Center for Spiritual Living Midtown

Somtimes You Get What You Want - Rev Angela Harmon

My talk titles often come from a movie or a song. I actually heard this line in conversation with a friend recently, “sometimes you get what you want”. Her new beau said it to her, happy having one another in search of relationship. The phrase later reminded me of a song I’d heard in the movie “The Big Chill” performed by the Rolling Stones titled, “You can’t always get what you want, but you get what you need”

Hey there Beautiful - Rev Dr. Bob Deen

Mother's day talk about beauty being in the eye of the beolder.

Peace in our Time - Rev Dr Bob Deen

Peace is a much sought after and misunderstood quality of life. The more we search for it and try to enforce it from outside ourselves, the more it eludes us. It is not the absence of chaos or violence to be imposed from outside of ourselves or situations. It is a basic quality of life which, when recognized opens the way for its creation in the our world of everyday living. Peace is an inside job.

You are the Power! - Rev Dr. Bob Deen

Power is not a dirty word nor is it something to be avoided or feared. Power is what fuels our lives, gets us out of bed in the morning, and enables us to live on purpose. Power is a quality of Life and therefore present in everything. Our awareness of the power all around us and our consciousness participation in it, is the source of our true freedom.

What's Love Got To Do With It? - Rev. Dr. Bob Deen

What does love to have to do with our lives? Everything! Love is not a commodity to be acquired. It is a power to be used to direct our lives and create the good that we see for ourselves. Its recognition moves us beyond the apparent victim-perpetrator duality into a broader recognition of the goodness of our lives and of all life. It is the essence of our experience of God

LIFE! You Want To Make Something Of It? - Rev Dr. Bob Deen

Life is a great gift and everything else flows from there. If Life were all we are given it would be enough of a gift to keep us in awe and gratitude forever. However, it comes with powers, benefits, and modes of operation that can support us in creating our grandest dreams. You can make something of Life. What something? You choose!

New Beginnings! Rev Paul Gonyea & Rev. Dr. Bob Deen

As the center embarks on new beginnings we celebrate the retirement of Rev. Paul Gonyea one of the two founding members of CLSMidotwn. We wish him much success in all of his future endeavors. We know we will see you around the center after you have time to transiton. We love a you Paul! The center also has the pleasure of welcoming
Rev. Dr. Robert Deen as our new senior minister who carries forth wisdom of the Kennedy Schultz lineage and brings a extended breadth of knowledge from CSL, and more the eminates from his diverse spiritual background. We WELCOME you Rev. Bob!

The Rhythm of Life - Rev Paul Gonyea

Every enlightened teacher tells us there’s a natural rhythm to the process of creation. Just like a heartbeat, it changes when the demands made upon it change, but it’s still a natural rhythm that keeps things flowing smoothly. When we use it consciously, it starts with desire, which is an inner drive for something greater. Then it moves to awareness, where our mind starts to pay attention not only to what is, but to what could be. Then we begin to see ways in which those things we desire could actually happen. And finally we take action by moving forward, then stepping back. We do it by working, then resting. We do it by focusing, then meditating. There has to be a rhythm to our efforts, or we’ll exhaust ourselves, or we’ll get fixated on one single way of accomplishing our desire.

Ready, Willing, and Able - Rev Paul Gonyea

In these New Thought teachings, I think too many of us get caught up in thinking we can just visualize the end result and have it show up, without our having to do any work in the interim. If that’s what we’re thinking, then that means we don’t understand how the universe works. Because mental and spiritual work is not a shortcut around the creative process. It just looks like a shortcut to us because we’re so used to obsessing on our past, complaining about the present, and worrying about all the possible disasters that might befall us in the future, before we finally get around to doing what we need to do. It’s a wonder we get anything productive done, and a lot of people don’t.

Nothing But The Truth - Rev Paul Gonyea

The Truth of Life doesn’t really change, but our relationship to it does. When we were children, our parents taught us certain limited Truths to protect us. Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t stay out after dark. Then, as we got older, we got a new set of Truths. It’s a tough world out there. Life is a struggle. People are out to cheat you. As we became more and more involved in society, we started collecting even more Truths from all sorts of different directions: Our friends. Our schools. Our religious institutions. What we didn’t realize was, first of all, that these Truths were not really THE truth — they were just the beliefs of the people who gave them to us. And second, they had nothing to do with the Truth of our being — they had nothing to do with the Divine Truth already within us that was ready to set us free.