By Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
December 28, 2018
It’s a brand new, baby year and a great time to set your intentions. I enjoy setting intentions more so than resolutions, especially this year. I’m very blessed to find myself quite satisfied with my life and look forward to a year of deepening, up-leveling, and shining in every area, including in my relationships, health, finances, spiritual practice, vocation, and personal growth. At the beginning of every year I choose a word or two as my theme, and this year the words that kept arising for me were spiritual magnificence.
Your spiritual magnificence is your very essence. It is the place within you that has never been hurt or harmed. It is that which knows, and it knows that it knows. It’s your highest and best self; your greatness, brilliance, and opulent splendor. It’s the kind and generous, trusting, believing, prosperous, grateful, wise, beneficial presence on this planet that is you. It knows what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and it does it.
In everything you do you’re either operating from your spiritual magnificence, or your unhealed past. Step back and observe the areas in your life where you have prevented yourself from going for the gusto due to limited thinking or feelings of inadequacy. Those are examples of operating from your unhealed past. At the radiant core of your being, you are more than enough, stronger than you think, and more magnificent than you can imagine. It’s time to shine.
Your spiritual magnificence is not something you need to get, rather, it is something you awaken to. It is the inherent nature of who you are. It sometimes appears to get covered up or tarnished for a variety of reasons as we move through life experiences.
I’m reminded of a silver angel ornament which I misplaced and found stored in a box of flat garden rocks, set aside to be painted and used as gratitude stones. I was quite dismayed when I discovered my once brilliant and shiny angel in this box, now tarnished around the edges and across the entire span of one of its beautiful wings. It only took about five minutes with some aluminum foil, baking soda, hot water, and a soft cloth to reveal its brilliant magnificence once again.
Similar to the angel, you and I sometimes allow our spiritual magnificence to become tarnished or hidden by life experiences. We’re called to remember that our spiritual magnificence is always right here, ready and waiting to be revealed once again; ready to shine. Don’t allow the tarnishes of life to cause you to believe you will not shine again. You are destined for greatness.
Having a full realization of Spirit within you connects you to your spiritual magnificence. Turn to Spirit, even when you don’t feel like it.
You are as God created you: in the light, in the love, in the glory. Your spiritual magnificence awaits you. Now shine!
And so it is.
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
December 21, 2018
Today at approximately 2:23 PM PST, the Winter Solstice will occur. This is the precise moment when the North Pole is the farthest away from the Sun. It’s the first day of Winter which brings the least amount of daylight, and the greatest amount of darkness. The seasons change as our planetary placement in relation to our guiding star, the Sun, alters.
I love when the seasons change, as it’s a beautiful reminder of something greater happening. It’s an opportunity to think beyond the regular day-to-day routines and contemplate the vastness of this extraordinary thing called life.
One of the greater things happening is that we live on a planet within a Solar System within a galaxy which is travelling at 1.3 million miles per hour through the Universe; all while gravity holds us in place. The maximum speed limit on most California highways is 65 miles per hour. I can’t wrap my mind around how fast 1.3 million miles per hour is, can you?
The gravitational pull of the Sun holds the Earth and the other seven planets of our Solar System in its orbit, as it orbits the Milky Way Galaxy. Now that you’ve expanded your mind in contemplation of the cosmos, consider what you’re orbiting in your life.
We orbit our most deeply held beliefs and live out our lives as the result of what we believe about ourselves, our relationship to God and others, and life itself. Your beliefs, whether inherited or consciously installed by you, dictate the context in which you live. You have the power within you to change your beliefs at any time. You can start right now by choosing to consciously believe that you are the radiant light of love. That this light illumines every cell of your body and shines out from you. Shining your light brings loving joy to you, everyone around you, and ripples out into the world.
Every mystic has experienced illumination as a flood of light in moments of deep realization of Spiritual Truth. You experience a flash of illumination when inspiration hits and suddenly
the path before you is seen clearly. You also experience a flash of light when you have an aha moment or a spiritual awareness which expands your mind. It is an experience of ultimate Truth. All that you are is God and God is all of us and more. Yes, God is all that and a bag of chips. Remembering this illumines my mind and brightens my heart.
As you enter the Winter Season, remember, you can return to this truth: the light is within you. It always has been and always will be. No matter how long a room was dark, when the light enters, the room is illuminated. Allow yourself to experience this luminous light of Truth. Let it brighten your heart with love and beam out radiantly to others with a smile or a kind
gesture.
And so it is.
Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
December 14, 2018
Do you begin your day with conviction? Are you convinced that you were made in the image and likeness of God, and that it resides at the very center of your being? The Kingdom of God is within you. It is your essence, your life. It’s up to you to convince yourself that there is an eternal wellspring of good pouring forth into your life experience, and there’s plenty to go around.
The dictionary defines the word conviction as a firmly held belief or opinion. To have spiritual conviction is to have a firm belief in the God of your understanding. I personally believe in a loving, inclusive, beneficent God, permeating everything.
Having a strong spiritual conviction fills my heart with joy and confidence. Moving through my day, knowing that the Universe is conspiring for my highest and best good reminds me of how I felt on Christmas eve as a child. I couldn’t wait to open presents the next day and to witness others opening theirs. I was anticipating my good, wrapped up with a nice big bow, waiting for me patiently, under a mighty and magnificent tree.
What would it be like to move through your day anticipating your good? The gifts of God don’t always come wrapped in pretty paper with an extraordinary bow on top. The eternal gifts of love, connection, generosity, joy, forgiveness, prosperity, and more, are always available. You don’t have to order them in advance to be sure they arrive on time, as they are always right here within you.
Conviction is also defined as the state of being convinced. If you find yourself being more convinced by thoughts of fear than those of goodness, you’re not alone. Practice consciously seeking the good news, the good word, the uplifting, heartwarming stories of love and the goodness of humankind and you'll find more of the same. You always get what you’re looking for; what you’re paying attention to or focusing upon. I’m convinced this is true, as I have proven it in my own life.
You strengthen your spiritual conviction every time you choose the Kingdom of Heaven. When you shift your focus from fear to love, choose conviction over doubt, focus on joy over
anger, place your attention on forgiveness instead of resentment, you become stronger in your faith and conviction.
Now you’re moving through the world with spiritual conviction and you’re unstoppable. You know. And you know that you know. If you have experienced even a small glimpse of the
Kingdom of Heaven, contemplate that experience and what it was like as often as possible. This will expand its presence in your life and you’ll begin to see a whole new world open for
you.
You can practice using conviction to manifest something in your life which you would absolutely love. Know that it is so; and know that you know. Be convinced that it will be revealed to you, and it must!
And so it is.
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
December 7, 2018
A mustard seed is a teeny, tiny seed, about 2 millimeters in diameter. Those little seeds turn into waist-high mustard plants and cover a lot of land. Even if your faith is as tiny as the little mustard seed, it is more than enough. Look at the great expanse of beauty produced by these tiny little seeds. I’ll never forget the first time I saw a field of these incredibly beautiful mustard flowers. They seemed to go on forever and gave me a sense of the infinite presence of love, which permeates all of life.
Whatever you choose to have faith in is perfect and right for you. Whether you call it Allah, Atman, Brahman, Buddha, Divine, Eternity, the Force, God, Jesus, Mohammed, the Presence, Source Energy, Spirit, or otherwise. I choose to call it God and that works for me. It is the Invisible Presence, the Thing Itself, common to all, in and through all things, and It’s nature is love.
The dictionary defines faith as complete trust or confidence in something or someone. Ernest Holmes wrote, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” I believe faith is a mental attitude embodied to such degree that the mind can no longer deny it. We all have this mental attitude of faith about many things without even realizing it.
You have faith that the invisible law of gravity will work when you get out of bed. You don’t have to pray about it or will it to be. You just get out of bed and stand right up.
You get in the shower and turn on the water, expecting to control the temperature, adjust the flow to your liking, and keep a steady stream going until you’re complete.
When you go out to your vehicle in the morning to drive to work, school, or wherever you’re going, you have faith that your vehicle will start right up and allow you to get to your destination on time. I’ve never walked out to my vehicle and thought, gosh I sure hope my car starts today. It just starts, like it always does. I’m so grateful!
You have faith that the sun will rise and set daily, that your coffee maker and toaster will work as expected. The list goes on and on.
Even if you have the tiniest suspicion that something is working for your highest good, that the Universe just might possibly be conspiring for your magnificence, that is enough to have it
be revealed to you.
As you move through your day, you’re given many opportunities to choose between fear or faith. I invite you to choose faith instead. Have faith that everything is unfolding exactly as it should. Remember, you live, move, and have your being in a Universe that is working for you.
It doesn’t matter how big your faith is, it matters that you have it.
And so it is.