Letters Shower as Rain

*A retelling based on **The Diary of Juliet Thompson** by Juliet Thompson. Short phrases in quotation marks are words preserved in that account.*

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On the morning of 8 July 1909, in Haifa, 'Abdu'l-Baha came rushing into Juliet Thompson's room with tremendous energy, set her down on the divan with His two hands, and went out again. He went down into the garden, into a little house just below her window, and there He dictated Tablets all morning.

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Every now and then He came to the window, stood in the sunlight and looked up at her. Just before He left the little house, He looked up once more. She had not left the divan. "I was faithful at my post; in fact, I had not dared even to move."

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At lunch He spoke of the many letters He had answered that morning, and of the packages still lying unopened. Mr Kinney, who was back at the table after a short illness, offered to help. "I will write Your letters for You!"

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"Very good; very good," 'Abdu'l-Baha answered. "Write a letter and answer it yourself. Look into your heart and see the answer. The answer is what is written on the tablet of your heart."

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What is written on paper, He went on, can be lost to fire and to moths and to every kind of accident. What is written on the heart lasts for ever. "A day will come when all My communications upon paper--all My writing--will be effaced. But that which I have inscribed upon the hearts will not be effaced. There is no end to it. For I write the Word of the Love of God upon the hearts, and the Word of God is eternal."

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Two days later, on the morning of 10 July, He called Juliet, Carrie Kinney and Alice to His room one at a time, and gave each of them what Juliet called "the priceless privilege of seeing Him dictate Tablets."

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Juliet sat on the divan. She could hardly lift her eyes to His face. He walked up and down the small room with His strong tread, sometimes stopping at the window, below which the sea beat against the double seawall. "Never had the room seemed so small; never had He appeared so mighty!"

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As He walked, she knew that His spirit was free, brooding over distant regions, "looking deep into hearts at the uttermost ends of the earth, consoling their secret sorrows, answering the whispers of far-off minds." Often, as He turned, He gave her a long, grave look. Once He smiled at her.

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At last He called Alice and Carrie back. He sat down on the divan, and the three of them gathered on the floor around Him, Juliet in her usual place at His feet on His left.

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"Letters shower as rain on me," He said. "I write the answers and they are not finished!

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"Many come that are difficult to read. Here is one that cannot be read at all. The man could not write. But he wished to supplicate to His Master, so he simply made marks."

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Alice broke in: "May I pray to You?"

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"To pray is to supplicate to God," He answered.

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Carrie had just had a cruel experience with her father. She had said nothing about it to the Master.

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He picked up one of the supplications and began to dictate. "This is the answer to the letter of a person whose father drove him out because he was a Bahá'í. But God granted him a high position. His work has become very good. His father does not even speak to him, while the son is very kind to the father."

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Then He turned to Carrie. "This," He said, "is for you too."

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"O thou who art firm in the Covenant!

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"Though thy father was not kind to thee, praise be to God thou hast a Heavenly Father. If the earthly father forsook you, it was the cause of your obtaining the mercy and kindness of the Spiritual Father."

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The earthly father, the Tablet went on, grows angry at the smallest disobedience; the Heavenly Father forgives sins, overlooks faults, and deals with bounty and favour.

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"I remember thee; do not be sorrowful. And I am in communion with thee in every world; grieve not."

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It closed with the hope that the one it was written for might become the means of guiding others, and "light a candle whose effulgence shall be everlasting."

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"We all held our breath," Juliet wrote, "for Carrie's father had driven her out because she was a Bahá'í." Her father would "not even speak to her."

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **The Diary of Juliet Thompson** by Juliet Thompson.*

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