The news about Nur Lomas Alto, the new project on a volcanic slope above Quito, Ecuador, is profoundly moving. Before the retreat in Medellin began, we made a brief visit to the site, and were deeply impressed by the beauty and the atmosphere of the site, which is part of a region that has been sacred to the indigenous people since neolithic times. When the project was presented in Medellin, faces were shining, there were tears, and throughout the following week there was a new sense of purpose amongst the participants.

Manifestation is the fundamental impulse of the universe–think of the power of a small green plant to split rock, or of the overwhelming urge to mate observable in every species–and since the time of Hazrat Inayat Khan there has been a longing to make ‘akashas’* for the work of the Message. The church of the Sacré-Coeur in Paris was just being completed when the Master moved with his family to Suresnes, and it is known that he dreamed of something similarly magnificent as a home for the beloved Message.

We do not need to fear that a massive basilica will be built on Ilaló (the name of the extinct volcano above Cumbayá). It will be a more modest structure, but it will be made with care and with love, and will serve as a heart to pump the blood of the Message through that part of the world. As Hazrat Inayat noted, when a new life is conceived the heart is the first organ to form.

The Message does not belong to any group or region; it is sent to the whole world–but the Divine impulse is not yet widely visible. What greater privilege could there be than to take part in a new phase of construction?

*Akasha means a capacity, a space or a potential that makes possible the accomplishment of some action. The hollow body of a violin forms an akasha in which the sound can resonate.