When they are going about these spiritual exercises with the greatest delight and pleasure, and when they believe that the sun of Divine favor is shining most brightly upon them, God turns all this light of theirs into darkness.John of the Cross · Dark Night of the Soul, Book I, Chapter 8
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?Psalm 22:1
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
Teresa of Ávila, who knew many seasons of dry prayer, offers this:
Let nothing disturb you,Teresa of Ávila · Bookmark poem
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
What if the emptiness is not absence,
but a different kind of presence?
God perceives the imperfections within us, and because of His love for us, urges us to grow up... He weans us from the breasts of gratifications and pleasures, teaches us virtue and gives us His grace.John of the Cross · Dark Night of the Soul, Book I, Chapter 1
Without the night of sense, the soul would remain forever attached to the sweetness of spiritual milk rather than the solid food of union.John of the Cross · Dark Night of the Soul, Book I, Chapter 12
Thérèse of Lisieux, who prayed through emptiness in her final months, offers this:
When I sing of the happiness of heaven,Thérèse of Lisieux · Story of a Soul, Manuscript C
I feel no joy in this,
for I sing simply what I WANT TO BELIEVE.
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;Psalm 63:1
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Mother Teresa served the dying in Calcutta's streets for fifty-one years without consolation. Not in the mystical darkness that leads to union, but in profound absence. Yet she loved:
When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives & hurt my very soul.Mother Teresa · Come Be My Light, letter to her spiritual director
When I call out "My God" there is no echo of love.Mother Teresa · Come Be My Light
Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.Mother Teresa · Teaching to the Missionaries of Charity
She did not understand her darkness as a mystical pathway. She simply endured it—while loving the forgotten with unwavering presence. This is perhaps the deepest testimony: that you can pray without feeling prayer, serve without feeling served, and love without ever feeling loved in return.
The emptiness you feel may be God
making room for something deeper.
A Prayer for Empty Prayer
Lord, my prayer feels empty.
The words are dry, the feelings gone,
and I do not know if You are listening.
But John tells me this may be Your work—
weaning me from sweetness
to give me something more solid.
Let nothing disturb me.
Let nothing frighten me.
All things are passing away;
You never change.
Through the intercession of John,
who mapped this night,
Teresa, who persevered through it,
Thérèse, who sang what she wanted to believe,
and Mother Teresa, who served for fifty years in silence—
help me stay.
Amen.
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