Messages

  • However Quietly We Speak, Spirit Will Hear Us

    “Remember how St. Augustine tells us about his seeking God in many places and eventually finding him within himself. Do you suppose it is of little importance that a soul which is often distracted should come to understand this truth and to find that, in order to speak to its Eternal Father and to take its delight in Him, it has no need to go to Heaven or to speak in a loud voice? However quietly we speak, He is so near that He will hear us: we need no wings to go in search of Him but only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon Him present within us.”

  • Quakers and the Light

    “There’s not an authority that I need to appeal to or try to seek from somebody else. [The light is] here and it’s there and it’s in all of us, together. Seeking my piece of that is incredible. But being in a community that is seeking that same thing: amazing.”

  • The Inward Light Has Two Dimensions

    “First, the Inward Light reveals our shortcomings (sins) and second, it guides us towards a better life. Many liberals don’t feel comfortable with the word “sin” so I’d like to suggest a definition that is both biblical and compatible with our modern Quaker ideas. “Sin” in the Bible is not primarily about morality; it is about ethics. Jesus didn’t condemn the adulterer; he lambasted religious hypocrites and those in power, especially the 1%. The prophets of the Hebrew Bible were more concerned with justice than with personal morality. Prophets condemned the rich, lifted the concerns of the poor, and called on God’s people to live lives of justice and truth [….]”

  • Seek that of God in Yourself, Too

    “Self-compassion is extending toward one’s self the same kindness that one would show toward a good friend in pain. Imagine the situation: Someone you care about confides over a cup of coffee the news of a job loss or failing health. As they describe their situation, you notice their head lowering, the suffering in their eyes. Most likely, you would listen with care and patience, rather than reacting with harsh judgments or impatience.”

  • Let Us Shout Good News from the Housetops!

    “If one has been visited by a direct sense of inward presence, he is driven to tell everyone who will listen to him. Strange and unendurable irony – that Friends who speak so much about the Inward Light should so timidly hide their own light under a bushel! The time has come to preach the faith we have resolved to practice. If we have good news for our brothers, and I believe we do, let us shout it from the housetops!”

  • Quakers Are Recovering the Living Deity

    “Friends, beginning with George Fox, realize that something of God dwells within each and every human being, and that, therefore, He is reachable by us through direct contact, and we are within His reach, subject to His immediate influence. This is the well-known basis of Friends worship.”

  • The Powerful Cords of Loving Kindness

    “We beseech Thee, through Him that hath loved us and given Himself for us, that Thou wouldst draw us all, whether now far from Thee or near unto Thee, by the powerful cords of Thy loving kindness, out of darkness into Thy marvellous light, that we may ever dwell in Thy light and in Thy love, and know the fullness of Thy power, Thy glory, and Thy majesty. Amen, and Amen.”

  • What Quakers Mean by “the Light”

    “When early Friends spoke of the Inward Light, they were referring to the Light near the beginning of the gospel of John (1:9): “The true Light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” Although for them, this Light was identified with Christ, it conveyed much the same meaning that the expression “that of God in every one” has for many contemporary Friends.”

  • Letting the Light Interpret for Us

    “Jesus is recorded four times in the gospels as saying, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ […]

    To read the Bible with Jesus then is to ask of every passage, ‘How does this show love of neighbour?’ If any passage seems to point to anything else, we can hold it in the Light until an interpretation emerges which points towards the rule of love.”

  • “That of God” Is a Call to Action

    “As a nontheist Quaker, I’ve taken to phrasing this as “that of the light in everyone” for my own spiritual comfort. For me, this speaks to our interconnectedness and responsibility to steward our actions toward true equality and dignity for all [….] This also speaks to potential.”

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