Spiritual dryness or something else?

[annie17on12]

I have been dealing with a bout of really bad spiritual dryness recently. I find it spiritually painful to pray. I manage to send a few words up to God but, I cannot manage to say even a rosary. This is really strange for me because I usually love praying. It is a source of living water for me. But, now I am finding it so so difficult to get the words out. And if I do say a prayer, I feel like it is so empty and has no heart put into it. I have asked God to allow this to pass already but I am still struggling. Please help me!

 

[Took2Long]

The best advice I can give is to attend Mass as much as possible. We are not meant to be able to do all things ourselves. If you could attend daily Mass, you may find God can do for you what you are unable to do for yourself.

 

[littlestsouls2]

A priest/confessor is the best person to ask, as you can be very honest with them and provide all relevant details, without which it is difficult to provide a grounded opinion.

In saying that, however, if you love prayer, it could well be that this dryness is permitted by God in order to attach you more securely to His will, to purify your intentions, to increase your humility etc.

God often permits dryness as a means of detaching us from our self-will, and kindling in us a greater yearning for union with Him.

Here are some quotes that I hope will encourage you:

“Prayer consists not in many words, but in the fervor of desire, which raises the soul to God by the knowledge of its own nothingness and the divine goodness.” - Bl. Henry Suso

“A single act of resignation to the divine will in what it ordains contrary to our desires, is of more value than a hundred thousand successes conformable to our will and taste.” - St. Vincent de Paul

Take care and God bless.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Yes, I’m too feeling spiritual dryness, but I try to accept it as a righteous living sacrifice to God.

Matthew 5:3 RSV
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

LOVE!

 

[tawny]

I have been dealing with a bout of really bad spiritual dryness recently. I find it spiritually painful to pray. I manage to send a few words up to God but, I cannot manage to say even a rosary. This is really strange for me because I usually love praying. It is a source of living water for me. But, now I am finding it so so difficult to get the words out. And if I do say a prayer, I feel like it is so empty and has no heart put into it. I have asked God to allow this to pass already but I am still struggling. Please help me!

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

 

[FCEGM]

I have been dealing with a bout of really bad spiritual dryness recently. I find it spiritually painful to pray. I manage to send a few words up to God but, I cannot manage to say even a rosary. This is really strange for me because I usually love praying. It is a source of living water for me. But, now I am finding it so so difficult to get the words out. And if I do say a prayer, I feel like it is so empty and has no heart put into it. I have asked God to allow this to pass already but I am still struggling. Please help me!

Tawny, it’s helpful in times of spiritual dryness to remember that God doesn’t want us to reach out to Him only in times when we are feeling spritually “full”, but most of all when we are feeling empty. This is because He wants us to love Him not for what He can do for us, but because of Who He Is. IOW, do we love Him because of His favors to us, or because He is our Father?

Also, in times of dryness if we see that despite this dryness we are growing in virtue (more charitable to others, growing more patient, being less judgmental, still faithful to our attendance at Mass, regular Confession, etc.) we can know that God is still at work in us even though He is weaning us from our spiritual “highs” to which we’ve become attached.

If you haven’t already read it, St. Therese of Lisieux’s Story of a Soul (John Clarke translation preferred) would be helpful.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

It sounds very much like you’re experiencing The Dark Night of the Soul, which I rarely see in this forum.

Most, suffer from a Dark Night of Sense, but where you have had a love and richness in prayer before, this could be the Dark Night of the Soul.

St. John of the Cross, “The Dark Night of the Soul,” could probably help, but in all, just keep praying and ask God for the grace to help you through it.

Jim

 

[SnowAngels]

Praying for you!

 

[frobert]

I have been dealing with a bout of really bad spiritual dryness recently. I find it spiritually painful to pray. I manage to send a few words up to God but, I cannot manage to say even a rosary. This is really strange for me because I usually love praying. It is a source of living water for me. But, now I am finding it so so difficult to get the words out. And if I do say a prayer, I feel like it is so empty and has no heart put into it. I have asked God to allow this to pass already but I am still struggling. Please help me!

If prayer makes you feel empty try a different approach.

Try spiritual poetry:

“Where the lips are silent the heart has a thousand tongues.”
― Rumi, The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“You could string a hundred endless days together,
My soul would find no comfort from this pain.
You laugh at my tale? You may be educated
But you haven’t learned to love till you’re insane”
― Rumi, The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

Try music
Open the Eyes of my Heart

The above are examples of what I found for my personal worship, they may not work for you, the point is find something that works for you and not against you.