Struggling with my spiritual life

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Whatever you do, don’t make ie my mistake, but do keep praying every day. Even if you feel fatigued. It is important.
 
Eddie18 said:
I am simply telling you from a lifetime of experience that the daily Rosary is essential - it may not be “required” but it is HIGHLY recommended by past popes and in the lives of this Saints. I have found, and I can speak for many, that if you are not turning to Our Lady through the Rosary every day as she said to do at Fatima, things will NOT go well in your spiritual life.

I am a lifetime Catholic and it has ALWAYS been recommended to receive the Sacrament of Confession at least monthly. They say the average man falls 7 times per day, so even monthly confession is not enough for some people. I know people that go weekly. If you read in the lives of the Saints, they went as frequently as possible. It sounds like you need to add some regular spiritual reading, especially on the lives of the Saints, because you seem a bit misinformed.
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I’m telling you from MY lifetime experiences that it almost ruined my faith life and insinuating it’s mandatory is incredibly harmful. Is it typically rewarding for many? Yes. But not all.

Same with Confession. Is it advisable? Again yes. But there is a line between advisable and mandatory. The church, in it’s wisdome, set the minimum manditory practices. It’s not me. It is important that the OP be aware of the actual minimums and not made-up ones.
 
Perseverance and faith. Try going to Adoration on a daily basis for 15 minutes.
 
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
The Rosary is not required and does nothing for my spirituality. In fact, I did it way too long and it affected my spirituality because I needed something different.

Also confession is only mandated yearly. Pliling on things that are not church rules are not going to help anyone.
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Maybe the answer is less prayer and sacraments? Seriously, 20 minutes of daily prayer with meditations on the life of Jesus and monthly confession is not “piling on”, it is a common sense way to keep faith, hope, and charity alive through the dryness.
 
EXdrinker said:
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Xanthippe_Voorhees:
The Rosary is not required and does nothing for my spirituality. In fact, I did it way too long and it affected my spirituality because I needed something different.

Also confession is only mandated yearly. Pliling on things that are not church rules are not going to help anyone.
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Maybe the answer is less prayer and sacraments? Seriously, 20 minutes of daily prayer with meditations on the life of Jesus and monthly confession is not “piling on”, it is a common sense way to keep faith, hope, and charity alive through the dryness.
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Maybe the answer is understanding what the minimum is and getting that accomplished. If one is struggling with weekly Mass it is FAR better than that is achieved than any amount of UNNECESSARY daily Rosaries or Monthly confessions.

Weekly Mass achieved? Annual Confession achieved?

GREAT

THEN, and only then, add things–not before.
 
What I mentioned is not “made up”, it is the traditional recommendation. The Rosary is the most recommended prayer in the history of the Church. The popes and Saints have been recommending it for centuries. Never in my life have I EVER seen it be harmful, so you must be doing something wrong.

Our minimum duties according to the message of Fatima:
  1. Stop Offending God
  2. Prayer (5 decades of the Rosary daily)
  3. Make Sacrifices (in reparation for the offenses committed against God and to save sinners)
  4. Wear the Brown Scapular
  5. Communions of Reparation on the Five First Saturdays (to gain the grace of final perseverance at one’s death and to console Mary’s wounded Heart)
 
You are incorrectly concluding that doing less is better when you have spiritual dryness. Actually the opposite is true. When I have spiritual dryness, I pick up a book on one of the lives of the Saints. These stories inspire you to do more and it kills the spiritual dryness.
 
I heard that Saint Catherine would pray more fervently when something was going than when when things were okay.
 
Eddie18 said:
What I mentioned is not “made up”, it is the traditional recommendation. The Rosary is the most recommended prayer in the history of the Church. The popes and Saints have been recommending it for centuries. Never in my life have I EVER seen it be harmful, so you must be doing something wrong.

Our minimum duties according to the message of Fatima:
  1. Stop Offending God
  2. Prayer (5 decades of the Rosary daily)
  3. Make Sacrifices (in reparation for the offenses committed against God and to save sinners)
  4. Wear the Brown Scapular
  5. Communions of Reparation on the Five First Saturdays (to gain the grace of final perseverance at one’s death and to console Mary’s wounded Heart)
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Fatima is not a requirement of the church.

Never has been, almost never will be.

I’m “doing it wrong” that’s laughable.

The Rosary is one devotion among many. One that doesn’t fit my prayer style. It’s not bad or wrong that it doesn’t do it for me. I have many others, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Lectio Divina and even the Divine Office at times. It is what works for me.

Minimum is set by the Churhc itself, not by apparitions.
 
The OP is doing more than the bare minimum, just struggling with it. Monthly confession and daily rosary are a good solid regimen to keep faith through dryness. This person has a real dryness and is asking for helpful ideas not asking for someone to go easy on them.
 
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I never said Fatima was a “requirement”, but it has been officially approved by the Church and by every pope since the miracle, so you should not be dismissing it. This thread is about how to combat spiritual dryness - what better way than to follow our Lady’s guidelines!
 
In fairness, a Catholic who is seriously trying to have a deeper relationship with Jesus probably should not limit his or her confession to the once-a-year-if-not-in-a-state-of-grace “minimum”, unless they somehow do not have regular access to a priest.

A few decades ago, I was nervous of going to confession, and would avoid it except for once a year. It became harder and harder for me to go and I finally just stopped going altogether for 18 years, which wasn’t good. I now go twice a month and, while it’s still not my favorite thing, it’s much easier to go when you make a habit of it, just like developing any good habit. My confessions are also much shorter and much less nerve wracking when I only have to think about what happened during the last 2 weeks and not the last 12 months.

Very little about the church is “mandatory”, but you are encouraged to do more than the minimum in order to build good habits and receive grace. While I’m sure you had some good reason for avoiding confession, it is not the norm for a Catholic trying to develop his or her spiritual life to only go to confession once a year. It’s like only brushing your teeth once a year.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
In fairness, a Catholic who is seriously trying to have a deeper relationship with Jesus probably should not limit his or her confession to the once-a-year-if-not-in-a-state-of-grace “minimum”, unless they somehow do not have regular access to a priest.

A few decades ago, I was nervous of going to confession, and would avoid it except for once a year. It became harder and harder for me to go and I finally just stopped going altogether for 18 years, which wasn’t good. I now go twice a month and, while it’s still not my favorite thing, it’s much easier to go when you make a habit of it, just like developing any good habit.

Very little about the church is “mandatory”, but you are encouraged to do more than the minimum in order to build good habits and receive grace. While I’m sure you had some good reason for avoiding confession, it is not the norm for a Catholic trying to develop his or her spiritual life to only go to confession once a year. It’s like only brushing your teeth once a year.
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Again, I am not speaking to what forms good habits but what is the minimum to get back on track. Going to Mass once a week on Sunday (or the vigil) is a hands down, no excuses MUST do. It doesn’t matter how well intended the Rosary is, but it doesn’t hold the place of Mass. If someone is only capable of spending an hour on God a week, it best its at Mass, and not with the roasary.

There is nothing wrong with the rosary. It is probably the “next” thing to try after ensuring Mass is attended to. But putting it in the same place as Mass in the field of “manditory” is incorrect.
 
Two things that have recently helped me is finding comfort in the rosary through the Blessed Virgin Mary and having accountability partners. Novenas are amazing things. One thing you could try is saying a novena with a friend and keeping eachother accountable for continuing it every day. At first it will just feel like a thing you do but you’ll notice small things in your life change, which adds up to big things. I kind of liken it to your fitness life, small habitual changes show big results
Mother Mary is also a great mom, the best, especially to people who have had difficult, abusive, or neglectful experiences with parents, who are supposed to be the people that lead us in our spiritual lives when we are young. I find a lot of strength in her. I hope you can too 🙂 God bless!
 
When I’m at mass I imagine that Jesus is standing right in front of me and I say all my parts right to him, meaning each word with all my heart. I also keep a prayer journal I try to do daily. In it I actually write out a personal letter to God. This keeps my mind more focused and I can really get to some significant thoughts. I also try and write down what I think God might be saying to me. Scripture also is just great. Hang in there, press in, God is crazy about you. Think of yourself as his favorite!
 
When I was younger to help me with struggling. I just focused on the mass and Jesus and it branched out from there. That’s what most of my writing was about.
 
I never said doing less is better. Not once.

I said that if you are doing nothing you have to start with the actual minimum basics and go from there. The OP noted he was missing Mass. That needs to be addressed first and foremost. Go directly to Mass, do not pass “Go”, do not collect $200.

The Rosary can wait.

After that, I made my own recommendations for what to do, which includes the lives of saints. Once he’s back at Mass (receiving, having made the proper confession for missing Mass). Then more can come. He needs to get right with God. The rosary cannot and will not do that.
 
I have to agree with you.

The Rosary nearly killed my spirituality. I now have prayer beads instead and meditate on the Jesus prayer, which has done so much more for me.

Also, it is best that a person first builds on the musts before proceeding to the optionals.

And the optionals are so vast and many, we have to see what the OP likes. Do they like novenas, would they benefit from a silent retreat, would they benefit from a weekly bible study group, or journeying with a saint for a year?

It’s okay to struggle with your spiritual life. We all do.

@shondy Have you done a spring clean? Is the parish you attend right for you, does a different Mass time suit your perhaps better at the moment? What resources are you using at the moment to meditate on the scripture readings? What exactly is frustrating you?

Praying for you! 🌷
 
I quite love the Rosary. I once heard that an aversion to the Ave Maria was a sign of damnation but you know…
 
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