AND LET US NOT BE WEARY IN WELL DOING: FOR IN DUE SEASON WE SHALL REAP, IF WE FAINT NOT. Galatians 6 : 9

As we commence this new year, it helps to realise that everything that has happened to us in the past - Joy, sorrow, pleasure, and pain, are all part of our spiritual growth in this mystery school of life. Wherever we find ourselves at the moment is where we are meant to be. What we are experiencing right now is exactly what we need for our soul's journey.

In an earlier part of my life, I read about a mysterious secret abbey in the Andes, and hidden ashrams in the Himalayas. Maybe this is where I could gain spiritual awakening. My life at that time was the out picturing of earlier dreams, a lesson in itself as proof of the power of my thoughts, only then I didn't realise the significance of this.

At that time, I never made it to those 'outer" ashrams and abby, but instead was led to a book that included the statement "The only way out is in." I eventually realised this was referring to the mystery school within myself. It is here, through meditation and contemplation, I perceived the awareness that I AM GOD IN ACTION. What a responsibility! I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT I AM RIGHT NOW.

We can read many books and meditate alone, but it is dealing with our fellow travelers in the ups and downs, the blessings and challenges of life that we gain experience in the working out and demonstrating the truth principles we have discovered. Unconditional love in particular.

I feel we can call where we are at the moment a mystery school, not only inside us in our own body temple, but also in the hustle and bustle of the marketplace of life, interacting work-wise and socially with people of differing beliefs and cultures. Here we become "Practical Mystics."

This time next year, we can reflect on our lives and see how we have used the creative power God has invited in us.

Rev. William Livingston.

 

 

The Advent Journey

The month of December brings us "The Advent Season".

At Christmas the mainstream churches celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ as the only Son of God. To those following the Unity New Thought Metaphysical Path, we believe "Christ" will be revealed in each one of us. There is no one particular person predestines to become "The Christ", Christ consciousness will be revealed in each of us. This awakening can occur at any time or place. Jesus our way shower reminds us that we are surrounded by and have indwelling in us our own Inner Christ.

In 1682, Angelus Silesius wrote these powerful words:

"Though Christ a thousand times on Bethlehem be born,
If He is not born in thee, thy soul is all forlorn."

As Advent began, we started a four- week journey to Christmas. The dominant note in the celebration of Advent is EXPECTATION. This is symbolised by the lighting of four candles.

In the first week the candle lit represents "HOPE" This is the hope of Christmas that our travels will lead to the fullness of the light within each of us.

The second candle represents "PEACE", often referred to as the Bethlehem Candle. Each day now is like another step on our journey as we prepare to feel more the same Christ that Jesus lived and taught.

The third candle is the Angel's Candle signifying LOVE. The lighting of this candle symbolises the release of God's (infinite Spirit) Love to mankind through the birth of the infant Jesus who was to become an expression of the fullness of the Christ Consciousness in demonstration. We see Jesus as the great example not the great exception of this.

The fourth candle is called the Shepherds' Candle. This symbolises JOY. As the shepherds joyfully heard, we also hear the Angels' message that Christ is born in us today.

At the completion of Advent another candle called the Christ Candle is lit, usually on Christmas Day. This represents the light of Christ in us.
It not only joins the brightness of the flame of HOPE - PEACE - LOVE and JOY…it is the culmination of the desires and expectancy of each of those flames now born into the Christ Flame. The Christ Light within.

                                  

Rev Radth Youngman

What a wonderful vision Judith Durham presents in her lyrics for Advance Australia Fair!:
Australians let us stand as one, upon this sacred land
A new day dawns, we're moving on to trust and understand.
To trust is to have faith, to have hope.

As Sir John Templeton, in his essay on understanding in New Thought for the New Millennium: Twelve Powers
for the 21st Century

Understanding brings to the heartful, open, perceiving power of faith a capacity to be broadminded, inlculsive and generous.

In her book, Your God-Given Potential, Winifred Wilkinson Hausmann, writes:

The awakening of our own faculty of understanding starts with questioning-questioning the
ways of thinking that you may have been taken for granted. The desire for understanding leads to
thinking about what is learned and seeking to put it all together in a body of information that will
provide a basis for living.

Judith's lyrics continue from to trust and understand…

Combine our ancient history and cultures everywhere,
To bond together for all time, advance Australia fair.

  

MY EVERYDAY MAGIC

  

To live without magic, for me, would be tragic
Such a lack would sadden my day
Give me premonitions and strange apparitions
The miraculous, the quirky, the fey.

I like the magical, the mystical, the not egotistical
The enchantment of forces in cosmic array
The intuitive insight that turns out to be right
Then helps me upon my way.

To me the epitome of serendipity
Is the coincidence that arrives today
Full of magic and mystery, it changes my history
And it can't be explained away.

Give me studies theosophical, or stories apocryphal
Let me hear what they have to say
Such a phantasmagoria fills me with euphoria
And keeps dull old logic at bay.

Keep your sense and your reason, the latest theory in season
Don't theorise my magic away
Save your thoughts noetic, let me see justice poetic
Balance the scales by a curious play.

Come, tear the veil asunder, feel the magic, the wonder
And let me see the world as I may
Sense the fairies all glimmering, the Angel's wings shimmering
Through the prosaic events of the day.





Rev. Sylvia being inspired by Gabriel blowing his horn at one of our Jazz concerts in 2017 ====>

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