Devotion
and Praise
Welcome
Our
Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be
done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive
us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is
the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
-- Mtw 6:9-13
As
a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living
God. When shall I come and behold
the face of God? My tears have been
my food day and night.
--
Psalm 42.1-3
Magnified
be Thy name, O Lord my God! Thou art He Whom all things worship and Who
worshipeth no one, Who is the Lord of all things and is the vassal of none, Who
knoweth all things and is known of none. Thou didst wish to make Thyself known
unto men; therefore, Thou didst, through a word of Thy mouth, bring creation
into being and fashion the universe. There is none other God except Thee, the
Fashioner, the Creator, the Almighty, the Most Powerful. I implore Thee, by this very word that
hath shone forth above the horizon of Thy will, to enable me to drink deep of
the living waters through which Thou hast vivified the hearts of Thy chosen ones
and quickened the souls of them that love Thee, that I may, at all times and
under all conditions, turn my face wholly towards Thee. Thou art the God of
power, of glory and bounty. No God is there beside Thee, the Supreme Ruler, the
All-Glorious, the Omniscient.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers and
Meditations
MUSIC
From
the Christian Holy Writings:
And
being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came
a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she
brake the box, and poured it on his head.
And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why
was this waste of the ointment made?
For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have
been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why
trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always,
and whenever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath
done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the
burying. Verily I say unto you,
Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also
that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of
her.
--Mark
14.3-9
From
the Jewish Holy Writings:
“And
you shall love the Lord”—namely, you shall make the Lord
beloved.
--Talmud
Yoma 86
From
the Moslem Holy Writings:
Heaven
and earth contain me not, but the heart of my faithful servant contains
me.
--Hadith
of suhrawardi
From
the Hindu Holy writings:
The
path to the Unmanifest is very difficult for embodied souls to realize (by
effort at meditation). But quickly
I come to those who offer me every action, who worship me only, their dearest
delight, with undaunted devotion.
Because they love me, these are my bondsmen, and I shall save them from
mortal sorrow and all the waves of life’s deathly ocean.
--Bhagavad
Gita 12.5-7
From
the Bahá’í Holy Writings:
Glorified
art Thou, O Lord my God! Thou art He the fire of Whose love hath set ablaze the
hearts of them who have recognized Thy unity, and the splendors of Whose
countenance have illuminated the faces of such as have drawn nigh unto Thy
court.
--
Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers and Meditations, p212-213
O
Friends! You must all be so ablaze
in this day with the fire of the love of God that the heat thereof may be
manifest in all your veins, your limbs and members of your body, and the peoples
of the world may be ignited by this heat and turn to the horizon of the
Beloved.
--Guidelines
for Teaching, #1
MUSIC
From
the Christian Holy Writings:
Whatever
you do, do all to the glory of God.
--1
Corinthians 10:31
From
the Jewish Holy Writings:
Praise
the Lord! raise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the
firmament of his power. Praise him
for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the
trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance:
praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise
him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the
LORD.
--Psalm
150
From
the Moslem Holy Writings:
Be
wakeful, for the longing of the righteous to see Me has increased, and verily My
longing toward them has increased more.
--Hadith
From
the Zoroastrian Holy Writings:
Holy
is the man of devotion; Through thoughts and words and deed and through his
conscience he increases righteousness; the Wise Lord as Good mind gives the
dominion. For this good reward I
pray. I know that my greatest
good is to worship The Wise Lord and those that have been and are. By their names will I worship them And
come before them with praise.
--Avesta,
Yasna 51.21-22
From
the Bahá’í Holy Writings:
O
Son of Being! Love Me, that I may
love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this,
O servant.
--Bahá'u'lláh,
The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah, #5
Blessed
is the spot wherein the anthem of His praise is raised, and blessed the ear that
hearkeneth unto that which hath been sent down from the heaven of the
loving-kindness of thy Lord, the All-Merciful.
--
Bahá'u'lláh, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p.197
.
MUSIC:
From
the Christian Holy Writings:
…Therefore
judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light
the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the
hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
--1
Corinthians 4:5
From
the Moslem Holy Writings:
He
is the living One; there is no god but He:
call upon Him, giving Him sincere devotion. Praise be to God, Lord of the
Worlds!
--Qur’an
40.65
From
the Hindu Holy Writings:
Come
together, you all, with the power of spirit, to the Lord of heaven, who is One,
the Guest of the people. He, the
ancient, desires to come to the new, to him all pathways turn; verily he is
One. We all here are thine, O
indra, praised by many, We who go about, attached to thee, Lord of wealth! O lover of song, non but thee receives
our songs. Love these our words as
the earth loves her creatures. Loud
songs have sounded to the bounteous Indra, One worthy of praise, the Supporter
of mankind...
--Sama
Veda 372
From
the Jewish Holy Writings:
Greater
is he who acts from love than he who acts from fear.
--Talmud,
sota 31a
From
the Bahá’í Holy Writings:
O
My Brother! Until thou enter the Egypt of love, thou shalt never come to the
Joseph of the Beauty of the Friend; and until, like Jacob, thou forsake thine
outward eyes, thou shalt never open the eye of thine inward being; and until
thou burn with the fire of love, thou shalt never commune with the Lover of
Longing. A lover feareth nothing
and no harm can come nigh him: Thou seest him chill in the fire and dry in the
sea…Love accepteth no existence and wisheth no life: He seeth life in death, and
in shame seeketh glory. To merit the madness of love, man must abound in sanity;
to merit the bonds of the Friend, he must be full of
spirit.
--
Bahá'u'lláh, The Seven Valleys, p.9
MUSIC
CLOSING
PRAYER:
Allah’u’Abhá (Glory be to
God)