LENT...

"Giving up 'things' does not work well for me.  I prefer to give up things like not having the last word, or not raising my voice in an argument, or not complaining about what I have to do etc... There is so much out there that I'll never exhaust it all!  Lent needs to give us a sense of joy in cooperating with God's plan for our lives."

Sylvia

Thank you,

Sylvia!

bwfaithministry

...ye have done it unto me...

These few words of God, “…inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me,” warm the heart and uplift the soul.  When placed in context they are words fitting all aspects of our life.

We are all God’s children, loved equally by Him.  God is ever-present in our life, and yes, He speaks to us when showing us His way.  Not always do we hear, but when we do we are transformed—not least the humble.

If we are to reclaim our God-given goodness, whereby we learn to love ourself and others, it but stands to reason that we listen to and follow God’s directives.

Garry D. Kilbourn

bwfaithministry

“…inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me,”…

While enjoying friendship over mugs of tea, this ‘spring’ afternoon in Calgary, my friend shared that later today she’d be visiting a dear friend who is now in a nursing home.  These visits are sometimes worrisome for both.  The friend’s memory, mood and behaviour show signs of a life becoming affected by Alzheimer’s Disease.  The unknown brings fear.  We thought of ways to make their conversation flow with ease when we realized the answer was ever the same…  just be the friend you’ve always been.  blw

As above, so below...

There comes to us a simple aphorism from out of the night of time which has the potential to forever change our life in a most wonderful way:  “As above, so below.”

That which is “above” (no less within and everywhere around us) is the mystical rhythm of the universe embodying all the forces of nature and of God.  Notwithstanding human conduct in general we are, each one of us, indisputably at one with God and nature.  Failing to acknowledge this redounds to our own lasting misfortune.

Man’s mortal mind is that which is “below”  in the sense that we long ago came to disown the purity of the divine soul as we hastened our downward spiral into the dissentious world of materialism.  How we may rectify that which we have torn asunder, to reclaim our senses and indeed our very humanity, becomes the question.

Mindful concentration of God’s love for all mankind, over time, will transport our earthly thoughts to a higher astral plane; one that unites our inner spiritual self with the transcendent forces of God and nature:  “As above, so below.”

Garry D. Kilbourn

bwfaithministry

We Can Change...

None of us, it must be said, is held captive to our present state in life.  We are, each of us, divinely spiritual souls possessed with intelligence and will.  Thus are we able to control the ceaseless workings of the mind, the source of all that bedevils us and all that sets us free.

                                                     

We can change, no matter our state of mind, no matter our personal circumstance.  True change, that which endures and uplifts the soul, is none other than a spiritual awakening, a process of freeing the mind of worldly thoughts to become one with God.

Garry D. Kilbourn

bwfaithministry

“We can change…”  

 … a story of awakening as told to us:  She is not yet twenty years old…

“Yesterday night at 12:00 I was packing my school bag and getting ready to go to bed, when all of a sudden my facebook page lead me to the contacts that I have blocked on facebook.

I sat there for a few minutes thinking why is it that I blocked theses people from facebook? Therefore I unblocked everyone and then all of a sudden I got this new kind of energy and I decided to write to all the people from my past that were "not my friends anymore", so I sat there and wrote all these emails to these people with a different tone.  Before all I could tell them  was how upset I am for their actions and how I’m so sad.  However, yesterday night I wrote to all these people saying SORRY... I never did give them a second chance in life and just "judged" them so I went ahead and said sorry to each and every individual, letting them know that I could not sleep without telling them how I feel!

I feel soooo free today, I have not felt this free in a long time!  It was like I was trying to move on and forgive myself and them, however I was not able to! But this way I forgave not only them but myself and I am soooo Proud of myself :)

Really I feel like I did a great thing for myself.  In order for me to move on and do great things in life I needed to do this.  I have cleared all the negative moments in my life and kept good memories that will allow me to move forward in life :)  I have never felt more peaceful in life. “  (S.G. with love)

A Smile

A smile costs nothing, but gives much.

It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give.

It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.

None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor but that he can be made rich by it.

A smile creates happiness in the lonesome, fosters goodwill in business, and it is the countersign of friendship.

It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the outraged, sunshine to the sad, and it is nature’s best antidote for trouble.

Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away.

Some people are too tired to give you a smile.

Give them one of yours, as non needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.

Author Unknown

Comparisons

It is an idle, self-destructive, path to trod when we set out to compare ourself with another.  Jealousy and envy cannot but arise to poison our thoughts and adversely affect behaviour.

We are simply not like any other.  We each have our own identity and our own reason for being; that is to say, our own unique purpose in life.  And it is one to celebrate.

There are some, to be sure, who intuitively know their destiny early in life.  Others, no doubt the majority, encumbered by the vicissitudes of life, must each strive to find the truth.

How to know our purpose, to live a life fulfilled, is less a matter of the mind than one of going within to awaken the soul, thus to connect with our higher, spiritual, self.  However hard and however long, it is its own reward.  

Garry D. Kilbourn

bwfaithministry                                                                                                 

“…when we set out to compare ourself with another…”

My first memory of comparing myself with another  was at the age of seven.  Mom and I had just moved to Penticton.  We met a wonderful ‘Father Knows Best-type-family’ who took us under their loving-wing.  Instead of feeling blessed, I compared us with them.  Comparing did not end there.  It has been a life full of comparisons… always under the veil of never feeling ‘enough’.  With many thanks to *Positive Thinking and Meditation classes and nourishing myself with spiritual study and amazing friends, I celebrate an awakened soul.  blw

*Brahma Kumaris | Calgary Centre

Suite 100, 206 10A Street NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 1W6, 403-209-2988 

Email blwoodard@shaw.ca  Healing Circle registration

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ARAB SPRING

Pain-wracked bodies submit

to hearts now stilled;

Immortal souls set free,

yet still beseeching love.

Pain-wracked bodies despoiled

by a tyrant’s hand.

Our cries so oft repeated

go silently unheeded.

Some, we know yet hear

our plaintive cry: These,

our fellow brethren for

truth are ready to die.

Truth’s clarion call

will not be stilled.

Th’ oppressor, with his

evil ways, will fall.

Garry D. Kilbourn