Changes

===Lesson===  

===Lesson===  

MICHAEL:  Good evening my children, this is Michael.  I am very happy, very pleased to share this time with you.  Mother Spirit and I once teased you with the notion that this is how one and one make three, that when two people get together and really enjoy each other, it seems there is some third thing that comes into [[existence]].  And this is real, this emerging surround of enjoying the [[spiritual]] [[dimension]] of [[human]] reality.  It’s always here; you are always connected through your [[Thought Adjusters]], through the pure spirits of [[God]]’s [[presence]] within you, but when you get together--and this might be by telephone or email or your delightful Christmas cards--however it is you get together and [[share]] your lives with each other--this is making [[manifest]] and bringing into being, acknowledging and delighting in this spiritual [[dimension]] that so often goes unnoticed.

MICHAEL:  Good evening my children, this is Michael.  I am very happy, very pleased to share this time with you.  Mother Spirit and I once teased you with the notion that this is how one and one make three, that when two people get together and really enjoy each other, it seems there is some third thing that comes into [[existence]].  And this is real, this emerging surround of enjoying the [[spiritual]] [[dimension]] of [[human]] reality.  It’s always here; you are always connected through your [[Thought Adjusters]], through the pure spirits of [[God]]’s [[presence]] within you, but when you get together--and this might be by telephone or email or your delightful Christmas cards--however it is you get together and [[share]] your lives with each other--this is making [[manifest]] and bringing into being, acknowledging and delighting in this spiritual [[dimension]] that so often goes unnoticed.

===='''''Friendship'''''====

===='''''[[Friendship]]'''''====

For many this is just an inexplicable feeling [[good]] to be with a friend.  It’s almost a definition of [[friendship]]--being with those people who simply delight you to be near even beyond your own ability to know why.  The [[feeling]] seems to just spring up of it’s own.  And it’s that springing up of life and joy within you that is, in its final [[analysis]], inexplicable.  It just happens.  So much of your curiosity is directed at this happening to know why, so you can do it again, you end up simply marveling at it.  This is the unfathomable [[wonder]] of friendship, this extra [[dimension]] that comes into being when you get together.     

For many this is just an inexplicable feeling [[good]] to be with a friend.  It’s almost a definition of [[friendship]]--being with those people who simply delight you to be near even beyond your own ability to know why.  The [[feeling]] seems to just spring up of it’s own.  And it’s that springing up of life and joy within you that is, in its final [[analysis]], inexplicable.  It just happens.  So much of your curiosity is directed at this happening to know why, so you can do it again, you end up simply marveling at it.  This is the unfathomable [[wonder]] of friendship, this extra [[dimension]] that comes into being when you get together.     

   

   

You have that rather cynical expression that misery loves company.  But seen in this [[light]], that’s a rather [[negative]] way of seeing, actually a put-down, of human nature, that when you are miserable you just want to lay it on someone else--just heap your burden on someone else.  But that doesn’t really [[work]], does it? There are burdens that are yours alone to bear, and relief cannot be found in just any kind of simple company which might only make it worse.  Though misery may love company, it’s not just any company is it?  Think of all the hardships the [[human]] [[race]] has known.  Think of the [[fear]] and the [[pain]] you yourself have known and how it is lightened, not just by company, but by that special company you call friends.

You have that rather cynical expression that misery loves company.  But seen in this [[light]], that’s a rather [[negative]] way of seeing, actually a put-down, of human nature, that when you are miserable you just want to lay it on someone else--just heap your burden on someone else.  But that doesn’t really [[work]], does it? There are burdens that are yours alone to bear, and relief cannot be found in just any kind of simple company which might only make it worse.  Though misery may love company, it’s not just any company is it?  Think of all the hardships the [[human]] [[race]] has known.  Think of the [[fear]] and the [[pain]] you yourself have known and how it is lightened, not just by company, but by that special company you call friends.

===='''''Sharing'''''====

===='''''[[Sharing]]'''''====

It’s the sharing within friendship that destroys misery.  It’s the very existence, the very [[demonstration]], if you will, of the [[reality]] of friendship, of this spiritual [[dimension]] of human reality; that is what works.  This is what has enabled the human race to face and conquer all the tooth and claw of the [[animal]] world, all the hardships of life--the hunger and pain and exposure--even the sure [[knowledge]] of inevitable [[death]]: all of this has been more than counter-balanced by the sheer reality of friendship.

It’s the sharing within friendship that destroys misery.  It’s the very existence, the very [[demonstration]], if you will, of the [[reality]] of friendship, of this spiritual [[dimension]] of human reality; that is what works.  This is what has enabled the human race to face and conquer all the tooth and claw of the [[animal]] world, all the hardships of life--the hunger and pain and exposure--even the sure [[knowledge]] of inevitable [[death]]: all of this has been more than counter-balanced by the sheer reality of friendship.

   

   

Merry Christmas, my dear ones.  Let us look to [[First Source and Center|the Source]] of the very reality of merriment.  This too is where you find my peace.  Now if you have any questions or comments this evening, let’s make merry with them.

Merry Christmas, my dear ones.  Let us look to [[First Source and Center|the Source]] of the very reality of merriment.  This too is where you find my peace.  Now if you have any questions or comments this evening, let’s make merry with them.

===Dialogue===

===Dialogue===

===='''''Worship'''''====

===='''''[[Worship]]'''''====

Student:  Father Michael, I have a question about [[worship]], like, what is it?  You’ve hinted from time to [[time]], but I would like to know more explanation, if you would, please.  What is worship and how do we do it?

Student:  Father Michael, I have a question about [[worship]], like, what is it?  You’ve hinted from time to [[time]], but I would like to know more explanation, if you would, please.  What is worship and how do we do it?

===='''''Gratitude'''''====

===='''''[[Gratitude]]'''''====

MICHAEL:  Yes my son, as you have been told, as you’ve read, the ability, even the [[desire]]--the impetus to worship and feel [[thankful]] means you have crossed over a threshold, and not only in the general sense of the dividing line between the [[animal]] and the [[human]], but right in your own life.  You have all [[personal]]ly crossed this threshold.  Sometime as a young child you moved beyond a kind of monkey-see--monkey-do kind of [[behavior]] to make a [[quality]] of [[decision]].  You chose to do something your own creative spirit suggested and it granted you the quality of [[free will]] [[dignity]], the dignity of being a full, if still little [[human being]].  The [[realization]] of a [[potential]] that was with you from conception finally was [[manifest]].  You [[experienced]] the [[dimensions]] of [[worship]] and [[wisdom]] in their most primal sense by this first act of [[choice]] with an upwelling [[feeling]] of the kind of [[joy]] and delight of being alive that [[transcends]] any kind of merriment an [[animal]] might know.   

MICHAEL:  Yes my son, as you have been told, as you’ve read, the ability, even the [[desire]]--the impetus to worship and feel [[thankful]] means you have crossed over a threshold, and not only in the general sense of the dividing line between the [[animal]] and the [[human]], but right in your own life.  You have all [[personal]]ly crossed this threshold.  Sometime as a young child you moved beyond a kind of monkey-see--monkey-do kind of [[behavior]] to make a [[quality]] of [[decision]].  You chose to do something your own creative spirit suggested and it granted you the quality of [[free will]] [[dignity]], the dignity of being a full, if still little [[human being]].  The [[realization]] of a [[potential]] that was with you from conception finally was [[manifest]].  You [[experienced]] the [[dimensions]] of [[worship]] and [[wisdom]] in their most primal sense by this first act of [[choice]] with an upwelling [[feeling]] of the kind of [[joy]] and delight of being alive that [[transcends]] any kind of merriment an [[animal]] might know.   

   

   

Student:  Thank you, Father Michael.

Student:  Thank you, Father Michael.

===='''''Ritual'''''====

===='''''[[Ritual]]'''''====

Student:  Good evening, Michael.  My question tonight is along the lines of your talking about people coming together and enjoying one another, and sharing in their spirit.  I see it as a whole [[continuum]] of the way we come together.  Is there, from your [[perspective]], your [[mind]], a time when it goes from being people coming from a deeper spiritual sharing in what we could call a [[religion]]--and how that spirit of wanting to come together and worship together…  How much is there a qualitative [[difference]] between people getting together in the holidays and having a good meal versus people getting together and sharing a religious [[ritual]] together?  

Student:  Good evening, Michael.  My question tonight is along the lines of your talking about people coming together and enjoying one another, and sharing in their spirit.  I see it as a whole [[continuum]] of the way we come together.  Is there, from your [[perspective]], your [[mind]], a time when it goes from being people coming from a deeper spiritual sharing in what we could call a [[religion]]--and how that spirit of wanting to come together and worship together…  How much is there a qualitative [[difference]] between people getting together in the holidays and having a good meal versus people getting together and sharing a religious [[ritual]] together?