Let me remember I am one with God.
1. Today we give thanks once again that our identity is found in God.
²Our home is safe.
³Our protection is guaranteed, no matter what we do.
⁴And we are given the Power and the Strength of God to carry out whatever we undertake.
⁵We cannot fail in anything. I
⁶Everything we touch takes on a shining light that blesses and heals.
⁷In union with God and with the universe, we walk in joy, remembering that God Himself walks with us always. II
2. How holy are our minds!
²Everything we see reflects the holiness of a mind joined with God and with itself.
³How easily do errors vanish, and death gives way to everlasting life!
⁴Our radiant footprints point the way to truth, for God is our Companion as we walk the world a little while.
⁵And those who come to follow us will recognize the way, because the light we carry stays behind and yet remains with us as we move forward.
3. What we receive is the eternal gift we give to those who follow us, to those who came before, and to all who stay with us a while.
²And God, Who loves us all with the same Love in which we all were created, smiles on us and offers us the happiness we gave.
4. Today we will not doubt His Love for us, nor question His Protection and His Care.
²No foolish fears can come between our faith and our awareness of His Presence.
³Today we are one with Him in certainty and in remembrance.
⁴For we feel Him within the depths of our hearts.
⁵Our minds hold His Thoughts, and our eyes behold His Loveliness in everything we see.
⁶Today, we see all things as kind and beautiful.
5. We see Him in all that seems to bring us pain, and we see pain give way to peace.
²We see Him in the frantic, in the sad and anxious, in the lonely and afraid; and He restores to all of them the peace of mind in which they were created.
³We see His Love in those who die and in the dead, a Love that brings them back to life.
⁴And we see all this because we saw it first within ourselves. III
6. To those who know they are one with God, no miracle is denied.
²Their thoughts can heal all pain in any form, in anyone, in any time, past or future, just as easily as in those who walk beside them now.
³Their thoughts are timeless, and they reach beyond all limits of space and time.
7. We join this understanding as we say that we are one with God.
²For in these words, we say as well that we are safe and healed, and can heal and save.
³We choose to give what we have received, for we would keep the gifts our Father gave.
⁴Today we would experience ourselves as one with Him, so that the world may share our recognition of reality.
⁵In our experience, the world is freed.
⁶And as we deny our separation from our Father, the world is healed with us.
8. Let peace be with you today. IV
²Secure your peace by remembering you are one with your Creator, just as He is one with you.
³At any time today, whenever it seems best, devote half an hour to the thought that you are one with God.
⁴This is our first attempt at an extended period of practice, and we offer no rules nor special words to guide your meditation. V
⁵We trust God’s Voice will speak to you as He deems best, certain He will not fail.
⁶Remain with Him this half hour.
⁷He will do the rest.
9. The benefit of this practice will not be lost on you, even if you believe that nothing happened.
²You may not be ready to accept it now.
³But what you receive will surely come to you, in time and place unknown to you as yet.
⁴This half hour will be framed in gold, with every minute like a diamond set around the mirror that this exercise will offer you.
⁵And in that mirror, you will see the Face of Christ reflected in your own.
10. Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will see your own transfiguration in the mirror that this holy half hour holds before you, to be seen at last. VI
²When you are ready, you will find it in your mind, awaiting your discovery.
³And you will remember then the Thought to which you gave this half an hour, grateful and aware that never was a time more gladly spent.
⁴Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will look into that mirror and behold the light that sinlessness reflects, the beauty that is yours.
11. Let this half hour be the gift you give to God, and be assured He will return to you a sense of Love so deep, so tranquil and so vast that it surpasses all understanding; a holiness so perfect it defies all vision of the body.
²And yet you can be sure that you will someday—perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow—understand and see it.
³Keep adding jewels to the golden frame that holds the mirror offered you today, and every hour repeat within yourself:
⁴Let me remember I am one with God.
⁵I am one with all my brothers and my Self,
⁶In everlasting holiness and peace.
I In this Lesson, Jesus takes a further step and raises the level of His teachings. It is natural that some of the statements He proposes now should be harder to follow, for they speak to us of states of consciousness we have not yet fully reached. Jesus utters thanksgivings for gifts and realities that, in many cases, we are still unable to see or feel with the heart.
This should not trouble us. Faced with such statements, it is important to remember that the Lessons must be adapted to our measure—to our present capacities. Some Lessons will fit us like a glove: we will understand them, feel them deeply, and make them our own without effort. Others, on the other hand, will feel uncomfortable because we have not yet come to live what they express.
In those cases, instead of repeating the statements mechanically or feeling like impostors, we can reformulate them sincerely. A practical way to do this is to add expressions such as: “I want to believe that…,” “I want to feel that…,” “I desire to see this in this way.” Thus we do not force our mind to affirm something that is not yet true for us, but we do align ourselves honestly with our desire to reach that truth.
For example, if the Lesson states, “I cannot fail at anything,” and we do not yet feel that certainty, we can say: “I want to come to believe, to feel, and to live with absolute certainty that I cannot fail at anything.” In this way, our words are joined to the truth of our genuine desire and to our heart.
This attitude allows us to practice with integrity and strengthens the bond between our intention and the truth Jesus points out to us. It is not a matter of forcing a faith we do not yet have, but of being honest about our present state and offering our desire to move forward.
Thus each statement, though not yet fully realized in us, becomes an act of authenticity—and that has enormous transforming power.
Just as yesterday we gave thanks to God for the gifts He has granted us, today we rejoice in our condition: for being who we are.
II We are One with God—and that lies infinitely beyond any marvel we could imagine. Yet you do not feel that way. Why? If you look carefully at what is happening in your mind, you will understand.
Take a close look: your mind is always busy; your mind is ceaselessly buzzing. You say you are thinking, but that is not thinking; it is simply imagining. Your mind is extremely busy imagining things you yourself invent. And then, automatically and without any questioning, you tell yourself that all you have imagined is true or believable. Which, if you examine it closely, is quite surprising, because your imaginings have no foundation whatsoever. You make them real for you based on the simple fact that they just occurred to you. Does it not strike you as rather strange that you believe all that you yourself tell yourself?
In a sense, one could say you are an artist, for what you do is very difficult and very costly; it requires a great deal of energy and determination—and you do it very well. To hide the glorious reality of your Self is no small task, and you have achieved it. You are not aware that you are One with God, and that is why you are told here that you have to remind yourself of it all the time. How have you managed to forget it? What have you placed between the magnificence of your Self and your awareness of it?
This Course calls that the “veil that covers the Face of Christ.” And how have you managed to weave that veil?
Now take a good look at how you do it. The veil that hides the Face of Christ is made up of absences. Yes, absences! Absences of reality, absences of love. Absences do not exist, but you have made them real for yourself in your mind. They are shadows, darkness, sins, desires, guilt, fears, suffering and hopelessness, or vain expectations; they are the absence of light, the absence of reality. What has happened is that you have considered them, given them value, and made them important to you. Moreover, you have decided to invite them into your holy mind and allowed them to settle there, occupying the entirety of your holy home.
Absences? And what shape do those absences of reality take? What are they?
Consider this: it is evident that you know the word “story.” And it is also undeniable that you believe you know what it means. But it is very likely that you have never stopped to consider exactly what those “stories” you tell yourself or are told consist of. Pay attention: a story is a concatenation of ideas apparently related to one another that captivates your mind and keeps it fixed and absorbed in a narrative you deem plausible.
Listen well: none of that is true; none of that exists; it is only a story! It is not real! All the veracity you think it contains you have bestowed upon it yourself for the simple reason that you want it to be true. And realize that it does not matter whether what that story describes pleases you or displeases you—you want it to be true, you give it your attention, and you hand over your Soul to it.
Today’s Lesson is for you to rejoice and be happy. Do not allow your eyes to rest on what is nothing. That alone is enough. You do not need to imagine anything marvelous; rather you need to stop imagining. Stop telling yourself stories of fear and vengeance—or of absurd “loves”—and stop believing them. You need do nothing more than that. Truth will come to you of its own accord, if you do not block its way with your imaginings.
Rest your mind. And when the tiniest spark of light comes to you, the smallest sign of love, run to give it to someone who is near you. At once you will realize that you return with far more than you gave. Then take that and give it to another, and then to another. Do not stop until your heart can hold no more love. And then, rest a while.
Live this way—without imagination. You do not have to strive. You only have to stop telling yourself lies and wait for the recognition of the truth and of the love that already dwell in you.
Trust—It will not delay.
III It is as impossible to see the miracles of love with an empty heart as it is not to see them with a heart brimming with love. The awareness of God’s Love is the Source of every miracle; in It, all things are possible, and without It, nothing is.
IV Luke 24:36 “As they were talking about these things, Jesus Himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’”
Pause a moment and quiet your mind to read attentively the beautiful paragraphs that follow.
Take a pause and become aware that the words you are reading are holy and true. Open your mind and your heart to them, and allow them—if only for an instant—to carry you to the truth they contain. That is enough.
V These practices in which “there are no rules and no special words to guide your meditation” are part of a gradual process in the Workbook, in which fewer and fewer specific instructions are given for each day of practice. In their place, reliance is placed on your inner Guidance, your prior experience, and your individual needs for the specific content of your practices.
This absence of explicit instructions appears again in tomorrow’s Lesson:
“Simply be still. You need no rule but this to let your practicing today lift you above the thinking of the world, and free your vision from the body’s eyes.” (W-125.9:1–2)VI Matthew 17:2 “And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light.”
1 Corinthians 13:12 “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know just as I also am known.”