Stephanie Dowrick is a prolific writer of many books including Choosing Happiness. She is a trained psychotherapist and a spiritual leader and teacher. In the opening chapter of this collection, Dowrick praises prayer as a restorative process that anchors us, brings life back when our faith has faltered, and opens our hearts to the grace in our lives. In addition, it brings color and breadth to our days and doings in our everyday world. Prayer can bolster our self-esteem and keep us on the path to personal fulfillment. It also is a very helpful resource in times of illness, loss, grief, and death.

Dowrick offers the following advice on how to pray: pray in the present moment, make the prayer your own, check what motivates you, choose your prayers spontaneously, let instinct guide you, commit to prayer, pray often, and value the miracle. She uses these two quotations as ballasts for the book: "Prayer is a longing of the soul. . . . and an instrument of action" from Mahatma Gandhi. And from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: "Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a broken city, but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will."

In seven chapters, Dowrick shares a treasure-trove of prayers, quotations, and Scriptural passages from all the world's religions and spiritual paths, giving the reader a chance to reach out in the darkness and connect with God, the mysteries of human nature, the triumphs and tragedies of everyday life, and the ample wonders of light, love, and personal transformation. Here is a sampler of the kinds of prayers you will find in Heaven on Earth:

"Love can certainly be difficult.
Because love is not enough.
We must, like God, become love."
— Angelus Silesius

"Grandfather,
Sacred One,
teach us love, compassion, honor,
that we may heal the earth
and heal each other."
— Traditional Ojibway Prayer

"As different streams,
having their sources in different places,
all mingle their water in the sea,
so, O Lord,
the different paths which our human family takes
through different tendencies,
various though they appear,
crooked or straight,
all lead to Thee."
— Swami Vivekananda

"May the blessings of God rest upon you.
May God's peace abide with you.
May God's presence illuminate your hearts,
now and forever more."
— Hazrat Inayat Khan