Jesuit Media Lab
A New Playground for Spiritual Creatives
My friends at the Jesuit Conference have been working on a big project behind the scenes, and this week it’s finally out in the world! Jesuit Media Lab is a gathering place and inspiration hub for people doing creative work with a spiritual lens. There are essays and podcast episodes, online courses and video lectures, art and fiction—all linked to the Ignatian tradition of finding God in all things. And the best part of all is that submissions are open—you can pitch your work and join us in community.
I’m on the team as blogger in residence, and I’ll have two pieces there each month: one essay on creativity and spirituality, and one response to an article on the arts and culture published elsewhere.
This month, my essay is on the spirituality of pitching your work. I know, it’s not my favorite part of being a writer either! I don’t like making myself so vulnerable to rejection, to waiting and waiting for a response, and to all the questions I can’t help but ask myself as I click “submit.”
“Is this any good? Am I any good?”
But I still do really believe that this is a place where God can meet us. You can read it here.
In other exciting news, I’ll be putting that PhD to good use and leading a course on Russian literature and Ignatian spirituality in January. We’ll be reading short stories and essays and trying our hand at several types of spiritual writing. I’m just so looking forward to it. If you’re interested, you can find out more and sign up here.
Most importantly, though, I know that some of you are writers and artists and podcasters and videographers, and I hope that this space will be encouraging to you (and that you’ll pitch your work!)
A Few Hopeful Things
-I don’t know if there’s really any hope to be found amidst the horrors of the ongoing war, but this week it helped to see our cries and phone calls and marches as prayers. Here is a poem I wrote for us about it.
-Advent approaches! You can get my free St. Óscar Romero devotional here, and I’ll put a roundup of other free Advent resources together for you in the coming weeks.
-Honestly, the wild flame colors of the autumn leaves are sustaining me, and I’m trying so hard to savor them before they are gone. What a needed reminder that goodness still grows.
Until next week,
Cameron
I *needed* to read your piece on pitching, but I didn't know it until I read it. Thank you for such a thoughtfully crafted, approachable and spiritual essay.