Category Archives: dry, dark, distracted prayer
An even greater fullness of His love
These days my prayer is FULL of distractions. I remember two things to help me. One is advice from St. Francis de Sales. He says that when we encounter distractions, the best thing to do is to gently bring our minds back to the Lord. I think often our temptation when we find ourselves thinking …
“Strengthened by Faith”
It may happen that for a certain time a man is illumined and refreshed by God’s grace, and then this grace is withdrawn. This makes him inwardly confused and he starts to grumble; instead of seeking through steadfast prayer to recover his assurance of salvation, he loses patience and gives up. He is like a …
The dry places
Ps 105.41 He opened the rock, and water gushed forth; it flowed through the desert like a river. Have any of us any dry places? They may be out of sight of even loving eyes. We may be ashamed to think there are such places when we have so much to fill our lives with …
“But I do not know how to love the Lord any more!”
Dipping into my past journals, I am finding many quotes on prayer. Here’s one by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene: It [the soul] should learn to be content to remain int he presence of the Lord, attending to Him simply with a regard full of love. It should remain there to keep Him company, …
“You don’t see Him, but He is there.”
You know, most of the time–as I freely admit in the sidebar–I am writing these posts mainly for myself. This is a post I actually wrote quite awhile ago, but somehow never posted. Again, we hear from Amy Carmichael. This seems to be taken from a letter she wrote in response to someone else’s, someone …
“Our wound is the place where God dwells”
I did a series of posts on Fr. Iain Matthew’s writing back in July. I have been re-reading him again. He’s one of the people I go back to regularly–especially if I’m experiencing some kind of pain. Because pain is precisely where, Fr. Iain says, Christ is waiting to meet us. “The place of poverty …
God is all for you alone
Earlier this week, a good friend of mine read out loud to me excerpts from one of my favorite books (and now hers), Impact of God, by Fr. Iain Matthew. I don’t think I’ve ever shared anything from that book with all of you. The book’s purpose is to introduce the reader to St. John …
“Give God that nothing”
I am re-reading a slim volume on Mother Teresa, titled I Loved Jesus in the Night. This book increases my hope whenever I pick it up. Today while reading, I was reminded of something I wish I would remember more often–and that is that nothing in our life need be wasted. We can offer whatever …
The silence of God
“The Silence of God.” That’s the name of a song on Michael Card’s CD, The Hidden Face of God. After my talk last Monday night, one woman mentioned to me that the part of my talk that gave her the most hope was when I talked about the “door” that I experienced at one point …
Distracted Prayer (2)
A little more on distracted prayer. One of the most helpful things I ever learned about dealing with distractions in prayer was that it’s not something you necessarily need to repent of and it’s not an indication of “good” or “bad” prayer. Distractions will come; it’s impossible (and not healthy) to turn our minds completely …
