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Lesson 174: Review of Lessons 157 and 158

Reframe:  Love is all that is; therefore, I practice giving and receiving.

Suggested Practice:
From Review V Introduction:

”Let this review become a time in which we share a new experience for you, yet one as old as time and older still.²Hallowed your Name. ³Your glory undefiled forever. ⁴And your wholeness now complete, as God established it. ⁵You are His Son, completing His extension in your own. ⁶We practice but an ancient truth we knew before illusion seemed to claim the world. ⁷And we remind the world that it is free of all illusions every time we say:”

⁸God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

“With this we start each day of our review. ²With this we start and end each period of practice time. ³And with this thought we sleep, to waken once again with these same words upon our lips, to greet another day. ⁴No thought that we review but we surround with it, and use the thoughts to hold it up before our minds, and keep it clear in our remembrance throughout the day. ⁵And thus, when we have finished this review, we will have recognized the words we speak are true.” (ACIM, W-rV.in.10:1–11:5)

With these reviews from 171-180, we’re encouraged to “place faith in the experience that comes from practice, not the means we use. … We use the words, and try and try agin to go beyond them to their meaning, which is far beyond their sound. The sound grows dim and disappears, as we approach the Source of meaning. It is Here we find rest.”

In other words, the “words” are the doorway to experiencing the essence of what the words mean.

Today we take this approach with these two review lessons:

157 Into His Presence would I enter now. God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
158 Today I learn to give as I receive. God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Message

For today’s review lesson, I’m reminded of the endings to three movies: When Harry Met Sally, Groundhog Day, and Scrooged. In each, the main character moves from ego-mind suffering to their true self. Love is the grounding force that transforms them—not romantic love, but the love they come to realize within themselves. Without that awakening, the romantic love would have eluded them.

In all three, when the characters dropped their fears and embraced their truth, their inner peace and joy came to light. As they grew to see the light in others, they could see their own.

Harry’s light shone once he realized how he truly felt about Sally, releasing his relationship fears. When he tells her, “…when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible,” he’s giving Sally the love he already received for himself when he woke up about their relationship.

Phil, in Groundhog Day, is the epitome of ego-mind behavior: selfishness, anger, frustration, resentment. Over many repeated days, he cycles through countless ego-mind iterations. While he’s attracted to Rita, it isn’t until he lives a whole day truly from his heart with the townspeople that he can be true to his love for her.

Then there’s Frank in Scrooged—Phil on steroids. It takes a journey with three ghosts to help him see the light. As he sees the light in others, his own shines. He says it best at the end:

“I… I get it now! And if you… if you give, then it can happen, then the miracle can happen to you! …everybody’s … GOTTA have this miracle! And it can happen tonight for all of you! If you believe in this spirit thing, you…the miracle will happen and then you’ll want it to happen again tomorrow. …It can happen every day, you’ve just got to want that feeling. And if you like it and you want it, you’ll get GREEDY for it! You’ll want it every day of your life and it can happen to you! … I believe in it now! I believe it’s going to happen to me now! I’m ready for it! Ah, and, ah…it’s great. It’s a good feeling, it’s really better than I’ve felt in a long time. I, I, I’m ready.”

Like these movie characters, we’re all on this journey toward our True Self—entering Divine Presence. Along the way, as we see the light in others, we become more aware of our own. This is how I understand the Course’s idea of giving and receiving: to give is to receive.

“When I know myself as love the ego has no choice but to return to the peanut gallery where it can commence throwing worthless peanut shells.”
— “The Course in Miracles Experiment” by Pam Grout

Blessings & Peace,

Maureen,
The Mandala Lady

transforming soul whispers
into mandalas & channeled messages
for clarity, peace, and joy

 About the 2026 Mandalas of the Day — ▶️ A Note About A Course in Miracles