on the occasion of Lola’s commissioning ceremony during a mutual accountability group meeting – these were the words we used, adapted from A Course In Miracles, Lesson 157:
This is a day of silence and of trust.
It is a special time of promise in
our calendar of days. It is a time
Heaven has set apart to shine upon,
and casts a timeless light upon this day
when echoes of eternity are heard.
This day is holy, for it ushers in
a new experience, a different kind
of feeling and awareness. We have spent
long days and nights in celebrating death.
Today we learn to feel the joy of life.
We add a new dimension now, a fresh experience
which sheds a light on all that I have learned
already, and prepares me for what I
have yet to learn. It brings me to the door
where learning ceases, and I catch a glimpse
of what lies past the highest reaches it
can possibly attain. It leaves me here
an instant, and I go beyond it, sure
of my direction and my only goal.
Today it will be given me to gain
a touch of Heaven, though I will return
to paths of learning. Yet I have come far
enough along the way to alter time
sufficiently to rise above its laws
and walk into eternity a while.
This I will learn to do increasingly,
as every lesson, faithfully rehearsed,
brings me more swiftly to this holy place
and leaves me, for a moment, with my Self.
God will direct our practicing today,
for what we ask for now is what God wills.
And having joined our will with God’s this day,
what we are asking must be given us.
Nothing is needed to light our minds
and let them rest in still anticipation
and in quiet joy wherein we quickly leave
the world behind.
From this day forth, my ministry takes on
a genuine devotion and a glow
that travels from my fingertips to those
I touch, and blesses those I look upon.
A vision reaches everyone I meet,
and everyone I think of, or who thinks
of me. For my experience today
will so transform my mind that it becomes
the touchstone for the holy Thoughts of God.
My body will be sanctified today,
its only purpose being now to bring
the vision of what I experience
this day to light the world. We cannot give
experience like this directly. Yet
it leaves a vision in our eyes which we
can offer everyone, that they may come
the sooner to the same experience
in which the world is quietly forgot
and Heaven is remembered for a while.
As this experience increases and
all goals but this become of little worth,
the world to which we will return becomes
a little closer to the end of time,
a little more like Heaven in its ways,
a little nearer its deliverance.
And we who bring it light will come to see
the light more sure; the vision more distinct.
The time will come when I will not return
in the same form in which I now appear,
for I will have no need of it. Yet now
it has a purpose, and will serve it well.
Today I will embark upon a course
I have not dreamed of. But the Holy One,
the Giver of the happy dreams of life,
Translator of perception into truth,
the holy Guide to Heaven given me,
has dreamed for me this journey which I make
and start today, with the experience
this day holds out to me, to be my own.
Into Christ’s Presence will I enter now,
serenely unaware of everything
except Christ’s shining Face and perfect Love.
The vision of Christ’s Face will stay with me
but there will be an instant which transcends
all vision, even this, the holiest.
This I will never teach, for I attained
it not through learning. Yet the vision speaks
of my remembrance of what I knew
that instant, and will surely know again.
And so it is, Amen
Lola's online journal, 