Messages

  • Gratitude moves us to transform ourselves

    “Let us visualize practicing gratitude as a well-crafted testimony of our intentions and aspirations. This is something that can have a strong impact on our individual selves as well as in our society. On a personal level, for example, when we are grateful for the gifts that others have given or shared with us, we create space for better relationships based on mutual support and care. This is also an opportunity for confronting our limitations and for setting the stage for change.”

  • Humility is remembering you are not in charge

    “Over the course of my years of Quaker worship I have learned that certain attitudes help me into worship – particularly humility and gratitude. Gratitude is easy; I can think of all that I am thankful for, and that’s probably the best way into worship on a difficult, distracted day. By humility I don’t mean grovelling and feeling awful about myself. It means, simply, remembering that I am not in charge, that I do not know what should happen (either in the meeting or beyond it) and so I am listening intently.”

  • How to live life as one long thanksgiving

    “This way of seeing our Father in everything makes life one long thanksgiving and gives a rest of heart, and, more than that, a gayety of spirit, that is unspeakable.”

  • Engaging in gratitude means engaging with Quaker values

    “Gratitude is not, strictly speaking, one of the commonly cited Quaker values. But, when we engage in gratitude, we engage more deeply with the Quaker values we do hold. When we are grateful for the actions or kindnesses of others around us, we are more connected to Community, and more invested in it. When we are grateful for the natural world, we notice and connect to it, and can be more interested its Stewardship. When we stop to be grateful for the roof over our heads, we have awareness and empathy for those without this blessing in their lives and can re-commit ourselves to Service.”

  • Let your gentleness be evident to all

    “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

  • Can you feel spiritual gratitude if you don’t believe in God?

    “In my religious community, the Quakers, there are many different understandings of God, and some might not even believe in a God, as such. From that perspective, the God in question is an inner experience, the love and connection felt between people, maybe a metaphor which could help me to live a better life. With God within and alongside rather than above, there would be no actual giver for the gift. But I still feel gratitude.”

  • A loving way to pray

    “When I go up to kiss my sleeping children and linger with them, in quietness and love, that is prayer. There is a wordless unity of God, myself, my children, a sense of gratitude and reverence, awareness of my need for strength, shame for my failings, a promise to try again.”

  • Gratitude

    November 2025: This theme of Gratitude was chosen in acknowledgment of the Thanksgiving season here in the United States. In early Quaker texts, this sentiment is more often communicated as “awe,” and we explore these roots as well as more modern practices that build spiritual resilience in good times and bad.

  • What Quakers Believe

    “We began this month reading theologians’ interpretations of this quote and of the Scripture from which it is thought to be derived. Along the way we learned more about what early Friends meant by the Inner Light and that, in searching for the Light in others, we should remember to see the Light in ourselves. We read that although it is often difficult to love our neighbors, we have something new to learn about God in every interaction.”

  • The Purpose of Quaker Community

    “I think we exist to discern and do the will of God, and that looks like a lot of different things. Historically, Friends have experienced God asking us to listen—asking us to preach—asking us to care for each other—asking us to bear witness in the world. Sometimes the purpose of the Quaker community is to join (or lead) the nonviolent protest, to stand face to face against injustice, to be arrested, to prevent harm or, at least, to shine a spotlight on that harm. And sometimes the purpose of the Quaker community is to make sure the parent who’s just had surgery doesn’t have to worry about dinner. Oftentimes, I think it’s both.”

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