Service of Mystical Communion with Christ

Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like hidden treasure – a seed buried in fructifying soil – and this applies to the awareness and understanding of spiritual reality in these times. The practice of the hearing of the Voice of Jesus is the seed we sow with the intent that it may germinate and grow into the Tree of Life of the Kingdom Age, now in the early decades of its unfolding and manifesting in time and place. The Jesus of history is not dead but very much alive, and he speaks to those who hear his Voice, and visits with those who open the door to him. Unto all who seek this experience are these Devotions and Meditations on the Words of Jesus offered.

In the ordinary household, the Sanctuary of Prayer and Communion should be as inconspicuous as possible; indeed, it can even be invisible except when in use. It may be in a clothes closet or in a cupboard standing against or in a wall. It may be a small bracket, with doors, in the corner of a room, or it may be a sacred picture with folding sides. Whatever its structure or wherever placed, it should, when in use, be in such situation as to permit the breathing of fresh, pure air.

Every Learner needs to provide himself or herself with such a Sanctuary in order to co-operate to the fullest extent with those Servers of Christ in the heavenly realms by whom we are helped, guided, inspired and instructed. Such a Sanctuary will attract and hold vibrations of healing and inspiration; for desire-thought has substance and power, invisible at the physical level, but nevertheless potently influential in Earth affairs.

The observance of devotional exercises at regular times and in places set apart results in spiritual (i.e., Life-force) idea-structures that remain there for long periods and bless all who are in tune with them. It is advantageous to pray/attune/commune in one particular room or part of a room for the reason that, in prayer, spiritual energies of a high rate of vibration are generated and released. A corner is best, in the average household, in a room that is somewhat private and personal; for if the person engaged in deep prayer be unexpectedly interrupted, he or she will suffer some degree of psychic shock. In such a corner of such a room the spiritual substance of the prayer radiations will gravitate inwards to the corner and will remain undisturbed by the goings and comings of people; there, it remains and accrues, and can be drawn upon beneficially on subsequent occasions – including in times of need and distress.

In an ordinary room the etheric, or spirit substance is continually changing in colour and quality and the influence of good and spiritual thoughts is not per­manent because the energy, or vibration, of them is constantly being broken up and scattered. The process is similar to that of sound-recording – when a new im­pression is made, the old is automatically erased. By this understanding we can appreciate the value of a sacred symbol, whether in a chapel or a room of a home.

The type of symbol used should be such as is acceptable to the Learner, and have spiritually helpful significance. A cross is suitable because it is a symbol of Life, but a crucifix should not be used. It is the most stark form of idol of any because it focuses on destruction, the triumph of guilt over innocence, death over Life. The cross potent, or equilateral cross in a circle, is most suitable. Representations of Jesus are not wholly desirable unless part of an action-scene, as for example ...

Ø  Blessing the children

Ø  Feeding the multitudes

Ø  Healing the sick

Ø  On the Mount of Transfiguration

Ø  At the Last Supper

Ø  In the midst of the 7-branch candelabra. (See Revelation 1:12)

Our purpose in observing the Christian ritual of Holy Communion in privacy and solitude is to visit with Jesus Our Lord, and to have mystical, spiritual awareness of this. Mystical awareness of him is neither perfect nor constant in a group meeting, for it requires some degree of withdrawal from outer consciousness. We have to follow the instruction of Our Lord in respect to prayer:

“Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to the Father in secret…” (Matt. 6:6)

Clearly, if it is necessary for effective prayer that one should be alone and apart, then it is just as necessary in partaking of the bread and wine of Holy Communion. Awareness of his living presence is a mystical experience and is, of necessity, personal and private.

Not by kneeling at the communion rail of a church, or by partaking of bread and wine according to a traditional religious formula does one commune with Jesus, but by opening oneself psychically to him. The word ‘psyche’ means soul. The heart is the seat of the soul (at least during our embodied appearance), so it can be helpful to think of this as opening our heart-mind to him. The contemplations and meditations of these devotions provide conditions, outer and inner, that are favourable to this At-One-ment, and to the awareness of his living presence and of his communing with us according to his assurance …

“If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

Opening the ‘Door’

The soul (or heart-mind) opens of itself, as a door, when one is in sympathy with a person or an idea. The literal meaning of sympathy is feeling together. This is At-One-ment. In seeking such At-One-ment with Jesus, it is most helpful to think upon his words as they are recorded in the Four Gospels of the New Testament. And now, of course, on his teaching in A Course in Miracles. He himself, speaking to his disciples at the Last Supper, stressed the importance of this ... “If a man love me he will keep my words and I will come unto him ...” (John 14:23)

 He said also, “When the Spirit of Truth is come he shall bring to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26)

 On another occasion he said, “The words that I speak to you – they are spirit and they are life.” (John 6:63)

Why such emphasis on words? The reason is that words are the form-expression of ideas. They have to be animated by spirit in order to have enLivening meaning and power. It is by thought-desire that we attune. We have to have in our hearts the desire for that which the words express. This is not an act of egoic self-will. Either we have the desire or we do not. God knows. 

The words of Jesus are important because they connect us with him – especially when that is our heart’s desire. They are an idea-structure of the unified-Mind-and-Spirit of Christ, through the living Jesus. They express cosmic, eternal reality. They come from his fully-enLightened Mind, and when we contemplate his words his enLightened Mind illuminates our minds, and we receive from him inspiration and understanding of spiritual, eternal Truth.

 The 3-branch candelabra of our altar is the symbol of this process – the process by which our soul, or spirit, becomes fused, unified, with our God-seeking mind, and joins, connects with the Christ Mind and Spirit within us, and we begin to think and function in a spiritually-focused, single-minded, Wholehearted way, and not distracted by mundane thoughts and activities.

If we know the Master’s words and ‘keep’ them, which means to hold onto as to something cherished, then we are on the same wavelength of thought-desire as he is, and we shall not only remember his words but we shall hear him speaking in the words; for in the eternal consciousness there is no time lapse. This is the meaning of his saying ...

“My words shall not pass away.” (Matt. 24:35)

The prayers, hymns and songs in this devotional Service are so rich in meaning that new realisations come from them continually. The full significance cannot be absorbed in one meditation.

Music is helpful to the development of the Inner Hearing just as the lights of the altar are helpful to the development of the Inner Seeing, and any music of sacred and meditative character may be used as prelude and/or postlude to the rite; but the Songs and Hymns given by the Inner Sanctuary Servers have associations with specific airs and harmonies that attune us with the particular band of Christ Servers on the Inner Plane (or, Realms of Light) who work with us and through us, and it is to the advantage of each Learner to become familiar with them and their use in the Communion ritual. There is no compulsion on any learner to use these tunes, but there is spiritual and practical benefit.

Many and varied interpretations have been applied to the words of Jesus as we have them in the New Testament, and there are those of the opinion that some words have been added that he did not say – or things he did say that have been deleted from the record. Happily, he corrects much of this in A Course in Miracles. In the Gospels and in the Course there is one thought that dominates his teaching: the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth. This means the fragmented Sonship of God healed of brokenness, separation, conflict, sickness – of mind and body – and death. In other words, the Son restored to harmony of his will with God’s Will, and this is the central purpose of these devotions. This is his desire-thought, and to be in At-One-ment with him as he was, and is, with the Father in Heaven requires something more than personal gratitude for his saving help. It calls for the consuming desire to be his disciple: to learn of him. In fact, it requires that one be dedicated to his mission for mankind, and we have to know what that mission is and how he proposes to accomplish it. So, as he taught his disciples we pray …

“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven ...”

The Holy Christ Purpose

This rite of Holy Communion is particularly devised for Christ Servers, whether on Earth or in the etheric realms beyond the ‘physical’. It is for Christ learners – disciples – and every disciple of Jesus is a Server of his Christ-Purpose to some degree.

The name Christ is a title denoting an anointed agent of a God-purpose. The God-purpose for which Jesus was anointed was to Awaken in us and restore to our remembrance the Will of God in the Earth, so that the hearts and minds of all would be unified in accordance with the perfect, benign, Loving Will of God. The Holy Christ-Purpose is to raise the level of consciousness of all mankind to the degree that life on Earth will be as one-pointed, unified and harmonious as life in Heaven. This is why we pray, “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

All followers of Jesus, even though they may be following afar off, do desire the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth; but the disciple desires this ‘earnestly’ and is called to be an agent of it in the Earth – not by preaching, nor proselytising, nor by display of sanctimonious attitudes, but by demonstrating the power of Christ Jesus to bring individual circumstances into harmony with God’s Will, and the potential of the individual to fulfilment.

It is important to recognise, and keep in the forefront of our awareness, that, even if we are performing these devotions with no others present in bodily form, assuredly, Jesus will always be with us, rejoicing in, inspiring and Loving us throughout, and there will also be a number of others, in spirit, who join with us in this joyous celebration, sharing in and contributing powerfully to our Love for him and his mission. Therefore, acknowledging this as we proceed, even if we have no conscious awareness of their presence, contributes mystically to the At-One-ment endeavour of the Service.

As a prelude to the Service, we begin by kneeling at the altar and making our personal dedication ...

By the Light of God’s Truth,

And then, standing, facing away from the altar, affirming the spiritual Lordship of Jesus with the words:

The revelation of Jesus, the Christ, concerning his eternalness

And his great God Mission for all mankind:

I am Alpha and Omega,

the First and the Last,

the beginning and the ending,

the Lord which is, and which was,

and which is Now come.

(From Revelation ch.1)

Then is sung Hymn no.1, ‘God is a Spirit’:

God is a Spirit, God is a Spirit,

And they who worship Him

Must worship Him, must worship Him

In Spirit and in Truth

(From John 4:24)

It is noteworthy here that the term worship can be helpfully discerned as meaning the same as commune with.

We then commence the Service procedure by the heart-mind-centred broadcasting of an invitation to all who desire the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth – whether incarnate (they need not be bodily present; remember, this is a Mystical procedure) or in spirit – to enter into unity with us as we commune with Christ Jesus, our Lord ...

 The Holy Invitation

Followed by:

The Holy Hill

“Let us ascend unto the Hill of the Lord,
and let us rise up unto His Holy Place
Whose Truth is from everlasting
and His Grace manifest
unto every generation.”

It is essential for communion with the Christ Mind that we raise our thoughts and receptivity above the horizontal axis of Earth-level activities and relationships. This is what is meant by the words in our Devotions, “Let us ascend unto the Hill of the Lord”, and it is by this ascending in consciousness that we shut our door against horizontal – external world – distraction.

Each individual sanctuary of prayer and communion is a symbol of spiritual focus and consciousness. This spiritual consciousness is the ‘Hill of the Lord’. Whenever those of a more advanced understanding and maturity seek to communicate with those at an earlier stage of development, they do so by means of symbols. In all spiritual teaching and learning, both on Earth and in the etheric realms beyond the Earth ‘physical’, the use of symbols pertains. This is exemplified by Jesus, who taught in symbols that we call parables. The cross, for example (not crucifix), was a sacred symbol in ancient Sumeria, signifying then, as now, living spirit within man – eternal Life.

One of the earliest testimonies of man to his sense of the holiness of God (any god) is the placing of the ‘house of God’ on a hill or ‘high place’. Then in later, and more urban civilizations, an artificial hill was made on which a temple was built. The great Temple of Judaism was so placed.

The site itself, Mount Moriah, was a natural hill and this site came to be decided upon for the building of Solomon’s Temple because of an angel-manifestation at that particular place. In the building of the temple an artificial hill was made between the Outer Court of the Gentiles and the Inner Court Sanctuary of Israel; so from the Court of the Gentiles to the Court of Israel was an ascent. That this ascent had a spiritual meaning is shown in Psalm 24, written by King David, which says:

The Holy Temple

Eternal, Heavenly Father, Creator Spirit,

You do not dwell in temples made with hands,

Neither are You worshipped by men’s hands,

As though You need anything, seeing that You give to all

Life and Love, Light and Truth – everything.

We seek to return Home to You,

Rejoicing that You are not far from us,

For in You we live and have our being:
For we are Your offspring – Your children.

This extract from St. Paul’s discourse to the Athenians has been edited because he started by saying that God made the world. Jesus has corrected this comprehensively in A Course in Miracles, including with this quote from the Course: 

C-4.1:1-2.        The world you see is an illusion of a world.  God did not create it, for what He creates must be eternal as Himself.

This demonstrates that our Awakening to eternal, unchanging, unchangeable Truth is an unfolding, step-by-step process.

The God-Filled Temple

The words of the Prophet Habakkuk concerning the dwelling-place of God...

“God is in His Holy Temple:
Let all the Earth keep silence before Him.”

(From Habakkuk 2:20)

and of Paul the Apostle...  

“The Temple of God is Holy,
Which temple ye are.”

(I Cor. 3:17)

To demonstrate that At-One-ment with God is possible in the Earth-life of man, Jesus incarnated. He was (and forever remains) a temple, or dwelling place, of God. All teachings and events of his time on Earth were under control of his God-consciousness. His outwardly-focused awareness – enabling his intercourse with those he had come to teach, heal and bless – was silent before God; and that is the objective for all who truly desire communion with Jesus during this devotional Service of Mystical Communion with Christ.

Jesus was in continuous, uninterrupted At-One-ment with God, but the disciple is only at the stage of temporary and occasional At-One-ment. Prayer is ‘a little At-One-ment’, by the frequent and regular exercise of which the God-ward desire of the heart and mind is stabilised and strengthened.

The Prayer, now universally known and used, which Our Lord taught His disciples, stands at the entrance to the Sanctuary of Christ-consciousness within each would-be communicant, as the Ark of Testimony with its overshadowing wings of the Cherubim stood at the entrance into the Holy of Holies of the Temple of Israel; for it is here that we attune with the Desire-Thought of Jesus…

“Our Father Who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name,

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done

On Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive us our debts

as we forgive our debtors;

and leave us not in temptation

but deliver us from evil.”  Amen

The realisation that God is beyond and above the human limitations of consciousness, and that His Name is holy, is the first step toward At-One-ment with Him. Communicants in the etheric realms – even those of the highest spheres of consciousness, or Realms of Light – also pray, “Our Father Who art in Heaven”, for the fullness of God-consciousness in all. They pray also, “Hallowed be thy Name” ... for they, even more than we, realise that it is the essential nature of God to be eternally expressing, sharing, extending, His eternal Being.

The communicants from the Realms of Light who join with us also pray with us, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven”, for the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth is part of the process of the Awakening to God of the separated-consciousness of man.

Meanwhile, we who appear in bodily form on Earth must learn to attune/commune in the same way as do the dwellers in Heaven. The Christ Servers of the Inner Sanctuary have enlightened our understanding in this respect...

“The nascent Christ communicant on Earth, for the most part, seeks to draw around himself, and around those whom he loves, the blessing of God and the protection of Heaven; but the communicant in the realms beyond the embodied life on Earth uses communion to raise his awareness to planes of consciousness beyond those in which he habitually dwells. His soul [or heart-mind] expands, his sight and hearing are sensitised at a higher level, and he is able briefly to delight in the glories of those spheres where dwell his Teachers and Inspirers. He experiences, therefore, in communion, a greatly enlarged comprehension of the Fatherhood of God and of his own part in the fulfilling of God’s Purpose.

“Thus we set before you a tiny glimpse of the use of the Lord’s Prayer as a door to the presence of God. We would that all who use this prayer might, by contemplation of the Fatherhood of God, ascend in consciousness to the point of contact with the heavenly. This use of the Lord’s Prayer should be a daily exercise with all who desire to be disciples of Jesus. The recitation of it in a public ritual would then be a culmination of mind/soul awareness and union instead of an empty cacophony of words.”

The Lord’s Prayer is basically a teaching. In it is contained the comprehension of God which Jesus had and which his purpose is to impart to all who would follow him as he leads us back to the Father.

God is in life drawing all things into harmony, or Oneness, with Himself – not for immolation but for fulfilment of the words from 1 John 3:2,3:

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

Becoming like Jesus – perfectly unified of Mind and Spirit in God – means the rejoining, or perfecting, of the separated, fragmented, divided, conflicted Sonship of God as One, with Jesus, in God. “… when he shall appear” means appear to our conscious awareness of his presence with us as our desire, devotion and commitment to that conscious awareness grows and bears fruit.

In respect to the phrase traditionally stated as, “lead us not into temptation”, there is justification for the doubt of some as to whether God does lead men into temptation. The Apostle James says ... “Let no man say when he is tempted, that he is tempted by God, for God tempteth no man.” James explains further that temptation is the effect of man’s turning away from God’s desire, or Will, toward his own, ungodly desires or will.

What, then, was the temptation of Jesus? Here, in his own words in January 2008, is his explanation and clarification:

Overcoming appears to be hard, and most in the dream world perceive it as impossible for them; that it is possible only for ‘exalted,’ ‘special,’ ‘highly favoured’ beings, without wondering how such perceived beings attained to this ‘status’. This is, of course, not so, for if one can overcome, all can overcome, since we who appear in the dream as many are, as you well now Know, in Truth, One.

All appearances to the contrary are misperception, which I am empowered to correct for all my beloveds, so that we may be restored to Oneness in Papa, as each becomes ready and willing to freely receive the At-One-ment.

This empowerment is available to all because it is the birthright of all, as the Sons of God that all, equally, are. And all who are willing to receive it shall receive it, even though they may have mistakenly believed they disinherited themselves. It takes commitment: one-pointed commitment to the Truth about themselves, to the exclusion of the lies of guilt and sin and fear. Such commitment comes from perceiving at first what may be but a tiny fragment of Truth, and holding fast to it with the certainty that comes only from one’s own within …

All are free to choose such one-pointed commitment to getting Home with minimal delay, though only few will so choose immediately. It matters not; for all are well within my care. All will come to this according to the hour appointed aforetime for them, just as it came to me. Then comes the moment of Self-assessment (for Papa tests no man) for the chosen task ahead, each according to the path thus far travelled. As with all, my path was of my own choosing, for in Heaven there is no compulsion. [This clearly tells us that he was not sent by God to be His once-and-for-all blood sacrifice for the ‘sins of the world’.]

I so longed to save my beloved brethren that I had to come and experience their condition and overcome it from the desire of my own within. This is why I went alone into the wilderness, for my final confrontation with the ‘enemy’ – ego – that I might be sure of my readiness to choose the Way of Eternity and not the path of expediency. Ego knew very well how great was my desire for the Kingdom to be restored to the awareness of the little ones of Earth-mind misperception.

I was faced with the choice of establishing an earthly kingdom of peace and righteousness there and then (so great was my desire to hasten the Kingdom for my beloveds, for so great was their distress). But I had seen, and knew, that this could not last, from the example of my brothers, David and Solomon, because it was not free choice for all, so had to run its course and come to the end of its time and place cycle, ending in further separation. The same would have inevitably happened again, regardless of the mechanisms that could have been set in place in attempting to counter such backsliding. I Knew then, as you Know now, that the Kingdom of Heaven is within, and that is the only place from which it can truly, lastingly, eternally come to the awareness of all; until we are all, once more, One.

Whilst from within the illusion of time and place it was the greatest Self-assessment available to me (because of my earnest desire for my brethren), but because I had remembered my Identity as One in Papa, it was, in reality, no test at all; yet I had to be certain with all the certainty of experiencing the opportunity to transform adversity into fulfilment, because I had come to overcome, so that I could be the Way-shower for all in overcoming.

Love is the only way there is; total, unconditional Love, and Knowledge of its certainty, regardless of any temporal appearances to the contrary. So, my beloved, take heart; take strength from the certainty that all is well, all fulfilment is assured. As I have overcome, all shall overcome because all Truth and righteousness is already accomplished.

The affirmation – “Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory” – although it is thought to have been a later addition to the prayer taught by Jesus, is good, in that it brings us back to contemplation of the purpose of God in Christ Jesus: Thy Kingdom Come.

For the would-be communicant with Our Lord, this prayer must be as the opening of the door of his soul – a letting-go of persona self and of the interests and desires of the Earth-mind – an At-One-ment with the desire-thought of Jesus: the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

Song of the Holy Gates

To enter into that blessed and holy communion.

“In speaking to you of the heavenly realities”, so says a communicator for the Christ Servers of the Inner Sanctuary, [i.e., the Realms of Light] “we are, of necessity dependent upon symbols and parables; for it is not possible to convey to you the realities of the heavenly in terms of literal fact. Christ enters into the Gates and we enter into the Gates, which are living beings. By ‘Christ’ we do not mean an abstract theological concept of one phase of God-manifest, but the ascended ‘Son of Man’, as perfectly exemplified in Jesus, who has attained to the pre-eminence of Masterhood of the heavenly as also of the earthly – the Anointed One, or Christ, of God.

“The name Jesus (or Joshua, or Joseph, or Yeshua) was not an uncommon name among the Jews, and had a special meaning, as did all names, whether of places or people. It signified a Saviour or Deliverer; and as such the Babe of Bethlehem was named by his parents in accordance with angelic instructions: and truly, Jesus, the Christ of God, is the Saviour of men. For by His power and Heavenly dominion, in Loving wisdom He saves men from their self-destructive ways. His life in Galilee and Judea was but a fragment of His saving-mission. He is the ‘King of Glory,’ for by glory we mean the radiant Light of the heavenly; and those who let their Light shine by reaching out in Love to all attain to this effulgent state. Assuredly, Jesus is pre-eminent in this. According to the extent and power of the Love-emanations is the brilliance and influence of the person; and when we speak of the power and glory of Christ, we are not speaking of theological ideologies but of visible, tangible conditions of the heavenly.”

The Holy Adoration

Wherefore, with Cherubim and Seraphim
and all the angels and citizens of Heaven,
we acknowledge Thee, O God,
our Heavenly Father,
ever exalting Thee and saying,
Holy, Holy, Holy!

“Words have meaning according to the usages of men. We cannot define them in the same terms for all men in all circumstances. We cannot define the word ‘holy’ for all men, but in general speaking it signifies an object, a place, a circumstance, or a person emanating a vibration of the heavenly: not that men recognize such conditions as being of the Heaven-world, but as having an auric vibration too high for their comfort and well-being. For this reason men have always ‘feared’ the gods, or other-world beings, not having [yet] learned that they can attune themselves with the higher as well as with the lower.

“It is for purposes of attunement [or At-One-ment] that rituals were devised, as well as for instruction. So, in our use of the word ‘holy’ we signify that which is beyond our present level of comprehension and experience, beyond that of our teachers and inspirers in the etheric realms, and beyond that of those angelic beings in whom is embodied the law of the several realms of God-manifest – the Cherubim and Seraphim, who shield from man the ‘face’ of God, yet cover their own faces in His presence.

“By the three-fold ‘holy’ we signify the three-fold God-activity in spiritual, physical [while we appear bodily in time and place], and mind realms.

“It is most difficult to define in terms of general [or Earth-mind-limited, unenlightened] understanding what we mean by mind-realms; but this is that which the scriptures call ‘Truth’ or the ‘Word’. It involves the creative power of God at every level. It may be, and indeed it always has been, discerned by men, women, and children having spiritual insight.

“This we would inculcate in all men – the attitude of seeing God everywhere and in all things, of apprehending the holy in the commonplace. So shall men become aware of God’s purpose in creation by which he can learn the first principles of the ‘Law of the Lord’, and in his generations progress toward the accomplishment of the exaltation of God in time and place. Then shall Heaven and Earth be two aspects of one reality – The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

“With this two-fold aspect in mind, we honour both the Cherubim and Seraphim. The Cherubim are those mighty beings in whom is embodied the laws of form and substance and the animation of the same, and the cycles of their outgoing and in-drawing manifested to Ezekiel in his Vision of the Wheels [See Ezekiel, chapters 1 and 10].

“In the Tabernacle of Israel to the Prophet Ezekiel, and to the Seer of Patmos [see Revelation, chapter 4], the Cherubim were represented by the symbolic figures of the Ox [or Bull, as depicted by the Taurean epoch, within the context of the precession of the equinoxes], the Lion, the Eagle and the Man. Thus the stages in the evolution of God-communicating man were depicted. Such a man – God-communicating – was Moses, whose name signified ‘Child drawn-out-of-the-water’ [water symbolises the life force when not in alignment with – or functioning under control of – the Fire Realms, which is to say Spiritual, eternal reality, or the good and perfect-Love Will of the Creator Spirit], and whose mission on Earth was to establish the Religion of the Ram [the Arian Age, from the time of Abraham to the time of Jesus’ incarnation], out of which should come the God-filled man, Jesus. In the outworking of this God-purpose the Cherubim laboured, and still labour; therefore we honour them, and with them the Seraphim – [See Isaiah, chapter 6. And for further insights and explanations, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWvGVCPldkI] – those exalted beings of the heavenly realms whose nature and power is spiritual, in whom is centred the spiritual manifestations of God. We revere them as those in whom the glory and power of the spiritual is centred. Their appearance is as living flames. They do not exist in isolation or exclusive splendour, but are the complement of the Cherubim and their labours. So is God manifested in and served by both Cherubim and Seraphim. Both the Cherubim and Seraphim were imaged to the seers of Israel as having six wings. Isaiah wrote of the Seraphim:

Each one had six wings: with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. (Isaiah 6:2) 

“It is needful to remember that to the perception of those on an inferior plane the realities of a superior plane appear in symbolic form. You may ask, ‘Do these beings have wings like birds?’ And to those who question it we explain that wings are emanations of power. These beings have control of the degrees or planes of manifestation and the higher is hid from the lower, but they themselves are subject to no such limitations. They ‘fly’ by the God-power vested in them and in their flight they cross and re-cross the boundaries of all planes. 

“This is true of the Cherubim also. Hence, they too are seen as having six wings, though their realm of activity and of authority is not as that of the Seraphim. 

“With these exalted beings and with all messengers of God’s Truth, Wisdom and Love – with all Christ-Servers in Heaven and on Earth – we enter into the fellowship of communion and prayer for the fulfilling of God’s purpose in man: for mankind needs our special prayers to this end, being invested with free will to choose the evil or the good, to serve the lower or the higher, the purpose of God or the egocentric appetites.”

 So we offer our ‘adoration’ saying:

Holy art Thou, O God,
Holy in Heaven above,
Holy in Earth beneath,
Holy in all Thy works.

And we make our prayer:

Thou who art exalted in Heaven,
Even the Heaven of Heavens,
Be Thou exalted in Earth also,
And Thy purposes fulfilled
In the children of Earth.  Amen!

 The Holy Shepherd’s Call

This beautiful prayer [or in this instance, set as a hymn] for the blessing of food about to be eaten was written, it is thought, by one of the Wesleys (founders of the Christian Methodist Church in the 18th century). It is taken from a very old edition of the Wesleyan Sunday School Hymn Book which does not give the name of the author. It is most appropriate for use in the blessing of the bread and wine used for Holy Communion in that it speaks of the Bread of Life sent down from Heaven. This, as we shall realise more clearly when we come to study the words of Jesus which accompany our act of partaking, is the spiritual and invisible, Living Word of Truth of which the bread we eat is the token.

There is a correspondence between the idea of the food that we eat to nourish the body and the idea of food that we receive for nourishment of the inner Being, and this is made plain in the explanation Jesus gave to His disciples in which he is quoted as saying that they must ‘eat’ his ‘flesh’ and ‘drink’ his ‘blood’. Since the word blood is Greek for life, we can see how the translation of the original texts of the conversation at the Last Supper (and elsewhere) centuries ago could have been “Drink ye all of this; this is my life (Greek: blood) of the new testament which is shed (given, shared) for many (all who will) for the remission of (upliftment to a new life beyond) sins.” (Matt. 26:28). Also, food eaten with a high spiritual thought in mind nourishes both the heart-mind and the body toward the fulfilment of that spiritual idea.

It is well to note that the table referred to as ‘our table’ – that is, the table of physical substance upon which are set forth the bread and wine of Communion partaking – is OUR table. There is another table present – symbolised by the physical table – of which we shall make mention in prayers that come later: ‘THY table’. Also, the bread that we eat is ‘our’ bread, but this is merely the outer symbol, representing bread present that is not ours but the Lord’s – ‘The Bread of Life sent down from Heaven’.

The Consecration Prayer

I am the Light of the World:
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the Light of Life.

(John 8:12)

Ø    The altar represents Man, the Temple of God.*

Ø  The three-branch candelabra represents human consciousness, normally operating at three separate levels: physical (during our embodied experience), psychic/soul, and mental, unified by the Christ Spirit, as manifested in Jesus.

Ø   The single, tall candle represents the Inner Plane Server who adjusts the manifestations of the Christ Source to the receptivity of the communicant. The Inner Plane Server may or may not be known to us, but this does not matter because he (or she) will be Christ-authorised and empowered for this purpose.

Ø    The votive candle represents the communicant.

 I am the Light of the World:
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the Light of Life.

(John 8:12)

It is noteworthy that Jesus not only tells us that he is the Light of the world but that we, also, are the Light of the world (Matt. 5:14), and counsels us not to hide it, but to “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:16)

Concerning the Bread and Wine of Partaking

I am the Bread of Life:
the words that I speak to you,
they are Spirit and they are Life.
This is the bread which comes down from Heaven,
that men may eat thereof and not die,
But have Everlasting Life.

(John 6:35, 50 and 63)

On the occasion when Jesus spoke these words to His disciples, they interpreted them literally, and also His saying:

Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ...

for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

(From John 6:54,55)

It was to ensure for all mankind progression from one plane of consciousness to another, higher and ever higher – until full Wakefulness to the remembrance of the Oneness of all Life in God is reached – that Jesus incarnated, and that he now musters the risen ones, even all the hosts of Heaven, to stir up in men of Earth-life consciousness remembrance of his Life-restoring words.

In the scriptures of Israel the ‘vine’ is used to signify an earthly organization receiving life and power from God, and at the entrance to Herod’s temple in Jerusalem there was a golden vine.

This ‘door’ is, as already stated, the heart-mind of the individual. The Voice is heard within. It does not agitate the air but it is heard as an inward, yet distinct, objective impression, having all the particular inflections and thought character of the one who speaks, whether Jesus himself or any other messenger from the Realms of Light. This is not clairaudience at the horizontal-axis level, but is an impression on the spiritually-focused mind centres of the communicant from the Christ-Mind level of awareness. The phenomenon is the same as that experienced by the prophets of ancient Israel. Sometimes – very often, in fact – it is the Master himself who speaks; sometimes a messenger who speaks under Christ authority, but the message always testifies to Jesus’ Living Presence.

 The Holy Partaking

The Holy Offering

In addition, therefore, to our desire for the prevailing of God’s good and perfect will in Earth affairs and over all the egoic self-will and ignorance of men, we have the power to hasten that desirable time. Each and every one of us can add to the glory and power of God.

Some translators of the message of the angels’ ‘goodwill toward men’ insist that this should read, ‘Peace to men of goodwill’. That is an exclusivist perception, and God and His Anointed Messenger are entirely inclusivist. The important thought for us is our power to radiate emanations of Peace and Goodwill and to send them abroad in the Earth, with no exclusion. This was demonstrated to Olga in the beginning of the communications respecting the Communion Devotions by the overshadowing of the Teacher, who raised his arms above his head at the words, ‘Glory be to God’, and spread them horizontally at the words, ‘On Earth Peace’. This position he maintained through the words, ‘in the universe around us’, and then brought his hands and arms to the horizontal with finger tips touching on his chest at the words, ‘and in us, thy children’, thus forming a triangle of living Light and energy and including us in the Holy Trinity of God; for we who Love the Lord Jesus and serve his mission are part of, one with, him and in At-One-ment with God’s purposes to some degree, even as Jesus explained to His disciples at the Last Supper: “I am in my Father, you in me, and I in you.” (John 14:20)

In contrast to this is the testimony of Jesus’ disciples that He was the Anointed Messenger of the Holy One, anointed to fulfil the Jewish expectancy of a Messiah. This concept of Jesus and His mission was changed by the impact on the Christian Church, at its beginnings, of Grecian and Roman ideologies, to that of a Saviour-God. This concept resulted in the theological doctrine of a triune God – God in three persons – with Jesus as the second person, sometimes referred to as the Logos.

In the tradition of the Christian Church it has been held that a guardian angel is appointed to every child at baptism, but the dogma that a child who is not baptised does not have a guardian angel and when they pass from the embodied life form, even in infancy, is outcast from the blessedness of Heaven, has no foundation in the teaching of Jesus. It is true, however, that every group which is an outlet of heavenly authority, great or small, does, by its prayers and blessings, put into effect the help of angels – human and non-human – and that ceremonies of naming or of baptising do make effective special guardianship of the baptised person. That God the Father is particularly solicitous of all young life is the testimony of the Israel scriptures and of Jesus. In addition to the witness of those who have seen angelic messengers of the non-human orders of being, it is the testimony of countless thousands that persons of good will and spiritual intent – Christian and non-Christian – advance in the etheric realms and take an active part in helping forward God’s purpose in mankind, and this is part of the testimony of Jesus and His Apostles. Therefore we ask help of fellowship, instruction, and guidance on our path through our earthly embodiment.

The Holy Benediction