Reflections 337 to 350
337/ Eternally Now
27th September 2025
“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” Mark Twain.
Brother, you need forgiveness of your brother, for you will share in madness or in Heaven together. (ACIM, T-19.IV-D.12:7)
***
Lesson 337. My sinlessness protects me from all harm (ACIM, W-337). Yesterday: It was around 4pm when I noticed a technical fault on my blog and, not being a techy type of person, it was around 7pm when I had resolved it. The timer had gone off three times for my hourly observation of the lesson and I began to be so irritated that I barely looked at the title. Basically, I forgot what I am and was trying to be what I am not. Today: This lesson tells me that my sinlessness protects me from all harm, and I am reminded that I have two voices in my mind. One always wakes me up at the perfect time every morning and the other berates me for certain aspects of my life. It is always a choice as to which one I listen to.
The central lesson is always this; that what you use the body for it will become to you. Use it for sin or for attack, which is the same as sin, and you will see it as sinful. Because it is sinful it is weak, and being weak, it suffers and it dies. Use it to bring the Word of God to those who have it not, and the body becomes holy. Because it is holy it cannot be sick, nor can it die. When its usefulness is done it is laid by, and that is all. (ACIM, M-12.5:1-6)
A Course in Miracles tells us that the mind always makes any decision; never the body.
And the mind never makes any decision alone. It always has the choice of one of two teachers - the first teaches love and the second teaches fear.
A Course in Miracles also tells us that oneness and sickness cannot coexist. It is impossible. Oneness is whole and total while sickness is part of a separate reality.
And this is the dream - one where dream figures come and go, suffer for a while and eventually die.
However, change our perception and the dream disappears; it means we wake up to our aliveness.
And the body just acts accordingly. The mind that is driving it responds only to what is eternally now.
338/ Forgiveness Heals
28th September 2025
“Religion is for people who fear hell. Spirituality is for people who have been there.” David Bowie.
The belief in hell is inescapable to those who identify with the ego. (ACIM, T-15.I.4:1)
***
Lesson 338. I am affected only by my thoughts (ACIM, W-338). Yesterday: The lesson told me that my sinlessness protects me from all harm, and it states that the only way for this to happen is by accepting the Atonement for myself. This ends the dream of separation which was partially apparent yesterday. I only saw a sunny day with smiling faces. Today: How apt today’s lesson is. I am going to do a mosaics workshop and my thought are driving me mad with the possibility of fiddliness and public exposure. I couldn’t sleep very well and have handed it over to the Holy Spirit. The only thing I can do is to not deny my feelings and be with them.
You cannot give up Heaven partially. You cannot be a little bit in hell. The Word of God has no exceptions. It is this that makes it holy and beyond the world. It is its holiness that points to God. It is its holiness that makes you safe. It is denied if you attack any brother for anything. For it is here the split with God occurs. A split that is impossible. A split that cannot happen. (ACIM, M-13.7:3-12)
A Course in Miracles is the reminder that we have a split mind. It is this that needs the healing.
As stated in the passage above, a split is impossible. It suggests we are dreaming of a separation from God and it is why, in the words that have come from Jesus, we are crucifying God’s Son.
We are being shown that the world can offer us nothing. We have to find this out for ourselves and it probably means travelling down many rabbit holes before we do.
The lesson today tells us that nothing external can hurt us. We always blame our bad feelings on something that has happened to us, or is about to happen, but actually it is just a bunch of thoughts.
Really, our thoughts make up the self that we think we are. It does not exist. A Course in Miracles tells us our identity is just a concept that we have built up in the mind.
Heal the split and our true Self reveals itself. We do this through forgiveness, finding out that nothing has happened. The truth reveals that our Identity is eternal and has never gone away.
29th September 2025
“Just as the ocean has waves or the sun has rays, so the mind’s own radiance is its thoughts and emotions.” Sogyal Rinpoche.
The sun and ocean are as nothing beside what you are. (ACIM, T-18.VIII.7:2)
***
Lesson 339. I will receive whatever I request (ACIM, W-339). Yesterday: The mosaics workshop was a lesson in trust. I gave it to the Holy Spirit which meant that the ego was kept in the background, taunting me. Slowly, its voice receded and I began to enjoy the day - the workshop leader was entirely helpful and kind, and the group was very entertaining. I came away with a remarkable bit of work that should encourage me to do more. Today: This lesson made so much sense when I sat with it a little earlier. Thoughts would cross my mind about a person or event, and I realised that I would receive exactly what I was requesting. As Jesus says somewhere in the Course, we need to become more aware of the power of our thinking.
The world will end when its thought system has been completely reversed. Until then, bits and pieces of its thinking will still seem sensible. The final lesson, which brings the ending of the world, cannot be grasped by those not yet prepared to leave the world and go beyond its tiny reach. (ACIM, M-14.4:1-3)
A Course in Miracles tells us that the world is an illusion. This is how it ends and this is how it began.
In the present moment, the world cannot exist. It can only exist within the context of time, and time has no meaning in the holy instant.
A Course in Miracles also tells us that one sin perfectly forgiven will make salvation complete, and this is because there is no order of difficulty in anything.
And this brings us back to the basic premise of A Course in Miracles. Things such as punishment and sin, sickness and death, physical form and the world - they are all ideas made up within the mind.
And they all arise from an intense fear of God. Although forgotten, it is the catalyst for all our fears.
A Course in Miracles is therefore the reminder that God has not rejected us. He is calling us home.
30th September 2025
“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.” Dalai Lama.
Healing is a thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad. (ACIM, T-5.I.1:1)
***
Lesson 340. I can be free of suffering today (ACIM, W-340). Yesterday: I must have forgotten to take a screen shot of the lesson because, when I next looked at it, I began to wonder if it was still the screen shot from the previous day - and it was. And so, since I wasn’t going to be home for the next few hours, I found the lesson (“I will receive whatever I request”) on Google and practised it from there. Today: My mind feels quite crowded with thoughts and so I was on autopilot for the first couple of times that I read the lesson - and then realised I had to concentrate in order to fully digest its meaning. Basically, the lesson reminds me that I can be free of suffering right now - and having a mind full of thought is exactly what suffering is.
No one can escape God’s Final Judgment. Who could flee forever from the truth? But the Final Judgment will not come until it is no longer associated with fear. One day each one will welcome it, and on that very day it will be given him. He will hear his sinlessness proclaimed around and around the world, setting it free as God’s Final Judgment on him is received. (ACIM, M-15.1:2-6)
A Course in Miracles asks us whether we could judge ourselves as God judges us?
The answer is no because, if it was in the affirmative, then we wouldn’t be here.
The world is based on fear and there is nothing within the Mind of God that is fearful. God is pure, undiluted, unconditional love that extends and extends and extends.
And we are an extension of that love which is currently hidden beneath a superficial veneer of doubt. Remove the doubt and clarity can only return.
This is why A Course in Miracles brings us back to basics. It teaches us how to return to a state of beingness which has nothing to do with the body or the world.
We do this by removing the blocks to love’s presence. These blocks feel dense and solid but are really just nothing. And, as we see past them, the certainty returns that we are perfect and innocent.
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341/ Certainty of Self
1st October 2025
“Falling down is not a failure. Failure comes when you stay where you have fallen.” Socrates.
There is no need to learn through pain. And gentle lessons are acquired joyously, and are remembered gladly. (ACIM, T-21.I.3:1-2)
***
Lesson 341. I can attack but my own sinlessness, and it is only that which keeps me safe (ACIM, W-341). Yesterday: The lesson was about being free of suffering and making it a choice. The sun was shining; I had a couple of hours gardening in the morning and then my sister came round and we went out for lunch. All was perfect. And then my sister related a story of how two words were said to her a few weeks ago and those two words had inflicted great suffering. Only in the ego’s world can two words make life so painful. Today: This was a pleasant lesson to sit with. As I sat with it a few moments ago, I was wondering what my sinlessness is? The conclusion I came to was that it is beyond thought - just a state of awareness that observes everything.
There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day. It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace, a thought of limitless release, limitless because all things are freed within it. You think you made a place of safety for yourself. You think you made a power that can save you from all the fearful things you see in dreams. It is not so. (ACIM, M-16.6:1-5)
A Course in Miracles tells us that it is impossible for our safety to lie in dreams. If we think that anything external to us can make us safe, then we are merely substituting one illusion for another.
All safety lies within. This is the primary reason for undertaking the Workbook.
Within means that all of our safety lies in the formless. It is ephemeral and timeless.
And, being timeless, our safety is beyond anything that the ego can ever dream up.
Dreams are always the ego’s reality. They can be nasty and vicious, or encouraging and warming. However, they can never contain a peace that has no beginning or end.
Certainty of Self is the only alternative we have and this is an endless peace that arises through the Holy Spirit. It means we are awake and alert to everything that God would want us to have.
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342/ The Self within
2nd October 2025
“Avoid places that disturb your mind, and always remain where your virtues increase.” Atīśa.
God is inevitable, and you cannot avoid Him any more than He can avoid you. (ACIM, T-4.I.9:11)
***
Lesson 342. I let forgiveness rest upon all things, for thus forgiveness will be given me (ACIM, W-342). Yesterday: The lesson reminded me that my sinlessness is my safety but that I attack it all the time. I know that my thinking does this but I also know that the problem arises when I am not aware of it - in other words, when my mind is overwhelmed with thought. Today: It occurred to me as I was sitting with this lesson just how far-reaching the process of forgiveness really is. It has to cover everything and whatever the ego is thinking about becomes the material that has to be used.
Let this grim sword be taken from you now. There is no death. The sword does not exist. The fear of God is causeless. But His Love is Cause of everything beyond all fear, and thus forever real and always true. (ACIM, M-17.9:9-13)
The grim sword, as mentioned above, is a belief in duality. It is the thought that we are somehow separate and cut off from the Love of God.
After all, how can God’s Love exist in a world where war and murder is accepted as the norm?
The answer is that it doesn’t - but it is always our choice if we want it to be. To discover the truth of this, we have to go inward, not outward, and see that there is an alternative to this war of attrition.
Our bodies are not the truth. Jesus knew that, as his body became a 'was', that the Self within is.
Erin Michelle Galito channels Jesus in the video below. Jesus asks us to release our victimhood and revert to our right mind. He tells us that, if we choose to awaken, we are assuming our responsibility and reclaiming our power. We discover what we really are and not what we imagine ourselves to be.
343/ I Amness
3rd October 2025
“Every cell in your body is eavesdropping on your thoughts.” Deepak Chopra.
The thoughts the mind of God’s Son projects or extends have all the power that he gives to them. (ACIM, T-14.I.3:3)
***
Lesson 343. I am not asked to make a sacrifice to find the mercy and the peace of God (ACIM, W-343). Yesterday: I was listening to a commentary on the teachings of Joel Goldsmith as I worked in a garden from mid-morning into the early afternoon. I remember reading The Mystical I almost thirty years ago and being blown away by it. These recordings were about the I am presence and brought me right back to what it is to be in the now, knowing myself as consciousness and not as a form. Today: This lesson is all about giving. God only gives and we are the Son of God. Therefore, our purpose in the world is to give love and, as we give, so we receive the same back in return.
The sole responsibility of God’s teacher is to accept the Atonement for himself. Atonement means correction, or the undoing of errors. When this has been accomplished, the teacher of God becomes a miracle worker by definition. His sins have been forgiven him, and he no longer condemns himself. How can he then condemn anyone? And who is there whom his forgiveness can fail to heal? (ACIM, M-18.4:5-10)
A Course in Miracles tells us that, even if we feel the faintest hint of irritation with anyone, then we need to instantly recognize that we have made an interpretation that is not true.
It is by asking our internal Teacher (the Holy Spirit) to judge for us that we discover what the appropriate response should be.
Therefore, it really is all or nothing. The mind is either healed or not healed at all.
The ego loves to bombard us with its comments. The ego is a voice that goes on and on and on.
The Holy Spirit sits just below the surface, also communicating but in a quiet and reverent way.
And the I Amness is the witness to our dilemma. I Amness has no agenda; it only needs to be known.
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344/ Ache of Emptiness
4th October 2025
“I am the drop that contains the ocean.” Yunus Emre.
Can you exclude yourself from the universe, or from God Who is the universe? (ACIM, T-11.I.2:4)
***
Lesson 344. Today I learn the law of love; that what I give my brother is my gift to me. (ACIM, W-344). Yesterday: The lesson showed me that we don’t have to sacrifice anything in order to find the mercy and the peace of God. This is because God’s Love is always with us and, as someone commented over a cup of tea, whatever we are doing, then “this is it”. Another way of putting it is that consciousness is simply having a human experience. Today: The lesson asks us who can share a dream? The dream is the empty space that we have inside and in which we store everything that we think is important to us. When we learn that only forgiveness can fill that space, then we start to become whole again.
Salvation is God’s justice. It restores to your awareness the wholeness of the fragments you perceive as broken off and separate. And it is this that overcomes the fear of death. For separate fragments must decay and die, but wholeness is immortal. It remains forever and forever like its Creator, being one with Him. God’s judgment is His justice. (ACIM, M-19.4:1-6)
A Course in Miracles asks us whether we want a tranquil mind or a mind at war?
And this is the choice we make during every moment of the day. It is the same choice as wanting to live or wanting to die.
The Holy Spirit becomes our decision to live. This is the peace within our minds that never changes. It is always there and is calling us gently.
The ego is the little gap that just needs to be filled. It is an empty space where loneliness dwells. It is really nothing suspended in everything.
Forgiveness is the balm that soothes the ache of emptiness. Forgiveness doesn’t do anything but it does let everything be exactly as it is.
And when the ache is gone, peace takes its place. Time then disappears and so do all of our fears.
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345/ Become Present
5th October 2025
“God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Look on your brother, and see in him the gift of God you would receive. (ACIM, T-19.IV-D.17:3)
***
Lesson 345. I offer only miracles today, for I would have them be returned to me (ACIM, W-345). Yesterday: The lesson was a reminder that we are sharing a dream whenever anyone or anything hurts us in any way. The whole purpose of the Workbook is that it teaches us to act as unconditional love in every way we can. Today: When I get up, I have a habit of sitting and reciting internally the fifty principles of miracles. I did this earlier and, when I had finished and just before opening my eyes, it was almost as if a spiritual entity appeared in my mind’s eye and waved me goodbye. This, in itself, felt just like a miracle.
Living is joy, but death can only weep. You see in death escape from what you made. But this you do not see; that you made death, and it is but illusion of an end. Death cannot be escape, because it is not life in which the problem lies. Life has no opposite, for it is God. Life and death seem to be opposites because you have decided death ends life. Forgive the world, and you will understand that everything that God created cannot have an end, and nothing He did not create is real. (ACIM, M-20.5:1-7)
A Course in Miracles tells us that God’s peace is totally unlike all previous experiences. The only contrast is the past, and the past has gone. Quiet has reached to cover everything.
It is forgiveness that allows God’s peace to happen; any form of attack totally obliterates it and this is because thought simply opposes the Will of God.
A Course in Miracles therefore asks us whether we want conflict or perfect peace? Remove the blocks to love’s presence and we will find the latter.
Perfect peace can’t be blocked off from our awareness; perfect peace is our awareness.
And the irony is that what we are as spirit has now become fully embodied and asleep.
To awaken, we need a radical change of mind. We leave the past behind and become the present.
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346/ Internal Choice
6th October 2025
“Forgetfulness of your real nature is true death. Remembrance of it is rebirth.” Ramana Maharshi.
Your Father can no more forget the truth in you than you can fail to remember it. (ACIM, T-16.IV.12:1)
***
Lesson 346. Today the peace of God envelops me, and I forget all things except His Love (ACIM, W-346). Yesterday: The lesson was all about offering miracles so that they can be returned to the offerer. The miracle for me is that I am currently working on a mosaic of a surfer as a birthday present for my wife’s nephew, and that only a week ago I was able to do a mosaic workshop. And another miracle was that the timer went off right in the middle of a crucial bit of gluing and I was still able to stop and read the lesson. Today: My mind wouldn’t settle when I was doing this lesson - I was getting distracted by a few of my many imagined hopes and fears. Essentially, though, I just had to keep drawing my mind back and reminding myself of what I am.
God does not understand words, for they were made by separated minds to keep them in the illusion of separation. Words can be helpful, particularly for the beginner, in helping concentration and facilitating the exclusion, or at least the control, of extraneous thoughts. Let us not forget, however, that words are but symbols of symbols. They are thus twice removed from reality. (ACIM, M-21.1:7-10)
A Course in Miracles tells us that we either ask for heaven or hell. It really is as simple as that.
The prayer for things of the world will bring experiences of the world; and likewise with spirit. We are either the sleeping Son of God or the awakened Son of God.
And words do not matter. As stated above, they are just symbols of symbols. We are either thinking with false perception or true perception.
False perception is the ego. The ego is our number one fear disguised under a cloak of respectability.
True perception arises from the Holy Spirit. This is the peaceful mind and one that knows only love.
And so truth or error is always an internal choice. Each moment, we are choosing what suits us best.
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347/ Acceptance of what Is
7th October 2025
“You should never let your fears prevent you from doing what is right.” Aung San Suu Kyi.
Would you not exchange your fears for truth, if the exchange is yours for the asking? (ACIM, T-11.VIII.15:1)
***
Lesson 347. Anger must come from judgment. Judgment is the weapon I would use against myself, to keep the miracle away from me (ACIM, W-347). Yesterday: The lesson was all about allowing peace to envelop my mind and remembering only the Love of God. I did my hourly observation of the lesson a few minutes before teaching a chair yoga class at 10am and could feel the frisson of anxiety that I normally feel. Peace was partially absent but did present itself as I got into my role as the teacher of the class. Today: This lesson felt very clear as I practised it a few moments ago. I could feel the ego’s constant judgement and this, at times, developed into a story. And now, even as I write, I feel a concern as to whether I am still judging.
Healing and Atonement are not related; they are identical. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because there are no degrees of Atonement. It is the one complete concept possible in this world, because it is the source of a wholly unified perception. Partial Atonement is a meaningless idea, just as special areas of hell in Heaven are inconceivable. (ACIM, M-22.1:1-4)
Forgiveness is healing. This is essential to understand if we are to achieve what A Course in Miracles is asking us to achieve.
Atonement and healing are identical, as stated above.
And sickness is a decision - a state of mind. Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to be healthy when the solution is so simple?
It seems that we constantly search outside of ourselves for healing and we still become sick. Instead, we need to go inwards. Healing occurs when we confront the cause of sickness.
And this is the ego. The ego is one single thought that is manifesting in eight billion different ways.
All we need to do is to accept whatever turns up. When we rest in what is, the ego’s loses its impact.
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348/ Suffering Is optional
8th October 2025
“The only way to bring peace to the earth is to learn to make our own life peaceful.” Buddha.
Limit the peace you share, and your Self must be unknown to you. (ACIM, T-11.IV.3:2)
***
Lesson 348. I have no cause for anger or fear, for You surround me. And in every need that I perceive, Your grace suffices me (ACIM, W-348). Yesterday: We had a friend coming to stay for two nights and had to pick her up from the coach station in Plymouth. Having people to stay triggers lots of ego-based memories that can be both good and bad and, as we were entering back through the door, I was talking about one particular incident that happened in 2020 and which had ended with me spending two weeks in hospital. According to the metaphysics of ACIM, it never happened (as nothing has ever happened) but it did need the application of the lesson. This meant that it roused anger in me and needed forgiveness. Today: It took me a while to memorize this lesson for my first fifteen-minute practice, but it does make complete sense. My mind is sitting quietly within the Mind of God and what is there that I could possibly fear?
The name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol. But it stands for love that is not of this world. It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray. It becomes the shining symbol for the Word of God, so close to what it stands for that the little space between the two is lost, the moment that the name is called to mind. (ACIM, M-23.4:1-4)
A Course in Miracles tells us that no one on earth can ever grasp what Heaven is, nor what Heaven’s one Creator really means.
Heaven is a state of perfect oneness and God is all there Is. The mind is split between illusions and the truth, which means that the appearance of many minds are caught up in duality.
And Jesus was also caught up in that duality until he accepted the Atonement for himself, which means that he became one with God. He saw the face of Christ in everyone and everything.
A Course in Miracles is yet more symbols from that oneness - thousands and thousands of words that act as reminders of what he have never left.
And so we just have to look beyond the symbols to the perfection that is all around us. As the lesson today implies, all suffering is totally optional and self-inflicted. Only we are the cause of all our pain.
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349/ Reminder of Perfection
9th October 2025
“For the mind to flower it has to go beyond what it knows.” Mother Meera.
However ridiculous the idea of attacking God may be to the sane mind, never forget that the ego is not sane. (ACIM, T-5.V.3:8)
***
Lesson 349. Today I let Christ’s vision look up all things for me and judge them not, but give each one a miracle of love instead (ACIM, W-349). Yesterday: There’s a quote I heard while listening to a recording about Joel Goldsmith and it goes as follows: “I and the Father are one”. I was using this quote alongside the lesson which related to God’s Love surrounding me and, if I really understood it totally, it would be the end of the story. Today: It took me quite a long time to memorize this lesson for my first sitting, and I spent the last minute questioning whether I really believed it - can Christ’s vision really give all the things I see a miracle of love?
The emphasis of this course always remains the same;—it is at this moment that complete salvation is offered you, and it is at this moment that you can accept it. This is still your one responsibility. Atonement might be equated with total escape from the past and total lack of interest in the future. Heaven is here. There is nowhere else. Heaven is now. There is no other time. (ACIM, M-24.6:1-7)
The ego will hate anything it reads in the words above. It will shrug its shoulders and dismiss the passage as gobbledygook. A mind that thinks we have never left Heaven has to be clinically insane.
And yet this is just how A Course in Miracles defines the ego. We learn that the ego (what we think we are) is insanity expressing itself through form.
Sometimes, it is good to be reminded of the love that awaits us as our sanity returns.
And the near-death experience is that reminder. It shows us the perfection that we have left behind.
Venia Hill’s near-death experience occurred as a teenager on a school trip to Italy. She was taken by a guide to a white realm that was both vibrant and loving. She felt a connection to everything, calling it an instantaneous now. Later, she was told that our purpose here on earth is to be loving and kind.
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350/ Aware of Stillness
10th October 2025
“If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.” Marvin Gaye.
In shining peace within you is the perfect purity in which you were created. (ACIM, T-13.X.9:4)
***
Lesson 350. Miracles mirror God’s eternal Love. To offer them is to remember Him, and through His memory to save the world (ACIM, W-350). Yesterday: There was something about going to a soul motion dance class (the first one for a while) that completely endorsed everything the lesson was teaching. The lesson was about giving Christ’s vision full rein and not judging anything. The class started with me making a lot of personal judgements and then gradually, over the two hours, acceptance and love just took over. Today: This lesson tells us that what we are is unaffected by our thoughts, but what the mind looks upon is their direct result. As I sat with this lesson, I kept coming back to the title. Little thoughts were distracting me but I would endeavour to keep ignoring them - just as I might a pesky fly.
The limits the world places on communication are the chief barriers to direct experience of the Holy Spirit, Whose Presence is always there and Whose Voice is available but for the hearing. These limits are placed out of fear, for without them the walls that surround all the separate places of the world would fall at the holy sound of His Voice. (ACIM, M-25.2:5-6)
A Course in Miracles reminds us that, when we transcend the limits of the ego, we merely become more natural.
Being natural means that we’ve become peaceful and the mind is one with Love. Being unnatural means that we think we are a body - the mind is split and is fully focused on the avoidance of pain.
The split in the mind is the ego.
The ego has many thoughts and plans on how to become peaceful but it should never be confused with the Voice of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our intuition.
The Holy Spirit’s Voice is therefore very subtle, gentle and definite. It is an internal Presence.
We need to become aware of that Presence. As we do, an inner stillness informs our practice.
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