“Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”

“Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Matt 10:34. On the one hand, He said He is the Prince of Peace and then made this statement.

What did Jesus mean by this statement? The time when He was on earth, the Romans were killing and maiming the Jews with the sword, so the sword was something his disciples and listeners understood.

In our time period, when swords are not common, how can we interpret this? Our study group discussed this at length, resulting in the following understanding:

What do swords do? They cut or separate, just like the knives we use to prepare food.

So, let us make this personal:

Let’s say you decide to change your life to live Jesus’ or another spiritual teacher’s teachings, or change your lifestyle to what you consider better. What happens? Certain activities are not as attractive any more and you may stop participating. This also means you may stop associating with people who may not be compatible with your new values. This would be using a symbolic sword to separate from those activities or people

When you practice prayer, meditation and love your neighbors, you raise your vibrations, When your vibrations are raised, your frequency is higher because the electrons are spinning faster, you feel different to others and your aura is lighter.

The other way around, your outlook and lifestyle may have changed, with some people separating from you, using the same symbolic sword, because you don’t have the same in common anymore. Some people may not be able to see you any more because of your higher vibrations. Some of lower vibration feel discomfort being around your higher vibrations and separate from you, again symbolically using the sword.

Personally, I have experienced this from teen years onward. Some former friends changed their behavior to what I did not want to partake in, so I separated myself from them, symbolically using the sword. At other times friends have just disappeared because of change in lifestyle, but that is normal. Some friends could not understand my values and criticized, resulting in them wielding the symbolic sword of separation. In most cases we just went our separate ways, with love and respect.

Look at times when people left your life, Can you think about and try to understand it may have been the wielding of the symbolic sword from either of you? Was it time for those relationships or circumstances to end?

Another way of looking at ended relationships can be that the relationship had fulfilled its purpose, with each of you needing to go your own way in order to begin a new venture in consciousness or awareness.

And their have been circumstances when I’ve been separated from and voluntarily separated from circumstances not relationship focused. It could be explained as the symbolic sword separating me from what was not good for spiritual growth,

How about a circumstance that you were separated from, either forcibly or voluntarily: could that have been the symbolic sword taking you away from a circumstance that would hold you back from your spiritual growth? This could be like some ended relationships: the reason for the circumstance has been fulfilled and you did not need it any more, hence they symbolic sword cutting it away

Your comments will be interesting and most welcome. Email me at maria@maria-grace.com. And I will answer via private email. If you indicate so, your question and answer can be put in email group so everyone can read and participate.

It has been a while since I’ve written. The hip replacement June 25 went well and many helped me recover, meaning there were friends in the house for several weeks.  Now I am almost fully back to where I was before the cane and the pain. I am driving the car, but cannot dance yet, but hope to.

Time of Joy Resurrection to the Ascension

The time between Jesus’ resurrection, which Christians celebrate on Easter Sunday, and His Ascension, 40 days later, is a time of Joy. Let us remember Jesus appeared to women first after His Resurrection. When the women told the eleven apostles, the apostles did not believe them, and were then reprimanded by Jesus for their unbelief. According to John Chapter 21, the first thing Jesus did was have a charcoal fire already laid to cook fish for the surprised apostles breakfast.  Jesus also joined people for dinner, and walked with them along the road. During these 40 days the apostles and friends experienced Joy that He had risen and was with them. He walked around, ate, joked and proved to doubting Thomas He is real.

Joy is a fruit of Love. It seems we are most joyous when we have loved; maybe not romantic love, but like the unselfish love of the mother for her children. True love is unselfish, when we have given just because. Can we reflect when we have experienced Joy because of having given unselfish Love?

Let us experience Joy, too, these 40 days. He is not on the cross, the cross is His past. He is alive, having walked amongst men and ascended, available to everyone by invocation. Can we daily think of something that brings us Joy? Can we do something to bring Joy to others? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in a state of Joy all the time?

I leave you in Joy and wish you Joy the rest of your life.

Contact Maria Grace at maria@maria-grace.com

Passover and Easter

March 8 2018, Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday remembers Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, when the people spread palm branches on the ground for the donkey to walk over. This is the time for Christians to think about the upcoming Passion of Jesus, from Good Friday through Easter Sunday.

On 29 March, Maundy Thursday, Christians remember the Last Supper when Jesus blessed bread and wine and commanded his disciples to remember him whenever they did this. The name ‘maundy’ comes from a Latin term ‘mandatum’ (‘commandment’), signifying Jesus' new commandment to his disciples, as recorded in John 15:17. Can we, as Christians, bless our meal, “remember Him,” and practise what he taught?

Friday, March 30 is the Christian Good Friday, when Jesus was tortured and crucified. At the time of His death, it is said there was an earthquake and the sky darkened, with thunder and lightening. The veil before the Holy of Holies split. This can be a symbol that the new teaching of forgiveness and love entered mankind’s consciousness, or when new revelations came forth.

The message that is important to me now is that of his mission of forgiveness. His ministry was all about forgiveness. Remember that when Jesus healed, He forgave the person and they were healed. In one of my meditations, Jesus said that when He said “your sins are forgiven, “the person’s actions all the way back in time, with the memory in the causal body, were forgiven - wiped out. That may mean there would be no akashic record of the “sins.” On His cross, Jesus forgave twice. He forgave those who killed Him and he forgave a thief on the cross, who is now known as the Good Thief.

Our challenge is: Can we forgive? Can we spend Good Friday and Holy Saturday identifying and then forgiving; especially those who hurt us deeply. This may take longer than two days, but is a beginning. Then, on Easter Sunday we can be renewed and put on our new clothes. This new garment being a lighter and brighter aura, which has been cleansed from resentment and hurt because we forgave.

A note: forgiveness does not mean the one or situation that hurt us was right. It only means we let it go. We let go of the right for retribution and move forward.

March 31: Passover: This major Jewish festival lasts eight days and commemorates the liberation of the Children of Israel and their Exodus from slavery in Egypt. The Passover is when the Angel of death passed over the homes of those who put the blood from the lamb over their door. This was the last plague on Pharaoh, and those who obeyed Moses or God, were spared from having their firstborn sons killed and were able to flee slavery. To me, the challenge is freedom. The Israelites left slavery, but also a predictable  life in Egypt. They at least had food. In the desert, they faced 40 years of challenges, so their freedom was hard won. In our lives, we can be symbolically enslaved by what is perceived as security, but eventually keeps us from the growth of new challenges. Let us be free.


Please send your comments to maria@maria-grace.com. Thank you.

May your Passover and Easter be blessed and happy.

Pray for Northern Europe, March 2018

Pray for Northern Europe

During a Master Session, a question was asked how and where a person could send spiritual radiation. The answer was fast and simple: to Northern Europe. The message said there is a small group of people living in northern Europe who are trying to bring down democracy world-wide. Their names were not given, nor the name of one country. The Master’s emphasized we would be helping God’s Divine Plan, or God’s Will, if we would send healing energy to northern Europe. They also said They may not interfere with human activity unless asked, and they told us to ask and they will assist.  The Master’s have said many times during sessions that they may not interfere with man’s free will. This may answer a question of why the master’s do not prevent some things. Hope this is a good message for you. Thank you for reading.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

September 2017

What are "first things?" First things are those things you, personally, find of most worth. If you put first things first, you are organizing and managing time and events according to the personal priorities you established.  From the book: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Habit 3: Put First Things First.

You have established a priority for today; that is, something of importance for you now.  If you are a list person, you may have the list in front of you. You receive a phone call, asking you for help with someone else’s need or want and it sounds urgent.  Is it important enough to put your priority aside?  Do you drop everything? Is it really an emergency?

Someone you knew a long time ago dies, and you are urged to go to the viewing or funeral. Do you truly want to go, or do you feel “compelled” because of social protocol? The answer to prayer comes from God, so may you pray for the deceased and their family instead? Would this be more important than your priority?

Or, you receive call, asking you to join them in what they want to do because they don’t want to go alone. Will going fulfill your priority? If you say “no” they will call someone else.

We are told to help others above ourselves. We want to be there to help others. But... is the other person’s request truly a need? Can they get along without your help at this time? Do they have someone else who can help? If you accept these requests, what happened to your priority? It is put off another day and maybe another, and yet another, all to pay attention to others’ needs or wants.

Quotes from the Edgar Cayce readings:
 

 Do the first things first; and know that as you keep in line with that which is constructive ever, then the gain mentally, materially, spiritually, may come.
 

 But if there are put the first things first and the proper evaluations of those of material and mental and spiritual forces, then there may be a life of harmony, a life of happiness, a life of joy in this experience. For it will make all of those whom the entity may contact day by day aware, by the very dealings and the expression with same, that he hath taken thought of his relationships to his God and his fellow man!

Conclusion: establish your priorities: spiritual, mental, and material. Learn to say “no” to what would distract, distort or delay any of your priorities.. This is meant for the interruptions or distractions to a priority, not to a true emergency for another.

Let’s all try this for a week and see how we do. I need this, too.

Don't take it personally

Don’t take it personally.
They don’t mean it that way.
Does it really matter?
What am I afraid of?

Contributing to changes in behavior and irritability is the NORTHERN CORONAL HOLE: A hole in the sun's atmosphere has opened up and it is spewing solar wind into space.  NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is monitoring the structure, which sprawls across nearly half of the sun's northern hemisphere. A coronal hole (CH), is a region where the sun's magnetic field peels back and allows solar wind to escape. A stream of solar wind flowing from this hole is expected to reach Earth on July 21st, bringing a 40% chance of geomagnetic activity. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when the solar wind arrives. Details and picture at www.spaceweather.com. This is addition to the solar flares we’ve recently experienced. French scientist and doctor, Franz Mesmer, in his studies of magnetic fields on the human psychie, revealed how high concentrations of anions, which are negatively charged ions,  dramatically influence the human body and brain.

The weather is hot and steamy, the solar flares and the Sun’s magnetic radiation intense. This means everyone’s aura is stimulated and compressed. Some react with fatigue, some with irritation, some with sleep. Some, though, are energized and are so busy with activities they wear others out. People can be more emotional than usual, meaning more touchy and taking things personally. Irritation is projected as grouchiness or criticism. Fatigue can be experienced as a desire to withdraw.

Some are prone to take the little things personally, when they may not be meant that way. Let’s say you tried to help a friend, and received a short, “no, I don’t need your help.” You could take it personally and become angry or be sad because you are not needed. What if you looked at what is going on in your friend’s life? Is your friend under stress or going through a difficult time? Was your friend trying to offend you, or thinking of their own circumstances? Understanding where they are coming from can help your feelings of anger or sadness. The Edgar Cayce readings counsel to help others when we feel sad or rejected.

Some people project their own misgivings or perceived shortcomings onto others, which takes prayerful attention. You need not take that personally, and understand it is their “stuff” projected, although it can be difficult.

The Course in Miracles has a philosophy that I’ve translated as “if I am not feeling love, what am I afraid of?” I’ve put this little exercise into action, with surprising revelations about myself. If you had a sad or angry reaction to anything, you could ask yourself: What am I afraid of? And does it really matter?

Does it really matter? In my long life, I’ve learned that most of what happens is not really important. When we pay attention to what is important, the little stuff takes care of itself.

This can be an interesting personal growth exercise.

a.  Do they mean to hurt you?
b.  Should I take it personally?
c.  Does it really matter?
d.  What am I afraid of?

Feedback is welcome. Please email me with your comments.

FORGIVENESS

A few years ago, I watched an interview with Bishop Desmond Tutu on the Bill Moyers show, talking about forgiveness and reconciliation in South Africa. How he explained forgiveness was not taught in the Catholic school I attended, or in any other studied religious or spiritual teachings. Forgiveness is taught, but not in those words. This is an attempt to present forgiveness in Bishop Tutu’s words.

To make this brief, Bishop Tutu told Bill Moyers that when someone hurts you, you have the right to avenge or retaliate. That means you hold on to the hurt, and maybe even let the hurt become hate. This in turn, develops into a vendetta or blood feud, which happened in South Africa, where he was bishop and archbishop. Bishop Tutu said that when you decide to forgive, you give up the right to get even and let it go. It does not mean the perpetrator was right, it just means you acknowledge the harm, tell the other you forgive and let it go. How simple that is, to free yourself from holding on and freeing the other, thereby stopping the vendetta or karma. In South Africa, the people faced each other, acknowledged what they did, and asked for and received forgiveness. This enabled the nation to heal and move forward. This was shown on the interview, and was profound. To quote him: “Without forgiveness, we remain tethered to the person who harmed us. We are bound with chains of bitterness, tied together, trapped. Until we can forgive the person who harmed us, that person will hold the keys to our happiness; that person will be our jailor. When we forgive, we take back control of our own fate and our feelings. We become our own liberators. We don’t forgive to help the other person. We don’t forgive for others. We forgive for ourselves.”Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World, by Desmon Tutu and Mpho Tutu. Harper One, 2014). Here is a link to the article, http://www.dailygood.org/story/688/desmond-tutu-on-why-we-forgive-desmond-tutu-and-mpho-Tutu/.

He offers four steps to forgiving and healing:

•     Telling the Story 
•     Naming the Hurt 
•     Granting Forgiveness 
•     Renewing or Releasing the Relationship

To read these four points explained, click here http://religionnews.com/2014/08/25/desmond-tutu-forgiveness-apartheid/

The hardest one to forgive may be one’s self. Can we acknowledge we did something we think is wrong, and let it go? Would that heal? It is worth a try.

To comment or begin a dialogue, you may on this blog, or email: maria@maria-grace.com. This article is on the Insights page of maria-grace.com, 

To receive your private reading, contact Maria at Maria@maria-grace.com.