Monday, January 24, 2011

Quaker (Society of Friends) Daily Reading/Devotional For Monday, 24 January

From:  http://www.create.ucsb.edu/~stp/Messages.html#Present

Daily Devotional/Reading:

On Being Present


The following is from a speech given in 1967 by Friend Douglas Steere named "On Being Present Where You Are."



I believe that, in the period that lies ahead, there is no deeper challenge to Quakers in their personal, spiritual, and social witness, than the issue of learning to be present where they are in their personal relationships, and making their infinitesimal effort to rouse other people to be present to each other. The issue of peace and war, of social and racial tensions, of our responsibility to contribute to the relations of all peoples and religions, all come down to this daring to be present where you are.



The divine presence, that quickening spirit and burning of the heart, is available to us all; through it we feel joined to all life, hope is restored in us, and we are made aware of the sacredness of life and the gift of being among fellow humans. Not only is there, "no time but this present," but there is not task that we are more called to, and that is more exciting and challenging, than to be inwardly ready to be present where we are, and to respond to the deeper presence of others.



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