In this catechesis, Pope Francis discusses the challenges and importance of prayer in the Christian life. Prayer is not always easy or comfortable, but rather a struggle that requires perseverance and faith. Silence, prayer, and concentration are difficult, and sometimes our human nature rebels. We experience the temptation to avoid prayer and find it hard to set aside the time. “Every time we want to pray, we are immediately reminded of many other activities, which at that moment seem more important and more urgent.”
Many people, including saints, experienced difficulties in prayer, such as tediousness, fatigue, and periods of darkness. The Catechism highlights various obstacles to prayer, both external and internal, and encourages us to resist the temptations to abandon prayer during difficult times, to continue to pray even when it is dark. Some of those enemies of prayer include:
Discouragement during periods of dryness; sadness that, because we have ‘great possessions’, we have not given all to the Lord; disappointment over not being heard according to our own will; wounded pride, stiffened by the indignity that is ours as sinners; our resistance to the idea that prayer is a free and unmerited gift (Catechism 2728).
Pope Francis stresses that prayer is a spiritual combat, giving examples from the lives of saints and ordinary people who have fought temptation through prayer. He cites St. Ignatius, the inspiration behind Ignatian retreats:
The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola is a short book of great wisdom that teaches how to put one’s life in order. It makes us understand that the Christian vocation is militancy, it is the decision to stand under the banner of Jesus Christ and not under that of the devil, trying to do good even when it becomes difficult.
Prayer is combat, but the Lord is always with us, even when we can’t perceive Him. Pope Francis emphasizes that persistence in prayer can lead to profound experiences of grace and divine intervention. “Prayer works miracles, because prayer goes directly to the heart of the tenderness of God, who loves us like a father.”
You are invited to meditate on the Parables of the Persistent Friend (Luke 11:5–13) and the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-11).
Read Pope Francis’ Catechesis on prayer: 33. The Struggle of Prayer
The great spiritual masters recognize that prayer is not always easy, for our human nature is frequently distracted or tempted. Many of the saints in fact experienced long periods of spiritual dryness and even darkness. They teach us that the only response to these temptations is greater perseverance. In our daily efforts to persevere in prayer may we trust that our own spiritual combat, like that of Jacob and the angel (cf. Gen 28:16), will bear fruit in a deeper and more mature relationship with the Lord.