“It is a bold and colossal claim that we put forward — that the whole of life is sacramental, that there are innumerable ‘means of grace’ by which God is revealed and communicated — through nature and through human fellowship and through a thousand things that may become the ‘outward and visible sign’ of an ‘inward and spiritual grace.’”
“Now, Friends, deal plainly with yourselves, and let the eternal Light search you, and try you, for the good of your souls. For this will deal plainly with you. It will rip you up, and lay you open, and make all manifest which lodges in you; the secret subtlety of the enemy of your souls, this eternal searcher and trier will make manifest.”
June 24-30, 2024: This week’s messages are guest edited by Jon Watts. Jon is a lifelong Friend, musician, and media creator. He is the Executive Director of Thee Quaker Project, which creates the Daily Quaker Message.
“The real difference between happiness and joy is that one is grounded in this world, the other in eternity. Happiness cannot encompass suffering and evil. Joy can.”
Although I collected messages for this week without a theme in mind, the topic of peace kept bubbling up, perhaps because the war in Gaza has been on my heart. Monday’s message about nonviolence towards each other and the earth stood out to me especially. I had an “a-ha” moment when I read Jennie M. Ratcliffe explain that violence is actually born from a feeling of disconnection.
No one of us is asked to save the world by ourselves. And yet collectively, the Religious Society of Friends is a covenant people charged with building the kingdom of God on Earth. This is not a small task. This will take miracles, and what I want to put forth today is that miracles do not happen when we declare them to be impossible.
Our principle is, and our practices have always been, to seek peace, and ensue it, and to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God, seeking the good and welfare, and doing that which tends to the peace of all.
All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars, and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretense whatsoever, and this is our testimony to the whole world.
Guard against placing your dependence on fleets and armies; be peaceable yourselves, in words and actions, and pray to the Father of the Universe that he would breathe the spirit of reconciliation into the hearts of his erring and contending creatures.
I think education has a spiritual dimension. There is a way, that if you could find in your inner self those things that move your spirit, that is a major part of your own education.
Were we religious we should know
Our path were not for all to go;
Each has his individual light,
To show what work for him is right.
End of content
End of content