Tis_Bearself
Patron
I didn’t like who I had become. A lukewarm Catholic, like lukewarm soup. I wanted to be the way I was when I was a little girl who loved Jesus and Mary and the saints. Sin was ultimately boring and unrewarding.
If you're not miserable, you're doing it wrong?
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Curious11
Guest
So you’re saying without prayer you’re a lukewarm catholic? Your faith gets weaker?
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FollowChrist34
Guest
If I were you I would be looking over my shoulder. 
Can you think of a life experience that tested your faith? The loss of a child, parent, sibling (abrupt, unexpected, not through natural age)? Personal trauma or illness? Can you empathize with people who suffer? If you answer no to any and all these questions, I would say you still have a lot left to live, and believe. Though they say God fits the burden to the back. That has always really annoyed me though, particularly as a child - when God seemed to confuse me and Atlas for a number of years.
Can you think of a life experience that tested your faith? The loss of a child, parent, sibling (abrupt, unexpected, not through natural age)? Personal trauma or illness? Can you empathize with people who suffer? If you answer no to any and all these questions, I would say you still have a lot left to live, and believe. Though they say God fits the burden to the back. That has always really annoyed me though, particularly as a child - when God seemed to confuse me and Atlas for a number of years.Tis_Bearself
Patron
No, I’m fortunate that I always had a strong faith. It’s a gift that God gave me. Not everyone gets this.
However, my spiritual muscles eroded through lack of practice. Prayer is like exercise for the soul. Done regularly and with effort, it makes you spiritually stronger and benefits you, including in supernatural ways. Not praying is like having a spouse and not talking to them. Maybe you both still love each other and nobody files for divorce, but you’d be having a better, richer, more fun relationship if you talked regularly and were engaged with each other.
However, my spiritual muscles eroded through lack of practice. Prayer is like exercise for the soul. Done regularly and with effort, it makes you spiritually stronger and benefits you, including in supernatural ways. Not praying is like having a spouse and not talking to them. Maybe you both still love each other and nobody files for divorce, but you’d be having a better, richer, more fun relationship if you talked regularly and were engaged with each other.
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Curious11
Guest
I’m living proof of that.
The thing is, anyone who does physical exercise is gonna notice the benefits, not so with prayer I’m afraid. I really wish it was that simple, by which I do not mean “easy”.
I don’t see it as completely analogous. If I had to decipher everything my spouse tells me like we have to do with God, I’d probably end up pretty fed up with her.
Tis_Bearself
Patron
I notice benefits when I pray. It may be a learned art, noticing them.
I also don’t feel like i have much trouble understanding what God is saying, but maybe he makes it easy for me because I’m not too deep.
I also don’t feel like i have much trouble understanding what God is saying, but maybe he makes it easy for me because I’m not too deep.
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Curious11
Guest
You’re a fortunate woman
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AngelusDomini
Guest
Take heart from St Philip Neri - now there’s a saint full of joy!
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Kei
Guest
I don’t think you’re into mysticism so I really don’t think you need to worry about feeling totally consoled.
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Nap66
Guest
That answers your question. Faith. The reason certain people go through “the dark night” or spiritual dryness is because of lack of faith. I have lack of faith and I know I do. God and I are working on that, which includes much spiritual dryness, doubt and dark nights. Faith is what God wants you to have and the only way to get it (at least in my experience) is to go through the complete opposite in life until you give in and say “I have nothing but you God even if I never see, hear or touch you.” That is faith. To be born with strong faith truly is a gift and shows you are already advanced on your spiritual journey.
Tis_Bearself
Patron
I may be “into mysticism” but if so I wouldn’t be in it for the consolation. More like to boldly go where not everybody has gone before, etc.
Tis_Bearself
Patron
It’s a gift, but maybe he gave it to me because he knew I wasn’t strong enough to go through the other. Who knows. I just try to use it for good, but it creates a communications gap sometimes when I meet people who are really struggling with faith. I have pretty much excused myself out of the Apologetics section and that is a big reason why. I’m not equipped to help in that way.
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Brendan_64
Guest
Prayer is not about what you can gain from it or how you can benefit from it. It isn’t like going to the gym and working out in order to gain something.
Prayer is about deepening a relationship with God. For a relationship to grow, effort is required, and this involves giving to the other out of love.
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Curious11
Guest
I agree with you, I was telling Bear that i disagree with calling prayer “exercise”, at least not in the sense of being the equivalent of the soul of going to the gym
That may be true, but I also disagree with comparing a relationship with God to a relationship with another human.
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Curious11
Guest
Join the club.
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Edward_H
Guest
Good topic.
I don’t know of any spiritual writer who went so far as to say if you don’t have dryness you’re not doing it right.
I think it may be that all spiritual writers tend to pray a lot, likely more than the average person here…say, an hour or more a day, every day. Perhaps not in one hour increments, but likely in blocks of half hours.
This is serious prayer…day in, day out. This isn’t “vocal prayers” (the Rosary)…this is contemplative personal prayer, sometimes called mental prayer. Conversation with God.
And they recognize that not every day is going to be an easy day to pray…but they remember that the reason we pray isn’t for the feeling we get…but instead for the love of God…so when things get a bit dry, or cold, or difficult…they keep praying nonetheless out of love for code.
Dryness of course is different from lukewarmness. Lukewarmness is more dangerous to the interior life.
Prayer does take work…takes preparation, take order, finding content to bring to prayer, attention, abandonment, trust, pushing aside our feelings at many times.
I don’t know of any spiritual writer who went so far as to say if you don’t have dryness you’re not doing it right.
I think it may be that all spiritual writers tend to pray a lot, likely more than the average person here…say, an hour or more a day, every day. Perhaps not in one hour increments, but likely in blocks of half hours.
This is serious prayer…day in, day out. This isn’t “vocal prayers” (the Rosary)…this is contemplative personal prayer, sometimes called mental prayer. Conversation with God.
And they recognize that not every day is going to be an easy day to pray…but they remember that the reason we pray isn’t for the feeling we get…but instead for the love of God…so when things get a bit dry, or cold, or difficult…they keep praying nonetheless out of love for code.
Dryness of course is different from lukewarmness. Lukewarmness is more dangerous to the interior life.
Prayer does take work…takes preparation, take order, finding content to bring to prayer, attention, abandonment, trust, pushing aside our feelings at many times.
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TechieGuy
Guest
Perhaps you are like that other famous bear and are simply content to be content.
It isn’t a bad thing.
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UpUpAndAway
Guest
Actually, it isn’t. The dark night is not a penalty for the weak in faith. It is “every form of purification through which God leads persons whom he is calling to a high degree of sanctity.” It’s a gift from the Lord and should be viewed as such. How those who receive this gift react to it can be the result of lack of faith, but the mere reception of it is not the consequence of a lack of faith.
Dictionary : DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL General term in mystical theology to identify every form of purification through which God leads persons whom he is calling to a high degree of sanctity. It is called
www.catholicculture.org
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GLam1761
Guest
Humility and Fear of the Lord will get you there!
Trust me, I’ve been there, spiritual dryness, lack
of consolation in prayer, total absence of Joy of
my salvation. Try fasting, prayer(you learn to pray
only by praying) and alms-giving, these are methods
to STRENGTHEN faith and has been proven to
work if you persist in them. “You shall seek Me and
find Me if you search for Me w/ ALL your heart”
Jeremiah 29:13
Trust me, I’ve been there, spiritual dryness, lack
of consolation in prayer, total absence of Joy of
my salvation. Try fasting, prayer(you learn to pray
only by praying) and alms-giving, these are methods
to STRENGTHEN faith and has been proven to
work if you persist in them. “You shall seek Me and
find Me if you search for Me w/ ALL your heart”
Jeremiah 29:13
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Brendan_64
Guest
But it is a relationship, a deeply personal relationship, and we need to do our bit to work at deepening that relationship (through prayer and adoration).
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