Father Mike Schmitz

And it's like, well, this is dry.

I didn't get a lot out of this.

I was distracted by this.

And sometimes when we show up for prayer, it's, that's all it is.

It's just dry prayer.

God is doing something in that maybe more than any other time.

In fact, desolation and prayer can be used by the Lord God, maybe even more powerfully than consolation and prayer.

Because what's happening in that desolation where we just show up and I get nothing out of this, what God is doing there is he is purifying our love for him.

He is allowing us to go through this time of dry prayer, distracted prayer, and maybe desolate prayer so that we can have the kind of hearts that love him for his own sake.

They don't just love the gifts, don't just love the consolations, don't just love those insights and blessings, but we love him.

And here Peter is talking about this, you know, rejoice in this, rejoice in the various trials.

Now, again, those are dramatic trials that many of them went through, but every Christian has to go through the normal trials of life so that our hearts and our love and our faith can be purified.

He goes on to say, without having seen him, you love him.

Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy.

And this is what we do as we do as well, is that we love the Lord God and he loves us.

But that love gets purified through times of dryness, times of distraction, and times of desolation where we keep showing up.

And that is so, so important.

And of course, Peter goes on to talk about how we're called to live holy lives, that there's a way that we live life

without Jesus.

And there's a way that we have to live life with Christ, that he gave himself up for us.