Keynote speaker Pat Gohn wows us at CWGLive with talk on Perseverance (photo by Nancy Ward)
Keynote speaker Pat Gohn wows us at CWGLive with talk on Perseverance (photo by Nancy Ward)

The keynote speaker, Pat Gohn, wowed us with her talk on Perseverance at the Catholic Writers Conference (CWG) Live. Whether or not you are a writer, you can apply her “Prayer and Practices of Writers and Artists” to your calling in life. That’s because “art and faith (our work and faith) are not compartmentalized – it’s all soul work that we do,” she said.

All of us need to go deeper and become on fire with the Holy Spirit, so prayer is something we can’t do without every day. “We impoverish ourselves when we don’t take time for ourselves to meet with the Lord.”

In the writing life, when we are in a slump or dealing with rejection, prayer is the answer. We need to pray, and we need community to support our creative missions. Referring to the CWG, she told us, “We are your allies, your connection to Body of Christ, but your first ally is Christ. Prayer is the ally to keep you connected with Christ. Prayer is your abundance as daughters and sons of the King.”

To persevere in any holy endeavor, we need more than ourselves, more than our own strength. Like Joshua, we can confidently “Choose this day who you will serve,” knowing that God chose us first.

Pat went through Psalm 103:1-5, teaching us ways to persevere in praising and adoring God for who he is, even when our lives fall apart. That’s when we need to press in and praise him. Why? When we praise God, when we are reminded who God really is and what are the benefits of his love for us.” When we praise him anyway and in all things we know who is in charge. We stand on God’s steadfast love as the basis of our perseverance.

What nourishes our spiritual life is going to nurture our creative life. Both have the same needs. “It’s a given that you must nourish your life with the Word of God, and faithfulness to the sacraments.” In our creative life, we consider what we are reading to inspire and recharge ourselves, to speak to our heart and our creativity.

Pat suggested many practices to help us persevere:

* Seek God’s will. She shared her experience of almost two years of writing three books suggested by two different acquisition editors. Those projects fell through. When she put them away, a great peace came. When another editor approached her, she woke up to the idea that all along God was shaping her, giving her practice, passion and inspiration for her book, Blessed, Beautiful, and Bodacious. “Sometimes perseverance means asking the Lord for deeper trust in his leading. Let him shape us in due time and make us into the writer he wants us to be.” Now everything that she does that blesses others (retreats, mentoring, talks) comes from that deep peace of the Holy Spirit.

* Charity is the law of love. “What is your charity toward others and yourselves?” Pat asked. “Let go of envy and jealousy.” Quoting Vinita Hampton Wright, she said, “In the cosmic economy, there is room for every gift.” We don’t want to be competing but collaborating. Drawing on the work of Julia Cameron, she said: “Protect the artist child within who loves to play with words. Don’t discourage that child. Be kind to the artist child’s first efforts, in yourself and others.”

We can encourage other writers with encouraging words and mentor them with love. We can share our struggle and ask for their help. Respecting those who bring us their manuscript to read means being friendly readers with comments our on their “crappy first draft” and then sharing the good news of their progress.

A new idea for some is that of prayer buddies, specific intercessors that listen and know each other’s needs – like the 200 people on her creative support team that pray for her. “As a weak vessel, I need the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; I need the prayer cover of others.” This support helps us find a path through criticism and accept what is offered.

* Strive for excellence, but avoid and defeat perfection. “This is soul work – what we have to bring to the Lord. Perfectionism kills and striving for excellence gives life and bears fruit.” She gave us great ideas of her own and those of Julie Cameron and many saints on how to defeat perfectionism.

Pat encouraged us to use creative affirmations by surrounding ourselves with quotes – pep talks from scriptures and our favorite writers.

Nancy Ward, convert, journalist, author, and speaker, writes from Texas about Catholicism, conversion and Christian community at NancyHCWard.com, JOYAlive.net, and other websites and magazines. Through her Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story workshops, retreats and DVD, she shares her conversion story in Catholic parishes and at conferences, equipping others to share their stories. She contributed to the award-winning The Catholic Mom's Prayer Companion, facilitates two Catholic Writers Guild critique groups, serves on the Guild’s Board, and speaks at national writers conferences.

One Reply to “Perseverance = prayer buddies, pep talks and defeating perfectionism”

  1. Hi, Nancy,

    It’s so funny you should bring up perfectionism, my pastor recently gave us a sermon on pride, the definition of which is (I may have summarized it thus myself, he said more) ‘an inordinate desire for excellence.’ It seemed just as contradictory when he said it as here. I can just hear my pride screaming, ‘No, no, nothing can ever be too perfect!’ But yes. I think there’s another old way of putting it, the perfect is the enemy of the good.

    If I summarized all that wrong, I’m not perfect. : )

    Thanks for this reminder!

    Janet

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