Message from the National Spiritual Assembly to the community of Bahá’u’lláh in Canada – 29 October 2024

29 October 2024 / 15 Knowledge 181

To the community of Bahá’u’lláh in Canada

Dearest Friends,

The Counsellors and National Spiritual Assembly have just spent four joyful days in a spiritually restorative retreat, studying guidance and consulting on what it takes to raise up vibrant, outward-looking communities in the face of the accelerating destructive forces at play in the world. With admiration and gratitude, we reflected on the ways you are living your lives, as well-wishers of humanity, builders and growers, practitioners of peace, sources of light and hope amidst growing forces of disintegration that “have left their traces in blood and anguish on the pages of history and the lives of billions.”[1] We vowed to quickly write to you.

It is clear: the pace of change has quickened. Precious, fleeting opportunities are ready to be seized, provided we match the quickening pace of disintegrative forces with a surge of our own. In the coming weeks and months, you will hear of special measures being taken to infuse joy and energy into current efforts at every level. These may take many forms, including teaching conferences, expansion phases, seminars, spaces for members of institutions, special visits, and gatherings for the youth. Be alert to such announcements in your communities, ready to participate.

Yet, the destructive forces will not wait. As the commemoration of the Twin Holy Days on 2 and 3 November approaches, might each follower of Bahá’u’lláh mark these sacred days by surveying their immediate teaching opportunities, and choosing one or more on which to act?

Through the power of the words He hath uttered the whole of the human race can be illumined with the light of unity, and the remembrance of His Name is able to set on fire the hearts of all men, and burn away the veils that intervene between them and His glory. One righteous act is endowed with a potency that can so elevate the dust as to cause it to pass beyond the heaven of heavens. It can tear every bond asunder, and hath the power to restore the force that hath spent itself and vanished…[2]

With our love and admiration,
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE BAHÁ’ÍS OF CANADA

Karen McKye, Secretary

[1] 28 November 2023, Universal House of Justice to the Bahá’ís of the world
[2] Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXXXI