© 2018 Line St-Pierre, Hélène Boisvenue
© 2018 Urantia Association of Quebec
¶ Word from the President
Line St-Pierre
president@urantiaqc.org
“Religion is the mighty lever that lifts civilization from chaos, but it is powerless apart from the fulcrum of sound and normal mind resting securely on sound and normal heredity.” (UB 70:8.18)
I see all the controversy and insecurity that the legislation of the neighboring president and his troops creates, but I refuse to tread this shifting ground and let myself be swallowed up by all the negativity that follows, which undermines the good attitude that I want to maintain. It is too easy to criticize and let yourself be dragged down when you cannot really change what is happening.
How can we protect ourselves from such influences and see to counteract our reactions and the negative effects they can have? I know that with faith and with heavenly help, day after day by making the choice to decide to live in harmony, it makes all the difference!
Pushing back the darkness around us, by bringing light into it; connecting with God through prayer and worshipful meditation, praying that all the celestial agents and spiritual forces will see to the restoration of love in the hearts of men who create all these controversies.
Becoming more aware of who inhabits our mind and collaborating with the divine inner monitor contributes to the stability of our being and the removal of pessimism.
“The presence of a great Thought Adjuster does not bestow ease of living and freedom from strenuous thinking, but such a divine gift should confer a sublime peace of mind and a superb tranquillity of spirit.” (UB 108:5.5) [Presented by a Lone Messenger of Orvonton]
To love is to serve
“men die searching for the very God who lives within them.” (UB 159:3.8)
¶ The career of knowing God
Helene Boisvenue
Sherbrooke
[Conference given by Hélène Boisvenue during the theme of May 27, 2018: “Life after death”]
Some years ago, after reading and studying William Sadler Jr.'s book [“A Study of the Master Universe”], I developed a lecture that summarized and popularized the structure, organization, and management of the Master Universe.
After describing the great stages of evolution of the superuniverses and the outer spaces, after associating with these stages the growth and emergence of the Supreme Being, of God the Ultimate and even of God the Absolute, after touching upon the possible reality of an infinite cosmos, I ended my presentation with a question: Why all this unfolding of universes?
Those who attended my presentation may recall one possible answer: because God wants to reveal Himself. All reality, whether material, mental, or spiritual, whether finite, absonite, or absolute, emerges to reveal God. Our existence is no exception to this truth.
The corollary of this great desire of God — to reveal himself — to us men and to all creatures of the universe is to know God. This is the purpose of our existence today in materiality and, after death, whether our path may skirt the morontia worlds of the local universe or the more spiritual worlds of the minor and major sectors or of the superuniverse or the more advanced worlds of the Havona spheres.
Let us listen to Jesus in one of his final exhortations just before the ascension:
“From the beginning of my sojourn as one of you, I taught you that my one purpose was to reveal my Father in heaven to his children on earth. I have lived the God-revealing bestowal that you might experience the God-knowing career.” (UB 193:0.3)
I had, like some of you, a great friend and spiritual educator, Moussa Ndiaye. He told us that when he was very young, around the age of 14, he wondered “how to know God?”. He questioned the imams and marabouts - the educators of his maternal religion; but he was received with some impatient reaction because these religious specialists were all bothered by the nagging questions of the adolescent in spiritual search.
So today, like my friend Moussa, we ask ourselves this question: “How to know God?” since this question accompanies our universal career.
¶ A pear story
I have taught elementary school children, specifically 7-year-olds. I vividly remember a little boy from Cuba named Aldo. One day during a math class, I gave a problem about pears that were bought and used to make a dessert. Aldo, worried, approached me and explained that he could not solve the problem because he did not know pears. So the next day, I brought him a pear and invited him to taste it. He really liked the taste.
What should we do to know what a pear is? Should we photograph it, illustrate it on pretty cards, dissect it and analyze the chemical formula that configures it or should we simply taste it and integrate it into our organism? This is the way to know God: integrate him into your nature, live divine values.
As early as Paper 1 of The Urantia Book, a Divine Counselor states: “The transcendent goal of the children of time is to find the eternal God, to understand his divine nature, to recognize the Universal Father.” And the revelator adds: “From the universal father who dwells in eternity has come the supreme commandment, ‘Be ye perfect, even as I am perfect.’ In love and mercy, the Paradise messengers have carried this divine exhortation down through the ages and universes, even to such lowly creatures of animal origin as the mortal races of Urantia.” UB 1:0.3
This sublime search for the God of the universes is the supreme adventure of the inhabitants of the worlds of time and space. To do this, dissecting God into theological concepts (like dissecting the pear into its chemical elements) is interesting in itself and satisfies our minds, but to know God, to truly taste him, one must be like him. It is a long journey that begins here on earth and continues for ages in those future situations that we call life after death.
¶ We already have keys to the knowledge of God
There should be no separation between life on earth and life after death. The two stages are combined in an educational program to allow us to know God. In this educational program, I feel like making an apology for life on earth, celebrating our situation.
“It is not so much what you learn in this first life; it is the experience of living this life that is important.” (UB 39:4.13)
The question may be asked, why is it so important to live a human life? I believe that many ordinary human experiences initiate the knowledge of God in ascending mortals—although few are aware of it. These earthly experiences are irreplaceable for the continuation of evolution and perfection in the Mansion World and beyond. These experiences peculiar to our planet are keys to discovering the nature of God.
1. The Parental Experience
I have previously presented a lecture entitled “How Parental Experience Enhances Knowledge of God”. Parental experience is a key to finding God and many will draw on this experience to progress toward God after death. This is true whether you are a parent or not. We all have at least the experience of having been children in relationship with parents who for the most part were loving. Although many human beings are not yet aware of the spiritual benefits attached to this experience, in other stages of their journey after death, they will rediscover the richness of their experience and its high value in knowing the parental feelings of a God of tender nature who in loving and being loved finds his greatest satisfaction. UB 4:4.6
2. The experience of diversity and social adaptability.
In the capital of the Constellation—Edentia—live the Univitatias, the permanent citizens of the 70 major spheres of these architectural worlds. These natives of the 70 major spheres of Edentia have different forms from one major sphere to another. They are created to function in 70 different orders of personality and each of these orders presents 10 varied intellectual types. This makes a lot of difference in these special beings. In all of Orvonton, with few exceptions, no one can compete with them in terms of social adaptability.
Our stay on Edentia as ascending mortals will be spent mainly in mastering group ethics. In contact with the Univitatias, we will develop the ability to live and work with dissimilar beings with ever-decreasing irritability and even ever-increasing pleasure.
This training that awaits us at the Capital of the Constellation will be essential to our spiritual growth and to the career of the knowledge of God. Why? Because it will intensify the divine values of tolerance, patience, kindness, benevolence, joy, it will develop in us the divine nature.
We must realize that already on earth we have the possibility of developing the qualities specific to the Constellation, that is to say of living difference with sympathy and pleasure. Do we not live here with so many cultures, ethnic groups, races and mentalities? And this situation has been accentuated in recent decades with globalization, the ease of transportation throughout the world and the movement of many populations. We have here privileged circumstances that give us keys to the knowledge of God.
I have described here two earthly situations that open the way to the knowledge of God. There are surely many others that will continue beyond death. They are sometimes quite ordinary, but in God’s eyes they are precious. It is a matter of our having enough insight to discover these pearls of growth in the monotony of our daily lives.
¶ The spiritual experience to know God
“God who is spirit can be known only as a spiritual experience” (UB 169:4.13)
A massage therapist friend told me about an unusual experience during a work session. During a routine massage, she felt at a certain moment an exceptional relaxation, a total well-being, she felt an extraordinary influx of energy circulating in her. “I could have massaged for hours in that state”, she declared and added: “What a beautiful spiritual experience!”
I have a little difficulty here in interpreting the phenomenon experienced by this friend, but I have doubts as to a true spiritual experience. There may have been a spiritual experience, but not in the sense that she gave it. If this massage therapist was mobilized for the well-being of her client and if a surge of benevolence inhabited her, then, yes, we can affirm that her Adjuster will inscribe the spiritual counterpart in her soul. Many ordinary experiences of human life have a spiritual counterpart: “Any event can have a spiritual value for one mortal without having any for another.” UB 40:9.7
We must realize that God acts gently in people’s lives, so gently and simply that His action often goes unnoticed. The spiritual experience for men is most often found in a desire to manifest in their being the divine values advocated by Jesus. Ultimately, it is a matter of integrating into our habits of life the behaviors of Jesus during his bestowal on Urantia. “He [Jesus] tirelessly repeated to his associates that they should ”manifest love, compassion, sympathy“. He taught his followers early on that the kingdom of heaven was a spiritual experience concerning the enthronement of God in the hearts of men.” UB 137:7.13
Our universal career is an unbroken chain of many links. “Your short sojourn on earth, the sphere of mortal infancy, is but one link, the very first in the long chain which stretches through the universes and down the eternal ages. […] The work in this world, important as it is, is not nearly so important as the manner in which you do it.” UB 39:4.13. This manner indicates our choice to do the will of God and to respond to his magnificent injunction: “Be ye perfect, even as I am.” This is the true spiritual experience which makes us acquainted with our Universal Father. Life after death is a continuation of the adventure begun here in materiality. Here again the knowledge we acquire, the work we do, will not be so important as the manner in which we live.
¶ Conclusion
When I was a child, and also later before I studied The Urantia Book, I viewed the afterlife as a life of happiness and fulfillment as a reward for living a good life on earth (meaning meeting certain prescribed standards of morality). How mistaken! The afterlife is a long career in which varied environments produce experiences that enable us to walk step by step along specially prepared paths and thus grow in the knowledge of God. Life on earth is the first of these paths.
¶ HAVE YOU PURCHASED YOUR FUNDSCRIP CARDS? THIS MONTH?
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 Réflectivité of April 2017.
You can also register immediately on the FundScrip website, by clicking on the following image.
IMPORTANT
The date for the feast of Jesus at Mount Royal Park has been moved from August 19 to 26, 2018
¶ Details of upcoming activities
Michael’s Day 2018
Come and fraternize…
Sunday, August 26 2018, 11am-3pm you are all invited to Michael’s party on Mont-Royal — near Lac des Castors, between the Restaurant and the paid parking lot (around $8 in 2017).
As usual you will just have to follow the directions with the concentric circles from the parking lot.
Bring your own food, chairs and musical instruments.
Bertin Perron and Julien Audet.
¶ Urantia-Association-of-Quebec — 2018 Calendar of Activities
| Sunday, January 14 | Board of Directors — in-person meeting | 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. |
| Saturday, February 10 | Annual General Meeting in Drummondville | 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. |
| Sunday, March 4 | Board of Directors — in-person meeting | 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. |
| Sunday, May 6 | Board of Directors — in-person meeting | 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. |
| Sunday, May 27 | Theme day - (Life after death) | 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. |
| Sunday, June 10 | Board of Directors — in-person meeting | 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. |
| Sunday August 26 | Picnic for the Feast of Jesus — Mount Royal Park | 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. |
| Sunday, September 9 | Board of Directors — in-person meeting | 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. |
| Sunday, September 30 | Presentation for Study Group Hosts | 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. |
| Sunday, October 14 | Presentation of the Urantia Book in Montreal (General Public) | 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. |
| Thursday, November 15 | Board of Directors — online meeting with Zoom | 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. |
| Sunday, December 9 | Holiday Brunch | 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. |
¶ 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
Region: Gatineau
Wednesday, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Maurice Migneault (613) 789-6833
Group: “The Artisans of Progress”
Region: Montreal — Center of the island
Wednesdays, during the day
Robert Cadieux (514) 237-3616
Group: “At Maisonia”
Region: Quebec
Every 2 weeks: Sundays, from 1:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Gilles Bertrand & Louise Renaud (418) 871-4564
Group: “Découverte”
Region: Laurentides — St-Jérôme
Mondays, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Gaétan Charland and Line St-Pierre
Tel.: (450) 565-3323
Group : “Le Pont”
Region: South Shore of Montreal — Brossard
Thursdays, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Guy Vachon (450) 465-7049
Group: “The United Family of Urantia”
Region: Montreal — Downtown
Wednesdays, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Mrs. Diane Labrecque (514) 277-2308
Sherbrooke Group
Region: Sherbrooke
Every 2 weeks: Tuesday or Wednesday, (to be confirmed) from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Hélène Boisvenue and Denis Gravelle Tel.: (819) 569-6416
Virtual Study Group, French
Every Monday from 2pm to 4pm Eastern Time
Via Zoom: https://www.zoom.us/j/9084766734
Responsible: Guy Perron (438) 495-7747
To see the official list of study groups, visit AUQ website.
- Go to: “Activity, Study Groups, (on the left bar): List of study groups”
- Or click directly on the following link: http://urantia-quebec.ca/activites_liste_des_groupes.php
Potential Study Groups Seeking Participants
Group: “Uni-Terre”
Region: Joliette
Sundays at 10:00 am
Contact: Eric Martel (450) 756-9387
Group : “Le portail du bercail”
Region: Sorel
Mrs. Eva & Ernest Asselin
(450) 517-0136
Group: “Saguenay”
Region: Saguenay
Contact: Jean-Guillaume Tremblay (418) 693-2049
¶ Réflectivité
Responsible: (418) 835-1809 (Normand Laperle)
Assistant: (418) 871-4564 (Gilles Bertrand)
Publication (monthly)
Last week of the previous month.
To submit your articles:
Send them to: reflectivite.auq@gmail.com
Add: Your name and city of residence.