Writing is rewarding but it also has its hazards, at least for those who write for publication.  Perhaps the most discouraging pitfall is the expected response from your audience that never comes.  So often one can write an article that gives great satisfaction for expressing something significant. It is anticipated that the response from some readers will confirm this conviction.

After adequate interval with no response of any kind, one can feel that it might as well have been dropped into the Grand Canyon for all the effect it had on the audience as far as you know. And that kind of a non-response is not unusual.

Source: storify.com

In a public presentation like a parish homily, one can take some satisfaction from the apparent attention of the audience including a subdued chuckle to a bit of humour as well as spontaneous or solicited remarks when the service is over.

In writing one has to rely on a conviction that your thoughts set down on paper have worth and will reach a larger audience than the spoken word. How big an audience depends on the number of readers of the publication. Unless you write for just your own satisfaction like amateur painters who do not produce for sale of their paintings.

I often received poetry or verse submissions at the Messenger which we did not accept for publication at that time. To soften the blow of the return of a treasured verse, I said that the author should continue to write for one’s personal satisfaction. The same can be said for those who are not writing for remuneration or for a living.

Jesuit Sources

Years ago, the late celebrated Jesuit priest, Daniel Lord, S.J. of St. Louis, Missouri, decided to write a new pamphlet each month. In one of those pamphlets, he wrote about the apostolate of writing. He painted a word picture of St. Paul’s reaction to modern printing for the dissemination of the Gospel if it had been available to him in his day.

I can’t recall how Father Lord expressed St. Paul’s possible reaction but it revealed Father Lord’s own conviction about the power of the press. It was a conviction that became embedded in my own writer’s soul ever since.

I know another Jesuit writer who likewise was convinced about the importance of writing. His articles appeared in the Canadian Messenger for many years until his untimely death. May there be many more in the future for there is still the need and moreover there is an even greater opportunity for dissemination world-wide through the internet.