THIS spiritual advice is from the late Servant of God, Jesuit Father John Hardon, who believed that daily writing helps us make a “giant stride on the road to sanctity”.
Why is writing such an asset of the spiritual life?
According to Fr Hardon, writing provides discipline for the mind, “gives direction to our thinking”, and “helps us to master our faculty of thought”. Writing cultivates intellectual humility.
It exposes “the vagueness of my thinking, the inconsistency of my logic, the triviality of my life”. Writing creates a record of graces received, and helps fix thoughts and spiritual experiences in memory.
“Whatever is memorised becomes a part of the treasury of our mind,” he said. “Our memorised thoughts contribute to everything we think, say or do for the rest of our lives.”
Fr Hardon said writing even contributed to excellence in speaking.
“The effort and grace required to write down our thoughts are a major contribution to mastering our speech.”
Writing is a means of sharing the gifts of the soul with others, to bring them closer to Christ.
“Charity is, above all, sharing with another what I have, in order to enrich the person whom I love … We should make a written memo of the parables in our own life, to share them with others,” he said.
Fr Hardon advised his Marian Catechists to develop their writing apostolates through letters to editors, articles and books. He emphasised the importance of writing letters.
“The writing apostolate … must include the writing of letters, not only to those who have written to us, but especially to those from who we have never received a letter, and who may never correspond with us in return,” he said.
Inspired by St Ignatius of Loyola, he “trained his followers to write, write, extensively, write daily, write through correspondence, and write for publication”, and to keep a daily moral inventory in writing.
This post originally appeared at the Catholic Writers Guild blog.
