Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Mother Ruth wrote this before her passing:  “We’ve left the comfort of our true Home, the bosom of our heavenly Family, to come down and do a hard day’s work here on earth.  Now my day is drawing toward its close, and I anticipate with joy the thought of returning to that blessed Peace that was known before.”

I’m reflecting upon the Christmas season and the time of birth as leaving that realm of blessed Peace to do our work upon the earth for a season.   There is so little required of us these days, however, to return in spirit to that heavenly realm and reflect upon the joy and beauty within, in that place of Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All.

Christmas is a universal holiday to welcome to earth the Christ child, to acknowledge our Diving Mother and feel her presence and healing power.  I do not need to acquire this birthright–it’s freely given to me and everyone.  All the really important gifts are.

Material me wants to acquire stuff and fill out an endless checklist of unfinished tasks, to stress and fume over real or imagined slights, to burden myself with problems instead of working with consciousness of our heavenly helpers–and the knowing that the solutions are always there before the problems arise!  Material me is the unwise virgin waiting for the bridegroom without oil in her lamp.

The incarnation of the Master Jesus is a powerful memory in the earth and one that seems to open the veil between earth and heaven each Christmas.  In keeping our lamps supplied with oil, what we see in glimpses can become more real each passing year.  There are infinite ways in which we can express our joy at being Illumined beings having an earthly experience.  This is our most important task and one that will overcome the darkness in this transitional period, at the end of one age and beginning of the new.

May we welcome the Christ Child with our lamps burning bright, our hearts full of love, and our gratitude pouring out like an endless spring.

Rev. Mary

 

JESUS

from classes with Father Paul

The true understanding of our Lord and Master is not so much in the historical facts of his life, which are few because he was very careful.  He wanted to cover all that up, because he knew that if there was anything there that anybody could pry up and make something of, his opponents were really going to make something out of it, you know, to belittle what he was teaching.  And he was wise enouugh to know that the only way a real teacher can ever become immortal so that his teachings are held, and he’s sort of forgotten about a little so that the teachings come first, was to obliterate from history everything that was natural or human, where it was possible.  And then his opponents couldn’t find anything to pick on, to show that he wasn’t what was demonstrated, you see.  He was a wise man and he did a pretty good job, too.  There are very few facts left, except a skeleton outline of a few things about his birth and a few things just as he started his ministry, and then his wanderings in the holy lands.

I ofttimes meet in the field priests that have gone through some other theological school and they say, “I know, but you talk about Jesus.  There never any such man lived.  We know that there’s no absolute proven history of Jesus.”  And you know I’ve got an absolute sure winner for that one, because my answer to this is:  that even if Jesus never lived, the perfection of the ideals that he has brought, the methods and the basic philosophy of Creation that he has given and the things that this image portrays and projects – that even if the Brothers above had created this man and put these things into that mass thought, I think that even the image would be a pretty good guy to follow.  Because it would have the same effect when followed by the people.

 

You know there’s nothing bruises or hurts a human ego so badly as to be put in his right size in relation to a greater power than he.  Now he may consciously say, “I accept God in Jesus, the Emissary and the great Messiah who brought the forgiveness,” and so on, and so on.  And he will tell you of the relationship and so forth.  But if you could look inside his head when he says, “Lord and Master Jesus Christ”, and see how big he is, I’m going to tell you something.  Most of them stand right alongside of Jesus when they say it, and think they’re about the same size.He isn’t that size, because Jesus is as big as the earth you trread on, and bigger – the preserver and the provider of the world.  Because he is Lord of this planet!

 

If you have any question in your mind as to whether the New Testament is the handbook of man on this orb or not, then you’ve got a problem.  Because Jesus Christ came here, and he has returned, as he said he would, already;  and his power and his mantle overshadows this earth and permeates it.  We have a problem right today with certain spiritual teachings.  Why? Not that the teachings are wrong, but the fact that they won’t admit and they won’t acknowledge the Lord of earth. This you can’t back away from. This has to be maintained, because it’s through this that you are functioning.

 

I have said, “Look and concentrate and meditate on your atmosphere.  And as your atmosphere is set up, this will declare what shall come through it.” So you can think, for the time until you get a true vision and true sight, of Jesus as having an atmosphere which surrounds the earth, and you wouldn’t be too far wrong. But I’m not going any further with this to confuse you.

 

As Jesus came to us and experienced the great Initiations that we might be brought into his Light, so also did he experience them for the fulfillment of the pattern of the Host and so those things which had been prophesied would also be fulfilled.  For in this he gave unto the world those things which were necessary, as time moved on.

 

He reenacted the grand play of initiation in this earth, in order to bring about to the conscious mind of the masses the forgiveness and the ladder, Jacob’s ladder, the ladder to heaven.

 

Question from class:  And this was the initiation for the illunination for the whole earth?

 

This was a demonstration of the initiation. ..

Take into consideration the whole human race.  If you went into some orders you would go through ceremonies and act parts in plays, so to speak, in the temple, that would demonstrate some of these things.  You wouldn’t have any spiritual experience, necessarily, but you would see the enactment of the plays.  Back in the time of ancient Greece, these same things were enacted. All of the teachings, pretty nearly, were given in the form of plays.  Here’s where our opera and stage plays come from, you see.

 

When Jesus went into the Garden of Gethsemane, or into the desert to pray for forty days and forty nights, he experienced the great aloneness, the great crucifixion in reality.  Of course, the actual crucifixion was held on Golgotha, but in the desert he became crucified of the Spirit and was tempted, and then he found himself alone in the world:  this is the next step.  Then the crucifixion came, then the ascension.  Now these are all parts of the initiations, the solar initiations.  He experienced them all and went through them all, but he went through them consciously, and didn’t have to, having had his own personal experience long ages before.  Therefore when he went through these things voluntarily, he did it for the people of earth. Just as a master Teacher might take on somebody’s karma, if they were important enough, so he took on the world karma and transmuted it.  THE EARTH.

 

If you ask a minister somewhere what Jesus did, he might say, “Oh, he brought salvation to the people.  He is our saviour;  he caused people’s sins to be forgiven.”  They leave out the earth entirely.  Well, people couldn’t have had any experience if the earth had gone kaplop.  It’s absolute inconsistency.  You have to get  used to thinking just as it is, taking both the unseen and the seen together.  “And for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned.” (Matt. 4:16)  The Path has been illumined, you see.  Now, this doesn’t say anything about understanding, or all the other alibis that people can think of.  This spells it out, and there could be no mistake.

 

Question: What is the meaning of the crucifixion?

 

At the crucifixion the Master gave his blood and  allowed the Christ, the personality of Christ which he had taken on at the baptism, the whole power and personality he took on was then emptied into the earth through his blood.

 

What does that mean?

 

Well, in the blood of man is his experience, deposited in the soul – the experience, the vibrational patterns.

 

What was wrong with the physical condition of the earth?

 

The vibration of the earth’s atmosphere and the vibrations here in the earth were in such condition that it needed just that.  He brought the atonement.  He wiped away the past from man and gave him a new break, a new start.  He paid the supreme sacrifice, in other words.  Don’t forget, a thing doesn’t become a reality on earth until it is both a pattern made in heaven and then manifested on earth.  I use the word “heaven” as meaning “the upper level of vibration”, higher frequency.

 

We approach getting acquainted with Jesus as a very difficult thing, because we feel we’re reaching about five miles into the atmosphere someplace, trying to grasp into something.  Well, that isn’t where it is;  it’s right here.  And if we can simply say to ourselves, now I’m going to talk to Jesus, and just talk to him.  Say, “Jesus, Master, I’d like to ask some questions.  What about this problem of mine?  How do I get rid of it?  How do I do this?”  You know, you’d be surprised.  If you expected an answer, you’d probably get one.  You might even see him.

 

About Galilee, and Sepphoris

Cana was a town of about 2000 persons, and was larger than the small town of Nazareth.

About 3 1/2 miles from Nazareth, about an hour’s walk, was the city of Sepphoris, which is not mentioned in the Bible.  It had about 20,000 inhabitants in Jesus’ time, and was continually inhabited until 1940.  It was on a high promontory overlooking the

Mediterranean and the Galilee seas.  Having been twice destroyed, it was rebuilt in 4 B.C. by Herod Antipas, after the death of his father, Herod the  Great.  Archeological digs were begun in 1931 and continue to the present time.  Bible scholars seek to find some evidence that Jesus was there, as he must have been, while living so close, although it was a Roman stronghold at that time. There is evidence of some fine buildings having been there.

The Crusaders built a church there in honor of St. Anne, the mother of Mary.  This was Mary’s birthplace, and she lived there with Anna and Joachim, her parents.

 

The Middle Path

From Father Paul: Excerpts from classes on The Human Body

 

…Now most people will tell you that they have a very normal mind, and there’s nothing wrong with it, fully developed and adult.  Well, I’ve got a great big surprise for them.  That mind is just developing, because it is learning to sense the different vibrations in consciousness of the things which they have not seen and have not experienced.  The longer they live and the more they experience, the more spiritual experience they gain and the more they sense, so much the more are the cells energized in the mind and become conscious of one another.  These cells have to be conscious of one another, because if they aren’t they are not going to work together; no part of the human body ever is successful in its operation of this vehicle if it does not perfectly cooperate with all other parts.  And I’m sure Doc here will support me on that.

There has to be absolute cooperation or there is not what we call health.  Now why?  We learn we have three factors in the body, and these are light, life and love.  Now there aren’t any other words for this, because light is the basic energy of matter, life is the development of the Spirit in action, and love is that pattern through which the God-force works, that gives us cohesion and adhesion and which brings about assimilation and dissimulation, the breaking down and the building up.  So these three things, the three “L’s”, are the very foundation of the perfect body working with perfect assimilation of food and the spiritual power.  These three “L’s” are the projection of the Christos, or the characteristics of the Christ, and they are related to the three bodies of man.  These things are fundamental; these are things that you need to understand something about.

The only wisdom that you can really gain is that which comes from within, along with what is motivated by factual material from things experienced.  And it is the same thing with the human structure, the flesh body, and all its great divinity.  You have to see it for yourself.  You have to know it for yourself.  You have to experience it.  Your body has to become your companion.  Your being has to become your companion.  And when it does, then you begin to put your foot on the true path of wisdom and illumination.

You can get light spasmodically for years and yet never become an illumined being, because until you know your own body and become master of it, until you have gained realization of the things that come from within and the mind of the akasha, motivated perhaps and stimulated from the teaching which is given to you_and you do assimilate a certain amount of things through osmosis, through the mantle of your Teacher_until you are of that nature that you do nothing of yourself, you have not started on the path of wisdom, or as the poet says, to “tread the path of the stars”.

The body must not be worshipped.  It is a tool.  Don’t get wound up into worshipping material things or personalities.  This is where we get off on the wrong foot.  Persons start to adore somebody and then they are completely “caput”.  This is where they get sidetracked all the way down the line.  There’s only one answer to any problem, only one answer to your being here:  “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy might.”  Unless you want to do this as your first objective, skip it, because you’re not going to get anywhere on the spiritual path.  You might just as well go out and raise whoopee if you’re not going to do this, because otherwise you cannot get anything out of it.  This has got to come first and then,” all these things will be added unto you”.  There is no other way.

The automatic processes of the physical body are in the soul, because over long periods and eras of time, as man incarnated and reincarnated, he gradually changed the physical body in accordance with what was needed at that time.  He_and others, of course_changed the universal pattern of the physical structure so that they would gain the experience necessary in accordance with the times; so that ingrained into the memory of the soul is the function of the species of body which is used at the time of incarnation…

 

Medicinal Mushrooms: Reishi

Note:  Many medicinal mushrooms offer immune support and treat many conditions, including allergies and other auto-immune conditions

Reishi Mushroom (Lingshi, Língzhī, Young-Ji, 灵芝, 영지, Ganoderma Lucidum)

In classic Chinese texts, Lingzhi is mentioned frequently; it is referred to as “mushroom of immortality; elixir of lifeThis mushroom was extensively used in Eastern Asia where its medicinal value was acknowledged for over 2000 years.

Therapeutic Benefits of Reishi:  Scientific studies have shown that the Reishi mushroom has properties that contribute to the healing of tumors, lowering of blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Laboratory tests have confirmed that the mushroom has extracts that fight some kinds of cancer. These cancers include epithelial ovarian cancer. When tested on an animal, Reishi was found to work just like the Shiitake mushroom in preventing cancer metastasis.

The stage when Reishi mushroom fights cancer best is yet to be specified. It is established though, that it may inhibit fresh formation of tumor induced blood capillaries or veins. This has the impact of cutting food supply to the tumor and curtailing perpetual growth. It may also inhibit movement of cancer cells within the body. It has the potential also to hinder the cancer cells’ ability to multiply. Currently, extracts from the Reishi mushroom are in use commercially in pharmaceuticals. The medication made and sold in these pharmaceuticals is geared towards suppressing the proliferation and spread of cancer cells..

In addition to fighting cancer, Reishi is also considered important in reversion of viral activity, regulating cardiovascular activity, fighting against chronic fatigue, rheumatoid arthritis, and helping diabetes patients. These areas, however, have limited clinical tests to support them.

 

Thank you for my brokenness,
For this is the way you break into my life.
I now realize that powerlessness is the
Necessary path into spiritual power. Everything is grace.                    -Isha Das

Sometimes there is no map for the road we find ourselves upon.  It lies ahead, uncharted, unfurling into mist.  We are all travelling through one another’s countries.  But it is no matter if we meet as strangers, for we can join forces, and learn to love.  And where there is friendship and affection, there is the place we can all call home.  Call the Midwife (season 6 episode 3)

 

TRUTH

We cannot force heaven to reveal its secrets.  When things are shown they come more quietly, unexpected and unannounced.

~~

There is a flash of beauty and of pure joy in recognizing some aspect of Truth, but it cannot easily be communicated.  Its sparkle seems to flee with the effort to express it, and the idea appears rather mundane when it becomes laid down on paper.

Truth is not known by words, nor can it really be told.  It must be revealed and known through the heart and soul.  “You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.”  The word is “know”, not “hear”.

~~

One may hear all the external facts about a case or situation and still not know the truth.  Truth is often considered the opposite of lies, but it is far more than that.  The world judges by “facts”, but God’s judgment is based on that which is internal.  Truth is the whole picture from the inside out, the spiritual which imperfectly reflects outward to the earthly senses.  The truth that sets free is the whole inner truth, not a collection of facts.

~~

Some may succeed for a time with bluffing and vague, unfulfilled promises, but the time of Truth ever comes, when pretense can work no longer.

Christmas Prayers for All of God’s Children

Jesus came in a darkened age that was little able to appreciate him, but his message of the love of God and his intercession on behalf of suffering humanity was not only for that time but for all ages to come – that God is with man in his darkest moments as well as in enlightened times.
-Paramahansa Yogananda

Blessed Lord,
I once despised my wounds,
Thinking that they were curses
And the cause of great unhappiness.
Now I see my wounds differently;
I understand that they are the very portals
For your love and light to penetrate
My mind, heart, and spirit.