Message from the National Spiritual Assembly to the Bahá’ís of Canada – 7 September 2019

7 September 2019 / 19 Names 176

To the Bahá’ís of Canada on the occasion of the Feast of Might

Dear Bahá’í Friends,

In the eight weeks that led up to the commemoration of the bicentenary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh two years ago, a gradually-accelerating pace of activity suddenly shifted into high gear. As a result of these intensifying efforts, wrote the Universal House of Justice at Ridván 2018, the global Bahá’í community in view was not the same as it was at the beginning of the Plan. This new community now stands at the threshold of the second bicentenary, having extended the circle of those participating in the life of the community still wider through every possible means: camps, institute campaigns, study circles, children’s classes, junior youth groups, devotional gatherings, firesides. More and more, the believers are describing how the sweetness of teaching is becoming a way of life. More and more, they are finding in their receptive friends, families and new acquaintances the kindred spirits with whom they will walk a path of service.

On this path, the remarkable narratives of the youthful Báb and His intrepid followers are inspiring the acts of young and old alike. Possessing a merit “far beyond an exploration of history”, these stories have drawn the friends closer to their spiritual forebears as they make the changes to daily patterns of life that in turn give life to the teaching work: rethinking what they do when they wake up in the morning, how they engage with others in a line at a grocery store, how they spend their time in the evenings after a day at work or school, how they look towards the weekend or vacation, how they think about and draw on prayer, how they view their homes. These adjustments are part of a daily heroism that takes us in spirit to the Bábíyyih, the home that Mulla Husayn prepared for Quddús and opened to the thirsty throngs, to the countless roads those God-intoxicated heroes and heroines travelled, to the dust in the square of Tabríz.

We share one example among the many wonderful stories of a heroic summer. In a small northern Ontario city, two sisters in their mid-teens have just settled as homefront pioneers to assist the cluster in its movement towards the second milestone as part of the 5000 intensive programmes of growth to be established worldwide. Inspired by their summer-long study of “The Dawn-Breakers” and with the full support of their parents, they have just moved in with a Bahá’í family three and a half hours away. They thus begin a new school year in the company of new friends, having given up their home, their familiar school corridors, their participation in a well-loved track team. In the ink of such deeds is the story of Canada, in these powerful days, being written.

In the weeks that remain until the celebration of the bicentenary of the Birth of the Báb, each one of His loved ones will have the possibility of a deed or deeds, acts of courage and steadfastness, of sacrifice. It may be a track team offered up for His love, or overcoming shyness to approach a new friend, or turning from solitary service to beginning to work with a group of friends, or opening up our home for prayers, or waking up earlier to read, to study, to pray a little more. Whatever the offering you bring to the Beloved in these fleeting days, you are in our prayers.

With loving Bahá’í greetings,

NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY

OF THE BAHÁ’ÍS OF CANADA

Karen McKye, Secretary