Center for Spiritual Living Midtown

The Mother of All Ideas - Rev Paul Gonyea

The image of a woman carrying a child to term is, when you think about it, a picture-perfect physical analogy of something we all do many, many times during our lives. I’m referring to the way we give birth to ideas that change the way we live. In one respect, we’re all mothers, in the way that we conceive, nurture, and give birth to ideas that have the potential to grow and grow and grow, first inside of us and then outside of us, until they become so completely intertwined with our physical experience that they make our life almost unrecognizable from what it was before.

This Is Your Wake-Up Call - Rev Paul Gonyea

When we sleep, our mind seems to work differently. That’s because we aren’t letting our logical brain get in the way of the Infinite Intelligence that works through us as the power of Mind. The past and the present and the future can get mixed up, because time and space don’t mean anything to God. Our inner consciousness can focus on any time or any place, at the speed of thought. Our subconscious mind can bring in any person, living or dead. It can give us different tools that we didn’t think were available to us. As a result, it can cause us to look at our problem from an entirely new perspective.

A History of Healing - Rev Paul Gonyea

The truth is, mental and spiritual healing is nothing new. It’s been around as long as people have been getting sick or injured and have been able to connect with the Power and the Wisdom of Life that flows through us all. There have been many different ideas about what it is, and what it is not. It isn’t magic. It has nothing to do with miracles. It is not dependent upon traditional religious ideas, on some unseen God that we beg to fix our broken or ailing bodies. It’s based on scientific AND spiritual principles (the two are NOT exclusive) with lots of anecdotal evidence behind it. And it works

It's In Every One of Us - Rev Angela Harmon

Each of us has the Power within to do great things or do harm. Each of us has the ability to retreat from life or to live a mundane life, never wanting nor accepting change even in the midst of chaos, despair or abuse, simply because it's familiar. Others live life constantly adapting to an ever changing world, becoming the change they wish to see, as Gandhi demonstrated.

Rolling Away the Stone - Rev Paul Gonyea

The resurrection story isn’t a literal story about God overcoming death. A story about a God who overcomes death isn’t that big a deal anyway. Any real God should be able to do that with one hand tied behind its back. If we see Easter as the story of a god who rolled back a big stone and walked out of a tomb, that may be very impressive, but it doesn’t do anything for our spiritual growth. There has to be something there we can learn or use. If we see this story as showing us the ability of the world, and the ability of you and me, to renew our spirit in the face of any obstacle, to transform ourselves from despair and limitation into a consciousness of joy and possibility, no matter what happened in the past, that’s definitely something to get excited about.

Just Keep Smiling - Rev Paul Gonyea

We need to take more time to laugh at ourselves. I don’t mean making fun of ourselves, or laughing at what we call our failures or our stupidity (of which we all have an abundance). I mean we should be laughing at how seriously we take things, and laughing with joy at our ability to live and love and play and create. We should be laughing at all the different avenues open to us to enjoy ourselves. We should be laughing with joy at how much we have to offer the world, and how much the world is always offering us.

The Language of Fools - Rev Paul Gonyea

In the Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, it says, “Every word we say has in back of it an idea, and the power of the word is primarily in that idea. We give that word additional power according to our oneness with that idea and the force of our thought.” In other words, the faith and conviction we have ABOUT our belief, in whatever area of our life it happens to be, amplifies the power of our word when we finally speak it. You can see this power at work in the speeches of Dr. King, or Winston Churchill, or even in the quiet words of Mother Theresa. Their words are powerful, not just because they’re eloquent and wise and passionate, but because of the consciousness behind those words.

In the Beginning - Rev Paul Gonyea

Everything that exists, in the past, present or future, has a beginning and an end. It comes from consciousness. It exists as long as it is supported by consciousness. And when consciousness shifts, that which previously existed either changes or it disappears. That's the way Life works. That's the way it works in the world at large, and that's the way it works in our own individual lives. Or as Dr. Holmes writes in the Science of Mind, "Creation is always beginning but never ending. The slightest thought of Intelligence sets power in motion through the Law, producing a corresponding thing. Things may come and things may go, but Creation goes on forever.

State 0f Grace - Greta Counts RsCP

Grace is largely a Christian term, thought of as the love of God shown to the unlovely, the peace of God given to the restless and the unmerited favor of God. The truth is, grace isn’t something God gives us if we do something right; it’s something we always have access to (in us), but we have to choose to be open to it.  Grace is the givingness of Spirit to Its creation, and the entire secret of harmonious existence as far as we are individually concerned is in the attaining of a ‘consciousness of grace.

How To Say Goodbye - Rev Paul Gonyea

When someone leaves our life unexpectedly, before we’re ready (and we’re never really ready), the feelings we have can be overwhelming. Fear, despair, anger, resentment, all those things are perfectly natural, perfectly normal reactions — for awhile. No one can say for how long, but they’re not meant to last forever. We need to be able to stand in the center of our grief and to see ourselves going through it, and to feel whatever it is that we feel. But somehow, eventually, we have to be able to reach inside and to touch our center, our inner core, and to release the person we love so much to something greater. Because that’s what death is.