Question

How can I remain true to the Course, and still pray with others for help with ego-based problems?


Q: I came to learn about A Course in Miracles through my church. About the same time that I was learning the Course's principles I was also making a commitment to be a Chaplain for my church. In my capacity as a chaplain I am to pray with congregants about issues that they request prayer about. Many of the requests I receive are ego-based problems. Knowing that the ego is an illusion makes it difficult for me to pray with others from an honest place. Is this a typical experience for people that learn ACIM? It is my desire to help others. Through ACIM I know that the only true help that I can lend is to see things rightly. How can I still help, and possibly pray with others, and yet remain true to the Course's principles?


A: If the content in your mind is love, then you will not be in conflict, even though the theologies (the form) of these two systems differ. In other words, if you feel guided to be a Chaplain, and you feel that you can be truly helpful to others and yourself in this role, then you should follow that guidance. It takes a lot of practice to be able to minimize differences in form and concentrate primarily on the content in your mind, but if you can do that, you will realize that the greatest value in praying with others is the joining with them through sharing a common interest. The words do not matter, as the first section of The Song of Prayer pamphlet helps us understand.

The fact that the form of the prayer pertains to ego-based problems would not lead to conflict if you are clear within yourself about the purpose of your praying with your congregants -- that it is a means of expressing the love in your right mind. Early in the text Jesus explains that "the value of the Atonement does not lie in the manner in which it is expressed. In fact, if it is used truly, it will inevitably be expressed in whatever way is most helpful to the receiver. This means that a miracle, to attain its full efficacy, must be expressed in a language that the recipient can understand without fear. This does not necessarily mean that this is the highest level of communication of which he is capable. It does mean, however, that it is the highest level of communication of which he is capable now. The whole aim of the miracle is to raise the level of communication, not to lower it by increasing fear" (T.2.IV.5).

In his discussion of the characteristics of God’s teachers, Jesus defines honesty as "consistency" (M.4.II), another example of the primacy of content over form. Again, if you desire only to be loving, then the forms in which that love is expressed may conflict or be inconsistent with one another. But that would not matter. The ego would have us judge everything by form so that we would constantly reinforce our differences. Jesus is training us to get beyond our perception of form so that we would recognize that we all share the same interests, and ultimately that we are all same: the one Son of God. Thus, the role of Chaplain in your church would be a means of learning this, if you feel guided to take on that role.