December 16, 2013

Prayer is the “spiritual nourishment” for the human soul

It is the soul of man that has first to be fed. And this spiritual nourishment prayer can best provide. Laws and institutions, as viewed by Bahá'u'lláh, can become really effective only when our inner spiritual life has been perfected and transformed. Otherwise religion will degenerate into a mere organization, and become a dead thing. 
(From a letter dated 8 December 1935 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, published in "Bahá'í News" 102 (August 1936), p. 3; The Compilation of Compilations, Vol. II, The Importance of Prayer, Meditation and the Devotional Attitude)