October 20, 2011

The prayer that the Guardian has “earnestly request[ed]” all his “fellow-brethren and sisters in the Faith to offer” on his behalf.

I, for my part, as I look back to the unfortunate circumstances of ill-health and physical exhaustion that have attended the opening years of my career of service to the Cause, feel hardly gratified, and would be truly despondent but for the sustaining memory and inspiring example of the diligent and ceaseless efforts which my fellow-workers the world over have displayed during these two trying years in the service of the Cause.

I cherish the hope that, from now on, the Beloved may bestow upon me all the strength and vigor that will enable me to pursue over a long and unbroken period of strenuous labor the supreme task of achieving, in collaboration with the friends in every land, the speedy triumph of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. This is the prayer I earnestly request all my fellow-brethren and sisters in the Faith to offer on my behalf. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated 14 November 1923 to the Baha’is throughout America, ‘Baha’i Administration, p. 50) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World Community – by Shoghi Effendi)