May 2024: Being part of a religious community can make all the difference in a person’s spiritual growth. This month explores how our receptiveness to spirit can become more finely attuned as we deepen our relationships with others. These messages also acknowledge that participating in true community can be difficult and lead to conflict, though differences approached with love make a community stronger.
Quakers enter the service of silent waiting not alone or in a series of separate reveries but in a company of worshipers; they know something of the needs of their fellow worshipers; they know something of the sufferings and needs of the world. Often they are conscious of a whole redemptive company of faithful departed ones who are engaged in this all-embracing struggle as well.
We light a candle, become aware of God’s loving presence, and take about five minutes of quiet while we each ask ourselves two questions.
We read in silence; we read looking for God. But we read in a particular way. A man drops a rare diamond in the leaves of the forest floor. Carefully, he kneels down. One by one he lifts each leaf. Slowly he searches, knowing his lost treasure is in the leaves. And this is how it is that we must read, listen to another and wait in silence.
A couple weeks ago, we invited our neighbors over for dessert at our table in our backyard. Sue made one of her ‘award winning’ trifles and since our neighbors are Indian, they made some wonderful almond cookies. We sat on our back porch on a beautiful night sharing stories, eating dessert, and learning about how we each had met our spouses. We heard of their journey to America and shared some of our journeys as well.
I do not have any image in mind when I start. I follow the movement within me. I start out with meditation and prayer and thank God for the materials before me to use. I like to have soft music in the background. For me, it’s a form of prayer. It can take me deep within and I feel very close to God.
What is it that makes the contents of a journal spiritual? If they have as their deepest hope the development of a nature as compassionate as God’s own, they will in time leave narcissism behind. When is my life ever so hectic that I can justify not pausing long enough to write down a single line of thanksgiving and confession?
Images are a more primary language for the soul than words, and for many they are an important way to receive inward spiritual guidance. Some inner images that come in prayer, meditation, or dreams contain great wisdom and truth. If contemplated, they may assist in needed transformation or healing or provide guidance leading toward a new way of doing things, a service that may be required, or the best possible future.
Today I went noticing… and I noticed how the flooding across this gravel road created a lovely reflection of the sunrise and the telephone poles. I seriously looked all around for an interesting subject — a tree, a barn, something — to photograph at sunrise. But when the time came, the closest thing I could find was ditch water. And yet I think it will end up being my favorite photograph from the outing. I do really like it.
How, then, shall we lay hold of that Life and Power, and live the life of prayer without ceasing? By quiet, persistent practice in turning of all our being, day and night, in prayer and inward worship and surrender, toward Him who calls in the depths of our souls. Mental habits of inward orientation must be established. An inner, secret turning to God can be made fairly steady, after weeks and months and years of practice and lapses and failures and returns.
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