Dear Miracle Workers,

It’s all arbitrary, this thing called time, calendars, an old year ending, a new year beginning. In truth there is nothing truly significant about that moment between midnight and midnight, December 31st 2021 and January 1, 2022. It is our minds that makes these moments significant. "I have given everything I see ... all the meaning that it has for me." (OrEd.WkBk.2) While there is no doubt that this is true the desire to make the coming midnight moment significant is very strong. We still seem to exist in a world that is constantly aware of what time it is. We have clocks everywhere ”Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still and rise and work and go to sleep by them?" (OrEd.WkBk.169.9)

2021 started in the midst of the pandemic which we had thought was over but then surged again. 2021 ends in the midst of a pandemic which we had thought was over but then surged again. I think I’ve had enough of that repetition "Human living has indeed been needlessly wasted in a repetition compulsion." (OrEd.Tx.4.3) I am definitely ready to let go of this repetition compulsion.

There is always reason to be joyful, sometimes it just seems a little more challenging to stay focussed on that, but I believe we are up for the challenge. Perhaps it is useful to associate joy with freedom. This ACIM passage about the new year does, “So will the year begin in joy and freedom. There is much to do, and we have been long delayed." (OrEd.Tx.15.112) While it may not seem to be the most joyful and free thing to think about how much work we have ahead of us in the new year, at least we know we are needed.

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(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #319, Dec. 30 2021)

Dear Miracle Workers,

In three days we will celebrate the holiday most mentioned in ACIM, Christmas. Today I am reminded of this reference. "In this season (Christmas), which celebrates the birth of holiness into this world, join with me, who decided for holiness for you. It is our task together to restore the awareness of magnitude to the host whom God appointed for Himself." (OrEd.Tx.15.29) Let’s review the important Christmas ideas contained here. What is this season truly celebrating? It’s celebrating the birth of holiness into the world. The Course doesn’t say anything about celebrating Jesus’ birth, but the birth of holiness. Commit yourself to only perceiving holiness in the world. That is how holiness will be birthed into the world. We will put it there by our chosen perception, by Christ’s vision.

How to we do this? We do this by joining with Jesus because Jesus has decided for holiness for all of us already. All we have to do in join him. Ready! Set! JOIN!

I love the next idea that we now have a joined and sacred task. It is our job! We, all together, are bonded in a Divine job, to restore an awareness of magnitude to all beings. We are all the host, the vessel, which is hosting God and thus making God manifest. All the brothers, sisters, and others hosting God (all of us) were once aware of our magnitude, our grandeur, but through a simple mistake we tumbled into an identity that appeared limited and weak. Now, our job, joined with Jesus, is to restore that awareness of magnitude. We are all grand and amazing. We are all invulnerable. There is no “Kryptonite” to destroy our invulnerability. Be a “Superbeing” this Christmas and communicate to others that they are a “Superbeings” too. “Merry Christmas you Superhero!"

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(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #318, Dec. 21 2021)

Dear Miracle Workers

We say that word a lot and don’t think about it much, but “Christmas” literally means “Christ mass” or “a religious celebration for the Christ.” We ACIM students know that “Christ” is not just another name for Jesus. While Jesus (we believe) became totally identified with his Christ Self, that same Christ Self is at the foundation of each of us as well. A “Christ mass” would actually mean we are celebrating our own true “Christed” Selves. "Christ is God's Son as He created Him. He is the Self we share, uniting us with one another and with God as well." (OrEd.WkBk.SpTp271.1)

In an attempt to counteract the secular consumerism of Christmas, religious people often remind others “Jesus is the reason for the season.” However we ACIM students know that that isn’t really true either. We are the reason for the season, but the “we” must be our true Selves, the Christ within at the foundation of our being. This holiday celebrate your own rebirth as the Christ. Let’s face it, December 25th was never Jesus’ birthday anyway and everybody knows that.

"Watch with me, angels; watch with me today. Let all God's holy thoughts surround me and be still with me while Heaven's Son is born .... for He is born again in me today." (OrEd.WkBk.203.1) The Herald Angels announcing the birth of Christ are announcing our own birth. Do you hear their glorious trumpets? I do! And we have arrived here on earth as Christ just in time. The Great Awakening awaits us. It is time for us to do our part. "There is much to do, and we have been long delayed. Accept the holy instant as this year is born and take your place, so long left unfulfilled, in the Great Awakening." (OrEd.Tx.15.112)

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(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #317, Dec. 14 2021)

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We’re deep into the holiday season. Thanksgiving and Chanukah are behind us and Christmas is coming ‘round the corner. While looking up references in ACIM to Christmas I found this one and realized that it was not in the FIP blue book. "Christmas is not a time; it is a state of mind. The Christ Mind wills from the Soul, not from the ego, and the Christ Mind is yours." (OrEd.Tx.4.41) Wow! What a teaching to leave out! Are we all claiming the Christmas state of mind? Reminds me of the old Billy Joel song, “New York State of Mind.” (1976) Let’s explore this state and see what its characteristics are: love, abundance, giving, peace, joy, – family & friends, comfort food, Christmas carols, … Let’s all claim a Christmas state of mind. 26 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

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I have had a growing realization recently that when I read about power in ACIM I was still relating to it in a limiting fashion. While I had challenged my perception of power for years, I never truly got that what ACIM was clearly stating was – we have all the same power God has. Perhaps it is more accurate to say – I read the words, understood them intellectually, but didn’t feel it the core of my being. Recently I saw videos of New Zealand men in the indigenous Polynesian Maori tradition, doing their power dance and chant “The Haka,” in protest to the severe, draconian measures being instituted by their government. Standing up to their government in this manner triggered something in me and I began to understand power in a different way. When ACIM tells us “My Father gives all power unto me” (OrEd.WkBk.320) it truly means ALL power. Our Creator withholds nothing from us. The New Zealand protestors were taping into something. I want to learn how to dance The Haka. 26 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

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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.

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

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Noted ACIM author and teacher Jon Mundy interviews Rev. Tony Ponticello in this extended format. Many topics related to ACIM covered 104 min.

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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.”

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

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I love that A Course in Miracles always tells us that salvation is now, and not in the imagined future. We do not have to wait to connect with our unlimited power. We can sit in that presence now and everyday. Actually connecting to that unlimited energy multiple times every day is a GREAT idea. The thought that this power is a future achievement is actually meaningless since there in no future. "Be not content with future happiness. It has no meaning and is not your just reward. For you have cause for freedom now." (OrEd.Tx.26.76) Many ACIM students are resistant by the idea of this much power available to them now, but confronting this resistance is a large part of the ACIM teaching. This is why sitting in our unlimited power as often as possible is such a great idea. Join me right now and on Sunday too. "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.WkBk.38.2) 24 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

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I have frequently talked about how while peace is not always in my awareness, a positive and profound perception of my purpose in life always is. Many years ago when asked at a Sunday Gathering what I believed the greatest gift ACIM had given to me was, I said (without thinking about it at all) “Purpose.” There is a passage in ACIM that has always resonated powerfully with me. "Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world?" (OrEd.WkBk.122.1) That describes exactly how I constantly feel. I have a certainty of purpose that transcends the world. Nothing going on in the world ever makes even a dent in my positive, profound, perception of purpose. 26 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

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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.

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

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The world has bamboozled us. That’s my new favorite word. It means, "thrown into a state of confusion or bewilderment especially by being deliberately fooled or misled.” The world is deliberately fooling and misleading us. It is not a random or capricious thing. It is by ego design. The world is throwing us into chaos and confusion so that we rely more and more on the ego for guidance. Thus the bamboozle strengthens, "... you believe that misery is happiness. This has so confused you that you have undertaken to learn to do what you can never do, believing that unless you learn it, you will not be happy." (OrEd.Tx.13.54) We must free ourselves from this confusion in order to take our rightful place in The Great Awakening. Without us taking our place, we will never truly be awake ourselves – which means we will never be truly happy. The bamboozle has to end. 20 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

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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)

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

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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

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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

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