How do you feel after prayer

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Anglewannabe

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Just curious, but does anyone feel immediately different after prayer. I must admit that often, I end my prayers because I become tired. To us an analogy. If one is taking a demanding course at school, one can not study for hours on end. After a while, one 's brain gets saturated and they need a break. Sometimes I feel like that while praying, I think I am going to fall asleep.

The reason I ask is because yesterday, I noticed something. I was talking to a priest and he was offering me secular advice. I told him that I needed to put God first and I did not think the secular advice he was giving me was good. When I came home, I talked on the phone with a devout Catholic telling her that I was disappointed this priest could not see putting God first is the way to go. After having a 15 minute talk about putting God first, for someone reason, I felt a peace I have not felt in a while. I am wondering if that was perhaps a form of prayer? Or a coincidence

Angie
 
i’m an agnostic, somewhat, but i love to say grace with others, and i love saying the rosary with a group when i can find one. There’s something in my heart and soul that is satisfied, comforted after these prayers.

Alone, i feel silly when i pray as if i’m talking to myself or to an imaginary friend.
 
Honestly I feel no different after prayer. Which makes me wonder sometimes if I am doing it right or not.
 
Anglewannabe said:
…yesterday, I noticed something. I was talking to a priest and he was offering me secular advice. I told him that I needed to put God first and I did not think the secular advice he was giving me was good. When I came home, I talked on the phone with a devout Catholic telling her that I was disappointed this priest could not see putting God first is the way to go. After having a 15 minute talk about putting God first, for someone reason, I felt a peace I have not felt in a while. I am wondering if that was perhaps a form of prayer? Or a coincidence
Angie
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Talking with someone was your prayer to Him through another. 👍

I think every communication with Him is a type of prayer…whether formal, informal; just saying Thank You!! to Him that someone nearby pulled me away from an oncoming car was a prayer…
And I often fall asleep on Him. What better way to be comforted!
(He knows I’ll get back to Him, too…) 😃
 
Anglewannabe said:
. After having a 15 minute talk about putting God first, for someone reason, I felt a peace I have not felt in a while. I am wondering if that was perhaps a form of prayer? Or a coincidence

Angie
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I think the peace was an answer to what you were questioning.
 
I don’t feel anything particular after praying. Well, I must experience peace because I go to sleep as I pray! (I like to say my prayers as I lie in my bed at night.)

Of course, there are the results I get when I pray to, say, St. Anthony…Then I am grateful! And I know my prayers have been answered.

But many times, I feel no different after I pray. I just have faith that my prayers are heard.
 
I highly suggest you read A Time for God by Fr. Jacques Philippe. All of his books are excellent, but this one helps guide the reader to a stronger interior life and meditative prayer.

Prayer is not about how one feels, either before or after you pray. It is about taking the time to be with God. Don’t get hung up on how you feel, that is a trap. The saints often felt the dark night of the soul (emotionally dry) when praying. Focus on your love for God. God bless!
 
I feel, physically, very relaxed and soothed. I feel at peace with myself.
 
I’m reading Scott Hahn’s “Reasons To Believe,” and here’s a cogent quote:

“What I needed to learn was that the laws of God, like the law of gravity, do not depend upon how I feel about them. They are inexorable, and God has willed them to be knowable, even in the absence of strong emotion or apparent miracles.”

:love::clapping:
 
I second the recommendation for “A Time for God” by Fr. Jacques Philippe.

When you feel peaceful after praying, that peace is God’s gift to you. It is the same when you feel joyful and close to God. this is known as consolation. To learn more about it check this link!

ignatianspirituality.com/making-good-decisions/discernment-of-spirits/introduction-to-discernment-of-spirits/

I agree that we should not get attached to feelings and emotions in prayer. These are God’s gifts to us but as gifts they should draw us closer to Giver. When we start growing closer to God, He gives us consolation. Over time, as we mature, he takes away consolation so that we learn to love Him for Who He is and not for what He gives us.
 
Monicad said:
Feelings are not an accurate way to measure how close you are growing to God.

In fact it is during dry spells that I believe my spiritual life really has a chance to grow. Anyone can devote themselves to prayer when they feel all warm and fuzzy inside and go away with a deep sense of peace! However it takes faith to keep praying when your prayer life seems dull and you are distracted and bored and God seems so very far away. I believe God sees us in our struggles and is happy when he sees us remain faithful even when we don’t feel like it. Hope this helps a little.
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^ This!

And even more so, when your mind and heart do not experience any consolation from God AT ALL. Bl. Mother Teresa evidently spent a good portion of her life in that “dark night of the soul” where she felt and heard nothing from God.

“Where is my faith? Even deep down … there is nothing but emptiness and darkness … If there be God—please forgive me. When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul … How painful is this unknown pain—I have no Faith. Repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal, … What do I labor for? If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true.[96]”

Imagine going through that internally yet still working as hard as she did on behalf of the poorest ones!
 
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