Osvaldo Monteiro (photo), our guest this week, has lived in the Brazilian city of Paranavaí since the age of 9. He is the current president of Centro Espírita Fé, Amor e Caridade (Faith, Love and Charity Spiritist Centre). He also directs the 8^th Regional Spiritist Union in the state of Paraná. In the following interview, he speaks about his early days in Spiritism and what we need to do in order to encourage the dissemination of the Teachings.

How did you become a Spiritist?

My mum, Cenira Aparecida Conegero, was linked to a new age philosophy group, which gave her access to ideas that were very close to Spiritism. Things were difficult at the time, as we lived in a rural area. All the information we received was basically a weekly magazine and a yearly book that was posted to my mother. But there was enough there to give us her an idea of how to live according to Spiritualist and Christian principles. That was passed on to me as I grew up surrounded by those ideas.

Was there any particular circumstance that led you to come into direct contact with the Spiritist Teachings for the first time?

Yes. It was in 1968. A school teacher assigned everyone a homework project. I was told to do research on any religion of my preference. My older sister had just bought a collection of Spiritist books, by Allan Kardec. I would later realise those were the core works of Spiritism. I began reading one of them, “The Spirits’ Book,” and I simply couldn’t put it down. I was completely absorbed by the concepts of Spiritism, which were displayed in such a sublime manner. I fell in love with it and have never stopped reading Spiritist books, which, by the way, were quite difficult to get hold of where we lived. I began ordering them through the post and that’s how my introduction to Spiritism took place.

What is the most remarkable aspect of Spiritism, in your view?

It is the fact that it has the power to prompt its followers to pursue a true moral transformation, albeit a slow and gradual one, which is only natural. Once you begin thinking along the lines of Spiritism, you realise the immense wealth contained inside all human beings. Anyone who approaches Spiritism with a serious approach, as recommended by Allan Kardec, will eventually accept with conviction the principles of immortality of the soul, reincarnation, and the constant exchange that there is between the material and the spiritual world. Faith in God will no longer be a matter of belief, but one of certainty. Faith will be constantly fed by reasoning, which Allan Kardec described as “reasoned faith”. We begin to understand the existent links with the whole and with everything else and it becomes easier to respect all living beings, humans or not, as well as all the nature around us and all the worlds in the universe. We begin to understand in a much clearer way the facts and circumstances that life will send us. So, the most remarkable aspect of Spiritism, I believe, is its capacity to provoke individual and collective change. After all, its ultimate aim is to bring about the moral transformation of humanity.

You are also a public speaker on Spiritism. What do you like in particular about that experience?

It is the possibility of learn continuously. When you study to prepare for a presentation, you constantly come across new aspects that you had perhaps overlooked or didn’t know about in the first place. And that’s how we progress and get to understand more about this beautiful science of the soul. The interaction with other people also provides so many happy occasions and so much satisfaction. The public give us back so much, in the form of affection. Much more, frankly than we deserve.

What is your assessment of the Spiritist Movement in Brazil? Is there anything else that we should do to boost the dissemination of the Teachings?

We must develop a further sense of unity among all Spiritists in order to help promote the dissemination of Spiritism. We must open new fronts of work to reach the great number of people in suffering – people who are so vulnerable and susceptible to the illusions of this world. We need to ease access to information about Spiritism through all the media. The price of Spiritist books must be lowered so people with lower incomes can have access to them. They must be encouraged to develop a reading habit. We have excellent Spiritist radio programmes in Brazil and they must be properly valued by the Spiritist Movement. In sum: we can all do a great deal more to help Spiritism reach the vast number of human beings out there with such huge spiritual needs.