The Catholic Writers Guild

As you can see by the rosary beads on my laptop I consider prayer an essential part of work. Prayer is more important than my laptop. It is more significant than my reference books or office space.  Storyboards, outlines, dialogues and plots are all important.  As a Catholic author, though, all of these ingredients are secondary to my prayer life. I am not one of the apostles. I do not believe that I am the pen and the Holy Spirit writes through my empty shell. He may have poured the Holy Spirit into Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  If being empty of yourself makes room for the Holy Spirit, the writers of the Gospel were way ahead of me. I have too much of myself blocking the Holy Spirit’s Way.

He does guide me, though. I begin and end my writing day with prayer. Previously I have shown you the childhood desk that I revamped into my inspirational workplace. What I haven’t shown you is the other side of my office, the most important side. On that side is my little statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Her crown is missing. It either was lost in cleaning or misplaced while moving. It doesn’t matter. She will always be my Queen. I was away from the church for many years. I missed the changes of Vatican II. When I returned home, the Rosary and Our Lady of Fatima were familiar so I clung to both devotions. The rosary was like a lasso, pulling me  back into His Kingdom.  Our Lady of Fatima was a devotion that was both comfortable and a reminder of the remnant that were the Sisters of Mercy who taught me. I wanted to be part of the remnant.  So how does God guide me, despite my blockage and backsliding ways?

In the morning, before I open my laptop, I pray the contemplative rosary.  First I ask God to speak to me as I meditate on the mysteries. I pray slowly while listening for Him between each Hail Mary.  He does speak.  Silently, He flows through my mind, heart and spirit. With each of His Words, I am changed. If He wants to point out something important I stop and listen. He will send me images or daydreams that I need to decipher. Sometimes it is beyond my understanding, but He is patient. He doesn’t mind repeating Himself in various ways until I  get it.

It is not a race to finish. In fact, I often don’t actually finish the rosary. He can lead me anywhere; a part of my life that needs changing, a person I need to forgive, a situation that needs my attention, or even a story line for a new novel. The recitation itself is not important, the two-way conversation is. I believe that is why I have never suffered from writer’s block. When I am particularly stuck, I take my beads to Eucharistic Adoration. I got my second novel there. God is always creating.

At night, I keep my prayer simple. I found that I have a tendency to fall asleep during complex prayer. I ask God to speak to me as I sleep. Guess what? He does. When I have a particular problem,  I ask Him before I go to sleep. He always sends me a dream. I don’t always get the jist of what He is saying.  I just ask Him to explain the next night. Eventually even I can get it, once He dumbs it down. You may think I am silly, but I got a whole novel in a dream one night. I just had to write it down.

Prayer keeps me grounded. It reminds me that my little essays, novels and stories are just that, little!  He is the true Creator. He created the earth, the stars, the entire universe. He created you and I.  He made us eternal like Himself. I may be a success or not with my writing in the eyes of the world. It doesn’t matter. Am I doing what He wants? That matters. If it takes me two years to write a novel and one person grows closer to Him because of it, I have succeeded in His eyes. After all, what is there  in writing about His message  but joy. And if He would, as I have been told, die on the cross to save just one soul, what am I to understand about the simple act of writing.

Knowing this takes all the pressure off. When I become derailed and start worrying about sales and ranking, prayer brings me back to the truth. When I am rushed or anxious to start writing, I stop to pray. It always pays to do so. It often makes the writing flow. When I think it would be better to skip prayer and get right to work I like to remember what Mother Teresa said:

“In the West we have a tendency to be profit-oriented, where everything is measured according to the results and we get caught up in being more and more active to generate results. In the East — especially in India — I find that people are more content to just be, to just sit around under a banyan tree for half a day chatting to each other. We Westerners would probably call that wasting time. But there is value to it. Being with someone, listening without a clock and without anticipation of results, teaches us about love. The success of love is in the loving — it is not in the result of loving.” 

So take the time to sit under that tree with God. Listen and chat. Don’t worry about the clock. The gift is in the Love itself.

Karen Kelly Boyce lives on a farm in NJ with her retired husband Michael. She has two grown children and two grandchildren. She is an award-winning novelist and writes a children’s series for Chesterton Press

Karen Boyce

Karen Kelly Boyce lives on a farm in N.J. with her retired husband. She is a mother and grandmother. She is the author of “The Sisters of the Last Straw” series published by Tan Books. You can see her work and learn more about her on her website: www,kkboyce.com