Miracles News

Tweet

January-March, 2011

My Mind IS My Kingdom

by Rev. Lee Catalano

Jesus of A Course in Miracles teaches us that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. What if the Kingdom of Heaven were in my mind? What if I were the ruler of my kingdom? Right now that is, not some far off beautiful kingdom. What does my kingdom look and feel like right now?

If I rule my kingdom (mind) and I decide who enters, what thoughts am I allowing to hang around? Rage? Envy? Murder? Yeah, that’s right, a kingdom that is mine alone is full of those attributes. There is no escaping it and anyone with an ounce of honesty knows this is the reality a lot of the time in the their kingdom. We are all the same. Some just a little more honest about our state of mind.

Right out of the gate A Course in Miracles tells us our meaningless thoughts are showing us a meaningless world. Yup, our meaningless thoughts are creating a dark and lonely kingdom within. There is no one else who decides what is within my mind. It’s all a matter of will. My willfulness actually.

Have I suffered enough in order to finally surrender yet? Am I willing to let go the rule of my lonely broken kingdom and allow Jesus to show me how to wash it clean and finally have peace?

It doesn’t matter if I am in a castle or a ditch, if my kingdom (mind) is dark I will suffer.

It sounds too good to be true. Jesus’ A Course in Miracles teaches me step-by- step how to turn the whole miserable thing around, brick (thought) by brick. The key to the kingdom Jesus would have me rule with Him is in how I perceive my brothers. Once I really begin to understand that this is a world of great suffering, that no one is any different than anyone else, I begin to fulfill my function and heal.

The sameness will never be seen on the outside, but true sight is of the mind and in knowing that we are all wired the same in our Souls. We are created equally and lovingly in the sight of and with the heavenly DNA of our Father, God.

What appears to be the incredibly unfair shake in the world begins to be turned around. We start to believe that this world is nothing more than a huge call to compassion and begin, for the first time, to feel happy as a result of answering that call.

No one rules my kingdom but me. No one can surrender my will and turn my kingdom of suffering and hatred over to Jesus other than me as well.

Every forgiven thought of hatred is a miracle. Every shared inspired idea or word of encouragement is a miracle as well. They (miracles) are all about but for my perception. Each encounter with each and every brother is another opportunity, to lay a new brick of love and happiness within my kingdom.  God is good.

Rev. Lee Catalano is a Pathways of Light minister living in Belmont, Massachusetts Web site: heavensongministrypages.com

© 2011, 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.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

---

Tweet

January-March, 2011

Just a Thought

by Rev. Quiara Escobar

It has come to me that everything is just a thought and has only the meaning I assign to it. For the past few days I have found a way to release the charge of a thought or emotion.

I watch my thoughts and pick one or a group and say to myself, “I surrender this thought and or emotion. There is nothing wrong with me. I am doing nothing wrong by having this thought or emotion. It has been unconscious until now. I don’t know what this thought is for. Nor do I know my own best interests. I ask you Holy Spirit to return this thought back to me healed so that I can forgive it and be restored to right mindedness.”

If the thought is repetitive, be grateful you just identified an egoic thought pattern so that Holy Spirit can help you to release and undo. Give it up for healing. Don’t let guilty thoughts or feelings dissuade you, for they will pass once you surrender. Keep asking Holy Spirit to expand your mind.
I finally understand, “Look at the thought without guilt.” Why feel guilty if you were’t aware of it? When you do become aware, remember it is just the ego.

I can not be disappointed if I don’t first assign you to a role. How I see you is how I see myself. Every person, animal, thing and experience has been orchestrated for my own good to help me remember the truth of who I really Am. I am invested in what is not real. I read in the Course, “God is right and I am wrong about myself.” I add others and everything I experience here. My appraisal of myself is flawed and so is my appraisal of you and everything in this life. I am excited to meet What I really am. To be Wholly Spirit is what I seek.

Just a Thought…

Rev. Quiara Escobar is a Pathways of Light minister living in Ridgewood, New York.

© 2011, 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.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

---

Tweet

October-December, 2010

WNYHOO — NOW!  “The Paper Cut”

by Rev. Mary Gerard Lenihan

This past spring I began experiencing some trepidation about the idea of having a split mind. Would that be like having two heads? As this thought embedded itself more deeply, fear began to rear its ugly head. I knew this was the “cubicle self mind,” this is the ego in WNYHOO, up to its old shenanigans.

I saw the cubicle self mind as a cube cast out of Heaven and floundering in a void completely disconnected from Inspiration (Holy Spirit). It had no control over its apparent situation. There it was, an alien cubicle creature ousted out of creation, exiled in the Land of Inspiration II, the cubicle sequel of Heaven, the Land of Inspiration.

I called for help! “Jesus, please help me to see the thought of separation without fear.” He immediately replied, “Mary, the seeming split in the mind is like a paper cut; it’s that small, like a slit in the skin of your fingertip.”

I looked at my index fingertip and imagined a paper cut. I laughed and was immediately relieved. What I had concocted to be a galaxy of immense proportions was shown to me as if a paper cut! Of course, the paper cut is not really real, but it sure can feel real. I thought of how a paper cut is usually so small, barely noticeable even, but so painful. How can something so small be so painful? In fact the only times it is painful is when it first happens and then I forget about it until the sting of salt creeps into the slit. Then I heard that it is when I focus on the ego, the tolerance I have for its antics, that makes it seem larger than life. It is my judgments, like salt poured into a paper cut, that make the cubicle mind seem worse than it is, causing it to flare up grabbing my attention even more.

Wow, a healed perception of the illusion; nothing more than a paper cut! I see how it is much easier to surrender a paper cut than an entire galaxy! Inspiration, through my Inspiring Self Mind, took a deep, metaphysical subject and the psychological ramifications of the belief in separation, fear and all of its sorrows, and boiled it down to the likes of a paper cut!

This is exactly what WNYHOO — NOW! Inspired To Be Truly Helpful is doing; keeping it simple! Taking what appears as our entanglement in a complex web of jigsaw puzzles and says, “Look at the paper cut already; we are not to ignore pain and suffering. It is in surrendering to Inspiration in the midst of our everyday paper cuts, that the peace and joy the paper cuts seem to hide emerge unscathed.” So really, I am thankful for the paper cut. Each time it stings is a potential opening to joy, each time I am willing. No willing soul will be left unturned by Peace.

Mission of the Cubicle Self Mind

I don’t know who i am or what i’m seeking, but i have a lot of thoughts and i’m thinkin’ their really important, see, so i’m gonna keep thinkin’ those thoughts as long as i’m listenin’ to these thoughts and thinkin’ these thoughts are real important, see. Seeking is my game and hiding is my shame. i get pretty darn dispirited workin’ on the job. What’s my job? Producing, consuming and disseminating dispiritedness. Hi, i am the Cubicle Self Mind and i am the head of the World Headquarters Cubicle Self Mind Belief Management Department. My job is to make every attempt to perpetuate dispiritedness by spreading the rumor that “each and every one of us is alone, separate and disconnected from Inspiration.” This is all pretty uncomfortable, see, though sometimes it appears to be a pretty good time. But i think i’m gonna keep on seekin’ out there in the world for relief from all this discomfort. I’m not gonna stop till i find it — and when i think i’ve found it i’m gonna take it all apart and put it back together again and make it into somethin’ i really want — and now that i got what i really want, i’m gonna hang onto it as tight as i can until it does me no good anymore. Then i’m gonna go seekin’ for somethin’ else that’s better — and when i find somethin’ better or maybe even worse, i’m gonna frame it and throw myself a party. You’re invited! I’ll catch you later; i’m busy these days rehearsing for the future based upon my past performances, see!

Mission of the Inspiring Self Mind

Wake up, wake up wherever you are,
Come one, come all from near and far.
I am here for all to lend you a hand;
A hand full of peace
in a moment unplanned.
I will teach you if you are willing
to lend a hand too,
By seeing with Inspiration
The peace that is you.
My one desire is for you
to truly see
The way I see you;
loved, loving and free.
Don’t think for a minute
that I would turn away
From any willing mind that
may have gone astray.
Fear looks at you,
now you need simply look at me,
In Inspiration fear dissolves
In a moment of free.
Be willing to see another
beyond their seeming cover.
In giving our light to another,
You too come out from undercover.
Now that one who is seen within
will begin to see too;
Seeing with Inspiration, seeing anew.
You’re not alone
you’re not separate from me,
We are one brilliant light
setting the world free.
Inspired To Be Truly Helpful
is seeing anew,
Seeing we are one,
where once we saw two.
One–to-One we inspire
in ways seen and unseen,
Inspired by One,
Together we are free.

I have been care giving for my elderly parents for a few years now. I commemorate this article to my father who made his transition July 19th at the age of 93.

He surrounded me with miracles on the three days before he passed on in his sleep. He surrounded me with miracles my whole life by the simplicity of his love. He simply didn’t take the Cubicle Self Mind seriously. He laughed it off and kept on praying.

In the midst of his experiences in WWII in the Battle of the Bulge and as a forward scout with the Timberwolves (whose slogan was, “Nothing in hell will stop the Timberwolves”), he prayed unceasingly. He recognized that if he ever got out of this alive he would never complain again. After that the world seemed like a paper cut to him!

I remember his blue eyes and smiling face seeing me anew, even now. As my brother put it, he was an uncomplicated man. He never gave or took advice, he focused on God. His perpetual words to me were, “Let it go.” Thanks dad, for being a demonstration of being free.

Want a personal experience of freedom? Want to be Inspired to Be Truly Helpful? When you become a member of Pathways of Light with a contribution of $120 or more, you will receive the Inspired to Be Truly Helpful audio CD album. The CD’s include the core material, a section on “Which Relation Ship are you Sailing?” and “Health and Healing.” It is straightforward speak of what the ego is experiencing and how Inspiration, with our willingness, is teaching us Love instead of fear, through our Inspiring Self Mind.

Every moment of every day amidst our everyday circumstances we can be “a living expression of inspiration in the world!”

Rev. Mary Gerard is a Pathways of Light minister living in St. Louis, MO. She is author of the books Visions of Illumination, The Mentor Within and WNYHOO NOW!

© 2010, 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.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

---

Tweet

October-December, 2010

Angel Kathy Loved People

by Rev. Bob Thompson

Dear Loved Ones, Rev. Kathy Claire Martin Thompson’s memorial service, was held on Saturday, July 24th, under the trees in the backyard at Bumpity Road. Over a hundred people arrived to attend and were invited to speak. The memorial service was summed up accurately by the one sentence statement of Tayanne: ”I stepped into LOVE and the whole world was family.”

It was an incredibly moving and awesome experience for all. Looking back now, I remember where the heartfelt compassion of officials, strangers, friends, and family began. It began with Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Babcock, who knocked on our door to inform me of Kathy’s accident. Mike drove me to the Fox River Bridge, where the red Saturn had been removed from the water, and Kathy’s body removed from the badly damaged car, which had hit the bridge railing before submerging upside down in the Fox River. Sheriff Richards and Medical Examiner Angela sat with me in the ambulance and consoled me, while I talked to Kathy, and kissed her hand, lips, and brow.

Three front page news stories with photos about Kathy appeared in the Portage Daily Register. The following was written by Jen McCoy, who had met Kathy several years ago when she interviewed us about dream interpretation and published that story. After learning of Kathy’s death, Jen phoned me and asked to write a story about Kathy. Jen then interviewed people here at Bumpity Road for three hours and sat at our dinner table and cried with us. After reading Jen’s article, I decided to not print an obituary because She Loved People, said it all. We continue to learn that She Loved People has had a great impact on many people who did not know Kathy:

She Loved People

Bagpipes wailed across the tall grass Tuesday night for Kathy Thompson. “Play Amazing Grace for Kathy,” Bob Thompson, her husband, told Lawrie Moy, who played the bagpipes at the couple’s 2004 wedding. Kathy Thompson, 52, died Monday when her car went into the Fox River. More than a dozen family and friends, including Moy, filled the Thompson house Tuesday to reflect and comfort each other.

“As her last gift, she’s given her body to the UW Medical School for students,” Bob said, which he said was in line with her boundless generosity. The couple married just eight days after meeting and never faltered at demonstrating affection for each other, friends said. “They would touch noses and foreheads several times a day,” said Renee Nies of Sun Prairie.

“The phone is ringing off the hook. People are coming and going, they are dearly loved.”

The Thompsons were both nondenominational ministers at Pathways of Light in rural Portage, where they aimed to live with inner peace, meditate on love and healing and give whatever they could to those in need.

Their home, where they did counseling sessions, has an open-door policy to people from any walk of life.

“She loved people, and I think that’s what made her such a good counselor. She was not an evangelist type. She accepted people as they were, but she won people because of who she was,” said Randy Martin, Kathy’s dad. He drove up from his home in Lexington, Kentucky.

Two large Amish tables sit in the Thompson home, and each person there Tuesday helped console one another and fixed plates of food for them.

“Another angel’s just been sent home,” said Billy Wilson, of Endeavor, Thompson’s cousin.

Bob’s son, Gary Thompson, and his family, Edna and two of their five children: Kierstin Thompson, 12, and Sophia, 7, went to see Kathy at the Columbia County Medical Examiner’s Office.

“She still had a smile on her face,” said the 12 year old. The family got word of her death Monday night and drove from Illinois to Wisconsin on Tuesday morning.

“Kathy was an angel on Earth. My favorite things were her warmth, smile, spirit and enthusiasm,” Edna said.

They placed an angel and flowers at the crash site.

The Revs. Paul and Deborah Phelps were good friends of Kathy. They said her death is devastating.

“I know that when I was in her presence, I always felt like I had her complete, undivided attention. Her mind wasn’t distracted by thoughts, and it was just the presence of quiet, peaceful love,” said Paul, of Madison. Deborah said the Thompson’s home was a “cocoon of love.”

The couple called it “Bumpity Road” because when Bob’s children were young they couldn’t say “bumpy,” so the name stuck.

Tim Moermond, a family friend, held Bob’s hand for a while. “Every day, she would say to her husband, ‘Do you know how beautiful you are?’”

“She was an inspiration to many, many people,” Thompson said. “The most peaceful person I’ve met in my life.”
 

As Kathy’s friends shared that published story with others, the most frequent question asked was, “Was she really like that? Do people like that really exist? I never met one. I wish I could have met Kathy.”
All those she has touched and loved have been deeply moved and continue to share her story with others. Many still feel Kathy’s presence.

While writing her story, Jen McCoy noted that nearly everybody she spoke to referred to Kathy as a living angel. Perhaps a hundred people have said that to me in their e-mails, phone calls, cards and in person. Maybe more.

I am grateful that they said it to Kathy while she was alive. And she always answered that they were an angel, and that they were seeing in her what was in themselves. She was very consistent in telling others that they were angels.

My sister, Rita, reminded me of the great wisdom in the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the courage to change what I can, the serenity to accept what I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference. I have found that it is a good prayer to live by.

Following Kathy’s example of being ever kind, helpful, joyful and peaceful is the spoken and written goal of many of her friends, and also of myself. And so the open door at Bumpity Road continues to be open, and as Kathy and I sang to so many at the door:

We want you to know,
that you never have to knock.
The door may be shut,
but it has no lock.

And others frequently joined us to greet arriving guests with our trademark song:

I don’t know what it is about you,
that makes me feel the way that I do.
It could be your laugh
It might be your smile.
Whatever it is, I like your style.

Sometimes, when a group arrived, we would stand together on the picnic table, and sing to them.

Kathy is remembered for being ever loving, ever helping and ever joyful and is the most loving, helpful and joyful person that I have ever met. Many others have told me, and are still continuously telling me, that Kathy was their personal outstanding example of how they wished to live their lives.

During Kathy’s memorial service, I read and then sang the following four verses:

KATHY’S LOVE PRAYER

The love that Kathy’s giving me.
I am giving now to you.
All her joy and happiness,
that’s what she asks me to do.

Oh yes, Kathy is an angel,
I’ve heard angel Kathy sing
her delightful songs of joyfulness
‘cause that’s what angels bring.

Kathy says that I’m an angel
and that you’re an angel too,
and giving love and happiness,
is what she prays that we each do.

The love that Kathy’s giving me,
and the joy she brings to you,
she asks us to give to others,
that’s all, she prays, that we each do.

Your friend, Rev. Bob Thompson

Rev. Robert Thompson is a Pathways of Light minister living in Portage, Wisconsin. Web site: wwwbumpityroad.org

© 2010, 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.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

---

Back to main page of Miracles News.

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.