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What
would have been of us Spiritists without Francisco Cândido
Xavier’s books?
During
the past few days, in which we have found ourselves in such a
great quandary due to the recent departure of such a dear and
valuable missionary, the true example of self-denial and love to
others, I could not stop being concerned about the present
situation of the spiritists located in the United States striving
for the dissemination of the Doctrine of the Spirits in the
Americas. From the more than 400 books that were channeled by
Francisco Xavier, only three (Nosso Lar - A Spiritual Home,
Life Goes On, and Christian Agenda) have been
translated and published into English, thanks to the Herculean
efforts accomplished by a small group of dedicated hard-working
Spiritists.
We,
in the United States, are a materially rich
nation, but are extremely lacking with regards to the spiritual
truths.
In
the sector of interchange, Brazilians workers in
North America
are making a constant
effort to disseminate Spiritism, the Doctrine of Reason, the only
one that could illuminate our minds and rescue our hearts.
But
how can we accomplish such a grandiose task if we lack the basic
tools for the dissemination, which are the Spiritist books?
Individual
efforts on the part of small groups have been involved in this
regard, but the difficulties that one faces in translating a
single book are countless.
In
the first place we lack the publishers' trust, who withholds the
copyrights of the books in Portuguese, so that they can grant us
the rights of translation (and be advised that here we are
referring to serious minded workers who are committed to
preserving the pure essence of the doctrine of the spirits, and
who are already well known in Brazil by the seriousness of the
work that they are achieving abroad with regard to Spiritism).
Therefore, most of the time, what occurs is that we begin to
translate the books without previous authorization, in the hope
that, once completed, the publishers will ultimately grant us the
rights, or even display an interest in publishing them.
Another
aspect that has to be brought to light is the shortage of monetary
resources that the great majority of spiritist centers in the
United States
have. This occurs
because, in general, the number of followers is still very small,
making it difficult to guarantee even the maintenance of the
centers, due to the excessively high rental prices. The
publication of a book in the
United States
is comparatively higher
than it is in
Brazil
, which explains our
difficulty in publishing books here. And it is here that another
challenge presents itself, because the publishers in
Brazil
cannot expect to receive
immediately a significant return on the sale of the books, as the
consuming public here, that is to say, the followers of the
doctrine whose native language is English, are still very few.
This is also due to the lack of availability of translated books.
For that reason, financially speaking, to invest on a large scale
in the publication of books in English is not as appealing to
them. I thank our Father in Heaven that our pioneers and dedicated
hard-working spiritists didn't have this way of thinking when they
decided to translate into the Portuguese the works of the
Codification, which as you know were originally written in French,
otherwise, we could not have benefited from the teachings of the
spirits for such a long time.
Dear
brothers and sisters, imagine yourselves without Allan Kardec's
works, without the wisdom of spirits like Emmanuel, or such as
André Luiz, who worked tireless through our dedicated brother,
Francisco Cândido Xavier. Without Denis, without Delanne, to
merely mention the classic spiritist literature, because the books
that we have in
Brazil
, in Portuguese are so
numerous that it would be impossible for us to list all of them in
this brief message. Well, brothers and sisters, this is the
situation that we encounter here in the
U.S.
, surrounded by people
thirsting for knowledge but who, unfortunately, are unable to read
Portuguese, French or Spanish.
Our
pleading to you, brothers and sisters of goodwill, is to willingly
join with us and aid us, within your realm of possibility, so that
you can make it possible for us to have conditions of having the
books translated. We urgently need translators, people who could
assist us in the task of revision, and publishers who are not
concerned about receiving their rewards in the material plane, but
rather that have the awareness of the fruits that they will be
planting and of the opportunities that they will be creating when
they strive in the advancement of the understanding of humanity.
Jesus
said: Jesus said:
"Spiritists, love one another, that is the first
precept;" - we need your love to propel and to motivate us;
"Educate yourselves, this is the second,"
- help us so that
we can be faithful to the responsibilities that we had assumed
when we were still in the spiritual world, when we had committed
ourselves to work for the dissemination of the Spiritist Doctrine
through the diffusion of the spiritist books among our brothers
and sisters of foreign lands.
Jussara
Korngold
Spiritist Group of New York
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