“How can you who are so holy suffer?  All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing.  I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had.  I have purified them of their errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in their own perfect radiance.  They are beyond destruction and beyond guilt.  They came from the Holy Spirit within you, and we know what God creates is eternal.

You can indeed depart in peace because I have loved you as I loved myself.  You go with my blessing and for my blessing. Hold it and share it that it may always be ours. I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share. The heart is pure to hold it, and the hands are strong to give it.

We cannot lose. My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our being. His quiet children are His blessed Sons.  The Thoughts of God are with you.” 

A Course in Miracles (1972) is a self-study curriculum which aims to assist its readers in achieving spiritual transformation. The book describes a non-dualist philosophy of forgiveness and includes what are meant to be practical lessons and applications for the practice of forgiveness in one’s daily life.
While there is no author clearly listed for the book, Helen Schucman, a psychologist, in fact wrote down the book with the help of William Thetford, a psychologist, based on what Schucman called an “inner voice” which she identified as Jesus.
Since it first became available for sale in 1976, over 2 million copies of A Course in Miracles have been sold worldwide and the text has been translated into twenty different languages. The teachings of A Course in Miracles have been supported by commentators and authors and also taught in many Unity churches. However, due to ACIM’s claims to “clarify” or even supersede some of the teachings of orthodox Christianity, the book has been judged negatively by some Christians.

A Course in Miracles in many ways is controversial book, and one whose ‘authorship’ is debated. Was it written by a couple of new age New York psychologists, or divinely inspired by Christ? To me it is a mot point for I have found much wisdom and comfort in this book and I have read it numerous times.

The particular passage quoted above is one that I said to myself over and over again during the three days that I watched my older son dying of cancer at just 41 years of age. It is hard to see someone we love suffering so deeply and know that there is absolutely nothing we can do – prayer, pleading, promises – all to no avail.

There comes a point when there is a deep surrender to what is, to God’s will, and, indeed, that does bring peace. We, of ourselves, cannot see the bigger picture or more subtle reasons for why things happen, but if we can trust in love, all will be well.