In his General Audience Pope Francis addressed the “common difficulties we encounter in our practice of prayer.”
They are distraction, spiritual dryness, and fatigue. While the Pope said these are natural obstacles to prayer, he recommended looking to the saints for models of overcoming them. He recalled that “true progress in the spiritual life comes about though daily perseverance.”
SUMMARY OF THE POPE'S CATECHESIS IN ENGLISH:
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
In our continuing catechesis on Christian prayer, we now consider some common difficulties we encounter in our practice of prayer. The first is distraction. Prayer, like study and work, demands concentration and mental discipline. This calls for our cultivation of the virtue of vigilance, by which we focus our lives on doing the Lord’s will daily in expectation of his return.
A second difficulty is the experience of spiritual aridity, moments of dryness when our hearts – as the Catechism teaches – have “no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones” (No. 2731). The spiritual masters acknowledge that the life of faith involves times of consolation but also of desolation, when we share in the Lord’s sufferings.
A third difficulty is sloth, a form of spiritual fatigue that leads to the deadly temptation to abandon prayer altogether. The saints faced these same difficulties in their prayer and they teach us that true progress in the spiritual life comes about though daily perseverance, like that of Job who remained constant even amid his many afflictions.
As we strive to grow in our own life of prayer let us ask for the grace of perseverance, confident that our loving Father will grant us, through the Son and in the Spirit, all that we need to draw us ever closer to him.
I cordially greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors. As we prepare to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, I invoke upon you and your families the gifts of the Holy Spirit. May God bless you!
Justin McLellan
VM
