Center for Spiritual Living Midtown

But Do You Really Love Me? - Rev Paul Gonyea

This constant, inner desire we all have to love and to BE loved is probably the most powerful mental, emotional, physical and spiritual drive we have. It begins before we’re born, and it will undoubtedly continue in some powerful way after we die, because love never dies and (spiritually speaking) neither do we. However, with that being said, what some of us would like to know — is this. If the desire to love and to be loved is supposed to be such a natural thing, then why isn’t it easier? Why are so many of our most difficult and devastating life situations centered around relationship problems?

The Living Spirit of Life - Rev Paul Gonyea

Everything we talk about in this teaching is based on the belief that this experience we are having, here in this physical world, is a process. It's a spiritual process. It's a creative process. In fact, life itself is a work in progress. And that progress, though it has to start IN ME, in my consciousness, is always manifested OUT THERE, in the physical, material world. That’s where I see the results of my beliefs, my choices and my actions at work. That’s where what I do, or what I don’t do, becomes readily apparent.

Seeing God in the World - Rev Paul Gonyea

There’s nothing spiritual about staying at home and praying for a lucky break. People who succeed in this world (and by that I mean people who enjoy their life, because that’s the only kind of success that counts) don’t succeed just because they’re lucky, or because they have something special that no one else has. People who are ready when opportunity knocks aren’t where they are just by coincidence. They are there by right of consciousness. They just happen to be ready when something good happens because they’re ALWAYS ready for something good to happen. They aren’t always preparing for the worst case scenario.

Seeing the God In Us.- Rev Paul Gonyea

If we learn to see ourselves as a perfect idea in the Mind of God expressing in the world, that doesn’t limit the idea of God; it shows what God can do. But it also allows us to see ourselves as something greater, too, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, I believe that most of the world’s problems would disappear overnight if we could all see ourselves as something greater than we appear to be — if we could all see each other as divine beings, and behave with each other as if it were true.

A Better Kind of God - Rev Paul Gonyea

If we are ever going to grow into a greater understanding of our spiritual essence, and a greater understanding of our true nature, at some point it becomes necessary for us to give up this physical, superhuman idea of God, with all the limitations that kind of an image carries with it. We need to exchange it for a more expansive or open idea that accepts the One Creative Power of the Universe as a spiritual energy, instead of as a ‘being’ with a certain shape and size and personality and address. We need to think of God as a non-physical, intangible Intelligence that has no limits. We can’t keep thinking of God as just a bigger, stronger, smarter, faster copy of us that can fly and see into the future.

The Word Made Flesh - Rev Paul Gonyea

This idea of “the Word made flesh” isn’t just about any old idea becoming any old thing. When we talk about “the Word,” using a capital W, we’re talking about focusing on a specific idea we have in mind. We’re talking about using our words for a specific intent. We’re talking about words deliberately chosen for a specific purpose, words carefully selected with a full understanding and expectation that they are going to accomplish exactly what we want them to accomplish and nothing else. And we’re also talking about having complete faith that our word is creative. It’s that clarity of thought and belief, and the passion we put behind it, that gives us the power to create whatever we desire.

Giving ‘Til It Feels Good. - Rev Paul Gonyea

The best reason for us to give is because we can. That may sound a bit boring, but think of what it means. When we give of what we have for no other reason than to keep things flowing, we don’t have to worry about where our gift goes. We don’t have to worry about whether it will be replaced. We don’t have to worry about getting repaid, or being rewarded for our generosity. We can give, not out of a feeling of charity and generosity, but out of an awareness, or a knowing, that the universe is abundant, and that its abundance is everywhere present, including where we are. When we do that, interesting things happen.

Order Is Heaven’s First Law - Rev Paul Gonyea

So this is what we need to know: If the Kingdom of heaven is in each one of us, as all the great teachers have told us, and if order really is heaven’s first law, and the nature of order is beauty, harmony and balance, then this Divine Order we’re talking about must potentially be in every one of us. So when we use the term “Divine Order,” we’re not talking about trying to figure out what God wants the world to look like, or how God wants us and everybody else to behave. We’re talking, at the highest spiritual level, about bringing order to our own thoughts, and beliefs, and feelings, so that we can then move through the world with an open, inquisitive and non-judgmental mind, seeing the endless opportunities for creation that are constantly unfolding right before our eyes.

The Music of Life - Rev Paul Gonyea

All the beautiful music that we have ever heard, or will ever hear, is the result of conscious and deliberate effort, sometimes applied over the course of many years. Skill and talent are certainly a part of it. But practice is the most reliable predictor of a successful musician, or (for that matter) anyone else who wants to become good at what they do.

Why then, are we so surprised, when we're told that becoming spiritually aware also requires a certain amount of conscious and deliberate practice? It's amazing how many people seem to think that just by showing up at church every so often, and reading a few books, they can develop a consciousness that will carry them through any of life's problems that they happen to run into along the way. Then they're surprised when it doesn't quite work that way.

For the Love of Money - Rev Paul Gonyea

Money is kind of like fertilizer; if we pile it up and try to hold on to it, it stinks and, eventually, so do we. But if we spread it around, in the right amount and in the right places, things start to grow. That’s how abundance expands. Saying that we live in an abundant universe doesn’t mean that everything already exists; it means that we live in a universe of infinite potential where anything can be created out of what appears to be nothing, but is in fact everything. Matter is formed out of energy, but even when it becomes matter, it’s still energy, only now it’s energy in physical form. And in our life, that energy responds to our consciousness to create the things we see. Money is energy.