The Blessing of Journaling

I have journaled for over thirty years and I have literally boxes of journals to prove that.  Many of them are not finished because my pattern is do this writing for weeks or months and then often I stop for a while and in beginning again - get a new journal.

This morning I began the day on my back porch, with candles lit and my dog Ginger sitting at my side.  A friend recommended a new APP on the phone - Praying as You Go and so I began with listening to the monks of Glenstal Abbey sing Ubi Caritas est vera - "wherever love is true, God is there.

Then there was a lectio divina of John 15: 12 - 17

 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  
¹³ No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 
 ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you.  
¹⁵ I do not call you servants^[a] any longer, because the servant^[b] does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 
 ¹⁶ You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 
 ¹⁷ I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another


As I sat and listened I heard these words:

I have chosen you to go bear fruit.  I sat and just breathed these words in.  Finally at the end of the time, I wrote a prayer to God in my journal.

After that, I spent some time reading back through what I have written in the past few weeks.  It is such a gift to remember and reflect and cherish where I have been and how I have felt God's love and presence.  It helps me to remember my frustrations and fears as well as the insights of what i have read and listened to.  Writing in a journal is always a gift in the present moment as I am able to get in touch with what is happening within my spirit, but today, I realized it really is a gift to read later.

Here is the prayer I wrote this morning.

O God as this day begins I sit with you.
I listen to words from Holy Writings that remind me
You chose me
you choose me
You call me to love
you are my friend and I can come to you with anything
And I do.
I come with a desire for guidance and focus.
May I be faithful in what I say and do this day.
Amen