Meditations of the Heart

“As poet, prophet, and priest, Thurman builds upon a powerful legacy of ancestral hope: belief in a liberating God who can always be found ‘in and among the struggling.’”
—Yolanda Pierce

A universal beacon of hope and endurance for people of all faiths seeking to meet the challenges, uncertainties, and joys of life

Howard Thurman’s Meditations of the Heart is a beautiful collection of over 150 prayers, poems, and meditations on prayer, community, and the joys and rituals of life by one of our greatest spiritual leaders. Thurman, a spiritualist and mystic, was renowned for the quiet beauty of his reflections on humanity and our relationship with God.

In a new foreword, Yolanda Pierce, dean of Howard University’s School of Divinity, calls attention to the justice-centered theological framework of Thurman’s words. Pierce notes how Thurman brings to light an image of God who can always be found “in and among the struggling,” both in times of weariness and in strength.

First written for and shared with his congregation of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco, California, these meditations sustain, elevate, and inspire. They are a universal beacon of hope and endurance for people of all faiths seeking to meet the challenges, uncertainties, and joys of everyday life with a renewed and liberating faith.

Hailed by Life magazine as one of the great preachers of the twentieth century; a spiritual advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr., Sherwood Eddy, James Farmer, A. J. Musty, and Pauli Murray; the first black dean at a white university; cofounder of the first interracially pastored, intercultural church in the United States; Howard Thurman (1899-1981) was a man of penetrating foresight and astonishing charisma. His vision of the world was one of a democratic camaraderie born of faith, and in light of today's global community, one of particular importance.

Foreword to the 2022 Edition: Meditations of the Heart:
Howard Thurman as Poet, Prophet, and Priest

Foreword to the First Edition, by Howard Thurman

PART I. THE INWARD SEA

1. An Island of Peace within One’s Soul
2. Silence is a Door to God
3. In Quiet One Discovers the Will of God
4. Relief in Voicing One’s Feelings
5. The God of Life is the God of Religion
6. “Be Still and Cool in the Mind”
7. The Pattern of Prayer
8. A Lull in the Rhythm of Doing
9. How Good to Center Down!
10. In the Moment of Pause, the Vision of God
11. We Lay Bare all that We Are
12. Work and Rest are one Entity
13. None Need Be Alone
14. Two Kinds of Ideals
15. Keep Alive the Dream in the Heart
16. Judgment Belongs to God
17. That Thy Tryst may be Kept
18. Every Judgment is Self-judgment
19. A Man Becomes his Dream
20. Memories Crowd upon Us
21. The Great Exposure
22. Life, an Offering to God
23. Thou Shalt Love
24. God is With Me
25. Not Pity, but Compassion
26. God is Present
27. Myself, a High Priest of Truth
28. Courage and Cowardice
29. Strength to be Free
30. The Embattled Spirit
31. Let Us Pray
32. The Patience of Unanswered Prayer

PART II: THE BINDING TIES

1. Life Seems Unaware
2. Struggle Is an Aspect of Life
3. At My Center I Find Peace
4. Pain Has a Ministry
5. All Men Live the Eternal
6. Who, or What, is to Blame?
7. Our Children Are Not Things
8. Let Your Words Be Yea and Nay
9. Thank God for Humor!
10. To What Loyalty Are You True?
11. Relations to Others Must Be Dynamic
12. The World Is Too Much With Us
13. Every Man Must Decide
14. Enthusiasm and Self-Sacrifice
15. The Seed of the Jack Pine
16. Our Little Lives
17. When the Strain Is Heaviest
18. Reservoir or Canal
19. Concerning the Yucca
20. The Temptation to Oversimplify
21. The Desert Dweller
22. The Iron Lung
23. A Divinity That Shapes Our Ends
24. The Experience of Growing Up
25. Through the Coming Year
26. The Horns of the Wild Oxen

PART III: LIFE IS ALIVE

1. There Is Order in Life
2. Unity Is in God
3. Shall I be Good?
4. Life Abounds
5. By Their Fruits
6. The Glad Surprise
7. Life Goes On
8. Thine Is the Power!
9. Make Up Your Mind
10. Two Areas of Need
11. If I Knew You
12. All Life is One
13. He Prayed for His Friends
14. We are All One
15. Man Cannot Be Indifferent to Men
16. I Will Not Give Up
17. Take No Thought for Your Life
18. Magic All Around Us
19. The Threads in My Hand
20. She Practices Brotherhood
21. A Glory! A Benediction!
22. Indebted to a Vast Host
23. Just a Human Being
24. The Growing Edge
25. “No Man Is an Island”
26. The Need for Approval
27. This is a New Year
28. The Pressure of Crisis
29. To Die Unshriven

PART IV: THE MOMENT OF CELEBRATION

1. The Season of Remembrance
2. Concerning Human Relations
3. A Litany of Thanksgiving
4. Against the Background of the Year
5. “Merry Christmas”
6. The Sacrament of Christmas
7. Candles for Christmas
8. The Season of Affirmation
9. Gifts on My Altar
10. Long Live Life!
11. Blessings at Year’s End

PART V: MEDITATIONS OF THE HEART

1. Thy Light Within Me
2. “I Will Lift up Mine Eyes”
3. Abundance of Faith
4. How Wonderful!
5. I Surrender to God
6. To Overcome Evil
7. More Holy!
8. To See and to Do
9. “They That Wait Upon the Lord . . .”
10. More Loving in My Heart
11. Teach Me Thy Grace
12. A Gracious Spirit
13. I Seek Renewal
14. “Still Dews of Quietness”
15. The Outer Life and the Inward Sanctuary
16. I Surrender Myself to God
17. God Seeks Me
18. Not We Ourselves
19. Many Assurances of Faith
20. The Wisdom of Patience
21. The Crucial Issues
22. When Life Grows Dingy
23. We Yield to the Love of God
24. The Humble Spirit
25. Life Without Cares
26. The Valley of Death
27. I Seek Room for Peace
28. Prayer for a Friendly World
29. Lord, Lord, Open Unto Me
30. I Seek Truth and Light
31. Be Thou My Vision
32. The Source of My Life
33. I Want to Be Better
34. I Need Courage
35. I Confess
36. Wrong Between Me and Thee
37. Not Comfortless
38. I Rest This Day in God
39. God Knows the Heart
40. Courage to Live
41. “I Will not Fail Thee”
42. God is Near to All
43. The Fire Flower
44. Seek Ye the Lord
45. I Will Sing a New Song
46. The Wisdom of God
47. Give Me the Listening Ear
48. The Moments of High Resolve
49. Surrounded by the Love of God
50. For a Time of Sorrow
51. Against Thee Have I Sinned
52. Teach Me Thy Will
53. God Restoreth My Soul
54. If Thou Standeth Beside Me