 Hi, everybody. Welcome. Good to see you all. Thank you for joining again. For those who are new, I'm Peter. I'll just be the host this weekend. And yeah, just to let you know, we've got a beautiful weekend ahead of us. And so I know this evening we'll have Jason and Soren, our friends there at La Casa de Milagros here in Mexico. They'll be sharing miracles with the interns there. And tomorrow we have a movie workshop with David. And then to start with, we'll have Frances, she's here in the studio with us in Mexico, and David over at the Monastery in Utah. So I'm going to pass it right over to them now. Hi, hi, everyone. Hi, everyone. Wow, what a what a theme. The light has come. Oh, my gosh, that is that is everything that is opening your heart to the idea that you're just going to embrace that the light has come and then let all the rest of the chips fall wherever they may. Yeah, Francis and I were just, yeah, really just rejoicing in the in the love of God and the love that the light has come and and really just in prayer to convey fully the the experience and the meaning of those words. Because those of you who have studied the course know that this is lesson number 75, the light has come. And when you read it, you just feel the presence of the Christ so strong, because it has such certainty, such absoluteness with it. And when you read it, and when you open your mind to it, then you oftentimes get this feeling like, wow, is not saying the light will come, the light has come. So it must mean that I can relax, that that nothing is left incomplete, that nothing is left up to chance. There's a certainty with it. And that's Francis and I are just rejoicing in that feeling today, feeling that this will be an amazing weekend as we open up to the fact that the light has come. Yeah, even just the last few days, I was so blown away by, you know, by the spirit just showing me, showering me with miracles, by other people coming to me to share their miracles one after the next. And it's just, you know, so clear that, and those who have been experiencing miracles are in such conviction, because they are in direct contact with the spirit, which is the light. And the spirit is saying, you know, the light has come, I have come, and the answer has come, the healing has come, and is at your hand, at your grasp. And I was just sharing with David this morning about all these profound miracles, which is always in some degree of realizing or being in this direct experience, that I can truly just relax and lean back in the hands of God. And the light is with me, the light is carrying me and guiding me every single day, providing for me every little thing that I need. If I need a word, the light provides it. If I need a situation to help me open up, the situation will come to me. This is what, you know, what we live in, and this is what we want to keep opening up to this, this direct experience that we're actually living in the divine hands of God. Yeah, I think everybody who's really given themselves over to this amazing journey, deep down just yearns for simplicity. And I think we have to admit the light has come, has got to be the simplest statement ever. We've been watching a little bit of the Chosen series this year, season three. And basically the first episode, Jesus delivers the Sermon on the Mount. And that Sermon on the Mount is the light has come Sermon. The presence and the love that radiates from the Sermon on the Mount, it's like nothing else, anywhere or ever. It's just like all is well. The light has come. God is love. You are love. I am love. Everything is handled. It is finished. And that sense of love and completeness, just absolute completeness has got to be the simplest experience ever, because the human experience is not simple. Let's admit that the human experience is complex. Even recently, I was reading something about Eckhart Tolle, and he was saying that he had so much anxiety in his life, and so much frustration. It was just intolerable. And basically, he had to come to a point where he just says, I can't do this anymore. It was a moment of surrender. I just can't do this anymore. And then it dawned on him that maybe it's because he was thinking and believing and acting as if there were two cells, like as if there was a personality self and something else. And then when he realized he couldn't go on with this dichotomy, then he just felt pulled into a vortex of energy and surrendered. And then we all know that nothing really changed externally for him at that point, but internally everything changed. He felt at peace. So when we say the light has come, what we're doing today is we're opening to an actual state of mind that is already there, or we could say already here. It's not a future. It's not a future thing. And the temptation is to believe, well, things would improve if some of the circumstances of my worldly life changed with my body or my surroundings or my relationships. And that's just the temptation to defend against the light has come. Actually, nothing needs to change in form. Only our perspective on the world has to change. So what we thought we would do today is really start to go really deep into that, the idea that nothing in the world has to change for me to be who I already am if the light has come. And Jesus is not putting an if in front of that statement. You notice he didn't say that in the sermon in the mount. He just basically is teaching the light has come with no ifs, ands, or buts. In other words, it's not a hypothetical, so you don't need to use the word if. It's not an and something. You don't have to and include something on the tail end of that statement. It's it's complete in and of itself. The light has come, and you don't have to put the comma, but which is the human condition. People say to me, I know I'm only love and I know we're all one, but whoa, whoa, why are we let's leave. What about what's the but about, you know, but means like however, or but means there's an exception, and Jesus is not giving us an exception when he says the light has come. So I think, yeah, what Francis and I, we were just talking today, there's, there's so many miracles, and there's so much witnessing and evidence that that it just takes a moment of trust, which seems to be a moment of surrendering over this idea that I personally have to do something to experience that the light has come. I think the belief that there is a personality or a doer, and that something needs to be done by this doer pray more, do more. You know, I was talking on a live the other day when my friend Alan Cohen was saying, what if God's idea of grace is bigger than your idea of karma? What if God's idea of grace is bigger than your idea of karma? Because once we open up to this belief in karma or belief in time, then that's just a denial that the light has come. So what do you think, Francis? How shall we start this off? You wrote in so many beautiful prayers and and questions and themes. We were just really praying today on how we would even launch into such a huge topic. But one of the things we thought of was just starting off with gratitude, was just full, full, full gratitude. And I think our friend Darren from Darren Reed from California had had written something in and wow, it caught my attention. It caught Francis's attention because we were like, wow, that's just pure gratitude. It's just oozing with gratitude. So maybe Francis, we can start off with Derek's beautiful message of gratitude. Yeah. Yep. I like it because it's a gratitude, even though the ego voice may say something, but then when you really tap deeper, Darren just like, no, actually this is the reality. So Darren Reed wrote in Dear Francis and David, I want to write in for this retreat for some reason I don't fully understand, maybe just to share. I don't need to be called on, but I do want to express my gratitude. It has been a little more than a year since my first online retreat, maybe 15 to 16 months since working more closely with your material and community overall. Recently I've been looking back at my experiences over the last 18 months. Ego continues to offer me, you're not making enough progress, but you're not doing it the right way. But when I look back over those last 18 months, I'm truly in tears of gratitude about all changes that have occurred. The Zoom sessions, the movies, monastery visit with all the healing, the mighty companions that I've joined with, Facebook, which was evil before, but now serves a new purpose. The David and Svava LA trip and sessions, the relationship I have with friends, co-workers and family now, the loving meditation and closeness to spirit, the deeper devotion, the feeling that spirit is guiding every step. I could go on and on. It just all feels really beautiful and so purposeful. So thank you for continuing to do what you do, which is point, point, point the way. I was doing a lot of watching on MWG over the Christmas break and it just felt like spirit opened my eyes even wider. I watched Heart Time and Butterfly Effect. Wow, I mean wow, that butterfly movie is when I felt my mind expanding. It's not an easy movie to watch, which just helps stay on purpose. Your commentary after the movie was just so insightful and especially when I was working on lesson three. Everything blended. Just so grateful. Love you guys. Oh wow. Well, that sets us floating in the light, just pure, pure gratitude. And I noticed he said too, at the end of how, you know, when he was watching butterfly, butterfly effect is his heart just expanded. It wasn't easy watching. And I think that's a good starting point that when you begin to open up to spirit, there's something inside of you that knows that this is the only way you can go. This is the point of your life. And also that as Darren was saying that sometimes it doesn't seem easy because the ego reacts against the light. The ego doesn't want to be undone. The ego is going to try to defend against the light and ever since the belief in separation, even though separation isn't a reality, but the belief in separation has generated guilt and fear and resistance. And I think what we can talk about today, Francis too, is that as we've gone really deep into this experience, and we're not just talking about a particular pathway like the Course in Miracles, we're just talking more in general terms of waking up to who you really are. Whatever pathway you use, it doesn't really matter. There's not one pathway that's better or worse than the other. The whole point is to wake up and remember the truth. But I think we could boil it down to pray, listen, and follow. I know for myself that is really the simplicity that I was yearning for. I just want to have you, Jesus, Holy Spirit, teach me how to pray, how to really, really pray deeply. And then when I do pray, teach me to listen to your voice and your instructions and give me the strength to follow those instructions and give me the willingness to take the steps that you lay before me. So I think, for me, that's the simplicity of spiritual awakening is pray, listen, and follow. And of course the ego will try to disrupt the prayer, it will try to disrupt the listening, and it will definitely try to disrupt the following. Even if you pray and you pray sincerely and you hear the guidance and the instructions, the ego will still try to prevent you from the final step because the final step of following is where the faith grows, is where your faith expands. And Francis, I know in our experience, that's made all the difference that we didn't get into this to try to change the external circumstances. We really weren't in it to try to make a better world or make better situations. Really the calling of the heart is we're in it for peace, we're in it for inner peace. And we're really honest and sincere about that, that that is the purpose is to experience fully that inner peace that God gives us as our identity, that inner love, that inner happiness and joy. So