Out of the Silence

Simplicity, truth, justice, equality - the challenges, questions, mysteries and always evolving and growing faith in living the testimonies of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in the modern world in word and in deed. Yes, Virginia, there really still are Quakers and yes, we continue the journey that first began in early England with George Fox and his followers - that journey to discover and know the Light within and to share that Light in the Quaker Way. We come together each First Day (Sunday) to sit in communion in the silence to await the presence of God. Within that silence there arises those moments when the Presence is so near that it calls us to speak out of the silence, to rise to our feet to bring a message of comfort, to share a 'knowing', to seek prayer for our own suffering or the suffering of others, to let the words that flow not be our own self-centered words, but words that flow from that universal source of love, acceptance, forgiveness and hope - words that come from the Light within. As Quakers we know that that Presence is with us always, in all that we do and so we must live our lives, our full lives, in constant seeking of that Presence, to be Quakers not only in the silence of First Day, but to be Quakers in all that we do and with each person we meet. To be Quaker is not to be an adherent to a religion or religious tenets. It is rather to live a life of faith. Out of The Silence shares some of the moments of faith from one Quaker life. It is not so much the stories that the author wants to share. It is the promise and the power of the faith within the stories that she wants most to share - to share with her children and their children and all the children of all the mothers who have ever loved their children. It is her gift to them, the one gift that will remain when all material things are gone, when she herself is gone. It is her stories of those precious moments when faith sustained and saved her, unexpected and unanticipated moments, moments when she was in the presence of that empowering Light. They are the simplest of stories, no miracles here, just stories of living life day by day and doing ordinary things, and finding within the simplicity and the ordinary that which is enduring and divine. That is the secret - to find in the most ordinary of moments that which is the divine - to find our faith.