Miracles News

January-March, 2012

To Be Content

by Rev. Mary Gerard Lenihan, O.M.C.

Rev. Mary Gerard Lenihan “You will be happy when_______,” instructs the ego. Jesus responds, “Until you experience contentment within, with who you are as a creation of God, you will never be happy — no matter what.” Doing housework, dirty laundry in my hands, dinner cooking on the stove, rushing into the kitchen, thoughts of Christmas in my mind, truth manifested within literally stopping me in my tracks. The word, “contentment” moved me to silence and an inner contentment washed me from the inside. Here and now I am content.

My intellect has heard these words before, but this was not a heady moment; not an idea, a concept, a theory or even a thought. In this moment, Christ revealed himself to me by seeing me truly; then I saw me truly. I saw that my doing in the world without this God-given inner contentment was perpetuating meaninglessness.

Contentment is found in the teaching of Christ that nothing can alter who I am as God created me — I cannot be lessened or enhanced. I recognize my wholeness in Christ’s forgiveness; I am content in my wholeness. Accept this truth and the peace of God shall be given me.

This experience arose in the midst of following Jesus’ guiding me to allow myself to open to my experience of God. Embrace how God is revealing God to me. Stop trying to fit my experience into a form, spiritual or otherwise. My struggling comes in resisting how God is revealing God to me. Jesus is teaching me that how God reveals God to us is our path to God, thus it is vital to embrace.

Following Jesus’ teaching, I stepped back and spent two full days being open to God revealing God to me in the midst of my everyday activities, embracing the experience in the moment, not planning ahead of time how it was to look. The clarity was undeniable. I could no longer deny my experience of Jesus reconciling me to Christ; bringing me and all of us who are willing out of being at cross-purposes and free in our resurrected purpose — to Love. This is not a new message, yet I will tell you this; I experience it as a clean and clear Reality each moment I embrace Jesus’ offer of forgiveness in Christ. I am saved from self whom I must forgive so I may truly live.

Jesus became Christ in the world, and now we are called to be the body of Christ in the world. He came forth on a mission, I am here to represent Him Who sent me. (ACIM T-2.V.18:3)

I am in charge of the process of Atonement, which I undertook to begin. …My part in the Atonement is the canceling out of all errors that you could not otherwise correct. …I am the Atonement. (T-1.III.1:1,4 and 4:1)

Jesus rests the weary minds of those who come to him; hearts are full in his presence, bodies become temples of forgiveness. From dark self to Light Self we are moved; this is forgiveness, this is healing.

I was shown a Great Thing while meditating at sunrise on November 17, 2011. Keeping a one-pointed focus on God, I asked Holy Spirit and Jesus to remove all obstacles to my acceptance of forgiveness and healing. I hear in my mind, “You are forgiven through Jesus’ cross and resurrection.” I have never made the connection between Jesus’ cross and resurrection and me being forgiven. Yet, as I heard these words in my mind I saw their truth. In that moment I accepted that I am forgiven. The burden of self-effort was lifted off of me. Quiet Joy flowed through me. I felt relieved of a heavy weight that was crushing me; released from the cage I had made and put myself in — free.

I have many times personally experienced Jesus “carrying my sins,” my experience of separation from God, with him as he relinquished his self and merged into Christ upon his last breath. As he said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” to which the Mentor Within added, “for they know not who they are,” Jesus offered forgiveness to me, to everyone. In the moment I accepted, I literally went blank; everything in my mind and heart disappeared. I rested in the emptying. Old brought to the New, darkness to the Light, unhealed to the Healed, past to the Present and fear to Love. Holy Spirit poured into me.

Jesus demonstrated the relinquishment of the self that each of us must surely go through to experience transcendent Love. Yet, Jesus did something for me that I cannot do for myself — this is my experience. The crucifixion and resurrection were the act of forgiveness — a demonstration of the transforming power of forgiveness. In my willingness to let go of who and what I think I am, I am set free in Who I am in God. Jesus offers forgiveness in Christ to everyone. The two prisoners who are crucified alongside Jesus are symbolic of our willingness to accept forgiveness and join Christ in paradise and our unwillingness. I am that willing prisoner, no longer wanting to remain imprisoned in denying the gift of forgiveness. Acceptance brings the freedom of contentment with who I am as God created me. Sometimes I am the unwilling prisoner and am left hanging at the mercy of fear. I can choose again.

I know inside of me that Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection reconciled me to Christ. In This I am content. The other night I was unable to sleep and I slipped into a revelatory vision. I was literally at the crucifixion standing in the crowd. My veiled head was in alignment with Jesus’ feet. I was present because of a personal encounter I had experienced with Jesus as he walked the earth. At the feet of Jesus I experience the stark contrast between my false identity and true Identity. In the false I believe myself to be my past, the lone maker of my destiny and the lone savior of my lone self; in truth I am seeing the Mary Jesus sees in me — the Mary in Christ. The choice has been made “in spite of me,” as I have been chosen as we all have been chosen. I accept the truth of Who I am in God. I choose to follow Jesus into this truth in me, this truth in you. Receiving what has been written in me, now I am content.

Holy Spirit: “Now you have healed eyes to see what forgiveness does for you and what now you will do for others.” The Atonement can only be accepted within you by releasing the inner light. (T-2.III.1:1) I allow Holy Spirit to release the inner light.

Rest until you experience your Self in Christ. Whoever you are in the world, you are in Christ. There is no separation. Jesus reconciled us on the cross as he reconciled himself to God. He came to God naked in fear to be clothed in Love; willing to be forgiven and forgive. He carried with him the minds of all who are willing to be carried into the fire and poured into the water of the Holy Spirit. Three days of purification, three days of resting in God. The fire of the cross, the healing water of the Spirit bringing forth the resurrection all in the three days of the Trinity, Who is God, Christ and Holy Spirit. These three days reside in all of us as the Trinity to be unearthed and resurrected. Love created us like Love, the Mind of Christ being ours to enter and the heart of the Holy Spirit walking with us now on earth. Jesus re-minds me, “This is holy ground. You have been reconciled. Now, go forth and reconcile all hearts and minds to Christ as I have done in you.”

My practice now is laying down judgment (unforgiveness) at the feet of Jesus, accepting healing forgiveness, with faith and gratitude that all is healed.

The forgiven are the means of the Atonement. Being filled with spirit, they forgive in return. (T-1.III.3:1-2) I am so grateful to be content.

Rev. Mary Gerard Lenihan, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in St. Louis, MO. She is author of the books Visions of Illumination, The Mentor Within and the inspiring new CD Album WNYHOO Now! Web site: http://www.pauseforinspiration.org

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution in support of this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution or become a member online, go to http://www.pathwaysoflight.org/polshop/home.php?cat=254.
Or send a check or money order to Pathways of Light, 6 Oak Court, Ormond Beach, FL 32174-2623 (USD only, please) Thank you for your support.