Attend Camp Consciousness

In the December 2017 issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine, author and speaker Dr. Dennis Merritt Jones examines the “High Watch of Oneness” in his article, “Standing Guard at the Temple Gate.” He offers these mindfulness suggestions to help you stand guard at the temple gate.

Pray without ceasing. “There is no wrong time to pray,” he reminds us. “Because it connects us directly to the Presence, the act of mindful prayer is one of the most natural ways to hold the high watch.”

Seek a prayer partner. “There are times when we all need reinforcements to stand guard at the temple gate with us — to hold us in a prayer of oneness when we may not have the clarity of mind to do so for ourselves.”

Be mindful when your inner guard dozes off. Additionally, Dr. Jones says, “Be mindful of the visitors you allow to pass through the sacred gate to the temple. Always remember that you are in charge, you are the watch commander and only you have the authority to invite in — or turn away — the visitor at the gate.”

— Read the full article in the December magazine. Dr. Jones offers more inspiration in his new book “Encouraging Words: Articles and Essays That Prove Who You Are Matters,” released by Spiritual Living Press in 2017, available at amazon.com.

Manage Holiday Stress

Days filled with family and friends, evenings spent celebrating, weekends devoted to finding those perfect gifts — and stress from it all. The holidays are both wonderful and challenging for so many of us. Here, from the Mayo Clinic, are 10 suggestions for managing holiday stress:

1. Acknowledge your feelings.
2. Reach out.
3. Be realistic.
4. Set aside differences.
5. Stick to a budget.
6. Plan ahead.
7. Learn to say no.
8. Don't abandon healthy habits.
9. Take a breather.
10. Seek professional help if you need it.

For more on these tips and other suggestions, visit www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20047544.

A Message for Our Times

This year brought many troubles to our world. From natural disasters to strife to war, we found ourselves seeking ways to guide us all to the spirit of Oneness.

In a message to the U.S. House of Representatives, Rev. Kevin Kitrell Ross offered a prayer for our elected officials to find the courage and compassion to lead our country — and the world — to a greater unity. Rev. Kitrell Ross is senior minister/CEO of Unity of Sacramento church in Sacramento, California. He is a member of the Association for Global New Thought Leadership Council.

He prayed:

May we turn within and look higher to the God of our understanding and pray.

Loving Presence, we invoke from the celestial balconies the witness of the pioneers of our progress whose bloodied journeys marshaled unprecedented faith and birthed a new nation of radical inclusion.

Bless these sons and daughters of promise gathered in this, the people's House. Let them reach higher for crowns of conscience to exemplify compassion and bring from their districts to their desks sharp pencils that carve on their hearts the faces of freedom that they represent.

Let this House be an incubator for our best ideals, not a prison for our poorest politics.

Let these heroes and sheroes of the people's House summon the intellectual imagination and intuitive navigation to serve bolder together and break through the ideological gridlock that arrests the potential of our great Republic.

Let these innovators of cooperation and builders of the beloved community reunite these States of America and lead the way for a world that works for all.

This is enough. In the name of a love supreme we pray, and so it is. Amen

Watch the video: www.c-span.org/video/?c4674641/rev-kevin-k-ross-opening-prayer-us-house-representatives

Merge With the Infinite

— Ernest Holmes

Job asks us if we can find God by searching. He means that since God is everywhere, and since the subtle essence of the Infinite is invisible, we do not have to search out the Divine Spirit, but rather, we should recognize It as the center of all life. That which we see is merely a reflection of this Invisible Presence.

The Spirit Itself cannot be seen, but It is felt, just as we do not see God but we do feel the Divine in everything. The Creator is revealed in Its creation. The Formless gives rise to the formed. We should consciously unite ourselves with this invisible Essence that pervades everything, that which our lesson says is eternally unconditioned and undivided. To do this is to find wholeness.

Today I feel that I merge with the Infinite. While there seems to be a beginning and an end to each particular experience, there is neither beginning nor end to myself. My real spirit is omnipresent in God, secure in Good and perfect in Divine Being.

— December 8 entry, “365: Science of Mind.” To find daily inspiration from Dr. Holmes, follow @ErnestHolmesSOM on Twitter, where each day’s tweet offers a quote from “365: Science of Mind.”