© 2022 Gaétan Charland, Claude Flibotte
© 2022 Urantia Association of Quebec
¶ Word from the President February 2022
Gaetan Charland
president@urantiaqc.org
Hello readers and friends of the association,
We are already entering the month of February and the year that is unfolding before our eyes seems to be coming with as many challenges as the previous year. There is a quote that comes to mind when I encounter situations similar to the one we are all experiencing today, here it is:
Jesus portrayed the profound surety of the God-knowing mortal when he said: “To a God-knowing kingdom believer, what does it matter if all things earthly crash?” Temporal securities are vulnerable, but spiritual sureties are impregnable. When the flood tides of human adversity, selfishness, cruelty, hate, malice, and jealousy beat about the mortal soul, you may rest in the assurance that there is one inner bastion, the citadel of the spirit, which is absolutely unassailable; at least this is true of every human being who has dedicated the keeping of his soul to the indwelling spirit of the eternal God. (UB 100:2.7)
In these troubled times where uncertainty reigns, we must remain calm and benevolent towards all those who can upset or offend us. This is a time of opportunity that is offered to us to shine the spiritual light, that of love, benevolence, peace in service to others. We must reflect and pray for more wisdom in our relationships with others in order to create harmony and not discord.
The Urantia Association of Quebec provides many tools to help navigate the turbulent waters of our time. It offers a multitude of documentation, such as the meditation of the day to remind us of our status as sons of God. It offers virtual conferences on different subjects that will help us progress on the long path of spiritual growth. It provides us with study groups that allow us to fraternize and deepen our knowledge of the teachings of The Urantia Book. Finally, there is a growing number of documents, both literary and visual, made available to us to help us in our adventure towards the Father.
What do we do with all these means at our disposal? The truth is waiting for us to make it alive; will we be dynamic sons of God or will we let indifference and procrastination win us over? We find that life is terribly short when we reach the autumn of our life, let us not wait for this moment to act, the service awaits us, the opportunities are there, let us launch ourselves into the adventure in the service of the Truth.
There will be the Annual General Meeting in March, you are all invited to participate. We will talk about the projects. There will be an election for the positions of vice-president and secretary, come and meet the members who represent you to the readers of Quebec, it is always a historic moment in the adventure of the Urantia movement in Quebec. Will your presence be highlighted in this long history? We will see you there!
To love is to serve
¶ Worshipful meditation technique practiced by Jesus
Claude Flibotte
Sainte-Julie
Facts, meanings and values, these three words come up often in The Urantia Book and for good reason, they constitute the basis of the technique of worshipful meditation practiced by Jesus, more than two thousand years ago. If you pay close attention to the story of Jesus’ life as told by the midwayers, you will notice that it is very often mentioned that he withdrew to a secluded place alone to commune with his Father. If you look more closely, you will see that he did this on occasions when human problems concerning the decisions to be made in his daily life, his relationships with others or his moral and spiritual choices required a decision to be made or an action to be taken. In fact, what did he do during these moments of communion with his Father? The answer seems quite clear to me! Faced with a problem, there is the human way of solving it or the divine way. Jesus, in communion with his Heavenly Father, was always seeking God’s way of doing things. Since God is perfect, his method is infallibly the right way to resolve conflicts. This healthy habit of meditating on God’s way of doing things represents precisely what Jesus was constantly seeking to achieve: to do the will of his Heavenly Father.
In regard to worshipful meditation, there were two crucial moments in the life of Jesus. The first occurred during his sojourn on Mount Hermon, which marked the end of his purely human career (UB 134:8). The second occurred after his baptism, the more divine phase of his bestowal, when he meditated on the course of action he should take in order to continue to do his Father’s will. There, alone with his now personalized Adjuster, he made six great decisions which dictated the remainder of his life on earth (UB 136:5-10).
Prayer, worship, and worshipful meditation are three different techniques for knowing and doing the will of the Father. Prayer is the first technique and the one that is most natural to man. Even primitive man prayed although he was uneducated and totally ignorant of spiritual realities. True prayer inclines man to turn to the Creator for help for himself or for others. Ideally, prayer addressed to the Father would concern obtaining greater wisdom, otherwise this prayer should rather be addressed to the Son Creator of the universe. In fact, the usefulness of prayer consists mainly in changing the attitude of the praying person to make him more in conformity with divine ideals. By analogy, prayer is more like man reaching the court of the Father’s temple.
Worship is a more advanced technique for contacting the Father’s presence within oneself. Worship requires nothing. It consists of the worshiper’s intellectual recognition of the nature and attributes of the Father in order to give him thanks for all the blessings he bestows upon his children. Worship makes the worshiper a better being by seeking to imitate the divine qualities in his life. Worship is truly a real communion between man and the Adjuster. To use my analogy mentioned a little earlier, I would say that worship is like a man having crossed the temple court and standing in the midst of it facing the Father.
Worshipful meditation represents for me the pinnacle of communion with the Father in the mind of the Supreme Being. Here, man communes with the divinity of the Father to deposit on the altar of the temple his life experience and to seek, in collaboration with the Father, the perfect divine method to solve this problem. This is the supreme search for perfection! Continuing my analogy, I would say that by this technique, man has crossed the veil of the most holy place to identify himself with the divine and to do the will of the Father.
¶ God the Father-idea, God the Son-expression,
God the Spirit-actionWe find the same pattern in the expansive expression of Deity. The Universal Father is the original ideation of the subinfinite creation which expresses itself through the word of the Eternal Son in order to find its realization in the Infinite Spirit, the Conjoint Actor. The idea of the Father is the fact finding meanings in the Son to finally express itself in divine values in the Infinite Spirit.
¶ Conclusion
In conclusion, whether we use any of the three techniques practiced by Jesus, all three exist to identify with the divine and increasingly seek to do the Father’s will. Through these three methods, Jesus finally reached the pinnacle of human evolution by becoming the perfect human being as the Father originally designed us to be! It is up to us to make the right choices!
The AUQ will hold its Annual General Meeting on Saturday, March 12 at 1 p.m.. The meeting will be held virtually again this year.
This is an opportunity for the members of the board of directors to present the actions they have undertaken in 2021, see what is planned for 2022, and for readers, to see what is happening in Quebec.
AUQ members in good standing have received the invitation by mail and have the opportunity to present their nomination for either the position of Vice-President or Secretary.
The potential of the group always far exceeds the mere sum of the attributes of the individuals who compose it. LU 10:5.2
Article 49:
Composition: The directors of the AUQ are the members of the Board of Directors and the heads of the various standing committees of the AUQ.
Call for Nominations
Description of Positions: (From our Corporate By-Laws and Regulations—Articles 50 and 53)
Vice-President: The vice-president replaces the President and any other member of the board as needed; like the president, the vice-president of a local association acts as liaison with the other local associations and participates, as a voting member, in the meetings of the national association.
Secretary: The Secretary handles mail and takes minutes; keeps the membership register, directs readers to study groups, and answers members’ questions or delegates another person to answer them.
Any member in good standing who wishes to submit his or her candidacy may do so immediately by communicating his or her intention by mail or email to the following addresses:
Urantia Association of Quebec
Attention: Secretary
569 Francine Street, QC
J5J 2 H 7
By email: secretaire@urantiaqc.org
¶ Conference: Science vs Religion
Sunday March 6, 2022
Richard Lachance
We will examine the state of affairs on the current debates among the most prominent scientists adhering to vs. opposing the proof of God, “Intelligent Design”, creationism vs. evolution.
We will discuss atheism and agnosticism, the example of Lucifer, the problem of pride, and the triumph of faith in a personal God.
We will then examine the current understanding of the structure of the large-scale universe according to cosmological hypotheses based on The Urantia Book in light of the latest scientific discoveries.
Suggested readings: Fascicles 100 to 103;
More specifically, to whet your appetite: [UB 101:2.11], [UB 103:8.4], UB 103:8.5, UB 103:8.2, UB 132:2.4
¶ Sunday, February 13 at 1 p.m.
you are invited to attend the conference,
The Eternal Future
presented by Eric Tarissan.
To join the group, click on the following link 5 minutes before the meeting. https://us02web.zoom.us///82794043873
We know from The Urantia Book that time and space are eternal and that there never was a beginning. There never was a Big Bang, an explosion, or any similar anecdotal departure.
It all started with the help of the Power Directors and the Master Architects, but go explain to a physicist or an astronomer that the universe with its multitude of galaxies was made about 987 billion years ago.
But what about the future of the universe and the personalities who inhabit it and will inhabit it?
What will happen once the transcendent experience of the Ultimate is completed? And God the Absolute with the absolute Trinity, will they really see the light of day, and if so, what will happen then, will the potentials all be consumed?
Looking forward to meeting you and sharing with you.
¶ Study groups
This activity allows several readers of different levels of understanding to exchange 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.
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
NEW
Group: “Urantian Universalists”
Every Monday from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Eastern Time (Montreal)
Responsible:
Claude Flibotte (438) 404-6399
Subject: Appendices of W. S. Sadler Jr.
Zoom Virtual Group. (Get informed)
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
¶ Réflectivité
| Responsible: | Claude Flibotte |
| Assisted by: | Robert Cadieux Gilles Bertrand |
(438) 404-6399 Claude Flibotte
(514) 237-3616 Robert Cadieux
(418) 871-4564 Gilles Bertrand
Publication (monthly)
Last week of the previous month.
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