I want to be more loving in my heart! It is often easy to have the idea in mind, the plan to be more loving. To see it with my mind and give assent to the thought of being loving—this is crystal clear. But I want to be more loving in my heart! I must feel like loving; I must ease the tension in my heart that ejects the sharp barb, the stinging word. I want to be more loving in my heart that, with unconscious awareness and deliberate intent, I shall be a kind, a gracious human being. Thus, those who walk the way with me may find it easier to love, to be gracious because of the Love of God which is increasingly expressed in my living. “I want to be more loving in my heart!”
Howard Thurman, Meditations on the Heart (Beacon Press: 1953, 1981), 168–169, contributed by Margaret McKinnon from the Centre for Action and Contemplation, 13th December 2021
St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, Carden Place, Aberdeen
Pro-Cathedral of the Scottish Episcopal Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney