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Citadel of Faith
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Pages 117-119
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MOST VITAL OBJECTIVE IN THE CRUSADE'S OPENING YEAR
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Of all the objectives enumerated in my message to the representatives
of this community, assembled on the occasion of the celebration
of the climax of the Holy Year, of the convocation of the second
Intercontinental Teaching Conference, of the inauguration of the
Mother Temple of the West and of the launching of the World
Spiritual Crusade, the most vital, urgent and meritorious, in this the
opening year of the initial phase of this world-embracing enterprise, is,
without doubt, the settlement of pioneers in all the virgin territories
and islands assigned to this community in all the continents of the
globe, with the exception of the few which, owing to present political
obstacles, cannot as yet be opened to the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. This
process already so auspiciously inaugurated, which, in the course of the
first eight months of the Holy Year has gathered such splendid
momentum, and which bids fair to astonish, stimulate and inspire the
entire Bahá'í world, must, during the concluding months of this same
year and the one succeeding it, be so accelerated as to insure the
attainment of this paramount objective before the lapse of two years
from the official launching of this World Crusade.
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While this goal is being vigorously pursued, close attention must be
directed to the preliminary measures for the establishment of the first
dependency of the Mother Temple of the West, as well as to the
completion of the landscaping of its grounds, a double task that will, on
the one hand, mark the termination of the fifty-year-old process of the
construction of the central Bahá'í House of Worship, and proclaim, on
the other, the commencement of another designed to culminate in the
establishment in its plenitude of the institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár
as conceived by Bahá'u'lláh and envisaged by `Abdu'l-Bahá.
Moreover, immediate consideration should be given to two other issues
of prime importance, namely the purchase of land, which need not
exceed for the present one acre, in anticipation of the construction of
the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of South Africa, and the prompt translation
of a suitable Bahá'í pamphlet into the American and European languages
allocated to your assembly, and its publication and wide dissemination
among the peoples and tribes for whom it has been primarily
designed.
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The followers of the Most Great Name, citizens of the great
republic of the West; constituting the majority and the oldest followers
of His Faith in a continent wherein, in the words of `Abdu'l-Bahá, "the
splendors of His (Bahá'u'lláh's) Light shall be revealed" and "the
mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled," addressed by Him in His
Tablets of the Divine Plan as the "Apostles" of His Father; the
recipients of the overwhelming majority of these same Tablets constituting
the Charter of that Plan; conquerors of most of the territories,
whether sovereign states or dependencies, already included within the
pale of the Faith; the champion-builders of a world administrative
system which posterity will regard as the harbinger of the World Order
of Bahá'u'lláh, must, if they wish to retain their primacy and enrich
their heritage, insure that, ere the opening of the second phase of this
World Crusade, the names of the first American Bahá'í conquerors to
settle in virgin territories and islands will, as befits their primacy, be
inscribed on the Scroll of Honor, now in process of preparation, and
designed to be permanently deposited at the entrance door of the Inner
Sanctuary of Bahá'u'lláh's Most Holy Tomb, that the limited area of
land required for the erection of four future Bahá'í Temples, in Rome,
Stockholm, Panama City and Johannesburg, will be bought, that the
landscaping of the grounds of the Temple in Wilmette will be
completed, and that the translation and the publication of the aforementioned
pamphlet in the specified languages will be accomplished.
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The two years that lie ahead, three months of which have already
elapsed, will swiftly and imperceptibly draw to a close. Tasks even more
onerous, equally weighty and requiring in a still greater measure the
expenditure of effort and substance, lie ahead, which will brook no
delay, which will carry the Faith to still higher levels of achievement
and renown, which will enlarge, through the forging of fresh instruments,
the framework of a steadily rising world Administrative Order,
and which will eventually, if worthily discharged, seal the triumph of
the most prodigious, the most sublime, the most sacred collective
enterprise launched by the adherents of the Cause of God in both
hemispheres since the early days of the Heroic Age of the Faith--an
enterprise which in its vastness, organization and unifying power, has
no parallel in the world's spiritual history.
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