Shirin McArthur

Have your religious practices changed over time?

Many of us were taught to pray by parents or other trusted and faithful adults. Others picked up a connection with God more organically, through spending time in nature or by witnessing a seemingly supernatural event. Some of us learned about being faithful by watching love in action through the work of human hands and hearts.

I learned to say prayers at the dinner table and during Sunday worship. During earlier times in my life, contemplative prayer was vitally important. At other times, movement practices such as liturgical dance or walking the labyrinth have been most meaningful. I sense that these shifts are related to balancing my life as a whole, giving me a variety of religious experiences over the decades.

Some people, frequently later in life, experience the seeming absence of God. It is now fairly well known through Mother Teresa’s journals that she endured a fifty-year dry spell or period of “desolation” in her relationship with God. During those decades, she had no sense of God in her prayer time—yet she kept on faithfully living, loving, and serving the God who had blessed her so deeply at an earlier stage in her life.

Many of us go through this Dark Night of the Soul, as St. John of the Cross called it. During such dark nights, no religious practices seem to make a difference. Nothing “works,” as it were. Yet such times are not necessarily devastating. Instead, they are windows into another layer of spiritual relationship: with mystery and the unknown.

I’m not in such a place. God’s presence and action are clear to me through bearing witness to the fruits of the Spirit’s work in the world. I take moments of stillness in my day, but I don’t sit in stillness for twenty minutes or more. In fact, my body prefers for me to keep moving so I don’t stiffen up!

I’m also not saying daily prayers. Rather than making lists, requests, or demands, I notice something and hold it in God’s light—and then trust that God will do what’s best.

What religious practices are working—or no longer working—for you these days? What changes might you want to make in the new year?

Peace,

—Shirin

A version of this message first appeared on my blog on December 9, 2024.