October 15-16

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

     Sometimes faithful individuals find themselves in a dry spiritual life.  They admit almost embarrassingly that they find prayer wearisome and that they are not “getting anything out” of their regular prayer life.  In such a state, the tired soul finds prayer a burden and the temptation presents itself to give up.  “What’s the use?” one might ask, and of course there comes the added burden of feeling guilty.  Two things that the Good Lord does NOT want is our feeling guilty and falling into despair.   If we examine the lives of the saints we find that many of them experienced the same “dark night of the soul”, but through that darkness they were open to seeing a glimmer of hope.

     When I was a child, I remember the very dark tunnel at Rocky Glen Park in Moosic. It was scary, frightening but also something one had to go through.  The spiritual life can be like that as well.  We go through these tests to help us understand the strength of our faith.  Once our eyes (physical and spiritual) adjust to the darkness we perceive that flicker in the distance.  We remind ourselves that we are traveling toward it (albeit at different speeds) and will eventually come to it.  Faith moves us, Hope draws us and we find Love at the end of the tunnel waiting for us.

    Let us learn the lessons from today’s Sacred Scripture to persevere in our prayer life.  God hears the pleas in our hearts even before we express it in words.  Nonetheless, we endure the test to determine how truly committed we are in placing our trust in Him and how much we are willing to suffer for our request to be answered. Persist in prayer and be confident in the mercy of God.

With Blessings,

Father Langan