Stop Asking Questions and Pray

Have you ever worked and prayed toward something good and on the eve or day of the event  found yourself under a barrage of challenges and your response a disappointment.  Do the challenges highlight in neon lights all your spiritual flaws so that anyone could see them crystal clear?  Yes, this has been my experience.  It is at these times that one starts to question many things such as whether the soul has any business planning religious events or efforts when it is in a very sorry state itself.  Yes, this is where I found myself today but something stopped the tail spin that had begun.  It was a call to stop the useless questioning and pray.  


A passage from the diary of St. Faustina comes to mind, one I have taken solace in many times:

January 7.  During the Holy Hour, the Lord allowed me to taste His Passion.  I shared in the bitterness of the suffering that filled His soul to overflowing.  Jesus gave me to understand how a soul should be faithful to prayer despite torments, dryness, and temptations; because oftentimes the realization of God’s great plans depends mainly on such prayer.  If we do not persevere in such prayer, we frustrate what the Lord wanted to do through us or within us.  Let every soul remember these words:  “And being in anguish, He prayed longer.”  I always prolong such prayer as much as is in my power and in conformity with my duty.