I was raised in a Catholic household. There was nothing extreme about it. Both my parents had been to parochial schools. It seemed as if they had had enough of the church by the time they were grown and had a family to care for. By sending us to church, they were doing what they knew to do.

There was a time when supermarkets offered "an item a week" promotions. Sometimes it was flatware, sometimes it was teacups and dinnerware. I distinctly remember the store offering the Bible in weekly sections. Though it was not an especially religious family environment, my parents bought this Bible in sections. There must have been another Bible around the house, but this Bible would be huge - at least 12 inches by 9 inches and at least six or seven inches deep.

I was ten or eleven years old at the time and, when this huge Bible was completed, I made the declaration that I would read the whole thing, cover to cover. I started at the beginning and read through Genesis. I did the math and figured that people lived to be 700, 800, or even over a thousand years old. Until God said, according to this Bible, that people could live only one-hundred twenty years. Sensible, I thought. But making the lives shorter meant more begets, and when the begetting seemed to go on to naming all the generations that ever lived, the ten year old that I was then stopped reading.

I came back to it. Somehow, just a couple of years later, I was the top student in the religious studies class (called catechism in the Catholic Church). And again, at 20, I was touched by the Bible. This time it was with the New Testament, and kept what I read in the back of my mind like a thread back to something I knew about myself, but did not discuss it with anyone.

I wrote about some of these early experiences in the post about My Jesus Year. In that article, I mentioned once asking someone about the Jewish holiday of Passover and was told, "You're a Jew, you should know this. Jesus was a Jew." Yes! I want to Read the rest of this post ...

ACIM Speaks Podcast
Episode 26
The Undoing

This is the first in a series on the Atonement, The Undoing. What is the Atonement? What does it mean to us? I start with the language and some of the basic ideas in the Course and conclude this episode with "How to Decide with God."

All your past, except its beauty, is gone,
and nothing is left except a blessing.

The passage, Decide for God, can be found here: The Undoing - Decide with God.

There are 5 ways to listen to ACIM Speaks Podcast

1. ACIM Speaks on The Undoing, Episode 26 - download
2. Listen on Posterous and find all of the episodes in one place.
3. Subscribe with iTunes . The iTunes podcast page has a new look! Please check it out. There is a directory page with all the episodes available.
4. And below, you'll find the podcast ready to play right here.
5. use this link to subscribe to ACIM Speaks podcast in any RSS reader or player.

Thank you for listening. Pass it on.

The Undoing
or
The Atonement
and
The Release from Guilt

This section will be for passages from the text related to the Atonement, or the Undoing of error and the release from guilt.

Create your own St. Joseph Day Tradition

The feast day of Saint Joseph has a strange history of changing dates according to the whims of Popes. Originally, it was a day declared in honor of Joseph, husband of Mary, mother of Jesus. As the story goes, it was a busy time of year when the couple set out on the journey to escape the mass killing of babies by King Herod. Joseph and Mary were turned away at the door of several inns until finally one offered shelter in the stable.

St. Joseph's Day is traditionally celebrated with acts of kindness, and is observed on March 19th, however, the Pope still allows the celebration to take place on another date if March 19th falls within Holy Week (the days surrounding Easter). Saint Joseph Day is celebrated in pockets around the world where there is a large Italian demographic. Originally a religious feast day, these celebrations have become community-wide events in those areas.

~ Yes! I want to Read the rest of this post ...

ACIM Speaks on Principle 51

This is fun follow up to the previous episode, The Call to Love. I promised to talk about Principle 51, a passage from the notes of A Course in Miracles, missing from the original edition, but now available to us for discussion. I believe that this passage relates to various phenomena occurring in present time - the 2012 Mayan calendar mystery, global warming, and the "awakening" that is talked about these days.

The complete passage read in the podcast can be found here: Love Does Not Limit. Also, note there is a reference to a verse in the New Testament, which is linked in the page.

There are 5 ways to listen to ACIM Speaks Podcast

1. ACIM Speaks Principle 51, Episode 25 - download
2. Listen on Posterous and find all of the episodes in one place.
3. Subscribe with iTunes . The iTunes podcast page has a new look! Please check it out. There is a directory page with all the episodes available.
4. And below, you'll find the podcast ready to play right here.
5. use this link to subscribe to ACIM Speaks podcast in any RSS reader or player.