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October-December, 2015

Dream Big

by Rev. Kurt Koch, O.M.C.

Hi, my name is Kurt Koch (aka Kurtis Myson) and I was recently ordained as a Pathways of Light Ministerial Counselor. I am also a musician and I have been writing songs as I have been working my way through the Pathways of Light Ministerial Training.

Music is the language of Spirit. Speaking just from my own experiences, spiritual music opens up my soul. As I began to work on these courses, I started to notice how events in my life would bring forth the lesson to be learned in the particular course I was taking.

As I recognized this process, I became awestruck at the gentle nature Holy Spirit would take to show me where I could heal my mind and see the world in a different way. I was filled with appreciation and gratitude to be able to learn these lessons, so I began to put to music the lessons I was learning.

Before I found Pathways of Light I had been seeking a closer connection with God. I read many spiritual books and I also practiced Kriya Yoga, but I had not made the one big change that I really needed to make. I had not totally dedicated my life to God, and I was not totally committed to a life of sobriety. It wasn’t until I felt my life was spinning out of control that I realized that I needed my Higher Power to take control of my life. I look back now at all my life, especially the tough times, and I realize that they were necessary for me to come to this point.

I had been flipping back and forth from living a life of love to a life of fear. I think this is a common malady today in our fast paced technological world. We are being bombarded almost continually with messages of fear.

The Pathways courses and also a solid commitment to the twelve steps of A.A. helped me to realize that there are only really two ways to live. One is from a perspective of fear and the other is from a perspective of love.

I began to realize that what I wanted more than anything in the world was actually not of this world. It was deep inside me. I wanted perfect peace. I wanted to truly see the world from the eyes of Love all the time. This is where the title of the album and the song with the same name come from. The biggest dream you can have is the dream of perfect peace. Every other dream will eventually run its course and you will have to move on to another dream. The dream of perfect peace is a dream that can last a lifetime and in fact can last for eternity. Why settle for a dream that will fade away? Dream big and dream of eternal love.

Rev. Kurt Koch, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Orange, California. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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October-December, 2015

The One About Prayer

by Rev. Stephan Mead, O.M.C.

Has anyone in any spiritual path been advised not to pray? Prayer seems to be one of the first solutions offered to every articulated problem, real or imagined. In A Course in Miracles we are reminded of this about prayer: “The Bible emphasizes that all prayer is answered, and this is indeed true.” (T-9.II.3.1)

Believing the course was written to help us wake up to Reality, this business of prayer might be pretty important, especially to those of us with problems. Also in Text, Chapter 9, “Everyone who has ever tried to use prayer to ask for something has experienced what appears to be failure.” (T-9.II.I.1) Everyone! That includes me too. If my mind wasn’t already split, trying to make sense of these two passages would have done it! I am to rely on the truth that, “all prayer is answered,” AND my experience shows me that what I “pray” for, I pretty much fail to get? Haven’t I just increased my problems?

I thought a lot about this the past few days, and finally asked the Holy Spirit for some help. (Was that a prayer?)  Anyway, help came quickly. The question, “What if what I call a prayer, isn’t prayer at all?” I (literally) sat back, quieted my mind and pondered the question, “How do I pray?” I discovered that first, I declare that I am separate and different from God. There is a “me,” the one who has problems and is praying; then there is “God,” the guy with the power to grant or deny my prayer. And, hopefully “He,” this entity separate from me, is in the prayer granting mood.

What happened to all the “oneness” I say I believe in?  How can there be a “He” and “me” if we are all one? These thoughts were very calming; it started to make sense that perhaps the real problem I was having about prayer wasn’t God’s fault — or my fault for being so bad that I didn’t deserve what I prayed for. Maybe in the area of prayer, like every other area of my life, a “change in perspective” was in order. Perhaps there was something to learn from my deeply held belief in the “there’s me” and the “there’s God” idea. I was going to run all this new insight by the Holy Spirit, but I just realized I also believe there is “me” and there is the “Holy Spirit” and He’s also an entity separate and apart from me.

If I wanted to attempt humor, I could say that this whole subject of prayer being used to solve problems has only increased them for me, but I don’t feel that way. The experience feels more like an invitation to be guided to a different understanding of prayer. To think of Holy Spirit and God and oneness in a new way takes great effort from me, but curiously the effort is paying off in a more calm and peaceful state of mind. I pray that will continue!

Rev. Stephan Mead, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Seattle, Washington. E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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October-December, 2015

Trust Walk with Holy Spirit

by Rev. Trish Kearns, O.M.C.

Two months ago I purchased a condo on the beach in Ormond Beach, Florida. It was a vacation rental and it seemed perfect for me to make use of various times throughout the year to vacation as well as to visit Pathways of Light. Holy Spirit pretty much “dropped” this condo onto my lap. All I did was make the decision that I am ready to follow His Will and not my own. Within one week of having my offer on the condo accepted, a woman offered me $20,000 above market value for my current residence which was not even on the market. So I took a few days to work with Holy Spirit and see if this was His Will for me. Somehow I signed the papers to sell my home.

This has probably been one of the most difficult decisions I have made in my life up to this point. I love my house more than words can describe. I have poured my heart and soul into it for the last 14+ years. I planted 80+ trees along with many perennials and made the house exactly how I wanted it. Everything was perfect! It has been my sanctuary and haven… all the comforts of the body. I have had many moments of depression and fear and confusion since signing the contract to sell. I continue to give it to Holy Spirit and have watched a very interesting unfolding occur.

Two days after I signed the contract I was given a critical work project that had a very aggressive deliverable schedule. I about collapsed in distraught and was on my knees begging God to just take me as I did not “get it.” I am now working 12-15 hour days consistently.  So here I am packing up 14+ years of my life, “giving up” my beautiful home… the only “true” home I ever have had… the longest I have ever lived anywhere… moved 11 times in 9 years before moving here… moving across country… in the midst of heavy workload… all on the promptings of Holy Spirit. I asked Holy Spirit to please make the contract fall through if it’s not His Will… I begged and begged for this many times… yet here I am, one week away from my move and it is all coming together… people and situations presented themselves that allowed for this to happen relatively smoothly given the immensity of the situation. Looking back I see that Holy Spirit has kept me busy so I do not have time to wallow in what it is I think I am giving up.

This is such a trust walk it is almost unimaginable to me. I was led to section 4 in the Manual for Teachers “What Are the Characteristics of God’s Teachers? I: Trust A: Development of Trust” (M-4.I.A) pg.10. It really hit home the different stages of teachers. I realized that I am in “stage 3 — a period of relinquishment” moving into “stage 4 — a period of settling down.”

What I am particularly recognizing is that Holy Spirit is showing me that all I have felt was valuable has actually been valueless. This has been painful for me. Jesus tells us about this in stage 3. “If this is interpreted as giving up the desirable, it will engender enormous conflict. Few teachers of God escape this distress entirely.” (M-4.I.5:2-3)

He then encourages us, “Through this he learns that where he anticipated grief, he finds a happy lightheartedness instead; where he thought something was asked of him, he finds a gift bestowed on him.” (M-4.I.5:8)

I have also felt comfort in what He tells us in stage 4: “This is a quiet time, in which the teacher of God rests a while in reasonable peace.” (M-4.I.6:2) “Yet when he is ready to go on, he goes with mighty companions beside him. Now he rests a while, and gathers them before going on. He will not go on from here alone.” (M-4.I.6:11-13)

Rev. Trish Kearns, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Ormond Beach, Florida. E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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October-December, 2015

Letter from a Prisoner

by Rev. Joseph Wolfe, O.M.C.

The following is a letter from a prisoner I received just this past July (2015). Like many other letters received over the years, this one expresses the deep level of gratitude that pours out from behind prison walls.

To Joe Wolfe, Spirit Light Outreach; PO Box 443, Enola PA 17025-0443

A few weeks ago I received a copy of (your book) Letter To A Prisoner. I spent several days reading and re-reading it and am presently in the process of reading it for a third time, using a high-lighter to mark those passages that jump out at me. Last week I started exercises (365 daily lessons from the Workbook in A Course in Miracles) and I am committed to sticking with it.

I am in my 44th year of a life sentence and many of those years have been (spent) in the search for God. Raised in an Italian Catholic home and church, I was a choir and altar boy and even thought I had a calling for the priesthood. I spent a short time in a seminary before realizing that it wasn’t for me. It was a few years after leaving the seminary that I wound up in prison with a life sentence for murder.

My search for God took me through several phases and different denominations from the Catholic church, Episcopalian, Assembly’s of God, Church of God of Prophecy… just to name a few. I became a “born again” Christian. The problem with all of this was that there always seemed to be something missing… something I couldn’t put my finger on… something I knew I should be experiencing but was not. (After reading your story I think you know what I’m talking about.)

About 15 years ago I had a near death experience from a serious head injury. I was told that I had actually died, but what I clearly remember is standing over my physical body, watching the medical staff working to revive me, and wondering why they were acting so frenzied and so serious, while what I was experiencing was a total sense of Peace.

After recovering I took up that search for God again in an effort to reclaim that sense of peace. I returned to the Catholic Church since it was the most familiar to me, attending mass on a regular basis, but still feeling that I was missing something. Each morning I got up early to spend some quiet time in prayer and meditation. Although I benefited from that practice and still do, I still felt that there had to be something more.

In September of 2014 I participated in a Kenosis Retreat, where volunteers from different denominations come to prisons to share the retreat. I became friends with one of the volunteers who suggested that I read A Course In Miracles. That is how I got started on this journey.

Briefly, that’s my story, but the reason for why I am writing to you is that I wanted to ask you for a copy of Gary Renard’s The Disappearance of the Universe, and one of your other books, The End of Reincarnation with The Five Signs.

Thank you for your attention and for the work you do with prisoners. It is my hope that because for your work I will be able to find and reclaim that Peace I experienced fifteen years ago in this journey back to wholeness and oneness.

Sincerely, Anthony R. Lorraine, Northern State Prison, Newark, New Jersey, July 12th, 2015

Rev. Joe Wolfe, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister who lives in Enola, Pennsylvania. Email:a2skholyspirit@sbcglobal.net
Website: AcimLive.com
If you would like to help Rev. Joe Wolfe bring A Course in Miracles and related materials to prisoners, contact him by phone: 708-985-1754. Mail: Spirit Light Outreach, PO Box 443, Enola, PA 17025-0443 or go to http://acimlive.com or http//SpiritLightOutreach.org

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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