What time but now can truth be recognized?
The present is the only time there is.
And so today, this instant, now, we come
to look upon what is forever there;
not in our sight but in the eyes of Christ.
He looks past time and sees eternity
as represented there. He hears the sounds
the senseless, busy world engenders, yet
He hears them faintly, for beyond them all
He hears the song of Heaven and the Voice
of God more clear, more meaningful, more near.
The world fades easily away before
His sight. Its sounds grow dim. A melody
from far beyond the world increasingly
is more and more distinct; an ancient Call
to Which He gives an ancient answer. You
will recognize them both. For they are but
your answer to your Father's Call to you.
He answers for you, echoing your Self,
using your voice to give His glad consent;
accepting your deliverance for you.
How holy is your practicing today,
as He gives you His sight and hears for you,
and answers in your name the Call He hears.
How quiet is the time you give to spend
with Him beyond the world. How easily
are all your seeming sins forgot, and all
your sorrows unremembered. On this day
is grief laid by, and sights and sounds which come
from nearer than the world made clear to you
who will today accept the gifts He gives.
There is a silence into which the world
can not intrude. There is an ancient peace
you carry in your heart and have not lost.
There is a sense of holiness in you
the thought of sin has never touched. All this
today you will remember. Faithfulness
in practicing today will bring rewards
so great and so completely different from
all things you sought before that you will know
that here your treasure is and here your peace.
This is the day when vain imaginings
part like a curtain, to reveal what lies
beyond them. Here is what is really clear
made visible, while all the shadows which
appeared to hide it sink to obscurity.
Now is the balance righted, and the scales
of judgment left to Him Who judges true.
And in His judgment will a world unfold
in perfect innocence before your eyes.
Now will you see it through the eyes of Christ.
Now is its transformation clear to you.
Brothers, this day is sacred to the world.
Your vision, given you from far beyond
all things within the world looks back on them
in a new light. And what you see becomes
the healing and salvation of the world.
The valuable and valueless are both
perceived and recognized for what they are.
And what is worthy of your love receives
your love, while nothing to be feared remains.
We will not judge today. We will receive
but what is given us from judgment made
beyond the world. Our practicing today
becomes our gift of thankfulness for our
release from blindness and from misery.
All that we see will but increase our joy,
because its holiness reflects our own.
We stand forgiven in the sight of Christ,
with all the world forgiven in our own.
We bless the world, as we behold it in
the light in which our Saviour looks on us,
and offer it the freedom given us
through His forgiving vision, now our own.
Open the curtain in your practicing
by merely letting go all things you think
you want. Your trifling treasures put away,
and leave a clean and open space within
your mind where Christ can come and offer you
the treasure of salvation. He has need
of your most holy mind to save the world.
Is not this purpose worthy to be yours?
Is not Christ's vision worthy to be sought
above the world's unsatisfying goals?
Let not today slip by without the gifts
it holds for you receiving your consent
and your acceptance. We can change the world
if you acknowledge them. You may not see
the value your acceptance gives the world.
But this you surely want; you can exchange
all suffering for joy this very day.
Practice in earnest, and the gift is yours.
Would God deceive you? Can His promise fail?
Can you withhold so little when His Hand
holds out complete salvation to His Son?
