"'Lord heal me' is the only legitimate prayer. This also means 'Lord atone for me,' because the only thing you should pray for is forgiveness. You have everything else." -- T-1.VI.3:1-3
"I do not want to share my body in communion because this is to share nothing. But I do want to share my mind with you, because we are of one Mind, and that Mind is ours." -- T-7.V.14:1-3
PART ONE: PRAYER
I. Prayer as Natural Communication
"Prayer is the medium of miracles. Prayer is the natural communication between the created and the Creator. Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed." (T-1.I.11:1-3)
II. The Only Legitimate Prayer
"'Lord heal me' is the only legitimate prayer. This also means 'Lord atone for me,' because the only thing you should pray for is forgiveness. You have everything else." (T-1.VI.3:1-3)
"When we said that prayer is the medium of miracles, we also said that the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything. Once forgiveness has been accepted, prayer in the usual sense becomes utterly without meaning. Essentially, a prayer for forgiveness is nothing more than a request that we may be able to recognize something we already have." (T-3.VII.10:2-4)
III. The Miracle Prayer
The Course provides two versions of the prayer that opens the way for miracles.
"If you will tell me what to do, I will to do it.""This prayer is the door that leads out of the desert forever." (T-1.VII.9:3-4)
And its more complete form:
"If you will tell me what to do, only that I will to do." (T-1.VII.12:7)
IV. Prayer as Affirmation, Not Petition
"At root, prayer is always an affirmation of knowledge, not of accurate perception. That is why unless perception has entered into it, it calls on revelation." (T-3.VII.3:3-4)
"Prayer is a way of asking for something. When we said that prayer is the medium of miracles, we also said that the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness." (T-3.VII.10:1-2)
"Prayer is the medium of miracles not because God created perceptions, but because God created you." (T-3.VII.7:1)
The Course distinguishes between prayer as petition (asking God for specific things) and prayer as communication (the natural communion between Creator and created). As the student advances, prayer shifts from asking for what one lacks to affirming what one already has.
V. Prayer Can Be Specific
Early in the Course, Jesus acknowledges the practical dimension of prayer with characteristic humor:
"Prayer can be very specific in little matters. If you need a coat, for example, ask me where to find one. I know your taste well, and I also know where the coat is that you would eventually buy anyway." (T-1.VI.5:1-3)
"If you are willing to try the Higher Shopping Service, which also covers all lower-order necessities, and even quite a number of whims within reason, I have very good use for the time we could save." (T-1.VI.6:2)
VI. "Lead Us Not Into Temptation" -- Reinterpreted
The Course reinterprets the Lord's Prayer petition twice:
"'Lead us not into temptation' means 'Guide us out of our own errors.' Note that the word is 'lead,' not 'order.'" (T-1.III.8:9-10)
"'Lead us not into temptation' means 'Do not let us deceive ourselves into believing that we can relate in peace to God or our brothers with anything external.'" (T-1.VII.6:3)
VII. "Take Up Thy Cross and Follow Me" -- Reinterpreted
"'Take up thy cross and follow me' should be interpreted to mean 'Recognize your errors and choose to abandon them by following my guidance.'" (T-1.III.8:11)
VIII. "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread"
The Course alludes to this petition from the Lord's Prayer in the context of the soul's nourishment:
"Your mind is not serving your soul. This literally starves the soul by denying its daily bread." (T-2.V.6:2-3)
The "bread" is not physical sustenance but the peace that God gave the soul. To deny awareness of God is to starve the soul of its daily bread.
IX. Begin Each Day with Prayer
"You should begin each day with the prayer 'Help me to perform whatever miracles you want of me today.'" (T-1.I.2:4)
PART TWO: COMMUNION
X. Communion of Mind, Not Body
"I do not want to share my body in communion because this is to share nothing. Would I try to share an illusion with the most holy children of a most holy Father? But I do want to share my mind with you, because we are of one Mind, and that Mind is ours. See only this Mind everywhere, because only this is everywhere and in everything. It is everything, because it encompasses all things within itself. Blessed are you who perceive only this, because you perceive only what is true." (T-7.V.14:1-6)
XI. The Sacrament and Cannibalism
"The idea of cannibalism in connection with the Sacrament is a reflection of a distorted view of sharing. I told you before that the word 'thirst' in connection with the Spirit was used because of the limited understanding of those to whom I spoke. I also told you not to use it. The same holds for expressions like 'feeding on.'" (T-2.V.4:1-4)
XII. Communion and Bread Are Both Necessary -- For Now
"While there is time, communion and bread are both necessary. Without either, you feel deprived, and you cannot escape this by confusing the two." (T-1.VI.3:4-5)
The Course acknowledges that while we live in the world of time, both physical sustenance and spiritual communion are needed. The error is in confusing them -- seeking spiritual fulfillment through the body or physical satisfaction through the spirit.
XIII. True Communion
"Communion is another kind of completion, which goes beyond guilt because it goes beyond the body. Communion comes with peace, and peace must transcend the body." (T-19.IV.A.3:1-2)
"You want communion, not the feast of fear. You want salvation, not the pain of guilt. And you want your Father, not a little mound of clay, to be your home." (T-19.IV.A.6:5-7)
PART THREE: SACRAMENTS AND RITUAL
XIV. Grace
"Spirit is in the state of grace forever. Your reality is only your spirit. Therefore, you are in the state of grace forever." (T-1.III.9:6-8)
"The mind is then in a state of grace, and naturally becomes gracious, both to the Host within and the host without." (T-1.VII.2:1)
Grace in the Course is not something conferred through sacramental ritual. It is the permanent, unchangeable condition of spirit. You are in grace now and always have been. Ritual can point toward this truth but cannot bestow what you already have.
XV. The Body as Temple -- Partial Truth
"Perceiving the body as the temple is only the first step in correcting this kind of distortion. Seeing the body as a temple alters part of the misperception, but not all of it." (T-2.VI.4:1-2)
The biblical teaching that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit is not wrong but incomplete. It corrects the idea that the body is valueless or evil, but it does not go far enough. The body is not ultimately a temple at all, because God does not dwell in forms. The mind is God's dwelling place.
XVI. Mercy, Not Sacrifice
"God offers only mercy. Your own words should always reflect only mercy, because that is what you have received and that is what you should give. Justice is a temporary expedient, or an attempt to teach you the meaning of mercy. Its judgmental side arises only because you are capable of injustice if that is what your mind makes." (T-2.V.7:1-4)
"Sacrifice is a notion totally unknown to God." (T-3.III.11:1)
All sacramental theology that involves sacrifice -- whether the sacrifice of the Mass, the idea that God required Jesus's death to forgive sin, or any demand that we suffer in order to be worthy -- is a distortion. God offers only mercy. The only appropriate response to mercy is mercy.
Summary
The Course does not abolish prayer, communion, or the sacramental life. It radically reinterprets them. Prayer is not petition to a distant God but natural communication with the Creator who is already present. The only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who are forgiven already have everything. Communion is not the consumption of a body but the sharing of a mind. The Eucharistic imagery of eating Christ's body is called a "distorted view of sharing." True communion goes beyond the body entirely -- it is the joining of minds in peace. The sacraments that involve sacrifice miss the point: God offers only mercy, and sacrifice is unknown to Him. Grace is not conferred through ritual; it is the permanent condition of spirit. And the Lord's Prayer's most fearful petition -- "Lead us not into temptation" -- means simply: guide us out of our own self-deception.
Prepared for the Astral Library of Light -- Section IV: Way of Christ