Writing is like praying,,,

‘Writing is like praying, because you stop all other activities, descend into silence, and listen patiently to the depths of your soul, waiting for true words to come. When they do, you thank God because you know the words are a gift, and you write them down as honestly and cleanly as you can.’ -Helen Prejean C.S.J.

[Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., (born April 21, 1939 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is a Roman Catholic nun, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph and a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.]

When I came across this quote recently, I immediately copied it down. Prayer has for years been the bete noire of my spiritual life. Everyone within the hierarchy of the church seemed to agree that one should pray, but alas I never managed to follow their suggestions to any viable conclusion. I would attempt to follow these suggestions, but always ended up laying them aside after a few days feeling like a failure. So this quote immediately resonated with me. Here was someone talking about prayer in words that made sense to me, talking about prayer in a way that impacted my life. Prayer all of a sudden became something that I was already doing, rather then something that needed to be added to my life. Writing is just something I do because it helps me in clarifying my thoughts to express them in words. I had never realized when I was writing, I was actually praying.

I suspect this is as true for many other activities as it is for writing. For far too long we have had a restrictive view of prayer, as something that is ‘done’ at prescribe time with prescribed words…with spoken prayer being superior to unspoken! But what if actions that spring from that centre of your being, from that place where love resides, are also prayer. What if that is the truest kind of prayer, the kind of prayer that actually makes a difference.?

Richard Rohr surely says it better than I ever can in his Daily Meditation from May 11, 2016.

… Prayer isn't primarily words; it's a place, an attitude, a stance… That's why Paul could say, "Pray unceasingly" … If we think of prayer as requiring words, it is surely impossible to pray always. Once we recognize that whatever we do in conscious, loving union with Reality is prayer, we can better understand what Paul means.’ -

...And the most important word in the quote above is 'conscious' for it is in our conscious desire to act in accordance with the Reality Rohr speaks of, that we are really praying.

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