December 21, 2025
Shifting attention toward God
“The great spiritual traditions suggest that the relationship with God is cultivated like other relationships: as we turn our attention toward God we open the possibility of a fuller relationship. Entering into this relationship does not so much require a change in our behavior as a shift of attention.”
December 20, 2025
I felt that while I was listening to the rain
“All the nobler instincts of our race are born in solitude and suckled by silence. This solitude need be no far away wilderness in Nature; this silence need be no Himalayan peak. You stop for a second as you cross your city square and glance at the belt of Orion.”
December 19, 2025
From the core of myself to the core of the suns
I am aware, / As I go commonly sweeping the stair, / Doing my part of the every-day care / Human and simple my lot and my share / I am aware of a marvelous thing: / Voices that murmur and ethers that ring / In the far stellar spaces where cherubim sing.
December 18, 2025
Let stray thoughts fall away
“Simple manual tasks, the kind we often seek to obliterate by playing the radio while we work, are actually precious opportunities to strengthen our capacity for inner silence. For with the radio off we can use the activity to practice resting our awareness on the working surface – the place where the newspaper touches the window we are washing, or where the broom’s bristles sweep the floor. If our attention strays we can simply and gently notice that it has, and return it to the working surface.”
December 17, 2025
Contemplation is not just for empty time
“The worst disservice we could do would be to commit the heresy of identifying the act of contemplation with a block of empty time or with the provision of an empty space, or to limit it to a certain peculiarly endowed class of persons, or in Greek fashion, to a social class that was drenched with leisure. Contemplation is, as we have insisted, standard equipment, and can never be completely identified with vacant spaces in life or with freedom from responsibility.”
December 16, 2025
How to pray while working
“I believe that every piece of daily work can be done as a sacramental act. It is not too difficult to pray on one’s knees as the floor is scrubbed, ‘Wash me, O Lord, as I was this floor…’ Awakening from sleep can be woven into a beginning prayer for the day, ‘As I stretch my body and limber my joints for the day’s tasks, thou O Lord, make my spirit supple and ready to accept whatever the day may bring…’ Prayers so brief can run through all the day’s activities. They can be simple, symbolic, spontaneous, based upon the needs and acts of the day.”
December 15, 2025
Pray in noise and clatter
“The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament.”
December 14, 2025
Feel it with the same certainty as you feel your own thoughts
“Turn therefore inwards, and all that is within you will demonstrate to you the presence and power of God in your soul, and make you find and feel it with the same certainty as you find and feel your own thoughts. And what is best of all, by thus doing, you will never be without a living sense of the immediate guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, always equal to your dependence upon it…”
December 13, 2025
Sit down in God
“In Him sit down, who is above the subtle foxes in their holes, and the fowls of the air in their nests; I say, sit down in Christ, who hath no place among them to lay his head; He is your rest. So in him is my love to you all.”
December 12, 2025
Clean up the spiritual living room
“Our lives hammer us continually with alerts, stimulants, and hazards, which can trigger our fight-or-flight responses, raise our levels of tension and anxiety, and lead us to live in prolonged states of preoccupation and vigilance. Being in constant, sustained alert mode diminishes our ability to access our human abilities of deep thinking, intuition, empathy, feelings, and stored knowledge. Free-floating anxiety is also bad for your health.”
December 11, 2025
Enter the inner chamber of thy mind
“Flee, for a little while, thy occupations; hide thyself, for a time, from thy disturbing thoughts. Cast aside, now, thy burdensome cares, and put away thy toilsome business. Yield room for some little time to God; and rest for a little time in him. Enter the inner chamber of thy mind; shut out all thoughts save that of God, and such as can aid thee in seeking him; close thy door and seek him.”
December 10, 2025
Retire into your own soul
“At what time soever thou wilt, it is in thy power to retire into thyself, and to be at rest: for a man cannot retire any whither to be more at rest, and freer from all business, than into his own soul. Afford then thyself this retiring continually, and thereby refresh and renew thyself.”
December 9, 2025
Slowing down to revere life
“Slowing down frees time and space for spiritual connection and reverence for life. We must act on what our deep hearts already know: All life is sacred. Everything is connected. From this space, we can create a world we are proud to leave to our children and all future generations. Reverence for life empowers us to take responsibility for, and to care for, ourselves and each other. Through our choices and actions of love for the sacredness of life, we “re-member” our own lives, and we contribute to the renewal of our planet.”
December 8, 2025
How to feel peace in the midst of thy trouble
“There is a river, a sweet, still, flowing river, the streams whereof will make glad thy heart. And learn but in quietness and stillness to retire to the Lord, and wait upon him; in whom thou shalt feel peace and joy, in the midst of thy trouble from the cruel and vexatious spirit of this world.”
December 7, 2025
A premonition of richer living
“Over the margins of life comes a whisper, a faint call, a premonition of richer living which we know we are passing by. Strained by the very mad pace of our daily outer burdens, we are further strained by an inward uneasiness, because we have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power.”
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The Daily Quaker Message is a daily Quaker devotional email designed for an audience of Friends, seekers, and the spiritually curious. Each email has three parts: a query to ground you; a Quaker daily reading to inspire you; and an invitation to participate in a spiritual exercise. Wherever you are in your journey, the Daily Quaker Message is your Friendly companion, bringing you your Quaker thought for the day.