Saturday, September 28, 2013
574. What are the difficulties in prayer? (part 1)
(Comp 574) Distraction is a habitual
difficulty in our prayer. It takes our attention away from God and can also
reveal what we are attached to. Our heart therefore must humbly turn to the
Lord. Prayer is often affected by dryness. Overcoming this difficulty allows us
to cling to the Lord in faith, even without any feeling of consolation. Acedia
is a form of spiritual laziness due to relaxed vigilance and a lack of custody
of the heart.
“In brief”
(CCC 2754) The principal difficulties in the practice of
prayer are distraction and dryness. The remedy lies in faith, conversion, and
vigilance of heart.
To deepen and explain
(CCC 2729) The habitual difficulty in prayer is distraction. It can affect words and
their meaning in vocal prayer; it can concern, more profoundly, him to whom we
are praying, in vocal prayer (liturgical or personal), meditation, and
contemplative prayer. To set about hunting down distractions would be to fall
into their trap, when all that is necessary is to turn back to our heart: for a
distraction reveals to us what we are attached to, and this humble awareness
before the Lord should awaken our preferential love for him and lead us
resolutely to offer him our heart to be purified. Therein lies the battle, the
choice of which master to serve (Cf. Mt 6:21, 24). (CCC 2730) In positive
terms, the battle against the possessive and dominating self requires vigilance, sobriety of heart. When Jesus
insists on vigilance, he always relates it to himself, to his coming on the
last day and every day: today. The
bridegroom comes in the middle of the night; the light that must not be extinguished
is that of faith: "'Come,' my heart says, 'seek his face!'" (PS
27:8).
Reflection
(CCC 2731) Another difficulty, especially for those who
sincerely want to pray, is dryness.
Dryness belongs to contemplative prayer when the heart is separated from God,
with no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones. This
is the moment of sheer faith clinging faithfully to Jesus in his agony and in
his tomb. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it
remains alone; but if dies, it bears much fruit" (Jn 12:24). If dryness is
due to the lack of roots, because the word has fallen on rocky soil, the battle
requires conversion (Cf. Lk 8:6, 13). [IT CONTINUES]
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