Introduction to a Study of “Prayers and Meditations By Bahá’u’lláh”
"Introduction to a study of Prayers and Meditations" based on a pamphlet by Richard Blackwell
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
‘Community ... believers... must at so critical stage in fortunes declining civilisation seek purge galvanise their souls through daily prayer meditation that can best sustain them in discharge task still initial stage development.’ ‘...summoning their aid vitalising influence prayers meditations which Author their Faith Himself revealed let them delegates visitors alike draw nigh unto Bahá’u’lláh that He may draw nigh unto them.’
“... every hope that the perusal of such a precious volume will help to deepen more than any other publication, the spirit of devotion and faith in the friends, and thus charge them with all the spiritual powers they require for the accomplishment of their tremendous duties towards the Cause.”
Since fewer than half the contents of this book are available within the covers of any other three Bahá’í books taken together, we need to ponder well if we have so far either not taken steps to possess a copy or if we possess a copy but do not constantly peruse it.
Surely every chief aspect of Bahá’í principle and teaching is reinforced in a new way...
1. The colloquy and relationship between the Supreme Revelator and His Creator;
2. The bewildering power of the Almighty, His attributes and exaltation above the realm of being;
3. The relative unreality of creational existence, yet the tender acceptance by a loving God of all that His creatures can offer in praise and service;
4. The brutal facts of everyday living of the early believers, in exile and at ‘Akka, and the contrast with the Covenant breakers;
5. The exhortation and reminders to those same believers in which Bahá’u’lláh Himself also indicated that His tribulations served but to advance His Cause
The two longest (No. 176 with 49 paragraphs and No. 184 with 22 paragraphs) contain some of the most astonishing, loveliest and most challenging statements in all Bahá’í literature.
There are so many ways of reading and enjoying the contents of this precious book that it seems wrong to suggest any, yet some people may be grateful at least for some springboards to their own further plunging into this Ocean’s depths.
Although each prayer stands by itself as a perfect whole, and should be perused and studied thus, yet there are also other ways of diving for pearls.
(a) A study of the attributes of God, their variety, range and cogent, cumulative effect.
(b) Selection of a specific Bahá’í teaching
(c) The perfect blending of the different kinds of prayer
(d) A straight search for perfectly phrased, astonishingly logical and gloriously fuller amplification of truth in gemlike utterances that occur all through the book
(e) The soul-moving range of Bahá’u’lláh’s own expression of Himself and His circumstances
(f) The simple felicity of phrasing and the cadences are often most stirring and invite the reminder that prayers are aided by adding the sense of hearing to the sense of sight in conformity with the sense of the Word.
(g) Whole paragraphs of most memorable content occur in many of the prayers, and each of us may like to build his own private anthology of them.
(h) A particularly interesting study is the concept ‘remembrance of God’ and the meanings it gathers to itself in the different contexts of its appearance
Among the most comforting statements are the sure promises of answers to prayer and assurances that He will never forsake us
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