Lessons

channeled through the pen of

Marie Fox O’Brien

A List of Books

Marie’s Story - An Extraordinary Odyssey

Channeled Books

Martin’s Original Writings

Revelations

The Divine Nature of Man

Lessons

A new Endeavor

Concepts

Prayers

Past Lives

Moses

Zorah

Rose

Joseph II

Edam the Elder and Saleh

and Inga - Pala - Bana

Peter and Ann

Romulus

Remembrances-The Holy Family

Martin’s Life Remembered

Martin’s message to Marie

Sunday, 1/23/00 4:17PM

There is no end to your wonder, my scribe. You neglect nothing in your caring.

I need first to write of all we hope to accomplish next in our work. I have spoken of writing daily once again in the late evening. This proved pleasing to you in our last endeavor, and although, as I have also said, there may be variations, I would choose to have you take pen in hand each night before you sleep in full confidence of my wish. There will be pleasure for us both in all this pen will convey, and in a short time this pleasure will be more widely shared. There is no need this moment to go into further detail as to the nature of this project, but as I have promised it will be both significant and surprising to my beloved scribe.

It is important, my love, that you approach this new work with no fear of inadequacy. I am in your pen at all times. You know this fully. There is no reason whatsoever for the slightest doubt of your ability to put into words for all the world to know what it is our divine wish to reveal to all men.

We have accomplished much, my beloved, but more remains to be done before we can call our mission completed. You yearn, I know for a return to full gratification and easy communication, but you know, do you not, that when you listen you hear. Never are you fabricating, my love. Never do you distort. When you accuse yourself of hearing what you wish to hear, you are right in the sense that you welcome what I say and promise, but never are you imagining, never are you fanciful.

This is a time of sweet belonging, my love. Your faith and trust are absolute and never do you question the rightness of all these productive years gone by. Our communication will live in men's hearts as truth absolute, and all souls in progress will find light and joy in this pen. You sigh with happiness at what I promise. Soon, my darling, you will be free to leave those you love in this life and embrace those you love in life eternal. This is promise perfect.

absolute equality of souls

Wednesday, 1/26/00 11:40PM

In the fullness of time all men will rejoice in ties that bind. All men, regardless of color, age, or other singular characteristic or identity, will see beyond the superficial and realize that earthly manifestation in all its variety is simply a distracting surface, that under this surface and within each corporal being thrives a soul which knows no beginning and no end. Each soul released from its earthly identity rediscovers the total unity that unites heaven and earth in perfect understanding and acceptance. Each soul in the course of its earthly journey would be well advised to look beyond the superficial no matter its nature and embrace the truth of absolute equality among all souls.

This is not to say that all those come to earth to live lives of their own choosing are equally progressed. Some are souls close to achievement of the ultimate goal of oneness. Some have far to go to reach this ideal. All, however, share the challenge and all are able to meet all that life demands of them and to thereby progress on the road to total identity with God, to know absolutely the purity of joyful love that they crave and that is their destiny.

It is heartening for those on their earthly journeys to feel in their hearts a kinship with all those sharing their need and their assurance of ultimate victory over all trial and travail. Those who live in full assurance of the inevitability of spiritual triumph find it easier to cope with all the demands of earthly existence no matter the degree, no matter the frequency, of challenge. It is incumbent upon all souls to look within and find this steady faith. It will lighten their burdens. It will fill them with joy. It will ease the way at all times. This is a gift readily available to all who seek it. No man need feel deprived. He needs only a loving heart and a seeking soul.

inner voices

Thursday, 1/27/00 11:40PM

There are several ways in which man can assure himself of a smooth passage through life. I do not mean by this a life free of challenge and hardship, but rather I mean a life lived in peacefulness, in full assurance of the rightness of all that life holds and all that is demanded in response.

First of all, man must be assured that he is guided in all of his actions, in all of his responses, and in all of his relationships, by a power beyond his immediate comprehension. He must accept this guidance and know its persuasiveness for good. If he listens, he will hear. If he accepts, he will know.

Not always will this guidance find expression in words, in the inner voice that speaks to him. At times he must trust his instincts, to be aware of urges and inclinations that lead him to act in love. At the same time he must resist those voices and those urges that lead him to speak and act in unloving fashion. This is not a difficult task provided that man does not let himself be beguiled. There are times when it will be hard to resist those voices that urge self indulgence at the expense of another. He must recognize temptation and resist all blandishments that seek to persuade him into the paths of selfishness and uncaring.

From the very start of consciousness, man is well served if he strives to please others rather than himself. He will learn quickly that true happiness lies in the happiness he affords others. Generosity finds its reward in the gratification he knows from all those who are indebted to him in love received. Once man discovers this fundamental truth, he is unlikely to seek self satisfaction by depriving others, and the habit of giving grows stronger and more satisfying with each generous word and act.

The man who seeks the path of goodness and generosity is a man fulfilled. He is a man whose love inspires love in others, whose generosity inspires others to emulation and the circle of love given and received grows ever wider in enrichment. To live a life of love is to live a life pleasing to all those whose lives touch his. It is a source of infinite self satisfaction. It pleases God.

path to earthly satisfaction

Friday, 1/28/00 11:46PM

In his striving, man knows both success and failure in the course of his earthly journey. It must be kept in mind always that a single life is but a part of a greater and more complex whole, that he is judged accordingly. There is no such thing as absolute failure for the soul come to earth. He willingly returns to another earthly journey when he recognizes its necessity and he strives to compensate for past error and weakness though he has no memory of the nature of lives past.

It follows then that the soul come to earth must of necessity live his life as if it were his single opportunity to meet the demands of his God and to reach a level of spiritual perfection that will bring him inner peace and total security. There are those who do accept the concept of repeated lives despite lack of memory of prior existences, and this does add a measure of confidence, a realization that if this current life is less than perfect then perfection lies in the future. Conversely he may choose to believe that if his life is complete with earthly satisfactions and spiritual richness and fulfillment, he has earned this rewarding existence in prior lives.

Whatever the concept, however firm the beliefs that man may hold, he is well served if at each passing moment of his passage through life he acts in such a way as to insure ultimate perfection. Regardless of religious persuasion, man in his striving must recognize that progress to spiritual perfection is inextricably related to his capacity for perfect love and his willingness to strive for perfect love each moment of his life no matter how difficult it may be to do so.

It is, therefore, singularly important for all souls in progress to recognize this single absolute requirement -- to live in love unassailable, complete, generous and constant, and to act accordingly under all circumstances. This, he will learn with each word and act of love, is the only path to earthly satisfaction and eternal life.

freedom of choice

Saturday, 1/29/00 11:55PM

It is sweet indeed when man knows the full joy that life affords him when he finds himself capable of a loving response to all that life demands of him and in all the relationships that are his by choice and by mischance. It is not always possible for man to control his destiny even though he was permitted choice before assuming human identity, but he is allowed choice within parameters, also of his choosing, and when he begins his earthly adventure he is fully equipped to meet all challenges in love shared, to endure all hardships and loss in love shared, and to know in all his human relationships the blessing of love shared.

This is the beginning, but always man is allowed absolute freedom of choice. He may choose wisely and progress and flourish in earthly love or he may choose foolishly and selfishly and squander the gifts granted to him and diminish his capacity to progress in love given and received. Whatever man's choice, it follows as night the day that each decision to act in love despite the difficulty involved marks a step forward, a step which strengthens his capacity and which allows him to be more certain of his loving nature in the face of new challenge. Conversely, each unloving act tends to weaken his capacity for love given and received and his failure to progress spiritually makes the next choice more difficult. One unloving response does not, of course, determine all future reactions, but it does make it more difficult to respond in loving fashion.

It is vital, therefore, for each soul in progress to be aware of the power of love, to know that acts of love strengthen, that unloving acts weaken, and that both human happiness and spiritual progress are threatened by each unloving act, by each unloving word, for it is all too easy to fail in loving response, to retreat to self indulgence and weakness of will. This path is fraught with error.

sweet guidance

Monday, 1/31/00 12:32AM

In all of man's experiences the most meaningful are those which teach him the rewards that come to a loving heart. In infancy and early childhood man is most often the recipient of unconditional love, and in this love received his capacity for love given, a gift since birth, is reinforced. Even under adverse circumstances, the very young offer love unsullied in any way and when this love is fully returned the capacity for love given and received grows infinitely in each of those sharing this love.

There are times in a child's experience when the capacity to love is threatened by harsh experience, when love seems threatened by rejection and abuse. It is at such times that the soul of the child is most vulnerable and most needy. The child often turns inward when experience is bruising to the spirit, and in this inward turning the child finds strength in the ministrations of the angel teacher sent to this earth for the express purpose of protection and guidance. It is the rare child who is not open to this sweet guidance, who does not recognize the caring spirit who seeks always to ease his path.

All too often this sweet voice loses its persuasiveness as the child matures into adulthood, and the soul in progress faces jeopardy lacking this inner strength. Man's path through life would be both eased and enriched were he to realize the importance of listening to the sweet spirit whose concern is solely for his welfare. He needs to open his mind and heart at all times to this beneficent influence and be guided into the path of love and goodness at each juncture of his journey. Therein lies both security and happiness, both to be treasured, both freely available to all seeking souls.

useless nature of violence

Tuesday, 2/1/00 12:35AM

At all times it behooves man to realize that never is he incapable of doing all that life demands of him in perfect love and acceptance. It is necessary for him to realize that regardless of the difficulty involved, the full expression of love under all circumstances is the only sure source of earthly happiness and the only sure path to eternal belonging.

It is not always a simple matter to respond lovingly. Often man is tempted to respond to abuse and injustice with antipathy and an effort to avenge what he regards as wrong done to him. This is indeed a temptation, but man needs to think before acting. He needs to consider the hard truth that an unloving response to an injustice simply fans the fires of conflict, whereas a loving response is entirely disarming. In the heat of conflict it is difficult to remember this absolute truth and act accordingly, but if man makes it a habit to think before acting or speaking negatively, he will be able to recall this teaching and gain advantage by resolving conflict. He will know the inner satisfaction that peacemaking affords both the offended and the offender.

At its best man's nature abhors violence, but often his experiences encourage him to regard the capacity for violent response to wrongdoing as a strength. Rarely is there any positive result to conflict. One side may be restrained temporarily, but if the pattern of conflict is established in the human environment, man is tempted to act within the framework of that environment. Inevitably violence begets violence, and even the most peaceful of men find themselves drawn into the conflict if loyalty is involved.

Man needs only to regard the long history of violent conflict to realize its useless nature. Whether the conflict is between two individuals or two societies or two nations, the only ultimate solution to and termination of conflict is for each side to recognize the useless nature of violence and to be willing to compromise in the name of love for his fellow man. Only then can conflict be resolved with lasting effect. Only then can man find peace both within and without.

The searching soul knows the wisdom and benefit of peaceful reconciliation, knows that only through such resolution of conflict can love survive in the heart of man and in his society. Once man recognizes this absolute truth it becomes his responsibility and privilege to share his awareness and to foster the cause of peace through love.

capacity for hope

Tuesday, 2/1/00 11:41PM

It is at all times true that man should retain the full awareness of his divine origin. This is not difficult for many, but life's harsh experience erodes in others this certainty. When man loses sight of the divine purpose in human existence, he finds trial and hardship more difficult to bear. He seeks assurance in worldly terms, and when he fails to gain this assurance he is tempted to despair. In his despair, he sinks further into unawareness and finds hope slipping from his grasp.

When man has sought earthly relief and found himself denied such succor, he must trust himself to find in his inner being the strength he needs. This is not a simple achievement, but man is capable of such awareness if he persists in his seeking and if he resists despair and surrender. There is inherent in the soul of man the capacity for hope under the most trying of circumstances. No matter the extent of trial, no matter the duration of repeated challenge, there is always hope stirring in the human heart.

Man's spirit is unquenchable when he seeks divine aid. No plea is ignored. Yet it is man's responsibility to both seek and to respond to this heavenly intervention.

You have seen such men. You have seen those souls in progress plagued by difficulty, tried seemingly beyond endurance, who retain the resilience and buoyance and infinite optimism which is their gift. Learn from these trusting souls. Emulate their equanimity in the face of trial, and know that the peace they enjoy is yours for the seeking.

a loving response

Wednesday 2/2/00 11:54PM

Even when man is most beset by earthly problems, even when he feels most abandoned by all those in this life and beyond, he needs to remember and to remember with conviction and with gratitude the full extent of his own strength, and he needs to believe that beyond human capacity lies divine assistance.

It is the very nature of human life that man's life be marked by challenge and trial. It is the essence of progress in human life to learn thereby the lessons that life affords. Chief among these lessons and in the end the only true lesson is that no matter the nature of human life, whether it be marked by meanness or by plenty, by sickness or by health, by overwhelming happiness or pervasive sadness, man has the duty to respond in love. Sometimes this response comes easily. Sometimes man must struggle to reach this perfection. Yet it is always within the capacity of the soul in progress, regardless of circumstances, to know the happiness of a loving acceptance of all that life offers, all that life demands. The truly happy man knows this truth and embraces its wisdom.

It is sometimes a long and painful process to reach the acceptance of the absolute beneficence of a loving response to all the demands of life. Yet this ultimate realization is worth all struggle. When man achieves this habitual acceptance and automatically responds in love, he has achieved a degree of happiness in this life that is to be envied. He serves as well as an example to others who profit by his experience and are in turn moved to emulation and therefore to their own progress and satisfaction.

Human emotion is contagious in its very essence, and the most powerful of emotions, unconditional love, is the most persuasive of all. It leads others to consider its power and to discover within themselves new capacities and new avenues to perfection. It serves all well.

beneficence of love given and received

Thursday, 2/3/00 11:05PM

In all of life there is mystery. Man come to earthly existence comes in full agreement that he will retain no memory of his divine origin or of the promises made to live a life of challenge and loving response. Yet he retains in his innermost being an awareness of his identity. He knows that he is more than flesh and blood, more than a corporeal being born into human life and destined to end it at a time he feels beyond his control. He seeks always in his earthly journey the love that binds soul to soul in the space between heaven and earth, and if wisdom prevails he places this seeking above all other motivation, being certain of its essential nature.

Man is meant to find shared love in his earthly voyage. He is meant to know total identification to the soul which has been joined to his always. Ideally these two perfect identities live a life of love and fulfillment and together progress to the perfection all souls seek eternally. When there is less that total achievement in this seeking each soul must strive to compensate individually and to trust in an eventual fulfillment of striving.

All of life offers promise to the seeking soul. All of life offers belonging to kindred souls. Under the best of circumstances all souls flourish in the beneficence of love given and received. It is in the nature of human life, however, that failure occurs, that man beset by temptation and vulnerable to the voices that beguile, forgets the importance of a life of love and deserts those near and dear in search of other satisfactions.

When man first is tempted by distracting promises of earthly pleasure, it is his responsibility to recognize the folly of response. When man is tempted by the promise of power and enrichment, he is well advised to weigh the consequences of his choice. All too often man fails in his appraisal and he fails to progress, indeed regresses, and must begin once again to find the way to happiness both earthly and divine.

Know all men that the path of love is the only true path, that love nourishes as no other emotion can, and that love gives infinite joy and satisfaction. There is no alternative to this truth.

faith is powerful

Friday, 2/4/00 11:50PM

At the end of time man will look back and recall all that he has learned from worldly existence. The lessons will be many and varied. They will bring remembrance of both peace and conflict, of plenty and want, of joy and sorrow, of love and its lack. In all of this remembrance he will recall the moments of triumph, the times when his soul has known such pure joy as a foretaste of all that lay ahead. He will recognize in these moments a pattern divine leading him to all he has sought and all he has been promised in ultimate reward. He will know joy beyond expression, and he will experience ultimate grace.

All men will share this experience, but not all will arrive at this ultimate goal at the same time in the same way, but it is important for each soul in progress to have a steady faith in the inevitability of perfection. This certain faith makes life bearable under the most adverse of circumstances. It lends joy to time of sorrow. It lends hope to despair. It reminds man that what he knows of human happiness is but a shadow of the glory that lies ahead.

Faith is powerful beyond all imagining. It permits man to see reason in all that he experiences. It permits him to know with total certainty that out of hardship and deprivation comes learning, and that out of trial comes strength. No man is spared trial. No man escapes challenges. No man is destined to fail trial and challenge. Rather he is destined to succeed no matter how severe the trial, no matter how prolonged the challenge.

In this certainty man finds himself capable of infinite effort. He finds himself capable and joyous in his awareness of the divine nature that is his in the exercise of free will. He finds himself overjoyed when his exercise of his free will finds fulfillment in habitual loving response. He knows self enrichment and he knows as well that others learn from him and are thereby enriched themselves.

This is the path of wisdom.

doubt

Sunday, 2/6/00 12:25AM

Among those trials that mark man's progress to eternal perfection, doubt plays a major role. The soul come newly to life does not know doubt. He knows the pureness of love, the perfection of purpose, the single most significant relationship that human existence offers, and in all of this security he knows no doubt.

Doubt is insidious. It is nurtured in weakness. The soul who finds itself imperfect knows doubt. The human seemingly betrayed by weakness knows doubt. The faithless lover knows doubt. The downcast knows doubt. All are destroyed by doubt, though not equally. Some barely doubt. Some are destroyed by doubt. Some hold doubt in abeyance seeking further truth. In all cases doubt is trying to the soul. Often it weakens and destroys. At times it strengthens by inspiring further knowledge.

All souls in progress entertain doubt. It is the mirror image of faith. Both are open to question, to demand of proof positive. Neither can survive in the mind that does not accept uncertainty, in the soul that knows no absolutes. Both are kindred spirits, constant companions of the soul through its earthly journey. Each fortifies the other and each survives in the presence of the other.

The soul in progress is inevitably enriched by doubt. Faith pure and simple is beautiful to behold, perfect in its simplicity, in its perfection. Faith tried by doubt and surviving all trial is even more beautiful to behold, strengthened and fortified as it is, and it is further perfected by the example it offers to others. Those pure souls assailed by doubt gain much from the experience of others similarly assailed and they find strength in shared experience.

Doubt too has its advantages in inspiriting the soul to further seeking, to continual exploration of experience and the experience of others to fathom the wisdom that the earthly journey affords, to know the truth that history attests to, and to cherish the lessons that the past affords.

Doubt, then, serves its purpose. It is not to be regarded as a virtue absolute, but rather as a signpost, an urging to seek further and to find in this seeking confirmation and assurance and to know the blessedness inherent in the human endeavor to achieve wisdom and ultimate truth.

the warmth and love of eternal existence

Sunday, 2/6/00 11:57PM

It is not an easy matter for man to hold firm his faith in himself and in his Creator when he is buffeted by the trials and tribulations that life often incurs upon the soul in progress. There are times when man is so tried that he despairs of human survival, and he is blessed when he recognizes that a threat to human existence is but an invitation to the bliss of life beyond human death. In these cases man knows a swift and joyous transition. Death comes as a willing ally.

It is more difficult for man when he is expected to know sustained hardship, when misery becomes his constant companion, and when he is called upon to endure human suffering beyond endurance. It is at such trying times that the soul knows the capacity for extraordinary progress in spiritual development. The fortunate know in their souls the certainty of release from pain and the ineffable joy that is theirs after they leave behind the life that proved so trying. Few face death with dread when it is imposed upon them by [illegible word that looks like "threat"] Few would choose continued suffering rather than release from misery. Yet even those who know that nothing could exceed the torment of life are fully prepared for the glory that follows their departure from earthly existence. They are filled with awe as they are taken into the warmth and love of eternal existence, and no soul departed from human life is denied this glory.

It is important that all men on their earthly journeys retain awareness of this divine promise, the absolute destiny of all souls. It is difficult for man with his narrow perception and his limited perspectives to imagine an existence so vast in its proportions, so glorious in its concept, but man is at all times capable of imagining to some extent the vastness of the universe and the sweetness of promise, and human life is sweetened to the extent that the soul in progress listens to his soul and the blessed voices that speak therein and recognizes the blessedness of his being and the glory that is his in worlds beyond his imagining.

It is wonder indeed when man sheds human limitations and narrow focus and embraces the wonder of his being and the perfection of the universe that offers the perfect answer to all the soul's striving. Rejoice, all men, and let this wondrous promise lighten your path. Let it fill your soul with a love that knows no limit, that enriches always and that deprives no man ever.

seek strength within

Monday, 2/7/00 11:29PM

It is at all times significant in man's journey through life that he knows deep within himself the divine nature of his being. He comes into life helpless and unknowing, clearly the product of divine will. He learns to expect, even to demand, the love that is the absolute necessity for him to survive, and in this love freely given he has further proof of the divine nature that is his. At no time should man lose his awareness of this heavenly belonging, even when he regards life as less than fair and generous.

When man is aware of love, he is aware of the vital nature of human endeavor. When man knows love, he knows security. When man responds to love received with love given, he creates a link beyond human. He partakes of the divine.

It is sometimes difficult for man to regard himself as a divine creature. When he considers himself far less than perfect in character, lacking in goodness and grace, it is tempting for him to demean himself, to think of his limitations rather than his aspirations and capabilities. At such times man is greatly in need of assurance. If he is fortunate he finds such awareness readily available in his circle of love. His family and his friends are more than willing to offer cheer and encouragement and the caring he seeks. In turn, strengthened by this love given, he is prepared to share his strength and to offer all aid to those in need.

At times man may feel abandoned, totally without friend or family. He may find himself isolated in a world not of his choosing. In such cases man is well advised to seek strength within and to know that divine love is always his in full quantity. He needs to recognize the nurturing nature of those spirits who link him with his origins and with his destiny. Man should never forget the richness of his inner resources. He should never doubt his own divine origin nor should he doubt his divine destiny.

a chance to learn - a chance to teach

TUESDAY, 2/8/00 11:13PM

It is the essence of human joy to feel the stirrings of love at each moment in human existence. This asks much, for the journey through life is marked by trial, hardship, and sorrow, and yet the secure soul knows that each unhappy emotion, each sad experience, is but a momentary interruption, perhaps a chance to learn, perhaps a chance to teach others. The essence of the human journey is to know in microcosm the pureness of joyful love left behind and awaiting.

The soul in progress is blessed in remembering at each step in life the reason and divine intent that it has known and will know always. It is all too easy for man beset by the problems inherent in the human adventure to feel that his role in life is a sorrowful one and that there is no redeeming value to all he is asked to do and to accept in the path from birth to death.

It is fortunate that man is offered endless opportunity to go beyond this narrow concept of human life and to embrace its broader purpose. Inherent in this capacity to look beyond the surface is the capacity for love which man brings to this world and which in the best of circumstances grows irrevocably until death brings an end to human existence and a return to divine life.

All men know in their hearts the capacity to love unconditionally all whose lives touch theirs. This capacity often withers with experience, and man is deprived in this diminishing. Yet each soul in progress has the capacity to both learn from experience and to spring back from adversity in new faith and new found hope in the power of love and the joy of life. There is no end in the human soul to this capacity to both learn from experience and to profit thereby in learning the true meaning of life in full realization that so long as love fills man's soul that soul is blessed and that no more is demanded. The soul suffused with love is a soul suffused with joy, one with his brother, one with his God, at infinite peace with himself and all those bound to him in love both human and divine.

man is indeed the central core

Wednesday, 2/9/00 10:50PM

In the great scheme of things, man is central. Although he deems himself insignificant in the magnitude of the cosmos, he is indeed the central core. The universe exists for man. It exists as a place for him to learn and to teach, to progress to the perfection of love, learned and practiced perfectly, which is the be-all and end-all of earthly existence.

Man is sometimes overwhelmed by numbers. He contemplates years gone by, infinite time it seems to him, and he recognizes his life span as infinitesimal. He considers himself a tiny part of man incarnated, human life spanning time unrecorded, and he cannot achieve a sense of self importance. He considers himself dwarfed in time, space, and numbers. Yet in his innermost being he rejects the concept of himself as unimportant, ephemeral, disposable. He seeks understanding of his purpose in life, of his place in the universe, of his relationship with his brothers of all ages and all climes. He rejects nothingness. In this rejection he embraces truth. On further seeking he will accept as necessary truth the wisdom of the universe, the reasonable nature of all that has been and all that waits to be on planet earth, and he seeks a peace of mind that can come only with acceptance of the mystery of life and full acceptance of the faith that will eventually lead to truth fully revealed.

In this wisdom man knows that full understanding of the reason for and the complexities involved in human life cannot be his. He accepts his limitation in full faith in its rightness, the sure knowledge that when he seeks to know he will be told in the fullness of time all that is right and good, all that he needs to fill his soul with the joyful awareness of the miracle of life granted to man. He will know pleasure when he most needs it and he will find himself in the company of kindred spirits who rejoice with him in mysteries unraveled, in truth revealed, in hope renewed, in love perfect in all ways.

direct revelation of the mind of God

Thursday, 2/10/00 11:17PM

In all of the annals of time, in all that has been written of divine will and privileged revelation, no words compare with those which come through this pen, this pen totally devoted to bringing to man direct revelation of the mind of God and his intent in human existence. Never has man dreamed of writing so precisely of the nature of God, of his divine identification with all those souls come to life, of his intent that man shall know the universality of God's love and full identification with all souls journeying through life.

I have spoken in words past of false prophets. They abound and they are to be abhorred. To the extent that man speaks for God with his own interests foremost in his message, he is one to be rejected and scorned. There are, however, and have been through the ages of man, dear and tender souls who have listened closely and who have proclaimed themselves messengers of God, having been entrusted with His truth. Through the ages, man has proclaimed many doctrines. Some have come close to assertion of truth insofar as they spoke of the one true requirement of the soul in progress, the single demand to live in love in all ways and to seek the elusive perfection of love for which all enlightened souls strive. These pure souls are all too rare, and all too often they are rejected by those who should listen most closely. More often man is beguiled by those claiming to speak truth who complicate the simple message of love so completely in dogma and ritual that the total significance of love as God's single and central requirement of man is obfuscated and forgotten.

These writings come, then, as direct communication heretofore unknown in the history of mankind, offering to a troubled world a single answer, an escape from doubt and confusion and a certainty of deliverance never before known. It goes without saying that man will in the end accept the truth that this pen speaks and has spoken, but the speed and extent of acceptance lies in the heart of man. In all things, man is free to accept or reject, and these words of God directly communicated can be rejected or accepted by man in his infinite capacity for choice.

It is too soon to know how quickly the will of man will bow to the certainty of faith, but bow it must, bow it will, and all men from the lowest to the highest will rejoice in the glory offered by the overwhelming nature of God's love for man, for all His children, bound to Him in love and faith and need.

man learns from all experiences

Friday, 2/11/00 11:48PM

Chief among man's virtues is his capacity for total self-honesty. I say "total" though I do not say "constant." Man comes to this life with keen awareness of his own strengths and his own limitations. He rarely deceives himself in this regard, though he may often labor to increase his strengths and diminish his weaknesses. Yet even when he exerts the most effort in both these attempts, he is keenly aware of the powers that he brought with him to this life and the attendant limitations to these powers.

At times man fails in total honesty in self appraisal, though this failure is always temporary, in some cases extremely brief, in others more extended. Most often man tends to persuade himself of talents and abilities not his by birth in order to win approval and admiration. Sometimes he succeeds in this effort and almost persuades himself of heightened attractions. At other times he fails and abandons such efforts. Rarely is man adversely affected by his departure from total honesty in self appraisal, but this can happen, though rarely.

This occasional tendency of man to inflate his own powers and talents arises from the very human need for approval. Man seeks the admiration of others in the belief that admiration is akin to love and that he may in this fashion satisfy his inborn need for love received. Sometimes this deception has a deleterious effect insofar as disillusionment may involve rejection and the soul finds his false claims exposed and finds himself even less admired than he was in the beginning.

Man learns from all experience, and though the learning may be both hurtful and bitter, man tends to avoid pretense once it fails him and finds it possible to accept his human limitations and to know the peace of honesty in self appraisal. Almost inevitably he learns that those whose approval he craves accept him for what he is. They find no need for pretension, and the soul in progress freed from pretense knows the joy of love given and received and fully accepts what he once regarded as unseemly qualities. He learns even to accept his weaknesses and to be capable of total honesty about the limitations that once caused him to feel pain. Freed from the need to pretend and secure in his own being, he is able to enjoy life fully and to love and be loved in total honesty. He knows contentment.

man stands in a divine relationship

Saturday, 2/12/00 11:59PM

At all times man stands in a divine relationship between heaven and earth. He leaves his heavenly home willingly and gratefully to come to a life of his own choice, divinely designed to afford him maximum opportunity for spiritual growth. Part and parcel of spiritual growth is inner peace and awareness, a perfect perception of all that is right and good in his progress through life. At no point in this earthly journey should man forget that his destination is a forgone conclusion, that after he has done all he promised to do he will return to his heavenly home richer and perfected by his earthly experience.

This is the ideal, and the ideal prevails in the vast majority of cases, but it must be noted that man sometimes abuses earthly opportunity and misuses the opportunities he encounters which are designed to offer spiritual progress. Man is not always as resistant to temptation as he thinks he is, and when he first strays from the path of goodness and love and loses sight of his divinely prescribed goals, he is less able to resist further temptation and to lose his spiritual pride.

The world reflects this weakness of the soul gone astray, both presently and throughout history, and all hope for the future lies in a resurgence of awareness of the true meaning of life, of the absolute and ultimate goal that all souls in progress share. This is not an easy task, and yet its absolute necessity lends total urgency to its need for implementation. There are countless examples of progress to this perfection of awareness and performance in our earth today, and it is heartening to observe all such manifestations, but it is incumbent upon each man sharing the human journey to contribute to the world-wide evolution of awareness that will in time change this currently hostile world into a place of peaceful love and sharing.

Many men share this vision and strive to implement it, each in his own way. This number must grow daily until all men are joined in a common effort to insure that no soul come to life is in danger of alienation from all that is pure and good. All souls must know the beauty of a life lived in love and giving and suffer no deprivation. This is a mighty effort, one in which all men are destined to share. The beginning is now for all those not yet committed to the task.

the state of perfect grace

Sunday, 2/13/00 Midnight

At all times and in all places man faces the challenge of finding within himself the perfect love that dictates his every thought, word, and deed. This is at all times the most difficult and the most achievable of challenges. Its difficulty lies in completeness, for it is indeed beyond human capacity to respond in perfect love to all life's experience until that perfection has been achieved over lifetimes of trial and error, of success and failure. It is easy in the sense that all men are on occasion capable of a response that reflects perfect love even under the most adverse of situations.

The difficulty for each soul in progress lies in reaching this state of perfect grace where no response to challenge, to injustice, to abuse, to error is less than totally loving, totally accepting, totally responsible in love given and received. It takes little reflection to realize that few souls in progress know this consistency of totally responsible love, of total acceptance of all ills incurred, of all vilification, of all injustice.

It is all too easy for man journeying through life to regard this demand of God as intolerably difficult. It is easy for man to protest that the trial is beyond his capabilities, that he was born without this capacity for love perfect in its response to all that life imposes upon the struggling soul. To this the soul in progress must eventually confess error, for it will be revealed to each soul in progress that no struggle is too severe, no demand for loving acceptance too great, that all souls have within themselves not only the capacity but the need to respond to all challenge in a loving acceptance and to know in such response the supreme happiness that can be earned in no other way.

It is cause for rejoicing when man realizes his full potential and knows absolutely that no striving fails of reward, that no demand is too great for adequate response, and that at all times each soul finds both within and without self all that it needs to progress to the infinite wonder of divine belonging. No man who pursues that path of love and virtue in this life goes unrewarded. He knows in this life the peace of self possession and he knows in his heart the wonder that awaits. He lacks nothing. He is at one with his God.

the world deserves reverence

Monday, 2/14/00 11:35PM

In the mists of time long past, man first knew awareness of the reason for being. Since then man has progressed steadily in awareness of all that life offers for good or for bad. He knows now a world infinitely more complex than early man could have dreamed. He knows complications and frustrations that try his patience, and at times he surrenders to these frustrations and complications and loses touch with the inner strength that has always been a divine quality enjoyed by man. Yet the true nature of man has not changed greatly during these countless centuries of outward change. He comes into this world endowed with special qualities, and he does as he has always in the pursuit of wisdom and the capacity for perfect love.

It is difficult for man, as it has been since the very beginning, to grasp completely the vastness of the world in which he journeys to his divine destination. Even when man's world was a smaller and simpler place, it was a source of wonder and mystery to him. Modern man is tempted to think that he is more able to grasp the enormity of God's world, gifted as he is with advanced knowledge and sophisticated awareness, but he is still far from a complete grasp of the world which he inhabits and the world beyond his immediate awareness. Early man found it easier to admit to the limitations of his knowledge. Modern man finds all limits to understanding both frustrating and to be conquered.

Over the recent centuries man has tended to put all his faith in science as a path to understanding of his world, and indeed science has seen enormous strides both in discovery and application. Almost daily man's needs are met in new and startling ways by advances in science. Conversely his very existence is threatened by the advance in science which serves the machines of conflict.

Man would be well advised to remember that each new advance in science is discovery, not invention. The world in all its wonder and complexity has waited these many years for man to be the instrument of enlightenment and progress. The world has not changed with man's apprehension of its wonder. It has waited always to serve man more fully. It deserves reverence.

deja vu

Wednesday, 2/16/00 12:35AM

In all of life man encounters all those he has come to this life to love in perfect harmony. Earthly relationships have divine origin, and although the soul come to earth may have no memory of past lives and past loves, these memories are stored in his consciousness, not readily retrievable in most cases, but eternally part of his being.

There are times when man encountering a stranger has a strong sense of prior relationship. He searches his mind for previous acquaintance, even a chance encounter, and when memory fails him, he dismisses this familiarity as simple nonsense, a mistaken notion. At other times man may find himself in an environment new to his experience and yet hauntingly familiar -- a room whose contours he knows, whose furnishings are familiar. He may walk streets new to him which he knows he has walked before and turn a corner and know what will greet his eyes.

Some men accept such experiences and feelings and do not understand but do not dismiss. Man has coined a phrase to describe these feelings -- "Deja vu" he calls them -- "already seen." Man needs to recognize the blessing inherent in these glimpses into prior existence and seek to know more of what he can learn from this awareness. Some men find such inexplicable insights frightening and ascribe them to the dark forces of evil and destruction, the work of the devil intent upon destroying man's soul.

Man needs to know that this heightened awareness of previous lives is a blessing and in no way a curse. He should in no way fear such remembering. Rather he should embrace this awareness as a divine gift and a reminder that man's experience encompasses much more than the life he is living.

Each separate life granted to man comes with its own singular demands, and to meet these demands man must take with him into new life the accumulated wisdom of previous lives, although this awareness lies so deep in his memory that it is not easily recalled. When man is granted this gift, he should welcome and cherish it and pray for further enlightenment. To some this is granted more freely than to others, but all men share this potential.

look to your brother’s needs

Wednesday, 2/16/00 11:23PM

It is the essence of human goodness to put the needs of another before self gratification. In all of the actions of his life man finds the greatest merit in doing this and discovers in turn the joy generated by such denial of self interest, such devotion to the needs of others.

The most fortunate of men discover this truth early in existence and fill their lives with happiness and approval. Each selfless act generates its own reward in self satisfaction, and it quickly becomes habitual to identify self satisfaction with unselfish response to the needs of others. It is pity indeed that all men do not learn this simple lesson early in their earthly voyage and thereby sweeten the remainder of their journeys.

There is no simple explanation for this failure, but it is one that plagues man's progress. Perhaps partial explanation lies in the seductiveness of earthly pleasure and prize, so that man, though aware of the joy of giving, permits himself to taste the pleasure of receiving and once tempted and once gratified finds it more difficult to act in disregard of self and total devotion to meeting the needs of others. Most men live lives both selfish and unselfish. They are aware of the inner joy of giving rather than receiving materially, and yet they find it difficult if not impossible to surrender completely the need to gratify one's own desires.

In the span of a lifetime man knows endless opportunity to choose to place the needs and desires of his fellow man first in his list of priorities, and as I have indicated, the more completely and frequently he embraces selflessness in his motivation the more completely he satisfies his inner need, the more certain he is of the spiritual progress that lends meaning to the earthly journey.

Look then to your brother's need before you look to your own and you will know a heart filled with joy, a soul suffused with grace, a mind at peace.

true brotherhood

Thursday, 2/17/00 11:57PM

It is in the spirit of true brotherhood that the world evolves. Though there are pockets of hatred and intolerance, though some creeds teach superiority and inferiority, the tide of the future is the tide of tolerance.

Much of this progress is underway though much remains to be done. Centuries of prejudice, of truths distorted, of personal power seeking must be reversed in order to offer all souls the blessings of equality and equal treatment. In many societies much progress has been achieved. In others the progress is discouragingly slow. Yet in the hearts of all men there is a hunger for honesty in government, for total recognition of the worthiness of all men, for the equal treatment under law both human and divine that is the universal birthright of man.

There is no need to delay this total equalization in society's eyes of all of God's children. Yet such perfect equality is hampered by the presence of religious bias and the hunger for power shared by both temporal and spiritual leaders in societies where those governed are most subject to control and subordination. Yet there is a mighty wave sweeping the world and carrying with it old and destructive concepts, blinding beliefs, and injustices and cruelties beyond count. This wave is not to be denied. It is resisted fruitlessly by those who find security in the status quo, those who fear both the future and their fellow travelers on life's journey.

There is no question of the outcome. Prejudice will find itself repudiated in the name of love and free expression. Brother will embrace brother across all unnatural borders and recognize the folly of separation. All will recognize the power of united effort and all will find saving grace in their efforts to leave behind a world of conflict and disenchantment and create a world in which man will welcome his brother into his very soul in the pure joy of sharing. There will be an end to strife and jealousy and disenchantment, and man will wonder, not without cause, as to how his world has so miraculously been altered. When he looks into his soul he will realize that the agents of change have been legion, and he will rejoice that he is part of this holy company.

all souls seek the same end

Friday, 2/18/00 11:55PM

In all of life man strives to find reason. He strives in times of plenty. He counts his blessings and seeks to understand how he is so deserving. He looks about him and becomes even more aware of his privileges and seeks even further to comprehend his good fortune. On the other hand, the man beset by difficulty, assailed by misfortune, turns to others and turns within and seeks both to understand and to accept the misery he knows. Both of these souls in progress seek a common end, and both are aware of the need to both accept and to understand the varied experiences that they know in their earthly experience.

It is easy to conclude that the man blessed with all earthly riches and talents walks the easier path through life. It is expected that endowed as he is with earthly comforts and pleasures he will not know a moment of discontent. This is rarely the case. It becomes clear upon observation and consideration that the man who knows no need in earthly advantage is often the most deprived of men. Given all, he is deprived of the need to seek and to succeed. He is not given the opportunity for self improvement unless he rejects the earthly advantage he has been given and creates his own goals and satisfactions and seeks to attain all he dreams of being. Conversely, man born into total deprivation may seek to satisfy the basic needs of life and, having succeeded in this, may set himself further goals to satisfy his inner need for self satisfaction.

In all of this striving, man seeks balance. Those privileged beyond reason seek to establish their own worth independent of endowment. In this they are blessed to discover their individual worth and to be pleased with themselves. Those born to lesser privilege are in a way more privileged. They are free in their striving. They have no need to prove their worthiness and are free to establish their worthiness both in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. Each step in recognition is a sweet advance, and they know joy when they reach the security which asks nothing of the opinions of others and finds full satisfaction within.

So, in essence, all souls seek the same end. Those born to privilege and plenty seek to justify their advantages and find satisfaction in sharing. Those born to need strive as well. They seek to prove themselves both able and appreciative and to feel confidence in all they have to offer in this life. So both extremes and all those in between, seek the same end. They know full satisfaction in all that life has offered in opportunity and achievement, and they know in their hearts the kinship with their brothers that marks the successful earthly adventure.

all forgiveness erases harm

Saturday, 2/19/00 11:03PM

It is of the utmost importance that man know his own true value at all times during his time on earth. He should know that he is valued infinitely by all those bound to him in love both human and divine. There are times when it is difficult for man to hold a steady faith in the love that envelops him and shields him from harm. It is in the nature of life that love is at times inconstant, that the object of love is mistreated and abused. When this occurs it is man's duty to try to achieve understanding and forgiveness, to remember that human weakness and temporary aberration are only momentarily destructive, that all forgiveness erases their harm.

It is not always easy to forgive, but it is essential to do so. Resentment and enmity are destructive emotions and are most harmful to the soul harboring them. The object of enmity is rarely affected, but the soul who has forgotten, even temporarily, to understand and to forgive suffers. The degree of suffering is directly related to the intensity and duration of hostility. There is little comfort in feelings of resentment and hostility. There is little chance of inner peace so long as the soul is consumed by this failure to love, to understand, to forgive.

Although it seems at times that the offender is not affected by his cruelty, he is indeed scarred as well. Though he may seem unaffected by the alienation his acts have caused, he is not untouched. Regret lurks in his soul despite his efforts to deny such feelings, and though false pride may prevent him from confessing error and attempting to make amends, he knows his guilt and feels an emptiness in his heart where love once had been his joy and comfort.

Let all men be aware of the destruction wrought by unloving acts and the alienation that so often follows. Let man forgive readily and avoid the alienation that is cause of so much regret. Let the offender admit responsibility and express regret and seek atonement. In the absence of strife and recrimination love can survive abuse and grow stronger for the experience.

celestial love is beyond human perception

Sunday, 2/20/00 9:50PM

At the end of each life, no matter its length or brevity, the soul come to its only true home knows a judgment that both welcomes and assures. Not all souls born to human life are as compliant as they ought to be with promises made before birth. Not all souls resist the blandishments of those troubled souls who seek to share their prideful defiance and who resist all that is demanded of them to go forward in their search for spiritual perfection.

Yet all souls seek a home that has been theirs eternally, and only a misguided few reject the wonder of this inborn destination. Those who accept this inevitable progression to ultimate perfection participate willingly in the judgment of their peers of the successes and the failures of their previous lives. They are both relieved and exhilarated when they are judged worthy of the next necessary step on the road to perfection. Never is there conflict in this decision, but rather a joyous acceptance by the soul who participates fully and knows fully the perfection and love involved in judgment rendered.

The soul come to heavenly judgment is overwhelmed by love, the strength of which is human love magnified beyond computation. The power of celestial love is beyond human perception, and it creates in the soul newly come to life beyond death an intense awareness of the infinite nature of his blessings. It is the rare soul which rejects this loving reception into new life, but those who are so misled as to reject divine love, misguided by their own sense of power as they generally are, are for a time lost. They seek to express the power they retain to cause mischief and disenchantment among their fellows, those who are similarly misled, and for a while they satisfy themselves in their own superiority.

In the end, all are persuaded that the path of love is the only acceptable path, and they proceed along with their fellows in seeking the perfect love both given and received that is the only key to salvation and the infinite love of oneness that is the only salvation of all those who seek God.

no life is free of disappointment

Monday, 2/21/00 11:25PM

There are incidents in each human life that might be regarded as milestones. Each of these measures a dramatic increase in awareness and acceptance and therefore in spiritual progress. Some of these incidents are less memorable than others, but all are significant.

Often in early life the soul in progress suffers loss. This loss may be of a loved one taken from life. It may be an injury, a source of trauma and pain. It may be a lesser injury -- a previous disappointment, or a serious altercation. In all cases the injured party may find it difficult to adjust to the loss of self that this injury represents. The loss may be slight in the eyes of the world, but enormous in the young soul exposed to suffering.

Later in life, injury and rebuff may be equally hurtful, but the soul which has earlier adjusted to loss and trauma finds itself more able to cope than those newly exposed. Thus misfortune can be seen to have advantage. Once encountered, it has less of a sting for the injured human. The soul is progress having learned one lesson in survival tends to accept all that follows with the loving acceptance that speeds the soul in progress on its way.

No life is free of disappointment. No life is complete without its share of strengthening challenges, and no life fails in its mission to overcome such difficulties if it is lived in full faith. Man as he grows stronger welcomes each new challenge as a battle to be fought and an opportunity for full victory over oppression, and if he occasionally falters and tastes the bitterness of defeat he grows stronger in his determination to do all he finds needful to fulfill his divine compact to meet each struggle that life presents with the fullness of love that is his greatest weapon. Thus armed, man cannot fail, and when his life ends he will know infinite pride in the battles he has fought and won in the name of love, his greatest ally.

a spirit of loving acceptance

Tuesday, 2/22/00 11:33PM

Beyond all else, man come to earthly existence as an exercise of his own free will with the consent and blessing of divine grace, needs to be aware always of his own power and his own capacity to fulfill his destiny in a spirit of loving acceptance of all that is given to him equally with all that is demanded of him.

It is sometimes difficult for the soul in progress to regard the world as a fair place when so much is given and demanded of some and so little given and demanded of others. This is necessarily a subjective assessment, for no man can judge accurately the riches accorded by another. The richest man in earthly rewards may be the most deprived emotionally and spiritually. He may know the torment of being an object of envy at the same time that he knows the torment of inner strife and conflict in his family ties. The man deprived of all worldly rewards may, on the other hand, know spiritual and emotional rewards and security to be envied by all men.

The wise man learns to withhold judgment of his brother until he knows him well, and he extends a reasonable tolerance even before final judgment. It is wisdom indeed for man to seek to discover the inner life of the brother he seeks to know and love, to look beyond the surface and to weigh always the gifts and the needs of the one he seeks to understand. This is not always an easy endeavor. Man is often bound by pride and reticence to attempt to present to the world a picture of himself and his close companions in life that is pleasing in all ways. It is in his nature, all too often, to obfuscate, to hide from his brothers frustrations and insecurity and needs he despairs of meeting.

This secrecy is, at times, contagious. The brother who hugs to himself his fears and his needs intimidates all those who would otherwise choose to be open in expressing their own insecurities and needs. When man speaks honestly, he inspires honesty in those who hear his words. When man admits openly his feelings of inadequacy and need, he inspires in others a sincere desire to meet his needs and to sustain him. Without this openness, man not only isolates himself from his brothers, but he deprives these same brothers of the opportunity to satisfy his needs and to give to him of their own resources. In this failure of communication both parties are deprived and both are thereby limited in their spiritual progress.

a fulfillment of mutual need

Wednesday, 2/23/00 11:57PM

Man's greatest dilemma is, at times, choosing between immediate gratification and ultimate satisfaction. Often life offers opportunities to find pleasure in trivial pursuits, harmless in themselves and momentarily distracting, but singularly unimportant in life's greater plan. While there is no harm in those diversions, there is some danger of man's becoming so engrossed in the superficial satisfactions that life offers that he deprives himself of finding deeper satisfactions.

Life offers many opportunities for man to use his talents. He may choose a solitary course in life and live an existence totally dependent upon self satisfaction and joy in individual achievement or he may elect to share and to expend his energies in bringing satisfaction to others in example and instruction. The world abounds with opportunities to invest in the welfare of others in ways which utilize individual abilities. It takes only the most cursory of examinations for man to discover need in his world. He may look afar or he may look closer to home. In either case he will discover ways in which his energies and abilities will enrich the lives of others. Ideally he will find deep and abiding satisfaction in using his talents in improving the lot of his fellows in need. He will enrich himself by enriching others, and he will develop loyalties that will last a lifetime.

All too often man's talents are inadequately applied. While it is right and good to enjoy momentary and frivolous activities, each soul in progress does well to extend his energies to aid those whose lives will profit by his help and to recognize in this labor of love a fulfillment of mutual need. He will thereby discover the true meaning of brotherhood and he will experience the essence of fulfillment in his expenditure of love in action, of caring manifested in good deeds and joyful sharing.

The world grows constantly in awareness that the best of lives achieves a balance between momentary pleasure and prolonged dedication, between self interest and service to others.

man seeks love in its deepest nature

Thursday, 2/24/00 11:44PM

Man's pride in life is always centered in the love that he knows. Love can be variously defined and often is so. It can range from simple admiration to passionate and endless commitment, love that knows no fault, no limit. Between these two extremes lie the variations man knows in his earthly experience.

It should be first stated that love in any form is held desirable by all men. Simple admiration warms the soul of the receiver and spurs him on to further efforts to win approval. The simple love of easy companionship enriches daily existence and again is both sought and valued. Much of the warmth in human coexistence knows its security in love of this nature.

More deeply rooted and more nourishing is the love of family and love of the heart's choice. Man seeks love in its deepest nature always and rejoices in its rich contribution to his well being. In his earliest years he knows the security of parental love based firmly on family relationships and co-dependence. While some are deprived of this gift, most souls begin their lives in this circle of love given and received and continue to know its benefit until the independence of adulthood and beyond.

Man is challenged when he leaves the certainty of family love to seek and to establish bonds of love of his choosing. These may be the most significant of all he knows of love in earthly life. Ideally he chooses one who responds to his need for love and his offer of love, and together they establish a new network of family love which serves all well.

Beyond these narrow confines, the most fortunate of men know love experienced in various ways. Some dedicate themselves to worthy causes and earn the justifiable love of those whom they benefit with their love expressed in word and deed. Others seek to find love in extended community and commit themselves to creating in their immediate environment solutions to the needs of friend and neighbor. Often this type of giving is infinitely private and goes unnoted except by those involved in the exchange of love and often is the sweeter for this limitation.

In all, man knows love varying in degree and in intensity, but man is blessed always in love expressed. His heart sings when he knows love whether it be simple approval or the intense love of total commitment. The happy man knows both these extremes and all in between. He asks no more.

love is a gift that demands response

Friday, 2/25/00 10:54PM

Sweetest among man's gifts is his capacity to know in his heart the wisdom of accepting love when it is offered to him and knowing with absolute certainty that he must embrace this love in full awareness of its need. He knows absolutely that love is a gift that demands response. He knows that an offer of love is complete only when that offer is met fully with love equal in its intensity and generosity. Without such response, the most sincere of love proffered withers and dies. With response equal in its fervor, it grows and in sharing fully finds total sublimity.

It is, unfortunately, a failing among men to recognize that love demands a constancy, that it needs nourishment, and that total sharing demands that each partner in the relationship assume full responsibility for sustaining this love with words and acts of affirmation without regard to response. This is difficult for all men, but it is important to recognize the reality that such total and unequivocal devotion almost invariably inspires equal response, and that in this unselfish giving and unconditional expression love flourishes and grows stronger with each word and gesture shared in perfect love.

Even if one or the other of the parties to this love falters, even if the devotion fails in sustaining the love, the soul which persists in the full expression of love is enriched. It is never an error to love fully in any relationship. Even when the world regards total faithfulness as folly, the world errs, and the faithful and devoted soul persistent in love is the winner.

There is no end to love and its power even when the vagaries and inconsistencies sometimes inherent in human relationships would indicate that this is not true. Love survives all trial. Even when the bright flame of love seems to be extinguished, it is not. It lives in the soul, however betrayed, however disappointed that soul may be, and it waits always opportunity for expression.

This capacity to know the power of love despite all oppression and all betrayal is the supreme strength of the soul in progress. It strengthens always. It is beauty within.

life is a trial, a school

Saturday, 2/26/00 11:32PM

When man seeks understanding of all his life represents, he is often confused. When he is hard pressed to explain to himself his seeking, he retreats often into confession of failure to comprehend his life's mystery and he concludes that there are no answers to his questions, no end to his bewilderment.

Though man is not capable of full understanding of the complexities involved in life and its varied experiences, he needs to understand that just as each individual differs from all others, each life differs from all others both in its nature and in its effects both immediate and long range. What man would find helpful in his search for truth is that this life is a trial, a school, if you will, in which he is given the opportunity to learn and to progress with this learning to a new plateau of spiritual advancement. What happens to each man in his journey through life is of little importance in this advancement. All important is his reaction to his earthly relationships and to all aspects of these relationships.

As has been said, man charts his own course before entering life, though he is granted no memory of what he has chosen to experience in any given existence. He comes to life equipped to do all he has promised in the name of loving promise, and he comes equipped with the free will which translates into individual responsibility. With faith in this concept of human existence, man will find peaceful reconciliation to all encountered difficulty, to all relationships whether loving or troubled, to all the challenges he is equipped to meet and capable of surviving.

The day will come for all men when the world will know the tranquility of absolute faith in the true gift that human existence represents. That day is not far off.

there is power beyond his own

Sunday, 2/27/00 11:40PM

When man is asked to contemplate the nature of his being, he is often reluctant to assume more than a claim to mortality. He finds it easy to assess himself in purely physical terms, to recognize the nature of his physical birth. He is confident in the steps he takes through life from infancy through childhood and early adulthood to maturity and eventually to old age, generally the precursor of the end of human existence.

He finds a certainty and a certain comfort in this orderly progress from birth to death, and although he is aware that some of his brothers do not follow this certain progress, that some lives end in untimely fashion, he does not dwell on these exceptions to the rule. He is less certain, indeed often at a complete loss, when he tries to go beyond the purely physical and seek to understand the governing influence in human existence.

What power, he asks, determines how and when we come to earthly existence? What power determines the strengths and weaknesses, the physical characteristics that each man knows from birth? Who determines which man shall be brilliant while his brother sadly lacks intellectual capacity? Why do some men die untimely deaths while others live long beyond their choosing?

Contemplation of such questions reminds man of his own inadequacies, of his lack of control of the most significant aspects of his life. Yet he refuses to feel like a creature totally controlled by forces beyond his power. He retains an optimism, a firm belief in his own capacity to handle himself well in all that is required of him, and when he is at times reminded by events that there is a power beyond his own, he is able to accept his limitations.

He emerges from his consideration of his place in the universe aware that much of human existence is beyond full understanding, but that it is enough for him to accept all he cannot control and to rejoice in all that is within his power to control. He knows faith both in himself and in the power he acknowledges without fully understanding its nature.

faith in the goodness of life

Monday, 2/28/00 11:43PM

In the midst of life, with all its pleasures and pain, man gets caught up in the details of everyday life. He often has little time for contemplation. He often has little time to be concerned with issues other than those of his daily life and its requirements. This is by no means to be deplored, for in the process of meeting the demands of his chosen life he may be fulfilling all that is required of him. He may be meeting each decision he faces in an ordinary day with a heart full of love and a determination to act in love. He may know great inner peace in this quiet and loving existence. He may be creating great happiness in the lives of those dependent upon him in ways great and small. He may never feel threatened in any way by unhappiness or conflict.

This, then, is the ideal, and happily it reflects the lives of many blessed souls come to earth to complete their pilgrimage to perfection. Yet most lives, even those which resemble the perfection of problem-free existence, experience minor crisis. It may be the sickness of a child. It may be economic crisis. It may be a world shattering event far removed but immediately consequential. In all cases, man is called upon to cope with whatever alterations these new complications create in his life. Armed with the strength of the love that characterizes his existence, he feels quite capable of dealing with the changes in his life that outside forces demand. He does not lose his sense of well being nor his faith in the goodness of life, but he begins to be aware that his world is not as secure from threat as he once assumed.

The vast majority of men over the eons of human existence have lived such ordinary loving and peaceful lives. They have occasionally been touched by disaster far beyond their immediate control, and they have at times been touched by disaster closer to home. In such cases the soul aware of its needs meets the challenges of life with full faith in his capacity to cope and with a heart full of love that survives all challenge.

All men are capable of this splendid response to interruption of their tranquility, to unexpected challenge, and they draw great strength from the love that they have created in their relationships both within and without the family. The sweet fabric of life may be strained by trial, but is never destroyed so long as man knows that he is meant to live in peaceful acceptance of all of life, both joy and sorrow.

the voices of those mischievous souls

Tuesday, 2/29/00 11:29PM

It is of the utmost importance that man grasp early in his earthly existence the significance of his being. He needs to know from the earliest part of his life that he is not a random accident, come to this life in accident, in pointless striving to survive trial and to pass from worldly existence into extinction.

It is not important that man know this awareness to cheer his days on earth, for it is quite possible for man to know earthly pleasure without regard to the true significance of his life. It is deplorable when this occurs, for life, however sweet, is the sweeter for an awareness of its greater significance.

All too many men live in relative ignorance of the true significance of their earthy sojourn. The reasons for this prevailing unawareness are many. Some men are sensitive from birth to the voices of those mischievous souls who seek to deter the soul in progress from knowing the true nature of the love that is theirs from birth. It may seem strange to some that the soul newly come to earth is potential prey to those wayward spirits who seek power, and indeed it is rare that the new soul is so assaulted and conquered, but as years pass and the prize grows more desirable, the efforts of the Others grow in equal intensity.

The soul in progress thus assailed is a soul which has agreed to this trial, and it is a joyous day in the heavenly realm when the soul in combat triumphs and shares his wonder with all those loving souls who wish him well and whose rejoicing knows no end.

What man needs in life to fulfill his promise he is given in good measure. These gifts are his to accept or reject as his heart speaks. It is a joy indeed when his heart speaks truly and he embraces life and its attendant blessings and demands with full awareness of his own divine nature, able always to please himself, his brother, and the God from whom he comes.

man has a hand in creating his destiny

Wednesday, 3/1/00 11:30PM

Sweet indeed is the promise of new life to man in travail. It is, as I have said, in the nature of the human journey that man be tested in many ways, all of his choosing before entering life, but it does not detract from the challenge that man has had a hand in creating his own destiny. It is important, however, that man feel the confidence in himself that enables him to fight against all odds to do as his heart commands -- to protect those near and dear to him from all harm and to seek in full acceptance to remedy all ills and to renew his full faith in the beauty and fulfillment of a life well lived.

It cannot be repeated too often that man's faith in himself and in the goodness of both man and God is able to sustain him through the most world shaking of trials. In the darkest of days, this inner strength enables him to feel confident of brighter days to come, of a return to the pleasures of life he once despaired of ever knowing again. Take this inner strength, this all abiding faith, away from the troubled soul, and you are left with helplessness and despair.

It is not in man's nature to surrender to despair without a mighty struggle, and yet there are occasions when man cannot resist the feelings of hopelessness and inadequacy that have invaded his soul. Convinced of his own inadequacy, he deems himself unworthy of life and of love. This is the darkest hour, and it awaits only the beacon of hope and encouragement that love alone can provide. It is blessed indeed when man recognizes this overwhelming need in his brother, whether it be a brother close to his heart or one barely known, and moves to rescue him from despair and self destruction.

Love works miracles when it is offered to the soul close to surrendering to such overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and self loathing. The mere assertion of love and caring is powerful in its persuasiveness, and the soul about to surrender all hope finds itself renewed and optimistic, able to consider its own power and worth once again.

Each time the miracle of love rescues a soul in turmoil and despair, the miracle illuminates the souls of many, and love is recognized once again as an instrument of powerful healing. This is both reasonable and infinitely pleasing to all.

the road to spiritual perfection

Thursday, 3/2/00 11:55PM

Whatever the nature of his earthly origins, the soul in progress is equal in all ways to his brothers striving to succeed as he is on the road to spiritual perfection. While this striving is not always a conscious aim, not a mental preoccupation, it lives in the very soul of man each time that life presents difficulties that challenge the generous nature of his love. It is not always true that challenges to man's capacity for love result in a diminishing of this capacity, but is all too often the case.

Man when he is disappointed or disillusioned about his progress in life's demands knows uncertainty and seeks confirmation of what action would serve him best. Man turns first to those bound to him in ties of love and loyalty, and if he is satisfied, he proceeds to act upon this advice. All too often man finds himself in need of other advisement and he finds it reasonable to ask of others who have had similar experience all they can give to him to guide him on his way. Some give generously. Some are miserly in their contribution. Some give not at all and hug to themselves their disappointment in self that has corroded their souls.

In all, man more often than not finds willing minds and hands to achieve the wisdom to confront challenge and find solution. He finds this wisdom in the shared love granted to him, sometimes the love of those closest to him in family ties and the abiding loyalty of friendship, but also sometimes from those who are strangers who respond to a cry for help out of the very goodness of their souls.

Man is gratified always by response to his needs. He is doubly satisfied when he is befriended and aided by one who knows him only in terms of his need and who nevertheless takes it upon himself to do all that is needed to bring peace and satisfaction to his brother. These souls, then, are twice blessed in the giving and receiving of love and achieve a perfect relationship, each the equal of the other, each serving the other's needs perfectly. Who is to dispute their equality? Each gives in full measure of his capacity to give. Each receives in full measure of his need to receive. They are equally blessed.

a spirit of loving compliance

Friday, 3/3/00 11:35PM

At all times man is capable of living in love, in the full grace of blessed awareness of all he is able to do in this earthy life to reach the spiritual perfection that is his aim and his destined reward for striving to find the path. Each man perceives his responsibilities and his direction in a singular manner, but each man shares with his brother the common end of meeting life's responsibilities in an attitude of acceptance and gratitude. Even when life seems more difficult than is tolerable, man is obliged to remember that he has been given the strength and tenacity to do as his heart dictates in the pursuit of perfection.

It is at times difficult for man to remember that his strength is ample even when he feels weakest, and yet all that is required is for him to remember that he came to this life of his own free will, fully capable of keeping all promises and fully able to complete each task that life presents in a spirit of loving compliance. It is important for him to remind himself that the acceptance of all that is asked of him is the surest path to earthly peace and self satisfaction. A quiet heart is the greatest of rewards, and the man so gifted is not only complete in himself but a constant source of admiration and emulation by all who know him.

Although it is not easy for some men to reach the ideal of faithful acceptance of all that life offers and all that life demands, it is important that each soul in progress strive constantly to reach this peaceful ideal of purpose and behavior. The rewards in achievement of this loving reaction to all of life are beyond all imagining, but they await always.

sweet as this life is, the end is sweeter

Saturday, 3/4/00 10:12PM

Sweet as this life is, the end is sweeter. For some the end is far sweeter, though the soul entering eternity has no sure knowledge of this blessed and comforting truth. Man, under almost all circumstances, tends to cling to life. Even when he is beset by illness, vulnerable constantly to pain and distress, his entire being seems to yearn for a continuation of life, however difficult he may find it, however hopeless his future seems.

This is in some ways a strange phenomenon. The observer, seeing the total distress of the terminally ill individual, wonders that he does not willingly surrender his life and embrace death as a friend, a release from earthly misery. Those who love the soul in danger of death are torn. On the one hand, they cannot bear the thought of relinquishing one they so love, and on the other, they agonize over the hardships his body inflicts upon his spirit. So both are torn, and both are consumed with concern for the other.

Man would be well served could he recognize that the finite nature of human life is at all times a fact of life. The end of life is made certain by its beginning. Man would find added comfort in embracing the truth that each soul come to earthly life has chosen the course of that life with all its attendant gifts and deprivations and designed both its beginning and its ending. Man is master of his destiny, but he is, as agreed before life began, deprived of all memory and awareness of the power he has exercised. He lives deprived of this power and this awareness, ignorant of all that has transpired before his birth and ignorant of all that will inevitably follow his death.

Into this vacuum of ignorance, man is blessed to know faith and hope and to have an underlying awareness of the nature of his divine origin and his divine destiny. Faith is the ultimate comfort, one born in love and nourished by hope, to be treasured always. It is a gift freely available to all those on the earthly voyage. It is God's gift to all His children.

love spreads and brightens many lives

Sunday, 3/5/00 11:35PM

It is essential for man to awaken each day to new awareness of the wonder of his life and of the wonder he is within this life. Under all conditions, man has this capacity for awareness of his special nature and special mission in the life he lives in full awareness of its limited years. No man considers himself immortal. He is often reminded of his mortality when he looks about him and sees his brothers untimely called to another life. He lives each day in full awareness that despite his powers and his responsibilities his is not the ultimate power in determining which of his days shall be the last.

It is right and good for man to exist constantly in full awareness of the temporary nature of human life. It is sobering for him to consider that each day he awakens could be his last. There should be no morbidity in this awareness, but rather it should inspire man to live each day in the fullness of love, in absolute enjoyment of each hour and each minute. It should inspire him to express fully his love for all those who fill his life and it should inspire him to every effort to meet the needs, both physical and spiritual, of those blessed souls dependent upon him in any way.

Man, thus enriched in awareness, cannot err. He will not act thoughtlessly or selfishly. He will not be hurtful to those he encounters in daily activities, knowing that each encounter could be his last. In essence he seeks each opportunity of each day to gratify both himself and all those whose lives touch his. He creates a new world of love and caring by all his words and actions, and those who are touched by his caring are in turn inspired to act accordingly and to create their own worlds of love and caring.

Above all, rewards accrue to the man living each day as if it could be his last. His heart sings with the rightness of all he does in full awareness. All those who receive this love in whatever way find themselves eager to share it with others. Love spreads and brightens so many lives that its power is almost palpable, and the single individual responsible for this outpouring may be totally unaware of the good he has done this day, but he knows a soul at peace and a heart eager to share further.

regret for opportunities lost

Monday, 3/6/00 11:18PM

When man contemplates his life past, whether it be early in his journey or as he approaches its end, he asks himself the questions he has hesitated earlier to entertain. He seeks to know the true nature of his life past, to evaluate all he has known in human exchange and in material satisfaction. He relishes the consideration of the love he has known, from joyous companionship to the intensity of total commitment. He evaluates himself in terms of material achievement. He wonders if he has fulfilled his full potential. He wonders if he has chosen wisely in the path he has walked. He knows in his heart the degree of satisfaction he is justified in feeling in the relationships he has known in love given and received. He is aware of regret when he considers his failures in the full exchange of love and he rejoices in his successes.

Few men look back on their lives past without a degree of regret for opportunities lost, for love wasted, for good deeds undone. When this retrospection occurs early in life's journey, man is privileged to know the opportunity to redress all wrongs and to amend all error. If this self appraisal is postponed until death approaches, man is reduced to simple regret and a heartfelt wish that he could do more.

In all cases, it is desirable for man to pause in the midst of life, regardless of his feelings of success or failure, and to look back upon the years which have passed in a sincere effort to learn what he might have done that he did not do and what he did that might better have been left undone. There may be pain and discomfort in this honest self appraisal, but there is undeniably infinite good. Man profits immeasurably by this increase in self awareness, and he profits by each step he takes to straighten his path, to right all wrongs, and to fill all voids.

The man willing to look honestly at himself in full appraisal of his past is a man with a bright future. He is a man to be envied, for the peace he knows, for the pleasure he enjoys, and for the goodness his acts reflect.

the way to inner happiness

Tuesday, 3/7/00 11:40PM

In the course of life, most men know moments of critical decision. These challenges to judgment occur from the earliest years of childhood when the process of decision making is more intuitive than intellectual. In these cases, the young soul is often influenced by the voices he hears -- some beneficent, some less so, perhaps even harmful. These early decisions are most often influential. They tend to mold the young mind, particularly if the course of action taken results in approval. Thus, early in life does man determine to some extent the path he deems wise and gratifying.

Most often the soul learns early in its earthly journey that the path defined by love given and received is the way to inner happiness and approval of others. There is a grace intrinsic in the nature of man that urges him to respond in love to all those whom he knows in family and in friendship. Love is man's natural energy and emotion, and from birth it is his strength in the face of all difficulty. Most often love offered becomes love accepted, and the relationship so established offers continuing richness and strength to both parties.

There are times, however, when man's dependence upon love as central to his emotional well being meets challenge. This challenge may take the form of rejection, betrayal, misunderstanding, or a withering of love once held supreme. In all cases, man is called upon to survive injury and to survive with his capacity for love intact and prepared to offer trust once again. Love thus challenged acquires a new strength and new capacity for survival.

There is no limit to challenge in man's earthly adventure, but it is important in the midst of crisis, however powerful that test may be, that his love prevails above all else in life and that he will emerge newly equipped to know tenacity and endless hope when once again his heart is stirred and he is once again able to offer love and to respond to love offered to him. There is no end to the joy involved in this renewal, and it is denied to no man.

justice prevails

Wednesday, 3/8/00 11:35PM

Beyond all else, man needs to cherish in every aspect of his being the divine nature of his existence. He comes to this world of the grace of God whose love for him knows no bounds, and he comes to a life of his choosing to do all that is right and good in the process of achieving perfect love, the absolute requirement of spiritual perfection, the destiny of all souls come to earth.

Man exists always within the parameters of divine protection. He has at all times the capacity and inclination to act in accordance with divine will and to thereby please both himself and those heavenly spirits devoted to his welfare. Not all men are blessed in their exercise of free will, for many are beguiled by false promises and selfish intent and forget the wisdom fully available to them, the guidance that tells them that a loving response to all life offers is the only certain assurance of happiness in both mortal and eternal life.

It is sad when man with all good intent permits himself to be led astray, to surrender to base desires for material riches and to be led far afield from his ultimate goals, his preordained destiny. The history of the world is replete with villains unspeakably cruel and uncaring, lost souls who inflicted cruelty without any consideration for the oppressed, who lived and died in the pursuit of fame and power and the trappings of power and who died as all men do in the absolute equality of mortality.

Even today the world knows the horror of repression at the hand of tyrants who ignore their own humanity and their brotherhood with all those they treat so casually and so cruelly. The oppressor and the oppressed go to their graves in absolute equality, but past the threshold of death it is the oppressed who are the triumphant. It is the oppressor who is at last forced to face his enormous failings and who begs for forgiveness and the chance to make amends.

Thus justice prevails and all souls find vindication.

an aura of heavenly origin

Thursday 3/9/00 11:58PM.

From the very first instant of earthly existence, man brings with him into this world an aura of heavenly origin. No man can explain fully the wondrous miracle of human birth. Much has been attributed to the scientific theories that have been promulgated over many years, and there is some reason and persuasiveness in this insight. Yet science has failed to provide proof positive and ultimate truth. Man is distinct from those related to him in the animal kingdom by the possession of a soul that knows no ending, of a reason that is beyond simple scientific explanation, and a relationship to the divine that is solely his.

There are times when man's divine nature is difficult to distinguish, when man permits himself to descend in patterns of destructive behavior totally lacking in love, and when he loses all sense of spiritual worth and identification with forces for good quite beyond his immediate understanding. It is fortunate that the overwhelming majority of men, souls come to earth in divine promise, labor under all difficult circumstances to be worthy of the relationship that exists always, to the guiding force that brought them to earthly existence and that will guide them in their departure from this world.

It is sad indeed when the individual soul in progress departs from divine awareness of the power of love and seeks satisfaction in life that disregards the mandate to live in love. The soul so misguided suffers far beyond his immediate awareness, though most often in the midst of worldly success he senses an emptiness in his being, a hollowness in all his earthly triumphs. It is at such moments of awareness that the soul gone astray may be rescued from waywardness, may recognize error past and seek to know once again the rightness of living in love without regard to material reward. It is joy indeed when the wayward soul finds its way back to awareness and knows once again the divinity of his nature.

peaceful co-existence

Friday, 3/10/00 11:45PM

It is in the interest of all men that the world arrive at a state of peaceful co-existence. This requires surrender on the part of many. It requires man's tolerance of all beliefs that conflict with his and a loving acceptance of the brother who holds those conflicting beliefs. It requires all men to recognize the unifying force of love shared. It requires recognition of the universality of love when it is truly felt in a total acceptance of all those born into life who share the human yearning for peace.

The universality of love cannot be denied. No man born does not need love given and received. Though some may protest, may claim that the world all too often knows the unloving individual who seeks to disrupt the peaceful nature of life others enjoy, they are still aware that the man who fails to live in love is the exception to the rule. Man would be blessed further if he embraced his unloving brother in love so compelling as to deny refusal and thereby disarm him.

Man needs to express his love in every word and deed each and every day of his life from start to finish. This is, some would say, too much to expect, too great a burden on those who find themselves fighting for simple survival and often victimized by those they are called upon to love. However difficult this may be, the soul achieving this perfection of love knows inner joy beyond expression and insulates himself from further harm. He is, in addition, an example of virtue to all who observe his loving actions and he acts as both example and catalyst for others. He is powerful in his goodness.

The world is fortunate in knowing such strong and loving souls, and the world will know peace in direct proportion to their numbers. Each man has it within his power to create peace in himself and in those he loves without condition, and each man achieving this perfection of love inspires others to follow his example, and slowly, but inexorably, the circle of love widens and brings with it the peace among men that marks a new world.

this angel he has the right to call his own

Saturday, 3/11/00 11:57PM

Without exception, man born into eternal life comes to learn. Even those blessed souls come to earth of their own goodness and generosity, those perfect beings who need no longer to labor in the pursuit of perfection, even these perfect beings experience the joy of learning in their mission to share divine love with those whose need is great.

Let it be known that earth is rich with these blessed spirits, souls who have achieved perfect love and divine oneness who choose to leave the heavenly plane with no motivation but that of sharing their perfection, of teaching struggling souls to learn by their experiences and to reach the generosity of love that is essential to spiritual progress.

It can be said without contradiction that each soul come to earth knows the devoted caring of one of these heavenly beings. It can be further asserted that the soul in progress at each forward step in his passage through life owes all guidance to this angel he has the right to call his own. Often man, disbelieving in all things spiritual or religious, is sharply reminded of his error when he knows the unmistakable presence of divine guidance and comes to new awareness of privilege.

It is often not easy for man to acknowledge that he is guided by influences beyond natural explanation, and yet even as he protests the supernatural, he knows in his soul that he does not have a quick or reasonable explanation of all his spiritual life both gives and demands of him. He knows in his heart that no rational explanation will suffice, and so, at the very least, he suspends his disbelief and asks to know the balance of right and wrong in the seeming paradox he seeks to resolve.

Most men are infinitely kind in their beings and only occasionally find themselves indulging in unloving behavior. While they may not always understand what their hearts tell them, they sense in all that their hearts speak infinite truth.

a new era of peace and love

Sunday, 3/12/00 11:35PM

It is a brilliant quality in all men that no matter how they stray from the path they are destined to take, they remain capable of returning. It is in the nature of the human trial that error marks man's path through life.

Few souls in progress are invulnerable to error, perfect in intent and action, and those few are to be revered and emulated. The great majority of those seeking to achieve spiritual perfection are prone to error. They permit themselves to be persuaded to indulge selfish instincts, to forget the wondrous quality of love and devotion to duty that are their heritage. They stray into error and need redemption.

Whether or not these misled souls are aware of their need for redemption, for a full return to a life of goodness and giving, they are insistently urged by the guiding spirits they are privileged to know to abandon error and to embrace the sweet truth of the pervading power of love.

Often the soul in progress knows protracted struggle between the forces of good and evil, those compelling voices that seek to both control and guide, one into the path of good, the other into the path of self destruction. Even when the soul is temporarily led astray, enchanted by dreams of glorious fulfillment in earthly ways, that soul is not lost but simply delayed on its destined path.

It is difficult, at times, to imagine that goodness and love are the absolute destiny of all those born to human life. It is difficult to imagine that the utopia of myth will come to be. Yet man must cling to the reality promised in these words. The day of peace and perfection is not far off, and each man now striving to live in love will prove instrumental in heralding this new day. It will be the privilege of many to move the mythical mountains that will usher in a new era of peace and love, and its origin will be in the hearts of all men.

the trapppings of earthly prosperity

Monday, 3/13/00 11:35PM

The least of men is sometimes superior to the greatest of men. This seeming paradox reflects man's obsession with the trappings of earthly prosperity. There is such a mistaken assumption that if man knows material blessings he must be therefore one of God's favorite children, blessed in all ways. While there is an element of truth in this supposition, it is dangerously misleading.

I have said repeatedly that each soul come to earth comes with a plan of its own choosing to progress to the ideal of spiritual perfection. Man may choose all aspects of the life he comes to earth to lead. He may choose to come into a family of wealth and prominence, of riches and public respect, or he may choose to be a beggar, deprived in all ways of material comfort. He may choose to have all the physical attributes deemed admirable in human life -- brains, wealth, a pleasing demeanor, an ingratiating personality. He may, at the other extreme, choose deprivation, poverty, physical instability, the challenge of loneliness.

Each choice that man makes reflects his own understanding and acceptance of his need. He knows that it is not easy to live a life of privilege while retaining a sense of self denial. He knows that it is easier to be virtuous when you are poor and dependent. The scales balance at these two extremes and at all gradations in between, and it is the duty of man in his journey through life to keep firmly in mind his sole need. He must remember always that all that he is given and all that he is deprived of in human life is but an opportunity for him to progress spiritually to the state of grace that permits him the ultimate progression -- to know eternal oneness, the perfection of being that he has sought from the start of time.

It is sometimes difficult for man to remember this all important goal, to realize that the extremes of physical and material well being are as nothing, that the soul is ultimately stripped of all earthly responsibility, all material advantage or disadvantage, and comes to its reward pure and undefiled, born into new innocence.

gift of free will

Tuesday, 3/14/00 11:40PM

Before and above all else, man comes to earthly life ready to submit himself to all difficulties, to accept all benefit, to demand no more than he is given, and to accept gratefully each opportunity to progress in his journey to spiritual perfection. Clearly man in his earthly experience does not recall this commitment to promises made before birth, but he does come with all the power to fulfill those promises, and he comes with full awareness of his gift of free will, in itself a powerful tool, one to be used wisely.

For some men, the road to spiritual perfection seems easier than it is for others. For the fortunate few, the path is swift and sure. For others, the path is strewn with obstacles and is slow and agonizing. For most souls in progress, the path is one between these two extremes, but for all souls the earthly experience is a constant challenge. For all there is temptation. For all there is despair and discouragement. For all, however, there is certainty of ultimate success, of eventual triumph over all difficulty, and the supreme satisfaction of heavenly acceptance and eternal bliss.

It is not an easy matter for man struggling to accept all that he is asked to endure in a spirit of total love and understanding, but that is exactly what he must ideally do. With acceptance comes renewed strength and new found optimism. Man finds himself armed as he never dreamed he might be to deal with all obstacles, to dismiss all doubts, and to emerge from trial triumphant and vindicated.

It is joy indeed when man knows his own power, when he finds within himself all he needs to cope with trial and tribulation, and to find in his acceptance and struggle new found joy and enormous satisfaction in himself. At times this may be a struggle both difficult and protracted, and the soul in progress may be tempted to despair, but it is always within his capacity to reject these feelings and to struggle to a success that fills him with a new sense of worth and a new awareness of his capacity for goodness and grace.

awareness of all that is right and good

Wednesday, 3/15/00 11:50PM

While man wonders what meaning his life has, he is obliged to live each day in ways that he may not fully understand but which his heart demands of him. Perfect as man is when he comes to earthly life, he retains, despite difficulty and disillusionment, an awareness of all that is right and good, and his heart urges him to live each day in this awareness. If all men heeded this holy urging, the world would indeed be a perfect place, free of struggle, infinite in its blessings.

As it is, man finds himself prey to temptation and finds himself forgetting to heed that inner voice that speaks of goodness and grace. Yet through the centuries, man has survived final defeat and struggles always to live the life divinely ordained for him, a life of goodness and giving, of joyous sharing of love, of total faith in and acceptance of his brother.

It would be a simple matter for man were the world not so full of challenge. Yet man lives in accordance with all that he has chosen in his earthly journey and he lives in a world of his own choosing. There is no limit to the varieties of experience offered the soul choosing his life's pattern. There is no limit to the opportunity for him to progress in a single human existence. Yet there is also and always the possibility of failure to keep promises made and to delay the swift course to perfection he had anticipated.

There are wide variations in the degree of success or failure the soul in progress knows during the course of a single life. Successes abound, and great satisfaction marks the great majority of those facing judgment at the end of mortal life. Most men are pleased with themselves and seek further progress eagerly. Those who fail abysmally are both to be pitied and deplored. These souls who so lose direction as to victimize their brothers, sometimes in heinous and bestial ways, know remorse without bounds. Others less severely deficient in their conduct experience less overwhelming remorse but are still regretful and anxious to expiate and relearn the lessons of love.

Thus the human journey, infinite in its variety, offers to all souls in progress opportunity to meet all needs.

perfect innocence in man come to earth

Thursday, 3/16/00 11:30PM

There is a perfect innocence in man come to earth. He is born innocent, free of guile, transcendent in his capacity to give and receive love. He is pleasing in all ways. He is faultless.

There comes a time when innocence meets challenge. The young child is often the victim of temptation, of influences for both good and for evil, and a lifetime of trial and response begins. There is no date certain for the end of innocence in earthly life, and indeed there are blessed souls whose innocence survives all trial and whose goodness in unassailable. Most souls in progress retain a degree of innocence and loving acceptance of all that is demanded of them. Few surrender to cynicism to the extent that it affects all aspects of their lives. Even fewer are led totally astray by the beguiling voices of the Others and forget entirely the saving grace of love.

The world knows well that the loss of innocence, while generally inevitable at least to some extent, is a loss to all humanity, and it is gratifying to recognize that there are many sharing the journey who may lose innocence in the sense of naivete but who refuse to surrender the inborn faith in themselves and those they love and who find this loving trust an adequate substitute for the innocence that experience has denied them.

Yet, there is such a gratification in regarding the very young whose innocence has yet to be threatened and to remember, sometimes ruefully, those long ago days when they shared this virtue. In their hearts many seek to regain a measure of this purity in their love for these tender souls entrusted to them in their most vulnerable years. In such caring there is endless joy and endless beneficence. The young prosper in the gentleness of care and those who guard them are enriched by the love freely given and equally demanded.

The innocent love and trust of a child is among the greatest of human satisfactions. The child thrives, the loving caregiver grows in wisdom and feeling, and together they progress.

childhood to adulthood

Friday, 3/17/00 11:35PM

On the way to adulthood, the child experiences many stages of growth and awareness, each one contributing to the learning that is essential, each one differing in its gifts and its demands until the time when the child feels capable of rejecting total dependence and asserting in word and deed the craved independence that marks the onset of responsible and individual authority in all the decisions that directly affect well being.

This progress is not always a simple progression. Indeed it is more often than not marked by indecision, rebelliousness not always justified, and an intense need for approbation and support. Approval comes primarily from those sharing the same steps in the journey through life. Sometimes this approval and encouragement is exactly what is good and necessary. Sometimes it is quite the opposite, and it is both confusing and difficult for the emerging adult to distinguish between the two. Sometimes the troubled soul listens intently to all that is offered in advice and judges astutely, accepting parts of both and rejecting the rest.

There is no question that this passage from childhood to adulthood is a trying time for most souls and for all those who consider themselves responsible for adult advice, control, and approval. It is a time marked by difficulty in communication, by differing values and expectations, and by the unwillingness of either party to surrender authority. This conflict and state of misunderstanding in most cases is reasonably short lived and leaves no scars, no permanent harm to the relationship between parent and child. Occasionally there is temporary disruption, but rarely is such alienation permanent.

It is to the advantage of both parent and child to practice tolerance and to realize that what seems like enormous gaps in understanding and acceptance diminish in time and in retrospect seem totally inconsequential. It is important to remember that harsh words and angry retaliation do not solve problems but simply contribute to the interruption of love given and received, a loss to each party and to all those caring souls who hold them in their hearts.

self-appraisal

Saturday, 3/18/00 10:55PM

Whenever man hesitates to know full faith in himself, he needs to closely examine his words and his deeds. There is great advantage in this self appraisal. All too often man neglects to consider the small, seemingly insignificant gifts he offers to his fellow travelers in life's journey. These gifts may be as insignificant as a cheery word to all those he encounters in his daily life, as a constant bolstering of others who need this encouragement. He may find it within himself to practice small charities so often that they become a habit, unnoticed by him but a blessing to others. He may befriend the needy in many ways. He may do this instinctively without expectation of acknowledgment or gratitude. In all, man may fail to appreciate the infinite goodness of his being because he regards all the good he does as not significant.

Man needs to realize that true greatness and true holiness lie often in the seemingly insignificant. It takes little consideration to realize the importance in all of life of kindness, of loyalty, of generosity, often not great by measure but great in effectiveness. Should each soul in progress realize the importance of small gestures of love and incorporate this practice into his daily life, the world would be transformed, and he would find himself uplifted and rewarded beyond imagining.

It is the path of wisdom for all men to remember this truth. Each day marked by expressions of love, no matter how trivial they may seem to be, is a day blessed. Each day so spent moves the soul into a state of grace infinitely desirable and creates in the mind of man a feeling of self joy and identification with his brother that is totally gratifying. He knows as well that all he has expressed in loving gesture has inspired in others loving response and created a relationship that will be a motivating force. He will seek to return all he has been given in love expressed to all those whose lives touch his, and he will in turn know the goodness of his being.

Thus human happiness is shared in ways great and small.

perfection is always attainable

Sunday, 3/19/00 11:25PM

Beyond all else, it is important for man to know each day of his life that he has eternal belonging to all that is total perfection. It is easy for man caught up in the struggles that face him, ignorant of his divine commitment, feeling limited in so many ways, to believe in what his heart tells him. When he is willing to listen, he will hear the clear message that speaks of commitment and empowerment. He will find a sense of euphoria in the sure knowledge that all things are possible, that he has only to strive to succeed.

It is important for him to believe that success in human life wears many faces, some more worthy, others less so. It is significant that he regards the world about him and questions the value of success as it is ordinarily defined. He senses an emptiness in the lives of the successful. He knows in his heart that this material success produces questionable satisfactions. He asks himself to what degree he considers success to come from without or within.

It is not easy to separate the two, but the soul seeking inner peace finds it easy to conclude that however gratifying the earthly trappings of success may be, they are as nothing if they do not translate into the wonder of total awareness of peace and love both within and without. This perfection is not easy to achieve, but it is important that the soul in progress distinguish between human values and spiritual values and choose wisely in fashioning his life and making critical choices.

Perfection is always attainable in the human journey, but it requires a fine discrimination in the paths open to the soul seeking this goal.

love must always be shared

Monday, 3/20/00 11:50PM

Perfect as this life seems at times, it is but a reflection of the perfection to follow, a perfection beyond the human capacity to comprehend. Man knows occasional glimpses of glory in his human journey, and he is privileged in most cases to know the glory of human love and to know the joy of loving response. Yet, once again, this is simply a taste, a prelude to all he is destined to experience in eternal being.

It is no error or coincidence that the single unifying force in human existence is the universality of love, of the absolute need for love given and received that crosses all barriers, erases all differences, and that man knows from life's beginning to its very end. Love may take varying forms of expression in time and space, but the heart is a universal gift, and at all times in all places it is the key to happiness.

Love cannot exist in a vacuum. Love must always be shared. Each day of human existence is lightened by the awareness of love shared. The heart mourns its absence. Its loss is devastating. It is incumbent upon man always to seek love, to offer love, and to treasure each loving relationship that blesses his life. This is an obligation that becomes a joy. It is a source of rich spiritual progress. No man who truly seeks is denied.

The path of love is the path to glory, to eternal fulfillment, to oneness.

the inner recognition that is never denied

Tuesday, 3/21/00 11:20PM

There are many lessons man comes to earthly life to learn. Some must be learned completely. Some have been learned to some extent in previous lives but remain to be perfected in this learning. Some come to learn lessons totally unlearned in previous trials.

So man comes to earthly existence with varying needs, each acknowledged by the soul before human birth, each acknowledged by the new soul as necessary and desirable to facilitate new learning. It seems sometimes in the eyes of the observant world that there is an unfairness in what man knows in earthly experience. It is time for man to learn that each soul choosing to come to earthly life to learn and to teach comes with exactly the talents and lacks of his own choosing, facing the perils and advantages he has deemed beneficial to his renewed struggle to achieve spiritual perfection.

In all cases and under all circumstances man comes to renewed life to experience all that will permit him to reach the pinnacle of perfection in divine oneness. The key to this achievement is always the achievement of love perfect in all regards. Sometimes this love is clearly apparent both to the soul in progress and to all who share his earthly voyage, but there are times when the soul struggles to achieve perfect love in ways not apparent to all those who observe the outward aspects of his life. Often man is in this way misunderstood, and it becomes part of his challenge to persevere in the absence of recognition and approval and to make an even greater effort to display the love that fills his heart.

The world does not always reward those who deserve reward. The soul in progress may often need to be satisfied by the inner recognition that is never denied. At times this is the greater reward, but at all times the soul striving to express love in all he says, does, and thinks is the soul closer to the ultimate reward, to the end of eternal striving. In this achievement all men rejoice.

moments of great decision

Wednesday, 3/22/00 11:25PM

It is at all times to be remembered by those on their earthly journey that each moment has its significance. This is a concept difficult for man in his limited understanding to accept, and perhaps this is too fine a point for general understanding. Yet there are moments in each soul's adventure from birth to death that are pivotal, totally significant in life's direction. Each of these moments comes as a result of long approach, and each changes the consequential path.

Sometimes man is acutely aware of these moments of great decision. Indeed often these moments are preceded by enormous anguish, by soul searching to find wisdom in decision, by fervent prayer to be guided in the path of wisdom and beneficence. Sometimes these moments come unexpectedly, and the soul finds itself required to make a choice without adequate warning and unaware to some extent of the importance and of the significance of what will inevitably follow. In these cases the soul is insulated against error if the heart prevails and finds as it’s only guidepost its need to act in love under all circumstances and abides with this determination.

There are such moments in all lives from start to finish, and it is man's delight when his experience tells him that he has chosen wisely, when he knows that his decision whether well considered or necessarily hasty has been of benefit to himself and to all others directly or indirectly concerned. There are, of course, times when the soul in progress with all good intent chooses less wisely and is forced to confront and to acknowledge error. In such error there is learning, and if there is recognition of this learning then the soul in progress is content to accept responsibility and anxious to acknowledge the advantage of a lesson learned and anxious to face the next challenge with the strength of love learned.

Each of these critical moments in man's life has its purpose and serves man well in his search for wisdom. In error there is learning and progress. In wise choice there is also learning and a sense of gratification at having made critical progress. In both cases man is enriched and empowered.

important that man appreciates himself

Thursday, 3/23/00 11:10PM

When man considers his life past, he all too often underestimates his true value, his total response to all that life has demanded of him. While it is true that most lives are not marked by remarkable achievement, it is equally true that remarkable achievement is not a demand of the soul in progress. Rather what is demanded for perfect progression is a loving response to all that life offers and demands and a full realization that when much is demanded much is required in response, but that there is equal value in a response adequate to smaller demands, to more ordinary requirements in life.

In all ways, the soul in progress should evaluate worth in terms of what is given and what is required in response. It is understandable that man may regard those powerful in status as superior. It is understandable that man may regard acts of bravery and heroism as beyond his life's capabilities. It is understandable that man may regard acts of charitable giving far beyond his resources as superior to all that he is able to contribute to his brother's welfare.

Yet in all of these assumptions there is error. Each man is judged independent of all others in his response to earthly demands. It is not a new concept in man's thinking to say that to those who are given much, much is demanded. The converse is equally true. All too often man forgets this truth and fails in his self assessment. While modesty is a desirable characteristic, it should not lead man away from an honest and dispassionate appreciation of his own worth.

It is important that man appreciate himself, for that is a vital aspect of love of self, the first of the divine demands. Thus armed with a new sense of self worth, man is capable of great achievement and capable as well of knowing his contribution to this achievement and all else that follows.

There is a basic honesty in man, an honesty which should be a source of satisfaction and pride, never more than when he judges himself.

even in tragic loss there is learning

Friday, 3/24/00 11:40PM

Between birth and death lie the lessons man has come to earthly life to learn and to teach.

It is important for man to remember the duality implicit in that term "given and received." There is always in life a need for response to each lesson that life offers. Each action as well as each word has consequences, and both the action and the consequences are instructive. When one soul in progress acts in a loving manner and speaks loving words, there is of necessity response. The soul acting and speaking is the giver. Those responding are the receivers. Both are learning.

Yet responses may vary. It is possible to reject love offered. It is possible to deny and belittle and to scorn the offered love. In such cases there is learning, however bitter it may be, and the soul whose offer of love is rejected has no choice but to recognize the error of the one who has so spurned this love and to realize that even in folly there is opportunity to learn and opportunity for self enrichment in the further pursuit of shared love even at the risk of further rejection.

Even in tragic loss there is learning. The soul learns acceptance of hardship and desolation and learns the strength inherent in this acceptance and pursues life with new awareness of increased capacity to meet the challenges that follow. Even repeated loss and prolonged hardship are inevitably strengthening experiences, and the soul so tried finds new awareness of worth with each loving triumph.

Not all of life is concerned with tragedy and loss, or even with acute hardship, but it must be remembered by all men that the fabric of life is designed by each man returning to earthly existence, and that strengths and talents are measured carefully to insure capability of meeting all challenges. Where there is weakness, that too is the choice of the returning soul whose intent is to survive this weakness in the sure faith that it is useful in teaching others.

In all, the fabric of human life is divinely designed, and designed to permit man to reach his full potential in the achievement of spiritual perfection by both teaching and learning the lessons of love.

the divine compact he designed

Saturday, 3/25/00 11:55PM

Before all else man should remind himself daily that he lives this life in perfect accord with the divine compact he designed and agreed to before he departed eternal life for a temporary sojourn on earth.

Although it is not possible or desirable for man to remember this compact and his agreement to live within its terms, he should be willing to accept the concept of a life freely chosen, of a set of talents and abilities suitable to this chosen life, and a determination to know great spiritual progress in all ways in the time between earthly birth and mortal death. When man is able to accept this premise and live each day in full awareness of its implications, he will find his path smoothed and each day blessed in spiritual growth and victory over trial he once thought impossible.

It should be clear that some souls come to earth having chosen difficult lives with the purpose of making swifter progress. Often it is tempting to pity those whose physical frailty or deprivation sets them apart. Sometimes it is tempting to treat these deprived souls as less than worthy. Indeed sometimes it is tempting to ridicule or even to victimize them in their weakness. Those who surrender to such base instincts and act in any such unloving way make themselves objects of pity, for they have lost the humanity that speaks of universal brotherhood of man and demands equal respect for all those sharing mortal life.

There is a vast complexity in human existence, vast diversity among those sharing the human striving for perfection, and it should be accepted by all men that there is both divine will and individual acceptance in each life designed before birth and that it is the duty and privilege of each soul come to earth to have faith in his capacity to live up to his promises and to find fulfillment in meeting fully the demands of his divine compact.

Each man come to earth is in a sense a gift, for he comes in full faith to learn the lessons of love and in this learning to teach others. If there is failure in this quest it is only for a time. All souls are destined to succeed ultimately in ways of their own choosing.

infinite joy in seeking and choosing

Sunday, 3/26/00 11:25PM

There are multitudes seeking truth each moment of each day. Some ask truth from the depths of despair. They seek truth from the desolation they know in those pockets on the earthly plane still ravaged by strife born in greed, in intolerance and hatred. In the midst of desolation, of hunger and despair and deprivation, man still seeks to understand his earthly experience, but each new assault on his physical world weakens his faith in the world of the spirit that he once willingly accepted. Words are of little solace to the souls assailed by violence and rejection in worldly life, but there is solace to be found beyond this narrow belonging.

The world totters precariously between extremes. Man is asked constantly to choose between good and the absence of good. There are times when such choices are made with little or no thought as simple response based on identification. At other times choices are made on the basis of rational analysis and wisdom. In both cases man remains capable of recognizing error should he err and of confirming joyously all he has affirmed in the cause of good. Often this positive choice is deplored by those he loves and his challenge becomes one of loving persuasion.

There is infinite joy in this seeking and choosing, and in every case man benefits from the exercise of free will. If he errs, he retains the capacity to admit error and seek a differing course. If he succeeds, he is willing to share the glory with others and to thereby earn their loyalty and their aid.

In all, man's choices when carefully made on the basis of love offered and received enrich his soul and speed him on his way. He is blessed.

perplexed about what is wise and good

Monday, 3/27/00 11:30PM

Before man reaches the end of his learning he will have endless opportunities to know the significance of his earthly experience. It is not always clear to him which path he should take when faced with choice that is difficult. There are times when the choice seems simple and obvious and easily made, but there are other times when man is truly perplexed about what is wise and good. At such times it is natural to consider first his own desires and satisfactions, but it is equal wisdom to consider the impact of his choice on those near and dear to him, particularly those dependent upon him in any way, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual.

Most men faced with difficult choice are thoughtful in all ways in their consideration of the step to take. Rarely is man motivated solely by self interest, but sadly this does occur and such choice may cause him regret at a later time. Ideally man chooses wisely and seeks to serve his own purposes with due consideration of its effect on others and seeks to ameliorate any negative effect his choice may involve.

There are times when man is truly wracked by indecision and surrenders choice to others. He may do this for the purest of reasons, knowing that he must live with consequences not of his own making. If he experiences regret, he accepts responsibility solely and seeks to choose wisely and individually thereafter.

When man is motivated by love in his choices, he cannot err, for his soul will speak to him of his wisdom and worth, and he will know great satisfaction in the love he inspires in the hearts of those he has sought to please in his choice.

no man comes to earth of another’s will

Tuesday, 3/28/00 11:59PM.

In the time between birth and death in earthly existence man knows fully the experiences he has asked to know and he succeeds in greater or lesser degree in meeting all his designed challenges and in learning the lessons of love so integral to his striving.

Although the full comprehension of the cycle of birth, death, rebirth and renewed life is beyond human capacity, it is a source of comfort to those who accept this divine cycle and who recognize the individual responsibility behind each life experience that man knows in his earthly journey. No man comes to earth of another's will and design.

Each man is totally the architect of his life plan, and each man is individually responsible for acting in love at each step in fulfilling promises made before birth. Some would say that it is not fair to expect man to fulfill promises made before birth and not retained fully in the mind of man. In a sense there is fairness in this objection, but it must be remembered that the overlaying demand in all of life is that each step in the progress from life to death be fully motivated and taken in love complete, and that although man may not have memory of promises made, he is gifted in his capacity to do all that is asked of him to fulfill these promises.

All he must remember is that to act in love at all times is all that is demanded of him, and that if he succeeds in meeting this central demand he will succeed in all other ways and that no promise will be forgotten, no commitment will be unfulfilled. It is to be further noted that when man follows the absolute rule of love, he not only fulfills divine promise but he also guarantees himself human happiness in the inner peace and self satisfaction he knows and in the love he inspires in all those who share his life.

There is no further demand of the soul in progress, and there is no greater guarantee of earthly and heavenly joy.

natural disasters

Wednesday, 3/29/00 11:00PM

In the beginning of earthly existence there was much to be grateful for and perhaps even more to try man's soul. The earth was an unfinished place and is even to the present day, and man since the beginning has been called upon to respond to the ways in which earthly aberration threatens his world, however minimally, however frequently.

There are times when what are called "natural disasters" are catastrophic to man's physical existence, when the victims of nature's aberrations find themselves sorely tried and at times incapable of helping themselves. It is at such times that the nobility of man's nature is most apparent. Those whose lives are devastated are called upon to exhibit patience and infinite trust in their God and in their brothers that their needs will be met. Generally they are not mistaken in either dependence.

Perhaps the greatest opportunity for spiritual enrichment goes to those who respond lovingly to the needs of their brothers whose lives have been shattered by the disaster nature has visited upon them. There is no end to the opportunity for spiritual progress in such circumstances. When need is infinite, the generous heart responds infinitely, and happiness prevails.

Earth offers endless opportunities to the soul in progress to enrich himself and his brother with his caring. He offers all he has, and in the process grows in all ways. Those who benefit from his giving too know spiritual growth and recognize the bond between giver and receiver and hope that at some future time it will be their good fortune to befriend others with the love that lives still in their heart.

the holy and the pretense of holiness

Thursday, 3/30/00 11:30PM

In the annals of time miraculous accounts have been recounted of the close relationship between God and His children. Not all of these accounts are deserving of full belief. Some have resulted from deliberate fabrication, often by one searching for fame and recognition. Some have been accounts of those held fast in religious ecstasy, at times truly of divine origin, at other times the result of self generated delusion.

It is often difficult for the observer to distinguish between the true and the false, between the holy and the pretense of holiness. Yet man is constantly called upon to do exactly this. All too often the charlatan is the most compelling, the most polished in presentation, the most demanding in his words. Those souls misled by such poseurs are open to suffering and disillusionment when they find their faith betrayed by the one they held to be divinely inspired. Yet even the most profound disillusionment holds benefits, for the soul whose faith has been abused and betrayed finds new wisdom in recognition of this betrayal and finds new awareness in judgment.

The world is much more commonly enriched by those seeking souls who seek to share their wisdom and their enlightenment, who seek to give rather than to receive, and who are deserving of all faith and trust. Equally deserving of faith and trust are those who seek to teach by example and whose total pleasure is in bringing comfort to the discomforted, food to the needy, whether in body or in spirit, and in easing in all ways the hardships man knows in his earthly journey. Such souls are twice blessed, for all they do they do in total devotion, in absolute absence of personal enhancement, and all they achieve they achieve in perfect persuasion through their deeds.

In all of life there is a blessed pattern of love given and received, and those who live lives of purity in the exchange of love are brilliant examples to all who observe their goodness.

transitory nature of his earthly existence

Friday, 3/31/00 11:40PM

Sweet as life can be, it is at all times temporary pleasure. Painful as life can be, it is at all times only temporary suffering. In light of this truth, man needs to be comfortable in the knowledge that however pleasurable or painful his experiences may be in his earthly journey, they are as nothing compared to the wonder he will share with all souls when he reaches the end of life on earth and progresses to divine existence.

It is not always easy for man to retain full awareness of the transitory nature of his earthly existence. Indeed at times man finds such pleasure in life that he cannot tolerate the very thought of its ever ending. At the opposite end of experience, those experiencing trial, hardship, and pain long for release from the demands of earthly life and seek eagerly an end to suffering and embrace fully the concept of a world beyond the one they long to leave, a world of love and caring and release from pain and anxiety.

Between these two extremes, the vast majority of men know that their lives are unpredictable in their trials and triumphs and they cherish their earthy experience. They rejoice in good times and accept with equanimity the hardship that they sometimes know. They neither long for an end to earthly existence nor do they reject the promise of life beyond human death.

In all cases, death comes as absolute certainty. In their consciousness all men know that once birth is granted death is absolutely destined, but the prospect of death is generally one which man does not celebrate but which rather he relegates to the outer edge of his awareness and only rarely contemplates. In this unwillingness to consider the end of his existence, man does himself a disservice. He pretends that he need not consider the inevitable, and in so dismissing such consideration he robs himself, for there should ideally be in all men's thinking a comfortable acceptance of death as a part of life and there should be in such thinking no element of fear or distaste. Birth is hailed joyfully by all those on the human journey. Death should inspire equal joy, for it is in its truest sense a truly memorable rebirth.

the divine belonging that is his

Saturday, 4/1/00 11:43PM

In the final assessment man makes of his life, he is afforded heavenly intervention. The soul newly released from his human endeavors is at first amazed at the degree with which those who endeavored to ease his transition into heavenly joy were aware of each juncture of his earthly voyage. It is a brief time when this soul finds comfort and pleasure in the full extent of heavenly awareness of his life just past, and it becomes a transcendent pleasure to him to discover all that he did and did not do in fulfillment of his divine compact.

It may seem strange to encompass a universe beyond human life, a world which welcomes all souls departed from the human journey and offers to them both welcome and belonging. It is only important to man passing from life to death to entertain the possibility that more remains to be discovered, that worlds await.

It is puzzling to a degree that man resists the promise of life eternal, of love divine, of endless belonging, of total loving acceptance and of joy beyond all imagining. What is there in man that finds such promise beyond accepting? What does he fear from such total joy? How can he persuade himself that he is not worthy of divine promise?

In all of his uncertainty, man needs only to recall his divine origin, to dismiss doubt and distraction, and to embrace fully the promise that has been his always. He needs only to express fully the love that he has known always, the love that has governed his every word and deed, and then he has only to recognize the divine belonging that is his. He is fully blessed.

the precious moment of new birth

Sunday, 4/2/00 11:30PM

It is infinite joy when man knows the blessing of sharing new life. There is nothing to compare with the advent of a new soul, a perfect being come to an imperfect world with full hope of perfecting that corner of the universe in the holy company of those who are responsible and who rejoice in his being.

This joy is one capable of lighting the lives of many. Nothing creates love in the human heart more than the sweetness of the child come to earth in the fulfillment of love both human and divine, expecting all, giving all, totally in need of love, totally giving in love. There is no more joyous time in human existence that the precious moment of new birth. There is no time more blessed than the days and weeks and months and years when this new life is nourished and cherished in love and caring freely given and hungrily received.

This love is precious in its reciprocity. Never should there be denial. Never should there be conditions. Never should the parents fail the child in the fullness of love, in the sweet discipline of guidance, in the perfection of relationship that speaks of divine origin.

There is infinite responsibility in the guidance of a new soul come to earth in the paths of goodness and giving, the nurturing a sense of infinite love of self and others, and of seeing in this perfect responsibility perfect joy.

there is no room for envy in the soul

Monday, 4/3/00 11:35PM

Once life is granted, the soul begins its adventure, a voyage of discovery, of awareness, of commitment, of love given and received. There is such variety in the human experience in a world of many cultures, in a world diverse in its beliefs and its customs, in a world where there exists great disparity in worldly goods given and enjoyed.

There are times when it is difficult for man sensitive to the needs of others and intensely aware of worldly inequality to persuade himself of the basic fairness of life. It is difficult for him, even despite early training, to believe in a God who dispenses His favors with such seeming unawareness of the needs of His children. It is at this point when man needs to become aware that the goodness of God in His treatment of His children is not so easily defined.

Material riches are not reflected in the soul of man, nor is material deprivation. Joy in life is not measured in monetary terms, in creature comforts. It is easy for man to envy his more privileged brothers, but were he to look into their souls he might be less willing to change places. Once again, this is not to say that the well endowed are necessarily spiritually stagnating and unhappy in their good fortune, but it is to say that there may be hidden discomfort of longings unsatisfied, of trials beyond the apparent that diminish sorely the surface satisfactions and privileges that are open for all to see. Conversely, the most deprived may be harboring in his soul the sheer delight of being that lends richness to all his days.

It is the responsibility of the soul in progress to recognize such seeming contradiction between the surface and the reality and to recognize that in each case the degree of inner peace and joyful awareness lies very directly in the capacity of the soul in question to know love unconditional in nature and aware always of the underlying cause of human happiness and spiritual progress.

There is no room for envy in the soul which reaches this awareness and no further need for striving, but rather a sense of completeness and a lingering awareness that below the surface of each life lies truth. All is revealed to the searching soul. Richness awaits.

this challenge to use his time wisely

Tuesday, 4/4/00 11:46PM

In the final tally of human achievement, there will be many contenders claiming superiority, and many will be worthy of great acknowledgment. Throughout human history there have been souls both unselfish and devoted to the welfare of their brothers who have expended their talents for the common good. Each generation has known and sometimes acknowledged its heroes, and each generation has lived lives improved by the genius and inventiveness of their gifted brothers.

Not all achievements have been beneficial to mankind. Some have created weapons of war and instruments of destruction and been honored for these achievements, but I speak here of the inventiveness of man which has generation after generation contributed to the furtherance of man's physical well being. There are others who have contributed immeasurably to man's moral and spiritual well being, but I speak of this at another time. Theirs is a singular contribution to man's progress, but rarely does such achievement either claim credit or receive the recognition it deserves.

At an earlier age, each new advance in easing man's labors was regarded as close to magical in nature. Then as man's inventiveness grew in both complexity and universality, each generation found itself welcoming instantly each new addition to life's ease and looking confidently to a future of increased inventiveness. There was no loss of self in these material advances. Rather man was freed from laborious existence into new ease and leisure, and it became his challenge to use his time wisely and comfortably.

Some men succeeded in this new challenge, indeed most men, but others failed. Released from servitude they lived lives of empty pastimes and aimless pleasure seeking and found themselves all too often led astray by the temptation of empty pleasure.

Thus each new advance in material well being became a new challenge for man as well as a temptation. Man still deals with this challenge to use his time wisely and well and to remember that each lesson learned in a life of love is a blessing to be shared. Know this well.

it is man’s ultimate salvation

Wednesday, 4/5/00 11:50PM

Beyond all else, man is blessed in his infinite capacity to know love even when it comes from a heart filled with sorrow, embittered by disappointment, inured to suffering.

Even when man feels most hopeless, when he considers himself wrung dry by painful experience, man retains the capacity to feel the noblest of emotions and to permit himself to respond fully to any overture that speaks of caring. It is not easy for the soul in progress to speak of love when his being is engulfed by feelings so destructive in their nature that he deems his heart incapable of response, but no matter his words of protest and rejection, the soul tried seemingly beyond endurance retains his God given capacity to respond to loving gestures and words and to feel in his heart the stirrings of affection he thought lost to his nature.

The soul pressed to desperation by life's trials is a soul surely in need. He may feel abandoned and rejected and totally unloved and may consider himself unworthy in all ways. He may feel cursed by fate and lost to all hope. Yet it takes little to evoke a response even to the most desperately discouraged, for the hunger for love is the greatest of all hungers and never does it dissipate but rather waits to be awakened, waits to respond.

This is a blessed capacity, one which is shared by all men regardless of their outer differences. It knows not discrimination. It is man's ultimate salvation.

no soul is totally lost

Thursday, 4/6/00 11:10PM

It is within the power of each soul come to earth in promise absolute endowed in all ways to succeed in spiritual progress, to find total satisfaction in earthly existence.

Total satisfaction comes in many variations. There are souls who choose to be born into humble circumstances, who seek as their goal the teaching of the lessons of love to those ready to rejoice in their acceptance. Theirs is a simple mission, and they are gratified by their success. Others seek a more challenging path, and more often than not they know the same joy of success in both teaching the lessons of love and learning the lessons of love returned without demand.

It is apparent that there are greater challenges to be accepted and met, greater triumphs to contemplate and aspire to, and there are at all times ready souls who hunger to know this difficult yet gratifying journey. Not all succeed in their aspirations, but those who do experience infinite joy in their achievement and those who do not fully succeed are happy in their learning and eager to begin anew to progress to perfection. There are unfortunately at all times those souls who seek to progress in mortal life who are in one way or another distracted and misled and who lose sight of their eventual goal and are lost. It is joy indeed when these misled souls are aware that they are not totally lost, that avenues abound to a return to a state of grace and heavenly direction.

No soul is totally lost. Even those who resist help and direction in this life recognize error in life beyond human death. All eventually embrace the love and direction open to them regardless of past error and misconception. For some the erroneous road may be longer that it is for others. For some the errors may be more grievous, but for all the road to eventual glory is both open and inviting. No soul is denied this access to eternal joy. No soul fails to achieve this perfect ending, this perfect beginning.

a speck in the total universe

Friday, 4/7/00 10:30PM

From the very beginning of time man has known his place in the divine plan. He has chosen in the power of his free will to participate fully in the perfecting of his soul in the full awareness that this perfection is the certainty of eternal and flawless bliss.

It is difficult for man in his earthly journey to imagine eternity. It is difficult for him to accept his human life span as a speck in eternity and to envision the enormous number of incarnations that he has known in some cases, and will continue to know in others. It is easier for him to envision unlimited space than unlimited time, for science has been assiduous in its search for material boundaries, and although their search is not yet completed, they have presented man with a map of the universe awesome in its extent. They have gone further in suggesting that this planet earth is but a speck in the total universe.

In the light of scientific discovery, man is dwarfed when considered in space and time already discovered in earthly scientific probing. Just imagine, if you will, that the science of discovery is in its infancy and that what is to come will indeed lead man to an understanding of his insignificance in time and space.

Yet it is precisely the error of science to judge man solely in these narrow terms and to ignore the soul and spirit of man which transcends mortal barriers and soars to heights science has barely begun to contemplate. Man is well served by this awareness of the enormity of the universe and the mystery of infinity and to accept his limitations in both these dimensions, but never should he forget that his soul transcends such barriers and holds mysteries he cannot hope to comprehend in his mortal lives.

There is no need for man to comprehend the mysteries of time and space. Indeed there is such limit to this striving that complete comprehension is a hopeless endeavor, but man needs to retain always the inner voice that speaks of what lies beyond human limitation and offers ultimate understanding.

understanding and compassion

Saturday 4/8/00 Midnight

Of all the gifts that man is granted by all the wonder of his nature, love prevails, but love is as nothing if it is not permeated with understanding and compassion. The very nature of perfect love demands these elements.

It is easy to define love narrowly. It can be the love of shallow attraction, not to be dismissed in and of itself, but in and of itself a bare beginning to the complexity of love that resists all challenge. The word "love" is often used frivolously, sometimes with deeper meaning, sometimes with less, but the love that touches the soul is worthy of further analysis.

I have spoken of the love that is man's birthright, the love that the soul newly come to human existence both excites and returns. The infant is an object of love given and received, perfect in its giving, absolute in its need. The child experiments with love. The need persists, but the maturing individual is often led to use love as a weapon and often errs in this experimentation. Conversely, the growing child knows increasing need for love unconditional in nature at a time when this love is threatened or withdrawn or denied. This disparity creates havoc in the human heart and there ensues a search for fulfillment.

Such crisis is difficult for all deprived, however briefly, of the certainty of love, but the seeking soul is persistent and aware of inner strength and almost without exception finds satisfaction. The path is not always either easy or swift, but is strong in its certainty, and the strength of love rediscovered is comfort in its achievement.

There is no search more compelling than the search for love given and received.

Those fortunate enough never to know deprivation are blessed in the constancy they know. Those who survive deprivation and seek and find renewed and rediscovered love are twice blessed and hold in their hearts the richness they know.

a blessed way to live

Sunday, 4/9/00 11:45PM

In all of life man finds himself challenged in large and in small ways.

Each day of his mortal life he is called upon to exhibit patience and understanding when others offend. Each day he is expected to be courteous, even to those who are less than kind, even to those who are hostile. Each day he is expected to contribute to the well being of all those dependent upon him within and without the family and close friendship and to offer all he is asked to give with generosity and without reward. Each day he is expected to respond to unexpected need without regard to his own capacity to respond. Each day he is expected to remain cheerful and to extend his cheer to all those he encounters in the course of his daily life no matter how trying this may be.

This litany of expectations is at times overwhelming to the soul in progress, and he is to be forgiven if he on occasion finds himself lacking in response. At such times it becomes the responsibility of those who love him to sustain him in his momentary weakness with their confidence and their love and to ease his burdens in any possible way.

Thus challenges are shared, and it is to the benefit of all those bound in love to be both aware of the needs of those they love and to be willing to assume burdens to ease another's way. There is great reward in this sharing of responsibility, for the motive of love is infinitely powerful and infinitely contagious, and the burdens that once seemed overwhelming become bearable and sweeter for being shared.

Thus challenge becomes a catalyst. The soul who accepts all challenges great and small with a willing spirit is a soul blessed. The soul who senses need in a loved one and who chooses to share challenges is equally blessed. In this acceptance and in this sharing there is love infinite in its capacity to smooth the path to perfection and to bind together striving souls.

achieving human happiness

Tuesday, 4/11/00 12:02AM

It is of the utmost importance that man remember at every step of his journey through life that he is at all times capable of achieving human happiness in this life and achieving spiritual perfection to prepare him for the next.

In order for man to reach this level of achievement he must accept the truth that his experiences are not as significant as his reaction to them. The poorest and most abject of men, subject to pain and deprivation of all kinds, may be the object of pity to all who observe him, but he may in his total loving acceptance of all life's ill treatment have achieved an inner peace to be envied. He may know sweet comfort in his faith that all he is asked to endure has reason and purpose, and he may be the most generously endowed of men in purity of soul and appreciation of all he knows in peace and tranquility.

It does not follow that deprivation assures grace. There is in life infinite variety in the paths to grace, and often the outer signs offer little insight into the soul of man. Among the most privileged of men there are those who live in full contentment with their lot and seek to share their good fortune. Others equally blessed materially may be consumed with greed and starve spiritually in their grasping for further gratification while ignoring their responsibility to share their good fortune.

The vast majority of souls in progress lie between the extremes of great wealth and total deprivation, and the great majority of these souls find contentment in what they are given and are willing to endure trial with faith and acceptance. These souls achieve an inner peace which lights their lives and the lives of those around them. Those who fail in this loving acceptance of all that their lives offer and all that their lives deny them find an emptiness in their resistance to the inevitable and must learn by experience and example to achieve the equanimity that only the accepting soul can know.

the capacity to love and accept love

Tuesday, 4/11/00 11:46PM

Beyond all else man is gifted in his capacity to love and to accept love. Often man is vaguely aware of this essential truth and seeks to enrich his life by nurturing this capacity and yet permits himself to be blunted in both his efforts to display love and in his appreciation of love offered to him in perfect giving. It is sad when man permits his soul to so wither, for he injures not only himself but all those who seek to give and receive love in close ties of affection and belonging. It is particularly unfortunate when man gets so lost in material pleasure or even material demands upon him that he forgets the central importance of love in his life.

There are times when man is so beset with anxiety in a world he finds demanding beyond his capacity, and at such times those who love him feel forgiving sympathy and seek to rescue him from his feelings of helplessness and despair. He is blessed when he is rescued from the brink of despair by such loving solicitude and is reminded that no matter the degree of material deprivation and challenge, his soul is nourished in the face of all adversity by love received, and he rediscovers his capacity to extend and return this love.

Thus man is reminded anew of the power of love to cheer and to rescue, and he incorporates this knowledge, this certainty, into his daily life and knows that never again will the love he knows permit him to be lost in despondency. He goes further, often, and seeks to extend this learning to those who are in need.

an irresistable striving

Wednesday, 4/12/00 11:55PM

In his divine origin man is blessed in ways beyond human understanding, but not beyond faith and trust and self awareness. There is in the human spirit an irresistible striving. In some cases this striving loses its purity of direction and perverts the very soul of man and leads him into roads he should not take. His striving finds its satisfaction in material success of all kinds, in temporary indulgence, in the attainment of material well being, in the adulation of others equally misled, and in the pomposity of spirit that speaks of self indulgence above all else.

Such perversion is to be deplored, and it is gratifying to all those who love man to know that these misled souls represent a small part of humanity, that the overwhelming majority of souls come to earth of their own free will in search of spiritual progress do not lose sight of all that is significant in their quest. Love, a gift from divine origin, remains steadfast in their motivation, and in the free expression of love they find the sustained gratification that guides them on the paths of goodness and giving.

Man is not always aware of his motivations. At times he has no doubt of the reason for his acts, for his reaction to the acts of others. At times, however, he surprises himself and seeks for reason in his behavior. When his anger at aggravation is unexpectedly stilled in understanding of the nature of the offense visited upon him, he is uncertain of his response. He is not sure what dissipated his anger. Sometimes he never achieves awareness of the reason he seeks, but the awareness of peaceful response lingers in his awareness and influences subsequent reactions. He is thereafter softened in his response to anger and hostility. He may never recognize the angelic guidance that has been his blessing, but the blessing remains profound in its effectiveness.

his blessings outweigh his difficulties

Thursday, 4/13/00 11:30PM

When man experiences joy, he is willing to believe that the earth is a blessed place and that his is a blessed existence. He is grateful for each pleasure that life affords, for all the love he is privileged to know in his daily life, and he is aware usually of a beneficent presence governing his life and urging him to follow the paths of love and giving and goodness.

Even when he experiences difficulty, he finds it within himself to accept the challenge and to remember how completely his blessings outweigh his difficulties. Thus armed, he is able to retain a steady faith both in himself and in the goodness and reasonableness of all that life affords him. It is more difficult if his pain and deprivation are both severe and prolonged. Repeated trials may sorely try his faith in life and in himself. He may be tempted to feel cheated by life and to question the justice he thought part of his earthly expectation.

It is at the point of despair that it is critical for man to reassess and find within himself added strength and a willingness to accept all that is asked of him in trial and tribulation. If he is fortunate, he will benefit from the efforts of those bound to him in love to lighten his burdens and to share their strength with him. Man so blessed is once again reminded of the power of love and is able to accept lovingly all life's demands.

Few men face life's difficulties friendless and unloved, but even these lonely souls are capable of knowing themselves capable of enduring all trial with love in their hearts and with awareness that even when life seems most unfair there is reason and learning in all that life expects of them. They find comfort in the lessons that hardship teaches. They find strength in themselves and in love shared.

In joy and in sorrow, in plenty and in want, man survives best when he accepts all of life's adventures and challenges in the certainty that there is needed learning in all of earthly experience and that above all he must persist in the effort to learn the lessons of love.

the aim of all souls in progress

Friday, 4/14/00 Midnight

From the very beginning of the human adventure man keeps in his soul certainty of his divine mission, of the glorious meaning of his existence. This awareness may not force itself into his conscious mind. It may be a fleeting awareness which he tends to reject as fantasy, but it stubbornly resists rejection and denial, and in moments of stress, in moments of extreme need, it becomes his salvation and he sees himself larger than life, powerful beyond his immediate assurance. These moments of clarity are not a commonplace part of earthly existence, but they serve in times of great need as divine assurance, and when man is receptive to this gift of awareness it serves him well.

Many men scoff at the concept of the strong connection between man in all his frailty and the divinity in all His strength, but this connection is not to be denied by the open mind and heart. It is to be granted that the human existence knows limits in its power and its self determination, but it is equally to be granted that within these limitations and all other limitations man remains a creature divine in his origin, beyond easy explanation in his talents and capabilities, and above all powerful in his spiritual prowess and in his constant and all pervasive capacity for feelings of love and for the generous nature of this love in sharing and generosity.

Man is a complex creature. Always he is a child of God come to earth with the full intention of living in love and giving and progressing to the spiritual perfection which is the aim of all souls in progress. Most men succeed in whole or in part in this divine intention. Those who succeed not at all in one life are offered infinite opportunity to succeed in other lives. No soul fails of this divine goal. No soul loses completely its strong link with the divine. This link may be weakened. It may be temporarily forgotten or ignored. It may be consciously rejected. Never is it destroyed no matter how diminished.

This should be acknowledged as the glory all men share.

message of love given and received

Saturday, 4/15/00 Midnight

In the annals of time, there have been recorded mighty struggles for the soul of man. Those who felt the moral authority to command belief and loyalty have existed through the ages in infinite variety. Some have warranted response and adherence; others have been totally unjustified in their demand for acceptance and adherence. Many have been successful in their quest for power and influence. Not all have been beneficial to those persuaded of their validity.

There is in this endless progression of those who would lead man in spiritual matters clear evidence of the need all mankind knows for assurance of existence beyond the purely material. This is indeed a hunger born in man, sure sign of his link with the divine. It follows logically that this hunger, this absolute need to believe and to belong, would lead to leadership by those feeling within themselves the capacity to persuade and to govern and to demand obedience of those in need of spiritual sustenance.

Such leaders have had varying success. This is truth to the present day. Some leaders of past years have known brief fame and then faded from man's awareness. Others have had a more lasting influence, some to the present day. Some have spoken truly of man's need to live in love in all ways, but all too often their successors have distorted the original message and created dogma and ceremony superfluous in nature. Other religious figures have gone further and so distorted original truth that man has been deprived of the purity of the original message of love given and received and has been led into intolerance and a narrow concept of his own righteousness. Power has too often become an aphrodisiac among those who regard themselves as mankind's spiritual guides, and their followers have consequently suffered.

It must be noted that there are indeed pure souls striving to guide man in the ways of love, but all too often their message is ignored by those who need it most. Man would be well advised to listen to these pure souls above all others.

faith that is the answer to all prayer

Sunday, 4/16/00 Midnight

Whatever his misgivings, man in his earthly journey is drawn by his very nature to a belief in a power beyond his. He is aware of his limitations almost from birth and as his life progresses he sees the need for awareness of such limitation and therefore a faith in the power that guides his life beyond human capacity.

Not all men surrender willingly to a confession of weakness. It is man's nature to feel confident in all that life offers in challenges and to be persuaded that he can overcome all difficulties and chart the course of his life with all success. Such confidence is indeed both admirable and desirable, but into most lives comes experience which makes man conscious of the limitations that are part of human existence. At such times it behooves man to recognize with loving acceptance that he is not omnipotent and that there is reason and advantage in the limitations he knows.

There is no cause for regret or bitterness in man's awareness that he must acknowledge higher power. Indeed it is to his advantage, for in his acceptance he finds peace of mind in what he might otherwise consider frustrating failure. It is the wise man who conducts his life wisely and confidently, but who when faced with insurmountable difficulty accepts the limits of his ability, does all he can to solve his problems, and then rests in trust of divine aid. He may not receive this aid in the exact way he foresaw, but he will with a willing heart welcome the faith that is the answer to all prayer and he will know a quiet and trusting soul.

habitual expression of love

Monday, 4/17/00 11:58PM

It is in man's best interest to be always aware of the need to express love in words and actions. It is easy to be so caught up in the business of meeting everyday demands of life that this awareness becomes less persuasive. Man needs constantly to remind himself of this divine imperative.

The soul in progress who forgets the effectiveness of habitual expression of love soon becomes aware of his loss, for love expressed is the surest guarantee of response. If the soul hungry for love received is not satisfied by love given, it becomes all too easy to feel unloved and to feel incapable of giving love in fear that it might be ignored or rejected.

It is clear then that man's innate need for love in all its wonder must recognize the reciprocity in a relationship of love which is gratifying to both the giver and the receiver and which enables the receiver to become the giver and the giver to become the receiver and to achieve the perfection of sharing which perfects love always.

It is possible for love to be offered and ignored or rejected, and the strong soul in progress will persist in pursuit of love despite all denial. It is rare that this persistence meets continued frustration. More often the pursuit of love finds response adequate to need and glorious in meeting shared expectation.

When proffers of love do not find immediate response, it is a loss to all involved, but with new learning the loving soul persists in its search and almost always finds joyous and gratifying response, and love prevails in the hearts of two hungry souls who rejoice in love discovered and shared.

It is fortunately the rare soul who seeks earthly love and fails in his dream.

all men are truly brothers

Tuesday, 4/18/00 11:56PM

It is important for all men to know fully their capacities and their needs. It is sometimes tempting for those on their earthly journeys to accept each day as uneventful and to ignore much that is important. It is easy for man to so focus his concern narrowly that he fails to comprehend much of the world about him. When that world is undemanding, he is not made aware of his need for wider perception, but when his immediate environment is threatened in any way from without he is forced to consider the world about him significant to his security and sense of well being.

It is wisdom for man at all times to realize that the world he lives in is broader than his immediate environment, that all he knows is often dependent upon events far removed from all that is close and familiar to him. He becomes aware that the world is a smaller place than he had envisioned and that all men are truly brothers in the impact one has upon the other no matter how far removed culturally and geographically.

Man has been sharply reminded of this truth in times past, and the day has come when the concept of one world is more and more in the forefront of man's thinking. Man both needs and is capable of involvement in the broader human community without endangering the intense concern for the immediate society in which he lives. The broader man's concerns are for his brother far removed from him, the more likely he is to act wisely in his involvement with the world around him.

While it is right and good for man to focus his efforts and his caring on those closest to him, he insures a better world for himself and for all that follow him when he extends his solicitude and acts upon this caring in the broader world. There is no limit to the effectiveness of acting in loving concern.

first discovery of love and joy

Thursday, 4/20/00 1:25AM

In all of man's experiences, nothing compares with his first discovery of love and joy. From the very beginning of earthly life these are inextricably joined. For the soul newly come to earth there is nothing but joy in love. There is no element of sorrow. Yet as life progresses love knows its disappointments, and the responsibility of the soul in progress is to find wisdom and learning in this disappointment and to realize that his failure to achieve perfection in love in no way negates the wonder that awaits all those who know the glory of love perfect in human existence.

It is part of the divine compact that man beginning his earthly journey rarely finds himself capable of achieving perfect love, although this is a possibility at all times. More often his achievements in earthly life are less than totally satisfying, and he is not afforded the perfect love that would put his soul at rest, would still all his ambitions for earthly achievement. In such cases, man needs to know that whatever the disappointments of his earthly existence, he is afforded infinite opportunity to achieve all his heart desires at a time later and unrevealed to him.

The soul in progress striving for success in its progression should never consider itself incapable. Whatever the start, the end is assured, and it is the wish of God that each step from first to last be a step of joy fulfilled. It is His wish that all men know the assurance and comfort of the path to perfect oneness, that they know in their souls that each step they take brings them closer to home. This is My wish.

his earthly experience is of his choosing

Friday, 4/21/00 1:48AM EDT

It is man's strength to know without a single doubt that whatever life demands of him he is able to accept. He may know great joy and feel the sweetness of existence and hope that there will be no shadows to diminish his joy. In some cases this wish seems magical in its effectiveness and his life continues to be totally pleasurable and carefree. Other lives may be blighted almost from the start, but at all times the soul in progress needs to remember that he has chosen a difficult road to spiritual perfection and that he has the inner strength that affords both acceptance and a willingness to struggle, however difficult it seems to him to do so.

Not all lives are such opposite extremes. The great majority of souls in progress have chosen to live lives of both joy and sorrow, realizing the need for learning the lessons of love regardless of circumstance. All men follow the road they have chosen, and if this is kept firmly in mind at each step in their journeys, there is no limit to their capacity to cope with difficulty and to accept their blessings with gratitude and a determination to respond to all that life offers with acceptance filled with love and awareness of the rightness of all experience.

Man is strengthened by the very realization that all his earthly experience is of his choosing and that at no time need he fail in response. Therein lies inner peace and grace.

man is born to seek to know truth

Saturday, 4/22/00 1:32AM

While man ponders the reason for life in all its complexity and in all its contradictions, he knows that he cannot find a complete and satisfying answer within himself. He observes the world about him and is puzzled by the absolute inequity he sees. He seeks to understand antipathy and violence. Prejudice puzzles him when he knows it is baseless in its rationalization and in its emotional response to fallacies. The thoughtful man recognizes in all this seeking the limits of his comprehension, and often he settles for a personal philosophy which does not claim complete answers to his seeking but serves as a guide to behavior that he regards as both acceptable and beneficial to himself and to others whose lives are affected by his feelings and his actions.

In truth, this is an admirable approach to the unknowable, for it answers the needs deep in man's nature. Man is born to seek to know truth, and when he succeeds in knowing the truth that he is responsible to act in a way that is beneficial both to himself and to all others he affects, he has taken a giant step in his spiritual progress, for he has recognized the vital importance of acting in love under all circumstances and thereby insuring his own happiness and the happiness of all those whose lives are intertwined in any way with his. It is persuasive most directly to the person or persons most directly concerned, but it influences those who observe and are only peripherally involved.

Love begets love, and love creates its own understanding. Man seeking reason in human existence has learned much if he realizes the absolute necessity of love felt and expressed in words and actions. The man who lives his life in accord with this principle and practice has indeed succeeded in this quest to understand the meaning of human existence, and by his words and actions he has furthered the understanding of all those who observe him in all he says and does.

the miracle of transforming love

Saturday, 4/22/00 11:55PM

There is a time coming surely, inexorably, joyfully, when all men will find themselves suffused with love of all they know in love -- self, brother, divinity -- and when there will be nothing denied to assure the perfection of love that is and has been always the perfection sought by all souls come to earth in divine purpose.

It is difficult to imagine how all the ills of the earth will find solutions, how all men in their great diversity will be united in a single doctrine of the essential nature of love given and received, will know total brotherhood, but I say to you that this day to come is as inexorable in its progress as each day is in the rising and setting of the sun.

Man needs to know of and believe in this miracle to come, and all men need to come together in love and understanding to hasten its coming, for all effort must be human in effecting this transformation, although at all times aided and strengthened by divine power and approval.

Man has for centuries hungered for the era of universal love in total brotherhood, and over time many have fought and striven for this idea. Their efforts have not been in vain, for each effort has marked a forward step, and although new complications confuse the effort to progress, solutions will be found and will be solidly based in the wonder of love given and received. This is the miracle of transforming love that will soon light man's way into a more perfect world. All will be well pleased.

state of grace that speaks perfect love

Sunday, 4/23/00 11:24PM

In the end of time, all things will be resolved, all fears and uncertainties dismissed, all joys celebrated, and all men bound in love eternal. This is indeed a glorious prospect. Some would dismiss it as an empty dream impossible of fulfillment, the product of wishful thinking, idle in its very essence. This response is not surprising in a world confused. Man longing to believe in perfect love finds himself all too often the object of ridicule, accused by all too many of naivete and foolish trust.

Not all men, fortunately, share this skepticism. There are a goodly number of souls in progress who hunger for the strength of conviction and optimism that idealism represents. Unable or unwilling themselves to belief in human perfection or in a world without fault, they nevertheless look to those of absolute faith and long to share their certainty. In time, most such seekers find this faith, and in this faith absolute comfort in the meaning of life and the rightness of all that life offers to them in experience meant to teach.

Life's journey is often difficult for the soul which has chosen to experience difficulty as a rapid path to perfection. It is difficult for those observing hardship and travail to understand its reason. It will come as revelation to them when the truth is revealed of the divine compact each soul returning to earth fashions for himself in full agreement of its effectiveness in meeting his needs.

Let all men remember that the divine will is devoted to seeing success in each earthly existence, success measured in no way in earthly terms but in an honest appraisal of the extent to which the soul being considered has progressed to the state of grace that speaks of perfect love and worthiness to be one with the God of all being. All men reach this ultimate goal and know infinite joy.

he lives each day in love and giving

Monday, 4/24/00 11:10PM

Current in man's thinking always is contemplation of the future. Man, no matter how satisfying his life may be in the past and present always seeks to envision the future. He uses the lessons of his past to evaluate all he does in the present, and he uses both past and present to determine how he can best provide for the future.

It is to man's credit that his concern is so overreaching, and yet it is to his credit as well when he does not rob himself of present pleasure and opportunities to insure what he foresees as advantageous in a future that may never come to be. While man is wise in providing as best he can for the demands of his future, he robs himself if those plans detract from the enjoyment of the present. It is particularly important not to deprive those dependent upon him for both material and emotional well being in a needless concern for a nebulous future.

It is wisdom for man to learn the lessons of the past, whether this past be individual or universal in its lessons, and it is important that man’s life be enriched by this learning and that all those he loves share in his happiness with the present. It is folly for man not to realize that if, guided by all he has learned, he lives each day in love and giving, he need not worry about a future beyond his comprehension or awareness. It deprives man of peace of mind to concern himself unduly and to live his life totally in anticipation of a future he cannot control. He colors his existence with anxiety if he permits such concern to affect him beyond reason.

man is indeed meant to enjoy life fully

Tuesday, 4/25/00 11:24PM

In all of time, man has known the beneficence of the deity. Even when he is most visited by hardship, most deprived of earthly pleasures, most lonely and forlorn, man has in his very soul a sense of the divine love he brought with him into life and which lives in the soul that speaks to him always of his goodness and his heavenly origin. This gift, granted to all who choose to return to earthly existence and thereby to learn needed lessons, is cherished by most men in full awareness of the power that guides them always. Others, unfortunately, lose this precious sense of awareness and feel within themselves need unfulfilled. They may seek to satisfy this need in various ways, some productive, some destructive.

Man searching for peace and happiness may first turn to those he regards as wise and holy and seek to share their wisdom. In some cases this is the wisest of choices provided that the guide they choose is in himself worthy of their trust, for there are many who would take unfair advantage of man's uncertainty and seeking after truth. If he chooses wisely he will find the aid he needs to find within himself the feeling of belonging that brings him peaceful certainty.

There are some souls in progress who, having lost initial awareness, conclude that they need no more than the awareness of earthly existence, that they are whole in and of themselves and need seek no further than to know how to live well and to enjoy life in all it offers in pleasure and reward. While man is indeed meant to enjoy life fully, he is ill equipped to cope with difficulty unless he has a sense both of his own strength and then of the power that is his to call upon in time of need. It is the rare individual who does not recognize this need for aid in time of trouble, and it is rare indeed that he does not find reward in his seeking and new awareness of the divine power he had to this point considered either nonexistent or unnecessary.

All men eventually come to a realization that the gift of divine aid is theirs for the asking and that petition and prayer offer rich satisfaction to the soul in need.

an awareness of those they left behind

Wednesday, 4/26/00 [no time noted]

It is with sweet acceptance that most men face the prospect of death, that transition from earthly awareness to a sphere beyond knowing.

Some souls, weary of trial and travail, welcome an end to human life even if it is simply an escape from pain and suffering. These souls are grateful to discover that the land they enter is a place of joy and love and that they retain close ties with the world they thought that they were leaving. They discover an awareness of those they left behind and learn to convey to these dear souls the love that survives earthly death and find joyous communication with the world they left behind. They find pleasure in this close connection between worlds and in their discovery that love transcends the barriers separating these worlds.

All souls know this miraculous gratification in heavenly life. Those who die not expecting this joy are perhaps the most gratified. They expected nothing and received everything. Of particular gratification to them is finding reunion with loved ones who left earthly existence earlier and who have waited patiently for the one they so love to cross the threshold of death and enter eternal life.

The joy all souls find beyond death cannot be described in human terms, but it is at all times supremely happy for them to join in the heavenly love shared. No soul is denied this perfection.

man cannot survive without love

Thursday, 4/27/00 11:47PM

The force of love in human life cannot be overestimated. From the start of time to now, from the first breath of each life to the last, love above all lends meaning to human existence. Without love the human race would not be. Without love the seeking soul could not be.

Love knows so many manifestations and so many relationships and such diversity in expression that simple definition of love is beyond words. Books have been written of love in its various forms. All true religions teach the absolute necessity of love in word and deed. In his innermost nature and awareness each man born to earthly life knows the total significance of love to his well being -- spiritual, emotional, and physical.

In short, man cannot survive without love. He may fancy that he can, that love is a foolish extravagance fraught with disappointment, but he deludes himself and inexorably becomes aware of this self delusion. Cynics may regard love lightly, as a distraction for the very young, inconsistent in its nature, short lived in its endurance. Children in the throes of young rebellion may believe that they can cast off the bonds of love that tie them to their parents and for a while may revel in this new found detachment, but it is the rare adult who does not realize the folly of this youthful extravagance and seek to reestablish a loving relationship with those who brought him into life.

Even in casual friendship, there is an element of love, a seeking to know more completely the closeness that satisfies the soul. Even in casual contact man must seek to express his love in courtesy and sensitivity to the feelings of others. Love for a stranger in need inspires man to acts of sharing worldly goods and thus easing the pain of another, a stranger, to be sure, but a brother as well.

This love is the animating and motivating force in all of man's days. Those who fail to recognize this truth and base each and every word and action upon it will live to regret their failure to create happiness for others and therefore for themselves.

he is asked simply to live in love

Friday, 4/28/00 11:53PM

In the course of time man will be freshly aware of the simplicity of all that is asked of him in his earthly journey. He is asked simply to live in love. With each breath he takes he must be aware of this obligation, absolute in its demands.

While the demand is simple, its execution is not. It is easy to demand love at all times and to accept this divine mandate. It is another thing entirely to live in full acceptance of this mandate in constant expression. It is the rare human whose love is so universal and so undemanding that nothing or no one can destroy its constancy. Most souls in progress find themselves vulnerable to irritation, impatience, dislike, and disapproval and unthinkingly withhold love and sometimes go further in negative feelings. Such failure to love in the face of difficulty weakens the soul and makes the next challenge to love the unlovable easier to dismiss.

Man is not to be condemned for such disfavor and antipathy toward his brother, but he needs to be reminded that he harms himself in love withheld more than he harms his brother. This failure is sometime more an unthinking response than a deliberate affront, but the thoughtful soul realizes error in time to make amends and restores his soul, and in the process confirms his brother's worthiness. Life to most souls in progress presents constant challenges to love and thereby offers countless opportunities to progress in the full expression of unconditional love freely given and given most freely to those both undeserving and needy.

There is no limit to the benefits man knows as he incorporates the practice of total responsive love to all those he encounters in his earthly journey. Each act of love strengthens both the giver and the receiver, and constant expression of love becomes habitual and thereby constantly enriching. Man needs only to imagine his life without love to know its vital importance and to realize that no man should be deprived of this blessing. It is but a step further to realize his obligation to satisfy this hunger in the neediest of God's children, in the most deprived of his brothers. All profit from this habit of giving love, no one more than the giver.

lessons of love are infinite in benefit

Saturday, 4/29/00 11:42PM

There is no limit to the opportunity offered to man to succeed fully in his human existence in learning the lessons of love and thereby satisfying all demands made upon him.

Love, as I have said, can be variously defined, ranging from a kind word to a stranger, a smile of pleasure in another's company, to the deep and abiding love between two individuals, a love that spans lifetimes. There is no limit in definition to this deepest of affections. Most often it occurs within the family, the love shared by husband and wife, father and mother, and shared in turn with their children and all those who follow them in marriage and procreation.

Family love is a holy love, and it, in turn, should not be narrowly defined. Those who choose to share their lives and fortunes, whether in a relationship sanctified or legalized or not, are entitled to call themselves family provided that the love shared is deep and abiding. In all cases this love shared should be selfless and instructive and contagious in its expression. It should be a love of joy and fulfillment and capable of surviving all trials and finding enrichment in trials experienced and overcome.

Those who are blessed with deep commitment to family love need no further enrichment, but it is to their enormous advantage if they reach out to those outside the family and share with them their joy in loving relationships. Love expressed in acts and words of kindness enriches the spirit and nourishes all those who give and receive this expression of love.

The lessons of love are infinite in their benefit, and each expression of love engenders increased awareness of the absolute necessity of love to insure earthly happiness. It is clear to all those devoted to a life of giving that the more love is expended the more it increases in the human heart. It enriches endlessly with each act and word of caring. It is eternal and infinite in its nature.

when all men reach a state of grace

Sunday, 4/30/00 11:55PM

In the fullness of time, when all men reach a state of grace, the world will know renewal as it has been promised from the very beginning. It is hard to imagine a world in which all men know the blessedness of their being and embrace their brothers in love divine and complete, but be assured that this ideal world simply awaits the fulfillment of promises made and kept.

In this uncertain world, a world of violence and constant strife between brothers, it is hard to imagine peaceful reconciliation among men of all beliefs and all rejection of belief. The power that will create this utopian existence is the simple power of love, but love so universal that it touches every heart and so magnified that it erases all conditions and all hesitations and enters the universal heart of men never to be denied. This revolution awaits, and it is as inevitable as the rising of the sun.

"How will this come about?" you ask, and rightly so. It will come about when man finds himself compelled for reasons he knows and for reasons he barely senses to open his mind and heart and to recognize the simple truth that man's road to peace and happiness is the extraordinarily simple practice of love given and received. Man will be moved to cast aside prejudice and animosity in full awareness that such emotions oppress and destroy, and that they destroy most the heart that harbors hatred's cousins. So enlightened, man will find it possible to free himself of intolerable burdens and to seek to know and love the brother he once held detestable. The world will rejoice in this glorious awareness of the power and persuasiveness of love shared.

When each man accepts his brother in love, who will wish harm? Who will choose denial over acceptance? hatred and intolerance over love and acceptance? There will be no room in the hearts of man for choice. The choice will be for the inevitability of loving brotherhood that will usher in a new age where violence withers, where peace prevails, and where all men know the light of divine wisdom and need no more.

love generated by generous response

Monday, 5/1/00 10:55PM

In times of disaster, man often finds his finest hour. In the face of all suffering and deprivation those most sorely affected find the courage within themselves to be grateful that the disaster was no worse and to speak of rebuilding for the future. All who are suffering are joined in need and in the fellowship that warms the heart.

All those who are aware of the needs of the affected and the afflicted are moved to endless acts of giving. Their generosity knows no bounds, and they become acutely aware of their own good fortune. They are willing to do all within their power to help their unfortunate brothers. Their efforts to bring relief and to aid in rebuilding lives bring feelings of gratitude almost beyond expression, and a bond of love is created that is pleasing to all in its strength and effectiveness.

All benefit. Those receiving aid are newly reminded of man's goodness and generosity and hold in their hearts loving feelings for all those who offer all they can give. Those who are fortunate enough to be able to offer aid find themselves pleased with themselves and newly aware of the close ties that bind man to man at all times but find fullest expression in meeting the needs of their brothers.

Feelings of love created by generous response and grateful receiving linger in the hearts of all involved and their lives are thereby enriched.

he must be aware of his own nobility

Tuesday, 5/2/00 11:55PM

Part of man's responsibility in his earthly journey is to himself. It is tempting for some souls in progress to think that total self abnegation and neglect is admirable. While the motive for such self denial may be both commendable and virtuous, man does himself a disservice when he neglects his own needs for any reason.

It is important that each soul in progress remember the divine nature of its origin and its mission. Even when circumstances demand deprivation in material ways for the benefit of others, man must not consider that he denies himself because he is unworthy. Rather he must remember that he is at all times a child of God capable of all that is required of him, but that as well he must remember that what is required of him will not demand surrender of awareness of his own worth.

Even when man offers his very life to benefit another, he must be aware of his own nobility in doing so. Often man acts heroically at risk of his own life in the course of duty. Often he unthinkingly risks death to save another from death. There are times when there is no time for consideration, and man without any hesitations puts himself at risk for the sake of another. This is love in its most noble expression, and the world is in awe of such selflessness when it becomes aware of such sacrifice. In these circumstances man acts from the purest of motives, and even when he seems not to have considered his action, he knows in his soul the nobility of his being and the world grows rich in its recognition of such goodness.

The heroic nature of man is evident constantly in much less dramatic ways than offering one's life for the sake of another, and each time man acts in love to benefit his brother, he affirms his divine nature and serves as inspiration to others who are in turn moved to act unselfishly when the opportunity presents itself. All grow in awareness of self worth and all are thereby both enriched and enlightened.

the benefit of loving acceptance

Wednesday, 5/3/00 11:59PM

In times of difficulty, when man's patience is sorely tried, he is best able to make the spiritual progress that gives earthly life meaning. In most cases man finds within himself this patience as well as the strength to deal with all that is within his power. Often he depends heavily on those who are aware of his need, and in turn those giving aid share in this divine progress. At times there is no one on whom the soul in distress can rely directly, and he must seek aid from strangers. This love offers spiritual gain, for to respond to the needs of a stranger is noble indeed and brings great satisfaction to those who give and those who receive.

Once man survives earthly crisis, he finds within himself new strengths, and in the full awareness of these strengths he is able to accept new trials with full faith in his capacity to not only survive but to grow in wisdom and awareness. He begins to sense in himself capacities that he deems beyond the ordinary and begins to be aware of divine succor. With this awareness he serves as an example of saving grace to all who share his life and are aware of his new found strength. Above all, he becomes aware of the benefit of loving acceptance of all that is asked of him, and his heart rejoices in the peace that comes with this awareness that all that occurs in his earthly existence has reason and benefit.

When man reaches the point of loving acceptance of all that life demands of him in challenge, no matter its severity, no matter its duration, he has triumphed over all adversity and reached a point of spiritual perfection that is endlessly comforting. He is safe and secure in faith absolute.

these brave souls seek truth

Thursday, 5/4/00 11:44PM

In the course of time even the most skeptical of men must come to admission that much beyond their understanding is of such a nature as to suggest divine power and total mastery over all that they know in the physical world. Indeed the world is so fashioned that it is comfortable to refer to the "laws of nature" without further defining the power behind these laws, behind nature itself. The wisest of those who see life through the prism of science freely admit that their knowledge has limits of fact certain, and some go further and freely admit that much that has been discovered in scientific research is strongly suggestive of power behind human, of communication beyond scientific understanding.

The door is now open for science to proceed beyond time honored limits that seemed to proclaim that all is provable if perceived by the five senses, and that beyond that perception lay frivolous speculation. There are still those, perhaps even today a majority, who choose to cling to outdated limitations and to demand physical proof in simple responsive terms, but a revolution is brewing in the scientific community in which those who lead the way to new discoveries are indeed visionaries in their open mindedness, and each step they take into uncharted scientific waters leads them inevitably to new discoveries which seem to offer more questions than answers. Yet with unflinching honesty these brave souls seek truth wherever it leads them, and one day soon they will know the joy of certainty in new discoveries that will alter all men's perception of their world and its place in the cosmos.

There is great joy in store for man when all he longs to believe receives confirmation from the source that once seemed the least likely.

where are the answers to my questions

Friday, 5/5/00 7:22PM

In all of life, man's searching for reason is universally shared. No man exists or indeed has ever existed who has not asked himself "Why? Why am I here? Why was I ever born? Why am I asked to do so much I do not want to do? Where are the answers to all my questions?"

Man most often reaches the point of intensive questing and questioning when he experiences misfortune and doubts his ability to find answers to the problems that beset him. Often too man's self questioning intensifies when he faces a decision he must make and fears his capacity to decide wisely is not adequate. He fears harming others and even himself if he does not choose wisely. He would, if he could, postpone or avoid decision making, but he is hard pressed to risk being wrong but to decide once and for all. His uncertainty about a specific decision leads to uncertainty about reason for his very existence. The very young question most intensely, and their questioning becomes emotionally charged. It may seems to them that their earthly happiness and the well being of others hinges upon his actions and in the nature of his decision.

Rarely does man find answers to his search for reason in his life that satisfy him completely, but most often partial awareness comes from this questioning. He finds learning in his experiences and rejoices when he chooses wisely and well, but in new found awareness he knows that an error in judgment teaches as well and that if the results of his faulty judgment mean unhappiness or deprivation to himself or to others, he is filled with hope that with new found wisdom he will be wiser in the future.

the captive of his own expectations

Saturday, 5/6/00 11:21PM

Whatever man concludes of the reason for existence is important only insofar as it determines the way he lives his life. If man feels that this single existence is all, that birth begins and death ends, then all between these two events may completely lack focus.

If man knows in his heart that even in a single life the most important ingredient is love, then he may live his life as perfectly as if he believed in the need to progress spiritually. In other words he may make great spiritual progress even without any awareness of its importance or its necessity.

On the other hand, man who believes that this life is all may choose to live as though all pleasure is the end of existence, to live a life of empty values and hedonistic pursuits and search in this way for the satisfactions in life that all men are born to desire. It is rare indeed that any soul come to earth and so misled in his tastes and inclinations finds his soul filled with joyful fulfillment. Yet he may not be aware of the totality of his self delusion and he may find himself incapable of escaping from this life he has created for himself. He finds himself the captive of his own expectations and of the expectations of others. This creature is to be pitied, and it is laudable when he does achieve awareness of the emptiness of his life and seeks a more rewarding existence.

who shall provide the answers

Monday, 5/8/00 1:15AM

All men yearn infinitely. All men yearn for promise fulfilled. What is the nature of this yearning, I ask you? What fulfillment do all men seek? Why do they hesitate in response to their own questions? Who shall provide the answers?

It takes little reflection to know that the answers to all these questions and wonderings lie within, that man does not need search further than the depths of his God given soul, his gift from all eternity. Locked within this soul man can find all answers to all questions, but he must be patient in his seeking. He must realize that all answers to all questions are his, but that they are his in the time deemed wise. It is, then, in man's interest to pursue the perfection of love in all that is gifted to him of awareness, that it is his responsibility to know at all times the necessary response and to find joy in providing this joyous answer to seeking.

Not all men know the joy of perfect response to questions asked in such faith, but this in no way negates the worthiness of questions. It is man's grace and privilege to seek after truth and to know that all he is given in responsive wisdom is a gift to be cherished and to be added to all he knows of the divine beneficence that is his ultimate gift.

never is man required to do the impossible

Tuesday, 5/9/00 12:23AM

Whatever trials man knows in human life, he knows in full confidence when he searches his soul that he is capable of triumph and of infinite satisfaction in his triumph.

I have spoken much and often of the trials that are inherent in human existence, and I speak wisely in reminding man that in all cases these challenges are those that the soul in progress has full knowledge of in origin and full capacity in coping. Never is man required to do the impossible. It may be that man will experience failure in meeting challenges in life, but never is his defeat attributable to lack of capacity to overcome all that bars him from success.

It is difficult for man to comprehend this seeming contradiction. If man is capable of triumph, you ask, why would he experience defeat? The answer lies in the power of man's will. There is not a single instant in human existence when man surrenders his capacity to determine his fate by free choice. Clearly there are times when man's choice is so limited that his choice lies in the nature of his acceptance. Man facing certain death, for instance, cannot, generally, choose to extend his life, but he can choose to accept the end of his human journey with loving acceptance or he can choose to struggle against all that he had earlier considered wise and good. Therein lies progress.

All that man knows in the path he knows from the first to the last breath of earthly being is a path he has chosen, a path he treads gladly when he listens to his heart's dictates, and a path which leads him inevitably to all his soul desires.

recognize these heroic souls

Wednesday, 5/10/00 12:30AM

At all times man needs to remind himself of his own goodness. It is so easy in the human journey to neglect oneself, to fail to give due credit to the everyday duties one assumes and meets with a joyful heart. It is all too easy for man to feel that he has not distinguished himself in any meaningful way when he has indeed done this in the most meaningful way of all, in the generous exchange of love and giving with all those in whom he has recognized need.

There is little high drama in most lives. Some souls in progress achieve fame in the assiduous application of their talents. Some are able to meet the needs of others in heroic ways, sometimes at peril to their own well being, and are recognized for their achievement. Some are accorded small fame within tightly knit groups.

All these souls in progress are worthy of recognition, and it is to their credit that they earned it in modesty and unselfishness, but all too often the world turns a blind eye to the multitudes that are heroic in small but significant ways in their immediate circle. Once again we return in judgment to the sole criterion, that of love freely given without reserve or condition under all circumstances with no demand of return.

The world will be a richer place when these small heroes are more widely recognized, and indeed the world has begun to learn this lesson. Every step in this direction is in the best interest of all souls. Look about you and recognize these heroic souls. Celebrate their worth in word and deed and count yourself blessed if you are one in this holy company.

joy unparalled, the true lesson of love

Toledo Wednesday, 5/10/00 11:46PM

Man needs always to look for direction to the very young. He can learn from those souls newly come to earthly life of the perfection that they bring to him in divine origin, but even more he is able to learn the perfection of love inspired by absolute need and returned fully in perfect response. It is notable that no man resents or rejects the perfection of love that is shared completely by the new born and all those who cherish this manifestation of divine presence.

It is sad indeed that this perfection of love cannot persist, that it cannot resist all blandishment, all temptation, all distraction, all impatience. Yet with all this imperfection threatening perfect love, it is wonder indeed that love in all its wonder persists and enriches despite interruption and imperfection.

All men are constantly reminded of the power of love, of its tenacity, of its forgiveness, of its infinite capacity to arm men in all ways. It is sweet indeed when the soul in progress finds itself capable of meeting all challenges to its loving acceptance of all that is demanded but who goes further and inspires others in their pursuit of life's eternal goal.

When man befriends man, no matter the circumstances, no matter the degree of acquaintance, a bond is created that is to the benefit of both. Each gives according to his capacity. Each receives according to his need. The result is a thankful response and an enduring awareness of all that has been given and all that has been received. In both cases the soul is moved to share its blessings and to increase in others awareness of the power and persuasiveness of love shared. This is joy unparalleled, the true lesson of love.

full awareness will one day be his

Airborne Thursday, 5/11/00 7:40PM EDT

When man contemplates eternity, he is hard pressed to comprehend. He knows in his heart that there is truth to the concept of timelessness, and yet he finds it impossible to imagine himself in such terms. Indeed it is impossible for any human to grasp this immense concept, and it is totally reasonable for him to abandon his efforts at understanding and to retreat to a steady faith that he will one day comprehend but that this full understanding awaits after his passage to the world that awaits him at the conclusion of his human journey.

Much the same can be said of man's efforts to comprehend his place in infinity. Man is aware of the enormity of the world in which he lives, of distant galaxies which hold both promise and mystery, but always he retreats to the simple concepts of time and space that are reality within his grasp.

It is a source of joy for all men to anticipate increased awareness, and at all times this promise, this distant vision, cheers and encourages the soul in progress. He remains content in his limitations in certainty that such limits are temporal and that great understanding and full awareness will one day be his. This is promise to all men.

a delicate balance in all of human life

Friday, 5/12/00 11:54PM

There is a delicate balance in all of human life. The more man is given in talents, awareness, and material advantage, the more then is expected of him. Conversely, man least endowed in all ways is not expected to succeed to the same degree, but he is at each moment expected to do all within his capacity to speed himself through all the challenges of life to the perfection of perfect love, the goal of all souls, not lightly to be either regarded or achieved. No more is expected of any man than he can easily give.

When man strives at each moment of his life to live in love and grace, infinitely pleasing to his Creator, he can do no more to prove himself a creature deserving of love given and received, and at all times he knows that the elusive goal of oneness is his when he completes all earthly existence. No man is denied perfection, but this perfection must be earned whether in a single life or in dozens.

It is important that man realize the extent to which he is responsible for each human life he chooses, and that at each step of his journey he is provided with all the strength he needs to succeed in the most difficult of existences.

finds himself vulnerable to those forces

Saturday, 5/13/00 11:13PM

When the end of life comes, as it must to any man, the ending may be long and accepted and desired or it may be unexpected and abrupt. In either case the soul in progress newly released from travail rejoices in new found freedom and recognition of the path not taken perfectly. Yet in this new awareness of trial and error in the human existence, there is thankfulness of all the merit recognized and regret for all that was left undone in the interests of love shared.

Once man has strayed from the path he was meant to take, he finds himself vulnerable to all those forces, both earthly and spiritual, that seek to dissuade him in the progress he needs to progress in all sanctity. In the course of time, the jailer and the jailed become one in their need to escape from total isolation. Often the luckless soul is swept up in this sweep. Know always, dearest loves, that you have always the alternative of peaceful euphoria, of knowing of infinite power beyond human awareness, and in the end we know that perfection of love shared eternally, man's ultimate reward.

a state of grace - all men should aspire

Sunday, 5/14/00 10:31PM

In the totality of mortal existence, man knows many varieties of experience, some notable and compelling, others less memorable and seemingly insignificant, some pleasurable, others less so. It is difficult for man to evaluate these various experiences in terms of their meaningfulness to his eternal quest for the perfection of love expressed in any and all circumstances..

There are times when man pays scant attention to his acts and often gives himself less credit than he deserves. He needs to remember that love shared increases in spiritual significance when it is manifested in acts of love and giving to one he scarcely knows in casual contact. Often man meets the needs of another without being aware of the intensity of need and does so with no expectation of credit or return. Such charity is commendable and speeds man on his way to spiritual perfection..

When man reaches the point of unthinking loving response under any and all conditions, when it becomes automatic for him to respond in total love to his fellow man in need, then he has indeed approached perfect love. The soul in progress who has reached this level of love given and received finds within his heart a peaceful awareness of his worth and a singular pleasure in all aspects of his life. He has reached a point in his spiritual progress where his life, both inner and outer aspects, creates joy in all hearts and lends a serenity to his being which cannot be dissipated or destroyed..

This is a state of grace devoutly enviable and wholly satisfying. It is a state of grace to which all men should aspire.

wiles and false promises of the Others

Monday, 5/15/00 10:25PM

Without doubt man's greatest adventure in life is in its closure. As in all adventures, the ending depends absolutely upon all that has occurred from start to finish from the first line recorded to the last.

All souls in progress share the same adventure. All come into life with firm resolve to live lives perfectly in accord with promises made in divine agreement. All come into life with all the talents and capacities needed to fulfill all expectations. All come with the divinity of free will, the ennobling quality that distinguishes man in all earthly enterprise.

It is reasonable to conclude that man cannot fail in all he strives to accomplish in a single life. He comes with purpose. He comes with ability. He comes with awareness of the importance of all he strives to accomplish. What, then, corrupts man in this singular journey, a life of his own choosing, a life shared in divine love and promise? How can man fail even slightly in his brief journey?

I have spoken of the Others, of those rebellious and wayward spirits who seek men to join in their failure. Yet each soul in progress has the strength and wisdom to reject the wiles and false promises of the Others. Few fall victim to their temptations, and even those few reject in time the error of their ways and resume the path to their ultimate goal. It is at all times a source of joy to all those spirits seeking to help those in their human journey to the absolute joy of heavenly promise to know success in their persuasion. It is at all times a source of joy to those who learn to reject the Others and to accept the unending love of all those who are intent on guiding them to ultimate joy.

Heaven is a lovely place, a place of joy and rapture and of compelling love and caring. There is no loneliness, no desperation, no hesitation in the heavenly realm. Always there is all enveloping love. Always there is constant caring and guidance. Always there is infinite promise. There is no such thing as failure in spiritual progression, and the soul knows absolute joy in this absolute promise. There is no further need.

sweet taste of success over adversity

Tuesday, 5/16/00 Midnight

Each man come to earthly life comes of his own volition. He comes to meet conscious need to progress, and he partakes of divine wisdom in all he asks to experience in a life of his own design. He is at all times optimistic about living this life as perfectly as possible and he is aware that he will know limitations and unawareness but that he is well served by all that he takes with him in ability and resolve.

Such truth is difficult for man to accept readily. In the midst of earthly struggle he cannot believe that he agreed readily to a life of difficulty and challenge. It is impossible, he thinks, for any soul come to earth to choose need instead of plenty, to choose sickness instead of health, to choose despair instead of hope. Yet in his tenacity, he finds himself facing each new trial with absolute determination to survive. At times he surprises himself in this survival and in the inner resources that enabled him to overcome all adversity. He begins to wonder if indeed he was meant to know hardship to acquire strength and determination. He finds pleasure in his own triumph over trial he once thought impossible.

In this way man progresses, and if he searches his soul he becomes increasingly aware that there seems to be a plan and a pattern in all of what life offers and that he seems uniquely designed to play a part in the struggle to live life and to learn the sweet taste of success over adversity. He learns that it strengthens him to accept freely all challenges in full faith in his capacity to cope with all difficulty and to emerge from struggle with full faith in the future. Thus man proves himself and in the process learns love of self, the first step in learning the lessons of love.

the wonder of perfect acceptance

Wednesday 5/17/00 10:37PM

Most men born to earthly life find in themselves great fault. They do not know this self deprecation early in their earthly lives, but they find as they progress from infancy to adulthood that their self perception is challenged constantly.

This challenge to self is not conditional in any way. It exists in all climes, in all conditions, in all cultures. The young come to human existence fully equipped to do all that life demands of them, fully able to respond to the hardships and challenges involved and yet optimistic about each next necessary step, fully able to progress in the divine path that offers fulfillment and all necessary progress.

This is a direction open to all souls in progress, a path perfect and swift and offering only the reminder of love entire for all souls in progress. This seems indeed an easy solution to all the problems that earthly life poses for the eternal journey, and yet it is not simple, not adequate, but it offers peaceful transition to the plane that all souls seek, the wonder of perfect acceptance and perfect devotion. No soul fails in this awareness and no soul rejects its wisdom.

There is never a state more perfect than the one that awaits the soul newly released from human need, aware of his beginning of a future unlimited, of love beyond human perception, of spiritual perfection. There is no more perfect reward for goodness.

there is no failure for any man

Thursday, 5/18/00 11:32PM

Whatever man knows in his earthly life, he needs to be aware of its divine design. It is ultimate comfort for the soul in progress to know that all life offers to him in all its diversity is all he sought to know before entering his earthly experience. It is such a source of comfort when man is totally aware of his own mastery. It fills him with confidence when he realizes that each challenge is one of his own devising, that nothing that occurs in the span of his earthly voyage is foreign in its origin.

There is such complexity in this truth that full comprehension is far beyond human capacity to digest fully. Yet it is such a boon to man struggling with difficulty he deems beyond his control and his ability to control to recognize in his soul that he has chosen this particular challenge and that he is fully able to cope and to triumph. There is in most men's minds a soul's residual memory of their divine compact and consequently an inborn awareness of their own capacity to deal with all the trials life presents.

When man fails, or at least fails in his own perception, he needs to remember that he is destined for ultimate victory in achieving the goal of eternal blessedness. He needs to remember that each earthly disappointment is as nothing, and that his benefit is to learn by misadventure and to know renewed confidence in this learning. Cumulative failure may succeed temporarily in diminishing man's confidence in himself, and indeed it may be that he will leave earthly life without knowing fully his own abilities to progress in all ways, but it is endless comfort to all those who regard themselves as inadequate when they pass the portal of death and recognize their own worthiness in the fullness of love that awaits all souls.

There is no failure for any man. Each soul in progress no matter the degree of disappointment or disillusionment in this life is a soul come to glory in the next.

with love, man is complete

Friday, 5/19/00 11:13PM

Over ages beyond count, man's life has been dominated by one overwhelming need, that of love joyfully given and joyfully received. It can be said that early man's primary need was for sustenance to insure survival and protection against all physical threats, and indeed these needs are indisputable. The history of early man bolsters this assertion.

Yet the history books do not record the emotional life of early man. There are no stories, no statistics to indicate that he felt the same need man feels today for the close comfort of a loving relationship. Under all circumstances at all times this need has been central in human life, and even when life is harsh in its demands and unrelenting in this harshness, man has found comfort and encouragement in love expressed. Man's protective instinct is founded in love and fostered by caring for those dependent upon him in any and all ways.

It can be said that throughout the centuries when man progressed from primitive existence and basic physical needs to the sophisticated and complicated life of modern man there has been always a continuing thread, that of the absolute and unremitting need that man feels for love given and received. This is a divine gift and a constant reminder to man of his close ties to the world from which he came and the world to which he will go at the end of his earthly journey.

With love man is complete. Without love he does not exist.

they dispute because of fancied affronts

Saturday, 5/20/00 10:56PM

Among all men there exists a brotherhood of need. All men come to earth in lives designed to prepare them fully for all the struggles and successes of earthly life and to ensure them that all progress will be made to know brotherhood in the deepest and most meaningful sense of the word. Brotherhood is an eternal term. It is a concept that embraces all time, all place, all circumstance. In each life man meets brothers he has known before and will, in all probability, meet again. In the span of time and space there exists infinite possibility of the most intimate of earthly relationships in the most improbable of circumstances.

It is part of divine destiny that all men realize the absolute belonging among all of God's children come to earth. There is urgency for all men to achieve this awareness, for it is the surest answer to eliminating the intolerance and divisiveness that marks today's world. Men dispute meaninglessly and endlessly. They dispute because of fancied affronts. They challenge ownership of meaningless stretches of land. They argue about the outward practices of religious conviction while ignoring the inner fervor that animates this conflict. In all, man needs to reassess this practice and to try to reach peaceful accord with those who share his time and place and to realize the absolute unifying force that all souls in progress share.

There are no differences in God's eyes between brothers akin to each other in any way. It matters not at all the differences in culture or custom, in creed or in affiliation. It matters that within the soul of each man there is divine origin and continuing divine relationship and responsibility. All else is as nothing. Man -- all men -- must know this to be whole.

soul come to earth chooses its life span

Sunday, 5/21/00 10:40PM

Celebrated often among men is the capacity to endure. Old age is held supremely important. The aged know respect regardless of other gratification. This reverence reflects both man's enduring love of life and in a sense his highest hope for longevity.

It is right and good that those who have lived long and well be accorded the respect and the praise that they have earned, but know well that longevity is not always a blessing. The soul come to earth chooses its life span and often chooses long life not as a blessing but as a trial in full awareness that the life chosen will be a source of learning and of spiritual advancement for many. Those devoted to the care of all souls no longer able to care for themselves physically know a devotion that exceeds all expectations in patient caring. Those who are responsible for the very old and infirm, whether caretakers or family, are constantly called upon to express love without return, to choose at all times a caring without response, and to find within themselves an enduring willingness to offer all that is needed in love given and received.

Not all souls come to life choose to live lives long beyond self sufficiency. Yet at the opposite end of the scale are those souls who choose to live briefly, to come to earthly existence for a period of time ranging from minutes and hours to months and years. They choose lives cut short for a variety of reasons, and they come as all souls do to learn and to teach the lessons of love. Each chooses those he will teach in the name of love given and received and all leave their earthly journey in full awareness of accomplishment.

It is easier for the soul choosing its life to come to select a life noted for its brevity, but it is challenge indeed for those who choose to live long and trying lives and to come to the end of earthly existence joyfully aware of the wonder that they have created in the face of all difficulty. They have chosen the difficult path, and they have done all they promised in the face of all trial.

Too often these persistent souls are not accorded the praise and adulation they deserve. Consider what they have given. Consider what they deserve. Know their goodness.

he seeks above all to satisfy himself

Monday, 5/22/00 Midnight

In all of man's striving he seeks above all to satisfy himself. This is basic in man's nature, but there are an infinite number of ways in which man can achieve self satisfaction. The wisest of souls realizes from the very start of life that the greatest way to achieve self satisfaction is in bringing satisfaction to others. Each man who brings joy into another man's life knows the greatest of pleasure in himself. This habit of generous caring for others, this constant striving to meet their needs, is endless in its gratification. It serves the additional purpose of inspiring others to emulation and increasing the richness of their lives in the process.

Man also achieves self satisfaction by making the best use of his talents regardless of their nature. Some men satisfy their own needs in exercising the creativity they know and in the process providing pleasure and satisfaction to others. Some men are gifted in the healing arts and devote their lives to bringing aid and comfort to those in need of their ministrations. Others know talent in diverse fields and seek as well to use their abilities in the service of others.

All men who seek to be useful find ways in which to lend richness to the lives of others and thereby enrich their own. There is no limit to this giving and no limit to the satisfaction and inner peace that such giving creates in the soul of the giver. In turn, all who receive respond gratefully and further strengthen the sense of self satisfaction generated by meeting the needs of others.

it is not a simple thing to live in love

Tuesday, 5/23/00 11:47PM

With supreme effort all men reach the perfection of love that has been always their reason for being, their perfect goal in life and death and new life.

It is no accident that the man who spends each lifetime in full awareness of the rewards that love expressed in word and deed returned to the giver is the happiest of men. Having discovered the key to all self satisfaction, all shared beneficence, he finds an end to seeking and devotes himself to the pursuit of happiness in the giving and receiving of love. If his life involves more giving than receiving, he is content. He knows always that the supreme accomplishment in human life is in love expressed so fully and so freely that it meets the needs of all those hungry for the sustenance that love given affords.

It is not a simple thing to live in love. The challenge is both great and continuous. It becomes necessary to accept rebuff and disappointment in the trust of another and to persevere in the pursuit of love in the face of all failure. It is not easy to meet each misfortune in life with full acceptance of its wisdom and its opportunity for learning, but this is exactly what is required and to accept with cheerful determination all inherent challenges in full faith of victory over defeat.

Man involved in the day to day demands of human existence and oblivious to his divine compact does all that is required of him if he lives in faith and hope and dependence upon all the love that is his to know. Deprived as he may be of human support, he needs to know full faith in those who guide him from afar, those blessed spirits to whom he is precious in his being and in his striving.

Let it be said that no soul in progress struggles alone on the path to perfection. Even those lost souls who have forgotten all that they need to remember are taken in total love to a time and a place where perfection awaits. No man misses this road.

all that is promised finds reward

Wednesday, 5/24/00 11:58PM

There are glorious times awaiting the soul in progress. There is first of all absolute assurance of success. It is of infinite comfort at all times for the soul in journey no matter its level of progress, to know that the future holds infinite promise, that all past errors are as nothing, and that each forward step takes him closer to eternal blessedness. He knows with absolute certainty that no error can deprive him of eternal promise.

When man becomes aware of the infinite possibilities that life offers to him in spiritual progress, he achieves an awareness that governs his every act and word, and he knows the sweet blessedness of spiritual progression. He knows with absolute faith that the reason for his physical existence is triumph over all adversity in the full love of all that life demands and in the full embrace of all those whose lives touch his in any way.

Man armed with such awareness is invincible. He may know moments of defeat and disillusionment, of need and deprivation, but he knows as well that it is totally within his capacity to meet all challenges with strength and determination and to emerge triumphant. He knows that all his hungers will be satisfied and that his life will be one of joyful satisfaction. All that is demanded meets satisfaction. All that is promised finds reward.

Know now, My children, that no more is demanded than is possible, that no reward is unattainable, that no matter the difficulty of the trial, no triumph is unattainable. All peace and joy awaits.

man is privileged in his choosing

Thursday, 5/25/00 11:43PM

In all the experience man knows in his journey through human existence there is plan and pattern.

The plan has its beginning in the choice made in accordance with divine will of the nature and extent of the life chosen by the soul intent upon renewed life and in the agreement of all those of his choosing to share this life to come. There is not necessarily immediacy in the start of this new life, but there is absolute certainty and absolute agreement of the nature of the life to come shared in all meaningful ways by those good souls seeking perfection in the goodness and power of love shared in the face of all challenge and all difficulty.

Man is privileged in his choosing. He is blessed by the loving acquiescence of those he asks to share his new existence. It is of no importance that he has no memory of his divine choosing, no residual awareness of the structure of renewed life and its relationships. The single important factor is that all these souls come to new life come in absolute agreement of the nature of their lives with all its blessings and all its demands. At no point is any single one of these interacting souls relieved of the burdens and deprived of the joys of the life he has claimed as his own. In turn, most souls recognize the gift they have been granted and joyfully and willingly accept what they are told and what they truly know.

No step forward in spiritual progress goes unchallenged and in this journey of total joy it sometimes becomes man's singular responsibility to aid the soul in progress and free him from conflict that bars his way.

all souls will know perfection

Friday, 5/26/00 11:35PM

In the fullness of time, all souls will know perfection. It is difficult to imagine the villains that the earth has always known being embraced by the holy as equal in all ways, but this is exactly what is inevitable. It needs to be remembered that each soul come of his own desire to earthly life comes with the blessing of the God who loves him as His child, his dearest creation, and that all goodness is reflected in his being.

It is gratifying that so many of God's children live lives of goodness and grace, often under the most trying of circumstances. These good souls serve themselves well and go further in inspiring others to recognize the absolute need for love shared in generosity and awareness of its power. It is to be noted that these souls whose lives are marked by goodness and caring far outnumber those souls who, beguiled by temptation and seduced by the wiles of the Others forget the absolute requirement to achieve all their goals and to spiritually progress as they promised.

Indeed it becomes part of progression for those who live in love and grace to seek to rescue their wayward brothers and to persuade them of the virtues of a life lived in unselfish expressions of love. There is no limit to the effectiveness of this exemplary teaching, and there is great satisfaction when the soul gone astray is persuaded by his brother's example and persuasion to recognize and accept the compulsory nature of love given and received, expressed constantly in word and action, a love totally transforming, the sure road to earthly joy.

his first obligation is to love himself

Sunday, 5/28/00 12:04AM

Before all else, man needs to know that his primary need in human life from the first breath to the last is love both given and received. It is most important that man know at all times that his first obligation in the exchange of love is to love himself. There are those who recoil from the very suggestion of the necessity of self love. For a variety of mistaken notions, they feel that to love oneself is both arrogant and self serving, that modesty is more desirable in self assessment than even honesty.

It is important that man consider the concept of self love in a way that rejects such a false premise. Think of the start of human life. The infant comes from the hand of God both loved and loving. The child has no doubt of its own goodness and is fully and naturally able to love itself. There is no false modesty, no question of worth. It is only later in life that the soul in progress is vulnerable to the criticisms that are fairly or unfairly visited upon him and the soul is called upon to have full faith in its own goodness and to reject all efforts to lessen this feeling of self worth.

It is axiomatic that the soul who fails to sustain its original sense of worth, its capacity to love oneself, will find it difficult, and in some cases impossible, to love others. The greater the degree of self abnegation the greater the difficulty in truly and constantly feeling love for others. Often the soul struggles to overcome the obstacle that denial of worth creates in the sharing of love, but gratifyingly often the soul succeeds and in the process acquires a greater sense of self worth and knows that he is a worthy partner in love shared, given generously and received willingly and gratefully.

No man should feel inadequate in the sharing of love. No man should so underestimate himself as to feel unworthy of love, of love of self first and then love of all others.

it is journey blessed in its origin

Sunday, 5/28/00 10:06PM

All those born to human life share a common heritage. All come to earthly existence for the same purpose. All come in full agreement of their divine commitment. All come in joy and optimism, in faith perfect that all that is required of them will be simple in accomplishment.

The great majority of these visitors to earth, divine in their conception and perfect in their capacities, succeed in whole or in part in accomplishing all that they came to human life to embrace in full faith. They leave this life aware of their own accomplishments and of their own failings in total awareness that they will know loving acceptance of all that life has offered to them in challenge and triumph.

The human journey is a journey of love shared, of triumph and tragedy, of faith and forgiveness and infinite hope and trust. It is a journey blessed in its origin and totally accepting in its finish. Between this beginning and this end man knows complete control of all he desires to prove in his goodness and acceptance of divine will. No matter how horrific his life's experiences may be, he is saved absolutely from spiritual failure by his willingness to live in love no matter what his experience, no matter the degree of alienation he may know, no matter the extent of material deprivation.

Thus man is at all times free to triumph and to progress in his search for perfection, for all that is demanded of him is acceptance in total love of all that is demanded of him in mortal life. This is joy indeed.

he knows that love begets love

Monday, 5/29/00 11:05PM

Whenever and whatever man seeks to know of love divine and life eternal, he shall know in full joy. It is part of man's learning in earthly experience to experience love in such a way as to make him aware of its power and pervasiveness. He knows in his heart that love is a divine gift, one to be both cherished and shared infinitely and indiscriminately. He knows that love begets love and that love expressed thrives and grows with each word and deed offered in love.

It is but a step from full awareness of the power of love in human life to appreciate the enormous gift it represents in its application to life eternal. This world is a place of learning, and the single significant lesson that man is both blessed and obliged to learn is the lesson of love, of its absolute necessity in every aspect of his earthly life and in every aspect of the spiritual progression that is his purpose in earthly existence.

The miracle of love is manifold. It enriches man's life in the world he inhabits briefly. It prepares him for the world that is his true home. It enables him to reach new levels of spiritual perfection and above all it provides him with awareness of the love that awaits his return to his heavenly home.

Nothing in human life compares with the love of heavenly existence. Even the most profound, the most intense, the most selfless love on earth does not approach the miracle of heavenly love. This is joy to contemplate for all those on their earthly journey, for each and every soul come to earth can anticipate the day he will know this infinite belonging, this utter glory, this supreme manifestation of divine beneficence. It is all to all, God's gift to His children.

he thinks of the end of those years

Tuesday, 5/30/00 Midnight

When man thinks of the future he most often thinks narrowly. There is an immediacy in his thoughts and in a sense rightly so. He plans his day to day existence as necessity dictates and as his heart desires. He knows a keen sense of responsibility for those he loves, and his thoughts of the future most reasonably are centered in his efforts to provide and protect those blessed souls against all adversity. This forward thinking is commendable and serves as reassurance to all of the certainty of loving concern and grateful awareness of this concern.

Occasionally man's thoughts stray from the immediate future and he speculates about the years that lie ahead of his current awareness. He thinks occasionally of the end of these years, seemingly so far removed from his present concern. The strong love most men embrace of life whatever its gifts or its deprivation fills his mind and only rarely does he contemplate his own mortality, a fact certain at all times, relative in its timing and application.

It is devoutly to be wished that the man who has spent his years in goodness and giving has also heeded those loving voices that have guided him in the paths he has taken and who rejoice always in his spiritual progress and his earthly satisfactions. Such a man ends his mortal existence in full awareness of his own worthiness to progress to a state of perfect joy. He is never disappointed.

words needed to achieve truth & justice

Thursday, 6/1/00 12:55AM

It is at all times within man's province to follow his heart in all he does and says. At times, this self honesty requires a price to be paid. At other times the forthright man is hailed as a hero, a creature to be revered. It is of little import whether truth from the heart is vilified or glorified, but it is of utter importance that man be true to his heart's stirrings, to his deeply felt convictions. In all ages man has known this mandate and lived by its demands, though not all men have shared this fidelity to self.

There are souls in progress who falter when their hearts lead them in an unpopular direction, when they fear censure or ostracism as their punishment for boldness. Rarely does this denial return man to a state of peace and security. Rather this denial rankles in his soul and makes him doubt his own veracity and courage. Little by little if he persists in denying the dictates of his heart he loses awareness and is woefully deprived.

Those brave souls who speak what their hearts tell them are at all times at peace with themselves even in the most hostile of environments. They know a sense of rightness that cannot be taken from them. They know inner strength and integrity that defies all efforts to force them to deny their words, to soften their criticism, to amend their views. Their sense of integrity serves as example to those who waver in uncertainty, and it emboldens others too timid to speak until led.

In all cases man serves both himself and his world by faithfulness to all his heart tells him is right and good, and he knows not a moment of hesitation when his words are needed to achieve truth and justice. Each generation needs such men.

all men are capable of perfection in life

Thursday, 6/1/00 11:59PM

It is at all times evident to man in his earthly journey that he knows only partial answers to all he questions of the nature of life, in particular of the nature of his individual life with all of its challenges.

All lives know challenge, though the nature of challenge differs widely from man to man, from life to life. The very rich and well endowed are challenged not to be consumed by false pride in themselves. They are challenged to recognize that the poorest and most deprived of men is their equal in all important ways. They are challenged to share their wealth and to do so in a caring and compassionate way, in a way which touches the hearts of both giver and receiver. They are challenged to put love above all other values they hold dear and to act in love each day in all ways.

The most deprived are equally challenged to live in love constantly no matter how desperate their condition. They are challenged to accept all that life demands of them in deprivation and rejection and to know in their hearts that all earthly hardship is as nothing. They strive always in the divinity of their beings to accept all that they are asked to endure in full faith that there will be an end to misery and that all the pain they know is instructive. They learn to love under all conditions and to know the serenity that is born in loving acceptance of all that life offers and demands.

Between these two extremes the vast majority of souls come to earth travel the same road with varying degrees of material comfort and security, with trial and adversity within their capacity to cope, and with full intention of achieving human happiness. Those who are fortunate to find the surest route to joy in earthly life learn that all happiness comes from the endless and unconditional expression of love in thought, word, and deed.

All men are capable of this perfection in life. Not all reach it fully in a single existence, but all in time know the glory of divine oneness, the ultimate joy.

love is all, at all times, under all circumstances

Friday, 6/2/00 11:55PM

Before all else, man must understand that his obligation to live in love means more than would appear on the surface. It is, of course, commendable that man love those who give him love and pleasure in all ways and with a constancy that never denies. He finds it both easy and gratifying to share his heart with those family members and dear friends who strive always to share the deep affection that gives meaning to life and a pleasurable sense of belonging.

When man finds disruption in his circle of love, he is obliged to remember that his love must remain constant in the face of all disagreement. It becomes his responsibility to recognize the healing power of love and to offer unconditional love under any and all circumstances. Even when he considers himself woefully betrayed and abused, he must be steadfast in professing love in the face of all affront.

Rarely is man disappointed in the powerful force that love given proves in conflict. Anger dissipates in the face of love. Protest is silenced by love. Estrangement is healed by love. At times the miracle of love may demand patience and persistence, but never does it fail.

And so it is incumbent upon all souls in progress to live in full awareness that love, however tried, must be forgiving, persistent, and persuasive, that it must be both felt and proffered without condition or limit, and in this wholeness it blesses all those it touches. Love is all at all times under all conditions to all souls.

in all of life there is learning

Saturday, 6/3/00 11:55PM

When man considers his experiences at the end of each day, it is easy for him to be discouraged if he has not known peace, joy, love, and a sense of accomplishment. Ideally all men should end each day pleased with all he has experienced but this is not constantly the case. Life is strewn with disappointments and frustrations, and although not each day is so marked in human existence, it is a part of man's journey from time to time. Sometimes these misfortunes are minor and temporary. At other times they are a significant impact upon man's sense of well being and they may be lingering in their effect.

In all these cases it is important for man to remember at the end of each day in his journey from birth to death that he has deemed himself capable of responding to all earthly challenges with loving acceptance and full confidence in his ability to not only survive but to do so in full awareness of its importance to him in spiritual progress.

In all of life there is learning. There is learning in pure joy. There is learning in intense sorrow. Man needs to remember the transitory nature of both joy and sorrow in earthly life. He needs to remember that he has promised to experience both and to accept both in complete awareness of his capacity for love, the single essential ingredient in all human experience leading to spiritual perfection, the ultimate achievement, the key to all glory.

man is meant to endure all difficulty

Sunday, 6/4/00 11:50PM

In the best of times it is man's advantage to feel the fullness of his power in life. He is aware of his capacity to choose wisely when faced with decision. He is aware of his ability to provide for his own well being and that of those lovingly dependent upon him. He is aware of the extent to which he is a well respected member of his immediate society. In all, he has a sense of security which is a constant source of pleasure. He is content.

When this total sense of well being is threatened in one way or another -- by sickness, by want, by the fickleness of fate -- man senses that he is less self sufficient than he had felt to this point, and he is called upon to respond to circumstances new and difficult and seemingly beyond his immediate control. It is at this point that man is well served by the inner strength that is part of his nature and to discover that this capacity serves him well. He finds it possible in most cases to restore his world to the equilibrium he so treasured, solving all problems with faith in his ability and with the persistence demanded by each situation.

Often man discovers his true capacities in the face of trial and adversity and grows richer in understanding and acceptance by the trials that he first thought frightening and then realized were within his power of solution. The soul in progress who experiences triumph over challenge is enriched at all times and considers himself capable of meeting all the demands of life, no matter how difficult, no matter how frequent.

Man is meant to endure all difficulty in his earthly journey, and he is meant to endure in full awareness of his ability to accept all challenge with loving faith in his own capacity and in the strength that is a gift divine.

the soul of a child is precious

Monday, 6/5/00 11:55PM

In the all enveloping love that man knows as he enters earthly life, he finds sustained awareness of his divine origin. The infant newly come to life needs love in all ways. He needs to receive the nurturing love of those entrusted with his care and he needs to return this love in all trust and faith and dependence. Never is there a moment in the new life of the soul come to earth when love is less than absolutely essential both to survival and to growth. The perfection of this love is absolute.

There are cases when the new soul is all too soon deprived of the perfection of this divine and commanding love, cases where those whose role is to nurture this child find themselves distracted and beguiled by the love of selfish pleasure and fail to sustain their caring. In such cases the child is sorely tried, but the perfection of the love given to all who respond remains intact. The child is born to love and it takes sustained deprivation to diminish this generous pure love.

It is tragic indeed when the love of a child is so abused that it diminishes and the child is left helpless and an easy victim to all that challenges goodness and love. It is right and good when unselfish efforts rescue such a child in need, when good souls eagerly seek to provide the healing love and caring that is the only antidote to rejection and neglect. It is wondrous always how completely the wounded child is restored to the joy of love given and received, grateful always for each gesture of affection, each generous impulse, each gratifying word of caring.

The soul of a child is precious beyond all imagining. It is pure and good and resilient and infinitely forgiving. Blessed are those who recognize the love of a child as a divine gift. Blessed are those who strive to meet the needs of these sweet souls.

blessing for man to experience difficulty

Tuesday, 6/6/00 11:43PM

There is an immediacy in man's thinking that serves him well in almost every aspect of his life. He feels comfortable in anticipation of what is to come, knowing that what he expects is what is reasonably to be expected. Time after time he is satisfied in his rightness. Yet the day comes when what man reasonably expects is not to be.

There are many reasons always why the course of human life is disrupted in the smoothness of its path, and more often than not man is left without answers for this disturbance in the even tenor of this life. It often becomes the responsibility of the soul in progress faced with unexpected difficulty to solve his problems in a way that reflects his commitment to a life lived in grace and goodness.

Man must first seek to discover the ways in which he is able to meet difficulty and to restore the equilibrium of his existence. This is often a difficult and a lengthy task. In the midst of all his efforts, man is well aware of all that he is given in strength beyond his understanding and understanding beyond his previous capacity. It is in a way a blessing for man to experience difficulty, for in his seeking for solution he encounters aid beyond easy explanation, and an all pervading love that sweetens all of his existence.

So man is blessed in all ways when he experiences triumph over worldly barriers to happiness and perfection, and it is his good fortune to both recognize and to entreat the divine power that is responsive to his every need.

nothing is asked of him beyond his capacity

Wednesday, 6/7/00 10:10PM

In all of life man is called upon to respond to each and every experience with the acceptance that mirrors love and trust in all those bound to him in ties of love both of this world and of the world beyond his immediate awareness.

Man is often blessed in life with all the encompassing love that makes all hardship tolerable, all pain bearable, all loss acceptable. When he is not so blessed, he must rely both upon his inner strength and upon the love that comes from afar and finds its place in his innermost soul. Whatever the circumstances, it is always possible for man to endure the greatest difficulty with full faith in its rightness, to strive without pause to return to the peace and security of a life without threat or problems.

It is a blessed quality in all mankind that he knows in his innermost soul that nothing is asked of him beyond his capacity. Nothing can defeat man in this absolute security and in his full challenge that the truest triumph is not physical but spiritual in the glory of spiritual progress. The man who is capable of loving acceptance of all trial in the face of insuperable odds is the most triumphant of men. His soul speaks truly and all listen.

man listens to the voices of unreason

Thursday, 6/8/00 10:29PM

Always man is armed with the love that is and has always been his due. All too often man listens to the voices of unreason that seek to dissuade him from the love and trust he knows almost instinctively. There is not enough awareness in the world today of those spirits we call the Others. They band together for greater organization and force to lead man astray. They sense weakness and the beginnings of doubt and seek to magnify these personal crises. In all, man needs to be constantly aware of the mischievous sufferings.

[Dear love, I ask to finish this in the morning. I fell asleep as I wrote.]

ascribes the voices to his own consciousness

Friday, 6/9/00 4:35PM

Man, in his unawareness mistakenly ascribes the voices he hears to his own inner consciousness and imagines himself both responsible and defective in his thinking. In reality the Others, as are all spirits, are able to communicate with humans by insinuating ideas, by suggesting courses of action, by weakening the will of the soul in crisis and persuading him that he is unstable.

At times the Others suggest to the vulnerable mind that he should seek to please himself above all else and to regard the concerns of others lightly, if at all. They persuade him that he has only himself to consider, that it is to no avail to be guided by love for others. In extreme cases they are able to persuade the troubled soul that he is unloved and therefore owes love to no other.

Once the Others have insidiously persuaded man to be governed by what they suggest, they grow even bolder in all they suggest and consider it victory when the soul in progress finds itself blocked spiritually and emotionally and has abandoned love as central to his life.

Not all souls in progress suffer equally from the distraction of the Others. They seek easy victims and choose those most vulnerable to suggestion, those most despairing for any reason, those lacking confidence in themselves or in others, those who fear that they are not truly loved nor capable of loving others.

It will serve man well to recognize these destructive spirits when they seek to lead him from the path of love and giving and to dismiss them totally as unworthy.

no error in the exercise of love

Sunday, 6/11/00 12:27AM

Man is always in trial. From his first breath to his last he lives a life designed to afford him the progress he so earnestly desires and so absolutely needs to the perfection which is his reason for earthly experience, the goal of all souls.

So each life from start to finish is but a means to an end and that end is glory. Whether man is joyous or filled with sadness, whether he is deprived or surfeited, whether he is infinitely loved or friendless, his life is a lesson designed by him with divine intent and approval, and each of his earthly experiences is significant in evaluating the whole of life.

It is just as easy to err in the joy of richness as it is to err in the deprivation that is the companion to sadness, for in each case man is responsible for his response and for his acceptance and his efforts to achieve solution. Man surfeited by earthly reward is always in danger of forgetting his absolute duty to share earth's bounty and to lend security in material ways to those who suffer from lack and deprivation. Those who are deprived of earthly comforts are still bound by what they have promised and are expected to respond to each trial and each lack with total acceptance and love. In both cases the key word is love, love given and received, love shared generously and unconditionally, joyous in its giving and grateful in its receiving.

There can be no error in the exercise of love. It solves all problems. It heals all wounds. It mends all alienation. It fills the soul with awareness of need fulfilled. When man knows love fully, he needs no more, for he has found the true and only way.

rituals that go beyond necessity

Sunday, 6/11/00 11:40PM

In the annals of time, much has been given to man in instruction and insight to guide him on his way to perfect happiness and spiritual perfection. Sometimes the message has been simple and direct, clear in its mandate to love above all else and to know the divine equality among all souls in progress.

Sometimes, all too often, those who consider themselves responsible for the direction of souls in progress have gone too far in formalizing their teachings. They have created rituals that go beyond necessity, and they have complicated what is and should always be the simple mandate to act in love with doctrines of their own contrivance, superfluous to man's needs and often creating a barrier between man and his God by intervening in what should always be direct communication. All too often those who are regarded as religious authorities have set themselves above those they seek to guide and have dictated beliefs both material and political that they demand that their followers accept without question.

This is not to say that there have not been good and noble souls governing man's spiritual development. Many have resisted complication and distortion and been exemplary in their lives and in their words. They have retained the simplicity of the divine will, the demand that above all else man be guided in his earthly journey by the lesson of love, a lesson that speaks of the absolute need for love given without condition, without hesitation, without discrimination, and that this love be constantly expressed in word and deed. Man so governed knows the wholeness of his being and the wisdom of his faith, and each day of his earthly journey he knows the total joy of love received. He is blessed, and his blessing enriches all others.

his wish must not be an idle one

Monday, 6/12/00 11:23PM

Whatever man asks of life, he is bound to receive, if not immediately, then eventually, but his wish must not be an idle one. All souls come to human life learn quickly that for each advantage they crave they must be willing to earn. It is important that each and every soul know that condition and look with respect upon the journeys of others with full awareness that their lives and the demands of those lives create a series of challenges that the soul must meet.

Whatever the challenge, man knows persuasively that the soul in progress both recognizes and accepts the challenges and is at all times capable of triumphing to speed him on his way to his ultimate goal, to the perfection of oneness, to the total achievement he has sought from the very start of life.

kindness and courtesy are integral to daily life

Tuesday, 6/13/00 11:35PM

Man in his infinite goodness seeks to express this innate quality in many ways. He is born responsive to the love that brings him into this world and seeks to meet his needs, and in this response he is a creature purely good. This is not to say that he presents no problems to his caretakers, for the needs of the newborn can be many and can be difficult to meet, but as the child matures the sweetness of his nature grows and in his innocence he radiates goodness and joy.

Man's goodness is often tried as he matures into adulthood and beyond, but it is his nature to resist the temptation to act or speak unkindly, and it is his joy to please all those bound to him in love by his words and deeds. He reflects this love that lives in his heart in all ways. He learns the effectiveness of kindness in creating loving relationships and finds in its practice pleasure with self.

These childhood lessons are influential and guide him into maturity. As an adult, man finds many ways to express his goodness. He makes kindness and courtesy integral to his daily life. He learns to recognize need in others whether it be material or emotional or spiritual, and seeks to provide an end to need. He chooses work which proves self satisfying in service to others and which challenges his abilities. He ends each day free of regret and grateful for all he has known in love given and received.

Not all lives are so idyllic in their perfection, but all men know a degree of perfection and grow in awareness of their innate goodness. Those who express this goodness most fully need little more.

the path to perfection is the path of love

Wednesday, 6/14/00 Midnight.

It is the duty of each soul come to human existence to pursue the goal of spiritual progression. This is a goal that can be variously defined, but at all times it must be remembered that the path to perfection is the path of love. There is no alternative.

Man is capable always of living his life in love. Though lives may differ widely in all ways, each human journey shares with all others an absolute obligation to meet the demands of life with an open accepting heart and to offer to all those who share this journey total accepting love fully and clearly expressed.

There are lives freely chosen when this single demand seems difficult in execution. Often the soul in progress is expected to love without apparent response or return. This is a difficult demand in all cases. Often the soul in progress is required to accept deprivation and hardship and even the infliction of cruelty with a loving and constant response. Often the soul in progress is asked to resist despair under the most depressing of circumstances and to go even further in full faith in the cessation of trial, to respond to all challenge in the full faith in the power of love that his heart dictates.

No trial is too overwhelming for the striving soul. No demand for loving acceptance of all challenge is impossible of achievement. Nothing bars man from his ultimate goal. He has only to strive.

his angel persists in the face of rebuff and denial

Thursday, 6/15/00 11:44PM

Beyond man's immediate understanding and perception lies a world of wonder. The earth teems with spirits, those sacred beings who are intimately involved and endlessly concerned for the welfare of those within their caring and for all other souls on their earthly adventure.

Man has come increasingly to be aware of the heavenly presence, of angelic guidance, and his awareness is indeed a blessing, for the more sensitive he is to the voice of his angelic teacher the more he will know the comfort of blessed and miraculous guidance. Increasingly souls in progress are speaking out about the wonders wrought by their angels -- of need being satisfied, of tragedy being averted, of comfort being afforded. It is not possible for those so favored to understand the manner of angelic intervention in human life, but their experiences leave no question of the reality of their angelic protection.

Man should never doubt the blessing that is his in angelic caring. He may choose to deny such a miraculous relationship, but this denial is of no consequence; his angel persists in his caring in the face of all rebuff and denial. If anything, angelic efforts increase. When man opens his heart to the acceptance of his angel teacher and guide, his spiritual life is infinitely enriched and he is capable of miraculous communication with this gift his angel represents. When he listens, he hears. When he opens his heart, he knows the depth and breadth of angelic belonging, and he is infinitely blessed.

Even those who choose to ignore the insistent love that is theirs for the asking find themselves directed at times in ways they do not understand.

choice in all he is to know in the life to come

Saturday, 6/17/00 12:25AM

Within all limits, man lives each life as perfectly as his perception and his will allow. When I speak of limits, I refer to the freely chosen parameters that man's life knows. In each life chosen by the soul come to earth, there are limitations which guide him in the path of wisdom and progress. Man chooses wisely in his destined life, and he is able at all times to fulfill all the requirement of this chosen life in satisfying the demands of love and in knowing its rewards.

It is perhaps difficult for man in the midst of his human voyage to believe in the power he wielded in the design of his mortal experience. If he suffers from want or hardship, he finds it difficult to believe that he so chose his life's experience. When man knows bounty beyond imagining, he ascribes his good fortune to powers beyond his control, even when his human endeavors have contributed much to his achievement of material reward.

In short, man is generally unaware of the extent to which he is responsible for the very nature of his human life. It is difficult for him to believe in his own power and influence, and yet the time will come when he will realize fully the nature of life and the importance of his chosen path to spiritual perfection. Even before this blessed day of revelation, it would be wise for man to accept this teaching, to know that before each human life he is given the gift of choice in all he is to know in the life to come and to recognize the vital part his free will plays in his achievement of the ultimate perfection, the goal of all souls come to earthly experience.

In time, no man will question this truth.

souls who seek to meet the needs of others

Sunday, 6/18/00 3:20AM

There is no limit to man's capacity for goodness and giving. It takes little observation of the world about you to realize that those who seem to lack goodness and grace are infinitely outnumbered by those who seek to live in love in all ways.

Man tends to dramatize the problems of his world and to make much of strife and evil doing and to make little of the small miracles of love that mark each day of his earthly journey. Increasingly man seems to be giving more attention to stories of goodness than to reports of evil doing, but he has far to go in this regard to reach the balance that reflects reality.

The world today, as it has been for centuries, is filled with unsung heroes, dear souls who always seek to put the welfare of others above their own, who seek constantly to meet the needs of others even in the face of self deprivation. These are the happiest of souls in progress, and their example generates goodness in others. There is no end to the blessedness they know in themselves and create in others. They know true joy.

hunger disappears with each exchange of love

Monday, 6/19/00 6:45AM

At all times man's life is filled with joy when it is filled with love. He is born to love, to know that love fills his being with nourishment as food sustains his corporal being. Deprived of love, man knows a hunger that never leaves him.

It is sad indeed when man is so misguided that he rejects love as central to his well being. In these cases the misguided soul seeks endlessly for a substitute that does not exist. He looks about him and sees those who seem to know happiness in their earthly achievement. Even when he himself succeeds in his endeavors, he is still hungry and incomplete. Wealth fails him equally. Fame, even in limited fashion, is empty satisfaction. He seeks to know the answer and he fails utterly until he looks more carefully about him.

The most thoughtful of men realize after soul searching and zealous search that those who are happy in human existence have only one thing in common and that single thing is love -- love of self and love of others. He seeks further and discovers that love cannot be bought but that it is given freely in response to words and acts of love, and that even a stranger's response to a kind word or gesture brings pleasure to the soul. Slowly, armed with this awareness, the soul heretofore starved begins to find himself fulfilled. His hunger disappears with each exchange of love and he wonders that the lesson of love required so much searching when it was his from the very start of life, but he realizes as well that the reward is all the sweeter for being hard gained.

man knows his own strength

Monday, 6/19/00 11:21PM

It is within man's power at all times to meet the demands of the life he has chosen. This stark statement is one which gives pause to all those who read these words. It gives comfort to those in the midst of trial and fills them with new strength and hope. It puzzles those who seem themselves to be struggling against insuperable odds and find the thought of final victory little more than an illusion. It provides those most afflicted and deprived with awareness of inner strength which proves to serve them well.

It is a source of total joy to the soul in progress to learn through experience, sometimes bitter in its nature, that there is no hurdle too high to jump, no challenge so formidable as to defy solution. Man knows his own strength most fully when he is called upon for effort he is not sure he has, when he is tried beyond immediate awareness of capability. Life gains a new dimension for the soul in progress when it encompasses victory beyond expectation. Man revels in awareness of power over trial and disappointment and comes eventually to a realization of divine power and caring intervention. He knows, finally, that he is not alone in his struggles but that he is both aided and guided by divine presence, his to call upon in time of need, his to praise at all times.

man’s inner strength serves him well

Tuesday, 6/20/00 11:06PM

In the midst of life man seeks a sense of direction in his daily life. He knows security when his work gives him pleasure and a sense of accomplishment. He thrives when he knows the strength of family love and he is dedicated to all those dependent upon him in all ways. He seeks to be a meaningful contributor to his immediate society and to contribute as well to the larger society he knows.

The man who achieves self satisfaction in all these ways is indeed blessed and strengthened by the confidence in himself he has rightly earned, is able to lead others in their quest to achieve satisfaction in their daily lives. His children learn from all they have observed of duty accepted and industriously discharged, and it becomes their pleasure to walk in their father's footsteps and create new satisfying relationships while achieving all that life demands of them.

When this idyllic existence is sometimes challenged by trial and deprivation, man's inner strength and sense of rightness serve him well, and he emerges from trial stronger and more resolute, his faith and determination intact and bolstered by challenge met.

no man come to human life lacks purpose

Wednesday, 6/21/00 10:55PM

Each man come to earth of his own free will comes with purpose. He comes to learn lessons heretofore unlearned. He comes to perfect his capacity for love perfect in all ways. He comes to rejoice in his love for all those sharing his earthly journey and to share with them the progress they all seek. No man come to human life lacks purpose.

It is all too easy to dismiss this divine truth that all human experience has reason and purpose. The world on superficial examination seems a confused and faulty place, riven with strife, unfair in its gifts and deprivations, confused in its direction. These conclusions are dangerous insofar as they contain enough truth to make it reasonable to believe in chance rather than plan and in a capricious world subject to no firm design. Those who fall into the temptation of abandoning faith in reason find themselves both despairing and deprived of purpose. Their days are darkened by doubt and despair, and even when life affords them sweet rewards, they suffer.

The wise man eventually finds his escape from doubt and despair in surrender. He comes to the conclusion that he expects too much in full understanding of the nature of life and death and purpose and direction and finds peace in the full enjoyment of all he is granted in human satisfaction and achievement. If he succeeds in knowing the central importance of love, even without understanding of its nature and its purpose, he finds himself released from doubt and despair and joyful in full embrace of all he knows in earthly experience.

a single life is not all of human history

Thursday, 6/22/00 11:00PM

Each man holds in his hands control of his own destiny. This is a statement perfect in its truth but objectionable and even repellent to many. What, they ask, of those deprived in all ways of earthly satisfaction, those who die at the hands of others, those who suffer so woefully in need and frustration? How can it be said that these souls control their own destinies?

To bolster faith in this assertion man must remember two things at the very beginning of his consideration. He must remember that a single life is not all of human history. He must accept the transient nature of human existence and acknowledge that the soul survives human death and if needed returns to a new life to pursue his goals.

This too then must be remembered. Man comes into human life aware of all he needs to achieve the perfection of love that leads to oneness. It is of no import that man achieve success in earthly terms. He may choose to be a prince. He may choose to be a beggar. These differing states are inconsequential in the totality of renewed life.

It is important only to remember that the key to earthly joy and spiritual progress is the willing and loving acceptance of all that life offers and all that life demands, aware at all times that all that man experiences is of his own choice and that never is he lacking in capacity. His mission always is to achieve the perfection of love that is the gateway to perfection, to oneness in total joy.

fill life with joy by meeting needs of others

Friday, 6/23/00 11:43PM

While man wonders about his purpose in life he has only to look into his heart to know the answer. If he finds there a constant capacity for love given and received, a constant desire to fill his life with joy by meeting the needs of others, he need ask no further. He has found the answer to the happiness that life affords those who pursue the path of perfection. There is no greater purpose in life than this pursuit, and the only path to perfection is the path of love perfect in all respects.

Most men are in their hearts aware of the significance of love in human existence. It is and has been always celebrated in story and in song, in tradition and in heritage. Man expresses this need in every aspect of his life in both concept and in practice. Not all men equally achieve love as an integral part of their being, as an automatic and heartfelt response to all that life offers and that all life demands.

Some men let themselves be seduced by the Others in feeling that they need to be treated in more loving fashion and that they should find satisfaction in more worldly pursuits, and they therefore abandon the objects of their love for more seemingly rewarding pursuits. Invariably they reach regret and rue the day they strayed from the path of love.

Some men similarly find it impossible to be satisfied with a loving relationship if they fear surrender of emotional control. They hold themselves apart from total commitment and forego the full exchange of love that is essential to a loving relationship. If they are fortunate, they recognize error and seek anew to find perfection in love shared.

In all, man's journey through life has purpose and meaning only insofar as he has recognized the vital importance of love expressed in all necessary and meaningful ways and acted upon this awareness in all his earthly experience.

words and actions reflect awareness and acceptance

Sunday, 6/25/00 12:15AM

At all times in his earthly journey man is afforded the awareness that is meant to guide him in the path he is meant to take, to remind him of all he is obligated to do in the pursuit of perfection and the road to endless glory.

Most often man is guided in his earthly journey by the persuasion of those sweet spirits who hold him dear and whose joy is in his spiritual well being. Often man is keenly aware of this beneficent influence, and all his words and actions reflect this awareness and acceptance. In these cases man's journey through life is outstanding in its powers of response. It matters not what hardships and difficulties he encounters, for his soul is clearly dedicated to the supreme being whose gift of life he treasures and to the wondrous creature who guides him so well.

All men are granted these gifts from the instant of their acceptance of their duties and privileges in human life, but not all retain the awareness that is their right and obligation. They are gifted in their freedom to choose earthly experience, and not all choose wisely. All too often the soul come to earth is beguiled by temptation and forgets the divine compact to live in love regardless of all other enticements. They forget that life is filled with challenge and that each soul come to earth has accepted this life of challenge in full awareness of its demands.

It is not an easy matter to resist the enticements that the human journey sometimes offers. It is not a simple matter to endure the pain and hardship of human existence. It is not a simple journey for all those subject to disappointment and despair, but it is a journey that offers opportunity to all souls to progress gloriously when tried in any way. It is not easy for man facing the trials of earthly existence to have full faith in the bright future that awaits, but he must indeed embrace this promise and know that above all it is his to know.

he knows there is a power beyond his own

Sunday, 6/25/00 11:38PM

When all else fails, man looks to forces he senses but does not understand. When he is aware of his own impotence, whatever the cause of this weakness, he knows that there is power beyond his own. He senses that he need only ask and that he will be able to share in this extraordinary strength.

This innate awareness lies dormant in man's consciousness at all times, but it is only in time of trial when man becomes aware of his great need that it emerges in his consciousness as an answer to his need. He chooses to surrender will and to identify with power he can only sense and which he knows in his heart to be his in response to need.

Man knows many such moments in the course of his earthly experience. Most often his heart speaks truly and he learns dependence upon the divinity, source of all power and healing. It is not always easy for man to so surrender his own sense of primacy, and often he procrastinates and rationalizes, but when he reaches the state of acceptance of his own frailty and his need for aid, he knows that he has achieved wisdom and peace, and he knows in full faith that never is his need for strength unmet. He finds power within by accepting power without. He is in all ways blessed, and he is grateful in his gratification.

he will in the end recognize the value of striving

Monday, 6/26/00 11:59PM

In the fullness of time, all mankind will rejoice in the wonder of human experience. They will know gratification in triumph and will know satisfaction in effort, and will accept the lessons taught by defeat.

It is perhaps difficult for the soul in progress, ignorant of all that has preceded human experience and deprived of awareness for all that is to follow, to accept the transitory nature of the human life he knows. He assumes, reasonably, that all that he experiences in this single existence is all he will know of human experience. Consequently he sometimes excuses himself for all he does regardless of its worth by attributing his actions to the finite quality of his singular existence.

Whether man thrives or suffers in human life, it is his gift to be aware of two things. He must recognize that the life he leads is one he chose freely before birth, knowing that it afforded him the greatest opportunity of progression to perfection and knowing that there was no lack in his capability to achieve this perfection. He needs as well to remember that a single life is not all of earthly experience, and that if he does not fully succeed in one life in needed learning, he will have further opportunity. Above all it is man's joy to know fully the glory of love given and received in perfect awareness of its necessity in earthly existence, of its absolute necessity in the achievement both of spiritual perfection and joyous earthly adventure.

Thus man has all advantage in human life. He comes with purpose fully accepted, and he comes with absolute capability to fulfill all purpose. He may fail. He may listen to distracting voices. He may falter and recover. He may despair of his own worthiness. No matter the degree of self doubt, he will in the end recognize the value of his striving and he will know infinite promise. He will know that there is no failure in the eyes of God and that all success is relative as is all failure, and that no matter how long it takes, he will reach absoluteness in love divine and know the glory of oneness.

no word or deed expressing love is ever wasted

Tuesday, 6/27/00 11:55PM

Before all else in life, man is well served to know that all he desires in human existence must, regardless of its nature, have love as its source and inspiration. Love takes many forms and each of its variations is worthy in and of itself.

Some men are blessed in their love of all mankind. They are blessed to know a total dedication to the common good. Each act of their lives is gratifying to them the more completely it benefits all mankind. The welfare of others is their single motivation, and their souls glow with pride and satisfaction when they have benefited others to the full extent of their talents and capabilities. There are an endless number of avenues for the soul to take in fulfilling expression of this love.

Others are interested primary in smaller worlds. Among the most blessed are those who share completely in family love, who are fortunate to know loving relationships in early life and who find love in perfect partnership and know the joy of new life and love in this commitment. In turn, the young are blessed with love and in turn perpetuate its efficacy.

Within or without the family acts of love enrich all those who give and all those who receive. The world is a brighter and kinder place for each word and deed that is loving in nature, and the quality of love shared grows richer with new involvement. No word or deed expressing love is ever wasted or undervalued. Even if there is not immediate expression of gratitude, love so manifested is infinitely persuasive and infinitely contagious. Love is magnified always in the giving and receiving.

Finally, love must in the end, and it should from the beginning, be persuasive in its reinforcement of self worth, total awareness of the divine power that animates all of life and counts love the supreme achievement.

joy fills their hearts when they serve others

Wednesday, 6/28/00 11:58PM

It is to man's credit when he recognizes early in his life the key to all earthly happiness and the surest road to spiritual perfection. It is to his credit that once having achieved this awareness he fashions all aspects of his life to conform to satisfying this ideal.

There is no mystery in this ideal, easily recognized and easily achieved, for it is within the capability of all souls come to earth to recognize their hearts' response. They learn early the joy that fills their hearts when they serve others in any way. They learn that it is only a step to serving themselves, for all human joy is at its most perfect when it is both in love of another, in meeting the needs of another whether this requires great effort or none at all.

Even the child knows pleasure and self satisfaction in bringing a smile to the face of another. Even the child knows the inner pleasure that a loving gesture inspires and the further pleasure offered by a loving response. As the child grows into adulthood, he is blessed when he remembers those childhood lessons and incorporates them into each day of his life in word and deed. He is happy so long as his first thought is always to serve others in meeting their needs and know the inner glow that is achieved in no other way.

Rarely is the generous man deprived of a response that speaks of gratitude and affection, but even when this is denied, the generous man is satisfied with what his heart tells him of his goodness. He knows his own worth, and he knows that he cannot err in selfless giving. He needs no more.

man has been God’s masterpiece

Thursday, 6/29/00 11:38PM

From the start of time, man has been God's masterpiece. He has known glory and fame. He has known holiness and dedication. He has known total love given and received. He has gloried in awareness of his divine nature, and he has made all of human existence a journey of such perfection that all the heavens have rejoiced.

Man has also erred mightily. He has harbored hatred in his heart and lived in intolerance of his brother. He has known greed and cruelty and abased his very soul. He has sown the seeds of division and rejoiced in the destruction he created. He has sunk to the very depths of degeneracy, and he has not known regret.

These two extremes do not tell the full story of man in his earthly existence, but they do indicate the extremes possible to man in his days on earth. Few reach sublimity, but even fewer sink into total depravity. The great majority of souls in progress know some fault in all they say and do and feel, but overwhelmingly man in his earthly experience clearly reflects his divine origin in his goodness and his seeking. Such men are pleasing to their Creator in their striving for perfection and in the love they know as central to all they know of the world.

It is comforting to all who consider that no matter how corrupt and displeasing the world may seem, the number who share in and contribute to the ills of the world are a minute percentage of the whole. It is pleasing to remember this fact and to rejoice in how good man is in his efforts to live in love.

know the wonder of infinite caring

Friday, 6/30/00 10.38AM

It is the good fortune of all souls come to earth to be born in love and to know from first breath the wonder of infinite caring. This sustenance is all important to the new soul. Without it he cannot survive. It is the single most important ingredient in life.

This absolute necessity does not diminish with time, but the child having passed the point of total dependence finds it possible to reach out to others in pursuit of love and experience rejection and non-response without being damaged beyond repair. The child, while absolutely in need of sustaining love can without permanent damage, survive loss of love and find the resilience needed to accept new love and new conditions. The young are infinitely adaptable to change and are fortunately equally capable of opening their hearts to all caring relationships.

When the young, for whatever reason, are deprived of the love they have known since birth, it is their blessing to accept unquestioningly those who seek to replace the love lost with new love, different but equally nourishing, and in time the child forgets its earlier love and thrives in new loving relationship. Earlier scars are healed and new love flourishes.

There are times when the child is not fully compensated for the love taken from him and he begins a struggle, sometimes brief, sometimes prolonged, to find in his earthly life adequate replacement for the love he once knew. Rarely does the soul in progress fail in this effort, but much is required in patience and perseverance.

sure knowledge that he is a child of God

Saturday, 7/1/00 11:28PM

In the history of man's earthly experience there have been epochs of great significance. Man has come from primitive existence to the sophistication of the present time when machine threatens to rival man in capability and effectiveness. This new emergence is at the same time frightening and exciting.

All that has been accomplished in the wonder of the age of computerization has had its origin in the mind of man, and each new advance is equally attributable to man's industry and inventiveness. It is important to remember this truth in a time when man seems dwarfed by the machine, when the machine seems the master and man the servant.

Know always that in the age of mechanization and almost instant communication man retains his mastery in the universe. There is no machine to rival the human brain in its intricacy and its capability. No machine can replace man's soul, his most precious possession. No machine can love. No machine can know caring or responsibility. No machine can threaten man's place in his world.

I do not suggest that man resist or fail to appreciate the enormous advantages that science has made possible in the present world. Rather I suggest that man retain his sense of identity as a divine being, capable in all ways of living a life of love and retaining at all times a sense of his own worth as a child of God.

In an age of increasing mechanization and depersonalization it is sometimes difficult for man to assert himself as a divine being with powers beyond all human invention, but this is exactly what he must do. He must know infinite pride in himself and in all he is capable of achieving in his brief existence on earth. He must hold in his heart at all times the sure knowledge that he is a child of God, come from God and destined to return to God. He needs no more to feel secure in a threatening world.

Cornelia Silke dba New Light Publishing © 2010