Lesson 123 – I thank my Father for His gifts to me.

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary) It is not a thank you of indebtedness.  It is not a dutiful thank you, nor a thank you of obligation fulfilled.  It is a monkey-off-my-back, world-off-my-shoulders thank you.

A lightening.  A brightening.  A receiving of grandeur, gentle immensity, cloud-like expansion, Completely and Totally duty-free 🙂

Come One, come All and join in the ever-extending enjoyment of the Multitude filled with Gratitude — a gladness and a greatness without attitude. Just straight-forward ever-lovin’ Love.

Lesson 123

I thank my Father for His gifts to me.

Today let us be thankful. We have come to gentler pathways and to smoother roads. There is no thought of turning back, and no implacable resistance to the truth. A bit of wavering remains, some small objections and a little hesitance, but you can well be grateful for your gains, which are far greater than you realize.

A day devoted now to gratitude will add the benefit of some insight into the real extent of all the gains which you have made; the gifts you have received. Be glad today, in loving thankfulness, your Father has not left you to yourself, nor let you wander in the dark alone. Be grateful He has saved you from the self you thought you made to take the place of Him and His creation.

Give Him thanks today. Give thanks that He has not abandoned you, and that His Love forever will remain shining on you, forever without change. Give thanks as well that you are changeless, for the Son He loves is changeless as Himself. Be grateful you are saved. Be glad you have a function in salvation to fulfill. Be thankful that your value far transcends your meager gifts and petty judgments of the one whom God established as His Son.

Today in gratitude we lift our hearts above despair, and raise our thankful eyes, no longer looking downward to the dust. We sing the song of thankfulness today, in honor of the Self that God has willed to be our true Identity in Him. Today we smile on everyone we see, and walk with lightened footsteps as we go to do what is appointed us to do.

We do not go alone. And we give thanks that in our solitude a Friend has come to speak the saving Word of God to us. And thanks to you for listening to Him. His Word is soundless if it be not heard. In thanking Him the thanks are yours as well. An unheard message will not save the world, however mighty be the Voice that speaks, however loving may the message be.

Thanks be to you who heard, for you become the messenger who brings His Voice with you, and lets It echo round and round the world.  Receive the thanks of God today, as you give thanks to Him. For He would offer you the thanks you give, since He receives your gifts in loving gratitude, and gives them back a thousand and a hundred thousand more than they were given. He will bless your gifts by sharing them with you. And so they grow in power and in strength, until they fill the world with gladness and with gratitude.

Receive His thanks and offer yours to Him for fifteen minutes twice today. And you will realize to Whom you offer thanks, and Whom He thanks as you are thanking Him. This holy half an hour given Him will be returned to you in terms of years for every second; power to save the world eons more quickly for your thanks to Him.

Receive His thanks, and you will understand how lovingly He holds you in His Mind, how deep and limitless His care for you, how perfect is His gratitude to you. Remember hourly to think of Him, and give Him thanks for everything He gave His Son, that he might rise above the world, remembering his Father and his Self.

Watch Mythology of A Course in Miracles to learn more about your relationship with Your Father 🙂

Let’s practice together!  Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube.  Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice. 

To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com

Lesson 122 – Forgiveness offers everything I want.

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

A smile curls up the corners of my heart.  My heart throws its arms open wide.  My mind descends into my heart … a few jolts straighten my spine … I have leaked through the “barrier” of my body and am formlessly communing with All … how, I do not know.  What, where, I do not know.  Who turns out to be a What.  Nouns turn out to be fantasy.  The Subject turns out to be a Verb pulsating without moving.  Here, Now.  Yes.  The sparkle, the certainty … for an instant and another and another instant more … what a relief.

Lesson 122

Forgiveness offers everything I want.

What could you want forgiveness cannot give? Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it. Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world? Do you want care and safety, and the warmth of sure protection always? Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never can be hurt, a deep, abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be upset?

All this forgiveness offers you, and more. It sparkles on your eyes as you awake, and gives you joy with which to meet the day. It soothes your forehead while you sleep, and rests upon your eyelids so you see no dreams of fear and evil, malice and attack. And when you wake again, it offers you another day of happiness and peace. All this forgiveness offers you, and more.

Forgiveness lets the veil be lifted up that hides the face of Christ from those who look with unforgiving eyes upon the world. It lets you recognize the Son of God, and clears your memory of all dead thoughts so that remembrance of your Father can arise across the threshold of your mind. What would you want forgiveness cannot give? What gifts but these are worthy to be sought? What fancied value, trivial effect or transient promise, never to be kept, can hold more hope than what forgiveness brings?

Why would you seek an answer other than the answer that will answer everything? Here is the perfect answer, given to imperfect questions, meaningless requests, halfhearted willingness to hear, and less than halfway diligence and partial trust. Here is the answer! Seek for it no more. You will not find another one instead.

God’s plan for your salvation cannot change, nor can it fail. Be thankful it remains exactly as He planned it. Changelessly it stands before you like an open door, with warmth and welcome calling from beyond the doorway, bidding you to enter in and make yourself at home, where you belong.

Here is the answer! Would you stand outside while all of Heaven waits for you within? Forgive and be forgiven. As you give you will receive. There is no plan but this for the salvation of the Son of God. Let us today rejoice that this is so, for here we have an answer, clear and plain, beyond deceit in its simplicity. All the complexities the world has spun of fragile cobwebs disappear before the power and the majesty of this extremely simple statement of the truth.

Here is the answer! Do not turn away in aimless wandering again. Accept salvation now. It is the gift of God, and not the world. The world can give no gifts of any value to a mind that has received what God has given as its own. God wills salvation be received today, and that the intricacies of your dreams no longer hide their nothingness from you.

Open your eyes today and look upon a happy world of safety and of peace. Forgiveness is the means by which it comes to take the place of hell. In quietness it rises up to greet your open eyes, and fill your heart with deep tranquility as ancient truths, forever newly born, arise in your awareness. What you will remember then can never be described. Yet your forgiveness offers it to you.

Remembering the gifts forgiveness gives, we undertake our practicing today with hope and faith that this will be the day salvation will be ours. Earnestly and gladly will we seek for it today, aware we hold the key within our hands, accepting Heaven’s answer to the hell we made, but where we would remain no more.

Morning and evening do we gladly give a quarter of an hour to the search in which the end of hell is guaranteed. Begin in hopefulness, for we have reached the turning point at which the road becomes far easier. And now the way is short that yet we travel. We are close indeed to the appointed ending of the dream.

Sink into happiness as you begin these practice periods, for they hold out the sure rewards of questions answered and what your acceptance of the answer brings. Today it will be given you to feel the peace forgiveness offers, and the joy the lifting of the veil holds out to you.

Before the light you will receive today the world will fade until it disappears, and you will see another world arise you have no words to picture. Now we walk directly into light, and we receive the gifts that have been held in store for us since time began, kept waiting for today.

Forgiveness offers everything you want. Today all things you want are given you. Let not your gifts recede throughout the day, as you return again to meet a world of shifting change and bleak appearances. Retain your gifts in clear awareness as you see the changeless in the heart of change; the light of truth behind appearances.

Be tempted not to let your gifts slip by and drift into forgetfulness, but hold them firmly in your mind by your attempts to think of them at least a minute as each quarter of an hour passes by. Remind yourself how precious are these gifts with this reminder, which has power to hold your gifts in your awareness through the day:

Forgiveness offers everything I want.
Today I have accepted this as true.
Today I have received the gifts of God.

Let’s practice together!  Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube.  Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice. 

To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com

Lesson 121 – Forgiveness is the key to happiness.

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

Ego mind is exposed and in that exposure the little “me” is diappearing.  I am not an I … but Son and sun-light … still shining, nothing has changed.  The light is in “me” and “you” … the “you” I like and the “you” I don’t … and the “me” I criticize and the “me” I approve of … just evaporates in the Glow of God leaving you and me a smile without a face*, no name without a place, no time without tick tock, undone.

LESSON 121

Forgiveness is the key to happiness.

Here is the answer to your search for peace. Here is the key to meaning in a world that seems to make no sense. Here is the way to safety in apparent dangers that appear to threaten you at every turn, and bring uncertainty to all your hopes of ever finding quietness and peace. Here are all questions answered; here the end of all uncertainty ensured at last.

The unforgiving mind is full of fear, and offers love no room to be itself; no place where it can spread its wings in peace and soar above the turmoil of the world. The unforgiving mind is sad, without the hope of respite and release from pain. It suffers and abides in misery, peering about in darkness, seeing not, yet certain of the danger lurking there.

The unforgiving mind is torn with doubt, confused about itself and all it sees; afraid and angry, weak and blustering, afraid to go ahead, afraid to stay, afraid to waken or to go to sleep, afraid of every sound, yet more afraid of stillness; terrified of darkness, yet more terrified at the approach of light. What can the unforgiving mind perceive but its damnation? What can it behold except the proof that all its sins are real?

The unforgiving mind sees no mistakes, but only sins. It looks upon the world with sightless eyes, and shrieks as it beholds its own projections rising to attack its miserable parody of life. It wants to live, yet wishes it were dead. It wants forgiveness, yet it sees no hope. It wants escape, yet can conceive of none because it sees the sinful everywhere.

The unforgiving mind is in despair, without the prospect of a future which can offer anything but more despair. Yet it regards its judgment of the world as irreversible, and does not see it has condemned itself to this despair. It thinks it cannot change, for what it sees bears witness that its judgment is correct. It does not ask, because it thinks it knows. It does not question, certain it is right.

Forgiveness is acquired. It is not inherent in the mind, which cannot sin. As sin is an idea you taught yourself, forgiveness must be learned by you as well, but from a Teacher other than yourself, Who represents the other Self in you. Through Him you learn how to forgive the self you think you made, and let it disappear. Thus you return your mind as one to Him Who is your Self, and Who can never sin.

Each unforgiving mind presents you with an opportunity to teach your own how to forgive itself. Each one awaits release from hell through you, and turns to you imploringly for Heaven here and now. It has no hope, but you become its hope. And as its hope, do you become your own. The unforgiving mind must learn through your forgiveness that it has been saved from hell. And as you teach salvation, you will learn. Yet all your teaching and your learning will be not of you, but of the Teacher Who was given you to show the way to you.

Today we practice learning to forgive. If you are willing, you can learn today to take the key to happiness, and use it on your own behalf. We will devote ten minutes in the morning, and at night another ten, to learning how to give forgiveness and receive forgiveness, too.

The unforgiving mind does not believe that giving and receiving are the same. Yet we will try to learn today that they are one through practicing forgiveness toward one whom you think of as an enemy, and one whom you consider as a friend. And as you learn to see them both as one, we will extend the lesson to yourself, and see that their escape included yours.

Begin the longer practice periods by thinking of someone you do not like, who seems to irritate you, or to cause regret in you if you should meet him; one you actively despise, or merely try to overlook. It does not matter what the form your anger takes. You probably have chosen him already. He will do.

Now close your eyes and see him in your mind, and look at him a while. Try to perceive some light in him somewhere; a little gleam which you had never noticed. Try to find some little spark of brightness shining through the ugly picture that you hold of him. Look at this picture till you see a light somewhere within it, and then try to let this light extend until it covers him, and makes the picture beautiful and good.

Look at this changed perception for a while, and turn your mind to one you call a friend. Try to transfer the light you learned to see around your former “enemy” to him. Perceive him now as more than friend to you, for in that light his holiness shows you your savior, saved and saving, healed and whole.

Then let him offer you the light you see in him, and let your “enemy” and friend unite in blessing you with what you gave. Now are you one with them, and they with you. Now have you been forgiven by yourself. Do not forget, throughout the day, the role forgiveness plays in bringing happiness to every unforgiving mind, with yours among them. Every hour tell yourself:

Forgiveness is the key to happiness. I will awaken from the dream that I am mortal, fallible and full of sin, and know I am the perfect Son of God.

 * You may enjoy reading: God Is In Your Smile

Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube.  Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice. 

To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com

Lesson 120 – Review of Lessons 109 & 110

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

It is an unsleeping rest, smooth and vast … ever-extending, beyond the horizon, beyond horizontality and verticality, beyond depth and width and time and space, beyond gravity and quarks and reason and mankind.

A Unifying, Un-ending Breath spreads effortlessly, expanding, unfurling, billowing, dancing, and It says, “Say not ‘I am’ but ‘God Is'” …

LESSON 120

For morning and evening review:

(109)  I rest in God.

I rest in God today, and let Him work in me and through me, while I rest in Him in quiet and in perfect certainty.

(110)  I am as God created me.

I am God’s Son.  Today I lay aside all sick illusions of myself, and let my Father tell me Who I really am.

On the hour:
I rest in God.

On the half hour:
I am as God created me.

Let’s practice together!  Listen to You Are Entitled to Miracles and  God Goes With You.  Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube.  Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice. 

To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com

Lesson 119 – Review of Lessons 107 & 108

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

A message filters up through my sleep, “Flip the grid.”  When perception shifts, I start to see pinholes of light shining through the seemingly concrete images of trees and sky.

Pixels of God Light stream through and I comprehend what I do not yet Know.  I become aware that everything I think I see are shutters obscuring Light.  What appear to be holes in the grid is Reality … and what appears to be the grid is illusion!

LESSON 119

For morning and evening review:

(107)  Truth will correct all errors in my mind.

I am mistaken when I think I can be hurt in any way.  I am God’s Son, whose Self rests safely in the Mind of God.

(108)  To give and to receive are one in truth.

I will forgive all things today, that I may learn how to accept the truth in me, and come to recognize my sinlessness.

On the hour:

Truth will correct all errors in my mind.

On the half hour:

To give and to receive are one in truth.

Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube.  Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice. 

To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com

Lesson 118 – Review of Lessons 105 & 106

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

This fullness is truly mighty.  This swelling inside my heart … turns me Inside Out … the within is without … the Above is Below … and there is no out because the coating has dissolved … a pulse, an undulating Wave … a slowing, a Knowing … an opening, a Flowing … thank You.

LESSON 118

For morning and evening review:

(105)  God’s peace and joy are mine.

Today I will accept God’s peace and joy, in glad exchange for all the substitutes that I have made for happiness and peace.

(106)  Let me be still and listen to the truth.

Let my own feeble voice be still, and let me hear the mighty Voice for Truth Itself assure me that I am God’s perfect Son.

On the hour:
God’s peace and joy are mine.

On the half hour:
Let me be still and listen to the truth.

Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube.  Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice. 

To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com

Lesson 117 – Review of Lessons 103 & 104

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

This is the place where Love melts away anything that is not-Love.  There is no place but This.  And This is not-a-place, where nothing-happens, being Beingness Itself.  Heart opens, Love spreads, Stillness ripples, Isness Is.

LESSON 117

For morning and evening review:

(103)  God, being Love, is also happiness.

Let me remember love is happiness, and nothing else brings joy.  And so I choose to entertain no substitutes for love.

(104)  I seek but what belongs to me in truth.

Love is my heritage, and with it joy.  These are the gifts my Father gave to me.  I would accept all that is mine in truth.

On the hour:
God, being Love, is also happiness.

On the half hour:
I seek but what belongs to me in truth.

Let’s practice together!  Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube.  Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice. 

To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com

Lesson 116 – Review of Lessons 101 & 102

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

Make me more aware of the Light than the container.  Relieve me of the delusion of “me.”  Replace “me” with You.  God’s Will for the real Me/You/Us as Great Rays is perfect happiness and this makes sense without belief in this seeming fence I’ve built around my Self.

LESSON 116

For morning and evening review:

(101)  God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.

God’s Will is perfect happiness for me.  And I can suffer but from the belief there is another will apart from His.

(102)  I share God’s Will for happiness for me.

I share my Father’s Will for me, His Son.  What He has given me is all I want.  What He has given me is all there is.

On the hour:
God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.

On the half hour:
I share God’s Will for happiness for me.

Let’s practice together!  Listen to God Goes With You and You Are the Light of the World.  Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube.  Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice. 

To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com

Lesson 115 – Review of Lessons 99 & 100

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

The aroma of lilies is creamy sweet and very pleasing.  Even more pleasing is that there are no flowers in the room.  They are a clue that Jesus is present.  They are His gift which is ever-present, a gift I am learning how to accept moment-to-moment.  If I forgive the world for all the errors I have made, then I am not-guilty.  If I fulfill my part in saving the world, then all are innocent and I with them.  Happiness blossoms up, knowing this is true.  Pure and immediate, free and easy, innocent release.  Full, deep inhale; luxurious, relieving exhale … how beautiful to be Breathed by God.

LESSON 115

For morning and evening review:

(99) Salvation is my only function here.

My function here is to forgive the world for all the errors I have made.  For thus am I released from them with all the world.

(100)  My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation.

I am essential to the plan of God for the salvation of the world.  For he gave me His plan that I might save the world.

On the hour:
Salvation is my only function here.

On the half hour:
My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation.

Let’s practice together!  Listen to God Goes With You and You Are the Light of the World.  Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube.  Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice. 

To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com

Lesson 114 – Review of Lessons 97 & 98

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)
Streaks of light emanate in every direction, like a circular lightning burst.  Sun of God, without limitation.

The Word of God is not made of letters.  The Word is Formless, Changeless Spirit communicated by symbol to minds with amnesia, but Who, on accepting our part in God’s plan, find ourselves saved from our own delusions of separateness.

LESSON 114

For morning and evening review:

(97) I am spirit.

I am the Son of God.  No body can contain my spirit, nor impose on me a limitation God created not.

(98)  I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.

What can my function be but to accept the Word of God, Who has created me for what I am and will forever be?

On the hour:
I am spirit.

On the half hour:
I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.

Let’s practice together!  Listen to God Goes With You and You Are the Light of the World.  Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube.  Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice. 

To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com