Is it ok to stop praying for awhile?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John337
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
John337 said:
Could it be that by not getting what I pray for God saying its not right for you? I will be 33 next month and I have no companion,no kids,no friends nothing.
Click to expand...
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matt 6;33
 
Many times when God wants to lead us to a greater holiness he will take away the consolations that we have been receiving. We may then feel discouraged during our time of prayer. This is really the time that you are growing.
 
NO:slightly_smiling_face:

My friend, God IS on you’re side; never tire of seeking His help.

BUT understand that God has options to our prayers:

He can say:

Yes

No

Not now

And even when He does answer AND HE WILL, it MAY NOT BE in the manner you requested; so it is BEST to end ALL prayers with: thy will, not my will be done dear lord. Help me to accept YOUR will for me.

Pray very much my friend

Patrick
 
When in spiritual difficulty, it’s important to persevere in prayer. You may think you sound like a broken record, but God doesn’t think so. I know how hard it is to go on praying when you feel like your prayers are falling on deaf ears. Go on anyway. He is there.

Why doesn’t God answer? He does. Sometimes his answer isn’t the one we want. But God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what we really need.

It can be very tough to hang in there when the pain is so great. Speaking to a priest (or spiritual director, when I had one) helped me immensely. At particularly grueling times, I would not have been able to continue without someone to help carry the load. Don’t suffer by yourself when you don’t have to.

Praying for you. God bless 🙏
 
Last edited:
Hi @De_Maria,

I just wanted to tell you that I think that this is just a lovely suggestion.

I do the same thing, and I call it just sitting there and kind of “soaking things in,” in a “spiritual sense.” You’re not really being passive, but I think maybe that it’s just a different way of praying in a sense, by quietly listening to some hymns or beautiful instrumental hymns.

Sometimes I just like to listen to instrumental versions of hymns, without any voices. I don’t want to sing myself, but rather I just want to sit and think about our Lord and our Saints and other Heavenly things. 🙂
 
Keep praying. Don’t give up… 🙏
We don’t pray always to ask anything. We pray for him because everyday were waking up and allowing us to see the beautiful world😊 Godbless…
 
Read the parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18). We are taught by our Lord to petition incessantly. Paul also admonishes us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5). It is not about achieving the results we desire - it is about sustaining an on-going, loving relationship with God.

He knows our future, yet chooses not to reveal it for good reason: knowing His will, and Him knowing that our will naturally opposes his, we would ruin his plan for us. To paraphrase Saint Teresa of Calcutta, we are not called to be successful, but rather, faithful. That especially includes prayer.

Spiritually, to stop praying is as to stop breathing in the physical sense.
 
Last edited:
Prayer is our “life-line” to God and it anchors
our faith. That said, the evil one, the one who
is the spirit at work in the lives of the “children
of disobedience” Eph. 2:2 is the one saying
this LIE to your ears, don’t swallow it!!

There IS a difference tho between praying in
our OWN strength and praying “in the Spirit”
Eph. 6:18. The Holy Spirit has been given to
us believers TO HELP US pray!!
Jesus, Himself learned the difference between
the flesh and the Spirit: “the flesh is weak, but
the Spirit is willing.” Matt. 26:41
 
Last edited:
Our whole life should be a prayer to God. When we stop praying, God doesn’t send us as many graces. Prayer is very important.
 
A simple, “please Lord, help me get through another day…” is a prayer, simple, short, to the point. Keep Him in mind every day!

You may simply feel a little self conscious or even a little guilty always asking for God to do all sorts of minutia for you. Understandable.

At least put in a few prayers (preferably a lot of prayers…) for others and their problems. You will be surprised how it improves your own life!
 
With stated consideration of the Early Church Fathers, (which is testimony of luminous Sacred Tradition) the council fathers of Trent brought light and decreed, “the whole Christian life” ought to be “a perpetual penance”[ Heinrich-Denzinger, 43rd Ed., n. 1694]. “The interior penance of the Christian can be expressed in many and various ways. Scripture and the Fathers insist above all on three forms, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others.”[Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1434] “There are three things, my brethren, by which faith stands firm, devotion remains constant, and virtue endures. They are prayer, fasting and mercy (almsgiving). Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy (almsgiving) receives. Prayer, mercy and fasting: these three are one, and they give life to each other. Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them, they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing.”[St. Peter Chrysologus, bishop and Church Father, Sermo 43; Tue of the Third Week of Lent, Office of Readings, The Divine Office]

You may not be ready now, to benefit from a life of actual prayer, that is with fasting and almsgiving. But keep in mind that you have to beg the Lord through the Blessed mother to repent inside with joy and ease. Conversion to God is always joyful and sweet. However, it comes as a big relief. “Man is a beggar before God” (CCC 2559)

See The necessity of prayer and the power of prayer by Saint Alphonsus: Necessity and Power of Prayer - St. Alphonsus Ligouri
 
never stop praying. Praying is essential to life and should never ever be stopped.
 
I want to correct myself. I was misled by what I read from the Church’s Divine Office.
Concerning prayer, fasting, and alms and the nothingness of those actions if there is an omission in anyone of them.

Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote, “prayer is thin when not accompanied by fasting. And it is not because prayer is the raising of the mind to God, but the more the flesh is strengthened, the more prayer is weakened: ‘prayer with fasting is good’ (Tob 12:8).” (Matt, C. 6 L. 4, 605)

I would conclude that to those who had strengthen their flesh with a significant negligence in fasting (good fasting with the proper intention, justice, and understanding) have weakened their prayers to some extent that, as St. Peter Chrysologus says in the Church’s Divine Office, that their prayers could be “nothing”.
 
Last edited:
When you don’t feel like praying, or when you feel God is far away is when you should pray the most. It doesn’t have to be a a lengthy, formal prayer. It can be a simple “Lord, help me”. There are times when I feel “dry” in prayer (or maybe a little discouraged) and I just say “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” or I recite the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinnner.

This period will pass for you.
 
When I pray and don’t feel I’m in the Spirit,
I ASK the Lord, what should I deny myself
in order to get thru to You, He usually ANSWERS
by indicating some fleshly desire(s) which stand
IN THE WAY of true communication w/ Him!!
 
“God does many good things in a man which the man does not do; but a man does none which God does not cause him to do” (St. Augustine, Against Two Letters of the Pelagians; 2, 9, 21)

I cannot merit to receive merit. But we may listen with humility and benefit from his presence. I ought to remember to receive good things from God from my decision to turn to him though he caused it, I partake in the powers of my soul to undergo it. And I will be accountable for the restrain I placed on my passion of hope that ran against right reason. In other words an act of humility on a proud person as I.

“God loves all living things. He does not love in the same way as we do, for our will does not make things good” (Summa Theologica I, q. 20, a.2)
 
John3375d
“I thought it says in the bible people that have blemishes couldn’t serve or present anything to God.”

That’s what the Dead Sea Scroll holy people in Qumran thought as they did not allow anyone with a blemish to join their ranks. They thought they were so holy and that the Holy Spirit would come to them. Instead the Holy Spirit came to Jesus’ apostles and the Qumrans were wiped off the face of the earth by the Romans.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top