July Prayers & Pancakes: Sharing Stories, Challenges, and Gratitude

Our July Prayers & Pancakes gathering was another beautiful reminder of the strength found in community.

People of different ages, backgrounds, and nationalities came together to share, listen, and encourage one another. This month, we reflected on the theme of gratitude, what it means to be truly thankful, how we practice it in our daily lives, and how it can be difficult to hold onto during life’s challenges.

As we opened up about the struggles we’re each facing, we also discovered a shared hope: gratitude is finding moments of grace even in the middle of difficulties.

Thank you to everyone who joined us and made the evening so meaningful. We look forward to growing, praying, and sharing together again next month.

The Martyrdom of the Bab

On July 9, 1850, the Báb, the Herald of the Bahá’í Faith, was executed by a firing squad in Tabriz. In the mid-nineteenth century, He proclaimed that He had been entrusted with a divine message destined to renew humanity’s spiritual life. His mission was to prepare the way for the advent of a second Messenger of God, greater than Himself, who would inaugurate an age of peace, justice, and unity.

During the darkest days of His imprisonment, deprived of contact with His devoted followers, the Báb was denied even the comfort of a lamp by His captors. Today, however, hundreds of thousands of visitors each year come to behold the radiant Shrine that enshrines His earthly remains. Illuminated day and night, the Shrine of the Báb stands as a beacon of hope and devotion on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land, welcoming people from every corner of the world.

Become as true brethren in the one and indivisible religion of God, free from distinction, for verily God desireth that your hearts should become mirrors unto your brethren in the Faith, so that ye find yourselves reflected in them, and they in you. This is the true Path of God, the Almighty, and He is indeed watchful over your actions.”

The Báb