An advice to a friend who admitted to be continuously distracted during prayer.

When I got an encounter with a friend who admitted to be continuously distracted during prayer, St. Teresa of Avila comes to mind.  With our discussion, I explained to her the three stages of prayer in terms of what we seek.  In the first stage we seek knowledge of God and of ourselves, in the second- experience, and third transformation.  Then, as we go through it, we started in the first stage by letting her make an examination of conscience, the need for self-knowledge by checking whether her distractions is due to some negligence that has crept into her life.  She may have grown careless in her fidelity to a daily time of prayer, or she may not be coming to prayer properly prepared and disposed.  Maybe the negligence were in terms of disordered attachments in her active life: a festering resentment over some hurt, a preoccupation with her own success in some endeavor or a friendship that is competing with the Lord for the center of attention. 

      Then I told her, with this conditions of the soul, Teresa of Avila advised that their need which is also true to everyone is self-knowledge and for the knowledge of the beauty of a soul in grace and of the ugliness of one in sin. The soul must recognize her wickedness and ask God for healing and liberation in order to have peace and attention in prayer. By discovering such, I advised this friend to approached God with humility, to go to a priest and ask for the sacrament of reconciliation, detached herself from all attachments and in anything that divides her attention to her prayer life.  One needs also to be humble by submitting herself to the generosity of God, to the healing power of God for freedom and liberation from sins. This self-evaluation is very important for Teresa of Avila because she too, was fond of referring herself as the greatest of sinners.  There is a dire need to acknowledged which part of the self that needs improvement.  I have also suggested to this friend to go and make amends to whoever persons she may have hurt in the past or to resolve conflicts and process resentments which makes her disturbed.  St. Teresa of Avila's own experience with distractions and aridity in prayer, she said " I would rather do any act of corporeal penance rather than complete my time of meditation in the choir."  The saint added that we should set our eyes on Christ, our Good, and on His saints.  There we shall learn humility, the intellect will be enhanced, and self-knowledge will not make one fearful and coward. (Interior Castle, First Mansion par 11.)   In paragraph 9 chapter two, she said "let's strive to make more progress in self-knowledge, for in my opinion we shall never completely know ourselves if we don't strive to know God.  By gazing at His grandeur, we get in touch with our own lowliness; by looking at His purity, we shall see our own filth; by pondering His humility, we shall see how far we are from being humble.  In other words, this simply means that the more intimate we are with God, the more conscious we are with our own self and there it is easy for us to see which part within us needs reparation and healing.  Teresa further said that where true humility is present, God will give peace and conformity–even though He may never give consolations by which one will walk with greater contentment than will others with their consolations.(Interior Castle,2^nd mansion chapter 1, par.9).   

         Aside from self-knowledge and humility, Teresa also mentioned perseverance in prayer.  I too have advised her that  even if she feels like giving up, distracted or confused, she still  has to go on praying.  Teresa said "the Lord will guide everything for our benefit,..there is no other remedy for this evil of giving up prayer than to begin again; otherwise the soul will gradually lose more each day. (Interior Castle, 2^nd mansion, chap 1, par. 10.) To persevere means to continue and keep moving forward.  Keep praying even if you know yourself you are embarrassed.  You learn about prayer from praying. (Book of life, chap. 8)

         Furthermore,  I have also suggested that even if she is continuously distracted in prayer, still she has to learn from Teresa's words when she says "seek the God of consolations and not the consolations of God (Interior Castle, fourth mansion).  Here, we learn from her to learn to seek not beautiful insights or consoling experiences but transformations.  This is the third stage –seek transformation. This means that we should not judge our prayer by our feelings when we pray but by the fruits of prayer being manifested in our life.  Then I have elaborated this farther by citing an example particularly the image of someone undergoing a surgery.  When a person is on the operating table, the doctor anesthetizes him.  He renders him unconsciously in order to do the operation process quickly and saves his life.  This analogy brings out important point.  You do not judge the fruitfulness of the operation by the feelings the patient had while on the operating table, but it is judge whether the operation brings about healing in her life.  The same is true with prayer.  Teresa emphasizes that it is in the effects and deeds following afterward that one discerns the true value of prayer.  The real fruit of prayer is not insight or experience, good or gratifying but it is the time we give to the Lord to transform us. God is the surgeon and you are the patient.  We have to have great confidence in his skill and concern, in order to entrust our life into his hands.  Let go and let God.  Let him be the boss.  As Teresa says "one should let the intellect go and surrender oneself into the arms of love, for distractions, the wandering mind are part of the human condition and cannot be avoided than eating and sleeping."   she also added in her Book of Life Chapter 11, paragraph 1, "if you want to advance in prayer, give yourselves to God".  Let Him do whatever He likes with us, bring us wherever he pleases.  St. Teresa of Avila really believes that whoever humbles himself and is detached will receive the favor from the Lord and many other favors that we don't know how to desire it.  May He be forever praised and blessed, amen.

        

Then I end my advise with Teresa's words:

        

Let nothing trouble you,
let nothing frighten you.
All things are passing;
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
He who possesses God lacks nothing:
God alone suffices.