Faith like a cold clammy corpse

[scrupulousrvrt]

My faith has been dry and cold like a walking corpse that just won’t quit. I’ve tried to find in other things that the faith is lacking but I just can’t find anything joyful anymore. My living days are nothing but sadness and despondency, with despair creeping around every corner. If my prayers aren’t cold and dry they are, at best, lukewarm and left wanting. Everyday I dread waking up from sleep. Sometimes I wish I were so fervent in my faith that no sacrifice, tragedy or inconvenience would bother me or crush me. My Faith Life has hit rock bottom and while I can still pretend to be joyful so as to hide the fact I feel dead inside, it will never hide the pain of feeling like I was born to be damned.
Anybody have experience with these feelings?

 

[Crusaderbear]

I have felt frustrated, sometimes even borderline hopeless. But I would like to believe my faith has remained strong. I’ll pray you can work through your current low spot.

 

[tawny]

Praying to the Holy Spirit to give you guidance, direction, strength, fortitude & wisdom in your time of need.

 

[Beryllos]

Have you seen your physician about this? There might be a medical cause.

I’m praying for you, that the Holy Spirit inspire and guide you, and bring you peace and joy.

 

[Rosebud77]

What a dreadful and ugly thread title.That is not faith but despair.Faith is a light in the darkness so please do not insult it and yes, seek help from human sources… and it is rare I say that,
Dreading waking has nothing to do with despair even but is depression and darkeness and you need LIGHT.

 

[Regina7]

I’ve been there, my friend. The funny thing is that, at that time, I was heavily involved in my parish, so I felt like a total farce.

God is still there, even though you don’t feel Him.

Have you read about St. Therese the Little Flower or St. Therese of Calcutta? Both saints have experienced this “dark night of the soul.” It’s also called a period of desolation (I think St. Ignatius coined that, so check him out too). I was comforted to know that holy saints experienced that same dry, rough patch.

 

[Jesus_123]

My faith has been dry and cold like . . .

+You may well be experiencing what many Christians . . . *in varying degrees over the centuries *. . . have experienced in their walk with our . . . Wonderful God . . . which is called the . . . “dark night of the soul” . . . which God sometimes allows His children . . . at one time or another . . . to experience . . . and it is actually a rather normal … . “trial” . . . of faith . . .

Essentially . . . it lies in the reality that genuine love is a . . . CHOICE . . . not just emotion . . . which emotion can carry us away in all kinds of . . . “not marvelous” . . . directions at times if not disciplined by God’s Love with caution and reason . . .

The essence of this spiritual guidance is that one needs to discipline and detach one’s **heart **and emotions from . . . anything . . . *people/places/experiences and/or things *. . . that might take precedence over one’s ** heart’s ** choosing its **first love **. . . which should always . . . be God and His Ways . . . and our consecration to Him . . .

When the temptation . . . (and it is just a temptation) . . . to sadness, desondency and/or despair knocks at the door of your soul . . . as **God’s **beloved child . . . simply mentally . . . (or out loud when possible) . . . say the wonderful little Spirit-filled prayer . . . “Jesus . . . please answer the door . . . thank You Lord!” . . . and refuse to allow these feelings to gain entrance . . . at the beginning you may be rather constantly praying this great little prayer . . . but you will be absolutely . . . amazed . . . how wonderfully well it does work . . .

:bible1:
“Casting all your care upon
HIM;
for He careth

for you.”
- 1 Peter 5:7

:coffeeread:
Dark Night of the Soul

The term **“dark night (of the soul)” is used in Christianity **for a spiritual crisis in a journey towards union with God, like that described by Saint John of the Cross.

Dark Night of the Soul (Spanish: La noche oscura del alma)

is the title of a poem written by 16th century Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic Saint John of the Cross, as well as of a treatise he wrote later, commenting on the poem. The expression has since become a metaphor used to describe a phase in a person’s spiritual life, marked by a sense of loneliness and desolation … Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, a 19th-century French Carmelite, underwent similar experience. Centering on doubts about the afterlife, she reportedly told her fellow nuns, "If you only knew what darkness I am plunged into."

While this crisis is presumed to be temporary in nature, it may be extended. The “dark night” of Saint Paul of the Cross in the 18th century lasted 45 years, from which he ultimately recovered. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, according to letters released in 2007, “may be the most extensive such case on record”, lasting from 1948 almost up until her death in 1997, with only brief interludes of relief between [2] … a friend of Mother Teresa for a large part of her life, claims that **“the darkness left” **towards the end of her life.

In the** Christian **tradition, one who has developed a strong prayer life and consistent devotion to God suddenly finds traditional prayer extremely difficult and unrewarding for an extended period of time during this **“dark night.” **The individual may feel as though God has suddenly abandoned them or that his or her prayer life has collapsed. In the most pronounced cases, belief is lost in the very existence of God and/or validity of religion …

**Rather than resulting in devastation, however, the dark night is perceived by mystics and others to be a blessing in disguise, whereby the individual is stripped (in the dark night of the senses) of the spiritual ecstasy associated with acts of virtue. Although the individual may for a time seem to outwardly decline in their practices of virtue, they in reality become more virtuous, as they are being virtuous less for the spiritual rewards (ecstasies in the cases of the first night) obtained and more out of a true love for God. It is this purgatory, a purgation of the soul, that brings purity and union with God.

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- Wikipedia​

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*God’s blessings be with you . . . *

. . . all for Jesus+
. . . thank You Blessed Lord+​

​

 

[MaryT777]

Have you seen your physician about this? There might be a medical cause.

I’m praying for you, that the Holy Spirit inspire and guide you, and bring you peace and joy.

Amen, and I completely agree a visit to your physician might be a good plan; perhaps he/she can help.

Mary.

 

[Blue_Rose]

+You may well be experiencing what many Christians . . . *in varying degrees over the centuries *. . . have experienced in their walk with our . . . Wonderful God . . . which is called the . . . “dark night of the soul” . . . which God sometimes allows His children . . . at one time or another . . . to experience . . . and it is actually a rather normal … . “trial” . . . of faith . . .

Essentially . . . it lies in the reality that genuine love is a . . . CHOICE . . . not just emotion . . . which emotion can carry us away in all kinds of . . . “not marvelous” . . . directions at times if not disciplined by God’s Love with caution and reason . . .

The essence of this spiritual guidance is that one needs to discipline and detach one’s **heart **and emotions from . . . anything . . . *people/places/experiences and/or things *. . . that might take precedence over one’s ** heart’s ** choosing its **first love **. . . which should always . . . be God and His Ways . . . and our consecration to Him . . .

When the temptation . . . (and it is just a temptation) . . . to sadness, desondency and/or despair knocks at the door of your soul . . . as **God’s **beloved child . . . simply mentally . . . (or out loud when possible) . . . say the wonderful little Spirit-filled prayer . . . “Jesus . . . please answer the door . . . thank You Lord!” . . . and refuse to allow these feelings to gain entrance . . . at the beginning you may be rather constantly praying this great little prayer . . . but you will be absolutely . . . amazed . . . how wonderfully well it does work . . .

:bible1:
“Casting all your care upon
HIM;
for He careth

for you.”
- 1 Peter 5:7

​

*God’s blessings be with you . . . *

. . . all for Jesus​

+
. . . thank You Blessed Lord+​

YES! I’ve experienced this dark night of the soul for 2 years! I’m just coming out of it! I went through a conversion where I felt God’s presence and felt so loved a number of years ago, then for 2 years felt abandoned. Everything went wrong in my life, I became depressed and felt empty during prayer.
I feel God is with me again now and I feel his love and goodness again! It has helped me spirituality, hard to explain but I feel stronger. We can persevere through this dark time and come out into the light when God thinks we are ready or we can give up and stay in that darkness. You choose!