Miracles News

May-August, 2026

Standing on Holy Ground

by Rev. Myron Jones, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

I love the section in Chapter 14 of the Course that discusses the Circle of Atonement. Each time I go back to it, I have a deeper understanding, and so my experience of it is more profound. This year, my focus has been on healing grievances. Here is a sentence in this section that has been especially helpful to my practice.

“Your only calling here is to devote yourself, with active willingness, to the denial of guilt in all its forms.” (T-14.V.3:5)

And there we have it. I suppose that if I could have accepted this and practiced it from the first time I read it, my experience of the world would be entirely different now. I can’t complain that Jesus was being cryptic or that I didn’t understand. Apparently, I just didn’t want to do this. Now I do, and I will be vigilant for those times when I don’t. I will notice the guilt thoughts because, finally, I want to. Awakening is now more important to me than being right and maintaining this separate self. To that end, I have written this in my calendar, where I see it many times a day.

The ego mind insists that some people are wrong-minded, and it says that I can’t just pretend that it isn’t true. And I suppose that everyone who believes they are still ‘here’ is wrong-minded, so that’s a lot of people. What keeps this awareness from being part of the problem is that I am losing interest in judging anyone for their story. Love keeps me from assigning guilt. We are all doing the best we can within the parameters we have established to make this illusory world. Everyone.

The murderer, the pedophile, the politician I don’t agree with, everyone who seems to be determined to keep separation in place, no matter who is hurt by it, is precious to God. I am precious to Him, but I will lose awareness of this if I judge myself or others. I am actively willing to deny guilt in all its forms and to notice when I fail to do this so that I can accept correction quickly.

I can’t explain this shift. I can’t pinpoint to some passage from the Course, or some moment when some high-level understanding was achieved. I don’t know how or when Love filled my heart. It just did. And this level of awareness of Love’s presence is new, and to be honest, I worry it is fragile, and I might lose it. I don’t think that’s right, though. God is Love, so it cannot be fragile. Perhaps I mean that my hold on it is yet fragile, and so I want to protect it until I grow strong in this new awareness. That is why I am committed to devoting myself to the denial of guilt in all its forms. I cannot love what I judge, and guilt in any form obscures the love that we are.

The lessons I have been looking at since the beginning of the year are leading us to understand that the world is a reflection of our thoughts. If my thought is one of judgment, the world I see will be a judgmental world. It will seem that it is full of mean-spirited people who will attack at the slightest provocation, and I will spend my life caught within that cycle of attack-defense mode. I know this is true because that is where I used to be. The love in me is now reflected onto the world, and I am overwhelmed by loving expressions of it.

I still see the cruelty of man against man, but I no longer see it in the same way. I see it as the call for love that it is. Not pitiful calls, just souls trying one thing and then another, always yearning toward God – toward love, even though they may not be consciously aware of it. I just want to help. I want to support their efforts in whatever way I can. Generally, the best way I can do this is to just love them no matter what. Not believing they are their words or actions, not judging them, not making them guilty, is loving them. The more I am able to do this, the lovelier the world I see.

The words from this section of A Course in Miracles are so beautiful and so profound that they awaken a yearning in me to live this. Not later, when I am no longer dreaming this story of Myron, but now, right here in the messy midst of it all. Holy Spirit, protect this tender love, strengthen my determination, and keep me on the path to awakening. Decide for God for me.

Today, I choose vigilance for love, knowing that every release of guilt allows the Circle of Atonement to widen.

Another paragraph in The Circle of Atonement that has been helpful is this one.

“Blessed are you who teach with me. Our power comes not of us, but of our Father. In guiltlessness we know Him, as He knows us guiltless. I stand within the circle, calling you to peace. Teach peace with me, and stand with me on holy ground. Remember for everyone your Father’s power that He has given him. Believe not that you cannot teach His perfect peace. Stand not outside, but join with me within. Fail not the only purpose to which my teaching calls you. Restore to God His Son as He created him, by teaching him his innocence.” (T-14.V.9:1–10)

Sentences 4-5 inspire me to right thinking: “I stand within the circle, calling you to peace. Teach peace with me, and stand with me on holy ground.”

Every day I write. I write about the lesson, and on many days, I also write about a paragraph or two in the Text. I do this because it helps me stay on the path and gives me more understanding and inspiration than I would get otherwise. But I also do it as a way of joining with Jesus in teaching peace. I care that others who are drawn to it are receiving from it whatever they need. I care because we are One, and what is for you is also for me. I give, and I receive what I give. I am healed, and you are healed with me. I stand in the Circle of Atonement as steadfastly as I am able, and I invite you to join me there alongside Jesus.

After so many years of studying and practicing the Course, it is almost funny to see it all distilled down to the simple understanding that we are One within the Mind of God and everything else is an illusion. We are here to heal the sleeping mind of its delusions. Each, in our own way, is learning and teaching innocence. As we learn, we teach, and as we teach, we learn, but what we learn remains the same. It is just another form of guilt denied. I know that I am looking at and believing another form of guilt if what I experience is not love. Truly, this is so simple.

Shortly before I began this particular writing, I got a text from my son. He has a particularly bad case of flu but cannot just sit things out while he heals. He had to drive quite a way to get his medicine. He can’t talk because of his sickness, and his head feels like it is going to explode. It hurts so much. On top of all that, he can’t work and his bills are all way behind, and he doesn’t have money for food. Then he had a blowout, and his new jack wasn’t working. Lord, have mercy!

I felt so bad for him, and I could feel the tension mounting in my body. I had just stepped out of the Circle, and I wanted back in. I knew that was what I wanted, but I was having trouble backing out of my son’s story. The part of my mind that was caught up in that began to catalogue all his struggles over the past few years. Then it wanted to think about how so much of it was due to poor choices. In other words, I was not only stuck in my story about his story, but I was also leaning into guilt.

I have to say that understanding this did not immediately change how I felt. But I remembered that my difficulty seeing this differently was caused by trying to use the same mind that got me into it to get me out. I then asked the Holy Spirit to decide for God for me. And slowly, over the next little while, my stress was relieved. I had to look at a few more ego thoughts that promoted some form of guilt, but I did so, and then it was over. I had stepped back into the Circle of Atonement, where I could actually be helpful.

I have no solution for my son’s present problems, but I did ask Jesus to help him, and I began to think of him as he is in reality. He is a soul just like me, trying to wake up, just like me. In refusing to join in his story of fear, I am helping. Believing in the strength of God in him, I am helping him believe in himself as well, even though, on a conscious level, he has no idea this is what’s happening. Our minds are joined, and so he receives what I receive. It may or may not affect an immediate change for him, but it is available to him. And as more of us stand with Jesus, that message grows stronger and is more easily received by those who need it.

So, right now, I stand peacefully beside Jesus on holy ground. Honestly, this might change in the next moment, but what won’t change is that I know the way back now. And I will always take that path, even if it takes me a while to decide on it. I invite you to join me there. Let us stand together in the Circle of Atonement, where guilt is undone, and peace is remembered. From here, we will, as one, all go Home together.

Rev. Myron Jones, OMC, is a Pathways of Light Spiritual Counselor living in Westlake, LA. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Website: forgivenessisthewayhome.org https://www.youtube.com/@RevMyron

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