A Prayer Journal – by Flannery O’Connor

• Record of Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor’s coming of age
• Testimony to God’s grace in vocation & the persuit of divine truth
• Found among her papers in recent years
• Written during her time at the University of Iowa
• Reveals her longing for God & her literary gifts inseparably bound to her faith

“I would like to write a beautiful prayer,” the young Flannery OConnor confides in this profoundly spiritual journal, recently discovered among her papers in Georgia. “There is a whole sensible world around me that I should be able to turn to Your praise.” Written between 1946 and 1947 during her studies at the University of Iowa,

A Prayer Journal offers an intimate glimpse into the soul of one of the most remarkable Catholic writers of the 20th century. More than just a collection of private reflections, this journal reveals OConnors deep longing for God and how her literary vocation was inseparably bound to her faith.

“I must write down that I am to be an artist. Not in the sense of aesthetic frippery but in the sense of aesthetic craftsmanship; otherwise, I will feel my loneliness continually . . . I do not want to be lonely all my life but people only make us lonelier by reminding us of God. Dear God, please help me to be an artist, please let it lead to You.”

These pages chronicle not only OConnors artistic ambition but also her desire for sanctification through her work. “Please help me, dear God, to be a good writer and to get something else accepted,” she pleads, yet her humility remains steadfast: “Don’t let me ever think, dear God, that I was anything but the instrument for Your story.”

As W. A. Sessions notes in his introduction, it is no accident that OConnor began writing Wise Bloodthe novel that would establish her as a major Catholic literary voiceduring the same period in which she composed these deeply personal prayers. Complete with a facsimile of the journal in OConnors own hand,

A Prayer Journal is more than a record of a brilliant young womans coming-of-ageit is a luminous testimony of grace, vocation, and the pursuit of divine truth through art.