Herald of the Covenant

On 19 June 1912 in New York, Juliet Thompson was painting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s portrait, with Lua Getsinger sitting nearby. The Master sat still, His eyes closed. Juliet recorded in her diary what happened next:

Suddenly, with a great flash like lightning He opened His eyes and the room seemed to rock like a ship in a storm with the Power released. The Master was blazing. “The veils of glory”, “the thousand veils”, had shrivelled away in that Flame and we were exposed to the Glory itself. Lua and I sat shaking and sobbing. Then He spoke to Lua. I caught the words, “Munádíy-i ‘Ahd.” (Herald of the Covenant.) Lua started forward, her hand to her breast. “Man?” (I?) she exclaimed. “Call one of the Persians. You must understand this.” Never shall I forget that moment, the flashing eyes of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the reverberations of His Voice, the Power that still rocked the room. God of lightning and thunder! I thought.

“I appoint you, Lua, the Herald of the Covenant. And I AM THE COVENANT, appointed by Bahá’u’lláh. And no one can refute His Word. This is the Testament of Bahá’u’lláh. You will find it in the Holy Book of Aqdas. Go forth and proclaim, ‘This is THE COVENANT OF GOD in your midst.’”

A great joy had lifted Lua up. Her eyes were full of light. She looked like a winged angel. “Oh recreate me,” she cried, “that I may do this work for Thee!”

Later that same day ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke in public on His own station as the Centre of the Covenant. Because He had made this emphatic, authoritative statement in public in New York, that city was invested with the distinction of being named the City of the Covenant.

Source: The Diary of Juliet Thompson, 19 June 1912; H. M. Balyuzi, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: The Centre of the Covenant, p. 220; retold in Earl Redman, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Their Midst, pp. 143–144.

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: new-york).

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/new-york