Connections | Sharing Spiritual Ideas that heal

By Henry van Dyke

Henry van Dyke was a member of the clergy. This story reads like a sermon for good reason. Its full title is A Short Christmas Sermon: Keeping Christmas. Van Dyke also composed lyrics to the popular hymn, “The Hymn of Joy” sung to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, “Ode to Joy”.

ROMANS, xiv, 6: He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord.

It is a good thing to observe Christmas day. The mere marking of times and seasons, when men agree to stop work and make merry together, is a wise and wholesome custom. It helps one to feel the supremacy of the common life over the individual life. It reminds a man to set his own little watch, now and then, by the great clock of humanity which runs on sun time.

But there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is, keeping Christmas.

Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground; to see that your fellow-men are just as real as you are, and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness–are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children; to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself whether you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open–are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world–stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death–and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.

And if you keep it for a day, why not always?

But you can never keep it alone. 🌺

Matthew 6: 9 

From a wonderful book called “The Lord’s Prayer.”

By William Barclay, a renowned Scottish minister.

“IF we believe that God is Father, it settles our relationship to one another. If God is Father, he is Father of all people.  The Lord’s Prayer does not teach us to pray My Father; it teaches us to pray Our Father. It is very significant that in the Lord’s Prayer the words I, me and mine never occur; it is true to say that Jesus came to take these words out of life and to put in their place we, us and ours. God is no one’s exclusive possession. The very phrase Our Father involves the elimination of self.  The fatherhood of God is the only possible basis of human relationships. 

“If we believe that God is Father, it settles our relationship to ourselves. There are times for each and every one of us when we despise and hate ourselves…., and no one knows our unworthiness better than we do ourselves.”

It was suggested to add a new beatitude, “‘Blessed are those who give us back our self-respect.’ That is precisely what God does. In these grim….moments, we can still remind ourselves that, even if we matter to no one else, we matter to God; that in the infinite mercy of God we are of royal lineage, children of the King of Kings. 

“If we believe that God is Father, it settles our relationship to God. It is not that it removes the might, majesty and power of God. It is not that it makes God any the less God; but it makes that might, and majesty, and power approachable for us.”

By Pam

Reflecting Spirit, 

you have divine rights, 

heaven-bestowed harmony. 

You are infinite understanding.

Reflecting God, 

you express the beauty of holiness, 

the perfection of being, 

imperishable glory.

Reflecting Truth,  

you possess immortality.

Reflecting Love, 

you include and receive the highest degree of happiness.

Reflecting Life, 

you have life 

without beginning or end.

God, divine Mind, supreme and All, governs all.

God is the substance, the I AM THAT I AM.

I am Spirit. Man, spiritual, is My likeness.

See Science and Health, p. 253 for more musical details.

By Pam

Have you ever thought why it is easy to pray for someone you love?

It’s simple. It’s because we love them so deeply that we see only good in them and we want only the very best for them. Any maybe because we know how very special and wonderful they are, so good and kind and unselfish, that we can easily see how much they deserve our love and prayer.

And so, with a full heart of love, we reach out in our prayer to see their oneness with God, divine Mind, and acknowledge their right to perfection and harmony as the very loved ideas of a loving, all good God.

Isn’t that true?

We will even demand, right in the face of a loved one’s challenge or struggle, that they are good and deserve all good.

So now, love another as yourself, or love yourself as you love another?

How often do we think harshly of ourself?  With criticism.  Not good enough. Not prompt enough. Not strong enough. Don’t know enough.

The list of self judgment can get very long.

And truly loving ourselves as we love another, or as God who is Love itself, loves each and every one of us, seems almost impossible.

If you can truly love another without judgment or jury, what would you say to being and doing this great kindness to your view of yourself? What would you think about finding God’s unconditional love for you, for example, in each Lesson each week.  Then you will see that as you love others, you, too, are very loved.

This brings freedom, health, and real happiness all round, every where, to each one, our loved ones, those we pray with, and ourselves as well.