Hello, Friends – This email is the start of something new – a once-a-week email on Saturday written by someone who is facilitating or teaching a class that is listed on the Events and Classes page on TruthUnity. Today's post is from Rev. Melissa Hill Greenbaum, who is hosting a Fillmore-inspired retreat over Labor Day weekend in the North Carolina mountains. If you do not wish to receive these Saturday emails, scroll down to the bottom of this email and click on "Change your subscriptions to our newsletters." That will open a box where you can change Subscribe/Unsubscribe to the Fillmore Events Newsletter and other newsletters we send out. – Mark

Awaken the Christ Within

– A Fillmore Inspired Mountain Retreat

I look up to the mountains;
does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
-Psalm 121:1-2

The Revealing Word states A “mountain represents an exalted state of mind where the divine plan may be perceived and unfolded; a state of spiritual realization.” It goes on to say, “[g]oing up into the mountain to pray means elevating our thoughts and our aspirations to the spiritual viewpoint.”

Matthew, Mark and Luke all write about Jesus taking a few disciples up to the mountain to pray. Many references are known of Jesus going to the mountain to pray alone; but this time, he invites others to join him. A profound event takes place when they are all together. This is known as the transfiguration of Jesus.

Charles and Myrtle Fillmore hosted events on their farm which planted the seed for what is today Unity Village. Those gatherings brought like minded individuals together to connect with each other and as one in Christ consciousness.

In metaphysics, we learn that thoughts are creative forces. When you sit alone and affirm, "I am whole," you are planting a seed. But when ten people come together and collectively declare, "We are whole," that seed explodes into a forest.

As Charles Fillmore noted, "The thought of the many is stronger than the thought of the one." Gathering allows us to ride a current of collective power. To retreat in the mountains with like-minded people opens a path to find each other as one tribe. The mountains provide a sanctuary where we can practice seeing the Divine in the person sitting next to you, listen with deep empathy, and offer words of affirmation that lift others up.

Why the mountains? Because nature strips away the distractions, leaving only what matters: Us, the Earth, and the Spirit. Because to ascend in consciousness is to retreat from the everyday, secular, worldly issues so that one can reflect, restore, and perhaps re-imagine what is possible. The mountains are a place to heal, nurture, and guide one to a higher consciousness.

Why retreat together? I see a retreat as an opportunity to put prayer in action. We will pray, meditate, break bread, sing, laugh and most importantly connect as one tribe, a Fillmore community.

Join us for our upcoming retreat to experience the power of the Fillmore legacy in community. Come for the teachings, stay for the community, and leave transformed by the love of the Christ within each of us.

Here is the link to register: www.frontporchwisdom.online/retreat

– Rev. Melissa Hill Greenbaum