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!
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?
2. And there we are in truth. No storms can come into the hallowed haven or our home. In God are we secure. For what can come to threaten God Himself, or make afraid what will forever be a part of Him?[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I am in danger nowhere in the world. 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!
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 judgements which I cannot make. Thus do I free myself and what I look upon, to be in peace as God created us.
2. 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.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Today I will judge nothing that occurs. 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 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. For there is One Who knows all that is best for me,42. and He is glad to make no choices for me but the ones that lead to God. This day I give to Him, for I would not delay my coming home, and it is He Who knows the way to God.
2. 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 needs. And You will give us all things that we want and that will help us find the way to You.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 42. The “One Who knows” is the Holy Spirit.
Personal Notes:
This day is God’s. It is my gift to Him. What a Blessing we have of the privilege to lay our lives in the All Loving, All Capable Hands of our Heavenly Father! 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 world is false perception. It is born of error, and it has not left its source. It will remain no longer than the thought that gave it birth is cherished. When the thought of separation has been changed to one of true forgiveness will the world be seen in quite another light, and one that leads to truth, where all the world must disappear and all its errors vanish. Now its source has gone, and its effects are gone as well.
2. The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes fear. And what is fear except love’s absence? Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him. Here was perception born, for knowledge could not cause such insane thoughts. But eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely. Now mistakes become quite possible, for certainty has gone.
3. The mechanisms of illusions have been born instead. And now they go to find what has been given them to seek. Their aim is to fulfill the purpose which the world was made to witness and make real. They see in its illusions but a solid base where truth exists, upheld apart from lies. Yet everything which they report is but illusion which is kept apart from truth.
4. As sight was made to lead away from truth, it can be redirected. Sounds become the call of God. And all perception can be given a new purpose by the One Whom God appointed Savior to the world. Follow His light, and see the world as He beholds it. Hear His voice alone in all that speaks to you. And let Him give you peace and certainty, which you have thrown away, but Heaven has preserved for you in Him.
5. Let us not rest content until the world has joined our changed perception. Let us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made complete. And let us not attempt to change our function. We must save the world. For we who made it must behold it through the eye of Christ, that what was made to die can be restored to everlasting life.
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.
2. 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.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
What is the world? And what is fear except love’s absence? This Holy instant is salvation come. 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!
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 Son of God. There is no fear in us, for we are each a part of Love Itself.
2. 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 that is Your Own as well.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Fear in not justified in any form. 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 not the truth about ourselves today be hidden by a false humility. Let us instead be thankful for the gifts our Father gave us. Can we see in those with whom He shares His glory any trace of sin and guilt? And can it be that we are not among them, when He loves His Son forever and with perfect constancy, knowing he is as He created Him?
2. We thank You, Father, for the light that shines forever in us.34. And we honor it, because You share it with us. We are one, united in this light and one with You, at peace with all creation and ourselves.[1].
Footnote 34. In the Bible, “glory” often refers to divine radiance. Therefore, “the light that shines forever in us” is also the glory of our Father that is our own.
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
The glory of my Father is 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!
Father, Your trust in me has been so great, I must be worthy. You created me, and know me as I am. And yet You placed Your Son’s salvation in my hands and let it rest on my decision. I must be beloved of You indeed. And I must be steadfast in holiness as well, that you would give Your Son to me in certainty that he is safe who still is part of You, and yet is mine because he is my Self.
2. And so again today we pause to think how much our Father loves us, and how dear His Son, created by His love, remains to Him Whose love is made complete in him.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
On my decision all salvation rests. 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 will accept the truth about myself. I will arise in glory, and allow the light in me to shine upon the world throughout the day.33. I bring the world the tidings of salvation that I hear as God my Father speaks to me. And I behold the world that Christ would have me see, aware it ends the bitter dream of death, aware it is my Father’s call to me.
2. Christ is my eyes today, and His the ears which listen to the Voice of God today. Father, I come to You through Him Who is Your Son and my true Self as well. Amen.[1].
Footnote 33. This may be reference to Isaiah 60:1 (RSV): “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” “Glory” can mean not only a state of exaltation, but also a halo of light, and in a biblical context can refer to divine radiance. By saying. “I will arise in glory [in the morning], and allow the light in me to shine upon the world throughout the day,” this sentence is drawing upon this association of glory with light. In addition to emphasizing our divine radiance, it is likening us to the sun, so that like the sun we arise in glory in the morning and shine on the world throughout the day.
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Now would I be as God created me. I meditate on this 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 a kingdom I must rule. At times, it does not seem I am its king at all. It seems to triumph over me, and tell me what to think and what to do and feel. And yet it has been given me to serve whatever purpose I perceive in it. My mind can only serve. Today I give its service to the Holy Spirit, to employ as He sees fit. I thus direct my mind, which I alone can rule. And thus I set it free to do the will of God.32.
2. Father, my mind is open to Your thoughts, and closed today to every thought but Yours. I rule my mind, and offer it to You. Accept my gift, for it is Yours to me.[1].
Footnote 32. “To do the will of God” here seems to mean to serve the Holy Spirits purpose in the world “as He sees fit.”
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I rule my mind, which I alone must rule. I meditate on this 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 need but look upon all things that seem to hurt me, and with perfect certainty assure myself, “God wills that I be saved from this,” and merely watch them disappear. I need but keep in mind my Father’s will for me is only happiness, to find that only happiness has come to me. And I need but remember that His love surrounds His Son and keeps his sinlessness forever perfect, to be sure that I am saved and safe forever in His arms. I am the Son He loves. And I am saved because God in His mercy wills it so.
2. Father, Your holiness is mine. Your love created me, and made my sinlessness forever part of You. I have no quilt or sin in me, for there is none in You.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
God in His mercy wills that I be saved. When temptation comes, I will remind myself, I need but look on all things that seem to hurt me with perfect certainty, God wills that I be saved from this, and merely watch them disappear. I meditate on this 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 we will anticipate the time when dreams of sin and quilt are gone, and we have reached the holy peace we never left. Merely a tiny instant has elapsed between eternity and timelessness. So brief the interval there was no lapse in continuity, nor break in thoughts which are forever unified as one. Nothing has ever happened to disturb the peace of God the Father and the Son. This we accept as wholly true today.
2. We thank You, Father that we cannot lose the memory of Your love. We recognize our safety, and give thanks for all the gifts You have bestowed on us, for all the loving help we have received, for Your eternal patience, and the Word that You have given us that we are saved.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Father, today I am Your Son again. I meditate on this 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 give You all my thoughts today. I would have none of mine. In place of them, give me Your Own. I give You all my acts as well, that I may do Your will instead of seeking goals which cannot be obtained and wasting time in vain imaginings. Today I come to You. I will step back, and merely follow You. Be You the Guide and I the follower, who questions not the wisdom of the Infinite, nor love whose tenderness I cannot comprehend, but which is yet Your perfect gift to me.
2. Today we have one Guide to lead us on. And as we walk together, we will give this day to Him with no reserve at all. This is His day. And so it is a day of countless gifts and mercies unto us.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I give my life to God to run today. I meditate on this 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!
Be in my mind, my Father, when I wake, and shine on me throughout the day today. Let every minute be a time in which I dwell with You. And let me not forget my hourly thanksgiving that You have remained with me, and always will be there to hear my call to You and answer me. As evening comes, let all my thoughts be still of You and of Your love. And let me sleep sure of my safety, certain of Your care, and happily aware I am Your Son.
2. This is as every day should be. Today practice the end of fear. Have faith in Him Who is your Father. Trust all things to Him. Let Him reveal all things to you, and be you undismayed, because you are His Son.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Be in my mind, my Father, through the day. I need my Heavenly Father every second of every minute, of every day! I meditate on this 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!
Salvation is a promise, made by God, that you would find your way to Him at last. It cannot but be kept. It guarantees that time will have an end, and all the thoughts that have been born in time will end as well. God’s Word is given every mind which thinks that it has separate thoughts, and will replace these thoughts of conflict with the thought of peace.
2. The thought of peace was given to God’s Son the instant that his mind had thought of war. There was no need for such a thought before, for peace was given without opposite, and merely was. But when the mind is split there is need of healing. So the thought that has the power to heal the split became a part of every fragment of the mind which still was one, but failed to recognize its oneness. Now it did not know itself, and thought its own identity was lost.
3. Salvation is undoing in the sense that it does nothing, failing to support the world of dreams and malice. Thus it lets illusions go. By not supporting them, it merely lets them quietly go down to dust. And what they hid is now revealed: an altar to the holy Name of God whereon His “Word is written, with the gifts of your forgiveness laid before it and the memory of God not far behind.
4. Let us come daily to this holy place and spend a while together. Here we share our final dream. It is a dream in which there is no sorrow, for it holds a hint of all the glory given us by God. The grass is pushing through the soil, the trees are budding now, and birds have come to live within their branches. Earth is being born again in new perception. Night has gone, and we have come together in the light.
5. From here we give salvation to the world, for it is here salvation was received. The song of our rejoicing is the call to all the world that freedom is returned, that time is almost over, and God’s Son has but an instant more to wait until his Father is remembered, dreams are done, eternity has shined away the world, and only Heaven now exist at all.
Lesson 231
Father, I Will But To Remember You.
What can I seek for, Father, but Your love? Perhaps I think I seek for something else, a something I have called by many names. Yet is Your love the only thing I seek, or ever sought. For there is nothing else that I could ever really want to find. Let me remember You. What else could I desire but the truth about myself?
2. This is your will my brother. And you share this will with me, and with the One as well Who is our Father. To remember Him is Heaven. This we seek. And only this is what it will be given us to find.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Father, I will but to remember You. What can I seek for, Father, but Your love. I meditate on this 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!
In peace I was created, and in peace do I remain. It is not given me to change my Self. How merciful is God my Father, that when He created me He gave me peace forever. Now I ask but to be what I am. And can this be denied me, when it is forever so?
2. Father, I seek the peace You have as mine in creation. What was given then must be here now, for my creation was apart from time, and still remains beyond all change. The peace in which Your Son was born into Your Mind is shining there unchanged. I need but call on You to find the peace You gave. It is Your will that gave it to Your Son.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Now will I seek and find the peace of God. I meditate on this 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 seek my own identity, and find it in these words: “Love, which created me, is what I am.” Now need I seek no more. Love has prevailed. So still it waited for my coming home that I will turn away no longer from the holy face of Christ. And what I look upon attests the truth of the identity I sought to lose, but which my Father has kept safe for me.
2. Father, my thanks to You for what I am; for keeping my identity untouched and sinless in the midst of all the thoughts of sin my foolish mind made up. And thanks to You for saving me from them. Amen[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Love, which created me, is what I am. I meditate on this 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 Father knows my holiness. Shall I deny His knowledge and believe in what that knowledge makes impossible? Shall I accept as true what He proclaims as false? Or shall I take His Word for what I am, since He is my Creator and the One Who knows the true condition of His Son?
2. Father, I was mistaken in myself, because I failed to realize the Source from Which I came. I have not left that Source to enter in a body and to die. My holiness remains a part of me, as I am part of You. And my mistakes about myself are dreams. I let them go today. And I stand ready to receive Your Word alone for what I really am. [1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 22. This lesson likens us to the woman caught in adultery in John 8 (KJV), where, as the crowd is about to stone her, Jesus says, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Then, after all of her accusers have left, he says, “Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?” She responds, “No man, Lord.” And he says, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” The above passage changes the situation from other people not condemning the woman and Jesus not condemning her either to God not condemning us and us not condemning ourselves either. The concluding sentence, “No more do I,” may have a double meaning. It seems to mean “No longer do I,” and in fact the phrase “no more” in the sense of “no longer” is the conclusion of the biblical story (“sin no more”). This would mean that condemning ourselves “no more” is this lesson’s version of sinning “no more.” And it also seems to mean “Neither do I,” since that is what Jesus says in John 8 when the woman tells him that no man has condemned her, and since one of the meanings of “no more” is “neither.”
Personal Notes:
God has condemned me not. No more do I. What a wonderful reminder this is for me and to share with my brothers, let us remember to encourage ourselves and others with this blessing of Truth. I meditate on this 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, it is today that I am free, because my will is Yours. I thought to make another will. Yet nothing that I thought apart from You exists. And I am free because I was mistaken, and did not affect my own reality at all by my illusions. Now I give them up and lay then down before the feet of truth, to be removed forever from my mind. This is my holy instant of release. Father, I know my will is one with Yours.
2. And so today we find our glad return to Heaven, which we never really left. The Son of God this day lays down his dreams. The Son of God this day comes home again, released from sin and clad in holiness, with his right mind restored to him at last.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
This is my holy instant of release. I am free, for whom the Son sets free is free indeed. I meditate on this 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 so choose, I can depart this world entirely. It is not death which makes this possible, but it is change of mind about the purpose of the world. If I believe it has a value as I see it now, so will it still remain for me. But if I see no value in the world as I behold it, nothing that I want to keep as mine or search for as a goal, it will depart from me. For I have not sought for illusions to replace the truth.
2. Father, my home awaits my glad return. Your arms are open and I hear Your Voice. What need have I to linger in a place of vain desires and of broken dreams, when Heaven can so easily be mine?[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
My home awaits me. I will hasten there. The love hate relationship I have created is something I choose to release to Holy Spirit with all its illusions. I chose the Vision of Jesus to see with truth, love, and forgiveness. I only want what is real, true and eternal in place of nothingness and deception. I meditate on this 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 must return, Your love for me, for giving and receiving are the same, and You have given all Your love to me. I must return it, for I want it mine in full awareness, blazing in my mind and keeping it within its kindly light, inviolate, beloved, with fear behind and only peace ahead. How still the way Your loving Son is led along to You!
2. Brother, we find that stillness now. The way is open. Now we follow it in peace together. You have reached your hand to me, and I will never leave you. We are one, and it is but this oneness that we seek as we accomplish these few final steps which end a journey that was not begun.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
God is my Father, and His Son loves Him.I meditate on this 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 true identity is so secure, so lofty, sinless, glorious and great wholly beneficent and free of guilt, that Heaven looks to it to give it light. It lights the world as well. It is the gift my Father gave me, and the one I give the world a well. There is no gift but this that can be either given or received. This is reality, and only this. This is illusion’s end. It is truth.
2. My Name, my Father, still is know to You. I have forgotten it, and do not know where I am going, who I am, or what it is I do. Remind me, Father, now, for I am weary of the world I see. Reveal what You would have me see instead.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
God is my Father, and He loves His Son. I meditate on this 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 was mistaken when I thought I lived apart from God, a separate entity which moved in isolation, unattached, and housed within a body. Now I know my life is God, I have no other home, and I do not exist apart from Him. He has no thoughts that are not part of me, and I have none but those which are of Him.
2. Our Father, let us see the face of Christ instead of our mistakes, for we who are Your holy Son are sinless. We would look upon our sinlessness, for guilt proclaims that we are not Your Son, and we would not forget You longer. We are lonely here, and long for Heaven, where we are at home. Today we would return. Our name is Yours, and we acknowledge that we are Your Son.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
God is my life. I have no life but Him. I meditate on this 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 is with me. He is my Source of life, the life within, the air I breathe, the food by which I am sustained, the water which renews and cleanses me. He is my home, wherein I live and move,16. the Spirit Which directs my actions, offers me its thoughts, and guarantees my safety from all pain. He covers me with kindness and with care, and holds in love the Son He shines upon, who knows the truth of what He speaks today!
2. Father, we have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our minds, as we come quietly into Your presence now, and ask to rest with You in peace a while.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 16. Acts 17:28 (RSV): “In him we live and move and have our being.”
Personal Notes:
I meditate on this 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 come to you today to seek the peace that You alone can give. I come in silence. In the quiet of my heart, the deep recesses of my mind, I wait and listen for Your Voice. My Father, speak to me today. I come to hear Your Voice in silence and in certainty and love, sure You will hear my call and answer me.
2. Now do we wait in quiet. God is here, because we wait together.14. I am sure that He well speak to you, and you will hear. Accept my confidence, for it is yours. Our minds are joined. We wait with one intent: to hear our Father’s answer to our call, to let our thoughts be still and find His peace, to hear Him speak to us of what we are, and to let Him reveal Himself unto His Son.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 14. Jesus is saying here that he will join us in our meditation as we wordlessly wait for God. See the Introduction to Part II for instruction in this kind of meditation: “We say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us”.
Personal Notes:
I meditate on this 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!
Words will mean little now. We use them but as guides on which we do not now depend, for now we seek direct experience of truth alone. The lessons which remain are merely introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace. Now we begin to reach the goal this course has set, and find the end toward which our practicing was geared.
2. Now we attempt to let the exercise be merely a beginning. For we wait in quiet expectation for our God and Father. He has promised He will take the final step Himself, and we are sure His promises are kept. We have come far along the road, and now we wait for Him.
3. We will continue spending time with Him each morning and at night, as long as makes us happy. We will not consider time a matter of duration now. We use as much as we will need for the result that we desire. Nor will we forget our hourly remembrances, calling to God in between when we have need of Him as we are tempted to forget our goal.
4. We will continue with a central thought for all the days to come. And we will use that thought to introduce our times of rest, and calm our minds at need. Yet we will not content ourselves with simple practicing in the remaining holy instants which conclude the year that we have given God. We say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself as He has promised. We have called to Him, and He has promised that His Son will not remain unanswered when he calls His Name.
5. Now do we come to Him with but His Word upon our minds and hearts, and wait for Him to take the step to us that He has told us, through His Voice, He would not fail to take when we invited Him. He has not left His Son in all his madness, nor betrayed His trust in him. Has not His faithfulness earned Him the invitation that He seeks to make us happy? We will offer it, and it will now be spent. We say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us.
6. Now is the time of prophecy fulfilled. Now are all ancient promises upheld and fully kept. No step remains for time to separate from its accomplishment. For now we cannot fail. Sit silently and wait upon your Father. He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so. And you could have never come this far unless you saw, however dimly, that it is your will.
7. I am so close to you we cannot fail. Father, we give these holy times to You, in gratitude to Him Who taught us how to leave the world of sorrow in exchange for its replacement, given us by You. We look not backward now. We look ahead, and fix our eyes upon the journey’s end. Accept these little gifts of thanks from us, as through Christ’s vision we behold a world beyond the one we made and take that world to be the full replacement for our own.
8. And now we wait in silence, unafraid and certain of Your coming. We have sought to find our way by following the Guide You sent to us. We did not know the way, but You did not forget us. And we know that You will not forget us now. We ask but that Your ancient promises be kept, which are Your will to keep. We will with You in asking this. The Father and the Son, Whose holy will created all that is, can fail in nothing. In this certainty, we undertake these last few steps to You and rest in confidence upon Your love, which will not fail the Son who calls to You.
9. And so we start upon the final part of this one holy year, which we have spent together in the search for truth and God, Who is its one Creator. We have found the way He chose for us, and made the choice to follow it as He would have us go. His hand has held us up. His thoughts have lit the darkness of our minds. His love has called to us unceasingly since time began.
10. We had a wish that God would fail to have the Son whom He created in Himself. We wanted God to change Himself, and be what we would make of Him. And we believed that our insane desires were the truth. Now we are glad that this is all undone, and we no longer think illusions true. The memory of God is shimmering across the wide horizons of our minds. A moment more, and it will rise again. A moment more, and we who are God’s Son are safely home, where He would have us be.
11. Now is the need for practice almost done. For in this final section we will come to understand that we need only call to God, and all temptations disappear. Instead of words, we need but feel His love. Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name. Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. We will accept the way God’s plan will end, as we received the way it started. Now is complete. This year has brought us to eternity.
12. One further use for words we still retain. From time to time, instructions on a theme of special relevance will be interspersed with our daily lessons and the periods of wordless, deep experience which should come afterwards. These special thoughts should be reviewed each day, each one of them to be continued till the next is given you. They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy and blessed instants in the day. We give the first of these instructions now.
1. What Is Forgiveness?
Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. It does not pardon sins and make them real. It sees there was no sin. And in this view are all your sins forgiven. What is sin except a false idea about God’s Son? Forgiveness merely sees its falsity, and therefore lets it go. What then is free to take its place is now the will of God.
2. An unforgiving thought is one which makes a judgement that it will not raise to doubt, although it is untrue. The mind is closed, and will not be released. The thought protects projection, tightening its chains so that distortions are more veiled and more obscure; less easily accessible to doubt and further kept from reason. What can come between a fixed projection and the aim that it has chosen as its needed goal?
3. An unforgiving thought does many things. In frantic action it pursues its goal, twisting and overturning what it sees as interfering with its chosen path. Distortion is its purpose, and the means by which it would accomplish it as well. It sets about its furious attempts to smash reality without concern for anything that would appear to pose a contradiction to its point of view.
4. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does nothing. It offends no aspect of reality, nor seeks to twist it to appearances it likes. It merely looks and waits and judges not. He who would not forgive must judge, for he must justify his failure to forgive. But he who would forgive himself must learn to welcome truth exactly as it is.
5. Do nothing, then, and let forgiveness show you what to do through Him Who is your Guide, your Savior and Protector, strong in hope, and certain of your ultimate success. He has forgiven you already, for such is His function, given Him by God. Now must you share His function, and forgive whom He has saved, whose sinlessness He sees, and whom He honors as the Son of God.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
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 Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.
1. (200) There is no peace except the peace of God.
Let me not wander from the way of peace,
For I am lost on other roads than this.
But let me follow Him Who leads me home,
And peace is certain as the love of God.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I am not at body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. There is no peace except the peace of God. Seek you no further. You will not find peace except the peace of God. Come home. You have not found your happiness in foreign places and in alien forms which have no meaning to you, though you seek to make them meaningful. This world is not where you belong. We are strangers here. But it is given us to find the means whereby the world no longer seems to be a prison house to me or anyone. As we change our mind about the purpose of the world, we find escape. Peace is the bridge which everyone will cross to leave this world behind. But it begins within the world perceived as different, and will lead from this perception to the gate of Heaven and the way beyond. Peace is the answer to conflicting goals, to senseless journeys, frantic vain pursuits, and meaningless endeavors. Let us not lose our way again today. We go to Heaven, and the path is straight. Only if we attempt to wander can there be delay and needless waste of time on thorny byways. Today we seek no idols. Peace cannot be found in them. The peace of God is ours, and only this will we accept and want. We seek no further. We are close to home, and draw still nearer every time we say: There is no peace except the peace of God, and I am glad and thankful it is so.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 Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am as God Created Me
1. (199) I am not a body. I am free.
I am God’s Son. Be still, my mind, and think a moment upon this.
And then return to earth without confusion as to what my Father loves forever as His Son.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. The mind can be made free when it no longer sees itself as in a body, firmly tied to it, and sheltered by its presence. If this were truth, the mind would be vulnerable indeed! The mind that serves Holy Spirit is unlimited forever in all ways, beyond the laws of time and space, unbound by any preconceptions, and with strength and power to do whatever it is asked. Holy Spirit is the home of mind that seeks for freedom. In Him it has found what is sought. Be free today, carry freedom as your gift to those who still believe they are enslaved within a body. Be you free, so that Holy Spirit can make use of your escape from bondage to set free the many who perceive themselves as bound and helpless and afraid. Let love replace their fears through you. Accept salvation now, and give your mind to Him Who calls to you to make this gift to Him. I am not a body. I am free. I hear the Voice that God has given me, and it is only this my mind obeys. 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 Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.
1. (198) Only my condemnation injures me.
My condemnation keeps my vision dark.
And with my sightless eyes I cannot see the vision of my glory.[1].
Yet today I can behold this glory and be glad.453
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 453. We behold the vision of our glory by letting go of condemnation and offering forgiveness instead.
Personal Notes:
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created Me. Only my condemnation injures me. Injury is impossible. And yet illusion makes illusion. If you can condemn, you can be injured. Condemn and you are made a prisoner; forgive and you are freed. Forgiveness is the only road that leads out of disaster, past all suffering, and finally away from death. Today we practice letting freedom come to make its home with us. The truth bestows these words upon our mind, that we may find the key to light and let darkness end: Only my condemnation injures me. Only my own forgiveness sets me free. This is the gift the Holy Spirit holds for us from God our Father. As we forgive the trespasses, we thought guilty of, and see our innocence shining upon us from the face of Christ Jesus. 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 Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created me.
1. (197) It can be but my gratitude I earn.
Who should give thanks for my salvation but myself?
And how but through salvation can I find the Self to Whom my thanks are due?
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. It can be but my gratitude I earn. Here is the second step to free our mind from the belief in outside force pitted against our own. We make attempts at kindness and forgiveness, then turn them to attack again unless we find external gratitude and lavish thanks. Our gratitude is all our gifts require, that they be lasting offerings of a thankful heart released from hell forever. It does not matter if another thinks our gifts unworthy. In his mind there is a part that joins with ours in thanking us. It does not matter if our gifts seem lost and ineffectual. They are received where they are given. In our gratitude are they excepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the heart of God Himself. God blesses every gift you give to Him, and every gift is given Him because it can be given only to yourself, and what belongs to God must be His Own.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 Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.
1. (196) It can be but myself I crucify.
All that I do, I do unto myself.
If I attack, I suffer.
But if I forgive, salvation will be given me.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. It can be but myself I crucify. When this is firmly understood and kept in full awareness, you will not attempt to harm yourself, nor make your body slave to vengeance. You will be free of the insane belief that to attack another saves yourself. (Footnote 451. Matthew 7:12 (ASV): “All things therefore whatsovever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.” The Golden Rule says that we should do unto others the things we would like done unto ourselves. The above reinterpretation, however, states that what we do unto others we do unto ourselves. If we attack them, we crucify ourselves. But if we extend forgiveness to them, we forgive ourselves and find salvation.) Who could believe his Father is his deadly enemy, separate from him waiting to destroy his life and blot him from the universe, without the fear of hell upon his heart? Once we understand it is impossible that we be hurt except by our own thoughts, the fear of God must disappear. As we forgive, practicing the Holy instant receiving our salvation the fear of God disappears and we can call on Him to save us from illusions in His love, calling Him Father and ourselves His Son. Pray that the instant may be soon—today! Step back from fear and make advance to love. 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 Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.
1. (195) Love is the way I walk in gratitude.
The Holy Spirit is my only Guide.
He walks with me in love. And I give thanks
to Him for showing me the way to go.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. Love is the way I walk in gratitude. Love makes no comparisons, and gratitude can only be sincere if it is joined to love. We offer thanks to God our Father that in us all things will find their freedom. In sincerity I give thanks, to let my gratitude make room for all who will escape with me: the sick, the weak, the needy and afraid, those who mourn a seeming loss or feel apparent pain, who suffer cold or hunger, or who walk the way of hatred and the path of death. All these go with me. Let us not compare ourselves with them, for thus we split them off in our awareness from the unity we share with them as they must share with us. We thank our Father that we are separate from no living thing and therefore one with Him. Let us walk then, in the way of love. For hatred is forgotten when we lay comparisons aside. When our forgiveness is complete, we will have total gratitude, and see that everything has earned the right to love by being loving, even as our Self. Our gratitude will pave the way to God and shorten our learning time by more than we can ever dream of. Gratitude goes hand in hand with love, and where one is found the other must be found.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 Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.
1. (194) I place the future in the hands of God.
The past is gone; the future is not yet.
Now am I freed from both. For what God gives
Can only be for good, and I accept but what He gives as what belongs to me.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I place the future in the hands of God. God holds our future as He holds our past and present. They are one to Him, and so they should be one to us. Yet in this world the temporal progression still seems real, and so we are not asked to understand the lack of sequence really found in time. We are but asked to let the future go, and place it in God’s hands. Release the future. For the past is gone, and what is present, freed from its bequest of grief and misery, of pain and loss, becomes the instant in which time escapes the bondage of illusions, where it runs its pitiless, inevitable course. What worry can beset the one who gives his future to the loving hands of God? We place then our future in the hands of God. Calling then the memory of Him to come again, replacing all your thoughts of sin and evil with the truth of love. 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 Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created me.
1. (193) All things are lessons God would have me learn.
A lesson is a miracle which God offers
to me in place of thoughts I made that hurt me.
What I learn of Him becomes the way I am set free.
And I choose to learn His lessons and forget my own.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. All things are lessons God would have me learn. Our Heavenly Father has given us Holy Spirit to teach us, to see our perceptions made true and beautiful enough to let the light of Heaven shine upon it. The One Whom God created to replace the foolish thoughts which crept into the mind of His holy Son with peace and joy fulfills His function now. He redirects each lesson we would teach in hate to one in which forgiveness enters, and returns the hate to love, so that fear is gone. And now guilt cannot enter, for its source has been excluded as the purpose of the lesson has been changed to guiltlessness; the hatred has been rooted out by love. Forgive, and we will see this differently. These are the words the Holy Spirit speaks in all our tribulations, all our pain, all suffering regardless of its forms. Let us learn to say these words when we are tempted to believe that pain is real, and death becomes our choice instead life. For God has willed that laughter should replace each one, and His Son be free again. To all that speaks of terror, every apprehension, every care, and every form of suffering, I speak this: I will forgive, and this will disappear.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 Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.
1. (192) I have a function God would have me fill.
I seek the function that would set me free
from all the vain illusions of the world.
Only the function God has given me
can offer freedom. Only this I seek,
and only this will I accept as mine.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I am not at body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I have a function God would have me fill. Forgiveness represents our function here. Forgiveness gently looks upon all things unknown in Heaven, sees them disappear, and leaves the world clean and unmarked slate on which the Word of God can now replace the senseless symbols written there before. Forgiveness is the means by which the fear of death is overcome and guilt is gone. Forgiveness lets the body be perceived as what it is: a simple teaching aid to be laid by when learning is complete. Only forgiveness can restore the peace that God intended for His holy Son. Only forgiveness can persuade the Son to look again upon his holiness. With anger gone, you will indeed perceive that for Christ’s vision and the gift of sight no sacrifice was asked and only pain was lifted from a sick and tortured mind. Who can be born again in Christ but him who has forgiven everyone he sees or thinks or imagines? Who could be set free while he imprisons anyone? Therefore hold no one prisoner. Release instead of bind, for thus are you made free. Our function is to walk in forgiveness, accepting our identity as God created us in oneness and unity in Christ Jesus. 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!
