Truth Makes Us Free – Even in Prison
By Sebastian Blaksley
I have had the unthinkable experience of having to go to two penitentiary institutions in Buenos Aires in order to visit some friends and family. I go weekly. At the beginning it was a shock. The prison system was so far from my thoughts that it practically did not exist, even though in the past I had participated in pastoral service to prisons in the parish where I lived.
To perform a pastoral activity to prisoners is one thing; but it is very different to see friends and family members living through the prison experience, with all its stigmatization and deprivation of freedom.
When life brought me the experience of having incarcerated relatives, I immediately thought: How can I transform this experience of apparent pain into Light? What does Jesus tell me to do? How can I be the incarnate Love of Christ in form in this situation—which for me was extreme?
The first day I went to visit them, I saw clearly that love must be shared at all times and places. Love cannot exclude anything. So I organized myself and made the long formalities necessary to present to the authorities a project of weekly meetings and workshops within the Ezeiza Penitentiary, a federal prison, the largest in Argentina. In the last week of August the project was approved unanimously, even enthusiastically.
So I started going to Ezeiza every week, conducting meetings and workshops with prisoners together with their families. The experience was so enlightening and healing that it is difficult to express in words the joy of sharing the Love of God with those who are so open, so needing to receive. Soon I was asked by the authorities to conduct the same program in another Argentinian prison.
What to say to a group of prisoners? That was the question I asked myself while organizing for the first meeting. And the answer was clear. Create the new by letting the past go forever. Open up to be the new Self that we truly are. Then the quote from ACOL came to mind:
Your past has nothing to do with the truth about who you are, except insofar as it has helped you, or not, to remember who you are. C:31.26
So on this basis we held the first meeting and we will continue along these lines, reading and sharing together from Un Curso de Amor, the Spanish edition of ACOL. All this to help each other to remember: Letting go of the past entirely. Letting it go never to return. And at the same time embracing the new Being that we always are eternally, newly-loved and in Love.
And in this way we begin to experience the truth that makes us free—even in prison. What truth? The truth about who we really are, that is, God. For as we know from Lesson 110 of ACIM, beyond any theory or belief, we are and always will be as God created us.
It is incredible how everything flows with peace and harmony whenever I go to facilitate the prison groups. Yesterday several in the group had difficult legal situations. The father of one of them had died and although the prisoner could have gone to the funeral, he decided not to go to avoid media exposure because he is well known to the public. He felt guilty and angry. We had a great session to heal and leave everything behind.
Yesterday we focused on the theme of emotions and the topic of Day 8 in ACOL, “Accept the Present.” The truth we are trying to make real in our lives is to accept everything that comes and to embrace it as a gift from Heaven. Easy to say! And often difficult to accept for minds that are still in the process of reuniting with the heart.
Because I am working with men, they often have difficulty expressing feelings. We are focused on that. Acceptance of feelings is essential in these conditions, as it is in everything.
They were so happy and grateful. I always come back from the prison with deep feelings of love, compassion and gratitude, in a condition of no judgment, great depth, and love.
I feel the Angels are present every Wednesday when I go to carry out the love of Christ among the prisoners. The eyes of the prisoners and their families express a great need for love. And a great feeling of gratitude. It is amazing how the eyes of those who implore love can embrace the soul.
Everything is light in those sessions. Everything is divine grace. It is impossible to express all the goodness that is done in this work. A song to God sounds in my heart every time I come back from the prison groups. A song that says: How could we pay You, dear God, for all the good you have done for us?
We are one heart. We are one mind. Joined in wholeheartedness we are the heaven of the world. C:I.11
Sebastian Blaksley, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was born to a prominent family. Although many opportunities were available to him, he wanted to be a monk. That not being allowed, he got a PhD in international business and communications, and lived in the US for 11 years, as well as in London, Shanghai, and elsewhere. He then established his own company. In 2011 he discovered ACIM. In 2016 he discovered ACOL. Soon thereafter he left the business world behind and created the nonprofit Fundacion Un Curso de Amor, the organization publishing the Spanish edition of ACOL. Readers may also appreciate the miracle story of how Sebastian discovered ACOL, his reflections on being loved, and his “song of gratitude.”
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Love Is the Healing
(Haiku from the Heart)
By Rick Carlson
who needs a potion?
they say Love is an ocean
so immerse yourself
the distant city
January hermitage
chopping wood, fasting
Wisconsin winter
up the hill the young wolves yelp
in this peaceful place
the candles flicker
spirit-breath in the chapel
Russian icons dance
blue flame turns yellow
molten red dancing on top
woodstove combustion
warm familiar house
conversation rolls around
stories of rebirth
one ready to die
is truly ready to live
as Love eternal
Rick Carlson, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has studied ACIM since 1983 and ACOL since 2006. He recently retired from a career as a personal attendant to disabled adults. The poems above were taken from his collection entitled “Love is the Healing” where he says, “This poet is simply one of Love’s messengers. So, dear reader, are you. Poetry is a mirror that doesn’t break if it’s dropped once in a while.” Rick has been an amateur poet since he was a teenager.
Please convey greeting of gratitude to Rev. Sebastian Blaksley from a fellow prison minster, having worked 24 year in Sing Sing prison in New York, a Presbyterian Minister and a student of the Course in Miracles. Also serving as the UN representative for the International Prison Chaplains Association (IPCA).
I would be interested dialogue with Mr. Blaksley.
See also below website for RTA where I serve as co-founding board member.
Peace
Hans
Dearest Hans,
Thanks for your words. I will contact you right away. Sharing who we are in Christ is a true blessing.
with Love,
Sebastian
Dear Hans,
I would also be interested dialogue with you.
Love,
Sebastian Blaksley
Sebastian
I loved reading this and your work is so needed in prisons
You are such a shining light in our world
An inspiration
Thank you
Louise
Dear Lou,
Your heart is open to inspiration. We are simply channels. So thanks for being open to the flow of divine love. We need inspired heart to live in this world with our human spirit inspired by love, in order for Heaven to come to Earth.
Have a great year ahead.
Love,
Sebastian
ThankYou for your beautiful Livingness of Love Sebastian and sharing the new with us.
Dear Annie,
I am sorry for the late response. I would like to thank you for taking time to acknowledge and for being open to see the new.
with Love,
Sebastian
God in action through His human appearance as Sebastian. And through His appearances as the prisoners.
(I used the word “Charity” in the sense of God giving Himself to those who did not have Him yet, as they did not exist yet before He created them. And even as human souls they did not have Him yet in the sense of enjoying Him. Until He remembered in them He is God, and thus came to His life and Self again, but now also in hem, all to their eternal divine benefit.
God is our Identity, the “them” this humanity as whom He is reading this now.)
Dear Lodewijk Langeweg
Thanks for reminding us that we are Christ. You honor me, saying the truth that you said, because Jesus, and also Mary, are my all in all. You also honor our humanity by telling us the sacred meaning of what we are in truth.
I strongly believe that the meaning of heaven is to be like Jesus and Mary in our heart. In other words, to become one with their heart. That is, for me, the meaning of True Oneness. Loving like them is the heaven of my soul, and the deepest longing of my heart.
with Love,
Sebastian
Wonderful and inspiring article. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Richard for taking time to acknowledge.
With Love,
Sebastian
The historical Jesus for thousands of years has no longer been flesh. so this is about us now, our flesh or humanity really being the flesh or humanity of God; our human appearance being His:
“He Who in the beginning created everything by His almighty power, today comes to save us by His flesh. The creation was the first miraculous work of His power, the salvation was the second miracle of His love.”
~St. Augustine
Thus it is Who we really are that saves us from whom we but seemed to be, do, and have done.
A miracle is not only seeing that what we thought the other did to us never happened, but also that what the other did to someone else never happened. As well as seeing that what we seemed to have done to another never happened either.
It is beginning to see things with the eyes of Christ.
For starters in this case, as we are all immortal divine souls -or spirits- His extensions of God, one with Him who is also immortal, because His love is, no one has ever killed anyone.
The mere idea that God who is infinitely great love would ever allow anyone to die is blasphemous.
Even though God was willing to experience being moral by taking on our human appearance. Thus “dying” in the sense of no longer experiencing being Himself anymore but instead a mere mortal human.
Yet that was to to bring us up to Him and His life, as it is God reading this now in what seems to be but your human appearance, but which is really God’s. It is God experiencing being you. You are God experiencing being a human. After you gave your divine life for this human. To begin with. And this goes for everyone.
It takes tremendous courage and love to come to this world to cooperate in God’s plan for salvation, for at first is is like a constant dying, a crucifixion, compared to where we came from. And yet here we are, entirely to the benefit of the thus created human souls. That also they would know and enjoy that as Who they are they are infinitely great, courageous, intelligent, wise, creative, pure altruistic Charity.
That is You Who are reading this now in your human disguise.
Much love indeed.
Thank you for sharing this most beautiful and inspiring story.
Dear Joy
Thanks for taking time to express your gratitude. By doing this, you bring a new light to the world.
I truly thank you.
I hope we all remember that, in order to bring Heaven to the Earth, we do not need to do great things, but small things with a great love.
With Love,
Sebastian
I really enjoyed the prison article by Sebastian Blaksley, thank you. It reminds me that prisons are the form of school that one makes of them, and that physical prisons are just external symbols of any prison I can make in my mind, rather than a school for awakening.
Dear Kathryn
Thanks for your words. You couldn’t have said it in a better way.
I hope we can set our spirit free of everything that makes us living in a limited reality that limit our capability of giving and receiving love.
I am sure that setting us free of everything is the way of being happiness. And you are right, we have harder prisons in our minds than the physical ones. Two of them are “The lack of forgiveness” and “the habit judging”
with Love,
Sebastian
Sebastian’s testimony is absolutely Soul-stirring and powerful. I too was led to A Course In Miracles while I was in Germany. It was and is a life changing Miracle in my life of miracles. I was also led to A Course In Love and I will be forever grateful. God Bless All of You and thanks again Sebastian for following your heart. We are all richer for that.
Dear David,
You are so kind for taking time to share your gratitude and acknowledgement. While reading your words I could listen to the voice of Christ whispering in my ears saying: This is a perfect example of “Do small works with great love”.
That means that love that you expressed by taking time to acknowledge and encourage people that are sincerely looking for different ways of spreading divine love is an act of pure love.
We need people in this world that take time to express gratitude and acknowledge others.
Thanks for sharing the beauty of your heart.
with Love
Sebastian
I also spent three years doing jail chaplaincy in Monterey (CA) County Jail. I was summoned by one man who was awaiting trial for murder. His family found my Spirit of Wholeness Ministry website. I was not initially inclined to visit, but upon asking the Holy Spirit I was prompted to go in – with the guidance of the resident chaplain.
After an initial visit as a Religious Science Minister I obtained an agreement from the inmate to study A Course in Miracles on a weekly basis, then I would visit – often for an hour or more. I learned a great deal about the human condition and developed great compassion for those men who were living incarcerated, as well as staff who spent their days in that environment.
Before each entry I would pray to Holy Spirit to guide my every thought. word and deed and be a becon of light to everyone I encountered. Even when difficulties arose I was able to model forgiveness and everyone left lighter and more fulfilled than before.
I am still in communication with two men I taught and they are effusive in gratitude for the personal attention given, unconditional love and acceptance, and lessons learned, which they seem to be applying to this date.
To quote from a letter dated 12-17-18 “To heal people is a part of who you are and your purpose. I can’t believe you are (my age).I froze you in my mind. I would have been in isolatoion or conflict with another brother or a guard, then you would appear with your book in hand and that gentle smile. You would look incredible when you came to see me. You’re shinging, Dia! I just never told you because of the environment….I am just done with the low prison mindset. I’ve matured beyond the childishness of this place. I feel alot older (at age 24) than most of the people around me. I am really determined to make it home and live a successful life. I struggle (with aggression) but continue to conquor that lower self, like you said “Equality changes perception completely.”
Rev. Dr. Dia Lynn,
Thanks for taking time to share your experience.
You made me remember what Virgin Mary said to me once, “You will never know – in this world – how much love you have shared and how deep has been the trasnformation of a soul, due to a simple smile full of love offerd to a brother or a sisters. But in heaven, everything will be known. And you will see all the love shared and the souls that were transformed into light due to the holiness of your heart”
These words are for you today. If Virgin Mary said that about a simple smile full of love, can you imagine what a great transformation would occurred due to a visit program like the one you mentioned?
Thanks for making this a better world.
with Love,
Sebastian
“Whether this experience makes me unhappy or happy, suffering my spiritual crucifixion and death which is experiencing being but a human, or enjoying my resurrection and life in union with my Father, also this was I beforehand willing to experience out of Charity for this soul as whom I remember this now.”
Dear Lodewijk
Thanks for your words and for sharing your light. Your note makes me feel the embrace of universal love. I hope we can all understand that we are able to create Heaven everywhere we are, everytime we wish.
with Love,
Sebastian
Dear Lodewijk ,
I would be interested to contact you. Let me know if it is possible for you.
Thanks.
with Love,
Sebastian Blaksley