Olá, bom dia.
Que bom ter vocês todos conosco de novo
nesta série de conversas de sábado.
E temos uma comunicação muito importante para lhes dar,
porque estamos celebrando dois anos de conversas continuas em abril de 2011.
Então, todos vocês são convidados a nos unirmos,
a estar conosco e a continuarmos celebrando
neste trabalho que estamos fazendo com tantos convidados
que estão vindo todos os sábados para nos falar e compartilhar seu conhecimento.
E nós, na Federação Espiritista dos Estados Unidos,
estamos comprometidos a apresentar Espiritismo a todos.
Estamos escolhendo tópicos diferentes.
Então, também gostaríamos de pedir para suportar nossos esforços
com uma donação para a Federação Espiritista dos Estados Unidos.
Então, você pode ir à nossa website,
www.spiritist.us,
ou escaneando o código QR na tela.
Estamos usando esses recursos para fazer mais
publicações em inglês disponíveis para todos.
E, como uma lembrança,
a Federação Espiritista dos Estados Unidos também lançou um curso virtual semanal
chamado Iniciação para o Espiritismo,
todos os sábados, às 10h da manhã, na hora do East Coast.
Então, nos unam, ou ao vivo,
ou você pode assistir mais tarde este curso também.
E agora, nós temos hoje um amigo muito especial que é de Orlando com a gente.
É muito próximo do meu coração, ele e sua família,
e nós estamos muito felizes em apresentá-lo a você, Alex.
Ele é um trabalhador e a Coordenação Geral da Sociedade Espiritística de Plenitude,
em Kissimmee, na Flórida.
Ele é um ex-membro do bordo da Federação Espiritista da Flórida,
ativo no movimento espiritista americano nos últimos 15 anos.
E, como eu disse, ele é um amigo muito querido,
e nós trabalhamos juntos por bastante tempo,
e nós estamos muito felizes em ter você aqui hoje, Alex, conosco.
Por favor, se você quiser dizer algumas palavras iniciais antes de começar.
Good morning to all of you guys and all of our
friends that have the opportunity to join us
on these wonderful tasks that we are having every Saturday for two years now.
It's such a pleasure to be here, thank you so very much for the presentation.
You know, you kind of suspected to be here because we are so close friends,
and I admire your work so much that it's
kind of a bias, this kind of a presentation.
But anyways, it's my pleasure, it's an
honor to be here with you guys this morning.
Great, thank you, Alex.
And so, before I ask Alex to start his presentation, as a reminder as well,
please remember that after he finishes, we will have time for questions.
So, send your questions to us and we will present
them at the end of the presentation to Alex,
okay? Thank you so much for being with us,
and with that, we will ask Alex to start your presentation.
Thank you, Alex.
So, good morning, everyone, and once again, thank you so much for joining us.
We're going to be talking today about a very kind of an intensive topic.
So, let me just bring my PowerPoint for you guys over here,
which is we're going to be talking about the Church of Jesus.
First of all, before we start, I just want to do a disclaimer over here, okay, guys?
This study has no intention whatsoever to deconstruct the importance of the religions
or the institutions that we have nowadays on Earth.
This study has the sole purpose to broaden our view.
What I'm trying to do is to bring a few other
perspectives on this concept of church itself.
We're going to start to see what the word church means for man,
or it is defined by man or by the dictionary,
and we're also going to see and take a look at how Christ sees the concept of church,
based on a couple of passages that we can find on the New Testaments.
But the question is, why is it so relevant that we make this distinction?
What is the importance of this?
What is in there for me?
How can I apply that for my life?
And what is the main purpose behind these distinctions and these ideas?
Our idea and our goal is to present the concept that we have almost the obligation
to behave everywhere as we would be inside of church.
When we first think, our first thought when we say,
I'm going to church,
give us the impression that we are going to somewhere, to someplace,
to practice the concept of the ideas or to study or to learn the ideas of Christ.
But what Spiritism brings to us, it's a little bit more broader vision about this,
that we shouldn't be just going to church to learn and to understand these ideas,
that we can go this, or we can practice this pretty much everywhere
and every days on our lives.
So, as I like to say always, first things first.
So, how do we start?
Well, we started by the definition of church by men or by the dictionary,
as we can see on this slide.
Church can be defined as a building for public and especially Christian worship.
It also can be defined by the clergy or officiant of a religious body
and also a body of organization of religious believers.
These are the definitions that we got out of the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
And if you look in other dictionaries as well,
the definitions are pretty close, pretty similar.
But what are these definitions in common?
It's important to notice that these definitions are matter related.
We are material beings.
We are spiritual beings that we are having a material experience.
And as we are having a material experience,
the matter itself has, I would say, for most
of us, a broader importance in our lives.
So, we carry and we deal more with the
matter than we deal with our spiritual side.
So, these definitions are more related to the matter, to the church, to the building,
to the physical aspect of the church.
On this definition, it's not approaching or embracing
any side of the spiritual concept of the church.
Again, there's nothing wrong with it.
There is nothing wrong with the buildings, with institutions and everything.
But on our perspective, it lacks the concept of divinity.
Because when we look into the Christ's teachings and even from God,
since the beginning, since the Vedas and everything,
God is inviting us to be connecting with him.
But since the beginning, we didn't have the churches when we had the Vedas,
when we had the Confucius, when we have Moses.
The synagogues were built and were concepted much later than,
and much after than Moses and everything.
So, if God was expecting us to be connecting with him since the beginning,
and we didn't have the churches or the buildings
or the physical environments on that time,
why should we be doing this inside the church, inside a building nowadays?
If God, in the beginning, didn't have the places to be worshipped,
so he was expecting us to be worshipping him or connecting with him everywhere.
So, that's what a kind of a Christ brings back to us on his concepts,
on his teachings, again, when he starts to bring new ideas and new concepts
about the church, the reunion itself.
So, I'm just bringing over here two small passages,
two phrases from the New Testaments,
both of them we can find in the Gospel of Matthew.
And the first one, it's in the chapter 18, verses 19,
that says, for where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.
He was not saying where we should be.
Christ was not saying if you are in the church on my name.
No, he says where two or three are gathered in my name, there I'm among them.
This verse does not specify where whatsoever.
Therefore, it can be anywhere.
We learn through the Spiritist book that thoughts is everything.
Our intentions, our feelings, our thoughts are much more important
than the physical aspects or the, how do you say this?
There's another word for that that I just loved for now.
I'm so sorry.
If we have good intentions and good vibes,
and we are surrounded by good spirits with good vibes.
So, thoughts is everything.
If you have good thoughts, we're going to be surrounded by good spirits.
If you have good intentions and good vibes,
we're going to be surrounded by good spirits as well.
If our thoughts, our intentions are not so good,
then we're going to be attracting to us as well less evolved spirits.
So, we connect it and we make the connection with the divinity,
with the divine and with the spirituality based on our thoughts.
So, that's why Jesus said, gather it in my name.
So, if we are getting together in Jesus' name with good intentions, good vibes,
we'll be surrounded by good spirits,
and we're going to be supported by these good spirits
in help, in good ideas, in inspirations on whatever you're looking for.
Actually, this gathering in my name,
it's a fundamental condition in order to expand Jesus' church everywhere.
Wherever we are, if we are gathering in his name,
we're going to be able to represent his church wherever we are.
If Jesus is everywhere,
it is illogical to think that the house of Christ
is only the Catholic church, the Protestant temples,
or even the Spiritist center,
or even the mosques or the synagogues,
because we cannot forget that Jesus came from everywhere.
The mosques and the synagogues, they came later on,
but Christ came from everywhere.
So, if Christ and Jesus is everywhere,
it cannot be defined or restricted
just for a physical building institution
that was created after he passed away,
after he came to earth.
Therefore, when we think like that,
and we kind of broaden our thoughts and our vision,
we can come to the conclusion that the house of God
becomes the universe.
The universe, wherever we are, becomes the house of God.
That's one of the things and the ideas
that we can extract from this passage.
There's another passage also,
that's also in Matthew chapter six that says,
but when you pray, go into your room and shut the door
and pray to your father who is in secret.
And your father who is in secret will reward you.
On this second verse,
it becomes clear that we don't have to be
at the physical church or a building to pray,
and to ask and to connect it with divinity.
We can do this everywhere,
as long as we do this with the sole intention
to connect and not to show off.
Because on these very same passages,
we have the two persons that come to the church,
and one comes in a humble position,
asking forgiveness for everything that he has done wrong.
And the one that one is showing up himself,
that he's a church to be seen,
showing that he was doing his obligations
or fulfilling his obligations with the prayer and everything.
So if you are connecting,
and if we are getting together
in order to be listened by God
and connect with divinity in a humbleness state,
that's the way that we're supposed to be doing.
If we're not showing off,
because most of the time,
or some of the times we do that,
because we would like to show off to other people,
then we are not divulgating the initial purpose of this.
We can do it everywhere,
and we connect this wherever we are,
as long as we're doing this gathering in Jesus name.
Of course, more people that we get together,
the more powerful are our waves of good vibrations.
I'm not saying that we should replace church.
No, I am not.
Church is itself,
and church over here,
define it as by man,
the building,
the physical space.
It is still a very important place where we should go,
where we can go together,
together,
because once we start to work together
with the same intentions
and the same vibrations,
everybody all together,
our intentions grow up in strength,
and we can do more in a group
than we can do just by ourselves.
But am I saying that we have to replace church,
that we can replace church?
No, what I'm saying is
that we can do this from everywhere,
everywhere,
wherever we go,
we can become that place,
at the place of church,
as a place of God,
as a place of divinity,
or as a place of connection,
everywhere.
So moving forward,
there is another passage that I would like to bring
and share with you guys,
which I think that kind of a basis
or invades my line of thoughts over here,
which is a passage that we can find in the book,
The Way, the Truth, and the Life,
that was dictated by the spirit of Emmanuel
and channeled by the medium Francisco Candido Xavier.
So on the previous slide,
that we say from where two or three are gathered
in my name,
there I'm among them.
So how do we gather in Jesus' name?
How do we do that on a daily basis like that?
I would say that we can do that
bringing his values and teachings
everywhere that we are.
That's how we gather Jesus,
bringing his values and teachings
everywhere that we go.
Now on this passage, on this book,
it's on the preface,
the preface that says,
it has a text or a chapter that says,
interpreting the secret texts,
on this chapter,
Emmanuel brings us the following words
and the following information,
which I love it.
And I've seen and I've seen this
in several other talks,
and I've been reflective.
I ask you for your forgiveness,
and I apologize for that.
But I love this passage and these words.
And these words goes like that.
Furthermore, the lesson of the master
is not only an imperative
for the purpose of worship.
So the lessons that we get from Jesus
is not just for worship.
The gospel cannot be reduced
to a breviary for the kneeling board.
Kneeling board is that board
that we kneel ourselves
while we are in the church,
during the mass,
usually during the Christian celebration
to pray or to say our words
or something like that.
So the gospel is not just for worship
to read and to say,
oh, I love these words
or to be read while we are
in the kneeling board,
kneeling and praying.
Emmanuel says the gospel,
it has an indispensable script
for legislation and administration,
for service and obedience.
Christ does not draw a line
between church and a workplace.
The whole earth is simultaneously
his prayer altar and his work arena.
By praising him in the churches
while they denying him in the streets,
we have become shipwrecked
a thousand times before
due to our own faults.
However, any place can be consecrated
to the divine service.
Look at how deep is this concept
and this idea from Emmanuel.
Emmanuel is bringing these to us
saying, well, the gospel that we have
is not just a guided to be learned,
decorated, that we can say the words
from heart or from,
because we know the words
and everything.
But one thing is knowing the words.
The other thing,
it's putting those words into practice.
And what Emmanuel was saying to us,
you don't have to go to church
to be putting these words
and values into practice.
You can go these everywhere
because Jesus does not separate
or does not draw a line
between church and a workplace.
Everywhere on earth,
it's a place where his values
can be applied.
Everywhere on earth,
it's a place where we can demonstrate
somehow that we have learned his values.
And most importantly,
we live by his values.
That's our greatest challenge
because to live by his values
while we are in church,
it's easy.
Oh, most of the time it's easy.
Most of the time we don't have conflicts.
Most of the time we are over there
getting together
or gathering together among friends
and a kind of a celebrations
or we are in a good environment
and a good moment in a good mood.
So it isn't that much difficult
to be living by his values
while we are inside of an institute,
any religious institution.
But while we are out there
on our workplace,
on our home environment,
with our friends
in other places that we are called
on a daily basis
to be exemplifying his teachings,
that's the biggest challenge that we have.
And that's the real church
that we have ahead of us
to be practicing his teachings
and his values
because practicing the church,
it's easy.
What is challenging
is doing that outside those environments.
But what is, how can we get
or what is the most important place
of our lives
where we can start
or whether we should be practicing
those teachings
or something like that?
I would say that
one of the most important places
of our entire life,
it's our home.
That's what we can call our sacred place.
That's what we can call our sacred places.
That's where we go
when we don't feel good
or we need some kind of embracing.
We're looking for our home.
We're looking for our place,
a place that we can feel safe,
a place where we can be embraced
and help it and love it
and so many other feelings
that we might be looking for.
That's the place where we should consider
as the most important places in our lives.
When we say that we're expecting changes
in the society,
when we say that we are,
I'm always praying for changes
or I'm expecting changes
or I'm praising for changes
or we'd like the society to be changed,
I'm looking for a better society
in the future and everything.
Well, in order to get the change,
we ourselves must be the change
that we want to see in others.
If we want to see others doing the things
that we would be praising for,
we should be the ones changing ourselves
to start with.
Home is the primary cell of society.
It's the base of our society,
the cornerstone of our values,
the foundation of our lives.
Society will change from inside out.
In order to change society,
we must first change ourselves.
Where is the base that we can start
to changing ourselves,
the cornerstone of our values?
Our home.
But there's a difference
between practicing the home,
practicing or bringing the gospel at home
and implementing the gospel at our home.
Spiritism has a concept,
it has an idea,
which I'm going to be developing
a little bit further in the next slide
to show you.
I think that I'm going to bring
this kind of a surprise to a lot of us
because it was for me
when I was preparing this study.
Spiritism has a concept,
an idea which is called
the gospel at home,
which is the idea to be studying
the gospel at our place.
What a Jesus church asks for us
is not just to be doing the gospel at home,
but an implementment,
the gospel of home.
What is the difference?
You know, English is not my native,
my first language.
Sometimes I get confused
with the grammatical meanings
and phoneticals of the things
and everything you put up.
My idea that I would like to share
with you guys this morning
is gospel at home
means a place where we do things,
means a place where we do the gospel,
we study gospel,
we open the gospel,
and we've read the words
and we discuss about the concepts
and the values and everything.
That's the place where we do things.
But when we were talking about
the gospel of home
means a place where things belong to.
So we are not just using our home
as a place to study,
but we are implementing the values
and the statues and the concepts
of the gospel of Jesus at our home.
So these values will belong to our place
and to ourselves.
So that is the distinction between
doing the gospel at home
and the gospel of home.
We first start with the gospel at home
because that's the place
that we're going to be studying
the book of Jesus
or the teachings of Jesus.
But the purpose of this,
the intentions for this later on
is to become a gospel of home,
a place where we're gonna be
implementing the values
and most importantly,
living and practicing these values.
Yes, forgiveness.
Yes, understanding.
Yes, patience, tolerance.
Yes, all of these things.
That's where we're gonna start to practice.
We're not gonna start to practice
intolerance and forgiveness,
understanding and everything
with our next door neighbor.
The very first place we're gonna start
is gonna be on our home.
So in order to become and to belong,
in order to implement truly,
we're gonna start to live
those values at our home.
That's where the church of Jesus
inside of us will start to develop.
And now a few things,
a few curiosities,
which when I was preparing this study,
it came to my knowledge.
And when I look at it, I said,
well, this is really, really interesting.
And I think that's gonna be a surprise
to a lot of other people as well.
So let's compare and let's take a look
on this guidance from Spiritism,
which is gospel at home
with some other religions as well.
Let's go first to the Mormons,
our brothers and sisters
from the Church of Jesus Christ
of the Latter-day Saints.
This information over here
was gathered out of their official website,
the website from the Mormons,
the Church of Jesus Christ.
Here they have,
why we hold family home in the evening.
And look at this,
family home evening is a time
to strengthen family ties.
We do this by learning the gospel together,
by listening to each other's feelings,
thoughts and ideas,
and by enjoying activities together.
It is usually held on Monday evenings.
When we go to the gospel at home,
we recommend that we use
the same day of the week
at the same hour, the same time
in order to create some disciplines
for ourselves
and in order also for the spirituality
to be programmed to be around us
and give us the support
and the strength that we might need
to understand the lesson,
to keep faithful to our commitments
and this kind of things.
So look at this,
the Church of the Mormons,
they have exactly the same concept.
We study the gospel as a family
on a regular basis,
on a fixed date
in order to create the commitment.
So let's take a look now
on our friends,
our Muslim friends.
This also, it's on a website
which is based in Europe
where they guided the Muslim people
to studies and everything.
One of the most important goals
for any Muslim family
is to build a deep connection
with the Koran
and one of the best ways to do this
is to learn Koran together
as a family.
Imagine having a family
that sits together
to understand the words of Allah
that connects through the stories
in the Koran
and or that speaks the language
of the Koran to one another.
All of these do not only increase
your love for the deen,
it also definitely brings you closer
as a family.
If you decided to carry your family along
in your journey
to understand the Koran,
some tips below can help
and believe me,
it just didn't fit on my slide over here,
but says pretty much the same thing
that the Spiritism says
and our brothers and sisters
from the Mormon Church also says.
Create the commitment
to get a date
that you can get together,
study and discuss the concepts
of the Koran and everything.
Well, we saw the Mormons,
we saw the Muslims,
what about the Jewish?
The Jewish people,
they also have the concept
to read the Torah together
as a family.
On this particular synagogue,
for example,
they grab it together
at the end of the Shabbat,
which is the sacred days
for the Jews on the Saturdays.
They get together,
parents and children and everything.
But the most important thing here
is that the promise call,
let's, I'm sorry,
I can't pronounce that,
which is the phrase
that borrowed from the Shema,
which means that you should
throughoutly teach your children
the words of Torah.
So the Jewish is also,
they have the obligation
to be transmitting
to their children
the ideas and the concepts
of the Torah,
which is the sacred book for them.
OK, when we look into
all of these ideas
and concepts from the other religions,
so I can come to the conclusion
that the study and the practice
of the so-called gospel at home,
Monday nights,
even your family Monday,
family evenings by the Mormons
or the study of the Koran
or this study over here,
it's not something created
by a religion.
OK, the gospel at home,
the concept itself,
it was not created by spiritism.
It was not created
by any other religions
or any other doctrine.
It's almost like a divine guidance
for all humankind
in order to spread
and most importantly
to live by these divine principles.
One of the main concepts,
one of the main concepts
of the spiritism
is what we call
the universality of the teachings
or of the communications.
The same information,
the same communication
was gathered from different places
at different times
from different people,
different mediums,
but containing exactly
the same concept
and the same idea.
So someone was in France,
somebody else was in Italy,
somebody was in Austria
or England or Scotland
or even in America
and they were getting communications
from the spiritists
or the enlightened spirits.
And when we get together,
the information is the same
for wherever it came from.
It's important to remember
that at that time
we didn't have WhatsApp,
internet, email, CNN,
nothing of this.
The only way that we could communicate
to each other
was through mail letters,
which is going to take
three weeks, four weeks,
sometimes even months
to gather from one place to the other.
So it was kind of impossible
to create a falsehood of information
or create false information
with people knowing about each other.
So that's one of the main concepts,
the universality of the teachings.
When we look at this idea over here
about the concept of studying the gospel,
the certain books together as a family,
we can also see here
as a kind of universal teaching
come from God.
That's exactly what God
is expecting from us,
no matter which religion
we are linked to.
It's almost like a divine commandment.
Please do read and do understand
my teachings, my words,
my values, my concepts
in order for you guys to be practicing
and living by that.
So if we follow this line of thoughts,
the Church of Christ,
the Church of Jesus
becomes not even the places
that we go to worship,
but everywhere that we go.
Because again,
the base of our society
is our home.
That's our sacred place.
That's the cornerstone
of the cornerstone of our values.
That's where we learn
the basic principles
for our entire lives.
So when we see all of this
and this concept,
then we can try to understand
or we can understand easily
the whys,
why we should be doing
the gospel at home
or the family home evenings
or the studies by the Torah
or whatever we would like.
And actually,
I'm sorry over here
because of lack of time and space.
I didn't include our brothers and sisters
from the Protestant religions.
The Protestants,
they have books
teaching how to study the Bible at home.
It's unbelievable
the amount of information
and literature
that we can find out there
teaching us how to read
and how to understand
those sacred books.
But anyways,
coming back to what is important
in our concept, in our idea
is the vision under the Spiritism
concept and teachings.
So why?
Why we should be doing
the gospel at home?
First of all,
in order to learn something,
we have to dedicate some time
and have some commitment
in our studies.
So the very first why is
to study the gospel
in the light of the Spiritist doctrine,
which makes possible to understand
in spirit and truth,
thus allowing us to guide our lives
according to the master's orientation.
So in order to learn something,
we have to dedicate time to that.
So we're going to be able to understand
the concepts and the ideas
that Jesus is bringing to us.
The second reason that we can bring is
to make the gospel better understood,
felt,
and most importantly,
exemplified at home
in the first place,
in all other places on a second stack.
The third reason is
to expand the literal
and spiritual knowledge of the gospel
in order to offer it
with more confidence to other creatures.
So in order that we can start to live
and spread out the word of Christ
all over the places,
we have to understand
and start to practice
at the base of our society,
which is our home.
So what do we say over here
to expand the literal
and spiritual knowledge
in order to offer it?
To offer what?
The gospel.
How do we offer it?
How do we offer the gospel
to other people?
Well, there's a famous phrase out there
that says,
preach the gospel at all times.
Use words if it's necessary.
This phrase is attributed
to Francis of Assisi,
but it has never been
fully confirmed or proven.
People attribute it to him,
but it may be true or maybe not.
I don't know.
It's kind of difficult to prove.
But at least what is important over here
is the concept and the idea of this phrase.
Preach the gospel at all times.
Use words when necessary.
So in order to preach the gospel at times,
what is the best way
to preach the gospel?
Living by it.
Living on these examples.
It's important also to remember
that Christ had already said
that the one who does not live
as in his teachings
is like the foolish man
who builds his house on the sand.
So imagine that we invest
a lot of time learning the gospel,
learning the concepts,
learning the ideas,
but we don't live by that.
So what bothers?
Why we should be living
or learning all of this
if you are not living by this?
If you are learning,
we have the obligation
to be changing ourselves
inside of our homes first
in order to bring into society
new values
by and through our examples
in order to implement
the church of Christ
wherever we go,
wherever we are.
Because when two or more
are gathered in his name,
he's going to be among us,
giving us the strength,
the ideas,
the inspirations,
and everything else
that we might need
to be living with his teachings.
Again, society will change
from inside out.
In order to change our society,
we first must change ourselves.
And that's how
we're going to be implementing
the gospel of home.
One thing is the gospel at home.
Why?
That's the basic,
the first steps that we take
in order to learn something.
So in order to change the society,
we now start,
we have to be changing
the concept of the gospel at home
to the gospel of home
in order to implement,
change ourselves,
and impact and help the society as well.
So how do we implement?
How do we do this gospel of home?
It's an easy answer.
Living like Jesus.
Easy, right?
It's just a matter to be living like him.
We just,
we don't have to perform
the miracles that he did.
Just living like Jesus.
It was not saying,
it's not saying over here
that we should be,
oh, perform miracles,
cure people,
or do this,
or gather 5,000 people
and feed 5,000 people
out of two fishes and three breads.
No, it's not saying anything like that.
It's just saying living like Jesus.
Which should be easy, right?
Well, what is to live like Jesus?
It's kind of easy.
It's just the four topics
that we have to do.
Be humble,
be tolerant,
be benevolent,
and be forgiveness all the time.
That's how we're gonna be living by him.
That's how we're gonna be implementing his church
wherever we go.
It sounds easy.
It's not that difficult.
As we have the material values
and concepts so much stronger yet
in our minds and our hearts,
it becomes kind of very complicated
to be evaluating
and deciding between the two values.
I would say on my personal opinion,
and that's my own personal opinion,
that's one of the biggest challenges
that we have nowadays in our society
is that the values of our world,
the values of our society,
it's totally conflicting
with the values of Christ.
Because if you go to our work,
for example,
we are expected to be the number one,
the best,
that brings the best results,
no matter the ways,
what importance,
the final results.
We are expected to be the best,
the boss,
having more money
and doing everything
in order to be achieving
the number one position
on whatever we are doing
and everything.
You are expected to be the best
all the time in whatever you do.
That's what the world expects from us.
But Christ expects from us
that we be patient,
that we be tolerant,
that we be benevolent,
that we can forgive each other
as we find we are in conflict
with our lives.
So those values,
they don't get along.
And most of the times
we have a lot of difficulties
to make the choices and decisions
based on the values
which are the most important,
which clearly are the moral values.
But as we are living
the material life,
the matter,
the things on earth,
we still have conflicts
and deciding which one
we should be applying
whenever we are asked for.
So to try to start
to finalize our talk
and our conversation today,
I'm just going to bring here
a few examples
and maybe how we can start
to practice these concepts
and ideas to living like Jesus
in our daily lives
so we can be a little bit
more closer to the concept
and the idea to be living
by Jesus' church
and teachings and values
on a daily life
wherever we are.
So when we say that
we should be living like Jesus
in humbleness, for example,
when Jesus was humble,
Jesus was humble to start with.
When he accepted his mission
on earth,
he is the one
who created our world.
Everything that we see over here,
he was the one who gathered
and grabbed and got from God
the matters or the initial matters
that would be forming our planets.
He was the one in charge
of the construction of it,
all the elements
that we have over here.
He is the actual governor
of our planet.
So imagine Christ
living the sun,
it's just a figure of language,
living in the sun,
which is the brightest star,
the most beautiful planet,
that's where we have
the source of all energies
for our planets and everything.
So imagine Christ living the sun
where he lives,
a bright place
and a wonderful place
to come to live in Galilee,
walking by foot
on the dust
with people
smashing him all the time,
not giving him the proper attention
and everything else.
So he was humble
when he accepted his mission,
when God told to them,
I need you to go to earth
and teach your people
what needs to be taught.
And he said, yes, master,
I'm coming down.
And Jesus came down.
So he was humble just like that.
He was humble also
on a more earthly manner.
On the last supper,
when he washed the feet
of his disciples,
each one of them,
including Judas,
the one that was going
to trade him later on,
and including Peter,
the one who's going
to be denying him
a few hours later.
He knew of that
and even then,
he washed all of his disciples' feet
for all of them
on the last supper.
When Jesus was tolerant,
for example,
he was tolerant when he asked,
what is to be tolerant,
for example?
It's to be tolerant
with the attitudes
of other people.
It's in order to accept
or to understand ways
of being of other people,
being indulgent with someone's
faults and everything.
And Christ was indulgent with,
for example,
with the adulterous woman.
He wasn't the one
who condemned her
or told the other people,
oh, let's kill her.
Let's practice the law
as established by Moses.
He was the one
whoever has no sins
that throw the first stone.
And then he asked her,
where are everyone
that are condemning you?
No one is here, master,
so I don't condemn you as well.
Go and don't sin again.
So he was very tolerant
and indulgent on that passage.
When Jesus was benevolent,
what is benevolent?
Benevolent is an excess
of kindness towards someone.
It's to be tolerant,
it's to be forgiven easily.
Christ was benevolent
when he loved Peter
and he asked Peter,
do you love me?
Even Peter had been denied
him three times on the cross.
He was benevolent
with the woman
who touched his garments,
the woman that was suffering
with the blood emerging.
He was benevolent
towards everyone
that came towards him
and asked him for his help.
When he was forgiven,
when he practiced the forgiveness
on one of the most ultimate ways,
first he practiced the forgiveness
when he said to people,
go and make no mistakes,
curing people,
helping people,
giving words of advice
and everything and saying,
go and make no mistakes anymore.
He was forgiven on the cross
for the soldier,
father,
forgive themselves.
They don't know what they are doing
and Christ was forgiving them
and asking God
for his forgiveness as well.
Christ was forgiven
when he went to fetch Judas,
when he went after Judas,
right after he passed away,
after Judas had been killing himself,
if it was after he tried to help him out.
So all of these teachings,
all of these examples
are just the ways and manners
that we can do practicing
these teachings and these values
on our daily lives.
Can we adapt this to ourselves?
Can we bring something different
and new concepts?
Of course we can.
Do we know everything about it?
We don't.
Can we still learn
a lot of things out of this?
Yes, we can.
But one of the most important things,
and that's the final phrase
that I'd like to leave you
with you guys today,
is this one.
The church of Jesus
can be implemented
and practiced everywhere,
but it starts at home.
If we can practice
the teachings,
these teachings,
where we live to start with,
we can be called
later on
the true gospel followers,
the true God spreads out
the word of Jesus teachings.
But in order to do that,
we have to achieve
the first of this transformation
in ourselves,
in our homes,
in order to be living by churches
and the church,
the Christ's church's values
outside of us.
And thank you so very much
for your attention.
Thank you for being with me
this morning.
Such a pleasure to be here.
Hoping that I haven't left
for you guys a good message
and something to think about.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alex.
You brought so many
important things
and concepts for us
and it was very inspiring.
And I'm sure
we will have a lot
to think about,
not only today,
but during the following days,
you know,
with this perspective
and ideas
and how to expand
our ways of promoting
Jesus and his teachings
within us.
But we do have some questions.
So let's start with the questions
that we have today.
So Alex,
we have mostly been practicing
in Spiritist
for the past two years
in our homes,
following study courses
or talks.
What should be
the preparation
of the practitioner
to follow these activities online?
Well, I think that's the
one of the most important things
that we should have nowadays
is the commitment.
If you are committed
with the studies
or the ideas
or the concepts
or the study
that we're developing,
that will keep us
linked
and with the values
inside of us.
The commitment
with the changes,
the commitment
with the evolvement
of ourselves.
I think that's the most important thing.
It's always important
to remember
and sometimes we can fail.
Sometimes we can be
a little bit bitter
than usual.
Maybe we can be affected
for some other reasons
or some external
in our lives
that are bringing difficulties.
But if you always remember this,
we are immortal spirits
that we are temporarily
living a material experience.
That will help us
to give the strength
that we need
to keep fighting
against our own imperfections.
Because we are not fighting
just because of today
or tomorrow.
We are fighting this
because we are looking
towards the long run.
And the long run means
two, three, four incarnations
ahead of us.
Whatever we're doing,
whatever we're learning
nowadays,
we're going to be coming
with us forever.
If we think
in our next incarnations,
whatever I'm learning here,
I might not use here,
I might not implement here,
but I'm going to use
in this in the future
because these I carry with me.
My part, my values,
my earthly and material possessions,
I don't take them back
with me to spirituality.
But whatever I learn,
whatever new knowledges
and concepts I take with me,
I learn with me,
these are the values
that I'm going to be taking.
So let's say that I'm
90 years old by now.
I should be living by 95
and I decide to start
to study spiritualism
or going deeper on my studies
and the ideas.
I might not be able
to implement or live
by these concepts right now
or on these incarnations,
but on the next,
I'm already up to.
I'm already ahead
of what I would be having to learn
because this knowledge,
ideas and concepts,
I already have it with me
and I'm going to be using
them in the future.
So I would say even
if you're doing online
with commitment
and the idea that
whatever we learn
is not just for now,
but forever.
I think that's very helpful.
Yeah, you went right
on the point.
I think today with
the so many things,
which is a very good thing
that we have available.
Sometimes it's hard
for people to commit,
even in a sequential study
or something like that.
And absolutely,
this is a work
for many, many incarnations,
but we have to start now, right?
Well, actually,
I was talking to someone
a couple of weeks ago,
almost 80 years old,
79 I think.
And that person said,
oh, we were talking
about something
and she said,
no, I can't do on that day.
I said, why not?
Because I have to go
to my information classes,
my technology classes.
I said, what?
Yes, I'm learning
how to play with Excel.
I said, what?
Yeah, you know,
I need this for some kind
of spreadsheets and something.
So I decided to take
a technology course
in order to learn
how to deal with Excel
so I can be practicing this.
And I was fool enough
to ask them what it's for.
It's to keep my mind open
so I can still keep learning.
And it's like a roof
on your face.
It was a tremendous
wake up call for myself.
That's what we can call
having a vision, right?
Exactly.
OK, so let's see.
We have more questions here.
Daniels asked,
what is your thoughts
on the phrase
God at home
to be more inclusive
to all religions?
Actually, as I was bringing
this idea and this concept,
it's pretty much that.
What is different?
The concept is exactly this.
It's God at home.
But each one of the religions,
they call this in a different way.
We call the gospel at home
because the gospel is our base.
Now, that's where we thought
or that we extract the teachings,
the moral values of Jesus
to be studying and understanding.
Some other people
take this out of the Koran,
out of Satan,
take out of the Torah
or something like that.
So each religion calls
in their proper way.
And why is that?
Because, as I said in the beginning,
we are still very focused,
linked and looking at
the material aspects of the thing,
the religions, the institutions,
the buildings, the physical thing.
The idea is exactly that.
It's bringing God at our home
through gospel, through Koran,
through Torah.
That's just the way that we do it.
But the concept and the idea,
it's bringing God
and his principles
and his values to our home.
Because the God
for each one of our religions,
institutions,
whatever we can find out there
is the same.
If God is the same,
the teachings and the values are the same.
That's excellent.
It's a matter of bringing
spirituality to home, right?
Sometimes we have this
at our centers as well.
People that are married
with other faiths,
interfaith marriage.
And we say, well, listen,
the important thing is to bring
this religiosity to home
and using the books,
the material that
are more inviting
to others, right?
So let's see
if we have some more questions.
Yasko.
Hi, dear Alex.
Good concepts and information.
I understood that
whatever religion,
prophets one follow,
in the end,
they all converge
to a harmonious life and family.
I wonder if the problems
we see today,
like the more prevalence
of mental disorders,
increased suicide rate,
may be due to the weakening
or even disruption
of family ties.
Thank you Yasko for your question.
That's for sure.
But it's not just for that.
Not just for the disruption
of the family ties,
but our disconnection
with the divine.
And divine over here,
I mean divine,
not just the religion itself.
It's just in a way
that we can connect
with our God.
All the religions,
they have a very important role
to fulfill within our society.
And the lack of connection
that we're having
with the divine
also brings for this disruption
of the family ties.
On my personal perspective
and idea,
this disruption
of the family ties,
starts with our disconnection
with the divine.
We stopped to look
at the divine or divinity
or spirituality in our lives
because it's not part
of the earthly values
or what is expected
from one in life nowadays.
Everyone is expected
to be connected
with Instagram,
YouTuber and everything.
We are paying more attention
to the YouTubers,
for the influencers.
I don't know exactly
what they are influencing,
who to do what,
but that's where
they're paying attention today,
to the influencers.
And we're not paying attention
to our divinity,
to our spiritual side.
Which is nowadays,
science is coming closer
and closer and being more,
I would say,
reinforcing the idea
of our whole,
wholesome being
that we are today.
Not just matter,
but also the spiritual,
also mental,
also psychological
and everything else.
And we are not looking into this.
So we are disrupting
these family ties
because we're disconnecting
with the divine.
I believe that is to fix this,
one of the very first things
that we should be doing
is connecting ourselves
with the divinity as well.
And Josana, if you may,
I can see over here
a question that I would like
to answer, which says,
how do we deal
with the family members at home
that are not receptive
to the idea?
With respect.
A lot of respect.
Because my idea
and your idea,
they might not be the same,
but it's just two different ways
that we can reach the same goal.
Usually, I like to say that
if it's not against God's law,
that's no such a thing
as the right and wrong.
That's my way and your way,
my vision and your vision.
So if you share your home,
your house with someone
that does not prophesy
for the same faith,
the very first thing
is to respect that faith.
And as we respect,
we also expect respect
from the other person.
So in order that we can
follow our way
or our pathways
in the way that we believe
that it would be
the best for ourselves.
We do not try to bring
one or the other
to the other way,
because we're going to be
disrupting the values of each one.
We don't change anyone.
People change by themselves.
I've been trying to change
my wife for 40 years.
Guess what?
Unsuccessful.
She's not going to be changing
even because she's already
perfect as she is.
So there's nothing much more
than I could be doing over there.
But we don't change other people.
People change by themselves
when they decided
that they have to change
or whatever
philosophy or beliefs
that they have.
It's no longer fulfilling.
That's when people change.
So how can we be dealing
with the family members?
First, with respect.
And secondly,
asking and expecting
the same respect for yourselves
in order that we can
have your way
and your manner
to connect with the divine.
Oh, that's wonderful, Alex,
because we have to remember
that the spiritual journey
is very personal, right?
Everyone has their own time
and their own...
As it happened with us,
maybe now we are more aware,
but I'm sure there were times
where we were completely numb
and not accepting invitations
that we have received.
So each one has their own time.
And I like it very much
how you put all this
into this word
that is so important,
which is respect.
And that is really, really good.
So before we ask Alex
to say his final words
and to say the prayer for us,
again, we would like to ask everyone
to support our efforts,
the efforts of the United States
Spiritist Federation
with a donation,
if you can,
at our website spiritist. us
or scanning the QR code on screen.
We are on a process of preparing
many books for publication
and all the support we can get
to make it possible.
It's going to help us a long way.
And again, next week,
we will be celebrating
our two years of continuous talks.
We will have Naur Fonseca
on April 9 here talking to us
about immortality of the soul,
a skeptic's perspective.
So you are all invited.
It's going to be a wonderful day
of celebration.
And also to receive
this dear friend, Naur Fonseca.
Alex, if you would like to say
some final words to us
and then the prayer, please.
Yes, I would like to also,
Rosana, thank you so much
once again for the opportunity,
for the invitation.
It's such a pleasure to be here
on this morning.
It was an opportunity for myself
to learn different things
and different perspectives
this entire thing, for example,
from the Mormons, from the Muslims,
from the Jewish,
that was something that
it blew my mind.
I didn't expect to find that.
I thought that the gospel
and homily was just a concept
from Spiritism that we,
the guys from the Spiritist Center
say that we should be doing
because it's good.
No, it's not.
It's a divine mandate
for all of us,
which is, it's amazing.
It really brought my ideas,
my concepts,
so I'm the one who has to thank you
because I had the opportunity
to learn something new myself
during this study as well.
Thank you so very much.
So in order that we can all
show our gratitude
towards this moment,
I would like to invite all of us
to connect ourselves
with our divinity.
Our guardian angels to say,
dear Lord, our Heavenly Father,
we are so very much thankful
for this moment,
for this opportunity.
Thank you for the light
that you shine upon us.
Thank you for all the new information,
the new ideas and concepts
that we just learned this morning.
Once again, dear Lord,
give us the strength that we need
to fight against our own imperfections,
so we can be tomorrow's
much better person
than we were yesterday.
And then we can come out
at the end of our journey on Earth
much better than we were yesterday.
Thank you for all of these opportunities.
Please bless our friends,
brothers and sisters out there,
which are in need.
We need you for a prayer,
we need you for embracing.
I would like to ask
in a very special manner
for our brothers and sisters
from Ukraine and Russia.
As duas pessoas estão sofrendo
tão tremendamente neste momento.
Que sua luz brilhe
em seus líderes,
acalmando seus corações,
inspirando seus pensamentos
para encontrar a solução
para este conflito,
que não vai beneficiar ninguém.
Que sua amor, sua luz,
seus abençoos
nos mantivessem
por nós mesmos
neste momento,
em cada dia de nossas vidas.
E assim seja.
Obrigado.