17 January 2002: To the Friends Gathered at the Youth Congress in Brazil

Dear Bahá’í Friends,

We have followed with keen interest the series of youth conferences conducted across the American continent since the beginning of 2000. The enthusiasm generated among the youth by those events, and the spirit of devotion evoked, were noteworthy. This latest gathering is being held at a time when the initial stages of the Five Year Plan have unfolded, giving rise to well conceived plans of action, formulated on the basis of the geographic clusters into which each of your countries has been divided. To move these clusters from one stage of development to the next is the challenge being addressed by your institutions.

As you deliberate in the coming days on your experiences and aspirations, you should keep in mind that the success of the Five Year Plan in your continent will depend, in no small measure, on the wholehearted and sacrificial participation of the youth. You know well that the driving force behind growth in every cluster is the training institute. An enormous task lies ahead of these centres of learning as they strive to help large contingents of people pass through the sequence of courses they offer. Participating in their programmes must rank high among the endeavours you undertake for the Faith. Your contribution to the efforts to multiply the number of study circles will be significant if you constantly seek out receptive souls in your schools, at your universities, and in the workplace and invite them to join you in your exploration of the Writings. But your concern should not end with your own place of residence. You should take advantage of every opportunity to meet the needs of clusters throughout the continent by offering periods of service as short-term pioneers or as travelling teachers. As you do so, you will be able to forge bonds of fellowship with people of diverse backgrounds and bring them together in unified action.

We pray ardently that Bahá’u’lláh will bless and confirm your every effort to serve His Cause.

The Universal House of Justice

(Online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)

28 June 2001: To the Friends Gathered at Canada’s Second Youth Conference in Sherbrooke (Canada), 28 June–1 July 2001

Dear Bahá’í Friends,

The rising momentum of the series of youth conferences in the Americas has been a source of great joy to us, and we welcome the opportunity to speak directly to your gathering this weekend in the heart of French Canada.

As you are all certainly aware, the Bahá’í World Centre has just been the scene of a series of extraordinary events marking the successful completion of the great building projects on Mount Carmel, events whose impact on public consciousness throughout the world has far surpassed the brightest hopes of the Bahá’í community. At the conclusion of the conference accompanying the inauguration, we addressed a message to the friends assembled from every part of the world and virtually every segment of humanity. Its central theme, and the perspectives in which that theme is set forth, hold special implications for the youth of the Bahá’í world, and we are therefore moved to forward you a copy of the statement, in the confidence that it will assist in focussing your consultations this weekend.

Historical circumstances have endowed people of North America—and particularly its youth—with opportunities and resources denied to the great majority of the rest of the human family. While the immediate focus of your deliberations must be the needs of the ambitious area growth programs underway throughout Canada and the United States, it is vital that you keep ever in the forefront of your minds the fact that your two communities have been singled out by the unerring pen of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá for a mission that embraces the entire planet. Far from being inhibited by investment of your energies in other parts of the world, the work of the Cause in North America will derive fresh vision and vitality from such contributions.

Be confident of our ardent prayers at the Holy Shrines that Bahá’u’lláh will inspire the minds and hearts and confirm the resolutions you make to advance His Cause.

With loving Bahá’í greetings,

The Universal House of Justice

(Online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)

24 May 2001: To the Believers Gathered for the Events Marking the Completion of the Projects on Mount Carmel

Dear Bahá’í Friends,

One hundred and forty-eight years have passed since the moment in the darkness of the Síyáh-Chál when Bahá’u’lláh received the Divine summons to rise and proclaim to all on earth the dawning of the Day of God:

“Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy pen… Erelong God will raise up the treasures of the earth—men who will aid Thee through Thyself and through Thy Name, wherewith God hath revived the hearts of such as have recognized Him.”

In terms of historical time, it is but the briefest of spaces that separates that primal moment from the splendid victory we celebrate here this week. You who have come together from every corner of the earth and from every segment of the human family represent a cross-section of those whom Bahá’u’lláh has raised up to aid Him, and no one among us can hope to express adequately the gratitude we feel at being in that company.

The majestic buildings that now stand along the Arc traced for them by Shoghi Effendi on the slope of the Mountain of God, together with the magnificent flight of garden terraces that embrace the Shrine of the Báb, are an outward expression of the immense power animating the Cause we serve. They offer timeless witness to the fact that the followers of Bahá’u’lláh have successfully laid the foundations of a worldwide community transcending all differences that divide the human race, and have brought into existence the principal institutions of a unique and unassailable Administrative Order that shapes this community’s life. In the transformation that has taken place on Mount Carmel, the Bahá’í Cause emerges as a visible and compelling reality on the global stage, as the focal center of forces that will, in God’s good time, bring about the reconstruction of society, and as a mystic source of spiritual renewal for all who turn to it.

Ridván 2001: To the Bahá’ís of the World

Dearly loved Friends,

With great joy in our hearts and high expectations, we come to this Ridván season at a change of time, when a new state of mind is evident among us all. Abroad in our world community there is a heightened awareness of the value of process, the necessity of planning and the virtue of systematic action in fostering growth and in developing the human resources by which expansion can be sustained and consolidation assured. The coherence of understanding about these prerequisites of progress cannot be overvalued, nor can the importance of perpetuating them through well-ordered training be overestimated. And so the arrival of our community at such a moment of consciousness is an occasion of significance for us. We are deeply grateful to the Blessed Beauty to be able to recognize and acclaim it at the very beginning of the global enterprise being launched during these festive days.

The power of will generated by this consciousness characterized the conference of the Continental Counselors and the members of their Auxiliary Boards who gathered last January in the Holy Land. The event produced so illuminating an experience as to signalize the Faith’s entry into a new epoch, the fifth of its Formative Age. Such a freshness of vitality as was displayed at this historic gathering came to be understood as a manifestation of the rising quality of activity throughout the community. Pursuit during the past year of the essentials for advancing the process of entry by troops confirmed this observation. The path was thus paved for the Five Year Plan, the first venture being entered upon in the Fifth Epoch.