October 30, 2024 – JOYFUL LIVING!
“There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.” — Khalil Gibran
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15:11.
“‘God loveth a cheerful giver.’ (2Cor 9:7) The Greek word here translated cheerful is hilarion, which means really ‘hilarious, joyful.’.. This shows that there is a definite relation between the cheerfulness or joyfulness of our giving and our prosperity.” Prosperity, Charles Fillmore, 158.
“Daylight, full of small dancing particles and the one great turning, our souls are dancing with you, without feet, they dance. Can you see them when I whisper in your ear” The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks, et. al., 37.
“In the silence we get the wonderful inward joy that is of God. We see what the real is. Those who seek pleasure in the outer are in reality seeking eternal joy: the joy that no man can take away, the joy that Jesus Christ promised us, the joy that comes when we know what it means to be a child of God, when we know what the Father would have us know.” Myrtle Fillmore, How To Let God Help You, 89.
“The best way a Buddhist can keep the teachings of the Buddha alive is to live mindfully in the way the Buddha and his community lived. For Christians, the way to make the Holy Spirit truly present in the church is to practice thoroughly what Jesus lived and taught.” Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ, 73.
“Spiritual harmony comes as infinite perfection, but the degree that you experience is proportionate to your conditioned mind… You have to train yourself to undo all that your parents, your church, and your schools have taught you until you come to the absolute conviction that God is all, and that the power of God is only good.” Joel Goldsmith, The Altitude of Prayer, 91-92.
“Light streams from every atom. Power thunders from every crack of space. Life presses from every seed. Truth struggles to be released from every moment. Every moment new discoveries press and jostle one another, waiting for someone to reach out and seize them — no further away than a thought.” James Dillet Freeman, Prayer the Master Key, 95.
“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” — Buddha.
“But let all who take refuge in thee rejoice, let them ever sing for joy; and do thou defend them, that those who love thy name may exult in thee.” Psalm 5:11.
October 23, 2024 – DOMINION!
“You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet…” Psalm 8:3-6.
“Our work is to bring men and women to the place of true and lasting dominion where they are superior to both riches and poverty. We an do this by showing them that they are spiritual beings, that they live in a spiritual world here and now, and that through the apprehension of the Truth of their being and their relation to God this dominion is to be realized.” Prosperity, Charles Fillmore, 155.
“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don’t go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don’t go back to sleep.” The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks, et. al., 36.
“Since the soul is consciousness, it is reasonable to assume that it is aware of all that really interests it and all that it desires to identify itself with. One who had been spiritually awake and active in soul and body would not be likely to “fall asleep” even though the body were for some reason given up.” Myrtle Fillmore, How To Let God Help You, 112.
“It is through the practice of the church and the Sangha (community) that the teachings come alive. Communities of practice, with all their shortcomings, are the best way to make the teachings available to people.” Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ, 70.
“You cannot return to the Garden of Eden until you have risen above both good and evil. As long as you are merely trying to exchange evil for good or turn evil into good, you are not in paradise… but when overcome spiritually, there remains a permanent blessing.” Joel Goldsmith, The Altitude of Prayer, 90-91.
“To be so much a part of life, so attuned to life, so much life’s vessel, that life would flow through us unconsciously and naturally, without our taking thought!… we would find our fulfillment not in the rewards of our work but in the work itself… Oh, what a way of life this would be!” James Dillet Freeman, Prayer the Master Key, 93-94.
“Your real self – the ‘I am I’ – is master of this land, the ruler of this empire. You rightfully have power and dominion over it, all its inhabitants, and all contained in its realm.” — Robert Collier.
“…yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:13-14.
October 16, 2024 – THE STEWARD OF GOD!
“Stewardship is partnership with God.” — Anonymous
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10.
“See yourself as the steward of God handing out His inexhaustible supplies… Be happy in your giving. God loves a cheerful giver because his mind and heart are open to the flow of the pure substance of Being that balances all things.” Prosperity, Charles Fillmore, 152.
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks, et. al., 36.
“The real man is not of any of these forms; he is the force that causes the forms to exist, and when he knows this, every phase of phenomenal life comes under his dominion. Thus spiritual science teaches that only limited results can be obtained by studying the body or any of its conditions. The body has its origin in the mind and can be successfully regulated only from that point.” Myrtle Fillmore, How To Let God Help You, 57.
“The Gospels in their written or even oral form are not the living teaching of Jesus. The teachings must be practiced as they were lived by Jesus.” Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ, 69-70.
“In facing an appearance of evil, you do not try to change it into good. You realize the nonpower and illusory nature of both human evil and human good, and your prayer is, ‘Let me bear witness to spiritual truth, spiritual harmony and spiritual good.’ This is rising above the pairs of opposites.” Joel Goldsmith, The Altitude of Prayer, 90.
“At our best, I suppose, we should pray to be like the saint who was so God-filled that God told him he could have any wish he asked. The saint thought for a while and said, ‘Whenever, wherever my shadow falls behind me, may whatever it touches be blessed’” James Dillet Freeman, Prayer the Master Key, 93.
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” —Winston Churchill.
“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” Matthew 25:21.
October 9, 2024 – SPIRITUAL CAUSE!
“The cause is hidden; the effect is visible to all.” — Ovid
“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?” Matthew 5:44-46.
“The truth that things have a spiritual as well as a material identity and that the spiritual is the cause side and of greatest value, is a revelation that may be slow in coming to most people.” Prosperity, Charles Fillmore, 146-7.
“Let the beauty we love be what we do.” The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks, et. al., 36.
“The real man is not of any of these forms; he is the force that causes the forms to exist, and when he knows this, every phase of phenomenal life comes under his dominion.” Myrtle Fillmore, How To Let God Help You, 57.
“To be a real help to your church or Sangha, you must first light your own fire of understanding, love, solidity, and stillness. Then you will be able to inspire others…” Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ, 69.
“Once you have recognized God as Omnipotence, however, you have nothing to pray about. Your prayer then is one of communion with God and a rejoicing in the Spirit.” Joel Goldsmith, The Altitude of Prayer, 89.
“When we make a perfect prayer, we soar, as it were, free — released from bonds and bounds, in a world without obstructions, for we have risen higher than they extend.” James Dillet Freeman, Prayer the Master Key, 93.
“We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.” — Marcus Aurelius
“Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate. He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever.” Psalm 111:3-5.
October 2, 2024 – PROSPERITY DEMONSTRATIONS!
“It is possible to demonstrate God’s existence…” — Thomas Aquinas
“To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27.
“There is a law of giving and receiving and it requires careful study if we would use it in our prosperity demonstrations… It is not alone a religion in the sense that word is usually taken but is a rule of thinking, doing, living, and being. It is not only ethical but practical.” Prosperity, Charles Fillmore, 145.
“Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge of driftwood along the beach, wanting. They derive from a slow and powerful root that we can’t see. Stop the words now. Open the window in the center of your chest, and let the spirits fly in and out.” The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks, et. al., 35.
“By recognizing Spirit as the source and origin of all, we may deal successfully with our problems and demonstrate harmony in the home.” Myrtle Fillmore, How To Let God Help You, 170.
“Even when liberation is not yet total, people can look at our community and appreciate the loving and harmonious atmosphere. When we practice understanding and love, we are a real Sangha (community), a fertile field in which good seeds will surely flower.” Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ, 67.
“But whatever the name or nature, you are faced with only one evil, for which we use Paul’s designation ‘the carnal mind,’ or a term such as ‘appearance.’ The discord is not a physical entity or identity: it is an appearance, the product of the carnal mind, the belief in two powers.” Joel Goldsmith, The Altitude of Prayer, 89.
“Prayer is the activity that is stillness, and the stillness that is activity, When prayer is at its best, stillness flows into activity and activity flows into stillness.” James Dillet Freeman, Prayer the Master Key, 92.
“The new spirituality is that it will produce an experience in human encounters in which we become a living demonstration of the basic spiritual teaching ‘We are all one.’” — Neale Donald Walsch.
“O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples!” Psalm 105:1.
THE OPEN DOOR IN ‘24
Our theme for 2024 is: “The Open Door.” It is time to focus on what is true, what is helpful, intuitive, necessary and kind (think). “After this I looked, and lo, in heaven an open door!” (Revelation 4:1)
It is often said that, “When one door closes another door opens.” There is always an open door, yet we tend to focus on the closed door. Banging our head against it, weeping about it, complaining to our friends and those who will listen, will not open the closed door. And, when we raise our vision in a heaven state of consciousness and see the door that is open to us; we see beyond the appearances of lack and limitation to know the truth of the abundant universe that provides for our every needed good.
Our weekly Prayer Circle letters this year will follow the book ‘Prosperity’ by Unity co-founder, Charles Fillmore. “Realize first of all that prosperity is not wholly a matter of capital or environment but a condition brought about by certain ideas that have been allowed to rule in the consciousness. When these ideas are changed the conditions are changed in spite of environment and all appearances, which must also change to conform to the new ideas.”(pg. 80.) Prosperity is not about stuff and things, material objects or bank accounts. It is the consciousness that draws to us all that we need and desire. Its realization requires first a change of mind about our relationship with the universe and its creator (to repent is to ‘think again’) and then to act in accord with this new understanding.
For October we are sharing from Lesson Ten: Right Giving, the Key to Abundant Receiving.
Thank you for accompanying us on this journey of self-realization and discovery of our Divine potential!
Please affirm with us: “I AM a Spiritual Being, I Live in a Spiritual Universe, My Life is Governed by Spiritual Law!”
Thank you God, thank you God, thank you God!
For so it is and so it shall be, Amen!