Seminary Program

This is where we post the essays from many of our Universal Life Church Seminary students. When students finish a ULC course, they write a comprehensive essay about their experiences with the course, what they learned, didn't learn, were inspired by, etc. Here are their essays.

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Friday, April 25, 2008

Miracle of Prayer

The Miracle of Prayer course was one that I completely enjoyed. It does a wonderful job of taking the concepts from A Course in Miracles and bringing it to a level of understanding so that it can be applied. Each lesson took a concept that I had difficulty with when reading A Course in Miracles and explained it in a simple, yet thorough, way.

I loved the lesson on forgiveness—it completely resonated with me. I learned there are many types of “forgiveness to destroy”. It is an arrogant type of forgiveness that feeds the ego. As a result, it creates negative feelings, guilt and a sense of superiority because you as the person doing the forgiving must be better than the person who wronged you. Any type of forgiveness that causes a sense of guilt is destructive. Forgiveness is supposed to free, not bind the individual. True forgiveness is done for us through the intercession of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do it on our own, but lift it up to God in prayer and let the Holy Spirit do its work.

Another concept that really stood out was the whole concept of prayer as being communion with God, not asking God for preconceived specific solutions. As ministers of God, we must learn to be open, patient and wait for the real answers to come from God through the Holy Spirit. We are teachers, not mediators.

What I got out of this course was much more than I ever would have imagined. I learned that things I have not forgiven in others are the same faults I see within myself. Doing the prayer exercises and visualizations brought me complete peace of mind. The insights that I gained through the new perspectives that this course gave me allowed me to heal my fears and approach everything with love and forgiveness as well as remember to see the Christ in everyone.

Thank you for making this course available. In the past, I had a very difficult time understanding A Course in Miracles. After taking this class, I have a renewed enthusiasm for going back and studying the Course again with a better perspective!

Rev. Patricia Buben

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Prayer, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

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