Pilrimage Day #7 February 8, 2009, Part 3

2-8-9 1255 Sunday, PRC

Bus to 'Akka, passed the Rabin Peace Park where we spent time the other day, went to the House of Abdullah Pasha. Upstairs, brilliant chanting by Enayat, and Hollow Reed sung by our friend Inge, our pair of nightingales. Rather than spoil the palette with my voice, I refrained from singing.

Upstairs, in the dining area, though the floor is covered in rugs, the floor is paved in red, square tiles 8-10" square.

At about age 18 as a new Baha'i, I had a dream that I was walking across a courtyard. On my right was walking 'Abdu'l-Baha; we were walking together and he was holding my hand. I was immersed in an intense feeling of unconditional love. I awoke sobbing with the joy and intensity of it. The floor or ground of the courtyard in this dream was paved with these same red tiles, in the house of Abdullah Pasha.

We visited the room of the Greatest Holy Leaf [the sister of 'Abdu'l-Baha], where the Remains of the Bab had been secreted many years prior to His interment. Prayers were read in Chinese, German, other languages. I read the prayer for steadfastness in the Covenant which begins, "O Compassionate God." The evening I announced I wish to enroll as a Baha'i, I was requested to read a prayer; leafing through the prayer book, I chose that prayer, liking the "compassionate" element. It was the Day of the Covenant, 1974.

In the PRC I am reflecting about the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, as there is considerable sharing of food. Most people like to refer to this as the "multiplication." While I believe that the Holy Spirit is capable of suspending or circumventing the laws of physics as we know them, I perfer this: it was a division of loaves and fishes. Through the spirit of love and fellowship engendered by listening to His Holiness Jesus Christ, people shared the little they had with others, and were satisfied with little, and probably Christ did add some extra. It was the spirit that was the miracle.