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April-June, 2021

We’re Entitled to Miracles, Not a Perfect Pain-Free Life

by Rev. Jennifer McSween, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

Given the way last year, 2020, unfolded — for all of us — you might think that I’m in denial when I say that for me, 2020 was a year of miracles.

Here’s what I mean: I officiated my last wedding ceremony on March 14th, 2020. This brought the most lucrative part of my ministerial business and the part I enjoy the most — officiating weddings — to a screeching halt as most of the world went into lockdown.

We were now restricted in terms of how we shopped, where we traveled, and the way we socialized. On April 28th my mother died from complications of COVID-19, five days after coming down with the first symptoms. Since she had been living in a senior’s residence at the time, I had not seen or hugged her for six weeks prior to her death due to the lockdown restrictions.

By appearance, none of this qualifies as a miracle. As a matter of fact, from the perspective of the world or on the level of form, all of these events occurring at the same time, is more like a recipe for worry, pain, and fear. A recipe for misery, not miracles.

However, from the perspective of A Course in Miracles, a miracle has nothing to do with the presence or appearance of anything on the level of form. Rather, according to the Course, a “miracle” is a change in our perception that allows us to feel safe, healed, empowered, and at peace regardless of circumstances or conditions.

Workbook Lesson 77 teaches “I am entitled to miracles.” To be entitled to something means it is ours by “right.” We need do nothing to earn it. We simply have to claim it. The Course also teaches that Forgiveness is the means to miracles. How we are to practice forgiveness is by looking past the form or appearance of a troubling circumstance or condition and recognize the truth that lies behind. And the truth is that regardless of what we see, encounter or experience, all that is ever taking place is that we are experiencing the thoughts and ideas that are in our minds, in different forms.

To be entitled to miracles does not mean that we’ll never experience pain, fear, or lack of peace.

What it does mean is that we all have the ability to remember the truth and to choose to look at everything and everyone from the perspective of truth in any moment or situation that we do not find peaceful. Practicing forgiveness is the way we claim the miracles to which we are entitled.

This is what I did in each of those seemingly troubling situations I mentioned earlier that I experienced in 2020. Whether it was feeling the deep sense of loss over my mother’s passing, feeling concerned about losing a big chunk of my income and not being able to serve in a way that I enjoy most, or feeling stressed and worried about the restrictions and changes in my lifestyle and how I interacted with others.

I practiced forgiveness and this allowed me to experience a sense of peace throughout the year, despite those on-going conditions. I still feel that sense of peace today, even though I have not been able to officiate any weddings since March 14th, 2020. In spite of the fact that here in Quebec, where I live, we went into a deeper lockdown in October. On December 25th, further lockdown measures were implemented. All non-essential stores, businesses, and services were closed.

Despite the fact that in mid-January, an 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. curfew was added and is still in effect at the time of this writing, February 11th, 2021. Still… I am at peace. I’m not entitled to a perfect pain-free life. As a matter of fact, as long as I am metaphorically “here,” i.e. as long as I experience myself as a body, living in a world surrounded by other bodies and forms, I will experience pain, fear, or lack of peace in some form.

I am however entitled to miracles, meaning, that in any moment in which I experience any form of fear, pain, or lack of peace, I have the right to practice forgiveness and experience miracles instead. That’s what I did in 2020 and this is why I say that for me, 2020, was a year of miracles.

Rev. Jennifer McSween, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light Minister living in Montreal, Canada. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Website: http://www.revjennifer-mcsween.com

© 2021, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

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April-June, 2021

Understanding and Applying the First Ten Workbook Lessons

by Rev. Tacey Reese, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

After all these decades of being an ACIM student, I still enjoy doing the workbook lessons. This year they seem to have taken on even more meaning and shaped my life experience more deeply. Maybe because I decided to write about every lesson this year, not just journal about a few here and there, but make it a daily practice as part of my devotional time. I especially enjoy and appreciate the review sections of the lessons and I love to feel and experience the relationship between them.

Today, as I’m writing this, I’ve just completed Lesson 52, so I’m just starting out on the first review in the workbook. In the Introduction there’s a lovely paragraph I found so inspiring that I typed it out, made copies and taped it all around my house, even my car dashboard, so I’d see it often as a reminder as to why I do this work. Here’s the paragraph:

“You will yet learn that peace is part of you, and requires only that you be there to embrace any situation in which you are. And finally you will learn that there is no limit to where you are, so that your peace is everywhere, as you are.” (W-pI.r1in.5)

That’s pretty inspiring! And awesome. How often do we sit around and realize or even contemplate that we are everywhere and so is peace, because peace is what we are? Probably not often enough. It seems too amazing to even be true. But our brother Jesus is well known for speaking the Truth so I trust him on this.

On to the review of the lessons so far.

Lesson 1 states: “Nothing I see means anything.” This is because I think I am seeing but I’m really just looking at images I’ve projected outwards with my egoic thoughts. I’m looking at my own thoughts. What we call seeing our Brother calls image-making.

Lesson 2: “I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me.” It’s only my judgments that I am “seeing.” Letting go of the meaning I’ve given the world is a major step in opening up to true perception.

Lesson 3: “I do not understand anything I see.” It can be frightening to realize or even to contemplate this idea. We’ve spent so much time trying to make sense of the world. Yet it is liberating to realize we don’t understand and we can’t understand.

We’re going back to what Zen practitioners might call Beginner’s Mind when we acknowledge our lack of understanding. It’s important to do so if we truly want to experience changes in our mindset.

Lesson 4: “These thoughts do not mean anything.” The thoughts we’re aware of are our egoic thoughts which are false and were made to replace the thoughts we think with God. Recognizing their meaninglessness helps us let them go. Why hold on to the meaningless?

Lesson 5: “I am never upset for the reason I think.” Wow, our Brother straight up says in this review that we’re constantly trying to justify our thoughts and make them true. All to defend a thought system (what we call the ego) that not only doesn’t serve us, it hurts us. Believe me, once you realize how true this is and how much energy you’ve spent on defending the ego through anger and all kinds of “upsetness” (if that is a word!), you will be more than willing to lay your defenses down. Instead, you will invest your energy in Holy Spirit’s right-minded thinking.

We could even look at this lesson like this, “I’m upset because I think with the ego.” So when I look out my front door right now and see the foot or so of snow remaining that my small southern town was ill-prepared for, it doesn’t mean anything except the meaning I give it.

I can say to myself, “Now I’m snowbound and stuck at home” and I can feel elation, despair, or any emotion in between. And if I choose to be upset, it’s not because of the snow. Knowing that I don’t understand what I see leads me not only to acceptance of what is, but to a joyous anticipation of true perception, of vision. Now that is exciting!

When I got to the next day’s review, I decided to string the keynote ideas together. I like to do this now and then to see what happens, what more I can experience by looking at a group of them together.

Lessons 6-10 looked like this for me: “I am upset because I see what is not there. I see only the past because my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts and so I see nothing as it is now. My thoughts do not mean anything.” Looking at these together like this gives me some good information about how the egoic thought system works.

As I read the entire review, Lesson 52, I begin to learn about the value of forgiveness, even though the word itself is only used once. This review builds on the previous one which re-minded us we are not really seeing, we are only viewing images of our thoughts. These images are illusions that we’ve made to replace reality.

If we have made up an illusion to replace reality, and reality brings only perfect peace (we have and it does; remember our Brother is not a liar!), then we can’t see or experience this perfect peace. Instead we’re upset by our own illusions which Jesus tells us are nothing. Just nothing!

What we are “seeing” is only the past because our mind is preoccupied with past thoughts. We’ve judged the world from the moment we learned a language and to label and name things. As we grew, we learned to condemn the world based on our past experiences in it. And we condemned ourselves and others as well.

These two sentences from the review really stood out to me: “Let me remember that I look on the past to prevent the present from dawning on my mind. Let me understand that I am trying to use time against God.” (W-pI.52.3:4-5) 

Hmm…that is an interesting concept! What is this present that I am trying not to see? It must be something pretty darn good or the ego wouldn’t try to hide it from me! Did I make up time just to use it against my Creator? Sure sounds like it. I bet our Brother will tell us more about this later (wink).

When I accept that I see nothing as it is now, I can open my mind to allow Holy Spirit to help me see with true perception. I can forgive myself, others and my own meaningless thoughts. This is how I remember that my mind is part of creation and part of its Creator. And what a glorious remembrance that is!

Rev. Tacy Reese is a Pathways of Light minister living in Benton, Arkansas.
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2021, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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April-June, 2021

Am I Host to God or Hostage to the Ego?

by Rev. Myron, Jones, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

Last night I read a disturbing post on Facebook. A large group of evacuees are unable to find lodging. They are out of gas and out of money. None of the usual places, churches, FEMA, Red Cross is responding. They stand outside hotels surrounded by what they were able to grab when they were told that evacuation was mandatory. They are discouraged, frightened, feeling lost and hopeless, some of them crying. How exhausted and frightened they must be. How alone they must feel. The vision continues to haunt me.

The question now is, will I be host to God or hostage to the ego? As I react to their plight, I can relate. That could be me or someone I know and love. But then, I do know them as part of the Sonship, I love them as brothers. As my heart aches for them, though, I realize I’m not helping anyone, not me, not them. My sadness and the nagging desire to blame someone let’s me know I am hostage to the ego.

I change my mind deciding to be host to God instead. “What would you have me do, Father?” I remember Who I am, Who they are, Who we are together. I remember the power of the Mind, the power of God, Which is the Mind with which I think, the Mind of which we are all a part. I focus my thoughts on the truth.

As I rise above the battleground, I lift my brothers in distress. As my mind fills with love, peace, and certainty, I know their minds must likewise fill, showing itself in words, ideas, feelings most comforting and reassuring to them. We are all free and know ourselves as free.

I know what it is like to feel afraid and hopeless. Don’t we all? I know how it feels to be hostage to ego, but I also know it is possible to be released. I know how helpful true prayer is to this release.

As host to God I am privileged to be that source of hope as I hold a true vision of this situation and all involved.

Rev. Myron Jones, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Westlake, Louisiana. Read her inspiring Healing Journal articles on the Pathways website. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Myron’s website:
http://www.forgivenessisthewayhome.org

© 2021, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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April-June, 2021

Following God’s Plan, Not Our Own

by Revs. Mary & Robert Stoelting

We are in our late 70’s. Here in Florida, COVID-19 has expanded greatly and the hospitals are stressed. We work in the office portion of our residence with Deb and Colleen Fee. We all would like to receive the vaccinations as soon as they are available. Recently the county health department announced they were giving the vaccines near us on a first-come first-served basis. People started camping out in their cars on the road the day before the announced date. If we wanted to be vaccinated, we would have to wait.

After pausing and recognizing we were disappointed, we realized we needed to hand this “problem” to the Holy Spirit. We asked, “How would you have us see this?”

We opened the Course to Workbook Lesson 254 and read, “Father, today I would but hear Your Voice. In deepest silence I would come to You, to hear Your Voice and to receive Your Word. I have no prayer but this: I come to You to ask You for the truth. And truth is but Your Will, which I would share with You today.”

We remembered that we have been carried our whole lives, even when we did not recognize it. We remembered there is no hurry and we remain eternally safe in the Mind of God. We felt that feeling of patience… and heard that whatever we need will come in God’s perfect plan.

This lesson taught us that our ego thoughts tell us we are weak, capable of being harmed. These ego thoughts tell us we are separate and alone, so we need to plan for our safety and seek for love to be complete.

Whenever any of these ego thoughts in their various forms enter our mind, it is a signal that we need to step back. We need to remind ourselves that these are not our real thoughts, for we are not the ego. By stepping back and disconnecting our allegiance from the ego, we quiet the ego’s voice in our mind. We open our minds to God’s Voice.

Our real Thoughts are the Thoughts of Love we share with God. God’s sole Will is to extend Love. That is how He created His Son. As His Son, we share His Will. Our true Self’s Will is to extend Love and nothing else. Our true Self, God’s Son, co-creates with Him. Extending Love is our will. It brings us joy and peace of mind.

We have been practicing the tenets of the A Course in Miracles for quite some time. But we needed to be reminded once again to be mindful of our thoughts. In our practice of reading the Course together daily, we randomly opened to Workbook Lesson 196, “It can be but myself I crucify.”

The Lesson tells us: “For once you understand it is impossible that you be hurt except by your own thoughts, the fear of God must disappear. You cannot then believe that fear is caused without.”

“When the fear of God is gone, there are no obstacles that still remain between you and the holy peace of God.” (W-pI.196.8:3-4;12:2)

When we believe we are a body, we are attacking the Self God created one with Him. We are trying to limit the extension of His Love. Since Love is all that is real, this limit can only seem to be real in a dream in which we believe we have successfully separated from God. This is our Self crucifixion.

This dream has no effect on Reality. But to free ourselves from our self-imposed limitation, we need to learn to change our thoughts about the world and our identity. We are not a body and this dream of a world is nothing more than a projection of the belief that the body and separation are real. This belief is the cause of all our fear.

A belief is nothing more than a thought, and thoughts can be changed. This change happens when we change their source. While we identify with the ego, our thoughts stem from the ego’s denial of Love.

But we can choose another Source, the Holy Spirit. He knows that only Love is real because He is an extension of God’s Thought. As our inner Teacher, His mission is to teach us to remember the one Thought we share with God. It is the opposite of the ego’s thoughts. Holy Spirit’s Thoughts extend Love. They bring with them a vision that sees the oneness of Love everywhere. Fear is dispelled, for Love only blesses.

This practice turned our feelings of disappointment for not receiving the vaccine into a blessing and mind healing opportunity. It opened our mind to receive God’s Love.

When we are willing to pause when our thoughts are not peaceful, we have help to change our thoughts. We can always receive the Help we need to return to peace.

God’s Plan for us is to lead us out of our mistaken dedication to the ego belief in separation. We learned once again that every circumstance that comes up every day is another opportunity for mind healing.

Revs. Robert and Mary Stoelting are co-founders of Pathways of Light. E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2021, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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