What a happy gathering! Really, now, have you ever seen a more cheerful bunch of people? Here are Baha’is from Tacoma with guests at the Feast of Might (‘Izzat) on Monday, September 8th at the Lewis home, hosted by BJ Bailey.

Our special guests were on their honeymoon from their home in Beijing, China. Marc Lee and Farnoosh Famouri-Lee (together in the lower right corner) were visiting Marc’s brother, who lives in Tacoma.

Many children and youth were in attendance, and during the first part of Feast they learned songs in the back yard. At the conclusion of the business portion, they joined the rest of us in the living room and sang their songs with us. What beautiful voices! (At least the children and youth.)

Tacoma, Washington  The NEW honeymoon destination.

The world goes to Beijing. Beijing comes to Tacoma!

Photo by Marc Lee

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Vouchsafe Thy strength, O Almighty One, unto Thy weak creatures, and quicken them who are as dead, that haply they may find Thee, and may be led unto the ocean of Thy guidance, and may remain steadfast in Thy Cause.   Baha’u’llah

No veil whatever have I allowed, O Lord of all names and Creator of the heavens, to shut me from the recognition of the glories of Thy Day — the Day which is the lamp of guidance unto the whole world, and the sign of the Ancient of Days unto all them that dwell therein.  Baha’u’llah

Suffer me not, O my Lord, to be deprived of the knowledge of Thee in Thy days, and divest me not of the robe of Thy guidance.  Baha’u’llah

Lauded be Thy name, O Lord my God! Thou dost witness that Thy will hath prevailed over all created things, and Thy mercy hath surpassed all who are in heaven and on earth. And when Thou didst purpose to unveil Thy sovereignty, and to glorify Thy word, and to reveal Thy bounteousness and mercy, Thou didst raise up one of Thy servants, and didst choose Him above all Thy creatures, and didst single Him out for Thy purpose, and didst clothe Him with the robe of Thy guidance, and didst immerse Him beneath the seas of Thy majesty and grandeur, and didst sanctify Him from all that beseemeth not the greatness of Thy glory and the power of Thy might, and didst bid Him to cry out before all that are in heaven and on earth, and summon the multitudes to the Manifestation of Thy Self and the Revealer of Thy signs.  Baha’u’llah

O MY FRIENDS!
Quench ye the lamp of error, and kindle within your hearts the everlasting torch of divine guidance. For ere long the assayers of mankind shall, in the holy presence of the Adored, accept naught but purest virtue and deeds of stainless holiness.  Baha’u’llah

***

O my Lord! O my Lord!

I am a child of tender years. Nourish me from the breast of Thy mercy, train me in the bosom of Thy love, educate me in the school of Thy guidance and develop me under the shadow of Thy bounty. Deliver me from darkness, make me a brilliant light; free me from unhappiness, make me a flower of the rose garden; suffer me to become a servant of Thy threshold and confer upon me the disposition and nature of the righteous; make me a cause of bounty to the human world, and crown my head with the diadem of eternal life.

Verily, Thou art the Powerful, the Mighty, the Seer, the Hearer. 

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

O Thou kind Father, God! Gladden our hearts through the fragrance of Thy love. Brighten our eyes through the Light of Thy Guidance. Delight our ears with the melody of Thy Word, and shelter us all in the Stronghold of Thy Providence.

‘Abdu’l-Baha

Photo: a doe and fawn in Olympic Park, Washington, U.S.A.

In our search for our true spiritual nature, as well as in our search for success in this material life, effort is required. Prayer, meditation, decision, action, and persistence are the steps that we must each take to achieve our goals.  Here are a few words from Baha’u’llah about this, which are taken from the book Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah:

“The incomparable Creator hath created all men from one same substance, and hath exalted their reality above the rest of His creatures. Success or failure, gain or loss, must, therefore, depend upon man’s own exertions. The more he striveth, the greater will be his progress. We fain would hope that the vernal showers of the bounty of God may cause the flowers of true understanding to spring from the soil of men’s hearts, and may wash them from all earthly defilements.”

***

“From the exalted source, and out of the essence of His favor and bounty He hath entrusted every created thing with a sign of His knowledge, so that none of His creatures may be deprived of its share in expressing, each according to its capacity and rank, this knowledge. This sign is the mirror of His beauty in the world of creation. The greater the effort exerted for the refinement of this sublime and noble mirror, the more faithfully will it be made to reflect the glory of the names and attributes of God, and reveal the wonders of His signs and knowledge. Every created thing will be enabled (so great is this reflecting power) to reveal the potentialities of its pre-ordained station, will recognize its capacity and limitations, and will testify to the truth that “He, verily, is God; there is none other God besides Him.”…

There can be no doubt whatever that, in consequence of the efforts which every man may consciously exert and as a result of the exertion of his own spiritual faculties, this mirror can be so cleansed from the dross of earthly defilements and purged from satanic fancies as to be able to draw nigh unto the meads of eternal holiness and attain the courts of everlasting fellowship.”

Photo: afternoon sunlight illumines stained glass windows in Sainte Chapelle, Paris, France, the church where the royal family would attend services.

O SON OF MAN!
Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.
Baha’u’llah

Beauty is one of the attributes of God and one of God’s gifts to us. An appreciation of the beauty of nature and of the beauty of the human soul helps bring us closer to God. Think of all of the good, selfless things that people have done for you.

O SON OF MAN!
Neglect not My commandments if thou lovest My beauty, and forget not My counsels if thou wouldst attain My good pleasure.
Baha’u’llah

The most beautiful thing of all is to attain a recognition of our true spiritual nature. This is done through the divine teachings given to us by God’s Messenger.

And when He purposed to manifest His beauty in the kingdom of names and to reveal His glory in the realm of attributes, He brought forth His Prophets from the invisible plane to the visible, that His name “the Manifest” might be distinguished from “the Hidden” and His name “the Last” might be discerned from “the First”, and that there may be fulfilled the words: “He is the First and the Last; the Seen and the Hidden; and He knoweth all things!”
Baha’u’llah

Recognizing God and being obedient to His Word is the ultimate source of our happiness.

Behold ye My beauty, and My radiance, and My revelation, and My effulgence. By God, the True One! I am Trustworthiness and the revelation thereof, and the beauty thereof. I will recompense whosoever will cleave unto Me, and recognize My rank and station, and hold fast unto My hem.
Baha’u’llah

Photos and article courtesy of the Baha’i International Community.
For more photos and information, go to
http://news.bahai.org/story/647.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam — The government of Vietnam has given full recognition to the Baha’i community as a religious organization.

A certificate was presented to representatives of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Vietnam at a ceremony on 25 July.

It was the final act in a series of steps that included the election four months ago of the Baha’i Assembly – itself a landmark event in that it was the first time in many years that elections for the governing council were held. Government representatives were on hand to observe the balloting.

The head of the central government’s Committee for Religious Affairs, Nguyen The Doanh, officiated at last week’s ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City.

The official government news agency reported the event and referred to comments by the chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is, Mr. Nguyen Thuc: “(He) said the Government’s recognition of the Baha’i religion ‘charts a new course of development for the entire Baha’i community’ and motivates followers to make more contributions to social and humanitarian activities and to drive to preserve traditional spiritual values.”

The Baha’i Faith was established in the country in 1954, and the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Vietnam was elected 10 years later. In the mid-1970s, formal activities of the community were suspended.

The Vietnam News Agency said last week’s ceremony means that “the Government’s Committee for Religious Affairs has recognized the Baha’i Community of Vietnam as a religious organization able to operate on an equal footing with other religions.”

Baha’is of Vietnam are now working on consolidating their community, gathering accurate statistics, and expanding social projects to serve the people of Vietnam, particularly in the area of education.