Memory can relate to ideas as well as events. An example we use in the book is the “idea” of the United States. “The “idea” of the United States of America,” Mary says, “is one that exists as historical ‘memory,’ a memory of freedom.” We speak of the “event of memory” and that Memory and love’s longing go together.
Steve Gilbert, an ACOL reader turned friend, was one of the sparks that found me realizing that we don’t generally associate memory with “The New.” He was telling me that he’d read my books Creation of the New, The Given Self, and A Course of Love together … several times, and of the impact he felt from doing so. I was so surprised and pleased that I went back and read the two short ones: Creation of the New and The Given Self and then scanned ACOL.
Doing this was an event, an event of memory. We all have events of memory.
I’d not fully realized how consistent the themes of my work have been. “The New,” that Holy Mary brings so much to the forefront, has been a passion in me ever since Jesus announced the “Treatise on the New.” (2000) He told me, “You have to be ‘in the new’ to receive A Treatise on the New.” (I’ve found, more than a few times, that what Jesus announces, he sets in motion.) I wrote the mystical Creation of the New, in 2007. It’s still a major theme in my writing with Holy Mary.
Here are a few examples of the way “the new” is sprinkled throughout ACOL:
The purging of old beliefs frees space for the new. It allows your form to reflect what and who you are now in terms that coincide with the “you” whom you have always been. C: 23.22
The art of thought invites the experience of the new thought system by being willing to replace the old with the new. T1:5.13
As the old is undone, a vacuum is not created. The new is created. You are in the process of unmaking what you have made. The old structure is coming down so that the new, what might be likened to a building with no frame, can rise. What is happening now is happening in unison. As the old goes, the new arrives. … The old is replaced by the new simultaneously. T2: 4.15-17
If you but let go the old, and with it the patterns of behavior caused by fear, the new will reveal to you all that you would keep and all that you would leave behind. T3:14.8
And then he gave us a whole Treatise on the New!
“I am calling you to the new. I am calling you to transform.” T4:4.12
… [A]ccept your new roles as creators of the new – creators of the future. T4:11.2
He speaks of “the birth of the new” in The Dialogues”
Thus we enter the ending stage of what can be realized through fulfillment of the way of Jesus and the beginning of the fulfillment of the way of Mary. This ending stage of the fulfillment of the way of Jesus is the stage of interaction with the world, the time of miracles, the death of the old way and the birth of the new. Day:17.13
I was guided by Christ to read the Given Self shortly after finishing Memoria. It was part of the process of transformation. As I accepted the past it could be transformed to the memory I displaced. As I feel what I reacted against with Mirari there is a transformation within. It is Given. The physical transforms too as an effect of acceptance. The body, the world are changing as I change. I become clearer. More open trusting with every passing moment.
A couple weeks ago after finishing the Given Self Christ guided me to Creation of the New. I don’t really remember what the books were about. But the transformation, Creation of the New IS HAPPENING constantly. ACIM, ACOL and the rest all dovetailing perfectly together. When it is helpful I am reminded of the lesson unfolding in experience, the unlearning, the acceptance, the gift, the gift that each is, two becoming one, and the transformation deepens.
Thank you dear Mari. I love that you call this the Expanding Events of Memory. Yes! Everything everywhere all at once. Past present and yet to come … it all feels so HERE now! Especially the New! As this from MEMORIA seems to affirm and remind us –
“Memory also includes what has not yet occurred but is palpable and present within, and imaginal memories of what could be.” (p37)
loving you 🌺