1. The holy relationship is the expression of the holy instant in living in this world. 2Like everything about salvation, the holy instant is a practical device, witnessed to by its results. 3The holy instant never fails. 4The experience of it is always felt. 5Yet without expression it is not remembered. 6The holy relationship is a constant reminder of the experience in which the relationship became what it is. 7And as the unholy relationship is a continuing hymn of hate in praise of its maker, so is the holy relationship a happy song of praise to the Redeemer of relationships.
2. The holy relationship, a major step toward the perception of the real world, is learned. 2It is the old, unholy relationship, transformed and seen anew. 3The holy relationship is a phenomenal teaching accomplishment. 4In all its aspects, as it begins, develops and becomes accomplished, it represents the reversal of the unholy relationship. 5Be comforted in this; the only difficult phase is the beginning. 6For here, the goal of the relationship is abruptly shifted to the exact opposite of what it was. 7This is the first result of offering the relationship to the Holy Spirit, to use for His purposes.
3. This invitation is accepted immediately, and the Holy Spirit wastes no time in introducing the practical results of asking Him to enter. 2At once His goal replaces yours. 3This is accomplished very rapidly, but it makes the relationship seem disturbed, disjunctive and even quite distressing. 4The reason is quite clear. 5For the relationship as it is is out of line with its own goal, and clearly unsuited to the purpose that has been accepted for it. 6In its unholy condition, your goal was all that seemed to give it meaning. 7Now it seems to make no sense. 8Many relationships have been broken off at this point, and the pursuit of the old goal re-established in another relationship. 9For once the unholy relationship has accepted the goal of holiness, it can never again be what it was.
4. The temptation of the ego becomes extremely intense with this shift in goals. 2For the relationship has not as yet been changed sufficiently to make its former goal completely without attraction, and its structure is “threatened” by the recognition of its inappropriateness for meeting its new purpose. 3The conflict between the goal and the structure of the relationship is so apparent that they cannot coexist. 4Yet now the goal will not be changed. 5Set firmly in the unholy relationship, there is no course except to change the relationship to fit the goal. 6Until this happy solution is seen and accepted as the only way out of the conflict, the relationship may seem to be severely strained.
5. It would not be kinder to shift the goal more slowly, for the contrast would be obscured, and the ego given time to reinterpret each slow step according to its liking. 2Only a radical shift in purpose could induce a complete change of mind about what the whole relationship is for. 3As this change develops and is finally accomplished, it grows increasingly beneficent and joyous. 4But at the beginning, the situation is experienced as very precarious. 5A relationship, undertaken by two individuals for their unholy purposes, suddenly has holiness for its goal. 6As these two contemplate their relationship from the point of view of this new purpose, they are inevitably appalled. 7Their perception of the relationship may even become quite disorganized. 8And yet, the former organization of their perception no longer serves the purpose they have agreed to meet.
6. This is the time for faith. 2You let this goal be set for you. 3That was an act of faith. 4Do not abandon faith, now that the rewards of faith are being introduced. 5If you believed the Holy Spirit was there to accept the relationship, why would you now not still believe that He is there to purify what He has taken under His guidance? 6Have faith in your brother in what but seems to be a trying time. 7The goal is set. 8And your relationship has sanity as its purpose. 9For now you find yourself in an insane relationship, recognized as such in the light of its goal.
7. Now the ego counsels thus; substitute for this another relationship to which your former goal was quite appropriate. 2You can escape from your distress only by getting rid of your brother. 3You need not part entirely if you choose not to do so. 4But you must exclude major areas of fantasy from your brother, to save your sanity. 5Hear not this now! 6Have faith in Him Who answered you. 7He heard. 8Has He not been very explicit in His answer? 9You are not now wholly insane. 10Can you deny that He has given you a most explicit statement? 11Now He asks for faith a little longer, even in bewilderment. 12For this will go, and you will see the justification for your faith emerge, to bring you shining conviction. 13Abandon Him not now, nor your brother. 14This relationship has been reborn as holy.
8. Accept with gladness what you do not understand, and let it be explained to you as you perceive its purpose work in it to make it holy. 2You will find many opportunities to blame your brother for the “failure” of your relationship, for it will seem at times to have no purpose. 3A sense of aimlessness will come to haunt you, and to remind you of all the ways you once sought for satisfaction and thought you found it. 4Forget not now the misery you really found, and do not breathe life into your failing ego. 5For your relationship has not been disrupted. 6It has been saved.
9. You are very new in the ways of salvation, and think you have lost your way. 2Your way is lost, but think not this is loss. 3In your newness, remember that you and your brother have started again, together. 4And take his hand, to walk together along a road far more familiar than you now believe. 5Is it not certain that you will remember a goal unchanged throughout eternity? 6For you have chosen but the goal of God, from which your true intent was never absent.
10. Throughout the Sonship is the song of freedom heard, in joyous echo of your choice. 2You have joined with many in the holy instant, and they have joined with you. 3Think not your choice will leave you comfortless, for God Himself has blessed your holy relationship. 4Join in His blessing, and withhold not yours upon it. 5For all it needs now is your blessing, that you may see that in it rests salvation. 6Condemn salvation not, for it has come to you. 7And welcome it together, for it has come to join you and your brother together in a relationship in which all the Sonship is together blessed.
11. You undertook, together, to invite the Holy Spirit into your relationship. 2He could not have entered otherwise. 3Although you may have made many mistakes since then, you have also made enormous efforts to help Him do His work. 4And He has not been lacking in appreciation for all you have done for Him. 5Nor does He see the mistakes at all. 6Have you been similarly grateful to your brother? 7Have you consistently appreciated the good efforts, and overlooked mistakes? 8Or has your appreciation flickered and grown dim in what seemed to be the light of the mistakes? 9Perhaps you are now entering upon a campaign to blame him for the discomfort of the situation in which you find yourself. 10And by this lack of thanks and gratitude you make yourself unable to express the holy instant, and thus lose sight of it.
12. The experience of an instant, however compelling it may be, is easily forgotten if you allow time to close over it. 2It must be kept shining and gracious in your awareness of time, but not concealed within it. 3The instant remains. 4But where are you? 5To give thanks to your brother is to appreciate the holy instant, and thus enable its results to be accepted and shared. 6To attack your brother is not to lose the instant, but to make it powerless in its effects.
13. You have received the holy instant, but you may have established a condition in which you cannot use it. 2As a result, you do not realize that it is with you still. 3And by cutting yourself off from its expression, you have denied yourself its benefit. 4You reinforce this every time you attack your brother, for the attack must blind you to yourself. 5And it is impossible to deny yourself, and to recognize what has been given and received by you.
14. You and your brother stand together in the holy presence of truth itself. 2Here is the goal, together with you. 3Think you not the goal itself will gladly arrange the means for its accomplishment? 4It is just this same discrepancy between the purpose that has been accepted and the means as they stand now which seems to make you suffer, but which makes Heaven glad. 5If Heaven were outside you, you could not share in its gladness. 6Yet because it is within, the gladness, too, is yours. 7You are joined in purpose, but remain still separate and divided on the means. 8Yet the goal is fixed, firm and unalterable, and the means will surely fall in place because the goal is sure. 9And you will share the gladness of the Sonship that it is so.
15. As you begin to recognize and accept the gifts you have so freely given to your brother, you will also accept the effects of the holy instant and use them to correct all your mistakes and free you from their results. 2And learning this, you will have also learned how to release all the Sonship, and offer it in gladness and thanksgiving to Him Who gave you your release, and Who would extend it through you.