Blessed Be Your Business Continued!
Ways to pray for your business (and all creative projects!)
Part 2 this week!
Hello friends! Last week, I shared three quick tips for praying for your business: asking for graces, spending time with the saints, and setting up a prayer box.
This week, I will offer three more tips (+ a bonus tip to make seven total tips, the number of completion!).
I attended my first in-person writers’ conference!
It sure has been a whirlwind week. I recently returned from a 3-day conference in Chicago (that’s far for a Washingtonian who hasn’t traveled anywhere since 2023). I have been a member of the Catholic Writers’ Guild since 2020, and this is the first time I’ve made the jump to attend the live conference held each year. I can say with assurance that I was not disappointed. I am an introvert by nature, and I was more than a little overwhelmed at the thought of flying by myself cross-country, but the warm welcome I received at the hotel and the opportunity to meet many of my longtime online writing friends were so surreal! I also had the chance to speak on a panel on the topic of giving and receiving manuscript feedback, and I sold several copies of my books. I am so grateful to God for blessing my trip and allowing for so many authentic conversations and presentations. I walked away feeling so rejuvenated and supported in my creative work.
This is why my fourth tip is to involve others in praying for your business.
Pray with Others for Your Business
This can look like a variety of different things. You can invite friends or family to pray a novena with you for the success of your business. *A novena is nine days of intentional prayer for a particular request. Or praying with others could look like spending time in quiet prayer surrounded by others in the adoration chapel at your local parish. Perhaps you could ask someone to pray for you and your business, and bow your head as they offer a specific prayer over you in that moment. This could be submitting a prayer request for your business to a community of religious brothers or sisters who ask for prayer requests to be sent to them. This could be having a Mass said for the intention of your business’s success. Whatever invites you into prayer in the presence of others is a wonderful way to actively uplift your creative work to the Lord.
Offer a Rosary for Your Business
It just so happens to be the month of May! In May, the Church dedicates the entire month to Jesus’ mother, Mary, who is our first and greatest intercessor. The Rosary is a beautiful, classic prayer where each decade can be prayed for a particular intention regarding your business or creative work. Consider what five intentions you’d like to bring to the prayer of the Rosary and spend some time this month praying this rhythmic, meditative prayer.
Pray with Gratitude in Nature for Your Business
The sun is shining brighter, and the days are getting longer as we move deeper into Spring. I invite you to spend time outside and consider what inspires you about the physical creation. As you walk, call to mind all the ways God has blessed you already in your creative or business endeavors. Oftentimes, prayer can look like asking God for something or coming to Him with a long list of desires and petitions. Don’t forget to spend some time simply thanking Him for all the ways He has brought you this far, perhaps for your creative ideas, the time to pursue them, or a community of cheerleaders to carry you onward. Whatever you recognize consciously as a gift from Him regarding your business, let Him know.
+Bonus tip!
Start and/or end your day with a prayer specifically for creativity and business. This can be an original prayer of your own, or perhaps one written by another. If you’ve tuned into any of the guest episodes on my new podcast, The Work of Thy Hands, chances are you’ve noticed the closing prayer I end each episode with. The prayer is taken from the Catholic Creative’s website and goes like this.
Creator of the Universe, how infinite
And astonishing are your worlds.
O Divine Imagination, you created a creator
When you imagined me into existence.
Breathe breath into so much dust.
Let me lament for forgetting daily
To rise up out of the clay.
Free me from the deceit of the mundane,
And from the lure of comfort
Which dulls all of my given edges.
Most of all, Light of my life,
Forgive my blindness, open all my eyes,
Salt me with newness and dreams.
Fire my soul with your inventive flame,
Let me be committed to the world by it,
And find in it the deepest joy.
Universal Creativity, flow through me,
Faith to see things not yet seen,
Hope to overflow broken cisterns,
And Love to free me forever.
Flow, Oh river, from the Holy Temple,
Through my mind to my hand.
Infuse my work with spirit,
To feed hungry souls.
Prayer Requests!
Speaking of prayer, I would love to keep you in my prayers, be those prayers for your writing, other creative work, business, or any personal intentions. I believe in the power of prayer and interceding for one another. If you have a particular prayer request, please reply to this post, and I promise I will pray personally for your request!
Such a well written piece 👌
Always a fan of connecting with talented writers— subed you ✓
I am praying for The Lord to lead my book to the readers it’s meant for. 🙏