September 3, 2011

ACIM Lesson 246
“To love my Father is to love His Son.

Let me not think that I can find the way to God, if I have hatred in my heart. Let me not try to hurt God's Son, and think that I can know his Father or my Self. Let me not fail to recognize myself, and still believe that my awareness can contain my Father, or my mind conceive of all the love my Father has for me, and all the love which I return to Him.”

[ACIM prayer for the day]
“I will accept the way You choose for me to come to You, my Father. For in that will I succeed, because it is Your Will. And I would recognize that what You will is what I will as well, and only that. And so I choose to love Your Son. Amen.”
 

[Marsha's thoughts]

One of my favorite Mary Baker Eddy quotes is, "Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you." Now I've always thought of that statement as meaning that the human hatred of others cannot reach me; after reading the first sentence in the above commentary, I see that it includes the hatred I may feel toward others, also. It's very easy for me to think that I don't hate anyone or anything. Actually, it's a word I have pruned from my vocabulary and simply do not use. BUT if I am irritated by another's actions or words, or if I replay a situation in my mind which caused anger in the past, or if I allow criticism to gnaw at me and think of retaliatory statements I could have/should have made -- isn't that human hatred? I think this realization will make it easier to stop these nagging feelings and thoughts, and to know that if I'm wearing the armor of Love, hatred cannot enter from inside or out! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:
“Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.”
Science and Health Page 393:12–15

September 2, 2011

ACIM Lesson #245
“Your peace is with me, Father.  I am safe.
 
Your peace surrounds me, Father. Where I go, Your peace goes there with me. It sheds its light on everyone I meet. I bring it to the desolate and lonely and afraid. I give Your peace to those who suffer pain, or grieve for loss, or think they are bereft of hope and happiness. Send them to me, my Father. Let me bring Your peace with me. For I would save Your Son, as is Your Will, that I may come to recognize my Self.”
 
[ACIM Prayer for today]
“And so we go in peace. To all the world we give the message that we have received. And thus we come to hear the Voice for God, Who speaks to us as we relate His Word; Whose Love we recognize because we share the Word that He has given unto us.”
 
[Marsha's thoughts]
Sometimes this peace seems easier to rest in than at other times.  We all have periods in our lives when everything feels fragile and our safety and peace are pushed aside by anxiety and fear and other vampire emotions. But perhaps there's something to be said for "fake it until you make it"! If I extend peace and Love to all I meet, whether I feel it or not, but simply go through the motions with a sincere desire to feel it and pass it on, at some point the mist of sadness lifts and true Love is being acknowledged within myself. I remember one day I was walking the dogs and met a new neighbor on the street. She immediately started telling me how horrible things were in her life, giving vivid examples, until she had started yelling at me. I wasn't feeling particularly happy at that moment and the temptation was to walk away or perhaps retaliate. But instead I thought: You've got to say something nice to this woman! And so I thought about what I truly admired about her and said, You have beautiful hair! Well, she burst into tears and we hugged and went inside and had tea and a nice, loving conversation. Now that's faking it until you make it!
 
Mary Baker Eddy quote:
“Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love.”
Science & Health Page 264:24-27

September 1, 2011

ACIM Lesson #244
“I am in danger nowhere in the world.
 
Your Son is safe wherever he may be, for You are there with him. He need but call upon Your Name, and he will recollect his safety and Your Love, for they are one. How can he fear or doubt or fail to know he cannot suffer, be endangered, or experience unhappiness, when he belongs to You, beloved and loving, in the safety of Your Fatherly embrace?”
 
[ACIM prayer for today]
“And there we are in truth. No storms can come into the hallowed haven of our home. In God we are secure. For what can come to threaten God Himself, or make afraid what will forever be a part of Him?”
 
[Marsha's thoughts]
Reading the above affirmation of our safety in any situation reminds me of a profound example of this Truth. A young woman was abducted from her college campus and taken to a remote area. Throughout this trip, the woman continued to affirm the One ever-presence which we all are, and not only in relation to her well-being but also for the perpetrator.  After quite a while, the man stopped the car and apologized to the woman, at which point she shared spiritual truths with him and they proceeded back to her apartment so she could give him a copy of Science and Health. I'm sure we all have stories of instances of protection through seeming divine intervention. Let's not think of this as intervention, but as the way things really are; not a setting aside of material danger, but a knowledge of the divine Principle of all being. By this, we rest in the assurance that all is well.
 
 (to hear this story in her own words, follow this link: 
 
http://www.spirituality.com/article.jhtml?ElementId=/repositories/shcomarticle/Mar2010/1268403069.xml&ElementName=I was abducted ... and released
 
 
Mary Baker Eddy poem:
 
Mother's Evening Prayer
 
O gentle presence, peace and joy and power;
         O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour,
Thou Love that guards the nestling's faltering flight!
         Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight.
 
Love is our refuge; only with mine eye
         Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall:
His habitation high is here, and nigh,
         His arm encircles me, and mine, and all.
 
O make me glad for every scalding tear,
         For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
         No ill, — since God is good, and loss is gain.
 
Beneath the shadow of His mighty wing;
         In that sweet secret of the narrow way,
Seeking and finding, with the angels sing:
         "Lo, I am with you alway," — watch and pray.
 
No snare, no fowler, pestilence or pain;
         No night drops down upon the troubled breast,
When heaven's aftersmile earth's tear-drops gain,
         And mother finds her home and heav'nly rest.
(Poems by Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 4, 5)
 
 

August 31, 2011

ACIM Lesson #243
“Today I will judge nothing that occurs.
 
I will be honest with myself today. I will not think that I already know what must remain beyond my present grasp. I will not think I understand the whole from bits of my perception, which are all that I can see. Today I recognize that this is so. And so I am relieved of judgments that I cannot make. Thus do I free myself and what I look upon, to be in peace as God created us.
 
[ACIM prayer for today]
Father, today I leave creation free to be itself. I honor all its parts, in which I am included. We are one because each part contains Your memory, and truth must shine in all of us as one.”
 
[Marsha's thoughts]
It seems we're expected to judge everything all the time. Which political party is right? Is it good or bad for Wal-Mart to come to town? Is one friend's opinion better than another's? The list is endless. How is it possible to "judge nothing that occurs"? This practice is a constant meditation with me, and I must admit I often feel like a failure at it. (Which in itself is a judgment!) But this basic metaphysical precept is necessary for us to continue in our quest to know God, to know ourselves. And so I will continue to realize my opinion is simply that: an opinion, not a Universal Truth. I thank Mr. Shakespeare for a thought that is on one of the first pages of Science & Health: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
 
Mary Baker Eddy quote:
“It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established.”
Science and Health, p. 467:9-13
 
(I would prefer a quote which I couldn’t find. This is a paraphrase: I truly have no politics other than to pray for a righteous government, love my neighbor as myself, and to love God above all else.)
 

August 30, 2011

ACIM Lesson #242
“This day is God's. It is my gift to Him.
 
I will not lead my life alone today. I do not understand the world, and so to try to lead my life alone must be but foolishness. But there is One Who knows all that is best for me. And He is glad to make no choices for me but the ones that lead to God. I give this day to Him, for I would not delay my coming home, and it is He Who knows the way to God.
 
[ACIM prayer for the day]
And so we give today to You. We come with wholly open minds. We do not ask for anything that we may think we want. Give us what You would have received by us. You know all our desires and our wants. And You will give us everything we need in helping us to find the way to You.”</b>
 
[Marsha's comments]
What's the first thing you think in the morning? It's easy to immediately start making plans for the day, thinking of what to do first and how to do it. Obviously there are many things to be attended, but so often our plans must change due to many factors. To give this day to God means to listen for intuition to lead the way. Starting our day with clear, spiritual thought allows this intuition to be heard more easily, without that back-and-forth volley we fall into when weighing the possibilities of our actions. As a Christian Scientist, I begin each day with the study of our weekly Bible Lesson. This study is a compilation of citations from the Bible and Science & Health, focusing on a topic such as Life, or Substance, or Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force. But even with this centering of thought, there is still that first moment upon awakening and that last thought before falling asleep at night. Through our studies, we have many quotations on which to call to start and end our day. I have no ritual to these moments; no set prayers or by-rote actions. The practice of turning every thought away from worry and wonder supplies me with everything I need to walk this path. And it's exciting to see what will unfold!
 
Mary Baker Eddy quote:
“Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come naturally into Spirit through better health and morals and as the result of spiritual growth.”
Science & Health Page 485:13-16
 

August 29, 2011

ACIM Lesson #241

“This holy instant is salvation come.

What joy there is today! It is a time of special celebration. For today holds out the instant to the darkened world where its release is set. The day has come when sorrows pass away and pain is gone. The glory of salvation dawns today upon a world set free. This is the time of hope for countless millions. They will be united now, as you forgive them all. For I will be forgiven by you today.

[ACIM prayer for the day]
We have forgiven one another now, and so we come at last to You again. Father, Your Son, who never left, returns to Heaven and his home. How glad are we to have our sanity restored to us, and to remember that we all are one.”

[Marsha's comments]
For millennia we have been moving to this point in consciousness! Today I am going to be remembering every seer whose words have awakened this knowledge of salvation within me. These will be people who have become a part of us all to such an extent that they are ever-present in our conversations and thought. I want to remember the salvation craved by John Lennon, Emerson, Shakespeare, Rumi -- all those whose words have given me hope in knowing I'm not the only one who feels this way. And while visiting these words I love, I will know that this salvation is not only desired, but is here, now, for the remembering.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:
“The ancient prophets gained their foresight from a spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing evil and mistaking fact for fiction,--predicting the future from a groundwork of corporeality and human belief. When sufficiently advanced in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not by demons, spirits, or demigods, but by the one Spirit. It is the prerogative of the ever-present, divine Mind, and of thought which is in rapport with this Mind, to know the past, the present, and the future.
     Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee and foretell events which concern the universal welfare, to be divinely inspired,--yea, to reach the range of fetter-less Mind.”
Science & Health Page 84:3-18

August 28, 2011

ACIM Lesson #240
“Fear is not justified in any form.

Fear is deception. It attests that you have seen yourself as you could never be, and therefore look upon a world which is impossible. Not one thing in this world is true. It does not matter what the form in which it may appear. It witnesses but to your own illusions of yourself. Let us not be deceived today. We are the Sons of God. There is no fear in us, for we are each a part of Love Itself.
[ACIM prayer for the day]
How foolish are our fears! Would You allow Your Son to suffer? Give us faith today to recognize Your Son, and set him free. Let us forgive him in Your Name, that we may understand his holiness, and feel the love for him which is Your Own as well.”

[Marsha's thoughts]
Living in familiar patterns, moving through our days in similar ways, saying the same things, thinking the same thoughts -- all these habits seem to bring us comfort. Even if the conditions of our lives are not bringing us happiness, we fear change. Perhaps all fear stems from a resistance to change!  We sometimes say, "Something told me I should do so-and-so". We often hear this calling, this inner voice leading us toward a different path than we're on, but we feel it takes courage to walk a road less or never traveled, and so we settle. To settle for anything which brings us less than joyful existence is to dishonor ourselves, which is to dishonor God. The next time I think I'm feeling this thing we think of as fear, I choose to interpret the emotion as excitement about what will come next!!

Mary Baker Eddy quotes:
“Had Blondin believed it impossible to walk the rope over Niagara's abyss of waters, he could never have done it. His belief that he could do it gave his thought-forces, called muscles, their flexibility and power which the unscientific might attribute to a lubricating oil. His fear must have disappeared before his power of putting resolve into action could appear.”
Science & Health Page 199:25-31

“Walking in the light, we are accustomed to the light and require it; we cannot see in darkness. But eyes accustomed to darkness are pained by the light. When outgrowing the old, you should not fear to put on the new. Your advancing course may provoke envy, but it will also attract respect.”
Science & Health Page 452:7-12