Prayer Journal

Overview

Keeping a prayer journal is a way to assist in meditative prayer. It is explicitly taught in Year 6 Religion Curriculum P-12, Archdiocese of Brisbane (CLPS17).

A prayer journal is a personal record of time spent in prayer.

It can have lengthy entries or short notes. It can be cute or plain. There’s a lot of ways to do it, and none of them are wrong, as long as they aid in reflecting on God’s love.

How to Start a Prayer Journal, by Faith Noah

What to put in a prayer journal

A prayer journal should feature the following aspects:

Thanksgiving: Aim every day to reflect over your day and record what you're grateful for.
Prayer Intentions: Record each day what you're praying for; consider who or what situation needs your prayers.
Prayer Goals: Record which prayer practices you'd like to pay attention to and then record whether you've achieved your goal. e.g. going to bed on time.
Free-Form: Fill in the blank pages with whatever the Spirit puts into your heart.

For more information see: How to Start a Prayer Journal, by Faith Noah

A response to meditation or a time of prayer

A prayer journal can be used to respond to meditation or a time of prayer. It works in well with other forms of meditation like the Examen, or Praying in Color.

Any form of notebook or school exercise book - plain or decorated - can be used as a prayer journal.

The response to prayer can be recorded by writing words, sentences, poetry or in drawings.

Some possibilities for ‘sentence starters’ include:

God, today I would like to tell you about…..
Gracious God, I would like to thank you for…..
Listening God, sometimes I find it really hard when…
Ever Present God, I ask you to help…..
Loving God, today I feel…..
Caring God, sometimes I feel afraid that…..

Opportunities for journal reflection can occur at significant times e.g. after a particularly difficult friendship issue, a world disaster, a sad occasion or a tragic event in the community.

Gratitude journal

This book could be either a class book or students could be given individual Gratitude Journals.

Starters could be

We/I give thanks for …..
Thank you God for…

The entries could be made at the end of a day or at the end of a week to encourage reflective thinking from a Christian perspective.