Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within

by Karen Hering

Overview

Through the power of everyday words, find and deepen your connection with faith and self in the spiritual practice of writing.

Whether you approach this book primarily as a reader or a writer, you can open a rich correspondence with yourself and learn what your own heart has to say. Karen Hering offers a path of self-exploration and a contemplative practice of writing that engages memory and imagination, story and poetry, images and the timeless wisdom of world religions and myth-ology. It will open your ear to your own truths while opening your heart to the world around you.

Blending writing prompts, meditations, and stories, this book invites you to begin wherever you are and discover your own unique relation­ship with language, spirituality, and the world around you. The next chapter is yours to write, and Writing to Wake the Soul offers all you need to write it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781582705996
Publisher:	Atria Books/Beyond Words
Publication date:	12/22/2015
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Karen Hering is a writer and ordained Unitarian minister. Her emerging ministry of poetry and story, Faithful Words, offers programs that engage writing as a spiritual practice and a tool for social action. Her writing has been published in numerous periodicals and anthologies, including the Amoskeag literary journal, the Star Tribune (Minneapolis), and Creative Transformation. She serves as a consulting literary minister in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Introduction xv

Part I The Spiritual Practice of Writing

1 Why We Write 3

2 Why Metaphors Matter 11

3 Writing as a Spiritual Practice 21

4 The Invitation of Ellipses … 33

5 A Practical Guide to Contemplative Correspondence 43

Part II In Your Own Words

6 Writing about Faith 61

7 Writing about Prayer 79

8 Writing about Sin 97

9 Writing about Love 113

10 Writing about Justice 129

11 Writing about Hope 145

12 Writing about Redemption 161

13 Writing about Grace 175

11 Writing about Hospitality 189

15 Writing about Reverence 207

Last Words 227

Acknowledgments 229

Appendices 233

Notes 255

Contributors 275

Editorial Reviews

"Profound in its clarity and completeness, here is a contemplative guide to awaken the nurturing spirit in each of us. At the essence of every spiritual journey is the task of finding our own footing on the path. Like a good guide, this book will take you by the hand as you journey, but only long enough to help you discover the compass and spiritual grounding you already carry within."

author of Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption - William C. Moyers

"Karen Hering's invaluable guide brings alive the venerable art of writing as a spiritual practice for our time and place. Importantly, Hering's approach does not predetermine where you must begin your journey, nor does it lead you down a carefully prepared path to an authorized destination. If you follow Hering through the exercises of Writing to Wake the Soul it will do just that—awaken you to your own spiritual inclinations, as well as introduce you to a wealth of wisdom handed on by pilgrims who have preceded you on the way."

Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research - Donald Ottenhoff

"In this powerful, lovely, practical, and provocative book, Karen Hering offers the world both a new form of ministry that transcends multiple traditional boundaries and profound evidence that the asking of unanswerable questions brings forth wide-open spiritual narratives of astonishing depth."

Professor Emerita of Religion Studies, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities - Mary Farrell Bednarowski

So many of us want to write! We sense that writing satisfies some profound longing—to become more fully ourselves, to connect more deeply to loved one, to help transform our hurting world...In Writing to Wake the Soul, Karen Hering gives us the tools to act."

author of Writing the Sacred Journey and On the Threshold - Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew

"This is one of the best books ever written about the relationship between writing and spirituality. Karen Hering offers readers a wise and generous guide to mining essential material and transforming it into writing that is authentic and revelatory. Those who approach this book with open heart and mind will discover much about themselves."

author of Blue Bossa and Beautiful Inez - Bart Schneider

"This is one of the best books ever written about the relationship between writing and spirituality. Karen Hering offers readers a wise and generous guide to mining essential material and transforming it into writing that is authentic and revelatory. Those who approach this book with open heart and mind will discover much about themselves."

So many of us want to write! We sense that writing satisfies some profound longing—to become more fully ourselves, to connect more deeply to loved one, to help transform our hurting world...In Writing to Wake the Soul, Karen Hering gives us the tools to act."

"In this powerful, lovely, practical, and provocative book, Karen Hering offers the world both a new form of ministry that transcends multiple traditional boundaries and profound evidence that the asking of unanswerable questions brings forth wide-open spiritual narratives of astonishing depth."

From the Publisher