“Every chance to write is a prayer,” my fellow Your Daily Tripod contributor Father Joe McCloskey, S.J., wrote to a group of us in an e-mail last week. That’s the thing about Father Joe; I don’t know if it’s his fifty years as a priest or his time with Gonzaga High School in DC or his God-given charism, but he has a knack for tossing out these one-liners that really make you pause and think.
When it comes to formal writing, you can be assured I understand the power of my words. I pray before and while I blog and write my Friday Tripod columns. I prayed last weekend as I completed a proposal for a follow-up to Sisterhood of Saints. I’ll be praying next weekend when I work on my latest Living Faith assignments and presentations for upcoming conferences. I came to an adult faith life long after I understood the way lyrical prose can move the heart and soul. It’s humbling now as a writer to serve as one of God’s instruments.
I’m also mindful that the notes I write on Sunday nights to some older relatives are a bit of prayer. They’re not the world’s greatest writing; often, they’re not even particularly interesting, just what I did the previous week and what I’ll be doing in the coming week. But it’s mail, and it’s a glimpse at a life they view as somewhat exciting and exotic. Go figure.
Father Joe’s comment particularly resonated for me, because last week I sent a 64-word e-mail ending with “Miss you. Love you” that was the culmination of untold hours of prayer. Only three other people saw it, fewer than the number who saw almost anything else I wrote last week, including e-mails. It resulted in a ninety-minute phone call, the first in years, with the promise of more calls. It reminded me that what Father Joe wrote is so true: ANY chance to write is a prayer, no matter what the message or subject, and we must see it as such.
Yes, when we stand before Him, He isn’t going to ask about the size of our audience.
Well done, thou Instrument of God.
What a terrific reminder that we never know how the Holy Spirit may use our words or inspire our words to touch someone’s heart in a way we certainly didn’t plan on and couldn’t have brought about on our own. I often find myself composing e-mails, notes, and even text messages with care and with prayer. I certainly hope that the proposal for a follow-up book to Sisterhood of Saints is well-received. I loved the book, as is clear in my review of it posted today.