Read, Write, & Pray with The Great Belonging: Part Three
Our Faith in Writing’s Read, Write, & Pray with The Great Belonging series uses themes and excerpts from Charlotte’s first book, The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other.
It’s not necessary to have a copy of The Great Belonging to complete these exercises and prompts. If you’d like a copy, you can purchase one here.
I hope the Read, Write, & Pray series helps you make space to notice God’s presence in your life and creative work. I hope it gives you opportunities to discover how making and engaging with art help you belong to yourself, others, God, and the world.
Learn more about Read, Write, & Pray here.
Read
An Excerpt from The Great Belonging Published by The Contemplative Writer
When I walked into the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe on a hot August afternoon, the first painting my attention turned toward was O’Keeffe’s Trees in Autumn. Most of the trees in this work are portrayed with flames of bright red, orange, and gold. A single green fir provides a touch of realism and stands as a stark contrast to the colorful ribbons of leaves on the more surreal deciduous trees. A background of lavender hills and blue sky, along with layers of crawling light, create that familiar feeling of being outside in the hour or so before the sun begins to set.
Write
Write about an encounter with the divine. Use a specific experience in a specific place on a specific date. Start with your senses. What do you see, smell, taste, hear, and feel? Write down as many details as you can. Move to your soul. How were you before this encounter and how were you after it? What insights did you have then? What new insights do you have now? Use these notes to write a first draft of an essay, story, or poem.
Pray
Pray with Art: Choose a work of art from your home, a website, or a museum. Set a timer and look at the work of art for three minutes. Then write down any thoughts, observations, or prayers that come to mind. Set a timer and look at the art for three more minutes. Then sit in prayerful silence with your eyes closed for at least three minutes.
I hope you enjoy this free resource for Read, Write, and Pray with The Great Belonging. Additional free resources can be found here:
Read, Write, & Pray with The Great Belonging
Free Resources
Read, Write, & Pray with The Great Belonging Part One
Read, Write, & Pray with The Great Belonging Part Two
Charlotte Donlon helps her readers and clients notice how they belong to themselves, others, God, and the world. Charlotte is a writer, a spiritual director for writers, and the founder of Spiritual Direction for Writers™ and Parenting with Art™. She is also the founder and host of the Our Faith in Writing podcast and website. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The Curator, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, The Millions, Mockingbird, and elsewhere. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Seattle Pacific University where she studied creative nonfiction with Paula Huston and Lauren F. Winner. She holds a certificate in spiritual direction from Selah Center for Spiritual Formation. Her first book is The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. To receive Charlotte’s latest updates, news, announcements, and other good things, subscribe to her email newsletter.