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Our Life is Love: the Quaker Spiritual Journey
Marcelle Martin's book, Our Life is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey, explores ten elements of the spiritual experience of Quakers. It is a great resource for study groups to explore these elements of spiritual experience in our own lives. See the Publication page for more information. * * * * * * * * Marcelle is available to lead workshops and retreats and to give talks. See the Teaching and Upcoming Workshops page.-
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Tag Archives: early Friends
Spiritual Ancestors
For years I did reading and research about the English Puritan and Quaker settlers to New England in the 1600s. I learned about the Puritan context, Anabaptist influence, theological ferment, and social unrest out of which Quakerism emerged, and I … Continue reading
Shifting to the Heart
“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 Bill Taber, contemplation, Divine presence, early Friends, Eternal Stream, Francis Howgill, gathered meeting, George Fox, God, heart opening, hearts on fire, Holy Spirit, inward Light, Isaac Penington, Kingdom of Heaven, Light of Christ, meeting for worship, Pendle Hill, silence, spiritual power, waiting upon God
6 Comments
Today is the World’s Birthday!
Since waking this morning, a phrase comes repeatedly into my mind: “Today is the World’s Birthday.” Continue reading
The New Birth
The ten elements of the Quaker spiritual journey which I have been describing in this blog are all elements of that process of spiritual rebirth which the first Quakers courageously witnessed not only in their preaching and writing, but more importantly, in their transformed and transforming lives. Continue reading
Posted in Learning from Early Friends
Tagged Book of Life, born again, Christianity, early Friends, Francis Howgill, George Fox, God, Jesus, Light of Christ, Mary Fisher, New Birth, Quaker, Quakerism, regeneration, salvation, spiritual journey, spiritual rebirth, traveling ministers, William Dewsbury
13 Comments
Turning Within
Be still, and know that I am God Psalm 46:10 Part Four in a series about The Elements of the Quaker Spiritual Journey. In my early twenties, my longing to understand the truth about life impelled me to seek. I … Continue reading
Posted in Learning from Early Friends
Tagged Awakening, Children of the Light, Christ, dreams, early Friends, Elizabeth Hooton, Firbank Fell, Francis Howgill, George Fox, God, indwelling presence, Isaac Penington, Light of Christ, malaise, Martha Simmonds, Mary Penington, Puritan, Quaker, seekers, seeking, seventeenth-century, Skegby, spiritual journey, spiritual practices, turning within, Westmoreland
3 Comments
Seeking
Part Three in a series about The Elements of the Quaker Spiritual Journey. A deep longing to know God’s ways and the desire to overcome sin moved those who became the first Quakers. Like many of us today, they also … Continue reading
Posted in Learning from Early Friends
Tagged Anabaptist, Anglican Church, Baptist, Dissenters, early Friends, Elizabeth Hooton, Francis Howgill, God, Independents, Martha Simmonds, Puritans, Quaker, scripture, seeking, Separatists, seventeenth-century, spiritual journey, spiritual practices, William Dewsbury
8 Comments
Longing: the First Element in the Spiritual Journey of Early Friends
As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food … Continue reading
Becoming Whole-Hearted in the Midst of Division
Through study of the charismatic beginnings of Quakerism, I have received a key to the Quaker spiritual journey that can help us respond to the extraordinary demands of our time and truly become the needed agents of God’s healing we are now called … Continue reading
Prepare ye the Way
I planned to introduce here what I’ve been learning from early Friends about the Quaker spiritual journey. In the meantime, a local train accident has reminded me of a series of dreams about trains. I’ll share them with you, both to introduce something key about the … Continue reading
A Whole Heart 