Thirsty?

Before writing this post, I prayed to the Holy Spirit to guide me to the topic, and to speak through me as He wishes, so today I am going to talk about “Spiritual Dryness”

 ***

Imagine you have hiked up a huge mountain, the sun beating down on you at around 30’C, there is no shade and not a pick of moisture in the air, and you realise you ran out of water half a mile back. Your tongue is dry, so dry it feels like velvet. But you see on your map that through the forest visible in the distance there is a small creek...can you make it? Can you go through the motions to get to that source of sustenance? Yes! The answer is always yes! 

This analogy is a reflection of, and the answer to, spiritual dryness. In my faith journey there have been a number of occasions where I have been in a state of spiritual dryness. If you have ever felt distant from God or a sense of disbelief or uncertainty, if you have allowed yourself to fall deep in sin or you simply felt like giving up - then you have experienced what is known as spiritual dryness (AKA a crisis of faith). Let me begin by saying that EVERYONE experiences this once, twice, or even multiple times in their lifetime. The annoying thing is that not everyone wants to talk about it, it’s almost like Catholic taboo. Apart from seeking out spiritual guidance during that time, I told no one else, and therefore, unfortunately, at times felt alone and isolated in the situation that I was in, despite being amidst many Catholic friends and acquaintances.

 

Multiple saints and Catholic figures are noted to have experienced a crisis of faith in their lifetime, including Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, who is quoted as having said in a letter to Reverand Michael van der Peet just three months prior to receiving the Nobel Peace Prize: ‘Jesus has a very special love for you, but as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear, the tongue moves in prayer but does not speak...I want you to pray for me - that I let Him have a free hand.” If you want to read more about saints and their struggles, here is a link to another article which details numerous saints and their dealings with spiritual dryness. Just know that in spiritual dryness you’re never alone in that experience, as these saints stories have proven. Christ Himself was even tested in this way, when He spend 40 days and 40 nights in the desert with Satan. But Christ was victorious, and we can be too!

So the question is: How do we tackle spiritual dryness?? If we look back to the analogy above - do you:

(a) sit down and wait for your death
(b) do you go Bear Grylls style and drink your own urine (YUCK!)
(c) persevere, go through the motions and get to the creek?

Answer: (c) YOU GET TO THE CREEK! It is a source of life, it is a source of sustenance, and you know you will feel so much better, despite the physical and mental hardships it will take to get there. 

The answer is the same for spiritual dryness. The best advice I ever received when in a crisis of faith was to keep going and not give up. Two priests on two separate occasions advised this, and it was the best thing they could tell me. Partake in the sacraments - go to mass often, even more than normal; get regular confession; get spiritual advice; surround yourself with people of faith - friends or family; read religious books; study the saints; and lastly, pray. Even if your heart is not in it, pray pray pray. You might feel like God is not listening (He is), but that conversation is vitally important. Don’t cut the ties of the communication, even if it’s a standard prayer or a simple hello. Something has hardened your heart, and He will break through to you, but you have to meet Him halfway. It’s important to also talk it through with a priest, a sister or nun, or a close confidant. Having that support around you is vital - their advice and their prayers are priceless.

Just as Jesus carried His cross, so too are we called to carry ours. But in this Easter Season we are constantly reminded of the hope of the resurrection. We believe that Christ rose from the dead, and while carrying our cross right now is difficult, and at times we are ready to give up, we have that beacon of hope waiting at the finish line for us.

So what now?

Muster up all your energy, run through the forest, get to the creek and jump right in!! The water is pure, refreshing and completely worth the fight!

Life Lessons!

by Claire 

It has been my “turn” to write a post for a little while, and while it has been in the back of mind, every time I try to think of a topic my mind goes blank. I’ve been looking at my life, looking at the things I do, and wondering what can I share with the blogosphere... so here it goes.

God has been teaching me some lessons lately. Normally, that sounds like something quite vindictive, my mind conjures some mafia thug character in a Martin Scorsese film growling “I’m going to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget!”. No, it definitely was not like that. God has been lovingly nudging me in certain directions and highlighting certain situations for me. I want to share one in particular

I live in a house with two girls that I don’t know, it was a flat share I had found on the internet. One of the girls I live with seriously, seriously gets on my nerves. She loves to talk about herself at great length, and share every single detail of every waking moment she has experienced. Now don’t get me wrong, I love to hear about other peoples lives, but seriously, she doesn’t care about anything I have to say. Take, for example, the other morning, she was talking so much I just walked out of the flat without remembering to bring anything with me to eat for the day. Slightly extreme, I know (and my purse did not appreciated it)! 

So in walks God with His lesson.... This past while I’ve been reading St. Therese of Lisieux’s autobiography, and came across this story:

“A holy nun of our community annoyed me in all that she did; the devil must have had something to do with it, and it was he who undoubtedly made me see in her so many disagreeable points. I did not want to yield to my natural antipathy, for I remembered that charity ought to betray itself in deeds, and not exist merely in the feelings, so I set myself to do for this sister all I should do for the one I loved most. Every time I met her I prayed for her, and offered to God her virtues and merits...I did not rest satisfied with praying for this sister, who gave me such occasions for self-mastery, I tried to render her as many services as I could, and when tempted to answer her sharply, I made haste to smile and change the subject...One day she said to me with a beaming face: “My dear Soeur Therese, tell me what attraction you find in me, for whenever we meet, you greet me with such a sweet smile!”

So when this passage cropped up I had to laugh to myself - God was teaching me a lesson, in the humourous fashion that He tends to exhibit to me. He knows I find my flatmate annoying, but he wants to show me that I can still show charity and love towards her, through the example of St. Therese. It will take me a while to get into the practice of it, but when she’s off on one of her long winded rants about something, I will offer up a prayer for her. I will use the situation for the good of her, and the good of Christ. I’m not saying I’m going to automatically become her best friend, but I want her to be able to see God through me, and by running out of the flat first thing in the morning, I’m never going to be able to achieve this!

I’m accepting our clashing of personalities as part of the day-to-day suffering that we as humans undergo. Suffering is difficult, it is uncomfortable, it is frustrating, but I read something recently that was quite profound: everytime we suffer, and offer this suffering to Christ, we are helping Him lift his cross that little bit higher as He makes the journey to Calvary. We are helping him support the weight of our sins, our sorrows, our burdens. I don’t know about you, but I would give anything to help Him do this for me. I’ve heard in the past offering something up for the souls in purgatory, for the Pope’s intentions, but never solely for Jesus. Our suffering - whether it be illness, death, spiritual dryness, or an annoying housemate - can be gifted to Jesus...Wow!

  

“There is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already borne for us, and does not now bear with us.”-- Pope John Paul II