Catholic · Emmaus course
When Prayer Feels Empty: Consolation, Dryness, and the Growth of the Soul
Ever finished praying and felt like nothing happened? You are not doing it wrong. Discover the three ways God actually speaks in prayer, why sensible consolation is a gift and not the goal, and how St. Teresa’s picture of the garden lets you read whether your prayer life is truly growing.
With Fr. John Bartunek, LC
- Length
- 1 hr
- Lessons
- 1
- Level
- Intermediate
- Version
- Catholic
- Price
- Free
About this course
Most of us judge our prayer by how it feels. This course gently takes that measuring stick out of your hands and offers a better one. Drawing on St. Teresa of Ávila’s image of the soul as a garden that grows when it is watered, it names consolation as the most common of three ways God speaks to us in prayer, and then makes the point that changes everything: the water is for the plants. Consolation is a gift, but the goal is a life that becomes more like Christ. You will learn to tell sensible consolation from spiritual consolation, to understand why a dry and distracted prayer is not a wasted prayer, and to read the health of a prayer life by its fruit in virtue rather than by its feelings. For counselors and pastoral workers, the course offers a developmentally sound way to understand and accompany a person’s spiritual maturation over time.
Curriculum
-
Module 1
When God Feels Silent: Discerning Consolation in Prayer
- 1.Lesson: How God Speaks in Prayer: Consolation and the Growth of the Soul
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