Where can the messages of love be found?

Beginning on 2/8/78, a few months after scribing The Song of Prayer, Helen Schucman, Ph.D. scribed five messages of love.

 

These messages of love apply what had been given earlier because

God's Son can yet be more merciful on himself.

I remain grateful for the Love that inspires those messages and the collaboration that brings them to our attention.

The Gifts of God Poem

How five messages of love were published as a poem entitled The Gifts of God is described in the Absence from Felicity biography of Helen, especially Chapters 14 and 15.

• The messages of love are published as
  “a long blank verse poem in five sections printed in prose form”. (say what?)
• Section five of the long blank verse poem is not as scribed (this will be explained in a different post).

The messages of love are at the end of Helen's book of poems, on pages 115-128. The book of poems is also entitled The Gifts of God. How confusing. The message scribing dates, poem sections, and pages in the poetry book are

2/8/78 The Dream of Fear pp 115

2/9/78 The Two Gifts pp 118

2/11/78 The Ending of the Dream pp 119

early 3/78 Our Gift to God pp 123

4/11/78 The Father's Love pp 127

These messages of love are an application of The Song of Prayer addressed to (Helen 1st) everyday people. It is helpful (but not necessary) to be familiar with The Song of Prayer booklet before trying to grok the messages of love. The messages of love lie along the ladder of prayer in this way

upper rungs Our Gift to God and The Father's Love

rising on the ladder of prayer The Ending of the Dream

lower rungs The Dream of Fear and The Two Gifts

The messages of love differ in form from ACIM, for example the word ego and the word miracle do not appear in the messages, nor do they appear in The Song of Prayer as scribed. These messages help us live the song of prayer, they strengthen our faith and holds us up as we “ascend the shining stairway to the lawns of Heaven and the gate of peace”.

Almost every reader is dying, it's the often slow process on earth called life. These messages of love are a specific help for

the dying, the sick, the sad, the lonely, the grieving, those racked with pain,
each frightened voice that calls to God in whispered agony.

The same set of messages is germane to both circumstances (dying and sick) because, as explained in the section The Picture of Crucifixion (Text Chapter 27):

Sickness is but a “little” death; a form of vengeance not yet total.

Since sickness is a defense against the truth, we see in these messages, how Jesus presents truth in a simple gradual effective and persistent manner, to benefit all, especially those who call in sorrow.

a helping hand extends

On 1//14/78 Jesus overtly began hospice care for Helen in what was described as a special message. There, Jesus says “messages of love” are needed, and they begin arriving on 2/8/78. The training provided here is for the everyday person (no mention of terms that enriched her prior scribings, ... miracles, ego, psychology) and Helen.

• These messages of love help you be kind to yourself and are addressed to all those who call to God in sorrow - specifically, any of:  the dying, the sick, the sad, the lonely, the grieving, those racked with pain, each frightened voice that calls to God in whispered agony.

Here is what Helen scribed on 1/14. A few related posts (explanatory) may follow.

web page not renewed after 11/5/15

The web page, 

http://godsmessagesoflove.org/Home_Page.html

is commentary on part of  "The Gifts of God" book and will disappear on 11/5/15, along with all its online linked content.

These few/brief messages from J guide you to and up the ladder of prayer, a rare explanation of ACIM in the language of everyday (the word ego is not used).

• If you want any of the web based information you can copy or download in the interim.

The Two Gifts and Lesson 323 I gladly make the “sacrifice” of fear

Lesson 323

I gladly make the “sacrifice” of fear

The Two Gifts (a poem at the end of The Gifts of God book) is a way to explain and accomplish Lesson 323 and it  enables the assist The Song of Prayer mentions on page 16:

“Prayer has both aids and witnesses which make the steep ascent more gentle and

more sure, easing the pain of fear and offering the comfort and the promises of hope.”

The Two Gifts message helps us be kind to ourselves. Our vigilance and seeing allows for an exchange of gifts, our deliverance from fear. The Song of Prayer clarifies the role that Jesus can fulfill (page 2) as he “stands beside us”:

“... Help in prayer does not mean that another mediates between you and God. But it does mean that another stands beside you and helps to raise you up to Him. … ”

• You can think of the ladder of prayer as a kind of bridge over troubled waters …

in one fell swoop Jesus lifts you above the chaos and confusion that so oft mucks up life, and sets you firmly on your sacred way, home.

The exchange of gifts takes place with Jesus' help, within our mind at God's altar to His son. On page 118 of The Two Gifts Jesus again offers help:

“Open your hands, and give all things to me that you have held against your

holiness and kept as slander on the son of God. …. And these (gifts of God)

I give to you to take the place of those you give to me in mercy on yourself.”

Jesus encourages us,

“ Practice with every one (i.e. every gift) you recognize as what it is.”

The mention of practice alludes to the mighty force of exchange.

The Two Gifts message ends with a prayer of gratitude (last two paragraphs page 119). Gratitude is defined in the Our Gift to God message as

“... love expressed in joining; the necessary precondition

for extension and the prerequisite for peace.”

Application of Exchange

Anxiety, any fear. I used it to replace a confusing night dream and felt more peaceful after doing so. 

This is an example of using the mighty force exchange:

I'm afraid to fly, I hate it

• Ask Jesus to help you and he be of one mind, in prayer, at God's altar to His son.

• Being grateful for inspired assistance, recall any (or every) flying experience.
• Look without judgment at each experience with Jesus, and place each one in his hands on the altar
• With gratitude and open empty hands, receive in exchange the gifts of God and Christ.

genesis and use of mighty forces

God's messages of love embrace the Holy Spirit's mighty forces. Jesus first mentions mighty forces in the Text. 

In a 1967 “pep talk” for Helen and Bill Jesus 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.”

The Text is quite rich in mighty forces and I gave up counting after seeing at least 15 of them in the first half of the text. They oft reappear as workbook lessons.

These messages of love are also rich in mighty forces, and we are yet encouraged to use them. I have described several, and your reading of the messages may reveal others. Please do share.

sickness is but a "little" death

In early 1978 Jesus dictated messages of love for

the dying, the sick, the sad, the lonely, the grieving, those racked with pain,
each frightened voice that calls to God in whispered agony.  

The messages of love are a healing focus of The Song of Prayer. Because God's Son can yet be more merciful on himself, these messages convey the blessing of true healing to the minds of those who are ill or near death.

The Gifts of God “Poem”

How five of the messages of love were published as a poem entitled The Gifts of God is described in the Absence from Felicity biography of Helen, in Chapters 14 and 15.

• These last messages of love are published as
  “a long blank verse poem in five sections printed in prose form”.
  
• Section five of the long blank verse poem is not as scribed.
  

The five messages of love are at the end of the book of poems, on pages 115-128. The book is also entitled The Gifts of God. These messages help you be kind to yourself. Because they employ Course concepts, they can help miracles students e. g.

• someone who read some of the Text or is reading the Workbook or who read the Manual or someone generally familiar with Course concepts and not offended by less psychoanalytic detail and
  
• someone familiar with the ladder of prayer and The Song of Prayer
  

The same set of messages are as germane to death as they are to sickness because, as explained in the The Picture of Crucifixion (Text Chapter 27 section I paragraph 4)

Sickness is but a “little” death;
a form of vengeance not yet total.

Each message of love is born of the content of what salvation is. Illusions are let go, never supported. The poem sections differ in form according to where each one lies along the ladder of prayer and align with the ladder in this way

               upper rungs Our Gift to God and The Father's Love

        rising The Ending of the Dream

ladder search, bottom rung  The Dream of Fear, The Two Gifts

The messages of love show us how living the song of prayer strengthens our faith and holds us up as we “ascend the shining stairway to the lawns of Heaven and the gate of peace”.  

GAD happens

For Those Who Call to God in Sorrow

To the dying, the sick, the sad, the lonely, the grieving, those racked with pain, each frightened voice that calls to God in whispered agony.  

Introduction

This is dedicated to the Love which inspires us. The comments are my opinion and not endorsed by any other person, foundation, company or corporation. On 2/8/78 Helen Schucman, Ph.D. began to scribe five messages of love.

Anxiety Happens (it comes with each body) 

Dealing with fear is what the first two messages of love are about. Anxiety is a variety of fear, a subtle presence for everyone. GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) is widespread but not often diagnosed. In each moment we each are somewhere in the range from ease to pathology. As stress increases, anxiety can be more debilitating. 

Somewhere, A Quiet World  

The first of the messages of love 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". 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.