What’s Right About Writing?

To help us deepen our understanding of God’s plan or purpose for our lives, Dr. Rick Sarkisian encourages the use of journaling—writing down our thoughts, feelings and reflections on a regular basis.
Journaling provides a structure to collaborate with God—to “co-labor” or “work together” with Him. It helps us consciously build our lives in cooperation with God and His grace, rather than as mere individuals. We can track our spiritual growth, insights and discoveries.

In a talk about the importance of writing, Fr. John Hardon, S.J., identified seven important benefits. They are:

• Writing disciplines the mind, helping us to master and control our thoughts – one of the most difficult challenges of our human nature.

Thoughts lead to desires.
Desires lead to actions.
Actions lead to habits.
Habits shape our character.
Characters determine our destiny.
And it all begins in the mind.

• Writing, by its nature, begs us to read what we have recorded. It forces us to look at ourselves as we truly are. It is the mirror of our minds. Writing humbles us by giving us visible proof of our weakness and folly.
  
• Writing is a record of graces received from God in prayer, meditation and life experiences. By writing our thoughts and spiritual experiences, we strengthen our will to remember them.
  
• Writing cultivates the memory. A good memory is one that remembers what should be remembered, and forgets what should be forgotten.
  
• Writing provides us with a moral inventory—a checklist of our victories and failures, our successes and mistakes. It helps us look back at the progress that we have made (if any) in our imitation of Christ (or lack thereof).
  
• Writing enhances the skill of speaking. We often speak without thinking, but we can’t write without thinking.
  
• Writing prepares us to share our gifts with others, by keeping a visual record of our experiences, interesting episodes, successes and failures.

To encourage writing, Dr. Rick Sarkasian has designed The Lifework Journal - A Weekly Notebook for The Story of Your Life. This 52-week notebook makes it easy to track your spiritual growth, insights and discoveries. You will:

• Write about your “role” in God's story of salvation!
• Prepare your Personal Mission Statement!
• Record your key insights and discoveries for future reference!
• Reflect on a “Virtue of the Week” and grow in holiness!
• Track your spiritual growth week-by-week for a full year!

To order The LifeWork Journal click here