Journaling as a Spiritual Practice - by Helen Cepero (Paperback)

About the Book

Cepero looks at how journal writing enhances and supports other disciplines such as discernment, self-understanding, attention to God, prayer, and other areas.

Book Synopsis

Whether you are a longtime journal keeper or someone who has never kept a journal at all, this book will help you go below the surface of your life with God. It is not about the art of writing, but about how journaling can form us spiritually. Every chapter combines descriptive text, illustrations from journals and the author's own experience with journaling practices integrated along the way to help you bring your own life and world into sharper focus. God wants to surprise you with the beauty of your own life, growing and alive, filled with movement, light and shadow. This is the book to do just that.

Review Quotes

"A fantastic gem that you will need and desire to be part of your journaling library that will never become outdated."

--Chery Clay, Midwest Book Review, December 2008

"A grace-filled tour guide, inviting readers to join her on a path to encounter God through attentive writing."

--Cathy Norman Peterson, The Covenant Companion, December 2008

"A strength of the book is Cepero's intentionally focused journaling exercises that can jump-start neophytes who don't know how to journal or revivify the practice of those with considerable experience."

--Christian Century, October 7, 2008

"Cepero's book eases the reader into the journaling process from the absolute beginning and leads all the way to how to enjoy the fruits of one's journal. Fresh, frank, and unassuming, Cepero's text allows readers to see that like many other forms of prayer, journaling can be for anyone. Journaling as a Spiritual Practice is a welcome introduction to spiritual journaling, bringing a sometimes intimidating form of prayer out of the garret and into the light of everyday."

--Monique Keffer, Presence, December 2008

"Cepero's real-life anecdotes, spiritual insight and suggestions for journaling are most effective."

--EB, Libraries Alive, Spring 2009

"Helen Cepero argues that journaling can help us hear God better and experience spiritual transformation."

--Steve Rabey, YouthWorker Journal, July/August 2008

"Helen Cepero has done a great service for spiritual directors who want to encourage their directees to 'go deeper.' By using the guidance provided in this excellent book on journaling, we can suggest a structured yet inspiring method of sifting through human experience to find the gold of God's presence. By framing journaling as a prayer practice, Cepero has focused this work as a path to spiritual and personal authenticity.

I recommend this book as an inviting, reflective tool to help us find the Holy Mystery hidden beneath the rushing surface of life."

--Suzanne M. Buckley, editor of Sacred Is the Call: Formation and Transformation in Spiritual Direction Programs and director of Mercy Center, Burlingame

"Lively, encouraging and pastoral. . . . Cepero shows readers how to . . . [move] past simple recitation of events, to writing that reveals God at work in a life."

--Publishers Weekly starred review

"This is a book which should not be (merely) read. It should be done. Her book is a vast smorgasbord of particular experiences in the practice of journal-keeping, each one inviting the readers to 'taste and see' the presence of God in their lives. This book opens up the rich potential in journaling, warns us of the patterns of thinking that threaten to derail this practice and provides the tools to make it a valuable means of pursuing relationship with God."

--Evan B. Howard, author of Praying the Scriptures

About the Author

Helen Harmelink Cepero is director of spiritual formation at North Park Theological Seminary. She is also a retreat leader and spiritual director. She has published a number of articles and an essay in the book In Spirit and in Truth.