© 2013 Gaétan G. Charland, Marc Belleau, Luciano Camellini, Yvan Stol
© 2013 Urantia Association of Quebec
¶ Travel to Haiti
DEAR READERS, IN DECEMBER while you were receiving your last Réflectivité of the year, the president of the AUQ, being also president of the international association (AUI), traveled to Haiti to meet readers and provide them with training.
For nearly two years, Gaétan Charland had telephone contacts and numerous emails with interested people in Haiti who were asking to see someone to talk about the Urantia Book and its dissemination.
Here is the report of his trip from December 7 to 12, 2012.
This trip was one of the most encouraging I have had, in my meetings with associations around the world. Good leadership in a group is truly what is most important. The readers of The Urantia Book of Haiti are blessed to have such a dedicated person, such a passionate worker and such an enlightened leader in the person of Jean Thomas Nelson who, supported in his organizational work by another leader Jean Gary Julmé and three other readers, actively promoted The Urantia Book and its teachings through study groups in different cities of Haiti. All the readers I met were generally educated, but what I noticed, few of them finished the book. In fact, I met over 70 people and only a few of them completed a first reading.
One reason for this is that most of them do not have their own book and could only read it in groups. The other reason they gave is that they find the first part very difficult to understand and prefer to concentrate only on the part of the life of Jesus.
Since the earthquake, the readers’ organization in Haiti has lost much of its dynamism, partly due to the destruction of their meeting place in Port-au-Prince and the exodus of many readers to countries of refuge who have not returned.
Notwithstanding all these problems, I was able to meet with three groups of old and new readers in three different cities and through my observations I was able to see the excellent work that Jean Thomas is doing for the Revelation in his country. I had the opportunity to make presentations to each group on the importance of study groups and to give information on the difference between UAI and what the Foundation was. I was also able to give training to Jean Thomas Nelson and Jean Gary Julmé and a few others on how to develop a strategic plan. I demonstrated to them how to use the UAI database to register all known readers in Haiti. I showed them how to go about creating study groups and how to further support them. I spoke about the dissemination of The Urantia Book and its teachings in their environment. I did not think it was a good idea to emphasize the creation of an association, but rather to encourage them to complete at least a first reading of the book on their own initiative.
I established with Jean Thomas a reliable mailing address so that we could send them more books and documents to help them study the teachings. I also informed them that for the time being, they would be under the responsibility of the Urantia Association of Quebec so that they would be able to communicate in their own language and could benefit from the full support of the association, just as its members are. I left them a lot of literature on the study groups, a laptop with all the necessary documents as well as a projector and PowerPoint presentations.
I am staying in touch with Jean Thomas and making sure he is present at the next study group symposium in 2014 and invited to the next International Congress. Jean Thomas was very happy with my visit and believes it is a real encouragement for readers in Haiti.
In a spirit of brotherhood.
Gaetan G. Charland
¶ Worship
4th part
THIS IS THE FOURTH PART OF AN ARTICLE ON WORSHIP THAT APPEARED IN THE MONTHLY RÉFLECTIVITÉ IN OCTOBER 2012. In the previous issue, we saw how meditation, characterized by intense reflection, enables us to be attuned to the Thought Adjuster. Let us now see how service enables us to put into practice what we have discovered through reflection. We will then see how we are called to become the unique expression of the values presented to our minds by the Adjuster.
¶ THE ACTION
Service, the path to divine communion
The contact of the mortal mind with its indwelling Adjuster, while often favored by devoted meditation, is more frequently facilitated by wholehearted and loving service in unselfish ministry to one’s fellow creatures. (UB 91:7.1)
Without contact with everyday reality, the thinking we have just been talking about would be pure theory. Serving brings us into action or, if you prefer, allows us to experience what we discover through thought; I believe, moreover, that this is one of the important functions of the service (to explore this idea further, I invite you to read the text service, expression of love at the following address http://www.urantia-quebec.ca/media/other/390660Journal_AUI_Juin_2011_Fr.pdf). In this sense, the service allows us to discern, to a certain extent, what is true from what is false in our ideas, concepts and in the development of our projects, in order to preserve what is right and to correct errors. Experience also allows us to nourish our reflection by the contribution of new ideas coming from those who benefit from our service. For example, when I have finished presenting this conference, I will watch the video recording and I will read the comments that you will have made through the evaluation sheet. I will meditate on the experience lived, I will reflect on what worked well in order to preserve these achievements and on what was less successful in order to make the necessary corrections in order to improve future presentations. I will also reflect on the points of view that you will bring to me during the question period that will follow this presentation and I will incorporate some of these ideas into my thinking.
Service is a school of life! Since service is the food for thought, we can easily imagine the Adjuster participating in those experiences which will be additions to our evolving soul. Recall the diagram of human consciousness presented at the beginning of this article. The Adjuster impresses his directives upon the area of superconsciousness; through meditation we can bring these directives forth into our consciousness (our work table); through the power of choosing the divine will we can apply these directives in our daily service, and these experiences become, through the action of the Adjuster, a spiritual counterpart which is added to the emerging reality of the soul; it is in this way that we grow our spiritual self.
Meditation and service are intimately linked; one does not go without the other. Without service, our ideas, concepts, projects, are only intellectual frameworks disconnected from reality. Without the reflection that meditation provides, we risk repeating the same mistakes in the execution of our service and stagnating on the path to perfection. Meditation and service are like two sides of the same coin and to grow, we need both. We will now approach the last part of this text, the expression of our inner life.
¶ THE EXPRESSION
This whole process of research and experimentation would have little meaning if it were not for the purpose of sharing what we discover about God. Whether through writing texts for publication, during discussions in reading groups or one-on-one with other readers, through the creation of artistic works and especially through the way we act in our daily lives, sharing our inner life allows us to become the unique expression of the divine values that the Thought Adjuster presents to our human mind. If we choose, we can become channels of expression allowing God to be more manifest in our world and throughout the ascension in the universe.
You as a personal creature have mind and will. The Adjuster as a prepersonal creature has premind and prewill. If you so fully conform to the Adjuster’s mind that you see eye to eye, then your minds become one, and you receive the reinforcement of the Adjuster’s mind. Subsequently, if your will orders and enforces the execution of the decisions of this new or combined mind, the Adjuster’s prepersonal will attains to personality expression through your decision, and as far as that particular project is concerned, you and the Adjuster are one. Your mind has attained to divinity attunement, and the Adjuster’s will has achieved personality expression. (UB 110:2.5)
As we have seen earlier in this text, the Adjuster has no means of expression. It is through our reflection and service that he is able to express himself in a personal way. This is the partnership to which our heavenly Father invites us. Each of us is a unique piece in the grand universal panorama, the divine plan for the emergence of God the Supreme. When manifest, this Being will be like a Diamond of which each personality in the grand universe will represent a facet. Although embryonic at this stage of our evolution, our personality will develop more and more in order to perfect its purpose: to express God in a unique way. This is one of the reasons why our Father has so generously granted us personality. It is easy to understand, then, the importance of developing our capacity for expressing our spiritual life. We are all called to carry, to its maximum, the expression of our vision of God.
The expression of our vision has another important function in the training regime of the universe. Indeed, our development cannot take place in isolation. We need the sometimes divergent points of view of our brothers and sisters to enrich our conception of things. Let us imagine that we could arrange each human being, side by side, to form a single line surrounding this imposing mountain that is Everest (the highest mountain in the Himalayan chain). Even if they all look at the same rock formation, each one, from his position, will have a different angle of view from his neighbor. Like Everest, God, great and majestic, cannot be contained in the limited vision of a single personality. This is why the sharing of our points of view is of capital importance since it allows us all to go further in the knowledge of God. The pooling of what each one possesses about God allows us all to advance a little further towards the destiny of the ascending sons and daughters of the universe.
We have just explored Worship in four phases of manifestation: veneration, understanding, action, and expression. Before concluding, I would like to return to some of the questions posed in the introduction and provide the answers I have found through the reflection prompted by the writing of this text. I mentioned as the first problem the lack of spontaneity and creativity in my communion with the Adjuster. Let us begin by reading the following:
Worship is intended to anticipate the better life ahead and then to reflect these new spiritual significances back onto the life which now is. Prayer is spiritually sustaining, but worship is divinely creative. (UB 143:7.5)
Worship is the source of creativity. It enables us to discover and reflect here on earth meanings which belong to the next stage of life, that intermediate (morontia) stage spoken of in The Urantia Book. The discovery and understanding of new ideas, values, and meanings belonging to this better life which awaits us is a creative act inasmuch as we must find ways of expressing them in our attitudes, in our words, in our actions, and in all the projects which we undertake. Just as the artist must find the best way to express the work which he seeks to interpret, so must we interpret the leadings of our Thought Adjuster and express in our lives the divine values which he presents to our minds to the utmost of our expressive powers and in the most accurate way possible. We are the artisans of our own vision of God.
I mentioned another problem concerning the difficulty of maintaining a connection with the Adjuster who cannot respond to us as another human being would. In the communication process, prayer is the expressive side of my relationship with God; it enables me to share what I am with my Heavenly Father, to express to him my affections, the difficulties and needs of my daily life. But I also need to receive, to listen, to be receptive to what he wants to share with me. This dimension was lacking in my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Again, it was through meditation that I was able to tune in to the Thought Adjuster and thus establish a normal relationship, like those I have with other human beings. God is a real personality; I can express to God what I am through prayer and listen to what God the Adjuster is trying to communicate to me through meditation. Our relationship with the Heavenly Father is not much different than our relationship with other people; only the methods of communication differ.
I also wondered how to breathe more spontaneity into my encounters with God. It is through meditation, once again, that this spontaneity is best expressed. Meditation can be done in a structured way, as in writing a text or developing a conference, or in a completely spontaneous way. Indeed, it often happens to me, while taking the subway to go to work, to become aware of a new theme for a text to write or a new idea for a subject in the process of being written, and this, in a completely unexpected way. These periods of intense reflection can occur when I am walking in nature or when I am listening to music. I always find these moments surprising, exciting and thrilling because they occur, most of the time, without me expecting them. I like my days to be punctuated by these moments when my thoughts turn to God quite naturally and effortlessly. I have noticed that the more I engage in meditation (as described in this text), the more these spontaneous and insightful episodes arise through the most mundane and routine activities of my daily life. Conversely, this spontaneity tends to disappear when I allow myself to become buried in the many details of life, forcing me to put aside these periods of intimacy with my creator: my one-on-ones with God.
¶ Conclusion
I have sought, through this text, to understand the mechanisms of communication with the Adjuster. I have come to the conclusion that we communicate with our Heavenly Father on principles similar to those we use with our fellowmen, although the methods are somewhat different. I have also sought to open up my way of communicating with the Adjuster. While prayer is an important element in the process of communion with God, reflection, service to the human and spiritual community, and expression of the inner life are other means of contact with spiritual forces.
Prayer is indeed a part of religious experience, but it has been wrongly emphasized by modern religions, much to the neglect of the more essential communion of worship. The reflective powers of the mind are deepened and broadened by worship. Prayer may enrich the life, but worship illuminates destiny. (UB 102:4.5)
As for my definition of worship, it now goes beyond the recognition of my sonship with God and the expression of my reverence for the heavenly Father. It encompasses the ever-increasing desire to respond to the invitation, “Be perfect, even as I am perfect.” This involves the mobilization of my love for my Creator on all levels of human reality:
- Spiritual: when I listen to the Adjuster through meditation,
- Morontiel (soul): when, through service, I put into practice what I have discovered through thought, thus allowing my soul to grow,
- Mental: When I decide to use this wonderful tool to understand and decide to implement the directives of the divine Adjuster,
- Personal: when I use all the expressive resources of my personality in order to embody, in a unique way, the values that the Thought Adjuster presents to my human mind.
For me, worship is that act of love which prompts me to seek God, to listen to the Adjuster, to serve the human and spiritual brotherhood, and to express divine values in all the behaviors of my daily life.
Marc Belleau
belleaumarc@hotmail.com
¶ Annual General Meeting
Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 10 a.m.
Hotel Le Dauphin, 600, boulevard StJoseph, Drummondville QC, J2C 2C1 Tel.: 819-478-4141
Dear members,
Please be advised that your participation in this meeting is highly requested. This meeting will allow us to present to you the report of the decisive actions taken by the Urantia Association of Quebec concerning the mission of the Urantia Book and the upcoming projects for 2013.
After lunch, from 1:30 p.m. there will be presentations and sharing.
Welcome to readers
¶ RENEWAL OF MEMBERSHIP FEES
Hello dear readers,
I would like to thank all the readers who have already sent their contribution in the return envelope following the sending of Réflectivité last December. In order to better plan the projects and activities of the AUQ, we are grateful to you for sending your donations and renewals at the beginning of the year.
Any amount received during the year 2013 will of course be gladly accepted. Your contribution as a member and your donations have allowed us to cover the majority of our operating costs (production of the monthly Réflectivité and the AUI Journal, postage, stationery, website, etc.)
In a few weeks, you will receive a 2012 tax receipt (Quebec residents) for the amount of your eligible donations.
We sincerely thank you for your involvement, it is part of the whole.
Warm greetings with wishes for prosperity in 2013.
Your treasurer of the Urantia Association of Quebec,
Luciano Camellini
¶ National meeting in France of French-speaking readers of The Urantia Book 2013
The AFLUB (Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d’Urantia) invites you to participate in its national meeting which will take place from Thursday March 14 at 6 p.m. to Sunday March 17 at 2 p.m. at Domaine de Chales — Route de Saint Viâtre — 41600 — Nouan le Fuzelier, France
The theme of this meeting around which we will work will be:
“Freedom and Free Will”
What is it? Why? Individually or socially. Implication and consequences, on the three levels, material, mental and spiritual.
For details and prices, contact Max Masotti: lectorat@urantia.fr Hoping to see many of you at this fraternal meeting linked to the teachings and values of The Urantia Book,
Yvan Stol, president
¶ Leather Cases for The Urantia Book
A few months ago, the Foundation got rid of some 120 cases for the Little Urantia Books.
The AUQ only had to pay the shipping costs and therefore can sell them to you for $5 plus postage.
Let me know your interest, either by email at line.stpierre@gmail.com or by phone at 450-565-3323.
¶ STUDY GROUPS
THIS ACTIVITY ALLOWS MULTIPLE READERS OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING to share and study together the teachings of The Urantia Book. It promotes spiritual progress by allowing its participants to find practical applications to the teachings of The Urantia Book in their daily lives. This important practice helps to maintain a broad perspective on concepts of truth.
You wish to participate or form a study group; we will be happy to assist you. If you wish to have your study group appear in this list, contact the person in charge, via email association.urantia.quebec@gmail.com or at 450-565-3323.
Group: Découverte
Every Monday from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Laurentians Region Gaétan Charland and Line St-Pierre
Tel.: 450-565-3323
Group: Étoile du Soir
Every Wednesday from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Laurentides region
Carmen Charland
Tel.: 450-553-3601
Group: Le Pont
Every Thursday from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
South Shore of Montreal
Guy Vachon
Tel.: 450-465-7049
Group: Mauricie Readers
Every Monday from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Three Rivers Region
Madeleine Boisvert and
Tel: 819-376-8850
Roger Perigny
819-379-5768
Group: Veritas
Every Tuesday from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Montreal area, near the Church metro station
Lise and Pierre Routhier
Tel.: 514-761-2378
Sherbrooke Group
Every two weeks, Tuesday or Wednesday (to be confirmed)
From 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Helene Boisvenue or Denis Gravelle
Tel.: 819 569-6416
Group: The Ascendants
Every two weeks on Sunday from 13 h 00 to 3:30 p.m.
South Shore of Quebec
Guy LeBlanc
Tel: 418-835-1809
Group: The Agondontarians
Every two weeks on Sunday from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. North Shore of Quebec
Guy & Rolande L. Martin
Tel: 418-651-3851
Group: Les Débonnaires
Wednesdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Montreal region
Julien Audet
Tel: 514-315-9871
Group: Urantia Fraternity
Wednesdays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Lanaudière region
Richard Landry & Gisèle Boisjoly
Tel: 450-589-6922
Group: Vers les Sommets
Friday from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Regions Ormstown & Valleyfield
Louise Sauve
Tel: 450-829-3631
Group: The United Urantia Family
Monday from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Montreal region
Mrs. Diane Labrecque
Tel: 514-277-2308
The Partners of the Supreme
Monday from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Quebec region
Richard Lachance
Tel: (418) 614-2520 or (418) 933-0244 (cell)
At Maisonia
Every two weeks on Monday from 7:15 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Quebec region
Gilles Bertrand & Louise Renaud
Tel: 418-871-4564
Group: Uni-Terre
Every Sunday from 9:00 a.m.
Lanaudière region
Eric Martel
Tel: 450-756-9387
Group: Laurantia
Every Sunday from 9:00 a.m.
Petite Nation region in Outaouais
Denise Charron & Jean-Claude Lafreniere
Tel: 819-983-2113
Group: The Precursors of Divine Reality
Every two weeks on Tuesday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Laurentides region
Mrs. Johanne Séguin
Tel: 819-327-3237
Group: Sans Frontiére
Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m.
Hawkesbury region
Yvon and Irene Belle-Isle
Tel: 613-632-5706
Group: from Outaouais
Sunday from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Ottawa Region
Maurice Migneault
Tel: 613-789-6833
Group: The Alphée Brothers
Sunday
Thetford Mines region
Sylvère Marcoux
Tel: 418-332-3560
Group: The South Shore Lighthouse
Every Monday from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
South Shore region of Montreal
Luciano Camellini and Dominique Marchessault
Disclaimer: Any interpretations, opinions, conclusions or artistic representations, stated or implied, are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of Urantia Association International or local and national level associations.