Dear Miracle Workers

After my Workbook Lesson today, “My Father gives all power unto me” (OrEd.WkBk.320) I found myself reflecting. I am aware that most students relate to this as meaning we are very, very powerful. Which of course is true, but it is so much more that that. “All power” means there is no: energy, force, light, joy, wisdom, … that is outside of us. It means that God does not have a power that we do not have – we have all God’s power. In fact, we are the totality of power itself.

Reconceptualizing ourselves as the totality of power is not as difficult as some may think – because – since it is who and what we are, there is nothing to do except remove those ideas which are blocking that truth. Lesson #320 reminds us of our limitless nature. Limitless joy would mean whatever joy that we may be experiencing, we can and we will experience even more joy, because joy is limitless. Whatever experience of peace we may be having, we will have new experiences of more peace, because our peace is limitless. Plus, whatever experience of power we may be feeling we will feel more power, because our power is limitless too.

So take on the big things: domestic abuse, child sex trafficking, war, world hunger, gun violence, racial injustice, mental illness, sexism, physical disease, aging, …. Why not? "There is nothing my holiness cannot do." (OrEd.WkBk.38) When I do that I see that everything going on is part of those healings happening. I see the current pandemic is part of that too. There’s the disease itself and the untold suffering associated with it. There’s all the mitigation strategies and the negative consequences associated with those. It’s all bringing up those things that we will heal by channeling our unlimited power.

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #313, Nov. 16 2021)

Dear Miracle Worker

The ego world of separation is merely a manifestation of our thoughts and beliefs. Our senses generally serve our ego mind. We see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the witnesses that merely bring to us the messages we have told our senses to go find. Within the ego’s world of separation it is a closed loop.
However we are blessed that there is more than the ego’s domain, for we have Holy Spirit.

The world Holy Spirit sees is vast and beyond the five sense, although it includes those as well. This larger seeing is called Vision. Vision is filled with spiritual intuition and sublime communication. The interconnectedness of all life is a foundational ground of being. Through our practice of ACIM we move from the ego world to the Holy Spirit world. I have experienced this movement as a gradual one for myself, a few people seem to move through faster. "By far the majority are given a slowly-evolving training program in which as many previous mistakes as possible are corrected." (OrEd.Mn.9.1)

It is unfortunate that many students have a difficult time cultivating the patience to walk this slowly evolving path. They tend to fool themselves and believe they surely are one of the few who had the “express lane” to revelation and enlightenment. They want to feel the spiritual high.

Desire for peak transcendent experiences is alluring – but it is not what ACIM is about. It is “A Course in Miracles” not a “A Course in Revelation.” These peak experiences may be tempting, but it just reminds me of the drug culture of the '60s and '70s. At its best the highs were short and the crashes were frequently brutal. Approaching ACIM for the quick bliss experience frequently only results in “crash and burn.”

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #312, Nov. 9 2021)

Dear Miracle Worker

I am grateful for many things in life. Having ACIM is maybe the greatest thing. However I know that this is not by chance. It was no accident that I found the Course. "No accident nor chance is possible within the universe as God created it, outside of which is nothing." (OrEd.Tx.21.7) It was on purpose.

When I muse about the blessings ACIM has brought me, it is always purpose that feels the most profound, the most beneficial. I acknowledge that it is different for different people. Some might be more grateful for peace, perhaps some for love. Maybe some are bold enough to say and declare health. But for me, purpose has always been the clearest and the one that has brought me the most.

When I was a teen and in my twenties, I wondered what my life was going to be about. I surely wanted to make a difference in the world. I wanted to do things that made the world a “better” place. Noted philosopher and transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children … to leave the world a better place … to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

Transcendentalists believe in the basic goodness of humans and nature. ACIM also believes in the basic goodness of people and that the world itself reflects Divine goodness when we perceive it properly.

Emerson wanted to leave the world a better place. Through his writings he did. Rev. Tony’s Divine purpose is to transform and heal the world – to make it a “better” place. I’m not sure I want to “leave” it, per se. (lol) but I think you all know what I mean.

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #310, Oct. 27 2021)

Dear Miracle Workers,

Retraining the mind to conceptualize ourselves as unlimited in power is not as difficult as people think. That’s because it is actually how we are. We are just opening up to the truth. It is not something we have to learn, or manifest. It is simply something we have to remember.

Lesson #38 is a quick restorative. It states clearly, "There is nothing my holiness cannot do." (OrEd.WkBk.38) I love this lesson and will frequently open to it and read the first two paragraphs anytime I want to feel my power. It is great having a spiritual discipline that reminds us how absolutely powerful we are. "Your holiness reverses all the laws of the world. It is beyond every restriction of time, space, distance, and limits of any kind." (OrEd.WkBk.38.1) We can heal anything and everything.

Remember that nuclear holocaust that wiped out all human life on the planet in the 1970s? “No?” Oh right – that’s because we healed it. I told you it was easy!

Being able to heal everything comes from the dawning realization that everything is you! There is nothing outside you. This is clearly stated. "There is nothing outside you. That is what you must ultimately learn, for it is [in that] realization that the Kingdom of Heaven is restored to you." (OrEd.Tx.18.49) I've learned it! I affirm this every Sunday Gathering when I lead the meditation. I expand our awareness to fill the entire universe and declare, "There is no place where we are not. There is no time when we are not. We are everywhere and every when." When we claim that energy and identity, "Your holiness, then, can remove all pain, can end all sorrow, and can solve all problems. It can do so in connection with yourself and with anyone else." (OrEd.Tx.38.2)

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #308, Oct. 12 2021)

(Click on "Read more..." for larger player)

Thinking of the world as a school is a common New Age idea. The idea has a lot of merit. However ACIM takes this idea and gives it a twist. Our proper role in this metaphor is not that of the perpetual student. Our proper role is that of the teacher. “Yes” we do go through a student training, but that training in ACIM is conceptualized as being only a year. After that we are supposed to consider that we are now "Teachers of God,” and we should be assuming our role as living demonstrations of the Divinely realized. Are we doing that? Let’s not get stuck in the role of the perpetual student. 24 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

(Click on "Read more..." for larger player)

For love to reign, to rule – we have to be that love. We will never be love if we live in fear. We think defenses protect us but they only make the fear worse and and harder to uncover. "Defense is frightening. ... You think it offers safety. Yet it speaks of fear made real and terror justified. " (OrEd.WkBk.135.4) The true defense is to be in love. The true defense is to rain love over everyone and everything in your life and then be witness to the reign of love being firmly established in the world. Many are challenged by seeming dangers in their world. To them I say “Let my love rain on you, and usher in the true reign of love in the world." 21 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

Dear Miracle Workers,

I see now that everything in my life was always on purpose. It is so clear to me now. I took part in a civil disobedience movement in my high school called “Student Activists for Reform” which was protesting a strict dress code rule. Thank you Canastota High School for the training. In college I participated in anti-war demonstrations and camped outside on a cold sidewalk in front of a building take over to lend support to those inside. We were protesting Cornell University’s numerous defense contracts and funding. It was the era of the Viet Nam war.

I’ve spoken against laws that discriminated against single people by giving huge financial breaks and tax incentives to those who are legally married. I have always been happily “single” and don’t think it is right that I should be discriminated against for my life-style choices. I have stood for LGBTQ rights because I am actively bisexual and knew that being ostracized because of one's sexual orientation was wrong.

While some of my ACIM friends have challenged me for being too involved with the world, I stand by my choices to side with freedom whenever it is being limited. I find great support in ACIM with this quotation: "You have heard many arguments on behalf of 'the freedoms,' which would indeed have been freedom if man had not chosen to fight for them. That is why they perceive 'the freedoms' as many instead of as one. Yet the argument that underlies the defense of freedom is perfectly valid. Because it is true, it should not be fought for, but it should be sided with." (OrEd.Tx.7.11) Freedom is one.

Whenever freedom is being challenged I will probably be guided to side with it. It is my special function and – I’m pretty good at it. (lol)

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #305, Sep. 21 2021)

(Click on "Read more..." for larger player)

One of the things I’ve always liked about ACIM is the strong emphasis it has on just being happy. It tells us twice in the Text not to miss opportunities to simply “gladden yourselves" and that this easy technique to achieve happiness is an important key to healing! "To heal is to make happy. I have told you before to think how many opportunities you have to gladden yourselves and how many you have refused. This is exactly the same as telling you that you have refused to heal yourselves." (OrEd.Tx.5.1) Think of our current medical industry. Do you see any focus on happiness and joy? Mostly we see health as a very “serious” and somber business, when it should be light hearted and full of joy and laughter. No wonder we’re so sick as a society. I (Rev. Tony) recently received the guidance to carve out some personal happiness for myself, and perhaps the guidance is for you all as well. Would you like to accept more opportunities to gladden yourself? Then join me and dedicate yourself to stop refusing them. Now is the time to be glad, be happy, and to heal! 23 Min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

(Click on "Read more..." for larger player)

I had already been a dedicated ACIM student for 20 years when 9/11 happened. On that day, twenty years ago, Rev. Larry, my partner in the CMC, called me up early in the morning and told me to turn on the television. I did – just in time to see North Tower collapse 7:28 a.m. Pacific. My ACIM training kicked in and I quickly remembered the quote, "God did not create that airplane crash, and so it is not real." (OrEd.WkBk.14.5) I was watching an hallucination from the collective mind. The 9/11 event put our country and maybe the world into a heightened fear state that has yet to abate. The current pandemic and our reaction to it has been a recent manifestation. The continual admonitions to “Be safe” are another symptom. On this anniversary I am asking myself what I have learned in the past 20 years while living in the shadow of this event and the fear that still pervades our society. "The only thing that is required for a healing is a lack of fear. The fearful are not healed and cannot heal." (OrEd.Tx.27.45) Join me. 32 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

Dear Miracle Workers,

This week we will have the 20 year anniversary of 9/11. There is an entire new generation that grew up after 9/11 now. They grew up in the shadow of it, in the climate of fear that was manifested after it. Remember the terror threat levels continually broadcast at airports? It was always orange (high) or yellow (caution). It never was green (safe). Just what I wanted, projections of fear every time I was getting ready to fly. I just got back from flying across the country and back. Now we are all masked and shielded. Everyone you look at brings reminders of the fear most people live in constantly.

We ACIM students bring a different message, but can we live the fearless message we are learning? "The only thing that is required for a healing is a lack of fear. The fearful are not healed and cannot heal." (OrEd.Tx.27.45) How are you living fearlessly today? That is the same as asking how are you a miracle worker today?

Unless you have been in media isolation (actually probably a good place to be) you know that Afghanistan is now back in the hands of the Taliban. What was that all for? $2,261,000,000,000 (2.261 trillion) was spent on the war in Afghanistan. We could have ended world hunger for that. Without world hunger there would be no political extremists, no “terrorists”, no hijacked planes.

For those ACIM purists who will think this missive too worldly focused please remember that ACIM tells us that we must look at the suffering if we are going to heal it. The suffering of the world is our suffering. The world is not separate from us. The world is us. "Look about the world, and see the suffering there. Is not your heart willing to bring your weary brothers rest?" (OrEd.WkBk.191.12)

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #303, Sep. 9 2021)

(Click on "Read more..." for larger player)

Occasionally when I walk around and look at my sisters, brothers, and others in the world I am acutely aware of how tired and weary many are. I could look away and towards the more pleasant images, but occasionally I am guided to take a moment and feel the pain of the world. I believe Jesus did that, and this is why so many connected with him. He was compassionate. I believe Jesus’ tendency to do that is reflected in what he instructs us to do in ACIM, "Look about the world, and see the suffering there. Is not your heart willing to bring your weary brothers rest?" (OrEd.WkBk.191.12) “Yes" it does move my heart. “Yes” I want to bring them rest. The next line after the above quotation tells us exactly what we must do to alleviate the suffering we witness. "They must await your own release. They stay in chains till you are free." (OrEd.WkBk.191.13) So it comes back to our freedom, to our choices. Confronted with some very hard personal choices for freedom lately, I am grateful to my many brothers for giving me so may signposts along the way. 25 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

Dear Miracle Workers,

I am frequently hearing excuses from the ACIM community. I hear excuses about why NOW isn’t the time to start a dedicated ACIM class. I hear excuses about why NOW isn’t the time to extend healing the way Jesus is asking us to. "I would not ask you to do the things you cannot do, and it is impossible that I could do things you cannot do. Given this, and given this quite literally, there can be nothing which prevents you from doing exactly what I ask, and everything which argues for your doing it." (OrEd.Tx.8.88)

I hear excuses about why NOW isn’t the time to join the CMC Healing Team. When is this bizarre and so different from now “future” that people are always waiting for? "What time but now can truth be recognized? The present is the only time there is. And so today, this instant, now, we come to look upon what is forever there – not in our sight, but in the eyes of Christ." (OrEd.WkBk.164.1) That future that they are waiting for is – never.

What are YOU waiting for? Hopefully nothing. We can do everything we CAN do NOW. If we can’t do it now, then it’s not supposed to be done now. But there are always things we can do now, so let’s start doing them. “Listen, learn and DO.” (OrEd.Tx.1.31) We need to let go of our excuses and realize that “future” day when you will truly do the Workbook lessons is here NOW! If there is a program that will help you to do them, then the time to join that program is NOW. "For the past is gone, the future but imagined. These concerns are but defenses against present change of focus in perception. Nothing more." (OrEd.WkBk.181.4) Do it now. No excuse.

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #301, Aug. 26 2021)

(Click on "Read more..." for larger player)

A Course in Miracles is an amazing manual, teaching us how to heal at the level of cause (the mind) and, thus, heal at all levels, since the body and the entire physical world is being projected by the mind. But, after 35 years of working with students, I find that people are still confused about how this is done, the mechanics of it. Underneath this seeming confusion is an active resistance to the process, which many students don’t want to look at. I addressed this issue in a recent workshop for Miracle Network the main ACIM organization in the United Kingdom. This Sunday I am going to share some of the highlights from that 3 hour workshop. 27 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

Dear Miracle Workers,

Being dedicated ACIM students takes dedication and discipline. While people can certainly use ACIM for random inspiration, I believe to truly receive the promise of the Course requires much more from a person. "You want salvation. You want to be happy. You want peace. You do not have them now because your mind is totally undisciplined" (OrEd.WkBk.20.2) The promise referred to in this passage would be salvation, happiness, and peace. So ask yourself, do you feel saved, happy, and peaceful? If your answer to any of that is not as much as you would like — then it’s time to look at you dedication and discipline.

How is your daily lesson practice? If you are doing the lessons in the yearly sequence, then Thursday’s lesson is number 231 “Father, I will but to remember you.” In this 2nd part of the Workbook we are supposed to read the special topic that precedes each group of 10 lessons every day before the day’s lessons for all 10 days. Today started “What is Salvation?” (OrEd.WkBk.SpTp231) Did you read it before reading the lesson? Will you do that for the next 10 days? How long are you spending in quiet meditation after reading both the special topic and the lesson? Try upping the time. I am currently doing 15 minutes. I know many think they do not have the time but think of the time we waste doing unimportant things. How much time do you waste on social media every day. "Time can waste as well as be wasted. The miracle-worker, therefore, accepts the time-control factor gladly" (OrEd.Tx.1.87)

I certainly don’t want to be wasted. I’m into waste management! (lol) Did you remember to think about the many thousands of other ACIM students doing the day’s lesson along with you. No? Do it now.

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #299, Aug. 19 2021)

Dear Miracle Workers,

Tomorrow, Wed. Aug. 11, I fly from San Francisco, CA to Syracuse NY. I was born and raised in a small town named Canastota near there. I went to Canastota High School there. Sat. Aug 14, I will be attending my high school reunion. The last reunion I attended was 15 years ago.

While I have been “Rev. Tony” for many years I have never gone home wearing a cleric shirt and collar before. I sought guidance on if I was indeed going to show up like this. Eventually got a clear “yes” – so here I go.

ACIM tells us many times, “The past is gone.” (OrEd.Tx.16.73) I did pull down my old high school yearbook and took a look through. I felt very disconnected from it all. It seemed remote and held little interest. In truth that past IS gone and it doesn’t interest me.

What does interest me are the relationships I have and can have with some of these people now in the present. There were 144 people in my senior class. I believe over 30 of them have already made their transition from earthly life with a couple passing this past month. I have felt a certain openness from some as they accumulate years and witness classmates pass. Perhaps I can bring a new perspective. I am interested in experiencing the Holy Encounters I can have with the ones who remain and who will be experiencing me for the first time as not only “Rev. Tony” in name but also in appearance. They have no past reference for that. "When you have learned to look upon everyone with no reference at all to the past, either his or yours as you perceived it, you will be able to learn from what you see now." (OrEd.Tx.12.46)

Send CMC a tax-deductible donation via PayPal or your Credit Card to support this work. "Thank you!"

(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #299, Aug. 10 2021)