 Catholic Web Content Development Articles Series (2 of 7) - Teaching
Methods of Prayer in Writing Catholic Articles and Blog Posts
Introduction
This article is the second in the web content development Series (writing
Catholic articles and blog posts). It examines the form and content of
when writing on methods of prayer. Teaching a method of prayer or a
spiritual exercise requires detailing an informative step by step
guide, so that readers can follow completely the flow and order of the
spiritual exercise. It will be good to use descriptive content, and
a structure of writing that will outline distinctly the steps in detail.
If you know the prayer you are teaching by heart, then your article or
blog post can be a very effective way of sharing the Catholic faith with
others online.
Organisation techniques in developing this form of content
The central or main part of this content is the presentation of the method
itself. To make your presentation well-organised, one writing technique
is to outline each step of the method in a paragraph of its own. Using
this structure, you can give a good description and detailed instructions
- explaining each step of the prayer well. Another organisation technique
is provided by authors Flesch and Lass in their book, "A New Guide to Better
Writing". These two authors speak on an effective writing technique that will
make instructions in writing well-understood. They write: "we must go through
the whole method or process step by step in our own mind, and write it down
exactly as we would do it ourself, one step after the other'.
Consulting good sources when writing about each step of the method
Since methods of prayer and spiritual exercises are in a class of their own,
it would be good to consult authoritative sources that teach the method.
Each source will have a style of presenting the method of prayer. You could
present the method of prayer from a deeper perspective, by editing into your
writing all the best ways of describing and detailing the method of prayer,
and then integrate how you have integrated the method in your state of life.
What is important is that you provide each step of the prayer method a set
of full descriptions and instructional details.
Make your writing comprehensive for the good of your readers
As you develop the main part of your content - which consists of the steps
in the method of prayer - you can also contextualize your instructions,
by providing a background to your writing. You can also provide: the origin
of the prayer; its use and further development in the history of the Church;
how it is expressed and practiced in different schools of spirituality
(Benedictine, Augustinian, Carmelite, Franciscan, Dominican, and Ignatian);
and its relevance to Catholic life today. Presenting a method of prayer in
this manner is a very good informative writing technique. You can write
concisely, so that the focus of the writing will be about learning the prayer
itself.
Some ideas for developing content on prayer
There is a rich tradition of prayers and spiritual exercises in
Catholic devotions. Developing content on prayer depends on what
you want your readers to value in relation to the method of prayer
or spiritual exercise. If you want your readers to value their
relationship with God through the sacrament of reconciliation, then
teaching a specific method of examining one's conscience will be
good. Or, if you want your readers to value the Word of God in the
Scriptures, and apply its message in daily living, then you can teach
about lectio divina. Another idea is the Lenten spiritual
exercise of praying the Stations of the Cross. This will help your readers
value the self-sacrificing love of Christ, during the liturgical season of
Lent. Whatever method of prayer or spiritual exercise you want to
effectively write about, it will be good to highlight how the prayer
can help strengthen your readers' relationship with God.
Using an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Technique in developing
content on prayer
Not all methods of prayer or spiritual exercises are searched for.
To check if a method of prayer you want to develop as content in
your Catholic web site is popularly searched, you can research for
statistics at free online keywords tools. One popular prayer that is
often searched (according to Digitalpoint.com statistics, as of the writing
of this article) is the rosary. The search query "rosary" is searched by
people in the USA, 478.0 times a day. And the search query "how to pray the
rosary" is searched 150.0 times a day. This SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
technique is very useful in writing your Catholic articles and blog posts
on prayer. Using this SEO technique can make your article be a good
entry page to your site.
Summary
When developing web content on methods of prayer, you can achieve
good results and make your writing more effective, if you can practice
the following: 1. give descriptive details of how each step in the
prayer is prayed; 2. consult authoritative sources that teach the method
of prayer and edit their presentation styles to make your content
readable and understandable to a wider audience; 3. write comprehensively about
the method of prayer by including its origin, history, and expressions in
various schools of spirituality; 4. use a keyword statistics online
tool to know the popular search query actually used by searchers online
to search for a method of prayer.
Related resources
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