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Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within
Through the power of everyday words, find and deepen your connection with faith and self in the spiritual practice of writing.
Whether you approach this book primarily as a reader or a writer, you can open a rich correspondence with yourself and learn what your own heart has to say. Karen Hering offers a path of self-exploration and a contemplative practice of writing that engages memory and imagination, story and poetry, images and the timeless wisdom of world religions and myth-ology. It will open your ear to your own truths while opening your heart to the world around you.
Blending writing prompts, meditations, and stories, this book invites you to begin wherever you are and discover your own unique relationship with language, spirituality, and the world around you. The next chapter is yours to write, and Writing to Wake the Soul offers all you need to write it.
Whether you approach this book primarily as a reader or a writer, you can open a rich correspondence with yourself and learn what your own heart has to say. Karen Hering offers a path of self-exploration and a contemplative practice of writing that engages memory and imagination, story and poetry, images and the timeless wisdom of world religions and myth-ology. It will open your ear to your own truths while opening your heart to the world around you.
Blending writing prompts, meditations, and stories, this book invites you to begin wherever you are and discover your own unique relationship with language, spirituality, and the world around you. The next chapter is yours to write, and Writing to Wake the Soul offers all you need to write it.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published November 5, 2013
20 people are currently reading
436 people want to read
About the author
Karen Hering
2 books11 followersKaren Hering is a writer and ordained Unitarian-Universalist minister. Her work has appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies, the Star Tribune and Creative Transformation. She has led hundreds of writing sessions on numerous themes in congregations, community organizations, and workplace settings. She serves as a consulting literary minister in St. Paul, Minnesota and leads a literary ministry Faithful Words, which offers programs that engage writing as a spiritual practice and tool for social action.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
November 1, 2013
A Fresh Look at Writing as a Spiritual Practice
Karen Hering’s new book, Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within, hits the bookstores next week, and I want to encourage everyone interested in writing as a spiritual practice to get a copy. In her role as literary minister at a Unitarian Universalist congregation, Hering developed what she calls Contemplative Correspondence, a practice of writing from prompts around theological themes like faith, prayer, sin, grace, and redemption. If this sounds heady or dull or too religious, hold your horses. This book is far more than what you might expect.
Karen’s reflections and prompts are meant to exercise our metaphor muscles—our capacity to make connections between disparate images or ideas, and therefore our ability to communicate across differences, resolve paradoxical problems, and relate to mystery. Her choice of tough theological terms is deliberate. We need to reclaim the language of mystery; we need to remember language’s capacity to connect humans to our sacred source. So we take hard words that have been used to drive wedges between people and soften them.
How? By listening deeply; by exploring memory; by writing stories. “What makes some writing a spiritual practice and not others,” Karen writes, “is less a matter of form than it is an orientation and intention. Writing becomes a spiritual practice when it serves as a personal correspondence with “the still, small voice within,” a way of listening to one’s inner voice and truth, and to the sacred source of that truth.” Karen’s exercises help us connect the dots of our experience to see what Thomas Merton calls “a hidden wholeness.” She chooses big words because our small stories are windows onto universal truths, and she wants us to remember this.
“But the practice does not stop there. It also insists that our story is only powerful and meaningful to the degree that we are willing and able to engage it in conversation with larger, open‐ended narratives. It calls upon us to listen for the stories and the presence of others.” What I most love about Karen’s book is its insistence on our connectedness. Rather than framing the spiritual practice of writing as simply a private conversation with the holy, she pushes us outward, into dialogue with others, with voices present in religious teachings, and with the emergent, collective narrative of our culture. She understands the Sacred as both personal and corporate, in and through history, within and beyond language, and still emerging in our life experiences.
I am infinitely grateful for this book.
Karen Hering’s new book, Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within, hits the bookstores next week, and I want to encourage everyone interested in writing as a spiritual practice to get a copy. In her role as literary minister at a Unitarian Universalist congregation, Hering developed what she calls Contemplative Correspondence, a practice of writing from prompts around theological themes like faith, prayer, sin, grace, and redemption. If this sounds heady or dull or too religious, hold your horses. This book is far more than what you might expect.
Karen’s reflections and prompts are meant to exercise our metaphor muscles—our capacity to make connections between disparate images or ideas, and therefore our ability to communicate across differences, resolve paradoxical problems, and relate to mystery. Her choice of tough theological terms is deliberate. We need to reclaim the language of mystery; we need to remember language’s capacity to connect humans to our sacred source. So we take hard words that have been used to drive wedges between people and soften them.
How? By listening deeply; by exploring memory; by writing stories. “What makes some writing a spiritual practice and not others,” Karen writes, “is less a matter of form than it is an orientation and intention. Writing becomes a spiritual practice when it serves as a personal correspondence with “the still, small voice within,” a way of listening to one’s inner voice and truth, and to the sacred source of that truth.” Karen’s exercises help us connect the dots of our experience to see what Thomas Merton calls “a hidden wholeness.” She chooses big words because our small stories are windows onto universal truths, and she wants us to remember this.
“But the practice does not stop there. It also insists that our story is only powerful and meaningful to the degree that we are willing and able to engage it in conversation with larger, open‐ended narratives. It calls upon us to listen for the stories and the presence of others.” What I most love about Karen’s book is its insistence on our connectedness. Rather than framing the spiritual practice of writing as simply a private conversation with the holy, she pushes us outward, into dialogue with others, with voices present in religious teachings, and with the emergent, collective narrative of our culture. She understands the Sacred as both personal and corporate, in and through history, within and beyond language, and still emerging in our life experiences.
I am infinitely grateful for this book.
September 16, 2013
"Writing to Wake the Soul" is a book of depth and instruction on how to reach your inner most resonating writer. It touches on topics of writing about faith, love, redemption and more. This book is not just your common how-to novel. It goes beyond explaining ideas about writing. It guides you through the emotional process of writing and helps you understand how to reach that atmosphere of serenity in order to think clearly and more deeply about what you would like to write. Full of great examples and tips, this book is worth a glance if you are interested in getting in touch with your more soulful writer. I dont think Ive ever read a book that changed my thinking about the written word and the process behind it so much.
November 14, 2018
This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 2.0 of 5
As someone who has done some writing myself, I often find writing to be a cathartic, even spiritual ritual. Writing can be a great way to purge a day’s frustrations. So when I saw this title, Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within, I was expecting a book that would help a writer find that connection – to open a connection to the inner-spirit, the soul, in order to free the writing.
But no. This is a religious book, using writing as a means to find one’s way to spiritual enlightenment.
The first part of the book, about sixty pages, is a broader view of writing. Chapters with headings such as “Why We Write” and “Writing as a Spiritual Practice” and even “A Practical Guide to Contemplative Correspondence” give some helpful direction to the budding writer, but it’s not really a very in-depth help. There are SO many books about writing and for the most part, every one that I have read has been a ‘how-to’ based on what has worked for the author of that book. Usually I can find something in the book that is helpful, but this one really seemed targeted to a very different audience than I am used to.
The second section of this book is where the stronger religious aspect comes in. Here we have chapters such as “Writing about Faith” and “Writing about Prayer” and “Writing about Sin” and so on. These chapters offer writing prompts that begin with a section heading called “In Your Own Words.” These sections have a brief paragraph that usually asks a few questions. For instance, on the “Writing About Grace” chapter the section begins with “When has a murmuration of grace, of any kind, swept you up in a moment of weightlessness? Where have you seen and heard grace moving in the world recently?” And after many such questions provides a writing prompt. Here it is: “Begin writing with the prompt below and follow wherever it leads: I heard grace murmuring…”
The book is clearly (in my mind) designed to encourage religious writing and contemplation. This isn’t a general book on helping a writer open themselves up to a more relaxed state and find their writing. This is a book to help a writer find a spiritual/religious connection.
For that target, this is probably a fine book. It doesn’t really speak to me and so it is hard to judge it. I did find that the book is a little … ‘simple.’ I can see where sitting in a room with someone talking about these points might work, and the book has the feel of a classroom lesson plan, but it’s missing that teacher/student connection.
Even quoting one of my favorite authors, Frederick Buechner, doesn’t help me with this book. I recommend a pass here. Writers looking for helpful and/or encouraging books – there are many of them out there and perhaps it’s best to stick with a tried and true classic.
Looking for a good book? Writing to Wake the Soul by Karen Hering is a writing help book that focuses on religious writing. If that’s your interest, then definitely give this a go. But if you want writing help in general, there are better options.
I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
As someone who has done some writing myself, I often find writing to be a cathartic, even spiritual ritual. Writing can be a great way to purge a day’s frustrations. So when I saw this title, Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within, I was expecting a book that would help a writer find that connection – to open a connection to the inner-spirit, the soul, in order to free the writing.
But no. This is a religious book, using writing as a means to find one’s way to spiritual enlightenment.
The first part of the book, about sixty pages, is a broader view of writing. Chapters with headings such as “Why We Write” and “Writing as a Spiritual Practice” and even “A Practical Guide to Contemplative Correspondence” give some helpful direction to the budding writer, but it’s not really a very in-depth help. There are SO many books about writing and for the most part, every one that I have read has been a ‘how-to’ based on what has worked for the author of that book. Usually I can find something in the book that is helpful, but this one really seemed targeted to a very different audience than I am used to.
The second section of this book is where the stronger religious aspect comes in. Here we have chapters such as “Writing about Faith” and “Writing about Prayer” and “Writing about Sin” and so on. These chapters offer writing prompts that begin with a section heading called “In Your Own Words.” These sections have a brief paragraph that usually asks a few questions. For instance, on the “Writing About Grace” chapter the section begins with “When has a murmuration of grace, of any kind, swept you up in a moment of weightlessness? Where have you seen and heard grace moving in the world recently?” And after many such questions provides a writing prompt. Here it is: “Begin writing with the prompt below and follow wherever it leads: I heard grace murmuring…”
The book is clearly (in my mind) designed to encourage religious writing and contemplation. This isn’t a general book on helping a writer open themselves up to a more relaxed state and find their writing. This is a book to help a writer find a spiritual/religious connection.
For that target, this is probably a fine book. It doesn’t really speak to me and so it is hard to judge it. I did find that the book is a little … ‘simple.’ I can see where sitting in a room with someone talking about these points might work, and the book has the feel of a classroom lesson plan, but it’s missing that teacher/student connection.
Even quoting one of my favorite authors, Frederick Buechner, doesn’t help me with this book. I recommend a pass here. Writers looking for helpful and/or encouraging books – there are many of them out there and perhaps it’s best to stick with a tried and true classic.
Looking for a good book? Writing to Wake the Soul by Karen Hering is a writing help book that focuses on religious writing. If that’s your interest, then definitely give this a go. But if you want writing help in general, there are better options.
I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
May 17, 2018
This book actually gave me spiritual epiphanies. I really enjoyed my daily morning meditation and writing with this book. I loved it so much I'm actually looking for another book like it. Though maybe out of a Christian tradition this book is very usable for pagans and other religions.
December 29, 2014
This book was okay. The first part, which gives Hering's spiritual biography and discusses the importance of writing as a method of opening the heart to divine inspiration, was SUPER boring. Although I did learn a bit about Unitarianism, so I guess it wasn't a total wash. The second part, which paired a devotional-style reading with a writing prompt organized in thematic sections, was better.
Still, the prompts were difficult and not very accessible. I think she was trying to translate a successful workshop she leads into a book, and mostly failed in the attempt, because I can see it working with a group leader, but maybe not so much if you're sitting alone and have never attempted contemplative correspondence before.
Still, the prompts were difficult and not very accessible. I think she was trying to translate a successful workshop she leads into a book, and mostly failed in the attempt, because I can see it working with a group leader, but maybe not so much if you're sitting alone and have never attempted contemplative correspondence before.
December 1, 2013
I'm not sure just what I was expecting from this book, but I found it absolutely engaging. Ever wanted to write, but just couldn't think of anything to write about? This book gives a wide range of specific words, and then challenges the writer with questions about those words to spark the creative urge.
The words? Faith, prayer, sin, love, justice, hope, redemption, grace, hospitality and reverence.
A wonderful resource for those who wish to do some introspective writing.
I read this ARC courtesy of NetGalley
The words? Faith, prayer, sin, love, justice, hope, redemption, grace, hospitality and reverence.
A wonderful resource for those who wish to do some introspective writing.
I read this ARC courtesy of NetGalley
April 23, 2019
Alhamdulillah! All praise belongs to God!
There's so much to say, I'm speechless. Struck dumb by the wisdom, heart, compassion, education, poetry, love & holiness found "between these covers."
I'm a life-long student of religion - my passion - and my heart's leaping in joy. Please, please read this, get some paper & pen & save yourself. It's doing the world a favor.
There's so much to say, I'm speechless. Struck dumb by the wisdom, heart, compassion, education, poetry, love & holiness found "between these covers."
I'm a life-long student of religion - my passion - and my heart's leaping in joy. Please, please read this, get some paper & pen & save yourself. It's doing the world a favor.
October 30, 2013
I have no idea what the unilateral Unitarian church teaches but i do know they believe in God. However i do not think that you need to believe in one mighty being, call them by whatever name you like to be able to fully appreciate all that is in this book.
Part one is an elongated introduction and a gateway into Part Two. In Part two we are introduced to 10 prompts;Faith, Prayer, Sin, Love, Justice, Redemption, Hope, Grace, Hospitality and Reverence. Each prompt allows us to examine ourselves and our beliefs. The book is not about making quick notes but about encouraging us to search our souls. We are asked to use each prompt has a daily Spiritual practice and although it is possible to read this book from cover to cover there is so much more to gain when we take the time to work through the prompts. Although this book can be studied in groups writing is a very personal thing.
I think this book is suitable for everyone, but more so for those who have a belief in God,(no matter how dented it might be)and are ready to move forward and some times backwards through their lives to find the healing they are looking for. I think this book will be my constant companion for sometime to come.
Part one is an elongated introduction and a gateway into Part Two. In Part two we are introduced to 10 prompts;Faith, Prayer, Sin, Love, Justice, Redemption, Hope, Grace, Hospitality and Reverence. Each prompt allows us to examine ourselves and our beliefs. The book is not about making quick notes but about encouraging us to search our souls. We are asked to use each prompt has a daily Spiritual practice and although it is possible to read this book from cover to cover there is so much more to gain when we take the time to work through the prompts. Although this book can be studied in groups writing is a very personal thing.
I think this book is suitable for everyone, but more so for those who have a belief in God,(no matter how dented it might be)and are ready to move forward and some times backwards through their lives to find the healing they are looking for. I think this book will be my constant companion for sometime to come.
April 28, 2014
I received the Advanced Uncorrected copy of this book from a Goodreads first reads contest. I am writing this review based on my own beliefs and have not been swayed in any way by the author or anyone else related to the book.
When I signed up for this first reads contest, I imagined the book to be one that helped my inner writer come out. This book attempts to do so by offering ways to bring out your inner writer through religious beliefs. The author who is a Unitarian uses examples from most religions as ways to make one think about how they can apply their words on paper. I found myself wanting to skip through a great deal of the book, while at the same time I was interested in more of what the author said regarding religion than what she wanted the reader to learn about writing.
My final analysis is that if you are planning to write a book that is more religion based, then this book is for you.
When I signed up for this first reads contest, I imagined the book to be one that helped my inner writer come out. This book attempts to do so by offering ways to bring out your inner writer through religious beliefs. The author who is a Unitarian uses examples from most religions as ways to make one think about how they can apply their words on paper. I found myself wanting to skip through a great deal of the book, while at the same time I was interested in more of what the author said regarding religion than what she wanted the reader to learn about writing.
My final analysis is that if you are planning to write a book that is more religion based, then this book is for you.
November 11, 2013
I originally thought reading through this book was going to be a textbook like experience in instruction and practices but was relieved to find it was an easy read, great concepts and it flowed nicely even with the breaks in it to practice what is being read. It does open your eyes to different ways of interpreting how to write and casting your views out there to be described as you want them to be by your reader. It creates a oneness in making your writing bond with emotion regardless of your religious background or upbringing. It did end up a dry read at times but that is expected in this type of book but it held great value in what it was saying and made you practice thus keeping you going. The mini-projects or tasks in this book as you read along pertained well to the material and did break up the dryness of the material as you can see it come into practice as living examples. Overall a good job and I felt I got much out of it.
June 26, 2023
This wide-ranging book is an exactingly researched and deeply satisfying read. It reaches far beyond its title to explore what it means to read as well as write for us as individuals and as a species. I can't wait to read Hering's new book Trusting Change: Finding Our Way Through Personal and Global Transformation. Somehow she's writing on topics I most want to read. #grateful
Here's a sample quote:
"I like to think of love as an inner leaning, a kind of magnetic pull not only toward another person but also into a larger wholeness in which we all belong. Love is a longing to return to our original connectedness and oneness, a calling to remember the shared stardust of which we are all made."
Here's a sample quote:
"I like to think of love as an inner leaning, a kind of magnetic pull not only toward another person but also into a larger wholeness in which we all belong. Love is a longing to return to our original connectedness and oneness, a calling to remember the shared stardust of which we are all made."
November 28, 2013
Writing to Wake the Soul
Karen Hering
(C) 2013
Writing to Wake the Soul gets into the spiritual side of writing.
As a Christian Author, I often use my writing to get deeper spiritually. I often find myself writing down my prayers, and I incorporate my faith into what I write, and what I refuse to writing.
Whether I am writing prose or poetry I find that if I write from my heart and soul.
Writing to Wake The Soul is a good edition to add to your library if you are a writer, or dream about becoming a writer.
Karen Hering
(C) 2013
Writing to Wake the Soul gets into the spiritual side of writing.
As a Christian Author, I often use my writing to get deeper spiritually. I often find myself writing down my prayers, and I incorporate my faith into what I write, and what I refuse to writing.
Whether I am writing prose or poetry I find that if I write from my heart and soul.
Writing to Wake The Soul is a good edition to add to your library if you are a writer, or dream about becoming a writer.
January 4, 2015
I read the first section of this book and skimmed the exercises/prompts in the second section in preparation for setting up a writing group based on the book with some friends.
Throughout the first section, I felt like Hering was speaking directly to me. I'm looking forward to delving into her prompts in a group setting. I tend to approach writing as an intellectual practice that ends up being spiritual much of the time. I'm intrigued by the idea of allowing it to be primarily spiritual and viewing it as a means for meditation, insight, and enlightenment rather than the practice of a craft.
Throughout the first section, I felt like Hering was speaking directly to me. I'm looking forward to delving into her prompts in a group setting. I tend to approach writing as an intellectual practice that ends up being spiritual much of the time. I'm intrigued by the idea of allowing it to be primarily spiritual and viewing it as a means for meditation, insight, and enlightenment rather than the practice of a craft.
December 7, 2013
I liked this book but had to return it to the library, it's on hold so I can't renew it. Part I was good, and Part II looks interesting but don't have time to go through all the exercises at this time. I've been to some of her writing sessions and really like them so I'm sure I'll find the book to be helpful, too.
March 16, 2014
A fine addition to the works of writing as spiritual practice, this volume from Unitarian Universalist Literary Minister Karen Hering includes her own insights and a diversity of voices. Tips for leading writing for spiritual practice programs and writing prompts after each brief meditation make this text useful for religious leaders, as faith development curriculum, and for individual practice.
May 24, 2016
The ratio of "author talking about herself" to "helpful advice" is a touch askew here. Not horribly, but enough that I personally did not find it useful. To be fair, I was reading this as an e-book, which may be another reason I lost patience with it (my completion record for digital books is Not Great). Still, I wasn't intrigued enough to pick up the print. Your mileage may vary.
July 12, 2016
One of my goals this month was to improve my nonfiction writing. I wanted to add more feeling into my words and was looking for help in this book. I did find some information on how to tap into that part of me which I found helpful. I only read 2 chapters though for this.
April 23, 2014
Read for a project. Better than most books in this genre. Has exercises and process rather than the usual bunch of claims for writing that rely on a romanticized true self and solo author.
March 3, 2016
Good with practical advice. The writing of this author helps me to articulate better what is meant by writing as spiritual practice.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews