What is “the Light,” and why are Quakers so excited about it?
Resources:
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- This video features Quaker Voluntary Service volunteers A.J. and Charlotte. Visit Quaker Voluntary Service to learn more about opportunities for young people interested in social and personal transformation through service work and living in Quaker community.
- Find out about the Quaker Leadership Scholars Program at Guilford College.
- Explore the Quaker way to see if it could be right for you
- Read Friends Journal to see how other Friends describe the substance of Quaker spirituality
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Discussion Questions:
- Marcelle Martin says that there are many different names for the thing that Quakers now call “the inner Light”. There’s the “seed”, and the “Light of Christ” and “that of God within”. Which of these resonates most with your spiritual experience? Why?
- Have you ever had a palpable sense that you were being held in the Light by your community? What were the circumstances? What did it feel like? What do you do when you say that you are “holding someone in the Light”?
- Michael Birkel says, “The Light was a beacon and this beacon spread its light over all those aspects of ourselves that we might prefer to admit weren’t there.” Have you experienced this “terrifying” nature of the Light? What transformation has occurred in your life as a result?
Transcript:
A.J. Mendoza (Quaker Voluntary Service, Atlanta GA)
My first couple times in trying to center down to unprogrammed worship was a struggle. Not being raised in it at all, being raised in the Pentecostal tradition, I came into this like, “Well, I’m supposed to be listening to the light… hmmm! And this isn’t working!”
What Do Quakers Mean By the Inner Light?
Marcelle Martin (AWholeHeart.com, Richmond IN)
Well, the Inner Light is also called by many different names by Quakers: the Inward Light, the Light of Christ, that of God within.
Michael Birkel (Earlham College, Richmond IN)
Early Friends got the expression from the first chapter of the gospel of John, where we find in verse 9 the phrase, “the true light, which enlightens everyone coming into the world.”
Max Carter (Guilford College, Greensboro NC)
Early Friends understood that to be the Light of Jesus Christ. It was not a metaphor, but it was the real presence of Christ within.
Marcelle Martin (AWholeHeart.com, Richmond IN)
It was also called “the seed” because it represented something very small of God planted inside. The phrase “the seed” suggests that that small thing might not grow if you block it up, if you ignore it, if you have all these distractions.
Naomi Madaras (Quaker Leadership Scholars Program, Chambersburg Friends Meeting)
So it’s very much an energetic, alive thing. It’s not just this sort of light switch that flips on or off depending on whether you see it. It’s this force and a Spirit that we all get to share and get to experience together, hopefully, if we’re aware that it’s there. So it’s a process of being observant.
The Light That Guides Us
Keenan Lorenzato (Quaker Leadership Scholars Program, Dover Friends Meeting)
I guess the way for me to speak about the Light that guides us is to think about what happens when we don’t have light to guide us. So we’re fumbling around in the dark, we’re humans, we don’t have night vision. We can’t see where we’re going.
Noah Baker Merrill (Quaker Voluntary Service, Putney Friends Meeting)
One of the quotations that has always spoken to me is the instructions of an early Quaker named James Naylor who talks about those times in our lives where we feel surrounded by confusion and darkness, by a spiritual sense of being lost or being in danger.
And he says, “Art thou in the darkness? Well mind it not, for if you mind it, it will feed thee more. [It will grow in you.] But stand still and act not and wait in patience until Light arises out of darkness to lead thee.”
And that has been my experience. That there is a power and a life that rises in those places of darkness in our lives if we can wait and open to it.
The Light That Illuminates
Michael Birkel (Earlham College, Richmond IN)
And so the Light is that presence of God that illuminates for us. It might show us a way forward. It might embrace us and welcome us into the inward life.
Marcelle Martin (AWholeHeart.com, Richmond IN)
It’s experienced as an inward kind of illumination that shows you things. It shows you—oftentimes first of all—what is not of the Light or what is blocking the Light.
Michael Birkel (Earlham College, Richmond IN)
The Light was not simply a cozy fire to warm ourselves with on a wintry day. The Light was a beacon and this beacon spread its light over all those aspects of ourselves that we might prefer to admit weren’t there. The Light reveals to us—among other things—our own capacity to do terrible things, to do great harm in this world. And so the Light was powerful but it was also terrifying.
Marcelle Martin (AWholeHeart.com, Richmond IN)
And then it shows you God’s truth or God’s way. What the Light is in its fullness, which is love and truth and peace and unity, justice, mercy, all of those wonderful attributes that we know come from God and then it shows you how God wants you to live, according to the Light, so that those qualities of God can be manifest in society.
Holding Someone in the Light
Charlotte Cloyd (Guilford College, Future Quaker Voluntary Service Volunteer)
Holding someone in the Light, for me, means that I’m directing my positive energy towards the person that is in need of support and love.
Trenor Colby (Quaker Leadership Scholars Program, Dover Friends Meeting)
Last year my friend passed away and it was kind of difficult for me to share that with everybody here but I did and I received just a wonderful warm feeling from everybody. There was a lot less sense of pity than there was just, “I’m here for you.” Just kind of giving your energy towards somebody and being present. I think that’s when I was held in the Light the most, because I asked for that help from the community here.
A.J. Mendoza (Quaker Voluntary Service, Atlanta GA)
And that is so freeing! There’s not an authority that I need to appeal to or try to seek from somebody else. It’s here and it’s there and it’s in all of us, together. Seeking my piece of that is incredible. But being in a community that is seeking that same thing: amazing. What a thing to sit down and do every week. It gets me so excited. The Light, goodness gracious….
Thank you for these little meditations.
I’ve bookmarked this, so that I’m ready to share it with others.
This is the most touching, helpful resource I’ve found, pointing at the richness of our inner experience.
A clear, simple explanation of something essentially beyond words that is at the core of a good life, as I understand it.
Is it simpler than the scholars here make it? Is it as simple as us enjoying and feeling supported in a community of mostly friendship and feelings of safety? Do we need to immediately ascribe concepts of God to this? I feel it’s all the relative value of taking some time to perhaps meditate or at least slow down. No need to add God, let alone Christ.
Would like to watch a full length motion picture on the life of George Fox and the primitive Quakers. Hasn’t the time come for it?
I’m not a Quaker, but I love the Inner Light! Here’s something I wrote about the subject: http://stevesimms.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/the-kingdom-of-god-the-inner-light/
A group of about a dozen of us who either attend meeting or have an interest in quaker values are meeting weekly to discuss ‘quaker spirituality’. This video is a recommended piece of this week’s discussion.
An initial thought was that I was rather put off by the older folk telling me what god intended for me, but that quibble of mine was quickly put to rest by the younger folk’s energy and delight in telling what ‘the light’ meant in their daily lives.
We all find strength in seeing that quaker spirituality covers a broad spectrum of interpretations. The fact that there is no ‘one size fits all’ here is, for me, one saving grace of the quaker life we aspire to lead.