To have been unable, owing to sad circumstances over which I
have had no control, to keep in close and constant touch with you, the beloved
children of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, since His passing from this world, is to me a cause
of sad surprise and deep and bitter regret. To say that ever since the Dawn of
a New Day has broken upon me I have in the least felt reluctant or disinclined
to enter into relationship with every one of you, or felt indifferent to a
Cause which is so close and dear to your hearts, would indeed betray every
sentiment of love and fellowship which animates every one of us in our
servitude to His Holy Threshold. It was rather my utter exhaustion, my profound
feelings of sorrow, the overwhelming sense of my own position and
responsibilities and the extreme pressure of work that have caused me to
maintain such a long silence and seem forgetful of those brave and valiant
lovers of the Master in that land....
...Having returned to the Holy Land with a renewed vigour and a
refreshed spirit, I shall not fail with the help of the Master to do my part in
enabling you to carry on further and still further the Glorious Standard of
Bahá to the very heart and uttermost confines of Germany and thus hasten the
Day when the Spirit of Faith and Peace as revealed in the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh
will fill the world and the darkness of strife be no more.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a message dated 17 December 1922 to “Blest and beloved ones of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá!”; ‘The Light of Divine Guidance, The Messages from the Guardian
of the Baha’i Faith to the Baha’is of Germany and Austria’)
