How Can I Fall In Love With God Again?

[Th0t]

I don't know if this is a test I'm going through, but I feel I'm going through the desert right now. I do not feel God anywhere, I KNOW He's always there but it's not like before where I could feel He was there with me. I pray but it's like my mind tells me it's not working. I try to read His word but it doesn't get to my heart. I hear talks and they motivate me but then it's like pfft and my inspiration leaves. I feel like I've fallen under a routine because I go to church and to my activities I'm committed with the Lord, and I feel empty. :/ I feel like a mediocre hypocrite. What can I do?

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='Th0t' date='22 November 2009 - 10:38 PM' timestamp='1258889939' post='2007238']
I don't know if this is a test I'm going through, but I feel I'm going through the desert right now. I do not feel God anywhere, I KNOW He's always there but it's not like before where I could feel He was there with me. I pray but it's like my mind tells me it's not working. I try to read His word but it doesn't get to my heart. I hear talks and they motivate me but then it's like pfft and my inspiration leaves. I feel like I've fallen under a routine because I go to church and to my activities I'm committed with the Lord, and I feel empty. :/ I feel like a mediocre hypocrite. What can I do?
[/quote]

Have you read St John of the Cross? You might get some benefit from the Dark Night of the Soul, where he talks about this very thing. It doesn't make the pain go away, but it does help a little to know that this aridity that you are going through is not only normal, but it is almost necessary at certain stages of the spiritual life. You are learning that feelings can only take you so far, but faith and trust in God are needed to take you the rest of the way. Nothing is more pleasing to God than our faith, so when you continue to do those things that used to give you good feelings, but do not do so any more, you are offering Him something in return for all that He has given to you.

Perseverence at this point in time is essential, and attention to all the sacraments, especially Confession and frequent Communion. When things get really tough, then MORE prayer is needed, more effort, more penance.... etc. You can also offer up this time of trial for the souls in purgatory.

And of course, there is simply no substitute for taking all of it, everything, the pain, the loss, EVERYTHING to Him in close personal prayer. Remember Jonah getting angry with God and God being so patient with him? Talk to Him one to one, in private and say everything that is in your heart. Whether you call out to God in His person as Father, Saviour, or the Comforter, make it personal between you. He is there. He does care, but He sees what we need as well as what we would like. And this time of emptiness is creating a longing in you tthat is more beneficial to your soul than many consolations right now.

I will keep you in my prayers.

[Era Might]

I always give the same advice in these situations: go and serve the poor. Do not just give money to them, but go physically and serve the poor (e.g., at a soup kitchen). When you look into the eyes of a poor person, you are looking into the eyes of Jesus. Thus, when you feel like God is not tangible, remember that you can talk to him and touch him and listen to him in every poor person.

[holly.o]

Good advice already given. Also, draw close to Our Blessed Mother. Make sure to continue praying the Rosary, visit a shrine or simply a statue, think about her loneliness and sorrow in relation to Christ's life. Check out the Legion of Mary if it's at your parish or one close by.

You seem to already understand the purpose of this time of dryness judging by your picture. It's the abandonment of Christ you're feeling. This is His gift to you - to experience what He felt & to become more like Him.

God bless. I'll pray for you.

[Gregorius]

There is a new book out on Mother Theresa called Come be my Light. The book is part of the correspondence between her and the local ordinary, and reveals many of the struggles she went through in between the time she joined religious life and the time she founded her order. Even saints have to go through a time of testing.

praying.

[kafka]

continue to recieve the Eucharist.

focus your attention/will on loving God for His own sake and dont worry about thoughts/feelings. A prayer pure prayer from the spiritual heart/the will-stripped of all thoughts, feelings and self-love/interest 'smites' God and pierces Heaven.

Read Sacred Scripture. Maybe the Song of Songs of Solomon or Hosea, or the Psalms.

you very well could be blessed by God in this and called to something deeper. Maybe find a spiritual director and see what he says.

Edited November 22, 2009 by kafka

[jeffpugh]

Great stuff here. I also advise finding a chapel and sitting in front of the Eucharist for a set amount of time. Embrace the stillness and the aridity. It is a test of your fidelity. Your prayer can begin with "Lord, I firmly believe that you are here in the most blessed sacrament. I offer this time in silence and my aridity in prayer to you".

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Gregorius' date='22 November 2009 - 01:47 PM' timestamp='1258919259' post='2007347']
There is a new book out on Mother Theresa called Come be my Light. The book is part of the correspondence between her and the local ordinary, and reveals many of the struggles she went through in between the time she joined religious life and the time she founded her order. Even saints have to go through a time of testing.

praying.
[/quote]
A very very good book to read.

[ChildoftheCreator]

Wait and trust. Two very simple words but the first makes the second hard and painful. There will be a day when you're faith will come back, or rather it will be easier to have faith. Push yourself. It's like running. Some days it feels good, other days it feels horrible, but you have to push yourself anyways if you want to get better.

Emotions only take you so far. I find also that switching up what I do in my prayer life helps. Although in those spiritually low times, it doesn't help attain a spiritual peak, it just makes me feel a little better. Yes, read those books, too. I keep hearing that they're good for time of spiritual darkness or the desert, but haven't gotten to reading them yet. My prayers will be with you.

[little_miss_late]

I will pray for you. I agree with all the advice given above, most especially:

[quote] draw close to Our Blessed Mother [/quote]

She will bring you back to where you want to be.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Th0t' date='22 November 2009 - 05:38 AM' timestamp='1258889939' post='2007238']
I don't know if this is a test I'm going through, but I feel I'm going through the desert right now. I do not feel God anywhere, I KNOW He's always there but it's not like before where I could feel He was there with me. I pray but it's like my mind tells me it's not working. I try to read His word but it doesn't get to my heart. I hear talks and they motivate me but then it's like pfft and my inspiration leaves. I feel like I've fallen under a routine because I go to church and to my activities I'm committed with the Lord, and I feel empty. :/ I feel like a mediocre hypocrite. What can I do?
[/quote]+J.M.J.+
dude, i'm so there right now with you. i don't know about you, but book suggestions are awful for me in this state because the only reason i have any connection to my faith is intellectually, not in the heart.

[Apotheoun]

[i]This thread made me think of this lovely sonnet:[/i]

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

[i]Shakespeare, Sonnet 116[/i]

[Brother Adam]

You need to be very careful about this. Just because people experience dryness in prayer or distance from God does not indicate that they are experiencing the Dark Night. A qualified and experienced spiritual director is needed to assess that situation. it is possible that the dark night is beginning for this person, but you can't make that assumption.

[quote name='nunsense' date='22 November 2009 - 08:28 AM' timestamp='1258892896' post='2007258']
Have you read St John of the Cross? You might get some benefit from the Dark Night of the Soul, where he talks about this very thing. It doesn't make the pain go away, but it does help a little to know that this aridity that you are going through is not only normal, but it is almost necessary at certain stages of the spiritual life. You are learning that feelings can only take you so far, but faith and trust in God are needed to take you the rest of the way. Nothing is more pleasing to God than our faith, so when you continue to do those things that used to give you good feelings, but do not do so any more, you are offering Him something in return for all that He has given to you.

Perseverence at this point in time is essential, and attention to all the sacraments, especially Confession and frequent Communion. When things get really tough, then MORE prayer is needed, more effort, more penance.... etc. You can also offer up this time of trial for the souls in purgatory.

And of course, there is simply no substitute for taking all of it, everything, the pain, the loss, EVERYTHING to Him in close personal prayer. Remember Jonah getting angry with God and God being so patient with him? Talk to Him one to one, in private and say everything that is in your heart. Whether you call out to God in His person as Father, Saviour, or the Comforter, make it personal between you. He is there. He does care, but He sees what we need as well as what we would like. And this time of emptiness is creating a longing in you tthat is more beneficial to your soul than many consolations right now.

I will keep you in my prayers.
[/quote]

[Totus Tuus]

I would just like to assure you that the fact that you feel this way is a very good sign that you are, indeed, in love with God. I am sure the "feelings" aspect has been discussed already. Just know the value of your sentiment really is great.

[Saint Therese]

You can prove your love for God even if you don't feel it by being faithful-to prayer and to going to Mass etc.