Thursday, July 20, 2017

Daily

How we use these messages of love is in part an individual thing. This simply reflects that we are at different places along the ladder of prayer. So someone near the top doesn't need them at all. Hence, this writing is about using these messages for we who are not yet near the top of the ladder of prayer.

Everyone needs some quiet time with God and a period early in the day or early in the evening has proved very helpful to many. We can begin the day, any day, with a communion focus. This prelude can be read/said silently before using the mighty force Communion.

  • As you read the next paragraph to yourself, imagine the Holy Spirit is simultaneously reading it to you:


    “O be at peace, beloved of the Lord! What is your life but gratitude to Him Who loves you with an everlasting Love? What is your purpose here but to recall into His loving Arms the Son He loves, who has forgotten Who his Father is? What is your only goal, your only hope, your only need, the only thing you want, but to allow the secret place of peace to burst upon the world in all its joy, and let the Voice within it speak of Him whose love shines out and in and in- between, through all the darkened places, to embrace all living things within its golden peace?”

    • As you read this paragraph imagine yourself with your Creator, in gratitude:

    I am your Child, grateful for Your presence, and remembering our Oneness. My heart is open to the light of Your Love, it illumines the world. I am Your light and dwelling place. I speak for You to those who have forgotten. I call them now to You, and remember You now, for all the world. I hear Your call of Love and answer with Love, the only language we know.


    Communion
    • Ask Jesus to help you and he be of one mind in the place of holy joining at God's altar to His Son.
    • Recall that you and Jesus are part of God’s one Son and born of God's changeless Love.
    • With gratitude, melt into God's ever presence, welcome His radiant Love.   
    • Reflect this Love in the world and share it with your Creator.


    Aside from the above quiet times, many are helped by devoting a few moments to God just before sleep.

    Wednesday, July 19, 2017

    Somewhere, A Quiet World

    One of the messages offers this gift:
    • "A quiet world, with gentle ordering and kindly thought, alive with hope and radiant in joy, without the smallest bitterness of fear upon its loveliness."
    Many years earlier Helen dreamed of a quiet world, as a "happy dream". From her autobiography (circa pp 36)
    • ...”a picture of a young girl who resembled me in many ways, although she could not have been more than 16 years old herself. Her head was slightly thrown back in happy laughter, and her arms were outstretched as if in universal welcome. She seemed to be wholly joyous, literally incapable of grief or pain.   She was standing on a lawn of bright green grass, but in her extraordinary happiness her bare feet hardly seemed to touch the ground at all. She was dressed in a light, loose dress not reminiscent of any particular time or place. There was, in fact, nothing suggesting the past about her, nor did she seem likely to be concerned about the future. I do not think she even regarded time as we do.” 
    The nightmares of today can yield to your happy dream. Like Barbra Streisand singing "Somewhere", 
    • your grasp of these messages awakens you to this quiet world, a welcome way-station on the prodigal son's homeward journey. 
    Women/men, we make that same archetypal journey homeward ... just varied pathways.

    Tuesday, May 30, 2017

    Gone Fishing



    Gone Fishing?

    Centuries ago Jesus spoke to the disciples about The Wise Fisherman, Saying #8 in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus sometimes spoke in a cloaked way so that a Roman Centurian listening nearby might not report him as a rabble rouser (well at least that worked for awhile):
    • “A wise fisherman cast his net into the sea. When he drew it up it was full of little fish. Among them he discovered a large, fine fish. He threw all the little fish back into the sea, and he chose the large  fish. Anyone here with two good ears should listen." 
    Sounds innocent enough, but what if this is not about Tilapia in the Sea of Galilee. Jesus explains what happens when we are self-aware, observant of the ebb and flow of our thoughts. Every thought is  born of love or born of something else e.g. fear, guilt, anger. 
    • These something else thoughts are deceptive and will lead us astray, away from peace.

    When we observe the flow of our thoughts for awhile we may see an abundance of thoughts of the "something else" variety .... these are like the little fish. Amidst these will be a true thought, one whose genesis is Love, a gift from the Mind of God ... this is the large, fine fish.

    • To toss all the little fish back means we only need the God thoughts, we can ignore all the other thoughts, just toss them away.

    Monday, February 8, 2016

    kindly exercises

    The exercises shared here help you be kind to yourself and are for any who call to God in sorrow,
    the dying, the sick, the sad, the lonely, the grieving, those racked with pain,
    each frightened voice that calls to God in whispered agony.
    Sometimes we desire relief or we feel lost as if in an abyss. The five exercises (seeing exchange stillness gratitude and communion) are like a bridge over troubled water.


    stillness
    exchange                      gratitude
    seeing                                                           communion
    Chaos, Stress                                                                                                 Happy Dream


    ~troubled water~ more troubled water ~troubled water~


    From desire to stillness to gratitude to love we are each living out lives of prayer, as we chose, albeit perhaps not consciously. How our life seems, how it recurs, depends on the thoughts we harbor. These in turn affect the moment by moment choices we make every day.
    These five exercises aid your journey home as you move gracefully from the chaos stress and difficulties of everyday, toward a happy dream. As these exercises are embraced you learn to have mercy on yourself, notice more peace in your life, an easier flow of events, joy more oft present, a measure of relief from grief or pain, and less fear.
    You can study them DIY or we can discuss freely (may save time), click here  for the notes.

    Friday, February 5, 2016

    Life is prayer, prolonged

    The mental exercises here help you be kind to yourself and are for all those who call to God in sorrow; the dying, the sick, the sad, the lonely, the grieving, those racked with pain, each frightened voice that calls to God in whispered agony. Click here for detail. 

    Saturday, January 23, 2016

    incidental needs

    How we use these messages of love is in part an individual thing. This simply reflects that we are at different places along the ladder of prayer. So someone near the top doesn't need them at all. Hence, this writing is about using these messages for we who are not yet near the top of the ladder of prayer.

    Life presents chaotic conflicting events and vigilance helps. If you feel off in any way, the mighty force Little Fish or Stillness may help.
    Little Fish
    The Little Fish mighty force has broad applicability and can be helpful even at random times. Being vigilant, we can on occasion review our thought patterns.
    • Ask Jesus to help you and he be of one mind in the place of holy joining at God's altar to His Son.
    • As you explore your thoughts with Jesus, notice without judgment each thought not born of Love.
    • With gratitude, melt into God's ever presence and welcome His radiant Love.
    Stillness
    • Ask Jesus to  to help you and he be of one mind in the place of holy joining at God's altar to His Son, the Christ.
    • Remember oneness, recall that you and Jesus are part of God’s one Son.
    • In stillness, listen to the call of the Christ …. the very call to you of Love itself.

    The messages of Love were born of concern (on 1/14/78)  for “those who call in sorrow” and the above mighty forces can help us at the lower levels of the ladder of prayer e.g. everyone struggles with desire.

    Monday, January 18, 2016

    The messages are a help in 40+ difficult circumstances


    Use it or lose it (mental exercises)
    A key to understanding these messages is on page 2 paragraph 5 where The Song of Prayer says
    “Prayer is a stepping aside; a letting go; a quiet time of listening and loving.”


    Each message of love supports an aspect of prayer.
    Poem Section
    Page
    Aspect of Prayer
    Trust
    The Dream of Fear
    115
    stepping aside
    undoing

    The Two Gifts

    118
    stepping aside,
    letting go
    The Ending of the Dream
    119
    listening, loving
    Our Gift to God
    123
    brotherly love
    achievement
    The Father's Love
    126
    radiant love   
    God's messages of love correspond with the Development of Trust mentioned in Chapter 4 of the Manual. The six stages in the development of trust are periods of
    undoing, sorting out, relinquishment, settling down, unsettling, achievement   
    In The Dream of Fear message Jesus offers help in the
    “period of undoing”. We can see as he does.
    Working with Our Gift to God messages leads to “a period of
    achievement”. We can become grateful for our brothers.
    God's messages of love each contain a mighty force. Jesus first mentions mighty forces in the Text. In a 1967 “pep talk” for Helen and Bill he says (Text Chap 16, paragraph 9):
    This is the year for the application of the ideas that have been given you.   
    For the ideas are mighty forces, to be used and not held idly by.”
    Since the messages of love are an endpoint i.e. the termination of Helen's scribing with Jesus, no workbook follows. But you can fulfill a message by applying it. The article linked here shows which mental exercises (brief meditations) and messages can help with over forty difficult circumstances (e.g. abandonment, hopelessness, muscle tension, sadness, resistance, worry, ...).
    These messages have applications for day-to-day life beyond the difficult circumstances mentioned above.