Thursday, November 7, 2013

Thanksgiving Feast & Giveaway Ceremony 2013

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart

Join us for our Thanksgiving Feast and Giveaway Ceremony on Thursday, November 28th, 2013
Thanksgiving Day - 4-7pm

Church of Spiritual Light presents the 2013 Thanksgiving Feast and Giveaway Ceremony. Please bring your favorite holiday dish to share, as well as a small gift which will be given away to honor a very special sacred ancient ritual to show gratitude for our blessings. The gift can be anything that has meaning to you, including feathers, stones, figurines or sacred objects. In order to honor the energy it should be something that you love and not a cast off item.

Help us coordinate our feast and call Rev. Renee at 239-560-6314. Everyone is welcome!

Church of Spiritual Light, 1939 Park Meadows Dr. #1, Fort Myers, FL 33907

Friday, November 1, 2013

November 2013: Gateway to Grace


“Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, it will take you where you need to go, but more important it will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey.” ― John O'Donohue

We hear much talk about gratitude and being grateful, especially during times devoted to thanksgiving, abundance and generosity. Yet, true gratitude cannot be demanded. One can logically understand when it is appropriate to feel grateful, especially if a gift is openly being given. However, it gets a bit trickier, when the gift is hidden in the silver lining of a storm cloud. Yet it is in those gifts that the seeds of our greatest gifts lie dormant. For all gratitude stems from one thing and one thing only; the potential for the reunification of God, to Love.

We are willing to experience anything to get back to God consciousness. This is our core drive, the need that fuels every single decision we make, know it or not. In fact, so badly do we seek this reunification, that we are willing to walk through a simulation, an illusion that thoroughly convinces us that we do not have free will, in order to claim that free will with consciousness, so that we can be together and free to love! We must come to the altar of every single thing we believe, lower levels of programming such as religious, family or cultural belief systems, upper level programming such as health, gender and even life and death itself, in order to fully claim our free will. No stone can be left unturned. For under any given rock lies an unchallenged belief system that holds our vibration down, and keeps you away from love.

“When love awakens in your life, in the night of your heart, it is like the dawn breaking within you. Where before there was anonymity, now there is intimacy; where before there was fear, now there is courage; where before in your life there was awkwardness, now there is a rhythm of grace and gracefulness; where before you used to be jagged, now you are elegant and in rhythm with your self. When love awakens in your life, it is like a rebirth, a new beginning.” ― John O'Donohue

We are so encoded to re-unify in the flesh and to take up form that we have endured billions of years of evolution to do so. That we stand on the brink of being able to make the final walk over the abyss of our lower levels of consciousness and step fully into free will brings us to the altar of a kind of gratitude that defies gravity. It is in this space that we defy gravity for in the defiance of gravity, we remember our god selves and never find it sweeter to be able to stand upon this holy, sacred ground.

“Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed with a special longing that will never again let you linger in the lowlands of complacency and partial fulfillment. The eternal makes you urgent. You are loath to let compromise or the threat of danger hold you back from striving toward the summit of fulfillment.” ― John O'Donohue

To stand here on the shoulders of all that has come before and grab the golden ring requires us to take the great sacrifices of our ancestors and go for it. But we must never think that we do this just for ourselves alone. The truth be told, if we think that, then we are not totally in free will, yet. For free will understands that all that has come before is a part of us, as well as those who stand now who are not yet awake. For as we re-enter the garden as mature, free-willed, self-realized creator gods and goddesses, we are making the winning touchdown for the whole of creation.

Now entering the garden sounds fine and romantic. For sure it is, but not in the ways that the unawakened would appreciate. Most of all, what it represents is our ability to live with each other, with other creator gods who have gone all the way within their own spirit, feel the strength of their own sphere of influence, touched their own divinity, and forged the will to love and live in peace with their kin. It could be said that there is no greater bliss than to meet your true kin. Kindred Spirits are not just your family, but are the people, animals, and places that speak to your heart, in such a way as to help you remember all that you have been, all that you are... and hints at what is to come.

“Real friendship or love is not manufactured or achieved by an act of will or intention. Friendship is always an act of recognition.” ― John O'Donohue

The soul group is the final stage to the reunification of God/dess in the flesh. This is not something that can be spoken of, nor understood in a logical way. For when you begin to come together with your soul group, you are moving out of the path of suffering and into deeper aspects of yourself, the parts of you that are longing for a higher vibration so that the anguish of the separated self can be relieved of it's cosmic loneliness. Yet, it is not just a mental loneliness, or even sheerly emotional. It is intuitive and knowing that exceeds the physical senses. It is complete empathy, synthesis and cooperation for the glory of God... the glory of the people and this creation. For the Gift of this Earthwalk, the Gift of God is our Free Will... and the Gift of Free Will gives us the one thing of the great work; the freedom to Love.

“One of the tasks of true friendship is to listen compassionately and creatively to the hidden silences. Often secrets are not revealed in words, they lie concealed in the silence between the words or in the depth of what is unsayable between two people.” ― John O'Donohue

Your only question here today is, Where am I not free to love? In a nation of gods in the making who were bound to experience the pillars of severity and mercy, science and art, yes's ad no's, right and wrong, good and bad, hot and cold, hard and soft, joy and sorrow.. will you come to understand your true nature, realize that you are at the top of the tree and that it is finally time to decide... Do you choose the middle path? Do you need the rod and the staff to prod you along? And if so, how hard do you want to be whacked with the stick? Or are you ready to listen to gentle voice of the beautiful mother within? Your own soul's whisperings that all beauty, joy, creativity, splendor and bliss is available to you here and now?

“Your noble friend will not accept pretension but will gently and very firmly confront you with your own blindness. Such friendship is creative and critical; it is willing to negotiate awkward and uneven territories of contradiction and woundedness.” ― John O'Donohue

The choice is not yours, until you say so. You are not wrong. Thy will be done. So it is up to you to decide your world's fate. How do you choose to be in the world? Don't choose love and then continue to suffer. Realize that you need to go to the root of the cause and get right with the choice to choose. If you believe in free will, then you can open the doors to a whole new world. If you do not, then knowing this is a point of power. These are not simple choices. Your entire life experience is designed to help you remember who you are. Keep listening, allow yourself to experience the proof of life. One day you will decide to choose another way. In that moment your gratitude will come into its fullest measure of abundance within you. That is the day when you are truly abundance, for that is the day that you are fully free to love.

"An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break. May you be open to each thread that comes into your life, the golden ones and the course ones, and may you weaves them into a brilliant and beautiful life." - Chinese Proverb

Sunday Talks with Rev. Renee Bledsoe
November 03 - Destiny: Gateway to Grace
November 10 - Soul Elevation: Releasing the Victim
November 17 - Evolution of a Community: Getting Used to Good
November 24 - Thanksgiving - Sacred Altar Sunday - Church in Circle

Gateway to Grace Affirmations

I honor my power of choice.
I fully claim my free will.
I notice where I am not free and open to more love.
I ask what would love see, what would love do?
Help me see through the eyes of love.
There is always a story behind the story.
Soul friends and beloveds are part of my god self.
As I move closer to my higher self, I reunite with my soul group.
My soul group is here for me in ways I cannot imagine.
Love is an action, resulting in more love.
Love moves my soul to greater creativity.
As I seek to express my soul, my communication improves.
As my communication improves, what I saw heals myself and others.
My words and creativity inspire other souls to express.
Love is the highest art form.
Light is my canvas, love is my paint.
I paint my life with love and make a masterpiece.
My kindreds are my chosen family.
I recognize the divinity of my kin, and my soul friends.
Through my kinship with my soul friends, I heal my relationships with my family.
My family is healed and restored to dignity and honor.
Any deep family wounds are brought to a place of at-one-ment within my being.
I honor the sacrifice of my family in our spiritual partnership, and elevate this relationship into a higher vibration.
My life is a response to the prayers of my ancestors.
God and Goddess now live within me.
I manifest the Mother and Father God force within me for the greater good of my kindred.
Humanity is the Living God.
I am connected to the Light of Creation.
I love myself and I love others.
Love one another.