Perception of Religious Brothers and Sisters and Lay Persons That Prayers Go Unanswered Is a Matter of Perceived Distance from God

Arndt Büssing,Stephan Winter,Klaus Baumann

doi:10.3390/rel11040178

Abstract

Background: Sometimes prayer life can be difficult even for very religious persons, who may experience phases of “spiritual dryness”, which may have a negative effect on their well-being. Methods: To address this topic, we analyzed three contrasting groups of persons (religious brothers and sisters (RBS), n = 273; Catholic lay persons (CLP), n = 716; other lay persons (OLP), n = 351) with standardized measures and investigated how often indicators of spiritual dryness were perceived within these groups and how the perception that private prayers go unanswered could be a result of this. Results: Spiritual dryness was highest in RBS compared to RLP and OLP. For RBS, perception of being “spiritually empty” was the best predictor of prayers going unanswered, indicating emotional/spiritual exhaustion, while in OLP, the perception that God is “distant” was the best predictor, indicating that, particularly in this (younger) group, spiritual doubt is of particular relevance. For CLP, feeling that God is distant, feeling abandoned by God, and feeling “spiritually empty” were similarly relevant predictors of feelings that prayers go unanswered. Conclusions: This knowledge may help psychologists/psychotherapists, pastoral workers, and spiritual advisors to differentiate the underlying causes of spiritual dryness (in terms of “discernment”) and thus support persons struggling with God, their faith, and life.

Highlights

When persons who are supposed to live a vital prayer life, such as priests and religious brothers and sisters, are confronted with religious doubts or struggles, their basic foundation in life may be substantially impaired
We investigated three contrasting groups of persons: (1) religious brothers and sisters who are expected to pray several times a day, (2) catholic lay persons who were tasked by their bishop to preside over the “Liturgy of the Word” on Sundays and are supposed to pray, and (3) other lay persons from other different professions
The proportion of women and men and age was significantly different in the three study samples, with the oldest in Religious brothers and sisters (RBS) and the youngest in other lay persons (OLP) (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

When persons who are supposed to live a vital prayer life, such as priests and religious brothers and sisters, are confronted with religious doubts or struggles, their basic foundation in life (their faith and belief in God) may be substantially impaired. As a matter of fact, and in a Christian context, such existential doubts and struggles are expected to be necessary ingredients of an authentic life of faith, these may be experienced as deeply disturbing or confusing One indicator of such struggles might be that persons perceive that their private prayers go “unanswered” and that it makes no sense to pray anymore because God is perceived as distant, not listening, and not caring, or that they have been completely abandoned by God (Büssing et al 2013, 2016a, 2017a). These indicators of “spiritual dryness” are often connected, but not necessarily as a sequence. Conclusions: This knowledge may help psychologists/psychotherapists, pastoral workers, and spiritual advisors to differentiate the underlying causes of spiritual dryness (in terms of “discernment”) and support persons struggling with God, their faith, and life

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion