Dryness in prayer

Lately I have been wondering about what is up with my prayer life. It seems that recently I have been experiencing dryness and loss of feelings. I ponder on what am I doing wrong & what sin in my life is keeping me separated from God. This experience of dryness is very painful. I feel like one of the reasons why I'm here at this location, working where I work, is to just be here and be an intercessor for the people and the things around me. How can I be an intercessor when my prayer life is so dry??? I cried out to Him today to show me my answer.

After work tonight, I did a little research on the net in hopes to find some answers. I came across a lot of articles talking about the stages of prayer.

Here is one talking about the The Stages of Contemplative Prayer:

The monumental illusion of the human condition is the idea that God is not . "We translate dryness in prayer as God's absence until we perceive that God is communicating with us at a deeper level." In the dryness we may become discouraged or tempted to give up in favor of relaxation or engrossing work; but if we keep going, we grow in the trust of God and humility, becoming aware of our selfishness and other limitations.

We then may begin to experience exuberant spiritual consolations, the stages of contemplative prayer described by St. Teresa of Avila. The first is infused recollection, " a delicious spiritual savor that attracts us toward the center of our being." It is like a spring of water that quenches dryness from deep within. This grace may expand into the prayer of quiet, where the will is absorbed in God (though memory and imagination may still run rampant). "In this state the divine action seems to grasp the will in a spiritual embrace." In the third stage, the prayer of union, imagination and memory are suspended; "God can communicate more of his gifts because there is no resistance or commentary on our side." When the physical faculties are completely still and the will totally absorbed in God with no self-reflection, we experience the prayer of full union.

There is also an alternative way which St. John of the Cross called the path of pure faith. People along this far more common spiritual path are attracted to interior prayer, but they do not experience the consolations described by Teresa. In contrast to the light of Teresa's way, this path is very dark; but it is as valid as the other because it also leads to transforming union. "God as he is in himself can be fully accessed only by pure faith. The purification of faith and love, not spiritual consolation, leads to transforming
union."

"Transforming union is a restructuring of consciousness, not an experience or set of experiences," so the important element in contemplative prayer is the practice itself rather than the psychological content. God provides the consolations for those who need them, such as those who were most severely damaged in childhood. When we taste the goodness of God by either path, the emotional programs of the false self no longer hold such allure.

Thomas Keating - "Invitation to Love"

It is so enlightening to know that God is purifying my love for Him. We are now asked to pray and serve Him with higher motives than before. Our relationship with God becomes less of a "what I'm getting out of it" attitude. Then we'll grow in humility before God. We realize just how much we depend on Him for everything - even prayer. Thus this seemingly negative experience in prayer helps us to grow in a positive way.

All this time I was letting the devil trick me into thinking that I was not right with God, that I was wasting my time and that my prayers were displeasing to God. But to bad for the devil, because I have been given a new revelation and I have seen the truth...TRY AGAIN DEVIL!!!

This dryness is like a spiritual anesthetic. It numbs our soul while the Master Sculptor 'shapes it into His Image. We have no feeling of anything being accomplished. It is as if we were suspended between heaven and earth. We desire nothing of this world but we are still not ready for the pure air on the mountain of God. We wait, not always patiently, while we roam along unknown paths, thinking at times we are lost, but always finding a new path to take, a new cave to hide in, a dim light to follow. -JOSEPH G. VATH, D.D

Dryness dispels the cobwebs covering our minds and the superfluities that keep us entangled in a maze of nothingness. We are free to roam the limitless realms of His Love, which are ever there to be grasped in a new way. -JOSEPH G. VATH, D.D