w and spiritual condition in you is going to be
proved--and the proving, the testing, will surely consist of the way you
determine to take your punishment.

Life is based on laws: physical, man-made, and spiritual. As you have
broken the laws of the society in which you live, you will have to stand
up like a man and take your punishment. The spirit in which you do this is
the most important thing, and constitutes a great opportunity for you. He
(the Guardian) advises you to turn your face towards the future, to
realise that when you are set free you have loving and helpful friends to
go to, an upright job awaiting you, and you can also become active in
serving our glorious Faith. So really everything lies before you. But at
present, until your sentence is up, you must live within yourself in a way
not to spoil the new future awaiting you. You must not become bitter--for
after all you are only reaping what you planted. Baha'u'llah and
'Abdu'l-Baha, through no crime of their own, spent the better part of
their lives in exile and imprisoned, but they never became embittered
although they were the victims of injustice. You, on the other hand, are
the victim of injustice which you have inflicted on yourself--therefore you
certainly have no right to be bitter towards the world.

He urges you to grasp firmly the teachings of our Faith, the love of your
family and many Baha'i friends, to put the past behind entirely, realising
that it can do you no more harm; on the contrary, through changing you and
making you spiritually aware, this very past can be a means of enriching
your life in the future! He will certainly ardently pray for your
happiness, your victory over yourself, and that you may become an
exemplary and active Baha'i.

Letter of 9 June 1948

9 June 1948

"Reciting" the Greatest Name means to repeat it over and over, silently or
out loud....

The chairman of the local assembly is, if present, the logical and
appropriate person to take charge of the consultation period between the
assembly and the community members at the Nineteen Day Feast.

Letter of 23 June 1948

23 June 1948

He (the Guardian) encouraged him to face manfully the future, accept the
legitimate sanction of society as punishment for his admittedly
anti-social conduct, and realise that his very suffering, humiliation and
punishment can--if he will let it--be the means of freeing him from many of
his past weaknesses and mistak