October 22, 1994

• Have faith while awaiting medical diagnosis

• All that has been created is sacred

• No justification in terminating the life of another

The presence of God is very real for each of you. You experience God as close to you. This experience varies from time to time in intensity, but you are all aware of God as a part of life. Your lives are indeed blessed. They are receptive to God. They are receptive to the love offered by others. The intent behind our last communication with you was not to present a concept that was especially new, but to provide you with encouragement to rededicate your lives to the spirit of receptivity from which all else can flow.

We understand the concerns about your friend, but he is also becoming more receptive to God in his own way through the mysteries of medicine. It is not for us to provide a lot of predictions for each of you, for if we did we’d remove from your experience the opportunity that is presented to live in faith. While the outcome of your friend’s exposure is of course of immediate importance, what is most important is how each deals with the uncertainties, for he and his family are faced with the reality of not knowing one hundred percent the outcome. How each deals with that uncertainty is the raw material on which a strong spiritual evolution can take place. In the span of human life, the period of uncertainty is relatively short, but each family member is given an opportunity to reflect on what is important, on the purpose of life and not its length. It is how you live the life you are given that is of supreme importance. The length is not so vital. We are not implying here that you should assume his prognosis to be less than what you wish by these comments.

Your friend is faced directly for the first time with the issues of his own mortality. It is an early age to encounter these concerns, but the result of this encounter will deepen his compassion for others who face such uncertainties, and this compassion is really a form of loving outreach. He is given strength for his outreach through the love that he experiences from those around him—his family, his colleagues and friends— and that inflow of love and support has value far beyond measure, and for this he is indeed a blessed soul.

Each of you has concerns about health, whether your own or someone else's— physical conditions, emotional challenges, professional questions,

interpersonal relationships. We know them all. We are here to provide a reflection for God's response. We are here to help you, but we are also here to take God's light and focus it upon the soul with whom we are connected. It is our loving duty. We receive from God and we give to you.

What we explained about receptivity is as much a description of our life as it is a prescription for yours. Love must ultimately be reflected. Love must ultimately be given away, sent outward, directed toward another. That is what you do in human life, some with more intensity than others. Your lives are ultimately measured as successful or unsuccessful on the basis of your ability to direct love outward. It is for that reason that your receptivity is so essential.

Each of you should try to be more sensitized to all that is living around you, whether they are plants or animals. You must be sensitive to all that has been created even when it is inanimate, for all that has been created is sacred because of being created by God. There is nothing that exists through accident. All that exists is the result of God acting in the universe as you know it. For that reason nothing is unimportant, nothing is useless, nothing merits ultimate criticism. All merits affirmation. The rock can be affirmed. The rock does not feel your affirmation, but through the process of affirming the fact that the rock is a creation of God means that it belongs. If a rock belongs, how can you deny another human being?

Life is sacred. All life is meaningful. All human beings are sacred. There is no justification for whatever reason to terminate the life of another human being. There is no justice in terminating a life. Yes, we are saying that capital punishment, for example, is unjustifiable. You must respect life in all forms. Go through one day in your life where you see everything. Examine the ground, examine the plants, observe the plants, receive the people into yourselves, look at every individual and see God—the successful person, the individual who seems lost—recognize God in the trees, in the air you breathe, in the water you drink, in the food you eat, in the buildings that you observe, for they were made from material that is God's creation.

Try to go through one day with full awareness of God in everything. It is a challenge that is most worthy. Having experienced a single day where you are totally surrounded by God, you will never experience another day in the old way. The colors— allow them to be brilliant in your eyes. Look at trees and watch them grow. Imagine their growing over a long period of time. See their expansion. You must make a positive effort to recognize this incredible presence of God in life. Having succeeded in this day, your sense of anxiety and worry will be greatly diminished, perhaps even eliminated, because you will have seen God, and you will then recognize that you are not alone, nor are those you love. You will then experience in a small way the intensity of God's presence that we experience, for the God that we see is the God that you then see. Grasp onto that vision. Don't forget it, and when the day is night and you are unable to see, you will be comforted by the strength of your memory.

This is perhaps the greatest challenge in life, but it carries with it the richest reward. You cannot doubt God's presence when you have seen God. You will know that God is with each of you and those for whom you care and whom you love.

We bless your lives with our vision of God, and pray that you may experience the joy that is our joy, knowing concretely, vividly, that God is with us all.

Amen.