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Mind the Light: Learning to See With Spiritual Eyes

Read an Excerpt

Click here to view a powerful reflection by J. Brent Bill aired on "30 Good Minutes," produced by the Chicago Sunday Evening Club. Click here for the interview that was broadcast as part of the same show.

Have you ever noticed how sunflowers track with the sunlight throughout the summer? That’s not unusual, explains Brent Bill. All of God’s creation moves toward the Light – flowers, trees, even human beings. Light sets a Midwestern sunset apart from a western desert sunset, a Goya portrait from a John Singer Sargent portrait, a joyful spirit from a mournful one. Light is all around – and within – us. We can’t live without it.

This profound little book invites readers to see both their inner and outer lives with spiritual “eyes.” To “mind the light” is a Quaker practice of learning to see God’s light both around and inside us. Depending on its strength, tone, and slant – light changes how we perceive the world and other people. Depending on how we respond to it, illumination can help us grow in appreciation of the soulful things of life. Minding the Light invites readers of all backgrounds to explore the connectedness between inner vision and outer perception, between the life of the soul and the everyday life before us.

Visit Brent Bill at his blog: http://holyordinary.blogspot.com/

Praise for J. Brent Bill’s work

“Bill’s writing enhances the engaging content of the book. This book is what a text would look like if E. B. White had written theology.” —The Alban Institute

“J. Brent Bill is recognized as one of today’s most important communicators of the spirituality of the Quaker tradition.” —Spirituality & Health

Product Reviews for Mind the Light: Learning to See With Spiritual Eyes

Paraclete Press, known to religious readers as well as followers of this column for its helpful reprints of Christian classics, continues to dust off its image and expand its reach with this charming and unassuming volume of spiritual reflection from the hand of Bill (Holy Silence: The Gift of Quaker Spirituality), a Friends minister in Indiana. The spirituality and practice of the Friends cover a broad spectrum of adherence to or divergence from Christian belief and nonviolence, but the notion of Light-the Inner Light, or God's Light-runs through most Quaker experience. Bill's book simply and gracefully delineates sources of Light in the world and nature that connect to the believer's own inner experience of Light. For most collections. SPIRITUAL READING By Graham Christian, formerly with Andover-Harvard Theological Lib., Cambridge, MA

Library Journal

October 1, 2006

Those seeking a series of clever tips for cultivating spiritual growth overnight will not want to delve into this deceptively simple meditation on the Quaker custom of mindful seeing. A Friends minister and author of Holy Silence: The Gift of Quaker Spirituality, Bill describes his book as "a way of seeing our inner and outer lives with spiritual eyes and discovering the connectedness between inner and outer sight." Like a neighborly conversation across a kitchen table, this slender volume emphasizes the mundane details of daily life as they are enlightened by being attentive to the Spirit of God that Quakers believe dwells within each person. As much the writer's spiritual diary as it is an objective primer in spiritual exploration, the book includes chapters on learning to see God's light in creation, in others, within ourselves and in God. Brimming with homely parables of spiritual illumination found in museum exhibits, snowstorms or the expression on his beloved wife Nancy's face (she appears quite frequently), the book is punctuated with frequent "illuminating moments" or questions intended to evoke reflection. Bill's plethora of examples of spiritual sight sometimes overwhelm the point he wants to make, but readers interested in learning more about Quaker spiritual practices will find this a useful volume. (Sept.)

Publisher's Weekly

June 12, 2006