Center for Spiritual Living Midtown

BASICS 4: LIVING LIFE IN A GREATER WAY - Rev Paul Gonyea

It is a Basic Truth that our life only gets better when we do; that is, when we make a conscious and deliberate decision to change our mind about what we allow ourselves to accomplish or to experience, and we begin to believe that we can have something better. That’s one ability we have that no one can ever take away from us; the ability to change our present thoughts and beliefs. We can use that ability or not, but it’s always there. If we believe in it and use it intelligently, it will work beautifully for us as we direct it. But if we don’t believe in it, or if we don’t use it intelligently, it still works, only it works through the law of averages, because we aren’t giving it any direction.

BASICS 3: "WHAT GOD REALLY DOES" - Rev Paul Gonyea

The only difference between spiritual laws and the laws of physics is that we think only physical laws are real. But metaphysics and quantum physics are showing us that the laws of the invisible universe, the mental and spiritual universe, are just as real as the laws we use in the visible world. They're all here for our benefit. And they will always do what they are designed to do for anyone who uses them intelligently. We don't have to earn them. We don't have to beg for them to work. They aren't being hidden. History has shown that all we have to do is to pay attention to the world around us, until we figure out what wonderful things we can do by using any of the laws of Life to create an even better life

BASICS 2: THIS THING CALLED YOU - Rev Paul Gonyea

This idea that all the great teachers talked about, that we are all outlets for the creative energy of the Universe, that we are all openings for the power of Spirit to make good things happen in the world, is a transformational idea. It brings immediate change. When the Master Teacher Jesus supposedly said, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life,” what I believe he really said was, “I am showing you the way. I am telling you the Truth. This is the way to live your Life.” He was telling us that finding a better way to live isn’t about praying for God to show up and fix things; it’s about recognizing that God is already here, and that we are its vehicle

BASICS 1: THIS THING WE CALL GOD - Rev Paul Gonyea

If the Truth is going to set us free, we have to be free to learn what the Truth is. We have to feel free to question everything, including the power or the process that created us out of itself. And as our spiritual understanding increases - as we learn more and more about what God is and what it looks like as it appears in the physical world - we can then use that knowledge to make better and better use of all those Universal Laws and Truths that have been given to us as part of our spiritual birthright.

Christmas Presence - Rev Paul Gonyea

If we combine the God image and the Santa image, we see that what we are is actually God giving the endless gift of God to Itself, not just at Christmas, but every day of the year. That's why the image we've created of this jolly old man in a beard, running around giving gifts to every child in the world, is so appealing. First, because it's a much greater idea than the one we see happening most of the time; and second, because we know, on some level - at the deepest, most profound, most loving and spiritual level - that it's completely possible. Not only is it possible; it's the way we should all be living.

Following False Gods - Rev Paul Gonyea

Using its most basic definition, a god is any idea, or any belief — any person, place or thing — that we believe has power beyond our own. It becomes a problem for us when we also believe that this power has a will or a purpose that is not in tune with our greater good; that is, if we allow our ‘god’ to make decisions for us that don’t help us grow, or if we allow it to limit what we can or can’t do. So if we (consciously or unconsciously, deliberately or by default) give up our power to choose HOW we want to create our own life because we believe that someone or something outside of us has a different idea for us, or has power over us, and there’s nothing we can do about it, then we are following a false god.

The Best Defense - Rev Paul Gonyea

We can never achieve physical security by fighting wars or building walls. The War on Poverty, the War on Drugs or a war against any disease, cannot succeed. All the wars that have been fought throughout history — even those fought for what we might call “good reasons” — all these wars have not created a secure world. Walls may keep danger out, at least for awhile, but they also lock us in. This is true about concrete walls, but it’s also true about mental walls. When our mind is constantly working, trying to anticipate what bad thing might happen next and how can we defend ourselves against it, the one thing we can be sure of is that we’re going to have lots of things happen that we need to defend against.

Top 5 Gifts to Give for the Holidays - Greta Counts

Ready or not the holiday season is here.  This is the time of year we give gifts to those we love and cherish to show them just how much they mean to us.  Don't know what to give everyone on your list???  Join me for the top 5 gifts you can give for the holidays.  These [spiritual] gifts are the perfect size and color that are sure to please everyone on your list.

Count Your Blessings - Rev Paul Gonyea

Though we continually hear, in this teaching at least, that we are spiritual beings having a human experience, our human side often tends to take the normal, average, day-to-day experiences of our life as “just the way things are.” If something happens every day, the same way, for a certain length of time, we tend to stop thinking about being grateful for it because we see it as something we deserve. We see it as the status quo, as an element of our life that’s simply ‘supposed’ to be there. As a result, we save the great gift of our appreciation for those one-time good deals that show up every so often, if we’re lucky. And the regular, everyday stuff, we ignore.

Borders and Boundaries - Rev Paul Gonyea

The purpose of having healthy boundaries is not to build a wall around us to protect us; it’s to take care of ourselves. It’s to honor ourselves. It’s to create a nice, safe, fun place for us to live, work and play, without being involuntarily or unnecessarily sucked into the problems or the affairs of other people who should be taking better care of themselves. Our spiritual birthright, which means simply our right to express Life by virtue of being here, gives us permission to live in a much larger space than the world (and some of the people in it) want to give us. That’s something that needs to change, but only we can do it, and we can only do it consciously. It doesn’t happen by accident.