© 2021 Olga López
© 2021 Urantia Association of Spain
Newsletter of the Urantia Association of Spain
Light and Life — December 2021
¶ In this number
- Editorial Light and Life - December 2021
- Works – our recommendations of the month
- History and teachings – Chronicles of the life of Jesus
- Children’s Guide to The Urantia Book: Prayer
- Books – our recommendations of the month
- Other spiritual growth books
- Video – our recommendation of the month
- Navigating through life – What can I ask you, Lord?
- Impacts on my life of The Urantia Book
- The secrets of water
- Urantia Questionnaire: Paco Morón
- About the Light and Life newsletter
¶ Editorial Light and Life – December 2021
M. José Sánchez Santamaría
“What happens in the life of Christ happens always and everywhere.” C. G. Jung
Once again, dear readers of this newsletter, we meet and reflect together on The Urantia Book and its amazing teachings. And once again, we are approaching Christmas dates. Massive parties, large expenses, noise, copious meals, clearly with an energy of expansion, focused on the senses and your enjoyment.
If the readers of The Urantia Book want to make a more collected reading of these dates, regardless of whether we know that Jesus of Nazareth was not born in December, we can delve into some images of the birth, on our planet, of the creator of the universe. The most amazing and unheard of event in the entire history of our planet.
To do this, I propose that you jump over the avalanche of news, the maelstrom of “current events”, since this is not thick: current events are flat, short, full of data, unconnected information that confuses our minds.
¶ Works – our recommendations of the month
Surfing through the sunbeams (Ken Glasziou)
This work begins by asking the reader: “How many of us have been amazed by the section of The Urantia Book entitled “Calcium, the space wanderer”?”. It can really be amazing to us that an atom like calcium can travel through the sun’s rays, but scientists at the time when the Urantia Papers were revealed already considered it, and it is exposed in this interesting article.
Urantia Reflections on Human Institutions (Olga López)
This work is the transcription of a presentation made on Zoom in August 2019, and reviews human institutions from the point of view of The Urantia Book, taking as reference documents 69 (Primitive human institutions), 70 ( The evolution of human government) and 71 (The development of the State). Because, as the author says: «In times as “interesting” as these, in which the word “crisis” is on everyone’s lips when talking about politics, the economy and society, I think it is convenient to take a look look at what The Urantia Book tells us about all these aspects of human institutions.”
Who was Jesus? (Chris M. Ragelty)
This work was originally published in French in the magazine Le Lien Urantien, a publication of the AFFLU, the association of French readers. It consists of two parts: the first describes the personality traits of Jesus (highlighting, for example, what each apostle appreciated most about Jesus), accompanied by the corresponding quotes from the book. The second part deals with his different bestowals in the local universe, in order to more fully expose the character of our Creator Son.
The inner life: outwards (Santiago Rodríguez)
This work was presented at the last readers’ conference in Spain, in April 2019. The conference dealt with four aspects of the inner life, and this is one of them: the inner life as it is projected outwards. To address this aspect, the author poses a series of questions and elaborates his answers: What is it to be born of the spirit, and how is it born? What is a religious experience, and how is it achieved? What is growing spiritually, and how is it done? And finally: What is the will of the Father, and how is it carried out?
¶ History and teachings – Chronicles of the life of Jesus
JOURNALISTIC ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF JESUS ACCORDING TO THE URANTIA BOOK
We present the following installment of the chronicles of the life of Jesus, which on this occasion contains what the revealers tell us in document 128. Within the PDF you will see a button from which you can access the text of the document from the Foundation’s website Urantia.
¶ Children’s Guide to The Urantia Book: Prayer
We continue to review the secondary work A Children’s Guide to The Urantia Book, by Mary Livingston. This is the next chapter, dedicated to prayer, and it begins like this:
“We still cannot see our Heavenly Father. He is our loving and dear friend, our invisible friend and Spiritual Father. Love is something real yet we cannot see it. If you can feel love in your life, you can also feel God."
Download the entire chapter in PDF format
¶ Books – our recommendations of the month
The Preacher (Jan Herca)
It is the year 1204. It is the time of heretics. Of religious colloquiums, gloomy abbeys, endless sieges, medieval battles that marked an era… It is the time of the Middle Ages. The time when the first crusade directed against Christians, the so-called Cathars, was proclaimed. But it is also the time when an enigmatic old man from the Balkans lived, an exceptional and supernatural character who will surprise us with a disturbing question: what if the spiritual destiny of the planet were not merely in the hands of men? What if in reality, since time immemorial, apart from kings, popes and all human governments, there were invisible hidden powers that governed the destiny of our planet? What if the human race had “someone” at its side helping it to win its most decisive fight, the fight for true faith?
Personal website of the author
Stumbles with the Truth (Miguel Ángel Antúnez)
Those who are readers of The Urantia Book will smile to notice in this novel many of the messages contained in our precious blue book, but this book is much more than a simple dissemination of the Urantia teachings: it is written with great sensitivity and links the events in a way that seems to me simply masterful. As on the cover of the book, the facts follow a spiral, rather than a circle, because with each turn of the spiral the truth becomes broader and more enriching for the protagonists of the story.
Read the full review on our website here
¶ Other spiritual growth books
The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle)
The power of now was written by Eckhart Tolle, a normal man to whom, overnight, what we all seek happened: he was enlightened.
The power of now is a guide, a complete meditation and personal development course, in which this German writer tries to teach that it is possible to achieve enlightenment, alleviate pain and face the anxiety that the current type of life produces in us .
Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind (Richard M. Bucke)
This book (in the English original Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind) is a 1901 work by the Canadian psychiatrist Richard Maurice Bucke. In this book he explored the concept of cosmic consciousness, which He defined it as “a form of consciousness superior to that of the common man.” Cosmic consciousness is for the author the third form or third degree of consciousness, which in the author’s words «shows that the cosmos does not consist of dead matter governed by an unconscious, rigid and unintelligible law; on the contrary, it shows it as completely immaterial, completely spiritual and entirely alive; it shows that death is absurd, that everyone and everything has eternal life; it shows that the universe is God and that God is the universe, and that no evil ever entered or will enter it; Much of this is, of course, from the point of view of self-consciousness, absurd; yet it is undoubtedly true.” Some affirmations in which surely the readers of The Urantia Book agree.
¶ Video – our recommendation of the month
Trinity of the Fallen – Kelly Andrew (Gary Tonge)
In this case, we are going to recommend a different video, in which there are no words but the universal language of music and images. As can be deduced from the title (Trinity of the Fallen), the music by Kelly Andrew (reading artist of the book) is inspired by the Lucifer rebellion. The ten-minute piece of music is divided into several parts: Arrival (Arrival), Manifesto (Manifesto) and Rebellion (Rebellion). Visual artist Gary Tonge (on whose channel this video can be found, as he has been excellent at putting images to music) describes the video as “a trilogy of music videos chronicling the events and actions of those who deliberately dragged worlds into temporary and significant darkness and confusion.”
¶ Navigating through life – What can I ask of you, Lord?
What can I ask you, Lord?
Lord, I cannot ask you to accompany me because you always accompany me, to welcome me because you always welcome me, to listen to me because you always listen to me, to help me because you always help me, to have mercy on me because you always have it, to love me because you always love me
You know me and you give me everything I need and seek, so what can I ask of you, Lord?
Only the grace to be grateful.
For your sweet company, for your kind and permanent welcome, for your patient and delicate listening, for your timely and free help, for your silent mercy and full of hope, for your maternal and unconditional love.
Thank my God.
(Hernan Opazo)
¶ Impacts on my life from The Urantia Book
Miguel Bustos
For me, a great impact was having the “luck” or privilege to come across The Urantia Book more than 20 years ago, read it “complete” in eight months (I did not understand half of it), and compare it with the reading and my knowledge biblical.
In the fourth part, where he shows us the authentic real life and teachings of the Master, I finally found credible, coherent and dogma-free information; although it teaches us that he was the Creator of an entire local universe, the revelators show us first a “normal” human being in birth and development, but at the same time the most perfect “man” that has trodden Urantia since its existence. The most extraordinary and unique leader, guide and reference for all of us. Despite having minimal knowledge of the four gospels, he was decisive in discovering that he was in the right place.
The Trinity of Paradise: As a Christian, I understood the Father and the Son, but the concept of the Infinite Spirit did not go beyond a kind of “energy”, I never thought that it could be another distinct and independent personality even despite being one God with the Father and the Son.
The Eternal Island of Paradise, Havona, the master universe, the seven superuniverses… all the administration, design and organization where the protagonists are the humans of millions and millions of planets. I have always believed in extraterrestrial life despite not having had any experience, but finding such coherent, understandable and spiritually reasonable information began to make sense to this lost seeker of life’s true purpose.
What to say about the second part: the Life Carriers, the Lucifer rebellion, the Adams and Eves (biological enhancers), the morontia life… There is so much logic and coherence in these texts!
And what about the third part? It is incredible when we read the evolution of the human being on our planet! When they say that, thanks to the great leap of a frog, we are as we see ourselves today.
The evolution of human religions, the Adjuster and the Soul, the Personality, the Supreme Being and the seven bestowals of Michael of Nebadon.
I have expressed it many times and I affirm it here: our beloved Urantia Book or fifth revelation would not have the relevance that it has in my person if one of the four parts were missing. The four complement each other, without one of them it would become just another work of philosophical-spiritual literature; I admit that it has a very deep content, but once read it would occupy a place on the shelf. There is a lot of philosophical, political and spiritual literature of a high ethical-moral level, but our revelation is unquestionably what it is: a revelation of non-human origin as a reference and guide for true seekers of the truth and logical meaning of life beyond this life.
Miguel Bustos (Miguel Majorca)
¶ The secrets of water
L.Coll
Water has its secrets.
Many claim that the Earth is flat, but when we look at the Moon and the planets it turns out that they are round and not flat. All things from atoms and many round shapes that exist in nature tend to be round and spherical: a flower, a sunflower, the trunks of trees and the same stones with the erosion of water acquire round shapes.
Water is essential for life and it also adapts to everything. One of the funny things about water is that if it rains, even if you throw water high enough into the air, it sorts itself out and falls into perfect round spheres. In space, astronauts who are in the IIS (International Space Station) and release water or some liquid in the absence of gravity, that water is also arranged to form round and perfect spheres. Who understands that mystery?
Another of the curious things about water is that it contains hydrogen and oxygen; oxygen is the main ingredient for fire and yet water puts out fire. Another of the mysteries difficult to understand.
Technical analysis does not reveal what a person or a thing can do. For example: Water is used effectively to extinguish fire. That water will put out fire is a fact of everyday experience, but no analysis of water could ever be made to disclose such a property. Analysis determines that water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen; a further study of these elements discloses that oxygen is the real supporter of combustion and that hydrogen will itself freely burn. (UB 12:9.4)
¶ Urantian Questionnaire: Paco Morón
Francisco (Paco) lives in Seville. He is retired, previously he was an Administrative Function Management technician. He is married and he has two children. He has been a reader of the book since 1977.
- How did you get to The Urantia Book and why do you think you found it?
Through the study of spiritualism, oriental religions, ufology, etc. In the bookstore where I usually bought books on these subjects, they told me about a person who was also on these subjects. I contacted him (Antonio Moya Cerpa) and on the first visit, talking about these issues, he told me that he had discovered an extraordinary book that had nothing to do with what he had seen before. I began to visit him regularly and we formed a reading group. Antonio read the book to us from French and each sentence he read left us absorbed and amazed.
2. What was your first impression when reading it?
My first impressions when reading it were of amazement when I observed that it made much more sense and much more coherence than anything I had previously read and researched. It left me impressed and above all wanting to read repeatedly.
- At what point in the reading (document, sentence, etc.) did you accept that The Urantia Book is really what it claims to be?
I think I accepted it pretty much from the beginning. Since the readings we did at that time were not from the beginning of the book, but rather we chose what we wanted to read (listen to), as we progressed, more astonished believers converted.
¶ About the Light and Life newsletter
Light and Life is the newsletter of the Urantia Association of Spain. From 2005 to 2016 it was published in PDF format and distributed by mail and email to the association’s reader list, but it is currently distributed in newsletter format from content in HTML format.
If you want to receive the newsletter in your email, contact the association to subscribe to the mailing list.
All papers and news from readers and study groups are welcome, so if you want to share any side work, writing, outline, image, etc., you can send it to the association and we will publish it previous evaluation of its suitability. Likewise, the Communication commission of the board of directors of the Urantia Association of Spain reserves the right to edit it so that it meets minimum spelling quality.
¶ References
- Article of the Magazine Light and Life Online: https://aue.urantia-association.org/newsletter/luz-y-vida-diciembre-2021/