ACIM Conference 2011
Listen, Learn and Do!
February 25, 26, 27 - 2011
(Fri. to Sun.)
Guest Speaker featured frequently on: ... also speaking are:
Marianne Williamson
www.marianne.com
The Oprah Winfrey Show,
Good Morning America, and
www.oprah.com
author of:
A Return To Love
Illuminata
Everyday Grace,
The Gift of Change
The Age Of Miracles
DavidPaul & Candace Doyle
Lucia Espinosa & Dave Biemiller
David Fishman & Regina Dawn Akers
Rev. Mary Gerard Lenihan
David Hoffmeister
Sandy Levey-Lunden
Linda Jean McNabb
D. Patrick Miller
Jon Mundy Ph.D.
Ian Patrick
Rev. Paul & Rev. Deb Phelps
Rev. Tony Ponticello & Rev. Larry Bedini
Earl Purdy
Gary Renard
Sharon Sherrard
Pamela Silberman
Rev. Robert & Rev. Mary Stoelting
Tom Whitmore & Carmen Cameron
Judging As We Would Have It Be
Written by Rev. Tony Ponticello Wednesday, 09 June 2010 09:21
On November 8, 2009, Rev. Tony Ponticello addressed the congregation of the Community Miracles Center in San Francisco, CA. What follows is a lightly edited transcription of that talk.
Judging as we would have it be, that’s what I want to talk about today. This relates to the Workbook lessons that we just had. Yesterday’s lesson was, “I judge all things as I would have them be.” (Wk.Or.Ed.311) Today’s lesson, “I see all things as I would have them be.” (Wk.Or.Ed.312) A Course In Miracles puts those two thoughts together because they are almost the same idea. We judge things; we see things. They appear a certain way to us, because we judged them that way. Our seeing is actually a judgment on what they are.
You can use the terms “seeing” and “judgment” in A Course In Miracles terminology interchangeably. In today’s lesson we read, “Perception follows judgment. Having judged, you therefore see what you would look upon. For sight can merely serve to offer you what you would have.” (Wk.Or.Ed.312.1) Our sight gives us what we want. We choose to look at what we first decided to find in the world. That is a great challenge for us ACIM students. It’s one of the great challenges of the Course – that what I am seeing is what I have decided is real. I have decided it’s real so there it is in front of me.
What do I see when I look out in the world? Lately I see a government that can’t respond to its people and give us health care reform, like the people seem to truly want. I see congress bogging down, even though all the poles say people want health care reform. Somehow, the government, that is supposed to be there for the people, just chooses not to do it. I see unemployment rising. It went to 10.2% this past week. We heard this, and we can judge this, as a terrible statement. But if I think about it, is it really a terrible statement? It depends if you judge the glass half empty or half full. It does mean that 89.8% of the people are employed. That’s actually quite a bit of employment. You never hear anyone say, look almost 90% of the people are employed. You always hear them say 10% of the people are not employed. It just depends on which way you look at it.
Special Function
Written by Rev. Tony Ponticello Tuesday, 08 June 2010 11:00
On Sunday September 6, 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 talk.
On August 25th, 2009 Senator Edward Kennedy died. There is a picture of him on the front of the program. He died of brain cancer, as you all probably know. He had been a Senator for forty-six connective years, which is an amazing amount of time. He is the third longest serving Senator in U.S. history.
He always was the voice for the left, for the liberal, for the progressive. He was responsible for much legislation through out his career and he coauthored around three hundred bills that became laws. He supported and rallied for hundreds more. If there is anybody that we can probably say, that we can agree on, fulfilled the special function of their life, we can say that Edward Kennedy fulfilled his special function. A Course In Miracles says this in today’s reading, “To each He gives a special function in salvation he alone can fill a part for only him. Nor is the plan complete until he finds his special function and fulfills the part assigned to him to make himself complete within a world where incompletion rules.” (Tx.Or.Ed.25.46) I believe that Ted Kennedy found his special function, certainly a part that only he could fill, and he did his best to fill it. I definitely want to honor his life for that.
I did a little research on the Kennedys in general and Ted Kennedy specifically, and I found it pretty fascinating. Some of the information I knew and some of the information I did not know. There were actually four Kennedy brothers. There was a Joe Jr. There was John Kennedy who was sometimes called Jack. There was Robert Kennedy who was sometimes called Bobby, and there was Edward Kennedy who we usually refer to as Ted.
Death Insights
Written by Rev. Tony Ponticello Tuesday, 08 June 2010 10:00
On Sunday June 28, 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 talk.
I want to talk about the big news story of the week. It is frequently said that, in the entertainment industry, when somebody dies its always three people that die with in a short period of time. They always die in threes. On Tuesday June 23, 2009, at 86 years old, Ed McMahon died. Most of us know him from the thirty years that he was on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. That was from 1962 to 1992, thirty years as Johnny Carson’s sidekick. Thirty years saying “Here’s Johnny.” Not to be confused with Jack Nicholson when he said that in The Shinning. Ed McMahon also did lot of other things. Its good to acknowledge his life.
Two days later Farrah Fawcett Majors died. She was only 62, quite a bit younger. She came to fame because she was one of the original Charlie’s Angels. She was only a Charlie’s Angel for one season. For that one year she became synonymous with Charlie’s Angels. I don’t know if you remember this now, but afterwards she actually went on and had a quite a fine dramatic acting career. She was on many television specials. She was nominated for five Golden Globe and four Emmy awards. She was in several movies in dramatic rolls. I remember seeing her in some. She was quite excellent. She was also, of course, a famous poster pin up. Farrah Fawcett Majors had one of the most famous pin up posters ever and millions and millions of women tried to emulate that hair do. How successful they were, we don’t know.
Then synchronistically, on that very same day, just few hours later Michael Joseph Jackson died, He was only 50 years old, so they got younger and younger. Of course they’re still looking into the cause of his death, whether it had something to do with pain killers or other drugs he may have been on. There was a doctor right there in his presence. It is suspicious and right now the family is demanding a second autopsy. As we all know, Michael Jackson started out his career at a very young age. At eleven years old he was singing with his brothers in The Jackson Five. They had a tremendous career.
Out Of The Past
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.
