y loved ones, strengthen me
in my servitude to Thee, illumine my brow with the light of adoration in
Thy court of holiness, and of prayer to Thy kingdom of grandeur. Help me
to be selfless at the heavenly entrance of Thy gate, and aid me to be
detached from all things within Thy holy precincts. Lord! Give me to drink
from the chalice of selflessness; with its robe clothe me, and in its
ocean immerse me. Make me as dust in the pathway of Thy loved ones, and
grant that I may offer up my soul for the earth ennobled by the footsteps
of Thy chosen ones in Thy path, O Lord of Glory in the Highest.

With this prayer doth Thy servant call Thee, at dawntide and in the
night-season. Fulfill his heart's desire, O Lord! Illumine his heart,
gladden his bosom, kindle his light, that he may serve Thy Cause and Thy
servants.

Thou art the Bestower, the Pitiful, the Most Bountiful, the Gracious, the
Merciful, the Compassionate.

--'Abdu'l-Baha

INTERCALARY DAYS

"My God, my Fire and my Light! The days..."

(The Intercalary Days, February 26 to March 1, inclusive, should be days
of preparation for the Fast, days of hospitality, charity and the giving
of presents.)

My God, my Fire and my Light! The days which Thou hast named the
Ayyam-i-Ha(12) in Thy Book have begun, O Thou Who art the King of names,
and the fast which Thy most exalted Pen hath enjoined unto all who are in
the kingdom of Thy creation to observe is approaching. I entreat Thee, O
my Lord, by these days and by all such as have during that period clung to
the cord of Thy commandments, and laid hold on the handle of Thy precepts,
to grant that unto every soul may be assigned a place within the precincts
of Thy court, and a seat at the revelation of the splendors of the light
of Thy countenance.

These, O my Lord, are Thy servants whom no corrupt inclination hath kept
back from what Thou didst send down in Thy Book. They have bowed
themselves before Thy Cause, and received Thy Book with such resolve as is
born of Thee, and observed what Thou hadst prescribed unto them, and
chosen to follow that which had been sent down by Thee.

Thou seest, O my Lord, how they have recognized and confessed whatsoever
Thou hast revealed in Thy Scriptures. Give them to drink, O my Lord, from
the hands of Thy graciousness the waters of Thine eternity. Write down,
then, for them the recompense ordained for him that hath immersed himself
in the ocean of Thy presence, and