Living and Giving

The Classic Pamela Positive: If We Center Down… What Is the Vital Part That Remains?

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“… If we center down… and live in that holy Silence, which is dearer than life, and take our life program into the silent places of the heart, with complete openness, ready to do, ready to renounce according to His leading, then many of the things we are doing lose their vitality for us.”

 

– Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion, Section: The Simplification of Life

 

 

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What is absolutely vital in your life today? Are you truly called to be doing what you’re doing… or is it simply your agenda? Align your purpose with a divine motive…

 

 

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Thomas R. Kelly (1893-1941) was a Quaker educator and writer, with a focus on mysticism.  He graduated from Wilmington College, and studied at Hartford Theological Seminary with an interest in being a missionary.  During World War I, he joined the YMCA to work with the troops, and worked with German prisoners of war.  His pacifist position eventually lost him this position.  He returned to Hartford to complete his training, and married Lael Macy.  In the 1920s, Kelly and his wife went to Germany, where they were significant in founding a Quaker community.  He returned to Germany in 1938 to encourage Quakers living under Hitler.  Kelly taught at a number of universities throughout the 1930s.  His collection of writing, \”A Testament of Devotion\”, was published posthumously by a colleague.