Make It Fresh And Meaningful - Flannery O’connor

1925–64

The only child of devout Catholic parents, Mary Flannery O’Connor was very bright, an avid reader, and often described as shy. At the age of twenty, she graduated from Georgia State College for Women with a degree in social sciences. Her studies were certainly useful for the two novels and dozens of short stories she wrote.

Displaying a keen understanding of the culture of the American South, the stories were strongly character driven, and these often quirky characters usually underwent transformation. O’Connor would frequently bring her characters around to a closer understanding of God, providing fresh insight on timeless themes.

At the age of thirty-nine, Flannery died of lupus, the same disease her father had died of when she was fifteen. Several of her works were published posthumously—some letters, a collection of book reviews she wrote, and, almost fifty years after her death, an early journal of her prayers.

In the fall of 2013, A Prayer Journal was published, containing her private writings from the times she attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1947 and 1948. Included in this book are some important talks with God from O’Connor’s early twenties, the beginning of her writing career. The journal gives great insight into the writer’s thoughts, hopes, and dreams. It also shows that, like many people, she struggled at times with prayer.

“I do not mean to deny the traditional prayers I have said all my life,” she mused, “but I have been saying them and not feeling them.”

Can you relate? From a young age, many people are taught prayers to repeat over and over. Bedtime prayers, mealtime prayers, and the Lord’s Prayer are examples of worthwhile prayers, but sometimes after the same words get repeated again and again, we can stop thinking about what they mean. When that happens, it helps to find a way to make prayer fresh again.

One way Flannery did that was to write her prayers—to journal her conversations with God. If your prayer life is a little stale, do you think writing your prayers could freshen it up?

When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.

Matthew 6:7