“Love Never Fails” – a spiritual journal by Hilda St. Clair

For some years, I have kept a journal, which has now become a series of lined notebooks. They are filled with poems, book lists, draft book reviews and blog posts, quotations I want to remember, sermon notes, notes made from presentations and speeches, and really anything that I might want to write down. It’s not a spiritual journal per se, but it does include spiritual thoughts and questions.

Paraclete Press has been taking a more directed approach to journals, and specifically spiritual journals. Author Hilda St. Clair has created a second spiritual journal, Love Never Fails: A Journal to be Inspired by the Power of Love, that focuses specifically on the idea of Christian love (her first, All Shall Be Well, has the theme of hope and encouragement).

The journal’s approach is simple. Using beautiful (and original) artwork and quotations, the journal presents a series of simple exercises and questions. It’s not meant to be an exhaustive Bible study or an exercise requiring extended periods of time. Instead, the journal encourages simplicity and reflection.

The sources for the quotations include, various books of the Bible, St. Augustine, Julian of Norwich, Bernard of Clairvaux, Martin Luther King Jr., Wendell Berry, Henri Nouwen, Mother Teresa, C.S. Lewis, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Merton, among many other Christians. And the quotations also come from more secular sources, like Elie Wiesel, Victor Hugo, Maya Angelou, Charles Dickens, and Jewish and Swedish proverbs.

The exercises are simple. “Think about a tough decision you once made. What made you do it? What role did love play?” is an example. The purpose is to encourage reflection about the role spiritual role plays in our lives, our actions, our relationships, and our thoughts.

St. Clair is an author and artist who lives on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Love Never Fails is a book of quiet, thoughtful exercises, designed for completion while you sit by yourself with a cup of tea of coffee, reflecting upon the role love plays in your life.

Related:

My review of All Shall Be Well, a spiritual journal of hope and encouragement by Hilda St. Clair.

Photograph by Daria Sukhorukova via Unsplash.

“All Shall Be Well:” A Spiritual Journal

Three years ago, I started keeping a journal. I had been given one as a gift (one done by Levenger with a beautiful tan leather cover) quite a few years ago. It had been unused, until, for some forgotten reason, started writing in it. I use it (and its various successors) for just about everything – notes on interesting books, draft articles and reviews, sermon notes, draft poems, notes from online lectures, planning schedules – it’s a real hodgepodge.

Paraclete Press has published a spiritual journal, compiled by Hilda St. Clair, that’s devoted entirely to one’s journey in faith. All Shall Be Well: A Spiritual Journal for Hope and Encouragement is a simple journal to use – and filled with beautiful artwork designed around sayings of well-known historical church figures.

The journal entries are actually exercises, such as “write your fears in these boxes,” write the lyrics to the song your soul is singing, list five things you’re truly grateful for and five things you’re anxious about. They are meant as prompts, and you can write as much or as little as you desire.

The quotations accompanying each of the approximately 60 exercises are by Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Francois Fenelon, Thomas a’ Kempis, Catherine of Siena, and John of the Cross (the book contains multiple quotations by each). The journal also includes a list of works by them for further reading.

St. Clair is also the author of the forthcoming Love Never Fails: A Journal to be Inspired by the Power of Love.

Simply sitting and examining each of the quotations within the artworks is an exercise in stillness and quieting of the soul. All Shall Be Well is a beautiful way to reflect and record one's journey in faith.

Top illustration: one of the quotations from All Shall Be Well.