© 2020 Suzanne Kelly, Luis Garcia-Bory, Rick Lyon, Patty McGrath, Stuart Kerr, Mark Kurtz
© 2020 International Urantia Association (IUA)
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¶ In This Issue
- Journal Editorial—May 2020 – Suzanne Kelly, USA
- A Positive Shift in Planetary Consciousness – Luis Garcia-Bory, Switzerland
- The Benign Virus of Love – Rick Lyon, USA
- The Beatitudes Revisited: A Philosophy of Living – Patty McGrath, USA
- Soul Rebirth and Morontia (Soul) Mind – Stuart Kerr, USA
- Managing Your Model – Mark Kurtz, USA
- About the Journal
¶ Journal Editorial—May 2020
Suzanne Kelly, USA
Greetings fellow Urantians, and welcome to the first edition of Urantia Association International’s 2020 Journal. These are truly trying times during the coronavirus pandemic and I’m sure the following insight and wisdom offered in the five incredible essays will provide guidelines for living in the 21st Century and will bring peace and enlightenment to your corner of the world at this time. “Such a life on such a planet!”
Our first contributor is Luis Garcia-Bory (Switzerland), who champions a new way of living on such a planet by reflecting on what he calls, A Positive Shift in Planetary Consciousness. Using the current worldwide spread of the coronavirus as a case in point, Luis summarizes the affect that this virus and the media-driven hysteria has had on the people of the world. He offers some encouraging remedies to help cure the side effects for everyone, not just those with the virus, as he states, “A conscious move from fear, inertia, and inaction might be required from each one of us so that we faithfully elevate our planetary consciousness and leave the individual selfhood-based realm of thinking in this pandemic and start reflecting on what The Urantia Book calls a ‘brotherhood ministry’ that focuses on unselfishly yielding fruits the spirit. That might require the enhancing of our mindsets from the question ‘How is this pandemic going to affect me and my loved ones?’ to ‘What can I do myself and how can I collaborate with others to be helpful to a larger number of people around me, especially the most vulnerable?’”
¶ A Positive Shift in Planetary Consciousness
Luis Garcia-Bory, Switzerland
(Transcribed and edited from an online presentation given at the 24-hour Online Urantia Event, March 21, 2020)
The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 is likely to go down in the history of our planet as the moment in which most of us were urged to understand that Urantia is a self-contained living ecosystem, where anything occurring in one part of the web will impact, at varying degrees, all of us and the biological environment in which we all co-exist. This understanding, however, is not happening quietly. Struggle, pain and suffering are present in many corners of our world. And the most grievous aspect is of course the loss of thousands of lives we are already witnessing.
In many countries affected by the pandemic, millions of people are instructed to stay home as hospitals and health services are stretched to their maximum capacity. Many poor countries struggle to even start the basic efforts needed to protect their people. Hysteria bubbles up and misinformation becomes rife. Panic dominates reason and irrational fear becomes commonplace. We empty grocery shelves and become obsessed with separation and individual safety. Our global supply of goods clogs up and economic calamity ensues. We start to understand that we are likely to witness the most severe economic depression of our lifetimes.
¶ The Benign Virus of Love
Rick Lyon, USA
(Transcribed and edited from an online presentation given at the 24-hour Online Urantia Event, March 21, 2020)
The name of my presentation is The Benign Virus of Love, which I thought was fitting since we are here in large part due to another type of virus. We are certainly not making light of the seriousness of the Covid-19 coronavirus but rather, we are trying to find comfort in the analogy and security in these teachings. We have seen how quickly a harmful virus can change the world. A benign virus can do the same but in a positive way and even more so.
First, let me thank Chris Wood, Antonio Schefer, Urantia Association, the angels, and my Indwelling Spirit for this opportunity. I really like the idea of an around-the-world 24-hour study group because this revelation is a worldwide gift and people of all faiths, races, cultures, and demographics are studying and living these teachings 24/7. The sun never sets on the Urantia community.
¶ The Beatitudes Revisited: A Philosophy of Living
Patty McGrath, USA
(Transcribed and edited from an online presentation given at the 24-hour Online Urantia Event, March 21, 2020)
It was early afternoon in mid-January, A.D. 27, when Jesus called the apostles from their fishing nets near the shores of Galilee and led them into the highlands north of Capernaum. The chosen twelve were about to be ordained as public preachers of the gospel of the kingdom. As Andrew, Simon Peter, James and John Zebedee, Philip, Nathaniel, Matthew, Thomas, James and Jude Alpheus, Simon Zelotes, and Judas Iscariot were seated about Jesus, he told them,
And it will not be so much by the words you speak as by the lives you live that men will know you have been with me and have learned of the realities of the kingdom [UB 140:1.7]
Then the twelve knelt in a circle about him and he ordained each one in a solemn and sacred ceremony placing the affairs of the divine brotherhood of man under the direction of human minds [UB 140:2.3].
Jesus then spoke to them saying:
¶ Soul Rebirth and Morontia (Soul) Mind
Stuart Kerr, USA
The phenomenon of mortal death—that transaction on the borderland of the physical and morontia realms—remains a supernal mystery to humankind. Clearly, the revelators of truth have been restricted by the celestial governing authorities of Urantia from disclosing to us its full exposition in The Urantia Book:
There are many interesting details which might be presented, but I withhold them upon the advice of your immediate planetary supervisors [UB 112:5.11]
The reassembly of a surviving being takes place in the resurrection hall of the first mansion world, which serves as the rendezvous point for the seraphic destiny guardians, the Thought Adjusters, the archangels of the resurrection, and the Life Carriers. The first step in the reassembly of the constituent parts of a onetime material personality begins with the fabrication of a suitable form, a morontia energy pattern, which the seraphim of assignment “provides” as the new life vehicle for the immortal soul and for the indwelling of the returning Adjuster. The attending seraphim provides, with the assistance of the Morontia Power Supervisors, the undifferentiated morontia material wherein the new morontia life can be initiated. It is within this suitable morontia form, as projected by the guardian of destiny, that …the new survivor can make contact with nonspiritual reality, and within which the morontia variant of the cosmic mind can be encircuited [UB 112:5.17]. This morontia mind individualizes the morontia form for all mortal survivors, being of the same creature mind-matrix and passive potentials of identity that were entrusted to the keeping of the seraphic destiny guardians.
¶ Managing Your Model
Mark Kurtz, USA
I feel like sharing a concept heard from a Sunday school teacher about 30 years ago. Not recalling the topic, I do remember the concept—people develop a personal model of life and relationships, including religion, financial management, child rearing, jobs, free time, food, sex, well… everything. Many live according to what parents and grandparents modeled and according to what is perceived as community normal. This model contains the acceptances, decisions, priorities, and motives that drive everyday life. The teacher asked us to think about what we would do if something comes along that doesn’t fit our model. He said there are only two choices: 1) accept it, which is a revision, or 2) reject it and leave the model unchanged.
True, we can delay a decision, which doesn’t change the model, but the choice may bother a person until a decision is rendered. And perhaps many years are needed to move on a decision.
¶ About the Journal
The Journal is produced twice yearly and contains essays, articles and study aids by readers and for readers of The Urantia Book. Any interpretations, opinions, conclusions, or artistic representations, whether stated or implied, are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Urantia Association International, the National or Local Urantia Associations, or the editorial team of the Association’s Journal.
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