With warm Bahá’í love,
R. Rabbani
P.S. Unfortunately your letter was not received in time to cable
your October 14th meeting an answer.
[From the Guardian:]
Dear and valued co-workers:
I hail with a joyous heart and confident spirit the truly
compelling and almost simultaneous evidences of the creative,
the irresistible power of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh as witnessed
by the formation of the first Canadian National Bahá’í Assembly
and the inauguration of the Five Year Plan, designed to
orient its members toward and canalize the energies of the
entire Canadian Bahá’í Community in support of the immediate
tasks lying before them. So auspicious a beginning, in
the life of a community attaining adulthood, under the influence
of the processes set in motion as the result of the progressive
unfoldment of the Divine Plan, in a territory of such vast
dimensions, blessed through both the mighty utterances, and
the personal visit of the One Who fostered it from the hour of
its birth, and Whose Plan enabled it to reach maturity, may
well be regarded as one of the most momentous happenings
immortalizing the opening years of the second Bahá’í Century.
The responsibility shouldered by an institution ranking as
one of the sustaining pillars of the future Universal House of
Justice is indeed staggering. The Plan entrusted to its infant
hands is, in both its magnitude and implications tremendously
vast. The anxieties, the strenuous exertions attendant upon
the proper guidance, the effectual development and the sound
consolidation of a community emerging into independent
national existence, are inevitably trying. The numerical
strength of that community, the immensity of the area serving
as the field for the operation of its Plan, the meagerness of the
resources now at its disposal, the relative inexperience of its
newly-recruited members, the perils overhanging the territory
in which they reside in the event of a future global conflict, the
intensity of opposition which the unfoldment of its mission
may provoke in the strongholds of religious orthodoxy inimical
to the liberalizing influences of the Faith it represents—all
these offer a challenge at once severe, inescapable and soul
uplifting.
The eyes of its twin-sister community in the North American
continent, which assisted it in achieving its independence,
are fixed upon it, eager to beho1d, and ready to aid it in its
march to glory. Its sister communities in Latin America, whose
coming of age is as yet unattained, watch with mingled curiosity
and envy, its first strides along the steep path which they
themselves are soon to tread. Other sister communities in the
European, African, Asiatic and Australian continents, some of
venerable age, others rich in experience, and resources, still
others tried and tested by the fires of persecution, observe with
keen anticipation in their hearts and benediction on their lips,
the manner in which this youngest recruit to their ranks will
launch upon its career, the resolution with which it will face
its problems, the spirit which will animate it in its battles and
the stupendousness of the efforts required to win its victories.
Above and beyond them the Spirit of a Master Who nursed it in
its infancy and to Whose Plan it now has consecrated its mature
energies, overshadows it with that self-same solicitude
that called it into existence, that stimulated His tender care in
its infancy, that inspired His written promises, that prompted
His lavish praise, that impelled Him to cast the radiance of His
person, in the evening of His life, on its mother city,
and
induced Him, ere His passing, to bequeath to it so rich a legacy
in what may be regarded as one of the mightiest repositories
of His last wishes. No one, of the galaxy of immortal heroes,
now gathered to the glory of Bahá’u’lláh, can contemplate with
greater delight the advances which this community has made,
or intercede with greater efficacy on its behalf than she
who
has won the peerless title of the Mother of that community, the
initial phase of whose career was signalized by the founding
of the mother community in the European continent, and the
conclusion of which was crowned by a death cementing the
spiritual bonds now indissolubly uniting the North and South
American continents.
The Five Year Plan, now set in motion, must under no circumstances
be allowed to lag behind its schedule. A befitting
start should be made in the execution of the Plan in all its
aspects. The initial steps should be relentlessly followed by additional
measures designed to hasten the incorporation of your
Assembly, to accelerate the multiplication of Local Assemblies,
groups and isolated centres, throughout the Provinces of the
Dominion, to insure the stability of the outpost of the Faith
which must be established in Newfoundland, and to incorporate
a steadily growing element, representative of both the Indian
and Eskimo races, into the life of the community.
Obstacles, however formidable, will have to be determinedly
surmounted. Any reverses that sooner or later may be suffered
should be met with stoic fortitude, and speedily offset by victories
in other fields. The glorious vision now unveiled to your
eyes must never be dimmed. The illuminating promises enshrined
in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets should not be forgotten for a
moment. The quality of the success already achieved by so small
a number, over so extensive a field, in so brief a period, at so
precarious an hour in the destinies of mankind, should spur
on the elected representatives of this now fully fledged community
to achieve in as short a period, over still more extensive
an area, and despite a severer crisis than any as yet encountered,
victories more abiding in their merit and more conspicuous
in their brilliance than any as yet won in the service
and for the glory of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
Your true brother,
Shoghi
Back To Reference]
Print Selection