Perfection - Baha'i Feast Devotional

A compilation from the Baha'i writings on the topic of Perfection - a Baha'i Feast devotional program.

1. Know, verily that the feast is the day wherein God opened thine insight through the Manifest Light, showed thee unto His Great Kingdom and granted to thee to drink from the chalice overflowing with the wine of divine guidance among the maid-servants. Is there a feast more happy and more noble than this? No, indeed, by the Lord of Heaven, it is a day wherein the thirsty one attaineth to the Spring from which gusheth forth cool and refreshing water, the lover meeteth his Loved One and the sick one is healed by the remedy of the Physician. Blessed art thou for attaining unto this!

-Tablets of `Abdu'l-Bahá

2. You have asked as to the feast in every Bahá’í month. This feast is held to foster comradeship and love, to call God to mind and supplicate Him with contrite hearts, and to encourage benevolent pursuits.

That is, the friends should there dwell upon God and glorify Him, read the prayers and holy verses, and treat one another with the utmost affection and love.

-Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá

3. As to the Nineteen Day Feast, it rejoiceth mind and heart. If this feast be held in the proper fashion, the friends will, once in nineteen days, find themselves spiritually restored, and endued with a power that is not of this world. -Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá

4. This Feast was established by His Highness the Bab, to occur once in nineteen days. Likewise, the Blessed Perfection [Bahá’o’lláh] hath commanded, encourage and reiterated it. Therefore, it hath the utmost importance. Undoubtedly you must give the greatest attention to its establishment and raise it to the highest point of importance, so that it may become continual and constant. The believers of God must assemble and associate with each other in the utmost love, joy and fragrance. They must conduct themselves (in these Feasts) with the greatest dignity and consideration, chant divine verses, peruse instructive articles, read the Tablets of Abdul-Baha, encourage and inspire each other with love for the whole human race, invoke God with perfect joy and fragrance, sing the verses, glorifications and praises of the Self-subsistent Lord and deliver eloquent speeches. The owner of the house must personally serve the beloved ones. He must seek after the comfort of all and with the utmost humility he must show forth kindness to every one. If the Feast is arranged in this manner and in the way mentioned, that supper is the “Lord’s supper,” for the result is the same result and the effect is the same effect.

-Tablets of `Abdu'l-Bahá

5. O friends of the Merciful!—move your tongues to thank the Loving Lord, and employ yourselves in praising and glorifying the Beauty of the Adored One, for ye were granted the privilege to be exhilarated from this most pure cup, and became full of cheer and attraction from this goblet of wine. Ye have perfumed your nostrils with the fragrances of sanctity, and delighted your senses with the scent of the garment of the Joseph of faithfulness. Ye tasted the honey of devotion from the hand of the Unique Beloved and partook of the eternal table at the feast of the blessing of the Presence of the Unity. This favor is one of the special gifts of the Presence of the Merciful, and this grace and generosity is one of the incomparable gifts of our Loving Lord. This is in accordance with what Christ said: “Many are called, but few chosen.” That is to say, there are many who are invited, but those souls who are signalized with the grace and favor of guidance are but very rare. “This is the bounty of God; He will give the same unto whom He pleaseth; and God is endowed with great bounty.”

-Tablets of `Abdu'l-Bahá

6. O ye loyal servants of the Ancient Beauty! In every cycle and dispensation, the feast hath been favoured and loved, and the spreading of a table for the lovers of God hath been considered a praiseworthy act. This is especially the case today, in this dispensation beyond compare, this most generous of ages, when it is highly acclaimed, for it is truly accounted among such gatherings as are held to worship and glorify God. Here the holy verses, the heavenly odes and laudations are intoned, and the heart is quickened, and carried away from itself.

The primary intent is to kindle these stirrings of the spirit, but at the same time it follows quite naturally that those present should partake of food, so that the world of the body may mirror the spirit’s world, and flesh take on the qualities of soul; and just as the spiritual delights are here in profusion, so too the material delights.

Happy are ye, to be observing this rule, with all its mystic meanings, thus keeping the friends of God alert and heedful, and bringing them peace of mind, and joy.

-Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá