Hajja Salesjana

Editor’s Note: During this year 2022, we mark the 400th anniversary since the birth of St. Francis de Sales in Heaven in 1622 at Lyon. As a Salesian Family, we know that his spirituality deeply marked Don Bosco and consequently us Salesians, his sons. Infact our name derives from him and not from Don Bosco! Throughout this year, you will be able to read the following article by Rev. Dr. Eunan McDonnell SDB, Provincial of Ireland, who is an expert in the field pertaining to this great Saint and his very practical spirituality. I trust that you may find this article, split in our four Ħajja Salesjana issues for 2022, inspiring and helpful to your faith and relationship with the true King of Hearts, the Lord Jesus Christ! When the well runs dry The experience of aridity or spiritual dryness in prayer is the inevitable experience of those who have become accustomed to praying regularly. Often, the lack of feeling in prayer may be misinterpreted as a sign that we are no longer praying or we may be even tempted to give up prayer. St Francis writes: “Don’t waste time during prayer trying to understand exactly what you are doing or how you are praying; for the best prayer is that which keeps us so occupied with God that we don’t think about ourselves or about what we are doing ... don’t be like the bride who entertains herself by looking at her engagement ring without even seeing the husband who gave it to her.” 1 Yet, it needs to be explained to the person praying that this dryness is a normal phenomenon in the journey of prayer. It is calling for a deeper reliance on faith that God is working away in the darkness and the lack of feeling is not to be taken as the gauge of prayer. It is a movement from the senses to the spirit where the sensory part of the person (sensory gratification) is starting to dry up and the soul’s riches are being transferred to the spirit. Rather than being an indication of diminishing prayer, this experience is an indication that God is becoming more the agent and the person more the receiver. It indicates a greater purity of prayer because our prayer is no longer dictated by what we get out of it as we seek “the God of consolations and not the consolations of God.” 2 St Francis’s description of St Jane’s experience of aridity in prayer through By Rev. Dr. Eunan McDonnell sdb 10 Ottubru - Diċembru 2022 hajja