Week 4 - Heart and Mind Prepared
We are asked to come to worship with heart and mind prepared.
This week offers some ideas about how we might go about doing that, including
Two short pieces (1 page each) on devotional reading and journaling... to tame the studious mind
One 3-minute video by elder Miriam Rose introducing us to the indigenous practice of Dadirri
Two short videos: Quaker Spiritual Disciplines (5 min) and The Prayer Life of Quakers (6 min)
"Not by strength of arguments… or convincement of my understanding came I to receive and bear witness of the Truth, but by being secretly reached by the Life. For, when I came into the silent assemblies of God’s people, I felt a secret power among them, which touched my heart; and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me and the good raised up; and so I became thus knit and united unto them, hungering more and more after the increase of this power and life."
- Robert Barclay (1648-1690)
Advices & Queries
#9. Worship is our response to an awareness of God. We can worship alone, but when we join with others in expectant waiting, we may discover a deeper sense of God's presence. We seek a gathered stillness in our meetings for worship so that all may feel the power of God's love drawing us together and leading us.
#10. In worship we enter with reverence into communion with God and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Come to meeting for worship with heart and mind prepared. Yield yourself and all your outward concerns to God's guidance so that you may find "the evil weakening in you and the good raised up".
#11. Come regularly to meeting for worship even when you are angry, depressed, tired or spiritually cold. In the silence ask for and accept the prayerful support of others joined with you in worship. Try to find a spiritual wholeness which encompasses suffering as well as thankfulness and joy. Prayer, springing from a deep place in the heart, may bring healing and unity as nothing else can. Let meeting for worship nourish your whole life