© 2019 Agnès Lazar
© 2019 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
Agnès Lazar-Belgium
“I have come into this world to do the will of my Father and to reveal his loving character to all mankind. That, my brethren, is my mission. And this one thing I will do, regardless of the misunderstanding of my teachings by Jews or gentiles of this day or of another generation. But you should not overlook the fact that even divine love has its severe disciplines. A father’s love for his son oftentimes impels the father to restrain the unwise acts of his thoughtless offspring. The child does not always comprehend the wise and loving motives of the father’s restraining discipline. But I declare to you that my Father in Paradise does rule a universe of universes by the compelling power of his love. Love is the greatest of all spirit realities. Truth is a liberating revelation, but love is the supreme relationship. And no matter what blunders your fellow men make in their world management of today, in an age to come the gospel which I declare to you will rule this very world. The ultimate goal of human progress is the reverent recognition of the fatherhood of God and the loving materialization of the brotherhood of man. (UB 143:1.4)
Drawing on the prayer of Saint Francis, completely dedicated to service, as well as on passages from the Urantia Book, I will bear witness to a most extraordinary experience (the extra being God: the act is man’s, the consequences are God’s) that Our Father offered me to live with Him, Guy Perron and Aurore Hennebert, as well as a group of Senegalese and Canadians who accompany, in prayer, this extraordinary service, in a place deserted by love: prison.
¶ Lord, make me an instrument of your peace!
This injunction from man to God, is it not a request for partnership with the ultimate Source of all things? Is this not what each student of The Urantia Book, touched to the depths of his soul, wishes to actualize in his earthly life?
Service IS love applied, the will of the Father in action. Coordinated with worship and prayer, it IS an essential factor for growth.
Is not the golden rule the application of the divine command to treat all men as we would conceive that God would treat them?
And to do this, do we not have the duty to first find, within ourselves, this place of peace, by voluntarily turning away from all forms of prejudice, comparisons and criticism which considerably compromise the flow of Divine Love?
Where there is hate, let me put love. Where there is offense, let me bring forgiveness. Where there is discord, let me bring unity. Where there is error, let me put truth. Where there is doubt, let me put faith. Where there is despair, let me put hope. Where there is darkness, let me put your light. Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
The “where” has its peak, in the “oubliettes” of the Leuze prison. By listening to the divine Monitor in us, by following his guidance, God brings us where He is not yet to put there Who He is: love, forgiveness, union, truth, faith, hope, light and joy!
All true love comes from God, and man receives divine affection to the extent that he himself bestows that love upon his fellows. The Father’s love can only become real to mortal man through his personality, as he in turn bestows that love upon his fellows. (UB 117:6.10)
O Lord, let me not seek so much to be consoled...than to console; to be understood...than to understand to be loved...than to love Because it is by giving...that we receive it is by forgetting ourselves...that we find it is by forgiving...that we are forgiven it is by dying...that we are resurrected to eternal life.
Here is a beautiful illustration of a telling quote from the Blue Book:
“Although work is important, self is not.”
A reader of the book since 2001, I have prayed many times to God that He would give me the opportunity to serve Him by serving my brothers. As a young teacher, I felt the desire to work in prison but it quickly evaporated while remaining firmly nestled within me. In hindsight, I see an angelic intervention! Thank you, my God…
Today, thanks to the experience of 32 years of teaching adults, the education of three children, that of grandmother, training in relationships, without forgetting the deepening and integration of the incomparable teachings of the Book of Urantia, and above all better communication with the divine Monitor who inhabits my mind, I am equipped and guided from within to face the human experience of frustration, anger, incomprehension, non-acceptance, shame, guilt, lack of respect for oneself and others, hatred, offense, doubt, despair and many others!
Aware of the magnitude of the task, very quickly after setting foot in this world and thanks to the great open-mindedness of management, I invited outsiders to join me. This is how Guy and Aurore, people very involved in the study and experience of the teachings of the book in their personal lives, accompany me in this service. Together, with our gifts and talents, we create and nourish a circle of awareness and trust promoting the increase of self-confidence, self-esteem and self-love. What we bring to prisoners on a theoretical level is good, but what they are all sensitive to are the attitudes of non-judgment and love that they perceive in our words and gestures and in the persistence of our action.
¶ A breath of love in prison
The prison world is a place where lives an energy heavy with violence and self-violence, unspoken things, non-acceptance, non-responsibility, death, that of dreams and hopes. Often abandoned, judged, criticized and forgotten, by the family, the spouse, the children, the parents, the man left to himself sinks into anguish or even a certain madness, psychological imbalance. Frequently, he refuses to face himself, feeling judged and judging himself severely, feeling condemned and condemning himself to life imprisonment. He becomes a file number, a cell number and identifies with it. In his cage, locked up 20 hours a day, he is confronted with his animality without being able to escape from himself except in sleep or in drugs…
Yet it is in this place, in this concentration of darkness that all three of us were touched by the grace of God, deeply tasting His Love for these left behind people.
““While you cannot observe the divine spirit at work in your minds, there is a practical method of discovering the degree to which you have yielded the control of your soul powers to the teaching and guidance of this indwelling spirit of the heavenly Father, and that is the degree of your love for your fellow men. This spirit of the Father partakes of the love of the Father, and as it dominates man, it unfailingly leads in the directions of divine worship and loving regard for one’s fellows. At first you believe that you are sons of God because my teaching has made you more conscious of the inner leadings of our Father’s indwelling presence; but presently the Spirit of Truth shall be poured out upon all flesh, and it will live among men and teach all men, even as I now live among you and speak to you the words of truth. And this Spirit of Truth, speaking for the spiritual endowments of your souls, will help you to know that you are the sons of God. It will unfailingly bear witness with the Father’s indwelling presence, your spirit, then dwelling in all men as it now dwells in some, telling you that you are in reality the sons of God.” (UB 146:3.6)
¶ The switch
Before a spiritual being can emerge, the moral man must make his appearance. We invite prisoners to take full responsibility for their actions, their thoughts, their choices and decisions. We constantly stimulate the search for righteousness, truth and the desire to conform to it. We bear witness to the presence of a Divine Fragment from which all things become real and we urge them to turn to It for personal experience.
We are constantly faced with novelty. We welcome their moods. Nothing can be programmed in terms of theoretical content. Flexibility, tact, presence, kindness, sincerity and love are the ingredients with which we cultivate their mind and God does the rest. And it is there, in the total acceptance on our part of not wanting results at all costs but rather being in the appreciation of the path that the magic operates and that some even lay down their weapons…
