Quoting Silence, August 2025:
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A post throughout each week of the month, offering quotes and resources linked to one contemporary author who writes about silence and its role as a spiritual discipline. |
The first week of each month has a short, image-backed quote with links to associated resources in the text below it. In other weeks, the short quote is taken from a longer one by the month's author, found below the image. The last week of the month has a short quote and questions to encourage reflection on all the month's quotations and images.
Howard Thurman, our author for August is the first Black male author to feature in this series(Lerita Coleman Brown, who writes about Thurman, was the first Black author, in July 2025). As you read and hear quotes from him this month, be aware that Thurman was born at the end of the 19th century and, a man of his time, writes with gender exclusive language that he would no doubt not use were he alive today.
You can read more about Howard Thurman's book, Meditations of the Heart (New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1953), from which this month's quotes are taken, by clicking here.
You can read more about Howard Thurman's book, Meditations of the Heart (New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1953), from which this month's quotes are taken, by clicking here.
Audio resources
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For a 5 minute audio guided meditation to use with each week's short quote, click play on the image. To pause and restart click the same place.
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An audio guided Lectio Divina for the longer quotes. Click play on the image above. Allow 10-15 minutes for this. For a text version, click the button.
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Monday 4th August, 2025
Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart (Harper & Row, 1953), 18.
Image: Satyam Pathak, India, unsplash.com/@satyam_pathak
Howard Thurman was born in Florida in 1899, the grandson of slaves. Having graduated from high school, his first undergraduate degree in sociology and and then his theological degree as valedictorian (top in class), it seems that he was always destined for some kind of greatness. By the time he was in his 30s, Thurman was travelling extensively on preaching tours, initially in Europe and then leading a six-month delegation of African-Americans to Asia in 1935-36, where he was the first African-American pastor to meet with Mahatma Gandhi. Following their conversations, Thurman's increasingly radical theology of nonviolence was a profound influence on many civil rights activists, propelling him to become a prominent religious figure in the USA.
Although he was a mentor to many well-known names, including Martin Luther King Jr., Thurman was frequently criticised for being too detached from the practicalities of the struggle and for not being a more visible presence in civil rights demonstrations. However, Thurman believed that social change required inner, personal growth as well as external action and, perceiving his greatest skills to lie in teaching, preaching and writing about spiritual transformation, and in theological reflection, he felt that his contemplative and scholarly work was an equally valuable, if different, contribution to the movement. Echoing this, many held Thurman in high regard for his role as a spiritual guide rather than a front-line activist and Thurman's reputation has increased in recent years as scholarship has made this influence more widely known. Lerita Coleman Brown's book on Thurman, from which last month were taken (see here), has played no small part in this development. For more on Thurman's role in the civil rights movement, see here.
In the decades that followed his meeting with Gandhi, Thurman authored more than 20 books spanning theology, philosophy and religion - for a list of most books see here. His most famous book, Jesus and the Disinherited (1949) had a significant impact on the civil rights movement - see here for a summary and here for the most recent edition - whilst many other books spoke to the day-to-day spiritual needs of African-Americans in particular but contain vast wisdom for us all on our inner journeys with contemplative prayer and living. To 'borrow' a copy of this month's book, Matters of the Heart, from the excellent Internet Archive library, see here (and see here for more about this library, which carries visually scanned copies of many classic texts).
For those who want to explore with audio/visual materials, see here for an 8 minute YouTube video, Backs Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story. And here for a one-hour video, Howard Thurman: Tutor to the World, from Emory University, the home of the Howard Thurman Archive, here, which has extensive written and audio files that you can access free.
To read a little more about Howard Thurman, you might also like to access a short article about him, 'A Call to Boundless Love', published on CAC's website, here last Monday.
Monday 11th August, 2025
Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart (Harper & Row, 1953), 28.
Image: Chen Mizrach, Tel Aviv, unsplash.com/@chenhanozel
The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week's longer quote, below, on pages 27-28 of Howard Thurman's book. To read more about her book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
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Listen to this week's longer quote:
To listen to the longer quote, below, being read, click the play button on the small version of the image next to or below this text. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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As you read and hear quotes from Howard Thurman this month, remember that he was born in the 19th century and, a man of his time, writes with gender exclusive language that he would no doubt not use were he alive today.
'The place of prayer and meditation in the life of modern man is limited and hedged in by the multiplicity of details to which attention must be given as a normal part of daily experience. It is true that in some sense a man’s whole life may be regarded as his prayer. Ordinarily, what a man does is an expression of his intent, and his intent is the focusing of his desiring, and his desires are the prayers of his heart. But such explanations are far from satisfactory.
There is no argument needed for the necessity of taking time out for being alone for withdrawal, for being quiet without and still within. The sheer physical necessity is urgent because the body and the entire nervous system cry out for the healing waters of silence. One could not begin the cultivation of the prayer life at a more practical point than deliberately to seek each day, and several times a day, a lull in the rhythm of daily doing, a period where nothing happens that demands active participation. It is a wonderful way with which to begin the day and to bring one’s day to an end. At first the quiet times may be quite barren or merely a retreat from exhaustion. One has to get used to the stillness even after it has been achieved. The time may be used for taking stock, for examining one’s life direction, one’s plans, one’s relations, and the like. This in itself is most profitable. It is like cleaning out the closets, or the desk drawers, and getting things in order. The time may be used for focusing and refocusing one’s purposes in the light of what at first may be only one’s Idea of the best and the highest. Then quiet changes begin to take place. Somewhere along the way, one’s ideas of the best and the highest takes on a transcendent character and one begins to commune, to communicate with one’s ideas of the best and the highest—only a man does not talk to, or with, an idea. When the awareness of God comes in—how He entered, one does not know—one is certain that he has been there all the time. This assurance is categorical and becomes the very core of one’s faith; indeed, it becomes more and more one’s faith.'
As you read and hear quotes from Howard Thurman this month, remember that he was born in the 19th century and, a man of his time, writes with gender exclusive language that he would no doubt not use were he alive today.
'The place of prayer and meditation in the life of modern man is limited and hedged in by the multiplicity of details to which attention must be given as a normal part of daily experience. It is true that in some sense a man’s whole life may be regarded as his prayer. Ordinarily, what a man does is an expression of his intent, and his intent is the focusing of his desiring, and his desires are the prayers of his heart. But such explanations are far from satisfactory.
There is no argument needed for the necessity of taking time out for being alone for withdrawal, for being quiet without and still within. The sheer physical necessity is urgent because the body and the entire nervous system cry out for the healing waters of silence. One could not begin the cultivation of the prayer life at a more practical point than deliberately to seek each day, and several times a day, a lull in the rhythm of daily doing, a period where nothing happens that demands active participation. It is a wonderful way with which to begin the day and to bring one’s day to an end. At first the quiet times may be quite barren or merely a retreat from exhaustion. One has to get used to the stillness even after it has been achieved. The time may be used for taking stock, for examining one’s life direction, one’s plans, one’s relations, and the like. This in itself is most profitable. It is like cleaning out the closets, or the desk drawers, and getting things in order. The time may be used for focusing and refocusing one’s purposes in the light of what at first may be only one’s Idea of the best and the highest. Then quiet changes begin to take place. Somewhere along the way, one’s ideas of the best and the highest takes on a transcendent character and one begins to commune, to communicate with one’s ideas of the best and the highest—only a man does not talk to, or with, an idea. When the awareness of God comes in—how He entered, one does not know—one is certain that he has been there all the time. This assurance is categorical and becomes the very core of one’s faith; indeed, it becomes more and more one’s faith.'
Monday 18th August, 2025
Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart (Harper & Row, 1953), 177.
Image: Asdrubal Iuna, Mexico, unsplash.com/@infectedluna
The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week's longer quote, below, on pages 176-177 of Howard Thurman's book. To read more about her book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
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Listen to this week's longer quote:
To listen to the longer quote, below, being read, click the play button on the small version of the image next to or below this text. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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As you read and hear quotes from Howard Thurman this month, remember that he was born in the 19th century and, a man of his time, writes with gender exclusive language that he would no doubt not use were he alive today.
'In many ways we act as if we ourselves are the creators of life and of our own lives in particular. How much strength, how much power do I have, actually? What is it that, of my own self, I can achieve? How many of my thoughts are my thoughts? I wonder. With reference to what may I honestly say, ‘I did it’? And yet there is ever the claim: this is my life, this is my deed, this thought is my thought. Always the ego shouts aloud its defiance in strident (or muted) tones. Somehow I must reduce my self-centeredness, I must scale down my ego-bump. Somehow I must relate myself to something more than I am, more than I can be when I am completely and thoroughly expressed.
I must know clearly that it is God who is the Author and Creator of my life. This is why, in the light of this reference, my own little life finds its proper place and meaning. This is the secret of humility— I cannot be humble unless I have truly found something about which I must be humble. There can be no health in me, nothing but a sickening arrogance and stalking pride until my relation to God scales me down to size. Without that experience, I am unbearable to my friends and a burden to myself. This I must say and in its light order my ways and direct my path. This I remember to do as I wait in the silence of this hour. It is God who hath made us and not we ourselves.'
Monday 25th August, 2025
Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart (Harper & Row, 1953), 187.
Image: Alicia Christin Gerald, South Africa, unsplash.com/@allysphotos
The last week of each month offers some questions to help you reflect further on its quotations and images, and how they resonate with your own spiritual journey and relationship with God.
You can engage with these using the written or audio versions of the questions, below.
You can engage with these using the written or audio versions of the questions, below.
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Listen to the reflection questions:
To listen to the reflection questions, below, being read, click the play button on the 'Reflect ...' image next to or below this text. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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Reflection questions:
Before reflecting on this month's quotes and images, take time to re-ground yourself in your body.
Perhaps take a few slow breaths, feel your feet on the floor and be aware of how your body feels in this moment.
1) Read back over or listen again to this month's quotes and spend time looking at their associated images. As you do so, note a phrase or image that draws your attention. If this is a phrase, you might like to write this out in a journal or on a piece of paper where you will see it regularly. Consider reading aloud several times what you have written to help the words sink more deeply into your heart. If an image resonates with you, let your gaze rest lightly on it for a couple of minutes, allowing it to speak to your heart. Consider using it as a screensaver for a while, or perhaps print it out and place it somewhere that you will see it often.
2) What emerges as you sit with the phrase or image that attracted your attention? Does a new insight or a question, emotion or sensation arise? Take some time to write down and ponder on whatever you notice.
3) Where can you see hope in the midst of what is emerging in you, for yourself, your neighbour, your community, or the planet? How might this impact your daily life and those with whom you share it?
4) In the days and weeks to come, how can you stay open to what you have discovered from your reflections?
Take some time to give thanks for the hope that you have found in this month's quotes and images.