Welcome to Unity Spiritual Life Center
Your Authentic Self E-mail
Written by Patrick McAndrew   
Wednesday, 21 April 2010 16:20

Your Authentic Self

One Sunday morning, a woman got up early, took a long walk, and afterwards decided to treat herself to a double-dip chocolate ice cream cone. She hopped in the car, and drove over to a bakery & ice cream parlor.  When she went in, there was only one other customer in the store: Paul Newman, who was sitting at the counter drinking coffee, looking gorgeous, as usual. The woman's heart skipped a beat as her eyes made contact with those famous baby-blue eyes. The actor nodded graciously and the star-struck woman smiled demurely.

Pull yourself together! She thought to her self. You're a happily married woman with three children; you're forty-five years old, not a teenager! The clerk filled her order and she took the double-dip chocolate ice cream cone in one hand and her change in the other. Then she went out the door, avoiding even a glance in Paul Newman's direction.

When she reached her car, she realized she had a handful of change -- but her other hand was empty. “Oh, no. Where's my ice cream cone? Did I leave it in the store?"

Back into the shop she went, expecting to see the cone still in the clerk's hand or in a holder on the counter or something! But no ice cream cone anywhere in sight. With confusion, she happened to look over in Paul Newman's direction. His face broke into his familiar warm, friendly smile as he said to her, "You put it in your purse." 

-- Sometimes we do forget our selves, don’t we?

Recently while waiting to meet someone at the airport, I was left with some time on my hands simply to observe the people passing by, which is one of the things I love to do. There was a young woman pushing a stroller down the concourse and then stopped at a nearby phone to make a call.  In the stroller was a baby boy, about a year and half old with red hair and bright blue eyes.  He looked straight into my eyes with a child’s gaze.  A natural and beautiful sense of peace filled me.  I could see the excitement in his eyes, "a big person who know who he is!” 

Sometimes I think young children view adults, as big people walking around in a “trance,” not remembering who they are.  The look the child extended said, “I know who you are! You are my friend, a child of God, the Christ.”  He started to play with the phone cord while his mother talked unaware of our silent conversation.  The child looked up at me as if to say, “Life really is exciting” and then amused himself with the phone cord.  I thought, "Isn't life a wonder." 

When the mother finished her

Read more...
 
Plenty, Plenty, Plenty E-mail
Written by Patrick McAndrew   
Friday, 16 April 2010 16:05

Plenty, Plenty, Plenty
– Namaste

Infinite wisdom guides me, divine love prospers me, and I am successful in everything I undertake.  In quietness and confidence I affirm the drawing power of divine love as my magnet of constantly increasing supply.  I have unbounded faith in the omnipresent substance increasing and multiplying at my word of plenty, plenty, plenty.  I trust the universal Spirit of prosperity in all my affairs.  Thank you Creator God.”                              A Charles Fillmore prosperity treatment.

Over the past few Sundays, we have been discussing the core values of our spiritual community. This conversation actually began with Larry’s Wynn’s visit in November, when we as a community discussed Who We’ve Come Here To Be and what values and teachings we most appreciated and embraced on our journey through life.  Since that time a group has been coming together trying to synthesis, harmonize, and draw the essence of what shared that evening into a concise statement of values and beliefs.  It has been an interesting and thought provoking assignment. 

One of the top five values emphasized that evening was prosperity. This value is expressed in our vision for the world and is reflected in our mission statement. Do you like the idea of Prosperity?  Would you like to experience it?

Well I like for you to experience it. I would like the whole world to experience abundance, which is already present and stirring in the universal ethers all about you and just waiting to be claim.

But some people have a really hard time with a church talking about prosperity, especially when they relate it to Jesus and his teachings. They think it’s an unthinkable, sacrilege to connect him with a counting house or market place.  But we in Unity believe that if you take his teaching off the mantel place of righteousness and morality and actually study his words for meaning and insight, you will see he provides us very practical tools and rules for living in harmony and abundance with the world. 

In the Gospel of John 10:10 Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Later he said “I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes as me should not remain in the darkness.” And didn’t he begin his ministry saying, “the time is now the Kingdom is within your grasp, turn to it and believe in the Good News.” During his ministry he shared numerous parables about how you could access the kingdom of heaven, which he indicated was an ever – expanding creative field of energy & life right here right now in your very midst.

Heaven really is the essence of what most

Read more...
 
The Breath of Life E-mail
Written by Patrick McAndrew   
Saturday, 20 February 2010 21:46

Our Vision for the world  -

Aligned in peaceful Oneness, we celebrate a joy-filled world co-created in love, harmony and abundance.

Our Mission –

We are a heart-centered spiritual community dedicated to empowering personal transformation and living the unlimited possibilities of Spirit.

Core value – “In Spirit” And it’s meaning

We are immersed in Spirit; our essence is Spirit; and our purpose is to live in awareness of It


The Breath of Life

We are immersed In Spirit are you aware of It.

Joe found himself in deep trouble. His business had gone bust and he was in serious  financial trouble. He was so desperate he broke down and asked God for help, praying... "God, please help me. I've lost my business and if I don't get some money, I'm going to lose my house as well. Please let me win the lotto." But when lotto night came, somebody else won.

Joe again prayed... "God, please let me win the lotto! I've lost my business, my house and I'm going to lose my car as well". However when Lotto night came, somebody else won.  Once again, Joe prayed... "Dear God, why have you forsaken me?? I've lost my business, my house, and my car. My wife and children are starving. I don't often ask you anything and I have always been a good servant to you. PLEASE just let me win the lotto this one time so I can get my life back in order."

Then suddenly there was a blinding flash of light and the heavens opened up and Joe stood face to face with God, who just looked and Joe and said "Joe, come on buddy, why don’t you give me a little help here and go buy a ticket."

So often we human beings are just like Joe, we don’t always follow through on the inspiration we receive by taking the action we been guided to take to achieve the love, joy, and abundance we so deeply desire.  We inhale, we exhale, but unless we've engaged in some form of vigorous exercise or some type of respiratory challenge, we take the most essential action for granted. We have so many other things demanding our attention: bills to pay, the economy, our health care, and all the stuff that is wrong.  Perhaps if we slowed the ranting and ravings of the ego mind, we might remember just how important proper breathing really is.

I just don’t get it.  It’s right there in the Bible, not just once but over and over again. How could they have missed it?  I guess one reason, people don’t get it is

Read more...
 
Practicing the Presence E-mail
Written by Patrick McAndrew   
Friday, 16 April 2010 13:46

Practicing the Presence

Thoughts on how to practice our core value of Openness.

I am open and receptive to the living Spirit of Truth.

The Pope, Billy Graham, and Oral Roberts were in a three-way plane crash over the Pacific Ocean.  They all died and went to heaven together. "Oh, this is terrible," St. Peter exclaimed, "I know you guys think we summoned you here, but this was just one of those strange things that just happens. Since we weren't expecting you, your quarters aren't ready... We can't take you in but we can't send you back...."

What to do, what to do, finally he gets an idea and picks up the phone, “Hey Lucifer, this is Pete. Hey, I got these three guys up here. They're ours, but we weren't expecting them, and we gotta fix a place up for 'em. I was hoping you could put them up for a while. It'll only be a couple of days. What d'ya say?"

Reluctantly, he agreed. But, two days later, St. Pete got a call. "Hey Pete, this is Lu, you gotta come get these three guys. That Pope fellow is forgiving everybody, the Graham guy is saving everybody, and that Oral Roberts has raised enough money to buy air conditioning."

I guess Lucifer wasn’t very open to a little change.

Now someone who was open to just about anything was Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Remember that book? One of my all time favorites! Jonathan Livingston Seagull realized very earlier on his journey, that the most important thing in life was to be open and receptive to it; to reach out, to touch and to be what he loved most.  And what Jonathan love most was flying! He flew at break neck speeds, diving, then, soaring just over the surface of the water.

When Jonathan asked Chiang, an elder gull, “Is this heaven?”  

 

Chiang replied, “Heaven isn’t a place or a time, Heaven is being.”  “You begin to touch heaven the moment you touch the perfect speed, the perfect expression. The perfect speed is not a set number, because any number would be a limit and perfection does not have limits.  The perfect speed is being there; totally open to the experience.”

“The trick was for Jonathan to stop seeing himself as trapped inside a limited body, or a limited mind or a limited situation.  The trick was to be open and know that his true nature lived, as perfect as an unwritten number, everywhere at once across space and time.”

One morning after watching Jonathan crash into the ocean, his mother asked him, “Why, Jon, why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock?  Why do you have to skim along the top of the water?”

Jonathan replied, “I just

Read more...
 
Mission & Vision E-mail
Written by Patrick McAndrew   
Tuesday, 12 January 2010 11:13

uuuuuuuuuuuuuu


Our Vision for the world

 

Aligned in peaceful Oneness, we celebrate a joy-filled world co-created in love, harmony and abundance.



uuuuuuuuuuuuuu


Our Mission


We are a heart-centered spiritual community dedicated to empowering personal transformation
and living the unlimited possibilities of Spirit.


uuuuuuuuuuuuuu
 
More Articles...
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>

Page 2 of 3