The practice of Quakerism doesn’t just take place on Sunday morning. Many of us have spiritual disciplines that we carry throughout the week. Patricia McBee explores the Quaker disciplines that address this need.
Resources:
- Subscribe to QuakerSpeak so you never miss a video
- Read Friends Journal to see how other Friends describe the substance of Quaker spirituality
Discussion Questions:
- What keeps you spiritually grounded throughout the week?
- At the end of the video, Patricia points out that a spiritual discipline can be a small shift in attitude rather than a sweeping time commitment. What small spiritual disciplines have you tried? How did it change your experience?
Transcript:
Some years back, a Quaker friend and teacher of mine observed that many times Quakers don’t realize the richness that our tradition has for helping us grow in the Spirit, and so Friends might take a yoga class or something in Buddhism which is very disciplined and very directed, and bristle if they are directed in Quaker meeting. So that intrigued me to think about what are the particular disciplines that Quaker have.
Quaker Spiritual Disciplines
I’m Patricia McBee. I live in Philadelphia and I have been active among Friends since 1970, which includes working for Friends General Conference, doing a lot of work around helping Quakers address spirituality and for six years, miraculously I don’t know how, I managed the building at Friends Center.
The Discipline of “Retirement”
I think the Quaker spiritual discipline that most of us are most aware of is “retirement” (to use the old term), which is to step back from the busy-ness of activity and the busy brain work and just be quietly present. Present to God. Present to the present. Present to being here now, because in that place of quiet we can clear our systems and be more open to one another and to compassion and to compassion for ourselves.
The Discipline of Prayer
Another spiritual discipline is prayer, which is an awkward subject for a lot of Quakers. If you don’t believe there’s somebody on the other end of the phone line when you call up and say, “Could you deliver me some health for my friend?” then what is prayer?
But I believe that many of us know that while there is a deep inner self, there is that of God in each of us, there is something bigger than me as well, some bigger reality. Some reality that encompasses all of us.
And so I see prayer as acknowledgement of that reality and living in the context of that reality.
The Discipline of Discernment
Discernment, the process of steering one’s life based on retiring and opening oneself to the larger reality as part of decision-making about “how I’m living my life” whether it’s a small question like, “Is my child old enough to stay out past 11 PM?” or something global, “Should I stop driving an automobile because of a concern for the environment?”
A Matter of Attitude
Some years back my meeting took a sabbath year, and we were encouraged to take on spiritual disciplines, and I knew that some people would say, “Like I have time to spend an hour every day in worship.” And so I put this little thing together about spiritual disciplines for busy people, like when you reach for the telephone, taking a moment to take a breath. Or when you’re stopped in traffic, taking a moment to feel gratitude for your life and the good things in your life. So it can be a big thing. It can be an hour every day of doing spiritual reading and then journaling and then settling into quiet, and when I’ve done that and when the people I know do that regularly, it’s an amazingly powerful thing. But it can be much smaller and more a matter of attitude than of some set of rituals you go through to get to a disciplined place.
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
I just started listening to these videos recently. I’ve been involved in meditation all of my life and recently found out that my 9th great grandfather was one of the first Quakers in the colonies. His name was Ambrose Dixon and held meeting with Friends in his home in Maryland. I thoroughly enjoyed the video of Quaker disciplines. It is pretty much what I have practiced all my life. Withdraw from the field of activity into That Silence and then plunge back into activity, bringing That Silence with me.
Are you related to either
1. Mason/Dixon surveyors
2. Historian who lectured at NewArk DE senior center
about 4 years ago ? He said he was no relation to that
Dixon.
No need to answer just like all these connections😃Newwark
Thank you Patricia for this video. It really speaks. It would be great if you collect these thoughts into a book along the lines of “Quaker Spiritual Disciplines” – as it is one of the things that really sets us apart.
Could you please give us more articles along these lines. Kind regards from Bandung Indonesia.
A foundational text on Spiritual Disciplines is “The Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster, which grounded me when I first started attending Quaker Meeting:
https://quakerbooks.org/search?q=celebration+of+discipline
And there is a very useful book by a different Patricia in Pat McBee’s home Meeting:
https://quakerbooks.org/collections/all-products/products/listening-spirituality-volune-1-3601
both books are available on-line at those links to the Friends General Conference bookstore
I have started the practice of Turning Within, taught by Kelvin Chin, Quaker meditative practice sounds very similar. Are there any scriptures that describe or instruct the meditative practice?
this really demonstrates the simplicity of Quaker Practise and the power of that practise to guide and support us.
I’d be very keen to see any writings Patricia has generated on this topic if they are available. Can anyone direct me to a source?
Is there a video or pamphlet re “Speaking from the silence ” in Meeting ?
In Chavakali Yearly Meeting at Ivona Monthly Meeting where i serve as a pastor of Ivona Village (local) church, across the week there are Quakermen felllwship every Friday afternoon, USFW fellowship every Friday morning and homecares fellowships every Tuesday in the afternoon. Here the discipline of prayer, discipline of the word and discipline of communion are evident prior to Sunday’s worship as a Sabbath. Thanks so much for this video.
I have so enjoyed these moments with Friends and wish there were a meeting nearby. Being spiritual is what knowing God is all about and if we don’t know God then we are truly lost. Ritual is what people turn to when they do not know God, a kind of magical thinking that if I say the right things in the right order I’ be a right. When Jesus said “{I no longer call you servant for a servant knows not what his master does, but I call you friends for I have shown all things” We have an opportunity to be with God and that He is our friend what could be better Scottville than that.
There are a lot of Quaker Meetings in Michigan:
https://www.fgcquaker.org/connect/quaker-finder/quaker/states/MI