Dcerning 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. I'm your host, Chris McGregor. Welcome back, Father Gallagher.

Thank you, Chris. We are visiting one of the characters in the stories that you have presented

to us to help us to understand what the struggles we may encounter in the spiritual life are and how we can have those

remedies. And this character, Beth, is one that I think is so intriguing and she speaks to a tender

place in so many hearts, doesn't she? Yes, we're just going to allow her to hold up a mirror to what we all experience

in our own ways, you know, in this. So we'll be looking at another form of spiritual

desolation here. So Beth has just returned home to her apartment after a long day of work

in physical therapy. She's physically tired.

Susan has been difficult again for her, and she's somewhat discouraged. She prepares supper,

she has her supper, washes up, and normally at this time, as she's gotten in the habit now,

of praying evening prayer from the liturgy of the

hours, and then she makes an examined prayer. So with Father Reed's help, she's been learning these

forms of prayer, and she prays them. But now there she is alone in her apartment, tired, discouraged,

and there's the book with evening prayer, and she just doesn't

feel like picking it up at all. She's tired, discouraged, she feels alone, she doesn't feel the warmth

of God's love in her heart right now and doesn't really want to pray. Now, with much reverence, have any of us

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