Page 15 - Selection of Writings - 2022

assistance. To blame them for not doing more for the Cause is useless, and they may actually

have a very rm belief in Bahá’u’lláh which with care could be fanned into ame.

Letter written on behalf of Shoghi E endi, 25 April 1947 (Lights of Guidance, No 295)

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The friends should be helped to overcome their problems, deepen in the Faith, and increase

their unity and their love for each other. In this way you will nd that your work goes ahead
speedily, and that the National Body is like the beating of a healthy heart in the midst of the

Community, pumping spiritual love, energy and encouragement out to all the members.

Letter written on behalf of Shoghi E endi, June 30, 1957, To the National Spiritual Assembly
of Alaska (High Endeavours, Messages to Alaska, No 40, p35-36)

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A new burst of energy would accrue to the operation of the Three Year Plan if the friends, both

individually and collectively, could feel a greater sense of freedom to engage in a wide range of

activities originating with themselves. Even if you are doing nothing deliberately to discourage

such freedom, their accumulated impression of institutional disapproval, however derived, and
their fear of criticism are, to a considerable extent, inhibiting their exercise of initiative. At this

exact time in history when the peoples of the world are weighed down with soul-crushing

di culties and the shadow of despair threatens to eclipse the light of hope, there must be

revived among the individual believers a sense of mission, a feeling of empowerment to

minister to the urgent need of humanity for guidance and thus to win victories for the Faith in

their own sphere of life. The community as a whole should be involved in e orts to resolve

such issues. A single answer would, of course, be inadequate, there being so many diverse

elements and interests in the community. These matters require not only your own

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