January 23, 2025

• Understanding spiritual light and resonance

• All prayers are answered through the openness of your own heart, your spirit

• In challenging times, remember you are all strings resonating on the same instrument

You are bathed in the light from God. That light of which we have spoken is an invisible light to you, and yet it is a light that illuminates our pathways as well as yours.

Think for a moment about the function of light in human life. On a superficial level, it allows you to see and to respond, but on a deeper, more profound level, it is in significant ways a source for life itself, for light impacts human life on a molecular level. Without light, there would be no human life, for human life requires the presence of other forms of life, both animal and vegetable, mineral, even the air that you breathe. The light is essential.

The light of God can then be understood as being essential for the life of human beings. The light is there regardless of your acknowledgment. It is present. Even in darkness, that light exists, for just as the earth rotates and what may be momentarily dark returns to the light, that darkness is momentary but the presence of the source of that light never changes. God’s light, therefore, provides a foundation for spiritual life. The pathways that you travel upon differ one from another, but the illumination is always there.

This light can also be understood simply as a presence. We speak of your light not in the sense of colors, but rather the colors that we see are due to your presence. The fact that you exist, your soul is present, and it is that presence, that existence and the energy of that presence, that creates the light, the colors that we see.

God’s illumination of your pathways is not an illumination of light per se. It is an illumination of presence. The reality, as we often say, is that God is and you are. Those are statements of being present, and being present means there is an energy, a reality that has impact. It is not just being there. It is being really present and therefore impactful. When you pray for God’s help, for God’s illumination of where to go on your path, you’re praying for a heart vision that knows of that presence that you refer to as God.

Often when you wonder about how to help others, we say that such help is not necessarily one of doing but rather one of being, being present. The act of being present is in itself an act of love because you are interacting with the reality and acceptance of someone else.

God’s presence is an acknowledgment of your spiritual reality, your spiritual essence. There is a resonance that occurs when in the presence of this light, this energy. The analogy of strings resonating together in an instrument is an apt description of what happens when you sense even for a moment that presence of God. That energy of love, the energy of caring, serves to energize your own light, your own life, your own love, your own energy. Particularly when you are aware of the spirit of God being with you, you are especially energized to be a light to the spirit of others. Life, light, presence—they all are descriptions of the same reality.

We are no longer in human form, but the energy, the light, the color that is our presence can become the resonating energy that is yours. Then both you and we are connected in particularly strong ways to God’s light. We could say that fundamentally our purpose of existence is not just to grow in our vision but to direct our lights to you that you may grow in your vision, and as you grow, we grow. The light we give to you is a light that is reflected back from you, and the light increases in its brilliance, its warmth, and love. Combining the light of two entities results in an illumination that truly exceeds the combining itself.

As you reach out to others in the process of being part of God’s light, the resulting illumination, the resulting presence of love, becomes far greater than just merely adding two measures of light. Love becomes more present through your illumination, through your expression of love, through your presence regardless of how that presence is manifested. The presence, your presence, makes a difference. As God’s presence has an impact on your spiritual resonance, so, too, your presence enhances the spiritual resonance of another through your caring for another, through your praying on behalf of another.

When you pray on your own behalf, that is not an act of selfishness but rather the action of becoming open. When you pray for God’s presence, you are acknowledging the existence of that presence and merely accepting that reality in itself is strength- giving. When you pray for strength, you become stronger. When you pray for peace, peace becomes more present. When you pray for understanding, your understanding expands. When you pray for health, the balance that is health becomes even stronger. The benefit of your prayer to the light is a benefit that is not received because you asked for it. It is received because you acknowledged that it is already with you.

When you figuratively open those windows to the light of the sun, you are not, in effect, causing the sun to start emitting light. You are allowing the light that is there to illuminate your own pathway. Praying, therefore, is an acknowledgment of that light. It is not a wish that that light be offered toward you. All prayers that are offered, regardless of the terminology, regardless of the words that are used, are answered not through the actions of God but through the openness of your own heart, your own spirit.

The balance that you seek, the justice that you seek, all that you seek that affirms the dignity and value of everything is always already with you. The peace, justice, balance, health, whatever you pray for that you feel reflects your needs, all of that is already a part of your pathway. That light belongs to your pathway, and you are merely being open to that constant reality. That light, therefore, impacts all life whether on the superficial level or at the most fundamental core of who you are.

Ultimately, it can be said at the very center of the reality that is you, “You are light,” and it’s that light, that energy, that presence that we see, that we sometimes describe as colors. That energy is what your identity to us is.

We are with you because you and we resonate together. We move together. Just as the strings of a violin may resonate together, individually they produce different sounds, different pitches. There is a different character to each string. But despite those seeming differences, they resonate together, and that resonance that is shared has everything to do with the magic of the sound that is produced. The resonance that you and we share has everything to do with the light that we together produce. The love that we and you share has everything to do with the love that is the light of God.

Yes, your path and ours are illuminated by the same light. We are illuminated by that eternal presence, the eternal resonance, the energy that is shared coming from that Spirit Center, God, and emanating from that Center so that all that exists resonates in its own particular way to the central presence of God.

All human beings resonate and produce their own tones. They have their own character. Some are deep. Some are high in pitch. Some are warm in color. Others are more steely. But they all resonate. They all belong to the total sound of the instrument. All belong to that same entity. All contribute to what that entity of totality is.

We often say that you are a part of what God is, who God is, that God is in truth the totality that resonates as one instrument. You belong to one another. You exist as human beings at the same time for a purpose. You cannot deny the validity of one. One string on a violin is no less important than another. Both may serve different purposes, but both resonate together and are essential to the beauty of its totality.

In these times in which you live, you are becoming more aware of the different functions that are a part of the spiritual totality, the oneness of all. You are aware of the differences, and it is understandable that you may be critical and judgmental, unable to easily separate what one person is from who a person may be. That difficulty arises from the difficulty in clearing the heart vision and seeing the resonance of light that belongs to all that exists.

The difficulties you experience belong to what it means to live in human light. There is no need to despair. What is necessary is a recognition that there is always a need for clearer vision of the heart. As you experience those difficulties, you are doing what you can do even through an acknowledgment that somehow in some way you are all the same. You are all equal. You are all part of God’s light regardless of appearances. You all belong to the instrument that resonates. You all belong to the light that is illuminating all pathways. Simply acknowledge that as a goal you seek rather than a statement of place. Merely acknowledging that reality, recognizing the difficulty of such acknowledgment adds an intensity to that light, an intensity to that resonance. That acknowledgment serves to strengthen God’s presence knowing that you’re a part of that greater reality.

Be grateful for those moments when you see that light. Be grateful for those moments when you recognize God is in some manner present. You are constantly being guided by the illumination of God and your guides, and you are being illuminated also by the light of all for whom you pray.

Rest in the light. Be warmed by the light. Be drawn into its brilliance in whatever way becomes available.

Amen.