Bahá'ís around the world are engaged in local grass-roots experiments in devotional gatherings.

Devotion, prayer, meditation, and reflection lie at the heart of spiritual life. Without ritual or dogma, Bahá'ís in communities throughout New Zealand come together, inviting friends and neighbours to attend small prayer sessions, sometimes in intimate gatherings in homes, sometimes in more public venues, for the purpose of meditating, reading spiritual writings, and worshipping in creative and personally satisfying ways.

These devotional gatherings are open to all and are intended to embrace that attitude of prayer and practice of devotion that is universal to all religions.

Prayer and meditation are the focus of Bahá'í devotional gatherings. Without ritual or rite, sometimes more informal, sometimes more formal, these gatherings are journeys taken together to explore the principal ways by which we can learn to commune with the divine.

We offer prayers of thanks, ask for mercy, compassion, courage, and resolve, pray for peace and justice on earth, and generally deepen our appreciation of grace and our attitude of detachment, reliance on God, contentment, and submission.

Drawing on a variety of religious traditions, with extensive use of the words and tablets of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Báhá, whose prayers are among the most beautiful in the world, Bahá'í devotional gatherings represent an experiment in universal worship and are open for all to experience.

To find out about devotional gatherings in your town or city, email the Bahá'í National Centre.

For more information about devotional gatherings, see: Devotional gatherings for all.

Source

This article is adapted from the Canadian Bahá'í website.