Category Archives: Learning from Early Friends

The End of Life and After

Posted on May 7, 2016 by friendmarcelle

When my father’s health took another precipitous decline in March, we needed to face the mysteries of dying and life after death. My family members had different beliefs and experiences. I wondered what my Quaker faith had to say about those mysteries. Sitting at my father’s bedside taught me some important things. Continue reading →

Posted in Facing Life with Faith, Learning from Early Friends, Quaker Faith Today | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Shifting to the Heart

Posted on March 29, 2016 by friendmarcelle

“Meeting for worship is a Quaker technology for shifting levels of consciousness,” Bill Taber sometimes explained. Descriptions of gathered worship reveal that the divine Presence is revealed when the mind is still, and this opens the heart.
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Posted in Contemplative spirituality, Learning from Early Friends, Mysticism, Quaker Faith Today, Radical Christianity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The Fruit of Long Labor

Posted on March 11, 2016 by friendmarcelle

For decades I’ve dreamed of finishing a book that would encourage others and empower their spiritual journey. Our Life is Love: the Quaker Spiritual Journey finally arrived on my doorstep the day the cherry tree blossomed. Continue reading →

Posted in Contemplative spirituality, Learning from Early Friends, Quaker Faith Today, Radical Christianity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

We Work Through Prayer

Posted on October 31, 2015 by friendmarcelle

For more than two and a half decades, I’ve held the intention of following God’s purpose–or will–for my life. And all of that time, I’ve struggled with a strong desire to do things my own way. When confronted with the … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning from Early Friends, Quaker Faith Today, Radical Christianity | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Streams of Living Water

Posted on May 20, 2015 by friendmarcelle

In April 2015, Pendle Hill conference center offered an extraordinary opportunity for a merging of  the Christian contemplative tradition and the faith and practice of Quakers. Fifty people desiring to immerse themselves more fully into the waters of the Spirit … Continue reading →

Posted in Contemplative spirituality, Learning from Early Friends, Quaker Faith Today, Radical Christianity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Gathering in the Divine Mystery

Posted on May 12, 2015 by friendmarcelle

In the Quaker practice of group worship on the basis of silence come special times when an electric hush and solemnity and depth of power steals over the worshippers. A blanket of divine covering comes over the room, and a … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning from Early Friends, Quaker Faith Today, Radical Christianity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Entering into Transformation

Posted on October 23, 2014 by friendmarcelle

Spiritual transformation begins in the daily circumstances of seemingly-ordinary lives. At the same time, God also invites us to stretch beyond the comfortable circumference within which many of us live, to serve the needs of those beyond our immediate circles. Continue reading →

Posted in Learning from Early Friends, Quaker Faith Today, Radical Christianity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Evolving Faith

Posted on October 6, 2014 by friendmarcelle

At a gathering for people who nurture the spiritual lives of others, many of us present were uncomfortable with James Mulholland’s suggestion that agnosticism (or atheism) is a more mature spiritual stance than faith in God. Continue reading →

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Openings to the Way of Nonviolence

Posted on July 31, 2014 by friendmarcelle

In this time of anguish about the terrible conflict and bloodshed in Palestine and Israel, I feel moved to share how two Friends received openings when they wrestled with the peace testimony. Continue reading →

Posted in Facing Life with Faith, Learning from Early Friends, Quaker Faith Today, Working for Peace and Justice | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

In Order to Give Our Gift

Posted on July 15, 2014 by friendmarcelle

I pray that we Friends grow increasingly able, faithfully, to play our part in the birth of a new, more conscious, connected humanity, a birth now reaching a painful stage of labor. Continue reading →

Posted in Learning from Early Friends, Quaker Faith Today | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments