Center for Spiritual Living Midtown

The Red Hot Rock - Rev Paul Gonyea

Scientists are finding out more and more how resentment affects us. People who tend to blame other people for their problems experience a much greater incidence of serious illness. People who do not get along with others tend to die at a significantly earlier age. People who are constantly angry about a wide variety of things, especially if they keep that anger locked inside, not only have a much greater risk of cancer and heart disease, their recovery rate is also very poor, unless they also make a radical change at the mental, emotional and spiritual level. That’s where the real damage occurs. Because it’s the mind and spirit that create and sustain the body. That’s where the healing ultimately has to come from.

A Piece of the Puzzle. - Rev Paul Gonyea

When something happens in my experience, or someone does something that I don’t like, and I ask the universe, ‘Why did this happen to me?’ I have to accept that this experience still fits into my life somewhere, somehow, because (1), It happened, and (2), I was there! It may not seem to fit where I am at the time, but it will definitely fit where my life is going, as a lesson or a tool that can help me in the future. I can plan on it. And if something appears to be missing in my life, and I really do need it (like money, or a relationship, or a better job), I can be sure that it’s around me someplace; I just haven’t figured out yet what it looks like. The good news is, all I have to do is relax and keep on putting things together, and it will show up when it needs to show up.

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?

Now What?! - Rev. Dr. Robert Deen

Part of what makes life so interesting is the fact that it’s unpredictable. When good things happen unexpectedly, that’s OK; but bad things, not so much. Sometimes there seems to be a never-ending stream of events that require time, energy and solutions that we may not feel we have. So, since none of us has the ability to predict the future, is there anything we can do to make life just a little easier when ‘stuff happens’? That’s where our consciousness and our awareness comes in. Once we master the spiritual principles that shape the creative process of Life, even if we don’t know what tomorrow brings, we know that we’ll be able to handle it.

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.