{"id":41,"date":"2021-11-11T22:15:34","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T22:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/catholicimagination\/?post_type=chapter&p=41"},"modified":"2021-11-15T20:44:10","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T20:44:10","slug":"buried-treasure","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/catholicimagination\/chapter\/buried-treasure\/","title":{"raw":"Buried Treasure: Unearthing the Faithful Imagination through Journaling and Creative Writing","rendered":"Buried Treasure: Unearthing the Faithful Imagination through Journaling and Creative Writing"},"content":{"raw":"\u201cThe kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.\u201d\r\n

Matthew 13:44<\/p>\r\nThere is very little about the landscape \u2013 for an adult, at least \u2013 that seems especially captivating: A creek (really just a sewage ditch) separating our backyards from acres of fields filled with beans or corn, occasionally interrupted by small patches of woods. As a young child, however, there was nothing that would keep my neighborhood friends and me from leaping over the creek (often not making it without losing a shoe in the goo \u2013 or worse, falling into it).\r\n\r\nWhatever the risk, it was worth it. The other side of that nasty creek was a rich paradise for young minds, bodies and spirits. We fashioned small forts and hideaways. We caught glimpses of feathered, furry or scaly creatures eager to elude our curiosity. We discovered arrowheads, \u201cprecious\u201d stones, and sometimes mysterious scraps of paper or personal belongings (i.e., \u201cjunk\u201d) for which we constructed elaborate narratives explaining how they came to be where they were. When we were especially high spirited, someone would spot the paw print of a panther or spy Bigfoot plodding through a clump of trees, sending us with a thrill sprinting and leaping back over the creek into the routine safety of our own backyards.\r\n\r\nOur little excursions into \u201cuncharted territory\u201d were journeys of exploration and discovery. We peeked and poked through the world around us to unearth hidden treasures. Mostly, we found time to be free with one another and our imaginations. At that age, we had not heard of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, but we\u00a0were experiencing, as he wrote, that \u201cthe world is charged with the grandeur of God.\u201d[footnote]\u201cGod\u2019s Grandeur,\u201d in The Harper Anthology of Poetry, ed. John Frederick Nims. New York: Harper & Row, 1981), 445.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nAs I grew older, those fields and woods also became a proving ground \u2013 an expanse to wander and sort out lonely, heartbroken thoughts; an environment to cool off after an argument; or a space to simply be still and hear God\u2019s voice whispering beyond the wind.\r\n\r\nOPENING THE LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUL<\/strong>\r\n\r\nSo what does this fond childhood memory have to do with spiritual formation and journaling? I mention it by way of analogy because such an adventuresome, yet heartfelt, outlook is often lacking in our spiritual lives. Journaling, however, can open the landscape of our souls, and it invites us to discover the heavenly treasure hidden within our earthen vessels.[footnote]Cf. 2 Corinthians 4:7.[\/footnote] As Catholic teacher and author Christopher Pramuk has written, journaling can bend the ear of our hearts toward a \u201chidden wholeness\u201d by teaching us how to pay attention, how to become creative, how to recognize grace and how to open ourselves to the universal.[footnote]\u201cThe Song of Faith,\u201d America (April 8, 2002), accessed at: www.americamagazine.org.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nThis inner journey is a necessary task, often acknowledged but rarely pursued without at least some resistance. Our own backyards are safe places, but they can also limit our vision if we never venture beyond them. Those who are committed to the spiritual life, those undergoing priestly or religious formation, and those who are engaged in lives of ministry and service to the Church \u2013\u00a0whether in the clerical or lay state \u2013 are perhaps more subject than anyone to the temptation of uninspired superficiality. Satan would like to make Pharisees of us all.\r\n\r\nEven with the best of intentions, it is far too easy to merely scratch the surface of life. We often see without understanding, hear without listening and speak without communicating. We have difficulty recognizing the value (and necessity) of mystery, ambiguity and paradox. We seek to avoid embracing that inevitable moment in life when we will be called to joyfully give up everything we have to possess that treasure of inestimable value buried in the field of our souls.\r\n\r\nNone of this, of course, is consistent with either Scripture or our rich Christian tradition. However, all too often, we settle for less than the magnificent treasure offered by God, jeopardizing our spiritual welfare by sliding into the illusory comfort of a routine, unexamined life.\r\n\r\nThis treasure \u2013 the very love of Christ at work within us[footnote]Cf. Colossians 3:1-3; Ephesians 3:19-20.[\/footnote] \u2013 is a rich paradise of \u201cuncharted territory\u201d inviting exploration and discovery. But it is hidden beneath the surface of our lives. Finding it requires getting our hands dirty and digging a little. It involves risking a leap over nasty spiritual creeks \u2013 even if it means possibly falling into the goo. It means cultivating a faithful imagination to become our true selves in the image of God.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf you want to know God, know yourself first,\u201d said the fourth-century desert monk Evagrius Ponticus. Prayer, worship, Scripture, the Eucharist and other sacraments, spiritual direction and the life of the Church point the way in this regard, but the journey cannot end there. It also requires the rewarding, but grimy, work of daily discerning God\u2019s presence in our lives and in the lives and circumstances that intersect with our own. It involves prayerfully seeking the things above, within and around us, here and now, and beyond all appearances.<\/span>\r\n\r\nIt requires imagination to become our true selves, which is essential not only for our own sake, but for the benefit of those entrusted to us through our ministry and service. If we are called to make Christ present in the world through Word, sacrament and the example of a holy life, we must also learn how Christ is present and working in our own lives, and deep within our very souls.\r\n\r\nGOING WHERE THE PATH LEADS<\/strong>\r\n\r\nWriting \u2013 specifically, journaling \u2013 is one way to do this. It is a discernment tool \u2013 to be used in conjunction with others \u2013 of self discovery and self-examination. The words we write for academic or pastoral purposes, or for other worthy projects, are typically the final product or the goal of expressing our thoughts on a particular subject. Journaling is different; the process matters more than results. Journaling is essentially an extension of prayer, and the words we express are really tools of exploration to lead us to self discovery.\r\n\r\nAuthor Annie Dillard describes this process quite vividly:\r\n

When you write, you lay out a line of words. The\u00a0line of words is a miner\u2019s pick, a woodcarver\u2019s gouge, a surgeon\u2019s probe. You wield it, and it digs\u00a0a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in\u00a0new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you\u00a0located the real subject? You will know tomorrow,\u00a0or this time next year. You make the path boldly\u00a0and follow it fearfully. You go where the path\u00a0leads. At the end of the path, you find a box\u00a0canyon. You hammer out reports, dispatch\u00a0bulletins.[footnote]The Writing Life (New York: Harper & Row, 1989), 549.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\nGoing where the path leads is a novel concept for many. While I will not claim to have mastered it, this notion has already yielded for me enormous spiritual dividends during intense periods of discernment and formation. It has taught me to become more trustful of God\u2019s providence furtively working within all<\/em> inherently flawed, weak and even sinful human processes. As St. Paul says, \u201call things work for good for those who love God.\u201d[footnote]Cf. Romans 8:28.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nWhat Dillard suggests is difficult at first, but rewarding. Rather than directing the flow of words, this type of writing (particularly useful in journaling) calls for our words to direct us. It means giving up control and joyfully discovering a greater force at work within us \u2013 the art of faith.\r\n\r\n\u201cBut I\u2019m no artist,\u201d some may object. Really?<\/em> Is God an artist? Surely \u2013 look at all he has created. And we<\/em> are created in his image to participate<\/em> in the work of creation.[footnote]Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2427, 2501.[\/footnote] Author Flannery O\u2019Connor, whose ostensibly grotesque stories startlingly (often violently) reveal a world literally charged<\/em> with the presence of God\u2019s grace, sought to fully participate in God\u2019s work of creation as an artist of faith through her writing. \u201cWhen people have told me that because I am Catholic, I cannot be an artist,\u201d she noted, \u201cI have had to reply, ruefully, that because I am a Catholic I\u00a0<\/span>cannot afford to be less than an artist.\u201d[footnote]\u201cThe Church and the Fiction Writer,\u201d in Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, ed. Sally and Robert Fitzgerald. (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1970), 146.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nIt is interesting to note that O\u2019Connor\u2019s cleverly disguised theological allegories unfolded in ways that surprised even her. Speaking of writing as an organic process of discovery, she said that she sometimes did not know until 10 or 12 lines before the\u00a0fact what a certain character was going to do.[footnote]\u201cWriting Short Stories,\u201d Ibid., 100.[\/footnote] That is going where the path leads, allowing oneself to be directed by the art of faith and participating in the work of creation.\r\n\r\nWhile O\u2019Connor wrote primarily fiction, she approached writing as a process of discovery \u2013 something that is available to us all. This is particularly true with journaling. Approached prayerfully, honestly and openly, journaling can lead us by paths unknown and reveal formerly unrecognizable heavenly treasure.\r\n\r\nAuthor Helen Cepero compares the process to panning for gold in a stream:\r\n

If you are willing to dip your journal into the\u00a0stream of your life, even though it may mean\u00a0getting a bit wet and muddy, you will find the\u00a0gold of your own life and God\u2019s eternal presence.\u00a0There is risk in writing, but that is also where the\u00a0reward is found. Buried in the stuff of our lives,\u00a0underneath the running current of daily\u00a0activities, lies the treasure, if only we are willing\u00a0to risk looking and seeking. \u2026Like all spiritual\u00a0practices, it begins with the trust that God is\u00a0active at the heart of our lives and the life of the\u00a0world.[footnote]Journaling as a Spiritual Practice: Encountering God through Attentive Writing. (Downers Grove, Illinois, 2008), 11-12, 20. An excellent practical resource on the subject from a Christian perspective. Highly recommended.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\nDEALING WITH REALITY WITH CREATIVE POWER <\/strong>\r\n\r\nTrust of this sort requires imagination<\/em>. The word carries with it the potential for misunderstanding \u2013 harmless fantasy on one end of the spectrum, and sheer lunacy on the other. Unfortunately, in today\u2019s world, having imagination can often imply being removed from reality \u2013 making something up. However, there is a more authentically balanced interpretation. Imagination is the \u201cability to [faithfully] confront and deal with reality<\/em> by using the creative power<\/em> of the mind.\u201d[footnote]The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982). The second definition listed within the entry for the word imagination. Here, it means resourcefulness. I have inserted the word faithfully, and the emphasis is added.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nDealing with reality with creative power is how we are using the term imagination<\/em> here. In the context of faith, it means a participation in God\u2019s creative work right here, right now. It totally collapses the widely held, but mistaken, view that God is \u201cup there\u201d and we are \u201cdown here.\u201d It electrifies that sense that the world truly is charged with the grandeur of God.\r\n\r\nThis is a faithful imagination<\/em>, which is useful and essential to the spiritual practice of journaling. To trust \u2013 as Cepero puts it \u2013 that God is active at the heart of our lives and the life of the\u00a0world is to go beyond merely recording life\u2019s events in a journal, on the one hand, or writing for the sake of posterity, on the other. It means honestly dealing with reality with creative power, writing to dig below the surface of life\u2019s events to discover purpose, meaning, direction and God\u2019s abiding presence in all things.\r\n\r\nAs Catholics, we profess and strive to live an incarnational spirituality. So, in the Catholic imagination, the world has a sacramental character. Every thing, every person and every circumstance somehow fit together in God\u2019s universal plan of salvation\u2013though some points may seem scattered and a few lines may appear crooked. Journaling assists in recognizing the movement of God\u2019s grace present within and around us. As O\u2019Connor would say, the writer \u201cpresents mystery through manners, grace through nature.\u201d[footnote]\u201cThe Church and the Fiction Writer,\u201d 153.[\/footnote] Writing\u2013journaling\u2013with a Catholic imagination helps us connect the dots.\r\n\r\nA prominent example in this regard is the writing of Thomas Merton. This prolific spiritual author and Trappist monk wrote many works for publication (and therefore posterity). However, he also wrote voluminous journals of his day-to-day life in the monastery, many of which were not published until long after his death in 1968. Commenting on Merton\u2019s spiritual journey through his writing, Victor A. Kramer notes that the monk\u2019s journaling helped him to see beyond visible life:\r\n

Everywhere [Merton] looked he saw evidence\u00a0that the entire world was sacramental.\u2026 He is\u00a0always looking carefully at what is right in front\u00a0of him at that particular time. What he teaches\u00a0us is that the sacramentality of our world is\u00a0always there to be observed and honored in its\u00a0immediacy.\u2026 Cumulatively, these journals are\u00a0Merton\u2019s record of his encounter with God\u2019s\u00a0world. It is through the appreciation of the\u00a0everyday experiences that we begin to learn how\u00a0to apprehend our harmony with all of creation.\u00a0The journals are insights, fragments, prayers,\u00a0notes, phrases which can lead us to see the divine plan, the completeness, the wholeness that is\u00a0sometimes hidden.\u2026 They are the record of how\u00a0one man saw beyond seeing by looking carefully.[footnote]\u201cMerton\u2019s Published Journals: The Paradox of Writing as a Step Toward Contemplation,\u201d in The Message of Thomas Merton, ed. Br. Patrick Hart, O.C.S.O. (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1981), 39, 40, 41.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\nMerton himself spoke of employing the imagination as a \u201cdiscovering faculty\u201d through his writing: \u201cThe imagination is something which enables us to discover unique and present meaning in a given moment in our life.\u201d[footnote]Contemplation in a World of Action. (New York: Image Books, 1973), 357.[\/footnote] The late priest and spiritual author Henri Nouwen noted that, while the concept can be difficult for many to grasp, the very act of creative writing holds for us the promise of untold treasure waiting to be discovered (if we\u2019re willing to loosen our hold on the process):\r\n

Most students of theology think that writing\u00a0means writing down ideas, insights, or visions.\u00a0They feel that they first must have something to say before they put it on paper. For them, writing\u00a0is little more than recording a pre-existent\u00a0<\/span>thought. But with that approach, true writing is\u00a0impossible. Writing is a process in which we discover\u00a0what lives in us.<\/em> The writing itself reveals to us\u00a0what is alive in us. The deepest satisfaction of\u00a0writing is precisely that it opens up new spaces\u00a0within us of which we were not aware before we\u00a0started to write. To write is to embark on a journey\u00a0whose final destination we do not know.<\/em> Thus,\u00a0writing requires a real act of trust. Once we dare\u00a0to \u201cgive away\u201d on paper the few thoughts that\u00a0come to us, we start discovering how much is\u00a0hidden underneath these thoughts and gradually\u00a0come in touch with our own riches.[footnote]\u201cReflections on Theological Education,\u201d in Seeds of Hope: A Henri Nouwen Reader, ed. Robert Durback. (New York: Image Books, 1997), 79-80. Emphasis added.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\nLikewise, numerous saints throughout the history of Christianity have left us written records of their personal journeys of discovery to \u201csee beyond seeing by looking carefully.\u201d Two of the most obvious examples are St. Augustine\u2019s Confessions<\/em> and St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux\u2019s Story of a Soul<\/em>. More recently, Blessed Pope John XXIII kept a journal from his early teens until his death at age 82, published posthumously under the title Journal of a Soul<\/em>.\r\n\r\nWhile obviously in a different category altogether, Holy Scripture also must be considered writing that engages the faithful imagination \u2013 both for the human authors and readers through the centuries. Scripture is the Word of God, but was not dictated to us from on high. Human participation in God\u2019s creative work is\u00a0involved, as the Church teaches us by comparing Scripture with the incarnation of Jesus, the Word of God.[footnote]Dei Verbum No. 13: \u201cThe words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men.\u201d[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nPut another way, the sacred words of Scripture, expressed in human words, are meant to reflect and feed the faithful imagination arising from the very mind of God, in whose image we were created. Though that image is distorted through the Fall, humanity\u2019s share in this creative written work invites us to restoration and redemption. As Jesuit author and veteran spiritual director William A. Barry points out:\r\n

The Bible is not a theological textbook designed\u00a0only to feed our minds and provide intellectual\u00a0thought. Most of the Bible is imaginative literature\u00a0meant to draw us into its world so that God can\u00a0touch us<\/em>. Even the historical books are written as\u00a0stories to touch our imaginations. The biblical\u00a0writers want to help us encounter God;\u00a0ultimately, they want to move us to engage\u00a0personally with God.[footnote]A Friendship Like No Other: Experiencing God\u2019s Amazing Embrace. (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2008), 167. Emphasis added.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\nPerhaps this seems like an unfair (or even dangerous!) comparison in the context of a discussion on journaling. However, my point is to illustrate that from the perspective of the Catholic imagination, we each have a story to tell<\/em> \u2013 one that lies at least partially hidden\u00a0from ourselves in the depths of our very being. And it is a sacred<\/em> story because it begins and ends with God \u2013 whether or not we acknowledge it. A faithful imagination that is engaged through\u00a0creative writing to unearth that story is anything but removed from reality. It is a lack of imagination<\/em> that gets us into trouble! Lack of a faithful imagination is slavery to self-delusion and the fantasy of self-reformation.\r\n\r\nChristina Bieber Lake, in her 2005 book The Incarnational Art of Flannery O\u2019Connor<\/em>, makes the case that our culture is becoming \u201cposthuman\u201d \u2013 striving for made-to-order lives, even made-to order bodies. We are seeking to perfect ourselves without God, \u201cto become like gods,\u201d as in the downfall of Adam and Eve. Lake notes that we are moving away from \u201ca healthy view of the self \u2013 the conviction that we are created beings, made in the image of God, but limited and dependent \u2013 toward an unhealthy belief that we are cosmic accidents whose only hope is to remake ourselves into whatever image fits our fancy.\u201d[footnote]The Incarnational Art of Flannery O\u2019Connor. (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2005), 240. \u201cIncarnational art,\u201d Lake says, \u201cinsists on the broken and limited human body as its starting point \u2013 the acknowledgment of which is the only means to spiritual growth\u201d (12). She notes that, for O\u2019Connor, redemption begins with human limitation and ends with the Imago Dei. This theme is most colorfully illustrated (pun intended) in O\u2019Connor\u2019s short story, \u201cParker\u2019s Back\u201d (207).[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nA faithful imagination is our defense against this. It acknowledges God as the beginning and end of the equation and invites Him into everything in between. Imagination is freedom from self. It is trusting in the revelation that our limited human nature is redeemed through incarnated grace.\r\n\r\nAs Pramuk points out, journaling is a means of paying attention to the hand of God\u2019s incarnated grace in our lives, of exorcising those demons that strive to imprison us within the fantasy of becoming like gods.[footnote]\u201cThe Song of Faith,\u201d America.[\/footnote] Journaling \u2013 or any writing \u2013 with a faithful imagination is bearing the imprint of Christ in our very being \u2013 human beings borne from God\u2019s imagination. It is, as Pramuk points out, a means of participating in our own salvation<\/em>.[footnote]Ibid.[\/footnote]<\/span>\r\n\r\nThis is the treasure we seek: With, in and through Christ, we are both characters and co-authors in God\u2019s story of human creation, incarnation and redemption. As author Madeleine L\u2019Engle notes, \u201cIf our lives are truly \u2018hid with Christ in God,\u2019 the astounding thing is that this hiddenness is revealed in all that we do and say and write.\u201d[footnote]Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. (New York: North Point Press, 1995), 122.[\/footnote]<\/span>\r\n\r\nBy grace, we are instruments of divine providence, gardeners in the field of God\u2019s creation. Imagine that!\r\n\r\nRESTORING ORDER FROM CHAOS<\/strong>\r\n\r\nFanned by the winds of the Holy Spirit, journaling becomes a means to restore order, purpose and beauty to the murky chaos swirling beneath the surface of our lives. A journal is not a diary. It involves more than merely recording the day\u2019s events. Rather, journaling is about reflecting on the meaning of those events.\r\n\r\nIn my own experience, journaling has been a helpful tool in preparing for spiritual direction, for putting words to my innermost prayer, for examining the motives of my actions, or why I feel or think a certain way about something or someone. Writing in this way with a faithful imagination has peeled back and revealed layers of myself I never knew existed. Some of it is not very pretty, but I am grateful for the grace that has revealed and identified these parts of my disordered self so that they can be transformed into my true self in Christ.\r\n\r\nAs a habit, journaling can develop:\r\n