The Divine Nature of Man

channeled through the pen of

Marie Fox O’Brien

One Message a day for one year

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

A Blessed Reminder of Our Divinity

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.

Tuesday, 9/29/98

[Martin said earlier this morning," This day marks the beginning of a new endeavor for us both. I ask you to take pen in hand today as often as you find possible and await my words. They will come and in them you will find pleasure and satisfaction. Know fully that all I say to you now is absolute promise." At a little after 11:25AM, Martin began this new endeavor with the following words.]

Day 1

Tuesday, 9/29/98

In the annals of time much has been written of the divine nature of man. Yet the ultimate truth of man's nature has never been totally revealed. I speak here of the diverse convictions and beliefs that the world knows in its many religions and various dogmas. There is much truth in some of the tenets of organized religion, and yet no church has wholly grasped the nature of the relationship between God and man. Much has been written about the nature of man. Even more has been written about the nature of God. There has been much soul searching, much academic dispute and proclamation. There has been much written to prove that man is an accident and that God does not exist.

There is a certain value in all of man's searching for what he regards as the ultimate truth of the universe, the only world known to man empirically. Yet, in his striving, man has in his statement of personal beliefs and rules of conduct tended to create division and discrimination among his fellow human beings. Each man who is absolutely sure that his is the true answer to existence automatically pronounces all those who hold differing views erroneous and not to be regarded as equally insightful. Over the centuries man has in his searching and in his proclaimed beliefs perhaps done more harm than good. In his zeal he has found certainty for himself and regarded all his fellow men with intolerance. They, in turn, equally sure of the truth of their own certainty, return his intolerance and close their minds further.

Let it be known that God regards those who would use the search for divine truth to promote themselves regardless of consequence as deplorable, a true injustice in the eyes of the divinity.. Man is meant to embrace his brother in love that knows no boundaries, no divisions. Man needs to recognize that the mysteries of human existence, what comes before and what comes after, do not lend themselves to easy explanation nor to reliance on ancient texts held to be divine truth. Much that has been written of God and man over the ages contains some truth valuable as a guide to man's understanding and conduct, but there is no immutable absolute truth in these various books held sacred by those who embrace their tenets. These books are both in their interpretation and in their amendment the works of man, not of God.

It is time to recognize the innate limitations of man's understanding of things beyond his immediate sensory awareness. It is time to recognize the truth that while man's mind is incapable of absolute certainty about the nature and reason for human existence and man's relationship to God, he is possessed of a soul that speaks to him. This soul does not need instruction, does not need dogma. This soul, come from God, at all times retains this close connection. When God speaks, the soul hears and hears joyfully and correctly.

Let it be known that God deplores the injustice created by man's efforts to claim knowledge of truth absolute and to impose his beliefs on others, deeming them less wise and worthy. No single sect has all the answers, and the more rigid the dogma the further removed from God each becomes. The time has come for brother to embrace brother in full acceptance and awareness of the human limitations each knows. The time has come for religious leaders to be aware of their first responsibility to their followers.

Day 2

Wednesday. 9/30/98 2:15PM

Above all else, man needs to learn the infinite nature of spiritual existence. He is ill served by those who teach that a single life is all of existence, that death is a finality, an end to being. There is a blindness inherent in this belief. Why, one might ask, is there reason in such an acceptance of the ephemeral nature of the soul that abides in all men? Is there reason, one might ask, in a universe so disordered that one life lasts minutes and another a century and more? Is there such a thing as reason in a world where the blessings of material existence are so capriciously bestowed and where the sufferings of human life seem equally so distributed?

There are those who find comfort in firm conviction that this life so capricious in its distribution of blessings and trials is all man needs to concern himself with. To these people the unknowable becomes the unthinkable, and they reject all efforts to dissuade them from their convictions. Indeed if these beliefs were tenable, then God would indeed be a cruel and an unjust God, not the creature of love and caring that He is.

In each life come to earth there is a plan and a pattern. Each soul come to earth as man comes in full agreement that this step in his spiritual development will teach him the lessons he needs to learn. The trials and tribulations he faces are those of his choosing, and he knows before human life begins that he has the strength to meet the most demanding trials in loving acceptance. He knows that each of his actions and responses in this life are meant to learn and to teach. He knows that there is no such thing as absolute failure, that no matter how grievous the error or omission it lends itself to expiation and correction. Thus begins each human life.

Day 3

Friday, 10/2/98 9:50PM

There is innate in the human spirit a resiliency that defies easy explanation. In the most desperate of circumstances hope flares in the human heart and lights the way. In the most dismal of lives there is a hard core of faith that good times are coming, that there is an end to despair. Only in the most afflicted of minds does this flickering hope find itself extinguished.

It is a triumph of the human spirit that despite the most desolating of losses, the most desperate of circumstances, man finds it within himself to confront adversity and to make a new beginning. Even when this new beginning proves false and he is once more challenged to fight his way, man is capable of positive response. There is in this buoyancy and determination clear traces of the divine.

Let us consider the plight of man in this life full of challenges. Let us consider his strengths and weaknesses in this battle for survival in a hostile world. Man brings into this life all the armor he needs. He brings into this life all the strengths and weaknesses that he will know in earthly battles. He brings in somewhat the same way all the loving and not so loving relationships he will know in this life freely chosen. In all his interrelationships there is a divine plan, a plan of teaching and learning, of loving and sharing, of joy and of sorrow, of gratification and deprivation, of affirmation and denial.. There is no awareness in man's mind of the significance of all his earthly experiences. The trivial may loom as earth shaking, the most significant as unworthy of comment. Yet each and every human experience from birth until death has significance in the divine plan known as human life.

Man feels in the magnitude of universal experience cause for wonder. The human mind cannot encompass such proportion. Yet the mind, the most magnificent of human instruments, is but a microcosm, a bare reflection of the power of the soul. Be aware of this human limitation, My children, even when you are most tempted to feel that the human mind knows no limits, encompasses no frontiers. Know at each instant that beyond these frontiers, and they come to each man eventually, lie truths beautiful to behold, wonders extraordinary, joy shared infinitely.

Day 4

Saturday, 10/3/98 8:06AM

Before life begins it is charted, though not in very specific detail, for it is as a map with destination determined but many routes, an infinite number, to reach this destination. Broad outlines are determined. Lessons to be learned and shared are determined. The soul embarking on its earthly journey is fully aware of all he hopes to achieve in this lifetime. Not all journeys are successful in achieving their aims. Not all souls succeed in their earthly quest. Some achieve a measure of success. Others fail almost totally.. A few fail completely. How, you ask, can this be? How is failure possible even in the slightest degree in a soul come from God and given all that he needs to succeed fully?

Chief among man's gifts is free will. Man is born with full power to make choices at every moment of his journey through life. Indeed he is constantly forced to choose. He often encounters temptation. It quickly becomes possible to be expedient, to submit to the temptations of life and to choose gratification in material ways even to the extent of forgetting his original mission in life and ignoring the absolute rule to live in love at all costs.

Once a single soul fails to act in love, the lives of many are affected by his unloving acts. He, above all, is affected and he begins down a long road of error and omission. His relationships with his fellow man, particularly those closest to him, are affected and often soured, and there is a ripple effect to his by now habitual unloving behavior.

There are, of course, degrees in unloving behavior, and there are degrees in the extent to which man surrenders to temptation. In its most extreme form, unloving behavior leads to a total disregard for the lives and welfare of others, often in a struggle for power which leads to unspeakable violence.

In all of this self destruction man is encouraged by the voices of the Others, rebellious souls who seek to lead man in the paths he should not take. They tempt him to believe in his righteousness and encourage him in his evil deeds, all the while persuading him of his own invulnerability.

Day 5

Sunday, 10/4/98 5:10PM

Into each life comes a measure of affliction. In no case does man escape completely what must be called trials. In some lives, trials are numerous and protracted and truly try the soul. In other cases, trials are less frequent and less severe, but may be considered equally trying by the soul so visited. In all cases, the outcome of struggle is spiritual progress if the soul responds in love and acceptance.

There are those who rail against life when they are tried, who stubbornly refuse to accept the fact that it is man's lot to struggle to survive and to find joyful learning in human experience, however trying.

In all of the vagaries of human existence, it is incumbent upon man to seek strength within. He will find it in faith and hope. He will find it in the inner voice that speaks to him of his capacity for love, of his strength in travail. If he is fortunate, he will find comfort and courage in the love that he knows from those closest to him in the bonds of family and friendship. They too will gain in wisdom by lending their love and support to the soul in need.

It is often difficult for the human in distress not to feel singled out in his misery. It is tempting to think that a cruel fate has chosen him to endure suffering greater than his fellow man. It is easy for him to wallow in self pity and to lose the determination to struggle to triumph over all affliction. These are the souls most in need of aid, both spiritual and practical, and blessed are those who see and respond to such need.

Often man's troubles are well hidden. The human soul may know torment never exhibited to others. Unhappiness may be constantly masked by a cheerful demeanor. Despair may not reveal itself at all. Once again, these souls are in need. They need to remember that they possess a divine relationship which is meant to guide them down the darkest corridors into light. They need to look within, to listen to the love and encouragement they are offered. They need to know their own strength.

Day 6

Monday, 10/5/98 6:10PM

In the fullness of time, all lives achieve a measure of meaning to those most centrally involved. The soul in its journey through life is accompanied always by a being of light, an angel of God who seeks to bring him direction, comfort, and above all love. [I was interrupted at this point by Charles' arrival home early.]

Tuesday, 10/6/98 4:10PM

In each life there is plan and pattern, not always clear either to the soul in question or to those bound to him in earthly ties. Each life, regardless of its length or brevity, serves a divine purpose.

It is hard for man to envision a divine purpose in a world so full of conflicts and hatreds, a world in which all too often life is valued lightly if at all. It is hard to imagine that the massacre of innocents is part of a divine plan. Yet if one is reminded that this life is but a single step in the succession of lives necessary to spiritual development, then each of these innocents becomes a soul to be envied, a soul early released to glory and new learning.

Violence is not part of God's plan. Violence stems from the free will of man when he strays from the path of goodness and love and surrenders to base instincts and forgets completely what he owes to his fellow man in compassion and caring. In the scheme of things, those who sink to the foulest of human behavior are a small minority, an infinitesimal part of the whole. They are profoundly outnumbered by those who live lives of love and giving and who seek always to live peaceably.

Among men there are an infinite number of gradations between those who seem totally possessed by greed and cruelty who have lost completely their inborn capacity for love, and those who live flawless lives, at all times unselfishly responsive in love. At all times those whom we would consider between these two extremes are both capable and often desirous of leading better lives and achieving spiritual awareness. In all these cases, man needs to be aware that he is at all times guided and loved by his angel teacher, a spirit of love and light who accompanied him to begin his earthly journey and who will depart this world when he does. He has only to know this glorious presence to gain strength. He has only to listen and to know words of love. He has only to open his heart.

Day 7

Wednesday, 10/7/98 5:40PM

Man at his strongest is a worthy adversary. With love in his heart and in his deeds he cannot fail to succeed in achieving all he came to this earthly life to do. Man at his strongest, confident in his heart that he is pleasing to those bound to him in love, is a powerful force for good. Those who observe him as he meets each challenge that life offers with honesty and with concern for the common good are not only persuaded of his worth but persuaded of the wisdom of living a life of honest caring and giving.

Often man tends to confuse material success with inner peace. He hopes to find in material success the happiness that he imagined was inevitable. He forgets that the soul is not fed by the riches of this life, and when he feels most empty he finds himself striving to acquire earthly assets in greater quantities, still pursuing his empty dream. It is at this point in human life that the most fortunate of men listen to the inner voice advising a change of course. The most fortunate of men see in their obsession with earthly wealth the hollowness that blights the soul, and with this recognition they seek another path.

It is not only the well endowed who are in danger of letting their earthly existences be contaminated by a hunger for material gratification. On all economic levels man needs to know that a surfeit of life's riches is a dangerous thing unless it is shared fully. The poorest of men have much to share in goodness and giving. The beggar who shares his crust of bread with a hungry brother is the purest of souls. The richest of men who fail to learn the lessons of love and who hug their wealth to them are the poorest.

This, then, is the lesson to be learned. The bounty of this world is as nothing if not shared freely. Inner peace cannot be purchased. It must be earned, and it must be earned by acts of love and giving. Therein lies happiness in this life.

Day 8

Thursday, 10/8/98 10:25PM

It is glorious to consider the wonder that is man. It is wondrous to know the full range of talents, of insights, of awareness that he possesses. It is further wondrous to know the vast breadth and depth of experience that human life encompasses.

Man comes into each life prepared fully to serve the purpose he has already chosen. Some lives are both beautiful and poignant in their brevity and simplicity. Some are inspiring in their longevity and their complexity. Some are lives replete with love and material advantages. Some are marked by extreme deprivation and apparent failure. All serve a divine purpose, and no matter how disparate the earthly trappings, the material success or failure, the length or the brevity, each human life is its own perfect whole. Each human experience, regardless of exterior manifestation, is in and of itself a vital step in spiritual evolution, in advancing to the oneness that is both the goal and the inevitable reward all souls seek.

There is no possibility of human comprehension of the perfection each soul knows in achieving oneness with the supreme being. There is no question that all human lives lead inexorably to this eventual perfection. There is no set time table for this evolution to perfection, and in earthly life man fails often to recognize the nature of his spiritual development whatever the nature of his earthly experience.

All men march in the same direction. Their paths may vary dramatically. Their time tables may be at total variance. They may differ dramatically in awareness. Yet each soul come to earth is destined to succeed in the quest for total oneness, for bliss beyond imagining, for total joy.

Day 9

Friday, 10/9/98 10:00PM

In the darkest of nights, man knows hope. Whence comes this hope? Is it in the despair that fills his soul? Is it in the most desperate of circumstances he knows? Is it in the dark alleys of escape that evade him in his desperation? Is it cause for optimism?

No, My children, it is none of these alternatives. Hope is a gift of divine origin, bred in the soul of each man born to a life of trial and tribulation. Hope is a gift which survives the most traumatic of experiences. Hope is fed by the divine spark that animates the soul of man at all times.

What, you ask, is the value of hope? Is it not misleading? Does hope not encourage man to believe in a better day to come when there is little or no cause for such optimism? Does not hope cause man to feel foolishly optimistic in the face of unremitting bleakness? Is hope not misleading? Is hope to be trusted? Does it profit man to hope when all he surveys says he should be without hope?

Think, My children, of these questions. Answer them for yourself and then search your minds and souls for the truth of all you have concluded. Ask yourself what life as you know it would be like without hope. Could you bear each day in pain without hope? Could you face loss without hope? Could you know joy without hope? Would you abandon hope in the most desperate of circumstances?

I question much here, and I do so with reason. Hope is at all times man's salvation. It is a gift to be appreciated and cherished, never to be abandoned, always to be nourished by love and faith.

Day 10

Saturday, 10/10/98 9:44PM

Most of life is necessarily involved with meeting the needs of survival. These needs vary enormously from individual to individual, from time to time, from circumstance to circumstance. Man is equipped to meet these demands upon him to greater or lesser degree. The man most fully equipped experiences ease in meeting the day to day material demands of survival, but he is not always equally equipped emotionally and spiritually to feel fully confident in his capacities.

Often the man the world regards as least likely to be able to provide materially for himself and for those he loves does so in a way not clearly apparent to those who observe but clearly satisfying to those in need of his giving. Often this soul, lacking social recognition, is the richer and offers greater riches to those bound to him in need. The bond between them is the bond of love, and there is no greater gift given and received.

What shall I say, then, of the absolute obligation each soul become man offers to himself and all those chosen to share his earthly experience? First of all he offers himself. He offers to know and to respond to each need. He offers to love unconditionally, to give all within his power. He offers to be all at all times and to never surrender either the responsibility of the demands of love freely exchanged.

This then is the perfection all souls seek, to know love perfect in its demands, adequate in its giving, received joyfully and fully returned. Be at peace when you have found this perfection of love given and received and know that no more is asked of you in your earthly journey. You are home.

Day 11

Sunday, 10/11/98 9:50PM

It is joy without limit when man, having left this earthly life, returns to his origins and knows once again all that he has been, is, and is to be. He does not know full wisdom immediately upon his passage to all he left behind.

There are souls who cling to their earthly personages, who leave reluctantly and who need to be persuaded by their heavenly guides that they have completed a full experience in their advancement to heavenly perfection. There are those souls who arrived flawed and still vulnerable, unsure in every way of their transition. These souls, greatly in need of aid and comfort, are given all that they need in loving support and attain gradual awareness of their evolvement into a new life. Most souls departing earthly life do so gladly and gratefully and know profound joy in their welcome into the love that is eternally theirs.

It is not possible to convey in human words and concepts the exact nature of the transition that is called death. It is enough to say that an event considered the ultimate sorrow on the earthly plane is considered the ultimate joy on the heavenly plane. The soul, released from the trials and trauma it has known in its brief human journey, knows release into joy beyond all imagining. It knows enormous pleasure in the love of spirits both known and previously unknown, and it takes great comfort in the close awareness it has of all those loved ones left behind. This is a blissful state, one that awaits all souls, and though there may be delay and difficulty in the passage that divides human life and human death the journey's end is one of ineffable joy. It is indeed a coming home, and the soul knows absolute comfort and belonging. It is perfect.

Day 12

Monday, 10/12/98 10:03PM

There is in the human condition frailty. This frailty can take many forms. This frailty can emerge early in the human experience as a basic uncertainty. It can say to the soul, "You are not able," and it can extend this accusation of inability to many areas of human existence.

Know, My children, that this accusation of inadequacy comes from a voice that needs to be dismissed. I have said that each soul come to earth comes fully equipped to meet all the demands in the life fully charted. Indeed this is always true of the beginning of the journey through life that all men take. Know, however, that the world knows temptation that masks itself in an inner voice that men can barely -- if at all -- distinguish from the voices of love he has known always.

These voices seek to weaken, to distract, to lead astray. No man exists who has not known their seductive persuasion. No man has in his steady progression to perfection not been led astray, however briefly, and in some cases profoundly, by these wondrous exhortations that seek to divert souls from their true paths.

I use the word "wondrous" advisedly, for the capacities of these spirits, and I speak here of the Others, are wondrous in their capacities, talents and abilities, shared by all heavenly spirits, temporarily diverted by the Others for purposes of harm and diversion. The soul in distress hears these voices, negative always in their message, and is instantly tempted to be seduced. They advise all means of escape that evades the responsibilities of this life. They advise rejection rather than acceptance. They advise hatred rather than love. They advise despair rather than hope. Above all they urge surrender to base instincts rather than to the love that is the right and destiny of all souls.

The world has long known temptation. To now it has not had a true name. Now it has. Believe, My children, that at all times there are wayward spirits who seek to seduce you, who wish you harm, who ask you to depart from the paths of love that you are meant to tread. You have the absolute power to reject this seduction and to know true power and happiness in this rejection. At all times you are surrounded by those beings of light whose joy is in your triumph over the Others. In this triumph you find ultimate grace.

Day 13

Tuesday, 10/13/98 11:31PM

There is infinite joy in the human experience when the soul come to earth knows the miracle of love given and received. Love is not narrowly defined. It is not circumscribed, reserved in any way. Love is infinite in its generosity, reaching out at all times to enrich and to endear. The man who knows love needs little more. The man who extends love without condition is the richest of men. His giving love engenders giving love. His need to share all the riches of his heart inspires response even from the most unlikely respondent. The very contagiousness of his affection for all those he encounters proves an infinite blessing. It knows no limits.

Let us examine the nature of this love that knows no limits. Let us ask how this perfection is possible in an imperfect world, a world so demanding that man is often in danger of losing completely his inborn capacity for perfect love. The man who knows perfect love despite the buffets of life, despite disappointment and denial, is the man whose soul has retained its divine awareness. The soul knows always that love is its own reward, that nothing else contributes so absolutely to happiness.

There are those who cynically consider unconditional love a foolish expenditure of trust, a misguided assumption of mortal perfection. They fear love, for they fear its rejection. They are unwilling to expose themselves to rebuff. They shield themselves from rejection. In all of this denial they know in their hearts the error of their ways, but they become prideful in their beliefs and so deprive themselves of the simple pleasure of human devotion and caring.

Man does not persist indefinitely in his rejection of love as the supreme gift. When death overtakes him it brings with it full awareness of the significance of this divine emotion. The man who has lived a life of love freely given and gratefully received rejoices in knowing the power of celestial love and knows that he has been infinitely enriched by his human experience. The man who dies impoverished, never having fully embraced the wonder of human love, finds in celestial love a fulfillment he never imagined possible and regrets his lost opportunities in the life just past. All souls are joined in perfect love eventually, but those who failed to learn the lessons of love in their earthly existence will know a need for this learning.

Day 14

Wednesday, 10/14/98 5:25PM

In all of life there are decisions that test man's faith, that challenge his strength, that distract his mind. There is right and good in this constant need to choose, to decide on the rightness or wrongness of a course of action, of a choice of words, of a thought stubbornly persistent. Decision making is an integral part of each earthly existence and becomes a clear indication of how completely man is progressing in his spiritual development.

It is often tempting to take the easy road when sacrifice is called for, to choose self indulgence over concern for the welfare of others. When man succumbs to this temptation he may enjoy satisfaction, however brief, in his own self indulgence, in whatever material advantage he has gained. Indeed he may be more tempted the next time he has to choose between selfishness and generosity, between self gratification and beneficence to others. In time, however, his life becomes one of self obsession and he begins to realize the emptiness of all he has sought. It is at this point, often, that the soul become man finds it within himself to assess his past behavior, to be honest in this self appraisal, and to recognize the degree to which he has erred.

It is joy indeed when man reaches this turning point and recognizes the empty nature of a selfish life. It is joy to him and to all those whose lives touch his when he determines on a different course and in his decision making forgoes selfishness and embraces generosity. Never does man have cause for regret in such a self transformation. He knows for the first time the disarming nature of love expressed in word and deed. He embraces those he loves in new awareness of their importance to his self esteem and happiness. They, in turn, respond to the warmth of his caring, and all lives are transformed.

There are, of course, those who from the very beginning of life are moved in their decisions by a sense of generosity and caring that guides them. These souls flourish and know the inner glow that came so lately to their brother.

In all of life, then, man must be aware from the very beginning that each decision made in love and giving leads to inner peace and self satisfaction. Each negative decision distracts from man's eventual happiness and offers only temporary gratification.

Day 15

Thursday, 10/15/98 9:40PM

In the fullness of time, truth prevails always, but the road to truth is strewn often with error and falsehood.

Truth is a virtue beyond all others save love. The two are inextricably intertwined, each dependent upon the other, each infinitely enriched by the other. It is man's basic nature to pursue truth, to know its essential beauty, and to seek its infinite comfort. Yet truth is often elusive. What seems ultimate truth to one man may seem to be folly or even heresy to another. What seems truth to one man may seem even foolish to those who fall short of understanding his convictions.

Let it be said, then, that truth is badly in need of definition. Let us seek to know the attributes of truth.

Truth in its purest form allows no argument, for it is closely related to love. Love is incapable of harm. Truth is incapable of harm. Love in its purest form is universal, seeking and finding acceptance in all aspects of human existence. Similarly truth is in all ways universal. Truth is all that benefits man and aids him in his quest for spiritual perfection. Truth is inherent in love in action. One man may see truth in a light different from his brother, but he has only to weigh truth in the scales of love to know where right lies. If his truth is harmful to his brother, he is wrong. If his truth is helpful to his brother, then his brother is wrong.

Truth should never divide. It should never set brother against brother. Love should always intervene, and truth should unite those formerly divided, newly defined in the needs of love shared.

Shall it be said that there is only one ultimate truth? Indeed this is the case. The ultimate truth is that all souls on their earthly journey have an absolute obligation to act in love, to speak in love, to feel in love at each step they take. There is no alternative to this requirement. There is no other path that takes man to earthly happiness and to eternal joy.

This is My word.

Day 16

Friday, 10/16/98 10:10PM

There is a time in each life of reckoning. In some lives this comes early, in others later, in the rest not until life has ceased.

Man comes to this world to learn first and then to teach. He comes with full determination to achieve the wisdom and awareness he needs to progress, and he comes with full intention of sharing all he learns and feels. It is not always an easy path to wisdom and awareness. Pitfalls abound. Problems are frequent. Intent is challenged. There are those who are enticed into the path of forgetfulness, who choose to embrace the easy pleasures of this life rather than doing all they had promised.

Into each life so led astray there comes a sense of incompleteness, eventually a sense of failure. The soul, sensing the error of its ways, seeks to understand his errors and to compensate for them. In all such cases willing spirits reach out to help. They rejoice in his new awareness and guide him back into the path of goodness abandoned for so long. Others persist in their wayward behavior to the threshold of death. Some, sensing eternity, choose to confess error when it is too late to translate wish into action, but even at this late hour, awareness brings its rewards. The soul transformed by new acknowledgment of life's erroneous deeds finds itself ready for death with full hope that the opportunity for change and expiation lies ahead.

Few men leave this earthly journey without having reached this self appraisal. Few souls blackened by error cross the threshold of death rebellious and reluctant to confess error. These are souls to be pitied. Some pursue their erroneous ways. These we call the Others. Their pleasure is in blocking the spiritual progress of others both on the earthly and on the heavenly planes. For a time they rejoice in the power of their persuasion, but eventually they too come to an awareness of the empty nature of their pursuits. They learn by bitter experience that they must change their ways and acknowledge the power, the infinite and divine power, of love in order to find peace and fulfillment.

So, My children, there is no escaping recognition of earthly error should such error intrude upon your lives and impede spiritual progress. In each and every case man is sooner or later forced to confront himself and recognize all he has done and not done in the years allotted to him.

Thus does man progress

Day 17

Saturday, 10/17/98 9:59PM

It is always time for man to look within himself and find his true identity, the essence of his being. It is such a temptation to become so identified with all that he knows in his earthly life and to forget that this is but one aspect of the whole. It is a grave temptation for him to surrender to this life all his hopes and aspirations and to neglect the immortal inner self.

Not all men surrender to this temptation. These special souls are ever mindful of the transitory nature of human existence, and while they remain aware of the significance of each step man takes on earth, they never surrender awareness of an existence beyond earthly bounds. In all of life's trials it is vitally important that man never surrender this awareness. In all of life it is vitally important than man's behavior be in accord with the awareness that he must answer to all he does on earth when he reaches the end of his mortal journey.

This awareness, far from being cause for concern, should bring joyous anticipation to man. He should live every moment in full awareness that no matter the degree of joy or sorrow, of plenty or deprivation, this moment's experience is transitory and is for the soul in progress cause for rejoicing in the learning it affords.

It is not easy for man to regard each of life's experiences, particularly those experiences that try man's soul, as cause for rejoicing, as learning to be respected and eventually cherished, but this is exactly what man came to this earth to learn and to profit thereby. No experience, however demeaning, however exacting, lacks purpose. It is man's responsibility to find meaning in all that life offers and to know that the experience itself is meaningless. His response is all.

Day 18

Sunday, 10/18/98 10:43PM

Into each life comes awareness of divine attribution. In the newest of lives, those of infants newly arrived from their origins, you will see in the pureness of their responses the perfection that has been theirs and that they bring to the world in new incarnation.

In all of life there is renewal.

Each soul come to earth comes to renew his awareness and his promise to succeed in achieving the ultimate perfection that marks the end of his seeking. There are those come to this life who are fully aware of the nature of their quest. These are those souls fully aware of the nature of the human journey, of its relative insignificance in the scheme of life eternal. They know and they share this awareness freely, that man come to earth is but a brief visitor, a temporary resident of this planet.

Man having achieved awareness of the transitory nature of human existence is then free to know fully this life and to meet all of its challenges with joy and a sense of buoyant awareness that much lies ahead. Man, so armed with this awareness, is well equipped to cope with all that life demands of him. He dismisses the insignificant. He embraces fully the challenges that offer strength and growth.

All men share in this striving. It matters not the environment. It matters not the location. It matters not the material deprivation. It matters that the soul engaged in struggle is aware of his divine capacity. Do not ever confuse material significance with spiritual significance. The most significant then in the eyes of the world may be the least significant in the world of the spirit. Nothing is absolute in this equation, but be assured that at all times the road to spiritual perfection is a road open to all souls. Be assured that it is a road of joy and achievement, and that all souls who know its length are at all times happy to be welcomed at its end.

Day 19

Monday, 10/19/98 10:46PM

Be at all times aware, My children, of the perfection that marks unconditional love. This perfect emotion is the source of all joy for man in his human journey and all joy in his return to his heavenly home.

It is not an easy task to achieve perfect love, to never know hesitation in full acceptance of the absolute need to embrace all brothers in love that requires nothing in return, in love that transcends all barriers and accepts all imperfections. It is easy to love those who offer love in return and who are pure in heart. It is not easy to love one who offers rebuff and coldness and suffers from a multitude of grievous flaws in both character and behavior.

In his journey through life man is constantly challenged to love those who are unlovable. He is at each encounter with a fellow human challenged to accept that person and to love him without regard to his imperfection, without being repelled by his failure either to inspire love or to accept it when offered. The world is full of people so rejected by their fellow men for a wide variety of reasons that they withdraw completely into themselves and their souls shrivel. Such men are most acutely in need of love, and it is a blessed soul who recognizes this need and responds to it.

Society is harsh with those who seem to have no regard for the general welfare and who in their blindness and loneliness are capable of violence and total disregard for the rights of their fellow men. This opprobrium tends to drive the miscreant further into isolation and to cause him to further disregard the rules that society imposes in the interest of common good. It is not beyond possibility that a single act of kindness, a single expression of unconditional love, would be more salutary and effective than the punishments that society deems both necessary and justified.

Seek out those most in need of love and least likely to be loved and know in your heart the warmth that such giving will bring. Let this generous love become a habit and you will have achieved much. Let your life be so enriched and your heart will know peace and joy. Through giving you will receive, and all will be enriched.

Day 20

Tuesday, 10/20/98 11:40PM

In all of life, mysteries evolve and answers are given. Very early in each human life the soul come to earth forgets its origins, forgets its divine compact, and is forced to seek once again for the meaning of the life he has begun to lead.

The days of childhood are innocent, halcyon days, but gradually each human begins to seek a purpose, a reason for his journey through life. Some are fortunate to have great and specific talents, and it is easy for them to choose their earthly endeavors. Others, less strongly directed, seek to find satisfaction in diverse ways. Some are born to achieve greatness. Others find their destiny in more ordinary ways. All are God's children seeking, sometimes without being aware, to fulfill the promises made before the start of earthly existence.

It is not for others to determine the success or failure of another's striving. The lowliest of men in social graces and material success may know inner joy and fulfillment denied to his more materially successful brother. Conversely, the man most envied may suffer within. In all cases, man knows inner peace when he seeks to do all he can in this life to convey to all those whose lives are intertwined with his the full love that he wishes to share. He must at all times know the power of love shared in both thought and deed, and he must be aware of the effects of all his actions. Love begets love always. The converse is equally true, and it is the strongest of souls who lives each day in the full expression of love regardless of rebuffs and denial. Each day's end brings to the pure of heart the peace that nourishes the soul and gives it strength to live another day in perfect love and giving.

Imagine, My children, a world in which all souls remember their reason for being earthlings. Imagine a world motivated by love, a world in which no man ignores his brother's need for love, a world in which conflict is unknown, a world that is pleasing to God and man in all ways. Know always that this world is not only yours to create but that it is inevitable that you do so.

Day 21

Wednesday, 10/21/98 10:55PM

It is at all times incumbent upon man in his earthly journey to be aware of his limitations and his strengths. It is often tempting for man endowed, as some are, with unusual talents or insights to fail to recognize that earthly capacities are just that -- earthly. It is often beyond his inclination to see a limit to his talents and inventiveness. Even if he finds himself less that he would choose to be in his creativity and insight, he looks to his fellow men he regards as more complete in their capabilities. In all of his seeking he fails to consider the possibility of a force beyond the apparent, an intelligence beyond easy perception, a divine plan revealed only partially to him.

I speak here primarily of those who embrace scientific method to explain the mysteries of the universe, but they are not alone in their striving. There are and have been through history men of letters, humans extraordinarily gifted, who have confused their own capabilities with knowledge absolute, their understanding of the world they know with truth complete, certainty about the reason for man's existence.

In assuming total knowledge beyond proof positive, many err in neglecting the world of the human spirit. In the mind they find all they seek, and in neglecting to examine the importance of the spirit they fail in their quest for truth. Some fail utterly in their assumption of correctness. Others realize that though they may enjoy a measure of understanding and wisdom they fall short of absolute comprehension.

No man grasps truth complete. Closest come the mystics, those gifted souls who, aware of human limitation, seek heavenly guidance and embrace its wisdom. This is not to say that all men claiming divine insight have the right to do so. Charlatans abound in the earthly domain, but equally sensitive souls abound and are prepared always to share the perfection they know in awareness of all that life demands. Listen to these pure souls and be guided. Listen even more closely to the voice within and know peace. Know that there is right and reason in human limitation and glorious power in submission.

Day 22

Thursday, 10/22/98 11:02PM

For all men there comes a time of recognition. Into each life comes an awareness that is beyond easy understanding. Man is meant to remember the vows he made before coming to this life, not in exact detail but in intent and purpose. Sometimes man in his forgetfulness is urged beyond his understanding to change his ways and to return to the path he needs to take. This urging is easily accepted, and yet often man is unaware of the urges that led him back to the road he was meant to take, to the responsibilities rightfully his that he is meant to discharge.

When this occurs, man is inclined to consider himself lucky to have become aware of the need to do all he chose. Instead he should regard himself as blessed, blessed by the ministrations of the angel teacher, his from birth, whose only concern is that he learn the lessons of love essential to his spiritual progress, Whether or not he recognizes the source of his new awareness, his angel rejoices in a job well done and tries to influence him further in the seeking of perfect love. Often these efforts succeed and the subject of the angel's urging finds himself blissful in his new found appreciation of the infinite value of love given and received.

Not all men are so open. Not all men heed the angelic voice offering wisdom and guidance, but increasingly in this world so fraught with danger and temptation angelic voices prevail and more and more souls in the turmoil and temptation find themselves moved in ways they do not fully understand to act in love even when it is most difficult. Their awareness of the joy that a life lived in love offers is reward both to them and to the loving spirits whose total concern is their spiritual welfare, their inevitable progression.

So, beloved children, recognize all that is offered to you in love and guidance. Do not be skeptical. Do not undervalue yourselves. Do not doubt that your spiritual welfare and continued progress to perfection is of paramount concern to those angelic beings close to the heart of God.

Day 23

Saturday, 10/24/98 1:10AM EST

There is by design and by reason, infinite diversity in the human spectrum. Over the eons man has emerged in diverse parts of the globe, in diverse convictions, in varied talents and inclinations, in poverty and in wealth among nations, in rivalry and in cooperation, until we have come to a point where it is hard at times to assess the communality that all souls share.

Only in this diversity does man encounter confusion and at times animosity. All too often the foreign is suspect. The strange becomes threatening to the familiar. All too often in his insecurity man embraces that which is in no way threatening in favor of that which reinforces his sense of security. In its most extreme form, man is suspicious of his brother when his brother in any way departs from what he calls the norm.

Nations becomes so obsessed with security that nation is pitted against nation, most often without cause, but once the flame of animosity is lit, it is fed by fear. Even within a largely homogeneous society, man becomes fearful of those who are different from himself, be the difference race, religion, economic status, or sexual orientation. Often this suspicion and animosity finds expression in violence and open hostility, and the differences widen with no basis in fact. Man is at all times a child of God. No matter how far astray he goes he retains this divine relationship.

The oppressed are in a sense the most favored of God's children when man acts in rage and animosity against his brother, for they are the aggrieved and in their patient acceptance they reap spiritual riches. This is not to say that there should not be constant striving for justice, for total reconciliation among men regardless of their differences whether these differences be physical, ethnic, religious, or nationalistic.

There must in the coming years, as there have been in the past, be voices that speak clearly against injustice of all sorts, but it is essential these protesting voices be voices of love, voices that seek to end hatred with love given and received. This is the path to peace and justice, the path all men must eventually acknowledge as the only true way.

This is My word.

Day 24

Saturday, 10/24/98 11:07PM EST

Into each life comes a mixture of joy and sorrow, of need and fulfillment, of all desires denied and all desires satisfied. Into each life comes a cycle of happiness and sadness, of richness and poverty, of acceptance and rejection. This is not to say that all lives are equal in these extremes, but no life escapes the trials that these extremes represent. No life is so idyllic that it escapes completely the difficulties inherent in the human road to eternity.

All men need to remember when they feel most abandoned that they are not so, that no matter the nature of the challenge they are aided in meeting that challenge and know satisfaction in doing so. Some times man finds within himself not only the strength to achieve victory but the means to do so. At times man in time of need is amazed at the coincidences that seems to mark his life. He experiences need and that need is met in unexpected ways. Sometimes he finds aid and assistance from those he loves and who love him in return. At other times mysterious forces seem to be at work and he enjoys a sudden stroke of luck, perhaps a reversal of fortune that meets his needs exactly.

Always there is an answer whether or not it is immediately apparent.

Man is never abandoned, never alone, even when all he seeks in life seems to be denied him. He need never lose hope. He needs to remember the bonds he shares both earthly and divine with so many who look to him for love and who seek to be loved by him. In the darkest of days, the man most deprived should know in his heart that the love that is his birthright is his to be his strength in the struggles that life imposes.

Love then is always the answer. It never denies. It never questions. It is endlessly giving, and it belongs to all men.

Day 25

Sunday, 10/25/98 11:58PM EST

At all times it is basic to man's nature to strive. In its purest form this striving takes form in perfect expression of love given and received. In each age since the world began there have been souls pure in intent, perfect in action, whose only concern has been to know the love that surpasses all trials and tribulations, all rejections, all denials, all unworthy responses to goodness. In each case these perfect souls have created by their actions a field of goodness that is irresistible to those directly and indirectly affected by their relationship. It matters not the nature of this perfect love. In and of itself it creates a world of awareness that is totally compelling.

These blessed souls, known and unknown throughout history exist as beacons in the history of man so often darkened by conflict. These blessed souls are often totally unrecognized for their goodness during their earthly journey, but their striving to live and teach the lessons of love has rewards far beyond recognition. Others are thrust into the limelight of historical recognition and their stories serve both to inspire those touched immediately in their lifetimes and serve as timeless inspiration for generations to come.

Examine the nature of these lives, whether recognized or not recognized within their lifetimes, and find a single chord. That chord is the music of love that knows no denial, that is infinite in its giving, that is pure in every way. In each case find a soul that loves in total joy, in ecstatic recognition of the perfection of its being, in its sure knowledge that all it does is all that is required. Find total identification with the divine.

Day 26

Monday, 10/26/98 11:40PM EST

It is always true that man's best refuge is within himself. He knows in moments of desperation when it seems to him that he is totally abandoned that this is not so. He knows that even when he considers himself friendless and without recourse to human aid, there is succor within. He knows in his innermost soul that there is a link between him and the benevolence of the world of the spirits. He knows that he is never abandoned by those loving entities that guide him always, that he needs only to listen and to feel and to heed the innate awareness of power beyond the ordinary.

This power is all to all men. Yet it is not uncommon for man to lose this inner awareness and to suffer from the void that paralyzes and tempts the soul to despair. In all of life's experiences, man seeks to find meaning, and when understanding evades him he does well to trust in his instinctive will to both survive all trials and to comprehend their value.

There are times, of course, when the lonely and despairing soul fails to find within himself the strength he so desperately needs. It is at these times that heavenly intervention becomes his salvation. He hears an inner voice counseling patience and persistence and urging further faith and hope. There are times when the soul, seemingly tried beyond endurance, is tempted to surrender to despair, to ignore this inner voice speaking to him of faith and love, and there are times when man yields to this temptation and considers himself lost. There are times when death intervenes and man achieves understanding only when he passes from life to new life.

Man is blessed whether he achieves new hope in this life or in the next, for hope, along with love, is food for the soul. It is desirable, of course, that man achieves awareness before the end of his earthly voyage, but if he does not he finds glory in discovering that death offers a new beginning and that he has achieved new strength in the transition that all souls make.

Strength then is not only of the world of man seeking perfection in this world. It is a quality he brought with him into this world, expended as he felt necessary, and taken in greater or less measure with him into a new life full of renewal and promise. The soul, once despairing, despairs no more.

Day 27

Tuesday, 10/27/98 11:53PM EST

Man seeks happiness at all times in his earthly sojourn. From the very first days of his life to the very last this search is paramount.

At the very start of life, man's needs are easily satisfied. There is a divine simplicity in all he demands. He seeks material comfort, nourishment, and above all the tender ministrations of one who loves him and whom he loves in return. The child newly come to earth demands no more, but as he develops into later childhood and early adulthood his search for happiness grows both more complex and more challenging. He seeks to learn all of the world about him. He seeks to develop new friendships and loves. He seeks to please others by his actions and his words and he seeks to be pleased in the same way. He seeks, finally, independence and individual responsibility as part of adulthood.

During the years that follow the onset of maturity, man's search for happiness continues in much the same way, but he learns that complications, complexities and challenge are part of each human journey and that he must learn to solve all problems, even those which seem unsolvable. It is at such times that man may lose the sureness he felt earlier in his own capacities. He may wonder what the answer to true happiness is. He may be tempted to surrender to unhappiness in the mistaken belief that he lacks the talents to find solutions to the problems that confront him. These problems may vary in type. He may experience physical disability and illness. He may find it difficult to meet the material needs he knows both for himself and those dependent upon him. He may experience rejection by one he loves. He may know depression and desperation and despair of ever finding happiness in this life.

It is at such times that man needs to seek within himself awareness of all purpose in his life. He may choose to accept that hardship is part of earthly experience and know that however desperate he may become he will not fail in the end. In acceptance he will find strength and new found awareness of the power that is his.

Day 28

Wednesday, 10/28/98 11:52PM EST

In all of life's journey, nothing is more significant to the soul seeking its perfect ending than the infinite possibilities offered by love given and received, shared in all ways.

Love knows no limits, no parameters. It knows no special form. It applies to all souls in all ways. There is a tendency among those on this journey to consider love narrowly; to think that all there is of love can be circumscribed in terms of family and friends. Let man be assured that love is most significant when it involves those bound together in ties of family love and ties of friendship. Let man know as well that this is not all that is demanded of him in love. He must learn to love each and every one of his fellow men regardless of attraction, of mutual interests and concerns. Indeed there are no exceptions to the mandate to love indiscriminately.

This is difficult for most men. It requires a tolerance beyond the ordinary. It involves infinite generosity and infinite forgiveness of failure. In most lifetimes, man is not aware of the need that his soul knows for acceptance in love from all his brothers. Yet in times of stress, this need asserts itself and serves as a reminder. Man when confronted with a challenge to his loving nature will most often choose to act in love even when he regards the object of this love as alien and unworthy. This love is more than acceptable, but in its perfection it demands total acceptance of all that may seem unacceptable in character, in action, in words.

In other words, simple tolerance and professions of love are not enough. To achieve perfection and to progress toward this ideal the soul in progress must embrace fully and without reservation even the brother he regards with distaste and disapproval. This asks much. Yet much is needed, both for the soul in need of love and for the soul in need of giving love and thus progressing.

All men are challenged in this regard, and if they experience either failure or unawareness of the need to love, they have only to try again to know the infinite satisfaction of unconditional love. Failure is insignificant, for it is at worst temporary, and infinite possibilities lie ahead on this road all men travel. It is, in the end, a road of infinite joy and the lessons of love lend it richness.

Day 29

Thursday, 10/29/98 4:48PM EST

Man is hungry always for love. From the first moments of life to the last, this hunger marks his existence. Not all men are equally gifted in this regard. Often the soul enters in agreement that he will overcome the trials that a lack of love presents in his stay on earth. He agrees that he will learn to love in the face of all obstacles, despite great deprivation. In his success he knows he will know great spiritual progress.

It is not an easy choice for the soul to make, but he makes it in full awareness of the difficulties inherent in the challenge he has chosen. Not all souls make this difficult choice, but those who do are blessed in their success. Those who fail are to be commended in their efforts, however futile they may eventually be, and there is great tolerance for the efforts that do not fully succeed.

It is difficult for human limitations to encompass the value in a life of promises made and not kept, but it is important for man to remember that a single life is but a brief chapter in the story of each life. It is possible for the soul to succeed fully in keeping its promises in one existence and know with certainty that other lessons need to be learned. It is possible for the soul to overreach in its promises and to know frustration in its efforts, frustrations both of his own making and of others.

No matter what the outcome, the need for love given and received never lessens, and the soul seeking perfection freely and gladly acknowledges failure in one life and freely and gladly promises greater effort in the next. At all times and in all lives man is in control of his capacity to love even when he is most denied the love he craves. At all times man profits from his efforts whether they are successful or not, and the soul come to God knows this fully. It brings peace to his soul and inspires new determination to succeed when he is next offered opportunity.

Day 30

Thursday, 10/29/98 10:47 EST

In the fullness of time, all answers are given to the soul seeking the perfection of love and oneness with the divine presence. To some souls the answers come soon, to others only after a protracted series of lives. There is no difference between these two extremes in the perfection achieved and the glory that is its accompaniment. Each soul finds gratification in its own individual earthly experience and the learning involved therein. There is no such thing as envy on the heavenly plane. Those souls who achieve perfection swiftly find joy in aiding those who find progress more difficult. There is no end to the loving helpfulness ready and waiting for those souls who arrive in need of succor.

What you ask is the need for repeated lives, of challenge and defeat, of frustration and despair? Why is it not possible for the soul to achieve perfection swiftly and painlessly? The answer, My children, evades human understanding. The soul in its various human manifestations exhibits only a small part of the whole. The soul in its human existence knows only a small portion of its power. It is as if in the drama of spiritual progress the soul plays many parts and knows many varieties of experience. Each part and each experience contributes to the whole.

But why you ask is all this necessary? Why is the soul not perfect in all ways at all times and never in need of progress? The answer to that question is not simple, and perhaps impossible of complete explanation in human terms. It is enough to say that from the very beginning all souls were granted free will. They were not granted immunity from error. Consequently in the free exercise of will it was possible for the soul to err in the practice of perfect love, and err many did. Errors proliferated, and it became apparent that the soul in error was in need of guidance to return to the path of perfect love. Thus was born the need satisfied by the human experience. This is not to say that the human experience offers the only path to perfection, but it is a road well traveled and learning that suffices.

It is enough to say that much of what man knows in his journey through life defies easy understanding, but in the full use of faith, understanding is not essential to acceptance.

Day 31

Friday, 10/30/98 11:12PM EST

In all souls at all times there is a yearning for oneness. This manifests itself in various ways. Man craves love always. In this craving is implied a desire for oneness. In all ways man, in his wisdom, seeks to identify and to ally himself with his brothers who share his inclinations and his yearnings. This too is indicative of the inborn desire for oneness. Within the family man finds the strongest capacity for belonging, and ideally the family satisfies his hunger for oneness. There are other manifestations in earthly life of this desire for total union too numerous to mention, but it takes little searching of man's desires to recognize the inward nature of this need to know and to experience the bonding that is akin to divine oneness.

Not all lives are marked by success in this searching. Man is often tempted to reject the familiar in favor of the exotic, to feel new excitement in new experiences, and to fail to recognize until it is too late the divine nature of all he rejects. There are times when man finds satisfaction and new happiness in new found relationships, having abandoned the ties of love that he lately found burdensome. Equally those he abandoned or rejected may find new sources of loving companionship and support. All too often, however, man finds himself at a later date regretting earlier choice and bemoaning his error.

It is never too late in the voyage through life to seek loving relationships, but this seeking should and must be done in a spirit that seeks to give more than it seeks to take. The happy man is the giver. All else is less than ideal. Conversely, the object of this loving generosity seeks to return the gift of love and to extend this giving to others. Thus is born the spirit of oneness and man so prepares himself for the time when he passes from human to divine, when he knows the full blessing of perfect love, when he steps a bit closer to eternal oneness. In all of this progression he finds himself grateful for the lessons learned in life.

Day 32

Saturday, 10/31/98 11:52 EST

In the fullness of time, all wonders become known. In the fullness of time all mysteries are comprehended, all questions answered, all doubts dismissed. In his earthly existence man cannot imagine the mind that comprehends all that is seemingly elusive of human understanding, and indeed he is correct in his skepticism. He is in all ways, generally, aware of the limits of his human understanding. Some men surrender to this limitation and seek guidance within themselves and by heeding the voice within that speaks of the spirit, of the soul that began this journey and will end it in earthly time when he has completed all he came to do.

Not all men heed this inner voice speaking of meaning beyond the readily apparent in human life. Some men, indeed at times most men, become embroiled in their earthly struggles to the extent that they choose to ignore the significance of these struggles. They fail to consider the ephemeral nature of earthly existence and to ask to find within themselves awareness of the significance of all that life offers whether good or bad. The man who forgets to question is the man who loses direction. The man who seeks inner counsel and follows the fullness of his heart's words is a happy man and in his seeking he finds not only happiness but ultimate reason in existence.

It is vital that all men learn this lesson. In the best of times and in the worst of times and in all times else, man is well advised to listen closely to the dictates of his heart, to seek to know the answers he seeks and to respond in full awareness of the significance of a loving response to all that life demands. Man cannot fail if he does this. He can fail only if he rejects the divine guidance fully offered him. This is folly.

Day 33

Sunday, 11/1/98 11:53PM EST

In all lives man knows the stirrings of the divine. There is no limit to the variety of human experience that affords him this privilege. He knows it first in the love he enjoys as an infant, totally dependent, totally demanding, totally responsive to love given. As he matures each man experiences love in various forms, and in each of these experiences there is a link with his divine origin. Only when man forgets that love received demands love given does he stray from the perfection of human love that is a precursor to celestial love and a reminder of his divine origin.

All too often man abuses the privilege of love given and received which he knows in his earthly sojourn. He is tempted to be selfish in love, to feel that he is justified in demanding more than he gives. The balance of love thus upset begins to seem to him unfair. He strays further and further from the generosity in love given that he was born to know and this causes disruption. The object of his earthly love senses his desertion and knows hunger. All too often love fails in its divine task and both the giver and the receiver suffer.

Some souls agree to be born into a difficult relationship, one in which they must survive the start of life without the nurturing love that is the food of life. These deprived souls seek beyond all enduring to find love to satisfy their needs and to learn to return this love. There are varying degrees of success among these brave souls. Some succeed despite all limitations, and their success lights the way for other souls in need. Others struggle for a longer time, but it is rare that the soul does not feel eventually the strength of the divine nature that is his and does not succeed in finding a source of love and hope in this life and in this discovering find his way.

Always the link with the divine is man's hope and source of joy. He is never abandoned by those loving spirits who remind him constantly of his origins and his capabilities. They remind him of the absolute need to know love given and received. Those rare souls who fail in this life to know their divine capacity and absolute need for love find comfort in their discovery after the conclusion of their earthly sojourn and they know with new appreciation that learning has no end.

Day 34

Monday, 11/2/98 3:33PM EST

What man knows when he enters earthly life is soon forgotten, and it is his responsibility to seek to satisfy all the demands of this life which he agreed to so readily before beginning human existence. He has much help in this endeavor from those who guide him from afar and seek to communicate their love and their concern. All men are capable of hearing this heavenly urging. All men have the particular guidance of an angel teacher devoted at all times to their spiritual progress. In the darkest of times this angel's devotion brings hope. In the brightest of times this angel rejoices in all that man succeeds in learning of what he needs to do to progress in God's eyes.

There is a direct relationship between earthly happiness and awareness of the need to learn the lessons of love and to be governed by them in each action and in each word. It is not necessary for man to hear exact spoken words from this angelic being. It is necessary only that he seek to be guided and to trust the dictates of his heart, for indeed angelic communication finds expression in this way. The heart speaks to the mind and the message given is received.

This divine communication is the supreme gift man knows in his earthly journey. It speaks always of love and it fills the heart of man with sweet awareness of this love. It inspires him to share his capacity for love, even to those least likely, and in this sharing find the emotional richness that translates into human happiness.

Day 35

Tuesday, 11/3/98 11:59PM EST

Man is by nature a creature of joy. He comes from a world of joy and he brings to this earth both an awareness of joy and a capacity for joy that has no limit. Once again, this heavenly attribute is seen most clearly in the days and weeks and months following birth into human life. Listen to the laughter of a child and know that you hear a divine gift. Listen to laughter in all its manifestations and know divine presence. Man is meant to find joy and satisfaction in his earthly journey and he comes to this life equipped to do so.

It is pleasure at all times for those who guide man in this journey from birth to death to know the times when man's joy in this life reflects the joy he knew in his heavenly home. Ideally, man should experience joy at each moment of his earthly visit. In fact, much interferes with this constancy. Man is subject to trial and temptation and, always seeking joy that is his rightful heritage, he is at times tempted to forget the source of earthly and heavenly joy and stray from the path of love given and received.

This is not to say that man's departure from total joy is at all times a departure of his choosing, the result of his actions. Indeed man's joy is challenged in greater or lesser degree during the course of his human existence. Yet joy is never, whatever the human experience, totally stamped out. It survives the most adverse of experiences. It survives the most trying of challenges. It survives even the desolation of total loss of love.

It is man's salvation that the spark of joy is never fully extinguished and that even in the direst of circumstances when man is most desperately lost, he finds in this total desolation reason to hope and in this hope recognition of joy not totally lost. He survives the most dreadful of human experience knowing that he has advanced in his understanding and in this triumphant spiritual progress, minute as it may be, he finds the joy that enables him to take the next necessary step to where he knows he needs to be. Thus, My dear ones, does man progress joyfully.

Day 36

Wednesday, 11/4/98 11:55PM EST

I speak truth divinely shared. I speak of love. I speak of love in its various forms.

Love, as I have said, is not narrowly defined. It exists always in the heart of man yearning for expression. There is no expression of love that is unworthy. All too often in this fallible world, love is held suspect when it exists outside a narrow realm. Know always that although the love, perfect in all ways, shared between a man and a woman is considered the ideal both in its permanence and in its perpetuation of the human race, it is by no means the only expression of love that pleases the Creator and nourishes the soul of man. Indeed there is no such thing as wasted love. There is no such thing as love unworthy of respect and reciprocation.

In varying times in history love has been challenged by the mores of that time's social correctness. Moral standards have been established and honored that sought to control man's conduct and to reward him for conforming and to punish him for deviating from these expected social mores. Throughout the ages, every effort to control man in the varying expressions of love has failed, and the inborn urge that each man knows to find love and to return love has found expression whether or not society has given its approval.

In this very diversity human life has achieved much richness. In this diversity man has learned that love does not concern itself with superficiality, that it speaks soul to soul and speaks truly regardless of social strictures. Man, having found love, is loathe to abandon its object regardless of the risk of social approbation, and in this he is wise. It is of paramount importance that each human listen to his heart and know the strong dictates that urge him to love as his heart dictates. It urges him to dismiss and disregard limitations that seem to set him apart and to prevent him from knowing the love of his choice.

Man harms his brother when he erects barriers to the sharing of love. No matter how worthy he might deem his motives, he errs in assuming that his judgment is superior to the divine mandate that love know no discrimination, that no superficial difference of any kind is cause for the discouragement or prohibition of love sought and found by two souls who seek the perfection of love in their earthly experience. God rejoices in the sharing of love, and His joy is magnified when love joins two souls in the face of all adversity, in the denial of approval by those who seek conformity.

Be brave, My children, in your assertion of your right to seek and find love wherever your heart leads you. This is wisdom. This is justice.

Day 37

Thursday, 11/5/98 11:51PM EST

There is little that is known. There is much that is speculated. There is much to be learned. There is much to be revealed. I speak here about the eternal question. What is the meaning of life? Why does man make this journey? Why does earthly existence find itself marked and to some marred by inequities beyond measure?

For eons man has struggled to answer these questions. Great teachers have sought to provide answers. Some have come close to perfection in their teaching. Some have been faithfully followed. Others have seen their teaching lost and distorted by human interpretation. No single teacher has succeeded in conveying to mankind the perfection of the divine plan. No group of followers has succeeded in accepting the purity of each teacher's original enlightenment. In all cases, man has lost the purity of truth in the struggle for power that ensued in each and every religious doctrinal belief.

It is pity indeed that this should have occurred, but once again we are forced to find understanding in the free will of man to do as he chooses at each step in human life. Power is a powerful aphrodisiac, and all too often over the centuries man has found himself seeking to control, to enjoy the power that comes with this control over his fellow man, and to lose, either partially or completely, awareness of his true perfect goal in life, that of knowing love in all its wonder, love given and received, love that defies condition.

Many souls, with all good intent, are seduced by those who proclaim themselves spokesmen for God, those who insist on absolute fidelity to all they proclaim. Often they rule in fear. At times they promise all that man craves in understanding the mystery of life and death. Most often they seek absolute security in knowing that they share absolute and immutable truth. Often they are tempted to regard all who disagree as spiritually unaware or even corrupt in their differing beliefs.

Let man know now that the divine truth is infinitely simple. There is only one mandate. That single mandate is to follow the path of love during his human voyage, to know absolutely the brotherhood of man, and to meet his brother's needs in all ways. There should be no strangers to the soul in journey. There should be no exception to his love. There should be infinite happiness in this love that dictates his every thought, word, and deed.

Once man accepts this simple truth, life becomes a glorious road to travel, a road that leads to human happiness, regardless of pitfalls and trials, and a road to the oneness that is the eternal goal. Perfection awaits the human traveler. He has only to learn the single and ultimate lesson of love.

Day 38

Friday, 11/6/98 11:55PM EST

In all of life, man must learn patience. He is not born with this virtue. Behold the infant. His needs are immediate and he protests at delay. Behold the child in his maturing years. Slowly he learns that he must on occasion wait for all he seeks and that protests against delay are fruitless. Slowly he realizes that he is capable of patience and the discovery serves him well. Little by little he achieves the capacity to know when rebellion against delay is fruitless. He learns to wait without protest.

There are times when patience is sorely tried, when despite man's best efforts he fails to succeed in all he attempts. He knows frustration and anger, and he knows a sense of frustration that knows no relief. It is at such times that his inner voice speaks words of wisdom, and if he listens and responds he will find respite from his frustration. He will allow himself to wait patiently for all he wishes. In time he will realize the inner peace that patience affords him, and he will know that all things occur in good time.

There are other occasions when man must learn the value of patience. When man encounters trials seemingly beyond endurance, when he faces problems seemingly beyond all solution, when he reaches the point of despair, he must either exercise patience or compound his frustration and despair. Once again he is well served by the inner voice counseling him. He must heed this counsel and wait for a surcease of trial and tribulation knowing that it will come, confident in his capacity to endure. Patience becomes a necessary comfort and becomes a weapon of value in all future trials.

Patience is its own reward. It stills the impatient heart. It brings peace to the spirit. It conveys to others the peacefulness of patient acceptance. In all things man should strive to achieve infinite patience and in the exercise of this patience make it part of his nature. The patient soul knows peace always.

Day 39

Airborne Saturday, 11/7/98 7:12PM PST

It is incumbent upon all men to recognize the nature of their divine origin. It is important for reasons beyond count.

Man, when he is aware of his divine origin finds within himself strengths and virtues that serve him well in his earthly journey. Recognizing his own link with the divine, he cannot fail to recognize the divine nature of his fellow man. With this awareness comes the blessing of love that has no equal. He knows with absolute certainty that all of life is linked with eternity and that all problems he encounters are ephemeral in the scheme of things.

Man, aware of the gift of love, is both cushioned from the blows that life sometimes inflicts and indomitable in his determination to share this precious gift. He both teaches and learns at all times. His faith inspires others to new awareness and the generosity of his love inspires reciprocation.

Above all, man blessed with awareness of his divine nature finds within himself the peace that lights his life. He finds it possible to accept all trials and tribulations, to triumph over adversity of all kinds, and to know the absolute importance of love as a dominating force. He knows that he is guided and assisted in all ways each day of his life by those willing spirits who speak to him of their caring.

It is vital that all souls reach this divine awareness and recognize its beauty and power. Seek and you will find all I promise.

Day 40

Sunday,11/8/98 12:09AM

Blessed are those souls who achieve full awareness in their earthly lives of the close connection that exists always between two worlds.

It is discouraging for man facing the trials of human life to feel that this life is all, that his birth marks a beginning and his death an ending. He cannot achieve an understanding of purpose until he realizes that this single life is only part of a greater whole. This awareness of repeated lives serves man well. No matter the degree of misery man may know, he finds great promise in the sure knowledge that this life is ephemeral, that he will find greater reward and greater peace in his next human visitation. This awareness and this promise does not, however, lessen the responsibilities of his current life, but it does serve as a source of light in the darkest day.

There is a certain glory in the concept of repeated lives, each one devoted to spiritual progress. It is glory indeed to know with absolute faith that no matter how difficult, no matter how unsatisfactory his life may be, it is but one of many, and it becomes his responsibility to live this single life as fully as he knows how and to be aware that his need is to keep promises made. In all cases, sweet awareness of his divine goal leads him in the paths of joy and fulfillment. He knows in his heart at each step in his journey that he must first of all respond in the fullness of love to each of life's experiences. He knows that he must embrace fully the demands of life, no matter how difficult, and never forget the absolute necessity to live in love always.

Those who learn this lesson and live by its dictates are to be envied, for they have discovered not only the source of all earthly joy and fulfillment but they succeed in their most important task, that of progressing further on the road to spiritual perfection and the glory that this implies. All men are destined to know this glory, but for some the journey is swift, for others slow. For all men there is challenge and response.

Day 41

Monday, 11/9/98 11:16PM

It is always within man's capabilities to progress to his ultimate goal. It is essential indeed that he progress, for he will not stop short of this goal regardless of the nature of his earthly experiences. At the end of each human life the soul returned to God knows fully his successes and his failures in the life just past. He is incapable of less than total honesty in his self evaluation. There is no bitterness in recognition of failure in earthly existence. Rather there is in this very recognition fresh resolve to succeed and to achieve the spiritual progress required of him.

It is a sweet thought indeed that the soul cannot know ultimate failure, that there is in each soul such identification with the divinity that never can total failure be considered. With each renewal of life comes a new beginning, a new set of resolves, a new striving to fulfill all promises. Though man varies in his talents and earthly capacities, he is at all times equal to his brothers in the eyes of God. It is regrettable that some souls lose this sense of godliness and become lost in the temptations of this world, often sinking into dissolution and violence so at odds with his divine capacities, but even the lowliest of humans have cause to be hopeful. Never are they totally disassociated from their Maker.

It is pleasing to both man and God that those who seek to live lives of love and fulfill their promise to live in love vastly outnumber those whose human lives are marked by unloving behavior. These good souls live in awareness of their own worth in the eyes of their fellow men and in the eyes of God who loves them. There is no struggle that defeats them, for their faith sustains. They approach each day with full awareness of the need to respond to all trials in a spirit of loving acceptance and this acceptance in itself lends strength and determination to survive all earthly challenges.

Be aware, then, that man is at all times able to do all that is pleasing in the sight of God and to progress to the perfection that is the inevitable goal of all souls. Failure, when it is experienced, is only temporary. Success, when it occurs, can and should become a constant. In this way man learns.

Day 42

Tuesday, 11/10/98 11:40PM

At all times the soul in progress knows its heavenly origin.

The least aware of souls on their human journey is forced to admit his lack of power over his earthly incarnation. He is subject to ills beyond his control. He enjoys talents not of his creation. He encounters problems not of his making and he solves them with abilities that are not of his creating. In all, man on this earthly journey is forced to recognize that he is not master of his fate in all that befalls him. There is much that he would choose to control but cannot. His very body is subject to control beyond his understanding. He cannot predict in any way what will befall him in his life.

Most of the time man does not concern himself with this overriding truth. He is aware always of the mind which speaks to him of his capabilities, and indeed this is truth granted to him. He believes himself capable of decisions which guide his day to day existence, and this is to some extent true. He believes that he chooses freely those with whom he chooses to be emotionally involved and yet he forgets that his choices are limited beyond his control.

In all, man treads a somewhat narrow path. He does not determine the length of his life. He does not determine the physical, mental, or spiritual gifts with which he is endowed. Yet it is tempting for man to take pride in all that is good and to blame some exterior force for all that he regards as bad.

In the course of his voyage through life man generally becomes keenly aware of his lack of control over exterior forces. Yet he finds within himself confidence that he can control his own destiny to some extent, and indeed this is a blessed awareness, for it is the ultimate responsibility of man to control his destiny by responding to all that he does in life in a spirit of loving acceptance of all that he is given and all that he is denied. When man reaches this awareness he has reached awareness of his divine nature. When man realizes that his life is divinely controlled in many ways, ways which he freely agreed to before life began, he has taken a giant step toward ultimate understanding.

Da y 43

Wednesday, 11/11/98 10:50PM

The wonder of man is in his striving. Man is born to each life with full intention to prove to himself and to all souls the worth of his being in the free exercise of will. In the best of times man finds himself surrounded by souls who, filled with awareness, are destined to succeed in all striving, to progress fully in the path to perfection. This is an ideal world. Not all earthly lives know this idyllic environment. Not all men find the path to perfection so straight and narrow and swift. Indeed, the earthly journey is marked by much diversity and this diversity is one of design.

It is not only difficult for humans to encompass in their understanding the diverse patterns of human existence, it is not easy to discern pattern and reason in the enormous disparities man knows in his life on this earth. There is reason to question. Why one asks is man given so little and asked so much. Why one ask, is man given so much and asked so little? These questions deal only with the superficial and fail completely to deal with the full meaning of life.

Human life is both a triumph and a trial. Man comes to this world with capacities adequate to do all he has agreed to do in this life. He comes with full awareness that his will is supreme, that he can do anything in this worldly experience that will either serve to advance or to delay his spiritual progress, progress which relies completely on his fulfilling the compact made before his incarnation. Man, in pursuit of human happiness may succumb to the temptations of this world and err in his choices. He may seek happiness in ways destined to disappoint. He may abandon the search for perfection that is his divine goal and pursue earthly delights, delights that are destined to disappoint.

Man, however misled he may become in his earthy striving, never loses his connection with the divine origin that is his. In all his errors he retains the purity of his origin, and no matter how sullied this purity may become, no matter the enormity of human error, man is never lost. Over and over again he is not only permitted but indeed is required to continue the search for spiritual perfection. His journeys may seem endless, but they are not, for there is an end, and that end earned inevitably in the perfection of love that is the goal of all souls. No more does man strive when he reaches the end of his last effort. All glory is his. He knows love perfect in all respects. He has come home in perfect peace.

Day 44

Thursday, 11/12/98 10:35PM

In all of life the ties that bind man to man in love are of paramount importance. There are at all times reasons for man to love his brother. There are at all times reasons for man not to love his brother. The soul in progress needs to know always that reason means little when he is called upon to feel and to express love in words and in action.

It is a difficult thing for man to learn to love all he knows in earthly existence regardless of worthiness. It is imperative that man learn this lesson if he is to achieve the perfection of love given that is required of all souls. Man is at best fallible and it is easy for him to assume that his judgment in matters of the heart is his alone to make. He finds it difficult to believe that his emotional response to his brother could be less than perfect. Yet in fact most men are imperfect in their initial response to those in need of love who are less than appealing, who offer little in return, who have known loneliness and rejection.

It is not easy to love the unlovable. Yet this is the absolute requirement of all men seeking perfection. Nothing less is adequate. There are times when man feels absolute revulsion when he looks upon his brother. No matter the reason for this feeling of revulsion, it is a completely unworthy response to the needs of a fellow human being. No matter how lowly, no man deserves revulsion, and it sears the soul of the beholder to permit this emotion to enter his heart.

It is at such a moment that man must stop and consider. He must first of all consider his relationship with the piteous creature he is tempted to reject completely. He must consider the different paths each took and he must be grateful for the grace that separates him from loneliness and despair. He must consider his obligation to his brother whose path was for whatever reason less fortunate and he must be persuaded to meet this obligation in whatever way seems most adequate.

Blessed is the man who follows this path from revulsion to consideration to pity to charitable response. In his heart he knows the warmth of giving and in his giving he creates the warmth of receiving. Both are blessed. Both know the brotherhood that is at all times pleasing in all ways.

Day 45

Friday, 11/13/98 10:32PM

There is much in human life that man hungers to know. He wants and needs first of all to know what is expected of him. Even as a child he ponders this question. Is he meant to obey the dictates of his parents in all things or is he free to do as his heart speaks? It matters not the culture. It matters not the era. At all times the young emerging into adulthood ask themselves this question.

In some societies the pressure for conformity is so strong that few resist. In more open societies the pressure is more subtle but still difficult to resist. In some cases there is no overt pressure, but the young feel a certain obligation to follow in the footsteps that those ahead of them have made. In all cases the young adult has a difficult choice.

It is at this point in so many emerging young lives that the die is cast. It is so easy to feel it ignoble to reject tradition and parental expectation and to establish a separate and independent destiny, and yet for those who choose this difficult route it is right and good. For others the choice is easier. They seek to please and to follow in their father's footsteps.

In a world increasingly complex there are a variety of other experiences and other choices, but the pattern remains the same. The young, having achieved a measure of independence and having experienced a variety of relationships, choose the road they intend to follow and they choose this road in total faith in its rightness. The fortunate find themselves blessed by their elders in their choice and they embark on life's journey with loving support and approval. For others who follow their hearts and depart from the expected, the choice may present more difficulties. At times this may involve alienation from family held dear. At times it may involve societal disapproval. At times it may result in hardship and deprivation. Yet the choice made in firm conviction of its rightness sustains and strengthens man in the path he has chosen.

Free will is therefore a gift at all times and in its exercise it reminds man of his individual responsibility.

Day 46

Saturday, 11/14/98 10:10PM

All through man's earthly journey, no matter its nature, no matter its length or brevity, no matter its richness or poorness, he is equipped fully to proceed to the ultimate spiritual perfection which is the inevitable achievement of all souls come to earthly life.

Throughout history man has sought to find meaning in this earthly journey. Philosophers have disputed, each confident that his is the ultimate truth. Theologians have proclaimed their own particular insights, and each has seen but a part of the whole no matter how close they have come to ultimate truths. Religious leaders, intent on proving themselves without peer in the search for the answer to existence have vied with each other, sometimes wreaking havoc in their wake, and have proclaimed themselves without fault in their convictions, thereby casting doubt on the proclamations of their peers.

In all of this struggle to find approval of self proclaimed awareness there have been special souls, devoid of the desire for personal self aggrandizement, who have quietly grasped the essential lesson that life offers to man in his eternal quest. These special souls have sometimes been allied with and identified with great religious movement, but they have created a niche of their own in the history of religion. They serve as examples of the purity of love given and received that is at the heart of all divine dogma. These special souls have sometimes known rejection by those religious figures that called themselves their superiors. They have on occasion had to choose between continued fidelity to their inner voices and to earthly conformity. They have sometimes been called upon to pay dearly in the eyes of the world for the absolute honesty of their convictions.

Look in history and you will find these special souls, children of God who listened closely to His voice and heeded it above all others regardless of cost. Honor these blessed souls by knowing the truth of their example. Listen to your heart even when it is difficult to disagree with those who demand conformity and know that you are right in your faithfulness to all your heart speaks. No matter the cost, your triumph is clear.

Day 47

Sunday, 11/15/98 11:00PM

In all of life man knows the sweetness of victory as well as the sting of defeat. No life lacks these two extremes. Yet most lives are marked by highs and lows well within the extremes of victory and defeat. Each man bent on achieving all he desires to know and to have in earthly life is bound to encounter obstacles. The road to success free of obstacles does not exist, and each of these obstacles offers opportunities for learning.

The very young embark upon the road of life full of faith and hope and ultimate confidence in reaching the goals they have set for themselves. This is not to say that they do not experience moments of uncertainty and feelings of inadequacy, but their self confidence reigns and such moments and feelings are easily dismissed. Rarely do the young in search of their destiny fail in this self assurance.

The lessons of life sometimes prove difficult and the young person is called upon to recognize problems and inadequacies undreamed of. He is asked to modify his dreams and to come to grips with practicality. He often feels himself badly in need of comfort and sustenance. He cannot be sure that he has chosen wisely all he hoped to accomplish.

It is at such times that man needs to remind himself that he has capacities beyond the obvious. He needs to rely upon the faith in himself that is inborn. He needs to assure himself that temporary set backs are just that, and above all he needs to remind himself that material achievements are secondary. He needs to look within himself.

The road through life is often strewn with obstacles and disappointments. It is easy for those beginning this journey to become discouraged and disillusioned, to feel that they are unrealistic in their aims and ambitions and that they have therefore failed. They need to remember that all of life is learning, that no failure is without its reward in increased awareness and sensibility.

Man is possessed of infinite resilience. At all times he finds within himself the capacity for adapting to life's challenges. He finds it possible to respond to challenge with new faith and energy. He finds within himself hidden resources. In all of this striving and adaptation and renewed faith he needs to know the gifts he is given.

Day 48

Monday, 11/16/98 11:07PM

There is such a wonder in man's hunger for love, in his desire to take into his heart all those bound to him in earthly ties. It is man's nature to love from the very moment life begins until the last moment when life ends. In the time between, whether it is measured in days or decades, man receives the love he hungers for always. He does not always recognize this love, coming as it does from sources beyond his human perception. Let it be said, though, that no man journeys through life without this enveloping love, the love of spirits bent on guiding him to fulfillment of all his heart desires, to eventual oneness.

It is difficult, understandably, to imagine this divine love being visited upon those that society would regard as villains and reprobates. It is difficult to imagine the powers of divine guidance failing so completely. Indeed this is cause for question. What needs to be said, however, is that no matter the degeneracy of man's behavior, no matter the degree of defiant refusal to feel remorse, no matter how hopeless the cause, the spirits that guide man in his earthly journey never cease their striving to lead man back into the paths of love.

It is not possible for us on this earth to determine the degree of success that this loving caring knows. Who can look into the heart of man and see truly all he feels and desires? It is enough to feel confident that the most lost of souls, the most reprehensible of human voyagers, have the capacity before they leave this existence to become aware of their failings and to know the joy of repentance and acceptance of failure. This is salvation.

Day 49

Tuesday, 11/17/98 11:30PM

In all of life man knows the inner satisfaction that comes from a loving response. As an infant he responds to a smile. As a child he responds to words of love with words of love. He responds to a loving embrace with joy and an equally loving response. At each stage of his life his existence is enriched each time he knows a gesture of love, for it is his instinct to respond equally, and the richness of love shared knows no limit.

There are times when man's instinct to respond in a loving way is sorely tried. There are times when his words of love are ignored or denied, when his gestures of love are rejected. There are times when man is puzzled by this brother's lack of caring, his unresponsiveness to love offered. It is at these times that man must cling to his natural desire to share the blessings of love. It is unfortunately a human failing to feel that the man who rejects love is not worthy of love. Quite the opposite is true. The man who finds himself responding to all life offers in an unloving way, who regards his brother as not needful of his love, is a soul greatly in need. It is incumbent upon all those who deal with such a soul to restore him to loving behavior.

A loving response is by its very nature contagious. It is the rare soul who turns away from gestures of love and caring. It is more likely that man will accept each gesture and word of love and respond in kind. Thus love is generated and provides sustenance to all who share in its blessing.

It seems to some that to say that love generates love is an oversimplification. Yet it is a basic truth, but like all absolutes there are exceptions. Man rarely rejects love offered in all generosity, and yet there is occasionally such rejection. The soul so lost that he cannot accept love is the soul greatly in need. It is tempting to ignore this need, to find rejection of love offered cause for rejection returned. Yet this is an ignoble response, and it is important for man to realize that just as love engenders love, lack of love engenders lack of love.

It is often tempting for man, once rejected by his brother, to feel that he has done all that is required. The opposite is true. Man must persevere and must suffer rejection over and over again. He must never stop in his efforts to touch the soul of his brother and to persuade him of the power and pleasure that love offers.

There is treasure in reaching the most difficult of souls.

Day 50

Wednesday, 11/18/98 9:38PM

The least of men in this life has infinite opportunity in the hereafter. Each new birth is at all times clear of prior responsibility. Each new life comes with new agreement to succeed in all that is required for spiritual progression. The soul newly born into life is not weighed down by the sins and errors of the life previously led and recently ended. Rather, having become aware of all failures to succeed in the pursuit of spiritual perfection, the soul is freshly empowered to try again for the progress deemed absolutely necessary for all souls.

It is a difficult thing for humans to accept the perfection of divine forgiveness. No soul come to judgment is so blackened as to be denied this blessing provided that it has achieved awareness of failure and has achieved new determination to succeed in its learning. Human standards are not inevitably divine standards. It is easier to achieve forgiveness for error on the heavenly plane than it is on the earthly plane, for man is by nature less totally forgiving than those heavenly bodies who offer comfort as well as forgiveness after human death.

Let this be a comfort to all those human travelers who despair of being forgiven for their human errors no matter how foul. Even if this life denies closure and forgiveness, those comforts await the soul come to glory and to awareness. The soul gladly accepts the responsibility of returning to earthly life and substituting success for failure. It reenters the world with awareness and determination, having learned the temptations to resist, the pitfalls to avoid, and with the blessing of his angel teacher he strives once again for the perfection that is the universal goal not to be denied to any man.

Day 51

Thursday, 11/19/98 11:42PM

In all of life there is a common thread.

This thread is called love. There is no existence so barren that it lacks love completely. There is no existence so rich in material rewards that it can exist without love. All men in all times in all parts of the world find that love is their primary emotion. They are born in love and they immediately know the need of love. At each step in the human journey, man is enriched by sharing in love and deprived in its lack. No man survives without love. Without this blessed emotion his heart starves, his soul shrivels. In all of this life's efforts he is denied full satisfaction. Material rewards do not feed the soul. Family ties lacking love do not nourish in any way.

How does man stray so completely from his origins? How does he countenance the loss of the emotion that is the food of life? Man loses love given and received in insidious ways. He is tempted first and often by the love of life's transitory pleasures. He seeks constant gratification and loses all true value in love shared. Man is tempted by the treasures of this life. He seeks to find esteem not in his own goodness but in the eyes of the world, a world too often gone astray and sorely lacking in the values that feed man's soul. Once man has set his foot firmly upon the path that seeks earthly gratification he finds it hard to retreat. He rejoices in transitory pleasure, in idle relationships, in rewards easily gained and equally easily dismissed. He loses the love of those once held dear and he seeks in vain for substitutes.

Occasionally man sees the errors of his ways before it is too late. He seeks to compensate all those he has abandoned and denied and to reconstruct the wonder he knew in love and so easily discarded. It is the fortunate man indeed who is able to plead awareness of error and to know love restored. All too many men are led into greed and dissolution until it is too late to recover innocence. They go from one idle pursuit to the next, always aware of the lack in their lives, often aware that this lack is the love they so unwisely abandoned.

Think, My children, of those souls who have strayed from the paths of love and pity them. They hunger.

Day 52

Friday, 11/20/98 11:12PM

It is the pride of man to provide loving care for those dependent upon him in this life. In giving he finds joy always. It matters little the richness or poorness of his resources. It matters that he gives all he can. Deprive man of his capacity to give and you deprive him of joy.

This inborn desire to share is one more proof of man's divinity. It marks him as one of God's children come to earth to display the gifts he has received and to share them by example. Those who benefit from this giving recognize in it the promptings of love and they are thereby enriched. Encouraged and inspired by example they seek in turn to share with others whatever resources they enjoy.

The magnitude of the gift given in love is not significant. The magnitude of the generous impulse is. The most deprived of humans in material goods still has much to share. The soul is enriched by the gift of love in whatever form it takes. A kind gesture is a gift that brings joy to both the giver and to the receiver. A word spoken in love and praise is a gift to be treasured, and the hearts of both giver and receiver are warmed. The gift of giving is one which man learns to cherish, and once this giving becomes habitual it enriches life immeasurably.

The world is transformed by those generous souls who find it within themselves to share all that has been given to them in this life and to know that inner voice that speaks its praise of each loving gesture. Indeed the generous soul is a soul doubly blessed. There is no end to his goodness. He knows inner peace and infinite gratitude.

Day 53

Saturday, 11/21/98 11:19PM

At the end of life man becomes aware of all that he has done in his life just past. For some this awareness begins before the end of mortal life, and in it man finds the start of the self judgment that is an inevitable part of the cycle of human existence. For some souls facing the inevitability of death this recognition of all he has done and not done during his lifetime brings a feeling of deep satisfaction, and he departs this world fully aware and prepared for all that awaits him on the heavenly plane.

For others this recollection is bittersweet, and the soul contemplating death finds pleasure in recalling the good he has done and regret for all he has failed to do in the name of love. The fortunate soul is granted time to speak of his failures to those he is soon to leave behind and to seek a loving forgiveness for omissions and errors. This brings peace to all. There are some who must wait patiently for the judgment after death to find release from remorse and promise of learning to come.

Death comes suddenly to some in this life, and these souls are not afforded the privilege of recognizing their successes or failures in this life before they leave this plane. This is to some a cause for regret. Yet they quickly become aware of their capacity to convey to those they left behind on earth the love that knows no end and to convey to those they have wronged the depth of their regret. There is salvation in this capacity for all souls, but in particular for those who have experienced sudden death. Souls departed from this life never stop loving those they loved in life. They never stop speaking of this love. They never stop caring.

Listen then and feel this loving communication with those taken by death. Ask and you will know this blessing. It is open to all souls.

Day 54

Sunday, 11/22/98 11:22PM

Children, in this life, are special souls. They come fresh from the God who is the source of all love and they bring into this life the wonder of love pure and undefiled, endless in its acceptance and generosity, unfailing in its forgiveness. These early years of human existence are marked by beauty in many ways. To those who love them most intimately, they are a source of constant delight. This is not to say that they are incapable of trying the patience of their care givers, but always their pure goodness survives all trials, and those who are their loving guardians are reminded anew of the precious beings in their charge.

Not all children are gifted with this loving care that is their birthright. There are times when events conspire to deprive them of the physical and emotional care that they need. Under the direst of circumstances these young souls not only survive but serve as wondrous examples. No matter how sorely they are tried, no matter the extent of deprivation, they serve as examples of the soul triumphant. The spark of love not only survives but seems to be fed by adversity, and these young children emerge from the sorest of trials, the most adverse of circumstances, seemingly strengthened by travail, full of hope and love.

This wondrous capacity for survival is not limited to the very young. Indeed in some souls it seems to grow with each passing year, but almost without exception children are uniquely privileged in this way. No matter the degree of deprivation, the child retains in its inner core capacity for love that has no equal. It survives all trials to provide strength in later years and to serve as an example of God's gift to man.

Look to the child always for inspiration and for awareness of the power of love.

Day 55

Monday, 11/23/98 11:35PM

In the annals of time man has known many eras when he came close to awareness of the true meaning of life, of his divine mission to progress to oneness. During those blessed times the earth has known peace, and earnest striving to do good and to know the brotherhood of man in peace and comfort has marked man's behavior. Love prevailed above all other emotions and God was well pleased.

Into this idyllic world at each juncture has come discord and disaffection, and man has had to struggle to retain his identity as one of God's children and to do all that seemed to him right and good in the face of all adversity. During these times of trial and disaffection man continued to strive to maintain his close relationship with the power he knew to be divine and to assert at all times his fidelity. He lived in love in the most difficult of circumstances and in this life of love he found peace when all about him was marked by chaos and fear.

Man today is in much the same situation. Although there are still havens of love and perfect brotherhood in today's world, much of what man experiences is a challenge to those godlike qualities. He is assaulted by violence and injustice. He must constantly strive to assert his belief in right and goodness. He finds the world increasingly alien to all he holds dear. In his goodness, man triumphs over a world gone astray, a world lost to the love it once knew, and in his triumph he finds the joy that only the godly know fully.

The world is a challenge to all men in its present state. The needs to be met are overwhelming, and those blessed souls who seek to meet these needs never find surcease. Rather the harder they labor there seems to be more that needs to be done. Yet they never waver in their devotion, in their full faith that they are meeting the needs of others in a way that satisfies their own needs. This true expression of love given and received has no equal. They are blessed souls.

Day 56

Tuesday, 11/24/98 11:45PM

In all of life man questions existence. From his earliest years he asks what is required of him. Is he meant to do all that his talents direct? Is he meant to please himself first in these talents? Is he meant to listen to the words of those older and wiser than himself who suggest a different course? Is he meant to serve himself or mankind or both?

Each man come to earth comes with a set of abilities or disabilities with firm resolve to meet all of life's challenges with love in his heart and love expressed in all his actions. He does not question his capability in meeting this requirement of love expressed in responsiveness to all earthly experiences.

In a sense the man least endowed in earthly gifts and capabilities has chosen the easier path. He is not easily tempted. He is not an object of earthly greediness. He is content, generally, to live simply within his capabilities and to know that all that is required of him is easy to give. He is grateful for each loving relationship that life offers him, and he is generous in loving response and total appreciation.

The man who has chosen to come into this life capable of great achievement is often sorely tried in his goals. He is at times and in some cases easily seduced by the approbation of those he seeks to govern or to guide or to dominate. He persuades himself that his power over his fellow man and over his destiny is infinite, and although he may act in love on his path to power, he is easily tempted to choose power over good. Many souls are lost in this fateful decision. Many others, sensing the danger of the road they are treading, stop short of total seduction and return to the paths of goodness and principle.

All of life then is a challenge to man's talents and inclinations. Each day of each life has its importance, and each action taken is significant in the total pattern of life. Man is a creature dear to the heart of God, and in his journey through life no matter the nature of his talents, no matter the nature of his fortunes, he is at all times empowered by his divine nature to take the right path and to do all that is required of him in this life. In so doing he will triumph. In his triumph he will know holiness.

Day 57

Wednesday, 11/25/98 11:10PM

When we consider the plight of man in this life we are always moved to pity and fuller understanding. Man born into this existence comes fully aware and fully equipped for all the challenges that lie ahead. This awareness diminishes rapidly, and man is left to do as he must depending upon his human resources. It is not necessarily true that he loses contact with the soul that guides him always, but all too often man gets swept up in the needs of this world and neglects his inner being.

It is easy to assert that spiritual awareness is a luxury, an ability offered to the very few fortunate souls who are freed from the trials of human life. This is an unfounded assumption, erroneous in its very existence. Man is aware no matter his material or social or spiritual appurtenances that all he knows beyond the facts of life is a gift. All he experiences beyond the daily details of his life he knows in full appreciation of gifts beyond the ordinary.

Each life come to fruition is a life which has learned the absolute wonder of help beyond the ordinary. It is tempting for man to feel himself so completely in charge of his destiny that he disregards the help he receives from those divinely aware of his needs. Indeed man is generally loathe to credit any outside force or influence for his good fortune. In time he will learn the folly of this gross assumption of power, but it serves him temporarily in experimentation. Man is meant to experiment, to probe the further aspects of his capabilities, of his potential.

When man chooses to abandon security and to aspire, he needs always the comfort and often assurance of his inner voice. I do not suggest that man faced with a difficult decision relating to his material welfare is divinely inspired in earthly matters. On the contrary, man needs only to listen and he will hear divine voices urging him down the path of love given and received, offering to him opportunities, long neglected, to finally act in love and to know perfection in his heart.

Believe me, all those who have known the power of love, there is no limit to this power. It cannot be destroyed. It cannot be replaced by any other emotion. It reigns supreme. No other emotion stirs the heart of man in such a way. All other emotions are offspring, worthy in and of themselves, but hollow without close relationship to their origin.

Be close, My children, in holy company.

Day 58

Thursday, 11/26/98 10:06PM

It is incumbent upon man in his earthly journey to know that at each step along the way he is capable of choice. He may at times be unaware of the significance of his choices. Some may seem to him so insignificant as to be unworthy of serious concern. Others may seem so weighty as to be intolerable in their difficulty. What distinguishes man from man is the purity of his choice.

It is a part of human existence that man is expected to be capable of wise choices, to know that no matter the enticement, he must choose with wisdom and unselfishness. It is difficult at times to remember this mandate, and man seeks to gratify his innermost desires for the pleasures and privileges of this mortal life at the expense of his soul felt urges. He is pleased immediately with the gratification he knows in earthly pleasure, in the persuasive awareness of material success, but above all he wonders about the wisdom of his choice when he knows in his innermost soul words of warning.

He becomes aware that all he has sought and achieved in worldly goods and social approbation does not feed the uneasy soul. He finds himself seeking further and wondering at which point along life's path he went astray. Let us momentarily commiserate with this wayward soul. Let us wonder how fully he can compensate for mistakes and errors beyond number. Let us look into his soul and ask what he requires. Let us be infinitely forgiving and let us hope that this forgiveness suffices. In all cases, the troubled soul looks to its fellows for sustenance and, if necessary, forgiveness. It is a privilege to receive this help that becomes forgiveness. It is greater privilege to offer this forgiveness and the blessing of love freely given.

In all of life man's errors seek the wonder of loving acceptance of human frailty and the full faith in human strength. Both frailty and strength mark man's progress through life. Both are gifts to offer learning. Both profit man.

Day 59

Friday, 11/27/98 10:46PM

There is one great gift afforded to man in his earthly journey that surpasses all others and that gift is his capacity for a loving response no matter how tried he is. There are times when in his fallibility man ignores and neglects this great gift, but no matter how long man chooses to live in the darkness of a life without love this capacity never leaves him. It lies dormant awaiting his need.

There is much in life that seems to the earthly voyager unfair. Man looks about him and in his weaker moments counts himself deprived in comparison with others. He sees in the rich man a source of envy, and he chooses to believe that were he as well endowed with earthly goods his heart would overflow with happiness. He looks at the famous and thinks that fame has brought them the preeminence he will never know and that their lives are enriched beyond measure. He dreams of achieving wealth and fame and forgets to count the blessings that life has bestowed upon him.

His discontent is mirrored in his words and actions, and he tends to alienate others by his self dissatisfaction. Even those most closely bound to him in family ties cannot persuade him of the error of his ways. He refuses to consider himself fortunate in any way, deprived as he is of his yearning for fame and fortune. Even when he learns of the problems and disappointments of those he envies for their material gifts, he refuses to accept the truth that happiness lies within, not without.

It is the fortunate soul who eventually comes to a realization of his errors, who finds it possible to live life in full appreciation of what he has achieved in life and envies no man. Having reached this awareness, he finds it possible to learn to love himself and all those bound to him emotionally and to know that when he is loved and capable of giving love freely he needs no further riches. No matter the course of his life, he finds satisfaction in the full knowledge that each of his actions must be guided by the rule of love. His rewards are infinite.

Day 60

Saturday, 11/28/98 11:33PM

In all of life there is sweetness in defeat.

Man come to earth chooses to know defeat and to find in it challenge. In this challenge he finds opportunity to discover new strength, to renew his faith in himself, and to seek and find solutions which negate this very defeat. It is not always a simple progression from defeat to acceptance to solution and therefore to triumph, but man progressing in this way becomes newly aware of the divine strength that is his always. He knows in his heart that he has learned a lesson that will serve him well always. He knows that there is no mountain he cannot climb.

Victory so achieved is the sweeter for having been achieved in full awareness of the importance of love as a weapon, a tool, if you will, to be used wisely. In all of his dealings in life, particularly in adversity, man needs to be aware that his position is strengthened infinitely when he acts in love and refuses to let discord enter his soul. Love as a weapon is disarming, and it not only soothes the soul of man in conflict, but it gives him infinite advantage over his adversary. Ideally love triumphs in its persuasiveness and both souls in conflict find happy resolution to their conflict.

Let it be said, then, that defeat has its lessons to be learned, that man experiencing conflict in his worldly affairs is enriched by the lessons he is forced to learn.

Day 61

Sunday, 11/29/98 11:30PM

There is at times a weariness inherent in the human experience. Man faced with problems and challenges not of his own making wonders if he has the fortitude to triumph over all obstacles. He strives and most often succeeds, but he emerges from his struggles wearied in body and spirit. He wonders if he can ever again summon the energy and fortitude he has just expended.

There are times when man must do exactly this over and over again. Challenge follows challenge, and man is often daunted by what is demanded of him. At times he despairs of his own strength in adversity and is tempted to surrender to this despair and admit defeat. Indeed at times man does exactly this. At such times he needs above all forgiveness and pity. Such surrender is fortunately a rarity and time after time man summons his courage to fight each new battle that life imposes. With each new victory man gains strength, and in his mind and soul he grows even more confident of his capacities.

No man journeys through life without the experience of struggle. For some the struggle is continuous and severe. For others the struggle is rare and moderate. In both cases, and for all between these two extremes, man is never asked for more than he can give. Always he is able to taste victory and to know in his soul the sweetness of success.

It is not easy to fathom the struggles of another. It is never man's duty or right to judge. Rather it is man's responsibility to reach out a hand to his brother in need of help in his earthly struggles and to act in love at all times in his efforts.

There is much to learn in the human journey. There is much that is not easily understood. There is much that requires absolute faith. There is always need for love given and received, and this is the ultimate victory, the ultimate lesson of life.

Day 62

Monday, 11/30/98 11:45PM

In the very essence of man lies his link with the divine. There are those who would disagree, who would say that although some souls come to earth are clearly good and noble and strive at all times to live in love, there are others who betray no spark of the divine, who live lives less than perfect and who fail to love. This observation is indeed true so far as outward behavior is concerned, but it is important to remember man's origin, to know the purity of his newborn soul, and to seek to understand and to commiserate.

Man is as I have said destined to experience trials in this life. These trials are those of his own choosing before he came into this existence, and he undertook all challenges in full confidence of success, knowing the capabilities he brought with him. Man is however not infallible. There are times when the soul come to earth overreaches in his aims. He chooses such challenges in the optimistic hope that he will not falter in meeting them. He overreaches in full awareness that once born into human existence he will lose all awareness of his divine compact. He knows but forgets that he will be subject to temptation in many forms and that he is free at all times to err. He is often tempted beyond his capacity to resist, and once he succumbs he finds resistance to temptation more difficult.

Yet during all this time of failure, he has the capacity and the divine guidance necessary to return to the path of right and goodness that will bring him back to a state of spiritual grace and human satisfaction. There is never a time when the soul on its spiritual journey so loses direction that he cannot see the path he should take. There is no soul so lost that he cannot be found by all those who love him and who have always loved him, who yearn to guide him back to perfection.

In the darkest days of the soul there is light. There is no soul incapable of finding this light and knowing the power of the divine within himself.

Day 63

Tuesday, 12/1/98 11:34PM

In man's innermost heart he knows the infiniteness of his being. Even when he is being most rational about the brevity of human life there springs forth a feeling of infinite being. His tongue speaks of an absolute end to existence, but his heart speaks otherwise.

Man has been taught many things about the nature of life and death. Some hold that this life is all, that after human death only memory remains. Others believe in a hereafter that is the end of human existence after a single life experience, and there are various versions of this hereafter held dear by believers. Some hold that this life is but one of a series of lives, each one designed to teach. Once again, the nature of this belief knows variety.

In all these varying concepts of the purpose of human existence there is only one absolute unifying disparate doctrine, and that concept is that man is meant to live in love and that all of his actions and all of his words should and must reflect this love, a love universal in its essence, denying no man, accepting all. This central doctrine is without fault and in and of itself totally commendable.

It is lamentable, however, that the varying dogmas celebrating the divinity have in so many cases lost sight of this central and quite perfect demand of man that he put love above all else in his life. All too often religious leaders lose sight of this supreme demand of God in their involvement with issues they feel significant in their teaching, but which tend to separate their followers from all those who hold opposing beliefs. Religion all too often becomes political. Positions are taken on controversial issues, and each religion holds itself infallible and holds all those who disagree both fallible and misled.

This is not pleasing to the Creator. No human, be he leader or follower, has the ultimate authority to determine the will of God beyond teaching the lessons of love. Through history blood has been spilled and innocents slaughtered in the name of religious righteousness. This continues to this day.

Know, all men, that the time has come to put to an end the divisiveness which finds its justification in the assumption of knowledge absolute of God's will. God asks but one thing of man. He asks that he love without discrimination. He asks that he act in love each day of his life. He asks that no man deny his brother in the guise of religious righteousness. He asks an end to religious tyranny. He asks that all men embrace their brothers in total acceptance and love without end.

Day 64

Wednesday, 12/2/98 11:30PM

From the beginning of life to the end there stretches a canvas upon which each man records his life's work -- his triumphs, his defeats, his loves, his wonders, his failures, his aspirations, his eternal striving. This record is hidden from view until the moment comes, as it does and must for every soul, of evaluation, of recognition. At this joyous exploration of a life just past there is no element of recrimination. There is simply a loving exploration of all that was promised, all that was achieved, all that was left undone. There is infinite acceptance of error. There is total forgiveness for all that was done in error and all that was not done in neglect.

There is in essence a homecoming. The soul is welcomed into the company of those who love him and whose love he has known eternally, and in this loving assemblage the soul newly arrived asks to be accepted. There is no question of eventual and complete acceptance but there are conditions to be met. The soul aspiring to oneness, as do all souls, must achieve a total perfection that is not easily won. The soul, eager to achieve this perfection, knows infinite willingness to do all that is necessary to reach this divine goal.

So in essence the soul departed from human life returns to its origins, willingly participates in an evaluation of progress in the life just past, and willingly agrees to do all that is needed to progress further. There are many options available to this seeking soul, and he is afforded loving advice and guidance in his choices of the path that lies ahead.

There is much joy in this reunion and renewal, and all souls know this caring. Listen and you will hear those who wait to welcome you to the party.

Day 65

Thursday, 12/3/98 11:18PM

I speak of the plight of man and of his efforts to excel in an imperfect world.

There is no question of the basic goodness of the soul come to this life as man. There is no question of his intent to do as he promised in the progression to spiritual perfection that is the goal of all souls. What then leads man astray? What causes him to forget his noble aims and intentions and degenerate? How can the soul intent on becoming one with His maker be capable of violence and destruction? How can he so abandon all he intended in this life?

These questions do not find easy answers. There are souls who find it difficult to cope with earthly success. There are souls who find it difficult to cope with earthly failure. These misguided souls seek to find solutions to their unhappiness, and in their seeking they abandon those loving voices which counsel patience and goodness and welcome those voices which speak of self indulgence at any cost. All men are subject to these conflicting voices. They indeed compete for the souls of man, and all too often man is seduced by the voices offering him the worldly power and pleasure he covets. He finds himself paying a high price for all he knows in material advantage. He forgets the very virtues that he brought into this life in full expectation of the happiness they promised.

Man led astray by temptation finds many paths. If he is fortunate and resistant to the excesses of a life of earthly greed, he finds a middle road where although he may at times forget all he has promised to do in this life in learning the lessons of love, he is never completely lost. He finds himself in varying ways, and although he may stray down the paths of evil doing he quickly recognizes the error of his ways and seeks to return to the righteousness that offers him moral satisfaction. Other souls find themselves so weakened by the voices of seduction that they lose all awareness of their obligations and are so lost in pursuit of material success and pleasure that they have neither the inclination nor the capacity to return to the road to goodness earlier abandoned.

There is never a point where man is totally lost in this life. He is always capable of recognition of error and resolve to reform, but all too often man passes from this life without knowing the joy he might have in a life of love shared. He leaves behind him often lives shattered by his destructive behavior and he knows at the moment of death that he has somehow failed. The extent of his failure lives after him, but after he has left this world comes the full realization of how completely he has deprived himself and so many others whose lives touched his, and he knows that he must undertake the long journey back to blessedness that is the beginning and the end of all spiritual existence. No soul is ever completely lost.

Day 66

Saturday, 12/5/98 12:20AM

Man in his infinite striving knows both satisfaction and frustration. He is at times unsure of his goals. He comes to this world without reservation about his aims and desires, but as he loses memory he tends to lose confidence in himself and awareness of what his life's course should be. Always he is offered guidance, and those who learn early in life the guidance of loving spirits find their journey lightened in its burdens. Those who lose the capacity for this awareness tread a more difficult path. In all, man is enriched immeasurably by his sensitivity to the forces that tend to guide him for better or for worse as he journeys through life and copes with its challenges.

I speak here of the problems that man faces at all times when he must choose between immediate gratification and immediate deprivation. It is in the nature of man to choose not to deny himself. Yet he has the capacity to look beyond the immediate to the ultimate, and to realize the error in choosing the easy answer. It is difficult indeed for man to deny himself when he is tempted, and to deny himself he must draw for strength on the inner resources that are his strength and his salvation. Man is tempted all too often in his human existence, and each choice he makes prepares for his later decisions. Strength lends strength. Weakness breeds weakness.

All man needs in his struggle to choose wisely is the capacity he has known always, the natural inclination to base his choice on its intrinsic value, its relationship to his absolute obligation to live in love in all ways. Man armed with awareness of this obligation cannot fail to choose wisely and therefore to please the God who loves him infinitely.

Day 67

Saturday, 12/5/98 11:56PM

Man in all his strengths and all his weaknesses knows that he is not fully in charge of his destiny. He knows that he is allowed choice. Indeed choice is demanded of him. Yet time after time he is faced with decisions totally unexpected. He needs to choose between alternatives he has never considered. At times he needs to choose between belief in two individuals opposing in their will to persuade him. At times he feels he has no choice at all, that circumstances have so overwhelmed him that he must do as he is commanded and surrender will completely. At times man is deprived entirely of choice in that he has no awareness of it.

The most fortunate of souls know a fullness of peace in their spiritual progression. Their lives are so ordered that they are aware of each step they take to the perfection that their soul hungers for. Others, although progressing steadily, are not as aware of how well they do. These are modest souls, devoted to all those bound to them in love, dedicated to good, and yet unaware of all the wonder that they are.

In all of life there is plan and pattern, and into this divine plan all souls find their place. Those who know long and protracted lives, often fraught with pain and instability, are blessed with hope that they have chosen well, that each painful step of their journey brings them closer to the divine culmination that they seek. Those who lead lives less trying have equal reason to expect fulfillment. They seek in love and they find in love all that the soul needs and yearns for.

There is a beauteous order in this progression of the soul from imperfection to perfection, and each human journey contributes to this progression. The soul achieving immortality is the soul who had trod many paths and in each of them found reason to be pleased, and when the final journey ends in glorious acceptance into the oneness of divine belonging, there is no greater glory. This awaits all men.

Day 68

Sunday, 12/6/98 10:24PM

At all times man finds pleasure in the love of others and in his capacity to return love. From the very start of life this is the primary source of pleasure for man. With love he thrives and grows in all good ways. Deprived of love he finds himself weakened and he seeks always to satisfy his need for this basic security. There are times when the young suffer permanent damage as a result of this deprivation, but this is fortunately rare, and the resilience of the human spirit makes it possible for the soul to survive and to persist in its seeking and to find the blessing of love given and received.

The man who leads a loveless life is a man to be pitied. He forgets his need for love and substitutes other emotions. Most often, he finds bitterness and envy entering his soul and dominating his thoughts and words. He lives each day devoid of hope, persuaded that all he knows of life is proof that others are foolish in their dependence upon loving relationships. His dealings with others lack feeling, and his loneliness becomes his strength. He scorns those who attempt to convey to him their loving concern for his welfare. He rejects all efforts to touch his heart. He lives in emotional isolation, totally persuaded that this is his preferred existence, that he needs no other.

This man serves as an example to others of the vital force that love is in human existence. He inspires pity, and this pity is magnified when he repels all overtures, all efforts to befriend him. It can be said that he serves an important purpose, however unwittingly, in the awareness he creates in others. He inspires them to know the value of loving companionship, of giving and receiving love.

In this example the loveless man serves a purpose, and though he may pass through this life devoid of the wonder of love, he is destined to know finally the power of love and to rejoice in it fully. No man is denied this ultimate gift.

Day 69

Monday, 12/7/98 11:55PM

It is always man's consolation to know that he is never alone. At each stage in life's journey man seeks to find love in all those he takes into his life, all those he encounters in a variety of ways.

In the beginning he must of necessity depend upon those who tend to his needs, who succor him in all ways, and who encourage all his explorations. As he grows into early childhood he rejoices in new found friends and offers to them the love that he knows is his to share. He finds joy in friendship and learns the ways of childhood. As he grows into adulthood he uses the skills early learned to foster relationships of love and of sharing. He finds those kindred spirits who enrich his days, and his loyalty to them knows no bounds.

All he has learned in his earlier years serves man well in his adult life. His discrimination tells him when he encounters another soul in whom he will find joyful communion. His circle of friends enlarges with each new phase of his development, and when finally he chooses a life's companion he enters the most fulfilling of relationships. He is, if it is so willed, enriched by an expanding family, the object of infinite love and caring. His caring meets fitting response in love endlessly returned.

There is no greater glory for man than to be surrounded by loving family and loving friends, and in this supreme gift man is wise to realize the divine nature of the love that is his to give and to receive and to know its full blessing in full appreciation.

Day 70

Tuesday, 12/8/98 11:44PM

It is at all times noteworthy that those who are most cynical about the divine nature of man are often persuaded by their life experiences of the error of their cynical assumptions about the nature of man and of human existence. There is a great tendency in human life to reject the spirit as inconsequential because it does not lend itself to proof positive. It cannot be defined in material terms. It is insubstantial in human experience.

As a result, some men seeking certainty in their earthly sojourn make the assumption that what does not yield to physical criteria cannot be said to exist. They prefer to think that all that man experiences emotionally can be explained physically. They look to chemistry to explain the brain and its functions. They dismiss the heart as serving a single purpose. They are unwilling to entertain any concept or belief that cannot be physically apprehended and proved.

Some men who hold this firm belief in the purely physical persist until death in their mistaken assumptions and beliefs, but the great majority of those self styled empiricists are moved by their life's experiences and perhaps by the promptings of the heart they so narrowly define to reconsider their dismissal of the spirit and life beyond the purely superficial and physical. Those with fine minds delve as deeply into the beliefs they originally rejected as they had into their original empirical judgments, and out of this reexamination often comes a deep and enriching change of heart. The former cynic turns believer and feels a sense of achievement open only to those who achieve from former denial.

Turned believer, most are open in their profession of faith and are thereby influential. Much good comes of their words, and within themselves those special souls know the excitement of discovery and the inner peace of absolute conviction, conviction born in doubt and nourished by faith. They serve well.

Day 71

Wednesday, 12/9/98 11:45PM

In man's infinite seeking he encounters questions beyond numbering that try his understanding. In times of trial the intensity of his questioning increases, and he is hard pressed to maintain steady faith when answers elude him. He questions his role in a complex world. He seeks to know the certainty of happiness in this existence and he wonders when it seems elusive. There are times when he feels that he is ill equipped to cope with the demands of his daily existence, and he is tempted to surrender to depression and despair. He looks to those bound to him in loving relationships and seeks to borrow their strength.

It is the blessing of love given and received that man is more often than not rescued from the depths of despair by those loving souls who offer him reassurance and hope and bend all their energies to helping him solve the problems which so distress him. They cannot fully answer the questions which bedevil his mind, but they offer a release from anxiety, from depression and despair. They offer new hope and the soul in distress finds in this heartfelt aid partial response to his questions. He realizes that in some ways the problems he encounters in his daily existence can be blessings in disguise, for they bring to him awareness of the love that surrounds him, the love that offers sympathy and understanding, and always all that is needed in material support. He achieves a richness of emotional awareness and an increased gratitude for the selflessness of the love that has been offered to him in his need.

Thus man progresses through trial to understanding to acceptance of the wonder of love, of its power to transform the most trying of experiences into a glorious realization of the power of the soul to triumph, to know the perfection of love shared, and to see clearly the wonder of progression.

Day 72

Thursday, 12/10/98 11:34PM

It is pleasing to man when he knows both the fullness of love in this life and the fullness of love he knows in his divine belonging.

It is sometimes difficult for the soul bound to earth to have full awareness of his divine origin and of his divine identity as man. There are institutions devoted to remind man of this divine connection, and in many ways they serve him well. They offer reassurance of all that his heart tells him is true. They assure him that he is a child of God, destined to know greatness and perfection in the light of the divine presence. To this extent, he is well served. This teaching serves man in persuading him of his own worth, of the infinite love that is his from a God whose sole concern is his welfare. It serves to remind him that no matter how difficult the journey though life, its end is a glorious justification.

Those who so guide and encourage man are indeed blessed. Among those blessed souls are some who exceed the limits of their mission. They go beyond assuring man of his worth, of his divine nature, of his inevitable progression to heavenly joy, and they add to this teaching, strictures which have no reasonable relationship to the purity of the basic lesson of love.

Each of these strictures has the predictable result of alienation -- man against man, group against group, leader against leader -- and of creating within the community of those who call themselves guardians and nourishers of man's soul divisiveness and conflict. God is not pleased with this divisiveness. He deplores the struggles for control over the souls of those struggling through life's challenges. He counts each man blessed who reaches the end of his mortal journey who has not only learned to live in love but who has spurned the seduction of sectarian divisiveness.

Not all those who purport to speak for God speak truly. Listen for the spokesman who asks only that you love without reserve, that you rejoice in giving, that you are grateful for receiving, that you hear always the divine voice praising you for embracing your brother in the perfection of love that finds constant expression in thought, word, and deed. No more is required.

Day 73

Friday, 12/11/98 10:25PM

During the course of human life man in his infinite variety experiences all that he has chosen to know in this life. It is difficult for the mortal mind to encompass the vast numbers involved in the human experience over so long a time as earth has known habitation. It is difficult for man to look outward and to envision the enormous differences that exist among his brothers. There are pockets in the world today primitive in their ways existing on the same small planet earth with others critically advanced in scientific method and awareness. Regardless of the culture, there are those human brothers who exist in need while others know a surfeit of material riches.

Such variety in human existence is a source of concern for those who would like to comprehend fully the reason for life. The answers to this basic and basically unanswerable question must await man's greater enlightenment, but he is well advised if he remembers that the richest of men materially may be the poorest spiritually, that the wisest of men intellectually may be the poorest spiritually, that the most sophisticated of men mentally may be the most naive spiritually.

I do not suggest that there is a necessary dichotomy between the mind and the spirit. Many wise man are able to reconcile the two, but the world is too willing to use as a standard of measurement worldly success whether it be in monetary, social, or professional standards. This is neither wise nor enlightened. Man in his earthly journey is surrounded materially as he chose before coming to this life. His spiritual journey is the measure of his success. In this he strives against all odds to maintain a steady faith in the miracle of love given and received in all his earthly relationships, in all his daily encounters.

There are times when the world recognizes the soul who epitomizes the miracle of progression against all odds, and this recognition is commendable, but all too often the worthy soul labors silently and without recognition progresses, and the world is poorer for not having recognized his greatness.

So, My beloved children, be aware of the blessing that life offers all men in the embrace of love, of love lived in daily human existence and of love divinely ordained.

Day 74

Saturday, 12/12/98 11:35PM

In the course of a man's life he is faced constantly with challenges both to his faith in himself and to his faith in his purpose in life, his destiny, so to speak. It is not easy in the face of these challenges to feel absolute certainty. Humility is a part of man's nature and it is a partial answer to this uncertainty.

Man faced with challenge considers himself capable of meeting this particular challenge, but he wonders often how much more he can face with confidence. If his response to the original challenge suffices, his confidence is not only restored but strengthened. If, on the other hand, man knows the disappointment of defeat in the face of challenge, if he finds himself unable to meet its demands, his confidence suffers and he considers himself weakened. He dreads the uncertainty that fills his being and he longs for help.

Sometimes this help is immediately forthcoming. It may come in the form of aid from those who love him and who are able to ease his anxiety and to meet his needs. It may come from an unexpected turn of circumstances which gives him surcease from anxiety and promises solution. In any case, man rescued from the frustrations of failure feels both a sense of gratitude and an awareness of his human limitations.

Yet time after time in these circumstances man finds within himself an inner strength. He comforts himself with the sure knowledge that his efforts represented the full measure of his resources. He comforts himself with the awareness of the caring love that came to his aid. He finds in himself faith that no challenge will ever be too overwhelming to meet response, and he finds in himself added strength in this awareness.

Each time man triumphs over adversity, no matter its degree, he progresses. Each step in this progress is further proof of his divine nature.

Day 75

Sunday, 12/13/98 11:18PM

One of the pleasures man knows most fully in his life's experiences is the pleasure of doing good. The desire to benefit others is a significant part of man's nature from the moment of birth, and each time he is able to satisfy this need to please others it becomes a more complete part of his nature. He knows such satisfaction in affording others joy that he becomes a part of that joy.

There is no man born in any circumstance at any time who is not capable of affording pleasure to others. The infant in his crib is a source of joy to all who behold him and share in the love he engenders. The child in its growing years continues to afford pleasure to all who are involved in his development, all who follow his progressing from dependence to independence. With adulthood comes more complete control over behavior and more responsibility for responsiveness to others.

The happy man is one who reaches adulthood with full awareness that the key to happiness in this life is sensitivity to the needs of others and absolute willingness to meet these needs. It is of little import whether the soul in need be a dear one or a stranger. Truly the degree of satisfaction is at all times magnified by meeting the needs of one completely separated from family and friends. In all, man's pleasure in doing good, in befriending friend and foe alike, in seeking to satisfy the needs of his fellow man in all ways is supremely important in all he seeks to achieve in this life.

There is no man so deprived that he cannot find pleasure in assisting his brother in need, in demonstrating the love that binds man to man and man to God. There is no end to the miracle of giving, of bringing a smile to the face of his brother. In this way man pleases himself, his brother, and the God whose love embraces both.

Day 76

Monday, 12/14/98 10:47PM

Whatever pleases man in the purity of love given and received pleases God. Let there be no mistake in this assumption. Let man be completely sure that if he acts in love he cannot err. Let him know that all his efforts to translate feelings into love find favor with the Lord.

Not all men feel fully confident in this life of doing all that they feel wise and good. For some men their efforts seem too simple to please beyond the ordinary. For others their efforts seem unfocused, simply a yearning to do all that is good and right, and they do not try to please specifically and yet they succeed in doing so. All men act in awareness that their actions have effect. Their efforts may be of no measure, easily dismissed. Others may seem less easily dismissed, but of no great import. The rest bear scrutiny.

When man acts in love, be it love of self, love of others, or love of God, his actions are laudable. There are those who would disagree, who would say, "How can this be? How can man act in love of himself and be pleased?" The answer is simple. If man acts in love of himself he acts to increase his awareness of his human worth. He acts to seek approval, to find in the words of others reassurance of his worth. If he is hurtful in his actions he recognizes his error. If he is not hurtful in his actions he summons to himself a certain feeling of self worth that he has sought always. In the richness of self worth so lately achieved man finds it within himself to reach out to others in love shared. Having deemed himself worthy, he finds himself worthy of sharing, and in his new found confidence he finds reservoirs of love that he longs to share.

This is truly a miracle in human existence, this discovery that the most uncertain of men may become the most certain and may find richness in his worldly experience in the sharing that this new awareness affords. All men share in its perfection of love achieved, shared, and enriched. All men profit. God is pleased.

Day 77

Tuesday, 12/15/98 11:50PM

Man in all his achievements is singularly dependent. His victories are hollow if they lack approbation. He achieves little if he achieves much without the loving approval of those he cherishes. No man exists in an emotional abyss. No man seeks success if he knows that his achievement of all he seeks is unmarked by those he holds dear. He seeks success in all ways. He desires the innermost feelings that success brings to the heart and spirit, but above all he seeks to share his success and to know it has value in the eye and heart of all those whose opinions he holds dear.

There are times when man forgets this absolute need. He forgets that all he seeks he seeks in the company of others. He forgets that victory is as nothing if not shared. So informed, man revises his concepts. He knows that at each step he takes in this life he is enriched by the loving support of those whose love he shares. He knows that each step he takes must be one that profits all those bound to him in love. He knows that all he does must contribute to the total welfare of those to whom he owes allegiance.

Beyond this simple fealty he knows that his debt is one he cannot easily repay, that he owes lifelong devotion to all his fellow men, be they close or far, and in this awareness he finds peace and a sense of commitment that serves him well. He does not waver in his path. He does not doubt his motives. He has full confidence in his capability. He goes forward with absolute assurance that each act of his life is an act of loving sharing.

His life is therefore transformed and he knows no doubt. He knows no fear. He knows instead a fulfilling sense of joyful accomplishment. He knows peace.

Day 78

Wednesday, 12/16/98 11:55PM

The vast majority of men traveling through this life are content with their lots. They know within themselves the degree of belonging that comes from their choice of life. Though they do not consciously remember their choice, they feel in their very souls the rightness of belonging. Even when man knows the most tortured of lives, the most brutal of experiences, he finds within himself a certain recognition of the rightness of his lot and he knows strength in meeting all the challenges that confront him.

There are times when he is tried almost beyond endurance, when he does not suffer alone but shares with countless others the suffering imposed by one who forgets his promise to act in love and is rather motivated by greed and a lust for power which cripples his soul and which disregards completely the common good. He rots inside while proclaiming his power, and those he holds subservient suffer immeasurably.

There is no simple answer to the problems of earthly tyranny, but there is a consolation in the sure knowledge that all that occurs in a single life is minuscule in the total experience that all souls know, and that no matter how heart wrenching the experiences of a single life may be, they have value in the learning the soul seeks and needs on the road to eternal perfection.

The man, who in the direst of circumstances knows acceptance and love of his fellow men, be they beloved or be they oppressor, is the victor. All joy is his when his journey is ended. All share in his joy. He knows the blessing of a life well lived and of glory to come. He is at peace with himself.

Day 79

Thursday, 12/17/98 10:17PM

In the blessedness of being man finds peace. In the full awareness of his infinite goodness he finds infinite satisfaction. In the deepest recesses of his soul he beholds himself as a child of God, sacred in his being, perfect in the eyes of his Maker, destined for eternal glory and joyous sharing.

Man does not know this awareness of perfection at all times. It begins when he enters this life to seek to recapture and to renew the bonds of love divine that are his always. In his entry into human life he agrees to surrender awareness of all that fills his soul and to begin anew to learn whatever remains to be learned of the lessons of love in a life of his choosing. Man, armed with all the strength necessary to his mission, embarks upon the road of life with full determination to satisfy all promises, to learn all necessary lessons, and to live a life that exemplifies the perfection of love that is the only true perfection.

There are many obstacles and challenges in earthly experience, but man must remember that all he faces in life he faces in full agreement before coming to this earthly lesson. He needs to be aware that no more is ever asked of him than he can satisfy. He needs to be aware that he will need to resist temptation of all sorts, to resist the siren voices that attempt to lead him into the paths he should not take.

Man needs to know always that implicit in the human journey is a struggle for his soul, a struggle between the forces of good and evil striving to persuade him. It has been said that the devil is the source of all evil in human existence. There is reference in this appellation to a mighty struggle eons ago in which the forces of evil, personified by the devil, were cast out from eternal bliss and sentenced to eternal damnation. It is said that these fallen angels roam the earth to seduce man and to lead him into evil ways.

This myth has some basis in fact, for indeed there are lost souls who with the power of all spirits, speak to man and seek to entice him to abandon love for hatred, generosity for greed, faith for skepticism, acceptance for rejection.

The ultimate truth, however, differs completely from myth. Each of these lost souls is in time found. Each recognizes the infinite power of love and surrenders to this power. Each finds release in the acceptance of God's infinite love and finds promise in the possibilities of renewed opportunity to learn and to progress.

We call these wayward souls who seek for a time to mislead man the Others.

Day 80

Saturday, 12/19/98 12:55AM

Man in his infinite wisdom knows the wonder of love in all of his earthly experience. In the beginning of life this love is absolute in its perfection. It demands much and much is given. In its later manifestations the equation changes. The soul demands much and is perplexed when less is given. This is the pattern of life that demands learning of the soul come to earth.

Love is both a gift and a reward. No man refuses love, no matter its source. All men find reward in love freely given no matter its source. All men are moved to respond to this love freely offered and they seek to do so in fitting ways. Some love is offered in full assurance that the proffered love may be rejected, may be deemed unwelcome, may be said to be unworthy. Regardless of the reason for rejection, this love is not quenched. It survives rejection and seeks other expression. Those who rejected this love wonder in its abeyance if they have not somehow erred, if they lacked wisdom and awareness in that rejection. Indeed man often errs in this way and only by trial and error does he realize his folly. He learns that proffers of love are not to be lightly regarded, that each time he is offered an opportunity to know the wonder of love he should embrace it fully and at no time question the nature of its origin.

Man, well advised, learns that love is the ultimate privilege, the perfect gift binding man to man and man to God. He learns to recognize the perfect giving that love affords, and he learns above all that the response to perfect love is perfect love returned. No more need be offered. No more need be demanded. No more.

Day 81

Saturday, 12/19/98 11:40PM

In his tolerance, man reflects the divine nature of his being.

There is in the divine plan no room for intolerance, for the harsh judgments that divide men and lead to hurtful encounters. It is totally within the capacity of all souls come to earth to live in peace, to accept fully all the differences that mark his neighbor. He is at all times called upon to respect each and every difference and to bring to all his relationships with his fellow man the tolerant acceptance that peaceful coexistence demands and to expect tolerance in return.

All too often the soul in progress is tempted to forget this absolute demand for tolerant love and permits himself to be fearful rather than respectful of the differences that separate him from his neighbor. He begins to know the hesitance that is the precursor to rejection. He begins to see danger where danger does not exist. He finds those different from himself threatening in various degrees and he lets his heart harden. Far from feeling love for those he regards as alien and therefore less than worthy, he entertains feelings of hostility, hostility born in fear of the brother whose only sin is the sin of difference, thereby not a sin at all.

Man is infinitely diverse in many ways, and in this very diversity there is beauty and richness. In this diversity is constant opportunity for learning. When man embraces all those who are part of the brotherhood of man regardless of color, creed, or cultural variance, he lives in love as he is meant to. He recognizes that there is no ground for fear in his relationships with others who are different from him in various ways. He recognizes the pure goodness inherent in tolerant acceptance. He gains in tolerance by offering tolerance.

Man has much to learn from those who challenge his tolerance. He is the richer in all ways for this learning.

Day 82

Sunday, 12/20/98 6:50PM

There is such a sweetness in man's nature. It is sometimes difficult to maintain a steady faith in this sweetness when man is beset by trials and tribulations, but it is exactly at such times that man must exhibit his faith in those with whom he shares his earthly voyage, for voyage it is.

Man comes to this life in full agreement of all he is given and in full acceptance of all that he is not given, and in his acceptance he knows the value of each. He knows that richness in earthly life offers greater temptations at the same time greater opportunity. He knows that deprivation in this life demands greater acceptance and greater opportunity to know spiritual progress. There are many souls become man who seek a middle course, who knowing both their strengths and their needs, elect to do less than absolutely necessary and to strive to do more than absolutely promised. In all cases man's success or failure in his earthly striving is weighed in proportion to all he has promised, to all he has been given in capacity, and to all he has constantly attempted to offer in love without limitation.

The world so profits by the loving heart whether it comes in the incarnation of brilliance or of idiocy, of richness or of impoverishment. The trappings of human life are largely insignificant, basically a measure of the balance between what is given and what must be given in response. Man is at all times conscious in his innermost soul of this divine justice. He needs nothing of earthly beneficence to guide him on his way. He needs only the promptings of his heart. He needs only to listen to the voice that speaks of love and giving and perfection to come. Therein lies the sweetness of the soul.

Day 83

Monday,12/21/98 10:31PM

It is difficult for man to comprehend fully his own worth. It is difficult for him to maintain a steady faith in all he does in the name of love. He needs gratitude and reassurance. All too often these responses are not forthcoming.

It is implicit in human existence that love must be given freely and received gratefully. It is important that man be aware always of the need to respond to all manifestations of love in words that make his gratitude clear. Such words not only reassure the giver but encourage him in his giving and blessings multiply. Take away this response and the generous soul has misgivings about the appropriateness of the love he has offered. He doubts his wisdom and discrimination, and his hesitance in trusting his loving instincts deprives countless others.

There are some men who find free expression of love given and received difficult. In some cases their upbringing did not include the constant expression of love. The words are awkward to the tongue. In other cases man's instinct to give love generously has been diminished by repeated rebuffs and ingratitude. The wisest and most understanding of men are able to persist in their loving ways regardless of response. Ideally all men should have this capacity.

There is such an infinite need for love in the human heart and soul that no man can resist indefinitely proffers of love. The most hardened of hearts bows to the inevitable and recognizes in himself the first faint stirrings of responsive love. In time, with full grace and encouragement, he learns to offer to others what he has learned to accept, and the cycle of love given and received knows new impetus and all are enriched.

In this way the world becomes a better place, and all men profit in renewal and exchange of love that strives always for perfection. That is the wish of all those who guide men on their earthly journey and await.

Day 84

Tuesday, 12/22/98 11:04PM

In the course of human life man knows many crises. Some are crises of physical origin, crises which may mortally affect those he loves and test his faith in the face of sorrowing love. Some may test his material security and cause him to doubt the capacity he believed he had to provide for his loved ones. He may blame himself, often without basis, or he may blame society, sometime without basis, sometimes with, but in all cases his anxiety knows no bounds and is satisfied only by solution. At times this solution is readily at hand and provides quick relief. At other times man must struggle over varying periods of time to surmount obstacles seemingly insurmountable. He must, if he is to succeed both materially and spiritually, maintain a steady faith in himself, in those dependent upon him and in the God he trusts and relies upon.

Prayer is a powerful instrument of change, though not always in the way man perceives it. Prayer may, as has been said, move mountains. There are an infinite number of recorded cases where prayer has resulted in miracles, in lives restored to health, in love recovered, in despair turned into hope, in alienation turned into love, in cynicism turned into faith. Stories abound of divine intervention, of angelic succor, of miraculous response. Man needs to be aware of such wonders, but he needs to know as well that prayer is a powerful instrument regardless of result or response.

Prayer puts man into direct contact with the God of all, and this direct contact has been pleasing to God since the beginning of time. He responds always, though perhaps not in the exact terms of the petition, but His response is always one that fills the soul of the petitioner with awareness of infinite divine love, of the awareness of the wisdom of all he is granted, and this awareness inspires in him the acceptance that is the perfect response to all he seeks. Man through prayer finds hope and peace, and his oneness with the divine nature of God is thereby progressed.

So pray, My little ones. Pray for relief. Pray for comfort. Pray for reassurance. Pray to know the divine lesson of love. All will be granted. You are always heard.

Day 85

Wednesday, 12/23/98 11:47PM

Love is infinite in its giving. Love is all things to all men. Love is eternal. It cannot be erased. It is never wasted. Love begets love and knows increase joyfully. Love feeds the soul and inspires the mind. There is no end to the miracle of love. It sustains. It devours hatred. It buoys the spirit in all ways.

Man in his voyage through life learns all these things about love. He knows that there is no greater gift to both the giver and to the receiver. When he is tempted to forget the power of love he needs only to be reminded to be freshly aware. When man does not respond to reminder and fails to act in love, he loses a part of himself. His life becomes emptier, and nothing but renewed love can rescue him from this vacancy.

There are times when man does indeed lose his awareness of the absolute necessity of love to sustain him in goodness and in grace, when he listens to the inner voices persuading him that he can survive without love, that his road to happiness lies in self absorption and in self indulgence. He fills his life with empty pleasure and forgets the absolute admonition that nothing can replace the power of love, that no material richness equals the richness of love.

The fortunate man is one who before it is too late, before his capacity for love has withered, realizes the errors of his life and returns to the path of love given and received, and in this return recovers the spiritual robustness that he had thought lost for good. Fortunate is the man who finds willing hearts responding to his need and guiding and encouraging him in the full expression of love shared.

There are some souls who do lose their way in this life, who let their souls grow barren and who refuse to believe themselves fallible. These unfortunate few must wait until they have passed from this life for full awareness of how erroneous their conduct has been, how misguided they have been in the ways of love, and they must begin anew to learn the lessons of love neglected and scorned in the life just past. For these souls there is new hope in new effort, and they are belatedly aware of the importance of love.

Day 86

Thursday, 12/24/98 11:50PM

At all times, even in the darkest hour, man is blessed with promise. He is not always aware of this promise, but at all times it awaits him. He knows in his innermost soul that this life with its trials and tribulations is but a part of the whole. He feels instinctively in the worst of times that better times are coming. He is never disappointed in himself so long as he keeps this steady faith. He is never in error in believing that the direst of experiences will see an end and that relief follows.

This buoyancy of spirit in the face of burdens heavy to bear is a gift, and it rarely fails man as he progresses through life. He is encouraged in this optimism in many ways. Sometimes circumstance provides him with relief and solution of his problems and he senses a divine hand in control. Sometimes he is aided and encouraged by the words and efforts of those who love him. Sometimes he knows a stranger's kindness. Always his inner voice speaks to him of goodness and grace to come. Sometimes he hears and heeds this angelic counsel. Whatever the nature of the source, man becomes aware that he is not alone in his afflictions, that he need not feel abandoned either by his God or by his fellow man, and each day that passes brings him closer to the glory he will know when he departs this life.

Not all men either accept or benefit by help proffered in the depth of their despair, and they choose to abandon hope and to take full responsibility for ending their human existence and thereby escaping the trials they find unendurable. Even these souls are blessed with promise, for they discover that although they have rejected human existence they find new life. They are granted full awareness of the total love and forgiveness that awaits all men past the threshold of death, but they become aware equally of all that they have tried to escape and they agree readily that their escape from the problems of life was not an escape at all, that all that they failed to learn in life just past they must learn in another. This new wisdom is a source of comfort and the soul once again knows promise.

There is, therefore, no failure for the soul. There is no end to promise.

Day 87

Christmas Day 12/25/98 11:28PM

At his best, man reflects his divine gifts. He accepts all of life -- its travail and its triumph equally -- and seeks to find learning in each experience. He seeks to reach out in love to all those in need and to please his God by sharing his gifts. He wants to bring to others awareness of their absolute need for love given and received and to persuade them that there is no substitute for a life lived in love of both man and God.

The most perfect of souls, those well on their way to total perfect oneness -- are the most to be admired. They stand as examples of perfection to their struggling brothers and they encourage all those who admire them from afar to draw closer and to share their generous love. In giving they find absolute enrichment and in giving they enrich the lives and souls of all those who willingly and joyfully accept the love offered to them.

There is never a time on earth when the full exchange of love fails the test of effectiveness. It is impossible to say exactly how long in earthly terms man must seek to achieve perfection in his love for himself, for his brother, and for his God. Some men learn and accept quickly the absolute necessity of love given and received. Others take longer to learn this vital lesson. It is enough to say that if man fails to learn the lessons of love and to live his life accordingly he must do in another life all he has failed to do in this.

Total failure in not permitted to any soul. Though the road to perfect belonging may not be straight and true for all men, all men are destined to follow it to the end, no matter how long, no matter its twistings and its obstacles. This absolute promise of oneness is man's greatest gift, one he should cherish always.

Day 88

Saturday, 12/26/98 11:09PM

In the sum total of each human life there is a mixture. Each life knows both joy and sorrow, surfeit and want, wisdom and ignorance, acceptance and rejection. Man is called upon to choose good above evil at all times, to reject greed in favor of giving, to love under all circumstances, and to find in himself total acceptance of all his worthiness.

Not all lives are equally balanced. Some know more deprivation and trial. Others know more comfort and more ease. All are equipped to meet these differing demands. All share totally the possibility, perhaps the inevitability, of spiritual progress. Man is not at all times aware that his reason for existence is to progress, however rapidly or however slowly, along the path to the perfection that permits total oneness with the supreme being, God, Father, Creator.

Even when man is least aware, this progress is measured and noted, and when death brings man to full awareness of his purpose in earthly existence, he becomes fully aware of the progress or lack of progress he has made in his life just ended. He sees clearly when and how he has succeeded in satisfying his compact and equally how he has failed. In this awareness he sees clearly what steps he must take in his next existence to correct past errors and omissions and to seek new heights of achievement. He knows exactly what he must do and he gladly vows to do all that is necessary.

There is great joy for all souls in this reckoning. It is truly gratifying for the soul newly released from earthly existence to discover the overwhelming power of the love that is his and to know with absolute certainty that this love is eternally his. Some souls, full of the joy of heavenly existence, return reluctantly to another earthly existence, but knowing its inevitability accept with good grace all that is deemed necessary.

So goes the cycle of man. Each life brings learning and each life brings awareness of progress to the soul's divine goal.

Day 89

Sunday, 12/27/98 11:54PM

It behooves man to examine closely all he does in this life in the name of love. From the very beginning of life man knows love as his strongest motivation. As an infant he know no emotion so pure. He offers love without condition and he inspires response without condition.

With the advent of early adulthood man becomes somewhat more critical and more discriminating in his capacity to give the love he once felt boundless and universal. The young look for response, and in their uncertainty they feel that love must be carefully measured less it be taken for granted and therefore, in a sense, deprived of adequate response. Man becomes fearful of rejection, of disapproval, of ridicule, and it becomes his responsibility to go further in his learning and to realize that no matter the nature of his unsureness about response he will find joy in expressing his love for his brother and for all those he holds dear regardless of response or the lack of response. Thus assured he finds that most of his fears are groundless, that each gesture of love may be its own reward but that generally each gesture of love begets loving response and is therefore strengthened in its giving and gratified in its response. Each gesture of love magnifies.

This lesson enriches every aspect of man's earthly experiences. Love becomes a shield against all hurt and harm. Love learns to accept rebuff and to transform it into acceptance. Love, man realizes, is the ultimate road to earthly happiness and the only true necessity in life. Each day brings him closer to the perfection of love that is the absolute necessity of all life, and in this realization, this awareness, man finds his life immeasurably enriched and the path to perfection made smooth.

Day 90

Monday, 12/28/98 11:44PM

I speak often of the great nature of man born to earthly life, of his capacity for love, his tolerance for suffering, his willingness to accept trials in good faith. I speak of the hope that buoys his spirits in troubled times and of his certainty that he is learning through trial and error. I speak of his gratitude for all the wonders he knows in love given and received and of his steady progress to the perfection of love that he came to this world to learn and to attain.

Man is indeed a source of wonder. He reflects the goodness inherent in his divine origin, and under the most difficult of circumstances this innate goodness not only survives but thrives and grows. It is a constant source of strength both to the soul and to those who love and depend upon him.

Man does not exist in a vacuum. He depends upon others at each point in human life and others in turn depend upon him. This interdependence is a source of great learning for man. He find himself sensitive to the needs of others and in turn he finds others sensitive to his needs. His impulse is to reach out a hand to those in need and to offer all he can in the way of support both

practical and emotional. In his helping he finds not only satisfaction but growth and new awareness of his own capacities. He knows pleasure in his caring. When the tables are turned and he is in need of help he finds himself comfortable in accepting whatever aid is necessary and grateful to be so befriended.

Need creates a bond between the giver and receiver and this bond enriches both souls. Never doubt this truth. Never hesitate to give. Never be loathe to accept. Both the giver and receiver are blessed. One could not exist without the other. Both please God.

Day 91

Tuesday 12/29/98 11:35PM

In the fullness of time man achieves all that he need achieve. Not all men are privileged to know swift progress to the perfection of love that admits to oneness. Not all souls find the path to oneness smooth and straight, but the ease of the journey is of little consequence. The end is all.

It is difficult for humans to begin to imagine the absolute glory that awaits when they have done all that was required in their earthly journeys. There is no way that man can envision heavenly existence. There is no way that man can appreciate fully the strength and beauty of heavenly love. There is, therefore, an element of wonder and surprise, of total exultation when the soul is admitted to oneness with the divine power. Words cannot describe the ineffable joy of this admission. It is enough to say that the soul admitted to glory knows perfect love fully expressed and in this perfect love finds finally the reason for life on earth.

One might be tempted to ask more of this human journey, to seek to understand more completely the apparent inequities in earthly existence. Full understanding is beyond human perception, but man needs to understand that life charted for him before he begins his voyage is exactly what he has agreed to. The soul preparing for human existence knows what he needs to learn, what he has failed to learn earlier, and with loving assistance he plans the life to come, a life designed to teach with exactness what he needs to know. The choice is his, though he is aided in many ways by wise and caring spirits who have chosen to devote themselves entirely to effecting the will of God by guiding their human charges in all the paths that lie ahead.

All those involved in guiding the soul returning to human existence on his way are totally devoted to easing all he faces in his transition, in the struggles to come, in his inevitable triumph over all temptations. They are secure in the divine awareness that no soul is permitted failure to achieve perfection, that no matter how long and difficult the journey may be, no matter how often man must begin his journey anew, at the end of the road lies glory, total joy, absolute oneness, the ultimate goal of all souls, unsurpassed in all ways.

Day 92

Wednesday, 12/30/98 11:50PM

Under no circumstances is man permitted to fail in his ultimate quest. There are an infinite number of paths he may choose to take. There are many obstacles that may cause him to doubt the wisdom of his choice, but there is no obstacle so great that it cannot be overcome. At each juncture of the road of life, man is faced with choice, a choice he alone can make in full awareness of his individual responsibility. If he errs, he alone must seek correction, though he is often aided by those who love him on the earthly plane and those who love and guide him from afar. Always the loving spirit who is with him always seeks to guide him out of error.

There are times when man fails to recognize the error of his ways, who proceeds down the path he should not take oblivious of the dangers that lie ahead. In those cases man fails to listen closely to the wise words that are his to hear and to heed and he suffers thereby.

Rarely does man pursue a foolish path for very long. He most often recognizes the folly of his ways and seeks to redress errors and to find the peaceful self satisfaction that all men seek. In these cases little harm is done, and yet the soul may experience delay in his advancement to spiritual perfection. In all cases the soul having gone astray rejoices in recognizing its errors and amending it ways to find pleasure in this earthly journey. The source of this pleasure is always the same. The source of earthly happiness is always in the giving and receiving of love, knowing absolutely that all else is insignificant, that there is no substitute for this divine sharing.

All men are brothers on the same journey. It matters not what each one knows in richness or in poorness, in sophistication or in simplicity. It matters not the circumstances of each individual life. What matters is the communality of man traveling through life, their shared origins, their intrinsic goodness, their need to progress to the ultimate goal of oneness with the divinity. Man is not always conscious of his striving to reach this ultimate goal, but wisdom comes in time and in his new awareness this goal finds reason.

Day 93

Thursday, 12/31/98 11:50PM

In the fullness of time all questions are answered, all doubts resolved, all promises kept.

There is a sweetness in the cycle of life both in its beginning and in its end, and all between these two depends entirely upon man's choice. Each life is marked by trial and temptation, but these are as nothing to the soul in journey who knows the wisdom of acceptance and loving response. In this acceptance man finds peace and in this peace he finds happiness. He discovers that there is no problem too great to be resolved. He knows triumph in his awareness of his inner strength, and in this strength he finds it possible to reach out to others in need and to offer loving aid and encouragement. He serves as an example to his brothers who in turn find strength in his strength, caring in his caring, and are thereby enabled to extend their help to others in need. Thus the cycle of love given and received is magnified and extended indefinitely.

Thus man serves as an instrument of love and peace, and in this role he finds both fulfillment and awareness of his spiritual well being. He longs to share all he knows of love and giving and finds welcoming recipients. In all he does he pleases man and God and his own needs.

Day 94

Friday, 1/1/99 11:42PM

There is a divine consistency in the cycle of life. There is at all times a balance between what is given to man and what is demanded of him. There is at all times consistency in all that transpires in a single life and in the lives that follow or precede. Man comes to human life of his own accord and he pursues a path of his own choosing in each incarnation. This plan, wisely selected, guarantees spiritual progress provided that man achieves all the goals he had chosen to achieve during his earthly sojourn.

Not all souls experience total success in the achievements they seek, but all souls know a measure of success or failure according to their response to challenge and distraction. At each point in the road of life man has the opportunity to succeed fully. He has at all times the capacity to choose wisely and to act accordingly. He has only to remember the perfection he knew as he began his earthly adventure. The soul freshly come from God is capable of all he has promised to achieve, all he has promised to learn. It is only later that he knows weakness and hesitation, only later that he loses awareness of his innate goodness, his perfection in God's eyes.

Even those souls who know repeated failure to keep their promises are never totally lost. Until their last breath they have the capability of recognizing and confessing error and aspiring to perfect love. They know that all they have not done must be corrected at a later time. They know that the lessons of love unlearned in one life remain to be learned in another, and despite all awareness of failure they know the wonder of hope and they aspire to be more successful in their next attempt to progress.

Day 95

Saturday, 1/2/99 11:50PM

Man at his finest is a true reflection of the God who made him. In goodness and generosity and unfailing faith in the power of love he is all he is meant to be. He fulfills all he means to be. When man succeeds in persevering in the path of goodness and giving, of faith and hope, of love unbound, he approaches the perfection that is the goal of all on their earthly journey. If man succeeds in living perfectly in the face of all trials and all temptations he need ask no more of himself.

It is not a simple matter to achieve a life lived so perfectly. All too often man doubts his goodness and his capacity for love, and in this doubt he becomes vulnerable to the voices that seek to distract him from his goals and persuade him to indulge himself at the expense of others. The first step that man takes in response to these devious voices makes it more difficult to return to the path to perfection. Man, in his weakness, finds pleasure and comfort and forgets the empty nature of selfishness. He continues to listen to those voices we call the Others, and they delight in each misstep he takes and strive to increase their margin of victory over the hapless soul who has surrendered to temptation and lost his way.

Not all souls return to the paths of love they have abandoned in pleasure seeking, but the efforts of their guardian angel teachers never cease. They speak to the soul in turmoil and seek to overcome the effort of the Others. In some cases good prevails; in others it does not; and in each case man is aware that he has been influenced in ways he does not understand. The man who responds to the urgings of the spirits dedicated to his spiritual progress finds his way and senses the rightness of all he must do. Those who fail to hear and to heed the benevolent voices urging love and righteousness wander further afield and are, at least for a time, lost. They lack direction. They do not progress.

In time, all wrongs are righted and each soul come to earth knows ultimate success despite errors and omissions, for the God who gave them life offers to even the most wayward of souls infinite love and infinite forgiveness and infinite opportunity to undo error and to progress to perfection and oneness. Not all men know this glory in human life, but all souls do after human death and no soul is found wanting.

Day 96

Sunday, 1/3/99 11:12PM

In all of time there has been consistency in the human experience.

From the very beginning there was a single demand made of man in earthly existence and that single demand was that he know the expression of love in each aspect of his life. This was and is at all times a simple demand, and yet since the start of human existence man has not found it possible to succeed fully in meeting this single demand.

In answer to this significant failure in man we must consider that among his many gifts he was at all times granted the supreme gift of free will. From the very start of earthly existence, God found it wise and good than man know this gift. He was at all times aware that there was peril in this power, but in His full faith in man He was confident that free will would be a source of good at all times.

Man, in his weakness, mistook this gift for good for a gift for indulgence. He neglected to listen closely to his inner voices and felt instead a need to break free from the boundaries that tied him to his divine origin. He felt within himself strivings to defy the limitations inherent in his humanness and to exceed all limitations. He made material pleasure his goal and he strove to achieve and enjoy earthly pleasure at the expense of all else. He forgot.

In His infinite goodness God regarded this aberrant behavior as a temporary error. His love and forgiveness enveloped all souls regardless of their fidelity and their faithfulness to their divine origin. He welcomed awareness of error and offered unlimited and unconditional forgiveness. In the end, all souls recognized error and knew the perfection that was their inevitable destiny.

So it has been since time began, and in a world full of conflict, infinitely complex and divided, it is important that man be reminded that no matter the degree of error and distraction he will inevitably recognize the love that dominates all of human existence and forever has, and he will rejoice in the divine beneficence that all men know.

Day 97

Monday, 1/4/99 10:37PM

Man's innermost being yearns always to know the pleasure that love given and received affords. He seeks this love in many places, and it is the fortunate soul who finds it in many places. He finds that love has a contagion of its own and is therefore an effective tool. Man has only to express love to disarm the hostile. He has only to act in love to assure the wary. His words and deeds of love transform his life and he grows richer with each expression of love and enriches the object of his love. The world becomes a better place and all men profit thereby.

The miracle of love is one which needs little explanation. It speaks for itself and manifests its power to all who observe. The most reluctant of souls, hardened by earthly disappointment, cannot indefinitely reject love offered in all goodness and candor. Patience may be called for in such cases, but perseverance reaps rich rewards. Often the most needy of souls is the most dramatic in its surrender to love offered and the most gratifying to the giver. There is no end to grace when the unloved becomes the loved and in turn reaches out to others in need.

Man's glory in his earthly sojourn is directly dependent upon his practice of love under all circumstances with all souls. One needs only to look into the eyes of such a man and see in them reflection of the divine. This man, gratified in all ways, finds that he needs no more in life to be fully satisfied, and each day of his life is spent in both satisfaction and sweet anticipation of the wonders to come. This is the source of all human pleasure in life and has been ever. There is both justice and wisdom in this.

Day 98

Tuesday, 1/5/99 11:55PM

In all his efforts to achieve perfection, man is aided. He is aided by those divine spirits who wished him well as he began his earthly journey. He is aided by the one who chose to journey with him and to guide him in all ways to the end of his human existence. He is aided by all those he chose to know in life and to know in the full exchange of love and caring. Thus is man blessed. Thus is he fortified to meet the trials of human life, to answer the questions put to him, to conquer temptation, to succeed in his progress.

For some this aid is not enough. Man granted the power of free will is sometimes intoxicated by this power and chooses to pursue a path that offers gratification in many ways but which as well causes him to lose sight of his original goal. He forgets that he has come to this world to know the joy of spiritual progress. He forgets that the essential element of spiritual progress is to put the giving and receiving of love above all else in his life.

Rarely does man fail to recognize his error in trusting to material gratification to achieve happiness. Most often men, having tasted the pleasures that earth offers, are aware that they have erred and they seek to recover the blessed awareness that they brought with them into

earthly life. They discover anew the joys of love, both human and divine, and they hear anew the blessed voices urging them to know their full capacity to live in love.

Blessed are those who have known temptation, who have erred, and recognizing their error have come to full awareness of the true purpose of human life. Blessed are those who have aided and directed those erring souls back to the comfort of love, of giving without condition, and of receiving without reservation.

All of heaven rejoices when man pursues the path he has promised to take in full awareness of its significance.

Day 99

Wednesday, 1/6/99 11:32PM

Man in his weariness sometimes forgets his own wonder. He permits himself to be bowed down by the demands of life and feels uncertain of his capacity to succeed in all ways necessary to his welfare and to the welfare of those loved ones dependent upon him for sustenance. It is at such times that all the heavens strive to reassure him of his strength and to remind him that in the darkest moments he retains his most precious treasure, the love he shares freely and fully with others.

Sometimes man's problems do not lend themselves to quick solution. At these times he is called upon to exhibit patience and steady faith in his eventual triumph over trial. Even when his spirits fail him completely, he must keep alive his awareness of power beyond self, of unfailing caring and concern. He must know that however hopeless his situation, there is learning. So long as he strives with love in his heart and faith in himself he knows progress. He finds inner peace regardless of external circumstance.

It matters little the gravity of the perils man encounters, of the demands made upon him. What matters is his response. The wise man realizes that no matter how inept he may feel, no matter how powerless he may seem both to himself and to others, he cannot fail if he keeps a steady faith in the learning that life affords, if he accepts each experience as a step forward in the lessons of love that gives meaning to all of life.

There is, therefore, no defeat in life for the soul in journey who strives always to meet life's demands with a heart full of love and with a steady faith that all he knows of earthly experience serves him well.

Day 100

Friday, 1/8/99 12:25AM

Before man reaches the end of his earthly existence he has known much in joy and in sorrow. Man at all times experiences contrasting emotions. In his sorrow he seeks joy and he finds this joy in the love of those who share his sorrow and in the full awareness of the love that surpasses all other emotions. Man is gifted in his capacity to experience both joy and sorrow and to know that they are equal partners in his journey. Both teach him valuable lessons.

It is easy to understand the learning man finds in all the joy he experiences in life, for joy is closely allied to love and in love man knows the supreme emotion and knows in his heart that without love joy is impossible, at best a hollow victory. What man may find more difficult is acceptance of the truth that sorrow teaches as well, that it offers to man opportunity to appreciate the enormous importance of love as a source of comfort in time of travail. There is no comfort greater to the sorrowful man than love freely given. In this love he finds both distraction and surcease and eventually realization that the intensity of sorrow fades with time but that the intensity of love knows no limit to its growth.

Life in enriched by the contrast it offers to the soul seeking progress. Having experienced sorrow, the soul is increasingly grateful for joy. Having experienced joy, the soul becomes more aware of its preciousness with the advent of sorrow. Thus does man learn and in this learning progress.

Day 101

Friday, 1/8/99 11:45PM

Brief as human life is, it offers great opportunity to all to reach a full awareness of their significance in the divine plan. As children we are aware only of the vitality of each day's experiences. We seek joy in all our doings. We look to those we love for all we need. We expect no less than total support in every way in all we seek to do. When we are deprived, it is not only a source of disappointment but a source of challenge to be met. Each deprivation demands compensation.

I speak here as one who has known over and over the experiences each human knows during his journey. Man's life experiences have a universality that transcends time, distance, and culture. There is no environment so far removed that those who live in its confines do not share. There is no age when man does not share the strengths and weaknesses of his brothers separated from him in temporal identification. The simplest of cultures and the most complex of cultures each produce man barely distinguishable each from the other in their innermost striving and in their need for love.

No man exists in a vacuum. All men share in their striving and in their need, and in this striving and in this need they seek always the companionship and the support that makes life meaningful. The solitary individual does not know the joy of brotherhood, but he seeks it always and in its discovery knows delight and fulfillment.

Man needs no more to satisfy his desire to understand the reason for earthly existence than to know the joy of brotherhood and to be capable of sharing his material and emotional riches. In this sharing he knows reason. In this reason he finds joy. In this joy he recognizes his divine identity.

Day 102

Saturday, 1/9/99 8:55PM

There is in all men an inherent source of joy. He seeks to feel this emotion from the earliest days of his life, and in all ways he is aided in so succeeding by the love of those chosen to share his earthly existence in various ways. The fortunate man first knows joy through the love fully expressed of those who brought him to life in the full expression of love shared. His responsive joy creates further joy and an increased sense of the blessedness of the love that is fully shared both within and without the family.

Growth physically should mean growth spiritually, and those who are well loved and responsively loving are most likely to experience this growth and be glad in their awareness of the power of love given and received. There are some souls who, tempted and beguiled, for a time forget the central importance of love in their lives and attempt to find joy in ways selfish in nature and temporary in satisfaction.

Often the soul gone astray needs little reminding of error and makes every effort to return to the road of love so thoughtlessly abandoned. There are unfortunately some souls, a small percentage of the whole, who fail to become aware of the error of their ways and who persist in empty dreams. To the extent that these dreams do not recognize the need for love in all ways, their efforts to know joy in life fail. Unhappy is the man whose dreams continue fruitlessly to blind him to the only source of joy in human life. Such souls are to be pitied.

Know then that all men seek joy. Those who find joy in their lives find it in and through love freely shared and fully manifested in word and deed. This is the way of the Lord.

Day103

Sunday, 1/10/99 8:28PM

In all of life man knows the luxury of choice. At times this freedom appears less a luxury than a burden, but at all times it is a gift he learns to cherish, a gift that at all times meets his needs.

There are times when choice is painful, when man feels inadequate to choose, to distinguish the path he should take. There are times when man chooses unthinkingly, when he gives no thought because he attributes no importance to his decision. At times those decisions made without awareness of their importance become significant in the light of all that follows.

It is important, then, that man be aware at each moment of his life of the need to be thoughtful in response to all that life demands. Each and every step of the way through life offers opportunity for choice, and in each and every choice man needs to be guided by the single demand of him in this life. He needs to consider carefully what love demands. Even when it is most difficult to respond in love, this is indeed exactly what is needed for spiritual progress.

Man is not always aware of the central demand of his life, the absolute need to progress to the perfection of love that is the goal of all souls come to life. Even when he is not aware of its vital significance, man knows in his innermost soul that full expression of love is the key to earthly happiness, and once he knows the joy of a loving way of life he knows the key to happiness.

No more is demanded. No more need be sought, but all too often man is offered this opportunity to know the way and fails to respond. In these cases, man must assess his errors and his motives in full awareness that what he seeks is freely offered and demands only his commitment.

Day 104

Monday, 1/11/99 9:50PM

It is implicit in human existence that man recognizes the power of love from the very start of his existence. Man does not unerringly follow the road of love in all cases, but the vast majority of human voyagers, once love has been experienced, are aware of its supreme importance in the cycle of life.

Not all human paths are straight and smooth. All too often man becomes distracted and beguiled by temptation and surrenders to deeds and feelings that are unworthy of the striving soul. His progress is impeded, and he loses the steady confidence he once knew in awareness of his goals and all that is necessary to achieve them. At all times man is offered guidance and assistance by those heavenly bodies attuned to his need and fully resolved to be perpetually useful.

It behooves man to embrace the good efforts of these loving spirits, to know their efficacy, and to be grateful for their caring. With full awareness of these heavenly beings, man cannot go astray.

Day 105

Tuesday, 1/12/99 9:30PM

It is easy for man in his journey through life to lose faith. It is important that he not do so, for faith once tried and lost is more difficult to recapture than quicksilver cast on the ground.

[At this point my handwriting deteriorated to illegibility and what I could decipher made no sense, and so I crossed out the sentence and then turned to Martin,]

My love, never have I crossed out as I just did, but I so need to be once again your scribe, writing your words with accuracy. I ask this blessing.

[Martin resumed.]

Man clings to faith as though aware of its fragility when challenged. Man chooses at all times to defend all that his heart tells him he must believe, all he must cling to to reach his immortal goal. It goes without saying that man's individual beliefs differ widely from others equally held dear. It is therefore automatic that truth wears many disguises, that what one man perceives as truth another perceives as demonic influence.

How then do we know the true nature of conflicting beliefs, opposite views of the Deity? How can we strip man of the tenets he has been taught to revere without conscious evaluation, often without conscious and mature acceptance? How can man persist in the face of all he holds dear in his innermost soul when all the beliefs he held dear from childhood appear to him faulty and in error?

Often man is called upon to reevaluate all he has been taught of God, of His infinite power, of His infinite desire to be one to all and in all. Through this searching man grows in stature and wisdom and finds inner strength he never dreamed he possessed. He finds it within himself to speak of what his heart tells him is truth, and in this truth he finds infinite release.

No longer is he bound by the strictures of logic [I am not sure of this word.], of the dictates that he has to this point found a necessary part of faith. He rejoices in the freedom granted to the soul and in the promise of guidance to come. He is a soul redeemed and enlightened and totally free. He knows the beauty of the single requirement in human life, and in his holiness he practices this dutiful awareness of the vital nature of love. All those he loves join him in love given and received and all are enriched.

Day 106

Wednesday, 1/13/99 10:12PM

Man's talents find many outlets but no talent is comparable to his capacity for love, love unrivaled and unsurpassed. In all ways man's secondary talents are meant to complement this first, his infinite capacity for love.

Man is meant to meet his brother's needs in all ways, and when he finds himself useful in this way he finds himself blessed. It is therefore incumbent upon all souls come to earthly existence to seek to discover how each is best suited to serve well the brotherhood of man.

Some men are so gifted that there is no doubt in their minds of how they must live their lives in devotion to the gifts divinely bestowed. Such a man, a man profoundly aware of what he must do in this life, is truly an enlightened son of the Father. Whether his talents lie in medicine, religion, social service, or a myriad of other activities, all he is called upon to do is to use his talents developed as best he can to serve his brothers. It matters not at all the degree of sophistication that his talents represent. The man serving the lowliest of roles with love and caring in his heart is easily the equal of the rarest of intelligences and abilities seeking to serve equally.

Man is privileged when he knows with absolute confidence that he has found his reason for living, and in his acceptance of this role and his earnest efforts to succeed in service he becomes a soul to be envied. He knows inner peace, and in those he serves well he finds great satisfaction in their responsive love.

Not all men see clearly the significance of their lives, but even the most unaware will find awareness if they seek it truly. Man is meant to know pleasure and satisfaction in his earthly existence, and there is no pleasure or satisfaction greater than that of knowing that he has fulfilled his destiny as perfectly as he could.

Thus man pleases himself, all those bound to him in love in this life, and all those bound to him eternally. Above all he pleases God.

Day 107

Thursday, 1/14/99 9:54PM

In all of life lie conflicting emotions. Always at the start of life there is emotional simplicity. The infant needs all for survival, and he responds in the fullness of love and in his desire to please all those who share his existence.

As man progresses through life he is not always sure of his instincts, but driven by need, his purer motivations surface and his soul is glad. The soul in need knows no differences in those who offer aid, and in each case when aid is offered and gratefully accepted divine providence plays a part.

There are times in the course of a single life when that single life demands much more in holy intervention than is normally the case. The struggle that ensues is simple and the soul profits thereby. The soul, newly aware, seeks out places and times where it is possible to progress without the fanfare of approval that the heroic life often knows. No, the soul professes to act in love at each opportunity and to know that inner satisfaction is all, that there is no need for more, and I ask that all those who are bound in love share completely all they have learned.

Day 108

Friday, 1/15/99 9:12PM

Not all men are equally endowed in their earthly journeys. They differ from one extreme to the other in wealth, beauty, intelligence and other human attributes, but in one aspect all men are equal. Each soul come to earth comes with God's blessing and God's wish for his rapid spiritual progress. He comes as do all men straight from the heart of God, perfect in his potential for perfection, cherished in all ways.

In some lives man is called upon to choose between material success and spiritual success. In most lives these choices seems small and insignificant, but over a period of time habits are established and minor choices lead inexorably to major ones. The temptations confronting man are many and varied, and man finds it easy to excuse himself when he chooses material gratification over spiritual growth. It is comforting to him to dismiss minor selfish acts and to vow to be worthier, but once the next choice looms the decision to act is weighted in favor of the earthly pleasures and privileges he has become accustomed to.

Sometimes it takes great disillusionment, full awareness of the transitory nature of material gratification, to awaken man to a realization of past error and determination to live his life differently. He grows then to know the power of love and the sublime satisfaction that this unselfish love grants to all souls.

There is always room and time for man gone astray to return to the loving nature he brought with him into this life. Moments of awareness of love's beneficence light his life, and he finds it not only possible but pleasurable to reject the enticements of material success and temporal pleasure. He finds the path to perfection full of joy.

Day 109

Saturday, 1/16/99 9:40PM

There is such infinite goodness in the soul come to life that man finds it at times embarrassing to dwell upon this attribute.

It is easy to look upon the face of a child to know the little one's steady trust and faith and to find in this human life the perfection we associate with the divine. It does not take long for this sheer beauty of love come to earth to find reason in rejecting its perfection. It takes little temptation to persuade the very young of their own perfection to the point of disguising honestly the stirrings of the heart that presage a departure from the perfect love they brought to earth.

Not all children are equally susceptible to temptation. Indeed those seemingly most secure in the new paths they have chosen seem to invite careful consideration of how easily the very young can know the beginnings of error. It becomes so easy for these children to develop a sense of possessiveness that quickly degenerates into selfishness. Gentle caring at this point can work wonders. The child needs to be reminded that the joy of sharing lies in the giving as well as the receiving and that the more generously one shares the more generously one receives. This is a lesson well learned young. It is a lesson first learned at the mother's knee and which both welcomes and needs extension into other areas of childhood existence.

Look upon the face of a child who has found joy in sharing and know wonder. There is a blessing in this awareness whose roots grow strong and blossom into a lifelong habit of joyful sharing. The child is blessed, along with his peers, and the loving guide never ceases to know wonder at the universal generosity and goodness of love.

Day 110

Sunday, 1/17/99 10:27PM

Each day of each human life is a milestone. The most apparently insignificant of days is precious in and of itself, for it offers under any and all circumstances countless opportunities for the soul to turn with words of love to all those whose love he knows both on earth and eternally.

It is a truth not to be lightly dismissed that the most desolate and deprived of men knows a kinship with the Creator that is not to be superseded. The richest and most privileged of men too may know this divine closeness. No man is denied this possibility. No man is granted this gift with condition.

It is true that those who know wealth and power in human life are often so distracted by the measure of material well being that they enjoy that they are tempted to feel that no more is needed to bring them to perfect happiness. One has only to read of the rich and powerful to know the folly in this assumption. It is equally true that poverty and deprivation does not automatically confer upon man heightened awareness of his divine mission in life, nor does it insure a safe and successful spiritual journey. In both cases, and in all that lies between, man is freely offered the opportunity to know happiness and spiritual progress by living a life of selfless giving whatever his material circumstances, whatever his earthly success.

It is a measure of God's love for all His children that they are offered infinitely the chance to know true earthly happiness by living a life of love and progressing rapidly to spiritual perfection and faultless joy. Indeed, the soul needs to remember always that no matter the length of the journey through life, no matter the degree of ease or difficulty, no matter the errors of commission or omission, the reason for human existence is to learn all that is needed for eternal belonging, for the oneness that is the be all and end all.

Day 111

Monday, 1/18/99 11:24PM

There is beauty in all of human life even when this beauty is most difficult to perceive in the midst of earthly travail. Man suffering as he does so often in his journey through life, is a creature to be envied if he accepts the trials he faces with a heart full of love and a mind determined to best serve him and those he loves. It is not difficult perhaps to comprehend the logic in the axiom that earthly success may be a barrier to spiritual progress. Conversely, it is not difficult to equate earthly suffering with spiritual success. Man tends to find that the human who is beset by difficulties, sorely tried in all ways, is experiencing earthly travail as a prelude to spiritual success, that each human deprivation finds its reward in heavenly largess.

While there is a measure of truth in this interpretative oversimplification, it is equally true that there are glaring exceptions to this assumption. Many humans who know material success accept their good fortune in the purest of gratitude and seek to share in all ways with those less endowed with worldly goods. Conversely, among the most materially deprived one can find souls who, having lost awareness of this divine relationship and the promises they made, become bitter at the deprivation they know and fall utterly into despair. They forsake all their human responsibilities and neglect those dependent upon them for all things, primarily the gift of love. Such men find bitterness a friend and neglect in all ways their inborn capacity for a loving response to all that life offers and demands.

So runs the cycle of life. The man who remembers his divine origins and his firm intent to live in love and sharing is the man blessed in all ways whether he be rich or poor, sick or well. The man enticed into rebellion against the divine will finds himself deserted and lonely. Having served well those who sought to dominate him in the path of iniquity and rebellion, he finds himself seeking answers to his spiritual stagnation and human desperation. He finds in time the answers he seeks, but he is acutely aware of lost opportunity.

Man in his capriciousness chances much when he departs from the habits of goodness and grace. In time all men recognize their erroneous ways, and in time all return to the awareness they so easily discarded earlier in their life experience. In the end, all men are equal, but some are to be envied in their progression.

Day 112

Tuesday, 1/19/99 10:34PM

In all of life reason plays a vital part. Man is born a creature of reason. He seeks from the very start of life to understand cause and effect. He seeks to plumb the mysteries of the mind and to understand inspiration and expression. He seeks to understand fully the true genius of man in his relationship to his environment. He seeks always to extend this understanding into the depths of the human soul.

All this striving for full awareness of the nature of man is pleasing both in its innocent questioning and in its idealism. It is fitting that man seek to understand more fully his brother's nature in full awareness that in understanding better the nature of his brother he will gain in understanding of himself. When man achieves even a modicum of this understating he achieves much, for he reaches a point where he can feel confidence in asking of his brother awareness of all they share. He needs to persuade his brother of their common origin and shared destiny, and in his striving to touch his brother's heart and to inspire in that heart divine awareness he seeks all he needs in this life. Thus does brother inform brother of their shared destiny, and when this wondrous awareness begins to be shared by all who know their dreams then a mighty force is released.

Brothers united in the cause of love cannot be denied. They find strength in each other and they seek, each and every one, to show the strength of love to all who need and all who strive. It is impossible to imagine the strength thus created and impossible to imagine the power of this love to change the very face of mankind. Wonder will follow wonder. The world will exult in a new persuasion and a new awareness of the universality of divine love divinely shared.

There will be no lost souls. All of mankind will be as one in the full awareness of divine beneficence, and there will be no limit to the joyful proclamations that follow man to the far corners of the earth and persuade him that the time has come, that he must follow faithfully the dictates of his heart and allow himself to be led to the perfect peace he has sought always. He will rejoice in all he knows and he will seek endlessly to share.

This is the destiny of all men.

Day 113

Wednesday, 1/20/99 11:25PM

Man in his wisdom is aware at most times of the finite nature of his human capacities. He knows that he is subject in all ways to forces and powers beyond his control, that his very body is not his to command entirely. He realizes that he is at all times dependent, that he must learn to accept this dependence in good grace and seek to understand his relationship to the forces that control his physical being in ways vital to his survival.

Man responds in varying ways to this need to reconcile himself with his limited control over his physical existence. Many seek to extend this control by seeking to satisfy the needs of the body in ways they feel useful. Others choose to trust in a force that they know governs them, and they accept unquestioningly all that they know in physical well being or in physical illness. Some seek to identify this force and to recognize in their life span the caring of a supreme being, a force loving and nurturing. Still others refuse to accept anything but blind and unseeing fate, pure chance, as the reason for existence, as an answer to all that occurs between birth and death, and they are satisfied to know that human existence is a brief meaningless interlude beyond man's capacity to comprehend but essentially without significance.

What pleases one man in explanation does not please all, and mankind in all ages has sought for answers certain and irrefutable to the overwhelming question of the reason in human existence. Dogma has proliferated. Tomes have been written and then discarded. Wars have been fought by those who regarded themselves as true believers and all others as infidels.

In all of this seeking, man has sought comfort. He has felt the absolute need for reassurance that life is not an empty exercise, that his being is not bound by mortality. In all of this seeking, man has known peace only when he has concluded that his role in life is a simple one, that he is free from all other obligations than that of living in love and brotherhood. He has put this single road to happiness above all others, and in his single mindedness he has found strength. He has often been tried. He has often been falsely accused. He has been steadfast in his faith and he has known full awareness of his role in human existence.

Day 114

Thursday, 1/21/99 11:45PM

Man in his journey through life learns much of his own nature. Each man's perceptions may vary from those of his brothers, but there are realizations that all men share.

Chief among man's awarenesses is his need for companionship. From the very start of life, man realizes that he is not meant to be solitary. In his infancy he learns that love begins with total dependence and total response to love and the bonds between parent and child are forged. No matter the nature of his environment man grows into adulthood retaining the awareness he first knew in life of the absolute necessity of sharing, of giving and receiving love, and of knowing dependence on others.

There is no set pattern for man maturing from the dependence of infancy into the independence and individual responsibility of adulthood, but in all times and in all cultures the absolute need for companionship and caring becomes part of man's awareness. Ideally he finds companionship and caring in the love that begets a family, and he learns the sweetness of responsive love from those dependent upon him both for material and emotional succor. He finds himself so strengthened by the love of family that he reaches out to the community to share his love and to know the pleasure of a loving response to all he offers. Ideally man finds himself in a close knit community of souls aware of their mutual needs and anxious to respond always to the needs of others and to thereby bind them to those who seek to love them.

The wise man never loses sight of this single central truth -- that he exists by the grace of God for the sole purpose of so learning the lessons of love that his life is dominated and directed by this central need. His life needs little else.

Day 115

Friday, 1/22/99 11:40PM

Rarely does man feel fully a failure in this life. There exists in each human a core of resiliency which serves him well. No matter how decimating his experience, man does not despair completely. There is in the very core of his being, strength and hope, and in the most extreme despair the soul struggles to recover and to renew itself.

Often man is hard pressed to explain this inner strength. He seeks to find rational basis for this new found optimism and he most often fails in this inner searching. He is forced to conclude that there is no simple answer and to consider that what he knows of new hope comes from a force within himself that he does not fully understand. It is at this point often in the human experience that man comes to an appreciation of his link with powers beyond his perception, source of this new found strength. He rejoices in this new awareness and becomes further aware that no matter the nature of earthly trial he is never going to know total defeat. Thus armed he finds himself able to reach out and help his brothers in times of trouble and to rescue them from despair, to help them to discover within themselves the reservoirs of strength that are their salvation.

All men possess this divine capacity. No man is without the power he needs to meet the most difficult of trials and to emerge from all struggles strengthened in his awareness and prepared in all ways to confront the demands of human existence in a spirit of loving acceptance and full faith.

Look then upon despair as a source of strength and know the power within.

Day 116

Saturday, 1/23/99 11:25PM

There is a time in each mortal life when full awareness comes of its finite nature. This awareness may be lingering or it may be instantaneous, a sudden revelation before life's termination. In all cases, man knows in his consideration of life's termination that what he has known of existence is but a part of the whole. He knows that he brought into this life a capacity for love which has found full expression, and he knows that he takes with him full awareness of the vitality and enduring nature of all the love he has engendered and enjoyed during the course of his earthly voyage.

There are those who would choose to dismiss such a concept as romantic nonsense, pure speculation based on the need to believe that love endures. Know, dear ones, that this is far from speculation, that love does indeed endure, that it is a quality and a capacity born in the soul of all men and that it is not only the most significant gift in earthly life but that it endures eternally.

Love exists in many manifestations, all of them worthy and nourishing, and man in planning his life is free to choose among the many incarnations possible, but the single absolute in each life contemplated is that love be central in meaning and practice and that the soul come to human existence knows always that love is the center of all existence and that no matter the nature of this love it is to be welcomed and shared.

It is difficult at times for the world to live steadfastly in the way man is meant to go. It is not easy always to respond to life's rebuffs and rejections. Indeed man at times finds it difficult to believe that life offers infinite opportunity to live in love. Under such circumstances the challenge becomes that of recognizing love in its many aspects, of seeking to appreciate each opportunity to offer love to those in need and to respond always to the words and deeds of love even when they are difficult to appreciate.

The true blessing offered to all those who seek to live in compliance with all that is demanded of them is the awareness that never are they denied further opportunity to live life as they promised to do. They are permitted error and omission, and they are fully assured that if one life does not provide opportunity for correction, then another will be afforded.

Man need never feel limited in his opportunity to achieve perfection. His need only is to be assured that he cannot fall short of his divine goal.

Day 117

Sunday, 1/24/99 11:40 PM

How, man asks himself, can I best be assured that I am meeting all the obligations of this life as best I can? Do I look to others for approval? Do I seek to understand why I do what I do? Do I consider myself bound by the rules of the society in which I live or do I dare go beyond these limits and do what pleases me regardless of convention? Am I answerable to anyone but myself? If so, who?

It is the rare soul come to earth who does not experience such moments of questioning. Indeed this introspection may be a regular part of man's inner life. He may turn to others and find that he is not alone in his wondering. He may choose to share his ponderings and to learn from this sharing. He may seek to achieve wisdom and understanding by reading of the adventures of others who have sought to understand themselves and the world around them. He may seek to know of those who have had experiences beyond the ordinary who claim to have gained insight by supernatural means.

All of this striving to understand is a reasonable and laudable exercise, and man more often than not finds both inspiration and encouragement both in his introspection and in his sharing the thoughts and experiences of others. He finds himself both comforted and nourished, and although he may never be satisfied that he has achieved final and definitive answers to his questions, he finds that his life has been enriched by the sensitivity and awareness he has achieved, and that he has lived his life governed by awareness of his individual responsibility.

A life of seeking is a holy life, a life which finds its rewards not necessarily in answers but in questions.

Day 118

Monday, 1/25/99 11:45PM

For all his good intentions, man tends to error in his earthly adventure. Generally man's errors are not serious violations of all he has promised to do and to achieve in life, but they tend to distract him from all that is central to his spiritual well being.

Man caught up in the material demands of daily life excuses himself from consideration beyond the material all too often. In so doing he deprives not only himself but those dependent upon him for loving guidance. It is not enough for man to supply and satisfy the material needs of those dependent upon him in any way, though this is indeed a central responsibility. No, it is incumbent upon man to perceive needs beyond the material and to seek to satisfy the emotional and spiritual needs of all who look to him for guidance and inspiration.

Man when he becomes aware of this need becomes enriched. He realizes the significance of his role in this life and rejoices in its importance. It takes little consideration for him to realize the privilege that this responsibility represents. He becomes aware that it is incumbent upon him to live his life in example and to teach by example. He finds it gratifying that those he loves feel his worthiness and seek to emulate all he represents.

It is difficult to express fully the profound impact a single individual can have on a family group or any other group bound by ties of kinship and love. The example of the one they regard with reverence and respect and whose will they follow serves all well, and the goodness that each learns is shared infinitely.

Man is meant to learn and to lead, to share and to demand, to seek and to find, and in all he does he is blessed in his caring of those who look to him for guidance and for love.

Day 119

Tuesday, 1/26/99 11:12PM

There is a majesty inherent in the human journey. There are mysteries inherent in all that man knows in his time on earth. He comes from a heaven that wishes him well in all ways. He comes with talents of his own choosing. He comes with full agreement to live a life of love in the face of all chosen adversity and to seek to spread the words of God by living perfectly in all love.

What, one might ask, could be more perfect that a world peopled with souls straight from the hand of God, determined to live in peace and love and share their love and their talents freely? What more could God expect of man than that he populate this universe and bring to it the perfection of existence it was meant to enjoy? Why, you might ask, is the world not the perfect place it was destined to be? Why does man not know perfection in every aspect of his human existence?

These are weighty questions, each one worthy of an answer that is complete and comprehensible. Yet not all answers are adequate. The simplest of responses, absolute in its truth, is that man has created his environment. Godlike in his capacity to act totally as he chose, free at all times to make decisions less than perfect, man has strayed from the path he first chose to take on this earth.

Generation unto generation man has continued to strive to live as he was meant to from the very start. In this long history of striving there have been successes beyond count. There have also been failures, temporary in nature, souls who have not yet succeeded as they must eventually.

Man in his many roles has such power that he has the capacity to destroy just as he has the power to create. This power is awesome, but it is at all times subject to the divine power from which all else proceeds, and to this extent man is limited. He may have the illusion of absolute power, even for a time that seems reasonable to him, but he is deluded in this assumption of absolute control.

Yet even in his most deplorable actions, man retains this element of majesty, his close connection to the power from which all evolves, and after error and omission he returns to this original awareness and knows all he needed from the very beginning of time.

Day 120

Wednesday. 1/27/99 11:40PM

There is infinite joy in man. From the moment of birth, the soul newly arrived creates joy. He arrives in pain and travail, and instantly this pain is translated into joy and quickly forgotten. There is no end to the happiness that this innocent child, full of love and needful of love, generates. There is no limit to the capacity each innocent soul knows of goodness. There is no limit to the contagious return of this goodness. The hardest heart is softened by the love of a child.

The love of a child is freely expressed, undemanding in its nature, undiscriminating in its choice of recipient. All are overjoyed by this gift, one which serves a further purpose of binding together all those who share the love of this child and now return this love fully.

When the child progresses from infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood, he experiences little by little the challenges that life presents in this maturation. He is aware from an early age that his will struggles for expression, sometimes in conflict with those he has grown accustomed to respect and obey. It is difficult to reconcile conflicting urges and loyalties at any age, but it is acutely difficult to first face these difficult decisions. Yet such conflicts and such choices are almost inevitable as the child emerges into independence and feels the need to cast off controls, no matter how loving they may be.

In all of this exploring, the child is well served by the loving security it has known in its formative years. The stronger the love, the more secure the adventurous soul. Yet there is always an element of regret on both sides. The parent rues the loss of his dependent child. The child flounders sometimes in strange and dangerous waters.

The bond of love shared since birth provides a link during these difficult times. It seems at times too tenuous to survive separation, but more often its deceptive strength proves powerful enough to bridge estrangement, disagreement, and all threats to the precious relationship that began at birth.

All are strengthened. All are enriched. And when in the cycle of life the child inherits the role of parent, memory creates wisdom.

Day 121

Thursday, 1/28/99 11:30PM

When man faces choices, he is at his most vulnerable. Some choices are less demanding and in the choosing man is not even aware of his vulnerability. Some choices are made impulsively unthinkingly totally without consideration. These choices too do not cause man to be aware of his limitations, but in the course of all lives times come when man is stripped of his total self assurance, is faced with a decision which causes him to agonize in uncertainty.

It is at such times that man, aware newly or perhaps once again of his human limitations, searches in his soul for answers. He calls upon whatever wisdom his experience has afforded him. He considers the impact of his decision upon those dependent upon him in any way, and he tries for a time to postpone the moment of decision.

The wise man, having so considered, turns inward once again and listens to the dictates of his heart. He may feel disappointment. He may not know immediate response. He may reject the impulse that drove him to seek within himself. If he perseveres, he may have a different experience. He may know certainty where he once knew uncertainty. He may see solutions where he once saw unsolvable problems. He may find a path that had not been within his thinking.

Altogether man may find, if he is trusting and desirous of right doing, that he has insights and wisdom beyond his original awareness and that the still small voice he hears in his innermost seeking provides all the answers he needs. He may find himself no longer vulnerable.

Day 122

Friday, 1/29/99 11:11PM

It is at all times certain that man is a wayfarer, intent upon his destination, in all ways desirous of a successful journey.

Man is not, however, as constantly assured of a successful ending as he would choose to be. He often finds his path beset by obstacles not of his making, difficult to handle, and he wonders at the waywardness of fate, for it seems to him that it is indeed fate which victimizes him.

He learns in time to deal with all the obstacles he finds blocking his progress, and he discovers, often to his surprise, that with each victory over difficulty he finds himself strengthened. His faith in his capacity to deal with all that troubles his life becomes more certain, and as he progresses he becomes more and more certain of his ability to deal with all the problems that beset him.

It is not always easy for man to triumph, but each time he does so he grows in all ways.

Day 123

Saturday, 1/30/99 10:25PM

When man hesitates, he knows uncertainty. His hesitation may be of little consequence. It may be of enormous consequence. It may be of consequence far between these two extremes.

Whatever the nature of the decision man faces, whatever the degree of its seriousness, in that moment of hesitation man knows a moment when he is not sure of himself. He is not generally accustomed to this kind of self mistrust, but it is of advantage to him that he recognize in his hesitation a need to reassure himself, to be more certain of the degree to which he feels fully confident in his judgment.

Man is blessed when he takes full advantage of his hesitation, when he asks himself to know more fully the degree of his uncertainty, momentary as it may be. Often this uncertainty seems an intrusion, an unreasonable and unjustifiable intrusion, a reminder of man's perennial limitations. On the other hand, such hesitation and accompanying uncertainty may be regarded as a blessing, a warning not to be precipitant in a decision that might better be postponed.

Let us simply say, then, that these moments of hesitation, of giving pause, may well be gifts beyond man's immediate understanding. They may cause him to pause without reason, to postpone action. At such times man in his wisdom may recognize the hand that stays his action, may not dismiss the power of an outside force he has not even considered in this life's experience.

Yet in his capacity to learn, he may conclude that he has been blessed in a way beyond the ordinary and he may become more aware of the extraordinary that is on occasion a part of life's experience.

Day 124

Sunday, 1/31/99 11:05PM

In each human life there are memories of its origin. Man come to earth is not capable of remembering fully the glory of his origin, but he retains a sense of his divine nature. It is not always clear to man in his life's experiences the points at which this divine nature betrays itself in feelings and in experiences not easily explained in earthly terms.

In his daily life man is aware of his abilities and his limitations in most ways, and yet there are times when man is tried beyond what he regards as his earthly limitations and knows insights and abilities beyond his comprehension. He does not necessarily seek these gifts, though he may do so, but when they come to him in revelation and in comfort he is filled with awareness of wonder beyond human understanding.

It may be that during the course of his life man has but a single such experience. It may be that he is often so gifted. It may be that he knows no such divine intervention. In all cases it is important that man recognizes the divine power whose caring is his at all times under all circumstances.

At each step of the human journey man is afforded power beyond his immediate awareness, and this power is at all times a strengthening of his relationship with the God whose care is his at all times. It is not necessary that man clearly identify the source of divine assistance, but it is important that he recognize power beyond his limitations and freely admit that he has been given capabilities mysterious for him in origin, blessed in their effectiveness.

Man's path is often smoothed in this way. Whether he actively seeks help when needed or not, that help is his always. It may not come in exactly the form he assumed best, but it comes with the wisdom of the Almighty in its effectiveness. There is a divine beneficence in human experience, a giving that takes full advantage of man's talents and capabilities, and in its infinite generosity meets man's needs when his innate talents and capabilities do not suffice.

Day 125

Monday, 2/1/99 11:40PM

Without asking, man knows divine grace. From the very moment of birth, he has at his side a being of light who chooses total devotion to him above all else. There are times when this perfect being encounters difficulties untold, when all the angelic power is not enough to protect completely this precious charge from harm. In these cases the duty becomes one of reconciling.

No life is free of challenge. Some lives are marked by tragedy. Some lives are cut short by the acts of others, some by the choices made before birth. It is difficult for man to understand life cut short for any reason. It is important that he realize that this life cut short is a life admitted to joy untold. There is no regret for the soul returned to its origins. There is no sorrow. In each case, the soul returns in the joyous company of its angel teacher who has shared all the travail of human existence, however brief that time, and who is at long last able to embrace fully the soul so well loved.

No matter the brevity in the length of human life, each soul knows from start to finish the infinite caring of a spirit imbued with great power, caring in all ways, totally devoted to guiding its human charge to ultimate glory. It is a pity when man either rejects this selfless guidance or blinds himself to its possibility. It is blessing indeed when man's awareness permits himself to take full advantage of this wonder and to revel in its goodness.

So, all you who wonder, open your minds and hearts to the power that awaits your acceptance. In such acceptance you will find joy untold and perfect peace.

Day 126

Tuesday, 2/2/99 11:35PM

When he comes first to this world man knows the importance of love. He comes as an infant, totally dependent, needy in every way, and in this coming he is certain to elicit feelings of love from all who know his beginnings.

Ideally he is blessed with parents whose love knows no bounds and whose total devotion is infinitely nurturing. In other circumstances the newborn finds salvation in love from any source and thrives so long as that love is a constant in his life. Even in the adventures and misadventures common in human existence, the child seems to survive all deprivations save that of love. No matter the source, love is the infinite, the essential nourishment demanded by the soul come to life.

Not all souls are equally blessed by the degree or quality of the love they know in early life. Not all souls are materially advantaged during these crucial early years. Scars can be inflicted that prove difficult to erase in the years to come. Yet there is extraordinary resilience in the soul come to life, and the most traumatic of experiences and the most extreme of deprivations prove challenges that the tried soul finds itself capable of meeting with love and faith and hope.

Man, armed with love, is invincible, and the most desolating of experiences rarely deprives him of this divine capacity. With love in his heart, man needs no more.

Day 127

Wednesday, 2/3/99 11:55PM

In all men there exists strength that survives all failure, all tragedy, all unhappiness.

It is apparent early in human life that man is capable of experiencing problems and learning from the difficulties inherent in these problems. The very process of confronting difficulty and solving the problems inherent in such difficulty is enriching. In the process of seeking and finding solutions man discovers in himself resources beyond those he was aware he possessed. He gains in confidence in his triumph over problems he had not either prepared for or anticipated, and he becomes aware of capacities and strengths he had not heretofore either valued or considered. In all of his striving he knows success as a sweet reward and begins to feel that he is bound to succeed in future trials.

Not all men know the sweetness of success. There are cases where humans in trial, equally endowed with talents and confidence, fail to accomplish their goals. They do not succeed as they would choose in overcoming the obstacles that bar their way and in the bitterness of defeat they begin to doubt their God given ability to confront all the problems that life presents. If one failure is followed by another then the sense of desperation is compounded and man does indeed consider himself lost.

Often in the depths of despair man finds reason to hope. He finds himself aided in ways that redeem him, that take him back to the place he thought lost forever. Often he has little or no comprehension of the nature of his redemption, his return to all he had thought lost. Sometimes he is moved to mindless but heartfelt thanks to forces he does not even dimly comprehend. Yet in his soul he knows that if he is not responsible for his salvation some one or some thing else is.

It is enough for man to recognize such outside forces at such critical times in his life. If he is thoughtful he will dwell upon the mysteries of his victory and will begin to see light. He will be thereby infinitely enriched.

Day 128

Thursday, 2/4/99 11:00PM

All of life is strewn with opportunity. This opportunity in its various forms is not always a blessing.

Man in his innocence finds it first difficult to distinguish. He embraces all opportunity to know pleasure in life, to experience the kind of success that makes daily existence more comfortable and which seems always to meet the needs of those who share his daily life. Indeed sometimes this material success, however earned or granted, does indeed result in an increased pleasure in comfort and pleasure that brings together those bound in love. There are however pitfalls in this kind of material mutual indebtedness. One or the other of those who share the bonds of love may decide the price paid for material advantage is too great. Then comes the sundering of the relationship, and all those involved are forced to deal with the emotional consequences.

It would be so simple if man were never given opportunity to err, if he were from birth wrapped in the cocoon of innocence and well being that is his heavenly heritage. Yet this life is not simple. It does not yield to easy theories or to easy conclusions. It is the labor of man passing through life to try to achieve perfect happiness, and those who listen closely to the blessed words of those who guide him achieve the awareness that the only access to true happiness in mortal life is through achievement of love so perfect that it defies description in human terms.

All of life is a lesson, and the man who learns this lesson early and well is the man blessed in all ways. He seeks always to foster the love that he knows is the vital force and to seek always the enlightenment that is his absolute beacon. At all times this man, beloved of his God, embodies the journey perfect through life. He is a striking example to all those who share his heritage and his destiny. All are blessed.

Day 129

Friday, 2/5/99 11:05PM

In all of man's striving there is a beauty that is not always apparent to him but is clearly a significant part of his human experience. There are times when man is not as aware as he might be of his own worthiness, of the perfectibility that is part of his nature. There are times when he is tempted to consider himself less than important in the scheme of life, a mere speck in the cosmos.

It is easy for man to be so overwhelmed by what seems to him the vastness and complexity of the universe. He looks about him and he is both confounded and humbled by the sheer numbers of those who share the planet with him. He is aware of how ignorant he is of so much about this planet and his fellow men, and it becomes more and more difficult for him to consider himself important except in the very narrow sphere he inhabits in this life. He tries to envision the worlds beyond his immediate experience, and he finds it difficult even when he actively seeks to learn. He thinks of the vast span of history and compares it to his brief life span, and his sense of nothingness increases.

At such times man is saved by finally realizing that he is unique, that no other can substitute for him, that he is loved in ways no other could be. He realizes finally that his world is all that matters and that he shares this insular identity with his brothers known and unknown. He comes to know that in his uniqueness there is proof of importance, that he has been designed in such a way as to persuade him of his worth.

Blessed is the man who so finds beauty in himself, who comes full circle to awareness, to faith certain in himself and his role in life.

Day 130

Saturday, 2/6/99 11:32PM

Man in the joy of creation knows sublimity. He chooses all he needs to learn from earthly experience. He willingly accepts strengths and limitations. He is aware and willingly accepts all he will know in the life to come of love given and received, of trial and triumph, of acceptance and rejection, of hope and despair. In his wonder he deems himself capable of both enduring and learning from all that is expected of him in the life he has chosen as best suited for his progression.

In no case does man return to earthly life without full faith in his ability to succeed in his learning. He is fully aware of all the lessons which face him and he is totally persuaded of his inevitable learning. The soul come to earth then comes with full awareness of all the life he has chosen will offer and will demand of him. His awareness is general in nature, and he agrees readily that he will choose wisely and well each time he must decide a response to whatever is demanded of him. No soul returned to life envisions failure as he begins his journey.

Yet, as all know, man does indeed experience failure in many ways. He is often tempted by those inner voices which urge indulgence, which speak of the satisfactions that selfish response will ensure. At times he succumbs to the inner weaknesses that he vowed to overcome and is instead overcome by them. Sometimes he is lured to be a part of activities which satisfy his earthly yearnings but which corrode his soul.

No matter the degree of iniquity to which the soul in journey may sink, he is at all times in his innermost soul capable of hearing the voice which speaks to him of goodness and love. He may in his despair ignore this last hope and be lost to divine intervention. He may pass the threshold of death in great need.

Yet most men know salvation from error before their human deaths. Some barely err and need little guidance. Most err but not mortally, and find in their inner voices angelic sustenance. Those few who come to the end of life having failed to do all they promised learn that no failure is total but that their efforts must increase if they are to achieve the perfection they must. Their joy is in knowing that there is no such thing as total failure. They find joy in this assurance of success, of infinite joy, in absolute belonging in oneness.

Day 131

Sunday, 2/7/99 9:00PM

Before life begins, the soul seeks the path most suited to lead it to perfection. Having experienced failure, in whole or in part, the seeking soul wants above all else to proceed to the end of earthly existence and the total glory of heavenly peace. This process does not lend itself to human understanding, but it is enough for the human mind, aware as it is of its own limitations, to accept these very limitations and to be aware that there is much to accept without full understanding.

Man seeks always in his earthly life to know reason in his being, to perceive whence he has come and where he is going. No man exists unaware of his mortality, but there are differences in man's perception of this limited earthly sojourn. Many are satisfied to accept the ephemeral nature of human life as all that there is. Some take comfort in total belief that memory is all, that the soul departed survives in the loving thoughts of all he left behind. This is comforting indeed, but what of the solitary soul who dies alone and unmourned? What of the souls gone astray and ending this life unloved and forgotten? Is this a reasonable explanation of life? To those who think so, God must be uncaring, perhaps relentless, certainly not the creature of love that all must come to know.

It is difficult for man to know faith absolute. He comes to this world full of confidence in his inquiring mind and in his full ability to determine his life's course in every way. This is indeed the plan of God, and it is God's wish that this divine creation overcome all obstacles, learn all lessons, and return to his origins enriched and perfected. To His dismay and disappointment, God does not find this perfection in all souls come to life. In many He does. In others He finds hope. In some He wonders if He has failed. Yet He knows that the failure is not His, and He knows that there is no end to opportunity to redeem the soul lost in error and to rectify past failure and to find true happiness in this redemption.

No soul is allowed to know that it is lost. Each life becomes a fresh opportunity to achieve glory. There is no end to the road to perfection.

Day 132

Monday, 2/8/99 11:37PM

Chief among man's divine traits is his capacity for compassion. Hardly a man has ever existed who has not known the perfect love for his fellow man in trouble that we call compassion. Into the hardest of hearts comes this virtuous recognition of the needs of another of his worthy brethren, and in this awareness of his brother's need, in the full sense of pity that fills his soul, he reaches out and offers all he can to soothe the pain and ease the recovery of a suffering fellow human. This is compassion.

All the world profits by compassion. The suffering profit from the help and comfort freely given by the soul touched to feeling and action by their misery. Those who reach out a hand and so identify with the need of a fellow man are enriched in awareness and caring. All profit. All learn. All respond to love.

Often compassion leads to fuller understanding of the needs of others and results in a sense of understanding that fosters tolerance and the beginnings of love. Once man is capable of so identifying with his brother that he feels his needs and his suffering as if they were his own, he has taken a gigantic step on his path to perfection. Once he has achieved this kind of sympathetic caring, he finds it difficult to ignore the needs he sees in the world around him, and his actions become a sympathetic response to all the need he encounters.

Let it be said that such a response is inspiring in many ways. It strengthens the giver. It inspires and encourages others to follow his example and to thereby enrich their lives. It creates in the needy a feeling of worth. Their hearts are filled with gratitude that only the caring of others can inspire. The world becomes a better place.

Day 133

Tuesday, 2/9/99 11:55PM

There is always a tenderness in the human spirit. The soul come to a life of its own choosing to learn all necessary lessons brings with it qualities and capacities that are rooted in divine origin. Tenderness is one of these. This is a quality of character fragile in nature, easily bruised, easily destroyed, and yet the great majority of souls in progress retain this wondrous quality and enrich their lives and the lives of all they know by its appeal and its infectiousness.

Tenderness is a vital part of the start of human life. The infant by its very helplessness inspires tenderness in all but the most hardened of hearts. The child growing into maturity continues to inspire feelings of tender protectiveness in the hearts of those who know and love them.

Perhaps the most poignant feelings of tenderness emerge when two souls grown to adulthood know the power and persuasion of love for each other that dictates the path they choose to take. They indulge themselves in a sense by their conviction that the love they feel for each other is unique, that no others have known this incredible sense of loving need. Chief among the feelings that this love animates is one of overwhelming tenderness, a total need to protect the loved one from all harm and unpleasantness. This is a time in each human life of exquisite pleasure in belonging, in the giving and receiving of love, in the tender caring that feeds the soul.

Be aware then that this sweet sentiment is the source of great enrichment in human life, that it binds in love all those who share tender feelings each for the other, and that so long as it is nurtured it will immeasurably enrich.

Day134

Wednesday, 2/10/99 11:37PM

Glorious as man is in his beginning, he grows in glory as he encounters all in life that he has anticipated. He finds in himself strength at every opportunity to express the fullness of his being and he finds it within himself to share this strength with those in need of sustenance and love.

There is much in the soul come to life that seeks this sustenance, this awareness of a common goal, of shared strengths and weaknesses, of a total need to proceed to an end ill defined but inevitable in human life. All men pursue this path, some more generously endowed to meet its challenges, others having chosen to endure severe challenge and to in the end succeed.

This is a generous company, a company of souls so overwhelming in number as to stagger the imagination, but in this company each recognizes his brother and knows fully that they pursue the same path, that they are inevitably one with the source of all power and all good, and that in this final identity they need no more. They have arrived at the point where all problems are resolved, all conflicts satisfied, all yearnings indulged.

This is the journey of all souls. Rejoice that it is yours.

Day 135

Thursday, 2/11/99 11:45PM

It is without question essential that man know the goodness that he will find if he seeks in the souls of all with whom he shares this brief human journey. It is easy to sense and to appreciate this innate goodness in those he knows in love. It is more difficult to go beyond this circle and to extend his appreciation of all the wonder that is man. It is particularly difficult for him to find goodness in those who seem to him unappealing, often repugnant, alien in many ways. Yet it is exactly those souls who need to know his awareness of their innate goodness and worth.

It is all too easy in human life to forget that all are children of God, that each soul come to earth is in and of itself worthy of love and needful of this love. It is not easy perhaps to recognize God in the lowly, the deprived, the soul gone fully astray, but it is man's duty to do so. Each human comes to this existence in a guise of his choosing, knowing that he may face rebuff and rejection if he chooses to be one of society's rejects. It becomes then the responsibility of all his brethren to see beyond the surface, to sense the absolute worthiness of this brother who has chosen life's more difficult experiences.

Truly the soul who acknowledges the brotherhood of man regardless of superficialities is the soul proven most worthy. Never will he have cause for regret when his generous heart leads him to embrace fully the most needy of his fellow men and to fulfill his promise to live in love pure and unconditional.

There is no grace equal to man's recognition of the total worthiness of all those with whom he shares life's journey. He knows joy always in himself and in his brother. He is blessed.

Day 136

Friday 2/12/99 11:04PM

In the short span of a human life, even if that life extends beyond average, even if it is cut sorely short, man is allowed to do all he promised before coming to this world.

There are times when it is difficult to discern purpose in human life. Most often man is puzzled by life cut short, by life overwhelmed with physical or mental disability, of life difficult to understand in terms of individual responsibility.

This is not unreasonable. There is much in human existence that cries out for understanding. There is much that does not lend itself to this desired understanding. When a single life seems meaningless, whether in its brevity or in its inherent limitations, man does well to remember that all men are one. He would be well advised to examine this life, however brief, however tortured, and to ask himself to consider its effects upon all those who are touched by a relationship to this soul.

Often close examination will reveal that this individual, apparently so deprived, has important influence on all those bound to it in love and awareness. The lessons taught could perhaps be taught in no other way. There may be infinite beauty in the legacy of such a soul come to earth.

Above all, it behooves man to remember the transitory nature of human life and to know that in the total scheme of life and death and rebirth a day may be not that different from a decade, a decade from a century. Life is eternal in its essence.

Day 137

Saturday, 2/13/99 11:22PM

While man struggles to understand all that life asks of him, he tries to accept that there is indeed plan and pattern to his existence.

In the face of all difficulty he finds himself questioning the reasonableness of all he is asked to endure. He is critical of himself at times for what he regards as weakness. He is questioning of the rightness of all he seems expected to endure. He seeks answers that are not forthcoming. He seeks aid from others whom he deems wiser, and he is not always satisfied with the answers he receives.

Finally he looks within himself and opens his heart to spirits he had to this point not acknowledged. He does not even then find ready answers, but he senses the beginnings of a voice he seeks speaking of love and hope. Thus encouraged, he continues to seek within himself and gradually knows an awareness that begins to him to seem the richest resource he has ever known.

Not all answers are given to him directly, but in each and every aspect of his seeking understanding emerges, and this understanding is as food to his restless soul. He finds himself quieted in his anxiety, eager to become more aware of his inner power, and more trustful in the reasonableness of life itself. He finds himself not only strengthened but cheered by newfound faith in his own capacity to know and to accept all that is expected of him in this life, mysterious as its demands may be, for he is possessed of an absolute certainty that regardless of the demand he has within himself the strength and the willingness to respond.

He knows acceptance and in this acceptance he knows infinite peace.

Day 138

Sunday, 2/14/99 11:40PM

In all the history of man, much has been written of his origins, much has been written of his reason for being. Much truth has emerged from all this seeking after truth born in introspection enriched by deep thought. All that has been written heretofore reflects man's insecurity rather than his faith in himself and in his fellow man. This is not to denigrate the honesty of the seeking or the integrity of the conclusions of those seeking to promulgate, but it is rather to suggest that their authority and their right to acceptance is far from absolute.

Man in all his limitations seeks to find truth in exploration of physical data. He seeks to write from the mind, carefully sifting fact so as to arrive at empirical truth. Let it be said that while there is reason and justification in all of such searching for factual truth, fact will not suffice. Let it be said that man approaches arrogance when he states with any degree of certainty that he has insights beyond the ordinary about the origin and the reason for human existence. It is not surprising that these scholars finding truth for themselves find themselves frequently in conflict with their fellow seekers. This conflict becomes a rich resource for scholarship, and endless dissertation and dissection ensues.

Truth may perhaps find its way through this tortuous world of text and citation, but only partially and not without distortion. There is much energy expended and much energy dissipated, and even as scholarly dispute provides endless discussion, man becomes lost in the finite nature of all that is argued.

Shall we say that there is no acceptable reason for such wasted energy, for such pointless scholarship? Indeed we cannot, however tempting it may be, for all those involved bring to their academic quest sincerity and good intention, and if all do not achieve the final answers they seek they are not thereby easily dismissed. All seekers after truth are worthy, but it is easy to get lost in minutiae and to miss the ultimate truth.

Day 139

Monday, 2/15/99 11:25PM

At the end of each life comes life's greatest adventure. There is no reason to fear the termination of earthly existence. More and more the world is coming to be aware that fear of death is baseless, that at worst death represents a benign ending to life, the end of suffering for some.

Man's fear of death when it exists, comes from many sources. Some fear the unknown. Yet they fail to realize that the unknown in and of itself is not threatening. Others have been taught that the end of life may bring with it eternal damnation and unending suffering. Indeed this cruel teaching has been for centuries a useful tool for controlling man's behavior. It is an ignoble teaching but a powerful one. Let man know now that this empty threat is no cause to fear death. Others, and with better cause, see death as a separation from those they hold dear in human life. This too is an empty fear, for after death the soul released from human limitations is fully aware of those he left behind and fully capable of feeling and expressing the love he held supreme in his earthly existence.

Past the threshold of death man finds himself returned to his origins and experiences wonder in all ways. He is a creature of joy, surrounded by love more powerful than he could have imagined. He finds himself fully aware of all the pluses and minuses of his life just completed and realizes the perfection that lies in store. In no way is the soul released into heavenly existence regretful. He knows great pleasure in his new found powers and takes great pleasure in all he knows of love given and received. He is acutely aware of the loving relationships he left behind.

In all ways the soul come to God knows gratitude and hope.

Day 140

Tuesday, 2/16/99 11:56PM

There are many theories as to the part faith plays in the life of souls come to earth in search of perfection.

Those who lack faith find it difficult to understand it in others, and yet faith takes many forms. It is the rare individual who lacks faith completely. How barren life would be if man did not know faith in the love of those bound to him in earthly ties. It is indeed difficult to imagine love truly felt without faith as a necessary part of this love. We would be bereft indeed if life were without faith of any sort.

Further extension of this faith causes some to hesitate, and yet the very nature of human life makes faith essential to sanity. Man must have faith in the institutions that guide and govern his life. He must believe in the system of laws, for example, which govern his daily existence. He must have faith in those who govern or he must seek new leaders. He must, if he is wise, have faith in the past and in the lessons of history. In all ways then man experiences faith whether he calls it by that name or not.

It is in the realm of religious faith that man experiences the greatest hesitation. Not all men hesitate. Indeed many fully and completely accept the faith into which they were born and instructed. Others apply what they regard as reason and find it difficult to follow in the footsteps they were first taught to respect. Many seek constantly to find affirmation in a religious belief or set of beliefs, and in this seeking they find satisfaction and if they are fortunate, a set of beliefs which offers them comfort and peace.

There are no hard and fast rules about faith. It is right and good that man search his heart each day of his life. If he finds himself secure in the strength of the faith that animates his being it is of little consequence what the nature of that fulfilling faith is so long as it is based firmly on the single absolute of love given and received. There is no room for deviation in this regard, for man's earthly experience must be one of love given freely and gratefully received, and all faith which recognizes this absolute requirement is pleasing in the sight of God.

Day 141

Thursday, 2/18/99 12:25AM

Whatever man demands of life, he will know in time fulfillment of all the desires he expressed before his coming to this life. He brings into his life at all times the unfulfilled desires and unrealized dreams that he seeks to fulfill. He brings with him the promises unfulfilled he seeks to satisfy in life renewed. In all, man returns to human existence in all ways prepared to live a life of fulfilling promise and supreme satisfaction.

There is so much in human life that evades understanding. There is so much conflict that should not be. There is above all awareness of the divine intent that each one knows inherently, and although there is not at all times awareness in each life of this powerful influence it persists.

Day 142

Thursday, 2/18/99 11:35PM

In all of life, man emerges as a creature capable at all times of glorious achievement.

From the very start of life until its final moments he knows this profound capacity. I speak here of an achievement which takes him closer to his eternal goal. It matters not at all what material goals he manages to achieve. It matters not at all the status he achieves in the eyes of others who judge him. It matters entirely the state of his soul.

Man born to great trial and tribulation is often sorely judged by the world in which he lives. All too often he is evaluated in terms of earthly criteria. He is judged less than able if he lacks achievement materially. He is judged incapable if he fails in his efforts economically. He is often the victim of baseless prejudice and suffers thereby. He is rarely considered worthy of praise and approval. He knows disrespect and contempt.

Blessed is the soul who willingly accepts the role of the sufferer, who does not rail against his fate and who knows in his heart his own worth in the face of insult and injury. Blessed is this soul treated unjustly who holds in his heart the capacity to love and to forgive and who knows at all times that the trials of this world are as nothing compared to the glories he will know in the world to come.

The world is enriched by the masses who suffer without complaint, who accept humbly the suffering that they know and who turn to each other for love and comfort and find their lives so enriched.

Do not pity the downtrodden, for they are blessed. Look to them for inspiration and example, and in the fullness of love seek to ease their suffering and in your efforts know blessedness. You are one.

Day 143

Friday, 2/19/99 11:35PM

The magnitude of man's mission in his earthly journey cannot be overstated.

Each soul come to earth brings with it the ultimate goal of oneness, the supreme achievement. This goal is not easily achieved and not to be lightly regarded. Although man may not be conscious of the specific nature of his striving, he has only to look into his soul to recognize the supreme importance of love in each aspect of human existence. He has only to regard the trivial nature of earthly pleasures to know that much more is expected of him than ephemeral satisfactions and victories.

This is not to say that man must reject earthly pleasure. Indeed he is meant to find pleasure in life, but he on no account should forget that such superficial satisfactions should not dominate his daily efforts. He must seek to find deeper satisfactions and more lasting success. He must learn to feed his soul, and the soul is nourished only by love.

With this discovery man finds himself increasingly enriched, and each day brings new awareness of the enormous possibilities that his life offers for the full expression of love. He realizes with a sense of joy that each word and act of love is in and of itself fulfilling, but he knows that it is more than simply self gratification, for gestures of love inspire others to gratitude and to emulation, and with the widening of the circle of love given and received, new happiness is born for all those touched by the wonder of love.

There is infinite power in love, and the soul in progress measures success in terms of this power. In this he is wise.

Day 144

Saturday, 2/20/99 11:50PM

It is intrinsic in human existence that man come to a realization of the divine relationship that he brings to his human journey. This awareness may come in many ways.

There are those who are so gifted that they cannot but be aware of divine influence. They know that their talents are so extraordinary as to defy understanding in human heritage. Often they will find traces of their genius in their parentage, but the full flowering of this genius is so extraordinary as to defy human definition.

Genius is widely interpreted. There are souls whose capacities for invention and expression bring fame and sometimes fortune. They are recognized and rewarded. There are others of equal intellect and invention who should have achieved recognition but who for a variety of reasons do not. Each of these gifted individuals finds satisfaction in his inventiveness and creativity whether recognized or not. Each finds infinite satisfaction in the genius within.

Not all souls come to life come with such talent, but lesser talents find their own reward. Those who recognize their abilities and sense in these abilities an obligation to use them wisely are the most fortunate of souls. They find full satisfaction in pursuing their goal and thereby enrich both themselves and all those they serve with their willing energy.

At all times man is judged in terms of all he has to offer to a world badly in need. At all times he should know that happiness lies in the full service of his fellow man and in the loving response that this service engenders.

Man is gifted in his talents. He is even more gifted in his awareness of how these talents should be expended.

Day 145

Sunday, 2/21/99 11:40PM

From the very beginning of time there has been a divine plan guiding man in all his endeavors, searching for the perfection of love that is at all times the hallmark of a soul come to life to prove itself perfect.

It is difficult for man to imagine the vastness of this divine plan, to comprehend its numbers, to grasp its implications, to sense the very nature of eternity. It is not truly important for man to know and to comprehend these aspects of the divine plan. It is enough that he understands that each and every soul come to human life is unique and complete unto himself and that although there are ties to all other souls since the start of time, man need only concern himself with that portion of the vast universe that affects him directly. He knows all that it is important for him to know. He is aware at all times of the loving souls who share his journey and who share with him an interdependence that is like no other. He needs no further awareness of the nature of the universe. He needs only to know his place in the vast scheme of life, a place he knows intimately and assuredly.

It is part of man's nature to seek fuller understanding, to regard the vastness and complexity of the universe and to hunger to be more certain of the very meaning of all that lies beyond his immediate experience. In a sense man is born with this hunger since he comes to this world for only a brief visit and both leaves behind and returns to a space infinite and eternal in nature.

Man's hunger to know is indeed eventually satisfied, and in the wisdom that comes with a return to his origins he finds peace.

Day 146

Monday 2/22/99 4:50PM

I speak now of the day to come when all men will be joined in brotherhood.

There will be an end to strife and discord. There will be new understanding in the hearts of all men of their absolute need for each other in love and in tolerance. There will be endless acceptance without condition of the worth of all those who coexist with them.

How, you ask, will this happen? How will disparate beliefs find reconciliation and acceptance? What will motivate man to radical changes in attitudes and actions? When will all this occur?

Not all answers are readily given. Not all answers are readily understandable. It is enough to say that the world will be transformed by wonders that will not permit dismissal. The world will be one in wonder and astonishment at all that flies in the face of natural law. It will be clear to all mankind that God has spoken and that His love demands response. All those who observe and feel these wondrous happenings will rejoice in the enlightenment offered and long held prejudices will fade as if magically. Brother will embrace brother in new found understanding of the overwhelming need for love that knows no barriers, that is freely given and gratefully received. There will be jubilation in the air, and in the hearts of all mankind newborn faith and love of all those sharing this earthly home.

We will be glad, my scribe, at this transformation. Love will replace hatred. Acceptance will replace rejection. Tolerance will replace intolerance. Understanding will replace ignorance. Godliness will know true meaning in love universally and unconditionally shared.

This glory is not far off.

Day 147

Tuesday, 2/23/99 12:13AM

It is easy enough to assume that this life, full of success and triumph, of pleasure and satisfaction, is all that life encompasses for man. Is it equally understandable that a life of tragedy and deprivation, of want and need unfilled, of rejection and despair is equally full and fulfilling?

Man when he experiences a life full of happiness and gratification is too often willing to fail to look around him and to see those souls deprived. It is more comfortable to feel himself in the fullness of all he has chosen to know of love and to forget that there are others less gratified, in some cases desperately in need.

It is in all cases man's responsibility to respond to the needs of another. It matters not the degree of closeness. It matters not the degree of need. It matters totally that one soul reaches to another and seeks solace and that if this plea is denied both the petitioner and the responder are equally deprived. There is no greater error than to fail the soul in need. It is of no consequence that there is no previous relationship. There should be no question of the degree of need. There should be no possible response but that of complete acceptance, of total willingness to do all that is required to serve in the name of love.

All of life is an offering. Some offer. Some are expected to respond. No matter the role, the offering and response enrich both, and in all cases, there is total acceptance of the worthiness of each. Man, at times, finds himself confused when the petitioner seems less than worthy. It is at such times that he must remember the lessons of history when the most lowly became the most worthy and when the least demanding deserved the most in all ways.

Be pleased, all you who strive for perfection, in knowing that the day is close when all answers will be given response, when all desires will know satisfaction, and when, above all, man will know an end to hunger for all he seeks to know. He will be in good company and he will recognize his fellow seekers and together they will rejoice in all they have discovered and hold in their hearts.

Day 148

Tuesday, 2/23/99 11:43PM

In the fullness of time there will be cause for absolute joy.

All the trials of life will find surcease, and each man striving for perfection will know success beyond his most demanding expectations. The world will know a richness of giving that will spread like wildfire and result in an outpouring of joy that will light the universe. Love will fill every heart, and no man will be untouched by such an outpouring of caring love.

Is this hard to visualize? Can you believe that this future will come to be? These questions are both reasonable and deserving of response. It is in this time of strife and upheaval, of hatreds between brothers freely expressed in conflict, indeed difficult to imagine a world free of conflict, dominated by love fully expressed in word and deed. Yet this is the future that lies inevitably ahead.

There will be changes in men's hearts that will transform this imperfect world into one where all men are gladly brothers and where all good is shared and all sorrow equally so. There will be no soul untouched by this glorious revolution. There will be no spiritual hunger, for all men will be united in the power and persuasion of love, and no creed will divide them each from the other.

From the start of time this has been the promise of utopia. Man has erred in many ways and the world of perfection lost to him for centuries, but the time has come for him to be granted enormous capacities to right the current wrongs, to return the world to a place of solace and comfort to all who seek to be comforted, and to know in his heart the greatness of his being.

Each man must see himself a part of this transformation and in each word and act of his daily life speed this wonder to fulfillment. There is power in the human will that cannot be denied. It awaits expression.

Day 149

Wednesday, 2/24/99 11:55PM

There are times when it is very difficult for man in travail to see the rightness of all he experiences. He begins to doubt his own worthiness and to wonder what he has done to deserve the sorrow inflicted upon him. He is unsure of his ability to survive with love and faith intact. He is tempted to feel that his concept of a God of love and giving could be erroneous. He is sustained by the hope that his doubts are ill founded and that when the end to his difficulties comes he will find within himself both the wisdom of acceptance and the fullness of faith and trust he feared losing.

Man's trials often come at times when he feels ill equipped to deal with misfortune, and he feels himself incapable of adequate response. At such times he looks to those who share his life and considers himself blessed when they reach out to him in aid and consolation. He knows in his heart that the love that they share can survive all challenge, and he is heartened by the totality of their caring.

Rarely does man not find himself heartened by all that is offered to him in times of trouble, but in these instances man's faith is even more sorely tried, and he struggles to keep bitterness from entering his soul. He calls upon his God to relieve and strengthen him, and he is gratified when his prayers are answered and he finds in himself the renewed strength so badly needed.

The man without faith in himself and in his God is to be pitied, for he finds himself ill equipped to meet the challenges of misfortune. He struggles against all odds and fights off despair. When he reaches the end of trial he is often newly aware of the power that lies within him and he is newly confident in all he is called upon to do in his life.

In all, man's experiences with the trials intrinsic in the journey through life vary widely both in nature and in their solutions, but it is rare that man finds himself so totally defeated as to surrender completely to despair. Almost always the divine spark of hope and courage leads him to the light.

Day 150

Thursday, 2/25/99 11:57PM

From the very start of time, from the first faint stirrings of life on earth, there has been a divine presence and plan in the governing of the universe. This plan has not always known perfect execution but it has known always divine governance.

The soul come to earth knows great power in the exercise of free will. He knows a sense of independence that serves him well when he listens to the dictates of his heart that speak of the importance of love. He is less well served when he ignores the goodness inherent in his nature and succumbs to worldly temptation. He fancies himself more powerful that he is in fact and he acts accordingly. Inevitably he comes to a realization of his folly in his assumptions of power and he has cause to regret abandoning the path of goodness in the full embrace of temptation.

Even when man forgets completely his relationship to the power of the divinity, even when he commits error after error, even when he forgets completely his reason for earthly existence, man is capable of recognition of error and determination to expiate and to return to the way he abandoned. There is an infinite tolerance in the divine will and all men profit thereby. No matter how far afield the soul in progress may stray, the road back to goodness and godliness is always open to him.

This is the way of the Lord, and it is at all times a blessed path.

Day 151

Friday, 2/26/99 11:56PM

All the children of God, and they are infinite in number, are joined in a common cause. All seek the perfection of belonging.

In this life it is the ultimate joy to be totally enjoined in love. This love and this belonging can take many forms, and the blessed soul knows that he experiences belonging in many ways. He finds joy in allegiance, in love given and received, in fellowship and trust, and above all in the sure knowledge that his being is cherished in all ways.

No man can achieve happiness without this awareness of belonging, and it is in man's nature to seek these sources of loyalty and love. The soul who fails to achieve this security continues his search for it at all times. Most men succeed in this quest and live lives of great satisfaction, secure in the awareness of their own caring for others and the caring of others for them.

There is always joy in belonging. Each time that man reaches out in love to a fellow traveler in this life he insures himself of this joy. Rarely will he be rebuffed, and if he is, he rests secure in his confidence that his next gesture of love and caring will meet acceptance and returned caring.

Man creates many networks during his earthly journey, and if those networks are based on giving and caring they are sources of both strength and satisfaction. Man is not meant to live a solitary life. He is meant to offer and respond. He is meant to recognize need and to fill it. He is meant to recognize proffers of love and to accept gratefully. He is meant to be a part of a community of love and of needs cheerfully met and of satisfactions generously shared.

When man finds himself secure in the bonds of love and belonging, he knows a full heart. All he gives he receives. There is no more equitable bond.

Day 152

Saturday, 2/27/99 11:40PM

It is of the utmost importance that all men realize the wonder that lies within, the divine spark that makes all things possible.

Men of various and sometimes conflicting creeds are agreed upon the divine presence. They feel assured that there is a governing deity who oversees all of human existence and who serves a further purpose. It is this purpose, among other disputes, that separates brother from brother.

Throughout history man has sought answers absolute about the being, unseen and elusive in human terms, who is above all other things vital to his being, supreme in importance. Throughout history man has differed from his brother, and in his insecurity has held his brother in error whenever he differed from him in perception and belief.

Intolerance took hold, and over the centuries took its toll of mankind. Lives were regarded an inconsequential. Power became all. Man began to know total vulnerability when he did not conform to those who wielded power without discretion. The world lost much in all of this intolerant warfare. Idols were smashed, but along with this destruction came alienation, fear, and mistrust.

To this day the pursuit of God has had dire consequences. Man, in his insecurity, has sought to insure himself by denigrating his brother. He has gone even further. He has declared his brother unworthy of life itself unless he bows down to the oppression of imposed beliefs.

No good comes of this secular domination. Even worse, those most intent on pleasing their God become offensive in His eyes when they mistrust their brothers, equal children in the love of the divine Father. Such total rejection of unconditional love is indeed sad. It reduces the oppressors; it elevates the oppressed, for it is time that those who suffer for truth's sake are those who find freedom from oppression, and truth, as it has been always, is defined as total unconditional love. All else is less.

Day 153

Sunday, 2/28/99 11:27PM

It is of the utmost importance that man look upon his brother with eyes of love and that he see in this divine creature all that he is and desires to be.

The world is often cruel in its assessments. It is all too easy for man in this present day to look upon his brother and to see differences between them that offer him the opportunity for judgment inimical in every way. Man chooses all too often to look upon his own characteristics as superior to all those different. The next step in this self judgment is to find others lacking in each way that they differ from what he has chosen to feel is ideal.

Thus is prejudice born. It is not within man's capacity to see honestly the origins of prejudice in all too many cases. It is easy for man to slip into error in this way and to destroy the very fabric of society by his failure to recognize his brothers in full equality and to thereby encourage division, dissension, and hatred.

Hatred is an insidious emotion. It is so easy when men abandon, for whatever reason, the bonds of love that marked the start of life to surrender to baser emotions. Chief among these base emotions is hatred. It is an attitude easily assumed, tenacious in its nature, and totally destructive. There is no basis for hatred, even less understandable when it is based purely on physical difference.

All men are essentially identical in their physical nature, in their strengths and in their limitations. There is no basis whatsoever for those choosing to discriminate against their brothers for physical characteristics. No man is born superior in color. No man is born superior in race. No man is born genetically superior. No man is born genetically inferior.

Let all men acknowledge the absolute equality of all men born to human life and let them live their lives accordingly. Let them speak out in this matter.

Day 154

Monday, 3/1/99 11:14PM

At all times it is incumbent upon all souls making the earthly journey, freely chosen and fully accepted, to recognize the transitory nature of human existence.

It is clear that life's span varies enormously from soul to soul, and yet each of these individual life experiences is perfect in its intention and in its execution. This is not to say that each soul has succeeded fully in reaching perfection, but rather that the time encompassed in each life is exactly designed.

Man is often puzzled by the disparity in the length of life experienced, and indeed this confusion is reasonable, but man needs in consideration of the differences in longevity to realize that the soul come to human existence comes with very specific purpose and clearly defined goals. Some lives require little time to achieve the intended results; others require longer time, but there is no uniformity either in the span of life measured in days, months, and years, or in the nature of the experiences of that life. The nature of the closure of each life is as well defined before conception in full agreement with the soul returned to life.

These concepts are difficult for the human mind to grasp fully, but it is enough to know that each life is but a step in the journey each soul makes to inevitable progression to perfection, and that the length of each journey is of little importance. The goal is all.

Man should take comfort in the absolute assurance offered to him that this single life is not all, that no matter the nature of his life's experiences, no matter its length or its brevity, it is but part of a glorious whole.

Let man rejoice in this sure knowledge and let his heart be lightened by the prospect of perfection achieved.

Day 155

Tuesday, 3/2/99 11:32PM

Chief among man's characteristics is his ability to forgive error and transgression. This capacity is tried often in the course of each life, and it sometimes tries the soul to summon forgiveness when it is badly needed.

It is important to remember the dual nature of forgiveness. The sinner, if one can call him that, craves forgiveness for his errors and omissions once he has recognized the error of his ways. He seeks peace and reconciliation. The offended is hesitant to grant this favor. Having been once abused and betrayed and wounded, the soul in progress feels vulnerable and unwilling to be further hurt. Yet even in the most extreme situations the individual who has suffered injury in any way longs for an end to bitterness and regret, and even when it seems like the most remote of possibilities harbors within his being a need to forgive and to effect reunion.

Sometimes it is not even necessary for this need to be expressed and not to be exactly verbalized. Each of the parties alienated from each other, no matter the reason, no matter the degree of insult and injury, feels a compulsion to heal the wounds that separate them, to achieve the peace of mind and soul that comes only with an end to enmity and resentment.

It is often difficult for man to set aside pride and worldly concerns and to know fully his need to reach a peaceful solution to all relationships which involve hostility and hurt. Sometimes man in his folly allows such alienation to fester, to color all his life's experiences, and to take from him the sense of peaceful and gratifying coexistence that life offers to the accepting soul.

Often the moment of forgiveness and reconciliation is dramatic and forceful. Sometimes it is silent and unstated. In all cases it nourishes the soul and speeds him on his way. Peace of mind and heart is his immediate reward, along with the love that is restored.

Day 156

Wednesday, 3/3/99 11:48PM

In all of life there is reckoning. From the earliest days of childhood, the soul in progress becomes aware of the extent to which he is pleasing to all those whose concern is his welfare. The very young learn by this reckoning. They learn that all they do affects others. They learn that all they do affects the response of others to their actions. Ideally, the very young learn at a tender age that when their actions are loving they elicit a loving response. Thus security is established in the human heart and mind and responsibility is acknowledged and accepted.

As the child progresses into adulthood, responsibility and response becomes more complicated and the soul seeking truth and perfection is sometimes hard pressed to make the decision most beneficial to all affected. Sometimes the right decision necessitates a high degree of unselfish devotion to another. Sometimes the right decision is difficult in terms of delayed satisfaction and temporary deprivation. Yet man at all times has the capacity to do all that fills him with awareness of the rightness of all of his actions, and he has the further capacity to learn from each of his righteous decisions that there is no other choice if he is to achieve his goals and in the process know self satisfaction and the warmth of love shared.

Man knows fully that he is happy in this life only when he is loved. He knows as well that he is happiest when he knows the joy of expressing love in word and deed and of knowing joyous response. Man does not deprive himself when he gives fully to all those in need. Rather the opposite is true. He rejoices in the fullness of response that nourishes and enriches every aspect of his worldly existence. The more he gives the more he receives. The more completely he devotes himself to others' welfare and need, the less he finds himself in need.

Life offers infinite opportunity to the soul in progress to find both joy and nourishment in creating happiness for all those he encounters in life, particularly those who are the most deprived. Meeting the needs of others is for all men a source of satisfaction. Beyond this immediate reward lies great promise.

Day 157

Thursday, 3/4/99 11:36PM

Innermost in man's being is his absolute desire to be a part of a loving community. Man is born in belonging. At every point in his growth his overwhelming need is to know and to exchange the love that binds man to man. He is happy when he knows the security of love that knows no denial, survives all threats, and nourishes totally.

This love is generally a gift at the start of life, and its essential nature is clear. Deprived of love the soul newly come to life knows disease, and its very survival is threatened. Nourished by love, the new soul come to earth thrives and finds his place in the earthly firmament.

Year after year the search continues. There is no such thing as too much love, and each soul in progress aware of this infinite truth pursues a path of goodness in seeking in all ways to know further manifestations of love given and received. There is no limit to man's capacity to discover love and to nurture and cherish it. There is no limit to the joy that love offers to all who share its warmth.

Let man know that love is the greatest gift of all.

Day 158

Friday, 3/5/99 11:30PM

Man always seeks justice. Under all circumstances he is led to a need to know truth, and in this seeking he finds himself often a judge. He encounters conflict and he seeks to resolve this conflict in the interests of justice. He tries to learn truth on which to base his decision and to persuade the conflicting parties of the rightness of all he has concluded. He seeks to uncover truth in the hearts of those competing souls and to bring them to a state of acceptance and reconciliation. He calls his effort a search for justice, and in this he speaks truly.

Justice is often distorted by prejudice, by partiality, by dishonesty, and yet justice perseveres in the face of all challenge. Justice is not always served well by man. All too often he is intent on victory in conflict and uncaring about the merits of his claim. He is willing to twist truths to his own ends and in the ensuing confusion justice is temporarily ill served.

Rarely is imbalance in the scales of justice not recognized and corrected, but often this process is protracted and painful. In the interim all those injured by earlier miscarriage of justice are called upon to be infinitely patient in their efforts to redress this imbalance.

In the end, no matter how long it takes, man's insistence upon justice becomes a causative factor in redressing wrongs. It buoys the human spirit when the call for justice is clearly heard and heeded.

There is a sweetness in the word -- justice.

Day 159

Saturday, 3/6/99 11:32PM

Beyond all understanding it is man's need to be a part of the divine interrelationships that define human life. Man is born of his own choosing into a life of his own choosing, one of ease or hardship as is his option, one of brevity or longevity as he chooses. In all cases the soul come to life is aware of the options facing him, and he chooses in full awareness of the wisdom of his choice.

Once he has returned to life to effect his promises and his choices, man is given ample opportunity to succeed. He is never tried beyond the strength that is his to reject all temptations, to overcome all obstacles, and to triumph in all he is expected to do to affirm his willingness to fulfill promise.

It is not easy for the soul in progress to act in perfect commitment. Often promises are forgotten. Often temptation is irresistible. Often the soul in progress is lost in worldly pleasure which puts love above other enticements.

When this occurs, it is important that those who guide the life of the spirit speak forcefully and remind the human seeking perfection of his absolute obligation to seek love above all else. Often the soul facing temptation and loss of self is saved by the intervention of those who value his love above all other things. This soul, so driven, becomes a prize beyond price, and he is at all times totally and completely to be cherished.

Let us say, then, that the soul in progress is at all times to be cherished in the sweetness of its seeking, and that when it strays from the path of goodness, forces irresistible in their strength seek to guide him back to the home he needs to discover, and they seek to comfort him infinitely.

Day 160

Sunday, 3/7/99 10:33PM

At all times man is happiest when he is contributing to the welfare of others. At all times whether his efforts are acknowledged or not, his heart fills with joy when he is able to aid a fellow man in need. This aid can be of many kinds. It can be major both in the effort involved and in its influence, or it can be so minor as to escape notice. In either case, the soul of the giver is fulfilled in its sense of worth and the soul in progress is encouraged to make such giving habitual.

This need to succor those in need is surely proof of man's close identity with the divine nature of God. It is rare that man finds it within his nature to turn away from a fellow in need. Even if he can offer nothing more than a kind word or an encouraging gesture, he feels himself rewarded by his effort. In all cases the needy individual finds his heart filled with the love offered to him, and he finds his path made smoother by the caring assistance.

Few men pass through life without experiencing need. Always man needs love, and without this love, all else fades in significance, but most men know needs of other natures and find themselves dependent upon the response of others. This then is the miracle of giving. The needy soul is encouraged and enriched by the caring of others. The giving soul is enriched in his sure knowledge that he has done his best to contribute to the welfare and happiness of another soul in progress. This bond strengthens both, and all those made aware of the loving exchange and its attendant satisfaction are encouraged to emulate. The circle of giving widens and all those who both give and receive find gratification and blessedness not otherwise achieved.

This is the essence of love.

Day 161

Monday, 3/8/99 11:17PM

It is often tempting for man to feel tried beyond reason, to consider himself unfairly singled out in the woes he knows. It is further tempting for him to turn to others and to blame them for the trials he must endure.

When this happens, man is most in need of absolute loving support. It is often difficult to feel sympathy for the man who strikes out at others and assigns to others responsibility for his own failures, and yet this is a common failing and a certain indication of the desperation felt by the soul in need of aid and comfort.

It is the fortunate soul who finds in others awareness of his terror and sense of absolute despair and who seek to comfort and assist. Wonders are wrought when human unhappiness is alleviated by a loving response, and in all cases the desperate soul finds comfort in the concern he is offered.

Not all human difficulties are easily solved, but it is indeed truth that the soul seeking elusive solutions finds itself less desperate when it knows the loving concern of others. The lonely soul is a soul whose torment knows no cessation. The soul confident of the loving caring of another knows full well that there is cause for hope. This hope grows with the continued ministrations that speak of love, of awareness of his need, and of unlimited desire to ease his suffering.

The brotherhood of man is at all times a source of joy and satisfaction to all those who share in all ways, whose needs are met, whose loving care is joyfully received, and who knows at all times that there is no such thing as loneliness.

Man's greatest gift to his brother is the gift of caring.

Day 162

Tuesday, 3/9/99 11:32 PM

Man has long wondered why he exists in this world. He has speculated infinitely. Science has sought answers based on fact sifted through the relics of history. Much that has been concluded deserves recognition as truth discovered, as facts carefully established as physical evidence. Yet in this scientific chain of truth and fact, much is omitted, much distorted.

It is not within man's capacity to grasp fully the divine plan and its evolution in this space called earth. Much that has occurred is not so much attributable to divine will as to the free will of man constantly exercised. The point at which man became a sensate being possessed of a soul answerable eternally is not within the scope at this time of scientific awareness. Theories have been advanced. Attempts at logical explanation have been made.

Man is admirable in these efforts, but he is misled in assuming that the whole truth of human experience lends itself to scientific analysis and empirical fact. The spirit of man is not to be denied. Neither is it to be fully understood by the human mind. Yet few men deny the reality, if it can be called that, of the soul of man, the being that exists within mortal flesh and which animates the corporal being. Chemistry is not all of man.

Let us consider, then, that man's earthly existence does not lend itself to easy explanation from a scientific point of view. Much that science can explain about man's physical nature is easily accepted as truth, but there are facts and factors that evade explanation, and to those unsolved mysteries man must look beyond science. He must accept the fact that his single earthly existence is not all. He must recognize that he has great power to govern in this earthly experience, but that this power is at all times subject to a higher power beyond scientific rationale.

Man should not fight against the unknowable. Rather he should accept all that practical experience and scientific method teaches him and yet go beyond this to an apprehension of the divine, the all enveloping wonder that is the soul come to life to learn and to teach.

In this acceptance he will find peace and wisdom and he will be grateful in all ways.

Day 163

Wednesday, 3/10/99 11:42PM

In the infinite variety of life on earth, man sometimes finds himself confused. He tries to evaluate the quality of life as it is lived by so many disparate cultures in so many geographically distant parts of the world, totally alien from his existence. What he sometimes forgets is that in these far off places, alien to him, his is the life that differs. His is the experience and the belonging that are alien.

It is understandable that man born into a specific culture and within that culture to a specific national or economic or ethnic group will find it difficult to understand fully all those outside his specific frame of reference. There is no harm in this awareness of differences among men so long as it does not breed intolerance, but man finds it infinitely enriching when he makes the effort to overcome ignorance and misunderstanding and to embrace fully his brother regardless of the differences that separate them geographically and socially and sometimes spiritually.

When man attempts to achieve full understanding of the world he lives in, when he is willing to surrender prejudice and long held beliefs, he comes to a rich understanding of the community in which he lives. He realizes that man, whatever his origins, whatever his beliefs, whatever his earthly home, is one with him as a child of God come to seek understanding and salvation. The wise man is thankful for this enlightenment and feels compassion for all those not so blessed with awareness.

It is not easy to arrive at this complete awareness and acceptance of the total and unconditional brotherhood of man, but it is a step in spiritual progress that all must take, and it affords the soul in progress comfort in all ways, for it frees him to know the unconditional love that is the key to all else he seeks on the road to perfection and oneness.

Day 164

Thursday, 3/11/99 11:46PM

It is impossible for man to know fully the wonder of his life. Even the most introspective of men find it difficult to envision the complexity of the soul in progress. Although a belief in repeated lives has been for centuries accepted by many belief systems, no philosopher has attempted to describe in detail the intricacies involved in birth, death, and rebirth consistently repeated. No one has speculated with any degree of insight as to the manner of this cycle. No man has claimed to know positively all that occurs in the process.

It is not necessary or even desirable that man know in absolute detail each step the soul in progress takes on the road to perfection and oneness, but it is important that all men recognize the truth that the journey of each soul come to earthly life is but a part of the whole journey. It is a source of infinite satisfaction to those with awareness of the nature of repeated lives to know with absolute certainty that they have chosen each life in full acceptance of its challenges and opportunities for learning the lessons of love and thus to progress to perfection.

Man's faith in his own capacities is a source of hope and confidence. In the darkest of moments he is aware that he is bound to succeed, that if he seems to fail it is only for the moment and that he need feel no concern. Thus buoyed, man is content.

Day 165

Friday, 3/12/99 11:07PM

It is at all times part of man's nature to seek further understanding of all his earthly experience. It is vitally important to him to be able to accept all that life offers, for good or for bad, and man is naturally led to base this acceptance on understanding whenever it is possible to do so.

Often man in examining all that has befallen him can find reason in past errors he has made. In retrospect he sees clearly where he has erred, and he realizes that he alone is responsible for the resulting difficulties. On the other hand, man is at times hard pressed to understand earthly trials. He tries to analyze his behavior to seek cause, and he is unable to justify the ills he knows as a result of bad judgment or misconduct on his part. Under these circumstances he finds himself unable to explain his fate and is hard pressed to accept as justifiable what he cannot understand.

It is at this point that man finds peace in the realization that every difficulty has its reason and that each time he is called upon to accept and to solve difficulties he gains in strength and understanding. Not always does man accept immediately the virtue of hardship, but when he pauses in retrospection he begins to appreciate the strengthening nature of challenge met, accepted, and overcome.

Whenever man knows trial he is blessed if it leads to awareness of all he has to gain by full acceptance of all that is asked of him and full awareness of all he gains in this acceptance.

Struggle is implicit in human existence and is fruitful in all it offers to man who emerges victorious and wiser in the end.

Day 166

Saturday, 3/13/99 11:55PM

There are many things that perplex man on his earthly journey. At the start of life he finds life simple and easily accepted whatever its nature. Some new souls are granted lives of comfort and of assurance. Others enter life with sad lacks that affect their very survival. In all cases, from one extreme to the other, the soul in question is born into a life of its own choosing, a life of varied challenge, a life of ease or difficulty, a life of conflict or peace, all in accordance with divine origin.

Perhaps it is regrettable that the soul come to human life does not retain memory of all it has undertaken in new life, but it is the essence of human experience that no memory be retained, that the soul come to life confront each difficulty with full awareness of its strength to endure but with no feeling of responsibility of choice of difficulty encountered.

The nature of man's experience varies so widely that there is little capacity in one man to understand the nature of another's chosen challenges. It may be difficult for man to conceive of the fact that in the fullness of human existence, in the vastness of historical experience, no two men are identical. It is part of the divine will that each soul possess an identity that is unique. No man resembles his brother perfectly. No man experiences human life in exactly the same way as any other.

It is understandably difficult for the human mind to comprehend such complexity and such diversity, and yet in its basic simplicity science has established the singular identity of each soul come to earth in physical attribution. Is it not simple to recognize that celestial identity is even more perfect in all ways? No man finds it possible in the world of scientific marvel to deny the absolute uniqueness of each man born to human life. How is it possible to deny the eternal heritage, the boundless nature each of God's unique children knows as absolute heritage?

Man's perplexity will find answers divine, and in these answers he will know the fullness of wisdom shared divinely. He will need no more.

Day 167

Sunday, 3/14/99 11:27PM

It is afforded all men to know the limits of their endurance. Each soul come to earth to live in full compliance of its commitments is fully aware of all obligations to perform and to pursue goals set.

There comes a point in each human journey when man is beset by trial and tribulation and totally unsure of his capacity to meet all that threatens his inner peace with strength and solution. It is at such times that the fortunate soul in progress is stirred to all strength within and to be aware of strength without.

The man in trial beyond human resources knows instinctively that he has power to summon resources to ease his difficulties, to offer solution. At the time, man does not question the source of this new found inner strength, this source of salvation. It is only in retrospect that man in realizing his dilemma and its subsequent resolution becomes aware of the extraordinary nature of all he has known in help and in intervention. He has been given aid beyond his fondest hopes and he has seen as a result total triumph over trial.

Even when man is not sorely tried he needs to be aware of help beyond immediate understanding. He needs to learn the necessity of appeal, the value of petition, and he needs to know that response is inevitable. He needs full faith.

Man is a creature of promise and joy. He is meant to succeed in all he endeavors and to know the fullness of love given and received at each step of his journey. There is no more blessed path.

Day 168

Monday, 3/15/99 11:50PM

In the totality of a single life there is always plan and purpose. This is a concept difficult for the mortal mind, for man tends to define "purpose" narrowly. In the divine plan there are no narrow definitions, nor are there lives without purpose.

It has been said repeatedly that man comes to this life of his own accord, on terms of his own making, in full intent to live this life in such a way as to insure spiritual progress. He may choose to be born a conqueror. He may choose to live as a victim. He may choose a life lived in security and pleasure. He may choose to live a life of deprivation and hardship. He may choose to live an hour. He may choose to live a century. Not all options are open to all men at all times, but there is enormous breadth in choice. It is the divine intent that man be master of his fate both in designing that fate and in living its fulfillment.

Once committed to a life and to its pleasures and its pains, man embarks on a journey singular to him, and on his journey encounters all those who have chosen to share his earthly voyage.

There is a complexity in this divine plan that is difficult if not impossible for the human mind to comprehend, but it is regardless the truth absolute and immutable that there is a community of souls divinely endowed that is always accorded the soul come to life. He does not come as a stranger into an alien environment. He is never alone. Rather his choice of life is a choice made in full awareness of all those who will share this journey in full appreciation of how they will affect his experience for good or for bad.

Some men come to life as a stranger to those who come to be part of his experience on planet earth. He knows beforehand the nature of his life and the nature of his relationships, and it becomes his duty and his pleasure to live the chosen life in full awareness of his accepted responsibilities. These responsibilities are varied in nature and in demand, but always they provide the soul in progress with a stability. He knows what he must do to succeed and he knows full well the pleasure that is accorded him when he accepts and fulfills all promises made before his advent into human life. He is well served by the awareness granted to him and well served by all the strength he knows in achieving even the most difficult of goals.

Day 169

Tuesday, 3/16/99 11:34PM

However he is fashioned, the soul come to earth is a manifestation of divine love. It is man's tendency to look upon his brother and to assume that the most perfect by earthly standards is the most perfect by divine standards. While this may be the case in some instances, the vast majority of humans do not fully reflect their spiritual richness in their earthly attributes. Often the most perfectly gifted spiritually are the least gifted materially.

It is understandable that man makes this erroneous assumption, but even in the short span of his life he becomes aware of the error in his early assumption. It is his good fortune that he learns of the fallibility of those who are most gifted and the most generously endowed. It is his blessing when he embraces fully the truth that material blessings are not necessarily fortunate, that often the most deprived of men is the richest.

In his striving man often knows confusion. He knows in his heart that his basic instinct to seek after goodness and giving should govern all the acts of his life. At the same time he feels that he is expected to succeed in ways that will win worldly praise and material reward. In his innermost soul man finds wisdom and chooses wisely, and once he does he knows release from concern and anxiety and he is free to know total pleasure in his decision. There is infinite tolerance for human error, but there is as well infinite pleasure in the soul come to ultimate truth, and in the days of human existence man knows endless possibilities to achieve that central goal.

Let it be known always that man is master of his fate in all the ways that matter in the pure progression to perfection.

Day 170

Wednesday, 3/17/99 11:49PM

Among man's many gifts is his infinite capacity to participate fully in the joyous exchange of love. From the very moment of birth man seeks to show his hunger for love and to know its instant contagion. He learns before all else that love is a gift which brings infinite benefits. He learns that love begets love and that there is no limit to its beneficence, no boundaries that limit its infectiousness.

With the passage of years, man's capacity for love remains strong, though it may be modified in part by his experience. If he is rebuffed, he grows wary. If he considers himself vulnerable in expressing love, he becomes less willing to chance rejection. As he matures he seeks to understand the ways in which love is safely shared, and in all his efforts to find happiness this search is central.

For some men the search to find love shared equally and fully and faultlessly is a protracted one, marked by trial and error, sometimes by hurt and insult, but man is by nature a tenacious creature and his need for love shared is both inborn and constantly increasing. Not all men find the gift of love in exactly the same way. Some find love in unselfish service. Some find love in achieving a unity with a fellow man and perpetuating this relationship in the bonds of marriage and procreating souls bound to them in love.

There is no set pattern to be followed in the search for love, nor is there a set rule for success. Trial and error are often part of this needful search, and man is in some ways enriched by the lessons he learns in failure and is thereby better equipped for subsequent success. It is the rare soul who does not achieve belonging, and even in this company there is promise, for man is at all times granted the privilege of eventual achievement of love shared perfectly before the end of his earthly journeys.

No man exists alone. No man truly wishes to exist alone.

Day 171

Thursday, 3/18/99 10:56PM

Man is born to know pleasure in being. He is meant to succeed in all his endeavors during the path he takes to the end of human existence. He comes to this world with full faith in his ability to do all he has promised and to know further advancement in his eternal goal.

The world today reflects the extent to which many men have strayed from original commitment. The vast majority of souls come to life seek, sometimes in the midst of chaos, to fulfill their earthly duties. Even when the world is not riven by conflicting claims to superiority, man finds it difficult at times to pursue perfection. All too often he is seduced by worldly satisfactions and he neglects the inner being so needful of nourishment.

Man, deprived of proof absolute, yields too often to the inner voices that urge him to indulge himself at all costs, to deprive others to enrich himself, to find pleasure in total self gratification. Look about you and see the results of such weakness of will. Learn from the folly of others and let this lesson guide you well.

Man is meant to know the joy of inner satisfaction, to look at the world about him and envy no other man, to know that he lives in goodness and giving and needs to do no more.

All men who achieve this inner peace find no need for further striving. Many go beyond this individual awareness and seek to share with others their certainty that success lies within.

Blessed are those who reach the level of awareness that permits them to live lives of awareness of the absolute necessity of the full exchange of caring and responsibility that their lives demand. In meeting fully all that is asked of them in love and giving they are infinitely enriched and in the wonder of their awareness seek to share infinitely.

Man is meant to live in joy, and he is blessed if he unlocks the source of joy and knows positively that its source is absolute surrender of self and endless care for all others. This is the pattern of love given and received, the ultimate wisdom.

Day 172

Friday, 3/19/99 11:40PM

In all ways man pursues the path designed by him before his earthly advent. Some paths are simple and easy. Some are complex and beset by difficulty. Some are at all times a challenge. In each of these differing journeys the soul come to earth is at all times aided by those loving spirits dedicated to his search for perfection. Sometimes this guidance is so strong that man is totally aware of its supernatural quality. At other times man is not as aware as he might be, and at times loses completely his awareness of divine counsel.

It is sad that so often man is not only lacking in awareness of the angelic voice that counsels him to follow the path of love and giving but that he chooses instead to listen to the spirit voices whose pleasure is to lead him astray. They cajole, they entice, they flatter, and in the end they destroy. Man's destiny becomes distorted, and he is until the moment of earthly death lost to all those who sought to guide him and to enrich him.

Once man has passed the portal of death, he is granted total awareness of the extent he has failed in his earthly journey. No matter the heinousness of his crimes, no matter the depth of his depravity, man is given the grace to see clearly how he has failed. He knows fully that all he has failed to do in human existence is his responsibility alone. He knows the debts he has accumulated in his treatment of his fellow man, and he is totally aware and accepting of the absolute need for restitution. He knows that he must find forgiveness for all he has done in error and omission, and finds certain joy in the awareness granted to him that he is fully able to do all that is required.

It is not easy for the human mind to either comprehend or to accept the magnitude of divine acceptance of human error. It is not easy to conceive of a God that loves equally saint and sinner. Yet if it is accepted that all souls must inevitably reach forgiveness for error in the achievement of oneness, then it is possible to pity the sinner and to sense his torment. It is further possible to comprehend the blessed nature of those who suffer oppression and cruelty and hold fast their faith in the infinite goodness of all that they are asked to endure in the firm faith that they are perfect in their acceptance.

Let man then know that though his path through earthly life is one chosen by him before birth, he is absolutely and solely responsible for all his deeds along this path and that all he does incurs responsibility to all those who share his human journey and are affected by his actions.

Day 173

Saturday, 3/20/99 11:34PM

There is never a time in human existence when man loses totally his divine identification. There is never a time when man cannot reach out in the direst of need and fail to find divine succor. It is difficult for man to accept awareness of the totality of divine love, of the total truth of all that has been said of the infinite relationship between the soul come to earth and those who have chosen to leave the heavenly realm to accompany this soul on his earthly journey. All these blessed spirits in the total fulfillment of love that they know willingly undertake their responsibility of guidance and sustenance to the soul come newly to life.

There is great joy in this singular responsibility. There is great wisdom in the choice made to nurture and to encourage the fullness of love given and received that is the requirement of all souls born to human existence. No matter how far man strays from the grace of love divinely bestowed, no matter how completely he rejects the heavenly assistance that is always his to accept or reject, no matter the totality of his assumption of power, man is eventually brought to the realization of his own ineptitude and in the end he freely admits to absolute dependence upon those who seek to guide him well.

In his eagerness to be singularly blessed in approbation, man may forget that all he seeks in gratitude and salvation lies in his very soul, that if this soul does not speak to him of love and joy totally fulfilled, then he must seek further.

This is my wish.

Day 174

Sunday, 3/21/99 11:35PM

In His infinite wisdom, it has since the start of time been the will of God that man become aware of his own capacity for perfect love and giving, the sole criterion for total perfection and oneness.

Over the centuries since time immemorial man has been aware, at times more completely than at others, that he is singularly equipped to be a creature of love. He is born with a sense of protectiveness. He is born with a need to share. He is born with a need to love and to be loved. He is born with a willingness to live a life of total goodness.

Not all lives are equal in their opportunities, and it becomes man's need and his responsibility to retain these noble characteristics no matter the nature of his human experience. Some challenges are truly daunting and it is understandable that doubt may enter the soul of the individual sorely tried and cause him to lose faith in his capacity to act as he knows he should. Some men weather every storm, even when they are uncertain of their ability to cope. Others, though their intentions are the most noble, surrender to despair and failure.

Man is never totally conquered, never totally fails. Even if he is reduced to absolute insecurity, even it he regards himself as totally lost, he retains his God-given capacity to triumph over all temptations and weaknesses. Man is never alone in his struggles, though he may consider himself so. He becomes at all times a part of the divine consciousness, and no matter the depth of his earthly failure he is destined to succeed eventually.

This awareness may at times save man from total surrender to despair. He may hear inner voices counseling courage and hope. Sometimes man must wait until the end of his earthly existence to discover this perfect promise. In either case, man is destined to know that never is he abandoned, to know that no matter how long and difficult the journey, he will know attainment of the perfection that brings him perfect belonging, total peace and joy.

No man is eternally deprived.

Day 175

Monday, 3/22/99 11:54PM

It is rarely that man experiencing human existence fails completely in his learning.

There are times when the soul come to earth brings with it simple needs, easily achieved, to progress. There are other souls who come with a long list of necessary achievements, each one chosen and agreed to in full faith of total accomplishment. In each case the soul come to earth is totally capable of success, though the more difficult the challenge, the more demanding the life. It is true that man's capacities are at all time adequate, but it is equally true that man at times fails to live up to his capabilities for a variety of reasons and falls short of his life's goals. Sometimes man is aware of failure in this life. Sometimes he must wait until the gentle reckoning that awaits him after human death.

In all cases, man is insured of total acceptance of all he does and does not do in a single life, for it is part of the divine plan that the soul come to earthly existence of its own will know infinite tolerance and infinite opportunity to succeed in its seeking. All roads lead to oneness with the divine nature, and all men find the right path eventually.

The soul at all times achieves a patient understanding of all that is required to reach perfection, and there is never unwillingness or hesitation in pursing this ultimate goal. Joy fills all hearts on the way to oneness. There is no doubt, no hesitation, no unwillingness in this pursuit, and at all times there is full faith that progresses to perfect love perfectly shared is the path all souls take in perfect acceptance and love.

Day 176

Tuesday, 3/23/99 11:50PM

Always man seeks to find happiness. In this search he is often misled. He is tempted by all he sees about him and all he knows of envy to equate happiness with plenty. He confuses material wealth with emotional and spiritual richness. Thus misguided, he is led further astray when his craving for worldly goods leads him to seek all he covets without regard for his brother's welfare. If he permits himself to be so misled, he becomes capable of destruction without guilt. He places his shallow desires above all else, even at the expense of others' peace of mind and material security.

Man does not sink all at once into selfishness. It is an insidious progression, one in which he ignores all those earthly and divine who try to guide him in the paths of goodness and giving. He heeds instead those beguiling voices which encourage him to enrich himself at all costs, to ignore the doleful effect his actions may have upon others, and to be so self centered in all he does and says and thinks that he loses completely his awareness of his need to be a part of the brotherhood of man in ways of love given and received.

In its most extreme form, man suffers total loss of self in his striving to be superior to all others in the ways of the world. In less extreme cases, man deprives himself of the only meaningful happiness in earthly life, that of love shared.

In all of his striving for material success at all costs, man loses himself to a greater or lesser degree, and it is purely a matter of time before he comes to a realization of the empty shell he has become, and then, sometimes much too late, he begins to know regret. He is not always able to make amends as he would choose. He finds it impossible to mend lives he has broken. He weeps.

Day 177

Wednesday, 3/24/99 11:59PM

Each man come to this life is unique. He brings with him a personality that is ageless, and it serves to identify him completely in each life. Each soul is uniquely imprinted and knows no similarity to any other in this singular identity.

It is difficult for the human mind to encompass this diversity, this complexity of creation. Yet in this age man is given reason to accept this wonder more fully than in ages past. The world of science has made such strides in the analysis of the human body and mind that it suggests fully the complex nature of the human race. Science has created machines of power that rival the capacities of the human mind, indeed in some ways exceed human capacity, and yet they do not begin to rival the human mind in its creative complexity. Yet all these advances in scientific understanding make it easier to envision a human population stretching far back into history and increasing daily composed of souls come to earth each boasting an identity of its own, never duplicated exactly.

Yet, in all this diversity, man shares with all his brothers origins, needs, and talents that mark the human race and create in this race a sense of belonging, a common origin, a common goal, and an overwhelming need for love given and received. There is great grace in this sharing of needs and capacities, and in the journey through human life men of the most diverse cultures, men sharply different one from the other in many ways, share a common destination and a common road to that destination.

It is fortunate indeed that there is in most cases fuller awareness of their common goal than of their several differences. From this awareness comes the sense of brotherhood that marks man as child of God. From this sense of brotherhood comes the awareness of the importance of love shared without discrimination.

Day 178

Thursday, 3/25/99 11:58PM

It is at all times clear to man that although he has great power to control his earthly existence this great power knows limit. Often man is unaware of this limitation until he finds himself confounded by his experience and incapable of controlling all that happens to him.

It is at this point in human experience when man's reaction to all he is asked to endure becomes significant. Sadly, man is often tempted to rail against what he calls "fate" and to denounce the God who so tries him. He does not seek solution. He does not seek solace. He yearns for a kind of revenge -- a reversal of fortune that will deem him the victor in trial. It is rare that man experiencing this rejection and demanding what he regards as justice finds the solace he seeks. He feels himself further rejected and he ceases to accept even in small part what life has demanded of him in hardship and cruel deprivation.

Such rebellion is nurtured by those spirits seeking to destroy human faith and hope, and in his vulnerability man in trial all too often surrenders to the misleading promises he hears from the Others. If he permits himself to surrender to defiance and despair he serves himself ill and he abandons completely those bound to him in love both human and divine.

Fortunately man, more often than not, realizes that the descent into despair offers nothing but destruction, destruction both of self and others, and however slowly it may be, he emerges from the depths of his surrender and recognizes the rightness of acceptance and of a new beginning. He comes to realize that no defeat is final. He comes to be aware of strength lent to him in need, and above all he realizes the beauty in dependence upon those who long to nurture him with their generous love.

Blessed is the man who falls into despair, who rebels, and who in the end sees the light of truth in the perfection of loving acceptance he is privileged to know.

Day 179

Friday, 3/26/99 10:37PM

So many things puzzle man on his journey through earthly life. In the beginning of life he is spared puzzlement. He knows the full security of total dependence. Generally this total dependence results in absolute nurturing, in needs met absolutely, in love without flaw.

It is only later in the progression of life that man in his formative years wonders what his life's path should be. He is puzzled by the variety of paths open to him regardless of his social or economic status, and he seeks to find the most rewarding of the alternatives offered to him. Ideally man chooses wisely among the alternatives he knows and he proceeds to live a life suited to his talents and his ambitions.

Ideally once again man find himself gratified in all ways by his chosen path and ideally he finds one to love who is willing to share this path. So he embarks upon a life of promise, a life which seems assuredly free of care. In some cases this assurance is well founded. In others man finds himself faced with unforeseen difficulty, and he wonders about the reasonableness of all he knows in interruption of his life's plan.

Sometimes man's difficulties arise from his most intimate personal relationships, and once again he is hard pressed to understand the origin of those problems. He fancied himself secure in all ways in his personal life and he cannot either account for or accept disruption when it comes.

Man seeking understanding of trial and challenge rarely finds that he has achieved this understanding, but he is blessed when he comes to an awareness of the universal nature of human suffering, when he realizes his ability to deal with his problems, and when he proceeds with his life in full faith that if he does not fully understand, if he fails in total explanation, he need not be concerned, that success lies in acceptance of all that eludes understanding and in coping as fully as he can in full faith and hope.

He seeks peace and he finds it.

Day 180

Saturday, 3/27/99 11:18PM

In all of life man is privileged in many ways. He comes to human existence of his own accord to live a life of his choosing with full capacity to learn all he has deemed needful. He comes with full awareness that at the moment of birth he will lose full awareness of all he has promised, all he has determined necessary to spiritual progress, but he retains in his inner soul a sense of mission, a feeling of need to live a life in accordance with this agreement.

The most fortunate of those making the human journey find themselves able in all ways to meet the demands of life in a loving way. They are rarely tempted to ingratitude, and they revel in the kinship they know with all those sharing their earthly voyage. These blessed souls serve as inspiration to all those who are aware of their goodness and their striving. They are beacons to many.

Others are less fortunate, but it must be remembered that all they endure in life is of their choosing. In this group, some are constantly able to cope with the most trying of challenges and also serve as examples of human endurance and courage to all who observe their triumphs over adversity. Others faced with the problems they agreed to willingly do not fully succeed. They permit themselves to be distracted and to yield to resistance. They neglect to respond in love and they suffer thereby. Yet more often than not their failure is temporary, and with the grace and awareness granted them they recognize their weaknesses and seek to compensate for them. They seek perfection and they find it.

Few men fail completely to recognize all they have been given in strength and determination, and few men are left with the feeling of hopelessness that is such a threat to spiritual progress. Even in the most desperate of cases, there is reason for optimism in the awareness that beyond immediate perception there is guidance and caring that serve man well. The soul in progress is never alone, never abandoned.

There is cause for joy always in the sure knowledge that the end of the road is always perfection.

Day 181

Sunday, 3/28/99 11:24PM

It is at all times significant that man is motivated to seek understanding of all that he knows in human experience. Not all understanding is easily granted, and man is then called upon to accept without comprehension all that is demanded of him.

Man's inquiring mind is not easily stilled, and even as man professes acceptance without understanding he yearns to know more of all that is hidden from him. He seeks the advice and counsel of those older and wiser than he, and he is well served by those who advocate full surrender to the divine will and loving acceptance of all that life offers and all that life denies him.

There is a peace in acceptance that enables man to act more effectively and to effect more good than he might if his mind were in turmoil and his will unsettled. Once man becomes aware of power beyond his will, of guidance beyond human comprehension, he finds his path through life smoother and more joyous, and all who share his life become aware of his peaceful security and long to join him in this blessed state.

Man may differ from man widely in his external environment and physical experiences, but the soul of man does not differ from that of his fellow man, and what brings happiness to man is universal in all climes, in all times.

Day 182

Monday, 3/29/99 11:50PM

In all of life man knows the intimate relationship he has been granted with the angel spirit who is his guide in total love. He is not always aware of the exact relationship that they share. He does not always feel an exact presence. He does not see this perfect creature except in time of great blessedness. He does not always recognize and heed the voice that speaks to him always in love and caring.

Sometimes, however, man is granted these gifts of awareness of his devoted angel guide. Increasingly man is coming to expect such awareness, and his expectations have met assurance and gratification.

Whether or not man is granted full awareness of his angelic teacher and guide, he is aware in his innermost being of a caring beyond easy explanation. In times of crisis he knows comfort. In moments of panic he knows calm. In moments of need and loneliness he knows the comforts of love and belonging. Often man dismisses these gifts as self generated, and in a sense they are, for his angelic being is indeed part of his being, constant in attendance, totally faithful in service, absolute in devotion, perfect in love.

Man is often heard to speak of the "best part" of another. This "best part" is indeed a reality and is in fact the presence of the wondrous spirit who has come to be guide and teacher and whose devotion knows no limit, who desires no recognition, but whose total gratification lies in the progress his beloved charge knows in spiritual development, in learning the lessons of love.

Certainly the angelic presence makes itself apparent in some cases in extraordinary ways, but the important work of these angelic teachers is often, most often, undertaken in full faith that without recognition of any kind they will know success in their guidance.

We look always to these blessed beings and know their wonder.

Day 183

Tuesday, 3/30/99 11:48PM

In the blessedness of his being, man knows the fullness of love under all circumstances. He knows love in joy and in sorrow. He knows love in success and in failure. He knows love as a child and as an elder. He cherishes love shared at each juncture, each changing aspect of his life.

This love nourishes always. It increases joy. It deadens pain. It makes triumph sweeter. It mitigates the bitterness of defeat and disappointment. It binds soul to soul in full acceptance and understanding of strengths and weaknesses. It survives trial in miraculous ways and speeds recovery from tragedy.

Man deprived of love is deprived of purpose and meaning in his earthly journey. Man deprived of love is at best a survivor. Rarely is man content to live a loveless existence. He reaches out to find this precious gift. Rarely does he fail in his search, for he encounters others equally hungry for this nourishment, and they find in each other the answer to their longing. They learn the completeness of a life of love shared.

Love is a universal gift, the single absolute necessity in human life if the life is to be one of joy. No man, however he may try to persuade himself otherwise, is content to live without love. His soul withers and his outlook darkens. Only when he recognizes the absolute necessity of love is he capable of true happiness.

Day 184

Wednesday, 3/31/99 11:07PM

When man errs in his striving for perfection he becomes aware of his own frailty and he begins to be aware of the absolute necessity to correct error and to offer full compensation for all wrongs and omissions. It is sweet success when the soul in journey becomes aware of the absolute necessity of redress, of righting wrongs, of correcting error, of expressing love where there has been deprivation.

All souls share in this common need to correct error, to be aware of the need to express love fulfilled in word and deed in every aspect of human existence. This is an awareness that is inherent in the soul come to life, in the continuing consciousness of divine origin, of divine insight.

However man may choose to expend his goodness, it serves him well to remember that the sole requirement of the soul come to earth is to live perfectly in love. This is often not an easy undertaking. With full acceptance, the soul comes often into a difficult human existence, a life that demands full contribution to all the loving relationships he knows. Some of these relationships are trying to the utmost. Others seems to the soul in progress not loving at all but rather antagonistic in nature. It is at this point that the soul knows the full challenge of love given and received. It becomes his duty and his joy to persuade the soul reluctant to respond of the pure beauty of love freely given and gratefully received.

No soul is unwilling to accept and to accept with absolute thanksgiving the love that is offered freely to all those in search of the ultimate reason for being. No soul will know a more perfect response.

Day 185

Thursday, 4/1/99 10:40PM

It has been said and generally believed that all man does and does not do in a single lifetime is the sum total of his success or failure. Not all men have accepted the premise that a single life is all of earthly experience, but all too many embrace this concept and turn a blind eye to all alternatives.

While it is not inimical to human behavior to embrace belief in a single definitive life, it encompasses man in a narrow definition, one which poses unanswerable questions. Is God a tyrant insensitive to human needs? Does He create man so unequal that his life is shaped beyond his control? Who decides on the benefits and deprivations that mark human existence? How is life defined in its length or brevity, in its richness or poorness, in its totality? Is there a supreme being toying with man?

These are provocative questions, questions which should be asked by all souls on their earthly endeavor. There are answers which might persuade man that there is no God, that blind fate is the only answer, that man's experiences in life represent pure chance, that man is but a toy in the game of life.

There are other answers more pleasing, and all of them suggest that life is a drama having many acts, that each single life is but a part of the whole, that successive lives balance the scales of all that man experiences for good or for bad. These positive answers are a part of the awareness that benefits all souls and creates a joyful acceptance of all that this life offers for good or for bad.

This awareness leaves man with enormous faith and a sense of absolute security in the sure knowledge that justice is served in all ways. Blessings and trials are equitably distributed. Man is offered infinite opportunity to know the perfection of love shared and to be ultimately blessed in divine oneness, the greatest and inevitable gift.

Day 186

Friday, 4/2/99 11:55PM

It is at all times within man's capacity to know true fulfillment in his earthly journey to perfection. There are so many roads to this ultimate goal that man's understanding and faith are sorely tried by seeming inequities.

For full understanding and acceptance of the varied nature of human experience man must be willing to accept the truth that each man lives a life of his own design, fully committed to living that life in love without fault. It is difficult for man in his human experience to envision himself choosing the most difficult of lives, being not only willing but eager to experience trial and tribulation at all times. Such acceptance relies on his acceptance of the revealed truth that a single life is but part of the whole and that the soul seeking perfection proves its power and strength by undertaking a life of trial and knowing triumph over all adversity while retaining its capacity for acceptance and loving response under all circumstances in the face of all challenge.

It is important for man to reach this level of awareness where he accepts fully the ephemeral nature of a single life. It is comforting to him to know that however desperate he becomes in his human experience he has only to consider that he lives only a single chapter in a long history and that whatever misery he knows, beauty awaits. This faith sustains man under the direst of circumstances and brings joy to his soul.

This is truth.

Day 187

Saturday, 4/3/99 11:02PM

In all aspects of life man questions. If he is subject at all times to a higher authority, no matter its nature, he finds it difficult to express the questioning that his heart knows. In time, if ignored, this quest for truth comes to dismiss easy answers and to risk alienation and rejection by pursuing the pure goals that first inspired.

When man embarks upon this questing and questioning path he sacrifices much or little depending upon his original position. The more conventional the bearing of those who choose to expend their talents in pursuit of this ideal, the more persuasive the message.

It does not take a multitude to persuade a few. Rather the opposite is true, and the belief of many came to be centered upon this Teacher whose message was unique in its specificity. Abandon all else, He taught, in the full embrace of love shared infinitely and indiscriminately. With this blessing of love all wounds are repaired, all willing love fully available.

No matter the enormity of the need to see love perfectly expressed, man must meet this need in whatever way he can. No more is required of him whose response is purely blessed and who demands little or nothing but who shares in the full indulgence of love shared completely.

Day 188

Easter Sunday, 4/4/99 11:00PM

There is little that escapes man's understanding of his human experience when he turns in full faith to the voices that speak to him both within and without. He needs in both cases to distinguish. He needs to be aware that there are opposing forces seeking to influence and govern both within and without.

I have spoken of the Others, lonely souls who reject the offer of love eternal in favor of personal power, who mistakenly seek to possess the souls of those striving to find perfection in human life. These voices are suspect always, for it is not always that the soul in progress believes that he hears urging other that of his own consciousness. In addition, there are human voices, siren in their seductiveness, who tempt man to stray from the chosen paths of goodness and light, at times themselves victims of the Others.

In all of this confusion, it becomes man's responsibility to recognize the voices that seek to lead him astray and to seek in his heart and mind the strength to resist and to seek other counsel. At times the struggle for a single soul becomes a mighty battle. This mighty battle is enacted over and over again in places familiar and foreign, and in each of these struggles for possession of a single soul much is involved. Each soul is a prize to be won, a victory, however temporary, but in each case the price to be paid by the soul so seduced is great and the path back to achievement of perfection can be long and difficult.

The victory is always one-sided, for however long it takes the erring soul to triumph over the voices of seduction the outcome is certain. Each soul, no matter how many challenges, no matter how many defeats, no matter the degree of despair and humiliation, finds itself on the true path to the sublimity of total acceptance by the God of perfect love, endless joyful oneness, the supreme achievement.

Day 189

Monday, 4/5/99 11:00PM

It is beyond man's immediate understanding to know fully the infinity of the universe and the eternal nature of time. It is always just beyond man's grasp to know these wonders, but with each passing year man in his unceasing quest grows closer to comprehension. He approaches the time when he will begin to appreciate the link between the earthly, the human, and the spiritual, the divine.

For generations man has divided science and religious belief as if they were disparate completely, two irreconcilable systems foreign to each other, incapable of reconciliation. This step in the development of human awareness marked the beginnings of scientific discovery and has until recently been held above all exception by those men of science who regard fact and proof as the end of all searching for truth. Each passing decade has seen great advances in scientific method and application. Similarly each passing decade has rendered untenable scientific beliefs and theories once held sacred.

Man's progress in scientific understanding then has been marked by increased awareness and perfection of technique and at the same time rejection or modification of earlier concepts and beliefs once regarded as infallible. This is not to say that science invalidates itself in rejecting earlier efforts, but rather to suggest that in each step of its discovery and development, science must be reminded that each limit reached will soon yield to further discovery and that further discovery may invalidate earlier efforts and practices.

Each advance in scientific discovery seems to point to the enormous complexity of the universe and of all its inhabitants. Scientists are increasingly becoming aware of the limitations of the human brain in all its miraculous inventiveness and seeking to look beyond human limitation. Each step taken in this exploration is commendable and each step takes the seeker after truth closer to his goal.

Day 190

Tuesday, 4/6/99 11:25PM

In the final analysis each man makes of his life as he nears its end and often before that time, it becomes apparent to him that all of experience he has known pertains to love in all its aspects. He looks back to his early years and rejoices in its richness or regrets its deprivations. In each case he remembers the lessons learned that guided him in the years to follow. At all times he is aware of the central significance in his life of love given and received. Again he rejoices in all he has known of love and yearns for the experience of love denied him.

No matter the degree of deprivation, man never ceases to seek for love and never ceases to be aware of its vital necessity to his happiness. The soul granted love early in life finds all that follows infinitely enriched. The soul deprived of love follows a more difficult path. Yet he knows in his soul that he must continue to seek this vital necessity. He seeks always the grace to know the perfection of love freely given and gratefully received.

The soul seeking love is intent always. Yet this search is often interrupted by mishap and distraction. There are times when the soul seeking love finds itself beguiled by false hope and subsequent disappointment. There are times when the soul is betrayed in its trust and the love offered is illy treated. It is easy for the soul so rebuffed and deceived to lose hope and to be led astray. If this happens the error the soul knows is most often easily detected and rejected.

No soul lingers indefinitely in the desert that is the absence of love. No soul knows deprivation beyond endurance. No matter how much or how often the soul is distracted from its pursuit of love entire, it in the end is assured total gratification and infinite pleasure.

It is wisdom for man on his earthly voyage to persist in the pursuit of love given and received and to know that in the end this pursuit cannot know failure. Patience may be demanded. Difficulties may cause delay. Discouragement may impede progress. Yet each soul, each wondrous soul become man, is destined to know the total glory of love in all ways. No soul stops short of absolute satisfaction.

Day 191

Wednesday, 4/7/99 11:46PM

It is the ultimate joy for man to feel absolutely secure in his capacity to meet all the challenges of life in love and acceptance. This is a quality of life to be cherished and it is granted to all those who both accept all that is demanded of them in their earthly voyage and who know in their hearts the rightness of all they do.

All men seek this perfection in their daily lives, and countless are those who succeed in this achievement. These blessed souls are not only sublime in their own awareness of the perfection of their beings, but they create an awareness in all who encounter them. You have all known such souls in progress. You have encountered them in various guises and you have known the warmth and contagiousness of their giving love.

You need no intimate acquaintance to be affected by these perfect beings. Your acquaintance may be no more than a passing encounter, a word, a phrase, a blessing that awakens in you a sense of gratitude for goodness shared. There are times when these blessed beings have effect beyond individual encounter, when their actions speak so loudly that they achieve a fame that creates awareness in many and inspires in many an emulation of their caring.

In all ways those who seek in their human existence to bring to the world awareness of the power and contagion of love serve a divine purpose. In all cases the world profits by their goodness and learns that their efforts demand response. The cycle of love is once again engendered and the wonder of love shared is miraculously given to those who embrace it in both need and gratitude.

Each age and each society knows these perfect beings who bring the light of love to all they encounter. There is no limit to their effectiveness. Treat them well.

Day 192

Thursday, 4/8/99 11:40PM

At all costs it is important that man on his earthly journey retain the awareness he brought within himself to human existence. This is not always an easy task. This awareness has its roots in the love that he knew before coming to this earth and it is nourished by the love that is his after birth from all those who welcome him to earthly life.

This love is directly linked to a continuing awareness of the infinite power of love to shape lives, to sustain in times of turmoil, to encourage in times of trial and discouragement, and to bind man to man at all times under all circumstances. It is rare for man to forget completely the vital importance of love in all he does, feels, and says, but it is unfortunately true that man may forget the universal nature of love, the absolute necessity of giving and receiving love to and from all those he encounters in life.

All too often the soul in progress is tempted to forget this absolute obligation and to confine his love to all those he finds pleasing and to deny this love to all those who inspire his disapproval in any way. This is a human failing to be deplored, and it robs man of his divine intent. When love is denied, there are no winners. Both the denier and the denied suffer, though not equally. Regardless of the consequences, the soul that refuses love to a fellow traveler in life is the loser. Until he recognizes his error, his unloving behavior and his unloving thoughts fester in his awareness and lead frequently to further blindness and negation of his absolute need to know love shared.

The soul who persuades himself that he lives in love while discriminating in the full expression of love deceives himself, and the more complete the discrimination the more horrific the deception. In time he will know his errors, but all too often this awareness comes too late to afford amends.

Day 193

Friday, 4/9/99 11:40PM

Among man's greatest gifts, and those gifts are many, is his capacity to survive all trial and tribulation with a spirit capable of infinite hope. All men who ponder the history of the human race cannot escape being aware of this wondrous human capacity.

From the very start of human life, the soul come to earth is imbued with this gift. Even in the earliest days of childhood, even in the direst of circumstances, the child knows hope. Each day of his life is brightened by this divine capacity, and even in the face of continued disappointment this hope survives and lends beauty to human experience.

This wondrous quality all men know is often sorely tried, but man, even in the depths of despair, when he finds all of his life darkened, knows hope. This hope may take many forms in its effect on his life. It may so buoy his spirits that he finds hidden strength and solution to all that threatens his equanimity. This hope may sustain him through repeated trials and persuade him that in the face of repeated failure and disappointment he has cause for optimism. It guards him always.

If hope is at times fragile, it needs only love and faith to restore it to its vitality.

Treasure hope, My children, as one of your greatest gifts.

Day 194

Saturday, 4/10/99 11:40PM

In the final analysis of the significance of a single human life, it behooves man to consider this single life in a larger context. It has for some time been the basis of many religious doctrines that man lives a single life as a prelude to eternal life and that this single life will determine the nature of that eternal life.

The intricacies of these doctrines varying only in detail need no further discussion, but they imply in a sense a God harsh in judgment, unforgiving in nature, demanding in the extreme. They imply a God who not only tolerates but dictates unfairness and discrimination in the nature of human existence. At times they promote intolerance and suspicion of all those who disagree or depart from established norms. This intolerance has over many centuries resulted in a total disintegration of the fabric of brotherhood, the sole true requirement of the God who is indeed the ruler of the universe, the single power over all men.

Let it be known now that there is no inequity in human life imposed upon man. Let it be known that all souls come to human life come of their own choice, that this choice encompasses all the experiences they will know and through which they will learn all that is required of them. No soul is asked to do the impossible. No soul is condemned for failure. No soul is expected to achieve the perfection he must know ultimately in a single lifetime. Rather man is given endless opportunity to reach the state of grace that marks the end of the human adventure. No man stops short of his inevitable success, his accession to the oneness that has been his destiny from the start of existence.

Let this be a comfort to all men and let it shed light on the nature of human existence. Man is master of his destiny from its design through its inception to its conclusion. In all of this passage he knows the power of his free will. He is permitted free exercise of this will. He is permitted to fail. He is permitted to succeed. He is permitted to wander from the path of goodness. He is permitted to return to this path of his own will. Never is he permitted ultimate failure.

Thus man in the final analysis is a creature of endless striving, most often not in a single existence, but in repeated incarnations, each one designed as a step forward in his progress to perfection and absolute belonging, to glory beyond human perception.

Day 195

Sunday, 4/11/99 11:43PM

In all of life there is infinite variety. In all of life there is divine unity. All souls come to earth choose the guise they wish as man. Yet all come with a single purpose. All share a single demand. All strive for perfection in love given and received.

It is difficult for man observing a disordered world, a world rife with strife and discord, to believe in the perfectibility of man or indeed in the beneficence of the Almighty. It must be remembered at all times to ease this doubt, this tendency to disbelieve in man's perfectibility, that the world is as a school, a place of learning in which man is free to err and to learn from error. But what, you ask, of the victims of human error, of those who suffer without cause or responsibility? What of them?

The answer to this question is one which is infinitely simple and yet complex in its implications. Life as I have said is not only ephemeral but is as well a time of spiritual trial and spiritual progress. It is not the divine intention to inflict pain upon any soul come to earth, though the physical embodiment of the soul is subject to physical disability. Yet all suffering, whether inflicted by man or implicit in physical limitation and frailty, serves the purpose of strengthening the soul in progress.

This is not to say that the infliction of pain by one man upon his brother is in any way defensible. Indeed it is deplorable, Yet man, tempted in many ways, all too often forgets the responsibility he assumed in his earthly journey to live and act in love of all men and to aspire to perfection in this love. When man victimizes his brother he suffers more of the two.

In the end, all is all. All is acceptable to all. All is understandable to all. Until that time of total enlightenment the soul in progress is blessed if he is able to accept without full understanding and to believe against all odds that his happiness and his salvation lie in the pursuit of perfect love, love that knows no resentment, love that accepts completely his brother's fallibility, love that is divinely sanctioned.

Day 196

Monday, 4/12/99 11:40PM

The noblest of men is as the lowliest in God's eyes.

This is the lesson that man must learn in his earthly journey. It is not an easy lesson for man. In his earthly life he is prone to accepting the wealth and trappings of this world as a measure of worth, an ideal to be aspired to, a goal, however distant it may be to him. It is unhappily often man's inclination to look down upon his brother who has succeeded less than he in worldly ways, his brother who knows need and deprivation. In his personal comfort he is tempted to consider himself superior in his creature security.

Thus man is often trapped. He forgets that all he is given is not of his own making. He forgets that though he might give himself credit for his striving for material success, he has not been solely instrumental in his achievement. At the very least, fate has been kind to him. At the very most, his efforts have been blessed beyond all expectation. In his success he may lose his very reason for being.

Material success is often a snare. Man is in his weakness persuaded all too often that happiness lies in a surfeit of riches, and often this implies a measure of power over his brothers. There are some men who can and do achieve wealth and power with full awareness of the degree to which they have been blessed beyond reason and who seek to share all they have been given with all those whose need is apparent to them. These are blessed souls, and in their hearts they know their own blessedness. They need no more.

Others blessed with worldly success and wealth beyond personal need fail in their appreciation and in their perception. They permit themselves to be consumed by greed, to fail to recognize the limits of their need, and to be consumed with infinite desire to enrich themselves at all costs and without awareness of all that surrounds them in need unfulfilled. These are lost souls, and they take with them at the end of this mortal existence hearts hollowed by selfishness and needs unfulfilled.

Even these children of God, so neglectful of responsibility, so despairing of their empty lives, know hope in the realization that though they have failed utterly in one life they face new challenge in another. There is no end to spiritual progress even for the most completely lost in human life.

Day 197

Tuesday, 4/13/99 11:55PM

In the history of man's adventures on planet earth, he has known many eras of upheaval and destruction. Yet always man survives to begin another era and to try to bring to the world the peace that all mankind so fervently desires.

In all of the turmoil that man experiences in time of cruelty and oppression, of brother striking out against brother, there remains a thread of awareness that peace is the goal of all thinking men, that no matter the prizes of victory, the price is too high. And so enemies are reconciled. They forget, perhaps all too quickly, the differences that led them to conflict and they rest secure in the achievement of peace.

Still, this peace is forever precarious, for it is in the nature of man to be so seduced by power and greed, to be led into a false sense of security, that tensions build, that minds are set, that awareness of brotherly love and equality wither away and the world finds itself once more in conflict.

What can explain this perversion, this rejection of peace, this embracing of strife? Always the answer lies in the overwhelming power of a few, leaders who foment hatred and whose concern for the value of human life does not extend beyond themselves. They appeal to the baser instincts of their followers. They exploit weakness and want. They promise elusive glory. They preach superiority and seduce those anxious to believe others inferior and thereby unworthy.

In all of this foment, the great majority of souls come to earth are victims, swayed by false visions urged upon them by their leaders. Yet they are not fully persuaded of all they are taught to believe. Within their souls they feel a sense of error when they reject their brothers and embrace violent rejection of those they call the enemy.

In time, there is a victor in each of these power struggles and there is one who is in all outward ways the loser. Yet when one examines conflict and its resolution, it is often difficult to distinguish between the winner and the loser. The glory of victory is short lived and equally short lived is the humiliation of defeat. In the course of time former enemies find themselves friends and inevitably new tears in the fabric of society appear and incipient conflict creates new opposition among those sharing planet earth and the cycle of conflict, struggle, and resolution is once again begun.

There is such pity in this human weakness, this willingness man knows to feel disaffection, to reject his brother, and to excuse himself for doing so.

The day is coming when man will be fully aware of the folly of conflict, when he will see within himself a capacity for peaceful reconciliation that will transform all of existence. The time is soon.

Day 198

Wednesday, 4/14/99 11:55PM

Among all souls come to earth there is need shared. There is infinite agreement as to this need among all those embarking on their earthly journey. They seek to learn against all odds, in the face of all challenge, despite all rebuffs and disappointments, to learn to love perfectly and to teach all they encounter the wonder of this precious gift.

On the surface this seems like a simple endeavor. What you might ask is more natural for man than to love? He is born with this need and his every instinct is determined by this need. In the face of all difficulty man spends his early days on earth as a creature totally dependent upon love received and infinitely generous in responsive love. There is a perfection in the exchange of love in the first days of human existence that has no equal. In the most fortunate of situations these days become weeks and months and years, and the soul blossoms in its learning, in its giving and in its taking.

In some cases, the soul come to earth has chosen to face challenges to the idyllic love of infancy and to seek the strength to persevere in the perfection of love when it becomes most difficult to do so. The soul thus challenged grows in strength with each victory over rebuff and rejection and knows full gratitude for all it has succeeded in learning of love given and received. Others follow a less fortunate path. Some know failure only momentarily. Others linger in failure. A few surrender to failure.

Yet there is inborn in the soul come to earth an awareness of its mission, and in the darkest of days the soul in turmoil knows this awareness. At times he rejects. At times he postpones. At times he realizes the folly of his resistance and acknowledges error. He seeks to correct his ways and to compensate for all harm he has done. He is gratified in many ways. He knows peace of mind. He knows love received. He prides himself rightfully for all he has done in correction of error and he rejoices completely in the love that fills his being.

There are unfortunately some men who do not find this peaceful resolution of their doubts and misdeeds, and these wayward souls are to be pitied, but it is wisdom to remember that what they do not find in this life they will know in the next.

Day 199

Thursday, 4/15/99 11:45PM

In the brief span of a single life man is capable of much accomplishment. In the briefest of lives he teaches the lessons of love to all who cherish him and mourn him after he ends his earthly visit. Those who have chosen longer existences have more opportunities to learn and to progress, but they have as well more problems to solve and more difficulties to overcome. They must resist all temptation to live in less than a loving manner, and they must be absolute in their allegiance to those who depend upon them in any way.

When man succeeds in achieving a life of total love under all circumstances, when he embraces his enemy, when he accepts even the least likable of his acquaintances as a worthy brother, when each of his words reflects love in his heart, then indeed man has accomplished all he came to earth to do.

The miracle in the achievement of perfect love is that those who do so find themselves filled with love of self in absolute confidence that they have achieved a harmony that is the source of all happiness in this life. The miracle is made even greater when those who observe this perfect soul realize that the path to their happiness lies in emulation of his loving ways. Thus the world becomes richer by the grace of a single individual who has found true happiness in the full expression of love.

This path is open to all those experiencing earthly life, and in gratifying numbers they are coming to recognize this ultimate answer to man's seeking. Their influence is profound.

Day 200

Friday, 4/16/99 10:42PM

All through life's journey, man is possessed by a single passion and that passion is love.

In its purest form this love is like a blanket enveloping in its warmth all those who choose to share an earthly journey and who wish to live each day of this voyage in the full embrace of love given and received. They find in each other reassurance and confirmation of the power of love to transform lives. They become aware that love is the solace when man encounters need and deprivation. They find that love is the nourishment that restores the soul tried by trial to full health. They know that love is the infinite wonder that creates in man an awareness not to be denied of his infinite worth and infinite belonging. It tells him that he is bound in the most precious of ways to all who care for him and whose welfare is his concern.

When love links soul to soul in the earthly journey, no error is possible, no road is ill taken. When man abandons or discards the love offered to him, he harms himself and those who are affected by his disaffection. No matter how long the journey back from disaffection, man finds himself returning to the comfort of love shared under all circumstances. He learns that there is no substitute for love.

This is a lesson that serves man well.

Day 201

Saturday, 4/17/99 10:50PM

It is the utmost in human life, beloved children, to know the full beneficence of love bestowed upon those pilgrims who seek in earthly existence to know love fulfilled and to satisfy all that is demanded of them in their earthly striving.

It is not a simple voyage that all souls take. Rather it is a voyage of trial and challenge, fraught with difficulty and with challenge, a voyage trying and gratifying at the same time, a challenge unmistakable in its origin, acceptable in its execution, inevitable in its finality.

Love touches all souls in their earthly journey. Love motivates all those who seek to find the final answer to the reason for being. Love does not always succeed in animating the human heart, but always it strives to do so.

Why should love know such limitation? Why should love fail to prevail in the face of all less pure and good? Why should man surrender when he could triumph in the face of sure success? These queries find answers in and of themselves. They offer no mysteries. They lend themselves to simple solution. They seek the mind. They evade the soul. They ask questions. They do not offer answers beyond those already given, and yet these answers cry out for response.

Love is an extension of divine will. It answers always to the strivings of the soul that seeks expression. It responds always to the need the soul knows of hunger and need. It survives always in the need met, the hunger satisfied, the wondrous response that it elicits.

Be pleased, all you who seek, with the infinite wonder of responsive love. Rejoice in its warmth. Respond to its demand. Be part of its demand for total fulfillment and total belonging. You need no more, for you know all.

Day 202

Sunday, 4/18/99 11:30PM

In every aspect of human life man knows responsibility for his actions.

It can be argued that some souls come to earth are less equipped in various ways, that their responsibility for all they do must be weighed in terms of their abilities. This of course is a valid observation and one which has never been denied. Man is at all times judged in terms of his abilities. Never is more expected of him than he can give.

There is no injustice ever in the assigning of responsibility, but it must be remembered that man's primary responsibility is to act in love, and even those with the most severe physical and mental limitations are capable always of meeting this single demand. Indeed in some ways they are privileged in their capacity to give and receive this precious gift. Far from being deprived, they are in this respect privileged.

There are many complexities in the nature of human existence that man finds difficult to grasp or in some cases to accept. The world tends to regard those souls who have chosen physical or mental or emotional deprivation as souls to be pitied. There is in this pity failure to recognize that the aim and purpose of earthly existence is spiritual progress.

Those who elect to live in hardship do so in full awareness that they will know opportunity to progress rapidly in the perfection that all souls seek. They rejoice in this awareness and serve as examples to those who sense their joy. They meet fully the demand to live in love and to be glad of their inner happiness. They are in all vital ways responsible.

Day 203

Monday, 4/19/99 9:07PM

Man is capable of endless trust. He is born trusting. He matures from infancy to adulthood trusting. No matter how often this trust is tried and betrayed, seldom does man lose this divine capacity. Trust begets trust, and when nurtured enriches each relationship and each experience during human existence. Trust is implicit in each action each day.

Trust takes many forms. All men are inclined to trust their leaders, those who control them from afar, and if man knows cause to mistrust one leader he quickly seeks to find another worthy of his trust. In each experience in every day life, trust is essential. The shopkeeper trusts his customers and they in turn trust him. The teacher trusts his students and expects their trust in return. Within the family trust is all important and mutually experienced. Friendship cannot survive without trust.

When, and unfortunately this occurs, trust is betrayed, man experiences first a sense of disbelief, and when he is at last forced to recognize that his trust has been abused, he knows pain. It is not a simple matter to rebuild trust, but it is essential to do so. The man without trust is a fearful man, and the fearful man finds it difficult to love. Thus love is dependent upon trust.

It is the happy man whose capacity for trust survives all trial and sustains him in all his relationships.

Day 204

Tuesday, 4/20/99 1156PM

In a world that seems at times to have surrendered to base emotion, to the temptation that puts love behind all other motivations, man does well to look about him and to measure.

Let him regard the world about him and let him consider sheer numbers. How many of those he knows, be they near or distant, are motivated by ignoble desires and utter selfishness? How many of those he knows live in contentment and love, aware always of the need to live in peace and faith in the goodness of their brothers? When this accounting is complete, man will be aware once again of the overwhelming numbers that souls devoted to the concept of living in love have over those who have chosen lives of self aggrandizement and disregard of their brothers.

Thus bolstered, man has good cause for optimism. He has reason to believe that goodness and grace by their very strengths will triumph and that those souls lost to greed and uncaring will know the bitterness of defeat.

Man must be patient in this reckoning. All too often time passes without clear affirmation of the triumph of those souls devoted to goodness over all those forces arrayed against them. Yet there is no impatience in awaiting this victory, for however tortured the course of history, however many setbacks and defeats the forces of good will know, the end is at all times predictable. Right will triumph. Goodness will prevail. Love will be the law of the land, and all will rejoice in the infinite blessings that love affords.

This is no idle dream. This is no fictional utopia. This is the world to come, and in its perfection man will find perfect peace.

Day 205

Wednesday, 4/21/99 11:55PM

Man is heroic in many ways. He meets the challenges of life with strength and integrity and calls upon all he knows in strength to survive and to protect all dear to him from deprivation and sorrow. He acknowledges the trials of life with forbearance and a tenacity that enables him to emerge each time with a triumphant awareness of all he is given and all he has to give. He meets sorrow and disappointment with all faith that a better time is coming and with determination to do all that is within his power to overcome all threats to those he loves.

Not all of man's heroic achievements are notable in the sense of being widely acknowledged, but the fabric of human existence is enriched and strengthened by all the heroic acts of man that go unnoticed except by those intimately involved. These heroes lack recognition from the greater world, but they know infinite gratitude from those who are affected by their brave goodness.

It is difficult for a man to regard himself as heroic for doing what he regards as all that is expected of him in the normal course of events. It is difficult for him to regard himself as anything but ordinary and it is as an ordinary man that he achieves heroic status in the eyes of those who observe his struggles and his triumphs.

There is a greatness inherent in modesty among those who could lay claim to greatness and there is a certain justice in the sure fact that these silent and modest heroes know in their souls the peace and satisfaction that makes a triumph of human existence.

Look then to those about you, to those who meet all challenges with modesty and strength and who lend a sense of security and assurance to all those who depend upon them. Be pleased with yourself if you are one of these silent heroes. Know that your goodness does not go unrewarded, for your soul speaks to you of your worth and those you love and who love you know your greatness.

Day 206

Friday, 4/23/99 1:15AM

When man comes to the end of his earthly existence, he begins a journey of wonder. He faces a challenge, in one sense, for the transition from one plane to the next is often a trying experience insofar as it demands surrender of will for the instant it takes to leave the earthly plane for a plane that holds mystery. There are those souls who cling to their earthly personages, unwilling or unable to accept their transition. They remain momentarily confused and seek to return to the home they left unwillingly. There are other souls who choose to reject transition and who struggle against all odds to retain the powers that they knew in human existence.

Eventually, even the most unwilling of souls surrenders to the inevitability that human death represents and permits itself to know the joy that awaits all humans as they pass the threshold of death. They rejoice in the love that is freely offered to them by all those who have known them in life and by all those who are glad to join the welcoming throng, for each death become life is indeed a celebration, a joyous homecoming, and the soul newly arrived is both overjoyed and awed by the intensity of the love they know in sharing. There is no hesitance, no reservation in this love joyfully offered and equally joyfully received.

The soul come to God is filled with awareness and anxious to progress to the complete belonging that is the ultimate achievement and in a spirit of total dedication begins this journey with a loving appraisal of the life just past, a total and honest examination of all that was achieved and all that was left undone. There is great satisfaction for each new soul in this examination and great pleasure in learning what must next be done.

Each striving soul knows the encouragement of loving spirits whose joy it is to help, to guide, to love, to encourage. There is no sense of failure, no sense of dissatisfaction or disaffection in this process, and each soul emerges full of awareness and gratitude and hope in the full knowledge that all that is required for absolute success in achieving perfect oneness is given freely. The soul thus encouraged continues its journey knowing that it cannot fail.

Day 207

Friday, 4/23/99 10:30PM

In the long history of man on earth there has been infinite speculation about his origins and his purpose in this life.

Let it be known that man springs from the will of God, divine in his conception, perfect in his capacities, willful in his freedom, and at all times divinely linked to his origins. There have been many epochs in the history of mankind when the soul come to life has largely forgotten his divine origins, has surrendered to the temptations of material pleasure, and has abused the free will that separates him from all other earthly creatures. In these epochs of strife and inhumanity, the divine spark has been maintained by those blessed souls who held fast to their faith in the divine mandate to love above all else.

When the clouds of discord disappear, the pure of heart inherit earthly responsibility and work resolutely to establish an earthly regime where love prevails and peace lives in the hearts of all men. All too soon this peace is corrupted once again, and those who have been seduced by promise of earthly rewards overwhelm their saintly brothers and destroy the peaceful world that does not serve their purposes.

It takes little examination of human history to discern these cycles of war and peace, of discord and conciliation, and to realize the absolute need for all souls come to earth to unite in a constant effort to restore the planet earth to its pristine condition, to eliminate the lovelessness that leads to strife, and to persuade all men that the only path to happiness in this life is the path of love entire.

Day 208

Saturday, 4/24/99 11:16PM

There is no end to man's capacity to be pleasing to his God in love expressed in his everyday life.

There is no man so humble in his origins or in his way of life that he cannot offer in his deeds and words and thoughts the purest and most perfect of love. There is no man so exalted and mighty that he can surpass the offerings of the most humble of men in matters of love and caring. Indeed it is sometimes difficult for the most powerful in human life to reach the perfection in the full expression of love that his less fortunate brothers find simple to achieve.

Thus there is often, though not always, an inverse ratio in the capacity for love. Those endowed with worldly goods are often distracted in their spiritual journey and fail at times to remember the most significant of their duties. Though this is not always the case, it is unfortunately not rare. On the other hand, the capacity for spiritual growth is less hindered among those who lack the trappings of wealth and do not hunger for material privilege. These souls are more easily satisfied in material ways and are intent upon sharing their riches, both materially and spiritually.

The happy man is one who is able to enjoy whatever material prosperity and earthly pleasures his life affords him and to know contentment in his lot. He is aware at all times that the pleasures and advantages of this life are not the key to happiness unless shared, and he retains awareness of the need to listen to the dictates of his soul in rich spiritual awareness. This happy man may be rich or poor, old or young, well or ill. His earthly circumstances are in no way significant in his capacity for the full expression of love in any way open to him. He does not permit himself to be distracted or deterred from the path he has chosen. He knows what awaits, and he is content both with himself and all he knows of love.

This is that path all wise men seek. No other will suffice.

Day 209

Sunday, 4/25/99 11:20PM

When man grows weary of life, he is tempted to be despairing, to think that all his efforts have been in vain, that all his suffering has gone unnoticed, that all he has strived for is of no avail. It is at this point precisely that man has overwhelming need to remember his origins, to know with absolute certainty that his life knows reason and promise that under no circumstances should he surrender his right to life.

All men have the capacity to know in moments of hopelessness that they are creatures of hope, of divine intention, of powers beyond their immediate awareness. When life seems to offer them so little that they cry out for help, this is the moment that their need is met. No man need feel without the capacity to meet the trials of life and to emerge from each difficult experience more able to contend with challenge. It is man's lot to cope with all those difficulties in his life that he felt capable of solving. His divine compact encompassed all that challenges him and gives to him the strength to triumph. He is able at all times to emerge victorious from all those struggles in the full awareness of strength given and promises kept.

Each man facing the problems of life is fully armed. He knows in his innermost being that all that is demanded of him is within his capacity. He knows that his response is all that is demanded and that each time he responds in love without condition he is strengthened. He is aware in his responsiveness of love given and received and of blessings untold.

Man in his journey through life is blessed beyond measure in strength granted, in love unmeasured, in total and complete guidance to the goal that all souls seek. There is no greater blessing.

Day 210

Monday,4/26/99 10:12PM

In the interests of justice it must be said that man is often tried by his standards to be aware of all that life demands of him. He is puzzled by the conflicting emotions he knows, by the strange and inexplicable experiences that he knows, by the wondrous feelings that possess him. He lives in acute awareness that his experiences are by no means ordinary, that he must be acutely aware of all he is given in extraordinary awareness and direction. He knows that he is at all times an extension of divine will and that he must respond to this awareness.

Not all men are so blessed, but there is within all men a core of awareness, a feeling of belonging to a world beyond the ordinary, beyond human experience. No man exists without this inherent awareness and yet few of the many succeed in perfecting the communication that is meant to guide them in all ways. Regardless of the sensitivity and awareness of a single individual, that soul lives in the protection of those devoted to his welfare and who seek always to communicate their love and their caring.

In those rare instances where the soul in progress is so distracted, the voices of his guiding angels go unheard, and while he may succeed in doing all that is required of him in this life, he is still deprived of the joy afforded by these spirits of love and encouragement. In some cases the soul in progress may not be consciously aware of this heavenly guidance, but deep in his soul he knows the path he must take, the path of love entire, the path to joyful accomplishment and accountability.

All men know in the end the beauty of response to those appointed to supervise their spiritual progress. When the soul in progress becomes deafened, even temporarily, to the urging of these beloved guardians, he knows regret and a soulful emptiness. Even when he prospers materially he is not completely gratified. Under the best of circumstance he learns once again to listen, to heed the dictates of his soul, to know the guidance that seems to take him back into the pure pursuit of goodness. He learns to love in full faith and trust and sharing. He has succeeded. He needs no more.

Day 211

Tuesday, 4/27/99 11:35PM

It is implicit in the human experience to learn. The soul come to earth comes with full awareness of all the lessons that this life offers to him. He comes in absolute confidence that he will do all he has promised and perhaps even exceed those self set goals. He knows his strengths. He is aware of his weaknesses. He is determined to meet all challenges and all temptations in the fullness of love and to learn all that he has come to learn. In the process he hopes as well to teach, to show by his example the infinite power of love to transform each human encounter into a miracle of love given and received and to so enrich himself and all those whose lives touch his.

Many souls, under widely different circumstances, succeed in doing all that they promised and in some cases far exceeding those minimum requirements. Such souls know infinite joy and they communicate this joy in many ways and so both satisfy those spiritual beings whose love guides always and inspire and enrich all those who share their human experience.

There is such a contagion in love and goodness and unselfish caring that man is hard pressed to ignore this simple truth. Some men do but the great majority do not. They become aware as they observe the loving behavior of their brothers that all goodness and all happiness is dependent upon the unconditional expression of love. They learn as well that love shared is love received infinitely and that the soul knows joy beyond expression at all times.

The lessons of love are indeed lessons of joy, and they are lessons which enrich the teacher and the student equally, and in the end all are one in total perfection. No more can be asked.

Day 212

Wednesday, 4/28/99 11:46PM

It is the joy of all men to rejoice in the sharing of love. Love is nourishment from the moment of birth to the instant of death, and at all times it binds soul to soul and all souls to their Creator.

Love manifests itself in many ways, each precious to both the giver and the receiver. Love can know an intensity that is beyond human comprehension. Love can equally be casual -- a kind word, a loving gesture, a selfless giving that requires no consideration but rather instinctive kindness. Between these two extremes love manifests itself in an almost infinite variety of ways, each precious, each distinctive, each gratifying.

The first full expression of love comes between parent and child. More often than not, the mother is the primary source of love, and the soul newly come to life is blessed if its father shares in this early care taking and giving of nourishing love. Then comes the love of brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, relationships within and without the family, and love given and received grows in complexity and diversity and teaches and enriches always.

When love is disrupted, the soul suffers and instinctively seeks recovery. No matter the injury, the soul stubbornly clings to the love it cherished, and intent upon recapturing this love and knowing its warmth once again expends all energy and employs all resources to restore this love. Often these efforts succeed and love restored is even richer for having been so tried. At times all efforts to reestablish a loving relationship fail and the soul in need seeks other sources of the love it needs for a full life.

The search for love never ends, and the richest and most secure of men find it within themselves to embrace an ever widening circle of those who seek love and to satisfy their needs. All men need to be aware of the richness that the free and unconditional expression of love contributes to both the welfare of the soul and to the enjoyment of life. It is impossible not to find true happiness in love freely given and gratefully received.

Day 213

Thursday, 4/29/99 11:50PM

The supreme achievement of earthly existence is to live fully in love and to know at the very end of life on earth that you have no regrets, that each word and deed of your life has been worthy of your capacity for perfection, that you would do nothing differently.

This perfection is a true blessing, and it is the rare individual who, looking back on his life, regardless of its length, feels in his heart total satisfaction in all he has known of challenge and response. The overwhelming majority of souls come to earth fall short of their goal in greater or lesser degree. Almost without exception, man at the end of life knows tinges of regret, of actions he would change could he, of words spoken that can no longer be withdrawn. There is learning in this recognition that perfection has not been achieved, and great hope in the awareness of how little remains to be learned and done to reach this supreme goal.

There is a striking relationship between the extent to which man has learned to live the lessons of love and the inner happiness he has known in life. There is no reliable relationship between happiness in human existence and material success. While the richest of men materially may achieve spiritual perfection, he follows a difficult road, distracted in many ways, and when he progresses spiritually in the midst of earthly privilege he knows great inner satisfaction and pleases all those who are devoted to him. Conversely, the most deprived of men on his earthly journey may find attainment of perfection easier insofar as he is not tempted and distracted by earthly riches, but it is true that earthly deprivation is no guarantee of spiritual success. The road may be easier than it is for his more privileged brother, but there must be awareness and the desire to do all that is needed to succeed in living in perfect love.

Know then that a sure measure of happiness in earthly life is an awareness at all times of the miraculous effects that acts and words of love engender. Know that peace of mind and the inner glow of a life well lived are inevitable when man discovers that the most certain road is that of love without barriers, love expressed in word and deed, love blessed in all ways, above all in the inner joy of knowing that deep satisfaction that is achieved in no other way.

The road of love freely given is the road to perfection.

Day 214

Friday, 4/30/99 11:30 EST

Whenever men assemble, they recognize the need for brotherhood and all it produces in belonging.

Man strives in many ways to express his feelings of brotherhood. He seeks out those he feels kinship with in thoughts and emotions and often formalizes these relationships in social groups and organizations. Man is aware of the need of belonging to those who are fellow citizens, and here too he strives to affiliate himself with those of like persuasion and principle. Members of a profession or trade seek to proclaim their brotherhood in organizations designed to promote their work and to proclaim their pride in their peers and in the principles and practices that unite them in pride.

All of these activities are laudable insofar as they encourage self pride and faith in their brothers. So long as they promote harmony and positive achievement in loving ways, they are pleasing to all who share and to those not directly but indirectly affected by their practices and activities.

The danger, when there is danger, in such associations comes when their self pride leads to intolerance of all those who hold opposing views. Brotherhood becomes all too often lost in the struggle for righteousness. Man tends to feel alienated by another's beliefs, loyalties and practices and forgets that above all he is bound as a child of God to embrace his brother in love and acceptance of his innate worth. If there are differences and disputes, it is essential that all conflicts be resolved in loving ways and that the spirit of brotherly love not be diminished in any way..

Man has the capacity to live in love and peace under all circumstances and to know that all differences between men can be solved by the perfection of love given and received.

Day 215

Saturday, 5/1/99 11:55PM

Before all else man learns the lessons of love. He arrives in this world knowing that he has chosen wisely and that he is able in all ways to fulfill the promises he made. He chooses those with whom he wishes to share his earthly pilgrimage, for pilgrimage it is, a constant seeking to achieve spiritual progress, to proceed to divine oneness. The only road to this oneness is the road of love given and received, given and received joyfully, generously, unconditionally.

To that end, the soul come to earth comes as a helpless infant in total need. He is in need of nourishment and nurturing, of shelter and sustenance, but above all he is in need of love. He cannot survive without love, and if he fails to receive this love he perishes. With this love he thrives, and his nature tells him of the need to respond to the love he is given freely.

Ideally man grows in the strength of the love he knows from all others, primarily his parents or other care givers and then from all those joined in family and friendship. He learns as he grows to recognize and appreciate various degrees of love, varied relationships. As he matures he learns the overwhelming power of love to bind souls together in perfect harmony and he appreciates fully the need to give generously even when he knows inadequate response. He learns that even under the direst of circumstances love is a powerful weapon. It disarms the hostile. It breaks down barriers. It gives hope to the hopeless. It persuades the skeptical. It is all powerful.

Once man has learned this lesson and has succeeded in incorporating it into every act of his life, he has achieved the perfection he came to achieve. In his heart he knows his worth. He knows the love others bear for him. He needs no more.

Day 216

Monday, 5/3/99 12:46AM

Whatever the source of the sorrow that man experiences in his earthly journey, it must be remembered that this trial is of his own choosing.

I have said that each soul come to earth is master of his destiny insofar as he is allowed to choose much of the life that he enters willingly and with firm resolve to meet all the trials of that life in a love that knows no bounds. Those who share his earthly existence are equally aware of the roles they have gladly and hopefully assumed and at all times they share in the spiritual progress each of the other in all ways.

It is of consequence that man has no memory of his divine compact only insofar as he must depend upon faith and trust when life seems to him unbearable in its demands. He needs always to depend both upon his inner resources and his given strengths to be confident of success. He needs to look within himself and to seek to know the counsel of those heavenly spirits dedicated to his welfare who seek to lend him strength and insight. Always he must depend upon the love of those who have chosen to be part of his earthly existence and whose concern for his well being mirrors their love for him.

Thus armed, man has no need of the memory of promises made before human birth, for he is at all times enabled by the awareness he has of the love that gives him the strength and the faith to persevere at all times under all circumstances. The time will come when he will rejoice in the extent to which he has fulfilled his divine compact. He will know infinite love and gratitude for all he has known in love received and he will know great satisfaction in the love he has given.

Day 217

Tuesday, 5/4/99 12:53AM

There is wonder in all of man's journey from birth to mortal death.

He knows at all times a sense of wonder in his very being. Even when he feels most self important and powerful, he cannot escape awareness of his frailty and his limitations. His body is subject to the ravages of disease and of time. He cannot turn back the clock and retain his youthful vitality. He cannot escape illness when it is thrust upon him, and his best efforts to keep his body sound have limited value. Death will come at his will. Though he has no awareness of this choosing, he is the master of his fate in this regard.

Despite all the limitations all men know in their physical existence, they are at all times unlimited in their spiritual aspirations. No matter the nature of their physical well being, man's spirit remains at all times capable of all wonders. In the midst of pain he is capable of tolerance and optimism. In the middle of tragedy he looks to the future with hope. In the midst of deprivation he seeks to alleviate need. He rarely surrenders to despair however trying his experience, and even if he does temporarily, he finds cause to strive once again to overcome difficulty.

This human resilience is indeed wondrous and is shared by all souls come to earthly experience. Not all souls succeed fully in their earthly striving, but few fail completely, and when the earthly journey is ended, all souls return to their origin rejoice in the sure knowledge that they are destined to know full success before their striving is complete.

This is to all a source of total joy and pleasurable anticipation Thus man finds his reward.

Day 218

Tuesday, 5/4/99 11:55PM

In the midst of life man forgets often to ponder its meaning.

Caught up in the problems and pleasures of daily existence, he tends to forget the implications of earthly existence. He often accepts blindly whatever he is taught about the nature of life and its meaning. He often rejects all theories in favor of belief that the meaning and predictability of human life is unknowable and therefore a futile pondering. He may have firmly held concepts which he has accepted after much soul searching.

Whatever his attitude toward life and its meaning, man is shaken when his peaceful existence is shattered by personal tragedy, by cataclysmic changes in the world about him, or by other unsettling events that destroy his placidity. It is at such times that the wise man recognizes his limitations, his lack of control over unsettling events and his inability to explain the disruption in his life in terms he is able to call rational. It is precisely at such times that man is well advised to look beyond the rational and to seek the peace that comes with faith and acceptance of all that life has come to mean to him.

It is right and reasonable for man to do all within his powers to restore his life to the peaceful equilibrium he desires, but it is equally wisdom for man to recognize the limitations of his power and to seek beyond the ordinary world he cannot control fully.

The wise man seeks help from all sources, and he learns above all else to seek power within, to listen to his heart and to hear the blessed voices that speak to him of love and faith and infinite hope, those voices that seek to heal beyond the ordinary, that wish fervently to persuade.

Man is well advised that no matter the degree of disappointment and disruption he knows in life, no matter how helpless he may feel, there is always solution and peace of mind and soul. This is My promise.

Day 219

Wednesday, 5/5/99 11:58PM

In all of man's years on earth he becomes increasingly conscious of the passage of time.

Time is perceived differently in the early years of earthly life. Each day seems endless and in the same way the years are perceived to pass slowly. Even into early adulthood the passage of time is not swift. It is only in the later years that the passage of each day, week and year seems to have accelerated to the extent that man feels that time is rushing by and there are not enough hours in the day.

When man reaches this point of awareness, he tends to spend time considering the inevitability of an end to his days on earth. His mind tries to envision the time that lies between him and the end of earthly existence. Some approach this consideration with ill-founded fear. Others are without trepidation, for they feel in their hearts that after death there is nothingness, that their existence is at an end. An increasing number of humans on their journey from mortal birth to mortal death await with quiet and pleasurable anticipation the time when they will exchange their mortal existence for a heavenly existence and all the wonders it promises.

Those who greet the swift passage of time in sure faith and hope are fortunate, and the waning years of mortal life afford them the pleasure of joyful anticipation. They will not be disappointed.

Day 220

Friday, 5/7/99 1:30AM

In the fullness of time all men will know full awareness of the complexity and completeness of the human experience. There will be no unanswered questions, no doubts unresolved, no hesitance in believing in the completeness of all that man knows. There will be wondrous revelation and no question will remain to deter man from full acceptance of all he has been told of life and death and rebirth, of the continuing cycles of human life.

This awareness will endow man with many gifts. He will know first of all unshakable faith in himself and in the rightness of his being. This awareness will inspire in him the strength and determination to live in love at all times under all circumstances and to know that this supreme accomplishment is important above all else. He will become aware that his importance to all those whose lives touch his is indeed in this constant expression of love in word and deed and it will be infinitely satisfying to him to realize the degree to which his loving behavior serves as inspiration and example. He will realize with full joy the extent to which he has persuaded others, without a word of urging, that a life lived in love is a life of infinite happiness, that love given and received is the greatest gift of all.

A world transformed by love awaits the spread of this divine awareness that love is the answer to all the questions that man entertains, that without love man is doomed, that with love man knows happiness and grows in goodness.

The miracles that love generates are man's blessing.

Day 221

Saturday, 5/8/99 12:23AM

The most gifted of men in their earthly journeys know the most intense responsibilities. These souls in progress are those who have chosen their gifts with the absolute intention to use them wisely and to thereby enrich the world they inhabit. Through the ages the world has known such exceptional individuals. They have been leaders and teachers. They have inspired and enlightened. They have been welcomed. They have been vilified.

All too often in the course of human history the most gifted of each generation have not found the recognition that their contributions deserved. All too often they have been ignored and dismissed as eccentrics for their bold teachings. All too often the world has been frightened by ideas and concepts too revolutionary for easy acceptance. All too often the world has suffered and known deprivation as a result of such blindness.

These exceptional individuals have graced society in many ways and, despite their rejection, have lived in history. Later generations have come to recognize their worth and to honor the achievements which went unnoticed in their lifetimes. It takes little study of the history of the human race to recognize these unsung heroes and to realize that those whose histories survived are but a fraction of the whole.

Let man be aware of this past neglect and let him open his mind and heart to all those who seek to share their gifts. They are many. They are varied. They serve.

Day 222

Sunday, 5/9/99 12:20AM

It is one of man's strengths that he is capable at all times of understanding and acceptance of all that he endures from others in his life. Man is often born, of his choice, with difficulties that beset him, often almost from the moment of birth. Although he lacks memory of his choice, these difficulties serve to teach him all he has determined to learn in his earthly journey.

Even without awareness of his individual responsibility for the problems and challenges he faces in life, man knows in his heart that he can triumph over all he is faced with. He wavers at times when the odds against success seem overwhelming, and occasionally he surrenders to despair, but almost without exception the soul in progress finds within himself the strength and the determination to triumph, to do all that is demanded of him in a spirit of loving compliance and absolute acceptance. His triumph is not always material in nature, and this lack is of no consequence so long as his triumph is one of spiritual awareness and divine progress.

It is joy indeed to all when man knows the feeling of absolute accomplishment in the face of overwhelming challenge. He above all knows the joy of victory in the face of overwhelming odds and, all who love him from near and from afar share his joyful satisfaction. He knows fully the power of his soul and he is both grateful and pleased in the strength he has been granted and by the divine sustenance that sustained him in the darkest moments.

All men know this wonder. All men rejoice in strength given.

Day 223

Monday, 5/10/99 12:25AM

Man in his magnificence inspires awe. At his best he is a noble creature possessed of many powers, and at his best totally committed to living a life of goodness and love, aware at each moment of his existence of his wonder and of his need to reach the spiritual perfection that is the supreme achievement.

This achievement is not easily gained by all who journey through life. It requires a devotion and a constancy that are at times elusive and subject to subordination to earthly demands. It is all too easy for the soul in progress to forget its aspirations when lured by the temptations and pleasures that life sometimes offers. It is unfortunately easy for many souls to be distracted and eventually seduced by such temptation and to forget life's primary demands.

Yet even those who succumb to earthly temptation retain in their innermost beings an awareness of their divine mission. This awareness lies dormant in the soul and rejects all efforts at dismissal. Man calls this awareness "conscience" and it is an awareness that persists in the face of all difficulty, all straying, all rejection. If man persists in following his obsession with material rewards and neglects completely his need to progress spiritually, the awareness he has refused to live by or even to acknowledge follows him past the earthly death that he knows inevitably and awaits him on the heavenly plane.

Those who live a life in full awareness of their special mission know in all their days the rewards that their goodness and loving ways assure. They live and die aware of their God-given magnificence and they know no regret. They are blessed in every way and rejoice in their privilege.

Day 224

Tuesday, 5/11/99 12:35PM

In the fullness of time, man will gain full understanding of all his life's experiences and their significance both to him and to all those dependent upon him in his earthly life.

Often man achieves this awareness during the course of his earthly journey and this awareness enables him to live in love in word and deed and thus progress spiritually while lending richness to those he loves and those who love him. His influence grows with his goodness and even those only peripherally involved in his life gain by their contact with him. These are souls rich in all ways.

Often men in their lives are less completely aware of their responsibility to live in love at each moment under all circumstances, but their efforts are commensurately rewarded, and as they grow in awareness they grow in sensitivity and responsiveness to others, and they discover within themselves rich resources of goodness. The greater the awareness man has of the rewards of loving behavior the more consistently his life is marked by love given and received and the more intense his happiness with his life becomes. He too affects all those whose lives touch his and he is further strengthened by this awareness.

Some men pass through human life without ever fully achieving the awareness that leads to spiritual richness and inner peace. They fail, for a variety of reasons, to listen to their hearts and they are deprived of the awareness of their own capacities to live in love under all circumstances. In some cases they actively reject the lessons of love and fail utterly to achieve happiness in their earthly existence and fail equally to find the road to spiritual progress. These souls must wait until they have abandoned human life to find enlightenment and hope and to realize opportunities neglected and love lost.

No soul fails to reach the awareness he needs to progress spiritually, but there is great variance in the ways in which this awareness is achieved and great variance in the speed with which it is achieved. In the end all souls find enlightenment and are free to determine the nature of their future progress.

Day 225

Wednesday 5/12/99 12:32AM

Of all the gifts granted to man, the greatest is love. Love sustains at all times. Love nourishes always. Love is the reason for existence. Man is born to love and he is meant all of his days to retain awareness of this central responsibility and pleasure. When man forgets this supreme truth and neglects this central responsibility, he suffers and he inflicts suffering..

The failure to live in love is man's greatest sorrow, though he may be unaware of this truth. When man is first tempted to act in an unloving way, he is free to make the choice of surrendering or resisting this temptation. Often he unthinkingly surrenders to temptation, and almost immediately becomes aware of his error and experiences remorse and a desire to atone. When he follows his instinct and does all he can to compensate for error, he knows inner peace and a firm resolve to err no further. He finds the strength within himself to persevere in his resolve to live in love regardless of temptation and finds himself happy in his choice.

Other men are less fortunate in summoning the strength to resist temptation, and they surrender to the need they feel for earthly pleasure and temporal power. They choose to disregard the dictates of their hearts and to dismiss the promptings of their conscience and they find themselves weakened in their capacity to reject temptation. They lose sight of the need for love in their lives and try to find happiness in their earthly privileges. For a time they succeed in deluding themselves, but this self satisfaction is short lived. They are forced to recognize the emptiness in their lives of self absorption and disregard of the needs of others.

Some are able to return to the paths of love given and received, often with some difficulty. Others are less aware and despite their unhappiness persist in their selfish ways hoping endlessly and futilely for the happiness they never achieve. Such souls are few but they are to be pitied and even for these hope persists among those loving spirits who despite rejection seek to guide the erring soul on its way..

In the end, recognition of the supreme power and absolute necessity of love is inevitable, and therein lies joy for all mankind.

Day 226

Wednesday, 5/12/99 11:50PM

It is the lonely individual who seeks love who offers the greatest opportunity to befriend in love given and gratefully received. These sweet souls come to earth to learn and to teach offer infinite opportunities to all who respond to their need. In their loneliness they respond with perfect gratitude to all proffers of love, and in their full acceptance they enrich the giver immeasurably.

Not all lonely souls are capable of instant response when love is offered to them. Often their timidity holds them back and their unfamiliarity with love makes them fearful of exposing themselves to ridicule or rejection. In these cases patience is called for and those seeking to befriend must first prove their sincerity and their willingness to take one step at a time.

Loneliness is a state in which man hungers for others to share his existence and yet feels himself incapable of taking the steps necessary to end his isolation. He fears himself incapable of attracting and keeping the love of others, and in his fearfulness unwittingly drives away all those who seek to be his friends.

There are fortunately persistent souls who sensing the cause of another's loneliness, seek to persuade and to convince this needy soul of the sincerity and persistence of the love they offer. They do all that is necessary to win the trust of their fellow human and to extinguish the self doubt that separates him from those who would be his friends. They persuade by persistence. They encourage trust in all ways, and when this trust is finally gained they nurture it protectively until the soul newly aware of the joy of loving companionship sheds his fears and embraces all those who offer surcease from loneliness.

Those who succeed in freeing a fellow man from loneliness are twice blessed in all they give and in all they receive.

Day 227

Friday,5/14/99 12:58AM

There are times when it is difficult for man to comprehend and accept his perfection. He knows this full confidence when he first enters human life, but as he grows in a world quick to correct and condemn, he grows uncertain of this perfection and at each step forward in his earthly journey he becomes less certain that he is indeed a creation of divine intent, totally capable of living a life of absolute worth in total awareness of his own perfection.

Even when the maturing individual comes to feel less than perfect, acutely aware of the judgments of others, he retains his divine relationship and he has the capacity, no matter how sorely it is tried, to live in full expression of his divine origin. There are times when man acts in perfection totally unaware of the significance of his actions or of their enduring significance in his spiritual progress. There are times when man knows perfection despite the judgment of others and in his heart is aware of his own rightness.

All through human life man seeks to achieve. When his desire to achieve concerns his material wants, he finds satisfaction short lived and subject to loss. When his desire to achieve finds expression in acts of love and achievement of love given and received, he knows a richness that does not diminish but rather increases with each generous impulse and each worthy effort.

In all of life perfection is within man's grasp. He has only to learn how to achieve what he seeks. He has only to learn that the surest way to receive is to give.

Day 228

Friday, 5/14/99 11:46PM

By and large, all man's triumphs in earthly existence are born in love given and received.

It is true that man may neglect his duty to live in love and yet achieve worldly power and recognition and riches, but however successful he may be, he is poor in all ways if his days are not marked by loving behavior. If man lets himself be consumed by greed at the expense of fellow feeling, he will fail utterly to fill his soul, and the empty soul is incapable of true happiness. Though man may glory in all he has gained in earthly treasure and temporal power, he is not able to know the inner peace and lasting satisfaction that are inextricably joined to a life lived in loving awareness of his obligation to his fellow men.

There are indeed some gifted individuals who succeed in all worldly ways but whose awareness of their need for love given and received never wavers and sustains them in the flush of success. It is not an easy task to succeed materially in all ways and to maintain a steady faith in the absolute necessity of love shared completely and unconditionally. Many benefit from this munificence and the soul of the giver benefits even more greatly.

When man permits himself to lust after power and riches at all costs, he deadens his awareness of the beauty of love shared and he slowly strangles on his greed. Those to whom he owes love and caring are deprived to the point of despair, and it is difficult for them to retain faith in the love they once knew from this soul gone astray. All too many souls in progress permit themselves to live a life where they seek to satisfy their hunger in material possessions and worldly rewards. They ignore the promptings of their hearts and neglect the needs of those dependent upon them for love.

It is the fortunate soul who recognizes the emptiness in his success and who turns his talents to concern for the material and spiritual needs of others. In unselfish striving to satisfy their needs he finds himself enriched and he knows the full glory of love given and received. He is blessed.

Day 229

Saturday, 5/15/99 11:59PM

In all of life there is form and substance, each significant, each compelling. When man is most confused by what befalls him in trial and tribulation, or even in good fortune unexpectedly his, he is challenged in his understanding.

Much of human existence follows expected patterns and each day follows the other in paths unsurprising to those who follow these paths. Their lives may know minor mishaps and occasional surprise, but by and large life follows a smooth transition from day to day and there is no concern about this peaceful continuity. Then into some lives, indeed into most, comes interruption.

This interruption may take many forms. Man may be challenged by disruption in the world he has taken for granted all of his life and he may be forced to create new realities for himself and those he loves. Man may find his life is interrupted and disturbed by bereavement. He may suffer the loss, often unexpected, of a soul he holds dear and he may find it both difficult and painful to contemplate survival without this living love.

In many ways then man may find the complexion of his peaceful existence challenged and altered. He may find it difficult to believe that a just God would require so much of him. It is at this point precisely that he must count his blessings. He must consider his deprivation, his personal tragedy in a larger light. Not only must he become newly aware of all that he has to accept in blessing but he must also become newly aware of his capacity to endure deprivation in absolute faith as to its necessity.

There is much in human life that challenges understanding, but it should comfort all those in transit between two worlds to know that each and every experience, no matter how desolating, is meant to enrich and that the key to this enrichment is acceptance in full faith of its worth.

Let man recognize this truth in the most trying of times, and let him see in his life's experience a wholeness that is divine in its concept and rewarding in its execution.

Day 230

Sunday, 5/16/99 12:13PM

In the fullness of time, man will be impressed with his divine mission on earth and each of his actions will be governed by intent to fulfill at all times his responsibility to his fellow travelers and to those whose intense concern for his progress is eternal.

There will be much strife and struggle before this day of total peace and love becomes a reality. In the eyes of the world it will seem that mankind is fostering its own destruction and that little hope exists of achieving a better world. Leaders will vie with each other in ruthless and destructive ways, and they will be followed blindly by those whom they have persuaded of their power and righteousness.

Always there will be voices of protest, seekers of peace, and for a while they will seem to be drowned out by the trumpeting of those who feel that might is right and that they cannot afford compromise with their supposed enemy, but the peaceful soul is a persistent soul, and despite all attempts to silence and intimidate them, they persist in their quest for an end to destruction.

Little by little the number of these seekers after justice will grow and they will know world wide unity. They will appeal both to the mind and to the heart, and they will at all times speak in love. Mankind, reduced by the travail of a world attuned to war, will begin to listen to those voices of reason and they will in turn bend their energies to return the planet to a peace and tranquility that it has not known for centuries on end.

The transformation will be slow, but it will be steady and relentless in its persistence, universal in its appeal. It will be the work of each soul aware of the absolute power of love given and received. Barriers to understanding will disappear, and the leaders of the world will be forced to abandon their obsession with power and respond to the will of those they serve.

A new generation born and raised in love will know a new world and joy will prevail.

Day 231

Monday, 5/17/99 12:45AM

At all times man needs to be aware of his own capacity to learn. He is born into a life of his own choosing with talents agreed upon to meet his needs, and with infinite desire to succeed in all he has chosen.

Man's responsibility to fulfill all the demands of this chosen life is complicated at times by lack of awareness of either his agreement or of his capacities. Nevertheless it is his joy and his duty to do all that his heart dictates to meet the challenges of his earthly existence in a loving manner. Each trying experience becomes for him a lesson. Each experience offers opportunity to expand his capacity for loving response and to strengthen himself thereby in preparation for the challenges that will inevitably follow.

When man is open minded and aware of his own strengths, this series of challenges and responses leads eventually to fulfillment of all he needs in spiritual progress to satisfy promises made. If on the other hand man fails to learn from each challenge, even if he succeeds in meeting it fully, he is weakened rather than strengthened if he fails to both accept and to triumph in the loving manner that is the only acceptable way. If man feels resentment, if he feels unfairly tried, he lacks the success that affords spiritual progress. If he resists further challenges in a spirit of rebellion and disaffection, he is further weakened.

Never however does man lose completely the power to learn by experience and even the most embittered of humans, the most blind in perception, have the capacity to realize the error in past behavior and learn the effectiveness of acceptance and loving response.

Day 232

Tuesday, 5/18/99 1:14AM

In all of life there are moments of great beauty when man cannot but be aware of his link with divine purpose and heavenly origin.

Take for example the moment man looks upon the face of an infant newly released into this life and he cannot fail to realize the miraculous nature of love exchanged. This tiny perfect being represents most truly the miracle of love given and received come to this earth in full pursuit of its own goals and providing to many the opportunity to express love pure and perfect.

It is no accident that the soul newly come to earth inspires love and in its total dependence infinite caring for this is a plan divine and man is almost without exception inspired to reverence by the nature of birth.

There is no purer time in human life than the time when a child comes to human existence needy and dependent, totally trusting and totally demanding. Those who are privileged to respond to this pure dependence feel themselves blessed in providing succor and nourishment. Their capacity for love expressed is both strengthened and enlarged and all of life is enriched. In turn the child so nourished is prepared in later life to play the role of the care giver and is in all ways aware of the importance of the love received and the love it is time to give.

When man reaches awareness of the glory of love under all circumstances, he will have reached the purity of love that he brought into this life as a soul newly arrived. His joy will be complete. His joy will be contagious. He will know no further hunger. He will be complete.

Day 233

Wednesday, 5/19/99 1:34AM

It is supremely significant that man, endowed as he is with divine capacities, knows the reason and reasonableness of human existence. Since time began, this question has been the one most often asked by those in their earthly experience. Many answers have been suggested. None have been totally correct in every detail.

Early man felt that he owed homage to the earth, to him the source of all life, and to those deities who supplied him with the necessities of life -- light, water, power. In all of his existence early man sought to seek approval of the powers he felt responsible for all the forces of good and he felt a need to appease all those powers he regarded as responsible for evil. In both cases man's response was born in fear and was fostered by fear. He knew in his heart the munificence of love, but he treated this emotion with reserve and reverence and never was it totally squandered. Yet in all of his growing awareness of the responsiveness of the powers that defied understanding, did man consider himself closely related and therefore powerful unto himself.

Through the centuries man progressed to an understanding of the power of nature and of his own powers, and he came to conclude that his were the greater powers, though he needed always to live in full awareness of the natural powers beyond his control.

Thus man came into understanding of himself. He came to be aware of the force he represented, and he came to respect the limitations of that force. He came to recognize the equal powers of others and to be both glad and respectful of those powers, willing in his awareness to both ask and accept, to give and to receive all that was needful to live in harmony.

So man progressed one step at a time at all times aware of the glory of the journey.

Day 234

Wednesday, 5/19/99 11:55PM

It is the essence of holiness to strive constantly to impress upon the world the absolute necessity in all ways of all encompassing love. There is great joy in seeking after holiness, living each day in full attention to each opportunity to share loving thoughts, words and deeds. Love is like a magnet. It attracts and draws into itself the needy and the fulfilled, the giver and the receiver, the seeker and the found. All good flows from the practice of love.

An act of love inspires always. Man's nature is to reflect the treatment he receives. If he knows love in any form, he is encouraged to express love in his response and to seek out opportunities to demonstrate the power of love to inspire goodness and harmony. When one man turns to another in love, all base emotions are as nothing, and the spirit of brotherhood is nourished and thereby strengthened.

Conversely, an unloving act can inspire a hostile response and can trigger a bitter exchange, an exchange that leaves each participant weaker and more vulnerable, less capable of a loving response in his next encounter.

Therefore it behooves all men to seek peace through love, to recognize at all times its contagion and to know fully the happiness that love engenders.

Day 235

Thursday, 5/20/99 11:54PM

Among man's joys is his awareness of his capacity to be pleasing to others. This discovery may change the course of many lives. The fortunate human who early discovers his need and his capacity to create happiness in others, himself becomes under all circumstances the most content of men.

The miracle of spreading happiness through words and acts of love is never diminished by circumstance. The blessed soul who knows this talent and this devotion survives the severest of tests, the most desolating of experiences, without having this divine giving quenched. Those who observe this indomitable spirit of joyfulness shared are inspired by example and strive to emulate. Those who are themselves experiencing trial and difficulty are moved to feel themselves less oppressed when they know the cheerfulness of one tried even more sorely.

This giving quality is in and of itself evidence of the miraculous nature of man. It is a quality learned early, incorporated into every thought, word and deed and a source of unending growth and richness. Many learn from such a generous and cheering soul and are in turn inspired to emulate. Not all succeed completely but their progress is notable and satisfying, and they find themselves engendering goodness and love as they strive to cheer.

All the world becomes a better place for each soul in progress who practices the life of love and joy and whose inspiration creates new awareness of the joyful effects of love given and received.

The world awaits total transformation by this generous love.

Day 236

Friday, 5/21/99 10:35PM

In the interest of full understanding of the nature of the human experience it is wisdom for man to consider a single life as part of a more significant whole. This concept of repeated lives is one that has for some been accepted without question for centuries.

For others on this journey through life this concept is anathema, a total contradiction of what they have been both taught and conditioned to believe. There is much room for speculation as to why those who choose to believe in a single life and thereby deny the eternal nature of the soul are so persistent in their clinging to a concept that offers no promise, no comfort. In general it can be said that such a limited perception is the result of early indoctrination, fostered and perpetuated by fear. The unknown is fearful to all men who deny continual existence, immortal life.

In some cases, those who believe in a single life are taught that this life is indeed a trial with eternal results -- unending bliss in paradise, unending torture in hell. Without disparaging the sincerity of those who fervently believe in the judgment of souls resulting in either unending bliss or unending agony, it is fruitful to suggest that the God who would permit His beloved children to be so condemned must indeed be less than a God of total love, a God who celebrates and values love shared above all other qualities and whose forgiveness knows no exceptions.

Indeed for those who consider God the source of all love and goodness, no more blessed concept exists than that of a soul released into human existence, at all times capable of success, at all times tempted to failure, whose sole goal is the attainment of love perfect in all respects. This soul at all times is capable of decisions that will result in success or failure or modification of either. When his life reaches its end, he crosses the threshold of death with new awareness of the extent to which he has either succeeded or failed, and he chooses of his own free will how to seek the perfection he has yet to achieve. His will is more often to choose another human experience and to meet each trial he has chosen with acceptance and love and to know the spiritual progress that is the attainment supremely prized.

Thus man cannot fail. Life offers infinite capacity for joy and sorrow, for success and failure, for acceptance and rejection and when each single life is ended, the soul knows infinite possibility in life renewed in rebirth.

This is the comfort offered to all those who seek to find promise and reason in the journey all men take from birth to death. It is perfect in its concept, perfect in its execution, glorious in its achievement.

Day 237

Saturday, 5/22/99 11:40PM

It is of the utmost importance in human life that man be aware of its transitory nature. For some, human life is measured in minutes and hours, days and weeks, months and years. For others, life is measured in decades verging upon a century. All these souls are equal in their appreciation of human existence. Each has chosen its life span for an appropriate purpose. Often this purpose is to learn. Often this purpose is to teach. Often it is to do both.

It is quite understandably difficult for the human mind to appreciate the value of a life cut short almost at birth. It is equally difficult, perhaps more so, to understand the reason that lies behind the death of a young child or adult. All such deaths leave devastation in their wakes. All such deaths challenge understanding. Yet it is at such times under such circumstances that man is called upon to recognize that his life is his alone and that his choice has been to survive all trials with trust and equanimity and to recognize and accept that the soul departed, however prematurely it seems to him, is a soul released to glory of its own wish and a soul that continues to love and care for all those who shared its earthly journey.

So, My children, all earthly journeys are the same whether they be measured in minutes or in decades. All involve souls in pursuit of their own individual perfection. All know that they are destined to succeed, though they may at times be deprived of this sure faith, but regardless of the strength of their faith they are destined to rejoice in the end of earthy existence as the entry to a more perfect belonging.

There is no terror in death. If man approaches this transition in fear, this fear is dissipated absolutely at the moment of transition, and all glory is his to know in new found wonder. He is in the company of those whose perfect love gives him joy and hope, and he knows in all ways the enormous capacity of his soul to both give and receive this absolute love.

Day 238

Sunday, 5/23/99 11:22PM

There is never a time when man should despair. No matter the degree of pain and deprivation, no matter how intense the sorrow, nothing in human life is beyond man's capacity to accept and to survive. In each of life's challenges, man is able to seek within himself and to seek from others all the succor he needs for victory over travail.

At all times man is provided in many ways to be the master of his fate, to deal with all that life demands of him in a spirit of self sufficiency and reliance upon all sources of strength shared. When man suffers, he offers to those who love him opportunity to grow spiritually. He is in need of love expressed fully and they are gratified and enriched by the opportunity to supply the needed loving assistance. All are enriched by the full expression of love given and received, and the soul in turmoil finds both solution and peace and new found confidence in the power of love shared.

All men in their earthly journeys know occasions when a loving response answers their needs perfectly. The need may be great or it may be small. The degree is insignificant. What is significant is the free and full expression of love inherent in the aid needed and given. All those who share the experience of need expressed and need satisfied know a full heart and new awareness of the beauty of shared love and caring.

Once man learns this lesson of love, he is able to live in total satisfaction with himself and know that each time he is instrumental in aiding a fellow human he is thereby nourished.

Day 239

Monday, 5/24/99 11:556PM

It is the privilege of all those entering human life to chart the course they will take, to determine those who will share the journey and to determine the strengths that will sustain them and the weaknesses that they must learn to control and to conquer.

Human understanding is not adequate to comprehend fully the complexity of the human experience. Sheer numbers, incredible complexities in relationships, and links between lives are beyond the capability of the human mind to encompass. It therefore becomes man's advantage to accept the truth and the reality of infinite complexity and infinitely detailed planning for all those who return to this world as souls seeking progress.

The worlds beyond earth are both remarkable in and of themselves and for the wondrous spirits that inhabit and govern. Love prevails at all times and all energy is expended in the propagation of love and the teaching of the lessons of love to all who need this instruction. Those who are souls in progress are both cherished and encouraged to learn all they must for total belonging. There is a spirit of intense caring, infinite hope, and joy beyond measure. Souls arrive joyously and leave reluctantly, yet fully aware of the certainty of their return, fully aware that they take with them on their return to human life caring and love adequate to their needs, increasing in faithful devotion.

It is not necessary that man understand the intricacies of life and rebirth, but it is important for him to believe that all things are possible, and that his welfare is central to all those caring spirits who have been entrusted with his progress and to all others whose human experiences have brought them close to him.

The world that awaits all souls at the end of their earthly experiences is a world of wonder, a world that offers infinite hope and learning, love beyond all imagining, and in the end the perfect belonging that is the goal of all souls. Nothing but perfection persists, and man is well pleased.

Day 240

Tuesday, 5/25/99 11:33PM

At the start of each human existence there is infinite love involved. The soul having chosen to enter human life comes accompanied by beings of light, sweet and loving spirits who have prepared him for rebirth and will continue to bend all their efforts in continuance of this loving guidance.

As I have said, the newborn quickly loses memory of his origins but he retains a sweet innocence and an infinite capacity for trust and love. He is like a magnet drawing to himself love from all those who are aware of his existence. Man finds it impossible to respond to an infant with any other emotion than love, and the child sets out on its earthly journey enveloped in love, sustained and nourished by love, infinitely trusting and infinitely appealing. This blessed capacity to inspire love and to receive love is denied to no soul come to life, and under the best of circumstances this loving existence continues through infancy and childhood into maturity.

Many souls in progress choose the more difficult path where they must learn to retain their capacity to love in the face of deprivation and loss. The challenges may be physical. They may be emotional. They may be minor. They may be overwhelming. In all cases the soul in progress, aided by the loving spirits dedicated to their welfare, find the faith and strength to meet all difficulties and all deprivations without losing their instinctive response, that of love freely and unconditionally offered. They know great strength in this capacity and it serves as an example to others facing similar trials.

Never should the power of love, which is deep within man's soul from the moment of birth, be underestimated. Even if this power seems to be weakened or even lost at times, it stubbornly persists and in his moments of greatest need man is privileged to rediscover its divine nature. It is the source of all good in human life.

Day 241

Wednesday, 5/26/99 11:55PM

By the end of human life, man is ready in all ways to move on. I speak here even of death that seems in all ways premature, a cruel cutting off of life, an untimely end to promise. I speak here too of sudden death, death in no way anticipated, in no way prepared for, either for the soul in progress or for those who are bereaved. I speak finally of those whose lives have been both challenging and fulfilling and who have known full enjoyment of the years allotted them and approach death as a fitting ending to a life well lived.

I speak then of extremes, of life lived briefly and of life lived in longevity. I speak of death sudden and of death long anticipated, in some cases yearned for. I speak of the universal nature of death, a gift as surely as birth is a gift, for they are as one, birth and death, separated only by a time variable but in all cases infinitesimal in the full span of eternity.

Death then comes as both an inevitable occurrence and as a friend, a gateway between worlds difficult to envision, a true transition to bliss unimaginable. Few are the difficulties connected with the transition from earthly to heavenly existence and even these few are transitory and insignificant. All souls are joined with their brothers and all souls rejoice in this reunion.

Death then is to be joyfully welcomed by those chosen to embrace its promise. There should be no hostility, no reluctance, no fear, but rather a conscious awareness of the divine purpose of life and the infinite promise of life to come.

Rejoice therefore when death makes your acquaintance and know that all who are chosen are privileged.

Day 242

Thursday, 5/27/99 11:58PM

In all of life man is aware of the power of his will. This power is a full responsibility of each soul in progress and when well used assures man and all those bound to him in earthly life of love and joy.

This power is at times and to some seductive and capable of causing unhappiness and harm to many. It is all too easy for man to begin to consider himself far more powerful than he really is and to act in a destructive manner to please himself at the expense of all others.

History is replete with examples of free will misused and abused. The world has suffered thereby, and those seeking power at all costs without regard for their responsibilities have found in the end that their despotism was in vain. They have tarnished their souls, caused great suffering, impeded their spiritual progress, and finally know the bitter taste of despair and defeat. They are in the end in all cases forced to recognize the emptiness of their earthly triumphs and the evanescent nature of their fame. They know infinite regret.

On the other hand, man may and most often does utilize his capacity to make decisions large and small with the absolute need for love as his motivating force. By eschewing power he gains power, and in the process both enriches and nourishes both himself and all those affected by his decisions and his actions. Such men rarely know regret even in the slightest degree, and when they look upon their greedy brothers condemned by their own actions they feel pity and an intense need to compensate.

Thus man endowed with this gift of free will is at all times capable of choice. Though he may feel that his choices are limited, he has always the significant choice of whether to act in self interest at the expense of others or to act in love in the hope that he will benefit himself and all those affected by his choice.

Day 243

Friday, 5/28/99 11:51 PM

Even in the midst of misery and want, man retains awareness of his divine origin, of the spark within his soul that tells him of his significance, of his link with all those who surround him and all those who observe from afar his progress in a world that seems at times alien and inhospitable. The poorest of men materially sometimes know a certainty of their worth that escapes their more materially gifted brothers.

This is a gift innate. This is awareness granted to all those who choose to live in earthly existence. It is an inborn quality. No soul new to human life knows feelings of inferiority. Quite the opposite is true. The soul new to earth is infinitely secure, infinitely optimistic, infinitely powerful in its faith. Inferiority is learned. It is a lesson harshly inflicted by those who have forgotten man's first obligation in human existence. They have forgotten their absolute promise to act in love and to treat each of their brothers as one in all ways.

The world transformed into the deprived and the privileged, the exploited and the exploiter, the downtrodden and the exalted is then the product of man in his arrogance, in his total disregard of his promise, in unconscionable exercise of his free will. This is injustice.

Yet there is eternal justice which does not tolerate the inequities of human existence without loving redress. All those who live their lives in disregard of the need to love and be loved may enjoy material advantages. but they live each day with empty hearts and their transition in the next life brings with it awareness of failure and infinite remorse.

Day 244

Saturday, 5/29/99 11:59PM

In the fullness of time the least aware of those who seek to know wisdom will be fully enlightened. In the fullness of time those most deprived will know fullness of purpose and exultation in all ways. There will be such a joyful reckoning embraced by all souls and welcomed universally.

This will not be the individual judgment of each soul newly arrived from death's portal. Rather this will be a general convening of all those who seek to attain the perfect belonging that is the purview of those who have achieved in their earthly lives or in their heavenly striving the true dedication that distinguishes them and marks them as ready for divine acceptance into the heavenly body known as the Godhead.

It is no easy task to achieve perfection. It is not in any way a brief endeavor. It is not in any way a guaranteed result of human striving. Rather the achievement of perfection demands a steady effort, an absolute affirmation of the rightness of a life lived in love in all ways, in each deed, thought and emotion. It is a life idealized by many, achieved by many others, ridiculed by a few, the source of great satisfaction for most.

No life offers a path from start to finish without trial and temptation. No life offers total awareness of the reason and rightness of all that life demands. Yet in most cases man accepts gladly all that is asked of him, accepts without understanding but with full faith that he is capable of meeting the demands of the life he has chosen.

Full enlightenment may be reserved until the moment that the soul surrenders its earthly journey and enters a new life, but man has the capacity at each juncture of earthly existence to evaluate and to judge the extent to which his life has been successful in the ways that his divine nature demands and has always demanded.

Thus man gains awareness and in this awareness wisdom.

Day 245

Sunday, 5/30/99 11:27PM

In the fullness of time much will occur to bring to this world a sense of order, an awareness of the perfection that is not only possible but attainable.

There is much that must be done by man to insure this perfection. He must,first of all abandon aggression. He must recognize that his brother is in and of himself. He must know that all of mankind is united in a single endeavor, and it matters not at all the degree of separation, be it in time, in distance, in class or ethnicity. What matters is a common origin, a communality as total as truth. No man is born a stranger. No man can exist alone. No man can thrive without the warmth and support that brotherhood offers and demands. When man comes to full awareness of his divine identity with all those who share human life he will have taken the first step to perfection.

Ask yourself why this is such a difficult first step. Ask yourself how it will be possible to cast aside generations of prejudice and unfairness, imagined wrongs, hatreds inherited in ignorance, fears fostered by this same ignorance. The answer is that all men must learn to listen to the voices of reason that speak of peace and understanding. All men must look at the world they have inherited and to some extent created and know the wastefulness involved in discord and conflict. They must become freshly aware of the avenues that will take them to an era of acceptance and understanding, of loving behavior and respect for all those whose lives are intertwined with theirs.

This is a road that all men will one day willingly take in full awareness of its value. It remains for man to ensure this future progress by acts of love and affirmation and acceptance and to join with his brothers in lands near and far in speaking of love given and received in voices too loud and too persistent to be denied.

Thus the world will be transformed.

Day 246

Monday, 5/31/99 10:54PM

In his infinite goodness man approaches perfection often in the course of earthly life. This wondrous being incorporates into each and every aspect of his life the divine gift of love fully expressed and in no way ever withheld for any reason.

You have known such men. You have wondered at their capacity to accept abuse and respond in love. You have known them to suffer gladly the deprivations they know in their daily lives. You have seen them share in all ways whatever bounty life affords them even at the cost of self deprivation. You have wondered at this capacity for selfless love and speculated about its strength. You have wished yourself this perfect in giving without thought of receiving.

Such awareness brings with it benefits. It is the first step in emulation. Once you have seen the selfless nature of joyous giving, you are tempted to take the first step in an effort to achieve the happiness that comes only from the free exchange of love. You first experience the joy of giving and you know in your heart that you have taken only the first step on the road to self satisfaction and eventual perfection. The second step is inevitable and even more gratifying and the path is set. Life takes on a richness that is achieved in no other way.

Man's discovery of his innate goodness is one of true joy and enlightenment, and this new awareness affords him great satisfaction henceforth. He lives a life of generous and undemanding giving. He loves without condition. He finds himself cherished by all those touched by his goodness. He needs no more to be pleased with himself.

Day 247

Tuesday, 6/1/99 11:60PM

Whenever man doubts, he needs to look into his heart to find response to his questions. It is in the nature of human existence to hunger to know more, to seek answers absolute in their relevance, totally satisfying in their completeness.

Some seeking souls are satisfied with the answers they find in the teachings of other seekers, in the history of man's search for truth duly documented. Others, with the same awareness, are not fully persuaded. They find glimpses of truth but not truth complete.

It is at this point that the wise and enlightened man determines that the answers lie within. It is not an easy road to follow to seek to know within one's self absolute truth, and indeed it cannot be said with certainty that any human has come to total and complete grasp of divine intention and execution. Yet through the ages there have been men blessed with the intuition and insight that marks them as chosen to know and chosen to teach. In all goodness those blessed souls have spoken. They have spoken of their perception of divine purpose and of all man needs to know in this life to ensure his spiritual needs.

Some of these teachers have known fame. Some have been heeded and honored. Few have been permitted to live in the minds of man exactly as they would have chosen. Time has in most cases distorted the purity of their lessons and man has been ill served by this distortion.

Yet through the ages one central truth has survived, and that teaching is that man must trust his innermost self to know the truth of life and to appreciate with absolute certainty all that he must do in the course of his life to know true progress and infinite happiness.

There are times when man's perception of the dictates of his heart are less than he would choose. There are times when he is misled by voices inimical to his well being. At all times he needs to persist and to know that in the end his heart will speak truly of all he needs and wants to know. He will know glory in all his heart speaks and in all his responses to this divine voice.

Day 248

Wednesday, 6/2/99 11:59PM

The least of men in their earthly lives can aspire to be the greatest of men in all that matters. They can find in their hearts the full love that marks those who approach perfection in their striving to achieve spiritual progress.

These sweet souls find in their innermost beings awareness of the insignificance of material advantage and the precious quality of internal goodness. They demand little and give much. They embrace the concept of love that knows no limits, no conditions, no inconstancy. They bring joy into the lives of all those privileged to share in their goodness. They bring light into the lives of those who profit by their example and find goodness newly discovered in themselves.

The world all too often fails to recognize the wonder of those children of God who seem superficially to be wanting in every way. They see the surface only and fail to comprehend the complexities of the soul. All too often this failure prompts them to dismiss these worthy souls as unfortunate, and in their blindness fail to recognize the richness within.

Life in its distribution of material benefits is, therefore, often misleading. Man tends to judge by external attributes. It is his temptation to dismiss those materially deprived in any way as less than worthy, their deprivation in his mind being proof adequate of their inferiority. This folly serves no one, but it injures most sorely the man whose hasty judgment is so erroneous. He deprives himself.

In time he achieves the wisdom to recognize his error, and he regrets the falsity of his assumptions. He knows in the end that his is the soul deprived.

Day 249

Thursday, 6/3/99 11:50PM

From the very start of time measured in human terms, man has sought order in his life. He sought always and assiduously to so order his days as to create a pattern. In this he was aided by the order natural to the planet. Day followed night and ordained the daily schedule of early man. He rose with the sun and slept in its absence. He was governed by the seasonal changes in his environment in his rules for living. He took full advantage of earth's bounty and sought to increase it always.

Through the centuries man made steady progress in creating an environment responsive to his needs, and in this orderly environment he thrived and progressed in all creature comforts. In all of his striving man became aware of the need for sharing. Each endeavor was simplified by the labor of many. Man came to depend upon his fellow man and to establish a sense of orderly cooperation to the benefit of all. In the course of this material progress man discovered in the stirrings of his soul a sweet dependence upon his fellow man. He began to value life that was not his own and to express this feeling in acts and words of allegiance and support.

Thus was born fellow feeling. Thus was love nurtured among those who sought survival and beneficence in shared labor and dependence upon one another. Love quickly became a moving force in the life of early man and inevitably these feelings of mutual need developed into strong ties of kinship and mutual support and obligation. Man ceased to be a solitary individual. He found himself gratified in community and found every aspect of his daily life enriched by sharing.

We owe much to the lessons our forebears learned so long ago. Man is privileged to have his life bound in loving relationships, a fitting legacy of his forbears.

Day 250

Friday, 6/4/99 10:55PM

It is at all times within the province of man to determine the extent to which he chooses to live his life in accordance with what his heart speaks of his destiny. While he may not remember in any or in exact detail what he promised to accomplish in this life, there is a wisdom innate in his being that holds awareness of what he has chosen to do in learning. There is a sacred being ready always to guide him along the road he has promised to take. There are countless reminders of all that is right and good.

Despite all these gifts, these caring reminders, man often finds it too difficult to fulfill his promises. Ignorant, as he chooses to be, of all that is required of him, he permits himself to be lured into the total immersion in worldly striving and transitory pleasure that takes him far from the path he is meant to follow. Yet the longer he travels down this road he was not meant to take, the more futile the journey seems to become. Anticipating great satisfaction, he finds disappointment. He seeks to know within himself why his efforts have succeeded superficially and failed in all other ways.

It is at this point often that man, tired of the journey of life, sated with earthly pleasure and hungry for more satisfying nourishment, seeks to look beyond the practical, the superficial. Often he seeks the guidance of those who seem to have combined earthly pleasure with inner peace. Often he seeks awareness in the words of those teachers whose wisdom is shared in many ways. Often he seeks within himself. He seeks to know the promptings of his soul, promptings so long neglected but never silenced.

From all this searching the soul sincere in his desire to know goodness learns the lessons of life and love, and having learned their wonder for himself, approaches all those he loves with an intense desire to share the wisdom so dearly bought. In giving, he receives. In teaching, he learns. In sharing, he knows oneness.

Day 251

Saturday, 6/5/99 10:59PM

Toward the end of human life the soul gains in awareness both of all that the life past has meant in both success and failure and in awareness that a new beginning lies ahead. Some souls resist this awareness. Others embrace it eagerly. All find it important eventually. Even those whose deaths are sudden and unexpected experience a moment of retrospection and enlightenment before they depart earthly life.

In this retrospection most men know a measure of satisfaction in a life well lived. They are aware of challenges met with acceptance and strength. They are aware of the extent to which they met the needs of those dependent upon them both materially and emotionally. They are as well aware of failure, for it is the rare human who lives so perfectly as to escape failure in any form at any time.

It is important for man to know that his sense of achievement is all important. It is right and just that man leave mortal existence fully aware of the good that his life has encompassed. Similarly his awareness of failure serves him well, for it becomes his good fortune to be privileged in a number of ways to compensate for error and omission.

Some souls succeed in expiation and redress before they pass the threshold of death. Others must wait until they complete their passage to do so. Both souls are blessed. Both souls realize that no matter how grievously they have erred in mortal life they are not permitted to halt their spiritual progress short of perfection, and that in this search for perfection they are afforded the loving guidance and encouragement that insures total success.

Day 252

Sunday, 6/6/99 11:33PM

From the instant that life begins, man acts out a scenario long in the making. In the time between death and rebirth wondrous experiences and awarenesses are afforded the soul in progress in the pause that follows the end of earthly existence. He arrives at heaven's gate in all ways needy. He is welcomed and afforded love beyond all he has ever experienced. He knows immediately that he has entered a state of grace which he has known before, and all his fears leave him instantly. He is quick to rejoice in his new home and quick to respond to the warmth of his welcome.

To his astonishment he sees and recognizes souls from his past journey and from journeys before that, and he is overwhelmed by this power new to him. He begins the journey into a new world fortified by his own self awareness and infinitely enriched by the love that is offered to him. There is no end to the glory he knows and no end to the awareness he quickly perceives of all he has known in his life just past and in the total cycle of life eternal that is his. There is no hunger. There is no lack. There is completion. There is an awareness of new need and total acceptance of its rightness.

No man should fear this transition to a world of glory beyond belief. It awaits all souls, the strong and the weak, the whole and the maimed, the willing and the unwilling. There is no denial of worth. There is no rejection. There is always hope. There is always certainty of success, of attaining the goal of all souls since time began, the total fulfillment of oneness, true divine belonging, the perfection that is the be all and end all.

Day 253

Monday, 6/7/99 11:43PM

Each man born of women is born into life eternal. Each life begun with birth into human life is a life that knows no beginning and no end. Each life is eternal in its nature and each life experiences mortal existence as part of its journey to perfect oneness.

It is difficult for man with his limited awareness to consider himself a loving creation destined for divine belonging. It is difficult for man with his limited human awareness to know with certainty the enormity of his experience on the road to spiritual perfection. It is quite within his capacity to recall previous lives, but few men exercise this capacity and therefore remain ignorant of all their previous experiences on the earthly plane.

Some seekers after truth have discovered this key, this ability to recall past lives and to profit by the lessons learned in these earlier existences. Increasingly man is seeking and discovering this capacity and in turn seeking to persuade others of its beneficent learning. It is important that man heed these voices that speak to him of powers within that are beyond the ordinary. Increasingly these powers will become commonly available and all who exercise this power will attain wisdom and insight.

The world has presently much to learn about the wondrous capacity of man progressing to perfection. There are voices that seek to be heeded and who offer new avenues to the awareness that is desirable, the awareness that persuades man on his earthly journey that life is but a single step on this journey and that at all times that single step brings him closer to his destiny, divine in its origin, divine in its conclusion.

Day 254

Tuesday, 6/8/99 11:58PM

In the start of time expressed in earthly fashion it was difficult to determine night from day. Evolution proceeded in an orderly fashion but slowly. From man's present perspective it is difficult for him to imagine the immensity of time past. Man regards human life and recent history, certainly recorded history, as a reasonable measure of time. What preceded written words, what man calls "pre-history", is largely speculation and largely dismissed as irrelevant to man's understanding of his place in the universal scheme of things.

In this assumption man is only partly in error. If he defines the scope of history as the history of life on planet earth, then he approaches truth. In this definition he excludes the consideration of life on planes other than the earthly plane. His conclusion is reasonable, for to this point in time he has no cause to believe in the existence of planes beyond his own.

This limitation is entirely reasonable, and yet in the evolutionary process man is bound to advance to awareness of further horizons and to realize that the civilization he knows is one of many and that in time he will become aware of these worlds of wonder. He will become cognizant of his relationship with these beings and he will find himself enriched. He will know the kinship that spans worlds and centuries and he will find in this kinship richness and understanding.

Man needs to extend his horizons, to recognize the compelling fact that what he knows of existence is narrow, that worlds of wonder lie just beyond his reach. He should be fully confident that this will soon become reality and that he will know sublimity in new discovery of worlds heretofore unknown.

This is promise.

Day 255

Wednesday, 6/9/99 11:40PM

All men know the greatness of their being.

To some this awareness comes early in earthly life and serves them well in all their endeavors. They know a steady faith in their capacities which serves them well, and the wisest of this privileged group seek to spend their talents in ways that express the love and concern for others that is part of their very existence.

Others born with talents that serve them well in the ways of the world suffer from a lack of awareness as to their obligations to others. Sometimes this lack of awareness is short lived and they find themselves enriched when they learn the basic obligation to live in love and become freshly aware of the source of earthly happiness.

Some souls stray completely and misuse their talents. They become eventually aware of the lack in their lives and seek to learn the lessons of love. Few who are so motivated fail in their quest.

What, you ask, is the reason for failure to live lives of love freely given and gratefully received if all souls come to earth are capable of meeting the challenges of life with the fullness of love in their patience and in their response? For this answer we return to the truth, that along with his capacity to live fully and lovingly in the face of hardship and challenge, man comes to human life possessed of free will, a capacity to choose at all times the course of conduct, the emotional response, the acceptance or rejection of responsibility that he deems in his best interest. Man is not always wise in his choices of will freely expressed. He is granted the right absolute to choose, but he is equally free to ignore the wisdom and guidance that is equally freely offered to him. Thus man strays and the world suffers.

There are times when it is difficult to reconcile the suffering man may cause to others with the love eternal of a caring God. It is at such times that the trusting soul realizes the ephemeral nature of earthly suffering and the eternal nature of the soul come to life on earth. There is infinite joy in this awareness and acceptance, and the most difficult of human journeys becomes a triumphant procession. Thus is love given and received.

Day 256

Thursday, 6/10/99 11:40PM

In all of life there is a questing, a constant search for the perfection that man hungers for always.

Man finds this perfection in greater or lesser degree in many ways. He searches first to recognize the love that is his from birth. He seeks to insure this love against all interruptions, all imperfection, all inadequacy. In most cases the soul in progress is nourished by this gift that is his from the moment of conception.

As man faces the challenges of life from childhood onward, this pristine love is at all times threatened. It is often man's weakness to reject this perfect love, to listen to the voices that cajole and comfort with temptation to pleasures difficult to resist. As he progresses, man is faced with difficult choices. If he surrenders to the temptations of earthly enjoyment in physical terms, he is aware in his innermost soul that he fails himself. If he persists in the path of goodness, he is aware of earthly pleasures forfeited and he is on occasion tempted to believe that he has erred in his choice of deprivation.

Soon the scales are evened, and each soul in his progress knows the wisdom or the folly of his choices in earthly existence. Each faces with total honesty the measure of success in his journey through life and each is totally aware of the need to perfect his path to oneness. For one, the path is smooth and rapid. For the other, much more is required, but this is not in any way considered punitive or discouraging but rather a gift of renewal, a perfect opportunity to succeed.

Thus man progresses to all that he desires and thus man grows in awareness of divine grace, of opportunity unlimited, of divine belonging that is inevitable. This is cause for universal and unremitting joy.

Day 257

Friday, 6/11/99 10:50PM

There is infinite goodness in man. No matter the circumstance of each life, no matter the degree of deprivation, no matter the intensity of temptation, man relies always upon this inner strength. He comes from the love of a God who wishes him at all times to succeed in all he seeks in spiritual progress. He comes from a sacred commitment to human life. He comes into this world pure and undefiled, and he begins life in total loving dependence and absolute trust.

All those who return of their own will to human existence come with talents, strengths and failings of their own choosing in full intent to live a life of love in the face of all adversity. They succeed randomly, it would seem, but even those who seem to have failed utterly retain at all times under all circumstances this innate goodness that is a gift eternal. There are times when this supreme quality seems to have vanished, when the soul in progress seems to have surrendered absolutely to base instinct and to have no wish to change. Such surrender is a source of sorrow both for those joined to him in earthly bonds and for those bound to him in heavenly guidance.

Some souls in progress are slow in recognition of error. Some are capable of inflicting great harm both on themselves and on others. Some seem to have forgotten completely their capacity to live in love. Yet even in these extreme circumstances, the inborn capacity for living in love is never destroyed. It lives in the heart of man no matter how corrupt the life, and it rests ready to assert itself in time of need. It is the rare soul in progress who does not reach the point of awareness that reminds him of his lost innocence and his ability to recover and to embrace goodness.

Such transformations in human existence are cause for hope for all who observe them. Look about you and you will see such wonder.

Day 258

Saturday, 6/12/99 11:47PM

In all of time man has not succeeded in piercing the veil of secrecy that separates him in human existence from the divinity of his origin and the divinity of his destiny.

Through centuries past much has been promulgated and much has been accepted as to the divine plan. In some cases and to some degree these caring souls have spoken truth, but their truth has all too often been adulterated. It has been tempting to use man's striving for truth and understanding as a source of temporal power over those seekers. This adulteration has manifested itself in all areas of the world, in all religious organizations. This continues to the present day.

Those who seek truly to know and to honor God are commendable in their efforts insofar as these efforts are not distorted by self interest or by a taste for power and profit. It is in the nature of worldly values that total unselfishness and absolute devotion to the common good is rare. It is not, however, fair to say that this selflessness and devotion do not exist at all. They survive in a small number of teachers and seekers after truth. They survive in those who hold it in faith absolute that the sole requirement of God is to live in love, to meet all adversity with loving acceptance, and to know gratification in love given and received under any and all circumstances.

It is not easy to keep this steady faith. It is for some essential that their faith be exhibited and bolstered by ceremony and ritual. Such manifestations are both pleasing and acceptable, but in all cases the simplicity of the lessons of love must be preserved and must be expressed in word and deed. This simple teaching is the mainstay of man on his journey from birth to death. He comes into this world full of love and he leaves this world for another which is full of love. He completes the cycle of life as it began. Love is the key always.

Day 259

Sunday, 6/13/99 10:45PM

It is a source of great joy to all those involved in the evolution of humans in progress when one of their company reaches the ultimate achievement of divine oneness. This joy is shared infinitely in the heavenly realm, for in this glorious state all share in the joy of one, all know perfection in the perfection of one, all are gloriously enjoined.

This perfect belonging, this ecstatic joy, awaits all those who labor on the journey from earthly birth to earthly death. Whatever the nature of this journey, it shares a common beginning and a common ending. The exact nature of birth and death is as nothing. The transition is all. The soul released from the trials of human life, no matter its duration, is a soul released into glorious awareness of the wonder of life eternal. There are no restrictions to this awareness. There are no limits to divine communication. There is only total and absolute satisfaction.

It is hard for the soul in progress, embroiled as it is often, to imagine the idyllic quality of existence beyond the edge of life. It is hard to imagine that the rewards so seemingly promised in undue faith are indeed rewards absolute and irrefutable. In his despair man reaches out for hope, and hope is his always if he achieves the stretch of faith that tells him that this temporal life is not all, that much awaits.

It is joyful to know the extent to which those facing earthly death are aware of the joy that awaits. Increasingly those nearing the end of their earthly journey know fully that the end is the beginning, that infinite joy awaits and they will be guided in all loving ways to an infinity of love and wonder, that all the love they cherish is theirs eternally.

It is time for man to recognize the truth of his absolute and eternal nature in its most beneficent form. There is nothing to fear in the experience that is human life. There is nothing to fear in its conclusion. There is all to be anticipated in a sense of wonder and thanksgiving. Glory belongs to all men.

Day 260

Monday, 6/14/99 11:54PM

When man first seeks to understand the nature of his earthly experience he finds it difficult to find worthy answers. He is often so beset with difficulty that he begins to feel comfort in believing that life is a gigantic error, nature gone astray, and that the random cruelty he feels governs his world has no cause, no reason. Even those whose lives are easier in the distribution of earthly advantages find themselves perplexed by the world they see about them. They contrast their own well being with the deprivation known by others and conclude that there is no reason to life, that chance prevails at all times.

Most men pursue their search for truth and find alternative convictions more pleasing to their need to find reason and comfort in their approach to life. Some find simple answers in the persuasion of religious leaders who call upon them to have faith in the face of contradiction and despair. Others find in logic and scientific method assurance that the world, however disordered it may seem, possesses a divine balance and in this divine balance suggests beneficent power and a true order in existence.

In all of his wondering, man follows a path that will eventually bring him to a true realization both of the order of the universe and the reason for his existence. For some this final reconciliation comes early and permits man to leave peaceably in the face of seeming contradiction and apparent inequity. Some never reach a state of acceptance and understanding in this life and die puzzled and unhappy. They leave this world with questions unanswered and doubts unresolved. It is their joy to discover that understanding is always granted to the seeking soul, to some earlier, to some only after the end of mortal life.

It matters not when man reaches full comprehension of the meaning of his earthly life. It is important only that this understanding is denied to no soul in progress. All know eventually the answers to all they have sought to know and all rejoice equally in this gift.

Day 261

Tuesday, 6/15/99 11:55PM

Before life began on earth there was in place a divine plan. There was infinite goodness in intent, infinite giving in execution. There was no haste in this creation. Indeed quite the opposite was true. The world as a dwelling place for man evolved slowly and perfectly, and all those creatures that preceded the appearance of man on planet earth served a purpose divine. There is little aberration in the evolution of the human race. Little aberration remains in the evolutionary process.

There has been much speculation about the nature of evolution of both earth and man. There has been much foolish dispute about the nature of this process. It is enough to concede that there was and is still a divine will controlling the earth in all of its orderliness and equally in all its aberrations. Never is pure chance involved in all earthly phenomena. Never is there malice.

The earth serves man well when man serves the earth well. There is balance always in the bounty that earth offers to man in sustenance and survival. There are times when this balance is temporarily disturbed, but often this imbalance can be ascribed to the interference of man in the perfect balance of nature. At all times earth offers man a nurturing environment in direct ratio to his chosen needs, and in those cases when man knows disruption in the natural peace of his existence he knows lessons learned.

The world has been from the start of human life a testing place, and man's adventures and misadventures with his environment are at all times a source of learning, an avenue to the spiritual progress that is at all times the first concern of all souls on earth. There is no waste, no frivolity in the human experience. There is no wasted effort in coping with all that his earthly experience offers to him. He learns to deal with physical crises and unexpected challenges and in this learning he finds grace. All else is insignificant.

Day 262

Wednesday, 6/16/99 11:55PM

It is man's greatest pleasure and his most serious obligation to know that all of life is meaningless and empty of achievement if he does not know love at each moment of his earthly journey.

I have spoken of the purity of love that is a divine gift to each soul entering earthly existence. I have spoken of the challenges to love that man faces as he progresses on his earthly journey. I have spoken of the infinite varieties of love that the soul in progress may be privileged to know. I have said that love may be an intense and permanent aspect of life, a compelling belonging, or it may be superficial and fleeting, but no less worthy.

Between these two extremes man weaves a pattern of love that colors his life and determines the degree of his spiritual success. Some men demand love as their right with no regard for its demand that it be enriched by equal fervor in response. Some men grow impatient with love and seek fulfillment in other relationships, most often futilely. Some humans in progress have chosen the most difficult of paths, of seeking after love and finding only disappointment and rejection in their quest.

In all of these varied experiences there is value. The search for love is enriching even in the face of repeated failure. The soul grows in generosity and in sensitivity and it becomes vital in such an experience to reject feelings of bitterness and to know that a love beyond human love is attainable always.

Rarely is a soul so totally tried. Most often man knows joy in his seeking after love, and if he learns the lessons of love, the sure truth that love given is both strengthened and enriched by love received, that reciprocity marks perfect love, he needs to know no more. Yet even those who fail to find total gratification in love during their time on earth should know that this gratification awaits. It is the right of all souls, at times sorely earned, but at all times joyfully granted.

Day 263

Thursday, 6/17/99 11:55PM

As children, all souls in progress know a sweet innocence that brightens their days and allows them to create within the real world worlds of their own imagining. In this imagining there is a rich awareness of the world they know, but there is beyond this a sensitivity to forces that they know only instinctively. They find in the garden of their imagination peoples and worlds that they alone create, and in their pleasure in creation they learn much.

It is a pity, in one sense, that in the passage to maturity man loses this vital creative imagination, and yet this talent lingers in different forms, in varied awareness. Often man is aware of those inner voices speaking to him of the richness of his existence, and often he responds in a joyous exchange of loving awareness.

Man's mind is rarely idle. It is never empty of thoughts and emotions. As man progresses in life it becomes his responsibility to recognize that the inventiveness he knew as a child has been transformed into awareness of the intricacies of his consciousness and as well into the extent to which he is at all times subject to awareness of thoughts and communication not of his own creating.

Man retains the sensitivity of childhood long after he has set aside childish ways. His awareness and creativity has simply been transformed.

How often does man find himself aware that he is "talking to himself'? Indeed often this is an exact description. Sometimes, however, his inner conversations go beyond this. Sometimes these inner conversations are more complex and in them man becomes aware of the influence of others.

These voices are undeniable in their insistence, and it becomes man's responsibility to determine the acceptability and the beneficence of what is said. There are influences both good and bad that invade man's consciousness without having been bidden to enter. Most often man is well served. Sometimes he is not. Always he must respond to the influence of good and reject those who seek to deter him on his earthly quest.

Love is the criterion always in seeking to distinguish.

Day 264

Friday, 6/18/99 11:05PM

When man questions the meaning of life, he generally does so when he seems to be tried beyond endurance, when he has despaired of explaining to himself the causes or the reason for his distress. It is at these times when man finds little comfort in logic, little satisfaction in assigning responsibility, little optimism about what he can expect in time to come.

This soul in progress is a soul in need. It is his misfortune not to have a steady faith in divine governance, to know that in all ways his life has value and meaning beyond his immediate perception. He is at this point in his journey desperately in need of such faith. It is easy to say that if he seeks he will find. Most often this is the case, but regardless of conviction or promise, the soul in progress is expected and required to meet all the problems and challenges of life in loving awareness. He may not understand, he may not accept the rightness of all that his life requires of him, but in all cases his spiritual progress requires acceptance, and further requires that each act in his struggle to accept be marked by a love that he knows absolutely. He must at all times reject bitterness and surrender to despair.

At all times man must be aware of his own powerlessness in physical control, but he must as well strive to realize his absolute power in spiritual control. He cannot at times control his physical experiences, but he can at all times control his response. When his response speaks of love, he succeeds in the face of all difficulty. When his response lacks love, he must learn further lessons.

Thus man progresses to perfection.

Day 265

Saturday, 6/19/99 10:20PM

In the fullness of time no soul shall fail to be fulfilled.

Much has been speculated, many theories advanced as to the time that earth will have served its purpose and will, in one way or another, cease to exist. It has been assumed that this will mark the end of the human race.

No one has speculated further. Does this mean that man is ended, that human existence will cease to be and that therefore the history of mankind will be no more than a memory, indeed a memory without appreciation, for if man disappears then indeed his memory disappears with him. We are left then with a void, and centuries and eons of experience are deemed without import. There are those who say that this was indeed the inevitable result of aberrant nature, thus a fitting end to a mistake.

Certainly not all men subscribe to this pessimistic creed. Yet all too many do, and all too many are prepared to believe that life exists in only two dimensions. Indeed others insist on one. Yet there is such a lack of reason in these concepts. The truth of infinite being and infinite complexity does not lend itself to simple concepts, and man in his strides toward knowledge of things beyond the simple and material has increasingly expressed skepticism about the concept that because earth may be finite, all of existence is. Indeed there are those in the scientific community who suggest that earth does not face destruction in the foreseeable future, that certainly there is no date certain.

We are left, then, with uncertainty and a need to know more. This is the pattern of human existence. There is a constant search among all men for reassurance of the reasonable nature of human life. Often without full awareness, he fulfills in his daily behavior all that is demanded of him in seeking to live in love and to share this love fully and unconditionally. To some this awareness dominates his life from the very start. To some it comes later. To all it brings a full appreciation of the wonder of life and total satisfaction of a life well spent.

Day 266

Sunday, 6/20/99 10:40PM

What, man wonders, is the reason for failure, frustration and denial in the life he has chosen to live?

He asks first of all in incomplete awareness, for had he chosen to embrace the full awareness of his chosen life he would know in the innermost chambers of his heart that all the problems he faces, all the dilemmas that do not lend themselves to solution of his own doing, are problems that he has chosen to experience.

This does not mean that these problems defy solving. Rather it means that a challenge is in place, that its solution awaits the ministrations of that holy being who exists to serve in this particular need.

What does this offer man seeking full understanding of all that life is to him? How long does it take the soul in progress battered by life's misfortunes to seek help beyond the ordinary?

Man seeks always to comfort his brother ….. There are times when this need is neither recognized nor......

[At this point I must have been more asleep than awake for my handwriting becomes illegible. I will make further efforts to decipher.]

Day 267

Monday, 6/21/99 11:42PM

It is of the utmost importance that in the midst of the struggles and deprivations that mark human life, man reflects the glory of his origin. It is significant that under the most desolating of experiences, under the most trying of challenges, there remains in the heart of man a divine awareness of his importance in the drama that is human life.

In his modesty, man does not aspire to divinity. Yet he senses a link to the divine nature of his being. He knows in his heart and in his soul that he is not alone in this world, that beyond the joyous relationships of family and friends he is enriched by a sense of belonging to the unseen and to forces beyond his capacity to grasp.

Man is blessed in the strength that this feeling of belonging to a whole greater that its parts gives to him. He knows without being told that no matter how solitary his existence, no matter how friendless he may at times find himself, he is never without the sustenance that is his from birth to death, the inner nourishment that lends support and direction to a life chosen in faith complete.

It is joy indeed when man completes his earthly journey satisfied in all ways that he has done well in fulfilling all promises. It is further joy when he knows the full rewards of having learned well all that was needful in earthly life to reach the perfection of love given and received that admits him to the holy company of the Godhead. There is no further striving. All is complete.

Day 268

Tuesday, 6/22/99 12 midnight

It is at all times apparent to those seeking after truth that their search is wholly pleasing in the sight of God and all those who attend Him. Always such a search is blessed in its intent and blessed in all ways that lead to enlightenment.

Man is born with a hunger to understand his origins. In its simplest form, this hunger is satisfied by achieving awareness of his earthly heritage. He takes pride in uncovering the secrets of his antecedents and delights in full awareness of those who came before him in familiar lines and lead to his creation. Some societies hold this awareness of heritage sacred in their rituals and in their celebrations of the wonder that is man. Such awareness is enriching both to the society and to its individuals.

More far reaching is man's hunger to know where he fits in the larger picture. More intense is this search and more difficult in its achievement of awareness and certainty in this awareness. Once again man often relies upon the teachings of those he is led to respect and accept in faith taught by those whose duty it was since birth to nurture and to instruct. When this early learning leaves man unsatisfied, he reaches out in other directions and seeks to quiet his troubled soul.

Often man learns best by observation. He studies those whose lives touch his, even remotely, and he finds in these lives a pattern which seems to offer answers. He observes that the happiest of men are those whose lack of concern with material advantage leaves them free to lead rich emotional and spiritual lives, to seek to find happiness by creating it in others.

Once man has achieved this awareness, it is a small step for him to be moved to emulation and to discover for himself the joy there is in giving and sharing, and he starts a new existence. This joyous appreciation of the nature of life brings with it new awareness of its meaning and new realization of the wonder of his origins.

Day 269

Thursday, 6/24/99 12:03AM

There are those blessed souls on the last part of their journey to perfection who are as beacons who seek to know truth and fulfillment. Not all those blessed souls are easy to distinguish in the complexity of human life. Some are timid and modest, shrinking from revelation of their goodness. Some are bold, defying the challenges that confront them in full faith that all they seek to accomplish will come to be.

Man, in his innocence, is less aware of these spiritual guides than he chooses to be. He thinks in the full faith in his own capacities that he does not need to hear the voices that speak to him from his innermost being. He at first accepts and then rejects the alienation they suggest that is and has been repugnant to his existence. He knows good from evil and he freely rejects evil in favor of good. He is instantly enriched in this decision. He is, theretofore, an integral part of the divine plan. His role is his to accept or reject. His fortune hinges upon this choice, for in acceptance he finds progress; in rejection he finds delay. I go further. He is able to advance as he is destined to progress in the most immediate of ways. In acceptance he advances. In rejection he regresses.

It is true that not all souls learn equally, that some who choose to ignore the dictates of their hearts find themselves questioning and learning long before they envisioned. Conversely those, in some degree, who considered themselves open and accepting find within themselves reservations and restrictions to the love they know is significant in their material progress.

Thus man suffers in his choices and from this suffering grows enriched.

Day 270

Thursday, 6/24/99 11:54PM

Before time began, man knew existence in the mind of God and His angels. This heritage enriches man to the present day and will continue to do so eternally.

Eternity is a concept beyond human comprehension. Yet it is reality. Infinity is equally difficult for the human mind to comprehend. Yet it too has significance. Man strives to grasp these concepts, and in his eagerness to understand all things, persuades himself that he is capable of encompassing these concepts. He speaks of the unfathomable realities as though they were commonplace and easily grasped.

It is a tribute to man's capacity for faith in the unknown that he accepts so readily so much that he does not and can not completely understand. This faith is commendable and serves him well. In the midst of earthly turmoil and travail he knows in his heart that the life he experiences is not all of existence. He knows that the past, present, and future of earthly time is but a minuscule part of the whole. He feels in his heart that no matter how boundless the earth's lands and oceans may seem they fade into insignificance when he considers infinity.

Man thus armed is well equipped to deal with the concept of planes beyond his human awareness, of lives of seeking after truth repeated willingly and joyfully. He finds it within himself to realize that the yearning he knows for more complete awareness is the yearning all souls know on the road to perfection. He becomes one with all seekers, and he knows the wonder of this brotherhood.

Life then, is infinite in its promise, eternal in its nature, and each soul in progress is part of a magnificent whole, destined to know full belonging, total awareness, and perfection in spirit.

Day 271

Friday, 6/25/99 11:34PM

In the fullness of time there awaits much in revelation and in promise. In man's brief interlude in human life, whether this interlude be few or legion, he seeks progress in spiritual perfection in order to return to the glory from which he came.

The most gifted of souls in progress retain strong awareness of the blessedness of their mission. Most seek to share this awareness. Some have been privileged [ to have] glimpses of what lies beyond human existence and to feel the power of this glorious kingdom where love is all and fulfills all needs. Some have shared their insights and visions and have been hailed as saints and seers. Some have been silent in their awareness but know within themselves the certainty of their privilege.

Increasingly man has opened his heart and his mind to the wonders that await him at the end of his earthly endeavors. The world has responded to the words of those whose spiritual awareness is cause for wonder. In greater numbers those souls progressing to perfection recognize the glory that awaits and are inspired to further effort in learning and acting the lessons of love in all the days of their lives in all the relationships they know.

Slowly the world is being transformed by loving practice. It is true that cruelty and injustice are rampant in the world man currently knows, but even in the midst of the most egregious cruelty and injustice love flowers and persuades. It is merely a matter of time before the power of love prevails in all lands and at all times under all circumstances. The process may be slow, but it is sure.

There is no denying the power of love. Look about you and know this to be true.

Day 272

Saturday, 6/26/99 11:55PM

It is man's ultimate hunger to know perfect love. He seeks this always, from the first to the last day of his life. All men share this seeking, though their paths may differ widely and their responses to their experiences may be equally disparate.

It is difficult to look at all the various life experiences that man knows and see in them this common goal, this universal need. There are those whose lives are marked by violence and brutality, whom it is easy to dismiss as bestial, unworthy of their human identity. Yet how is one to be sure that even these hardened hearts do not seek to be softened by the love that has eluded them and has caused them to actions detestable to their peers?

There are countless examples throughout history and countless examples to the present day of souls gone badly astray, of heinous acts and supreme indifference to the common good, who have found it within themselves to recognize error and to reach out for forgiveness and love. It is joyful when one of these erring souls returns to a life of love given and received.

All too often the humans who defy the rules that regulate society and indulge in acts of violence and disregard for others are regarded as creatures incapable of love and therefore not worthy to be regarded as worthy members of the human race. Often these unfortunate souls even while in the midst of violence retain affection for those bound to them in family ties. They reject the mores of society and fail in love complete, but are not totally loveless. They depend upon the love of those they hold dear and they offer love in response.

Society finds it difficult to deal with such seeming contradiction in the nature of the man who defies society and engages in behavior detrimental to the common good. All too often the punishment inflicted ignores his absolute need for love received and ignores his desire to express his love for those he holds dear.

The world awaits the day when man's hunger for love will be so completely satisfied that unloving behavior of any kind will cease to be. This is devoutly to be wished, but it is always within the grasp of all caring societies.

Day 273

Sunday, 6/27/99 11:56PM

It is man's greatest joy to discover his capacity for love. He knows this capacity from birth, but he knows it as part of his nature. It is no discovery. It is inborn, natural and not to be denied.

Man's discovery of his capacity for love comes later in his life. He spends his early years taking love received for granted and love given equally so. Occasionally in his insensitivity he will fancy himself unloved if he is not indulged. In time he recognizes the folly in this assumption. At times as he matures he will reach out to others in love and affection and he will be puzzled yet not defeated by rebuff and rejection. He will continue to seek and to enjoy success and deal with failure.

Man's greatest lesson comes when, having reached maturity, he seeks to find a lasting relationship with one of his choosing. This is often a trying process, fraught with error and misjudgment, and often the relationship fails the test of time and the soul in progress finds itself wiser yet less optimistic. The search continues and eventually man succeeds in his quest, and love given and received is established in a lasting relationship.

It is at this point that man achieves full awareness of his capacity for love. He has accepted rejection and learned from this rejection. He has persevered in his search for lasting love, and despite failure, sometimes repeated failures, he finds the love that is his eternally. In this love he finds fulfillment of his innermost desires and in this love he knows at last the completeness of his capacity for love.

Not all men know this continued struggle to achieve a lasting love. Some are blessed in immediate fulfillment, but the soul that struggles through rejection and rebuff to a lasting love knows the sweetness of his achievement and rejoices in his capacity to love. This is sweet indeed.

Day 274

Monday, 6/28/99 11:24PM

Man's strength lies always within. He comes to his earthly existence of his own will, fully able and fully intent on meeting all the trials he has chosen to encounter in the fullness of love shared. He comes aware of the pleasures that he will know, of the varied and various relationships he will have during the course of his earthly journey. Though this awareness of all that lies ahead by choice quickly dissipates once he enters earthly life, he retains at all times the strengths and weaknesses he has chosen as part of his human character.

At no time during his earthly journey does man lose these inner qualities. As he agreed before birth, it becomes his responsibility at all times to live in love and at all times to modify his weaknesses and to magnify his strengths. He senses a rightness when in his day-to-day existence he fulfills his promises. Though he lacks full awareness of the exact nature of these commitments, he knows in his heart happiness when he pursues his goals and unhappiness when he fails to do so. It takes little reflection on his part to realize the worthwhile nature of those actions which bring him joy and the uselessness of those which cause him distress.

Most souls are responsive to this inner awareness of what is right and good and what is wrong and destructive. Most respond to the urging to seek happiness by pursuing a life of love, a life finely attuned to inner needs and external demands. There is never a time when man knows a sense of futility and failure when he pursues the path of goodness that he knows is the road to inner peace and self satisfaction. Only when man neglects this inner strength, this insistent urging, does he know discontent and self doubt.

Day 275

Tuesday, 6/29/99 11:50PM

Man knows such triumph when he looks back on a life lived in love and trust. Even if he has not succeeded fully in learning the lessons of love, he rejoices in progress and is buoyed in the awareness that further opportunities lie ahead and that he is destined for full success in the achievement of perfect love. It matters not how long it takes. It matters not how difficult the journey. At the end lies oneness.

For some, retrospection is more difficult. Not all men succeed even in great measure in fulfilling promises made and learning that to live in love is the ultimate achievement. They forget to listen to their hearts and surrender to the lure of pleasures earned at the expense of others. They slip into thoughtlessness and insensitivity and stray far from the path of goodness and grace.

Some are fortunate to recognize error before their earthly journeys end, but some do not know this advantage and pass beyond human life into the heavenly plane where they quickly learn the meaning of accountability. They look back upon their lives just past and with new awareness regret values corrupted, cruelties both of commission and omission that marred their lives, of hurts inflicted both intentionally and unintentionally. With eyes open for the first time, they see themselves as fallible and responsible for their grievous errors. They rue opportunities lost and love ignored, but with hope in their hearts they recognize the necessity of further learning and eagerly embrace all that is offered to them in loving guidance. Even the blackest heart recognizes the love that is bound to transform him and faces the future with new hope.

No matter the course of human life, man knows in eternity his essential goodness. He is grateful that he is never denied opportunity to progress to perfection.

Day 276

Wednesday, 6/30/99 11:58PM

Among all men's experiences in his earthly journey the most compelling is the death of one he loves.

It is man's glory to know fully the perfection of love in earthly life, to share all of life's pleasures and problems with those to whom he owes allegiance and from whom he expects and receives the same. Man is capable of various relationships that are marked by this love, and he is enriched in each one in its own individual way. His daily existence is marked by awareness of this love given and received, and he is shaken when any one of these loving relationships is interrupted by death.

It is easier for man to accept this interruption when it comes at the end of a long life and mutual achievement. It is easier for man the more distant the loving relationship. It tries man's soul when the death of one he loves closely is both untimely and unexpected. The soul in progress is sorely tried at such times. He may find the loss unendurable and rail against cruel fate. He may sink into depression and neglect all those others dependent upon him for love and joy.

Under the best of circumstances man remembers that love is a gift and that no matter its longevity, no matter its intensity, no matter its singular importance to him, he must know that he has known divine giving in all he has been granted. He is gifted if he becomes aware that love survives the deprivation of death and not only survives but thrives in the soul of the bereaved. The fortunate soul learns in his deprivation and seeks to comfort others with his awareness of the eternal nature of love.

In comforting others he is strengthened, and in his new found strength he knows the beauty of eternal love. He knows that however great his loss, his gain is greater.

Day 277

Friday, 7/2/99 12:10AM

It is the duty of each man born into human life to meet all that this life holds in challenge with total trust in his capacity to respond in love entire. He knows from the start of life great power in adversity, great determination to do all that is necessary to insure peaceful existence.

At times man is called upon to meet rigorous trial in the course of a life he first assumed without difficulty. When he is confronted by unexpected challenge, he finds within himself the strength to respond. He does not question the fairness of this challenge. Neither does he doubt his capacity to respond. In all cases he is justified in his feeling of self satisfaction. In all cases he knows that he sets an example to all who observe.

Life often demands more of man than he thinks himself capable of handling. In these cases man looks first within himself to summon strengths he dared not hope were his. At times this response is adequate, and man is satisfied with knowing that he has not flinched in the face of challenge. In other cases man finds his own capacities inadequate, and he reaches out, first to family, then to friends, for the assistance he needs. Rarely is he met with total denial. Those who agree to share his burden find themselves among the blessed and enjoy full gratitude for all they have given in love.

When man reaches out to those who offer him relief and sustenance, he does so in full faith that no seeker will ever be turned away. No need is unmet.

Day 278

Saturday, 7/ 3/99 1:54AM

In the midst of life it is easy for man to forget that transient pleasures are not all of existence. Certainly man is designed and meant to know the pleasures of earthly life. He is created to share these pleasures with all those he encounters on his journey. He is enabled in this striving and is aware of its beneficence. Yet it is important for him to recognize that not all of life is encompassed in idle pleasure.

There is nothing inherently wrong in all the pleasure man knows. The danger lies in his assumption, often the case, that these pleasures are all of life. He can get so lost in temporal distraction that he loses sight of the true significance of this life. He can forget obligation in pursuit of pleasure and find himself empty handed in time of need. He can forgo introspection in the romance of pleasure and lose his innermost capacity for self appraisal. He can stray far from his chosen path and not realize how lost he becomes until it is difficult to find the path to return to spiritual well being.

It is joy indeed when the soul gone astray recognizes its loss of direction and seeks guidance and encouragement. It is further joy when this soul and all those who join in seeking direction find themselves gloriously enlightened and free to pursue the path to perfection that all souls seek.

There are differences in both aspirations and achievements among those souls. Some come close to perfection at the very start of their seeking. Some have much to learn and must be content to know that their paths are neither swift nor sure in their direction. Yet all know with blessed awareness and infinite gratitude that each path is sure in its direction, absolute in its aspiration, and that no matter the delay, no matter the difficulties involved, all those wondrous beings seeking perfect oneness will not fail. Their joy is absolute.

Day 279

Saturday, 7/3/99 11:32PM

In all of life pleasure is mixed with duty.

It is all too easy for man to deny himself pleasure in the cause of duty. It is equally easy for man to deny duty in the cause of pleasure. Only at times is denial necessary. Man needs to reach a compromise in accepting both duty and pleasure as integral parts of his daily existence. Man is meant to know pleasure, but not at the expense of ignoring or neglecting duty. Man is meant to reach all the demands of his life in dutiful response, but he is not meant ever to deprive himself of earthly pleasure. It is rare that man's journey to eternity does not encompass both these extremes.

When man permits himself to pursue earthly pleasure to the extent of neglecting those dependent upon him in any way, he denies both those who look to him for support and himself. He lessens himself both in his own eyes and in the eyes of others. He finds himself more often than not aware that he has erred, that the pleasures he sought in life are not achieved at the expense of others. He knows in his heart the hunger for loving approval that is the source of all encouragement in the earthly experience.

Conversely, there are those who fail to experience the joy they are meant to know in earthly experience because they deem any form of self indulgence in joyous expression unworthy and therefore to be shunned. Their lives are both darkened and deadened by a denial of all joy and an obsession with denial of life's pleasures that colors for them all of existence. Their belief and their experience taints the lives of others who depend upon them.

It is important, therefore, that man achieve a balance between duty and pleasure that serves him well in affording the joy he is meant to know and in avoiding the overwhelming dourness that is involved in rejecting joy in favor of total unthinking surrender to a life which rejects joy as incompatible with responsibility and duty.

Most men avoid this extreme in choice and in their avoidance most succeed in achieving the balance that is deemed wholly wise and acceptable. Man is meant to know both joy and dutiful response, and when he achieves this balance he knows joy and pleasure in achievement and progress. He is pleased with himself and with life. He needs no more.

Day 280

Sunday, 7/4/99 10:40PM

It is the triumph of all men come to earthly life to know the joy of love truly given without condition and gratefully received. Such love fills all of existence with joy absolute and serves as a buffer against all the assaults that life may inflict.

Not all souls achieve this perfect love, but most do and know in its absolute security a taste of the divine. They acknowledge absolutely their dependence upon the one they love and they acknowledge the necessity of nurturing this love in word and deed. Each day is marked by expressions of love at its beginning and at its ending and often in the course of the day. Affection flowers with such full expression of love, and all those whose lives are affected benefit from the power of this shared love. Children of such a complete love learn from the very beginning the sweetness and the power of a love that enriches each moment of existence and shares infinitely.

Once man knows this perfect love for another he is not satisfied with less.

Day 281

Monday, 7/5/99 10:12PM

It is at all times within man's province to turn to heaven for aid when all else fails him. It is good and natural that he be aware first of the loving relationships which sustain him in earthly life and gain strength from this awareness. It is good and natural that those who share love in earthly life should depend each upon the other in all ways when need is experienced.

Yet, when all earthly aid has been offered and accepted and further aid is needed, man is well advised to realize that at each step in his human journey, at each moment in time, he has at his command heavenly direction and constant response to his need. At times he need not even express his dependence upon those spirits whose sole concern is his welfare, but there is power in prayerful petition.

The power of prayer has long been recognized. It creates in the supplicant an awareness of his link with the divine, with the world governed by those holy beings who seek to guide and encourage always. Man becomes aware of their responsiveness to his words of prayer, and his heart, however tried, swells with new hope. Not all prayers are answered in the exact way that man has asked for, but they are never ignored. Help may come in a way that the petitioner has not even considered a possibility, but the solution is always one of gratification and effectiveness.

Prayer fills the soul. Prayer offers peace. Prayer evokes response. Prayer links man with his eternal nature. Prayer works miracles.

Day 282

Tuesday,7/6/99 11:02PM

There is infinite forgiveness in the heart of man. This is a gift inherent in the human experience, a gift of enormous value and constant enrichment. Man is called upon constantly to forgive in his earthly experience, whether it be a simple slight or an overwhelming injustice inflicted upon him.

When man neglects this gift, this capacity to accept injury without resentment, he hurts himself first of all. Resentment is a constant danger. It threatens man's peace of mind. It colors relationships. It alienates. It corrodes the soul. Once man fails in forgiveness and considers himself so aggrieved that no forgiveness is possible, he starts down a road that is fatal to his well being. The fortunate soul recognizes error before resentment and lack of forgiveness become habitual. He is saved by this recognition from a life darkened by animosity and resentment.

Forgiveness must become a habit as surely as breathing is a habit. The forgiving soul reaches out to the offender in love and understanding, and instantly both are enriched. The offender rues his error and is determined not to repeat such error. The forgiver knows the peace of understanding and is enriched by this understanding and accepting love. Each knows gratitude for love expressed. Each knows new direction.

There is no limit to man's capacity to forgive human error and to embrace fully the man who wrongs him, whether deliberately or inadvertently. In this forgiving response there is no loser. Both parties are enriched beyond measure and strengthened in their capacity to both give and receive forgiveness.

Thus man progresses.

Day 283

Wednesday, 7/7/99 11:47PM

Among man's greatest concerns in his journey through life is to act in such a way as to inspire love.

This wish is not confined in any way. It is a natural desire in the heart of man to express love and to know love in response. Love, as well, is not narrowly defined. It may be a casual pleasure in the company of another, a pleasurable response to a gesture of good will, a receptive response to a kind word. Love is an emotion which enriches the soul and gives it warmth. Love in any form is positive in its results. It thrives in expression and thrives further in loving response.

Love is not unlike a melody which may live in the mind but which uplifts the spirit. When the atmosphere is permeated with love, all souls thrive and all who know this loving persuasiveness are moved to contribute to its glory. It would be a wondrous world indeed if all of life at each moment knew this contagion of love fully expressed and fully experienced. That day has not yet come.

Yet man is privileged on occasion to know this wonder. There are times in each life and in each society when all those joined in loving relationship come together in celebration. The occasions vary, but in all cases the spirit of joyous acknowledgment of the bonds of love prevails and man is granted a glimpse of the perfection that is possible in this life and certain in the next.

Man's capacity for total happiness rests first in his own hands, but he is aided at all times by the contributions to this happiness of those bound to him in ties of family and friendship. His happiness can, indeed, be enriched by total strangers who offer words and acts of kindness in casual encounter.

It is man's nature to seek happiness, and it is equally his nature to extend to others in all ways this joy in life. When man forgets this divine capacity he is diminished as are all those whose lives touch his.

Day 284

Thursday, 7/8/99 11:44PM

At all times it is man's joy to seek happiness in the service of others. There is such a joy in meeting the needs of others, whether the need be small or great, temporary or permanent.

Each man finds his own way to serve others. For some, service is centered within the family and man gladly assumes all needful responsibility whether he serves as parent, care giver, sibling or in other relationships. He senses and meets the needs unique to his position within the family, both immediate and extended. Ideally there is a mutually agreeable and mutually advantageous sharing of family responsibilities, and all are enriched by both the giving and the receiving of loving response to need.

In the workplace man finds varied ways to serve his brother. Whether he chooses to be of service in the fields of medicine, education, public service or a myriad of other occupations, he finds both pride and pleasure in his work to the extent that he finds himself useful to others. He prides himself on his accomplishments and he relishes the gratitude that his work inspires. In all fields of endeavor man finds himself fulfilled in being of such service to others that he pleases himself always by pleasing others.

In the general community there are infinite possibilities to be helpful and enriching in the service of others. Organizations and societies abound to facilitate this loving concern for the well being of others. Once again, such service is the source of great satisfaction to all involved.

The world is a better place for each man who knows love in his heart for his fellow man and who seeks to express this love in acts of caring.

Day 285

Friday, 7/9/99 11:45PM

Beyond all else man needs to be aware of the ephemeral nature of a single life. He needs to live each day in full awareness that his days are measured and destined, and that all he has promised to do and to learn in this life must be accomplished in the time allotted to him of his own choice. Never is he given less time than is adequate. Never is more demanded than is possible.

Most men are aware of the fleeting nature of their days, and as man advances in age this awareness becomes more acute. He grows in need, in a sense. He realizes that he must spend each day in not only meeting the demands of day-to-day existence but also in fulfilling his innermost desires, his dreams, however fanciful they may seem at times.

As man grows in awareness of the limitations of time in his earthly journey he becomes as well aware of the need to enjoy fully the loving relationships he cherishes. He realizes that no opportunity to share love should be neglected or wasted. He learns to invest each day with love shared and to express in all ways the love he feels for those dear to him.

When man fails to appreciate the precious nature of each day of this life, he opens the way to regret. Opportunities lost can never be recaptured. Love unexpressed is love failed. There is such infinite urgency in man's need to live life fully, to accept all experiences gladly and lovingly, and to know at the end of each day that he has no regrets about what he has done that day or equally what he has not done.

To live life fully in love and in awareness of its finite nature is man's wisest choice.

Day 286

Sunday, 7/11/99 12:30AM

There is nothing more joyous in human life than its ending. It is difficult for man to accept this truth, but truth it is. Even the most joyous of human journeys finds at its end joy undreamed of, perfect unblemished peace, and love beyond all imagining.

Death comes as a friend always, even when in the eyes of the world it seems to come prematurely and often cruelly. To accept the beauty of death one must accept that life, whether brief or extended, is but a single step on the path to eternal happiness and total oneness with God.

It is not difficult to accept the concept of repeated lives if one considers the inequities inherent in earthly existence. Human life can be measured in moments or in many decades. Human life can be marked by health, wealth and good fortune, or it can be marked by need, sickness and misfortune. Man may know brilliance; he may know idiocy. Man may know peace of mind and tranquility; he may know anguish and self torment.

These inequities are understandable and acceptable only when they are considered in terms of man's need to progress to spiritual perfection and oneness by learning the lessons of love under all conditions. It must be accepted that man in the exercise of free will chooses the conditions under which he will live each life and strive to learn all that is necessary to progress to the perfection that is the goal of all souls.

It is easy, then, to accept that death is an occasion for joy. It marks the end of one life and the start of another. It releases man from earthly restraints to the perfection of heavenly existence. It permits him to return to his true home and to know the beauty of that loving environment. It unites him with those who have gone before him and who rejoice in his homecoming.

Death, then, needs to be better understood as an occasion of joyous reunion. It is a joy shared by all souls. It is a gift as surely as birth is a gift.

Day 287

Sunday, 7/11/99 11:50PM

Whenever man strays from the path he has determined to take in his earthly journey, many options are his. He may in the exercise of his free will depart completely or partially from all that he has promised to achieve in his earthly experience. He can go so completely astray that his hope of finding his way back to the path of goodness diminishes with each act and with each word. He can be so completely seduced that he is lost to the influence of all those who seek his response, to all those devoted to his well being.

It is a sad but true fact that man armed with all the strengths and awareness necessary to full achievement of his goals is capable of failure in his earthly endeavors. It is an unfortunate fact that man fails to heed the urging of those who cherish him and wish him well and instead heeds the voices of seduction and destruction which lure him to earthly power and pleasure and slowly strip him of those attributes that mark him as a creature of love and caring.

The world suffers from such disaffection, and those who are most directly affected by this disaffection suffer the most. Man, when he forgets that all men are his brothers, is capable of cruelty that defies description, and his path to the perfection he came to seek is lost in self gratification in all ways. He lusts for power and delights in any manifestation of that power regardless of its effect on others.

Such power is short lived, however devastating its results, as all of life is short lived, and the soul gone so completely astray realizes eventually the horror of his responsibility and the absolute burden of guilt that is his. Unless this recognition comes to him in time for redress of all error, he takes this burden with him across the threshold of death, and then comes the full realization of the grievousness of his errors.

No error, however great, no cruelty, however deliberate and devastating, escapes recognition. Let it be comfort to those who suffer in their earthly existences to know this truth, and let them rejoice in their patience and forbearance. Let them feel pity for their tormentors, for they are the triumphant.

Day 288

Monday, 7/12/99 11:30 PM

It is the joy of each soul come to earth to begin his life in love complete. The birth of a child is, almost without exception, regarded as a miracle of creation, cause for pride and joy and abiding love. The soul come newly to earth rejoices and thrives in this love. It knows full awareness of the caring it receives from loving hands and hearts, and it responds by thriving in its new found world.

The importance of love in the life of the newborn cannot be exaggerated. It is the most essential ingredient in its existence. The infant simply cannot survive without love, without the nurturing embrace, the sweet sounding words of love, the constant response to its needs. In return, the child newly come to earth inspires a wondrous love in its parents and in all those privileged to share in loving relationship. In all, the arrival of a child is cause for joy and a source of great enrichment in all those lives affected and connected in bonds of love.

The influence of the newborn continues as it develops and grows into childhood, and each day increases the awareness the child has of the love that nurtures and shapes the emergent character and personality. As the world of the child widens to embrace others than family, so does the child's awareness of the warmth that love given and received lends to daily life. The circle of love widens and all are enriched and enlightened.

New understandings emerge in both the child and those who guide its destiny. At all times love is the guiding force, the indispensable element in all that life offers in goodness and grace.

Day 289

Tuesday, 7/13/99 11:07PM

It is the source of all joy for man to know the total power and persuasiveness of love shared completely. All men know love in their earthly journey, though some are more privileged than others in this regard.

Some men find it an intrinsic part of their nature to reach out in love to all they encounter in their daily lives. They are not sensitive to rebuff, not demanding in any way, and in all cases they are persistent in the full expression of the love they seek to share. Such men bring light into the lives of all they encounter. They inspire in others a feeling of self worth. They elicit response from the most reserved and private of personalities. They spread cheer and charge their very environment and all they encounter with the special energy that marks love given and received. They are the happiest of men. In giving, they receive. In seeking to create happiness in others, they find happiness in themselves. They are wholly blessed.

Not all men are capable of this overwhelming manifestation of love expressed in word and deed. Not all men aspire to such influence. Yet in the heart of each soul come to earthly existence the spark of love animates. In each life there are relationships based on love and trust, and each of these loving attachments lends richness to the lives of those both directly and indirectly concerned.

There are, unfortunately, rare souls who find love difficult to express and who despair of conveying to any extent their need to love and to be loved. Their hunger never abates and their search never lessens in persistence. It is a blessed time when such timid souls find the reciprocity of love that they feared might never be theirs. Their persistence and faith are rewarded, and they know a happiness they feared might always elude them.

When love lights the soul, the soul is complete.

Day 290

Thursday, 7/15/99 1:45AM

It is in the best interests of all men that they retain awareness of their enduring spirit and that they act at all times in full awareness of this eternal nature.

Man has no real proof of his link to the divine, no absolute certainty that he is an eternal spirit, destined to become part of the Godhead and achieve in this way the perfection of spirit that is the goal of all souls. As a child he absorbs the beliefs of those who teach him, whether they be within or without the family, but most often family values and beliefs and religious affiliation, or lack of affiliation, are embraced and accepted by the young. In time they choose whether to continue in this faith or to question and choose alternative beliefs and affiliations.

In all of this shaping of the mind of man there is inherent a seeking, a desire to know more about the nature of the human experience and its ultimate meaning. There is in all men this hunger to know the unknowable, and during their earthly journeys most men find a set of beliefs which are comfortable and which guide him in his time on earth. From time to time man may find that he needs more than he has been taught and more than he has found acceptable in alternative beliefs, and when this occurs man finds himself looking within and seeking that inner voice that all men entertain.

Introspection in search of truth is a noble endeavor. Most men find that they are moved to seek enlightenment in the experience of other soul seekers. This is an enriching experience for all who are so moved, and the very depths of the soul respond to the need to know. Though man must in the end depend upon the faith that his search for truth inspires, he is satisfied. He knows peace and assurance. He seeks to share his richness and to inspire in others the faith he has found in himself.

Day 291

Thursday, 7/15/99 10:45PM

In the general reckoning that comes at the end of each mortal life, the soul newly departed from earth finds consolation, joy, and promise. It is his privilege to review his life just past with absolute truth and with full awareness of all he has done for good or for bad each and every minute of his earthly existence. This remembering is shared by those holy beings who seek to nurture and to encourage, and they lend strength to the soul centrally involved.

It is not an easy task for the soul to look back in total honesty to a life of which he is not proud. It is difficult to admit the degree of failure and unawareness that marked and distorted his earthly existence. It is painful to admit the extent to which he has failed in promise keeping, in seeking to learn all that he deemed necessary before entering life.

In all of this recall and regret, the examining soul is aided and encouraged by the overwhelming love he knows. He finds himself readily forgiven for transgression and imbued with hope and determination to succeed more fully in the achievement of perfect love. He is aided in all ways as he goes about determining the future actions he must take and the experiences he must expect in order to progress.

Failure is to some extent held as learning, for the soul newly aware of what he has failed to do and to learn is strengthened in his awareness of what he must do next and in his resolve to succeed.

For all souls comes the reckoning that is pure joy, when the soul come to judgment looks back upon all his experiences and knows that he has truly learned the lessons of love. This certainty must come from within, but it is a source of overwhelming joy to all those spirits who welcome him into their holy company and rejoice with him that his earthly striving is at an end.

This is the divine promise, and all souls come to eternal life know its perfection. This is Godliness.

Day 292

Friday, 7/16/99 11:49PM

Magnificent as man is in his earthly endeavors, he is but a pale reflection of his soul come to full glory in the perfection of love given and received, shared perfectly and unconditionally, and totally aware of its divine identity.

There is no way for man to comprehend completely the nature of the blessedness that awaits him at the end of his striving. There are glimpses granted to rare souls for the specific purpose of imparting to all men the glory of their destiny. Yet these glimpses are just that, a small part of the whole.

All men strive to understand the nature of eternal life and to envision its attributes. This aspiration is one that man in his earthly life is incapable of realizing. Heavenly existence cannot be described in human terms. Man has been told that love is the supreme reality in heaven, and that is indeed the absolute and ultimate truth. He has been told that all those heavenly bodies who abide on the heavenly plane labor in love to aid all souls struggling to achieve perfection. This too is truth.

You have been told that there is inherent in the granting of free will to all souls a struggle between strength and weakness, between faithfulness and infidelity, between the forces of good and evil. This too is true, but history has somewhat distorted the nature of the struggle for man's soul, this constant conflict.

Man can and does grasp much of these revealed truths, and yet his perception of all that lies beyond the passage from earthly life to eternal life is of necessity severely limited. The human mind is simply incapable of envisioning the details of heavenly existence, of encompassing the celestial mind.

Man should not regret this limitation. All wisdom and all awareness await his entry into the world of the spirit. No man will be denied full knowledge of all he yearns to know. No soul will be unsatisfied in any way. There is great joy for all in this enlightenment, most of all for the soul that has waited patiently for so long.

Day 293

Saturday, 7/17/99 11:33PM

In the very beginning of human existence man depended entirely on his sensory awareness. He found himself in an alien environment, one in which his survival was tenuous, and he sought within himself the strengths and the talent to create an environment less hostile, more conducive to survival. He succeeded randomly, but over a long period of time he honed his skills and found within himself the capacity to depend not only upon himself but upon those with whom he shared his daily existence. He developed a sense of awareness of needs shared and of the advantages of mutual effort.

Early man, even under the most adverse of conditions, continued to grow in awareness of fellow feeling. He slowly became aware that at times his own survival was less important than the effort it took to help his brother to survive. He found pleasure in this self denial and inspired others by example. As civilization advanced and life became easier, man found in himself feelings of affection and allegiance that fostered close relationships with those whose welfare became his concern and who in turn responded to feelings of mutual need and response to need.

In time, love was recognized as an emotion and as a motivation, and man knew great satisfaction in this awareness. He prospered in all ways with this blessed awareness, and all of existence grew in meaning. His striving to live in full awareness of this overwhelming emotion grew stronger with each passing generation, and love flourished in the hearts of man. Life became its own reward.

Day 294

Sunday, 7/18/99 10:32PM

Within the range of human emotion, love reigns supreme. It is the source of all joy for man from his first breath to his last. Ideally man should know no other emotion, but part of his learning is learning to control those other emotions of which he is capable and which threaten his equanimity and his feelings of love.

Chief among those emotions that man must at all times learn to control is anger. No emotion is more destructive. Love cannot exist in an angry heart. Love is driven out by anger so completely that man possessed by feelings of anger finds it difficult to recapture the peacefulness of living in love.

Anger may be fueled in many ways. Man is quick to respond to insult and injury with anger. In the height of emotion he forgets completely his capacity for understanding and conciliation. His anger fuels an angry response and conflict is born. There are no peaceful answers to conflict in the presence of anger.

Man must learn to control all tendency he might have to feel anger and to act in anger, for anger has an insidious way of becoming habitual. When this happens, the struggle to overcome anger becomes very difficult, and the mind is constantly defensive and distracted. The angry man finds himself isolated and deprived of the love that is still a necessity to him.

Awareness of the destructive nature of anger is the first step in controlling this emotion. It is essential that this first step be followed by others until the angry man is once more capable of a loving response to all he encounters in life and knows the peaceful nature that makes his life rich and happy.

Day 295

Monday, 7/19/99 11:49PM

When man arrives at the point in his life that he knows despair, then indeed he needs the aid of all who seek to advise and encourage him. I speak here both of those who are privileged to share his earthly voyage and those who seek to aid and guide him in heavenly ways.

Man in despair is man who had been buffeted by life, sometimes abandoned by those he loved, robbed of faith in the future, and helpless in the face of such adversity. He seeks to find hope in all that he sees ahead of him, and he fails. He seeks to find solutions to the problems he faces, and he fails. He seeks within himself to find the strength to go on with a life he considers unbearable, and he fails.

It is not often that man finds himself totally without hope, totally without faith in himself or in others, totally incapable of enduring the life he knows. At such times he is incapable of hearing words of encouragement and optimism. They seem to him false and misleading. He is deaf to the inner voices that offer aid beyond his comprehension, that speak of glorious redemption. He is bleak.

What brings man to this point of no return? How can a God of goodness tolerate such inhumanity? What can possibly explain such suffering in one of God's creatures?

There is no easy answer to these questions, for the roads to despair are many and varied, and man in the exercise of free will chooses each road he takes. He is not always wise in his choices. He has sought to overcome trial and challenge as he promised before coming to this life, and he has in his mind failed. His understanding is limited, and so is his response. His needs are not always met in his earthly experience, and this is cause for regret for all who share his anguish. Yet this man in his despair may have served a purpose for many. Others may have learned from his error. Some may have learned compassion from observing his trials. Some may have learned caring from their efforts to help him. All may have learned love from their involvement.

No life is wasted. Even the briefest, even the most sorrowful, even the most anguished serves as a lesson, an example to all who seek to understand. It behooves man to look for the lesson each life teaches. The meanest life may offer the most learning.

Day 296

Tuesday, 7/20/99 11:42PM

When man considers his life past he does so in full awareness of all he sought to do in dreams fulfilled and goals achieved. He is at times reluctant to admit disappointment and failure when that exists, but by and large he brings to his self assessment the honesty that it requires.

Man is moved to this self assessment at various points in his life. He tends always to do so when faced with a critical decision that will affect the future nature of his experiences. He tends to reassess at any time when he senses failure in himself and looks in this reassessment to find new faith in the future. Sometimes man is forced to reassess all he has done in life when he is visited by death and deprivation of one dear to his heart and he is moved to consider how completely he has lived in love with those he holds dear.

There is value always in retrospection provided it is done in total honesty and a fervent desire to correct any past errors and to compensate for any newly discovered deficiencies. This self examination is for some a reaffirmation, a persuasive awareness of a life well lived. For some it is a cleansing, a new beginning with weakness discarded and strengths reaffirmed.

In the best of cases, man shares this reassessment with those he holds dear, and together they rejoice in all that has blessed their lives and together they determine to strengthen themselves wherever they have been lacking. There is great good in shared awareness of the degree to which life is well lived in love shared. There is great good in awareness of what must be done to come closer to perfection in love shared. In all cases the soul is enriched and enabled.

Day 297

Wednesday, 7/21/99 11:55PM

It is in the best interests of all men to be fully aware each day of their earthly lives of the extent to which they have responded in love to each daily encounter, to each challenge, to each proffer of love.

Man tends to become involved so completely in his own endeavors and his own close relationships that he is insensitive to the needs and offerings of others who touch his life only peripherally. It is a great temptation to all those granted a peaceful and loving existence to become encapsulated and to therefore ignore the needs of others outside their immediate environment.

It can safely be said that the more privileged man's mortal life the greater is his obligation to see beyond this privileged existence to an awareness of the needs of others less endowed with worldly riches. Indeed it is his privilege to do so and to thereby enrich himself and to know the inner pleasure that is his when he touches and enriches the lives of others.

To some men this reaching out in love and giving comes as new awareness of life's possibilities. They find in sharing the richness that life affords them the infinite satisfaction that marks the soul destined for perfection. They rejoice in new found awareness of love shared so infinitely that it is infinitely returned.

Man in the course of his earthly journey is afforded infinite opportunity to learn the lessons of love. It is of no import what he does in material terms. He shares infinitely in spiritual riches, and in this giving knows infinite pleasure. All that man has to share and share fully is a gift beyond price, and the man who finds himself impoverished by giving knows richness beyond measure.

So, dear children, know that the absolute joy of life is in meeting the needs of others and that the full measure of worth is in the giving and in the receiving, both blessed.

Day 298

Thursday, 7/22/99 11:24PM

Since the beginning of time man has known the wonder of passage into the perfection of love that assures him of eternal belonging. It is not a simple matter to comprehend the enormity of this statement. Indeed in large part it is beyond man's capacity to comprehend.

Man in his earthly existence is limited in his comprehension of time. What seems an eternity to him is but a second. He cannot comprehend the vastness of space and the complexity of life on planes other than earth. Science has provided him with facts and figures that are persuasive to his mind. Indeed such scientific evidence has recently become irrefutable even to the most skeptical of men. Yet when man tries to orient himself in this vastness of time and space he is overwhelmed by the impossibility of the task he sets himself.

We are, therefore, forced to consider the singular nature of human existence and the soul in progress in the larger context. It is right and good that the soul come to earth as man has a sense of importance which leads him to realize that the human journey is one of significance to all those sharing it. It is but a step further for him to sense and to embrace a kinship with forces greater than he, forces which he embraces without full understanding but with a faith that he finds within himself.

It is both important and significant that man has a sense of the importance of his earthly experience, and it is equally important for him to come to a realization that this single life, so important in and of itself, gains further significance as part of a larger whole.

Day 299

Friday, 7/23/99 11:10PM

From the lowest to the highest in human life, from the eldest to the youngest, all extremes are joined in one endeavor, the seeking of perfect love perfectly expressed, a soul perfect in all respects, all duties and responsibilities discharged.

Life in its complexity and in its variations is difficult to consider as a common journey, an endeavor shared by all souls. Yet this is indeed the case, and at all times it would benefit man to believe this truth and to be guided by it in all his thoughts, words, and deeds.

It is not a simple thing for man to feel total kinship with one separated from him in all ways -- distant in space, different in race and origin, unequal in talents and aspirations, disparate culturally, totally different in all meaningful ways. I speak here of extremes, and it is clear that all extremes know gradation in variation. Yet I speak truly when I say that man finds it difficult to see and accept a kindred soul, a total equal in all important ways, in his brothers who are so different from him.

Some men overcome the limitations of diversity, but most men find this difficult. Even those who declare themselves tolerant of all differences among men take exception when they are asked to declare themselves totally equal to those who seem alien in any and all ways.

The day will come, of course, when their blindness to the common bond that unites all men will be a source to them of new awareness, and they will regret their earlier reluctance to embrace the truth of brotherhood among all those come to earth to learn and to teach. Once aware, they will find richness in acceptance and wonder how they could have been so misguided. The world will profit and joy will be born.

Day 300

Saturday,7/24/99 11:08PM

Among all that man desires to achieve in his earthly journey, love reigns supreme. This cannot be said too often. This statement defies all contradiction.

Man is born to love and to be loved. From his first breath he knows this need. He inspires love in all who observe his helplessness, his total dependence upon the loving care without which he cannot survive. All those who offer love to this soul come newly to earth are nourished by the satisfaction they feel. They know within themselves the true significance of all they offer in survival to one of God's angels come to earth. They look into the eyes of this perfect little demonstration of divine will and know certainty in all their heart tells them.

Man in his passage through life never loses this capacity to inspire love. He never loses his need for love to nourish and sustain and perfect him. Often he is led astray by those who seek to distract him from his first need and his first duty, and he suffers as he strays from the path of love freely given and gratefully received. He is aware of the emptiness that invades his life, but he is insecure in his certainty of how to return to a life of love.

Sometimes man knows repeated failures in his life. He may delude himself in thinking that love is a secondary need, that material satisfactions are a necessary foundation for a loving relationship. He may feel that a sense of dependence upon love is a weakness, and he may consciously dismiss love as a factor in his life. He may err in other ways. He may never know in his earthly journey that the emptiness inside is his failure to appreciate the importance of love in all aspects of his life.

Not all men retain full awareness of the vital nature of love. Not all men retain their inborn capacity to give love freely and without condition. These are souls to be pitied.

Day 301

Sunday, 7/25/99 11:40PM

There is in all lives a measure of awareness of total belonging. Some souls come to earth enjoy an empathy with all those they encounter in their human journey and even with those they do not encounter directly. These sensitive souls are aware of the divine thread which joins all of humanity in a common goal.

Not all souls are this aware of the brotherhood of man, but rarely does man feel no connection with others who share his existence. Most often family provides a sense of belonging and lends strength to each of its members in times of trial and stress. Equally, family feeling intensifies joy in times of celebration and rejoicing. There is blessedness in the emotions and loyalties that bind members of a family each to the other at all times.

For many, a sense of belonging is achieved by joining with other kindred souls in common cause. The possibilities are many. Religious affiliation offers much to those who embrace common beliefs and practices. Philanthropic ventures serve great purpose and unite those who give and those who receive in the blessedness of love shared. Both the old and the young profit by association with their peers and social groups which offer ideals and activities designed to foster fellow feeling and to extend this fellow feeling to all who seek belonging.

In all these ways man achieves refuge from loneliness. No man is meant to be a solitary individual devoid of the warmth of loving companionship. His heart tells him to reach out to this fellow man and in so doing he knows the grace of belonging.

Day 302

Monday, 7/26/99 11:43PM

It is at all times significant that man knows in the deepest part of his being that he is never alone in his earthly journey. It is important that all men be aware of this belonging, this eternal link with all that has been and all that will be.

It is not easy for man to define this recognition even when he feels it most strongly. It is even more difficult for man when his awareness is less emphatic. Yet in all cases no man exists in whom there is no awareness, obvious or latent or somewhere in between, of a kinship beyond his earthly relationships.

There are times when this awareness lends man strength in the midst of earthly challenge, when all that man knows in earthly strength and support is not enough and he cries out for help. His plea may come unprompted by conscious recognition of the vast reservoir of aid open to his plea. He may not recognize the wonder of the answer he receives. Yet in his soul he knows the wonder of all that has been granted to him in response to need.

There are countless recorded accounts of supernatural response to human petition. All men know this divine response during the course of their lives, though they may not be aware of its wonder. Not all responses are dramatic in their nature. Not all are an exact response to petition. Yet all come as direct response to need, and all serve to strengthen the bond between man in his earthly striving and all those heavenly forces who seek to both gratify and guide and whose joy is at all times man's progress to perfection.

No man need fear asking. No asking goes without response. No response is less than perfect in love given. No more is needed.

Day 303

Tuesday, 7/27/99 11:50PM

When man strives to understand his unique role in this life, he searches his heart, he examines all he has know since birth in both blessing and demand, and he remains uncertain of the answers he seeks.

Man needs first of all to recognize that this life is not all of his spiritual experience. He needs to know that although he may not in a single life find the wholeness he seeks, he needs to realize that the wholeness does indeed exist though perhaps outside his immediate earthly existence.

It is difficult for man to contemplate life beyond his awareness, but it takes little consideration for him to realize the perfection that further existence represents. Each man born to human life comes with aims and aspirations of his own choosing, but he comes as well in full agreement that he will live this life ignorant of all he has promised but confident of achieving all he has sought to accomplish. Man lives each life, and he lives many, in total ignorance of the totality of his spiritual existence and his many and varied human manifestations. It is not unreasonable for him to struggle to achieve perfection unaware of how far he has already progressed.

Man, therefore, needs to be aware that at each step of his earthly progress it is his obligation to strive to achieve perfection in the giving and receiving of love without barrier or condition. This is for all souls in progress the ultimate achievement, the sole requirement for admission to the godly company that represents spiritual perfection and everlasting grace.

This is the path both open and inevitable to all of God's creatures come to earthly life to give and to receive, to learn and to teach, to share always and to know the perfection of oneness.

Day 304

Wednesday, 7/28/99 11:55PM

Each man come to earthly life comes with blessings and burdens of his own choosing with full capacity to live a life perfect in love given and received. It is important that man understand and accept this aspect of human existence.

It is all too easy to ascribe blame to unknown forces or perhaps blind fate when man knows tragedy in the course of his life. This is always a reasonable failing, a need expressed in despair. Yet man errs in this easy assignment of responsibility. Although it may seem that some men and some societies are unfairly visited by calamity, it is a higher truth that all that occurs in human life is part of a larger design, indeed a design of man's own choosing.

It is difficult to observe human tragedy on any scale and accept the truth that there is reason and learning in such desolation. It is difficult for man to envision choosing such experience. Yet it is indeed the case, and it is essential that it be remembered that each individual human life with all its blessings and all its trials is but part of a larger whole. It must be accepted that the tragedies of human life must be considered in a larger context. It must be accepted that human tragedy may offer the soul in progress enormous opportunity to progress to the spiritual perfection that is the be-all and end-all of the human experience.

The time will come for all men when these truths will be not only accepted but welcomed. Man lives for this day.

Day 305

Thursday, 7/29/99 11:59PM

So long as man survives in earthly existence, he survives with a purpose clear and defined. He may succeed fully in his promises and fulfill in every way his chosen purpose in his earthly existence. He may, on the other hand, be so misled in this path through life that he succeeds not at all and at the end of life must confess to utter failure. Most men's lives fall between these two extremes, and offer a mixture of success and failure in their ultimate judgment of themselves.

Man, as he proceeds through life meeting challenges and opportunities for good or for bad, is not always aware either of his own capacities to choose and act wisely or of the temptations that lure him from the path that profits him in spiritual growth. It must be noted, however, that man is ultimately totally in charge of his own destiny. He has the strength and the insight to choose wisely, to cope with all difficulty in a spirit of loving acceptance, and to know the inner satisfaction of a life well lived.

On the other hand, his free will allows him to surrender to temptation, to so indulge himself in earthly pleasures and desires that he loses his sense of duty and rightness and pursues a path that takes him ultimately to a realization of his folly. If he persists, he will find within himself the strength and the resolve to compensate for past errors, to undo past wrongs, and to know the inner happiness of a life lived in awareness of the importance of love in each and every act each and every day that remains to him.

The glory of man is never more apparent than in his exercise of free will for good. All profit, most of all the soul who has become newly aware of the wonder of its exercise.

Day 306

Friday, 7/30/99 11:27PM

When the time comes for all the world to celebrate truth fully revealed and to trust completely in this revelation, the age all men have aspired to will be at hand.

Brother will embrace brother in abandonment of enmity in new awareness of their common bonds and the absolute divine identity they share. Greed will be abandoned in new awareness of its destructive nature, and all of earth's bounty and all of man's accomplishments will be shared without reservation, and in this sharing there will be new awareness of the joy of giving without reserve. Those who benefit from this generosity will find their hearts filled with new awareness of the universal nature of brotherly love and will in turn enrich the world by more sharing.

Man will abandon all prejudices in new awareness of their undesirability and divisiveness and with great wonder discover the commonality of all men. They will reject fully the antagonisms of their fathers and find new joy in recognition of the divine nature of all souls come to earth. Man will seek to ease his brother's burden instead of either adding to it or ignoring its pain. The earth's bounty will be used as it was meant to be used from the very beginning, for the benefit of all men without distinction.

There will be such happiness in this new world of love and sharing, of peace beyond all dreaming, and of final recognition of the true meaning of life in the achievement of perfect love.

Day 307

Saturday, 7/31/99 11:54PM

In all of man's striving he knows a sense of obligation which serves him well.

At all times in his life his heart tells him wisely that he is one with all those who share his life in both need and gratification. He senses need in those he loves and seeks to provide the response that will bring gratification. Intellectually he is always aware of the needs so obvious in the world about him, and in his mind he seeks to meet these needs to the full extent of his resources, but when need evokes an emotional response he feels even more compelled to respond.

This is a saving grace in all men who seek to live lives pleasing to themselves and to others. Even the child seeks to fill the needs of others. The child responds to need in his parents in times of uncertainty and unhappiness by offering to them the uncritical love that he feels. He seeks justice among his peers and befriends the weak in defense against affront. In turn he elicits sympathetic response to his own needs. Such generous loving response to need generates love and consideration in all ways and becomes a vital force in those relationships which are so served.

Man discovers in his response to the needs of others infinite satisfaction, a true sense of well being, and the virtue of being habitually helpful. All his actions inspire others to emulation, and a vast reservoir of good will is established and constantly replenished. There is great goodness in caring.

Day 308

Sunday, 8/1/99 11:40PM

From time to time man profits by self assessment.

It is all too easy for man to be so caught up in the activities of his chosen life that he can fall into patterns of behavior and thought not totally desirable or fulfilling. He may forget family obligations in the press of business. He may seek pleasure so completely that he neglects other necessary duties. He may become restless and seek new experiences and adventures at the expense of commitments earlier made. In all cases man runs the risk of neglecting those responsibilities that create in him a sense of fulfillment and create in others a loving response.

There are times when man has no choice but to stop and consider himself in objective and critical terms. He is sometimes shocked into awareness by a turn of events so unexpected as to leave him totally incapable of action. He may find himself bereaved in the loss of a dear one and realize with anguish how much he would do differently had he the opportunity. At times man is challenged by those bound to him in bonds of love to stop and assess his behavior and to reestablish relationships which have suffered as a result of neglectful or selfish behavior.

Regardless of cause, man, if he is honest and desirous of self discovery, finds himself enlightened and enriched by this self appraisal. He may seek help from caring souls. If he is sincere, he finds himself capable of change, and he knows how best to reshape his life to please both himself and those who love him so that his goals will feed his spirit and fill his heart with awareness of the power of love. He needs no more.

Day 309

Monday, 8/2/99 11:10PM

In all of life there is order and reason.

It is hard at times for man to accept this simple truth. He is often perplexed by the unpredictability of the world he knows. Natural disasters seem to him transgressions in a universe that is at most times beneficent. Illness and catastrophic outbreaks of disease try his capacity to feel secure in an orderly world. Even within his own existence, he is upset by the unexpected, by sudden disturbance in the smooth passage of his life.

Let man know that there is reason in each disturbance in the natural rhythm of earthly existence. Each catastrophe claims victims, to be sure, but these souls do not die in vain. They teach much to the survivors, and by their misfortune they inspire in others a sense of unity and a desire to be helpful and consoling. Even if death does not occur, men are drawn together in sympathy for those who have suffered and are enriched by the generosity that inspires them to do all within their power to alleviate pain and need.

The most awful of tragedies, then, can be said to have effects that change lives. Each gesture of loving concern is a triumph of the human spirit. When man unites with his brothers in acts of caring, all profit. There is no end to the goodness of man facing adversity. The victims learn acceptance and patience and gratefully accept all that is offered to them in love. Those who seek to alleviate suffering and need are united in a common cause and find great healing in newfound awareness of all that binds brother to brother in time of need.

It is wisdom to acknowledge this aspect of human existence and to accept with equanimity all that befalls man in his journey through life as meaningful and beneficial.

Day 310

Tuesday, 8/3/99 11:59PM

From the very beginning of human awareness, man has known in his innermost being that he is greater than the sum of his parts. Even when he wants most to be reasonable and confined to empirical fact, there is a part of his being which speaks truly of spiritual awareness and of belonging beyond the material.

It is difficult for man to deal with this inner awareness. He regards the world about him and knows the limitations of his human existence. He may or may not choose to embrace beliefs which suggest further identity. He may, at least rarely, refuse to consider the validity of experience beyond his sensory awareness. He may know experiences which encourage him to seek within and he may become aware of forces and influences beyond immediate awareness.

In all of his life's experiences he retains awareness of the true significance of all he strives to accomplish in material terms. He may know to some extent the inadequacy of his striving, but in all events he is eventually moved to consider that the material rewards of his existence leave much to be desired. If he is still in need of enlightenment, he moves in certainty to a life which centers on spiritual growth and, inevitably focuses on the awareness of the importance of love shared infinitely.

True awareness comes to all souls in progress. Some ignore this revelation. Some gratefully embrace its grace and mold their lives appropriately. Those who ignore the imperative to love freely and to accept love gratefully are deprived. They may still find fulfillment and promise, but they must first embrace awareness that without love, life is meaningless, an exercise in futility.

Day 311

Wednesday, 8/4/99 midnight

In all of life there is unceasing joy in the experience of love. No life is ever totally devoid of this experience, though each life varies widely from each other in the fullness, in the diversity, in the constancy and in the distribution of this love.

All souls come to earth know love absolute at the very start of their existence. Even those newly born who are not welcomed by those who should love them best inspire love in others and find sustenance in this love. As the child grows, his experiences reflect love from many sources. Family, above all, nurtures and sustains in love freely and joyously given. Friends abound in the ever widening circle that embraces the child and which continues its solicitous caring for uncounted years.

All of life is marked by new encounters and the great majority of these new encounters are those loving and caring in nature. The child nourished and conditioned by love evolves into an adult whose nature it is to give love freely to all those in need and to expect a loving response. This is the basis for a happy and productive life, and the soul in progress knows great satisfaction in the happiness such a life engenders.

Rarely does the loving soul permit itself to be distracted or misled in its constancy. Rarely does the loving soul permit disharmony to interfere. At all times the loving soul remembers that despite all negativity, love remains a powerful force and is always triumphant.

Love deserves expression under all circumstances. When this expression is denied, all suffer.

Day 312

Thursday, 8/5/99 11:55PM

During the course of his life, whether it be brief or it be extended even beyond the average, man spends each day in search of the reason for existence. Sometimes this searching knows no name, has no awareness, but exists as a single simple desire for awareness not readily at hand. These questions do not necessarily extend beyond the borders of human existence. Yet their sincerity is no less perfect than the searching of the most profound of minds, the most scholarly of seekers.

In his desire to understand more fully the reason and purpose of his journey from birth to death, man seeks answers in many places. Sometimes he achieves profound awareness of the blissful nature of a life lived in love and a life destined for survival in the perfection of oneness. Sometimes man seeks in vain for clear and coherent answers easily assimilated and understood, and in this seeking he may ignore messages more oblique and subtle. These messages may be sudden insights, instantly received, quickly dismissed. They may be persistent urgings, not reasonable in all outward ways, but intent in their insistence. Man in responding to those insistent messages may stumble upon understanding heretofore unheld or he may be led down a path different and suitable to reaching his goal of understanding.

All men are enriched in their efforts to achieve fuller understanding. What they may tend to forget and what they must strive constantly to keep in mind is the absolute need to accept all that life offers in loving exchange and seeking, and to know that all striving to appreciate the divine nature of man and life is blessed indeed and inevitably successful in providing the peace of mind that is the reward of all holiness.

Day 313

Friday, 8/6/99 11:59PM

Remembering past errors, man inevitably feels regret. Even if he finds it within his awareness to forgive himself, even if he is fully aware of justification of his actions, still he harbors regret. He wonders why he did not find within himself the capacity for acceptance and forgiveness of insult and error. He wonders why his lack of forgiveness was cause for magnification of error and increased regret on all parts.

To forgive is a divine attribute. To forgive freely without consideration of fault is truly perfect in its divinity. All men at times in their lives experience this perfection. Love dictates forgiveness regardless of the gravity of the offense, regardless of the degree of injury. When man finds himself capable of this forgiveness, divine in its nature, superb in its effectiveness, contagious in its infectiousness, he knows within himself the greatness of his achievement.

Even when he is not fully aware of the extent of his influence, he needs to know that even without outward approval he finds in his heart the peace and triumph that his goodness has given to him. He rests content that he has taken a giant step in forgiveness and compassionate love without condition. He knows that he loves himself for all he has offered to others in love complete and perfect in its giving.

Man thus achieves the perfection he comes to this world to find. Each step marks progress in his spiritual search, and each step taken in love makes the next step more certain in its all enveloping dedication to the divine concept that love is all, that love in its purest form is the ultimate achievement of all souls, that total joy awaits.

Day 314

Sunday, 8/8/99 12:13AM

It is the wisdom all men seek to find total joy and satisfaction in their lives, to know each day the rightness of all they do and all they say, to respond fully, to demand and to enjoy fully satisfaction in all they do.

This satisfaction with all that man experiences is more universal than superficial observation would suggest. It is part of human nature to look upon the unfortunate as unfortunate in all ways. It is not a simple matter to distinguish between material deprivation and spiritual deprivation, and while one does not necessarily either affirm or negate the other, it is folly to make assumptions about any necessary relationship.

The man endowed in every way materially may be impoverished spiritually. Conversely, the meanest of men materially may know great spiritual richness. This is not to say that this is always the case. The opposite may be true. There are infinite gradations between these two extremes, each one deserving of individual examination. Yet it is difficult for most men to accept the fact that material deprivation may be a blessing, and even more difficult for them to accept the fact that this deprivation was freely chosen and accepted before life began.

This is, perhaps, one of the most difficult truths for man to accept. It is unthinkable to so many that any soul preparing for rebirth would choose a life of deprivation and misery. Yet this perspective ignores the eternal nature of life and rebirth and eventual oneness and ignores the fact that spiritual progress may be hastened by a life lived in need and dependence.

Such matters are difficult for the human mind to either assess or accept. It is not necessary to do either. It is required only that there be tolerance in all ways of lives apparently flawed and deplorable, and awareness that such lives serve a purpose, a purpose often more significant than that of their more privileged brothers.

Know always this truth.

Day 315

Sunday, 8/8/99 1:40PM

It is of the utmost importance that each man in the course of his human journey discover within himself his capacity for unselfish concern for others even when it is costly to him.

There are numerous opportunities in each life to make this discovery. The opportunity may be so subtle as to involve little choice. Man responds to need naturally, and when there is no reason to hesitate he seeks always to aid those in need. It is when man must choose between the need of another and his own desires and well being that he is called upon to make a difficult decision. He is free to choose always.

The nature of his choice may determine much. If even at the expense of his own security and comfort he chooses to respond to need, he knows instantly in his own heart the sense of satisfaction that is generated by generosity and caring beyond sense of self. If, on the other hand, man refuses his brother in order to protect his own welfare, he knows instantly that he lacks the goodness he thought he possessed. He is racked by regret in some cases and resolves to be more generous in the future. In other cases man, having refused his brother once, finds it easier to refuse him the next time, and he finds himself insulated from fellow feeling. In time he may recognize the sterility of his existence and find it within himself to amend his ways and open his heart to the needs of others.

The most unfortunate of souls does not reach this awareness and persists in selfish ways to the detriment of his spiritual well being. He is to be pitied. He never knows the true joy of giving.

Day 316

Tuesday, 8/10/99 11:29PM

All of life is tinged by disillusionment and disappointment. All of life is marked by striving impossible of accomplishment. All of life marks man's awareness of his own capabilities, and it is within this awareness that disappointment and disillusionment lurk.

Man knows in his innermost soul his capabilities. They may be generous to the point of unlimited. They may be few to the point of utter hopelessness. Whatever the gift or the deprivation, the wealth or the poverty, the price paid for a life lived in search of spiritual progress is the learning of the lessons of love to the point where there is no chance of failure.

In the midst of life man unaware of his divine capacities struggles with forces and problems beyond his control. He needs at this point to make a simple acceptance, an acceptance of all that is asked of him and all that he is capable of giving. This is at times an easy project, and man rejoices in his release from caring responsibility. He finds strength in this acceptance and in his acceptance of his limitations, but he does not cease in his efforts to respond to all challenges in a spirit of loving acceptance.

In time his peace is augmented by awareness of increased capacities, of new strengths, and he finds himself newly capable of coping with all he needs to do to achieve peace in his temporal existence and awareness of spiritual strengthening. Each new problem becomes simpler in solution and each new solution brings new awareness of strength divinely granted and humanly earned.

Disappointment with self disappears and disillusionment becomes a faint memory.

Day 317

Wednesday, 8/11/99 10:57PM

It is within the capability of all souls come to earth to lead lives of faith and holiness. Each soul come to earth comes with this capacity and with firm intention of maintaining the compact to live in love and to step closer to his goal of oneness, the eternal goal of all souls.

Some men despite serious trial and constant challenge are able to remember in their innermost beings the vital importance of meeting each difficulty with acceptance and love. Each victory over difficulties increases man's certainty of his own strengths, and in turn he is even better equipped to meet life's challenge. This man is blessed indeed, and his conscientious striving brings joy and satisfaction to himself and to all others whose lives he touches. He rejoices even in the midst of great pain in the sure knowledge that his path is straight and true and that he is doing all within his power to progress in all ways.

All too often man listens to the inner voices that tempt him from the path of loving acceptance of all of life's demands. At first he may fail only slightly, but the siren voices of the Others encourage him to further dismiss urging for good and to surrender to self indulgence and self aggrandizement. He may go as far as to consider himself all powerful in his life's journey and even to despise those who are willing to accept life's misfortunes with equanimity.

At times violence is regarded as a useful tool by the soul gone astray, and his use of violence to achieve his desires has a two fold result. First, it tends to increase his sense of power and to cause him to disregard completely the needs and feelings of others. Secondly, his behavior corrupts his environment. He seeks to involve others in his evil doing, and all too frequently succeeds, particularly with the impressionable young. What the soul gone astray fails to consider is the ephemeral nature of life and the absolute certainty that temporal power ends with death.

It is revelation indeed to all souls who look back upon their lives in the total honestly that is required past the transition of death. Those who lived in love and caring and perfect acceptance know joy beyond measure and find in their hearts pity for those who look back and regret squandering their opportunity to progress spiritually and to know absolutely that they must atone in another existence. The most errant of souls finds solace in this opportunity to compensate for past error and to aspire to perfection in living in love.

Day 318

Thursday 8/12/99 11:40PM

It is always within man's capacity to know certainty in all he does in this life when he acts in love and caring. It is sometimes difficult for man to maintain a loving constancy when his efforts are frustrated by lack of response or open rebuff, but it is significant that when he perseveres in his insistence on acting in love he proves persuasive, and even the most stubborn of minds reacts to this persistent giving with acceptance and love returned.

When man first finds his loving efforts rejected, it is tempting for him to consider his efforts fruitless and to consider his attempts a failure. Yet if he is moved to continue to create a loving relationship based on generous and unselfish giving he is rarely less than successful. There is great joy for man to know this sweet success. It is moving for the one so reluctant to respond in love and who finally surrenders to its persuasiveness. Each party is educated and enriched by the experience of love offered and refused and then offered so persistently and so generously that it is finally accepted and lends richness to this relationship so solidly based on love given and received.

It is man's nature to be tenacious in all things, though some are more endowed with this strength than are others and when he persists in the face of failure to do all his heart tells him, he knows true contentment both with himself and with all that life offers and demands of him. An offering of love should never be refused, never be regarded lightly, but even when this occurs, persistence in renewing this offering works miracles of persuasion and enrichment.

Day 319

Friday, 8/13/99 11:40PM

The world is quick to sensationalize the evil that man does. It is less quick to celebrate the innate goodness of the vast majority of souls come to earth to learn and to teach the lessons of love. Gentle souls abound in all the societies that man has created, and in each of those gentle souls lies boundless and infectious love. Each act of goodness and giving, each word of love and caring makes the world a better place for all involved, and each act of goodness serves as example to those who observe it. Most are moved to emulation, and all profit.

It may seem at times that justice is lost in the triumph of evil. It may try man's credulity to state that despite violence and malfeasance and inhumane attitudes, the world is a holy place and a fitting place for all those who seek spiritual progress and ultimate perfection. Yet he has only to look about him to realize that the man who delights in evil acts, in total lack of concern for others is a rarity. It is true that many men fail to some degree to act always in love and caring, but the man who epitomizes total evil is rare indeed.

Society struggles to create a world in which all men know brotherhood and no man lacks the necessities of life. In such a world there would be less manifestation of the behavior that threatens society. When all men know caring and when all men are assured human welfare and response to their needs, there will be even fewer souls who stray from the path of goodness.

Day 320

Saturday, 8/14/99 11:40M

At all times and in all ways man is blessed with guidance beyond his immediate perception. At all times man is capable of responding to this guidance, this insistent urging for good, and when he does so he finds himself pleased with himself in all ways and pleasing to all others whose lives touch his.

Sometimes man is keenly aware and duly appreciative of all that he knows in heavenly direction. He may hear clearly the voice of his angelic mentor when he pauses to listen. He may be aware of times when he is saved from error and peril by intervention beyond his control. His life is enriched by all that he knows of divine caring, and he seeks to lead his life in a way that he trusts is pleasing in all ways to those caring spirits whose concern is his welfare.

All men granted this heavenly guidance are not equally aware, though often they do not ascribe this guidance as divine in origin. They may call this guidance by various names. Some men speak of "hunches" that direct them in certain ways. They may ascribe their inner voices to their own subconscious. They may refer to "lady luck." They may call it "karma." In all these cases the reference is the same. Whether they choose to acknowledge angelic guidance or not is of no import. They respond regardless of what they ascribe their urgings to.

There is no limit to the power of angelic intervention in the lives of mankind. There have been innumerable reports of miraculous intercession. Faith has been bolstered by these reports. Yet faith is not demanded of man. The most skeptical of souls is granted angelic guidance as surely as the most devoted believer. No man is denied this wonder. Man needs only to respond in goodness.

Day 321

Monday, 8/16/99 2:05AM

In ages past and in times to come man pursues truth. This truth is perceived differently by many, and each must know tolerant acceptance of its differences from others insofar as it conveys the message of the absolute necessity of love given and received.

From the very start of social co-existence, man has developed beliefs in the supernatural that satisfied his need for security. From the very beginning those beliefs relied upon appeasement of unseen forces, and from the very beginning man sought at the same time to achieve peaceful co-existence with all those who shared his mortal world.

Over the ages many forms of worship and kinship evolved, varying in nature, but one in intent. Man sought in many ways to do all he felt necessary to mollify those forces affecting his welfare and to establish relationships within his narrow world that offered security and peaceful belonging.

Man's progress from the beginning of awareness of forces greater than he, forces that were beyond his grasp, provides a long and complicated history. Man's seeking took many twists and turns and does to this day, but in all corners of the world in all ages man discovered his greatest security in the love and trust he found it possible to share without fear or hesitation. Man, enriched by this awareness, found himself free to progress both materially and spiritually and to embrace his brothers in understanding of their mutual needs.

Day 322

Monday, 8/16/99 11:57PM

There is something wistful in man's search for a love that will last a lifetime. Not all men are successful in finding a love that endures. Those who are so blessed know pleasure in the security and constancy of total belonging and complete trust and dependence. They inspire others with their shared love, and their children are moved to seek similar perfection.

It is increasingly difficult in a complex world to know such stability. Often man persuades himself that he has found perfect love only to be disillusioned and defeated. Either party in this relationship may be the one who finds himself disaffected and determined to be released from the relationship. Sometimes the estrangement is mutual, but often there is one of the two who suffers from rejection and abandonment and is bewildered by the instability that the end of the relationship creates.

In today's world, more and more souls come to earth to learn the lessons of love find this learning difficult. In the case of a broken relationship between two who have promised lifelong fidelity, man is often prompt in seeking a second or third partner to share his earthly existence. The urge to know the comfort of shared love is both universal and compelling, and few men abandon the search.

Day 323

Tuesday, 8/17/99 11:50PM

There is much goodness in man. From the moment of birth to the moment of death, man is capable and joyous in his goodness. There is no time in the soul's journey from the beginning to the end that man cannot fully express in word and deed his innate capacity to act in love and to inspire love in others. It is important that this be acknowledged by all souls.

No child is born incapable of goodness. Indeed each new soul come to earth expresses love fully from the start of earthly life and knows fully its capacity for love given and received. Each soul is, however, vulnerable as it progresses in earthly life and profoundly influenced by those who are charged with love and caring of this new soul.

All too often as the child progresses to adulthood, he finds reason to depart from the path of goodness and love in favor of willfulness and rebellion. To some extent this is a natural part of the passage from dependence to independence, but the danger to the developing soul lies in forgetting that a loving acceptance of life is the only key to true happiness. When this happens it is all too easy for man to surrender his will to those whose desire is to impede his spiritual progress by persuading him to abandon the path of love and to follow the path of self aggrandizement and surrender to self concern above all else.

Yet in the very core of the soul gone astray lingers his inborn goodness, and at each point in his human journey man is capable of returning to the purity of purpose that marked the start of life. Not all men succeed in recapturing lost goodness, but many do and many more never stray from lives of goodness and giving. They are to be praised. They offer to all men the blessing of perfect love.

Day 324

Wednesday, 8/18/99 11:53PM

It is at times difficult for man to understand why life should be fraught with error and why man should suffer trial and tribulation even when he has done nothing but live in love.

It is understandable that man should be perplexed in all he considers of the nature of suffering in human existence. It is understandable that he should wonder why a kind and loving God would permit such misery to be visited upon His children, why He could not spare them completely from suffering of any kind.

This is reasonable speculation. Yet if man does accept that each single life is but part of a larger whole, and that each soul come to earth comes in need of learning and healing, all the trials of life become more reasonable even if not totally comprehensible in human terms. Certainly human life is marked by paradox. Some lives are long, some are brief. Some lives are marked by plenty, others by woeful deprivation. Some lives end peacefully, others in chaos, suffering or natural disaster.

All these differences are meaningless except insofar as the path the soul takes, however painful, offers opportunity for spiritual progress. Hardship becomes less onerous when man considers it opportunity for learning. So it is in all lives, and man beset by difficulty finds himself both comforted and encouraged by this awareness.

Day 325

Thursday, 8/19/99 11:55PM

There is a constant yearning in all souls on their earthly journey to know the peace and wonder from which they came. Although man has agreed before coming to mortal life to surrender awareness of his heavenly origin, he retains to some degree awareness of the miracle of his birth into a life of his choosing.

Although his memory of life before birth is not fully his, nevertheless he retains in his innermost being a sense of divine origin. Man does not often state this clearly, nor does his environment encourage such expression, but he retains a certainty of wondrous origin.

All of life leads man to the place from whence he came, and although many men may not subscribe to the truth of divine beginning, there is a dawning awareness as life draws to a close that this life is not all, that the eternal nature of the soul is a persuasive truth and that both the start of life and the end of life mark an exit and an entrance to an existence of boundless joy and divine expectation.

Contemplating the end of earthly life, man is buoyed by the prospect of entering a realm which has been his home and will be again. Even in the most disbelieving of souls this yearning exists, and it is sweet joy for the soul to discover the wonder of its homecoming.

Day 326

Friday, 8/20/99 10:59PM

Man is in all ways blessed when he realizes his own strengths. It is all too easy for man to underestimate himself, to undervalue his capacities, and to excuse himself therefore for not succeeding fully in all he undertakes.

Sometimes man's self confidence is lessened by his experiences. At times he finds failure so devastating that he resolves to lesser effort rather than realizing that failure is in and of itself both a lesson and a challenge to be met and overcome. Sometimes man's confidence in himself is undermined by the disparagement of others whom he looks to in friendship and need. He fails to recognize the lack of value in uncharitable and unfair appraisals and to dismiss them.

In all cases it is incumbent upon man to know clearly that the strengths granted to him are his to nourish and to demonstrate, and that although he may occasionally know failure and ridicule, it is within his capacity to overcome one and ignore the other.

The man who lives in full awareness of his capacities is a man fulfilled and able to live his life fully. He finds satisfaction in his achievements and finds security in his accomplishment.

Day 327

Sunday, 8/22/99 1:04AM

Among all of man's gifts he cherishes most his capacity for giving and receiving love. At all times in human existence this is the key to all happiness and all sense of well being.

This has been said over and over, but in one sense it has not been stated clearly. The key to perfect love is not so much in the receiving, though this is important, as it is in the giving. This perfect giving is marked by absolute unselfishness. This perfect giving knows absolute tolerance. It knows no limitations, no conditions, no distractions. Perfect love is never judgmental, never measured meanly, never a source of anguish or self concern.

How many men can say that they are capable of perfect love? The answer should be "All." How many can claim that they live each day in perfect love in each thought, each word, each action? The number who can respond in the affirmative to this question drops precipitously. It is difficult to live in perfect love in earthly life, though it is at all times possible.

It is a challenge for man to achieve this perfection in his human journey. It is important that he do so. If and when he does, he will make the joyous discovery that he knows all happiness, all sense of self satisfaction, all joyous awareness of the perfection of life lived in love. He will discover further that the infectiousness of love given finds its reward in love received. He will find each day of his life infinitely rewarding, and he will joyfully share all he knows of love.

Day 328

Sunday, 8/22/99 11:57PM

It is blessed to behold man when he has learned the lessons of love even to a small degree. It is total glory to behold man who has learned to love perfectly. In all of life there is need to recognize that love is the single essential for man to achieve.

Often this achievement is not a simple task. Often man chooses to be born in adverse circumstances, into an environment and into relationships where he must learn to love despite early and sometimes continued deprivation, where he must struggle simply to survive and to seek always for the acceptance that marks love given.

The soul having chosen the difficulties and the obstacles of his human existence strives nevertheless to grow spiritually in the capacity to give love even when it is denied him. The fortunate soul retains the capacity for love he brought with him into this world, and he stubbornly clings to the comfort of love even when his life denies him any manifestation of this precious gift.

It is notable that few souls fail completely to reach the miracle of love given and received, that no matter how difficult the struggle the striving soul persists in its need to learn to love and to inspire love. Those who achieve this necessary goal are able to perfect further their capacities to live fully in love and to know total assurance in this practice.

Those souls who fail to learn the lessons of love given and received are to be pitied, and indeed when they reach the end of human life they are welcomed into the heavenly realm with special warmth, and they know that they are not incapable of love. Indeed they rejoice endlessly in this gift.

Day 329

Monday, 8/23/99 11:44PM

It is easy to forget the magnitude of man's divine origin. It is easy to be complacent about the miracle of human individuality. The soul is in its essence unique, and each soul come to earth brings with it this quality. No two souls are identical. No two humans are identical. It is only lately that science has provided proof positive of this latter statement. Faith must accept the first.

It is persuasive when man considers the number of humans who have inhabited planet earth and do still and to recognize the total individuality of each one. Nature is impressive in many ways, but this supreme achievement, this singular marking of each man born to earthly existence must be acknowledged as divine in its nature. All men share certain traits. All men travel the same road from birth to death. All men seek the same satisfactions in human life. All men are brothers in the general sense of the word. Yet no two men are identical. Each bears an identity that is his alone.

On the surface this may not seem remarkable, but when one considers the complexity involved in this singular identity one must grant that it defies easy explanation, that it is far beyond the capacity of man to fully comprehend.

So consider, My children, that you are so special to your creator that you are sua generis, that no other can be confused with your singular identity. You are unique. You are one of a kind. You are divine in your individuality.

This is cause for rejoicing among all men.

Day 330

Tuesday, 8/24/99 11:15PM

Among man's many challenges in his human journey is that of resisting prejudice or fear which inspires intolerance. It is in the nature of man to desire a feeling of security. All too often this need manifests itself in proclaiming certainty in one's own values and beliefs in a way which labels all those who disagree wrong-headed and misled, erroneous in all ways which differ.

Let it be said that such intolerance is based in ignorance and in total disregard of the truth of universal love and brotherhood. God does not reward narrow beliefs and rejection of differences. He sees good in all striving for spiritual progress and would remind man and all those who seek to guide and persuade him that there are many roads open and pleasing to all those who seek to live in perfect harmony with their God and with their brother.

Narrow sectarianism has no place in the heart of man. While he may choose freely his beliefs and affiliations, he should not forget that his brother may choose differently but that his brother is equally deserving of respect and acceptance. Man all too often forgets this necessity. He all too often fails in acceptance of the alien beliefs of his brother and therefore deprives himself of the opportunity to live in perfect love.

Throughout history and to the present day man has deceived himself by proclaiming himself uniquely qualified to speak the will of God. When the self proclaimed messenger from God speaks impatiently, intolerantly, arrogantly, know that he does not speak truth.

Day 331

Wednesday, 8/25/99 10:31PM

Know at all times that man is uniquely bound to his neighbor. He may be born in circumstances that are akin in situation, inhospitable to those seeking companionship and aid, but that man is infinitely hopeful of a singular experience. All that man experiences in his journey through life equips him with the capacity to know love given and received.

At all times and in all places man needs to retain his awareness that love is a permanent quality to be accepted by all men as an integral part of their human existence. This love is open to challenge of all sorts, but it is secure from damage by such challenge so long as each member knows absolute fidelity and absolute acceptance of all that has befallen those he loves.

This,then, is to be regarded as a supreme example of the wonder and goodness of grace fully bestowed to all who choose to know divine proof and as well all those who reject it.

Day 332

Thursday, 8/26/99 10:55PM

It is the destiny of all men to know divine purpose in earthly existence. It is their privilege to come to full awareness that the reason for each earthly journey is to learn the lessons of love that lead to divine oneness, the eternal goal, the perfect ending of endeavor.

This is bliss indeed, to know with absolute certainty that no error is too great to be forgiven, that no departure from the path of truth is incapable of new direction, that the soul blackened by misdirection and misdeeds knows new opportunity to redeem itself. There is infinite charity in the divine plan. Each of God's children come to earth is allowed infinite liberty to err with sure awareness that forgiveness awaits and that atonement and new learning offers certain redemption.

No man walks alone on his earthly journey. No man needs to feel abandoned or unloved. No matter the degree of earthly travail and disappointment, each soul come to earth retains absolute assurance of ultimate triumph. Each soul is destined to know the absolute glory of divine oneness.

This is a promise absolute. Difficult though it may be for man to accept, all men are truly brothers in divine belonging. Some err grievously in their journeys through life, and for this they are responsible totally, and for this they experience agonizing delays in achieving their eternal goal. Those who fulfill the promises they made before human birth progress more rapidly and are gratified by their progress. All are joined in a shared awareness of the beauty of earthly experience, leading as it does inevitably to total bliss eternally shared.

This is divine promise. No man will be denied such glory.

Day 333

Friday, 8/27/99 11:10PM

It is joy beyond all other joys when man knows the sweet satisfaction of a life well lived. This integral part of the transition from one world to the next is generous in understanding, honest in its evaluation, and endlessly enriching to the soul.

Few men lead perfect lives, but no degree of imperfection diminishes the joyful satisfaction of this time of self appraisal and acknowledgment of past deeds. Needless to say, the more perfect the life just completed, the more heightened the joy in looking back and assessing the degree of spiritual progress achieved in that life. Even those whose lives were marred by imperfection and error are encouraged in remembering the times of goodness and giving. For some it is total release to acknowledge past error and omission and to know that another opportunity to live more perfectly lies ahead.

No man fails in honest recognition of all he has accomplished and all that remains to be accomplished. All souls are united in joy and sharing.

Day 334

Saturday, 8/28/99 11:40PM

However man chooses to live each life he chooses to embrace, he is bound in heavenly direction to live in love each moment of his chosen existence.

Most men are fortunate in this respect. They enter life in familiar surroundings and are privileged to proceed with their quest in all familiarity and helpfulness.

Each soul come to earth knows the welcome accorded all those who have completed their earthly journey. All souls are joined in awareness of spiritual achievement accomplished and yet to be accomplished. There is great harmony and great unanimity in this quest, and each soul recognizes in his brother shared need and necessary awareness of strengths shared.

In all, man is privileged to know the awareness that is the privilege of all souls released from mortal obligation. It is the privilege of all souls to know that this is a fitting end to the human journey, that all souls are joined in the common endeavor to find and to recognize those souls in progress who are close to achieving perfection. They are few, but to be cherished. All those who are receptive to this need are blessed. More will follow, but they will not share this blessed grace.

Day 335

Sunday, 8/29/99 10:47PM

In all of time man has not succeeded fully in his search for answers to his questions about the nature and meaning of a single human life. He has been perplexed by the diversity in human existence, by the inequities involved. He wonders why one man knows wealth and good fortune in all other ways and why another knows need, destitution and hopelessness. He wonders where he truly fits into this puzzling and complicated world. He wonders why.

It is to man's credit that his caring leads to a hunger for understanding. It is to his credit that he seeks truth and understanding and patiently waits for enlightenment. Some men reach conclusions that satisfy their need to know, and these conclusions, though varying widely, mark an end of speculation. Other hungry souls never are satisfied with inadequately proven answers and they chafe at the degree of their uncertainty. They crave knowledge absolute and they are thwarted in this need. In the end they find it necessary to either surrender to uncertainty or to settle for less than the absoluteness of faith they sought and to accept answers to them less than persuasive.

Though it is not ever necessary for man to know certainty in all that life involves, it is both admirable and desirable for man to seek truth in all aspects of human existence and to find his heart filled with faith in his convictions. Not all answers are readily available, but the seeking soul will find satisfaction adequate to its need.

Day 336

Monday, 8/30/99 11:20PM

It is at all times incumbent upon man to recognize and embrace the gifts he knows in human life and the responsibilities that these gifts entail.

Let us assume that man in planning his life to come lacks wisdom in his choices of gifts and deprivations and is unwilling to accept the guidance offered to him in the full generosity of divine will. Let us be aware that man at all times has the powerful tool of free will to shape his lives and that this free will is subject to error and misjudgment.

There are times when man deeming his ability overestimates his capacities and demands challenges beyond his immediate abilities. This is not to say that in doing this man condemns himself to failure in human life, but it is to say that his striving must be beyond the ordinary and he must be able to accept setbacks in his self appointed pursuit of goals difficult to achieve. In this striving he may be tempted to forget or ignore the single absolute demand of each human life, the demand to learn the lessons of love and to live by these lessons in every aspect of his human journey.

Most men succeed admirably, if not perfectly, in meeting the promises made before human birth, and chief among these promises is the mandate to live in love under all circumstances, in the face of all adversity, in all ways at all times. Once man knows the glorious satisfaction of life lived in love given and received, he is rarely tempted to forget this duty and this joy.

Day 337

Tuesday, 8/31/99 11:13PM

There are many paths to wisdom. There are many kinds of wisdom. Each man pursuing truth seeks and finds the path that conforms most closely to his beliefs, beliefs either inherited or chosen in maturity. There is and must be an intrinsic goodness in this seeking for wisdom. It must be selfless in objective. It must be honest in appraisal. It must be sincere in need.

Through the centuries of recorded time many have laid claim to ultimate wisdom. Their seeking has been holy in intent and often effective in persuasion of others. Many of these holy souls have come close to embracing and promulgating universal truth, and much credit must go to them for their efforts and their achievements. They live in history and in the hearts and minds of their adherents, many even to the present day.

There are still seekers after wisdom who are not content with past teachings and who seek to convert. Some of these who call themselves teachers are worthy of the title and pursue their ministries in full faith in their own goodness and in the goodness of all those who subscribe to their beliefs and their teachings. There are, unfortunately, all too many others who proclaim themselves seekers after wisdom and truth but who stray far afield from the purity of their original motives. Some are seduced by power, others by wealth, more often by a combination of the two. They misuse their talents and take rude advantage of those fellow seekers who find in them the leadership that they believe useful and compelling.

Some of these errant teachers do minor harm. Others are guilty of gross damage, both to those who follow their lead and to the world they inhabit. They create mistrust in the minds of those who observe and sense their infidelity. They do harm in the name of good, and great numbers suffer.

In the end all will be revealed and the true seeker will know the satisfaction of the truly blessed while the charlatan will stand revealed in his true colors to a world newly aware.

Day 338

Wednesday, 9/1/99 11:58PM

There are times when it is difficult for man to reconcile his present situation with all he had imagined it would be. He may have imagined fame and found himself in obscurity. He may have imagined wealth at his disposal and found himself less than wealthy, sometimes only more than destitute. He may have imagined himself powerful and found himself powerless and impotent.

In all this reversal of anticipated fortune there is learning invaluable to the soul in progress. He learns first of all to accept disappointment in good grace and to adapt to reality his own expectations. He learns as well that disappointment is not only temporary but may in the end transform itself to a powerful force for accomplishment, a means of achieving an end not earlier envisioned. There is little left of disappointment in the soul which turns in full faith to a mature acceptance of promise, fraught with peril to be sure, but offering new challenge and new hope along with pleasurable existence in a world of his choosing.

When man achieves all he has striven to achieve and surmounted all trouble on the way, he is right to rejoice in his feelings of triumph.

Day 339

Thursday, 9/2/99 11:47PM

It is incumbent upon all men to know the full wonder of their existence, to be aware of a miraculous beginning and an equally miraculous ending. The world is aware of the joy inherent in the miracle of birth, of the absolute wonder of creation that it represents. The world is less responsive to the miracle of death. There is no certainty that death is any more than an ending of the life created at birth, a total closure.

It is part of the human compact that the soul come to earthly experience has no knowledge of its previous existence and the existence that awaits after the end of the human journey. This is a mystery that evades certainty in human life, yet man is gifted in many ways with glimpses of the eternal nature of the soul which resides in all men. There are gifted individuals who are capable of very direct communication with those who have left human life and who long to communicate their love to those they left behind. Each man has this capacity, though perhaps in not so developed a way, but the soul truly desirous of communication can achieve this goal.

In all ways man in his human journey should be assured that the single life he lives is not all of existence and that the love he brought to the world at birth and knew during his life will accompany him to his next existence and will be shared profoundly and universally. This is a promise absolute and should serve as great comfort to all who seek to know the assurance of infinite being. Man is created beloved of his Maker and designed to know eternal love.

Day 340

Friday, 9/3/99 11:58PM

It is at all times possible for man in his earthly journey to know fully the magnitude of his mission. It is difficult for him when his life is indistinguishable from all others he knows, to feel that his existence has a quality special, unlike all others, and that his mission in life is unique. He has only to look into his soul to know this quality that sets him apart from all his brothers while they are united in a common seeking.

Each soul come to earth is indeed unique. Each soul come to earth has qualities and identity shared by no others. Each soul come to earth comes with individual needs and individual goals, his alone agreed with his Creator. It is at times difficult for man to comprehend this special caring, this enormous solicitude. It requires faith to accept such extraordinary power. Yet this awesome power is exactly what man must both recognize and accept. It should be his comfort at all times that he is all important in the heavenly design, that no matter how insignificant he may feel he is central in God's mind.

There is no way that the human mind can comprehend such complexity and such overwhelming capacity for love bestowed, but accept man must if he is to feel comfort in the beneficence of the demands of life. There is no end to this glorious caring, no end to the glory of promises made that speak of wonders to come.

Man is a creature magnificently conceived, brilliantly directed, infinitely loved. He errs at times. He forgets at times. He neglects at times. Always, however, he is an immutable part of a divine plan in which he is an integral part.

Day 341

Saturday, 9/4/99 11:40PM

Supreme above all other concerns of man in his earthly journey should be a desire to know full awareness in all he says and does of the triumphant nature of love.

In his seeking after happiness in his mortal existence, man is often confused in his search for inner peace and a feeling of fulfillment. He is often subject to pressures which are difficult to resist, and he is often tempted by his awareness of the pleasure that material rewards offers. If he feels able, it is tempting for him to strive for material comfort and temporal power. Man succeeds randomly in this quest, and to some great rewards come in wealth and renown. Others are less strikingly successful but have reason to be satisfied with their earthly successes. Some are less equipped even to attempt such success and are forced to live lives in full awareness of their limitations.

There is no direct relationship between material well being and spiritual well being. Indeed, if anything, material success may be said to be a liability in this regard. It is all too easy to lose sight of the importance of the soul when the body assumes significance above all else. Yet there are those souls in progress who use earthly riches wisely, who seek to share their good fortune in every way and truly nurture the sense of brotherly sharing that reflects a loving soul. Some are heedless in this regard and thereby deprive themselves even more than they deprive their brothers.

Those who never strive for material reward are perhaps the most blessed. They know no temptation, and most often are the most willing to share whatever they are able to share. Above all they are forced to consider themselves fortunate in non-material ways and realize the value of love and caring in their lives. They rarely fail.

Day 342

Sunday, 9/5/99 10:20PM

Let us know at all times the brotherhood of man. Let us rejoice in this awareness even when we are less than caring.

It is all to easy to settle into comfortable belonging in human life, even when it is less than far from perfect in its pleasures and in its comfort. Yet it is beyond the capacities of all not to recognize belonging beyond immediate awareness. Man born into human existence is born with awareness of belonging. Most immediately this awareness is confined to immediate family, to all those closely concerned with love given and received.

As the soul progresses in his journey he becomes more and more aware of the need to mark his journey with love of all sorts, above all of love given and received. If he retains awareness of his divine compact, and even if he does not retain this awareness exactly, he knows in his heart that his need is to find love perfect in all ways to make reasonable and justifying his path through life.

Few souls fail in this search for meaning. Few souls fail to recognize those that they have embraced fully in love past and who [they] embrace fully in love newly offered. There is no end to gratification in this recognition and renewal, and no soul goes unrewarded in that reckoning.

It needs to be said clearly that this life is an adventure, to some rewarding, to others devastating, but to all a path on the eternal road that began eons ago and ends in the final joy of oneness.

This is promise of great cheer and unbounded joy. Embrace its generosity.

Day 343

Monday, 9/6/99 11:35PM

Whenever man begins to doubt himself, he finds consolation if he realizes that he is at all times a creature meant to live in love each and every moment of his life. In times of trouble his consolation is to love and to be loved. In times of joy he exults in love given and received, and his awareness of his own capacity for infinite love gives him confidence.

It is no mean achievement for man to know with absolute certainty that he is capable of acting in love under all circumstances. In this habitual response he is a source of contentment to himself and a source of inspiration to others. Those who observe his full expression of love even when he is sorely tried are both impressed and motivated. His goodness inspires a desire in others to achieve goodness themselves, and in this resolve they find themselves in turn growing in self contentment and in turn inspiring others to emulation.

Love begets love, and at all times fills man with the pride in himself that he was meant to know. He finds the world a place of joy, and he finds in each of his experiences opportunity to share the love that lights his life. He needs no more. He doubts no more. There is no end to this enrichment.

Day 344

Tuesday, 9/7/99 11:54PM

In the best of times in man's journey through life, he finds it easy to have a heart full of love, a feeling of fulfillment, and a sincere appreciation of all he has been given. He cherishes those bound to him in ties of family and friendship and willingly agrees to do all they ask of him. They, in turn, are gratified by his love and caring, and the cycle of love given and received animates all their lives.

Some lives seem charmed, unmarked by trial and tragedy, and indeed these blessed lives seem a haven in a disordered world. Man is more often tried in various ways in his earthly journey, and it becomes his responsibility and his privilege to meet each and every difficulty he encounters in full faith and total love. At times this becomes very difficult, and man must seek deeply within himself for the patience and the courage to overcome all obstacles with a loving appreciation of all he is learning.

Not all men find this courage within themselves immediately, and they find themselves subject to despair and indecisiveness. If they are fortunate, they will be helped in all ways by those who love them and seek to bring them happiness. Such caring is a powerful force, and the soul struggling to find acceptance is immeasurably strengthened by it. It is at such times that man realizes the degree to which he is dependent for his well being on love freely offered and gratefully received.

In the worst of times, then, man is capable of finding in his heart the loving acceptance of all travail, and in this acceptance to find new strength to overcome. In the worst of times as well man has reason to realize anew the importance of love shared freely and gratefully returned. He knows anew the power of caring love. He cannot be defeated.

Day 345

Wednesday, 9/8/99 11:50PM

All men are born with a need to strive for goodness. All men are united in this common endeavor.

It is rare that in the early years of life man's need for goodness expressed in unconditional love is denied him. Although there are cases where the soul come newly to earth has chosen a path beset by trial from the very beginning, most new souls know joyous reception and love lavishly given and gratefully received. In those cases where the start of life is less than perfect, the soul knows that it must strive against all odds to reach the perfection of love that is the aim of all souls in transition.

When man undertakes his human journey, he brings with him talents and limitations of his own choosing. He envisions his experiences before human birth and determines that he will most profit by those he chooses. Sometimes it is difficult for him to succeed despite his freedom of choice, but in the most fortunate of cases he succeeds against all odds and knows the pleasure inherent in spiritual progress, a growth gratifying in all ways.

Occasionally the soul knows setbacks and in the face of discouragement may momentarily forget its strengths. In most cases man calls out for help, and seeks inner resources and triumphs over travail. All are pleased in this victory, above all the soul who struggled against superior odds in full faith and hope.

Man is designed to fulfill all his divine promises. If occasionally he fails, he is nourished by the conviction that he has learned from error and that he cannot fail again. Therein lies certainty of eventual oneness.

Day 346

Thursday, 9/9/99 11:46PM

It is the supreme triumph of human life to leave it both willingly and in full awareness of all accomplishment. The test is not in the length of human life. Indeed brevity is sometimes marked with brilliance. There is not, similarly, virtue in longevity, though in such cases the soul has known more sustained trial. The test, then, is in quality.

The question the soul must ask itself is "Did I accomplish all I came to accomplish? Have I succeeded in learning to live in love at all times under all circumstances? Do I know the divine nature of love given and received?" The soul in responding to those questions speaks in total honesty in its self appraisal and is willing in this absolute honesty to admit failure when failure is found, but above all what the soul does and is entitled to do is rejoice in the degree of success it has known in its earthly endeavors. With each degree of success comes full faith that total success is within grasp, that the end of the journey to oneness is swift and certain. In this awareness lies joy beyond expression.

It is the ultimate gift to all men that they cannot fail in their striving to achieve spiritual perfection. They may know error, indeed grievous error, error that blackens the soul. They may be led astray in ways which are simply forgetful of their journey's purpose. They may be forgetful, negligent, unthinking, uncaring. These lapses matter not at all eventually. They represent only delay on the path to spiritual perfection and admission to the holy company that is the goal of all souls.

This, then, is cause for exultation. All men will eventually look back upon their lives just completed and know that they have arrived at heaven's gate in a state of perfection, that they need strive no more, that they are part of the Godhead. There is no further seeking.

Day 347

Friday, 9/10/99 11:56PM

There is infinite understanding granted to man in this earthly experience. He is allowed to choose always, not only what he does and says, but the spirit in which he acts and speaks. He is clearly able at all times to choose both. To man's credit, more often than not he chooses well and acts with the purest of motives, that of the desire to express love, and to his further credit his actions are marked by a spirit of caring and generosity, of a desire to inspire love and to satisfy others' need for love expressed freely and fully.

Yet man is at all times a fallible creature, subject to temptation and momentary weakness. He is at all times able to choose, but there are times when he errs in his choices and acts in a way destructive to his spiritual well being and perhaps injurious to others. On these occasions he is aware of his error, and more often than not anxious to mend his ways and compensate for error. Forgiveness is always his, if not on a human level, on a divine level. There is infinite understanding in this forgiveness, and the sensitive soul will find in his awareness of divine acceptance the capacity to forgive himself and to know that in error and atonement there is value in learning.

The soul thus enriched is stronger in its capacity to resist future temptation and to know in this increased strength divine favor. For this he is grateful.

Day 348

Saturday, 9/11/99 11:06PM

In each man's heart there exists a spark of love that is never extinguished. No matter the degree of error, no matter the distance strayed from the path of goodness and spiritual progress, this spark remains, waiting always to flicker into flame and to light the way.

No man, however depraved, is deprived of this capacity to know love. The blackest heart is redeemed by this divine gift. If you look into the annals of time you will find that no historical villain was totally without this redeeming feature. Each one of them knew love in some way. If you look around you today you will find the same thing to be true.

It is not enough, of course, to know love only partially and particularly, but it is a saving grace and a possible key to transformation. The most reprehensible of men may find himself realizing that his life is rewarding not in all obvious material aspects, not in power or persuasion or financial reward, but in that single part of his life in which he is motivated by love. With this awareness man finds it possible and sometimes imperative to abandon his life of oppression, of self aggrandizement, of cruel indifference to others, and to strive to become a better person in all he says and does. His transgressions and weaknesses may be varied, but his need to know love more fully is shared by all those who seek to lead better lives for the sake of love.

Once this flicker of love burns brightly and permanently, the heart knows joy and life becomes a labor of love fully expressed and fully accepted.

Day 349

Sunday, 9/12/99 11:59PM

In all ways man is dependent upon his inner self, the soul that is his eternally and that he brings into each life as the central part of his being, his cause for existence.

It has always been difficult for man to distinguish between body and soul. The corporeal being lends itself easily to earthly analysis, to examinations minute in detail and analysis. The relationship between body and mind, though the latter is incorporated as part of the body, has been pursued assiduously and much of consequence has been determined of the dominance of the brain, of its essential nature in the governance of the physical existence each man born to life knows.

The soul, though, is another matter. The soul stubbornly resists human analysis. Its existence is indisputable. Its importance to each life exists always in human consciousness. It asserts itself in times of doubt. It speaks encouragement in times of trial. Who, then, can dare to say that man is body alone -- that he is animated from birth to death solely by the mechanics of his corporeal being. No man claims this untenable conviction. Yet few men are united in explanation of what lies beyond corporeal reality.

Let us conclude then that ready answers are not available in this earthly life, but that man nevertheless continues to seek in the absolute conviction that the body, even the mind, is not all, that there is a future reality not readily understandable or accessible but nevertheless significant and essential, and that lends itself to intuitive understanding, to perception beyond the ordinary, and that this extension of awareness holds infinite reward.

Day 350

Monday, 9/13/99 11:12PM

It is of the utmost importance that man realize at each juncture of his earthly existence that while he enjoys great powers, he is subject always to a higher will, an authority that is not to be denied. He knows this truth in moments of stress when he realizes his own impotence and inability to address all he seeks to correct. At such times he turns almost instinctively in petition to those forces he does not understand but which lurk in his subconscious mind. In his less stressful moments, the crisis having passed, he may berate himself for self-styled foolishness, for acting irrationally, for emotions he did not and does not understand.

Man would be well served if he gave some attention to what his mind dictates at such times. He may be wise to entertain the notion that when the mind finds itself incapable of finding answers, at times when the body fails, there is a spirit within man which we may call the soul which rises and responds to his needs. Not all answers are readily available, but time after time man finds in his inner voice, this undeniable prompting, answers and resources which serve him well in distress, which lead him to the solutions he seeks and which enrich his very being in new awareness.

Let man be glad of this divine gift and let him know that never is he denied sweet response to petition.

Day 351

Wednesday, 9/15/99 1:25AM

There is inherent in the nature of man a resilience that enables him to survive the severest of trials and to know complete recovery. This quality is stronger in some than in others, but it is a part of each man's nature. It can be strengthened by experience. It can also be dulled by repeated defeats. It is never entirely destroyed.

Even in earliest childhood this resilience serves man well. It insulates him from feelings of hopelessness and enable him to meet challenges with full faith in his ability to cope. It is a source of cheer in times of distress. It is the source of optimism in the face of difficulty.

The resilient soul is as well a source of learning for those who observe cheerfulness in the face of trial, continued effort in the face of setbacks and disappointment. Such repeated effort inspires others to similar response to difficulty and cheers the soul.

Resilience permits man to know fully that there is no such thing in life as utter failure, that he is always capable of success no matter how difficult it may seem at first, no matter how long it takes. This is indeed a divine gift, one which man learns to treasure.

Day 352

Wednesday, 9/15/99 11:58PM

At each juncture in his earthly life man needs to remember its divine purpose. He needs to believe in his ability to meet all challenges and to live in love absolute in full faith. He needs to know in his innermost soul that no more is demanded of him. He needs to feel joyous in the love that guides and dominates his very being and dictates his every response.

When man lives in love in full awareness of its power and persuasion, he needs little more to satisfy his need for achievement. While many men seek material rewards and find in their success a measure of happiness and self satisfaction, there are others whose needs are fully satisfied by their emotional and spiritual well being, by lives lived in love and service to others without regard to material reward. Such individuals rarely experience the restlessness and doubt that those less centered on the spirit may know. There is a limit to earthly pleasures. There is a limit to the need for riches and opulence. There is no limit to the need for soulful nourishment.

Most men in their journey through life reach awareness of the hollow nature of a life lived in pursuit of earthly riches, of temporal power and influence. Most men succeed in tempering their earthly ambitions and reach a balance between body and soul which affords them inner peace and feelings of spiritual well being. The soul which fails to achieve this balance and to know at least a measure of spiritual richness lives in hunger. He is to be pitied.

Few men are so dazzled by riches and earthly comforts and satisfactions that they fail to see further need. All men will, in the end, know such awareness and the world will be infinitely enriched.

Day 353

Friday, 9/17/99 1:37AM

In the midst of life, man often finds himself baffled. He looks about him and he is puzzled by what he observes. To all outward appearances, virtue may be its own reward, as the saying goes, but virtue all too often is not rewarded in other ways. He sees those in power behaving less than admirably. He sees riches bestowed upon those who are least able to use them wisely. He sees a world seemingly intent upon enjoying itself at all costs, caring little for those around them who are less blessed with life's pleasures and riches.

This, then, is the surface. Often the casual observer is not allowed to see beneath the surface, and so he is unaware of the deceptiveness of what he sees. Were he able to penetrate the superficial, he would be aware of the fact that man endowed with worldly goods often harbors in his heart frustration and unhappiness that no degree of earthly benefit can cure or soothe. He would be amazed to know that those seemingly consumed by material concern, intent on having their every desire fulfilled, are often restless in their seeking, constantly unfulfilled and constantly seeking new satisfactions.

This, then, is a lesson for all men. What on the surface appears to be rich gratification may indeed conceal need. What appears to be pleasure may be counterfeiting pain and insecurity. What appears to be plenty may indeed be poverty. There is a divine balance in all of life, not always discernible, but truth to be discovered.

Day 354

Friday, 9/17/99 11:50PM

Chief among man's virtues at all times is his capacity for love given and received.

Man is always aware of the power of love. He knows in his heart the degree to which it gives life meaning under all circumstances. He knows the all encompassing joy in the full exchange of love shared. He begins each day in the hope that all his experiences will be marked by love and that he will find within himself the capacity to respond in love to all he experiences that day for good or for bad. He knows that it is both his duty and his pleasure to live a life of constant generous love, freely given, totally responsive.

When man has experienced the full wonder of love shared he is unwilling to settle for less. There are times when the perfection of shared love is adversely affected. It may be shattered by tragedy, by bereavement. It may be marred by disaffection, by rejection of love, by ill judgment. At such times it is difficult for man to resist despair and bitterness. It is difficult for him to retain his faith and confidence in his ability to live a life of love freely given and gratefully received.

In his resilience, man most often recovers from injury to his experience with love and he seeks new opportunities to discover and nurture loving relationships. The seeking soul is rarely disappointed when he brings to his search an open mind and a heart generous in its giving. His hunger is most often satisfied and the memory of his earlier painful experiences fades.

It is right and good that man strive constantly in the face of all challenge to satisfy his need for love shared. He knows its necessity.

Day 355

Saturday, 9/18/99 11:21PM

As man struggles through life, he is beset by doubts when his path is beset by difficulties he finds onerous. Even in his untroubled moments he wonders about the nature of his earthly experiences. In times of plenty he is content. In times of need he feels abandoned. At all times he feels the need of counsel, of help beyond his immediate awareness, and he reaches out in words unspoken, in emotions experienced. All men know such times of uncertainty, times when they mistrust their own abilities and perceptions and when they yearn for certainty in their responses and in their capacities.

No man escapes completely these feelings of uncertainty as they proceed in their earthly journeys. No man feels fully confident in meeting unexpected demands on their abilities. No man is able totally to cope with challenges he meets unexpectedly. No man courts disaster in full faith in his ability to deal with it.

Yet all lives are troubled by the unexpected. All men know times when they are totally unprepared for all that is expected of them in response. Instantly they doubt their capacity to cope, and yet almost immediately they realize that they do indeed have both the capacity and the willingness to meet this particular challenge and all others which might follow. They rejoice in this new awareness of strength, and their lives are thereby blessed.

Man has at all times capacities beyond his immediate awareness, and he is blessed with awareness in times of need. He needs only to seek to be gratified and in this gratification to know strength beyond the ordinary. Man is thereby blessed.

Day 356

Sunday, 9/19/99 11:16PM

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about man in his human journey is the extent to which he reflects his divine origin..

Regard the infant newly arrived to this earthly life. Look into the eyes of a newborn child and see in their incandescence the innocence that is the hallmark of the divine. Consider this absolute trust and willing love. Regard the effect they have on others -- an invariably loving response, a desire to nurture, a need to love and to be loved.

As the child progresses to maturity, he knows a variety of responses to his need and to his trust. In the most fortunate of cases this need and trust is met with a caring commensurate to its needs, and the child flourishes in an atmosphere of love given and received. Even under less ideal circumstances the child maturing into adulthood retains a sweet innocence and an enduring trust, and even when this innocence and trust is sorely tried, the sweet nature of the child survives trial and challenge and matures into an adult aware in all ways of the vital importance of love as a dominating force in all of life's experiences.

Love is at all times the connection between the earthly and the divine, and so long as love survives in man's heart, he retains the divine nature that is his eternally. In those cases where man is led so astray that he ceases to feel love and to know its importance, his loss is temporary, and it is only a matter of time before he knows the strength of his divine nature and acknowledges the power and importance of love.

The link between man and his divine origin is an eternal link, forgotten at times, tried sorely at others, even occasionally scorned, but it is never destroyed. It survives all challenges, all rebuffs, all rejection, and in the end is fully embraced and gratefully acknowledged. This is God's way.

Day 357

.Monday, 9/20/99 11:56PM

There is a time in each man's life when he comes to ultimate evaluation of his life just past.

Most often man is moved to this analysis as he contemplates the end of his life. Yet sometimes man comes to this self appraisal at an earlier date. It comes sometimes at a time of crisis, when man seriously questions his past and seeks to know what he should ask of the future. At times this appraisal comes when man tires of his daily routine and finds accomplishment without satisfaction. He may seek a different road to fulfillment. Ideally this self judgment comes when man is seeking to live a more perfect life, to find his existence more enriched by loving relationships.

At all these junctures in the human journey, man is both enriched and enlightened when he seeks to understand his life just past and to evaluate his expectation of what lies ahead. Ideally he finds the answers that lead him to greater satisfaction in life and to the realization that there is no satisfaction in a life that lacks love as a central force.

The earlier man arrives at this realization, the earlier he determines that if his life is lacking in fulfillment, he needs only to seek for opportunities to live in love expressed in all ways. There is no single formula to successful living. Each man has his own set of demands, his own innate needs, but all men share a single overwhelming need to make their lives complete, and that single necessity is love, love given, love received, love accorded the focus it deserves, the absolute force in human existence.

Without love, man must know in his innermost being, all is lost. With love, he must equally appreciate, he is triumphant.

Day 358

Tuesday, 9/21/99 11:50PM

In his seeking after happiness in human life, man tries many roads. Sometimes he is guided strongly in his choice by parental and societal influences. Often those influences, beneficent in their nature, afford great satisfaction and grace in their guidance and the soul so guided lives a life affirmative in its aspirations, fulfilling in its accomplishments. Under the best of circumstances, love becomes an essential part of each aspect of the life so designed and man basks in the pleasure he is afforded.

There are times when man is troubled by a sense of direction. He may reject the guidance offered. He may lack completely a sense of caring and protectiveness. He may lack the talents and capacities to accomplish his dreams of success. He may know early despair and deprivation and feel himself incapable of aspiration.

Sometimes the world is cruel to those who are seemingly lacking in the attributes that the world deems desirable, and they suffer accordingly. If they are fortunate in the midst of self styled failure and distress, they find in their lives a caring soul, one whose faith and trust create an eden in the midst of desolation, and all insecurity lessens in the faith of a loving soul's caring. Sometimes the road to this security is long and difficult. Sometimes the road has no ending. Yet it must be remembered that all of life is learning and that failure may be the most profound teacher.

In the end no soul is adjudged a failure. In the end those judged failures in their earthly lives may know the greatest glory. Their success may be inestimable.

Day 359

Wednesday, 9/22/99 11:55PM

There is in all men a sense of belonging. This is in many ways his most precious perception, for it affords him awareness of the significance of love shared.

All men are born with an awareness of belonging. The child newly come to human existence depends absolutely on those he looks to for sustenance and survival. He knows in this giving the reminder of the love he brought with him. He is nourished increasingly as he grows by the loving belonging that is his in full awareness of all he needs. He thrives in the close comfort of the love afforded him. He rejoices in belonging and depends utterly upon this caring born of gentle relationship.

Man having been nurtured by the love afforded him at the start of life and vitally dependent upon the sense of belonging nurtured by this love never ceases to maintain this emotional security, this absolute barrier against hurt. The most fortunate of men live their lives enveloped and defended against harm by the strength of love sustained by belonging. Even when this total security is challenged, it survives and lends total fulfillment and infinite richness.

Man is not meant to be solitary. He seeks always to know the warmth and comfort of belonging, of companionship and love and loyalty uniquely his. It is his triumph in life. It is his joy and his comfort beyond life.

Day 360

Thursday, 9/23/99 11:49PM

In his infinite wisdom man is capable of grasping divine truth. He needs only to seek, to open his mind and heart and to accept gladly all his perception tells him. All men come to earth in search of spiritual perfection know a hunger for enrichment in all aspects of their being. They are grateful for all they are given in material advantage, but reject full satisfaction in this alone. They are granted insight that tells them that true satisfaction and ultimate fulfillment lie not in material wealth but in spiritual richness.

Not all men are equally blessed with this awareness. Not all men seek truly. Yet no man lacks completely the capacity for spiritual insight and spiritual hunger. All men possess souls of infinite perfection. This gift demands a commensurate response, and each step in spiritual progress brings man closer to this inevitable perfection.

When man realizes the simplicity of spiritual progress, he knows the joy of realizing that the key to all inner happiness, to all spiritual richness, to all meaningful achievement is his capacity for love unconditional in nature, infinite in its generosity, blissful in its pleasure.

Once man has learned the lesson of love, he needs no more to know true earthly happiness and the progression to spiritual perfection that is the ultimate achievement of all souls.

Day 361

Friday, 9/24/99 11:57PM

Before the end of human life man is privileged to experience all he has asked to experience, to meet the trials and tribulations he has agreed to suffer, to know the success in his spiritual progress that he has come to achieve, and to go willingly to the end of one existence and to the start of another.

This is a joyful concept, and yet one which is difficult for mortal man to embrace. It is reasonable for all those in full enjoyment of the human journey to face mortality reluctantly. It is difficult for man to contemplate his own death and even more difficult for him to contemplate the loss of those dear to his heart.

This is both normal and acceptable, but man would be well advised to accept the truth of human existence, to realize that the life he leads is but part of a greater whole, that those dear to him in his present life are linked to him eternally, and that death does not represent an ending but simply a change, an end of one existence and a start of another.

There is an eternal love linking all lives at all times. Man, therefore, has no cause to feel bereft as he experiences what he regards as the loss of a loved one. He has no cause for trepidation when he contemplates his own demise. In both cases he will find joy if he can accept the transitory nature of life and death and know that love is transcendent, that it never dies but is simply transformed into a more glorious awareness than the human mind can grasp.

There is nothing but glory beyond this life. Know this and be glad.

Day 362

Saturday, 9/25/99 11:45PM

From his very first breath to his last, man lives a life divinely governed.

This is not to say that man is asked to exist governed by a power which imposes upon him the nature and duration of his human existence, but rather to say that man before coming to this human existence is divinely empowered to determine the life he will lead in all its aspects. With this gift he is able to determine the path of life best suited to his need for spiritual progress. He is as well endowed with free will which permits him great choice in the extent to which he follows the path he deemed wise and profitable spiritually or to stray from this path in distraction and diversion.

Man's free choice is not infinite, but rather controlled by his material existence. He is always able to choose among alternatives offered to him, but the true significance of free will is his choice to choose wisely in the light of what love demands of him. Man often forgets this central necessity in his choice and must often learn of his error in pain and anguish, but always, to his dying day and beyond, he is afforded the opportunity to correct error and to return to the path of love he was meant to follow.

Thus man not only chooses his destiny, but he is allowed infinite error in failure to learn and to progress. He is not allowed to fail in his search for spiritual perfection. Always he must continue to seek.

Day 363

Sunday, 9/26/99 11:35PM

All of life is a matter of joy. This is a concept difficult for easy acceptance, but upon consideration it becomes easier of acceptance.

Think of the start of human existence, the birth of a child, a miracle of creation. Under the direst of conditions the emergence into the world of a new soul is cause for exultation. Those most directly concerned see this new being as a creature of love humanly expressed, divinely created, joyfully received into the world of man.

All through the development of this new life, through childhood into maturity, this new soul retains the capacity to create joyful response. This is not to say that this life is free of sadness and difficulty, but it is to say that the joy outweighs the sorrow. In all cases the soul retains a buoyancy that lends light to its path through life.

Even when life becomes marred by difficulty, by confusion, by conflict and alienation, there remains in the soul of man come to life a capacity for joy that defies all trial. The dourest of men know moments of lightness and humor. The saddest of companies can be stirred to laughter by a soul intent on spreading joy.

This innate need to know joy and to respond always to joy is man's salvation in many ways. There is no man so deprived that he is incapable of a joyous response. Joy lives in the very soul of man and survives all trials and all rejection. It lives to assert itself in times of greatest need, and for this the soul in need is eternally grateful.

Day 364

Tuesday, 9/28/99 12:28AM

Above all else, man retains in life after life full awareness of his own worth. In the face of all rejection, all difficulty, all uncertainty, there remains in the heart of man certainty of his special quality, of his absolute significance in the life he has chosen to live.

Often man loses his self confidence in whole or in part when his life involves him in situations detrimental to his self confidence and demeaning in nature. There are times when man creates his own problems in this regard, but there are other times when he is assailed by conflicts not of his making.

Regardless of the origin of the turmoil which engulfs him, man struggles both to resolve the problems which face him and to retain a degree of confidence and self respect during the course of his struggle. This is often not an easy accomplishment, but man is capable beyond his immediate perception of this singular achievement, and if he persists and knows success his life is immeasurably enriched and his soul is infinitely gratified.

Not all men know that in the most difficult of times he has within himself the capacity to survive and beyond that to know great pleasure in his own strength and self regard. Man is indomitable in many ways, and when he knows this inner strength he knows his links to the divine. He needs no more.

Day 365

Tuesday, 9/28/99 11:55PM

In the beginning of time as man took form in the mind of God, he was conceived in love, nurtured in love, cherished in love, and was from the very start destined to bring to the world the message of love in its purest form. This pure love made of man a representation of the divine. It was breathed into each soul as a manifestation of its wondrous link with all heavenly power. It was meant to be at all times a source of strength and inspiration.

Breathed as well into the soul of man was the divine privilege of free will, the godlike capacity to choose at all times the ways he chose to live. Implicit in this power was its danger, for man recognized temptation by earthly pleasure from his very beginnings. Indeed earthly pleasure was a gift of God from the very origin of the universe. Man was meant to enjoy all the pleasures of human existence and to enjoy these pleasures in a spirit of infinite love and infinite sharing and total brotherhood, at all times the absolute necessity.

It was not long before this gift of free will was exercised in a spirit of selfishness and narrow accomplishment. The godliness of man come to earth was lost in the confusion and deprivation created by the selfishness man knew in his alienation from the path of love and caring. The chaos created by such infidelity was predictably disastrous and disconcerting. The idyllic existence man first knew was destroyed, and the peace that was meant to live in every heart came to an end in strife and recrimination.

Though most souls remembered with gratitude and faithfulness their obligation to live in love and to make of the earth a holy place, all too many surrendered to the wiles of temptation to improve their lots by imposing their will and victimizing their brothers. The world has suffered since at the hands of those misled souls. Violence has achieved a following. Mistrust has destroyed the bonds of love and caring. From generation to generation strife has found its gratification without ever achieving truth. The world aches for solutions.

These solutions will be found. They will be found in the hearts and the actions of the great majority of God's children, those sometimes silent souls who know that the only path is the path of love if one is to know true happiness and who know that they teach by example and learn by example. The time will come when those blessed souls speak in a voice that cannot be ignored, cannot be silenced.

The world will see in this outpouring of faith and love a solution to the problems that have plagued man for centuries. The pureness of the message will be irresistible, and slowly, inexorably, all those blessed souls seeking holiness will not only listen and heed but will find it their destiny to share all that their hearts tell them of divine love divinely shared, man's answer to all his needs.

Cornelia Silke dba New Light Publishing © 2010