© 2014 Gaétan G. Charland, Normand Laperle, Hélène Boisvenue, Bertin Perron, Julien Audet
© 2014 Urantia Association of Quebec
¶ Travel to Israel
Gaétan G. Charland
Ste-Sophie
Dear readers,
Last March, a trip to the Holy Land, more precisely to Israel, was organized by Diane Labrecque of the organization “The United Family of Urantia”. This ten-day visit to the Holy Land was organized in an exemplary and masterful manner, which allowed all the participants to retrace the many important stages of the life of Jesus from his birth to his ascension. We had the opportunity to visit all the significant places in the life of Jesus and to accompany their visits with the readings of the appropriate passages from the Urantia Book. At certain times during these visits, study groups were organized in order to allow a better integration of the historical facts with the spiritual spirit of a pilgrimage.
During our visit to the Jordan, a baptism ceremony was organized for all those who wanted to be baptized. Almost the majority of the group benefited from the service of a minister of worship, a reader of the Urantia Book, to receive this baptism of the spirit again, where Jesus himself was baptized. Each day was orchestrated in such a way as to immerse us in this spirit that prevailed during the time when the Master lived as a human on this earth. During this trip, I was able to take many photos and a video of the baptism and thus offer them to those who wanted them by means of an internet link that I share with you: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gcx00digffgav5s/pZfj_cUEt-, you will find the photos classified by day. Unfortunately, I have not yet had time to enter their content, but if you consult the program included in this link, you will still be able to get an idea of the places visited.
For me, this visit allowed me to reconcile in my thoughts, the divine Jesus with the human Jesus. What a wonderful journey!
Thank you to Diane for this great service of love.
¶ Editor’s note
Normand Laperle
Lévis
The meeting of our souls
I started reading the old Réflectivité from the first issue. After a while, I went back and 'decided to copy only the little bits of sentences that spoke about the benefits and the reason for being of this newsletter. All these little bits of sentences ended up concentrated in the same document. When I reread this document, I suddenly realized that what I was reading, live, was neither more nor less than the “soul” of Réflectivité; the deep identity of Réflectivité that the creators wanted to give it; their vision, including its potential to become.
Here are some of these sentences, put together. They are from Guy Hévey, Jacques Tétrault, René Labonté and Mario Desaulniers: “The Réflectivité is a place where several articles from readers of ”The Urantia Book" are gathered and where philosophical elements of prime importance are brought. It allows some readers to share very specific questions, while allowing others to have the chance to probe their knowledge by trying to answer these questions. It provides us with an opportunity to exchange and share ideas, ideals and values. Through anecdotes and activity reports, readers will be able to feel in touch with each other; united and supportive. It allows us to know and appreciate each other. It is also a way to break the isolation between different study groups and isolated readers by encouraging cross-contact. It plays a role in our collective future. ”
Which brings me to the following reflection: We must find a way to give the maximum number of readers the chance to express themselves through Réflectivité. I would like to give everyone a voice by opening the door as wide as possible.
Everyone has their own way of feeling comfortable in writing. In-depth analyses are good, they are even very enriching, but that is not all. We could go into areas that have never been explored before. Make a small comic strip for those who have a talent in this area. Build a crossword puzzle based on the “Urantia Book”. Asking a question without giving answers could serve as a source of inspiration for several readers who would venture to answer it. The spiritual is a jack-of-all-trades. Inventing is the nature of humanity.
Show us what you are doing. We must continue to send us your activity reports, big or small. If you are experiencing something spiritually important, let your soul express it. This can be through a descriptive text, but also through a poem, a prayer, an adoration or even a parable that you invent.
Everyone has something unique to tell, and that difference is wonderfully beautiful to see. You don’t have to be a writing virtuoso. The editors of Réflectivité are here to support you. It doesn’t have to be a one-page text either. If you send us a single sentence, a bubble of inspiration that comes to mind, we will publish it.
If you are not comfortable with computers or do not have a computer, please note that we sometimes receive handwritten texts. We then transcribe them into computer text.
We would like to hear you think through your writing. We would like to touch your soul.
Happy reading.
¶ Divine Governance
Helene Boisvenue
Sherbrooke
Part Four — of four.
Conference presented at a meeting between students of Progressive Divine Wisdom in July 2013 in Montreal, Quebec Canada
Divine governance without conflict
A few months ago, I told my daughter that she was doing divine work when she supported her two children in their growth. She quickly responded by affirming that growth was natural. This reaction is not surprising because divine governance integrates into human life on earth without shock, brutality, without visibility while being effective.
God is not complicated. He works gently through the framework of life
God, contrary to popular belief, is not complicated; he works gently through the framework of human life to elevate him spiritually. It is man who complicates his relationship with God by opposing human life and divine life. There is no contradiction between human life enlightened by wisdom and the divine life that is immanent in man. What a mistake to think that to be close to God, one must extract oneself from the usual framework of human life and isolate oneself from family life and social responsibilities. I am referring here to the tendency observed in many religions which encourages an ascetic life involving mortification and penance, far from the world.
Being a stakeholder in the living environment, loving it, improving it
As we have seen previously, spiritualization is structured and realized in the normal framework of human life. It is not renunciation that matters, but rather self-control that allows the development of moral qualities. We must be part of this framework of life, love it and improve it in its three material, intellectual and spiritual aspects. Progress and growth touch on the realities of energy, thought and spirit. Progress must be balanced by arranging these three aspects.
In the 18th century, when modern science began to make itself heard, the populations involved bet heavily on this new knowledge by convincing themselves that science would solve all problems, even social, even moral. Since then, there has been a disenchantment… many people no longer believe in progress. The situation comes from the fact that progress has been made in an unbalanced way by not harmonizing the three aspects of growth.
The privilege of education. A growth situation requires education
As our planet is a planet of growth and the spiritualization of human beings is evolutionary, this requires an education where there is a plus that gives and a minus that receives, human beings plus in relation to human beings who rise. This is visible in the family when parents educate their children so that intellectual, moral, ethical and spiritual development is achieved in them. This is also widely visible in the organization of society. Let us think of all the resources mobilized for the schooling of children and their professional and ethical training. On earth, this requirement that we have to accompany our children in their growth is quite special. Few beings in the universe have this privilege of working in partnership with God to bring forth new sons and daughters of God. We find this statement in Jesus’ teaching: “Do you not know that men and women are partners with God in that they co-operate to create beings who grow up to possess themselves of the potential of immortal souls?” (UB 133:2.2)
A common nature
Education requires a common nature between the person being educated and the one who educates, because an experience of love constitutes the necessary framework for the desired result. It would not be wise for the education of human beings to be done by angels, for example. Furthermore, the phenomenon of evolutionary spiritualization requires that great educators must rise on an increasing scale in the name of the social evolution of the planet.
To give an example, if the teaching of the prophets of the Old Testament responded well to the spiritual needs of their contemporaries, it is necessary for the man of the 21st century to have a teaching better adapted to his intellectual, moral and spiritual evolution. If we use the wisdom of the ancients, it is essential to replace this teaching in its historical and cultural context for an appropriate interpretation. But, the truth being alive, the power of the spirit will always ensure that higher meanings and values emerge which will be carried by educators, men and women of new generations.
The internal process of unification
The living environment is important for the spiritualization of man, but to restrict spiritual growth to this single area of influence binds us to the arguments of atheistic naturalists who assert that moral values are an evolutionary adaptation to living conditions. It is time to understand that, in this program of improvement where the living environment matters greatly, an internal process allows its realization.
We remember that, in our universe anchored in space and time, any emergence of reality responds to a law of unity and to a function of unification or interpenetration of previous elements. Everything comes from God, everything must pass through man and propel him towards more distant spheres of knowledge and resemblance to God. The spiritualization of the human being is accomplished because man (the part) unites with the Whole (God). In this process, man becomes the partner of God so that the human soul emerges which, of splendid beauty, is itself the unprecedented expression of the divine nature.
The growth of man is also dependent on the more subterranean forces of the Supreme Being that push to actualize potentials. Supremacy is an irreversible force of growth that powerfully draws us toward our finality.
¶ Conclusion
Be perfect
We all remember Jesus’ injunction to us: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Many generations of believers have stumbled over these words of Jesus, interpreting this divine request as a demand for immediate perfection. If we place Jesus’ request in the context of a temporal universe where the delays of time are inevitable, we will understand that, in his request, Jesus is asking us to attach ourselves to an upward curve of perfection. In this context, it is not so much our level of progress that matters as the direction we have taken. I noted a passage from Jesus’ teaching on this subject: “My children, if there exists a true and living connection between the child and the Father, the child is certain to progress continuously toward the Father’s ideals. True, the child may at first make slow progress, but the progress is none the less sure. The important thing is not the rapidity of your progress but rather its certainty. Your actual achievement is not so important as the fact that the direction of your progress is Godward. What you are becoming day by day is of infinitely more importance than what you are today.” (UB 147:5.7)
Men have questioned the will of God a lot. We have an answer in this teaching of Jesus. Man being naturally imperfect, he will be subject to the law of progress and growth to become perfect. The divine will is perfection. The framework of life, the human condition wisely contributes to this perfection. Throughout this presentation, I wanted to celebrate the beauty and effectiveness of the framework of life for this divine project of divinizing the human being.
We must love our world, our living environment and accept living in materiality. The living environment has its origin in God; it is by fully assuming the human condition, by perfecting our being (intelligence and heart) and our environment and by pouring out around us the qualities gradually acquired that man becomes spiritualized in partnership with the God who inhabits us.
Raymond Lévesque, a Quebec singer-songwriter, composed a magnificent song entitled “When Men Live on Love”. Here it is:
When men live on love,
There will be no more misery
And the beautiful days will begin
But we will be dead, my brother
In the great chain of life
Where we had to go,
Where we needed to be,
We will have had the bad part
But when men live by love,
That there will be no more misery
Maybe one day they will think
To us who will be dead, my brother
We who will have bad days,
In hate and then in war
Sought peace, sought love,
That they will then know my brother
I may not entirely agree with the author when he states: “…we will have had the bad part.” Despite appearances to the contrary, the part that is ours now is a great epic; it fits into the divine plan to make us divine beings. God in his love has chosen us as partners to realize the fullness of our being and to make us irreplaceable beings in the universe. In the understanding of divine wisdom, it is now possible for us to oppose the opinion of one of the philosophers that I introduced to you at the beginning of my presentation and to affirm: infinitely good and powerful, God could not have done it otherwise.
¶ Michael’s Day 2014
Sunday, August 24 2014 you are all invited to Michael’s party on Mount Royal near Beaver Lake, near the Restaurant and the paid parking lot. As usual, just follow the directions with the concentric signs. Bring your meal and your chair. Looking forward to seeing you in large numbers.
Bertin Perron and Julien Audet.
¶ Upcoming AUQ activities
Michael’s Day *
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Beaver Lake on Mount Royal, Mtl.
Testimonial Meeting *
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Hotel Le Dauphin, Drummondville
Theme: Living and sharing the teachings.
Holiday Brunch *
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Best Western Hotel, St-Jérôme.
* Additional information to come.
¶ Your Study Group Photo
Notice the Study Group photo on the last page. It is an artistically transformed photo of a real Study Group.
Send us the photo of “your”
Study group. We will transform it and post it in rotation with the other group photos we receive.
¶ 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.
Outaouais Group
Gatineau Region
Tuesdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Maurice Migneault:
(613) 789-6833
Group : “Sans Frontière”
Hawkesbury Region
Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Yvon and Irene Belle-Isle: (613) 632-5706
Group : “Laurantia”
Petite Nation region in Outaouais
Sundays from 9:00 a.m.
Denise Charron & Jean-Claude Lafrenière Tel: (819) 983-2113
Group: “Découverte”
Laurentides Region
Mondays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Gaétan Charland and Line St-Pierre
Tel.: (450) 565-3323
Group : “Étoile du Soir”
Laurentides Region
Wednesdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Carmen Charland: (450) 553-3601
Group : “Les Débonnaires”
Terrebonne Region
Every 2 weeks: Thursdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Julien Audet: (514) 315-9871
Group: “Uni-Terre”
Lanaudière region
Sundays from 9:00 a.m.
Eric Martel: (450) 756-9387
Group: “Fraternité-Urantia”
Lanaudière region
Wednesdays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Richard Landry & Gisèle Boisjoly Tel: (450) 589-6922
Group: “The United Family of Urantia”
Montreal Region
Tuesdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Ms. Diane Labrecque: (514) 277-2308
Group : “Le Pont”
Montreal South Shore Region
Thursdays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Guy Vachon: (450) 465-7049
Group: “The South Shore Lighthouse”
Montreal South Shore Region
Mondays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Luciano Camellini and Dominique Marchessault Tel.: (450) 332-1459
Group : “Vers les Sommets”
Ormstown & Valleyfield Regions
Fridays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Louise Sauvé: (450) 829-3631
Sherbrooke Group
Sherbrooke region
Every 2 weeks: Tuesdays or Wednesdays (to be confirmed) from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Hélène Boisvenue and Denis Gravelle Tel.: (819) 569-6416
Group: “Readers of Mauricie”
Trois-Rivières Region
Mondays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Madeleine Boisvert: (819) 376-8850
Roger Périgny: (819) 379-5768
Group: “The Agondontarians”
Quebec Region
Every 2 weeks: Sundays from 13 h 00 to 4:00 p.m.
Guy & Rolande L. Martin: (418) 651-3851
Group: “The Partners of the Supreme”
Quebec Region
Mondays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Richard Lachance: (418) 614-2520
or (418) 933-0244 (cell.)
Group: “At Maisonia”
Quebec Region
Every 2 weeks: Sundays from 1:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Gilles Bertrand & Louise Renaud:
(418) 871-4564
Group: “The Ascendants”
Quebec South Shore Region
Every 2 weeks: Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Guy Le Blanc: (418) 886-2366
¶ Réflectivité
Responsible: Normand Laperle
Assisted by: Gilles Bertrand.
To contact us:
reflectivite.auq@gmail.com
(418) 835-1809 (Normand Laperle)
(418) 871-4564 (Gilles Bertrand)
Deadline for sending us your articles: The 15th of each month.
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