Day 9: The House of the Master and Monument Garden

No time for a big post. Today is our last day and we're getting ready to go back to the Shrine of the Bab for our final farewell.



This morning we went to the house of the Master, Abdu'l-Baha, here in Haifa. This is where he received early pilgrims, where he passed away, and where the election of the first Universal House of Justice took place in 1963. Just amazing stuff. It was made especially poignant by the knowledge that we will all be going home tomorrow. Everybody wept as one of our group read from May Maxwell's account of her first pilgrimage, ending with these words of the Beloved Master:

'Now the time has come when we must part, but the separation is only of our bodies, in spirit we are united. Ye are the lights which shall be diffused; ye are the waves of that sea which shall spread and overflow the world. Each wave is precious to Me and My nostrils shall be gladdened by our fragrance. Another commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another even as I love you. Great mercy and blessings are promised to the peoples of your land, but on one condition: that their hearts are filled with the fire of love, that they live in perfect kindness and harmony like one soul in different bodies. If they fail in this condition the great blessings will be deferred. Never forget this; look at one another with the eyes of perfection; look at Me, follow Me, be as I am; take no thought for yourselves or your lives, whether ye eat or whether we sleep, whether we are comfortable, whether we are well or ill, whether ye are with friends or foes, whether ye receive praise or blame; for all of these things we must care not at all. Look at Me and be as I am; ye must die to yourselves and to the world, so shall ye be born again and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Behold a candle and how it gives its light. It weeps its life away drop by drop in order to give forth its flame of light.'

These words are used in a Baha'i song called "Look At Me, Follow Me, Be As I Am," and it never fails to bring us to tears when it's sung at Feast. To hear the words in the actual house in which they were spoken just about did us in. We couldn't stop the tears, and we truly felt as though our hearts would break at the thought of having to leave!

Gotta run. Enjoy the photos. (Note: We updated the Flickr album to include descriptions of the photos. Remember, the comments are not viewable in "slide show" format.)