Do you feel discouraged during dryness in prayer? All serious Christians will experience aridity during prayer throughout their lives. Not even the saints were exempt from this trial of the interior life. Learn more about aridity in prayer and the attitude we should assume when faced with it. Read on for more.
All Christians Must Experience Aridity in Prayer
The experience of aridity in prayer is what suffering and tribulations are to Christian life in general. Those who would always walk on a flowery path or rest only on a bed of roses shall never gain the blessings of heaven. In the same way, those who wish always to rejoice in uninterrupted sweetness in their prayer life will not attain spiritual maturity or become fully pleasing to God. The path which leads to heaven is never without its thorns and asperities, yet it is nevertheless more secure, sure, and safe than any other. Just so, the experience of times of aridity in prayer is a feature of every sound spiritual life. Jesus Christ Himself bravely took up His cross. He also experienced many instances of aridity in His prayer. While, as God, He was all-knowing, as a human being, He knew the darkness of spiritual desolation and sometimes felt that His prayers were unheard. Indeed, on the cross, He exclaimed, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”
Prayer Is Not Dependent Upon Consolations
The perfection of prayer does not depend upon the consolation or sweetness of the emotional response which the person praying experiences. Rather, it springs from the fervor with which it is made and the sincerity of its intention of pleasing God. The value of any sacrifice consists in it pleasing the one to whom it is offered, not in gratifying the one who offers it. It can happen that devotions which bring pleasure to the person praying are less pleasing to God than those which may be accompanied by a feeling of aridity.
On certain days, a soul may find itself so weighed down by a sense of anxiety and oppressed by dryness that it can barely raise its thoughts to God. It may doubt the possibility of its own salvation and feel that it is utterly lacking in all the graces. It may feel that it is perishing and unable to exercise any virtues, and so be sluggish and tepid in its devotions.
When such feelings come, the best thing is to offer this spiritual suffering itself as a sacrifice to God and to undertake to endure it patiently for the sake of God’s greater glory. Thus, even in the midst of such anxieties, one may experience the secret consolation of making such an offering.
Ceasing Prayer to Attend to the Present Moment
And, even though prayer is the true life of the human soul and the unique means whereby persons can both come to know themselves and to transcend themselves, sometimes to cease from prayer is a more pleasing sacrifice to God than to continue in it. I realize this may seem to be an audacious and startling statement and a paradox. Yet many saints have ceased their regular practice of prayer at times in order to attend to the poor or the sick or to perform some other work of charity or utility. This is, indeed, completely consistent with the example of Christ. For it was His practice to withdraw from human company in order to retire into solitude and pray. Yet He was always ready to relinquish this solitude and to cease His prayers when called upon to teach the crowds or to heal the sick or do some other necessary work.
In the same way, one should be ready to cease from prayer—not lightly, of course, but if genuinely called to do so by God or some compelling and valid motive. Often, this call may be in the form of the need to perform some work of charity or some compelling duty. On other occasions, the call to desist from prayer for a time may be purely spiritual—dryness, fatigue, or excessive restlessness. In such cases, whatever appears to be genuinely the will of God should be humbly followed.
Saint Teresa of Avila on Prayer
Saint Teresa of Avila, the flower of the Church in our own age, has conveyed to us a beautiful teaching, which she relates she received from the mouth of Christ Himself. She tells us that the basis of all human merit is this: to do, to suffer, and to love. She does not include amongst these imperatives “to enjoy,” as those who seek only for the experience of sweetness and consolation in prayer would strive to have it. Ultimately, the highest virtue consists in conformity to the will of God, in whatever form and medium it manifests itself.
A word of caution is useful here. If a person finds himself habitually ceasing from prayer for the purpose of doing other and apparently more useful works, it is not unlikely that he is actually heeding his own inclinations more than the will of God. On the other hand, those who constantly withdraw into solitude for the sake of contemplation may also find that they are simply indulging their own preferences and tastes rather than genuinely seeking God. In all things, true virtue is to be found in moderation, in accordance with one’s state of life.
It is pure love of God rather than the length of time spent in prayer or meditation that renders a soul pleasing to God. And the more a soul truly loves God, the less concerned it will be about seeking out its own spiritual consolation.
Bear Aridity with Patience and Surrender
I may conclude this chapter by saying that the aridity and dryness which many people come to experience in prayer should not be seen merely as an affliction to be borne patiently but rather should be accepted in a spirit of obedience and love of God. By accepting it in this manner, even the deprivation of one’s customary consolations and former experiences of spiritual sweetness can, paradoxically, itself become sweet.
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This article is taken from a chapter in A Treatise on Perfection: Saintly Counsel on Obtaining Salvation by Cardinal Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu which is available from TAN Books.
