The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning: Meditations for Racial Healing

by Catherine Meeks, Michael B. Curry (Foreword by)

Overview

From the winner of The President Joseph R. Biden Lifetime Achievement Award, a spiritual guide to restoring yourself from racial trauma and committing to the long work of dismantling racism.

In her work as Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing, Meeks has fought tirelessly to shed light on racism and provide tools and experiences to enable faith communities to work to combat it. In this new book, she shares highlights and insights from her journey and offers a much-needed meditative guide for the weary and frustrated. By looking inward and at each other clearly, she argues, good people of all backgrounds can forge a long term and individual path to making a difference. With personal stories and thoughtful direction, she takes the reader on the trajectory from self-awareness to recognition of the past to a new and individual way forward.

Meditation topics include how to work through fear and rage, how stories can help heal, honoring your ancestors while looking toward the future, what it really means to love one another and the meaning of social justice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781640655973
Publisher:	Church Publishing, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/22/2022
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	163,018
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Catherine Meeks, PhD, is the former Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing, the retired Clara Carter Acree Distinguished Professor of Socio-Cultural Studies from Wesleyan College, and the former Founding Executive Director of the Lane Center for Community Engagement and Service. Dr. Meeks is the author of six books, including The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning, the editor of Living Into God’s Dream: Dismantling Racism in America, and the co-author of Passionate for Justice: Ida B Wells as Prophet for Our Times. She is the winner of The President Joseph R. Biden Lifetime Achievement Award, and was one of Georgia Trend Magazine’s notable women in 2022. She holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Clark Atlanta University, and a PhD from Emory University. She is the founder of Turquoise and Lavender, an institute for transformation and healing. Dr. Meeks lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry is the Episcopal Church’s 27th Presiding Bishop. He was the Bishop of North Carolina from 2000 to 2015. Bishop Curry has a national preaching and teaching ministry and is a regular on TV and radio and a frequent speaker at conferences around the country. His books include Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus; Following the Way of Jesus: Church’s Teachings for a Changing World; and Love Is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Foreword Michael B. Curry ix

Preface xiii

Part 1 An Invitation to a New Way to See 1

Meditation 1 Searching for Inner Truth 2

Meditation 2 The Shadow is Galling: Exploring the Inner Community 8

Meditation 3 We Wear Masks 15

Meditation 4 Be Not Afraid 20

Meditation 5 Let's Talk about Rage 24

Meditation 6 Can I Get a Witness? 30

Part 2 Now That I See 35

Meditation 7 Loneliness 36

Meditation 8 What Has to Die? 39

Meditation 9 Courage 43

Meditation 10 Faith and Race 47

Meditation 11 Loss 51

Meditation 12 Can I Walk This Path? 54

Part 3 Unweaving the Web 57

Meditation 13 Facing the Wounds 58

Meditation 14 Racialized Trauma 62

Meditation 15 Look in the Right Place 68

Meditation 16 The Search for Remedies 72

Meditation 17 It is Not Magic 78

Meditation 18 Why Black People Are Still Talking about Race 80

Part 4 What's Love Got to Do with Racial Healing? 85

Meditation 19 What Kind of Love Does It Take? 86

Meditation 20 Whose Love is It, Anyway? 90

Meditation 21 Is There Any Love Here? 92

Meditation 22 Stop Talking Until You Have Love 95

Meditation 23 No Cheap Love, Please 98

Meditation 24 Reimagining Love and Racial Healing 102

Part 5 Going below the Surface and Creating New Space for Healing 105

Meditation 25 No Trespassing 106

Meditation 26 Invisibility Blues 109

Meditation 27 Looking for More than an Ally 112

Meditation 28 Trust 117

Meditation 29 Visibility 121

Meditation 30 Don't Get Too Weary 125

Part 6 Brokenhearted 129

Meditation 31 The System Killed My Little Brother 130

Meditation 32 Can We Have a Word? Victims Want to Be Heard 136

Meditation 33 Reflection on Integration 140

Meditation 34 Killing Fields 144

Meditation 35 Broken Hearts Cure Illusion 149

Meditation 36 The Gift of Being Brokenhearted 152

Part 7 The Outer World Needs You 155

Meditation 37 Let Me Tell a Story That I Like 156

Meditation 38 Quit Worrying about Critical Race Theory 160

Meditation 39 The Media Need to Stop Being Racism's Press Agent 163

Meditation 40 Colorism and Ubuntu 167

Meditation 41 Disappeared Communities: Where Are They Now? 171

Meditation 42 Reclaiming Hope through Remembering 176

Part 8 Since It's a Journey, Stay Ready to Travel 179

Meditation 43 On the Road Again 180

Meditation 44 George Floyd Died, So You Need to Stand Still 183

Meditation 45 COVID-19 Invited Us 187

Meditation 46 Do You Really Want Reparations or Not? 191

Meditation 47 Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired 195

Meditation 48 Our Island Home Needs Us 201

Afterword 207

Notes 209

Editorial Reviews

11/28/2022

Meeks (Living into God’s Dream), executive director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing, challenges readers to better understand racial healing in this standout guide. American society has reached an inflection point as false racial narratives threaten groups’ ability to coexist, Meeks argues, and the work of racial healing is more pressing than ever. She encourages readers to look inward and ask: “Do really want to be well?” In the 48 brief meditations that follow, Meeks helps readers tackle this question by examining different aspects of racism and paths to healing. Weaving together history, spirituality, and current culture, Meeks touches on police brutality, gun violence, lynching, and the school-to-prison pipeline. Meditations discuss the abstract (how fear keeps racial divides in place) and the concrete (reparations), often concluding with questions (“What circumstances need to change in order for you to open your heart to someone in a group that differs from your?”) or calls to action (“Try being half a shade braver and say yes to all... invitations to engage in... healing work”). Meeks offers eye-opening lessons that are practical without being overly prescriptive; her focus on deep spiritual truths ensures readers can return to her words at various stages of their racial healing process. Readers will be challenged and changed by this moving work. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Readers will be challenged and changed by this moving work.”
—Publishers Weekly

"Reading The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning evokes the spirit of Howard Thurman, who reminded us that “There is something in every one of [us] that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in [ourselves].” In the searingly honest way that we have come to expect from Dr. Catherine Meeks, she calls us to discover the “sound of the genuine” that dwells within us beneath the mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual web of racism. This is where the journey toward a “beloved community” begins. And so, for all who truly want to get well from the pernicious disease that is racism, The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning is a must-read."
—The Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean, Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary

"There is so much kindness in these pages that you may not notice at first how disruptive they are to your accustomed ways of thinking, being, and doing.Once you do notice, it is too late to escape. Like the angel who wrestled Jacob all night long, Catherine Meeks cares too much to let you go without a wound that can change your life, and a blessing to go with it. If you want to be well, hang in with her to the very end, because she is a healer and so is her book."
—Barbara Brown Taylor, Author of Learning to Walk in the Dark

"Dr. Catherine Meeks has gathered a collection of healing herbs for the soul in her meditations on racial healing. Her meditations both call and guide the reader on a journey of personal authenticity, each meditation taking us step by step on a journey of self-acceptance as we recognize our individual responsibility to heal the past and present impacts of racism in America. The meditations invite healing what is within us and what is around us towards what our humanity must become in order for the Earth itself to be healed. As spiritual medicine, Meeks’ meditations serve to help prepare us for what we must release and for the personal losses that we must face in the journey through a process of honest self-interrogation and truthful critique of society. Meeks is clear that racial healing is the work of a lifetime, requiring our thoughtful meditation and therapeutic response. Ultimately, only we can be the cure that we seek."
—The Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, Vice President of the House of Deputies

"Words matter, and Dr. Meeks’ words matter in The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning. In these times of uncertainty and unrest we need these words of inspiration and truth-telling that reflect her life of devotion to things that matter. She brings wisdom and the front-line experience of her life’s journey to this thoughtful book."
—The Rev. Dr. Paul Smith, Author and Theologian, Building Beloved Communities in the Life of Rev. Dr. Paul Smith with Dr. Hildi Hendrickson

"Catherine Meeks is a very fine writer indeed and brings her talents to bear in a series of invitational meditations that are deeply rewarding to read. Her words can lead all of us to a deeper understanding of our actions, our speech; our better hopes and dreams and the precious sources from which they rise."
—David Whyte, Poet and Philosopher

"Catherine Meeks’ collection of meditations offers a refreshing approach to understanding the ministry of racial healing. Instead of answering the question “what shall we do?” Dr. Meeks invites us to contemplate the question “who shall I be?” in order to engage “who shall we become?” Her insightful, honest, and prophetic meditations exhort us into compassionate confrontation of the truths of racism through our own inner and steadfast spiritual work.This book should be required reading for all people of faith engaged in lifelong spiritual (trans)formation."
—Heidi Kim, Director of Talent and Culture at Propel Non-Profits

"Has the virus of racism made you sick? Do you want to be made well? Well, then you have some work to do. We all have some work to do; white individuals and people of color can be made well if only we are courageous enough to enter this journey. With each reflection and hard truth, Dr. Catherine Meeks invites us to go deeper into our souls and interrogate ourselves in order to reimagine what true racial healing can be. Sharing personal stories, she poses methodical questions that will lead us to reflect on our journey, looking deep at our wounds, joys, and resilience. This book is a must-read for anyone trying to heal the wounds of racial traumaand those who want to be better partners in the co-creation of a Beloved Community."
—The Reverend Nancy Aidé Frausto, Director of Latinx Studies, Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest

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