Hi, everyone!
Again, as we're nearing the halfway point in our journey, it's not uncommon to experience dryness in our prayer. But we shouldn't allow ourselves to be troubled by this. Some of the great saints, such as St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Mother Teresa, experienced long periods of dryness in their prayer.
But this doesn't mean that we can't pray more effectively if we've experienced dryness. For example, perhaps we might reflect upon the tempo of our prayers. If we're praying "HailMaryFullOfGraceTheLordIsWithThee," then we're essentially racing down the prayer freeway at 100 miles per hour -- and it's hard to enjoy the beautiful spiritual scenery that surrounds us when we're traveling so quickly. If that's the case with us, then maybe we're falling into the trap of "getting our prayers in" instead of getting into our prayers.
So maybe we can slow down our tempo to something more like this: "Hail Mary... full of grace... the Lord is with Thee..." By traveling at 65 miles per hour on the prayer freeway, we can still get to our destination in a reasonable amount of time while maximizing our appreciation for God's beauty that is all around us when we engage in meditative and/or contemplative prayer.
I've found that even moderating the tempo just the slightest little bit can make a very big difference for me -- and, actually, meditating upon the sacred art as I am praying really helps me with this. At times I have used the natural pause that is produced by a comma or a period by using that brief moment to glance at the sacred art.
By the way, for the rest of this week, you'll notice that the "Litany of the Saints" is optional; however, I would strongly encourage you to pray it all week, if you're able to do so. The litanies, because of their rhetorical (or intentional) repetition, can be wonderful for helping us gradually deepen our relationship with the communion of saints (though it may happen quite imperceptibly).
In order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items:
1. Click the following link to go to my website:
http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/total-consecration
2. Scroll down a little farther and click the link entitled "Total Consecration: Day 14" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)
God bless you, and may Our Lady, the Queen of All Hearts, sweetly shower God's graces upon you!
Joe
+ + +