Unexpected Advice from the Saints for Navigating Hard Seasons of Life
I am consoled and awed in equal measure when I think of the number of Catholic saints. I am a convert to Catholicism, so the concept of sainthood was new. One of the first books I read about Catholicism was about saints and their lives. But I am not an expert, so when I received this assignment, I knew I would have to do some research.
I typed “saints who experienced spiritual desolation” into my search bar. The top results were Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Saint Faustina Kowalska, and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Could this be right? The results surprised me. These women are giants among the saints; their lives have inspired millions of faithful people worldwide. How could they have doubted?
After diving into my search results, I found that these women struggled. They had long periods of “spiritual dryness” when it seemed God had stopped listening and hearing them. When they felt He was distant. When they doubted He was there at all.
“There is such a deep loneliness in my heart that I cannot express it,” St. Teresa of Calcutta wrote. “How long will our Lord stay away?”
Tayler Crabb, @taylercrabb.
St. Faustina shared this about her spiritual darkness, “When someone spoke to me of God, my heart was like a stone, incapable of the slightest act of love! I found no consolation in prayer … Often, during the entire Mass, I did nothing but struggle with blasphemies that rushed to my lips.”
Toward the end of her life, Saint Thérèse wrote that Jesus “allowed pitch black darkness to sweep over my soul … I suffered for months and am still waiting for it to end.”
I admit that sometimes I have doubts about my faith. These thoughts seem to coincide when my prayer life seems at its best. This should not be a surprise. Satan would not plant doubt in a person who is not trying to grow their faith; there would be no need.
There is consolation in these great and holy women of God and their times of spiritual dryness. I believe that their examples teach us that when it feels that we cannot hear God, the only thing to do is to keep praying in those times of darkness and doubt. To keep going to Mass, keep receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. The Holy Spirit is working in us. Even when it seems like we are in the middle of the desert, we should never think that He has given up on us.
We can make it through the darkness, but we must keep moving forward. And the dawn will come, and the light will shine once again. Amen.
Meet Cathi Kennedy
Cathi Kennedy is passionate about building relationships. At the University of Notre Dame, she advises graduate students for the Mendoza College of Business. Her background is in marketing and communications, and she recently received her MBA. She is an impassioned writer, voracious reader, aspiring knitter, married to a musician and mom to two amazing sons. Cathi is a convert to Catholicism and seeks to learn something new about her faith every day. Connect with Cathi on Instagram @cathikennedy.