When you can't pray

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Sister_Helena said:
Prayer is the lifeblood of our soul. People pray when prayer is productive and yields satisfaction of insights and good feelings. But what happens when the well runs dry? Do you have this experience?
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So far, I pray anyway, even if I feel like I’m forcing myself.
 
Anlar said:
Although I failed a lot and don’t pray :o. There are times when I can’t pray, I just stared at His face (a printed picture of Him posted in my wall).
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Excellent! 👍 Is that not itself a prayer?

I’ve noticed also that I will sometimes have music running in my head, such as hymns, even somewhat ‘popular’ tunes heard on EWTN, based on Jesus.
 
I can attest to Anlar’s experience. Just looking at my Lord’s picture long enough sometimes gives me the feeling that he wants me to talk to him. His picture looks almost alive. His eyes…his eyes…the most beautiful eyes, gives me the calm and peace after a hard day’s work. He just has his ways of reaching out to you. I usually follow with a prayer. Works for me.
 
Dear Sister

For me I can only talk about now because as my SD says tomorrow our Lord could be 1,000 miles away, even though he’s very close today. I enjoy prayer lately though. When I pray during my visit sometimes prayer is easy and sometimes not. If not I have my ipod for back up. I might pray the rosay, way of the cross or listen to good hymns etc and offer this. Lately all prayer is enjoyable but who knows what tomorrow will bring?

God bless you:thumbsup:🙂
 
John_Russell_Jr said:
Dear Sister

For me I can only talk about now because as my SD says tomorrow our Lord could be 1,000 miles away, even though he’s very close today. I enjoy prayer lately though. When I pray during my visit sometimes prayer is easy and sometimes not. If not I have my ipod for back up. I might pray the rosay, way of the cross or listen to good hymns etc and offer this. Lately all prayer is enjoyable but who knows what tomorrow will bring?

God bless you:thumbsup:🙂
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That is one prayer attitude that one can certainly adopt: surfing the prayer wave. Our feelings are very fluid. If we place our trust in them we will not be constant in our prayer life. But like a good surfer, we ride our ups and downs, but we keep riding. Our prayer doesn’t have to be full of insights either. Sometimes just a look, a sigh, our very presence before the Blessed Sacrament or in the quiet of a place, will express our good intention and desire to be with Our Lord. The Lord looks at the heart and can hear words which we cannot express.
 
tchtax said:
I can attest to Anlar’s experience. Just looking at my Lord’s picture long enough sometimes gives me the feeling that he wants me to talk to him. His picture looks almost alive. His eyes…his eyes…the most beautiful eyes, gives me the calm and peace after a hard day’s work. He just has his ways of reaching out to you. I usually follow with a prayer. Works for me.
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Sometimes praying really seem difficult. You haven’t prayed yet but you feel already exhausted and you can’t feel anything and many temptations in your head. Perhaps a simple Hi is already a prayer and I like looking at the picture, He is smiling and yes His eyes is like conversation when just staring at it. When I can’t say anything but only… thank you Lord for everything!
 
Anlar said:
Sometimes praying really seem difficult. You haven’t prayed yet but you feel already exhausted and you can’t feel anything and many temptations in your head. Perhaps a simple Hi is already a prayer and I like looking at the picture, He is smiling and yes His eyes is like conversation when just staring at it. When I can’t say anything but only… thank you Lord for everything!
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Sometimes too before we get into the real prayer, we need to prepare ourselves. For example, one can read a book of meditations or a Gospel passage. Or we can just sit quietly and think of what we are about to do. The purpose is to center the mind and calm the senses from the activities we were just engaged in. this exercise can limit distractions during the actual prayer. Carmelites call this exercise as “remote preparation.”
 
I have learned that pray is most needed during the silent time. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way. The further I distanced myself the harder it was to find my way back. I have had a very rough period in my life and finally went to see my Priest to discuss matters with him. As I was sitting and talking with him, I mentioned that I have been praying for help and so far it seemed like God has not heard my crys. It was at this point, Fr.Bob smiled and said “Of course he has, you are here aren’t you?” It was at this point I realize that although it may feel like our ‘well’ has dryed up, God is working in a way that we cannot feel, but in the end it is for the better because we learn from every experience. Hard as it may be at times.
 
Anlar said:
Sometimes praying really seem difficult. You haven’t prayed yet but you feel already exhausted and you can’t feel anything and many temptations in your head. Perhaps a simple Hi is already a prayer and I like looking at the picture, He is smiling and yes His eyes is like conversation when just staring at it. When I can’t say anything but only… thank you Lord for everything!
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Yes, when I can’t say anything I always say, “Thank You Lord Jesus for today”
 
Great answer to a question about prayer in this morning’s parish bulletin.
“When you give yourself over to prayer, even raggedy and distracted prayer, you have jumped into God and, like a swimmer in the ocean, you are in over your head.”
The question related specifically to the rosary, something to “literally hold ont to, like a rope in the ocean. In grave illness or death it will be enough just to clutch the rosary or wordlessly rub the beads.”
The author further describes the rosary as music with its secret lying in the rhythm of the beads, quiet words, and breathing. “The rosary becomes the deep prayer of holy monks and nuns.”
 
Sister_Helena said:
When you can’t pray,
-do you easily get discouraged and give up?
  • do you make use of prayer tools like soft, relaxing music, spiritual books or devotional statues and icons?
  • do you take a walk and admire nature?
  • do you continue praying in quiet and let God lead you?
    How do you deal with the dryness and aridity?
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Ernest Hemingway had a very interesting method for getting over writer’s block that may apply to situations like these. Knowing that getting started is the hardest part, he would just take up a pen and pad and start writing anything that came to mind, no matter how useless or ridiculous it was. Then he’d go back over it and delete everything until he came across what he called “one true sentence.” And once he had that, the writing process came alive, like a snowball rolling down a hill until it became the Great American Novel.

So find that one true thing that you can focus on, even if it doesn’t really have anything to do with you at all, and go from there!
 
Sister_Helena said:
Prayer is the lifeblood of our soul. People pray when prayer is productive and yields satisfaction of insights and good feelings. But what happens when the well runs dry? Do you have this experience?
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sometimes prayer is really dry for me… but I think if we still persevere during those times and still pray, that really pleases God, even more than when we feel like praying 🙂
cause it shows that we love Him more than our feelings.

God bless
 
Haven’t read through the other responses, but the good advice I’ve received is to sit at God’s feet and tell Him you love Him (even during the dry times when there is no experience of the feelingof love), and repeat “Jesus I trust in You.”
 
MarieVeronica said:
I’ve often heard it said… that in these “dry spells”… God actually draws the soul closer to Him. I don’t understand how this works, but my “understanding” isn’t necessary, for God to make use of my (our) dry spells.

I guess this is where faith comes in? What else can a soul in this kind of distress do? As always, any suggestions from any of you… are greatly appreciated. As are those, in the above replies. I learn so much from all of you. And for that, I’m grateful. :thankyou:

God bless.
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When you engage in praying long enough you would inevitably experience aridity and dryness. This is not an extraordinary experience but rather a normal progression of our prayer life. Why is the reason for that? Saint John of the Cross deals quite extensively with that topic in his chapter on the Dark Night and Imperfections of Beginners: Book One, Chapter 2 beginning page 299 (Collected Works by Kieran & Kavanaugh, 2nd edition 1979). The thing to do according to John is to remain in “loving attentiveness” to the God who is within us. St. Teresa of Avila would recommend “imagining God within us or in the Blessed Sacrament (even though Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is not imagined but REAL.) Don’t pay attention to your feelings. You may want to read a line or two from a meditation book but if that distracts you, put it down and go back to loving attentiveness.”
We also have to make sure that our “dryness” at prayer is not a result of our lack of preparation before coming to prayer. You have to give yourself time to settle down, especially if you are a busy person, The exterior senses have to settle down, the mind has to be quieted down. Don’t watch TV or engage in too much conversations half-hour before prayer (if that is possible) or go to your room to relax (if that is possible). In other words, do what you can to prepare yourself because dry spells can also be caused by poor preparation and by a mind preoccupied with many things.🙂
 
I find that also as DC mentioned, that my dry spells are shortened by adopting a period of gratitude and thanksgiving each day for something, anything…that way it makes my mind and soul to see His presence within the ordinary that I might have overlooked in the rush of daily life.

It might not be gushing thanksgiving, it might just be a quick “Thank you for this day.” But it gets me into a pattern that is easier for me to deal with than a nothingness that can set in for me. I also opt to pray daily for the Poor Holy souls who have no one to pray for them and that also seems to encourage me somehow and prod me out of dryness. It may still take some time but it helps to focus on something else for me that is.
 
I read this post the other night - and thought replies were good ones.
But tonight, this thought occurred. When you can’t pray - don’t force it too much. But when you go to sleep at night, hold the Rosary in your hand…even if you don’t pray it. I can’t tell you why but maybe you’ll be prompted to say one decade of the Rosary or a decade or even just one invocation of the Rosary of The Holy Wounds or Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

If you need a small break, it doesn’t mean a cutoff from prayer.
Start small…and grow. Let God do the rest.
 
I have many such experience. If I am in office, surely I will open this forum and go through the postings.

Sometimes, I went to some bad places and it lead me to sin. But before doing that, sometimes I heard the prayers from my body … that maybe words from Bible or songs that I heard on last Mass or something like that.

Now I realized that, these are prayers of our soul to Jesus and it prays with Holy Spirit. But unfortunately, I couldn’t hear or listen these prayers most of that situations. Whenever I listened, I won in that battle. So I think, it is better to listen to the voice of your soul than your body.

hmm I think, u can’t follow me?
 
dremay said:
I have many such experience. If I am in office, surely I will open this forum and go through the postings.

Sometimes, I went to some bad places and it lead me to sin. But before doing that, sometimes I heard the prayers from my body … that maybe words from Bible or songs that I heard on last Mass or something like that.

Now I realized that, these are prayers of our soul to Jesus and it prays with Holy Spirit. But unfortunately, I couldn’t hear or listen these prayers most of that situations. Whenever I listened, I won in that battle. So I think, it is better to listen to the voice of your soul than your body.

hmm I think, u can’t follow me?
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If you mean can I understand what you say in your post, yes I can. 👍
 
It’s hard when you feel like you can’t pray. I make sure I bring myself to daily Mass anyway and pay close attention. I try to get there a half hour early and pray the rosary first. When I’m going through a spiritual dry spell, it’s hard for me to get myself to pray while in my apartment, so I try to get myself into a Catholic church and before the Tabernacle. I will also try to pray simple one-line prayers throughout the day, asking for Jesus’ help.
 
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