When you pray...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael_Mayo
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Mental prayer is hard for me. I’ve had a few moments where God feels close and real, but most of the time I’m distracted and he feels distant.

That’s why I like to do my praying in a community, even if that “community” is online. I get more out of it when I join with others. I think of it like Moses being propped up by Aaron and that other guy whose name escapes me right now.
 
I don’t feel God at all. All through my life I have never “felt” the presence of God. My Faith is an act of the will. It is more concrete than any fleeting feelings I might have.
I admire those people so holy that they have a feeling relationship with God. For me, there is only silence. In the face of evil, seemingly growing all my life as I mature to the true nature of this world, I see no action of God to prevent it. But I recall that the tower fell on the good and the bad and I patiently await His Will.
In the face of this evil, I remember that we are His hands. What we do personally within our power perimeter is all that we will be judged on. In ever so slight and little ways I offer my poor works before His justice and most importantly, His Mercy.
I don’t need to feel God. As long as He is mindful of His servant. I pray without belief that it will change His Will, only that it reminds Him of that nagging little fat man, for even an unjust judge will tire of the gnat.
I pray in thanks mostly these days. I leave the world to those that can change it. I don’t have “feelings” for God. As long as He has feelings for me, that is really all that matters.
 
Michael_Mayo said:
How does God seem to you?
Click to expand...
My first thought at your questions was that God seems fine.

Often He seems absent but I know that it is usually I who am absent to God and not the other way around.

Sometimes I feel His Presence but usually not. My mantra is 'Faith is not a feeling" so I continue to pray, despite my feeling about the whole thing. I know God is there and I’m not entitled to any feelings of consolation. If I receive them, great, but if not I’ll keep plugging away.
 
Such beautiful honest answers.

For me God seems to be all around me and within me, at least something is and I interpret it to be God…as if God is the life within me. Atheists also feel the life within them but they do not interpret it as God. Perhaps I am wrong.

In my life though, God seems protective. I have been fortunate. And when something “bad” does happen God usually seems helpful. But again, that is my interpretation. There is nothing extraordinary going on with me.

But the Question: How does God seem? I think is important for us. It keeps us focused on our relationship with God. It a question that is good to journal with daily. “How did God seem today?” It is an odd question. isn’t it? But if God is a person with whom we have a relationship, it is a fair questions: What is God like? What is my impression of this person? Not what have I heard or read about God, or been taught, but what has been my experience?
 
Petaro said:
I don’t feel God at all. All through my life I have never “felt” the presence of God. My Faith is an act of the will. It is more concrete than any fleeting feelings I might have.
I admire those people so holy that they have a feeling relationship with God. For me, there is only silence. In the face of evil, seemingly growing all my life as I mature to the true nature of this world, I see no action of God to prevent it. But I recall that the tower fell on the good and the bad and I patiently await His Will.
In the face of this evil, I remember that we are His hands. What we do personally within our power perimeter is all that we will be judged on. In ever so slight and little ways I offer my poor works before His justice and most importantly, His Mercy.
I don’t need to feel God. As long as He is mindful of His servant. I pray without belief that it will change His Will, only that it reminds Him of that nagging little fat man, for even an unjust judge will tire of the gnat.
I pray in thanks mostly these days. I leave the world to those that can change it. I don’t have “feelings” for God. As long as He has feelings for me, that is really all that matters.
Click to expand...
This is pretty much where I find myself as well, except that I used to have a “feeling relationship” with God. We had a turning point in our relationship—it’s a long story—and since then I have not sensed His presence at all, so I can’t say how He “seems” when I pray because I really don’t know.

I want to emphasize that I don’t find all this to be as distressing as it might sound. I figure the consolations were taken from me because I don’t need them. Such an idea is neither a source of joy nor one of pain. It just “is.” There’s no other way I can describe it.
 
Salutations,
There are seasons to our spirit. God is a constant. The situations in our lives adapts our spiritual strength to what our prayer intensity is.
When I am hurting or happy, the strength of my prayers brings me in communion with God. I feel a warmth that fills me up. I, usually, am crying happy tears or sad tears.
For the regular prayer time, if uncluttered w the noise of the day,it is still a precious time w Jesus.
Unfortunately, when rushed or comprised w the noise of the day, I know our prayers go up to heaven as incense before God’s throne but emotion is fleeting.
in Christ’s love
Tweedlealice 🙂
 
I feel God’s presence within, and His presence is love.

Jim
 
My prayers sound a lot like me begging a friend to help me out. I don’t know if it is wrong to pray like that, but I act like God is a good friend of mine that is willing to help out/listen. Sometimes I feel like he is listening, sometimes I don’t. But most of time I just feel like he is a friend/fatherly figure silently listening. I don’t know how else to explain it!
 
I remember a nun once told me that she has never “felt” God’s presence. She basically summed it up as remaining faithful until the end. I have doubt she is very sincere in her faith and God has greatly blessed her.

I do not think we are suppose to “feel” anything when we pray, or receive the sacraments. If we do, that’s great- otherwise they’re just passing feelings. Our relationship with God is not about “feelings.” It is a relationship based on a covenant.

Anyway, yes I have felt God’s presence before. It used to be very intense. Now, I haven’t felt his presence in several years, but still trust in his mercy.

Mother Theresa did not feel God’s presence for nearly 40 years but remained faithful.

St. Therese entered a dark night of the soul until she died a very painful death from tuberculosis at age 24 with very few complaints.

Just my two cents.
 
RileyG said:
I remember a nun once told me that she has never “felt” God’s presence. She basically summed it up as remaining faithful until the end. I have doubt she is very sincere in her faith and God has greatly blessed her.

I do not think we are suppose to “feel” anything when we pray, or receive the sacraments. If we do, that’s great- otherwise they’re just passing feelings. Our relationship with God is not about “feelings.” It is a relationship based on a covenant.

Anyway, yes I have felt God’s presence before. It used to be very intense. Now, I haven’t felt his presence in several years, but still trust in his mercy.

Mother Theresa did not feel God’s presence for nearly 40 years but remained faithful.

St. Therese entered a dark night of the soul until she died a very painful death from tuberculosis at age 24 with very few complaints.

Just my two cents.
Click to expand...
But then I have to ask, how does such a God seem to you?
Our main experience is then through scripture, sacraments, and teaching.
 
Let me add community and nature.

Maybe another better question is what are all the ways we find and come to know God?
 
RileyG said:
I remember a nun once told me… .
Click to expand...
Thinking more about this, God may at first seem distant, uninvolved, absent or even non existent. But something deeper is going on. God then seems to be a strong unspeakable force that holds us in faith even without evidence. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Apophatic, if you will, God seems beyond senses and emotions, beyond intellect, yet present in loving yearning, desire and faith. A power and pull that will not leave us.
 
When I pray, God often seems like a fantasy, and I struggle greatly with enormous doubt. But generally as I persevere, God seems like the very best idea I could possibly have, and my heart is warmed.

I have prayed before the blessed sacrament before and experienced an enormous glowing sense of His presence, but this has not been my normal experience, nor do I seek it again, partly because it scared me, and partly because I think these consolations come as God wills, not as we will.
 
How does God seem to me when I pray? It depends on how I’m feeling. When I feel well and I offer a prayer of thanksgiving, God seems like the loving father Jesus describes. When I’ve sinned or hurt someone and I pray with contrition, God seems like the severe judge Jesus also describes, but merciful too - a paradox! In times of crisis when I implore God for this or that, He can seem like the divine vending machine, though I know I shouldn’t see Him this way. When I try to pray in silence, all of these ideas and images of God still swirl around in my head. So you see, my prayer is actually very focused on myself. It is true, I feel better after I pray, but is this feeling a divine consolation, or just me congratulating myself for doing what I’m supposed to do? St. Augustine said somewhere if you can understand it, it isn’t God, and I find that helpful.
 
In our relationships with people we get a pretty clear sense of who they are, what they are like, how we feel about them and whether we want to be closer with them.

But with The Lord it is much more subtle. Sometimes we are not even sure the Almighty is there at all. And it is difficult to discern if what we are experiencing is God, from ,God, or just our own projections. But I think these are the sorts of questions we can take right back into prayer. For over 20 years now I have prayed through my personal journal, bringing all this into it. I think this is a way to enrich and honor our relationship with the Eternal One if we don’t have a spiritual director. In fact I have had several on my 60 years and my journal has-been more helpful as long as I return to this simple question: How does God seem to me? Not just in my times of prayer but also in the events and encounters in my daily life.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top