Heart Thoughts: Love

I know this is rather short notice and, because of the nature of the event and what is happening in our world right now, timing is everything. What am I talking about… the Peace Concert that Rev Todd Glacy is presenting this Sunday evening at Unity Center for Spiritual Growth! It is staying light later so you won’t be traveling in the dark both ways… the concert starts at 6 p.m. and we would love to see you there. If it isn’t possible to be here in person and for those of you who live beyond our area, I am happy to say it will be on our Facebook page and YouTube live as it is happening. This is an opportunity to merge our energies and collectively send our love and prayers to all who are in harm’s way.

As we continue with the talks related to the book Keep a True Lent by Unity co-founder Charles Fillmore, this past Sunday’s topic was The Throne of Love.

What is LOVE? We can ask different people this question and get a myriad of replies. I found a couple of definitions online and they are:

• “Love is a set of emotions and behaviors characterized by intimacy, passion, and commitment.”
• “Love is an emotion that keeps people bonded and committed to one another.”

As you can see, these link love to another, but what Fillmore is sharing is this:

“DIVINE LOVE is the force that dissolves all the opposers of true thought and thus smooths out every obstacle that presents itself. When love ascends the throne and takes complete possession of our life its rule is just and righteous. Even destructive faculties, such as resistance, opposition, obstinacy, anger, jealousy, are harmonized through love. Perfect love casts out all fear. When love harmonizes the consciousness, we find that our outer affairs are put in order and that where once there seemed to be opposition and fear co-operation and trust prevail.

“Love is that mighty power, that divine quality of God that is expressing through all (humankind), and cannot be suppressed by any outside force” (Keep a True Lent page 152).

“Love is the most obedient thing in the universe. It is also the greatest worker and will accomplish more for our happiness than all other faculties combined (Keep a True Lent page 35).

“If you want a servant that will work for you night and day, cultivate divine love” (Keep a True Lent page 35).

So to cultivate divine love is to know that the Essence of Our Being Is Love. This is the first principle of Attitudinal Healing. Here are the tenets that support this principle.

1. Each individual is a spark from the universal light; this spark is our essence.
2. Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which we can aspire.
3. Love is a given, a permanent energy in the universe and in each human being; it is our natural state.
4. Loving is looking beyond appearances, beyond the personality and beyond any specialness in our relationships.
5. Negative emotions and attitudes block the awareness of the presence of love within ourselves and others.
6. Love is reflected back to us and triggers the awareness of love within ourselves.
7. Meditation and contemplation strengthen the awareness of our essence of love.
8. The most prevalent obstacle to the awareness of love’s presence is self-doubt
9. The awareness of our love essence is increased as we extend that love to others
10. Love is the healer

Dr. Jerr Roberts shared this acronym on LOVE with me on Sunday: Living Open-heartedly Valuing Everything.

Here is the affirmation we ended with on Sunday:

Jesus Christ is now here, raising me to his consciousness of infinite Love, and my soul is filled and satisfied. (The Twelve Powers, p. 237)

Join me this Sunday as we explore “Conscience.”

Also take note of the Maundy Thursday service I will be doing with Rev. Jesse James and Julie Thompson. It is going to be a time of preparation for the transformation to take place on Easter.

You are a blessing in my life,
Rev. Patricia Bessey