© 2021 Gaétan Charland, Sophie Malicot, Margarita Niño, Line St-Pierre, Gilles Bertrand, Éric Tarissan
© 2021 Urantia Association of Quebec
¶ Word from the President 2021
Gaetan Charland
president@urantiaqc.org
Hello readers and students of The Urantia Book,
At the end of my message last month, I expressed my concern about the lack of people involved in the Urantia movement in Quebec, the presence of young people as readers or members of a study group and the next generation of members on the association’s board. In fact, these shortcomings are also reflected in several regions of the globe where The Urantia Book is present and/or Urantia Association International works to disseminate its teachings.
So what are some of the actions we can take to address this situation? I thought first of education; we are going to add a section on our website dedicated entirely to education. This section will primarily promote virtual schools that offer courses on the teachings of The Urantia Book. There are currently three: The Urantia Book Internet School (UBIS), sponsored by the Foundation, Urantia University Institute (UUI), and Ambassador School, sponsored by The Christ Experiment. These three schools offer courses at different levels of learning and pedagogy, as well as offering a variety of courses that can meet different intellectual and spiritual needs.
For now, only one of these schools offers courses in French (UBIS). Soon a second school, École des Ambassadeurs will have the course Le Ministère du Maitre.
For the third of these schools (UUI) it will be necessary to find volunteers to translate and teach courses offered by the latter. Each of these schools will have a dedicated page on the website of the Quebec association to promote their courses.
As for education, I have also been wondering for a very long time about how to teach children, or rather, what training could we offer to parents that could teach them how and what to teach their children and that could gradually awaken them to a spiritual awareness. We have all noticed that with the new curriculum in schools and the disappearance of religious people, there is no longer any religious education given to students. There is a significant lack of spiritual education among children and this deficiency must be rectified.
Parents have an important moral obligation towards their children, we must not forget that we are children of God and it is up to all of us to ensure that spiritual light is transmitted to new generations. I leave you to meditate on these three quotes from The Urantia Book which highlight the importance of education in our lives. To be continued…
“Women seem to have more intuition than men, but they also appear to be somewhat less logical. Woman, however, has always been the moral standard-bearer and the spiritual leader of mankind. The hand that rocks the cradle still fraternizes with destiny.” (UB 84:6.4)
“It is the purpose of education to develop and sharpen these innate endowments of the human mind; of civilization to express them; of life experience to realize them; of religion to ennoble them; and of personality to unify them.” (UB 16:6.11)
Education is the business of living; it must continue throughout a lifetime so that mankind may gradually experience the ascending levels of mortal wisdom, which are: (UB 71:7.5)
To love is to serve
¶ In memoriam
On April 6th, a long-time reader and devoted servant, Édouard Bellerive, left us for the world of houses. Eddy, as he liked to be called, served as treasurer of the Urantia Association of Quebec for many years. He is survived by his wife Louise Charbonneau, his two sons William and Grégoire, their spouses and his three granddaughters, Émilie, Maude and Élisabeth.
A donation in memoriam can be made on the association’s website in the CONTRIBUTIONS/DONATION in memoriam section and you can send your condolences to the family at this address (loucbel@gmail.com)
¶ Comments on Jean Annet’s conference
Sophie Malicot
France
Hello Jean,
Your conference was a success!
Undeniably appreciated by all…
Undeniably, too, everyone needs to talk about their spiritual experience.
The fruits of the Spirit are the manifestation in act, non-verbal, which does not replace the value of the Logo, that same gift of God, differentiating us forever from the animal world and allowing us to enter into communication with the Ineffable.
So you still have to plan your next intervention since it is necessary.
The testimonies were very interesting and complementary.
After your conference, I tell myself that it is not God who needs our means to get in touch with each other, but us.
The problem is this rigidification that we have made of these means, which makes us believe that without them, we cannot communicate freely and simply with the Divinity.
Jesus did not meditate, did not fast much; he prayed and spoke with divine beings in the same way as with mortal beings, by his human nature.
“Without asking, we cannot give”; so it is “enough” for us to ask.
If we regard our Adjuster as a friend, or even a fiancé, the first thing to do is to speak to him.
This sacred logo…
And his first reaction will be to answer us.
It’s simple, true, effective.
The question of discernment remains.
Is it the mind and its follies that embroider answers or do they come from the spiritual world?
Our mind can be expanded, flared and breathe divine air, which is a good sign of discernment.
It expands, opens ever wider horizons which at the same time make us look at the one who is there, present next to us.
If we live this experience without physical poisons, it is a good sign.
He may be shriveled up by sinking into his increasingly obsessive mazes, a sign of his excesses.
We sink into our mental poisons, the fruits of which will also bear fruit.
It’s up to us to see, simply.
Despite your request, I did not speak.
Lack of time, but maybe it’s better this way.
My point of view is very simple on contact with the divine world.
At the same time, my work in medicine does not make me ignore the enormous pitfalls of the psyche.
Ultimately, it is simple to speak of divine life and very complex to translate it for the mind.
This is probably our human condition, for now.
Be loved!
Divinity is creature comprehensible as truth, beauty, and goodness; (UB 0:1.17)
¶ In search of truth
Margarita Niño
Montreal
What do we look for every day? … we look for things that have been lost or found, we look for a job, or a good deal, we look for a souvenir in our memory or in our photo albums, we look for people we know and others we don’t know. We look, and we look… and life overwhelms us and of all that we have looked for, what is it that lives within us today?
If we are accompanied by the joy of living, the tenacity to continue even if we stumble several times, 'is that the objective of our most constant searches has a real value. It is that we seek the Truth in its multiple forms and nuances, it is that we always keep the certainty that it is worth fighting for the objectives that we have set for ourselves, even if we still see them as distant.
To seek the Truth is to seek the meaning of Life, it is to seek what remains even if everything seems to change, it is to have an ideal that goes beyond what money or power allows us to obtain. It is to seek what contributes to making the world a better place for all and that we share.
To seek the Truth, we only need to mobilize our will to manifest the desire to find it, without lying to ourselves or to those who are with us. The search for the Truth goes hand in hand with inner righteousness and with the desire to find and fulfill our own mission within the supreme project of building a true human fraternity.
We can all seek the Truth, let’s do it and live richer and much happier lives!
¶ A Remembrance Dinner Experience
Line St-Pierre
Ste-Sophie
Although we, ten members of the Discovery study group, were joyfully anticipating this meeting of the Remembrance Dinner, the 5th since its inception in our group, it was with great sadness that Gaétan and I informed the participants of the sudden death that same morning of April 6, of our friend and member of the study group, Édouard Bellerive.
With all the emotions that filled us with this shocking departure, we prayed to our master and brother Jesus and thanked him for comforting us and for comforting Louise Charbonneau, his wife and the members of his family.
With great devotion we took turns reading the texts associated with Jesus’ last supper, and each in our homes communed with Him. His Spirit made us perceive beautiful meanings, and we shared at length our love for Him and our gratitude for His coming to Urantia; for having inspired us with His incomparable teachings showing us how to live a fulfilled life by placing ourselves at the service of the brotherhood.
One of the participants told us that she had read these passages before, but jokingly, as our late friend Eddy often said: “It wasn’t written in my book the last time I read this passage.” And that at that moment, she was very touched by the perceptions she felt.
¶ A public thank you
Gilles Bertrand
Quebec
Jean Annet, you have reconciled me with a certain vision of life. This open-mindedness, with this acceptance of the movements of humans with the intrinsic need for interiority.
During the webinar sponsored by the AUQ this past April 11, you proposed to us this interesting subject which is our personal contact with the Adjuster by inviting us to follow your conference with this catchy title “Opening the divine channel - how to contact your Adjuster”
Not that I doubted this divine contact myself, but the way of interpreting the practice of my planetary brothers and sisters incited me to a certain intolerance; having in mind a distorted and interpretative image on my part especially due to my personal beliefs.
With the moving testimonies at the end of this videoconference meeting, I also did not feel like the only one who had gotten lost in his prejudices and erratic judgments.
Jean, you have straightened our consciences in an undeniably authentic and salutary direction. Your messages of indulgence and non-conformity have been confirmed by private discussions with a few people after this meeting with several people.
Each person’s path is personal. Personality is unique. Adjuster experiences are exclusive. Each person’s talents demonstrate their singular art.
I now understand a little better the passages of the Urantia Book that mention this. Our evaluations, our criteria of righteousness, our interpretations are relative, punctual and always marked by errors due to our original imperfection. This extract leaves me in reflection and contemplation: “Do not make the mistake of judging the religion of others according to your own criteria of knowledge and truth.” UB 101:9.2
In the future, I will take a fresh look at cathedrals, at the practices of my fellow citizens who have much to teach me, who open me to their spirituality, who demonstrate their moral life. I will now discover their art of living… I will finish with this other excerpt from our book of wisdom: “Making friends with your brothers and sisters, knowing their problems and learning to love them, is the supreme experience of life.” UB 130:2.6
Thank you Jean, thanks to your conference I know you a little more and through that, I love you a little more.
Unity in diversity is the key!
From a brother from another continent!
¶ Depression
Eric Tarissan
Quebec
Since the beginning of this pandemic, we have heard even more about depression and suicide, and with good reason! We know that in order to slow the spread of the virus so that the health system could provide care to as many people as possible, it had to force us to confine ourselves as much as possible and limit our social contacts. As a result, many people that the government was unable to help in time or at all will have paid the price of this necessary confinement. As a result, the rate of depression and suicide has skyrocketed, revealing our ignorance and our lack of obvious tools when dealing with such crises.
The education system could improve further by providing practical solutions for well-adapted human relationships in these trying times of crisis.
There are basic rules to better face life’s difficulties and get through them, and even transcend them.
The Urmia religionists lived together in comparative peace and tranquillity because they had fully surrendered all their notions of religious sovereignty. Spiritually, they all believed in a sovereign God; socially, full and unchallengeable authority rested in their presiding head—Cymboyton. They well knew what would happen to any teacher who assumed to lord it over his fellow teachers. There can be no lasting religious peace on Urantia until all religious groups freely surrender all their notions of divine favor, chosen people, and religious sovereignty. Only when God the Father becomes supreme will men become religious brothers and live together in religious peace on earth. (UB 134:4.10)
First, it is important to come to accept the situation and find peace with it.
Then, it is good to question ourselves and see what our real priorities are, what is important and meaningful to us.
It is also well not to fall into the “role” of savior, and not to bear the burden of the injustices and sufferings of the world for which we are not responsible, by remembering that our Adjuster is directly concerned with only one person: ourselves. And before we think of saving anyone, we must save ourselves, for who can save us from drowning if we are already drowning?
Which brings me to the next point: if we thought it right in the past to help those around us, is it not also right and just today that we ourselves receive help?
Commit all things to God, thanking Him for the gift of life, an effective mind, a dynamic free will, a functioning ego, a unique and very real personality, a living soul, the fruit of the spiritually intelligent and meaningful use of all these gifts, and a perfect, active, respectful, and benevolent Thought Adjuster.
This world is the first step toward Paradise, and even if all things were to fall apart, if you have placed your soul in the hands of your Adjusters, know that God has eternally planned everything and, therefore, we will never finish experiencing the relational, spiritual and eternal never-ending discovery of His love, of which He is the Absolute Source.
¶ 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 to the teachings of The Urantia Book in their daily lives. This important step 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: “Uni-Terre”
Region: Joliette
Sundays from 9:00 am to 11:00 am, (virtual Zoom)
Contact :
Eric Martel (450) 756-9387
Group: “At Maisonnia”
Region: Quebec
Every 2 weeks: Sundays, from 1:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Gilles Bertrand & Louise Renaud (418) 871-4564
Group: “The United Family of Urantia”
Region: Montreal — Downtown
Thursdays, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Mrs. Diane Labrecque (514) 277-2308
Group : “Le Pont”
Region: Montérégie
(Sainte-Julie, south of Montreal)
Tuesdays, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Claude Flibotte (438) 404-6399
Virtual Study Group, French
Every Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time (Montreal)
Via Zoom: https://www.zoom.us/j/9084766734
Responsible :
Guy Perron (438) 495-7747
Group: “Découverte”
Region: Laurentians — St-Jérôme
Mondays, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Gaétan Charland and Line St-Pierre Tel.: (450) 565-3323
Possibility to participate via Internet (Zoom)
Sherbrooke Group
Region: Sherbrooke
Every 2 weeks: Tuesday or Wednesday, (to be confirmed) from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Helene Boisvenue and Denis Gravelle
Tel.: (819) 569-6416
To see the official list of study groups:
Click directly on the following link: http://urantia-quebec.ca/activites_liste_des_groupes.php
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(438) 404-6399 Claude Flibotte
(418) 835-1809 Normand Laperle
(418) 871-4564 Gilles Bertrand
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