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As much as our hearts desire a relationship with God built through prayer, it isn’t always easy. Many people experience seasons of dryness in prayer that can feel difficult to overcome.
Even the saints weren’t immune to these feelings, with many of them having experienced prolonged seasons of dryness and spiritual desolation in their lifetime.
Look to these saints for prayers and help in persevering in prayer during these times.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, known for her profound charity for the poor and the sick, experienced desolation in prayer for 50 years. She wrote:
“Lord, my God, who am I that you should forsake me? The child of your love — and now become as the most hated one. The one — you have thrown away as unwanted — unloved. I call, I cling, I want, and there is no one to answer . . . Where I try to raise my thoughts to heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. Love — the word — it brings nothing. I am told God lives in me — and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.”
However, despite that, she radiated peace and joy to others because she never ceased choosing love and faith even when she didn’t feel like it.
St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi was an Italian Carmelite and Mystic. Immediately after professing her vows, she experienced deep consolation during Holy Communion for 40 days, but then she suffered for the next five years with spiritual desolation, violent temptations, and physical suffering.
Mary Magdalene de Pazzi came to understand that the distance she felt from God wasn’t truly a lack of closeness with him; it was just a feeling. The Lord blessed her with many amazing spiritual gifts and through her prayer and her sufferings, a deep union with Him.
Take these words of St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi during times of difficulty and dryness: “Trials are nothing else but the forge that purifies the soul.”
St. Joseph of Cupertino was a Franiscan priest who suffered much in his life, particularly struggling in his studies to become a priest. He was also a mystic who loved God so much that he often levitated during prayer and Mass.
But even St. Joseph experienced periods of intense desolation and feeling forsaken by God. These periods helped him maintain a spirit of humility in light of his many spiritual gifts.
Spanish Carmelite priest, St. John of the Cross is perhaps most known for his spiritual writings particularly The Dark Night of the Soul. “The Dark Night of the Soul” refers to the period of desolation a soul goes through on its journey to union with God.
It is believed that John wrote this poem along with several other classic works of writing while isolated and imprisoned. Even during the most difficult times of his life, John saw the ways God was drawing him closer.
He said: “Desolation is a file, and the endurance of darkness is preparation for great light.”
Before she received visions of Jesus, St. Faustina struggled in prayer for two and a half years.
She later wrote: “A darkness began to invade my soul, growing thicker and thicker. My spirit became dark, the truths of the faith seemed absurd to me. When someone spoke to me of God, my heart was like a stone, incapable of the slightest act of love! I found no consolation in prayer … Often during the entire Mass, I did nothing but struggle with blasphemies that rushed to my lips.”
However, through her perseverance even when it seemed impossible, St. Faustina changed the world through receiving and sharing the message of Divine Mercy.
St. Theresé has been called the “greatest saint of modern times” by Pope Pius X yet even the Little Flower experienced feelings of desolation.
While dying from tuberculosis, she wrote that Jesus: “allowed pitch black darkness to sweep over my soul … I suffered it for months and am still waiting for it to end.” Yet she continued to choose faith, hope, and love over darkness and despair.
These saints are proof that persevering through seasons of dry prayer and desolation will help you grow greatly in holiness.
A Blessed and Holy Easter!🙏✝️