In essence, a prayer journal is a written record of your relationship with God. Putting things down on paper accesses different parts of the brain from those used in mental reflection. Sometimes, until we write we don’t necessarily know what we think. Sometimes we are able to write something we didn’t remember we knew, or know we remembered. And journalling leaves a physical mark on the world. We entrust it to the page and give it over beyond ourselves.
How you might journal is personal to you. It is good to make it daily, and in this way it may help you to focus a mind that is easily-distracted in prayer. But a combination of weekly and more ad hoc may work better for you.
Your journal could be prose or lists or poetry, tabulation or mindmap, words or images, pen on paper, collage or scrapbook. In the context of your relationship with God, it can reflect your inner life; outer relationships with people, place, nature, organisations; or any reading and studying. It doesn’t need to contain answers. In fact, it might be filled purely with questions and scattered thoughts.
It could include notes about the past, present and future; words and intimations and possible answers; Bible verses and quotations that mean something to you; thanksgiving for blessings; any prayer intentions, for people and issues; or any goals for your prayer life.
In fact, as regards the last three items on that list, it may be helpful to set aside three pages each month that are more structured – for thanksgivings; intentions and answers; and goals and progress – keeping the rest free-form.
Goals might be to find a few minutes to pray daily for a week, or to focus for a time on (say) the eucharist or creation, or to have a Quiet Day that month. It is useful to hold yourself accountable in this way, but try and avoid turning this into yet another worldly performance goad.
Whether and how you read your journal back is also personal to you. You could choose to read it at the end of a year. You may see how your relationship with God is changing; or some themes emerging; or how God might be leading you in surprising ways. And in the hard times, it may remind you of God’s faithfulness. Alternatively, you may choose simply to commit the contents to God.
In the end, to come full circle, it is all about relationship with God. In her poem “Praying”, Mary Oliver wrote:
just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.