Pilgrimage quotes

Consider thou the blessed, the divinely-revealed verse in which pilgrimage to the House is enjoined upon everyone.

(Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 109)
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Each pilgrim makes two pilgrimages in one: the pilgrimage of the head and the pilgrimage of the heart.
The first is the pilgrimage of the mind. Notes are taken of special information, new developments of the Faith, instructions from the Guardian to be applied to one’s community or one’s own self. This is the pilgrimage of “What the Guardian Said”.
The second is the pilgrimage of the emotions: the sea that surges inside the pilgrim from the moment he or she catches the first glimpse of that glistening, golden dome. This is the warm flooding tide that soon will fill every empty inlet along the cold coastline of the spirit. This is the pilgrimage of joy, ecstasies, sorrows, shames, repentances and reformations that storm through one’s being.
It is the first meeting with the Guardian, the first walk along the tile-red path that leads to the Shrine of the Bab, the moment that holy door is swung inward for the first time and you enter the presence of the gentle, lovable Bab, the very air of Whose Shrine throbs with the blood of the martyrs.
This is the pilgrimage of reunion with the welcoming arms of the beloved Master.
It is above all, the awe-stricken moment when the impure heart dares to present itself before that other sanctified spot where the Supreme Manifestation is enshrined: the pilgrimage of Bahji, Mazra‘ih, Ridvan, the house at ‘Akka, the prison cell, the sufferings, the triumphs that are relived again through the eyes of each pilgrim who looks upon this land so much beloved.”
(William Sears - First and Last Meeting with Shoghi Effendi)

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Economy was a very rigid principle with Shoghi Effendi and he had very stern ideas on money matters. He more than once refused to permit an individual to make the pilgrimage who he knew was in debt, saying he must first pay his debts.
(Ruhiyyih Khanum, The Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, p. 57)

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Holy places are undoubtedly centres of the outpouring of Divine grace, because on entering the illumined sites associated with martyrs and holy souls, and by observing reverence, both physical and spiritual, one’s heart is moved with great tenderness.
(Bahá’u’lláh, Synopsis and Codification of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, p. 61)

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O thou pilgrim of the Sacred Dust! Render great thanks to God, the Most Glorious, the Lord Who hath guided thee unto this path and caused thee to enter the sanctuary of the All Knowing. Render thanks unto Him for having enabled thee to take shelter beneath His bountiful favour and attain that which is the hope and aspiration of the chosen ones of God.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, quoted at https://bahai.bwc.org/pilgrimage/)
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