Celestial Nights 2004 - A New Spirit of Unity
by Al Wolf
The seventh annual "Celestial Nights" retreat
gathering was once again held at Cape San Blas, FL,
in mid-February this year. A five-day event,
each year it has expanded and grown in both numbers
and in diversity of participants, attracting
spirit-led people of many different backgrounds to
come share their inner lives in God with each other,
in this setting of beauty and peace on the Gulf
coast.
This year there were 65 attendees, including
Urantia Book readers of many orientations: those who
work in close association with The Foundation and
IUA, The Fellowship, The Teaching Mission, The
RetreatNetwork, Rob Cricket International
Ministries, Square Circles, the Association for
Light and Life, and, of course, unaffiliated readers
and those who try to be supportive of all. And
yes, we were --and are-- all family! About a
third of this years' participants had not attended a
Celestial Nights gathering before, so there were
many wonderful opportunities for everyone there to
meet and get to know personally new faith brothers
and sisters in God's love, as well as to connect
with old friends from far away.
The basic format this year was a mix of times for
group stillness and centering/inner
worship/communing with God within; for group prayer
and worshipful singing of songs of love and praise
to God; for presentations of ongoing projects of
service by various individuals attending; and for
socialization/getting to know each other better
through sharing of our inner lives with God.
Also, this year we started out with a wonderful
worship and communion service dedicating a newly
built Temple to The Father in the woods outside of
Tallahassee; and we also celebrated the third
marriage ceremony to take place at a CN gathering,
that of Peri Best and Sonny Schneider! The
entire retreat gathering was supported and
interwoven by the wonderful interfaith spiritual
live music of Richard Knox.
This year's CN theme was "People Get Ready" for a
Magisterial Mission, and emphasized throughout the
five days was the importance for each of us
individually, for us all as a UB community, and for
us as a whole human family, worldwide, to prepare
for the sometime coming of our new Paradise Son,
Michael's brother --whether tomorrow or during the
lives of our grandchildren-- by going moment to
moment into and with the love and understanding
presence of God within, recognizing that same God
presence in each other, and coming to a point of
known unity with each other through our growing
experiential relationships of unity with our One
Universal God within. It's through living day
by day--and even breath by breath--in concert with
the experienced reality, love will of God our
Father, Who lives right within every person on
Earth, that we prepare for our finding out together
as a world family what Jesus taught us so well when
He was here, and what His brother will also be
teaching and working with us all worldwide to help
us realize more-- that even now we can know the joy
and fullness of being intimately related integral
parts of God's loving kingdom, of living Light and
Life moment to moment in true spirit unity with each
other and God.
Though there were many poignant moments of deeply
shared love, group worship, personal growth of
understanding and healing, and numerous wonderful
presentations by participants ranging in age from 20
to 70, on such topics as ministering to the
homeless, in the military, to youth, to those in
prison, etc... To me the essence of Celestial
Nights this year was an experienced, palpable and
very real new Spirit of Unity connecting all
attending-- A wonderful, gracious presence of
love and light stemming from our One Source and
Center, God our Father, but flowing directly from
our Universal Mother and Infinite Spirit combined,
through and with Michael/Jesus and Mom, on into and
through each one of us, leading all to experience,
if only for a little while, the reality of us all
being truly one family, in through and with God.
What more could one want out of a retreat
experience, but to realize deeply (even if just for
awhile, in a progression of eternal moments of love
fully presenting) our unity with each other, through
God's unity within?!
May all of our family--God's children, worldwide--be
blessed with just such a joyous experience!
With many thanks to the Tallahassee group of UB
readers who put together such a wonderful
gathering-- yet again!
"This sky we live in, it's no place to lose our
wings-- So love, love, love!" (Hafiz)
---Al Wolf
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