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Holy Vision Is 20/20 Vision

by Rev. Vicki Evans, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

Continuing my 2024 journey, I am furthering my learning by taking Pathways of Light course 905: Special Relationships vs. Holy Relationships.

By taking this course, I have succeeded in prioritizing my goal of transforming specialness to holiness through meditation, daily practice, and looking for opportunities to give myself and others grace in the form of seeing all as One. I have experienced the truth that embracing this Oneness means that “everyone completes you.”

In this course was a meditation I experienced called, “From Specialness to Holiness Meditation.” I really connected with this meditation as I found some practical information such as the importance of letting go of thoughts of blame or anger, guilt and vulnerability. It has also helped me with perceived hurts from the past, which is a work in progress for me.

The first gift of this meditation was a vision that came to me when I went to Holy Spirit and felt the warmth of His Love. In the meditation, I saw red valentine-type hearts leaping forth from this holy union.

Then it came to me that I could practice trading in false ideas of perceived hurts and slights and look instead to find two positive traits in the relationship.

Sometimes even one positive idea brings me peace, as part of my self-grace is no pressure to set up a self-competition.

It became easier to focus on the positives by first visualizing all as one, the same, and together in innocence.

I saw a vision of each person then putting on a cloak of ego identity where each of us became unique. Cloaks of specialness of competition, hierarchy, worry, anxiety, guilt, and regret were worn, and I realized that my reactions to life may be driven by the cloak of identity I am wearing.

At the end of the day, each of us removed our individual cloaks of separateness and returned to sameness and Oneness, our true selves.

I thought that during the time of wearing the cloaks, each person was doing the best they could with their given cloak and this thought evoked Love, kindness, and empathy as I realized that even when cloaks of individuality are worn, the true self is still the same for each person — no separateness, no uniqueness.

Then I asked myself, “How can I put this vision into practice?”

Now, when thoughts of specialness or uniqueness pop into my conscious mind, I remember the cloak vision and remember that I do not want to judge or compete with others based on a false identity.

I go to Holy Spirit to remember that everyone completes me and then I work on making it a habit to lay down defenses and dismiss thoughts of competition or hierarchy with the result of not feeling like I need to verbalize competitive statements.

I feel so much more peace and joy by choosing to look at encounters and relationships through “happy eyes” as defined in Course 905.

I want to start each day by choosing to see experiences through happy eyes of Oneness. I get the gift of peace in now knowing that I can take a step back, listen to others, and look at their joy and blessings as an extension of myself in Oneness with each person.

Rev. Vicki Evans, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Dallas, Texas. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Phone: 713-775-9153

© 2024, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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Quiet Above the Battleground

by Rev. Bill Poppa, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

In developing a forgiving mindset, the ego-self resists by not raising to question long-held beliefs about “Who” and “What” I am.

Moreover, my ego personality self does not even question whether the outside material world is the essence of reality. This unconscious bypass is a veil for my True Self to extend outward the peace deep within me to embrace all the Sonship.

My True Self is the Christ Mind and is an extension of God’s Love as Spirit, which is abundant, eternal, and complete joy. The True Self, the Sacred Self, is “Who” I am, and the one Son of God is “What” I am.

How can I receive what is my true inheritance as the Son of God if I do not accept all that I am? This question of identity is a critical aspect of forgiveness. It begins to focus my mind with the intent of waking up from a dream of separation.

If I mindlessly continue to identify as my ego personality self, I will have little to no opportunity to remember I am as God created me — completely innocent.

Identifying as an ego-self, I experience constant change, a never-ending sense of lack, fear of losing what I have accumulated, and an ongoing defense against a world with strife and unknown threats. It is a world whose laws of casualty are trapped in time. It is a world of unfaltering beginnings and endings.

The Course views Reality as composed only of God’s thoughts, which are loving, constant, timeless, and eternal.

Sin, guilt, and fear are mere misperceptions. Sin is described as a lack of love or a mistake. Because it is only a mistake, it calls for love and correction rather than guilt and punishment. When I stand as Spirit, I understand and accept that I am already Spirit and solely Spirit. I am not human but an extension of God’s perfect Love. My body is not “Who” or “What” I am. It serves instead as a communication device for Holy Spirit.

By staying above the battleground, I experience gentleness within my mind. There is a stillness that takes hold, and my mind is quiet.

It is a calm only my Inner Teacher can lead me to. It is an excellent remembering, and I learn with each Holy Instant that I have a power I never knew I had as I begin to consolidate trust in Holy Spirit.

My Inner Guide illuminates trust in the only power available to me, the ability to choose again how I perceive the world as a Son of God.

In chapter 28 of the text, Jesus says,

“The miracle comes quietly into the mind that stops an instant and is still. It reaches gently from that quiet time, and from the mind it healed in quiet then, to other minds to share its quietness. Their own remembering is quiet now, and what has come to take its place will not be wholly unremembered afterwards.” (T-28.I.11:1-2,5)

Jesus speaks of the importance of cultivating a quiet mind in this passage and even suggests that linear time is non-existent in the effect of a miracle worker.

It is Holy Spirit, not ego, that does the work in quieting the mind in this unspeakable peace.

To be sure, the ego has its version of peace as well. But its interpretation relies on temporary rest for the body or perhaps a change of scenery.

It always focuses on form and anything outside the mind as a solution. The ego does not comprehend eternal peace for the Son, for the ego’s meaningless private thoughts continue to intrude like a lousy habit drawing the mind’s attention into the world.

Jesus wants us to regard these ego thoughts as an opportunity to forgive. We can be thankful for these meaningless thoughts if we learn to give them as a gift to Holy Spirit. He will return them to us as miracles instead.

Finally, in lesson 132, entitled “I loose the world from all I thought it was,” Jesus instructs us this way: “Begin the fifteen-minute periods in which we practice twice today with this: ‘I who remain as God created me would loose the world from all I thought it was. For I am real because the world is not, and I would know my own reality.

Then merely rest, alert but with no strain, and let your mind in quietness be changed so that the world is freed, along with you.’” (W-132.15:1-4)

This particular lesson is a great forgiveness practice, and it leads my mind to God’s Love as one.

It is also a great lesson in quieting the mind, and it is in that quiet that my mind can stay above the battleground.

Rev. Bill Poppa, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in New Orleans, LA. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2024, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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Prayer of Atonement

by Rev. Greg Hesch, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

Holy Spirit, thank you for another healing day that will be full of love, full of peace and full of forgiveness.…

Thank You for continuing to help us in this awakening process; for reminding us that our brothers and sisters are our saviors and that we are theirs.…

We are the Son of God, One with God, One with all our brothers and sisters, we are One with everything.…

Thank you for reminding us that we are not victims here.…

We’re the ones that thought we wanted to see the separation…

We got scared.…

We thought we chose the ego thought system.…

Now we choose atonement!

Now we choose to bring You all of these ego thoughts and fears…

so that You can show us that they are not the truth… 

and we can use forgiveness for thinking that they were.…

Thank you for reminding us that the body’s aches, pains and needs were made as a way take God’s Peace away from our True Self;

to keep us thinking that we’re separate.…

We give you the body’s aches, pains, needs and we bless the body.…

We thank the body for putting up with everything that we think we give it.

Thank you for reminding us that the separation is not real, it is a dream and we will all wake up.… 

We are not bodies.…

We are not separate.…

We are Whole, we are free.…

We are all One in Spirit, in God.…

We Are the Light, we are Love, we are Peace, we are Joy.…

Whole Spirit, please take all of these ego thoughts and fears (as we bring them to You), and exchange them with Your healing and correcting thoughts of Love, and Peace and Forgiveness.…

Help us to keep the door open and the light shined on all of these thoughts that we’ve been hiding since the beginning of time.…

We’re ready to bring them to You, we’re ready to forgive.…

Please take the ego wishes and plans and dreams, as we bring them to You.…

You know what is best for the Sonship and we put our trust in that!

We know that we will always be fine, always be taken care of and we will always have enough.…

We are so grateful!

Help us to see our brothers and sisters not as bodies.… 

Help us to see their true Self.… 

Help us to see the Love within us all!

Help us to see their innocence and their sinlessness.…

Help us to see Christ in our brothers, our sisters and in ourselves.…

Help us to remember that our function is not to attack, not to condemn… 

not to correct, not to defend, not to have grievances, not to have hate thoughts, not to have ego judgments.…

Not to get mad at ourselves when we do have these thoughts, but we get to bring them to You; we get to look at them with Your healing Light.…

Help us to remember that there will be many opportunities for us to choose love and peace.…

When we forget, help us to see it, so that we can look at them with You, release them to You, then choose love and peace again.…

Please teach us how to listen to Your voice inside us better.…

Help us to hear Your guiding thoughts and Your plans.…

Help us to reinforce our connection so that we can remember our True Self.…

Please use us as Your servant for love through the day.… 

Please be in our thoughts.…

Help us to stay in the present moment, not to dwell in the past or have any fears of the future.…

Above all else, we want to continue to remove the blocks to Love…

so that we can hear Your voice…

so that we can wake up to our True Self.

We are so thankful.  We are so grateful!

We are!  We are forever!  Amen

Rev. Greg Hesch is a Pathways of Light minister living in San Antonio, Texas.
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2024, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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Deciding with God

by Rev. Tacey Reese, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

I recently took one of the ACIM Practitioner Courses that is offered by Pathways of Light called The Power of Decision — Cause and Effect.

It helped me develop the practice of continually asking myself, “Am I deciding with God or am I deciding with the ego?” I noticed that ego decisions were reactive decisions, an automatic response to a perceived threat. Sometimes the threats were obvious and sometimes I would have to dig deep to find out what I was feeling threatened by.

I knew that if I was out of peace, I was feeling threatened in some way. That was a helpful insight. So, then I made the decision to respond rather than to react.

My first step in responding is to be willing to surrender to the Source of all Love to make my decision. And sometimes I had to ask to be willing to be willing!

I wanted to blame my feeling of fatigue on stress.

I wanted to blame my office landlord for not maintaining my office grounds in a tidy way that looks nice when people walk up to it.

I wanted to blame the new natural gas company that my state has switched over to for such a high bill and label someone there as greedy. My bill had certainly not been that high before! So, it must be some greedy person in the new company that caused that! I wasn’t sure who that someone was as I thought it so then I decided to blame ALL corporations for greediness!

Then later I was deliming my coffee pot and when I came back into the kitchen it had overflowed and the water was running toward the washing machine instead of being right there beside the counter.

As I examined this more closely, I could see that the flooring was not completely level. I started feeling very anxious, knowing I would need a professional to come look at it and see if I needed some flooring work. I didn’t know how I would pay for such an expense.

My mind started spiraling into egoic thoughts and then I saw I was still wanting to be a victim. That got my attention.

I realized that being a victim was a decision I made long, long ago, many lifetimes ago, or perhaps before the first lifetime.

I’m not really sure how that works but what I knew was that it was not a wise decision. It was wrong. I was wrong.

So, I let that belief go; I let that decision go. I chose a different decision by stepping back and remembering What I really Am. An extension of Love.

The question came to me, What would Love do? Love would let things be and follow Holy Spirit’s guidance. Love would extend and forgive. Love would overlook perceived threats and re-purpose those for mind healing. And that is what happens every time I decide with God.

Now I feel glad and grateful to have been wrong! I realized I was deciding wrongly because I was deciding on my own, which means deciding with ego.

When I want only the peace of God, I decide only with God. And I am willing to do this and only this. I know the day will dawn when this is my default mode of decision making and I am glad and grateful it is so!

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

© 2024, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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