Center for Writing and the Arts: Writing for Spiritual Formation and Direction

Writing has long been considered an effective method of self-exploration and spiritual reflection. 

Journaling, brainstorming, and engaging other writing practices can boost emotional and mental health. It can help you discern your heart's deepest desires — in relation to the world's greatest needs — and identify pathways toward fulfilling those desires and serving those needs.

Various writing practices have long been recognized as modes of prayer, as well. The Hebrew Scripture's psalms, the poetry of Hafiz, the writings of of mystics from St. Julian of Norwich to Thomas Merton — all of these "writings from the interior" helped draw the writer closer to their own self and to God from whom that self springs.

Below, you will find resources on writing as a mental- and spiritual-health practice, writing as a prayer practice, and writing as a tool for use in spiritual direction or formation contexts.