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8/9/11

To be generous and patient

Be generous in your days of plenty, and be patient in the hour of loss. Adversity is followed by success and rejoicings follow woe. (Bahá'u'lláh, Tablets of Baha'u'lláh revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas)

8/4/11

Marriage should be viewed as a “union of the body and of the spirit”

Marriage, among the mass of the people, is a physical bond, and this union can only be temporary, since it is foredoomed to a physical separation at the close. Among the people of Bahá, however, marriage must be a union of the body and of the spirit as well, for here both husband and wife are aglow with the same wine, both are enamoured of the same matchless Face, both live and move through the same spirit, both are illumined by the same glory. This connection between them is a spiritual one, hence it is a bond that will abide forever. Likewise do they enjoy strong and lasting ties in the physical world as well, for if the marriage is based both on the spirit and the body, that union is a true one, hence it will endure. If, however, the bond is physical and nothing more, it is sure to be only temporary, and must inexorably end in separation. When, therefore, the people of Bahá undertake to marry, the union must be a true relationship, a spiritual coming together as well as a physical one, so that throughout every phase of life, and in all the worlds of God, their union will endure; for this real oneness is a gleaming out of the love of God. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá’; The Compilation of Compilations, Vol. I, Family Life)

8/3/11

The Teachings of the Baha’i Faith encourage every believer to “strive to obtain a more adequate understanding of the significance of Bahá'u'lláh's stupendous Revelation”

The beloved Guardian wrote, "To strive to obtain a more adequate understanding of the significance of Bahá'u'lláh's stupendous Revelation must, it is my unalterable conviction, remain the first obligation and the object of the constant endeavour of each one of its loyal adherents. An exact and thorough comprehension of so vast a system, so sublime a revelation, so sacred a trust, is for obvious reasons beyond the reach and ken of our finite minds. We can, however, and it is our bounden duty to seek to derive fresh inspiration and added sustenance as we labor for the propagation of His Faith through a clearer apprehension of the truths it enshrines and the principles on which it is based. (Shoghi Effendi, ‘The World Order of Baha'u'llah’)