It may sound overly geeky — the idea of using a tool like Evernote to help you with your prayer life.
But then, I’m a pretty big geek. In their marketing lingo, Evernote says of itself, “For everything you’ll do, Evernote is the workspace to get it done.” I spend a lot of time in that particular workspace and on my computer, so it sort of made sense back in August 2012 when I started incorporating Evernote into my daily prayer routine. I won’t call prayer just another item on my “to do” list, but being organized about and committed to my spiritual life is one of my life’s greatest priorities.
As a blogger, I spend many of my days at the computer. My morning prayer time happens offline, but sitting at my desk most days on when I’m not traveling. My morning prayer consists in part of time spent with the daily Mass readings, private journaling, contemplating the life of a saint, prayer for particular intentions and recitation of some formal prayers.
I decided to create a template in Evernote to help me guide this time and to keep myself accountable. Over time, my template has involved to include:
- Gospel for the day
- “Today in my life” intentions and prayer priorities
- Saint of the day
- A short, personal prayer that I write in my journal and copy into Evernote
- Formal prayers including the Morning Offering, the Allegiance Prayer, and other novenas and prayers
Do I do this routine every day? Honestly, no. But I try to! Keeping a prayer journal in Evernote has helped me pray through some “dry” periods and establish routines and priorities in my prayer life. It has helped me to keep better track of prayer intentions, thereby enabling me to follow up with loved ones who have asked for my prayers. Quotes, scripture verses, the details of a saint’s life and other thoughts that have cropped up in my prayer time are now more accessible to me so that I can find them again in the future. With the Evernote app, I can also tap into my prayer journal when I’m away from home and on the go.
Is an Evernote prayer journal for you? It’s easy to give it a try using the FREE version of Evernote.
A question for you: Do you incorporate a technology tool into your prayer life? Tell me about your favorite tool or application in the comments below.
Copyright 2014, Lisa M. Hendey
Lisa M. Hendey
Lisa Hendey is the founder and webmaster of CatholicMom.com and the author of The Grace of Yes, A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms and The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Lisa writes for several online and print publications, enjoys speaking around the country and is a frequent television and radio guest and host. Visit her at LisaHendey.com.
One response to “Evernote as a Prayer Journal”
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Hello Lisa,
I’ve been using Evernote for years and, like you, I find it indispensable in keeping my life organized. Even though your screen shot looks quite simple and easy enough to set up myself, I too, as Earl Anderson mentioned in the comments, would have liked to have been able to see a working copy of your template.
Part of the challenge may be Evernote itself. For awhile, a few years ago, they were pushing shared, public notebooks. I still have, for example, recipe notebooks from Epicurious with dozens of tasty recipes that was linked directly from the Epicurious site.
But the emphasis from Evernote seems to have shifted from a “shared public experience” to a “corporate shared experience” with the emphasis on sharing and including co-workers on notebooks.
Nevertheless, it is still possible to “publish” a notebook from Evernote and to receive a link that is open for public access. Is there anyway to get this to your prayer journal? Without a useful link this article reads, to me, like an extended advertisement for Evernote. It’s a great product, I’ll grant that, but it would also be nice to get some substance from behind the story.
Yours,
Leo Salazar