© 2017 Line St-Pierre, Éric Martel, Gilles Bertrand, Jean and Claudette, Louise Renaud, Marc Belleau
© 2017 Urantia Association of Quebec
¶ Word from the President
Line St-Pierre
president@urantiaqc.org
On April 6th, the eve of Jesus’ death nearly 2000 years ago, a new institution, the memorial supper, took root in our homes and will be repeated every year on this date by many Christians on the planet, and by many students of The Urantia Book.
This suggestion was brought to us by fervent servants of Revelation in the United States and found acceptance in hundreds of homes around the world on Thursday, April 6, 2017, where everyone recalled this exhortation of Jesus, as he asks us to remember him as we gather in his memory. “The memorial supper is the believer’s symbolic rendezvous with Michael,” and Jesus continued, “When you do these things, recall the life I have lived on earth among you and rejoice that I am to continue to live on earth with you and to serve through you.” UB 179:5.7
In this edition, you will be able to read the testimonies of students from Quebec who were kind enough to share their impressions of the Remembrance Dinner in which they participated.
On Sunday, May 28, at the Hôtel Le Dauphin in Drummondville, I invite you to a fraternal meeting entitled: “How to participate in the improvement of our society”. You will be welcomed from and we will begin the presentations at 10 a.m. Students from The Urantia Book have been chosen to share with you the fruit of their reflection on the subject.
The afternoon will be reserved for comments, sharing and discussions, ending at 4 p.m. Admission is free.
Invite your spouse, partner or the person who is closest to you and knows your interest in spirituality. You never know who might be touched by the spirit! Actions are ours, consequences are God’s.
Looking forward to meeting you there!
¶ A very special meeting
Eric Martel,
Ste-Sophie Découverte Group
A few days ago, the host of our study group had the good idea to invite us to a very special gathering. To meet on Thursday, April 6th to commemorate the last supper of Jesus with his apostles. The idea immediately appealed to me. As a reader of The Urantia Book, I have been part of three different study groups. Each gathering has been stimulating and enriching. But this time, as I went to the gathering, I felt that there was something very different. We were not just going to meet to study and share the teachings of the Book. We were going to commemorate, to remember, the last supper that Jesus had on Earth and to thank him for his bestowal and his legacy.
A moment of reflection like no other.
At the beginning of every regular meeting we attend, we take about a minute to collect ourselves and put ourselves in a good frame of mind and spirit. I cannot speak for those present around the table, but I felt a solemn atmosphere during this moment of recollection. Our host was excited and we were serious. We were all there together, gathered to commune and give thanks to the Master.
It would be good to note that we, the readers of The Urantia Book of Quebec, who have rightly rejected the institutional Church and its heavy and tedious rites, have also, I believe, lost a certain sense of the sacred and of communion (deep union), of a group with God. Jesus in his time showed us that rites, repetitive prayers, beautiful clothes, social status are not substitutes for the sincere desire to do the will of God and the prayer of worship. We are accustomed, individually, to speaking to God, to asking him for strength and wisdom, to giving him thanks in silence, but, when we are in a group, we feel a discomfort or unease. As if we were afraid of going back to a religion of sterile rites. Jesus did not offer or ask for any specific rite or prayer to be done daily. The only exception is that he inaugurated the Remembrance Supper.
The institution of the memorial dinner
“the Master was instituting a new remembrance supper as a symbol of the new dispensation wherein the enslaved individual emerges from the bondage of ceremonialism and selfishness into the spiritual joy of the brotherhood and fellowship of the liberated faith sons of the living God.” (UB 179:5.2)
After a quiet prayer, we read, among other things, the passages from the Book about Jesus washing the apostles’ feet and reflected and shared the meanings of this teaching. How futile it is to seek honors. That to be great in the kingdom, one must become the servant of all. We also shared about the aspects of Jesus’ personality that most attracted us. A little later, we broke bread and shared wine in remembrance of the Master. We discussed the effects of his bestowal on our world: his teachings that have survived in the Bible, the Spirit of Truth that has been given to us, and the bestowal of the Thought Adjusters. We asked ourselves: What would have become of Urantia if he had not come? It is probably only when we reach the mansion worlds that we will be able to realize, truly realize, what he has done for us and our world.
The last hour together was relaxed. We talked about our personal experiences. About the ministry of angels in our lives and laughed, laughed a lot.
It was a really nice evening and we agreed to meet again next year on the same date.
“This supper of remembrance, when it is partaken of by those who are Son-believing and God-knowing, does not need to have associated with its symbolism any of man’s puerile misinterpretations regarding the meaning of the divine presence, for upon all such occasions the Master is really present. The remembrance supper is the believer’s symbolic rendezvous with Michael. When you become thus spirit-conscious, the Son is actually present, and his spirit fraternizes with the indwelling fragment of his Father.” (UB 179:5.6)
¶ The Master’s Last Supper
Gilles Bertrand
Quebec
This Thursday, April 6, 2017, Louise and I agreed to host a small group of friends at home to commemorate this special event that is the last scene, knowing that across the globe many people were performing the same symbolism, that is to say, the reminder of the life of Jesus (Michael).
For me, this example of life doing the Will of God is worth all the books that want to teach us the good or the right path to follow to carry out our destiny. 7 people gathered around a table, simply enjoying a meal after reading the booklet 179 of the Urantia Book, describing the last supper of Jesus on earth.
We had thought about taking some souvenir shots, cameras and tripod ready for a group photography session but the intense atmosphere of seriousness, mystery, sensitivity to underline in our own way the importance of this meeting, made us forget these secondary things. So, we omitted that day, to take the usual photographs, to concentrate all on an exchange of friendly discussion that gave us 5 hours of moving sharing of love and well-being.
It was a first for us to gather together like this and we intend to repeat the experience. Not necessarily in the same way, not necessarily with the same people present that day, but to keep alive in our human and divine memory these images and thoughts that Christ Michael was kind enough to give us. We all raised our glasses in honor of this event and of all the Spirits present.
I am truly grateful to receive so many blessings as a mortal of this planet and I wish to continue this grace of meeting every year and perhaps one day this tradition will continue forever.
Where two or three people gather in your name, your Spirit Michael is among us.
“Blind and unforeseen accidents do not occur in the cosmos.” (UB 48:7.9)
¶ What a beautiful moment!
Jean and Claudette
Saint Lucia of the Laurentians
I thought I would share with you our experience of the Commemoration of Jesus’ Last Supper.
Claudette and I began our reading at 7:00 p.m., around the table decorated with a candle, a basket of bread and wine, in an atmosphere of contemplation.
After preparing ourselves well, we read the entire booklet, slowly, stopping to discuss specific points that spoke to us:
- The spirit of service, demonstrated by Jesus, which we try to repeat in our lives.
- The sense of humility and simplicity, which is so great in our eyes.
- Protect yourself against “how deceptive is the intellectual pride that precedes the spiritual fall” UB 179:4.2.
- “The power of truth could triumph over the deceptions of evil, but such victories are not won without the faith resulting from a sincere love of the truth” UB 179:4.5 hence the importance of truth in our personal and couple lives.
- The cup of my memory, the bread of memory “I am the bread of life, the unified life of the Father and the Son” UB 179:5.1 Message which appears to us more significant and more penetrating than “This is my body”, etc. as at Mass.
A beautiful moment where time has passed in the sweetness of the heart, which we want to repeat next year, and it is already programmed to ensure it.
The weather that prevented me from going to Ste-Sophie made it a memorable moment.
Even the wine was special, bought by chance on Wednesday… (Plan-de-Dieu, Côtes-durhône villages)
Thank you for encouraging these moments!
¶ Commemoration of the Remembrance Dinner
Louise Renaud
Quebec
This memorial dinner was something unique in my life among all the religious and spiritual experiences I have had.
There were seven of us at this dinner and we agreed to read the Urantia Book 179. Thinking about it, it was Thursday evening, April 6, 2017, and Jesus instituted this sole ceremony on the evening of a Thursday, April 6, in the year 30, so it has been 1987 years since Jesus sent us this invitation!
In rereading this booklet I look for the reason for this ceremony and I find several reasons, but the one that attracted me first and that challenged me the most is this one: “Now the Master was instituting a new remembrance supper as a symbol of the new dispensation wherein the enslaved individual emerges from the bondage of ceremonialism and selfishness into the spiritual joy of the brotherhood and fellowship of the liberated faith sons of the living God.” UB 179:5.2
For my part I have learned, I have experienced that faith is truly liberating up to seven different levels and that true living faith can transform us in the sense that our whole (my) life becomes new. The blue book tells us: when our belief has reached the level of faith when it motivates life and shapes the way of living, well, many things begin to change in our personal lives. From the moment we choose the path presented to us by Jesus and we ardently desire to follow it, everything changes and I no longer see my fellow man in the same light. Something has “awakened” in me, that is the new birth that Jesus was talking about!
You must be born again to live and understand the things of the Spirit.
Then a little further into the reading we are told that Jesus spoke using parables and symbols. This was imperative for him, he sought to prevent successive generations of humanity from crystallizing his teaching, and thereby immobilizing its spiritual meanings “by the dead chains of tradition and dogma.” UB 179:5.4
Unfortunately this is exactly what several generations in the past have experienced and suffered, including my grandparents as well as my parents and myself. But here I am, rebelling very young at around 17 and I dared to change all that, and of course to my great joy and happiness!
A little further on, the book tells us again and insists on this point: “He [Jesus] did not wish to destroy the individual’s concept of divine communion by establishing a precise form; neither did he desire to limit the believer’s spiritual imagination by formally cramping it…” UB 179:5.4 But quite the contrary: “He rather sought to set man’s reborn soul free upon the joyous wings of a new and living spiritual liberty.” UB 179:5.4
I have to think carefully, this spiritual freedom came to me through my faith in Jesus and his message. This belief which transformed itself in me little by little into living faith, I experienced it, I lived it surrounded by people who, like me, wanted to live this new life. So the divine part in me (my Thought Adjuster) and myself with my free will, we gave birth to my soul which was waiting (embryonic). I believe that what I dared to change in my life, the Bible calls this “the old man”. Here everything is new, a new Louise whose soul grows by experiencing these spiritual realities.
The most beautiful gift that Michael left us is his spirit of truth that guides us, inspires us, consoles us every day when we want to enter into communion with him. The supper of remembrance is “the meeting” for us believers. We really must pay attention to it, realize that Jesus is indeed present, and his spirit fraternizes with the inner fragment of his Father that lives in each of us.
“If you love people, they will draw near you—you will have no difficulty in winning them.” (UB 131:8.4)
¶ AUQ 2017 Membership
Marc Belleau
treasurer@urantiaqc.org
The year 2017 is already well underway and I would like to remind those who have forgotten to pay their membership to the Urantia Association of Quebec that they can still do so by sending a check to the following address: Association Urantia du Québec, 569 Francine, Ste-Sophie, QC, J5J 2H7. You can also go to the AUQ website (http://urantiaquebec.ca/devenir_membre.php) and pay using PayPal; you do not need to have an account to use this method. The cost of membership is $60.
If you feel like it, make a donation to maintain the projects of the AUQ. The publication of the monthly Réflectivité, the translation of Tidings and the journal of the Urantia Association International into French are projects worthy of support. These newsletters allow you to be in contact with readers in Quebec and around the world. By reading them alone, you are enriched by the reflection and experience of readers belonging to diverse cultures. It is also a good way to share your inner life with your community. The Association also has a mandate to propagate the revelation; it does this by sending books abroad. This program allows people who do not have the financial means to read The Urantia Book, to form study groups and to advance the revelation. It is important to create and support the formation of these study groups throughout the world so that the era can come when The Urantia Book will be accepted on a planetary scale. The role of our association is to help, stimulate and provoke today’s readers and tomorrow’s readers during their spiritual journey on earth. Without your help this will not happen. Personally, I would like tomorrow’s readers to have the same chance that we have to be part of this great and beautiful community. The Urantia Association of Quebec will survive us all and will continue to welcome thousands of future readers provided that we do our part. There is no better reason to support our association.
¶ What’s new at the Urantia Association of Quebec
The Association changes its postal address
New address:
569 Francine Street, Sainte-Sophie, QC, J5J 2H7
A translation committee has been created in the Urantia Association of Quebec (AUQ).
The person in charge is Jean-Pierre Cadieux. He is responsible for translating all English documents into French. “There are some!!!..”
If you feel you can help (at a time that suits you), contact the person in charge at (450) 530-1904, or via: traducteurl@urantiaqc.org
¶ HAVE YOU PURCHASED YOUR FUNDSCRIP CARDS?
[^1]Every time you buy Fundscrip cards, a percentage of your purchase is donated by the company to the Urantia Association of Quebec. A smart way to support the AUQ for the price of a stamp.
If you would like more information, go to the website of the Urantia Association of Quebec and click on the “Contribution” link, or you can read the excellent article written by Marc Belleau in the April 2017 Réflectivité.
You can also register immediately on the FundScrip website, by clicking on the following image.
¶ 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.
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
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
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: “The United Family of Urantia”
Montreal Region
Tuesdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Ms. Diane Labrecque: (514) 277-2308
Virtual Study Group, French
Every Monday from 5pm to 7pm Eastern Time
Via Zoom:
https://www.zoom.us/j/9()84766734
Responsible :
Guy Penon (438) 494-7747
Group : “Le Pont”
Montreal South Shore Region
Thursdays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Guy Vachon: (450) 465-7049
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
To see the official list of study groups, visit the AUQ website
Go to: Activity, Groups
study, (on the left bar 
List of study groups ”
Or click directly on the following link: http://urantia-quebec.ca/activites_liste_des_groupes.php