Center for Spiritual Living Midtown

Guess Who's Coming Home for the Holidays?- Rev. David Barrett

It  may be an annual tradition, it may be expectations, it may be out of obligation…. But if you are going home for any of these reasons, you are not going home as your True Self. Your True Self would return home in Love and Gratitude. Come hear about a Holiday Challenge to have your best holiday ever!

Part 2 of The Everyday Spirituality Series: The Power of Simplicity - Rev. Paul Gonyea

Most of us want the same things out of life, and they really aren't all that complicated. We want to love and be loved. We want to feel that our life has purpose. We want to express ourselves creatively, to feel that we're contributing something to the world. We want a body that's healthy enough to let us interact with all the beautiful experiences this life has to offer. We want the freedom to choose how to do these things in the best way possible. That's pretty simple, isn't it? But if it's so simple, then why aren't most people living that way? That's what I want to know.

Sometimes You Have to Say No! - Rev. Paul Gonyea

Whenever our past experiences start to negatively affect our present decisions, that’s the time we need to look at how we are saying NO. That’s when we should say, ‘This is not an idea or a memory or a feeling I need or desire in my life. It’s over and done, and I give it no power. I release it back to the nothingness from whence it came.’ And then we can let it go, not with anger and resentment, but with blessing and release. Not with judgment and criticism and self-righteousness, but with forgiveness and understanding. That is how we break the bonds that tie our old behaviors and beliefs to us, and finally move forward, free to create something new and better.”

Why Is Everybody So Angry - Rev. Paul Gonyea

If we find ourselves constantly relating to the world in an angry or resentful way, we don’t need to justify it or claim it as our own; we just need to admit that it’s there, and try to understand the reason behind it. In The Course In Miracles, there’s a statement that says, “You are never angry for the reason you think you are.” That’s very true. Anger is not a cause, it’s an effect. It’s not a disease, it is a symptom of a consciousness that’s out of balance. When something upsets us, we shouldn’t think of ourselves as “being angry.” We shouldn’t say “I’ve always had a bad temper.” Instead, we should think of it as “experiencing anger.” You see the difference? In one case, we have the emotion. In the other case, the emotion has us. Making that distinction allows us to exercise our power of decision. It allows us to consciously direct our physical response until it is back in line with our inner wisdom, back in harmony with our spiritual nature. It allows us to use the Divine Power working through us to heal something that could otherwise tear us apart.

Happiness in Tehran - Rev. David Barrett

It’s interesting to see how the Iranian government arrested the group of singers that were singing the song” Happy”. The Truth of the matter is, there is a happiness at the center of our being that cannot be taken away by any religion nor government. At the center of our Being there will always be Joy, Love, Happiness, Abundance, Creativity, and Vitality. Knowing this as our threshold, we shall always strive to know it is there.

What We Believe - Rev. Paul Gonyea

Rev. Paul Gonyea speaking on what we believe at the Center for Spiritual Living Midtown! It totally rocks!

Let's Be Honest - Rev. Paul Gonyea

"We have available to us the intelligence and the passion and the power to make anything happen in our life and (if we do it together) in the world. But we have to stop wasting so much time and energy lying to ourselves and to each other about what we want and what we are willing to do to make those things happen. And we need to stop being afraid of what other people will think of us if we tell them the truth. If we start to practice being honest on the little things, maybe we’ll see how quickly our power translates to the bigger, more important things."

Doubting Thomas, Doubting Me - David Barrett

It took a lot for Thomas to understand what the visions actually were.....Not visions, but the aspect within each one of us that doubts, the one that questions, the one that feels alone....only to realize that the doubt is truly evidence of Faith, a faith hard to describe, but within each one of us.

How to Cure a Calloused Heart - David Barrett

We have a hardening of the arteries around our heart because of the way that we have lived our lives up to this point. But from this day forward, we know there is a cure for the hardening of the arteries, or the callousing of the heart. We not only eat in a better way, and work out in a better way, but we also THINK in a better way. The hardened arteries are softened, and the calloused heart is more pliable. Our lives change both in a physical manner, and a spiritual manner, yes, by eating and exercising, but most importantly, with THINKING correctly.

The Deadly Art of Non-Living Rev. Paul Gonyea

 "What most people don’t understand is that the main pre-occupation of society is not to support us in living well; it’s to make everyone the same. The race consciousness that fills the physical world wants us all to act the same, to think the same, to be the same. Conventional wisdom (which is not very wise at all) tells us that change is disruptive and conformity is good.

          

The funny thing is, if society were successful at doing this, it would never advance into something greater. It would never grow. We would never evolve as a race. All those fantastic technological and scientific and social improvements that we have enjoyed through the years are not a result of society; they occur in spite of it."