When you pray, however you do it, the Lord himself is with you, and you may be able to detect something of this if you can create an inner space or silence within you, and stay with this for a while. You don’t need to worry about what words you are going to use, or, in fact, whether to use any words at all. Simply by presenting yourself to the Lord, you open yourself up. In the same way that turning a tap in the kitchen allows water to flow into the basin, turning your heart towards God in prayer opens a channel through which God can flow into your life and work within it.
If, when you’re praying, you don’t experience anything at all, then don’t take this as a sign of failure, or a sign that God doesn’t love you. Remember that you’re in good company: this was the experience of many of the Saints, and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said, now famously, that when she prayed, “even deep down … there is nothing but emptiness and darkness”. But look at the good that she accomplished. Blessed Teresa’s prayer was one of action. It was on the streets that she felt closest to God: “When I wash the leper’s wounds,” she said, “I feel I am nursing the Lord himself.”
(by Andrew Lyon – Redemptorist Sunday Plus)
Lord God, our heavenly Father, We thank you that you hear all our prayers and see all our actions. Even when we experience nothing but darkness and emptiness, help us to remember your love for us and your presence with us, that, rewarded in faith, we may continually seek to do your will. Amen.
(by Dominic O’Toole C.Ss.R – Redemptorist Sunday Plus)
Booklet of Prayer – Co-author Jim Dillon (follow the page numbers)