© 2023 Gaétan G. Charland
© 2023 Urantia Association of Quebec
Gaetan G. Charland
president@urantiaqc.org
Hello readers and friends of the association,
At the end of the year, some people take stock of the things they have accomplished in order to assess the progress they have made in their search to better serve the human brotherhood. As a student of the fifth revelation, it is important to set spiritual goals if one is to progress in achieving a greater awareness of God.
Booklet 196 tells us this:
“The great challenge to modern man is to achieve better communication with the divine Monitor that dwells within the human mind. Man’s greatest adventure in the flesh consists in the well-balanced and sane effort to advance the borders of self-consciousness out through the dim realms of embryonic soul-consciousness in a wholehearted effort to reach the borderland of spirit-consciousness—contact with the divine presence. Such an experience constitutes God-consciousness, an experience mightily confirmative of the pre-existent truth of the religious experience of knowing God. Such spirit-consciousness is the equivalent of the knowledge of the actuality of sonship with God. Otherwise, the assurance of sonship is the experience of faith.” (UB 196:3.34)
If we have not established precise objectives to achieve our spiritual goals, there is a strong probability of missing this great challenge that the revelators propose to us. One thing that must be considered in the desire to achieve this consciousness of God is to protect ourselves from the means necessary to achieve this ultimate goal. The teachings of the Urantia Book inform us largely on the different mechanisms that must be used to realize this consciousness of God and to effectively know the filiation with God.
Booklets 160 and 161 on Rodan’s philosophy offer us a simple and appropriate approach to guide us in achieving this awareness of God. The example of the life of Jesus that Rodan highlights offers us a clear and precise path that allows everyone a progressive spiritual evolution and a growth in self-awareness. By following Rodan’s observations on how Jesus faced the difficulties of life, we can retain four essential tools for spiritual growth: prayer, meditation, worship and service.
With the aim of promoting these growth activities for us readers of the Urantia Book, the Urantia Association of Quebec offers many means to support and facilitate our spiritual journey. Study groups are a good place where we can progress in our intellectual and spiritual understanding. There are also virtual conferences that are accessible without having to travel, not to mention the many publications available on the association’s website. We can also subscribe to the daily meditation, The Little Voice, and finally, nothing better than loving service to others to acquire the experience of spiritual growth.
Let us remember, we need each other to grow, alone in our corner however comfortable it may be, nothing can grow, experience is essential to growth, this is why Jesus was always in service, that of doing the Will of the Father.
In this new edition of Reflectivity, the editor of this newsletter offers you many texts that will surely stimulate your interest and your willingness to love and serve. This new format allows the association to go further in its efforts to communicate and promote the values essential to this spiritual growth. This is why you will find real-life stories of readers who will share with us their experiences in applying the teachings of the Urantia Book. These stories are there not only to move and edify us, but also to encourage us to put into practice what we have learned from our readings of the Urantia Book.
As we can see, the world is changing, it is very likely that in this present century, the world order will change. Will it be better or worse? It will depend on many things. One thing is certain, we can make a difference, we can become those lights of truth that guide those who are in confusion. Let us remember what the revelators told us in the Publication Mandate.
“You must learn to possess your souls in a state of patience. You are in association with a revelation of truth which is part of the natural evolution of religion on this world. Too rapid growth would be suicidal. The Book is given to those who are ready for it, long before the day of its world mission. Thousands of study groups must be organized and the Book must be translated into many languages. Thus the Book will be ready when man’s battle for freedom is finally won and the world is once again safe for the religion of Jesus and the freedom of mankind.”
On this extract, I leave you to meditate on the sequence of events.
At the beginning of this year, I want to thank all those who, through their generous contributions in the form of donations or voluntary participation, have helped to facilitate and make more accessible The Urantia Book and its incomparable teachings to the French-speaking world of the planet. Thanks to your contributions, the association has sent several books and manuals to help study the Urantia Book to our brothers and sisters in Haiti. They have also helped to create and put online a new school called Progressive Divine Wisdom. The association has also organized several virtual conferences which are now accessible on its website. I could cite several other projects carried out, but too many for this short message.
At the beginning of this year, I wish you many experiences of service, peace in your heart, and love guiding your actions so that the Will of God is manifested in your life every day.
To love is to serve.