I had the pleasure of attending a workshop in Manassas, Virginia on Saturday to listen to a man named Gary Renard and his wife Cindy Renard give a workshop on A Course in Miracles.

They are the real flippin’ deal. *Chills up and down my spine.*

And, anyone who is tired of this world and wants real answers should take the time to read his first book: The Disappearance of the Universe. His two other works that come after: Your Immortal Reality, and Love has Forgotten No One are home runs, too. In the books, he describes how in the early 1990’s in Poland Springs, Maine, he is visited by two ascended masters. Or, if the word “angel” works for you (as it does my mother), then we can call it that. Their names are Pursah and Arten and they have much to share in terms of bringing the world of fear or illusion to the truth. They go into politics, religion, New Age spirituality, and sex (a fave of many). They do much truth telling that, at times can seem sensational, but viscerally they bring an answer to all of us that cannot be denied.

He talked on Saturday about how we have had thousands of dream lifetimes in this world since the “tiny mad idea” of separation from God first occurred and how, truly, it all healed itself at once. Time and space are the making of us, not God. If God is perfect Love, then Love can hold no grievances. And, if you have noticed, this projected world of time and space is full of grievances that come from the illusion that we are really here in the first place. A hard “wrap your brain around” concept, but, this whole place is one large sleight of hand: a trick and, certainly, not a treat. Just turn on the news for more on that, or visit a mental hospital, or visit a prison, or listen to your own vitriol from time to time. It isn’t hard to find the tricks. And, where we made faulty decisions before, we will have another chance in another lifetime to make a better choice.

If this is the case, I am sure my grandfather will come back as a Jewish-African-American lesbian who becomes President of the United States. My other grandfather will come back sober – once and for all.

Alas, there is hope for this world, but only at the level of our MIND – not at the level of the effect, which is what you see “out there.” We have to, bottom line, see (and think) our brother as we see ourselves: nothing less than perfect spirit. As you see him or her, you will see yourself. A kind idea that is the wisdom of the ages.

My guess is that there were about 125 people at the Bull Run Unitarian Church but Gary and Cindy have collectively spoken to millions. In the last thirteen years, he has been telling audiences around the world that we are all innocent and that forgiveness of our brothers and sisters for what we THOUGHT they did is the way to return to the perfect love that we all are. He speaks eloquently about his love for the Course and can quote it like its no body’s business. He speaks of it and from it as if honey were coming out of is mouth. He tells jokes to lighten the mood and his wife, Cindy, sings like an angel. She, too, speaks adeptly and adroitly about the Course’s concepts and is, too, uncompromising like Gary in what the book is teaching us. Our projected world of sin, guilt, anger, stinkin’ thinkin’ is a bad dream that Jesus awoke from and one that we all will eventually awake from. It is a matter of choice. And, we as individuals must make that choice (sooner is better than later) because it is our responsibility in our own minds to change our minds about the world.

Gary loves movies and he loved Roger Ebert – the film critic who died in 2013. He wrote a note the day before he died: “It’s all an elaborate hoax.” Gary mentioned this on Saturday as he was relating his and the Course’s ideas.

Wow! It’s a hoax, a smokescreen, a fixed-delusional hallucination that we thought was true. We thought we could dip and quit where we come from. But, in truth, we cannot. We are all love and the message of the crucifixion – our last extreme example needed to get our full attention – teaches us this.

And these are the words of Jesus from ACIM:

“Teach only love, for that is what you are.” Jesus goes onto to say: “If you interpret the crucifixion in any other way, you are using it as a weapon for assault rather than as the call for peace for which it was intended.”  p. 94.

In all of Gary’s books, as he spoke on Saturday, he gives the uncompromising truth about this world. There is no world. The truth is true. Heaven is it and the only one who sees it clearly from the end of time is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is our Guide sent to us as the great Correction Principle. The world of time and space is not real. Something that Buddhists have known for more than a millennium and what quantum physics is now proving.

The Holy Spirit was Jesus’ Guide. He is ours, too. You have the choice in your right mindedness to either join with the Holy Spirit (love) or join with the ego (fear).

Who will be your teacher? It will be the one who issues from your mind and onto your lips. As in Pursah’s  Gospel of Thomas, Jesus said, and I paraphrase–“After all, what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it’s what comes out of your mouth that will reveal you.”

It all comes back to forgiveness – and forgiveness is the miracle. It comes from a man who is the Voice for A Course in Miracles. It comes from a man who demonstrated peace — Jesus. It comes from his disciples: Gary and Cindy and all of us who answer the call to teach love and forgiveness.

If I could go back and teach all of my students anything right now, it would be to pick up this teaching of Gary’s and read it and forget everything I taught you. It was all bad — especially the lesson on comma splices.

Find Gary and Cindy Renard and you will see no tricks — only loving teachers of God who are onto ALL of it.

Because they are All of it. Just like you and me.

All my love,

Ruth

p.s. We will be lucky to have Cindy Lora-Renard and her sister, Jackie Lora-Jones, come to St. Thomas’ Church in Richmond, Virginia next March 25th – 2017. Save-the-date!