[acimlessons_list] Lesson 360 - December 26

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 360 - DECEMBER 26

"Peace be to me, the holy Son of God. 
Peace to my brother, who is one with me. 
Let all the world be blessed with peace through us."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete instructions in separate document. 
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

COMMENTARY

This is for all practical purposes the last "regular" lesson of the
Workbook. The last five days of the year will be spent on a single lesson,
which gives us an idea of how every day can be spent by a Course "graduate,"
if we can use that term. This final lesson, then, sums up and concludes the
practice of the Workbook.

Peace be to me; peace be to my brother; peace be to all the world through
us. That is one way of summarizing what the Course is all about: finding
peace within ourselves, sharing that peace with another, and together
sharing it with all the world. Finding it within ourselves is the basis.
Sharing it with another confirms it within us, and the relationship gives us
a microcosm in which to learn to extend that peace. Having learned to share
together, we then extend the peace to all the world.

	Father, it is Your peace that I would give, receiving
	it of you.	(1:1)

The peace we receive and give is God's peace. It is the peace that comes of
knowing we are God's creation: "In holiness were we created, and in holiness
do we remain" (1:5). "I am Your Son, forever just as You created me, for the
Great Rays remain forever still and undisturbed within me" (1:2). Nothing
God placed in me in creation has been lost. God, eternally at peace,
extended Himself to create me, and His peace extended into me and included
me in its stillness. That stillness always exists. There is a place in you,
and in me, that is at perfect peace always. We can find that peace at any
instant we choose to do so. To find it all we need do is to be still, to
stop our interference. The peace is always there.

	I would reach to them [the Great Rays] in silence and
	in certainty, for nowhere else can certainty be found. 
	Peace be to me, and peace to all the world.	(1:3-4) 

This morning, close your eyes for a time-for as long as it takes. Let the
thoughts that have been occupying your mind just float away, detached. Do
not push them away; do not hold on to them. Just let them go, and try to
become aware of that place within yourself that is always at peace. Do not
strive to find it; let it find you. Simply be still. Simply make yourself
receptive to the peace and it will appear, because it is always there. Sit
in silence. If a noise comes to your attention, don't let your mind "stick"
to it. You have no other purpose than to be still. You have no other goal
right now but to say, "Peace be to me."

And when you touch that peace, or when it touches you, however briefly, let
yourself add, "and peace to all the world." Gently wish that peace for all
your brothers and sisters. That is all we are here for. That is all that
really needs to be done. It will be enough.

	Your Son is like to You in perfect sinlessness. And with
	this thought we gladly say "Amen."	(1:6-7)

The thought of perfect sinlessness brings the Course to its conclusion; that
is its goal. 

	But the content of the course never changes. Its central
	theme is always, "God's Son is guiltless, and in his
	innocence is his salvation."	(M-1.3:4-5)

When I have accepted my own perfect sinlessness, and have extended that
thought to include the entire world, salvation is accomplished. To do so is
to perfectly forgive all things. Sinlessness and peace go together. Only the
sinless can be at peace; only the peaceful are sinless. The message of the
Course is one of radical innocence. All are innocent, and no one must be
condemned for others to be free.

WHAT AM I?

Part 10: W-pII.14.5:3-5


Our function here is to "bring glad tidings to the Son of God, who thought
he suffered" (5:3). The Son of God who thought he suffered is you, me, and
everyone who comes into our life. What a wonderful calling! To announce, as
the prophet Isaiah said in the Old Testament:


 	...to preach good tidings unto the meek; ...to bind up the
	brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the
	opening of the prison to [them that are] bound; ...to
	comfort all that mourn; ...to give unto them beauty for
	ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise
	for the spirit of heaviness.	(Is 61:1-3)


This season of Christmas is said in the Gospels to be a time of "great
joy...to all people" (Lk 2:10). In the Course we have a continuation of that
message, and we are its heralds. We can announce, "Now is [the Son of God]
redeemed" (5:4). The way is open for every one of us to find our way home,
and to know first our perfect forgiveness, and then the immensity of God's
Love.


	And as he sees the gate of Heaven stand open before him,
	he will enter in and disappear into the Heart of God.
	(5:5)

As these "glad tidings" are received, we will all, in the end, enter in
through the heavenly gates, symbolic of entering into the awareness of
perfect Oneness. In that Oneness we will disappear into the Heart of God.
That word "disappear" does not, in any sense, mean that we shall cease to
exist, or that we will be absorbed and somehow blotted out by the
absorption. It is just that all sense of difference and separateness will be
gone, along with all desire for it. We will disappear in the Oneness, but we
will be in that Oneness, profoundly a part of it, radiantly fulfilling our
function, shining forever in the eternal glory of God.