Befriended Stranger

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
(Judaism / Christianity, Holy Bible, Joel, 2:32)

O LORD! Thou art the Remover of every anguish and the Dispeller of every affliction. Thou art He Who banisheth every sorrow and setteth free every slave, the Redeemer of every soul. O Lord! Grant deliverance through Thy mercy and reckon me among such servants of Thine as have gained salvation.
(Baha’i Faith, The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 193)

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.

On a day which was highlighted by my six year old Sofia turning to me and tenderly telling me “Daddy, I really love you!”, I had another blessing — of spending wonderful time with two new friends from the “Old World”: one from Bulgaria, the other from Uzbekistan.

O ye close and dear friends of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá!
In the Orient scatter perfumes,
And shed splendours on the West.
Carry light unto the Bulgar,
And the Slav with life invest.
(Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 270)

It was so nourishing — and just fun — to share a Bulgarian dinner with these friends and reminisce about our similar paths, sharing the types of jokes you would get only if you had lived in that part of the world, in those days of human history. And then to share prayers and discuss the Baha’i Faith — with all the things we think we understand about it, and those that seem at least at first as insurmountable obstacles. And then to acknowledge humbly that we might not actually get it but hope that the heart would one day know:

O servant! Warn thou the servants of God not to reject that which they do not comprehend. Say, implore God to open to your hearts the portals of true understanding that ye may be apprised of that of which no one is apprised. Verily, He is the Giver, the Forgiving, the Compassionate.
(Baha’u'llah, Tablets of Baha’u'llah, p. 188)

Life is a journey and I could not have asked for a better “new beginning” of the next chapter of my life than spending an evening at the Prayer Station with new friends from the Old World.

Though (by his learning and sanctity) he may be entitled to accept presents, let him not attach himself (too much) to that (habit); for through his accepting (many) presents the divine light in him is soon extinguished.
(Hinduism, Laws of Manu)

The most important thing is to polish the mirrors of hearts in order that they may become illumined and receptive of the divine light.
(Baha’i Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 14)

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, December 14th, I invite you and your loves ones to the interfaith Prayer Station in Arlington which will be dedicated to the topic of Divine Light as reflected in different religious traditions. We’ll start at 7:30 pm with light refreshments 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 cake.

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.

I feel so grateful and blessed with spiritual friends, for they help me keep the hunger for God alive! I just came from a wonderful prayer meeting hosted by the beautiful Ana and feel so spiritually rejuvenated!

Rid thou thyself of all attachments to aught except God, enrich thyself in God by dispensing with all else besides Him, and recite this prayer:

Say: God sufficeth all things above all things, and nothing in the heavens or in the earth or in whatever lieth between them but God, thy Lord, sufficeth. Verily, He is in Himself the Knower, the Sustainer, the Omnipotent.

Regard not the all-sufficing power of God as an idle fancy. It is that genuine faith which thou cherishest for the Manifestation of God in every Dispensation. It is such faith which sufficeth above all the things that exist on the earth, whereas no created thing on earth besides faith would suffice thee. If thou art not a believer, the Tree of divine Truth would condemn thee to extinction. If thou art a believer, thy faith shall be sufficient for thee above all things that exist on earth, even though thou possess nothing.
(The Bab, Selections From the Writings of the Bab, p. 123.)

And last night the Prayer Station was so wonderful! Ghaneh joined me, Farah, Wil, Madeleine and Merrie. He spoke so eloquently and with such sincere love for Jesus Christ, explaining the spiritual meaning of the tests faced by those who two thousand years ago had a chance and responsibility to recognize the Son of God, just as we all today are being tested in our readiness to recognize His Return, that Merrie was in tears and shared that she had never been so touched and so enlightened by another person shedding light on the wisdom in God’s Holy Book, and that Ghaneh was the answer to her dream from two week ago. Ghaneh humbly replied that his hope is we all become worthy of such responsibility. Rejoiced as we all were in praising the Lord, dear Madeleine encouraged us all to keep in our hearts the hunger for God, for only God can satisfy the hunger of the soul:

I counsel you, in the end, not to overstep the bounds of God, nor to heed the ways and habits of men, for these can neither “fatten nor appease your hunger”. Fix, rather, your gaze upon the precepts of God. Whosoever desireth, let him accept this counsel as a path leading unto his Lord, and whosoever desireth, let him return to his own idle imaginings. My Lord, verily, is independent above all who are in the heavens and on the earth, and above all that they say and do.
(Baha’u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 237)

The God-conscious being is always unattached,
as the lotus in the water remains detached.

The God-conscious being is always unstained,
like the sun, which gives its comfort and warmth to all.

The God-conscious being looks upon all alike,
like the wind, which blows equally upon the king and the poor beggar.

The God-conscious being has a steady patience,
like the earth, which is dug up by one, and anointed with sandal paste by another.

(Sikhism, Shri Guru Granth Sahib, Section  7 – Raag Gauree)

Another prayer station, both unique yet usual. This time it was Max, Marite, Sohi and myself. We had another bean soup / banitza / banana bread dinner (what it is with the Bs?), followed by Holy Writings, prayers and the music of Leonor Dely, SKY and Paul Parrish, each singing their version of:

O SON OF MAN!
For everything there is a sign. The sign of love is fortitude under My decree and patience under My trials.
(Baha’u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words, #48)

Then came the time for Marite’s questions who during the dinner told us that she is getting ready to become a Baha’i but has some things on her mind that trouble her. Can she pray to both Jesus Christ and Baha’u'llah? Can she accept both? Can she consider Jesus as higher than Baha’u'llah since Jesus was from older times? Can she be a Baha’i and go to church? She certainly feels more embraced and at ease at Baha’i gatherings than at church although understandably she is being careful about her own roots and identity.

We all shared our thoughts, and experiences, and prayed some more, and even sang the song “Hoy Es El Dia” together. And we clarified that if and when Marite becomes a Baha’i, she would be part of the Arlington Baha’i community. Now is the time for more patience and more prayers, until the heart is calm and ready to embrace the peace of knowing that there is one God, one humanity and one religion.

But, O my brother, when a true seeker determineth to take the step of search in the path leading to the knowledge of the Ancient of Days, he must, before all else, cleanse and purify his heart, which is the seat of the revelation of the inner mysteries of God, from the obscuring dust of all acquired knowledge, and the allusions of the embodiments of satanic fancy. He must purge his breast, which is the sanctuary of the abiding love of the Beloved, of every defilement, and sanctify his soul from all that pertaineth to water and clay, from all shadowy and ephemeral attachments. He must so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth. Even as thou dost witness in this day how most of the people, because of such love and hate, are bereft of the immortal Face, have strayed far from the Embodiments of the divine mysteries, and, shepherdless, are roaming through the wilderness of oblivion and error. That seeker must at all times put his trust in God, must renounce the peoples of the earth, detach himself from the world of dust, and cleave unto Him Who is the Lord of Lords. He must never seek to exalt himself above any one, must wash away from the tablet of his heart every trace of pride and vainglory, must cling unto patience and resignation, observe silence, and refrain from idle talk. For the tongue is a smouldering fire, and excess of speech a deadly poison. Material fire consumeth the body, whereas the fire of the tongue devoureth both heart and soul. The force of the former lasteth but for a time, whilst the effects of the latter endure a century.

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 192)

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
(Christianity, King James Bible, Hebrews, 10:35-36)

O ye who believe! seek help with patience and with prayer, for God is with the patient.
(Islam, The Holy Qur’an, Sura   2 – The Cow)

It behoveth whosoever hath set his face towards the Most Sublime Horizon to cleave tenaciously unto the cord of patience, and to put his reliance in God, the Help in Peril, the Unconstrained.
(Baha’i Faith, Tablets of Baha’u'llah, p. 211)

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, November 16th, I invite you and your loves ones to an interfaith Prayer Station in Arlington which will be dedicated to the topic of Patience as reflected in different religious traditions. We’ll start at 7:30 pm with light refreshments 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 cake.

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.

What an unusual day! I woke up from a dream in which I was with Hillary Clinton and then reached out to shake hand with Bill Clinton praising his efforts to arise and serve humanity. I didn’t think much of this dream until I heard a story later this evening… Before that, I had prepared for the Monday Prayer meeting whose topic would be “Glory of God” in anticipation for the Birth of Baha’u'llah and had send an email invitation to friends. When I checked my email, I got an unusually enthusiastic response from the 86-year old lady who had attended a couple of Prayer Stations before:

What a FANTASTIC  TOPIC  you have chosen.  We can ask to see God’s Glory and also ask to have that Glory inside of us.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t know yet if I am coming.     Madeleine

Then at noon Madeleine called me to tell me she is coming with a friend. When she and her friend Merrie arrived, as I introduced them to Wil, the third guest, the topic somehow went into the need of praying for our government.  Turns out Merrie had hosted the two inauguration prayer meetings during the Clinton administration. Then she started telling us the story of how she met Hillary Clinton at a church service and how she had hoped to approach President Bill Clinton but it was he who reached out to her to shake her hand to which she answered with “We pray for you, sir”. So, all of a sudden, the dream started making sense. At least some sense

We all had wonderful and uplifting time reading from the Holy Bible and from the Writings of Baha’u'llah and Abdu’l-Baha. We listened to beautiful music — “Intone” by Katharine Key, “Love is the Light” by SKY, and “Night Hath Succeedeth Day” by KC Porter. Then we shared prayers — for our children and for our government and for unity. And then Merrie treated us to a song she had learned in Jerusalem, a song called “The Realm of Glory”. Should have been with these words (it was not):

O SON OF MAN!
Thou art My dominion and My dominion perisheth not; wherefore fearest thou thy perishing? Thou art My light and My light shall never be extinguished; why dost thou dread extinction? Thou art My glory and My glory fadeth not; thou art My robe and My robe shall never be outworn. Abide then in thy love for Me, that thou mayest find Me in the realm of glory.
(Baha’u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words, #14)

And as the ladies were leaving, they asked me if they could join the celebration of the Birth of Baha’u'llah to be hosted by the Washington, DC Baha’i community. The Glory of God is indeed with us!

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
(Judaism / Christianity, Holy Bible, Psalms, 19:1)

Behold how the manifold grace of God, which is being showered from the clouds of Divine glory, hath, in this day, encompassed the world. For whereas in days past every lover besought and searched after his Beloved, it is the Beloved Himself Who now is calling His lovers and is inviting them to attain His presence.
(Baha’i Faith, Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 320)

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, November 9th, I invite you and your loves ones to an interfaith Prayer Station in Arlington which will be dedicated to the topic of The Glory of God as reflected in different religious traditions. We’ll start at 7:30 pm with light refreshments 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 cake.

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.

I feel blessed when I am able to share a meal and prayers with those seeking God:

And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
(Christianity, Holy Bible, Acts, 4:31-32)

Tonight, four souls from four different countries (Peru, Bolivia, Serbia and Bulgaria) came to the Prayer Station and we all got nourished, physically with homemade yellow pea soup, banitza and banana bread, and spiritually with prayers and writings on the theme of “One Soul”:

He Who is your Lord, the All-Merciful, cherisheth in His heart the desire of beholding the entire human race as one soul and one body. Haste ye to win your share of God’s good grace and mercy in this Day that eclipseth all other created Days. How great the felicity that awaiteth the man that forsaketh all he hath in a desire to obtain the things of God! Such a man, We testify, is among God’s blessed ones.
(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 81)

To set us into meditative mood, we listened to “I Am My Soul’s Song” by Jack Lenz and later on to the solo piano composition “The Ladder and The Soul” by Luke Slott.

If any man were to meditate on that which the Scriptures, sent down from the heaven of God’s holy Will, have revealed, he would readily recognize that their purpose is that all men shall be regarded as one soul, so that the seal bearing the words ‘The Kingdom shall be God’s’ may be stamped on every heart, and the light of Divine bounty, of grace, and mercy may envelop all mankind. The One true God, exalted be His glory, hath wished nothing for Himself. The allegiance of mankind profiteth Him not, neither doth its perversity harm Him. The Bird of the Realm of Utterance voiceth continually this call: ‘All things have I willed for thee, and thee, too, for thine own sake.’ If the learned and worldly-wise men of this age were to allow mankind to inhale the fragrance of fellowship and love, every understanding heart would apprehend the meaning of true liberty, and discover the secret of undisturbed peace and absolute composure.
(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u'llah, p. 161)

Then, after we listened to “All Things Are Of God”, it was time for Anna’s visual presentation on the Baha’i Faith. My Serbian guest Misho listened intently throughout the whole presentation, offering mindful remarks and while the others had to go, he stayed on asking me if it was OK for us to continue till the end. He seemed very reflective and inspired. As we discussed the obstacles Misho perceives as too big, I encouraged him to focus on the basic truth that this is all about connecting a soul to its Creator, and that the rest are details that over time will probably seem less significant. He found this comforting and inspiring. Whatever the outcome is, this was a truly wonderful evening of sharing prayers with those present and those who were away but present in our hearts; an evening, when we all felt as one soul!

God always provides the timeliest answers. As if to address my hesitation from a day ago about the pros and cons of having a blog, a new friend who had hoped to come to the Prayer Station tonight emailed me saying:

“I noticed your  email address name — do you have a blog with this name “befriended stranger”? I’ve seen this before.”

So, befriended strangers,welcome back

Tonight the Prayer Station was selfishly tuned to the theme of the Saints because it is my name’s day, but Wil, the kind gentleman who has been attending my devotional gathering every other week, asked me if the reason was the approaching All Saints’ Day. We ended up talking about what sainthood means and Wil was surprised to discover that the Apostles were indeed called Saints in the Bible. Funny how traditions become such ingrained habits that we tend to not even notice their meaning — Wil grew up the son of a Lutheran priest and is currently alternating this Christian denomination with Universalist Unitarian church but was first introduced to the Baha’i Faith in 1968.

We talked about the prospective of one day being in the company of the soul of saints in the next world:

Grant, then, O my God, that Thy servant may consort with Thy chosen ones, Thy saints and Thy Messengers in heavenly places that the pen cannot tell nor the tongue recount.
(Baha’u'llah, Baha’i Prayers, p. 42)

But we also reflected that as we turn to God, even in this world we can join the saints:

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.
(Christianity, King James Bible, Ephesians, 2:19)

I shared with Wil about the suffering of Baha’u'llah and that of His followers even today in Iran, then we listened to MANA’s song “They Suffered”:

…they suffered the most grievous difficulties and severe ordeals. They withstood the tests with wonderful power and sublime heroism. Thousands were cast into prison, punished, persecuted and martyred. Their homes were pillaged and destroyed, their possessions confiscated. They sacrificed their lives most willingly and remained unshaken in their faith to the very end. Those wonderful souls are the lamps of God, the stars of sanctity shining gloriously from the eternal horizon of the will of God.
(Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 138)

Then we shared prayers and Wil read a couple of Baha’i prayers, commenting how beautiful they were…

Prayers as guiding lights; Saints as lamps of God.