The spiritual life is a journey. We learn, we grow, we try new things.
And because it’s a journey that we can’t step away from, it’s not always easy to see the big picture.
There are natural (or supernatural) ebbs and flows, times of consolation and desolation in our lives. Often, we simply need to ride the tides, basking in the consolation and sticking it out through desolation.
However, there are also times when we need to adjust our course. We might think that we’re ‘feeling dryness’ in our prayer, but it’s quite possible that we’ve started down a new path that simply isn’t working.
And, at times like this, we need to get back to the basics.
After we’re exposed to new ‘things,’ whether that’s new prayers, different devotions, or more challenging sacrifices, it’s easy to keep chasing the next shiny object (metaphorically speaking). Growing is obviously extremely important, but the danger of these new shiny objects is that we drift away from the basics, the very things that helped us advance further along on our spiritual paths in the first place.
It’s important that we ask ourselves, what are those basics? Answers may vary slightly, but across the board, the foundation of our spiritual lives is personal prayer. To combat the ‘dryness’ in your prayer life, start there.
Commit to making time for personal prayer every day. No matter the pace of our spiritual progress, prayer will always be an essential part of our lives. So, get used to it.