I don’t know what I expected Michael Birkel to be like. Maybe a sobersided Quaker or a professorial academic. Whatever I expected, I was delightfully wrong. Michael Birkel is lighthearted, very funny, personable, and self-effacing. He stated at the outset that if his humor offended, to let him know. “I will not be offended.” That did not happen.
The theme of the retreat—Quaker Practices of Contemplative Prayer and Individual Practices on Meditative Reading of Scripture—was expanded right away to include not only discussion of these topics, but also practicing them: an experiential component. In addition to contemplative prayer and Scripture reading, we were also going to consider the contemplative aspect of meeting for worship and the history of discernment among Friends.
Quakers historically haven’t written much about spiritual practices, for the simple reason that we want to develop an awareness of Divine presence all the time, as a background to our everyday life. Spiritual practice sounds like something you do only at certain times of the day or week.
Michael described two major categories of spiritual traditions: cataphatic and apophatic. Cataphatic spiritual practice actively uses the imagination. He told us the story of how he had once asked a monk if they used imagination in their spiritual practice. “Of course,” the monk replied. “How can you make the world a better place if you can’t imagine it?”
The apophatic tradition lets go of images, striving beyond language and reason. He gave us the example of a prayer from A Guide to True Peace—a work by Catholic authors edited by two Quakers in 1813—in which you “fix your mind in peace and silence; quitting all your own reasonings. . . . [Should] any vain imaginations present themselves, you should gently turn from them; and thus faithfully and patiently wait to feel the Divine Presence.” Sound familiar? This is essentially what we all do during open worship every Sunday.
After a short break, we returned to consider what a cataphatic Quaker practice would look like and, more importantly, feel like. We considered a passage from George Fox: “ . . . the Lord is at work in this thick night of darkness that may be felt.” Virtually every phrase in this passage was lifted from Scripture. The “thick night of darkness,” for instance, is a reference to the plagues in Exodus. “Truth does flourish as the rose . . .” Such highly imaginative phrases evoke images of comfort, consolation, and promise.
We dove even deeper into a long passage written by Sarah Blackborow from her A Visit to the Spirit in Prison (1658). Here again, phrases were transposed from Scripture in highly imaginative ways—“the living bread of God is known and fed upon, and the fruit of the Vine drunk of . . . the well-beloved of the Father is here.” Such phrases evoke the presence of the kingdom of God, experienced inwardly. That which we search for—“wait for” in traditional Quaker language—is here, now, in our lives and especially in Quaker worship.
After lunch, we reconvened to consider what Quakers mean by “discernment,” especially with regard to “leadings.” How do we know if what we are experiencing is a leading of the Spirit? Such tests as moral integrity (is this an impulse to self-indulgence, a gratification of the ego?), patience (a true leading is “seasoned”), and self-consistency guide us in this discernment process.
We concluded with a lengthy consideration of some of the teachings from the journal of one of the most popular Quakers, John Woolman. Earlier, Michael had discussed Woolman’s description of a “feeling sense of the condition of others.” Too often we are aware of only our own condition, and are unable to bridge the gap to this “feeling sense.” Today we might call this “empathy,” but Woolman’s phrase is more evocative. This sense of others can lead us in worship into a collective sense of Spirit, which Quakers sometimes describe as a “gathered meeting.”
Michael noted that the raw material for a leading most often lies in ordinary life. We may think that leadings have to have a “mystical” basis, but Michael guided us toward a spiritual consideration of day-to-day existence. Discernment requires ongoing vigilance. Discernment takes place in community.
These and other observations led our group of contemporary Friends into the timeless wisdom of our tradition, gently directed by the light and always humorous touch of our seasoned guide.
I am grateful to Michael for opening us to this wisdom, and to our Meeting for sponsoring this retreat.
Thanks, Jeff, for the sharing of your experience with Michael on retreat. Sounds like one I would have appreciated participating in! When my first Quaker chant album was coming out, I hadn’t realized that so many of the quotations from early Friends I’d put to song contained lots of words straight from the Bible. Esther Mürer actually went through all the quotations and identified the Biblical references in them (which I included in the liner notes embedded in the CD). I’ve heard it said that early Friends, especially George Fox, practically had the Bible memorized, and, yes, it is interesting and amazing how they creatively wove the references into their speech and writings, with new Spirit-led openings of understanding. Thanks again, Jeff!!
This sounds like a wonderful retreat with Michael Birkel. I would have loved to participate. The quote from Woolman feeling sense of the condition of others.” is most certainly empathy, but also makes me aware that John Woolman was a “sensitive”, in that he was highly aware of the vibrational energy and force of those humans around him. I would also venture to say that he was in touch with nature and animals in the same way.
Thanks for sharing this experience with us!