Messages to Canada
Author: Shoghi Effendi
Source: Bahá’í Canada Publications
Pages: 276
Pages 68-69   

Letter of 24 September 1941

24 September 1941

To the Bahá’ís of Montreal

Dear Bahá’í Friends:
The Guardian has instructed me to answer your welcome letter addressed to him on the occasion of the meeting of the newly elected Montreal Assembly, on May 12th, which he has just received.
He will indeed pray for special blessings to be vouchsafed for your work of spreading the Faith in Montreal and surrounding districts throughout the coming year. Montreal, being as it is the mother Assembly of the Dominion of Canada, should receive every help and encouragement the friends can give it, that it may grow to be at once the first and one of the largest centres of the Faith in Canada.
The marked progress the Cause has made in recent years in that country should be a source of pride and happiness to all the friends. The Guardian feels that your Assembly, with the advice and aid of the regional and the national Teaching Committees, should exert every effort to increase the number of centres in Quebec, to encourage the visits of prominent teachers, and to reach—difficult as the task may be—the French-speaking population of that Province.
The believers of Montreal have contributed many active and outstanding workers in the Faith, whether teachers, pioneers or administrators; and Shoghi Effendi assures you all that you are very close to his heart and often in his prayers.

With the assurance of his abiding love and prayers, and with warm Bahá’í greetings,

Yours in His service,

R. Rabbani

[From the Guardian:]

Dearly-beloved co-workers:

I was so pleased and touched to receive your most welcome message and the noble assurances it contained. You are often in my thoughts and prayers, as I attach the utmost importance to your centre, recall the part it has played in the past and cherish bright hopes for its future. The great and distinguished services which individual members of your Assembly have rendered in the past, and are still rendering at present are assets that I greatly value. The example these have set and the work they have achieved are a source of profound and enduring satisfaction. May the Beloved sustain, guide and aid you to extend rapidly the range of your services, to proclaim far and wide the truths of this glorious Revelation, and lend a mighty impetus to its onward march.

Your true and grateful brother,

Shoghi
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