Helping Houston:

Hurricane Harvey Update for the CSL Community

We gratefully report that the Centers for Spiritual Living communities in Texas are stable, including Creative Life Spiritual Center (Rev. Dr. Jesse Jennings), CSL Clear Lake (Yvonne Ryba, RScP) and CSLDallas (Rev. Dr. Petra Weldes and Rev. Karen Fry). Our focus now is providing relief for the larger community through Unity of Houston. All proceeds will benefit the victims in the Houston area, including anyone impacted within Centers for Spiritual Living.

Dr. Kenn Gordon offers this perspective: “Once again, as we have witnessed in other disaster areas, we can see the blessing of this situation in the positive reaction of humanity in times of distress. The coming together of communities and nations is affirming to those of us who believe in the wholeness and loving kindness of humanity. I ask you to please continue praying and treating for the citizens of these areas and to also continue to know the highest and best for all.”

Rev. Dr. Jesse Jennings offers these thoughts from his presence in Texas: “Among our local array of New Thought churches and centers, Unity of Houston is the oldest and largest. It is located on Houston's near west side, which is densely populated and very badly flooded, and it has a congregation drawn also from a long list of other devastated neighborhoods and surrounding towns. While the Unity campus is at last report intact itself, they serve hundreds if not thousands of people who will have endured a loss from Harvey ranging from a week's pay to a lifetime's acquired possessions.”

Serving at Unity of Houston is Rev. Michael Gott, who appeared on the cover of the April 2017 issue of Science of Mind and wrote the Daily Guides for that month. Michael is an ordained CSL minister.

Rev. Jennings reports, “Michael instantly consented to the idea that Unity of Houston should serve as the collection and distribution point for financial donations, funneled through New Thought Centers and Churches across Southeast Texas, to aid those who have suffered losses in the floods. Unity of Houston has the staff and the moxie to discharge this huge task crisply and creatively — by which I mean there are unusual things people really need after a disaster, not just sacks of old clothes. Our financial gifts, convertible to useful everyday items, will make an immediate difference — that the inhabitants of this green, proud, diverse, bluesy, positively electric city we adore may get up, dry off, and stand tall again.”

For more information on how you can help, visit http://scienceofmind.com/helping-houston/.

Science Suggests Praying for Your Spouse

At the earliest age, children learn the importance of praying for those close to them — their friends and family members. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that scientists confirm the importance of praying for your spouse.

According to The Washington Post’s Acts of Faith newsletter, “Praying daily for one’s partner has been linked to numerous positive outcomes: increased relationship satisfaction, greater trust, cooperation, forgiveness and marital commitment. Many of these benefits apply both to the prayer as well as the one being prayed for.”

To experience these benefits, scientists find, “not just any kind of prayer will do — it has to be praying specifically for one’s partner.”

Scientists specifically studied petitionary prayers, those where specific requests are made while praying. The focus of the prayers studied was for someone’s partner, specifically for divine love, well-being and blessings. The same kind of prayer also impacted those who pray for their friends and loved ones other than spouses.

You can find the results of these studies summarized in this article.

You may want to start with the prayer suggested:

Dear Lord, thank you for all the things that are going well in my life and in my relationship. Please continue to protect and guide my partner, providing strength and direction every day. I know you are the source of all good things. Please bring those good things to my partner and make me a blessing in my partner’s life. Amen.

Together for Peace

"We must think peace if we wish to express peace. The mind that is always confused and distraught is not at peace; the mind that is continuously upset and agitated by the little, petty things of life is not at peace; it is at war with itself. It is only when the individual mind ceases combating itself that it will stop combating others." ~Ernest Holmes

On September 21, people from every corner of the globe will observe the International Day of Peace. Established in 1981 by a unanimous United Nations resolution, Peace Day offers a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to peace above all differences and to contribute to building an international culture of peace.

The theme for 2017 is “Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for All.” The website http://internationaldayofpeace.org invites each of us to get involved in any number of ways, from education to the arts, social justice to sports, health to the environment, neighborhood issues to service for others.

At noon on September 21, in whatever time zone you occupy, you are invited to join in a Minute of Silence/Moment of Peace. In 1984, in commemoration of the annual International Day of Peace and in solidarity with the United Nations, Pathways To Peace inaugurated the Minute of Silence, resulting in a “peace wave” around the world. Individuals, organizations, communities and nations are invited to participate in this shared, sacred and practical act of building peace.

For information on Centers of Spiritual Living’s peace initiative, please visit www.ourcsl.org/csl-peace-initiatives.

In Memoriam: Louise Hay

Our beloved friend, mentor and tireless advocate Louise Hay transitioned peacefully in her sleep on August 30, 2017, of natural causes at age 90.

Louise started what would become her life’s work in New York City in 1970. She began attending meetings at the Church of Religious Science and then entered a ministerial program.

Considered a founder of the self-help movement, Louise published her first book, “Heal Your Body,” in 1976 (at age 50), long before it was fashionable to discuss the connection between the mind and body.

In her second book, “You Can Heal Your Life,” Louise explained how our beliefs and ideas about ourselves are often the cause of our emotional problems and physical maladies and how, by using certain tools, we can change our thinking and our lives for the better.

In 1987, what began as a small venture in her living room turned into Hay House, Inc., a successful publishing company that has sold millions of books and products worldwide.

Louise Hay’s estate, as well as all future royalties, will be donated to The Hay Foundation, a nonprofit organization established by Louise that financially supports diverse organizations supplying food, shelter, counseling, hospice care and funds to those in need.

Donations in honor of her memory may be made to www.hayfoundation.org.

I Am Always Glad

— Ernest Holmes

I sing a song of joy today, of praise and gratitude. I know that my health, my physical well-being, my mental poise and peace are drawn from the infinite Source. Today I know that the healing presence of Life is within me, forever restoring my mind and body.

Body and mind are one in Spirit. Physical health is a state of wholeness in mind, as well as in body. My body is a servant of the Spirit within me. My mind is an offspring of pure Spirit. There is a silent reaction going on between the Spirit within me, which is God, my mind, which receives impressions from this Divine Source, and my body, which is the servant of the Spirit.

Today I hold communion with the invisible Presence that peoples the world with the manifestation of Its Life, Its Light and Its Love. I withdraw the veil that hides my real self and draw close to the Spirit in everything and in everyone. I anticipate everything that is worthy of the soul; I accept everything that belongs to the Spirit; I claim everything that partakes of the nature of the divine Reality.

— Entry for September 8 from “365: Science of Mind, A Year of Daily Wisdom from Ernest Holmes”