https://youtu.be/gZxGL2GQgZ0
QuakerSpeak
Published on Jul 25, 2019
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What does Quaker prayer look like? Australian Friend David Johnson says it’s something every human being does naturally, and it leads to inordinate spiritual refreshment.
Quaker prayer is a matter of letting go of outward words, and of our thoughts and imaginations, and of centering down into a place of silence where we can wait and notice the movements of God within us.
A Quaker Prayer Life
I’m David Johnson. I live in far North Queensland, Australia. I’m part of a small worshipping group; my monthly meeting is Queensland Regional Meeting. I’ve written many small pieces in Australia, but the two main things I’ve done recently are to collate–with some of my own comments–many quotes on Quaker prayer from the first- and second-generation Quakers.
A Heart Prepared By God
There’s a difference here between an outward prayer of a known prayer or a liturgy, which for some people–and I’ve used it myself–is a very helpful anchor. When I first kneel by a bed or when I first sit down to say a prayer, it’s a very helpful anchor and an introduction.
But that is different to the prayer which emanates from the heart, and the early Quaker William Penn identified his experience when he said that “true prayer can only come from a heart prepared by God.”
A Natural Contemplative Practice
Our Quaker prayer life is one of the inheritors of this very ancient, very natural contemplative practice. This is very natural for the human being.
We can see this practice coming down in many strands. We can see it in the mindful breathing in the Buddhist faith. We can see it in the constant invoking of the name of God in the Orthodox Christian faith. We can see it in a similar way in the Sufi faith.
The Quaker prayer life, for me, is a way of going inward, using normally one of these practices as an entry point: using deep breathing, using the same repetitive saying of a sacred word, so that my attentiveness moves from up in here, gradually and sinks down into here where I’m enabled, I don’t actually do it, I’m actually enabled to give up my own willing, give up my own running of my own mind, sinking down, breathing down, centering down into where the spirit of God is present in the heart, and where the presence of God can actually minister to me, convey things to me that I then have a choice about.
The Steps of Quaker Prayer
So the first step as we go inward, which is identified in the Quaker prayer life, is actually being very attentive inwardly in the heart to the Light and the movements there, what the early Quakers called “mind the light,” be attentive to it.
The second step, when the light shows us something, is actually to welcome it. What George Fox, the early Quaker called, “love the Light” no matter what it shows you. Because the Light is showing parts of you that may be in error (what others call sin) so that it might be remedied and you might become purer of the heart.
And that’s my experience, that when I welcome those signs–and they come quite often– that I was out of line spiritually, when I welcome those and sit with them, the light shows me some reparation or there is some healing. There is some reconciling going on towards peace within me.
Experiencing Inward Refreshment
The Quaker experience is that as we continue that letting-go of outward forms and just sinking inward, we find we’re being helped.
Something is actually working with us. We can call that the grace, we can call that the presence of the Light, or of Christ, or another word for it, is the anointing within us–it comes to help us in this path.
And as we do this, we find that it gradually goes deeper and starts to take hold of us. We begin to let go of those expectations. We begin to find, eventually, for small times at first and then for longer ones–that that deep silence is actually accessible to every one of us, and that it is actually–even though we don’t hear anything–we begin to realize that the first language of God is actually silence.
More: https://fdsj.nl/prayer
A Quaker Prayer Life
I’m David Johnson. I live in far North Queensland, Australia. I’m part of a small worshipping group; my monthly meeting is Queensland Regional Meeting. I’ve written many small pieces in Australia, but the two main things I’ve done recently are to collate–with some of my own comments–many quotes on Quaker prayer from the first- and second-generation Quakers.
A Heart Prepared By God
There’s a difference here between an outward prayer of a known prayer or a liturgy, which for some people–and I’ve used it myself–is a very helpful anchor. When I first kneel by a bed or when I first sit down to say a prayer, it’s a very helpful anchor and an introduction.
But that is different to the prayer which emanates from the heart, and the early Quaker William Penn identified his experience when he said that “true prayer can only come from a heart prepared by God.”
A Natural Contemplative Practice
Our Quaker prayer life is one of the inheritors of this very ancient, very natural contemplative practice. This is very natural for the human being.
We can see this practice coming down in many strands. We can see it in the mindful breathing in the Buddhist faith. We can see it in the constant invoking of the name of God in the Orthodox Christian faith. We can see it in a similar way in the Sufi faith.
The Quaker prayer life, for me, is a way of going inward, using normally one of these practices as an entry point: using deep breathing, using the same repetitive saying of a sacred word, so that my attentiveness moves from up in here, gradually and sinks down into here where I’m enabled, I don’t actually do it, I’m actually enabled to give up my own willing, give up my own running of my own mind, sinking down, breathing down, centering down into where the spirit of God is present in the heart, and where the presence of God can actually minister to me, convey things to me that I then have a choice about.
The Steps of Quaker Prayer
So the first step as we go inward, which is identified in the Quaker prayer life, is actually being very attentive inwardly in the heart to the Light and the movements there, what the early Quakers called “mind the light,” be attentive to it.
The second step, when the light shows us something, is actually to welcome it. What George Fox, the early Quaker called, “love the Light” no matter what it shows you. Because the Light is showing parts of you that may be in error (what others call sin) so that it might be remedied and you might become purer of the heart.
And that’s my experience, that when I welcome those signs–and they come quite often– that I was out of line spiritually, when I welcome those and sit with them, the light shows me some reparation or there is some healing. There is some reconciling going on towards peace within me.
Experiencing Inward Refreshment
The Quaker experience is that as we continue that letting-go of outward forms and just sinking inward, we find we’re being helped.
Something is actually working with us. We can call that the grace, we can call that the presence of the Light, or of Christ, or another word for it, is the anointing within us–it comes to help us in this path.
And as we do this, we find that it gradually goes deeper and starts to take hold of us. We begin to let go of those expectations. We begin to find, eventually, for small times at first and then for longer ones–that that deep silence is actually accessible to every one of us, and that it is actually–even though we don’t hear anything–we begin to realize that the first language of God is actually silence.
More: https://fdsj.nl/prayer
