Given the extraordinary importance of a regular prayer life, we will now begin with two parts from a 2024 series on prayer.
Anyone who seriously undertakes a life of prayer – that is, who does not only pray occasionally or when going through great anguish – will realize that it is not always an easy path; rather, there are sufferings that can make prayer even wearisome for us. Therefore, we will have to fight against the laziness of our human nature, go through processes of purification and, of course, confront various temptations, which want to discourage us. It can even go so far as to make us doubt the meaning of prayer, because it would seem that God does not listen to it and that it does not bring us any satisfaction. Thus, the soul is in danger of throwing in the towel and abandoning these “tiring” dealings with God.
First of all, it should be said that a person must become accustomed to prayer. There may be stages in which we find it easy to pray and we take pleasure in that “coming home” we experience; stages in which we are granted religious feelings that fill us with joy. But, in the long run, it takes discipline and endurance to lead a regular prayer life. Certainly there are exceptions to this, and there may be people who generally find it easy to pray. But normally it is usually as we have just said.
The abbot of a Trappist monastery once said to me, “It is easier to summon monks for work than for prayer!”
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