Messages posted in chronological order…

2/5/16

26 October 1967: To National Spiritual Assemblies engaged in mass teaching



Dear Bahá'í friends,

We have been watching with keen interest the development of the teaching work among the masses, and from time to time have offered suggestions to guide and assist the efforts of National Spiritual Assemblies engaged in this highly meritorious activity.

Many National Spiritual Assemblies in carrying out their plans for expansion and consolidation have found it necessary to select a number of believers for service as travelling teachers. While we appreciate the valuable services these travelling teachers have already rendered we are nevertheless deeply conscious of the problems facing your National Assemblies in your desire to carry out your teaching programmes with as much dispatch as possible. The purpose of this letter is to draw your attention to the fact that these problems could well be minimized if the selection of such teachers were done with great care and discretion.

It must be realized that people who are mostly illiterate cannot have the benefit of reading for themselves the written word and of deriving directly from it the spiritual sustenance they need for the enrichment of their Bahá'í lives. They become dependent, therefore, to a large extent on their contacts with visiting teachers. The spiritual calibre or moral quality of these teachers assumes, therefore, great importance. The National Spiritual Assembly or the Teaching Committees responsible for the selection of these teachers should bear in mind that their choice must depend, not only on the knowledge or grasp of the teachings on the part of the teachers, but primarily upon their pure spirit and their true love for the Cause, and their capacity to convey that spirit and love to others.

We are enclosing some extracts from the Writings which will no doubt assist you in your deliberations on this vital subject. What wonderful results will soon be witnessed in the areas under your jurisdiction if you devise ways and means to ensure, as far as circumstances permit, that the travelling teachers you are encouraging to circulate among the friends will all be of the standard called for in these quotations -- pure and sanctified souls, with nothing but true devotion and self-sacrifice motivating them in their services to God's Holy Cause. We also suggest that the study of quotations such as these should form part of the courses offered at your Teaching Institutes for the deepening of the friends.

We wish to assure you once again of our fervent prayers at the Holy Shrines for the solution of your problems and the removal of all obstacles from the path you are so valiantly pursuing.

With loving Bahá'í greetings,
The Universal House of Justice
(‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963 to 1986’)