‘There is nothing sweeter in the world of existence than prayer” (Abdu’l Bahá)
The Tranquillity Zone concept has inspired many devotional meetings in the form of Tranquillity Zones, Tranquillity Evenings and Sacred Spaces. They have encouraged both communities and individuals and to have an outward orientation and have helped develop a community of interest in many areas. Through holding such gatherings we have honed our skills in providing beautiful spaces, inspirational music, and presenting the Writings in a fitting manner. So successful have been the regular monthly Belfast Community Tranquillity Evenings that the time has come to bring it to an end to be replaced with multiple devotional gatherings in homes and neighbourhoods.
Tranquillity Evenings sponsored by Belfast LSA continue in Lisburn. These have been held regularly for close to three years facilitated by the team of Ian Long, John and Joan McMullen in either Railway Street Community Centre or the new beautiful Island Centre. A week to ten days before the Tranquillity Evening, the team travel to Lisburn to distribute around 500 invitations— outside the Health Centre is a good spot. Ian tells of a time when after the move from the more expensive Island Centre to the Community Centre, regulars attending the Tranquillity Evening ceased to come, numbers lessened, and they were considering ending the Evenings altogether. After a stint of distributing invitations, Ian dropped into the local library and was browsing through the books, when he came across a little book, ‘Somebody has Moved My Cheese!’ The message for Ian was that you have to go where the cheese is, i.e. the people, and so they moved the Tranquillity Evenings back to the Island Centre resulting in the return of the regulars.
A story from the Greater London Area Teaching Committee from one of the intensive campaigns brings home to us the profound impact that our Bahá’í prayers and Writings have on those who come into contact with the Faith. This man looking for information about the Faith came across www.bahai.org studied it and got in touch with the National Office. He attended a devotional and there met a member of a small teaching team, who invited him to come around to their place one afternoon with the intention of asking him to join a Book 1 Study Circle. He accepted the invitation and asked, “Are we going to have prayers? Because I love them.” The account continues. ‘He was just amazing – when we would talk about the principles, he would use analogies and ideas found in the Writings, sometimes even bits of quotes, which he remembered made sense as he read them on website.’ He went on to tell them during that afternoon together, “I love those prayers. I feel so good after I say them. The words have such great power.” The account of the afternoon ends with the following comment by the teaching team, ‘It’s not like we really did anything particular ourselves …… our new friend was meant to become Bahá’í way before he met us …. We were just lucky to be the ones he ran into.’
We are assured they are waiting souls. They are ready. Creating an environment where we can share those beautiful prayers and Writings, as we would offer a jewel to a king, we show our heartfelt desire to serve. We can do so well when we put our faith in Bahá’u’lláh and trust that our devotional meetings will be a channel of bringing a soul closer to God and a portal to progress the advancement of entry by troops.
Second in a series of articles by Dorothy Riordan, commissioned by the Bahá'í Council
To find out more about how to arrange a Tranquillity Zone visit www.tranquillity-zone.org.uk
™ Tranquillity Zone is a trademark of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United Kingdom
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