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My Happiness Does Not Come from A Glass of Wine

by Rev. Maria Felipe, O.M.C.

I have been on a spiritual path for as long as I can remember. At five years old, I felt the presence of Holy Spirit and I knew that there was something more than these bodies. I would pray to God every morning and night and I would even leave M & M’s as an offering by a statue I had of Jesus. M & M’s were my favorite candy at the time!

As I became a teenager, the “world” became more important — having a boyfriend, career, status etc… It’s as if I had lost that innocent little girl that was so connected to Spirit, God, and Jesus.

In my 20’s I became even more disconnected. I was a “positive” thinker — although, not living a life of truth…. of love. I was lost in the world of “things.” I had my own TV show on Univision. I traveled the U.S. I made good money; I had the career, the boyfriend, the status… You would think I would be happy! I found myself in deep fear and depression.

I would ask my friends and family for advice. I would drink alcohol or immerse myself in a relationship — thinking that is where I would find the answers I longed for.

It wasn’t till 2009, when I began ministerial school at Pathways Of Light, that I learned that the answers to all my questions and the healing I needed was within me!

The Love within me knows what to say, where to go, what to do. It can resolve any problem and even heal my body. It corrects my perception so that I can see with Christ’s Vision!

Through constant practice of going to Holy Spirit, my connection to my Inner Guidance became stronger and stronger. I began being guided in truth:

• To begin the Spanish services at Unity Burbank.

•  To create my own Spiritual Inspirational channel on Youtube based on A Course In Miracles called: Mariacoconuttv.

• To help others tap into their Inner Guidance!

I am living my purpose now!

Now, my happiness does not come from my job, relationships, or even a glass of wine. Instead, I experience the true happiness that comes from within… from God. It’s unshaken and always there if I am willing to accept it.

Rev. Maria Felipe, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Los Angeles, California. Website: http://www.mariafelipe.org

© 2013, 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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Pathways of Light Saturday Morning Study Group

by Rev. Christine Anderson, O.M.C.

Saturday morning 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Central Time, Pathways of Light sponsors an ACIM study group via a live conference call. Rev. Christine Anderson and Rev. Linda Wisnewski are co-facilitating our present study of the pamphlet, Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice, an Extension of the Principles of A Course In Miracles.

Through this study, we are learning that only the mind is in need of healing and the purpose of psychotherapy is to remove the blocks to truth.

People who attend the group call in from all over the world and are all at different stages of study of the Course and this is perfect. All are welcome to come and join to open to a greater understanding of the helpfulness that our brother Jesus is offering us in assisting us to wake up from the ego’s dream of insanity. As we open to Love, our true Self, we let the Holy Spirit dream the dream for us, the Happy Dream! 

We open our time together with a centering meditation, letting go of the busyness of our morning time (or evening, depending what part of the world one is in) and bringing our focus to our joining together with Holy Spirit at the lead. We acknowledge that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit comes through each person in the group, so we encourage everyone to share this inspiration, as it is always so helpful to everyone. It is also just perfect if a person just wants to listen on the call. There are those who have shared that they have listened in to the call for quite a while and have truly been helped by what others have shared.

We take turns reading from the study material and stop to discuss what was read or someone may share an inspiration from Spirit. Sometimes a question is offered to the group about something that is not understood in what is being read or an example of practical application is requested. This always brings about wonderful group participation as we go within to ask Holy Spirit for deeper insight and then this is shared with the group. Many times we only get through a few paragraphs for the hour because so much lively sharing is engendered by our happy joining to “go Home together” through our studying together. By the way, we laugh a lot! We close the hour together with expressions of gratitude or even a song inspired by the Love that we’ve shared.

So, please do join us on Saturday mornings. There is no charge to join the study group. The call in number is a long distance number and will incur long distance charges. The number for the conference call is 1-267-507-0400 and the access code is 293760# 

We welcome you to join for a time of community, as we are all neighbors in God’s Kingdom of Love, a time of communion in sharing the Love we are and a time of unity as we share the funness of Oneness!

Rev. Christine Anderson is a Pathways of Light minister living in Chicago, Illinois.

© 2013, 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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The Fireworks of Freedom and How to Ignite It in Ourselves

by Rev. Mary Beth Ellis, O.M.C.

July 4th in this country is a day when we celebrate freedom — American freedom from the tyranny of other countries, dictators, and terrorists.

This country was founded on the idea of a new world order. Out of the European enlightenment came such authors as Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire, who wrote about such blasphemous ideas (as the European monarchs saw it) as democracy and freedom, where men had the right to govern themselves.

The odds were nearly impossible. Here was this huge land of rough, unknown terrain and hunger, wild animals and Indians, unknown diseases and little medical care. But these people, determined to live their dreams of freedom and opportunity managed to cut their way through, win their battle against the British navy, the largest the world had known, and establish their ideals and their religion in this new land. They often lost the small battles, but they won the war against all obstacles, because they believed and they never quit believing that freedom was possible.

July 4th is a day to honor our soldiers of all wars who have given up their jobs, limbs, security, and their lives for our freedom, and I think we owe it to them to identify these freedoms, live by them, and protect them ourselves. If a few Enlightenment scholars hadn’t conceived of these freedoms and the idea of democracy that had virtually died with the Greeks, our ancestors may never have come to America. 

I believe that we, too, are like those forward thinkers and soldiers. We are working to gain our freedom, an inner freedom. We are working at not being a victim of the tyranny of our faulty programming, not being slaves to our thoughts and emotions, not letting the false values of a material society put us in captivity like the old kings often did their subjects.

So July 4th is a day that can be a metaphor for many kinds of freedom — freedom from inner conflicts, our inner dictators and terrorists, like negativity, judgment, depression, loss, alienation, hopelessness, ego driven desires and material values.

Yes, there are many kinds of freedom. We can be very thankful that we live at a time and in a country where so many have fought for and won our outer freedom for us and where we have the knowledge and tools to be gaining our inner freedom.

Let’s look at some of those tools that help us gain our inner freedom from some of those concepts and programming that cause us to be enslaved and thus suffer. Let’s imagine that one of them is a hammer that can shatter the tendency that we have to believe our thoughts all the time.

We have thoughts about ourselves and others that we have learned from society, thoughts that tell us that we or they aren’t okay, thoughts that say that we or they shouldn’t or should have done something. We have thoughts that tell us that life shouldn’t be or should be a certain way. We are basically at war against reality. That is the wrong war to fight. It’s really a type of insanity that we, as easily programmed children, bought and never questioned. It’s like the psychotic in the psychiatric ward who is convinced that he is Napoleon and that all the doctors, nurses and patients are there to serve him and gets angry and attacks the physician if he is told otherwise.

The reality is that he isn’t Napoleon and that the other people are just there going about their own business and that nothing they are doing is meant to defy or threaten him any more than anything that happens in our lives is happening to hurt us or complicate our lives.

My students say, “That’s not fair. We shouldn’t have a test every week.” Okay. So that’s how Jane feels when she’s stressed, the moon is full, and she’s been absent for three days. It’s not good or bad or worthy of getting mad, hurt, or self doubting about.

The spouse says, “You are so controlling. You always want it your way.” Okay. So that’s how he’s programmed to react when I want our son to do his homework instead of going out, and the spouse is too tired to deal with it.

It doesn’t matter what is happening. It’s our thoughts about it that make us suffer. We think that the student or son shouldn’t be doing x,y,or z. The only fact is that they did. The thought that it shouldn’t have happened or that we won’t be okay because it did is what the problem is, and we can look at these thoughts, choose to believe them or not, and, if not, have a type of inner freedom that Jesus did on the cross when he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Life is full of people who know not what they do and situations caused by the laws of physics or psychology that we don’t understand, be it a hurricane Katrina or an armed robber. The Dali Lama didn’t condemn the Chinese communists who killed so many Buddhist monks in Tibet, because he understood that they were doing the only thing that they were programmed to do and that the Tibetans should have created an army.

It’s not reality that is the problem. It is our concepts and thoughts about reality that are the problems. It’s not the stick on our path that is the problem. It’s our projection onto it of our snake phobia that turns it into a reptile that causes the thought that results in a heart attack. We need to constantly examine our thoughts about reality, not reality, which is perfect as it is.

I was feeling in one of these states recently. My best friend had a stroke and can no longer talk with me or write to me. I felt like I’d lost my confident, a person who loved me unconditionally and to whom I could always turn. I thought, “This shouldn’t have happened. I will now go through life alone without a sister/friend.”

When I asked myself about this thought, however, I suddenly looked outside at the tall trees and their leaves glistening in the sun, as only Wordsworth could describe in a poem, and I realized that I had every reason to feel joyful. I thought about the fact that I was in my peaceful home with the time to go about my business doing exactly what I wanted and that I would have been doing the same thing with or without the knowledge that Holly was a phone call away. I had books to read about the intellectual and spiritual things that we had discussed non-stop and I had other dear friends — even a sister/friend.

Yes, I was sad about the fact that she was incapacitated, and I’d do and did all I could to help. But for me to suffer about it was to believe the thought that I wouldn’t be okay without her being there for me. I was okay, if I didn’t believe my thoughts otherwise.

Sometimes it takes the patience of Job to get to that point. Remember how he lost his livestock, children, wife, and wealth and how he continued to have faith in God? Well, sometimes we are like Job in that we feel that we have lost things, but in reality it’s just the laws of physics, psychology, or maybe Karma doing their thing, and we need to accept the reality of what is — and in the end it all turns out for the best, because reality is always perfect.

When questioning our thoughts about reality, we might even need to ask ourselves if what happened really was bad. My friend seems to be quite content to not have to work two jobs every day and to have the long deserved rest that allows her to read, watch her favorite movies, and sit outside in the sunshine watching her daughter’s cats in the afternoons.

The friend who passed on whom we miss so much may have put an end to terrible suffering that we wouldn’t wish on anyone. They kill horses, don’t they?

The job we lost may be just the catalyst that will propel us to start our own business or do something totally different.

The comment from our spouse or child may help us to understand them better — because, after all, they are just projecting onto us their worlds and what is in their minds and what their problems are. Or they may force us to turn within and turn the situation over to Spirit in a way that will help us be even more aware of our oneness with the Christ Consciousness within us.

The truth is that it’s all God’s world. We all have Christ consciousness within us. It is all perfect. True, nothing stays the same,  but that is part of the dance of life, the “only dance there is,” as Baba Ram Dass, the Hindu Harvard professor always said. There is nothing separate from us. We are all that is, and it’s all Spirit. We need only let thoughts go that say otherwise.

We can view life as if it were the most interesting movie ever made or we can sit in the theater and be mad at the script.

So when preparing for this July 4th and being present to the freedom that others have fought so hard for, may we also be cognizant of the freedom that only we can give ourselves — the freedom from our limited beliefs, our beliefs that our suffering can come from anything out there, our beliefs in our faulty programming that believes in the dualities of good/bad, beautiful/ugly or I/other.

So let us know that the new world order that our forefathers brought to this country is possible within us. Let us create a new promised land.

May the fireworks go off in our minds to wake us up to the realization that we have the constant ability to look at and question our thoughts about everything. We aren’t victims of our thoughts. They are just passing through. We are free of them.

Yes, let us celebrate our inner and outer freedom this July 4th. Think on these things as you go through that day. Let’s be in the world, and celebrate our outer freedom, but not of it and celebrate our inner freedom.

“Know the truth and the truth shall set you free,” as Jesus said. The truth is and always will be that all is well in God’s Kingdom.

Rev. Mary Beth Ellis, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Metairie, Louisiana

© 2013, 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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The Raging River of Life

by Rev. Maria Kingsley, O.M.C.

Every morning my husband and I sit down and look at what we need to work on. We both use the Course to guide us in letting go what does not work, in forgiving and allowing all things. It is amazing how many issues can come up when you are determined to let go of worldly thoughts and perceptions. We have been doing this for a long time now, and yet there are feelings of judgment and fear that present themselves to be looked at almost daily.

When we sit down, it is either my turn or his to focus on an issue that we have noticed throughout the day or week that we want to let go of. I am so grateful for this time and for his willingness to sit down with his or my issues and allow them to be looked at. It feels so right to do this work together and so, even though it does not feel like a holy moment, it always is just that.

As we focus on whatever issue we look at, we do some tapping along with it. Tapping, as some of you may know, is Emotional Freedom Technique, which works with energy and is wonderfully effective and allows emotions to be quickly reduced so your mind is clear and can see things differently.

To me this has been critical because it cuts time and fear down and lets me be clear about what I really want. The founder of EFT, Gary Craig, has put A Course in Miracles on his website and I love that he is following this way also.

What I really want is the peace of God because nothing else is really worth pursuing.

However, some core issues hide in the back of my mind and it takes some digging, or patience, for them to come to the surface to be let go. Recently I discovered that I had a fear of ‘engaging with life’. It has held me back for a long time, but it was now time to look at it. There is always some embarrassment involved in bringing up such sensitive issues, but when I see no judgment coming from him, I feel it’s okay to look at it without feeling guilty.

So as I was doing my self-talk and tapping away, I realized that I had been going around in circles in a quiet eddy next to a raging river. I was afraid of the raging river and did not want to be carried off to some dangerous and uncertain ride. I saw this so clearly in my mind. I felt the safety of the eddy, and the awfully raging river passing just a few feet away from me. I was going around and around in my little boat, not even looking in the direction of the river, but, of course, knowing full well it is there.

I saw the river as raging, dangerous and unmanageable. I saw it as a force that wants to hurt and cannot be maneuvered easily. I didn’t know how, and it was too much to really try.

I asked the Holy Spirit to help me see it differently. I was finally tired of going around in circles and avoiding life and not engaging with it. The Holy Spirit gave me this wonderful insight:

The river could be looked at differently. Instead of a huge raging force, I could now see it as a gentle and safe waterway. The song, Row, Row, Row Your Boat Gently Down the Stream, came to mind. So it lost its frightfulness. But there was more. I saw that the ‘force’ was a gentle strength that was creative like the water is creative. It sees boulders and rocks and trees, not as obstacles, but it adapts to its presence and moves around or under, over or next to it. It is not harmed or held back by any of it, and so it is very creative in its way of including and allowing all things to be as they are. There is nothing to fear.

Several lessons from the Course came to mind right away: God is the strength in which I trust; I am sustained by the Love of God; My thoughts are images that I have made, etc. I then felt such gratitude for this new way of seeing and applying creativity to these images, changing them to see God’s Love flowing through it all. How silly it was to see danger anywhere in the world when I am guided by such a creative gentle power. As I felt this gratitude, I could feel the presence of celestial helpers coming in. It seemed that they went through my body and showered me with an internal effervescence. It was a delightful, tingly feeling of joining, and happiness was flowing from them to me and from me to them.

I am so grateful for this experience, and for my husband to allow me to bring such issues to the table. And I would not have been able to see things differently if the Holy Spirit had not helped me. We are all truly blessed with so much help and creative ways to see things differently.

So I now can leave my eddy and join the stream of life… not alone but with the mighty Guide of Creative Power. Water showed me the way. All things are lessons God would have me learn. The final outcome is joy. And I choose joy. Thank you.

Rev. Maria Kingsley is a Pathways of Light minister who lives in Tucson, Arizona.

© 2013, 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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