In his catechesis, Pope Francis addresses common difficulties in prayer and strategies to overcome them. Prayer is a battle and requires perseverance due to three main challenges:
- Distractions: The mind’s tendency to wander during prayer.
- Spiritual dryness: Periods when one feels separated from God.
- Sloth: A spiritual fatigue that can lead to (or be caused by) carelessness in the spiritual life.
Pope Francis encourages us to fight against distractions, maintain vigilance, and persevere through difficult times. He stresses the importance of consistency in prayer, even when it feels unproductive or challenging.
To combat distraction, Pope Francis emphasizes the importance of vigilance and concentration. He likens the battle against distraction to the mental discipline required in athletics or study. The battle to achieve and maintain concentration does not relate only to prayer; all the minutes of our lives are precious and should not be wasted on distractions. “Distractions are not to blame, but they must be fought. In the heritage of our faith there is a virtue that is often forgotten, but which is quite present in the Gospel. It is called ‘vigilance’.”
Times of spiritual dryness are normal in the spiritual life. The experience of faith alternates between times of consolation and desolation: there are times when prayer is easy, but other times are heavy. The Catechism compares our times of barrenness in prayer to the desolation of Good Friday and Holy Saturday: “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” (2731).
The Pope advises against allowing our hearts to become “grey” or disheartened during these times. Instead, he encourages believers to keep their hearts open and luminous, waiting with hope for the light of the Lord to enter.
Sloth (acedia) is the deadly temptation to abandon prayer altogether, and a temptation in the Christian life in general. Sloth is “a form of depression due to lax ascetical practice, decreasing vigilance, carelessness of heart” (Catechism 2733). The fight against sloth require consistent spiritual effort. The Pope says, “One must learn to always walk. True progress in spiritual life does not consist in multiplying ecstasies, but in being able to persevere in difficult times…. and if you are tired, stop a bit and then start walking again. But with perseverance.”
The Pope encourages us to follow the example of saints who endured “dark valleys” and to continue praying, even when it feels listless or lacks enthusiasm. He also validates the authenticity of prayers that express frustration or anger towards God, seeing them as a sign of a genuine child-parent relationship with the Divine.
Your invited to meditate on the Agony in the Garden, Matthew 26:36-46: Watch and Pray.
The saints faced these same difficulties in their prayer and teach us that true progress in the spiritual life comes through daily perseverance. 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.
Read Pope Francis’ Catechesis on prayer: 34. Distractions, time of barrenness, sloth