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’)
