Read on the ACIM CE App: https://acimce.app/:W-252
Lesson 252
The Son of God is my identity.
Practice Instructions
See complete instructions in a separate document. A short summary:
- Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.
- Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.
- Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind Meditation.
- Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind Meditation.
- Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in meditation.
- Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.
- Read the “What Is” section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.
Commentary
We don’t know Who we are.
“My Self” is so much greater and higher than I can even imagine. The first paragraph extols the holiness, the purity, the love, and the strength of my Self. I am reminded of something I heard in an “est” weekend many years ago. It spoke of becoming aware of the self I present to the world, my “mask” (the Course calls it “the face of innocence” [T-31.V.2:3]); then, discovering the self I am afraid that I am (the ego); and finally, discovering who I really am, “which is magnificent” (the Son of God).1 Think about that, my soul; let yourself hear it with acceptance: “I am magnificent.”
I am aware today that, no matter how high my thoughts go, I have only scratched the surface of What and Who I really am. “My Self is holy beyond all the thoughts of holiness of which I now conceive” (1:1). Let me sit and dream thoughts of holiness, let me stretch my mind to its limits to understand what holiness is; the reality of my holiness is “beyond all the thoughts” I can conceive of. The Course says that if we could realize how holy our brothers and sisters are, we could “scarce refrain from kneeling at [their] feet” (W-161.9:3). Yet we will take their hand instead, because we are their equals. “They are all the same; all beautiful and equal in their holiness” (T-13.IX.6:1).
To realize that I am the holy Son of God entails the parallel realization that you are the same. You are so beautiful, my friends; so ineffably holy! You are the expression of God, the outshining of His Being, the glory of His creation. How can I do anything but love you?
My Self, and yours, has a “shimmering and perfect purity” that is “far more brilliant than is any light that I have ever looked upon” (1:2). Have you ever seen that in another being? Have you ever seen it in yourself? Ah, that is what we all are seeking! It is what we are praying for: “Reveal it now to me who am Your Son” (2:2). Imagine seeing and knowing such perfect purity in your Self. Imagine it, and ask to have it revealed, for such you are.
And the love of this Self! It “is limitless, with an intensity which holds all things within it, in the calm of quiet certainty” (1:3). Oh, to know that this love is my Self! Oh, to know that this is what I am, forever and forever! Can I, dare I, believe this about myself? My love, holding the whole world, floating like a bubble in the ocean of my love. My love, without limits of any kind. My love, the very Love of God Itself. Let me dwell on it, let me consider it, let me give expression to it now, sending my love to the whole world, to every being who longs for it. How intense it is, this love! How perfect, how unquestioning, how overpowering!
The strength of my Self “comes not from burning impulses which move this world, but from the boundless love of God Himself” (1:4). What I am is this Love, God’s own Love. It is not a “burning” thing, a violence, an anger; it is a quiet, calm, certain Love. It knows the reality of what It beholds. It has perfect faith in every child of God, because of what they are. It uplifts, it encourages, it believes in all that it beholds. Vast is Its mercy; infinite Its understanding. Softly It embraces, gently It comforts, Its power coming from the calm sureness of the inevitability of Love Itself.
How far beyond this world my Self must be, and yet how near to me and close to God! (1:5)
Father, You know that this is Who I am, for You created me to be It. I long to know this reality of my Self. I feel so much less than this, so unloving at times. Reveal my Self to me. Show me that this is Who I am. Help me to know my Self as Love. To know my Self as Love is Heaven; to know my Self as Love is peace.