Seasonal Article

This page contains an article written by Ann Ree Colton and/or Jonathan Murro. These articles will be changed periodically.

Ash Wednesday Comments
by Ann Ree Colton

Beloved, this morning and afternoon is a very sacred time because it is the beginning of our Lenten devotion and initiations; and also expanding the territories of our range of healing, that we might heal and bless all souls in this world. And in the community of God-sent ones who come into this world, we pray that we shall render service wherever we find ourselves, in whatever station, whatever point of light, whatever polarity, whatever situation.

We are speaking today especially on simplifying and glorifying, which is the spiritual life. There is no other way but to release, to drop, to make a leap, and to come out of the debris choking and stifling the spiritual life. This is a time now in which initiates in this world are greatly assisted by Omnipresence, that they may do their perfect work.

We are working now that we might send into the Earth the love and blessings, but especially with emphasis upon our own repentance of things which stand in the way of our walking in the Path. We must remember that this is the day of intense dedication, intense consecration, thereby receiving sanctification.

Today, we are uniting with the continents, the nations. We are blending with all religions. We are knowing there is no separateness unless we think it is so. We know there is a total love-body which watches over this Earth, and we are making union with it. We place our faults, our guilts, our sorrows, our unclarified griefs on the Altar of God as offerings to Him, that our ignorance may be dissipated, disintegrated and transenergized into spiritual power and light.

Let us realize today as we make the affirmations of repentance on this Altar that we are dropping the past, that it has no power over us unless we give it power, and that it can be disintegrated by light, by love; and that we can have the Guiding Principle to come into our lives to guide us. Let us pray for the Guiding Principle.

Our repentance today is the top-of-the-mountain experience. We have walked the pathways to the crest; we are looking on the overlook and seeing all of these things through which we have learned and stumbled. We all have been awkward disciples. None of us is absent from sin and error. We all have erred because we did not know. We have denied the Light because we wanted to dwell in our own light. We have found that our own light is certainly not happy, that it is bitter, and that it turns back on us and becomes our own enemy in times of wanting peace.

Today as we take the ashes and make our consecration, let us remember that repentance is a very deep, powerful word and that it is the first word you have offered to you as you enter the path.

Repent. Repent. Repent. This is why penance will be paid according to your Recording Angel -- the finding how you will pay. Restitution will be made according to time and placement, according to your karmic destiny as well as according to your spiritual destiny. Thus, we are always in the state of restitution when we understand the True Law beyond regret. Regret is not repentance. Regret is still holding on to the karma in our thoughts, still being fascinated with why we did a particular thing. Now we are longing and yearning for the peace that comes from being unburdened. But we do not become unburdened, beloved ones, but to stand single and alone by ourselves and to lavish ourselves in sensuality. To be unburdened means that we must take up the burdens of others; we must help in this world; we must serve; we must heal; we must minister. We are asking to be ministers, not to be ministered to - this is the Ministry of Niscience.

Take unto yourself the ashes with a rearranged heart -- a heart with a full strength of love.

The white light in my hands

Is purifying,

Cleansing the incurables

In gestures of love

And tenderness.

My hands are healers.

The mighty power of God in me

Is healing through my hands.