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Raising The Devotional Character
Last week, during the monthly Interfaith gathering in Aurora I had an
opportunity to have a lengthy conversation with the woman who organizes it.
She has shared bits of her past at previous gatherings but this time she
shared a lot about her Jewish upbringing on the Southside of Chicago and how
she had known about (but wasn’t intimately familiar with) the Bahai faith for
several years and had known many Bahai’s mostly from Highland Park. At some
point in the conversation, she asked me how my family had originally become
Bahai’s. I shared that a woman approached my grandfather on the train in the
1940s and started a conversation by complimenting him on how they were raising
their daughter to memorize long Bible passages (she saw a segment about it on
the news). The woman had gone on to share her belief in the importance of
educating children and then gave him a pamphlet. He took the pamphlet home to
my grandmother who read it and knew right away that Jesus Christ had returned.
I also shared how my grandmother’s sister did her own investigation and became
a Bahai as well. She was also a member of the Baptist church and wrote a
beautiful letter to the congregation to not think of her as leaving but as
having graduated. When I shared this story the woman exclaimed that that is
what she loved most about the Bahais, the belief that we are all going along
somewhere on this journey but that all religions are moving in the same
direction. She was referring to the idea of progressive Revelation but that
allowed me to share the Ruhi Institute and how we all believe we are walking
along a path accompanying each other and how “the path accommodates different
paces and strides”. The more we talked about the Faith the more questions she
had. She said, “It is so sad the Bahai Faith hasn’t been more widely adopted.
If there were more Baha’is in this country it wouldn’t look like this!” She
then asked “What are the Bahais doing to get the word out?” I told her that we
have study circles for adults, spiritual education classes for children, and
groups to empower kids aged 12-15. We talked about the junior youth program
for a while because her granddaughter is staying with her for the summer then
she asked about the study circles. I told her the first one is called
Reflections on the Life of the Spirit and its purpose is that we all walk away
with a common understanding that we are spiritual beings. I shared with her
how each of these books has an accompanying activity and the activity from the
first book is “raising the devotional character of a community.” We talked
about the importance of feeding our souls because if we are spiritual beings
our souls need to eat too. She exclaimed she loved this idea and suggested the
Interfaith space shift its activities from just sharing a prayer each month to
creating an intentional space for us to all get together for prayer. We are
currently discussing a starting date with other friends in the community.
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A New Friend
I have recently come across an amazing opportunity to invite a seeker to study
Ruhi Book 1 Reflections on the Life of the Spirit. He is an Ahmadiyya Muslim
from Algeria recently immigrated to the US with his family. He was interested
to learn more about the Bahai Faith after visiting the House of Worship. He
got connected after reaching out through the Seeker Response System and
a friend reached out to me to see if he could accompany me to meet this friend
and help nurture this connection. We met at a coffee house and after a
beautiful discussion about his interest in learning more about various Bahai
subjects, it felt like inviting him to study Reflections on the Life of the
Spirit would really help him along is journey and path of search. We are now
meeting every week and studying together in both Arabic and in English. The
richness of this study circle in both English and in Arabic is really amazing
and our study and time together has really forged our hearts into very strong
friendship. He has also visited and really enjoyed the Prayers for Peace
devotional in the Glen Ellyn as part of learning more about devotional spaces
toward the practice Reflections on the Life of the Spirit. I look forward to
meeting up with him every week, and it is really amazing to see how he is
connecting with the words of Bahaullah.
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A Home Of Peace
My father recently sold his house, a home where he and my mother had lived for
decades. In this home, they had created a loving and welcoming environment for
us to grow up in, and also a place to host community events and parties. As my
sister and I were working together to prepare the house, empty it out, we were
reflecting a lot on the life they had built there. It calls to mind a quote
from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá about the kind of home life we should strive for:
“My home is the home of peace. My home is the home of joy and delight.
My home is the home of laughter and exultation. Whosoever enters through the
portals of this home, must go out with gladsome heart. This is the home of
light; whosoever enters here must become illumined. This is the home of
knowledge: the one who enters it must receive knowledge. This is the home of
love: those who come in must learn the lessons of love; thus may they know how
to love each other. (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, from a Tablet, published in "Star of the
West", vol. 9, no. 3)
Mom had this quote up on the wall in a prominent
place for all to see. It made a powerful impression on me, as did their
example of how they strove to live it. And they weren’t alone. So many of the
families in our community did the same thing and to this day, I feel like we
are family. And it’s a reflection of that closeness that so many friends in
the community came to our aid in doing this enormous task of deconstructing a
home.
A couple days before we closed on the house, we emptied the last
few bits from the garage and we were standing outside. I told my sister,
“let’s say a prayer in honor of the life our family lived here and for the
next family who are going to make their own memories here.” So I picked a
prayer from the prayer book on families and said it there. We had a little
impromptu devotional, meditating on how our parents had made this house a
home, like ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had said. The next day I called my sister and said, “
I said the wrong prayer! I really had wanted to say “Blessed is the Spot”. We
laughed and both agreed that it expressed exactly what we felt. So we each
came back in our own and said it. A fitting closure on a house that was a
home.
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⋅ Donuts and Devotions
Every Sunday at Central Park in Naperville from 10-11am.
There is no prepared program and all are welcome! There is both reading and chanting
of prayers, followed by fellowship and donuts.
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⋅ Interfaith Devotions
Saturday July 10, 6-8 pm
Held at the Shahrokh residence. Please text (630)
805-1397 for the address.
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⋅ ComeUnity Coffee Break for Social Justice
Second Thursday of every month
ComeUnity will resume meeting in September
For more information, please email ComeUnity.SocialJustice@gmail.com
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⋅ Fridays By The Fire
Every Friday
Held at the Dobbs residence. Pleases message (630-476-1437)
for the address.
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Contact Details for Area Teaching Committee
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⋅Meaningful Discussions
Join in on studying sections from the Baha'i writings to provide a spiritual
perspective on challenges that are relevant to the community today.
Held Sunday mornings at 11AM at the Oak Park Baha'i Faith Community
Center
124 Madison, Oak Park IL
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⋅ Hour of Prayer
Held every Sunday at 10AM at the Baha'i Faith Community Center
124 Madison, Oak Park and over Zoom. Go to this website for details and links for
Zoom. https://opbahai.org/activities
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⋅Thursday Night Devotionals
Thursdays from 7:30pm-8:30 pm
Hosted by Karen Skaggs via Google Meet
Please message (815-546-6607)
or Karenskaggs95@gmail.com
for link.
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⋅Blended Sunday morning devotionals
Sundays at 9:00 am
Please join us on zoom or in person.
Hosted by Jim & Cheryl Dougherty
1848 Corregidor St Joliet, IL 60435
815-600-1335
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⋅Monthly Meditation
First Wednesday 7pm-8:30pm
Please join us at the Welcome Center of the Baha'i House of Worship (112 Linden Ave,
Wilmette, IL) as we explore meditation from the Baha'i perspective.
Eventbrite link for more
information
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⋅Fireside
Friday nights 6pm to 7:30pm
Held at the Bahá’í House of Worship Welcome Center (112 Linden Ave, Wilmette,
IL)
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⋅Devotionals at the Temple
Sundays 12:30pm to 1:00pm
Please join us at the Bahá’í House of Worship for a devotional followed by
discussion on a theme 1pm to 1:30pm
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⋅Men's Breakfast
Come and enjoy some flapjacks & Mancakes, wash it down with a gallon of hot
steaming java, and top that off with an ice cold cup of OJ. Now that's a
breakfast!
2nd Saturday @ 8am
Egg House
24 E Miner St,
Arlington
Heights, IL 60004
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⋅First Friday Conversations
1st Friday, 6:00pm-8:30pm at the McKee residence.
For the address contact
Nancy@PizzaAndSocialJustice.org
Zoom
Link: https://zoom.us/j/326557993
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If you feel ready to engage in meaningful conversations about racism, what it looks
like in the world and in ourselves, and what we must do to begin rooting it out,
this is the place to come.
We will be serving pizza, followed by discussion
on a topic related to Racism/Social Justice.
The doors open at 6:00 with the
meeting starting at 7:00 pm. Zoom will be active at 6:45 for those who wish to stay
home or are to far away to join us in person.
Our goal is building a stronger
community through sharing and conversation.
Pizza Served at 6:00 pm Meeting
Start time: 7:00 pm
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Please send in any events, narratives, pictures, or arts that you would like shared! You
can email them to nib@nibahai.org
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Northern Illinois Baha'is
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2N500 Bernice Ave.
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
United States of America
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