October 14

On October 14, 1656, the Massachusetts Bay Colony began persecuting the Quakers (the Society of Friends) by passing a law making it illegal to be a Quaker or to harbor them. Quakers would go on to be at the forefront of many social movements for liberation in the English colonies and then the United States. 

This also marks a holy day in the Eastern Orthodox Church (and especially in Ukraine) known as the Feast of the Intercession. It marks a vision by Saint Andrew of Constantinople of Mary. In his vision she asked her son Jesus to regard the prayers of the people on Earth, and then spread her cloak of protection over the whole world. 

Today is the birthday, in 1894, of poet e.e. cummings, whose death we remembered on September 3. 

Reflection: 

I went to a Sunday gathering of the Society of Friends a few weeks ago. About a dozen of us gathered in person and online, and after some initial conversation and a devotional reading, we sat in silence for about 45 minutes. 

There is an old joke that a man visited a Sunday meeting and, after about ten minutes of sitting in silence, he whispered to one of the Friends, “When does the service start?” And the Quaker replied, “When we leave the building.” 

Personally, I love liturgy and good preaching too much to become a Quaker, but in this season of political strife and loudly-voiced opinions, it feels good to sit with my Quaker friends or my Buddhist friends and just be… quiet. To listen to the Spirit in the stillness. 

From “A Poet’s Advice to Students”:

Prayer: Spirit, teach us to hear your voice in the stillness. Help us to become nobody but ourselves. Amen.