Prayers for the writer in the new year
Praying is a wonderful tool as we approach 2025!
The new year is upon us and with it comes expectations and plans for our writing.
Perhaps you enter 2025 with grand dreams and schemes; this will be the year you finally write your book! this will be the year you finally get published! this is the year you'll have the courage to finally say, "I'm a writer"!
But perhaps the new year comes with trepidation in regards to your writing. You know you should make plans and resolutions, but something is holding you back. You're fearful about what 2025 holds, and you don't want to let another year go by without realizing some of your writing dreams.
Let's be honest: the creative process can be a scary one.
When you put yourself out there...when you tell the world that you're a writer...there are expectations that come along with it. You should be writing; you should be producing good work; you should be finding success as the world sees it.
Wherever you are on the writing journey as we embark on this brand new year, you need some encouragement. We all need words of edification and inspiration; we need someone to remind us that we are where God has called us to be and that there is a future with our writing.
One of the best ways to find such encouragement is in praying specifically in regards to your writing.
Did you know that there are many prayers specifically designed, written, and spoken for creative people like ourselves? Saying these prayers over your writing is a powerful thing, and can bring you into the presence of God more fully.
(You can also write your own prayers about your writing hopes and dreams. They also count as a writing exercise! Put your deepest desires and concerns into a prayer and pray it throughout the year as you approach your writing activities. Here’s a great article on how to write your own prayers.)
This first prayer comes from St. Frances de Sale, who is known in the Catholic tradition as the patron saint of writers and journalist. Born in 1567 and ordained in 1593, he turned to writing as a way to share his faith after doors were (literally) slammed in his face. Instead of being dissuaded by those not responding to his message in person, he wrote descriptions of his faith and slid them under people's doors. When he became more well known, he wrote letters personally to thousands of individuals who wrote him with questions and for inspiration. He ultimately collected his letters in books.
The following prayer is a beautiful one that reminds us of the power our writing has to the world and individuals who are looking for truth and hope:
Ah, sweet Jesus, my Lord, my Savior, and my God, behold me here prostrate before your Majesty as I pledge and consecrate this writing to your glory. By your blessings give life to its words so that the souls for whom it has been written may receive from it the sacred inspirations I desire for them, in particular that of imploring your infinite mercy in my behalf to the end that while I point out to others the way of devotion in this world I myself may not be rejected and eventually condemned in the other, but that with them I may forever sing as a canticle of triumph words that with my whole heart I utter in witness of fidelity amid the hazards of this mortal life.
LIVE, JESUS! LIVE, JESUS!
Yes, Lord Jesus, live and reign in our hearts forever and ever. Amen.
A second prayer is this beautiful one from the collection Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide of Life by David Taylor. It's a powerful reminder of how God is a Creator; when we produce creative work, we join in God's purpose.
“A Collect Prayer for Creation”
Maker of heaven and earth, all your creatures, animate and inanimate, stand before you.
In Christ, who stands at the center of creation, we see how mysteriously well-pleasing it is to you.
In Christ, the mediator of the whole world, we see how broken it is.
In Christ. the firstborn of creation, we discover its final destiny: new creation!
May we take pleasure in your creation as you take good pleasure in it.
May we care for the earth as you lovingly care for it.
And may we offer up all the creative work of our hands in praise of you, in service of your neighbor, and in anticipation of that day when the cosmos shall be made forever alive.
In the Triune Name, Amen.
(Need some additional ways to pray for your writing in the new year? This article from the Steve Laube Agency has some wonderful prayers to pray when a project is rejected, when you struggle with failure or success, and more.)
Happy New Year, and we pray that these words will inspire you as you venture forward in your writing plans and dreams in the new year.
Cheryl Wray is the coordinator of the Southern Christian Writers Conference, and editor of The Ready Writer.