Course XLVII - Teaching 12: About consolation and Dryness in Prayer (March 11th, 1956)

Consecrated souls, souls of prayer ever want and believe that they have to get divine consolation and bliss continuously during their prayer. Worldly men need this divine grace; they are looking for and receiving this consolation when they pray. They need this as stimulation, but on the contrary we do not need this because we gave all up.
True prayer is not sensitive devotion, but dryness and darkness. Is it not the best thing to look for holy examples of prayer in holy books?
The Gospels say that when Joseph and Mary went with Jesus of Nazareth to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration in the Temple, later they did not find the child during the day and thought that he was with His relatives; but later, as they did not find him, they begun to ask the caravans about his whereabouts, and for three days they were sorrowfully looking for him.
Joseph and Mary were Initiates and constantly had the divine light in his Presence, but how did they lose this Presence and were in anguish? How can consecrated souls, who had bliss and visions for years, were deprived of their good? But, the Holy Writings say so, and it is Gospel’s word.
What has a soul to do at these moments? Just to look for, as Joseph and Mary did, and wonder as they did: Why is he afar from me? Perchance did not we give him love enough? Perchance were we not too much loving parents, since he escapes from us?
Where did you hide, oh Beloved One,
and leave me moaning?
You escaped as a deer
after you wounded me,
I run behind you claiming for you,
and you are gone.
If the soul remains steady at these moments, and even though he does not experience God, this soul “wants”, and prayer lies in this will and on these efforts. And where do they find the child? At the temple, with doctors around, and answering wisely about the law, and they are astonished. Then his parents asked why he had left them, and he replied: “Mother, I must deal with the things of my Father”. What a wonderful answer! In spite of his answer, he follows them meekly and obeys them. But they did not understand, even though Mary kept his words in the silence of Her heart. Also the soul can feel something in the heart, even though never understands it. It is a little light that is there, which remains in spite of all. But this light ascends to the temple of the mind and understanding, transmuted into Illumination light through efforts and dryness.
The sensitive love becomes love to light, knowledge and illumination. Which is the Temple? The Temple is not on sensibility, but on illuminative understanding, in which the sensitive love becomes love of light and understanding encompassing the whole Universe.
There, when the Master that had stayed in close relationship with the soul, and in the bliss of the unknown love, sharing it just with the Beloved One, becomes the Master of Light and Wisdom, who instructs the soul as he pours his love on all beings.
We share the Initiate’s mission by the understanding derived from dryness.
Where can we find a heroic, eager soul for living continuously without any distractions, and ready to live in this state for life? This soul would share the Divine Master’s work on Earth. Those that did not experience a long dry period are inexpert souls. They are not mystical souls. First, God tries to be loved and permits to be taken, but later He escapes, and the soul must learn how to know Him and to acquire the true Wisdom through Him.
Many persons are saints and devotees of this sublime mystery of the Lost Child, with Joseph and Mary looking for the Child Jesus and finding him in the Temple. She was aware of how valuable can be dryness in spiritual life. A human being loves God, but in a human way; man wants to confine and possess him in his own way. The soul wants to confine God humanly, but the nature of God is divine and has to return to His plane. So the soul has to look for God in the Temple of Wisdom, and to understand there his mission and take part in it. Understanding comes only through dryness. The Divine Husband wants to go out of the prison built by the soul, and to transmute feeling into Illuminative knowledge, and to lead the soul toward meditation without images, toward meditation of Luminous Ideas.
A soul that experiences this light cannot forget it. It is so powerful light coming after darkness that the soul could never imagine it.
As God forsakes a soul in dryness and destitution, then this soul begins to glimpse the mystical death. Previously, his pleasure is sensitive. During this dryness, the soul learns and acquires the lesson imparted to human beings. In bliss and consolation, the Divine Union –intimate love– perfects the understanding, but as one undergoes dryness, we harvest the fruit and keep it for the winter season and scarcity times.
Dryness is syrup that preserves the fruit until the propitious moment, and then we shall give it as food to the souls.
Sensitive prayer is a sweet momentary fruit. I do not refer to dryness in the beginning of the spiritual life, or to the struggle between worldly sensibility and spiritual sensibility. This is not good, and we must remove the soul from any sweetness. Really I refer to a higher dryness of the soul that has experienced this part of the spiritual life, when one could conquer its own good, and feels so blissful that we wish to retain it for ourselves. Actually I refer to that dryness for long periods of time, full of distractions, when half an hour of meditation apparently pass as a torment, and the soul does not do anything. If one remains and makes efforts, then the fruit of our search is the development of our will.
We have to persist in our quest, and then we get self-knowledge.
Directors should know that when we experience this dryness, this occurs at the age of twelve, the same as Jesus; then, one travels through a sure path. Those that lead souls must be able to see the finger of God in this dryness. These distractions force the soul to make efforts, to go in search of God, to know Him, and to understand the highest things. Dryness is a true test for our Vocation.
A consecrated soul does not take a Vow to rejoice and to be delighted. A soul of this kind has taken a Renunciation Vow.