© 2016 Maurice Migneault, Brigitte Cave, Line St-Pierre, Réal Demers, Jean-Claude Lafrenière
© 2016 Urantia Association of Quebec
¶ Word from the President
Maurice Migneault
urantiamaurice@gmail.com
The present is yours
You have probably missed the “good old days”, the vigor of past youth or moments of vibrant passion. You probably disagree with our societal choices while keeping your way of acting. You probably put off projects, postponed actions or tasks to be done. Rest assured, you are not alone. Is this a bad attitude? Not at all, it is just the natural course of things. But how does the Fifth Epochal Revelation fit into this human context?
It brings us great knowledge about our origins and the richness of our history. If each generation had to reinvent the wheel, humanity’s march towards social and spiritual progress would be very slow. To maintain constant growth, we must keep only what is most valuable and leave behind obsolete things, just as Jesus did through his aversion to worthless dogmas and rituals. Through his social involvement, he brought us practical examples on how to manage our daily lives, our present, to draw valuable experiences from them for us and our brothers.
Yes, the present is ours, even if it is ephemeral and transitory. But if we wait until the day before our departure to sow the bag of grain that we received upon our arrival; it will be too late. In this present that belongs to us, have we already exhausted all our resources, are we using well the opportunities that are offered to us to help our brothers, to bring our contribution, involvement and resources for the diffusion of this great Revelation? Can we do a little more, even a little bit more? We will never have the chance to come back to make up for lost time. It is up to us to make this present a treasure of growth.
¶ Trip to Israel, 2016
Brigitte Cave
Polynesian Tahiti
To my dear brothers and sisters in the Spirit.
It has now been a month since we returned from our pilgrimage to the land of Jesus, and it was a fabulous, wonderful and unforgettable journey. I still feel myself vibrating in this beautiful energy of brotherly love, invigorated and filled with gratitude. Words no longer have any importance in these spiritual moments so profound and unique. What touched me the most was our celebration of Jesus’ Birthday at Mount Hermon, the very day of his birth, August 21, which was a unique and sublime moment in the union of our souls. Our Master Jesus was truly present with us for this special day and throughout our pilgrimage, we were in the palm of His Hand, walking in His footsteps as well as under the protection of all our beloved angels. There were moments very strong in emotions or filled with tears of compassion and love that filled my heart. Thank you Father, thank you Jesus, thank you to our Divine Minister and to our great family of the universe.
I thank each and every one of the “Jesus Team 2016” for all the love we have had for one another, without forgetting our dynamic sister and guide Diane Labrecque for her great wisdom and patience with us, as well as our devoted and caring brother Gabriel Rymberg [Editor’s note: Resident of Nazareth, Israel. Chief translator of “The Urantia Book” into Hebrew. See http://www.urantia.org/news/2014-07/behind-scenes-hebrew-translation-project].
I returned home to Tahiti refreshed and filled with courage and strength to lovingly do the will of our Heavenly Father, and to learn anew from Jesus of Nazareth the greatest truths that any mortal on Urantia can ever hear—the living gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
With all my brotherly love,
Your Polynesian Sister in Spirit
[Note from the “Jesus Team 2016”: This trip, in French and English, will be offered again in 2017, from April 20 to May 5. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the very environment where our Master — Jesus Christ Michael — lived. This experience can only bring you closer to Him by living for two weeks where He was born and lived. For information, contact Diane Labrecque at dianelabrecque@sympatico.ca or Guy Perron at guyperron3@gmail.com ]
“When man hears God’s spirit speak within the human heart, inherent in such an experience is the fact that God simultaneously hears that man’s prayer.” (UB 146:2.4)
¶ The book, Friendship with God
Line St-Pierre
Ste-Sophie
Have you ever failed in an attempt to make contact to share “The Urantia Book” without coming across as a crank or an alien? In the enthusiasm of the moment we forget to look at the other and his needs and through a lack of refinement and tact we flood him with all our knowledge about God, Jesus, the universe, life after death without even considering or respecting where the other was in his thinking on these subjects.
Here is my find.
Last April I received the book “Friendship with God,” and one afternoon I sat down to see what it had to offer. After turning page after page, four hours later, 'had finished reading it! I immediately thought that it would be a good idea to translate it into French to share the comforting, inspiring, and ennobling message that God is not an urban legend, but that He truly dwells within each of us, and that many people could benefit from this writing that Kaye & Bill Cooper, — long-time Urantia readers — have taken to share in a simple way, their understanding of communicating, drawing closer, and communing with God.
I contacted them in Texas to ask permission to translate the book and to my surprise, Kaye informed me that it was already in French, but that she did not have the French files or the contact information of the translator. After several communications and research, the AUQ got its hands on the French version with the blessing of the person who had adapted it into French.
Since studying the teachings of The Urantia Book, I have understood that it is more favorable to take people where they are in their thinking, to increase what they understand, and that the divine Spirit which inhabits them will also do part of the development.
In this way, I sent the PDF document by email to several people around me, knowing that they are looking to have a personal relationship with the divine and do not always know how to go about it. One of my sisters replied that she forwarded the book to several friends who are on a journey. Isn’t that what is desired? That we get closer to God and that God gets closer to us? Very slowly, without making noise, the revelation is making its way through these people!
Friendship with God and its one hundred and thirty-seven pages can be found on the website of the Urantia Association of Quebec (http://www.urantia-quebec.ca/), by clicking on the link “Publications” and the option “Readers’ Texts”. It can be downloaded as a PDF document and you can access it at your convenience.
“The family is the channel through which the river of culture and knowledge flows from one generation to another.” (UB 84:0.2)
¶ Third letter
Real Demers
Laval
[The 1st “love letter from a grandfather to his children and his grandchildren who have grown up” appeared in Réflectivité #297, July 2016; The 2nd: in Réflectivité #298, September 2016_]
The “White Bird Castle”, hidden at the bottom of a valley, in the middle of eternal snow, among the highest mountains, plays hide-and-seek with those who seek it. The purity of the air that one breathes there rewards the effort of having looked for it, but like a mirage, it is always hidden behind a ridge that we have not yet gone around.
Since no one has ever seen it, all the hypotheses are still valid. We can give it the splendor we want; it can thus serve as a model for the pale realizations that we make of it, beautiful until we have completely built them, very limited as soon as we declare to have finished them. It is always the unfinished part that gives beauty to the whole.
Every dream is greater than its realization, but without a dream there is no realization. This is the beauty of every human being: he is full of dreams and he has built, over time, some sketches arising from his dreams, just enough to glimpse what he will be able to do, later, in a time to come.
I wasn’t the first to talk about the White Bird Castle, but I’m excited by what it makes us understand. Given the countless centuries in which humans have dreamed, spoken of their dreams to others, and partially realized what they had imagined, it is highly unlikely that in our time we will find a place that no one has ever reached before us.
It is therefore with great pleasure that I take other people’s paths, when the landscape is beautiful, when it has a rural aspect, when it pushes me to surpass myself by the effort it imposes on me and when it offers the pleasure of breathing the pure air of the heights.
The paths I think of offer many stops, but never an end. Even if they are not new, even if they are so old that I do not know when they were first walked, the way I look at them is always new. Thus, the path where my steps start is reborn again, new as before, while retaining the variety of perceptions of those who have walked it over the ages.
However, the paths of others are beautiful, because they save us from the pitfalls that others have avoided, but have thus confined themselves to the latter’s goals that they have pursued for their own good.
But sooner or later, it comes to pass that I feel the need to go where there is no longer a path, where the tall grass and ferns do not step aside to let me pass. Even if the paths of others are experienced differently by me, they lead me where others needed to go; I will have to, one day or another, venture where no one has come, at least, where the passage is quite old, where the grass and ferns have taken over all the space.
Vain searches incite us to search again and again, for when we have found something, we stop searching. Vain searches sharpen the imagination, stir up the ardor, give the face a radiance that springs from within and illuminates the surrounding environment. Vain searches keep our soul young, even if the body stoops with time and the skin wrinkles like the bark of an old tree. Vain searches push us to go further; searches, as long as they are vain, incite us to follow the vein, to pay closer attention to it, to prepare ourselves better for what comes next.
Finally, the quest for meaning only reveals itself after having sometimes wandered for a long time, only during a break that we had to take, for want of knowing where to go. It may then be that the answers that we were looking for in the agitation reveal themselves to us, in the manner of an illumination, conscious that our action, far from having led us there, has probably prevented us from receiving them. Action prepares us for it, but it is without the silence of rest that the answers arrive.
It is a bit like driving a car: while the twists and turns of the road require all his attention, he cannot, at the same time, admire the landscape. You can reach a beautiful landscape by driving a car, but once you arrive, you have to stop to contemplate all its beauty.
I have often seen a white bird, is it the white bird of the castle? I don’t know, but I hope so! I watch its comings and goings, looking for a direction to
take, but the castle always remains in the future, in the imagination of the future.
Sometimes, several days go by without a white bird, then there it is again when I no longer expect it: it seems to know that I am watching it, it seems to me that its flight is then lighter, that it performs a ballet in the right areas so that I can watch it longer.
But what if the presence of the white bird were not an invitation to follow it; what if, on the contrary, the white bird revealed to me by its presence that the castle is here, that it sees it and wants to show it to me. Indeed, “the White Bird Castle” is invisible and inaccessible, because the one who seeks it is already there. How could we see the house in which we live? Standing at the window, the observer will discover a tree, a river, a landscape. Inside, only the walls, the floor and the ceiling will be visible, but not the Castle. “The White Bird Castle is within us. (…) It has always been there” (Cosey, 1981, in “Kate”, the 7th comic strip in the Jonathan series).
We often tend to look outside for what is inside us, to launch ourselves into action in order to better understand our being, to run after pleasures in search of happiness, to cover our inner silence with noise, to imagine that life is action when it is first and foremost being.
Action is necessary for living better, but it must never replace contemplation; action only takes on meaning when it comes to implementing what has first been contemplated in the serenity of one’s heart.
There is a paradox in the fact that an external quest tirelessly brings us back inward, that it is in action that we discover being. It is Descartes’ “I think therefore I am” that we express every day of our lives. Being contemplates itself when we are in a passive receptive state. Indeed, contemplation is only possible in the silence of one’s heart, it is prior to thought which is already a beginning of action, the latter being the outline of a plan that can result in concrete gestures of realization.
It is in action that we reveal ourselves to ourselves and to others, that we reveal our being, because without being, there would be no action. But, even if action reveals our being, the latter always remains elusive. It is our growing castle whose splendor is mainly due to its becoming, it is our impregnable fortress because of the boundaries of the self, it is our secret garden in gestation of the future life which, like a flower, will blossom in its time.
When we seek to grasp the being, we touch the matter through which it expresses itself, but we cannot grasp it. It is only through contemplation that we can perceive the being; if we love someone for themselves, we understand that!
Real
“3. *Energy impingements—*melody produced by the skillful management of the morontia and spirit energies.” (UB 44:1.5)
¶ A Urantian Culture
Jean-Claude Lafreniere
Saint-Andre-Avellin, QC
[During the theme in Drummondville on May 14, 2016, Jean-Claude sang us his personal compositions inspired by the “Urantia Book”. On page 3 of Réflectivité #296 of June 2016, he tells us about his experience in more detail, which I summarize here.]
One night I find myself humming a tune, and words from The Urantia Book slip in pleasantly.
I stand up to write down the flow of words that naturally fit into the tune I have in my head.
The texts based on well-known tunes, or almost, would allow everyone to sing them, to make them their own.
So here is my next composition:
A tune was stubbornly running through my head, without being able to identify it. I went to a record dealer and whispered a few notes to him. He left immediately and came back with a compact disc: “Sospiri, by Cecilia Bartoli. It’s the first song on the back. Handel: ”Lascia la spina cogli la rosa“, from ”Il Trionfo del Tiempo e del Disinganno“”. I didn’t understand a thing, but it was my tune.
This is how my adventure began. One night, I had the tune in my head again, but this time, words fit easily into the melodic phrasing. And there was my first composition done.
To the tune of Handel: “Lascia la spina cogli la rosa”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFsK3peaGAQ
Title: Three Values
Beauty,
The truth,
As well as kindness,
From the universal Father;
Three values
From a future generation,
Will take as inspiration.
[Melodic help: - : white note, * : eighth note]
mi: (-) mi (*) mi (-)
mi: (-) fa(-) fa (-) fa (-
D (-) G (-) F (*) F (-) E (-) etc.
¶ Thematic
Sunday October 16 2016 (10:00 a.m. — 4:00 p.m.), you are invited to Drummondville for a theme.
Theme: “Service”
Hotel le Dauphin, 600 Boulevard Saint-Joseph, Drummondville, QC, J2C-2CI
Looking forward to meeting you in large numbers.
¶ STUDY GROUPS
This activity allows several 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 of 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 : “Étoile du Soir”
Laurentides Region
Wednesdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Carmen Charland: (450) 553-3601
Group : “Le Pont”
Montreal South Shore Region
Thursdays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Guy Vachon: (450) 465-7049
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: “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
Group : “Laurantia”
Petite Nation region in Outaouais
Sundays from 9:00 a.m.
Denise Charron & Jean-Claude Lafrenière Tel: (819) 983-2113
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 : “Les Débonnaires”
Terrebonne Region
Every 2 weeks: Thursdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Julien Audet: (514) 315-9871
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 : “Vers les Sommets”
Ormstown & Valleyfield Regions
Fridays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Louise Sauvé: (450) 829-3631
Group: “Readers of Mauricie”
Trois-Rivières Region
Mondays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Roger Périgny: (819) 379-5768
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
¶ Réflectivité
Responsible: Normand Laperle (418) 835-1809
Assisted by: Gilles Bertrand. (418) 871-4564
Publication (monthly)
In the first week of the month.
To send us your articles and/or contact us:
reflectivite.auq@gmail.com
Add: Your name and city of residence.
Any interpretation, opinion, conclusion or artistic representation, stated or implied, are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the UAI or local associations.