“I’m not coming to Mass anymore, Father”
“It is just boring”.
“So what you’re really saying is I should keep coming, isn’t it?”
I could be having this conversation all over Brighton. It isn’t that people do not believe, it is just that they just do not get anything out of belief. It has no “cash value”.
There is expectation that we should be entertained or at least have some feeling.
This is the reason most people lapse or even why priests and religious give up prayer. Of course it is ultimately a sin against the First Commandment, we put ourselves at the centre of the relationship with God rather than Him.
Boredom and tedium are important in the spiritual life, praying without consolation is actually a grace.
When we feel that God has deserted us then truly we pray the prayer of Christ on the Cross.
"My God, My God why have forsaken me."
St Makari, “Pray simply. Do not expect to find in your heart any remarkable gift of prayer. Consider yourself unworthy of it. Then you will find peace. Use the empty, dry coldness of your prayer as food for your humility.” h/t Amy Welbourne
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