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The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Battling Dryness in Prayer

The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Ascension

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

4.97.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2019

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last week Fr. Mike Schmitz talked about why prayer is so hard in his battle of prayer video, and this week he talks about what to do when you experience dryness in prayer.

He says being distracted or discouraged in prayer is like losing control of a car on ice. When dryness or distraction in prayer occurs, don’t overcompensate. Gently bring yourself back to focus.

St. Theresa of Avila would always bring a book with her into prayer so she had some kind of springboard to converse with God. If this doesn’t help and dryness persists, then you persist. God may be calling you to a deeper relationship with him in these tough moments. There are some things God can only do when we come to him when we least want to. If you feel like God just isn’t giving you anything when you pray, it’s an opportunity to just spend time with the giver while expecting nothing in return.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Here we go.

0:02.0

Wow.

0:03.0

See, I'm working.

0:04.0

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Essentially Presents.

0:11.0

So, when it comes to the big topic of prayer, one of the things that happens is I will often get people who will write to me

0:17.0

or they'll contact me or they'll meet with me and they'll say, Father, here's the thing I've been trying to pray, but I just, I think I'm doing something wrong because

0:24.0

prayer used to be like really easy, it used to actually be kind of a joy to me.

0:28.0

And now it's really dry, I'm distracted all the time and I just like, it's really difficult.

0:34.0

Like, I'm facing difficulties in prayer.

0:37.0

And the first thing is, am I doing something wrong?

0:39.0

The second thing is, I don't want to do it anymore, which makes complete sense.

0:43.0

I come 100% understand that.

0:45.0

I had experienced this much the same thing I mentioned in this in a different video on the Battle of Prayer.

0:50.0

Where I thought, like, no, prayer was like slipping into a hot tub.

0:53.0

And then the church tells me, and then scripture tells me that actually it's not like slipping into a hot tub.

0:59.0

It's more like engaging in battle.

1:01.0

That prayer itself is a battle.

1:04.0

So, when you experience dryness and distraction and prayer, what do you do?

1:08.0

Well, here's the wisdom of the saints.

1:10.0

A couple things.

1:11.0

Don't panic.

1:12.0

In fact, I think it was Trees of Lesoux.

...

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