Nature's Peace ~ John Muir

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." 
-John Muir

More at  http://ecouke.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/quaker-pantheism/

Artwork by Celia Hart http://celiahart.co.uk/index.html

Spiritual Learning ~ Advices and Queries

"Be aware of the spirit of God at work in the ordinary activities and experience of your daily life. Spiritual learning continues throughout life, and often in unexpected ways. There is inspiration to be found all around us, in the natural world, in the sciences and arts, in our work and friendships, in our sorrows as well as in our joys. Are you open to new light, from whatever source it may come? Do you approach new ideas with discernment?"

More at   http://qfp.quakerweb.org.uk/qfp1-02.html

The Gate of the Year ~ Minnie Louise Haskins, 1908

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,

"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."

And he replied, "Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!"

So I went forth and finding the Hand of God
Trod gladly into the night.
He led me towards the hills
And the breaking of day in the lone east.

So heart be still!
What need our human life to know
If God hath comprehension?

In all the dizzy strife of things
Both high and low,
God hideth his intention.

Minnie Louise Haskins, 1908

More at   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_Louise_Haskins

Knowledge Changes ~ Naomi King

"Humility asks us to recognize our limitations of assumptions, beliefs, data, questions, and answers. Knowledge changes and we human beings, for the most part, can keep learning throughout our lives, adapting to those changes. What do you know for sure that might change significantly with different assumptions, information, or questions?"


Naomi King

Full post at  http://ht.ly/3v9OP

The True Spirit ~ Newton Garver

"Our first task is to love one another, to be valiant for the truth upon the earth, and to remain attentive to the true spirit in all that we do."  ~  Newton Garver

http://newtongarver.com/?q=blog

Only One Time That is Important ~ Leo Tolstoy

"Remember then: there is only one time that is important--Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary man is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with any one else: and the most important affair is, to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!"

~ Leo Tolstoy

Read the full short story at  http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2736/

Artwork from Mariann Johansen-Ellis
https://www.saatchiart.com/mariannjohansenellis

Involved Sacrifice ~ Little Falls Friends

"When Friends meet together, they do not rely on priests, clergy, or leaders. The meeting begins in living silence, one in which the clamor of everyday life is stilled and we can hear God's voice. Then there may be brief passages of vocal prayer or ministry from any of those present. When thus seeking God consistently, we can at all times and in any place sense the eternal which is behind the succession of ordinary events.

This for us is the sacramental life which need not be marked by outward rites. This attitude could only be founded on the life and teaching of Jesus. It involves an attempt to accept literally the command to love God and one another. It rules out war. It recognizes evil but meets it with that active good will which outlasts it or transforms it. Such beliefs have involved sacrifice and much suffering."

~ Little Falls Friends

More at   http://www.qis.net/~daruma/believe.html

A Single Flame ~ A.S. Byatt

"A man is the history of his breaths and thoughts, acts, atoms and wounds, love indifference and dislike, also of his race and nation, the soil that fed him and his forbears, the stones and sands of his familiar places, long-silenced battles and struggles of conscience, of the smiles of girls and the slow utterance of old women, of accidents and the gradual action of inexorable law, of all this and something else, too, a single flame which in every way obeys the laws that pertain to Fire itself, and yet is lit and put out from one moment to the next, and can never be relumed in the whole waste of time to come." 
— A.S. Byatt

More at   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._S._Byatt

The Apple Tree ~ R.H. 1761

The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree


His beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.


For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly I have bought
I missed of all but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.


I'm weary with my former toil
Here I will sit and rest a while
Under the shadow I will be
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.


This fruit does make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.


More at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ_the_Apple_Tree

Wait in Silence ~ Margaret Fell

"My dear hearts, be faithful every one in your particular measure of God, which he hath given you, and in the Invisible wait in silence, and patience, and obedience, in that which opens the mystery of God."
 ~ Margaret Fell, 1654

Loneliness of Spirit ~ Chief Seattle

"What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected." 

~ Chief Seattle

More at   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Seattle

What We Do Not Love ~ Stephen Jay Gould

"We cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and nature as well - for we will not fight to save what we do not love." 

~ Stephen Jay Gould

More at   http://www.stephenjaygould.org/

Artwork from http://www.lowellherrero.com/

Face to Face With the Eternal ~ Eva Hermann

"When one’s existence which has seemed quite secure suddenly melts away, when one is cut off externally at least from the circle of one’s family and friends and must rely entirely on one’s self in an indifferent hostile world; when the ground is taken from under one’s feet and the air one breathes is taken away, when every security fails and every support gives way—then one stands face to face with the Eternal and confronts Him without protection and with fearful directness. Then I understood what Cromwell meant when he said that it was a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Then I understood that it was not man but God who was sitting in judgment. With one stroke everything is transformed: good intentions no longer have any value, the omissions and the things I had left undone in my life in the world all can no longer be made up; failure to love or errors can no longer be set right. What remained for me was an annihilating register of debts. I now saw that what the fancy of the medieval artists represented as taking place on the Day of Judgment was happening here and now in this earthly life. The level of my human existence was not only brought into question but was shattered and stripped from me by the Eternal."

More at  http://www.tractassociation.org/tracts/prison-free/

Look for the Lost Heart ~ Mencius

"Charity is in the heart of man, and righteousness in the path of men. Pity the man who has lost his path and does not follow it and who has lost his heart and does not know how to recover it. When people's dogs and chicks are lost they go out and look for them and yet the people who have lost their hearts do not go out and look for them. The principle of self-cultivation consists in nothing but trying to look for the lost heart."

~ Mencius (4th century B.C.)

More at  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mencius/

The Stream of Life ~ William W. Birdsall

"The philosophy of our time tends to deal with man in the mass. The individual it is prone to consider only as a member of a group. It is out of this doctrine that we have our modern science of sociology and as affecting a large part of the interests of mankind the point of view is right, the philosophy is sound. But the deepest things of life concern the individual. We may talk as we will of our social self, of our civic self; we may magnify the importance of the group and relegate the individual to obscurity as an invisible molecule in the mass with which we have to do; but after all it is the character of the molecule which determines the properties of the mass. We merge our individual wishes in deference to public opinion; we unite our efforts for the common good ; but after all each of us lives his own life, and in the last analysis he lives his life alone. We depend upon each other for support, assistance, guidance, sympathy; we influence each other -sometimes more, sometimes less-but there is a final barrier beyond which the outside force may never penetrate. 


Even in those human natures which most resemble an open temple inviting all to enter, there is a certain holy of holies whose veil is never parted, within which there is no intrusion. What occurs within this citadel of the soul may be known to others only partially and indirectly; but out of it are the issues of life. This is the fountainhead from which the waters flow, making the stream of life bitter or sweet; the stream may wander through broad and pleasant meadows, fair and smiling; it may be harnessed to useful work, defiled by vileness from without; it may be changed beyond recognition by the influence of external forces; but the water retains forever a character which it owes to the source from which it sprung"

http://www.quaker.org/quest/fgc-1900.htm

Obstacles to Love ~ George de Benneville

“The spirit of Love will be intensified to Godly proportions when reciprocal love exists between the entire human race and each of its individual members. That love must be based upon mutual respect for the differences in color, language and worship, even as we appreciate and accept with gratitude the differences that tend to unite the male and female of all species. We do not find those differences obstacles to love.”

George de Benneville

More at    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_de_Benneville

Out Of The Mess ~ Gordon Matthews

"We need both a deeper spirituality and a more outspoken witness. If our spirituality can reach the depths of authentic prayer, our lives will become an authentic witness for justice, peace and the integrity of creation, a witness which becomes the context for our prayer. Out of the depths of authentic prayer comes a longing for peace and a passion of justice. And our response to violence and injustice is to pray more deeply, because only God can show us the way out of the mess that the world is in. And only God gives us the strength to follow that Way."

Gordon Matthews, 1989

More at   http://qfp.quakerweb.org.uk/qfp29-01.html

http://www.greensarecoming.org.uk/MidWorcestershire

In the Bleak Midwinter ~ Christina Rossetti

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

More at   http://www.englishonline.co.uk/freesite_tour/resource/literature/rossetti.html

The Magnificent Here and Now ~ D.H.Lawrence

"For man, the vast marvel is to be alive. For man, as for flower and beast and bird, the supreme triumph is to be most vividly, most perfectly alive. Whatever the unborn may know, they cannot know the beauty, the marvel of being alive in the flesh. The dead may look after the afterwards. But the magnificent here and now of life in the flesh is ours, and ours alone, and ours only for a time. "

~ D. H. Lawrence

More at the outstanding site  http://www.dh-lawrence.org.uk/biography.html

Artwork from Henry Garland
https://www.jamesalder.co.uk/henry-garland/

Transforming Power ~ Dan Seeger

"The problem is for us all to learn to live together with our different traditions and to live not only without bloodshed, but in genuine peace, which implies some sort of mutual trust and active sympathy. It is of no use to talk about loving our neighbor while at the same time dismissing as inferior or mistaken his most cherished possession, his religious faith. Indeed, it is the transforming power of religious faith which offers the only hope out of our present impasse, and so a significant aspect of the great task before us is to come increasingly to discover how the world’s faiths can nourish each other and how we can collaborate with all people of faith in the challenge we face together."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Seeger

Inner Compulsion ~ Tim Brown

"Quaker … “concerns” are usually personal, tested by meetings at different levels, and often lead to specific action. “Testimonies” are more widely shared and accepted, and the sort of action they lead to should affect our whole lives. The essential quality of both is an inner compulsion, not something you decide on after reading or hearing about it. They have that quality of Luther’s famous statement “here I stand, I cannot do otherwise”. "
Tim Brown

John Woolman's Dream

"I was brought so near the gates of death . . .that I forgot my name. Being then desirous to know who I was, I saw a mass of matter of a dull gloomy collour, . . . and was informed that this mass was human beings, in as great misery as they could be, and live, and that I was mixed in with them, and that henceforth I might not consider myself as a distinct or separate being. I then heard a soft melodious voice . . . and I believed it was the voice of an angel who spake to the other angels. The words were "John Woolman is dead". I soon remembered that I was once John Woolman, and being assured that I was alive in the body, I greatly wondered what that heavenly voice could mean. . . . it was a mystery to me"

More at  http://www.strecorsoc.org/jwoolman/title.html 

Sexual Orientation ~ Beacon Hill, Massachusetts (1988)

“We, the members and attenders of Beacon Hill Monthly Meeting, affirm our belief in that of God in every person. Furthermore, we attest that this belief embraces all persons regardless of sexual orientation. "

“Beacon Hill affirms that all couples, including those of the same sex, have equal opportunity to be married within the framework of the meeting process. The love between these couples, as it grows, will enrich their relationship, the Meeting and the world at large. The Meeting is committed to supporting these couples according to their needs."

“Beacon Hill acknowledges the Certificate of Marriage signed by the couple and those present at the ceremony as the witness of Friends to the couples' spiritual union. Mindful that only the heterosexual couples among us currently have the right to legally sanctioned marriage and its privileges, the Meeting asks Friends, and particularly couples preparing for marriage, toexamine how best to respond and bear witness to the inequalities still present in the system."

More at  http://www.bhfh.org/

Quaker Gray ~ Margaret Hope Bacon

"Quakers have long since discarded the Quaker gray, the broad-brimmed hat, and the Quaker bonnet, which were once their distinguishing marks. Other Quaker ways have disappeared, too. If modern Friends use "thee" it is only within their immediate family. The prohibition against art, music, and theater is regarded as the sad mistake of another age. Quakers, a predominantly middle-class group, share the tastes and interests of most middle-class Americans.

And yet one Quaker can usually recognize another in a crowd. There is a penchant for a simple, direct style of dress, a habit of understatement, and a directness of approach which most Quakers share. In addition the birthright Friends, the descendants of the old Quaker families, bear a certain resemblance resulting from common ancestors. There is a Quaker look, Just as there is a Yankee look, although it is difficult to describe.

Since the Quakers have remained a small group in society, the old Quaker families are generally interrelated. From Maine to California genealogy quickly becomes a topic of conversation whenever birthright Quakers meet. The years of isolation, of persecution, and of the championing of lost causes have developed among Quakers a family feeling rather unusual in the modern world. One Quaker is welcome in the home of another at almost any time and place. This fellowship is not reserved for the old" Quakers, but extended to the convinced as well."

More at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hope_Bacon

One Inescapable Conclusion ~ Elfrida Vipont Foulds

"One inescapable conclusion is that a vision has to be earned. Who knows on what far mountain of the spirit the vision for our own day awaits us? It may be there even now, in place, in space, in time, but to behold it the seeker, or group of seekers, must accept the same challenge, the same inspired madness."

More at   http://www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com/vipont.html

Let Us Shout It ~ John Yungblut

"Strange and unendurable irony — that Friends who speak so much about the Inward Light should so timidly hide their own light under a bushel! The time has come to preach the faith we have resolved to practice. If we have good news for our brothers, and I believe we do, let us shout it from the housetops! Let us learn to be publishers of truth about our faith as well as our social concerns."

More at   http://fcrp.quaker.org/yungblut.html

What the Truth Is ~ George McGovern

"So, I think that’s the centerpiece of morality: Don’t lie. But to do that, you have to go a step further and find out what the truth is. You know, it’s easy to say, “I’ll never tell a lie.” But if you say, “I’m going to speak the truth,” you’re going to have to work damn hard to find out what the truth is. The next thing is just plain, old, simple kindness: to other people, to your family. Love for other people. I think that’s another very important part of morality, being genuinely compassionate and concerned about the feelings and well being of other people, especially those that depend on you directly. "
-- George McGovern

More at  http://www.mcgoverncenter.com/george.htm

Truth Always Rests ~ Soren Kierkegaard

"Truth always rests with the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion—and who, therefore, in the next instant (when it is evident that the minority is the stronger) assume its opinion ... while Truth again reverts to a new minority."
 
- Soren Kierkegaard

More at   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard

A Deep Rise ~ Jean Toomer

"Through conscious and unconscious preparation, through effort and seeking crowned by God's grace, many Friends came up over. They arose in spirit, above that which had bound them, to a new consciousness of reality, to a new character, and consequently, to new behavior. As they arose, they deepened and extended. Their rise had elevation, depth and breadth. It was a deep rise. A deep rise characterizes all true spiritual transformations. It is to a deep rise that we of this day are called - not as an end but as a means, not because we may personally want it but because by and through it we will become really able to love and to serve God and man."
Jean Toomer

More at   http://quakerpamphlets.blogspot.com/search/label/ToomerJean

New Life and Power ~ Thomas Kelly

"In the gathered meeting the sense is present that a new Life and Power has entered our midst. We are in communication with one another because we are being communicated to, and through, by the Divine presence." 

- Thomas Kelly

More at   http://quakerpamphlets.blogspot.com/2007/11/holy-obedience.html

Artwork found at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Friends_Meeting_House_at_New_Garden_Guilford_County_North_Carolina_1869.jpg

It Must Follow and Not Lead ~John Burroughs

"Happiness comes most to persons who seek it least, and think least about it. It is not an object to be sought, it is a state to be induced. It must follow and not lead. It must overtake you, and not you overtake it."

- John Burroughs

More at   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Burroughs

Artwork from Richard Bawden
http://www.birchamgallery.co.uk/catalogue/artist/Richard:Bawden/biography/?category=

Eternal Youth of Nature ~ John Muir

"Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you."

~ John Muir

More at    http://www.jmbt.org.uk/content/

Artwork from Celia Lewis www.celialewis.co.uk

I Shall not Pass this Way Again ~ Stephen Grellet

"I expect to pass through this world but once.  Any good things, therefore, that I can do, any good kindness that I can show a fellow being, let me do it now.  Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." 

-- Stephen Grellet

More at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Grellet

Earth Centered Spirituality ~ Forrest Church

"We may fairly describe our ancient ancestors' worship and fear of nature's gods as primitive religion. You would think that an enlightenment tradition would celebrate having graduated from so-called superstition and never look back. For many years we did. Yet, in recent years many liberal religionists are beginning to discover that with each gain we score in concert with scientific demystifiers, we must protect ourselves from losing something even more important, an intimate experience of the power and mystery of the creation.
One need not accept the tenets of ancient animism to perceive heaven in a mustard seed or a world in a grain of sand. To do so is not to reject rationalism, or even skepticism, which guards us from irrational delusion. Thoughtful people can maintain an eye both critical and open. Turning for inspiration to earth-centered spirituality is not to abandon our critical faculties, but to open them wider, to place ourselves in a larger field and that field under the widest canopy of stars we can imagine. Then, like the first human, for a sacred moment we too may be terrified and filled with awe. We too may experience raw religion. "

"As the prophet Isaiah warned twenty-five centuries ago, "The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish together with the earth. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant." If the letter here differs from that of the earth-centered traditions, the spirit is the same. Again, common values transcend constrasting beliefs. Different sources flow into the same river, which flows into the one cosmic sea." 


More at   http://forrestchurch.com/writings/sermons/for-beauty-of-earth.html

Morning prayer as used by Philaret of Moscow

O Lord,
Grant me to greet the coming day in peace,
help me in all things to rely upon thy holy will.  
In every hour of the day, reveal thy will to me.  
Bless my dealings with all who surround me.  
Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul,
and with firm conviction that thy will governs all.  
In all my deeds and words, guide my thoughts and feelings.
In unforeseen events, let me not forget that all are sent by Thee.  
Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing others.  
Give me strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring.  
Direct my will.  
Teach me to pray.  
Pray Thou Thyself in me.  
Amen.  

More at    http://orthodoxwiki.org/Philaret_(Drozdov)_of_Moscow

Continuous Revelation - Rufus Jones

"If God ever spoke, He is still speaking. If He has ever been in mutual and reciprocal communication with the persons He has made, He is still a communicating God as eager as ever to have listening and receptive souls. If there is something of His image and superscription in our inmost structure and being, we ought to expect a continuous revelation of His will and purpose through the ages.... He is the Great I Am, not a Great He Was."

 ~Rufus  Jones

More at  http://www.quaker.org/pamphlets/wpl1919a.html

Artwork from Tetiana Kartasheva  https://www.behance.net/TatyanaKartasheva

I Groan Within Myself ~ Dorothy Day

"Whenever I groan within myself and think how hard it is to keep writing about love in these times of tension and strife which may, at any moment, become for us all a time of terror, I think to myself: What else is the world interested in? What else do we all want, each one of us, except to love and be loved, in our families, in our work, in all our relationships? God is Love. Love casts out fear. Even the most ardent revolutionist, seeking to change the world, to overturn the tables of the money changers, is trying to make a world where it is easier for people to love, to stand in that relationship to each other…There can never be enough of it." 

- Dorothy Day

More at   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Day

This World of Life ~ Rabindranath Tagore

"The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment. "

- Rabindranath Tagore

More at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore

Not a Tidy Package ~ Elise Boulding

"What is the Quaker faith? It is not a tidy package of words which you can capture at any given time and then repeat weekly at a worship service. It is an experience of discovery which starts the discoverer on a journey which is life-long. The discovery in itself is not uniquely a property of Quakerism. It is as old as Christianity, and considerably older if you share the belief that many have known Christ who have not known His name. What is unique to the Religious Society of Friends is its insistence that the discovery must be made by each man for himself.

No one is allowed to get it second-hand by accepting a ready-made creed. Furthermore, the discovery points a path and demands a journey, and gives you the power to make the journey."

-- Elise Boulding, 1954

 More at   http://www.beyondintractability.org/audio/elise_boulding/?nid=2413

A Distinctive Whole ~ Michael L. Birkel

"Each spiritual tradition has its gifts to offer the rest of humankind. Even if no single feature of that tradition is utterly unique, the various spiritual practices and attitudes can combine into a distinctive whole. Many pieces of the Quaker tradition have close relatives in other spiritual communities. Still, the question remains: what does Quaker spirituality have to offer to the contemporary world?"
Michael L. Birkel

More at  http://www.quakerbooks.org/silence_and_witness.php

Enveloping Darkness ~ Carl Sagan

"In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness ." 

Carl Sagan


More at   http://www.carlsagan.com/

Fragile and Vulnerable ~ Beth Schultz

"Ours is a fragile and vulnerable and diverse and beautiful planet, and all the life on our planet is equally fragile and vulnerable and beautiful and necessary and interdependent. As a dominant species and a species with options, we humans can choose to create peace within ourselves as individuals and within our communities, among nations and among ourselves and other species as the primary means for sustaining this fragile and vulnerable and diverse and beautiful planet of ours."

Beth Schultz

More at   http://www.oreadfriends.org/

Artwork from Susanne Schläpfer http://www.scherenschnitte.ch/

Light of Life ~ Ham Sok Hon

"At the beginning the prayer meeting was attended by only 40-50 people, but it gradually became a gathering where the average citizen could meet, and several hundred attended. The enraged authorities could do nothing but sit back with no way to suppress such a large gathering. The influence of this prayer meeting was felt throughout Korean society. The force which was unleashed through these services was, in a sense, large enough to change the course of history. I missed the first few services, but later nothing could prevent me from attending. At first I only spoke from feelings of sadness I wanted to share with the sufferings of the families, but then I realized that it was this gathering which could become a focal point of the Nonviolent struggle, and that it should be guided in that direction. At every opportunity I relate my thoughts to people and strive to get them to cooperate. There has not been a time in my whole life that I have prayed so fervently as I have in these last two years. Despite all the sorrow, I give thanks to the Light of Life that is still burning in this old body."

More at   http://www2.gol.com/users/quakers/a_message_to_friends.htm

Where Justice is Denied ~ Frederick Douglass

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe."

- Frederick Douglass

More at    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

Translated into Bread ~ Ralph J. Bunche

"Peace is no mere matter of men fighting or not fighting. Peace, to have meaning for many who have known only suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health, and education, as well as freedom and human dignity - a steadily better life. If peace is to be secure, long-suffering and long-starved, forgotten peoples of the world, the underprivileged and the undernourished, must begin to realize without delay the promise of a new day and a new life."

- Ralph J. Bunche       

More at   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Bunche

Open to The Spirit ~ Hilda Clark

"One thing I understand now is that one's intellect alone won't pull one through, and that the greatest service it can perform is to open a window for that thing we call the divine spirit. If one trusts to it alone, it's like trusting to an artificial system of ventilation -- correct in theory but musty in practice. How I wish it were as easy to throw everything open to the spirit of God as it is to fresh air."

 ~ Hilda Clark, 1908

More at  http://www.whitefeatherdiaries.org.uk/hilda-clark

Worlds and Ideas ~ Paul Lacey

"I especially want to suggest that we impoverish ourselves spiritually when we close ourselves off too quickly from the witnesses with whom we disagree, or when, to appropriate their words for our own beliefs, we translate or transpose what they say into the worlds and ideas with which we are already comfortable." - Paul Lacey, 1995

More at http://www.pendlehill.org/images/pamphlets/php241b.pdf