Discerning Hearts.com, in cooperation with the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, presents

struggles in the spiritual life, their nature and their remedies, with Father Timothy Gallagher.

Father Gallagher is the author of many best-selling books on the theology and spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

He holds the St. Ignatius' chair of spiritual formation at St. John Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado. Struggles in the spiritual life,

their nature and their remedies with Father Timothy Gallagher. I'm your host, Chris McGregor.

Welcome back, Father Gallagher.

Thank you, Chris, once again.

We continue with the struggles in the spiritual life, their nature and their remedies, and we pick up with yet another character in the stories that we've experienced.

And again, this is a form of spiritual desolation.

So Paul and his father are together.

This is sometime after we've last seen them.

And Paul and his father have come to be close in a new way in their lives. And Paul and his family

have joined his parents for a weekend of vacation. It's in the summer. Paul and his father have risen

early as the sun was rising and gotten into kayaks and gone out together, watching the sunrise and just being together.

And now they have pulled up on the shore, the kayaks are beached, and they're just sitting together

talking in the early morning. And it's good to be together. Neither of them is any hurry to get back

and return. And as they are together, eventually prayer

comes up, and Paul mentions that you told me that recently prayer has gotten difficult.

And his father says yes, it has, and he's not really sure why. As I've learned more about prayer

and how to understand the Bible, it's been getting easier.

I have more answers to my questions and a better sense of how to proceed.

So Paul asks, well, what's happening now? I don't know. I feel like I don't have anything

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