We have all heard the good, the bad and the ugly regarding our journey into the new millennium. Predictions of horrific cataclysms have presaged the end of time. The turn of this century has long been considered the golden key destined to unlock Earth’s mysteries as many ancient prophecies promise fulfillment only in the wake of her dawning. Will an exploding bolide slam broadside into the Earth — causing mass destruction? Or shall we tilt on our axis — recreating a prehistoric millennia of darkness? Can we expect the New World Order to diabolically seize control of every nuance of our lives? Or could it be that the apocalyptic weather we are now experiencing is indeed the Anti-Christ in dis-guise? These are just a few of the rumors currently circulating which delineate the potential terrors lying in wait for humanity just beyond the year 2000.

Personally, I don’t give much thought to any of these glorifica-tions of impending planetary peril. If a natural disaster should soon threaten our global existence, worry certainly will not stop it. If the United Nations’ plans to take over the world continue, sitting idly in front of our televisions waiting for the next bogus CNN update is not going to save us. One thing is for sure, the time of drastic change we have long awaited and somewhat emotionally prepared for is here. We no longer need anticipate the new millennium as a realization of some futuristic vision…the time has come today. And the time has come now to realize that something is wrong with the world. When, in the year 1999, a man can be brutally dragged to death in Texas because of the color of his skin…something is very wrong here. When women and children in Kosovo can be kidnapped, raped and killed in a holy war where it appears that nothing short of genocide will end this travesty, something must change and change forever.

And that something is within each one of us. For as the Course in Miracles tells us, "there is only one of us here." What happens to any member of our human family in reality is happening to every one of us. We cannot afford to remain isolationists by decree. We do need to concern ourselves with what transpires in every corner of the world, for the current condition of the world is the responsibility of all who are living in it. Each one of us, you and I included, contributes to the collective reality of horror or harmony in this world — either through our apathy or through our proactivity. We each play a pro-found part in shaping the world through our indifference or through our unshakable conviction to make a difference — and we are all accountable.

We live in a universe that is reflective, and the world "out there" is but a reflection of the world within. The world inside of us, our consciousness as well as our inner states of beingness, creates the external reality in which we reside. This is very basic yet, undeniably, it is one of the most important concepts we must firmly grasp in our spiritual quest for wholeness. We all know that the world is changing quickly, and if we watch the news and read the papers we can not help but ques-tion, "what is happening to this world?" Yet a far superior question to ponder might be, "what have we allowed to happen?" Is the world honestly spinning out of control, or have we simply relinquished control? Have we given up because the problems appear to be far too massive and the solutions seem to be unreachable? What kind of thinking has created our current state of affairs and, more im-portantly, what kind of re-thinking will turns things around?

If we choose to live in a world of truth, honor and loving kind-ness, then first these qualities must be propagated within. Love is what will make a difference my friends, for love alone is what will surely save us now. I am not referring to love as a snuggy, warm and fuzzy feeling here. As an emissary of Divinity I declare the power of love as the most omnipotent, formid-able, and invincible force in the known universe. Love is our source our champion, and our mightiest weapon against every dark ad-versary that could ever possibly oppose us. In truth we are love, and our ultimate mission upon this Earth is to regain wholeness as we learn to love successfully. Love is our true undertaking in life. The quality of what we constructively create through the power of loving thought, word and deed is the true measure of our lives. As the 21st century arrives it brings with it the potent opportunity to refine and re-define love as the true focus of life. We have a profound moral ob-ligation to fight courageously and consistently in the defense of our spiritual covenant with the powers of Love. As the new age dawns we are at war, my fellow Spiritual Warriors, with all things that oppose love’s purity and truth. But the most malevolent enemy is our own fear and our unhealed wounds which combine to create a weakness of spirit that, to a great degree, debilitates the collective heart of humankind. As a result, we have erroneously come to believe that we can create harmony out of havoc; peace from the smoldering ashes of war.

With the coming of the next millennium we are being asked to take a brutally honest look at our lives. We are being invited by the universe to face ourselves, our delusions, our lies, our demons, and why? Because we cannot take our old garbage into the new age. It is not wise to carry our outmoded baggage into the new times. Today we find ourselves in the midst of a spiritual renaissance, the likes of which has not been experienced by humanity in quite the same way ever before. The very energy pro-pelling this grand renaissance is compelling us to cleanse, purge, and purify our hearts and minds. In many ways we are being urged to dismantle our core belief systems along with our personal support systems in order to discern whether or not they still sustain our spiritual growth and highest good. And trust me, there is nothing easy about this process. For everyone I know and love, this time of change has been fraught with upheaval and confusion. Our relationships have been strained, our marriages have failed, our established careers no longer satisfy us and too many loved ones have made their tran-sitions. We are all undergoing a phase of soul deepening which manifests as feelings of loss, rest-lessness, and a sense of impatience that longs to be soothed.

You see, our quest for whole-ness as spiritual beings in physical form demands that every so often we undergo periods of disruption for the purpose of re-evaluation. These phases, in past times, were referred to as initiations and rites of passage. These incomparable stages of growth were honored in their coming and held sacred in their process. Today, we often overlook the need for these spirit-ual deaths and times of rebirth. In fact often we resent these irritating times of inconvenience. In reality, these disruptions are a gift we can honor as the blossoming of our own spiritual maturation. These spiritual initiations come at varying times in each individual’s life according to our unique needs and our personal level of awareness. However, what we are experienc-ing, en masse as the year 2000 dawns, is a group initiation. A time when our entire family of man is being granted the opportunity to come to terms with who we are as beings of light inhabiting an evolving physical realm. It is a time of genuinely reclaiming our power, and living directly from the source of that power as never before. There lies before us an unprec-edented juncture in the eternality of our divine unfoldment. We have the chance now to claim the truth of our infinite beingness as we consciously cooperate with Spirit by putting into daily and consistent application all that we know of love. We have the chance to chal-lenge ourselves, to step up to the plate, in order to be living examples of spiritual truth in action. We cannot hide any longer behind our spiritual rhetoric.

The great Chinese theosophist and author of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tsu, said over 2500 years ago, "the only way to do is to be." Therefore, the only way to create love is to consciously be love. If there is to be peace on Earth it must begin with each one of us in-dividually. We must become the spiritual emissaries of celestial intelligence we came here to be. All we need do is acknowledge our essence and implement our power in order to change this world from a paragon of fear into a paradise of harmony. In the light of true un-derstanding we can clearly see that what lies before us need not be an age of trepidation but rather a era of triumph. Granted, we do indeed live in potentially the most danger-ous and yet the most extraordinary of times. For this is the occasion of our rebirth and the moments just before birth are the most uncertain of all. So very, very much can go wrong, and yet every instant holds the outcome in the balance, replete with risk and reward. The birthing process is definitely messy, and it can be long, hard and painful. But the benefits are beyond priceless for those of us fearless enough to see it through. After all, the modern definition of courage is being afraid and doing it anyway. So, let us not fear pain and hard work more than we desire the delicious experience of victory.

With all of this in mind, I ask that we all avow anew this day to face the millennium with an overflowing spirit of joy and celebration. All of those prophecies of doom and gloom be damned! Let us face the future confident and unafraid. As spiritual warriors, we knew coming in that there was serious work to be done, and we volunteered for the job anyway. Today I ask that we rededicate ourselves to the mission as we rededicate ourselves to love and the service of Almighty Spirit. Although we are currently in a war to insure a better quality of life, let us remember that the weapons with which we must arm ourselves are love, truth, honor and courage. We must now do daily battle for what is righteous, and stand tall without hesitation for what is honorable and true. We are the torchbearers. The time is now. The power is love. The miracle needed is you.

May God strengthen and bless you always.

Kathryn M. Peters