What would have been of us Spiritists without
Francisco Cândido Xavier’s books?

Jussara Korngold

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.