Changes

==Session==

==Session==

===Opening===

===Opening===

Dear Michael and [[Mother Spirit]],    I’ve been trying to get some [[Understanding|grasp]] on what is the [[essence]] of the coming holidays--or holy-days--at this time of year.  I recalled the [[words]] of the carol celebrating the little town of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem Bethlehem], the assertion that “the [[hopes]] and [[fears]] of all the years are met in thee tonight” with your birth as [[Jesus]].  It always puzzled me: what had fear to do with it?  What could it mean by a meeting of hope and fear?  But the more I [[thought]] of it, the more it seemed they are inextricably tied together.

Dear Michael and [[Mother Spirit]],    I’ve been trying to get some [[Understanding|grasp]] on what is the [[essence]] of the coming holidays--or holy-days--at this time of year.  I recalled the [[words]] of the carol celebrating the little town of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem Bethlehem], the assertion that “the [[hopes]] and [[fears]] of all the years are met in thee tonight” with your birth as [[Jesus]].  It always puzzled me: what had fear to do with it?  What could it mean by a meeting of hope and fear?  But the more I [[thought]] of it, the more it seemed they are inextricably tied together.

   

   

It’s fear that [[challenges]] the innate hope of a living [[human being]], yet by the same token it’s hope that allows us to conquer our fears.  So [[Paper 120 - The Bestowal of Michael on Urantia|your coming]] was the meeting of these two [[things]].  The hope that you [[Incarnation|embodied]] then, and now in our ways of contacting you and Mother Spirit, do give birth, do bring into [[consciousness]] those very fears and limitations that are holding us back.  It’s by having [[faith]] and hope in the two of you, and in our loving [[connection]], that we are able to meet those fears.  That is the triumph of [[hope]].

It’s fear that [[challenges]] the innate hope of a living [[human being]], yet by the same token it’s hope that allows us to conquer our fears.  So [[Paper 120 - The Bestowal of Michael on Urantia|your coming]] was the meeting of these two [[things]].  The hope that you [[Incarnation|embodied]] then, and now in our ways of contacting you and Mother Spirit, do give birth, do bring into [[consciousness]] those very fears and limitations that are holding us back.  It’s by having [[faith]] and hope in the two of you, and in our loving [[connection]], that we are able to meet those fears.  That is the triumph of [[hope]].

Student:  Pretty much so.  I can see how there is a strong tendency to [[Certainty|nail it all down]]--so to speak--and make it all just so, and get people to [[respond]] in a certain [[Manner|way]].  But it would be nice to allow people to be free--to choose to come and go in whatever they believe; it would really make a [[difference]].  

Student:  Pretty much so.  I can see how there is a strong tendency to [[Certainty|nail it all down]]--so to speak--and make it all just so, and get people to [[respond]] in a certain [[Manner|way]].  But it would be nice to allow people to be free--to choose to come and go in whatever they believe; it would really make a [[difference]].  

   

   

MICHAEL:  Well, once you socialize your religious [[feelings]], there is some deliberate [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning planning] involved in getting together.  Since you are in such a [[Dynamic|mobile]] [[society]] these days, it means you are scattered around so much more now than in the past.  But by the same token, you can utilize all your modern modes of transportation and [[communication]] to get together again.  You begin to glimpse the [[meaning]] of meaning.  But all the planning, all the shopping and buying presents for each other, all the decorations and [[music]], all this is to lead to that [[moment]] of literally being outside yourself in the [[sharing]], the--ex--in [[ecstasy]], is it not?  This is the [[laughter]] and the tears of joy, the [[profound]] [[worship]], the profound [[thankfulness]] that we are!  And that we are [[unique]] beings given each other--all these other unique beings surrounding us.  

MICHAEL:  Well, once you socialize your religious [[feelings]], there is some deliberate [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning planning] involved in getting together.  Since you are in such a [[Dynamic|mobile]] [[society]] these days, it means you are scattered around so much more now than in the past.  But by the same token, you can utilize all your modern modes of transportation and [[communication]] to get together again.  You begin to glimpse the [[meaning]] of meaning.  But all the planning, all the shopping and buying presents for each other, all the decorations and [[music]], all this is to lead to that [[moment]] of literally being outside yourself in the [[sharing]], the--ex--in [[ecstasy]], is it not?  This is the [[laughter]] and the tears of joy, the [[profound]] [[worship]], the profound [[thankfulness]] that we are!  And that we are [[unique]] beings given each other--all these other unique beings surrounding us.  

   

   

So I hope you do achieve this [[ecstasy]], my daughter, because you can only, in a sense, point yourself at it, and do your best to set up the conditions that let it come into being.  This is that other thing you cannot do alone, but are using Mother Spirit’s [[Adjutant Mind Spirits|Adjutant of Counsel]], or Gregariousness, that brings you together to [[share]] all this you can know.

So I hope you do achieve this [[ecstasy]], my daughter, because you can only, in a sense, point yourself at it, and do your best to set up the conditions that let it come into being.  This is that other thing you cannot do alone, but are using Mother Spirit’s [[Adjutant Mind Spirits|Adjutant of Counsel]], or Gregariousness, that brings you together to [[share]] all this you can know.

Student:  So would you say that the religious impulse that was clearly [[evident]] in your life when you simply “passed by” was also there in everyone you met--that you shared that with?

Student:  So would you say that the religious impulse that was clearly [[evident]] in your life when you simply “passed by” was also there in everyone you met--that you shared that with?

   

   

MICHAEL:  Strictly for myself, back then, the ability to have others within me--within my [[consciousness]]--was, like your own, an ability I had to [[grow]].  But I can say that after my [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism baptism] and regaining my self-awareness as a [[Creator Son]], as Michael, that was my great thrill and [[joy]] from that [[moment]] on--to [[totally]] [[encompass]] folks, whether they were aware of this or not.  I [[think]] any of you who read [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Urantia_Text_-_Contents#Part_IV._The_Life_and_Teachings_of_Jesus the story of my life], either in various versions of the [[Christian bible]] or the [[Urantia book]], were [[immediately]] struck with the [[fact]] that while some could recognize to a large degree the kind of [[person]] I was--the spiritual [[dimension]] I had, there were others who were quite blind to it.  For those who were very much afraid of this [[spirituality]], who were immediately put off by me for what threat I posed to their social or [[political]] [[status]], there was the supreme [[irony]] of their having spent their whole lives preparing for the coming of their [[Concept|notion]] of the [[Messiah]], yet they could not recognize him when he stood before them.  It was with this supreme irony that I fulfilled [[Prophecy|prophesies]].

MICHAEL:  Strictly for myself, back then, the ability to have others within me--within my [[consciousness]]--was, like your own, an ability I had to [[grow]].  But I can say that after my [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism baptism] and regaining my self-awareness as a [[Creator Son]], as Michael, that was my great thrill and [[joy]] from that [[moment]] on--to [[totally]] [[encompass]] folks, whether they were aware of this or not.  I [[think]] any of you who read [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Urantia_Text_-_Contents#Part_IV._The_Life_and_Teachings_of_Jesus the story of my life], either in various versions of the [[Christian bible]] or the [[Urantia book]], were [[immediately]] struck with the [[fact]] that while some could recognize to a large degree the kind of [[person]] I was--the spiritual [[dimension]] I had, there were others who were quite blind to it.  For those who were very much afraid of this [[spirituality]], who were immediately put off by me for what threat I posed to their social or [[political]] [[status]], there was the supreme [[irony]] of their having spent their whole lives preparing for the coming of their [[Concept|notion]] of the [[Messiah]], yet they could not recognize him when he stood before them.  It was with this supreme irony that I fulfilled [[Prophecy|prophesies]].

   

   

But yes, in my later years after I had achieved my own, shall we say, self-[[comprehension]], when I became aware--much as you do in your own [[moments]] of [[enlightenment]], become aware of your true nature as a spiritual being; from that [[moment]] on fellow human beings do become more [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparency_and_translucency transparent].  You are so much more capable of letting them in, and perceiving their spiritual nature as well.

But yes, in my later years after I had achieved my own, shall we say, self-[[comprehension]], when I became aware--much as you do in your own [[moments]] of [[enlightenment]], become aware of your true nature as a spiritual being; from that [[moment]] on fellow human beings do become more [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparency_and_translucency transparent].  You are so much more capable of letting them in, and perceiving their spiritual nature as well.

   

   

Student:  So in that sense, your ability was greater in spite of their unwillingness, or maybe their unawareness of who and what you were.  Was their lack of spiritual [[maturity]] less of an impediment to you?  

Student:  So in that sense, your ability was greater in spite of their unwillingness, or maybe their unawareness of who and what you were.  Was their lack of spiritual [[maturity]] less of an impediment to you?