The Eighteenth Principle of A Course in Miracles

A miracle is a service. It is the maximal service you can render to another. It is a way of loving your neighbor as yourself. You recognize your own and your neighbor’s worth simultaneously (T-1.I.18:1-3).

Service is a form of love. It is a way of saying to our brothers and sisters that we love them, that we consider their happiness to be equal to our own, and so we are going to work to bring forth a world in which our shared happiness is paramount.

The Course suggests that miracles – the transformation of fear to love, which is also the transformaton of our brothers and sisters, and the world we share with them – are a “maximal form of service” (T-1.I.18:2). There is nothing greater we can do for one another than to recognize each other as Creations of the God of Love.

Indeed, to recognize the other this way is to recognize our own self in God.

In A Course in Miracles, our own worth cannot be separate from that of our brothers and sisters. It is not merely that we are equal – but that we are, literally, one. Accepting this oneness is the acceptance of Creation, and this acceptance brings forth a sense of unity and interconnectedness. It undoes our confused sense of self, and restores to our mind the truth of what we are.

When we practice forgiveness and extend love to the world, we create a shared shift in perception that creates healing that transcends the limitations of bodies.

In essence, a miracle is an expression of love and service to others that helps individuals recognize their own worth and the worth of others. To serve the other is to be committed to remembering the other as a Child of God, worthy of the same love and acceptance that we long to receive ourselves.

What we give the other, we give to our own self: this is the cornerstone of healing.

We are healed simultaneously as we remember that we are the same in Creation. The miracle is always the means by this remembrance takes form; it is the means within separation that the illusion of separation is undone.

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