, as I leave behind the old self and reach toward Christ-consciousness and the elevated Self of form. May I be patient, knowing that this boon is my destiny. Thank You for being with me today and every day.

Amen.

Worship

“You must constantly remember that your observance is now an act of worship and of devotion and that you are called to observe the truth rather than illusion no matter how real illusion may still seem to be. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 18.8)”

Affirmation: “May I observe in reverence today.”

Reflections:

1 – Reverence

The term “reverence” seems to my mind to be the best way to find a synonym for both “worship” and “devotion” in regard to the observance of the truth as opposed to illusion. We need reverence in our daily life, as it calms our minds and gives us a settled good will toward divinity. God does not need our praise, according to A Course in Miracles, but we need the act of communing with Him, and in this there is an element of devotion, if not outright worship. We need worship of, and devotion to, God, even if He doesn’t need or require either of these from us.

2 – Reality

The section of A Course of Love that we are considering does repeatedly stress the pursuit of truth as opposed to illusion. This leads me to conclude that truth, or reality, or the real world, is available to us. Previously truth, reality, or the real world had not been available; we were lost in illusion, or maya (the Eastern term), and there was little we could do about it other than ask for the “happy dreams that the Holy Spirit brings” (from the Workbook of A Course in Miracles). Now, it seems, we have traveled farther along the pathway, and, while I do not want us to get lost in theology, we are perhaps, most of us, able to at least catch glimpses of the truth, glimpses of reality or the real world. ACIM says that this experience will be fleeting, because God will act quickly to reach down and lift us up to Awakening—once we have experienced the real world for a time. Because time differs in eternity from our world, we cannot know what a short time in experiencing the real world would be like. We do not know how long we must wait for Awakening (or enlightenment, or Christ-consciousness—all synonyms).

3 – Impatience

Let us hope today that the wait is brief. We are impatient, but this is often an egoic notion that is best left behind. We need to cultivate patience with others, our brothers and sisters, in part because this helps to create the holy relationships that we long to have. And holy relationships are our ticket to the ultimate in salvation.

4 – No Injury to Others

Let us open ourselves to the truth today, but take care that what we perceive to be the truth is not injurious to anybody.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Unless I am anxious, I sometimes forget how important communing with You really is. I go about my business in this world, safe in Your love, but not realizing fully where my safety lies.

My safety lies with You. I would not choose anxiety as a goad to greater prayer. I would pray willingly and repeatedly, for communing with You is life-affirming. It is the best that this world offers. The sense of Your presence brings a serene and calm outlook on this world. It alleviates stress, and all of us need to have that, given the state of our world.

May today be the first day of a new sense of continuing communion with You. May I never forget You. I know that You will never forget me. Thank You.

Amen.