Writing to Pray

When we write, our hand can’t keep up with the brain, so each sort of does its own thing, and God slips in. We do not think, we just write. Suddenly, we read the words we’ve penned, and realize we have expressed an idea or insight which is new to us. It didn’t come from ourselves, and we know we’ve had a bit of help. Perhaps the help comes from God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Mary, guardian angels, or one saint or another; perhaps it is immaterial from whence the help originates.

Writing can be an act of prayer, but it isn’t always. Sometimes we write and it’s just writing, but other times, it is prayer. I believe, any intentional act of ours to connect to God will draw us deeper into His gravitational pull … we will fall more deeply in love with Him. It cannot be helped.

As we write, as we pray, we come to know and understand something better. We become more proficient at naming and describing it, whether it be a feeling, insight, object, person, situation or experience. Psychologists, philosophers, sociologists, and poets tout the wisdom of finding language to capture it—but when we are done with all the naming and describing, when we have exhausted our word banks, we are left with the indescribable essence, the spirit and soul of the thing, where words are insufficient and unnecessary, where Lord God lives.

And this is why we write to pray, why this website/blog is dedicated to encouraging and celebrating the practice of writing to pray.