How Can I Fall In Love With God Again?

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='Brother Adam' date='23 November 2009 - 01:20 PM' timestamp='1258942857' post='2007643']
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]


I think you are being a little bit intense here. I am not a doctor making a diagnosis that will endanger anyone's life! I was also not trying to take the place of a spiritual director at all, but not everyone has access to a good spiritual director, and not all SDs really understand the DN anyway! There is no harm in advising someone to read the book that is titled "The Dark Night of the Soul" (I don't think I actually dignosed anyone as suffering from this condition in my post, but referred to aridity in general) and/or to consider some of the things that St John is saying. I found his writings extrememly comforting to read and I just felt that the OP might do so as well. But St John is not everyone's "cup of tea" anyway, so what might work for one person, might not for another.

I certainly do hope that the OP has a good SD during this time, but sometimes God takes even that support away from us, so that we must rely totally on Him. I also think that if someone asks for advice here on this phorum - they must realize that we who respond are certainly not trying to act in place of a priest or an SD in any way, and that the advice or suggestions that they get are going to be personal and relative to our own experiences. This is a phorum!!!

And the "Dark Night" is interpreted many different ways by many different sources... but that's a discussion for another thread and another time...... pax

Edited November 23, 2009 by nunsense

[ardillacid]

I have nothing of value to contribute to this thread, so have a consolation prize

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nah3nMStXV4[/media]

[Apotheoun]

Those bears do not fight as well as real hockey players.

[ardillacid]

[quote name='Apotheoun' date='22 November 2009 - 11:51 PM' timestamp='1258951890' post='2007781']
Those bears do not fight as well as real hockey players.
[/quote]
Hockey players don't wear muzzles

[kafka]

[quote name='nunsense' date='22 November 2009 - 11:24 PM' timestamp='1258950248' post='2007757']
I think you are being a little bit intense here. . . [/quote]
let the self-annihilation begin

JPII read Dark Night of the Soul when he was 19 years old. I think even before he entered the seminary, or perhaps right at the beginning of his formation.

Edited November 23, 2009 by kafka

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='kafka' date='24 November 2009 - 08:40 AM' timestamp='1259012430' post='2008101']
let the self-annihilation begin

JPII read Dark Night of the Soul when he was 19 years old. I think even before he entered the seminary, or perhaps right at the beginning of his formation.
[/quote]

"Let the self-annihilation begin." Gotta love it! There is just nothing easy about loving God because the only way to do it perfectly is to lose the self-love, and yes, that is a very painful and ongoing process.....

ah, but what wouldn't we do for love?

[kafka]

[quote name='nunsense' date='23 November 2009 - 05:09 PM' timestamp='1259014156' post='2008122']
"Let the self-annihilation begin." Gotta love it! There is just nothing easy about loving God because the only way to do it perfectly is to lose the self-love, and yes, that is a very painful and ongoing process.....

ah, but what wouldn't we do for love?
[/quote]
lol. Everyone in the world would do well with a little self-annihilation. Unfortunately not everyone loves His Majesty.

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='kafka' date='24 November 2009 - 09:17 AM' timestamp='1259014650' post='2008128']
Unfortunately not everyone loves His Majesty.


[/quote]


Don't say that! Oh, I know it is true, but how painful it is to hear such a thing.

[TotusTuusMaria]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='22 November 2009 - 04:04 PM' timestamp='1258920262' post='2007363']
A very very good book to read.
[/quote]

I was going to suggest the same thing. Wonderful book.

[holly.o]

Something else good from St. John of the Cross:

http://www.karmel.at/ics/john/cn.html

The canticle itself has so much passion in it...

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='Th0t' date='22 November 2009 - 07:38 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]
God is not a feeling, feelings are transitory. God is reality.
He has let go of your hand and letting you take baby steps without Him. Rejoice in His trust, be obedient, and wait.

"I will wait, for the Lord my soul will wait"

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' date='26 November 2009 - 01:42 PM' timestamp='1259203347' post='2009512']
God is not a feeling, feelings are transitory. God is reality.
He has let go of your hand and letting you take baby steps without Him. Rejoice in His trust, be obedient, and wait.

"I will wait, for the Lord my soul will wait"
[/quote]

What you say is true but sometimes we use the word "feelings" when what we really mean to talk about is "awareness" of God's presence. God is always present, but there are times when we become more aware of His presence, and times when He does not appear to be present at all, and I think that is what the OP is referring to. I also think that God removes this awareness in us, in order to test our faith and our resolve to align our will with His without this "consolation" or "proof". Nothing pleases God more than our faith, and this alternation of "presence" and "apparent absence" is a bit like lifting dumbbells when exercising, our "faith muscles" get stronger when we are able to trust God even during the times when He seems most absent.

[Luigi]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' date='25 November 2009 - 09:42 PM' timestamp='1259203347' post='2009512']
God is not a feeling, feelings are transitory. God is reality.
He has let go of your hand and letting you take baby steps without Him. Rejoice in His trust, be obedient, and wait.

"I will wait, for the Lord my soul will wait"
[/quote]

I agree with cmotherofpirl: God is not a feeling, feelings are transitory. I'd go a step further - we shouldn't maintain a relationship with God so He can US feel good. Love is different than "being in love." Being in love makes ME feel good - like liquor or drugs or surprise birthday parties make me feel good. God doesn't exist to make get ME high; God is not a drug. Loving another person (counting God here), means thinking about what THEY want & need, what will make THEM happy; it means thinking past our own satisfaction, it means sacrificing, it means lots of things that don't make ME feel good.

So what to do about the dryness you're experiencing? Maybe try doing something for other people as a way to serve God, a way to do something for Him. It might not work (as you've probably figured out, I'm no spiritual director), but it probably won't do any harm either.

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='Luigi' date='26 November 2009 - 04:07 PM' timestamp='1259212046' post='2009589']
I agree with cmotherofpirl: God is not a feeling, feelings are transitory. I'd go a step further - we shouldn't maintain a relationship with God so He can US feel good. Love is different than "being in love." Being in love makes ME feel good - like liquor or drugs or surprise birthday parties make me feel good. God doesn't exist to make get ME high; God is not a drug. Loving another person (counting God here), means thinking about what THEY want & need, what will make THEM happy; it means thinking past our own satisfaction, it means sacrificing, it means lots of things that don't make ME feel good.

So what to do about the dryness you're experiencing? Maybe try doing something for other people as a way to serve God, a way to do something for Him. It might not work (as you've probably figured out, I'm no spiritual director), but it probably won't do any harm either.
[/quote]


Absolutely, I agree, God is not a feeling, but we mustn't dehumanize ourselves either in trying to love God because God not only gave us feelings, but He also experienced them Himself in the Incarnation. I believe that we are meant to worship God with our whole self, including our feelings.

That being said, it is true that we cannot love God simply for those good feelings that we get and that when we do experience times of dryness or the loss of God's presence, then we need to be looking at what He is asking of us, instead of what we are receiving from Him.

Your suggestion to work for others is a very good one (spiritual director or not ) and I have found that when God appears to be absent, we can often find Him in His image... other people.

I also think that it must please God when we are experiencing a sense of loss for Him, not because He wants us to suffer, but because then we become aware of just how great our need for Him is, and in our longing for Him, we are probably closer to Him than many times when we are "feeling" happy.

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='holly.o' date='26 November 2009 - 01:34 PM' timestamp='1259202881' post='2009506']
Something else good from St. John of the Cross:

http://www.karmel.at/ics/john/cn.html

The canticle itself has so much passion in it...
[/quote]

Meant to respond to this post before but ran out of time. I also forgot to address a comment in another post about "falling in love with God" so I think I will do both here. The Spiritual Canticle shows that it is definitely possible to "fall inlove" with God, and it is this experience that often inspires the saints to great heights of devotion and sacrifice. St John of the Cross, whom everyone is happy to quote about aridity and darkness, is also the same person who wrote not only the Spiritual Canticle (a truly awesome love story) but also the Living Flame of Love, which definitely is not about dryness or darkness and certainly shows that St John also experienced great consolations from God.

The trap of course is to seek God for consolations alone, but to me, an even more subtle trap (because it isn't often addressed) is to think that one is "not allowed" to enjoy the consolations that God does provide, as He wills and when He wills and for as long as He wills. In any loving relationship, there are times when the lovers are able to enjoy each other, and there are times of self-sacrifice. The thing is not to demand consolations nor to reject them, not to run from trials but not to seek them out either, but to trust that God knows what is best for each individual soul, and to allow Him to do His work within us.

It is during the times of trial that we are shown just how strong our love for God is (He knows this already, but allows us to see it) through our perseverence and faith, but also how much we need Him, just to be able to love Him. His is the hand that hurts, but it is also the hand that heals. He does not expect us to be superhuman, but to do what we can for as long as we can. I tend to be a bit like St Therese in that when it all gets too much for me, I ask Him to take care of me, like a child who needs to be picked up. Only He knows when the right moment for that will be. But being in love with Him and accepting consolations as well as desolations is part of the whole package