Juliet Thompson

‘Abdu’l-Bahá is staying at the Ansonia hotel in New York City. He agreed to speak at the Bowery Mission and asked Juliet Thompson to take a 1000 franc note (about $250) and have it changed to quarters and put in a bag. He handed another…

Alas for the sin of disobedience! He had said "Go and rest." But we were so anxious to write down His words while they were fresh in our minds that we stayed in the dining room until late, and -- shameful to confess after our day in…

During the whole drive He was always discovering lovely things and with vivid animation pointing them out to us: the bright green of the fields and hills, the neat villages, a spire rising from a cluster of Swiss houses, or from some…

“I have come hither,” He said, “to find that material civilization has progressed greatly, but the spiritual civilization has been left behind. The material civilization is likened unto the glass of a lamp chimney. The spiritual…

Juliet Thompson, a devout Bahá’í and a New York artist, was told by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that she taught well. Frankly and lovingly, He said to her: 'I have met many people who have been affected by you, Juliet. You are not eloquent; you are…

Juliet Thompson wrote: “Gently yet unmistakably, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had assaulted the customs of a city that had been scandalized only a decade earlier by President Roosevelt’s dinner invitation to Booker T. Washington. Moreover as a friend who…

Later in the morning He sent for me. My self-consciousness, my shyness had made me feel shut out from Him, but my heart had been continually crying out, with ever-increasing love, to Him. When I entered His little room and knelt at His…

On one of His visits to New York He stayed with Juliet Thompson on West 10th Street not far from Fifth Avenue. Two or three doors away and across the street, the poet Khalil Gibran was staying with friends. He and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had met in…

Once, when I lived in Baghdad," He [‘Abdu’l-Bahá] went on, "I was invited to the house of a poor thorn-picker. In Baghdad the heat is greater even than in Syria; and it was a very hot day. But I walked twelve miles to the thorn-picker's…

A young single-taxer began to question Him. “What message shall I take to my friends?” he ended. “Tell them,” laughed the Master (that wonderful spicy humour in His face) “to come into the Kingdom of God. There they will find plenty of…

‘Abdu’l-Bahá appeared as the guest of honor at a meeting of the New York Peace Society held at the Hotel Astor. Before the meeting, the Master had a high fever and was in bed. Juliet Thompson tried to get Him to stay and rest, but He…

‘Abdu’l-Bahá loved laughter and His laughter was often a source of solace. One writer observed that once He laughed so heartily at the observations and questions directed to Him that ‘Hus turban became disarranged. As He lifted His hands…

After His talk, a huge Persian feast, prepared by the Persians in His entourage, was offered to everyone. As people began to eat, Juliet Thompson wrote that . . . A storm blew up – a strange, sudden storm, without warning. There was a…

After the meeting He went up to rest in Mr Morten’s room. He had seen a hundred and forty people that morning and was so worn out at the end of His talk that He looked almost ill. His fatigue was apparent to everyone–and yet the people had…

As the Master stepped down from the car, about fifteen peasant children with bunches of violets to sell closed in on Him, formed a half circle around Him, holding up the little purple bunches, raising their eyes to His Face with grave…

As we drove up Broadway, glittering with its electric signs, He spoke of them smiling, apparently much amused. Then He told us that Bahá’u’lláh had loved light. “He could never get enough light. He taught us,” the Master said, “to…

At a time when Juliet Thompson’s mother was suffering much grief because her son’s fiancée, both brilliant and beautiful, did not want to make friends with his family, she received an invitation to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Though she was…

At one time Juliet Thompson asked the Master about His daughter, Ruha Khánum, who had been very ill. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, ‘I have put her in the hands of the Blessed Perfection, and now I don’t worry at…

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Driving home, we came to the most spectacular waterfall, foaming down a black precipice. The Master peremptorily stopped the car and with a sort of excitement got out of it; then walked to the very edge of the precipice. After standing…

If you could have seen the brute, Juliet, mumbling out his miserable excuses! But the Master took him in His arms and said: 'All those things are in the past. Never think of them again.' Then He invited Zillu's-Sultan two sons to spend a…

In *The Diary of Juliet Thompson* the painter records the evening in 1912 when 'Abdu'l-Bahá visited her dying friend Marjorie Morten in her sickroom — and the strange peace that, by the next morning, had taken the place of the household's prepared grief.

In *The Diary of Juliet Thompson* the painter records an evening in New York in the summer of 1912 when, after one of the great public meetings, she found herself walking beside 'Abdu'l-Bahá through the dark streets — and the silence in which the most carrying conversations sometimes pass.

In June 1912 in New York, the painter Juliet Thompson was given an unprecedented privilege: 'Abdu'l-Bahá agreed to sit for her. The Diary preserves the moment He stopped her on the street, took her hand, and said *come tomorrow and paint;* and the cramped basement studio where He asked her to paint not the man but the *Servitude.*

In *The Diary of Juliet Thompson* the young American painter records her first encounter with 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris in 1901 — a small upstairs room, a single Persian voice, and a recognition that would, in time, organise the rest of her life.

In *The Diary of Juliet Thompson* the painter records a small scene in New York in 1912 when, having confessed to the Master one of her own besetting sins, she expected reproof — and received instead the quiet laughter that, in His mouth, was the most disarming form of mercy.

Juliet Thompson and other Bahá’ís decided to give the Master a birthday party, and a few of them baked a cake. She reported, 'We took several taxis to the Bronx, with the Master riding in the first one. As soon as His taxi had arrived…

Juliet Thompson has given us a sweet picture of the Master in 'Akka: 'He had sent for us that afternoon to meet Mr. Sprague and the Persian believers and, not being ready, I put on a dress I could slip into easily. As I passed the Master…

Juliet Thompson was also there when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was introduced Admiral Peary, who had just succeeded in publicly disgracing Captain Cook and proving himself, and not Captain Cook, the discoverer of the North Pole. Juliet said that: . .…

Juliet Thompson was painting the Master's portrait in America. Lua Getsinger and May Maxwell came into the library, crossed over to where she was sitting and stood behind her. The Master looked up and smiled at May. 'You have a kind…

Khalil Gibran was a celebrated Lebanese poet and painter who happened to live across the street from Juliet Thompson, who knew him quite well. He worked on an Arab newspaper which left him free to paint and write. He showed Juliet almost…

Mrs. Gibbons, a Bahá’í, had written the Master before His coming to the United States, requesting that her own daughter be allowed to paint His portrait. In His reply He consented to this request and added, according to Mrs. Gibbons, that…

Mrs Parsons was at the luncheon. Before she became a Bahá’í she had been a Christian Scientist, and now she brought up the question of mental suggestion as a cure for physical disease. The Master replied that some illnesses, such as…

One day ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was asked how one should live. His reply was, 'Be kind to everyone.' One must not 'belittle the thought of another'. This kindness must reach out even to those who may suffer mental illness, as the Master so…

Juliet Thompson's diary entries, printed in the Star of the West in April 1917, preserve a small image from the Master's first days in New York in April 1912 — His insistence on distributing silver quarters from His own hand to the men of the Bowery Mission, with the brief direction: *Surely, give to the poor!*

The diary of Juliet Thompson mentions a time when she when uninvited following the Master to a Luncheon and saw many children come out of a park on sighting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and follow Him up the street in a long line. They asked if he was…

The Master also dearly loved His devoted disciple, Juliet Thompson. In her diary she wrote about a visit with Him in New York City in November 1912. One day she wrote, 'I had been very naughty with Mamma that day and had grieved her. My…

The next morning early the Master telephoned me (that is, Ahmad telephoned for Him) and nearly every morning after. Can you imagine the sweetness of that–to be wakened every morning by a word from Him? Sometimes He just inquired how I was,…