A poem by a Daily Word reader.
Forgiveness is the key. Prepare our hearts; this is now the time for all to examine our lives. Forgiveness is the key word in these present times. Do not let your heart be troubled. Forgive one another on an every-day basis. Fret not, yourselves. The key word now is forgiveness in these testing times Love one another with heart and soul Grudges are not acceptable in these times Trust in the Lord, we are overcomers God bless us all in these testing times. Hallelujah. By Erma Stevenson
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Because of the Fillmore’s strongly held belief, (see www.truthunity.net ‘eternal life’ and ‘regeneration’) some people reported that Charles was deeply disappointed when he knew he was dying at 93. (Yet what an amazing and intense power of good he was in our world.)
Because humankind was not following this divine plan as both Charles and Myrtle understood, they stated their belief in reincarnation as proof of God’s love at work, giving us unlimited opportunities to fulfil the divine plan and live as fully conscious divine beings in physical form. Indeed, when Myrtle passed, she told her colleagues that she was going to the ‘other side’ to help there now she was no longer needed in Silent Unity, the work that she loved. In just two weeks, Myrtle passed on to the next room of life. Have you thought about the idea of life after death and the soul ongoing? Do you believe in reincarnation? In the West, most people have a deep fear of dying but in India, where reincarnation is part of their faith and culture, death is embraced as natural and part of the life cycle. Personally, I have always believed in reincarnation. For me, what God of love would deny us the opportunity to ‘try again’. Recently we have experienced bereavement and illness in our families. I am experiencing once more, how hard it is letting go of close loved ones to the death experience, yet also recognising that the time comes for all of us to leave this physical world behind and move on. As I look at the natural world, birth, life and death is a natural process. When we welcome new life to our world, joy and love take over and we feel the deepest connection to the babe in our arms. When it comes to the soul moving back to spirit, can we perhaps be open to experience the same emotions, for our loved one is going back to Spirit, to Source, free of pain, discomfort and suffering? Of course, we all experience a very natural sense of personal loss. How will we experience life now they are no longer with us? Are there words left unsaid or hugs you still want to give? It is so important that we grieve. However, perhaps the grief can be different when we believe in the soul ongoing, in reincarnation and that we may even be with them again. I deeply believe that we can still talk to our loved ones and tell them we love them, after the body has gone, and that they will receive the message of love, because in essence it is the truth of us all. I do not have absolute answers to these thoughts and questions. I pose them here as ideas to reflect and pray on, so we may each find the meaning and purpose that works for us. For me, life is all about the exchange of love in all its many forms. How can I show up as love, is the question is use to remind me to re-centre in God awareness. Would you like to join in a conversation around these ideas? If so, do join our Zoom forum meeting, Tuesday 2nd July from 7.30pm. Let us talk about this experience of life and death. I think it is a conversation that would benefit us all. Click here to join us live on zoom, on Tuesday
I recently watched a video about the history of Daily Word, which I highly recommend for anyone who is interested in the history and behind the scenes of this little magazine (link) I am always fascinated to hear stories of how readers in the UK came to Daily Word, many of which have been printed and shared over the years. There often seems to be a sense of synchronicity: a copy is found at a jumble sale, on the pavement, in a doctor’s waiting room or gifted by a loved one at just the right time. Today people find out about Daily Word more and more online through Google or social media, but there still seems a sense of it ‘just found me’. Many of our readers have been subscribing to Daily Word for decades, with children, parents and grandparents sharing it each day. This is one of the joys for me. Here at Unity in the UK we are an affiliate, with a contract that enables us to adapt it to the UK market, including changing the language from US-UK. Something we Brits feels quite strongly about! It is printed in The Isle of Man by printers who have been serving us for over 30 years. What is more, every copy is hand packed, blessed and posted. As one of our readers once said, “I can feel the love in the envelope when I open my Daily Word.” I began working at Unity ten years ago this month. Shortly before, I spoke at a Sunday service about my experience with Daily Word and I remember saying: “It is always the right words, I don’t know how it happens but it is always the right words.” Something else I love about Daily Word is the same affirmations are spoken by so many people around the world on the same day. We are bound together so positively through our prayers and intentions.
How do you experience Daily Word? How does it support you? Do you find just the words you need that day, like so many do? As our current Daily Word editor in the US wrote, ‘the messages give her God-bumps.’
We would love to hear your stories and publish them on our website. Comment below or email us. Thank you for being part of our Daily Word community. Ruth Humphreys Daily Word UK Editor Above is a YouTube video sharing the Daily Word message for today, 10 June. We record one message a month this way, which can be found on the homepage of our website and on our Youtube channel. Steve Gough, our amazing filmmaker, works hard to create some wonderful material to share with you all. We encourage you to check out the video, our homepage and our resources pages. Back in the sixties scientists were experimenting with holographic photography, so that all aspects of the object could be seen. The images were usually captured in acrylic, and you could see the object from different angles depending on how you held the image. The interesting thing is that if you smashed the acrylic image, each fragment, no matter how small would contain the original image in full.
That would mean that the “little me” contains a perfect image of God: It is up to me to bring out the Christ within and let go of all the rest. A famous sculptor was once asked “how difficult is it to create a statue?” They replied “It’s easy! Just remove all the stone that is not the statue.” It sounds easy when it’s put that way. Angus Irons Unity student Connect to Angus FB page on prayer Have you ever wondered what is meant by this Biblical promise that Jesus made? What works will we be able to do that Jesus did? I am unlikely to find myself having to feed 5,000 hungry souls, or turn water into wine. Jesus must have meant something else.
Whenever I am studying a Bible verse, I like to examine different Biblical translations, to enhance the meanings of the words. I am often drawn to the translation The Message, which uses contemporary language to make the Bible accessible to today’s world. John 14:12 is translated this way: “The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing, but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing.” And what has Jesus been doing? For me Jesus has been showing me how to create the kingdom of heaven in the here and now. Choice by choice we can be the best expressions of the Christ we can be – through compassion, forgiveness, and the awareness of our oneness with the Father. Jesus has “opened the door, shown us the way, and gone forward himself” (Rev.Ed Townley). Our joyful sacred challenge is to join him on the journey. Nancy Sandoval Licensed Unity Teacher
However, I also know that many of us did not have such a good relationship with our father. Perhaps you did not even know your father and feel that something worthwhile is missing in your life. It is important to recognise our childhood experiences for what they were, good, bad or imperfect, with as much compassion and understanding as we can, for our fathers were not perfect. This can help bring healing to our relationship with our father and to other men in our lives.
Holding the space for compassion and understanding in this way, we can build or develop a healthy and loving relationship with God, for to many God is Father. Whoa – stop, I can hear some of you say! In Unity, we speak about God as Oneness: As the principle of Truth, Love, Divine Mind and Heart. Well yes we do. Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, our co-founders, wrote and spoke of God in this way. Yet their writings were also very much about God as Father – that felt experience of God as wisdom, love and activity present in, through and as us all. It was a personal experience. The same was true for Jesus, as he spoke about God as his loving father: as Abba meaning Papa or Daddy. Jesus had a powerfully loving relationship with God in this way. This relationship guided him, sustained him and took him through the crucifixion to the resurrection. By himself, as Jesus alone, I believe this would not have happened. It was because Jesus knew, “I and the father are one” (John 10.30) that he was able to do all he did and be the way-shower and example he is to us in Unity today. Life is complex – it is all about relationships, which we first experienced through our parents and parent figures. It is also through our relationships that we can know for ourselves, the father and I, God and I, are one. We can move from the complex to the simplicity of this statement and abide here. As we honour and remember our fathers on 16th June, with compassion and understanding, perhaps we can also be like Jesus and come to know our oneness with God so that we, too, can say, the father and I are one. Rev. Kimerie Mapletoft Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK
Creating a knowing. I have all I need for peace, love and happiness within me. Not needing to search for it outside, somewhere, someday. It is already here. With trust I accept that whatever is unfolding, is leading me to where I need to be, even if I perceive circumstances with my judging human brain as uncomfortable or negative.
I have discovered that if I can bring my focus back to see God in all things. To seek out the light even in the darkness. To align with gratefulness for the gifts I already have, what I experience and what I can share. That’s where prosperity lies. I ask myself; What is valuable and precious in my life now? How can I nurture what is important to me? How can I use my creative gifts and talents to benefit the lives of others? These positive notions contribute to the richness of my life in a way that truly makes me feel wealthy! If we all try to move our attention away from lack and by following daily practices of gratefulness; abundance will follow. We can all be lifted up through acknowledgement of our blessings here and now. Finding joy in the smallest things does not negate the need for food and warmth and housing. We all do require the basics to survive, but these practices undoubtedly open my heart and mind to new opportunities, new ways of being and thinking. Allowing me space to be adaptable, resourceful, and creative. Ways of being which lighten the load rather than adding to it. Stef Bridges Unity Administrator
For me, part of being here on earth is about relationships. Building relationships with myself, with others and everything in the world. Starting a relationship with myself begins by recognising something that I called the SPLATTER in me i.e., the body, mind and spirit acting differently, in their own way. I have over time come to believe, undoubtedly, that the practice of meditation is the only way to unite these seemingly splattered bodies as one. Having said that, I would like to define meditation as the process that helps me to pay attention to the activities in and around me and consciously focus my awareness without judgement, to reach an experience of oneness. If I am not in a conscious relationship with my breath, body, food or clothing, I will not pay attention and I will not be aware of what any of these does to me or for me. It will just be something I am doing: for example, I eat because I am hungry without checking in to what food my body really needs!
Amidst the numerous benefits of meditation, what motivates me more than anything is the Idea of attaining oneness. I may not have had a transcendental experience as most people would define, but the mere practice of meditation always brings me to a place of peace that lingers on, long after the meditation session. Practicing meditation is to me like ‘seeking first the kingdom, and everything shall be added to you’. The more I practice meditation, the better my relationships become with myself, my God, other people and my world. Now I can accept and be willing to do what God does, for myself and my world, while enjoying both the physiological and psychological benefits of meditation. Soe Alaibi-Nwokocha International SEE student
So, as far as Jesus is concerned, being free is about freedom from sin and, in Unity, we see sin as error thought. If I am free of error thought i.e. all of the nonsense that pervades my mind, then I am One; One in God.
Freedom is eternal; it is our God-given natural state. Freedom, from all of the worries and pressures of our day-to-day existence. As Daily Word says : ‘I am one with the presence and power of God, wondrously free’. In my daily prayer, I always include the affirmation “through forgiveness I am free” (also from a Daily Word some years ago – a great place to get affirmations!). Forgiveness is letting go, sometimes affirmed as “I let go and let God”. Because as we let go of our own angst, worry, nervousness etc., we naturally fall into alignment with the Truth of our Being: One. In this state I am free, free to be me – the True me. This is the key to a joyous and fulfilled life and is on of the greatest lessons I have learned on my journey with Unity. So, I encourage each and every one of us to practice forgiveness and find the joy of Oneness; true freedom. "And you will know the truth and the truth will make you free." John 8:32 Rev. Paul Mapletoft |
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