In honor of the 174th birthday of Myrtle Fillmore (co-founder of Unity), I thought I’d share a few of my favorite OPENING lines from letters, as well as a couple poetic verses and lessons. Myrtle Fillmore is responsible for the beginnings of Silent Unity, the 24-hour telephone prayer ministry that is more than 125 years old, and today receives several million prayer requests a year.
She used the power of prayer to heal her own ailments, and in a short period of time, people followed her lead and began learning to care for themselves – body, mind and soul – and to awaken to their own healing and wholeness, through affirmative prayer.
Over the decades people wrote letters – yes, snail mail – requesting prayer for any number of challenges: disease, marital problems, unemployment, social issues, parenting problems, mental health illness and many other situations, and she wrote back – thousands of letters over the course of her lifetime I imagine. In a short period of time, others also joined with her to respond to the prayer requests that were received.
Eventually phones became a part of the Silent Unity prayer ministry, then came email, and even an app. Prayer knows no boundaries. There are many more jewels from archival materials that I have acquired and thoroughly enjoy, but these are a few choice items – well, choice to me anyway.
What I mostly enjoy is how she celebrates the person writing to her in the openings of her letters – before she gets into the specifics of the the person’s prayer request. I think we could use a little more of this in our world these days. Perhaps you might use these ideas as a spiritual practice to add to your life… begin phone conversations, emails and in-person conversations by first celebrating the other person.
At the bottom of this post is a link to a 5-part radio series I did a few months ago about Myrtle Fillmore: 1)Then and Now, 2)The Women’s Movement, 3)Threefold Healing, 4)Social Justice and Sacred Service, and 5)Spiritual Practices.
LETTER OPENINGS:
I enjoyed your letter, and my soul praises you for the splendid and strong and radiant individual I know you to be… If you could only catch the vision of yourself which I hold of you, the skies above would hardly hold your songs of praise and joy! (1915)
Leave it to the “Marthas” to get good out of “hard knocks.” And we are so glad you immediately took advantage of a “spill” to fall into the strong and loving arms of the Father to be refreshed and built up. (1926)
We shall rise up to be glad for this “night” in which we have turned within to the great stream of light, life, love, substance, and power, and have let them flow silently into our consciousness, to raise it to the Christ understanding. (1912)
Your letter of June was given to Silent Unity, where your name is entered on our healing list, and your case given our silent ministry. Sweet friend, you are best known to us through the delightful creations you have clothed with the intents and purposes of your own high ideas of life and living. Your thought-children are all so wholesome, and you have peopled the world of fiction with characters that appeal to the best that is in humankind, and inspire them with noble thought and notion. (1918, response to a writer of fiction)
If you could only catch the vision of yourself which I hold of you, the skies above would hardly hold your songs of praise and joy! Share on XYour letter reached me the First, and my heart’s love is affirming for you the full realization of God’s Love and Life, which are establishing for you the peace which passes all human understanding. (1926)
Greater faith in God, and in yourself, and your own ability – ability to change your mind, and to think true thoughts – will open the way for greater wisdom, and greater manifestation of supply, and joy and opportunity for advancement. Now, great faith doesn’t come as rain from the skies. No, it comes as a result of your deliberate claiming of faith as one of your God-given faculties; and then by seeking to do the thing which proves that you have faith. (1924)
I am so pleased with you, I hardly have words to express my joy and thankfulness and praise! Indeed you are growing! And Spirit is showing you how to take your experience in the right light. And I know the real satisfaction and healing that will soon follow will be more glorious than you have ever expected! (1918)
PROSE & POETRY:
Thou in me and I in Thee and they in us made perfect in one. Thou has sent me into the world. Thou only can direct and vitalize my effort. (1902)
As the great calm eyed Sphinx, indifferent alike to time or drifting sand or speculation of the ephemeral world: holds in awful stillness her unsolved problem. So hast thou, O Soul, in voiceless solitude, awaited behind the shifting world of Sense, with a great secret of power, secure in silence. But at the magic of the true word, I am, I Am, o Soul I Am:
Thy silence is all broken
Thy secret is all spoken
Thy power to do and be
Comes forth to welcome me. (1890)
Back of the canvass that throbs, the painter is hinted and hidden;
Into the statue that breathes, the soul of the sculptor is bidden;
Under the joy that is felt, lie the infinite issues of feeling;
Crowning the glory revealed in the glory that crowns the revealing.
Great are the symbols of Being but that which is symboled, is greater.
Vast the create and behold, but vaster the inward creator. (1890)
There is a difference between a sage and a thinker. The thinker throws open the road, which leads from the seen to the unseen. The sage throws open the highway that takes us from that which we love today, to that which we yet shall love. And the paths ascend from that which has ceased to console – to that which shall be laden with deep consolation for a long time to come. (1895)
Holy One – I would do Thy will – I would give all that I am, all that I am capable of being into your keeping. I would think your thoughts after you. I would give my life in making manifest Thy will in ALL my words and work. I would be dependent on YOU alone for my inspiration and incentive. I would know or acknowledge no other source. YOU in me and I in you – and they in us made perfect in one. You have sent me into the world. Only you can direct and vitalize my effort. (1913)
LESSONS & TEACHINGS:
Now, every one who is toiling over this knotty problem [Problem of Life], knows that its answer is Satisfaction, and the living demonstration of this answer is:
– Health of Body
– Peace of mind
– Knowledge of Truth (1890)
Life is Real. Speak this truth to your neighbor. You are made in the likeness of life, you are the Child of life, there is no power outside of yourself to dispute your claim to life. Glad, harmonious, holy, untrammeled life. Life, Life! Say it till it quickens into realization of true Being, and the shining of Divine thoughts has melted out every shadow of belief. (undated)
That part of Jesus’ prayer, then, as we understand it, and use it, is “And leave us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil,” And it means, Deep within my soul, I know that God is innate wisdom and light; but I know also that I am obliged to develop my own consciousness of this divine wisdom and light, and sometimes in my conscious exercise of my faculties, I may be likely to make an unwise combination–so, I keep myself in prayerful attitude, so that the one wisdom will shine clearly for me, and I am not “tempted”, not deluded by personal opinions, into doing that which would be “evil” or undesirable. The one Mind delivers me from “evil” or undesirable results howells ac. By keeping the mind poised in the Christ consciousness of oneness with God, the Source of all Light, the individual is not led off into the by-ways of sense and limitation – God does not do such leading, but man’s own use of his faculties which lay hold of God’s powerful and wonderful gifts might prompt his misuse of the gifts. Jesus was praying to that universal and Holy Mind, which would work through his consciousness to lead him in ways of peace and success.
LEARN MORE ABOUT MYRTLE FILLMORE in this 5-part radio series
1. Myrtle Fillmore: Then and Now
Unity minister Kelly Isola shares Myrtle’s story—which is not a single story—including some Unity history and works that influenced her.
2. Myrtle Fillmore: The Women’s Movement
The feminist movement in the U.S. began about the time of Myrtle’s birth in 1845. Rev. Kelly Isola looks at Myrtle’s contribution to the women’s movement
3. Myrtle Fillmore: Threefold Healing
A fundamental thread runs throughout Myrtle’s work: Healing must be addressed in body, mind, and spirit. Rev. Kelly Isola expands.
4. Myrtle Fillmore: Social Justice and Sacred Service
Myrtle focused her life’s work on healing, which Rev. Kelly Isola tells us required prayer as well as being in service to humanity.
5. Myrtle Fillmore: Spiritual Practices
Experience Myrtle as Rev. Kelly Isola brings to life a few of her healing modalities. Listen and practice healing and wholeness through Myrtle’s words.
