Canada 1971: An Auxiliary Board Team Deepening Conference

(Canadian Baha’i News, no. 256, February-March 1972)

 On July 2, 3, and 4, 1971, an Auxiliary Board Team Deepening Conference was held in Brandon, Manitoba, supported by the local Spiritual Assembly of that city and by the Baha 'is of Cornwallis. Friends from six different countries and from many areas of Canada were among the 100 plus attending. 

“I want you to paint My Servitude to God."

The Master was seated in a dark corner, His black 'aba melting into the background - and again I saw Him as the Face of God - and quailed. How could I paint the Face of God?

"I want you," He said, "to paint My Servitude to God."

"Oh my Lord," I cried, "only the Holy Spirit could paint Your Servitude to God. No human hand could do it. Pray for me, or I am lost. I implore You, inspire me."

"I will pray," He answered, "and as you are doing this only for the sake of God, you will be inspired."

And then something amazing happened. All fear fell away from me, and it was as though Someone Else saw through my eyes, worked through my hand.

All the points, all the planes in that matchless Face were so clear to me that my hand couldn't put them down quickly enough - couldn't keep pace with the clarity of my vision. I painted in ecstasy - free as I had never been before. At the end of the half hour the foundation of the head was perfect. 

- Juliet Thompson  (World Order magazine, Fall 1971)

The “true meaning of the three Persons of the Trinity”

…the reality of Christ was a clear mirror wherein the Sun of Truth—that is, the divine Essence—appeared and shone forth with infinite perfections and attributes. It is not that the Sun, which is the Essence of the Divinity, was ever divided or multiplied—for it remains one—but it became manifest in the mirror. That is why Christ said, “The Father is in the Son”, meaning that that Sun is manifest and visible in this mirror.

The Holy Spirit is the outpouring grace of God which was revealed and manifested in the reality of Christ. Prophethood is the station of the heart of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the station of His spirit. It is thus evident and established that the Essence of the Divinity is absolute oneness and has no peer, equal, or likeness.

This is the true meaning of the three Persons of the Trinity. Otherwise, the foundations of the religion of God would rest upon an illogical proposition which no mind could ever conceive, and how could the mind be required to believe a thing which it cannot conceive? Such a thing could not be grasped by human reason—how much less be clothed in an intelligible form—but would remain sheer fancy. 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha  (Table talks in Akka, authenticated by ‘Abdu’l-Baha; ‘Some Answered Questions’ – 2014 revised translation by the Baha’i World Center)

“True consolidation”

True consolidation is to ensure that the love of Bahá'u'lláh and devotion to His Faith are firmly rooted in the hearts of the believers; this is the essential foundation for the subsequent addition of increased knowledge of the teachings and the development of the Bahá'í way of life. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a letter dated November 3, 1974 to a National Spiritual Assembly, in an unpublished compilation prepared by the International Teaching Center: ‘Teaching and Commitment’; compilation: Guidelines for Local Spiritual Assemblies [Developing Distinctive Baha’i Communities], NSA of USA, 1998 edition)

1934: Twenty-Sixth Annual Convention of Baha'is of the United States and Canada

(Star of the West (The Baha'i Magazine], vol. 25, no. 4, July 1934)