Today I read Gregory Wolfe's editorial statement titled "Stalking the Spirit" in the new issue of Image (a journal focused on art, faith and mystery). He quotes Annie Dillard and Gerard Manley Hopkins, two of my favorite writers. About both of these writers, says Wolfe, "In the act of exploring nature's mysteries, they teach us how to write. The process might be described as a four-fold effort involving sacrificing, seeing, stalking, and sacramentalizing."
Wolfe is addressing MFA graduates in creative writing at their commencement, but his words seem wise for writers to heed any place along their path: "This is the end toward which your writing must always strive, the weaving together of words so as to invite the indwelling of the Word. As you embark on your writing careers, practice self-sacrifice, see the world truly, and stalk the spirit within the flesh.
He continues: "Then you will be able to confect sacraments that unite your journeys to those of your readers--and to the journey of the one who descended from air to earth, who was gashed and galled by our pettiness and vanity, only to rise again and ascend through the air, but not before he revealed through the gash in his side the burning heat of his sacred heart."
Good words to sustain us on our writing journeys.
Wolfe is addressing MFA graduates in creative writing at their commencement, but his words seem wise for writers to heed any place along their path: "This is the end toward which your writing must always strive, the weaving together of words so as to invite the indwelling of the Word. As you embark on your writing careers, practice self-sacrifice, see the world truly, and stalk the spirit within the flesh.
He continues: "Then you will be able to confect sacraments that unite your journeys to those of your readers--and to the journey of the one who descended from air to earth, who was gashed and galled by our pettiness and vanity, only to rise again and ascend through the air, but not before he revealed through the gash in his side the burning heat of his sacred heart."
Good words to sustain us on our writing journeys.
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