© 2007 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
| The Story of Life | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 39 — Summer 2007 | Annual Meeting at Notre Dame des Lumières |
1978, the oldest readers will remember, saw the birth of the first French readers’ association, the CERDH (Center for Study and Reflection on Human Destiny).
This association will have its own publication, La Lettre.
As a tribute to these authors we will publish some of these articles unknown to most of us.
We will begin with this one which appears as a sort of introduction to the spirit which will reign in this association.
As a tribute to these authors we will publish some of these articles unknown to most of us.
We will begin with this one which appears as a sort of introduction to the spirit which will reign in this association.
Happy reading!
God is your Father
God is my Father
Religion is the recognition by faith of this overwhelming truth that born again - here we are his beloved sons - and here we are brothers - forever… that he is looking for us from now on here below and that to find him all we need to do is humbly and patiently listen to the infallible presence that he has introduced into each of our nascent souls.
But now almost all of our traditional patterns of thought are shattered -
that the land of our ancestors pales at the same time as their sky, too often hermetic or infantile, austere or frozen -
let the curtains of the old stage disappear while the fabulous living panorama of the universe of universes rises before our incredulous eyes!
Here is dusted off the exhilarating message of the Son of the Living God who came among us.
Fear and repentance erased - the curse and redemption - our paltry anxieties resolved - Transcended the innumerable collisions of our sciences and our philosophies of our human affections and our creeds.
And as we begin to grasp that a clear conception of higher truths does not include only the limited science of the material aspects of our universe the deeper structures of the stupendous cosmic scene unfold and articulate themselves before us.
Here we see the profusion of splendid beings who animate it and the dazzling dwellings that the Deity has prepared for the use of the successive metamorphoses of the children of time and space who have chosen to join it in joy for an eternity of love and service.
Meditate on this solemn fact that we are more than we think we are
Faced with the harsh and dangerous confrontations of our societies and our civilizations, with the true “fog of the mind” which is too often their essential mark, they consider that there is there, for all those who - without distinction of confession, race, philosophical or political references - objectively seek to better situate themselves - the source and the levers of a decisive general re-evaluation at the same time as an irreplaceable anchor point for their action.
Truly, the common elements of a new and formidable dynamic of life. -
ALL, absolutely ALL the elements of a renewed philosophy for the third millennium of this West which wavers on so many false victories and buried values.
Let us be very careful, however: it is not so much a question of undertaking things around us as of ensuring, above all, a personal restructuring… internal and profound… difficult and very long. But how liberating and exhilarating!
This is also the case with study group meetings, as long as they remain limited to small numbers, and careful self-discipline allows them to avoid deviations and simple chatter.
There is also no doubt that much work in bringing together different parts of the text, certain personal reflections or synoptic representations can constitute - at least momentarily - very useful scaffolding in the real assault to which any authentic personal integration of the whole text truly corresponds.
Optimal implementation and development of these means requires — among other things — an information and dissemination network.
Contributing to the establishment of such a network constitutes the objective of this “Letter”, the issues of which will follow at an approximately quarterly rate.
a — We think we will retain:
b — We will observe extreme caution in the choice of themes and articles retained -
It is only gradually that we will be able to discern - in a way experimentally and by reflecting on it at length in the light of the suggestions and criticisms of our correspondents - the only truly important material, while avoiding the multiple dangers which constantly threaten publications of this type.
This therefore means that while widely encouraging opinions, criticisms and advice, we will vigorously guard against any hasty innovation.
c — In total independence, we have in summary the intention of conducting this action with the double concern:
d — We will send copies of each of our Letters to Chicago and hope to establish and gradually develop a reciprocal flow of suggestions and exchange of texts.
And since it is of course appropriate to begin by using what already exists that is interesting, it is in application of what has just been said that we are led to take up from our first Letters with the authorization of our American friends, a certain number of articles which seem to us to be of great interest in terms of general attitudes.
5. Let us finally be allowed to conclude this introduction by expressing a wish: let us take great care not to use imprudently in an easy reflex of the terminology of “Urantians”
| The Story of Life | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 39 — Summer 2007 | Annual Meeting at Notre Dame des Lumières |