T. 31. VIII. 10 – 12. Jesus’ prayer: “I thank You, Father, for these holy ones who are my brothers as they are Your Sons. My faith in them is Yours. I am as sure that they will come to me as You are sure of what they are, and will forever be. They will accept the gift I offer them, because You gave it on their behalf, to me. And as I would but do Your holy Will, so will they choose. And thus do I give thanks for them.
Salvation’s song will echo through the world with every holy choice my brothers make. For we are one in purpose, and the end of hell is near. In joyous welcome is my hand outstretched to every brother who would join with me in reaching past temptation, and who looks with fixed determination toward the light that shines beyond, in perfect constancy.
Give me my own, my Father, for they belong to You! And can You fail in what is but Your Will? I give You thanks for what my brothers are. And as each one elects to join with me, the song of thanks from earth to Heaven grows from tiny scattered threads of melody, to an all-inclusive chorus from a world redeemed from hell, now giving thanks to You.
And now we say ‘Amen.’ For Christ has come to dwell in the abode You set for Him before time was, in calm eternity. The journey closes, ending at the place where it began. No trace of it remains. Not one illusion is accorded faith, and not one spot of darkness still remains to hide the face of Christ from anyone.
Thy Will is done, complete and perfectly, and all Creation recognizes You, and knows You as the only Source it has. Clear in Your likeness does the light shine forth from everything that lives and moves in You. For we have reached where all of us are one, and we are home, where You, our Father, would have us be.”
>>> And with this Prayer, the Text of A Course in Miracles concluded for Helen. At that point, with approximately 1900 pages of double-spaced, 8 1/2 X 11 manuscript hand-typed by Bill Thetford, it seemed to Helen and Bill that the inspirations coming to Helen would simply cease, and apparently they did for a short while. Then the Workbook lessons began to come to her, the Manual for Teachers, and then, too late to be included in the first edition published by the Foundation for Inner Peace in 1976, two chapter-length additions, “Psychotherapy, Purpose, Process and Practice,” and “The Song of Prayer,” came to Helen and were initially published as separate pamphlets. A Second Edition was published in 1985 with the addition of the very helpful Preface and Clarification of Terms, also brought about by the same interaction between Helen and the inner voice she identified as Jesus. These Course materials are now all included in the Combined 3rd Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace. Published after Helen’s passing, “The Gifts of God,” 130 pages, is titled for the long essay which is its final section, and is an important adjunct to the Course, containing Helen’s poetry as well as the essay.
As I continue to work with the Course daily, I plan next to go through Psychotherapy, Purpose, Process and Practice in the same manner as I have with the Text, then “The Song of Prayer.” The subtitles of both “supplements” say, “Extensions of the Principles of A Course in Miracles.” I’ve been following an approach Ken Wapnick suggested to me about ten years ago, taking just a couple paragraphs each day of the Text, studying it sentence-by-sentence, word-by-word, idea-by-idea. As soon as I began, I found that I was receiving explicit inner guidance with the wording, grammar and syntax. The result would seem to be daily excerpts which read more like daily Workbook lessons. Ken: “The entire Course is lessons!” My guidance repeatedly reminds me to share my “daily homework!” So I do. The online version I’ve been using is from the Circle of Atonement http://www.circleofa.org/course_miracles/acim