Messages to America: Selected Letters and Cablegrams Addressed to the Bahá'í's of North America 1932–1946Shoghi, Effendi
Religion
Messages to America: Selected Letters and Cablegrams Addressed to the Bahá'í's of North America 1932–1946
Shoghi, Effendi
Bahai Faith -- North America; Shoghi, Effendi, 1897-1957 -- Correspondence
The initial success of the enterprise which has been so auspiciously
launched, the enthusiasm which it has already engendered throughout Latin
America, the hopes it has aroused amid the suffering and scattered
believers in war-torn Europe, the feelings of admiration and envy it has
excited throughout several communities in the Bahá’í world in both the
East and the West, augur well for the future course of its operation, and
foreshadow the splendors of the victories which its consummation must
witness. The forces that have been released through the birth of the Plan
must be directed into the most effective channels, the spirit that has
been kindled must be continually nourished, the facilities at the disposal
of its organizers must be fully utilized, each and every barrier that may
obstruct its expansion must be determinedly removed, every assistance
which Bahá’í communities in various lands may wish, or be able, to offer,
should be whole-heartedly welcomed, every measure that will serve to
reinforce the bonds uniting the newly-fledged communities in the Latin
world, and to stimulate the movement, and raise the spirits, of itinerant
teachers and settlers laboring in the continent of Europe, must be
speedily undertaken, if the colossal task, which in the course of seven
brief years must be carried out, is to be befittingly consummated.
The sterner the task, the graver the responsibilities, the wider the field
of exertion, the more persistently must the privileged members of this
enviable community strive, and the loftier must be the height to which
they should aspire, in the course of their God-given mission, and
throughout every stage in the irresistible and divinely guided evolution
of their community life.
Setbacks may well surprise them; trials and disappointments may tax their
patience and resourcefulness; the forces of darkness, either from within
or from without, may seek to dampen their ardor, to disrupt their unity
and break their spirit; pitfalls may surround the little band that must
act as a vanguard to the host which must, in the years to come,
spiritually raise up the sorely ravaged continent of Europe. None of
these, however fierce, sinister or unyielding they may appear, must be
allowed to deflect the protagonists of a God-impelled Plan, from the
course which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has chosen for them, and which the agencies of a
firmly established, laboriously erected, Administrative Order, are now
enabling them to effectively pursue.
That they may press forward with undiminished fervor, with undimmed
vision, with unfaltering steps, with indivisible unity, with unflinching
determination until the shining goal is attained is my constant prayer, my
ardent hope, and the dearest wish of my heart.
July 20, 1946
DISTINGUISHED SERVANT
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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