 Hello. Nice to see you all. Welcome to our online retreat weekend. We have the theme The Mystical Heart of Christ, and we've got a beautiful weekend ahead of us. And so, yeah, we're going to let's see we're going to have our friends at La Casa de Milagros sharing this evening. And then tomorrow we have a movie workshop and a bit of a new setup for the day. And we'll have David and Francis joining us. So actually, David and Francis are joining us right now today. We have Francis in the studio with us and David is joining in from Salt Lake City. And so I'm going to pass it over to them now. Thank you, Pete. Hi Francis. Hi everyone. Hi everyone. Hi David. Oh, what a beautiful retreat, the mystical heart of Christ, just the name just sends tingles up my spine. Oh, it's so beautiful to see you and yeah I think Francis we've got a lot of new people joining us from around the globe. That's that's fun for us. I actually was counting on the countries of everyone who are joining us this weekend I counted 27 countries in total. And then we have quite a few people who joined us for the very first time from Australia from Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, Argentina, and Mexico so big welcome to everyone. But for those who are first time. Yeah, thank you so much for for finding us and spending this time with us together. Yeah, yeah and if you this is your first time. There'll come a point here, not too long from now that we'll just kind of open it up for expressions you can just share any miracles you've had or how you got here or questions you have and I love to hear from people who are just joining for the first time just jump right in there because it's a it's a witness to everybody that there's nothing to to fear nothing to hesitate with nothing to hold you back, because this awakening of your heart and the joy and happiness in your heart is is very important, and it's a top priority so we love to hear from new people. And yeah, we thank you all for writing in your, your expressions your questions, we take, we read through those very carefully we take them to prayer and we usually are able to answer a few of them. It's the first day of the retreat but then the following on Sunday will devote the whole session and then some to answering as many questions and as many, whether you bring them up live to us or whether you've written them in with we try to to get to them. So today, wow, Francis what a, what a topic, we're just, you know, Christ is is in our hearts and it feels like every day every moment we get expanded, expanded in the awareness of the Christ presence and and so much happiness and joy, the bursting joy is really what we're experiencing. And it's spelling over we're kind of getting ready to launch a new website and new app and start doing a bunch of lives. Many of them spontaneous lives. They might even say worship services or worship sessions. It seems to be coming in for us. For me, I know that's, that's just a natural thing because I listen to beautiful uplifting songs and pray and meditate all through the day and worship God. And Jesus tells us in the course that that God is actually deserving of worship, not by just praying words but just by our happiness and our joy is a worship to God because God created us as happiness and joy. And we're happy. We're worshiping God isn't that wonderful. It doesn't take a particular form. You don't have to, you know, use rituals. If they don't have any meaning for you but just your state of mind your attitude is the worship. So Francis we've had a nice chat this morning and yeah there's been some beautiful ideas that have been coming to us. We want to start it off and just share what you're feeling. Even this morning we were talking about just the new direction that came in for us because some of you have been following us for a while, started to notice that we're kind of started to embrace the different symbols of the Bible and the Christian symbols on top of the course. But this is just just reminding me this morning that this is just one of the many many many steps that the Spirit is guiding us along this journey to a total awakening and remembrance. And we don't really know how this journey going to go. But once we give our whole heart and our whole mind to say, you know, of ourselves we can do nothing but of God everything is possible. And we do not know we will step back and but follow, then this kind of directions comes in. And we don't really know what what it what it does what it means but inexperience it gives a direct experience because you might direct experience. It opens my heart and expands my awareness is beyond the words beyond something that I can put my finger on say what does it what did it. And it's just this constant expand expansion in trust in faith and in realizing while all symbols are used by spirit by Christ to guide me into this direct experience to realize I am living in Christ this is my life. This is going to be forever guided to expand forever guided in this everlasting ever expanding happiness and joy that just keeps growing. And in that, I feel so much hope, because you really realize you don't need to do anything you don't need to know anything. And we can just give all our trust and faith to this momentary guidance that keeps flooding to our awareness. It's like a broadcast going on the spirit is there broadcasting directions receive receive and follow me and be happy. And I just, you know, when I was talking to David about this is just what's happening right now but it's so indicative of this journey. You know, when we start this journey, we seem to have our own individual lives. And within our individual lives there's sets of problems sets of difficulties sets of personality characteristics that just not good enough or this and that. But Jesus and the spirit just there is a plan. That's really what it is there is a plan for us so loving and says you know doesn't matter about your perspective of your life and your problems. I'm going to wash all of them away. I'm going to wash all of my way day by day this is my plan for you. And that's why I just feel so grateful that we are all joined we're all called in this we're we're sharing this plan, it must be that because we're here together. This is our plan. That's given by God. It's like that thing from the Star Trek beam me up Scotty it's like we're just saying beam me up God, and you don't really have to know the specifics of how that beaming up will occur. In fact, it's better that you don't. If you, if you have any plans and ideas for the beaming that then they will get in the way, because those plans and ideas always come from the past, and, and Jesus says in the course, you know God will take the final step. In other words, all you can do is make ready your mind by listening and following the Holy Spirit. And, and there's so many great examples of those that have just been totally taken over by God. And it's quite an amazing thing and it's quite sparkly to tomorrow. I will be showing a movie that is going to be about a man who's kind of a he's a staunch atheist but he has a very brilliant mind he's read all the classics. He's very sharp. He's witty. He's, he's everything that you would want out of a very sharp mind and then, and then progressively, God comes in and takes over his mind. Eventually, he realizes he wanted his own individual soul. And even that has to go. You can't even have your own individual soul. You know you have to, you have to give way to the great beam up beam me up the great merge, the great of myself I am nothing but a view of Christ I am everything, because Christ is our, our identity. So, Francis and I were talking and there was just so many great saints that were coming to mind today I was thinking of St Francis and now he, in his simple way just surrendered into the great merge. I was thinking of yoga Nanda who, who dearly love Jesus and who just surrendered into the great merge. I was thinking of Thomas Merton, who, you know, was a monk for years went through all kinds of as a playboy in France and then he tried to be a Franciscan and they kicked him out of the Franciscans. And then he found another group the trap is in Kentucky and then yielded into the great merge with God. That's where it all ends. And that's where it begins that's where the alpha and the omega are the same. I think what we'd like to do is is talk about our experiences and letting go. And different ones have written in questions about stress related to particular situations or the stress of trying to hang on to a personality self a little me, a mini me. I've talked about the stress that comes up in in relationships are just dealing with things on earth. And this weekend is about really merging in the mystical heart of Christ, just by letting go of of control. Instead of believing you have control over your body over your personality self control over your days control over your future. Things are all quite stressful. But when you let go, and you say I really don't know what anything's for and I, and I just trust so much in you Jesus to guide me and direct me. You feel a peace, come over your heart a peace washes over yourself, and you think, oh my gosh that was it. It's all in the surrender. Francis and I were also talking today about the main teaching from a course of miracles if you had to squeeze it down and summarize it. It's that you have to bring illusions to the truth. You cannot bring the truth into the illusion. Many religions, philosophies, educational systems and so on and so forth have have tried to bring the truth into the illusion. And what Jesus is teaching us is that's just a delay maneuver that's like a fancy ego maneuver for trying to keep the light and trying to light up illusions. But the meaning of illusion is nothingness. It's unreal. You can't bring light to something that has no reality, but you can bring your beliefs in yourself concept in the world and everything you believe about time and space you can bring that to the light, and they will happily disappear. And that's been our journey. Francis, you know, it's I know is we've taken the steps of faith. Things have fallen away. That seemed like responsibilities that seemed like heavy expectations that seemed like shoulds and obtuse in terms of what you're supposed to do to be a good person. Those things had to be lifted up and dispelled. And that's kind of been our journey. That's the way it's gone for us. Yeah. You know, I actually recently listened to this, this guy who had a near death experience, I think he is even your friend, David Howard storm. Yeah, and he said this one thing that was very striking. He said when he was having a conversation with Jesus. In the other realm, he was debating with Jesus how he, he, the love each other doesn't work here because people are so mean and people are are so feisty and it's not going to work. And Jesus was back and forth with him for a while. In the end, Jesus said, this is God's plan. And that shut him down completely. He just like, okay, if this is God's plan, what, what am I to say that it's not going to work. But I was very striking for me because I was also thinking, you know, truly, God has a plan. And we are here just to yield to surrender to that and I look at my own life and a lot of the people in the community that's truly all that we really did to give us permission to surrender to that which is actually inevitable. It's not a keep fighting and kicking and trying to make it work in this world and trying to establish something which, which we all came to try to do. At some point when we find some kind of inner spark that feels so different than we just said, okay, then this feels actually much more easy and relaxing. And then I feel like looking at this journey, we are letting go of so much that we invested in this world, but isn't really letting go in terms of our own effort. There isn't in no, no point on this journey that it works to let go of something with value. And over and over again is again, God has a plan, and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we just, if we trust the guidance and dare to follow it, then our joy grows, our heart opens. And we went into this expanded state of mind where the other things just seems to be attractive. That's the voluntary letting go that always happens. So this journey is really not so much about letting go, but about more about gaining what is truly valuable, gaining what is truly valuable by following that which is truly valuable for us in our heart, following God's plan. And that is very, very practical, very, very real and experiential for us on this journey. So that's the good news, really. It's very, very practical. Jesus is a good example of that. You know, from the Bible, we have a general idea that he seemed to grow up in this world like all of us, and he seemed to have a vocation of being a carpenter. And then suddenly the whole story of Jesus growing up and being being a carpenter started to be eclipsed when he started to call apostles and just say, follow me. You know, that even in this world today, over 2000 years later, if somebody would come up to you on the street, for example, and say, follow me, you probably would just look at them with the strangest thing like bug off. What are you saying to me? What do you even mean? But actually he did that, and only from the presence of the Christ can you look into people's eyes and go follow me. And that's the extent of what he said to them at the beginning, just follow me. And yet he suddenly was speaking before Abraham was I am and I and the Father are one. And when you hear him speak, you think, oh my gosh, that is not a person anymore. That sounds like a divine being that is absolutely certain of who is true, who is real, absolutely certain of God and of the Christ identity. So I think when we look at diving in, like Francis is saying, it shows itself, the spirit of the Lord shows itself, the spirit of love and light shows itself. It takes over your personality. It takes over your personal world. It takes over everything in the most glorious way with humor, with joy, with love, with laughter. It basically takes over. It takes back what is always true. When we say serving God's plan, we're basically saying serving God's will, and God's will is for perfect happiness. So it simply means as you go through your day, if you're not perfectly and supremely happy all throughout the day, then that whatever is a rising awareness or consciousness is showing you that you don't believe in God's will, because God's will is for perfect happiness. If you're not happy, then there you go. You've got something to surrender into. You can just say humbly, oops, not happy there. Looks like I need to just pray for your will. Show me your will. Show me the thing that's most important. And that's really, really what we want. So I feel like another way of looking at that is Jesus summarizes his course. He says your sole responsibility is to accept the atonement for himself. And basically, what that means is what does atonement mean? Jesus says at one point, he says, a total escape from the past and a complete lack of interest in the future. Doesn't that sound delicious? A total escape from the past and a complete lack of interest in the future. In that state, you are fully present to yourself and to all your brothers and sisters. And in that state, that is where you finally can rest. That's the state of merge. That's the state of present moment awareness that has taken over everything. And you're left with a big smile on your face. You're not concerned about anything, but you're just left with a big smile on your face. So to me, that's the ultimate of bringing illusions to the truth.