Dealing with doubts during prayer?

[Colorad007]

I struggle with scrupulosity a great deal, and one issue I really have is perpetual doubts during prayer. When I’m praying I am constantly bombarded with thoughts against faith, to the point that I feel almost completely enwrapped in blasphemies… Of course, I don’t really believe that stuff, but it’s hard to continue a Rosary or any kind of prayer when you feel like you’re not really even praying.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Can you relate to this at all? Do you just keep praying even when it feels like your heart is a million miles away?

 

[UpUpAndAway]

Can you relate to this at all? Do you just keep praying even when it feels like your heart is a million miles away?

Yes and yes.

I am in the fourth month of, to paraphrase my spiritual director, a spiritual desolation so acute it borders on a dark night of the soul. I keep praying anyway. My SD said persevering in prayer is crucial in surviving desolation.

Since you are “constantly bombarded with thoughts against the faith,” I recommend praying the Chaplet of St. Michael daily. As I am frequently attacked spiritually, I routinely start my day with this. Some days I pray it more than once. Others find it more beneficial to pray the chaplet at bedtime.

I’ll be praying for you. God bless

 

[MarcoPolo]

These saintly quotes have helped me.
*“Blessed Angela of Foligno says that the prayer most acceptable to God is that which we force and constrain ourselves to say. Such is the prayer we turn to not for the pleasure found in it or because of our own inclination but purely to please God.” - St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life

As for my outer man, it too, since the spirit does not respond to it, is so besieged that it finds nothing to refresh it on the earth if it follow its human instinct. No comfort is left it save God, who works all this by love and very mercifully in satisfaction of His justice. To perceive this gives my outer man great peace and happiness, but happiness which neither lessens my pain nor weakens the siege. (St. Catherine of Genoa, Treatise on Purgatory, chap. 17)*As Bl. Angela says, there is a difficulty, sometimes, when praying, and yet the prayer made through pain must have great power. And as St. Catherine says, to understand strife when spirits our low, and that only God can cure the pain, can bring a certain joy, but the pain remains. Therefore, our faith is not measurable by the grief and struggles we incur.

 

[sirach2v4]

I struggle with scrupulosity a great deal, and one issue I really have is perpetual doubts during prayer. When I’m praying I am constantly bombarded with thoughts against faith, to the point that I feel almost completely enwrapped in blasphemies… Of course, I don’t really believe that stuff, but it’s hard to continue a Rosary or any kind of prayer when you feel like you’re not really even praying.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Can you relate to this at all? Do you just keep praying even when it feels like your heart is a million miles away?

I just finished reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church today. There is a section on prayer, about 70 pages. It covers problems in prayer, like distractions and doubts, too, as I recall. I will have to go back and look up what it says.

My recommendation: abandon yourself to prayer. Abandon yourself to prayer beyond doubting. One thing I had to do myself in the last six months was to remind myself that I am not just reciting words, but that I am speaking to someone. Make sure that in prayer you are speaking to someone.

If you pray privately in a room by yourself, allow yourself to at least whisper the prayer words, and listen to yourself, to the prayer. That may help you focus and avoid distractions.

When I go to Mass on Sunday, I now take industrial earplugs, to drown out all the people talking, laughing, etc. in church before Mass.

The CCC reminds us that we should be in prayer constantly, by our words or actions. That section on prayer is really good to read. good pointers there.

The CCC points out that if you searched all the prayers in the Bible (including Psalms), you would not find anything that is not expressed in the Lord’s prayer. There’s about 12 pages or so in the CCC on the Lord’s prayer. If you read nothing else in the CCC, read that.

You must work on your faith and spirituality. It is not just all passive infusion from God.

One last thing, Pope Benedict wrote in something I read recently, and it’s in the CCC as well, the words of the angel to Mary was not exactly “Hail, Mary” it is better translated as
“Rejoice, Mary.” So you may want to train yourself to say the Hail Mary more accurately

Rejoice, Mary, Full of Grace, the LORD is with Thee !!
Blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus."

Remember, you are talking to somebody. If you need a kick in the pants, here it is: Show
some respect.

 

[fred_conty]

I struggle with scrupulosity a great deal, and one issue I really have is perpetual doubts during prayer. When I’m praying I am constantly bombarded with thoughts against faith, to the point that I feel almost completely enwrapped in blasphemies… Of course, I don’t really believe that stuff, but it’s hard to continue a Rosary or any kind of prayer when you feel like you’re not really even praying.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Can you relate to this at all? Do you just keep praying even when it feels like your heart is a million miles away?

If you are distracted and then realize it, return to what you should be thinking or saying.
This is an act of fidelity to the will of God. We are not immune to distractions, and they can benefit us as long as we are undaunting in returning to our prayer. God sees our efforts and is pleased.

Another thought is that prayer is denying ourselves. Even tho distracted, we still deny ourselves what we want to do and are spending effort and time to do what God wants. This is pleasing to God.

Prayer seems better when we are isolated and free of noise. Early morning is good since the mind is not tired and can function better.

Just a thought.