I am a Son of God. And can I be another thing as well? Did God create the mortal and corruptible? What use has God’s beloved Son for what must die? And yet a neutral thing does not see death, for thoughts of fear are not invested there, nor is a mockery of love bestowed upon it. Its neutrality protects it while it has a use. And afterwards, without a purpose, it is laid aside. It is not sick or old or hurt. It is but functionless, unneeded, and cast off. Let me not see it more than this today: of service for a while, and fit to serve, to keep its usefulness while it can serve, and then to be replaced for greater good.
2. My body, Father cannot be Your Son, and what is not created cannot be sinful or sinless, neither good nor bad. Let me, then, use this dream to help Your plan that we awaken from all dreams we made.106, [1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 106. We “use this dream to help Your plan that we awaken from all dreams” by using the body to communicate love to our brothers. That is how the body can be “of service” (1:10) to God’s plan.
Personal Notes:
My body is a wholly neutral thing. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
All fear is past because its source is gone,105 and all its thoughts went with it. Love remains the only present state, whose Source is here forever and forever. Can the world seem bright and clear and safe and welcoming with all my past mistakes oppressing it and showing me distorted forms of pain? Yet in the present love is obvious and its effects apparent. All the world shines in reflection of its holy light, and I perceive a world forgiven at last.
2. Father, let not Your holy world escape my sight today. Nor let my ears be deaf to all the hymns of gratitude the world is singing underneath the sounds of fear. There is a real world which the present holds safe from all past mistakes. And I would see only this world before my eyes today.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 105. The “source” of fear her appears to be the past, specifically “my past mistakes” (1:3).
Personal Notes:
All fear is past and only love is here. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
God’s promises make no exceptions. And He guarantees that only joy can be the final outcome found for everything. Yet it is up to us when this is reached; how long we let an alien will, appear to be opposing His.102 And while we think this will is real, we will not find the end He has appointed as the outcome of all problems we perceive, all trials we see, and every situation that we meet. Yet is the ending certain, for God’s will is done in earth and Heaven.103 We will seek and we will find according to His will, which guarantees that our will is done.104
2. We thank You, Father, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in the end. Help us not interfere and so delay the happy endings You have promised us for every problem that we can perceive; for ever trial we think we still must meet.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 102. The “alien will” is the ego’s will, which is alien to us because it does not represent our true desires.
Footnote 103. Matthew 6:10 (KJV): “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” The above reference, rather than asking us to pray that God’s will be done on earth, simply acknowledges that in the end His will is done on earth. This is why “A happy outcome to all things is sure.”
Footnote 104. Matthew 7:7 (RSV): “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” In the above reference, what we seek we will find because God’s will guarantees that our will—our true desire—is “done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10 [KJV]).
Personal Notes:
A happy outcome to all things is sure. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
The real world is a symbol, like the rest of what perception offers. Yet it stands for what is opposite to what you made. Your world is seen through eyes of fear, and brings the witnesses of terror to your mind. The real world cannot be perceived except through eyes of forgiveness blesses, so they see a world where terror is impossible and witnesses to fear cannot be found.
2. The real world holds a counterpart for each unhappy thought reflected in your world; a sure correction for the sights of fear and sounds of battle that your world contains. The real world shows a world seen differently, through quiet eyes and with a mind at peace. Nothing but rest is here. There are no cries of pain and sorrow heard, for nothing here remains outside forgiveness. And the sights are gentle. Only happy sights and sounds can reach the mind that has forgiven itself.101
3. What need has such a mind for thoughts of death, attack, and murder? What can it perceive surrounding it but safety, love, and joy? What is there it would choose to be condemned, and what is there that it would judge against? The world it sees arises from a mind at peace within itself. No danger lurks in anything it sees, for it is kind, and only kindness does it look upon.
4. The real world is the symbol that the dream of sin and guilt is over, and God’s Son no longer sleeps. His waking eyes perceive the sure reflection of his Father’s love; the certain promise that he is redeemed. The real world signifies the end of time, for this perception makes time purposeless.
5. The Holy Spirit has no need of time when it has served His purpose. Now He waits but that one instant more for God to take His final step, and time has disappeared, taking perception with it as it goes and leaving but the truth to be itself. That instant is our goal, for it contains the memory of God. And as we look upon a world forgiven, it is He Who calls to us and comes to take us home, reminding us of our identity, which forgiveness has restored to us.
Footnote 101. Since the mind has forgiven itself, it no longer sees itself surrounded by frightening people and events poised to punish it for its sins.
Lesson 291
This Is A Day Of Stillness And Of Peace.
Christ’s vision looks through me today. His sight shows me all things forgiven and at peace, and offers this same vision to the world. And I accept this vison in its name, both for myself and for the world as well. What loveliness we look upon today! What holiness we see surrounding us! And it is given us to recognize it is a holiness in which we share; it is the holiness of God Himself.
2. This day my mind is quiet to receive the thoughts You offer me. And I accept what comes from You instead of from myself. I do not know the way to You, but You are wholly certain. Father, guide Your Son along the quiet path that leads to You. Let my forgiveness be complete, and let the memory of You return to me.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
This is a day of stillness and of peace. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Unless I look upon what is not there, my present happiness is all I see. Eyes that begin to open see at last, and I would have Christ’s vision come to me this very day. What I perceive without God’s Own correction for the sight I made is frightening and painful to behold. Yet I would not allow my mind to be deceived by the belief the dream I made is real and instant longer. This the day I seek my present happiness, and look on nothing else except the thing I seek.
2. With this resolve I come to You and ask Your strength to hold me up today, while I but do Your will. You cannot fail to hear me, Father. What I ask have You already given me, and I am sure that I will see my happiness today.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
My present happiness is all I see. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my sight. For I am really looking nowhere; seeing but what is not there. How can I then perceive the world forgiveness offers? This the past was made to hide, for this the world that can be looked on only now. It has no past, for what can be forgiven but the past, and if it is forgiven, it is gone.
2. Father, let me not look upon a past that is not there. For You have offered me Your own replacement, in a present world the past has left untouched and free of sin. Here is the end of guilt, and here am I made ready for Your final step. Shall I demand that You wait longer for Your Son to find the loveliness You planned to be the end of all his dreams and all his pain?[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
The past is over. It can touch me not. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
This is the thought that leads the way to You, and brings me to my goal. I cannot come to You without my brother. And to know my Source, I first must recognize what You created one with me. my brother’s is the hand that leads me on the way to You. His sins are in the past, along with mine, and I am saved because the past is gone. Let me not cherish it within my heart, or I will lose the way to You. My brother is my savior. Let me not attack the savior You have given me, but let me honor him who bears Your Name, and so remember that it is my own.
2. Forgive me, then, today. And you will know you have forgiven me if you behold your brother in the light of holiness. He cannot be less holy than can I, and you cannot be holier than he.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Let me forget my brother’s past today. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Where would I go but Heaven? What could be a substitute for happiness? What gift could I prefer before the peace of God? what treasure would I seek and find and keep that can compare with my identity? And would I rather live with fear than love?
2. You are my goal, my Father. What but You could I desire to have? What way but that which leads to You could I desire to walk? And what except the memory of You could signify to me the end of dreams and futile substitutions for the truth? You are my only goal. Your Son would be as You created him. What way but this could I expect to recognize my Self, and be at one with my identity?[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
You are my goal, my Father. Only You. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Father, how still today! How quietly do all things fall in place! This is the day that has been chosen as the time in which I come to understand the lesson that there is no need that I do anything. In You is every choice already made. In You has every conflict been resolved. In You is everything I hope to find already given me. Your peace is mine. My heart is quiet, and my mind at rest. Your love is Heaven, and Your love is mine.
2. The stillness of today will give us hope that we have found the way and traveled far along it to a wholly certain goal. Today we will not doubt the end that God Himself has promised us. We trust in Him, and in our Self, Who still is one with Him.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
The hush of Heaven holds my heart today. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Today I wake with joy, expecting buy the happy things of God to come to me. I ask but them to come, and realize my invitation will be answered by the thoughts to which they have been sent me. And I will ask for only joyous things the instant I accept my holiness.97. For what would be the use of pain to me, what purpose would my suffering fulfill, and how would grief and loss avail me, if insanity departs me today, and I accept my holiness instead?
2. Father, my holiness is Yours. Let me rejoice in it, and through forgiveness be restored to sanity. Your Son is still as You created him. My holiness is part of me and also part of You. And what can alter Holiness Itself?[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 97. The sequence here seems to be that when I accept my holiness, I will ask for only the happy things of God to come to me, and then I will wake in the morning expecting a day filled with only them. By implication, then, when I awaken expecting a day filled with unhappy things, it is because I have asked for them to come to me as punishment for my unholiness.
Personal Notes:
My holiness shines bright and clear today. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Loss is not loss when properly perceived. Pain is impossible. There is no grief with any cause at all. And suffering of any kind is nothing but a dream. Such is the truth—at first to be but said; and then repeated many times; and next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations; then to be considered seriously more and more; and finally accepted as the truth. I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. And I would pass beyond the words today, go past all reservations, and arrive at full acceptance of the truth in them.
2. Father, what You have given cannot hurt, so grief and pain must be impossible. Let me not fail in trust in You today, accepting but the joyous as Your gifts; accepting but the joyous as the truth.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Father, I made an image of myself, and it is this I call the Son of God. Yet is creation as it always was, for Your creation is unchangeable. Let me not worship idols. I am he my Father loves. My holiness remains the light of Heaven and the love of God. Is not what is beloved of You secure? Is not the light of Heaven infinite? Is not Your Son my true identity, when You created everything that is?
2. Now are we one in shared identity, with God our Father as our only Source, and everything created part of us. And so we offer blessing to all things, uniting lovingly with all the world, which our forgiveness has made one with us.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
My true identity abides in You. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
If I could realize but this today, salvation would be reached for all the world. This the decision not to be insane, and to accept myself as God Himself, my Father and my Source, created me. This is the determination not to be asleep in dreams of death, while truth remains forever living in the joy of life. And this the choice to recognize the Self Whom God created as the Son He loves, and Who remains one reality.
2. Father, Your Name is Love, and so is mine. Such is the truth. And can the truth be changed by merely giving it another name? The name of fear is simply a mistake.91 Let me not be afraid of truth today.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 91. This implies that we have so identified with fear that we have in essence given ourselves the nave of fear. The truth remains, however, that our real name is love.
Personal Notes:
I will not be afraid of love today. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
The Holy Spirit mediates between illusions and the truth. As He must bridge the gap between reality and dreams, perception leads to knowledge through the grace that God has given Him to be His gift to everyone who turns to Him for truth. Across the bridge that He provides are dreams all carried to the truth to be dispelled before the light of knowledge. There are sights and sounds forever laid aside. And where they were perceived before, forgiveness has made possible perception’s tranquil end.
2. The goal the Holy Spirit’s teaching sets is just this end of dreams. For sights and sounds must be translated from the witnesses of fear to those of love, and when this is entirely accomplished, learning has achieved the only goal it has in truth. For learning, as the Holy Spirit guides it to the outcome He perceives for it, becomes the means to go beyond itself, to be replaced by the eternal truth.
3. If you but knew how much your Father yearns to have you recognize your sinlessness, you would not let His Voice appeal in vain, nor turn from His replacement for the fearful images and dreams you made. The Holy Spirit understands the means you made by which you would attain what is forever unattainable. And if you offer them to Him, He will employ the means to where it truly is at home.
4. From knowledge, where He has been placed by God, the Holy Spirit calls to you to let forgiveness rest upon your dreams, and be restored to sanity and peace of mind. Without forgiveness will your dreams remain to terrify you, and the memory of all your Father’s love will not return to signify the end of dreams has come.
5. Accept your Father’s gift. It is a Call from Love to love, that it be but itself. The Holy Spirit is His gift, by Which the quietness of Heaven is restored to God’s beloved Son. Would you refuse to take the function of completing God, when all He wills is that you be completed?[1]
Lesson 281
I Can Be Hurt By Nothing But My Thoughts.
Father, Your Son is perfect. When he thinks that he is hurt in any way, it is because he has forgotten who he is, and that he is as You created him. Your thoughts can only bring me happiness. If ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have forgotten what You think, and put my little, meaningless ideas in place of where Your thoughts belong, and where they are. I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. The thoughts I think with You can only bless. The thoughts I think with You alone are true.
2. I will not hurt myself today, for I am far beyond all pain. My Father placed me safe in Heaven, watching over me.90 And I would not attack the Son He loves, for what He loves is mine to love as well.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 90. Jeremiah 31:28 (RSV): “So I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.” Traditionally, God watches over us here on earth, protecting us from danger. In the above passage, however, God watches over us in Heaven, making sure we are perfectly safe from anything less than Heaven.
Personal Notes:
I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Whom God created limitless is free. I can invent imprisonment for him, but only in illusions, not in truth. No thought of God has left its Father’s Mind. No thought of God is limited at all. No thought of God but is forever pure. Can I lay limits on the Son of God, whose Father willed that he be limitless, and like Himself in freedom and in love?
2. Today let me give honor to Your Son, for thus alone I find the way to You. Father, I lay no limits on the Son You love and You created limitless. The honor that I give to him is Yours, and what is Yours belongs to me as well.[1]
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 87. “God’s Son” here refers to our brother. This is made clear in the prayer, where by giving honor to him we receive honor ourselves and find the way to God.
Personal Notes:
What limits can I lay upon God’s Son? I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
The end of dreams is promised me, because God’s Son is not abandoned by His Love. Only in dreams is there a time when he appears to be in prison and awaits a future freedom, if it be at all. Yet in reality his dreams are gone, with truth established in their place. And now is freedom his already. Should I wait in chains which have been severed for release, when God is offering me freedom now?
2. I will accept Your promises today and give my faith to them. My Father loves the Son Whom He created as His Own. Would You withhold the gifts You gave to me?[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Creation’s freedom promises my own. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
If I accept that I am prisoner within a body, in a world in which all things that seem to live appear to die, then is my Father prisoner with me. And this do I believe when I maintain the laws the world obeys must I obey; the frailties and the sins which I perceive are real and cannot be escaped. If I am bound in any way, I do not know my Father or my Self. And I am lost to all reality. For truth is free, and what is bound is not a part of truth.
2. Father, I ask for nothing but the truth. I have had many foolish thoughts about myself and my creation, and have brought a dream of fear into my mind. Today I would not dream. I choose the way to You instead of madness and instead of fear. For truth is safe, and only love is sure.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
If I am bound, my Father is not Free. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Your Son is free, my Father. Let me not imagine I have bound him with the laws I made to rule the body. He is not subject to any laws I made by which I try to make the body more secure. He is not changed by what is changeable. He is not slave to any laws of time. He is as You created him, because he knows no laws except the law of love.
2. Let us not worship idols, nor believe in any laws idolatry would make to hide the freedom of the Son of God. He is not bound except by his beliefs. Yet what he is, is far beyond his faith in slavery or freedom. He is free because he is his Father’s Son, and he cannot be bound unless God’s truth could lie and God could will that He deceive Himself.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Let me not bind Your Son with laws I made. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
What is the Word of God? “My Son is pure, and holy as Myself.” And thus did God become the Father of the Son He loves, for thus was he created. This the Word His Son did not create with Him, because in this His Son was born. Let us accept His fatherhood, and all is given us. Deny we were created in His love and we deny our Self, to be unsure of who we are, of who our Father is, and for what purpose we have come. And yet, we need but to acknowledge Him Who gave His Word to us in our creation to remember Him and so recall our Self.
2. Father, Your Word is mine. And it is this that I would speak to all my brothers, who are given me to cherish as my own, as I am loved and blessed and saved by You.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
The Word of God is given me to speak. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Let us today attend the Voice of God, Which speaks an ancient lesson no more true today than any other day. Yet has this day been chosen as the time when we will seek and hear and learn and understand. Join me in hearing. For the Voice of God tells us of things we cannot understand alone, nor learn apart. It is in this that all things are protected, and in this the healing of the Voice of God is found.82
2. Your healing Voice protects all things today, and so I leave all things to You. I need be anxious over nothing.83 For Your Voice will tell me what to do and where to go, to whom and what to say to him, what thoughts to think, what words to give the world. The safety that I bring is given me. Father, Your Voice protects all things through me.84, [1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 82. God’s Voice heals and protects, in other words, because His messages by their very nature affirm unity, in that they can only be understood by those who are joined together.
Footnote 83. Matthew 6:25 (RSV): “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on.” In the above passage, we “need be anxious over nothing” because Holy Spirit will direct all of our behavior, telling us who to bring His message to and how to bring it. Being “anxious over nothing” may well include not being anxious over our earthly needs, since other Course passages speak of our earthly needs being taken care of once we devote ourselves single-mindedly to our function as God’s messengers. See, for instance, T-20.IV.10:4, which alludes to the same speech in the Bible: “You need take thought for nothing, careless of everything except the only purpose that you would fulfill.”
Footnote 84. This means that I bring protection to others by letting the Voice of God tell me what to do for them and what to say to them. This brings safety to them, and the safety I give them is then given to me.
Personal Notes:
God’s healing Voice protects all things today. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Father, today I would let all things be as You created them, and give Your Sons the honor due their sinlessness; the love of brother to his brother and his friend. Through this I am redeemed. Through this as well the truth will enter where illusions were, light will replace all darkness, and Your Son will know he is as You created him.
2. A special blessing comes to us today from Him Who is our Father. Give this day to Him and there will be no fear today, because the day is given unto love.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Today belongs to love. Let me not fear. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Perhaps we are now ready for a day of undisturbed tranquility. If this is not yet feasible, we are content and even more than satisfied to learn how such a day can be achieved. If we give way to a disturbance, let us learn how to dismiss it and return to peace. We need but tell our minds with certainty “The stillness of the peace of God is mine,” and nothing can intrude upon the peace that God Himself has given to His Son.
2. Father, Your peace is mine. What need have I to fear that anything can rob me of what You would have me keep? I cannot lose Your gifts to me. And so the peace You gave Your Son is with me still, in quietness and in my own eternal love for You.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
The Stillness of the peace of God is mine. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Father, the truth belongs to me. My home is set in Heaven by Your will and mine. Can dreams content me? Can illusions bring me happiness? What but Your memory can satisfy Your Son? I will accept no less than You have given me. I am surrounded by Your love, forever still, forever gentle, and forever safe. God’s Son must be as You created him.
2. Today we pass illusions by. And if we hear temptation call to us to stay and linger in a dream, we turn away and ask ourselves if we, the Sons of God, could be content with dreams,79 when Heaven can be chosen just as easily as hell, and love will happily replace all fear.[1]
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 79. These are instructions for response to temptation. We are supposed to “pass illusions by” today, but if, instead, we hear those illusions calling to us, tempting us to turn aside from our journey to Heaven and “stay and linger” with them instead, we should turn away from them and ask ourselves, “How can illusions satisfy God’s Son?”
Personal Notes:
How can illusions satisfy God’s Son? I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Christ is God’s Son as He created Him. He is the Self we share, uniting us with one another and with God as well. He is the Thought Which still abides within the Mind That is His Source. He has not left His holy home, nor lost the innocence in which He was created. He abides unchanged forever in the Minds of God.
2. Christ is the link that keeps you one with God, and guarantees the separation is no more than an illusion of despair, for hope forever will abide in Him. Your mind is part of His, and His of yours. He is the part in which God’s Answer lies; where all decisions are already made and dreams are over. He remains untouched by anything the body’s eyes perceive. For though in Him His Father placed the means for your salvation, yet does He remain the Self Who, like His Father, knows no sin.
3. Home of the Holy Spirit, and at home in God alone,78. does Christ remain at peace within the Heaven of your holy mind. This is the only part of you that has reality in truth. The rest is dreams. Yet will these dreams be given unto Christ, to fade before His glory and reveal your holy Self, the Christ, to you at last.
4. The Holy Spirit reaches from the Christ in you to all your dreams and bids them come to Him, to be translated into truth. He will exchange them for the final dream which God appointed as the end of dreams. For when forgiveness rests upon the world and peace has come to every Son of God, what could remain to keep things separate, for what remains to see except Christ’s face?
5. And how long will this holy face be seen, when it is but the symbol that the time for learning now is over, and the goal of the Atonement has been reached at last? So therefore let us seek to find Christ’s face and look on nothing else. As we behold His glory will we know we have no need of learning or perception or of time, or anything except the holy Self, the Christ Whom God created as His Son.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 78. This important theological statement says that God is the home of Christ, and Christ is the home of Holy Spirt. To put it another way, God “contains” Christ, and Christ “contains” Holy Spirit. We can picture this as a series of three concentric circles, with God being the largest circle, Christ being the second circle, contained inside the first, and Holy Spirit being the third circle, contained inside the second.
Lesson 271
Christ’s Is The Vision I Will Use Today.
Each day, each hour, every instant, I am choosing what I want to look upon, the sounds I want to hear, the witnesses to what I want to be the truth for me. Today I choose to look upon what Christ would have me see, to listen to God’s voice, and seek the witnesses to what is true in God’s creation. In Christ’s sight the world and God’s creation meet, and as they come together all perception disappears. His kindly sight redeems the world from death, for nothing that He looks on but must live, remembering the Father and the Son, Creator and creation unified.
2. Father, Christ’s vision is the way to You. What He beholds invites Your memory to be restored to me. And this I choose to be what I would look upon today.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Christ’s is the vision I will use today. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Father, Christ’s vision is Your gift to me, and it has power to translate all that the body’s eyes behold into the sight of a forgiven world. How glorious and gracious is this world! Yet how much more will I perceive in it than sight can give. The world forgiven signifies Your Son acknowledges his Father, lets his dreams be brought to truth, and waits expectantly the one remaining instant more of time, which ends forever as Your memory returns to him. And now his will is one with Yours. His function now is one with Yours, and every thought except Your own is gone.
2. The quiet of today will bless our hearts, and through them peace will come to everyone. Christ is our eyes today. And through His sight we offer healing to the world through Him, the holy Son whom God created whole, the holy Son whom God created one.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I will not use the body’s eyes today. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
I ask Your blessing on my sight today. It is the means which You have chosen to become the way to show me my mistakes,76 and look beyond them. It is given me to find a new perception through the Guide You gave to me, and through His lessons to surpass perception and return to truth. I ask for the illusion which transcends all those I made. Today I choose to see a world forgiven, in which everyone shows me the face of Christ and teaches me that what I look upon belongs to me; that nothing is, except Your holy Son.
2. Today our sight is blessed indeed. We share one vision, as we look upon the face of Him Whose Self is ours. We are one because of Him Who is the Son of God; of Him Who is our identity.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 76.”My mistakes” seems to mean my misperception of things in the world. Given the previous lesson, it may even refer to the forms of the world themselves.
Personal Notes:
My sight goes forth to look upon Christ’s face. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Let me not be Your critic, Lord, today, and judge against You. Let me not attempt to interfere in Your creation and distort it into sickly forms. Let me be willing to withdraw my wishes from its unity, and thus to let it be as You created it.74. For thus will I be able, too, to recognize my Self as You created me. In love was I created, and in love will I remain forever. What can frighten me when I let all things be exactly as they are?
2. Let not our sight be blasphemous today, nor let our ears attend to lying tongues.75. Only reality is free of pain. Only reality is free of loss. Only reality is wholly safe. And it is only this we seek today.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 74. These opening sentences clarify that the meaning of today’s idea is not to let all outer forms and events be exactly as they are. Rather, the forms and events of this world are the result of us playing God’s critic, distorting His creation “into sickly forms,” and imposing our wishes for separation onto its unity. The real meaning of today’s idea, then, is to let God’s creation (which is formless, timeless, and united) be exactly as it is; to let all things be exactly as they really are. This means acknowledging that the forms and events seen by our eyes do not really exist.
Footnote 75. To let “our sight be blasphemous” is to see external forms as real. To “let our ears attend to lying tongues” is to listen to the voices that tell us this world is real.
Personal Notes:
Let all things be exactly as they are. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Surrounding me is all the life that God created in His love. It calls to me in every heartbeat and in every breath, in every action and in every thought. Peace fills my heart, and floods my body with the purpose of forgiveness. Now my mind is healed, and all I need to save the world is given me. Each heartbeat gives me peace; each breath infuses me with strength. I am a messenger of God, directed by His Voice, sustained by Him in love, and held forever quiet and at peace within His loving arms. Each heartbeat calls His Name, and every one is answered by His Voice, assuring me I am at home in Him.
2. Let me attend Your answer, not my own. Father, my heart is beating in the peace the Heart of love created. It is there and only there that I can be at home.[1]
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
My heart is beating in the peace of God. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Father, You gave me all Your Sons, to be my saviors and my counselors in sight, the bearers of Your holy Voice to me. In them are You reflected, and in them does Christ look back upon me from my Self.
Let not Your Son forget Your holy Name.
Let not Your Son forget his holy Source.
Let not Your Son forget Your Name is his.
2. This day we enter into paradise,72 acknowledging our Self in each of us, united in the holy love of God. How many saviors God has given us! How can we lose the way to Him, when He has filled the world with those who point to Him and given us the sight to look on them?[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 72. Luke 23:43 (RSV): “And he (Jesus) said to him [one of the criminals crucified with him], “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Just as Jesus promises the criminal that on that day they will be in paradise together, so today we enter paradise united with our brothers, who share the same Self with us.
Personal Notes:
My holy Self abides in you, God’s Son. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
I have indeed misunderstood the world, because I laid my “sins” on it and saw them looking back at me. How fierce they seemed! And how deceived was I to think that what I feared was in the world, instead of in my mind alone. Today I see the world in the celestial gentleness with which creation shines. There is no fear in it. Let no appearance of my “sins” obscure the light of Heaven shining on the world. What is reflected here is in God’s Mind. The images I see reflect my thoughts. Yet is my mind at one with God’s. And so I can perceive creation’s gentleness.
2. In quiet would I look upon the world, which but reflects Your thoughts and mine as well. Let me remember that they are the same, and I will see creation’s gentleness.[1]
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Creation’s gentleness is all I see. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Father, You stand before me and behind,68 beside me, in the place I see myself, and everywhere I go. You are in all the things I look upon, the sounds I hear, and every hand that reaches for my own.69 In You time disappears, and place becomes a meaningless belief. For what surrounds Your Son and keeps him safe is love itself.70 There is no source but this, and nothing is that does not share its holiness; that stands beyond Your one creation or without the love which holds all things within itself. Father, Your Son is like Yourself.71 We come to You in Your Own Name today, to be at peace within Your everlasting love.
2. My brothers, join with me in this today. This is salvation’s prayer. Must we not join in what will save the world, along with us?[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
68. Footnote: Psalm 139:5 (RSV): “Thou dost beset me behind and before, and layest thy hand upon me.”
69.Footnote: Lesson 29 (“God is in everything I see”) explains that we can see everything as containing God by seeing everything as having God’s purpose: “a table shares the purpose of the universe. And what shares the purpose of the universe shares the purpose of its Creator” (W-29.2:4-5). In this view, even sounds can be reinterpreted as carrying God’s purpose: “Sounds become the call of God. And all perception can be given a new purpose” (W-WI.3.4:2-3).
70. Footnote: In context, this means that what truly surrounds us is God’s love, not “time” or “place.”
71. Footnote: In light of the preceding sentence, “Your Son” here should be read as corporate, as including everyone and everything.
Personal Notes:
I am surrounded by the love of God. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Father, Your Mind created all that is, Your Spirit entered into it, Your love gave life to it. And would I look upon what You created as if it could be made sinful? I would not perceive such dark and fearful images. A madman’s dream is hardly fit to be my choice, instead of all the loveliness with which You blessed creation; all its purity, its joy, and its eternal, quite home in You.
2. And while we still remain outside the gate of Heaven, let us look on all we see through holy vision and the eyes of Christ. Let all appearances seem pure to us, that we may pass them by in innocence and walk together to our Father’s house as brothers and the holy Sons of God.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
My holy vision sees all things as pure.I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Father, You have one Son. And it is he that I would look upon today. He is Your one creation. Why should I perceive a thousand forms in what remains as one?67 Why should I give this one a thousand names, when only one suffices? For Your Son must bear Your Name, for You created him. Let me not see him as a stranger to his Father, nor as a stranger to myself. For he is part of me and I of him, and we are part of You Who are our Source, eternally united in Your love, eternally the holy Son of God.
2. We who are one would recognize this day the truth about ourselves. We would come home and rest in unity. For there is peace, and nowhere else can peace be sought and found.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 67. “A thousand forms” refers to a thousand bodies. These give the false appearance that the minds within those bodies are separate from each other, when in fact they remain as one.
Persona Notes:
Let me perceive no differences today. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built to separate parts of his Self from other parts. It is within this fence he thinks he lives, to die as it decays and crumbles. For within this fence he thinks that he is safe from love. Identifying with his safety, he regards himself as what his safety is. How else could he be certain he remains within the body, keeping love outside?
2. The body will not stay. Yet this he sees as double safety, for the Son of God’s impermanence is proof his fences work, and do the task his mind assigned to them. For if his oneness still remained untouched. Who could attack and who could be attacked?65
3. The body is a dream. Like other dreams, it sometimes seems to picture happiness, but can quite suddenly revert to fear, where every dream is born. For only love creates in truth, and truth can never fear. Made to be fearful, must a body serve the purpose given it. But we can change the purpose which the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for.
4. The body is the means by which God’s Son returns to sanity. Though it was made to fence him into hell without escape, yet has the goal of Heaven been exchanged for the pursuit of hell. The Son of God extends his hand to reach his brother, and to help him walk along the road with him. Now is the body holy. Now it serves to heal the mind that it was made to kill.
5. You will identify with what you think will make you safe. Whatever it may be, you will believe that it is one with you. Your safety lies in truth and not lies. Love is your safety. Fear does not exist. identify with love, and you are safe. Identify with love, and you are home. Identify with love, and find your Self.
Footnote 65. The body, in other words, is there to demonstrate that we can attack and be attacked, be victor and prey, be murderer and victim. The body thus “proves” that we have genuinely separated from the other parts of our Self.
Lesson 261
God Is My Refuge and Security.66
I will identify with what I think is refuge and security. I will behold myself where I perceive my strength, and think I live within the citadel where I am safe and cannot be attacked. Let me today seek not security in danger, nor attempt to find my peace in murderous attack. I live in God. In Him I find my refuge and my strength. In Him is my identity. In Him is everlasting peace. And only there will I remember who I really am.
2. Let me not seek for idols. I would come, my Father, home to You today, I choose to be as You created me and find the Son whom You created as my Self.[1]
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 66. Psalm 46:1 (KJV): “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” This Bible verse I given a psychological application by today’s lesson. The lesson’s core principle is that our sense of where we are located comes from what we identify with, and what we identify with is whatever location we think will make us safe (“I will…think I live within the citadel where I am safe”). Therefore, if we identify with God as our refuge and security (i.e., safety), we will see ourselves as actually being located in God rather than in the body, and we will feel truly safe in His “everlasting peace.”
Personal Notes
God is my refuge and security. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Father, I did not make myself, although in my insanity I thought I did. Yet as Your thought, I have not left my Source, remaining part of What created me. Your Son, Father, calls on You today. Let me remember You created me. Let me remember my identity. And let my sinlessness arise again before Christ’s vision, through which I would look upon my brothers and myself today.64.
2. Now is our Source remembered, and therein we find our true identity at last. Holy indeed are we, because our Source can know no sin. And we who are His Sons are like each other and alike to Him.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 64. As this prayer makes clear, remembering that God created us is really about remembering what this implies about ourselves. It implies that our identity is set by God (that we do not shape our own identity through our thoughts and deeds), that we remain part of our Source, that we are God’s Son, and that, like our Father, we are sinless.
Personal Notes:
Let me remember God created me. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Sin is the only thought that makes the goal of God seem unobtainable. What else could blind us to the obvious and make the strange and the distorted seem more clear? What else but sin engenders our attacks? What else but sin could be the source of guilt, demanding suffering and punishment? And what but guilt could be the source of fear, obscuring God’s creation; giving love the attributes of fear and of attack?
2. Father, I would not be insane today. I would not be afraid of love, nor seek for refuge in its opposite. For love can have no opposite. You are the Source of everything that is. And everything that is remains with You and You with it.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Let me remember that there is no sin. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
All that is needful is to train our minds to overlook all little, senseless aims, and to remember that our goal is God. His memory is hidden in our minds, obscured but by our pointless little aims, which offer nothing and do not exist. Shall we continue to allow God’s grace to shine in unawareness, while the toys and trinkets of the world are sought instead? God is our only goal, our only love. We have no aim but to remember Him.
2. Our goal is but to follow in the way that leads to You. We have no goal but this. What could we want but to remember You? What could we seek but our identity?[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Let me remember that my goal is God. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
If I forget my goal, I can be but confused, unsure of what I want, and thus conflicted in my actions. No one can serve contradicting goals and serve them well. Nor can he function without deep distress and great depression. Let us therefore be determined to remember what we want today, that we may unify our thoughts and actions meaningfully and achieve only what God would have us do this day.
2. Father, forgiveness is Your chosen means for our salvation. Let us not forget today that we can have no will but Yours as well, if we would reach the peace You will for us.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Let me remember what my purpose is. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
The way to God is through forgiveness here. There is no other way. If sin had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there have been to find a way to where you are? Who would still be uncertain? Who could be unsure of who he is? And who would yet remain asleep in heavy clouds of doubt about the holiness of him whom God created sinless? Here we can but dream. But we can dream we have forgiven him in whom all sin remains impossible, and it is this we choose to dream today. God is our goal; forgiveness is the means by which our minds return to Him at last.
2. And so, our Father, we would come to You in Your appointed way.63. We have no goal except to hear Your Voice and find the way Your sacred Word has pointed out to us.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 63. “Your appointed way” is forgiveness.
Personal Notes:
God is the only goal I have today. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
It does not seem to me that I can choose to have peace today. And yet my God assures me that His Son is like Himself. Let me this day have faith in Him Who says I am God’s Son. And let the peace I choose be mine today bear witness to the truth of what He says.62.God’s Son can have no cares, and must remain forever in the peace of Heaven. In his name I give today to finding what my Father wills for me, accepting it as mine, and giving it to all my Father’s Sons along with me.
2. And so, my Father, would I pass this day with You. Your Son has not forgotten You. The peace You gave him still is in his mind, and it is there I choose to spend today.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 62. John 18:37 (RSV): “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” In the above allusion, it is our peace that bears witness to the truth that we are God’s Son.
Personal Notes:
This day I choose to spend in perfect peace. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Father, today I would but hear Your Voice. In deepest silence I would come to You, to hear Your Voice and to receive Your Word. I have no prayer but this: I come to You to ask You for the truth. And truth is but Your will, which I would share with You today.
2. Today we let no ego thoughts direct our words or actions. When such thoughts occur, we quietly step back and look at them we let them go.59 We do not want what they would bring with them, and so we do not choose to keep them. And in the stillness, hallowed by His love, God speaks to us and tells us of our will,60as we have chosen to remember Him.[1]
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 59. This sentence provides instruction for response to temptation. Whenever we notice an ego thought directing our words or actions today, we should step back and look at it, then let it go by repeating “Let every voice but God’s be still in me.”
Footnote 60. That God “tells us of our will” means that He tells us what we really want.
Personal Notes:
Let every voice but God’s be still in me. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
It is impossible that anything should come to me unbidden by myself. Even in this world it is I who rule my destiny. What happens is what I desire. What does not occur is what I do not want to happen. This must I accept. For thus am I led past this world to my creations, children of my will, in Heaven where my holy Self abides with them and Him Who has created me.
2. You are the Self Whom You created Son, creating like Yourself and one with You. My Self, Which rules the universe, is but Your will in perfect union with my own, which can but offer glad assent to Yours, that it may be extended to itself.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
My Self is ruler of the universe. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
My Self is holy beyond all the thoughts of holiness of which I now conceive. Its shimmering and perfect purity is far more brilliant than is any light I have ever looked upon. Its love is limitless, with an intensity which holds all things within it, in the calm of quiet certainty. Its strength comes not from burning impulses which move this world, but from the boundless love of God Himself. How far beyond this world my Self must be, and yet how near to me and close to God!
2. Father, You know my true identity. Reveal it now to me who am Your Son, that I may waken to the truth in You, and know that Heaven is restored to me.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
The Son of God is my identity. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Sin is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth. And being mad, it sees illusions where the truth should be, and where it really is. Sin gave the body eyes, for what is there the sinless would behold? What need have they of sights or sounds or touch? What would they hear or reach to grasp? What would they sense at all? To sense is not to know. And truth can be but filled with knowledge and with nothing else.51
2. The body is the instrument the mind made in its striving to deceive itself. Its purpose is to strive. Yet can the goal of striving change. And now the body serves a different aim for striving. What it seeks for now is chosen by the aim the mind has taken as replacement for the goal of self-deception. Truth can be its aim as well as lies. The senses then will seek instead the witnesses to what is true.52
3. Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts which are untrue. They are the “proof” that what has no reality is real. Sin “proves” God’s Son is evil, timelessness must have an end, eternal life must die. And God Himself has lost the Son He loves, with but corruption to complete Himself, His will forever overcome by death, love slain by hate, and peace to be no more.
4. A madman’s dreams are frightening, and sin appears indeed to terrify. And yet what sin perceives is but a childish game. The Son of God may play he has become a body, prey to evil and to guilt, with but a little life that ends in death. But all the while his Father shines on him, and loves him with an everlasting love which his pretenses cannot change at all.53
5. How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin.54 Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children’s toys? How soon will you be ready to come home? Perhaps today? There is no sin. Creation is unchanged. Would you still hold return to Heaven back? How long, O holy Son of God, how long?[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 51. The idea in this paragraph is that sin is a break with reality—the reality of spirit. Therefore, to maintain itself, sin must distance us from reality. It does this by giving us physical senses (“Sin gave the body eyes”, which distance us from reality in two ways. First, our senses do not provide direct knowledge, but rather stand forever outside what they are trying to know, always reaching but never truly grasping. Second, our senses look on a world of illusions, a world that seems to prove that the insanity of sin is actually the truth.
Footnote 52, In the Course, the witnesses to the truth, the witnesses our senses should look for, are expressions of love in the world. See, for instance, T-19.IV.A. 16:4: “They [the messengers of love, the senses used for the purpose of seeking love] will be as careful to let no little act of charity, no tiny expression of forgiveness, no little breath of love escape their notice.”
Footnote 53. Jeremiah 31:3 (RSV): “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
Footnote 54. Psalm 13: 1-2 (ESV): “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” The above passage takes the traditional cry “How long, O Lord?” and transforms it. Instead of us asking God how long He will wait before He frees us from our trials and our enemies, Jesus is asking us how long we will wait before we return home to God. As the rest of the paragraph implies, we wait because we believe we have sinned and therefore cannot come home. But our supposed sin is just a childish game, and thus our original innocence remains unchanged. Why, then, are we waiting?
Part II
4. What Is Sin?
Lesson 251
I Am In Need Of Nothing But The Truth.
I sought for many things and found despair. Now do I seek but one, for in that one is all I need and only what I need. All that I sought before I needed not and did not even want. But now I see that I need only truth. In that, all needs are satisfied, all cravings end, all hopes are finally fulfilled, and dreams are gone. Now have I everything that I could need. Now have I everything that I could want. And now at last I find myself at peace.
2. And for that peace, our Father, we give thanks. What we denied ourselves You have restored, and only that is what we really want.[1].
Personal Notes:
I am in need of nothing but the truth. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Let me behold the Son of God today and witness to his glory. Let me not try to obscure the holy light in him and see his strength diminished and reduced to frailty, nor perceive the lacks in him with which I would attack his sovereignty.
2. He is Your Son, my Father. And today I would behold his gentleness instead of my illusions. He is what I am, and as I see him, so I see myself. Today I would see truly, that this day I may at last identify with him.50.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 50. The Son of God in this lesson seems to be our brother. See especially the third sentence of the prayer: “As you see him, so I see myself.” This line (which is a rewording of T-8.II.6:2 “As you see him” as referring to our brother. The focus of the lesson, then, is on seeing our brother’s glory (“the holy light in him”), his strength, his sovereignty, and his gentleness, so that we can “at last identify with him,” and as a result no longer see ourselves as limited.
Personal Notes:
Let me not see myself as limited. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Forgiveness paints a picture of a world where suffering is over, loss becomes impossible, and anger makes no sense. Attack is gone, and madness has an end. What suffering is now conceivable? What loss can be sustained? The world becomes a place of joy, abundance, charity, and endless giving. It is now so like to Heaven that it quickly is transformed into the light that it reflects. And so the journey which the Son of God began has ended in the light from which he came.
2. Father, we would return our minds to You. We have betrayed them, held them in the vise of bitterness, and frightened them with thoughts of violence and death. Now would we rest again in You, as You created us.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Persona Notes:
Forgiveness ends all suffering and loss. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
I have disowned the truth. Now let me be as faithful in disowning falsity. Whatever suffers is not part of me. What grieves is not myself.49. What is in pain is but illusion in my mind. What dies was never living in reality, and did but mock the truth about myself. Now I disown self-concepts and deceits and lies about the holy Son of God. Now am I ready to accept him back as God created him and as he is.
2. Father, my ancient love for You returns, and lets me love Your Son again as well. Father, I am as You created me. Now is Your love remembered, and my own. Now do I understand that they are one.[1]
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 49. When we suffer, then, we are the real Son of God identifying with an illusion of ourselves. We God’s Son, do not actually suffer, for we cannot be damaged, but we do experience suffering when we identify with something that can be damaged.
Personal Notes:
Whatever suffers is not part of me. I meditate on this thought for today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Sin is the symbol of attack. Behold it anywhere, and I will suffer. For forgiveness is the only means whereby Christ’s vision comes to me. Let me accept what His sight shows me as the simple truth, and I am healed completely. Brother, come and let me look on you. Your loveliness reflects my own. Your sinlessness is mine. You stand forgiven, and I stand with you.
2. So would I look on everyone today. My brothers are Your Sons. Your Fatherhood created them, and gave them all to me as part of You and my own Self as well. Today I honor You through them, and thus I hope this day to recognize my Self.[1]
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Without forgiveness I will still be blind. I meditate on this thought for today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
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 Son45 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.46
2. I will accept the way You choose for me to come to You, my Father.47 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.[1]
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 45. “God’s Son” here refers to our brothers, the ones we hate and must come to love.
Footnote 46. “Fail to recognize myself” seems to be the same as the inability to “know…my Self” from the previous sentence. The idea is that when we hate and try to hurt our brother, we become blinded to who we really are. Falsely believing we are sinful and unworthy, we cannot conceive of how much God really loves us and how much we really love Him.
Footnote 47. The way God chooses for us to come to Him is through love of our brothers. That God chooses this implies that it is the best option among a field of potential ways to return to Him.
Personal Notes:
To love my Father is to love His Son. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Your peace surrounds me, Father. Where I go, Your peace goes 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 me to them, 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.
2. 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 of 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.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Your peace is with me, Father. I am safe. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
