Everyone who has a decent prayer life goes through periods when they just have a difficult time praying. By “prayer life” I don’t mean saying 1 or 2 prayers and that’s it. I mean daily Mass readings, Bible study, rosary devotion and whatever else that constitutes a greater-than-normal attention to the interior life of the soul.

Sometimes one just can’t do it. Whether it’s through a personal failing (“I don’t feel like it.”) or a God-induced dryness (just ask St. Teresa of Avila), people sometimes just have a difficult time praying.

One can force it or just roll with it until the moment returns. I go through it for a few days every so often. Not epic by saintly standards but enough to welcome and appreciate my prayer life’s return.

And when it returns it is like coming to a wellspring in an oasis after detouring through a desert. The tank was empty and then it isn’t.

My primary tool for sobriety has thus been recharged.

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