Anna Maria Cobb - How Journaling Changed My Prayer Life
“Journals, journals everywhere!”
This resounded in my head during the first few Newman events I attended. I’d never before seen so many people frantically scribbling down notes during homilies and holy hours. To me, a journal was something you’d sit down with at the end of a particularly eventful day and record interesting thoughts and happenings for possible future musings. Even that is something that I haven’t really done since middle school. Seeing the avid notetakers I’d think, “That’s nice for them but that’s not really my retention style.” Fast forward to the Women’s Silent Retreat…
I brought my journal to the retreat because it was on the packing list. It was void of content entirely. As it turned out, journaling was a hefty portion of the retreat. We were given several prompts to write and reflect upon, and while sitting out on the lawn at the Father Bernard Youth Center, basking in the warm sun, I realized that the reflections I was putting on paper were some of the deepest and most intentional I had ever experienced. At one point I was moved to tears because I felt like I had never really been able to lay my thoughts out so clearly before God.
“If you have a problem in your life that you can’t fathom or understand, you have to examine your prayer life, not the problem.”
-Mother Angelica
I’ve always liked to write, and I often feel that I communicate better on paper. I prefer texting to calling and sometimes even in-person conversations. Writing allows me to organize and process my thoughts instead of stumbling over words and endlessly circling back to cover the missed details of verbal communication. For some reason, I never made the connection that this could be applied to my prayer life. During that retreat, my prayers were so much more detailed, free of distraction, and meaningful. In the past, when I would pray mentally, my mind would wander within moments of starting my prayer until, an hour later, I’d realize I had just spent my entire holy hour lost in some imaginary conversation with a long lost friend or something of the like.
Now, my journal is a fixed necessity of my prayer life. It comes with me to every holy hour and I find myself lost in pouring my heart out to God on those pages - the time flying swiftly by. I know that mental prayer is something to cultivate and grow in, and that is a long term goal for me, but in the meantime a pen and paper are my weapons for fighting off distraction. I’m still not a homily-note-scribbler, but I’m definitely now a prayer-journaler, at least in some capacity. If you struggle with intentionality and focus in prayer, I highly recommend inking up your journal a bit.
Some practical tips from my experience:
Begin every journal entry with “Dear Lord,” as if you’re writing a letter to Jesus.
Don’t hold back from thanking Him for all the blessings of your day and asking forgiveness for your shortcomings in addition to simply sharing your thoughts, joys, and struggles.
You don’t always need to write long letters. Sometimes just a quick “text message” to check in can be really effective in maintaining an ongoing dialogue with God.
Anna Maria is currently serving as the Creative Director at the Newman Center, where she can live out her passion for photography and graphic design while helping to bring others to Christ.