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April-June, 2015

A Brother, a Mentor, a Friend

by Rev. Michael Graves, O.M.C.

A couple of years ago, I began attending a Wednesday evening ACIM study group that a friend of mine had told me about which was being held in the home of a local couple. I had recently decided to begin studying the Course again, so I decided to give this group a try. For me, studying the Course with a group makes it much easier to understand and apply to my life.

Dennis and his wife were both elementary school teachers and long time students of the Course. They had been studying it as a couple for many, many years. Dennis had retired but his wife was still teaching. One of the first things I noticed when I arrived at their home was a big yard sign out in front that read: “A Course in Miracles” and it had two meeting times on it. There was a meeting Wednesdays at noon and then again at 6 p.m.!  Dennis also started a Saturday morning group at the local library and a Tuesday morning group at a nearby Starbucks!

My first thought was, “man, this guy must be a serious Course student!” And as it turned out, I couldn’t have been more right! But Dennis was also the consummate teacher. When I walked into the living room the first thing I saw was two spacious couches with a big round wooden coffee table in the middle, covered with extra copies of the course (including several copies of the older three volume sets) along with a host of other metaphysical books from the last 20 years or so. You name it and it was probably either there on the table, or somebody had it out on loan.

In true school teacher form, Dennis had an easel with the big dry erase whiteboard on it, complete with markers and an eraser. It always had the lesson number and text section we were going to study that day along with a list of other meetings in the area. I am pretty sure that the only reason he didn’t have one of those old, big green classroom chalkboards bolted to the wall is because his wife wouldn’t let him do it. So the easel and white board would have to do. It took a couple of meetings for me to realize that I didn’t have to raise my hand and ask to be excused to go to the rest room like we did in school.

After I had been attending his groups for a while, Dennis came up to me one day and said, “I think it is time for you to start a group.” I was a little shocked by his statement but I had actually considered doing it at some point in the future. I just didn’t feel I was ready. Apparently Dennis felt that I was. I said, well, ok, I guess I could do it. All I really need is a place for people to sit and a copy of the Course, and I just happen to have both. I had retired by then so I started the group in my home on Thursdays at noon. Dennis and his good friend Otis attended faithfully almost every Thursday to support the new meeting.

Now, we all know that A Course in Miracles is not a religion and there is no official ACIM missionary program. But nobody told Dennis. He wore a white baseball cap and a matching tee shirt that read: I (red heart symbol) A Course in Miracles. He had business cards in his wallet with A Course in Miracles and his name and phone number on them. And yes, he had matching magnetic signs for his car.

When going places with Dennis, there were two things that you needed to know. One is that at some point, he was going to want to stop for Starbucks, frozen yogurt or some other tasty treat. The other was that at some point, you would look around and notice that he was no longer there.

Upon further investigation, you would discover that he did not get lost but rather, he had stopped to talk to someone, and without fail, he was asking them if they had ever heard of A Course in Miracles.   

I have to admit, I used to get a bit of a chuckle out of it. That is, until I started meeting people who said that they had either found out about the Course from him or started studying it, because Dennis had stopped to talk to them.

After knowing Dennis for a while, I realized that he had memorized several of the more popular quotes and prayers from the Course. Some of which are quite long! One of his favorites was the “Steady our feet our Father” prayer found in review V. before lesson 171. I asked Dennis one day how he had managed to memorize so much from the Course. He told me that he had sleep apnea and didn’t sleep more than a few hours a night. He said, “I am up anyway so I thought I would put the time to good use.” When closing our study sessions we would routinely stand in a circle holding hands and Dennis would dismiss us with one of the gems he had memorized.

When I started writing this article, Dennis had been told that he was ill and was being placed on hospice care. He knew that it was possible that he would not be with us much longer. After getting the news, Dennis continued to host the group in his home, welcomed us with his warm and loving hugs and studied with us from his beloved A Course in Miracles. My friend made his transition on Dec. 23rd 2014, just a few days before Christmas.

I could go on and on about my friend Dennis and the kind of man that he was, but suffice it to say that he was a shining example of a student of A Course in Miracles. He truly lived and practiced the principals as he understood them and he was a kind, loving and gentle soul. I consider myself blessed to have known this amazing man and his dear wife.

The biggest blessing in all of this for me is that I have become very aware of how differently I feel today than I would have a year or so ago. Through studying the Course I have had a very noticeable shift in how I react to things that happen in my own life and to the news of sad and tragic events happening locally and in the world around me. I am just not as upset as I used to be. I actually see them now as what I call: “The world doing what the world does.”

But I did wonder how I would react when something happened that was much closer to me than just seeing it happening to someone else on the evening news. Such as someone I loved and was close to, laying their body down and transitioning out of this world.

I was delighted to discover that I have come to know and understand the true nature of life. I have come to know and truly understand the difference between reality and illusion. This is the foundation that the Holy Spirit provides me when I ask for it. And it will continue to support me throughout the rest my life.

Am I sad? Of course I am. Have I cried? I have. Do I miss my friend? Yes. But today, I understand. And with that understanding has come a powerful, deep and abiding peace. A peace I never thought I could have at a time like this.

Thank you Dennis. My brother, my mentor, my friend.

Rev. Michael Graves, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in La Quinta, California. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Web: newbeginningslifeservices.com

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

You Are Me and I Am You

by Rev. Tricia Andrew, O.M.C.

It is sometimes difficult
to discern path large or small
Sometimes I cannot see the path at all

I know that I’ve been down this
path before to revisit and savor
my experiences once more

I do not recall the sights or my name
What is relevant to Spirit
alone stays the same

I am peace

I am Love

I am joy and purity

I am jealousy

I am vanity

I am plain insecurity

Source has given me Divine permission
to fully experience all human condition

I now understand what is Divine and
true — that you are me and I am you

With this in mind, I hold no grudge
for when I blame you, it’s me I judge

Rev. Tricia Andrew, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Spring, Texas. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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

God Is the Love in Which I Forgive

by Rev. Linda Wisniewski, O.M.C.

Throughout Linda’s life, she experienced pain that she believed was physical. Last June after getting a hip replacement for a broken hip, she has experienced continual pain in her hip, lower back and left shoulder. The night after beginning to work with ACIM Lesson 46, the pain became so bad, she could barely walk and she became despondent. She went to bed crying out to Holy Spirit: “Holy Spirit, help me.”

Lesson 46 starts with: “God does not forgive because He never condemned. (1) And there must be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary. (2) Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions, while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them.” (4)

Then in paragraph 2 of this lesson it states: “Fear condemns and love forgives. (1) “Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced, returning the mind to the awareness of God.” (3)

So in the middle of the night, after crying out for help from Holy Spirit, Spirit gently whispered in Linda’s ear, “Do the practice; Do the practice.”

The first practice in Lesson 46 comes with the following instruction: “God is the Love in which I forgive you [name]. (4:4)

All of a sudden what came up was the word “body.” So, Linda added, “God is the Love in which I forgive this body.” As Linda said this, she was flooded with memories of a lifetime in the body. Memories came that left her feeling deep shame and self-hatred. For example, she remembered as a child, she loved to dance. At the age of 16, she took dance lessons with a professional dancer who told her she moved like a “slut.” When she performed a dance at a summer camp, the parents complained that she was ‘too sensual in her movements’ and she couldn’t continue performing. By the time Linda was an adult, there was so much shame and guilt around the body that became self-hatred for the body.

Linda then used the body promiscuously to cover up the self-hatred. She believed that she could get love that she was desperate for by using the body lovelessly. Of course this just added to the guilt and shame about the body that then got projected onto the body in the form of physical pain.

She then reached for magical solutions that brought about temporary relief, but never brought about permanent relief because the problem wasn’t in the body. It was in the mind.

The basis for the guilt really was the guilt Linda felt for believing she had chosen to embody in the first place as a way to separate from God and from His Love. In fact, during a hypnotic therapy session, Linda had an image of a voice coming to her in the womb that told her life would be hell if she embodied. She brought that belief with her when she came into the dream and it became her reality. Linda believed she deserved to be punished for choosing to embody and that the punishment was to make the body sick with pain and dis-ease.

So back to the practice in Lesson 46 that Holy Spirit guided Linda to do in the middle of the night. The next instruction in the lesson is: “God is the Love in which I forgive myself.” (5:3)

I forgive myself for having used this body to punish myself for believing I was guilty. Then Holy Spirit reminded Linda to replace these guilt thoughts with the instructions of the rest of the lesson. “God is the Love in which I love myself. (5:5) God is the Love in which I Am blessed.” (5:6)

I kept repeating these above thoughts the rest of the night until I really felt the Truth of them. The more I repeated it, the more I believed it. I began to feel a deep peace and was able to deeply relax and fall asleep in a peaceful state. I went to sleep feeling despondent and hating the body which I made. I awoke with tears of joy releasing the memories that made me believe the body was the vehicle for shame, guilt and self-hatred and deserved to be in pain.

The rest of the of the instructions for Lesson 46 states: “I cannot be guilty because I am a Son of God. (6:3) I have already been forgiven. (6:4) No fear is possible in a Mind beloved of God. (6:5) There is no need to attack because love has forgiven me.” (6:6)

As Linda practiced with these messages, images of shame were replaced with images of joy and happiness. As she was sleeping, she was given images of Linda dancing joyously and effortlessly while singing praises of glory and gratitude to God. As these images came, the shame, guilt, along with the memories were slipping away.

Holy Spirit then reminded Linda that as the guilt and self-hatred are released, the body then can be used by the Holy Spirit for a Holy Purpose — a vehicle through which Love can be extended into the world to help awaken the Sonship from its nightmarish dream of guilt and fear. She was also reminded that the body, when it has served its purpose, can be gently laid down without suffering or sacrifice.

Thank you Holy Spirit for showing me how to practice with this lesson. God is the Love in which I forgive. God’s Will for us is happiness, not guilt, fear or pain. As we forgive, the blocks to Love are removed and we return to Love, our natural state.

Rev. Linda Wisniewski is a Pathways of Light minister living in Plymouth, Wisconsin. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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

Awakening Through My Special Relationships — Part 4: Mom

by Rev. Linda LaCasse, O.M.C.

This article is the fourth in a series of Holy Spirit’s use of my special relationships for the purpose of healing. It pertains to the year preceding the divorce from my second husband. 

New Year’s Day, 2011, my husband was as fully aware as I of the insanity of our marriage and verbalized his distress. For the next several weeks he broached the subject of counseling and every time he did, my blood literally ran cold. I knew what my truth was but I couldn’t speak it.  I often tried to, for I could barely contain my unhappiness, but each time I would be forced to stop upon hearing the words, “not yet.” I knew I was to be patient and wait for Holy Spirit’s guidance and timing.

During this time, my mother had fallen ill and this postponed my husband’s incessant need to know what I wanted to do – counseling or end the marriage. I had no answers for I had no options, no means of income to support myself, no idea how to proceed. I only knew I wanted out for I intuitively knew this relationship had gone as far as it could. I heard Holy Spirit tell me I’d learned all I was going to and it was time to follow Him to where He knew I was to venture next on this journey. But that was all I had to go on. Then, when my mother made her transition in late May of that year, my husband stopped questioning me and let it rest.

A year before my mom laid her body aside, my relationship with her was healed to a holy one. I have seven siblings so the symbolism of wanting to be special to God was played out in my relationship with my mom. I struggled most all my life because of the special love/hate between us but all that changed two years before she passed, once she saw how joyful I was, despite knowing how unhappy I was in my marriage. She’d been terrified when I stopped practicing her beloved Catholicism years before coming to ACIM but she told me she could no longer argue with me regarding this choice because she was aware of how peaceful I’d become, whereas in the past I was angry much of the time. She learned to trust that I truly was closer to God than ever before through my relationship with Holy Spirit. This was a miracle, for her fear had been changed to love as I learned to let go of needing her to give me the love I’d always wanted and instead chose to be love. I will never, ever forget and will remain forever grateful and thankful for the holy instant when she told me a year before falling ill, “This house is always so much better when you’re here.” In that instant, my entire past with her was healed and released and to this day, I keep my promise to her to remember only the happy times.

During this time, my firstborn, my rock, my Danielle had graduated from college and had been accepted to teach in France that fall. By then, I was quite aware of Holy Spirit working miracles, changing my life-long thought that I didn’t have a right to be to thoughts of accepting that I most certainly did, and that this is my dream so I can make it as happy as I chose to. This worked for me! It’s what prepared me to take the reins and commit to traveling to France to visit Danielle for two weeks at Christmas time.

I will never forget how I marveled at how much fear I’d been healed of by that time, just a few years after becoming a student of ACIM. This trip was Holy Spirit’s confirmation, not only in that I was not afraid to ask my husband for the funding to take this trip, let alone to take it without him, but that Holy Spirit planned my entire 2-week itinerary, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland in addition to my beloved France! It took less than 2 hours on my laptop to arrange it, lodging and all. There’s no way I did that! You may recall from my previous articles that I had always feared not knowing how or what to do. I will also share here that all my life I have been terrified of asking for what I need and/or want, for I always met with resistance and often with irritation and anger. Clearly, this reflected my guilt and fear for thinking I separated from God then tried to usurp His power. How dare I ever ask for anything?!

Not only did Holy Spirit give me the miracle I was entitled to in making this trip happen but I received the miracle of my husband’s financial generosity as an expression of love, despite the unknown state of our marriage, for he wouldn’t deny me this opportunity to be with the only person who brought me joy by always reflecting my true Self back to me, my Danielle. It seems my relationship with her has always been holy and this trip was a miraculous healing to a year of painful separation and loss in the illusion of my mom’s transitioning and Danielle’s going to live in France for seven months, both leaving me alone with Tom and Stephanie.

Follow along in Part 5 for the miracles I experienced when with Danielle in Europe, which led me to living the miraculous life I am now. ❦

Rev. Linda LaCasse, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Northville, Michigan. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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