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Gratitude as the catalyst of good fortune must not be overlooked by those seeking abundance in their lives, whereas ingratitude rooted in hardness of heart must be considered the enemy of joy, happiness, and the flow of the divine energy from God to man. Truly it is that openness of spirit aptly described in the phrase "leaping and praising God"1 which frees all men on the planetary body from harms and hatreds and creates a spirit of regeneration that animates the flame of thanksgiving throughout the pageant of the year.
In memory of the men and women the world around who throughout the ages have loved liberty more than life, it is my desire to create in the consciousness of each disciple of progressive Truth in this day and age the same victorious sense of gratitude these pilgrims of the Spirit once had and fortunately, I might add, have retained to the present moment.
The continuity of life, when the quality thereof is ascendant, provides for the gradual magnification of the beautiful purpose envisioned in the eye of God when He first created man in His own image and likeness.2 It is truly a chastisement of the spirit to devote one's energies to human foibles, to the sustaining of the frustration of human hurts and human irks. In God's name, I say, cut yourself and your loved ones free from your mortal opinions, whatever their source, and observe how your mind becomes unfettered, mounting into the blue to capture the thoughts of God!
There is a direct connection between what men do unto others and what others do unto them;3 therefore, you have no one to blame but yourself if you allow others to bind you with their opinions and their sympathies. We have seen in the karmic records of many that when they took decisive measures to reverse the trends produced by unwholesome influences, beauty replaced the ashes that had been manifesting in their lives.
All transmutation, beloved hearts, and all balancing of the Law is the fulfillment of the divine edict "Whom the Lord loveth - truly loveth - He chasteneth."4 The scourging of every son whom He receives is solely for the radiant perfectionment of the individual through the practical understanding of the eternal law "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."5 These words of the Master Jesus should be bound upon the heart and mind of modern disciples; for in the strange miasma of psychic probings and encounter groups and in the weavings of psychological dramas requiring the simultaneous absorption of unrelated data through the use of multi-media, youth and age are reinvolving themselves in the sludge of centuries and in the taffy pull of human deceit.
To be free, truly free, is to let the heart soar like a bird. The sky is one's abode, yet one can swoop down on pinions of Light to raise others in their moments of trial. The heavens need not be sought as a haven of aloofness, but as a dwelling place for those who would survey the world need, descend to lend a helping hand, and then ascend once again to bask in the golden sun of Christed illumination.
Men often lament unfortunate episodes of the historical past. They have not plotted on a graph the rise and fall of mankind's movements toward the Light. They have not taken into account the overall upward trend; nor have they reckoned with one factor of human experience - that the greatest lessons are sometimes learned from the greatest mistakes. Some believe that spiritually speaking the human race dwells in greater darkness today than it has in the past. While I do not believe this to be altogether true, I am certain that conditions in the world order have created an atmosphere of greater tension and temptation than at any other time in modern history. Thus, wherever the communication of evil is increased upon the planetary body, unless equal time is given to training in cosmic law and spiritual admonishment, goading man toward the recognition of perfection as a legitimate goal, he is bound to suffer from the epidemic of human folly that is sweeping the globe via the media.
However, I do not believe that it is necessary to classify mankind today as the purveyors of a subterranean culture. The current age can be one of great enlightenment, and in many areas it truly is; for we see in the achievements of modern technology the potential for communicating the progressive teachings of the Masters and revelations in natural as well as spiritual science. Therefore, we would challenge the authority of those entrenched human traditions which carry with them the aura of "dead men's bones,"6 of untransmuted records, and prevent the brotherly love of the cosmic Hierarchy from flowing to an expectant humanity, developing souls in godliness and in the recognition of things divine right in the midst of their mundane affairs.
A spiritual renaissance of true culture is imminent; and if it does not come to pass, it will be solely the result of mankind's attention to the banal and darkening concepts that have far too long held sway in the world of form. It is out of our desire to be of service to humanity in the cultivation of the Christ Flame that we seek to enlighten men concerning the integration of their consciousness with social patterns both good and bad and to show them how civilization has at times held them back spiritually even while it has propelled them forward materially.
The festive board of heaven offers an abundant fare for man's spiritual development; but man can partake of this cornucopia of fruit gathered from the Tree of Life only as he consumes his lusts, surrenders his attachments to human frolic and folly, and begins the serious business of eating the living Word of God. I have called the Word of God living because the Word of God is the Source, the mighty Fount from whence all Life did spring, and because it is the nature of the Word, conveying as it does the animating principle of Life, to bestow upon man the gifts of God born out of His Life-giving Spirit. When men accept the precepts of the Christ into the sacred cloisters of their lives, activating them in reverent thoughts and deeds, these precepts become once again the bread of the living Word, multiplied through the alchemy of service.
Yes, Thanksgiving 1971 should abound with joy and peace! It should echo through the chambers of men's hearts as the sound of gratitude, the praise that draws forth from God new hope both to the world and to the individual. Gratitude indeed! Gratitude as a mighty torrent of love that opens the floodgates of the heart, melts the frozen waters of the mind, and moves along the higher cadences of mankind's tender and compassionate feelings toward one another. Gratitude in action opens the way for the beautiful sense of God in action that can and ought to permeate the balance of the year as a circling bond of faith, hope, and charity that knows that the darkness will not win because the Light will.
The Christ beholds the raising of mankind's consciousness through the leaven of trust which God has placed within the soul. The Lord has vested man with a swaddling garment of pure Light and grace. Let us give thanks to God this day for all of His manifold blessings, and let us free a world enslaved by the bondages of former years. Let us see what a glorious splash we can make as the stone of the Law is thrown with greater force into the world pond!
For your victory and the victory of all mankind,
Hail, O mankind! I AM Michael, Prince of the Archangels! And I come to speak to you this day of The Watch of the Angels. I come to speak to you of the watch God has instituted because of mankind's vanity and because of mankind's failure to recognize the power of the infinite and living God. I tell you, then, this day of the beauty and perfection of inner spheres of Light.
From inner levels of Light and love, little children, even those sleeping in their cribs, are visited from time to time by a watch of angels, a procession of heavenly guardians that observe their goings and their comings and even midst the busy streets of life insist on bringing to mankind, even to those who are babes in Christ, the watchful attitude of loving care whereby beauty and perfection are breathed into their nostrils with each indrawing breath. Do you understand, O mankind, how this speaks of the infinite care and love of God for all men and for all women? I want you to understand now, as never before, the depth of the richness of the love and the wisdom of God in His high concerns for humanity. ...
Faith is indeed the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen as yet. We are concerned with the manifestation of faith as an active principle in mortal affairs, that individuals will see this loving care of God and will understand that which I am instituting this day. For I, Michael, proclaim in the name of the living God that effective this day and throughout this year and the Christmas season there shall be observed upon this planetary body a specific activity called The Watch of the Angels.
The descending Light from on high brings forth, then, upon this planet a special bouquet of cosmic concern to humanity. The angels shall watch - whether they are bidden or not by all mankind - because they have been invited by many of you. Answering, then, the call of the few, we shall bring grace unto the many and we shall enhance the quality of happiness upon earth this year. But it shall be a divine joy which shall be specifically captivated within cosmic worship and the cosmic understanding of the Grand Hall of Learning which is itself in our realm. The Grand Hall of Learning of which I speak is the school wherein mankind and the angels are trained in cosmic graces at inner levels. Whether this school shall function under this retreat or that retreat does not make any difference, for the retreats of The Great White Brotherhood are one in the purposes of the Divine.
Understand, then, how Light and love and beauty and the perception of divine qualities may become every man's forte in the days ahead. And rejoice. Let your hearts be filled with joy and enter into the joy of the Lord and the joy of the angels. Let the sense of freedom that we bring to you become a buoyancy in the mind, a buoyancy in the feelings, and a buoyancy throughout your entire being. Give glory unto the perception of God within you, the ability to perceive God, the ability to perceive the angels, the ability to recognize our reality.
Many of you from time to time, as you were children, entered into precarious physical predicaments where, if we had not watched over you, then, you see, your life could very easily have been forfeited. Some of you are familiar with the scene of the guardian angel. You understand how the children walking across the bridge perceived not the glory of their guardian angel; yet the guardian angel perceived them and was able to give them grace to pass safely over the dangers that lay ahead. ...
We come today in order to increase the quality of mankind's faith in our being, thus increasing their faith in themselves. For the reason that mankind do not actually recognize the quality of our being is that they do not recognize the luster of their own. ...
Each soul is precious unto God, and to each soul we send the gift of our faith. Let those who can accept it accept it. Let those who will reject it reject it. Let him that is holy be holy still; let him that is filthy be filthy still. For the judgment of God is in the flaming sword of the mighty Word whereby all Cosmos was created and all Cosmos exists and all men exist by reason of the faith of God, the Light that beats their hearts.
I AM Michael, and I say unto you, the time has come when by your faith the works of God must be done before the gaze of mankind, that the kingdom of God may truly speak to multitudes of hearts, to the voices of many waters, and to all who will understand that the living God leadeth man beside the still waters and restoreth his soul. Grace, peace, and joy be multiplied unto you.