Befriended Stranger

The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord.” (Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 53)

I invite you and your loves ones on Saturday, July 31st, at 8 pm to a very special Musical Prayer Station and House Concert with Hillary Chapman. He will play some Nashville songs to give us all a flavor of his own song writing, then ease into spiritual music and conclude with group singing.

You don’t want to miss this! And you should tell your friends about it too! Let me know if you need the directions!

The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord.
- Abdu’l-Baha

Dear friends!

What nurtures your soul? What makes your heart tender? Prayer, music, fellowship, tea poured in peace, cake shared with a smile? Whatever the answer might be, sharing songs and prayers with friends gets us all closer to the Creator and recharges us for the week ahead.

This Friday, June 25th, at 8 pm, I invite you and your loves ones to a very special interfaith Prayer Station in Arlington with the music of Gustaff Besungu, Pam Hill and Ali Youseffi. What do a Cameroonian percussionist, an American-born South American-raised Iranian-American guitarist and vocalist, and a Southern violinist have in common?  Music for the soul!

Music for the Soul – Summer tour 2010 from Ali Youssefi on Vimeo.

You don’t want to miss this! And you should tell your friends about it too!

And if you want to join me, please contact me for directions!

O peoples of the world! The Sun of Truth hath risen to illumine the whole earth, and to spiritualize the community of man. Laudable are the results and the fruits thereof, abundant the holy evidences deriving from this grace. This is mercy unalloyed and purest bounty; it is light for the world and all its peoples; it is harmony and fellowship, and love and solidarity; indeed it is compassion and unity, and the end of foreignness; it is the being at one, in complete dignity and freedom, with all on earth.
(Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 1)

Dear friends!

As seven Baha’i leaders in the cradle of their Faith enter their third year of imprisonment, new details about the harsh conditions of their incarceration have emerged, prompting renewed calls for their immediate release.

This Friday, May 14th, I invite you and your loves ones to an interfaith Prayer Station in Arlington on the theme of “Love and Solidarity”. Let us together, united in one common prayer, attract divine assistance for our friends and all suffering people in Iran, the land which gave birth to the Faith of Baha’u'llah!

We’ll start at 8 pm with a devotional program of selected Holy Writings and Prayers. I have many books of prayers from different faith traditions but if you wish, feel free to bring your own prayer. We’ll also uplift and refresh our souls with music, and we’ll conclude with tea and refreshments.

We’ll also say prayers for anyone in need, so if you can’t join us and would like to request prayers please contact me.

The good LORD pardon every one that setteth his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, though [he be] not [cleansed] according to the purification that pertaineth to holy things.
(Judaism / Christianity, Kesuvim (Writings), Divrei HaYomim (Chronicles))

Abstention from all evil, Cultivation of the wholesome, Purification of the heart;
This is the Message of the Buddhas.
(Buddhism, Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha)

KNOW thou that in the Bayan purification is regarded as the most acceptable means for attaining nearness unto God and as the most meritorious of all deeds.
(Baha’i Faith, The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 98)

Dear friends!

What nurtures your soul? What makes your heart tender? Prayer, music, fellowship, food cooked with love, tea poured in peace, cake shared with smile? Whatever the answer might be, sharing prayers with friends gets us all closer to the Creator and recharges us for the week ahead.

This Monday, April 26th, I invite you and your loves ones to the interfaith Prayer Station in Arlington on the theme of “Purification“. We’ll start at 7:30 pm with light dinner followed by reading, at 8:00 pm, of selected Holy Writings and Prayers. I have many books of prayers from different faith traditions but if you wish, feel free to bring your own prayer. We’ll also uplift and refresh our souls with music, and we’ll conclude with tea and sweets.

We’ll also say prayers for anyone in need, so if you can’t join us and would like to request prayers please contact me.

Oh, thou soul which art at rest, Return to thy Lord, pleased, and pleasing him:
Enter thou among my servants, And enter thou my Paradise.

(The Qur’an, Sura  89 – The Daybreak)

Haste ye to enter into Paradise, as a token of Our mercy unto you, and drink ye from the hands of the All-Merciful the Wine that is life indeed.

(Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 45)

Dear friends!
What nurtures your soul? What makes your heart tender? Prayer, music, fellowship, food cooked with love, tea poured in peace, cake shared with smile? Whatever the answer might be, sharing prayers with friends gets us all closer to the Creator and recharges us for the week ahead.

This Monday, April 19th, I invite you and your loves ones to the interfaith Prayer Station in Arlington on the theme of “Paradise“. We’ll start at 7:30 pm with light dinner followed by reading, at 8:00 pm, of selected Holy Writings and Prayers. I have many books of prayers from different faith traditions but if you wish, feel free to bring your own prayer. We’ll also uplift and refresh our souls with music, and we’ll conclude with tea and sweets.
We’ll also say prayers for anyone in need, so if you can’t join us and would like to request prayers please contact me.

Great are Thy compassions, O LORD; quicken me as Thou art wont.
(Judaism / Christianity, Kesuvim (Writings), Tehillim (Psalms), 119,156)

But God is the best guardian, and of those who shew compassion He is the most compassionate.
(Islam, The Qur’an, Sura  12 – Joseph, Peace be on Him)

There is no one, O my Lord, who can deal bountifully with me to whom I can turn my face, and none who can have compassion on me that I may crave his mercy.
(Baha’i Faith, Baha’u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha’u'llah, p. 29)

Dear friends!

This Monday, April 12th, I invite you and your loves ones to the interfaith Prayer Station in Arlington on the theme of “Compassion“. We’ll start at 7:30 pm with light dinner followed by reading, at 8:00 pm, of selected Holy Writings and Prayers. I have many books of prayers from different faith traditions but if you wish, feel free to bring your own prayer. We’ll also uplift and refresh our souls with music, and we’ll conclude with tea and sweets.

We’ll also say prayers for anyone in need, so if you can’t join us and would like to request prayers please contact me.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
(Holy Bible, John, 11:25 – 26)

Say: Whose is all that is in the Heavens and the Earth? Say: God’s. He had imposed mercy on Himself as a law. He will surely assemble you on the Resurrection day; there is no doubt of it. They who are the authors of their own ruin, are they who will not believe.
(Holy Qur’an, Sura 6 – Cattle)

Behold how the generality of mankind hath been endued with the capacity to hearken unto God’s most exalted Word — the Word upon which must depend the gathering together and spiritual resurrection of all men….
(Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 96)

Dear friends!

This Monday, April 5th, I invite you and your loves ones to the interfaith Prayer Station in Arlington on the theme of “Resurrection“. We’ll start at 7:30 pm with light dinner followed by reading, at 8:00 pm, of selected Holy Writings and Prayers. I have many books of prayers from different faith traditions but if you wish, feel free to bring your own prayer. We’ll also uplift and refresh our souls with music, and we’ll conclude with tea and sweets.

We’ll also say prayers for anyone in need, so if you can’t join us and would like to request prayers please contact me.

It is always springtime, when I meet with the Divine Guru.
(Sikhism, Shri Guru Granth Sahib, Section 29 – Raag Basant)

O My servants! It behoveth you to refresh and revive your souls through the gracious favors which, in this Divine, this soul-stirring Springtime, are being showered upon you. The Day Star of His great glory hath shed its radiance upon you, and the clouds of His limitless grace have overshadowed you. How high the reward of him that hath not deprived himself of so great a bounty, nor failed to recognize the beauty of his Best-Beloved in this, His new attire.
(Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 167)

Dear friends!

We’ll also say prayers for anyone in need, so if you can’t join us and would like to request prayers please contact me.

And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
(Judaism / Christianity, Holy Bible, Isaiah, 2:17)

And we solemnly declared to the children of Israel in the Book, “Twice surely will ye enact crimes in the earth, and with great loftiness of pride will ye surely be uplifted.”
(Islam, The Qur’an, Sura  17 – The Night Journey)

The first Taraz and the first effulgence which hath dawned from the horizon of the Mother Book is that man should know his own self and recognize that which leadeth unto loftiness or lowliness, glory or abasement, wealth or poverty.
(Baha’i Faith, Baha’u'llah, Tablets of Baha’u'llah, p. 34)

Dear friends!

What nurtures your soul? What makes your heart tender? Prayer, music, fellowship, food cooked with love, tea poured in peace, cake shared with smile? Whatever the answer might be, sharing prayers with friends gets us all closer to the Creator and recharges us for the week ahead.

This Monday, March 15th, I invite you and your loves ones to the interfaith Prayer Station in Arlington on the theme of “Loftiness“. We’ll start at 7:14 pm with light dinner followed by reading, at 8:00 pm, of selected Holy Writings and Prayers. I have many books of prayers from different faith traditions but if you wish, feel free to bring your own prayer. We’ll also uplift and refresh our souls with music, and we’ll conclude with tea and sweets.

We’ll also say prayers for anyone in need, so if you can’t join us and would like to request prayers please contact me.