Dear Baha'i friends,
You will recall that in its letters outlining goals of
successive Teaching Plans for the expansion and consolidation of the Faith, the
Universal House of Justice has repeatedly stressed the importance of the
friends' having access to the Sacred Text.
In our letter of 17 April 1981, written on behalf of the House of
Justice to all National Spiritual Assemblies, it was mentioned that steps were
being taken to prepare a compilation which would consist of prayers and
passages from the Holy Writings of our Faith.
This material is now ready and is being sent to you in the
form of a booklet. The contents are
suitable for use by individual believers, as well as for occasions when the
friends gather for meetings. Your
National Assembly may have already published a compilation of this order and
size for the use of the friends. If not,
and if your Assembly is among those specifically assigned the goal to make
basic Baha'i literature available, and if you decide that the material included
in the enclosed booklet is suitable for your purposes, the Universal House of
Justice is prepared to send you, upon request, a proof copy of the English text
in flat sheets ready for offset printing, as this will facilitate the printing
of the booklet in English, if such is your need.
The material in the booklet, it is hoped, will soon be ready
also in French and in Spanish, as the House of Justice is asking the respective
Publishing Trusts in Belgium and Argentina to undertake its translation and
publication. However, if the language or languages in which you should publish
your Baha'i literature is other than the three mentioned above, you should
consider the material, such as the passages included in the enclosed
compilation, for translation and dissemination among the friends, thus enabling
them, as envisaged in the Plan, to enrich their spiritual lives through
exposure to the Sacred Word.
With loving Baha'i greetings,
Department of the Secretariat
(‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986’)
