Val’s podcasts

Quaker Thought--Thomas Kelley

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:54:59 -0800

Ordering Our Mental Life

There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings.

Between these two levels is fruitful interplay, but ever the accent must be upon the deeper level, where the soul dwells in the presence of the Holy One, forever bringing all affairs of the first level down into the Light, holding them there in the Presence, reseeing them in a new and more overturning way and responding to them in spontaneous, incisive, and simple ways of love and faith.

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 all of our being, day and night, in prayer and inward worship and surrender, toward him who calls in the deeps 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 year of practice and lapses and failures and returns.

Begin now, as you read these words, as you sit in your chair, to offer your whole selves, utterly and in joyful abandon, in quiet, glad surrender to him who is within. In secret ejaculations of praise, turn in humble wonder to the Light, faint though it may be. Keep contact with the outer world of sense and meanings. Here is no discipline in absentmindedness. Walk and talk and work and laugh with your friends. But behind the scenes, keep up the life of simple prayer and inward worship. Let inward prayer be your last act before you fall asleep and the first act when you awake.

Quaker Thought--W. Norman Cooper

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 12:50:07 -0800

Our Oneness With God

One of the greatest statements of truth which Christ Jesus made about himself is the one in which he said: "I and my Father are one." But this statement does not apply to Jesus alone. Like Jesus, each of us should declare: "I and my Father are one."

This divine, fathering Power lives through you, in you and as you. This divine, fathering Power is your source of enlightened intelligence, your source of true love, your source of great power. Since you are one with this great Power, you are aware of love, of peace and of joy; and you express the love, peace and joy in your relationship to others.

You can see yourself at one with the divine, fathering Power; and therefore, you can see yourself as this Power sees you--selflessly loving, peaceful and joyous in all your relationships with others.

Quaker Thought--Thomas Kelley

Sun, 4 Jan 2009 13:22:20 -0800

Surrender and Spiritual Hunger

I have received a variety of very interesting responses over the past year to my email signature. The line I use is, "Faith, surrender, and hope are only as important to life as, say, breathing."

The people who have responded (among them several Friends) have invariably asked specifically about my interpretation of the word "surrender," (as though faith and hope were themselves well-understood). There are several quotes I'd like to contribute here.

St. Francis prayer opens with, "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love." Psalm 19, in the recent translation by Stephen Mitchell, begs, "Let me keep surrendering myself until I am utterly transparent." A landmark song with the title "Awaken" by one of my all-time favorite rock bands, who are called Yes, has the line (shouted at full volume) "Oh closely guided plan, awaken in our hearts!"

It feels as though everywhere I look, I hear artists and seekers crying out in surrender, not simply asking for God's intervention, but asking to be led, asking to be made instruments of God's will, and recognizing that it involves our listening better, not God's yelling louder.

If only it were easy for us to arrange for our lives to be taken over by the spirit. We have to make a place for it; the process requires slowing down, letting go of our momentary attachments, listening, making an explicit place for divinity in our lives. In one of her books on angels, Doreen Virtue presents the following rules for bringing Angels into your life: (1) Live your life with full integrity; (2) Acknowledge (explicitly) your faith in Angels; and (3) Have the silence to hear what they’re saying.

In the end, returning to my email quote, I actually have a much harder time defining and staying in touch with faith and hope than maintaining an attitude of surrender and spiritual hunger.

Quaker Thought--Thomas Kelley

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 12:39:19 -0800

This is a reading from the Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly

An Amazing Inner Sanctuary

Meister Eckhart wrote, “As thou art in church or cell, that same frame of mind carry out into the world; into its turmoils and fitfulness.” Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn loves, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto itself.

It is a light within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon our faces…Here is the slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action. And he is within us all.

The basic response of the soul to the Light is internal adoration and joy, thanksgiving and worship, self-surrender and listening. The secret places of the heart cease to be our noisy workshop. They become a holy sanctuary of adoration…where we are kept in perfect peace if our minds be stayed on Him who has found us in the inward springs of our life. And in the brief intervals of overpowering visitation we are able to carry the sanctuary frame of mind out into the world, into its turmoil and fitfulness. Power fully are the springs of our will moved to an abandon of singing love toward God; powerfully are we moved to a new and overcoming love toward time-blinded me and all creation.

Quaker Thought--W. Norman Cooper

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:22:17 -0800

Christmas More Than a Single Day

This week we are celebrating Christmas. For one full day our attitudes, and in many cases even our surroundings, will seem quite different. We ourselves--and so many with whom we come in contact--will seem transformed--will be transformed with and into the spirit of Christmas.

How pathetic though, that this transformation will last but a day. We should realize that the message of "on earth peace, good will toward men" was not a message for one day each year; but the spirit of Christmas, with its love, its gift-giving, its sacred message of peace and loving understanding, should be expressed every day.

Christmas should be taken out of the confines of the limitations of a day and be loved and lived every day. And so, right now, let us resolve to make every day a Christmas Day.