Tired; Am I a Bad Person or Not Spiritual Enough For Feeling This Way?

[strngrnrth]

I love Mass, and time in the Adoration Chapel, and prayer. I love my rosary and saint stories. I love it all. Don’t get me wrong.
I get kind of tired at times. The subject of one more prayer meeting or devotion just sounds like a little more than I’m up for. I don’t do that much to begin with. Am I getting unspiritual or is this a normal cycle? If I feel this way am I in spiritual danger if I just go to bed or somethign? I mean just sometimes, when I’m emotionally tired. Is that dangerous?

 

[littleone]

I love Mass, and time in the Adoration Chapel, and prayer. I love my rosary and saint stories. I love it all. Don’t get me wrong.
I get kind of tired at times. The subject of one more prayer meeting or devotion just sounds like a little more than I’m up for. I don’t do that much to begin with. Am I getting nonspiritual or is this a normal cycle? If I feel this way am I in spiritual danger if I just go to bed or some thing? I mean just sometimes, when I’m emotionally tired. Is that dangerous?

Hi you have been here for a long time It seems that you might be going through a rough time or a desert time coming on. It is in these times that we have to forge on.
Remember that in all sports you reach a platter where you feel that you can’t go on or, as it usually is you have reached a level god has taken you to. Just hang in there. Keep on praying.

I have you on my prayer chain.
Godbless

 

[PraRFLEsEkHm]

Hi

I get like that, overwhelmed. Tired is tired. Of course that is when we’re most likely going to get that little annoying whisper in our ear to let go. BUT - the question is, are you getting anything out of those times when you do it anyway? Is it spiritually worth it? If you don’t feel better, or blessed from performing whatever devotion you don’t have the energy for - then my guess would be, you just needed the rest.

As long as it doesn’t become a habit, or you start dropping more and more things I wouldn’t see it as a slippery slope.

One thing you might want to consider, is just to slow down on something, or a couple of somethings a little bit. The object of Prayer, whether it’s Adoration, the Rosary, the Liturgy, or whatever you are doing - is to make you stronger. Spiritually stronger - yes, but spiritual strength is kinda immaterial if we don’t have the bodily strength to go and do something with it.

One question I have is why are you taking on so much? I found that I was trying to forge ahead where I wasn’t ready to go yet. Taking on more than I could chew, spiritually speaking. Wanting to please God so much that I was willing to do anything - but all I ended up doing was hurting the one thing He really asked of me - first and foremost - help Him bring me into heaven. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses His own soul?

If that isn’t you, that is good - it’s just something I have found more and more people doing, and felt a responsibility to ask.

Peace

John

 

[Linda_Marie]

Sometimes I liken the richness and diversity of Catholic spirituality to a feast like Christmas dinner. We like to sample every dish, and some which we really like, we have extra helpings. But, there comes a time when we have eaten enough and it is time to digest.

I think this happens to us spiritually as well. That one more devotion or one more prayer meeting is like having that extra piece of pumpkin pie when you really can’t fit another thing in. It is not that you think there is something wrong with the pie, or with the devotion or prayer group, it is just too much right at this time.

Just because you don’t spend all your time in prayer or devotions does not mean that you are far from God, or not doing His Will. Sometimes, we just have to be still and let God work in us.

Saint Gertrude the Great helped me with this.
mtep.com/stgertrude.htm

She felt keenly for those whose burdens involved them in distracting duties, for example those responsible for meeting the debts of the monastery.

She prayed that they might have more time to pray and fewer distractions. The Lord’s answered “It does not matter to me whether you perform spiritual exercises or manual labor, provided only that your will is directed to me with a right intention. If I took pleasure only in your spiritual exercises, I should certainly have reformed human nature after Adam’s fall so that it would not need food, clothing or the other things that man must find or make with such effort.”

 

[acadian]

I think it’s just part of the normal order of things. Last year, I couldn’t miss the divine mercy chaplet. I got out of the habit this summer, but in its place I picked up morning and evening prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. I think it’s OK to drop some things, pick up new things.

Some nights when I am tired, evening prayer doesn’t get said at all. God knows what is in our hearts.

 

[brigid12]

I think it’s just part of the normal order of things. Last year, I couldn’t miss the divine mercy chaplet. I got out of the habit this summer, but in its place I picked up morning and evening prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. I think it’s OK to drop some things, pick up new things.

Certainly, change is important for us in growth (as long as it’s a change that brings us closer to The Lord!). Sometimes boredom can masquerade as tiredness. I feel very, very close to the rosary, for instance, but know that sometimes I need to exchange that for the DM chaplet so that I don’t start just saying words (I also explain my temporary change, in prayer, to Mary:blush.

 

[Augustine]

I love Mass, and time in the Adoration Chapel, and prayer. I love my rosary and saint stories. I love it all. Don’t get me wrong.
I get kind of tired at times. The subject of one more prayer meeting or devotion just sounds like a little more than I’m up for. I don’t do that much to begin with. Am I getting unspiritual or is this a normal cycle? If I feel this way am I in spiritual danger if I just go to bed or somethign? I mean just sometimes, when I’m emotionally tired. Is that dangerous?

It’s not clear whether you’re wary of yet another devotion or whether you’re tiring of your devotions. In the former case, it’s quite fine to not add any more devotions, especially when it may strange you and your obligations, such as family, work and rest. In the latter case, it might be that you’ve taken on more devotions than you could have healthly taken or that you’re going through a period of dryness. If this is the case, then it’s the moment to grow spiritually mature by offering your devotions not for your pleasure, but to praise the One to Whom we pray: God.

 

[honra]

Thank you, thank you everyone for your comments on this thread!
This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for when I signed on a few days ago.

Just seeing that most of us seem to have these difficulties in prayer, and the different efforts made to overcome them has been a big help. Sounds like perseverence and not getting stuck in a rut with our devotions is the key.

That said, did anyone know that Mother Teresa put it in the Rule for her Missionaries of Charity that they are to be saying the Rosary at *all *times when not otherwise occupied? It’s hard to imagine; with the kind of work they do, they must be more tired than I’ve probably ever been. That helps me sometimes when I don’t feel like saying my Rosary…

 

[RosalieM]

I receive an e-newsletter from a Poor Clare sister each weekday. One of the things she mentioned was how they went to their prayers whether they feel like it or not because it is their monastic discipline. I feel they are fortunate to not have all our distractions; but they, too have their moments of waning, even in the monastery.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Quoting Linda Marie, who is in turn quoting from St. Gertrude:
mtep.com/stgertrude.htm

She felt keenly for those whose burdens involved them in distracting duties, for example those responsible for meeting the debts of the monastery.

She prayed that they might have more time to pray and fewer distractions. The Lord’s answered “It does not matter to me whether you perform spiritual exercises or manual labor, provided only that your will is directed to me with a right intention. If I took pleasure only in your spiritual exercises, I should certainly have reformed human nature after Adam’s fall so that it would not need food, clothing or the other things that man must find or make with such effort.”

This is an important sharing. Our prayer is not only the times we are about formal or devotional type prayer, it is our whole day including our sleep when, being members of The Mystical Body, The Church now awake and about their day are also praying for us in their prayer, whether they remember those sleeping or not. For when one prays, all pray in the Mystical Body.
Our prayer is also all the duties and needed distractions of our day. Our own weak humanity even has certain duties we owe it in our weaknesses…to be gentle with ourselves rather than overbearing and unkind to ourselves. For The Lord is most gentle and kind to us and in our weaknesses, frailties and even failures too.

Sometimes for one reason or another, some human frailty, or pure human culpable weakness, we omit our customary and perhaps routine devotions or prayers, rather than a time for discouragement…it is a great opportunity indeed to renew our humility and recall our humble and weak estate and ask The Lord humbly to please pardon our frailty and/or weakness. Nothing like a failure to reinforce humility…or as St. Teresa of Avila pointed out “make a virtue of necessity”.

Blessings and regards…Barb

 

[BarbaraTherese]

I receive an e-newsletter from a Poor Clare sister each weekday. One of the things she mentioned was how they went to their prayers whether they feel like it or not because it is their monastic discipline. I feel they are fortunate to not have all our distractions; but they, too have their moments of waning, even in the monastery.

For sure monastics have their moments of waning being still human. Having been in a monastic community for a short term, it is not all that difficult to go to one’s prayer times even though one is on the wane and not feeling at all like praying, since everyone else in the monastery is going to exactly the same place at the same time for the same reason. One would stick out (more or less) like the proverbial sore thumb if one’s place in choir was empty at prayer times. Sometimes and though one is indeed on the wane, having a religious community around one is a great support indeed and a great motivator…community of course can also be a great trial.

 

[RosalieM]

…community of course can also be a great trial.

So true! I once mentioned my regret to someone at not being in monastic life; and how it was too late now anyway. She brought up the fact that those in the monastic life have their very own set of problems. Still, I think that generally speaking those in the communities have Christ in their consciousness much more of the time than we do.

 

[bpbasilphx]

Pray as you can, not as you can’t.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

…community of course can also be a great trial.

So true! I once mentioned my regret to someone at not being in monastic life; and how it was too late now anyway. She brought up the fact that those in the monastic life have their very own set of problems. Still, I think that generally speaking those in the communities have Christ in their consciousness much more of the time than we do.

I think probably those that have never experienced religious life, or perhaps moreso monastic life where there is no distraction from the community in some activity and one does not leave the environment of the monastery and community, tend to idealize it all…it does have its own particular problems in the living and over and above that all members are human beings still.

Still, I think that generally speaking those in the communities have Christ in their consciousness much more of the time than we do./

Certainly this is the ideal…but sometimes it is not actively applied, and sometimes if it is, it is a totally faulted application and what i mean by this as one example only…looking down on those not as “holy as me” and such frictions.
Over and above this I am quite confident that there are very holy and totally loving communities of fraternal communal living.

Even the wearing of the habit which most outside of cloisters tend to idealize can be a great burden especially in extremes of heat or when doing some kind of work where the habit just keeps getting in the way…even for one who loves the habit and lovingly and humbly wears it.
I noticed that The Servants of The Sacred Cross have adopted a plain long tunic with underblouse as a ‘work habit’…a good move!

As your friend stated, the monastic and religious life can have its own set of problems and difficulties…and members are still very much human beings.

Barb

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Pray as you can, not as you can’t.

This is a great quote. My previous spiritual director passed it on to me. And our part time parish priest gave us a great homily last Sunday about examining our image of God and to strive to not see The Lord as a great and hard taskmaster. Sometimes too I have observed in myself, if I adjust my prayer times due to some weakness of my own, it is not that I think that I am displeasing or letting God down who understands lovingly my weaknesses…rather I am displeasing my own desire to be faithful and not let myself down. The hardest detachment of all I think, is to be detached from our spiritual ambitions and desires.

 

[RosalieM]

“The hardest detachment of all I think, is to be detached from our spiritual ambitions and desires.”

Here it is, then.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

“The hardest detachment of all I think, is to be detached from our spiritual ambitions and desires.”

Here it is, then.

Apologies Rosalie…I cannot insight your meaning …sometimes I can be appallingly and culpably slow on the uptake!

 

[RosalieM]

“The hardest detachment of all I think, is to be detached from our spiritual ambitions and desires.”

I meant that this answers the tendency to beat ourselves up about what we think we should be achieving spiritually. I for one tend to make such a fuss sometimes I forget to be still and try to “let go and let God”. Sometimes it’s hard to relax with one’s faith.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

“The hardest detachment of all I think, is to be detached from our spiritual ambitions and desires.”

I meant that this answers the tendency to beat ourselves up about what we think we should be achieving spiritually. I for one tend to make such a fuss sometimes I forget to be still and try to “let go and let God”. Sometimes it’s hard to relax with one’s faith.

… …Got it!
I think it all comes from that type of spirituality which did prevail in The Church where one was to strive with ardour for great perfection no matter what. This developed into a misunderstanding generally, failing to insight that great perfection also includes to be detached from one’s own spiritual desires and ambitions. To “let go, and let God” as you quoted.

Another great quote comes from St. Teresa of Avila “make a virtue of necessity”…in other words as an example, when I am overcome by my own weaknesses (the necessity or disposition rather that prevails) to use this as an opportunity to dwell in deep humility (the virtue). Indeed, there is nothing like failure and humiliation to remind me once again, of who I am. St. Therese of Lisieux was a real master of this maxim of St. Teresa in her Little Way.
Some do fear that if they do not go on striving and striving in self unforgiving and relentless sort of way that they will be totally remiss in their spirituality altogether and culpably. Rather there is a vast difference between not caring and falling into wayward ways…than acknowledging one’s weakness and failure and in a disposition of humility the foundation of which is self knowledge and knowledge of something of who God is. This humility also does not abandon itself to weakness, rather it admits it with sorrow and then acts as if it never happened in the first place and immediately takes up its spiritual exercises again once able. Nothing can ever be lost through humility.

As another example. St. Therese used to fall asleep during thanksgiving after Holy Communion (Carmelites in her day rose through the night for prayer and then rose very early in the morning also for prayer)…rather than beat herself up over this failure and weakness, she would remind herself that God after all is her Loving Father and little children do fall asleep in their loving father’s arms and so her falling asleep never bothered her. She made a virtue of necessity. This also displayed that St. Therese was indeed detached from her own notions and ambitions re spirituality. It was not Therese that was central in her life, rather it was God. When I beat myself up over my faults and failings…my real failure is my misconception of what it is all about and who God actually is.

Barb

 

[distracted]

I love Mass, and time in the Adoration Chapel, and prayer. I love my rosary and saint stories. I love it all. Don’t get me wrong.
I get kind of tired at times. The subject of one more prayer meeting or devotion just sounds like a little more than I’m up for. I don’t do that much to begin with. Am I getting unspiritual or is this a normal cycle? If I feel this way am I in spiritual danger if I just go to bed or somethign? I mean just sometimes, when I’m emotionally tired. Is that dangerous?

i am tired also… but in my case, i am tired of everything BUT prayer… and Mass, etc… so maybe i can’t help you much…

do you apply waht you hear @ Mass to your personal “issues”? your relationships and circumstances???

I feel God is speaking to me directly at every Mass… and he is… as he speaks to everyone…

God bless…