Spiritual Stimulus Package

Written by Rev. Tony Ponticello Tuesday, 31 March 2009 12:00

One Sunday March 15, 2009, Rev. Tony Ponticello addressed the congregation at the Community Miracles Center in San Francisco, CA. What follows is a lightly edited transcription of that lecture.

Two weeks ago we were at our conference, “A Blessing From The Abundance of Grandeur.” Many of you were there as well. I spoke about many things (*1) and that’s a picture of me at the conference on the cover of the program, looking rather sharp in my white tuxedo. I spoke about our economic situation, among many other things. I spoke about our conference gathering being a spiritual stimulus package. People really resonated with that idea so I thought I’d expound on it a little bit more.

At the conference I was talking about the conference itself being the spiritual stimulus package. I’d like to open that up a bit and talk about how we metaphysical students, we A Course In Miracles students, are a spiritual stimulus package for the world and one that the world absolutely needs.

Right now the world is contemplating the effectiveness of our governments economic stimulus package, and there’s a lot of debate whether it is effective or not. There’s a debate with both political parties. Maybe it’s not enough. Maybe it’s focused in the wrong direction. It’s an interesting little discussion. There’s not only a national discussion there is also a world discussion. In fact, the past week the G 20 nations met to discuss a world economic stimulus package, some way that all of these countries, the most dynamic financial countries, could do something in joint effort so that we could really kick start the world economy.

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Out Of The Past

Written by Rev. Larry Bedini Saturday, 28 February 2009 12:00

On Sunday, February 8, 2009, Rev. Larry Bedini addressed the congregation at the Community Miracles Center in San Francisco, CA. What follows is a lightly edited transcription of that lecture.

First, I want you know that I’m especially thrilled to give this talk today. A few nights ago I went on a very exciting journey and made a truly thrilling discovery. I want to share that adventure with you now, because it has meant a lot to me.

One evening, a couple of weeks ago, I received a phone call from someone who wanted to come over for a brief visit. We sat in my kitchen and started to talk about many things. We talked about general things, and specific things. We talked about the Community Miracles Center, about the upcoming Conference for which we’ve all been waiting two long years and is finally coming up in just a few weeks. The thought of that was quite exciting.

The subject turned to things of the past, as it is inclined to do. We talked a little bit about our relationship and how things had developed between us, over the years. We spoke about the Conference in 2007 and reviewed some of the drama that went on during that time. We spoke about our respective upbringings and about how much in common we had with each other, in that we both had the same Mother, even though we were not related to each other.

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The First ACIM Teachers

Written by Rev. Tony Ponticello Sunday, 31 May 2009 12:27

Let us take time to remember two significant A Course In Miracles people who are no longer with us, the two people who are responsible for ACIM: Helen Schucman and William Thetford. These were the two people who were involved with the channeling, transcription, and first editing of the spiritual document we study. There is a new book titled, The Lives Of Helen Schucman & William Thetford. I met the author, Neal Vahle, at the conference we organized in February. He is a local San Francisco person. He has also visited our local center.

I have talked to him about his book and how it came to be written. That was an interesting story. It is significant that I have actually read this book because I very rarely read books in their entirety. I seem to have so little time to do discretional reading. Something must be shifting. A miracle has happened, because in the past six weeks I have read two books. It was fun. I think I will read some more. For years, when people asked me to read their books, I would reply, “I don’t read.” However, I can not say that anymore. I do read.

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A Shift In Perception

Written by Rev. Tony Ponticello Saturday, 31 January 2009 12:00

On Sunday morning, January 25, 2009, Rev. Tony Ponticello addressed the congregation at the Community Miracles Center in San Francisco. What follows is a lightly edited transcription of that lecture.

I’ve been talking to a lot of people this week. Many people have the idea that we have had a major shift in perception in the collective consciousness of our country, and possibly even the world. Generally, in A Course In Miracles, we think of a miracle as a shift in perception. Those precise words don’t actually exist anywhere in ACIM. However, ACIM does talk about perception shifting and shifts in perception in various places, so it is inferred that a miracle is a shift in perception.

I do think it is important to remember, that there are actually two ways you can shift your perception. You can shift from an egoic perception to a Holy Spirit guided perception and thus have a miracle. However, you can also shift from a Holy Spirit perception to an egoic perception, and that certainly would not be a miracle. A Course In Miracles actually talks about both of these shifts. In fact, ACIM talks about the shifts in perception that the ego has from one illusion to another which would be a third type of shift. Just saying “shift in perception” doesn’t necessarily qualify as a miracle, one has to be quite clear what kind of perception you are shifting from and what kind of perception you are shifting to. If we are making a shift from fear to hope, I definitely think we can say that we are having a miracle, and of course ACIM talks about shifting from fear to hope.

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