← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
What To Do When You Feel Like God’s Not Speaking to You
00:08:11
Do you struggle to get much out of prayer? Do you feel like God’s not speaking to you?
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It seems like I haven't made videos in a thousand years. And so because of that, like, I don't know how to speak to the camera. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension presents. So I was talking with one of our students recently and his experience was I go to pray and it feels like I don't hear anything. Like, it feels like I just, I'm talking to the wall, I'm talking to the ceiling. It feels like God never says anything to me. There's a lot of ways we could look at this. I'm just going to have a kind of a two step thing here. Number one is, what am I looking for and what am I listening for? That's number one, right? What am I looking for? What am I listening for? Because sometimes we have that sense of like, gosh, it seems like God doesn't speak to me. Seems like God doesn't say anything. He doesn't reveal himself to me. He doesn't show Himself to me. And in those moments I have to say, okay, pause. What am I listening for and what am I looking for? Because if I'm looking for God to speak to me in the way that I want him to speak to me, then yes, you are 100% correct in the sense that more often than not, that's not how he's going to speak. If I want him to reveal Himself to me in a way that I want him to reveal Himself to me, most likely nine times out of 10, he's not going to reveal Himself to me in that way. But there are so many ways that God does speak to us. I mean, for example, I was driving as the sun was coming up and it's just gorgeous. It was one of those clear mornings where you could see the lake, you could see the sunrise, you could see just like the colors. I look at that and I see God's fingerprints. He's the One who made it all. And so to be able to see his fingerprints there is just, is just natural. No, I want to. I want God to show himself to me supernaturally, right? I want God to like have the booming voice and show Himself like, here I am. I want to be able to want a prayer and know that this is clearly God's voice. But he doesn't always speak that way. Sometimes he speaks through other people. Sometimes he speaks through the circumstances of my life or your life. Sometimes he speaks to me through other people's stories. I hear someone else's story about how God has moved in their life. And God Speaks to me through how he has spoken to them. Right. Maybe this happens to you too. Like sometimes, like I, yes, I want the miracle. We'll have another video about that. Like, I want the miracle. But other times it's even if I don't get the miracle, the fact that God has given someone else that. Even if I want God to speak in this particular way, but he hasn't spoken to me like that, but he's spoken to someone else like that. That is so confirming. It's so consoling. Whenever someone says, like, God doesn't speak to me, I'm like, okay, well when was the last time you picked up the Bible? Honestly? And it's not like as a flippant kind of way or kind of a glib way to say this because, I mean, he kind of sort of, you know, quote unquote, wrote the book. We have 73 books of the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, that God reveals himself, he's speaking to us in a very, very real and very, very concrete way. And so if I say, well, God doesn't speak, like, okay, when have I listened in the sense that. When have I picked up the Bible and listened to his word? Now, for this particular student who just was, again, so good, such a great conversation, he said, well, I do pick up the Bible. I don't get a ton out of it. And I understand that because he's like, I don't know, it's all these ideas, all these thoughts, all these things coming at me and I don't know, like, what am I supposed to get out? And that is a great, great question. Because there's one thing, there's a number of ways to read the Bible. One is just take it all in. I don't know if there's this podcast I heard about. If you want to just take the whole Bible in, that's awesome. So good Bible in here. Amazing. There's other ways to read the Bible that are more prayerful in the sense of I'm, I'm attentively and intentionally listening for God's voice. One I want to describe is called Ignatian prayer. Now, I was first exposed to Ignatian prayer when I'm my first year of seminary when I was sent to do a 30 day silent retreat in Colorado. It was just remarkable, life changing for me. And what they taught me was this. They'd say, okay, here's the scripture passage. Say it's the call of Simon and Andrew and you read through it and then you stop and you allow. I ask The Holy Spirit to guide your imagination, and then you allow the Holy Spirit to guide your imagination, and you add one sense upon another. So first I would, I would go and say, okay, add the sense of sight. So in my mind's eye, I would picture, what does this look like? What. What does the Sea of Galilee look like? What does. What could Capernaum look like? What could it look like? If. Here's Simon and Andrew washing their nets on the side of the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and here comes Jesus. Like, what does Jesus look like? How is he walking towards? Maybe I'm one of the characters. Maybe I'm just observing this. But you add one layer of senses, that sense of sight, and just watch. And you can watch Jesus walk up to Simon and Andrew, or you're Andrew and you've met Jesus already. Like, you've followed him. Cause you're a follower of, of John the Baptist, and, and, and, and John the Baptist pointed Jesus out to you. And so you've already seen him, you've already met him, you've already told Simon about, about Jesus. And imagine that here's all this backstory. And you're watching him walk towards you. Like, I remember him. I recognize him from the Jordan River. And just watch how he approaches you. What's he look like? How does he look at you? Is he speaking to you? Like, are the people around him trying to get his attention? Is he focused on you? Is he looking everywhere? What. What is Jesus? What's it look like? And so you kind of just watch the scene with your mind's eye. And he asked the Holy Spirit, okay, now I'm going to go back and I'm going to add another sense. Maybe it's a sense of sound. And so then I hear, like, the, the water lapping up on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Or maybe I can hear the other fishermen, you know, cleaning their nets and yelling about this and that and the other thing. Maybe I hear the seagulls, you know, squawking. If they have seagulls in Israel, like, probably, you know, why not? They're everywhere. But you add that sense of hearing, then maybe you add that sense of smell. You can smell the fish and you can. As you're walking through this scene, it's not a matter of just layers and layers and layers. It's a matter of entering into. With your imagination, with the Holy Spirit guiding your imagination, entering into this scene, being part of it, and just watching how Jesus interacts, interacting with him in your prayer. And as you add you know, the sight and sound and smell and taste and maybe like the feel of the sun on your. Or maybe the pain in your back as you're lifting up the nets and washing them. The roughness of the nets and the sliminess of the nets in the Sea of Galilee. What you're doing there is you're just getting to know Jesus. I'm not looking for insight, I'm looking for answers. I'm not looking for some kind of like, big revelation. What I'm doing in that moment of just Ignatian prayer is I'm letting Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, reveal himself to me as I watch the scene again. Now maybe I'm the third person, maybe I'm outside of this whole thing and I'm watching Jesus walk up to Simon and Andrew. Maybe I'm in the scene as I said, maybe you're you and Jesus walks up to you, not Andrew or Simon, but you, and invites you to drop your nets and come follow Him. What is that like to just put yourself in that scene and say, holy Spirit, I trust you, Please guide my imagination and let this be a prayer again. The temptation is I want insight, I want revelation, I want some powerful as opposed to just watch him, just listen to him. Just interact with Jesus in your imagination, guided by the Holy Spirit and anointed, touched by the Holy Spirit and see how he does speak to you, see how he does show his face to you. That kind of prayer is also active. Sometimes we think of prayer as like, you know, just kind of settle in and just, ah, relax. That's fine, that's wonderful. That's a great kind of prayer. Just like, relax like a hot tub with Jesus. But oftentimes our prayer is going to be, how do I engage the Holy Spirit, how do I engage the word of God, how I. How do I engage with my imagination, with my senses, how do I engage with my heart? And I mind the Lord because Jesus did call us to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, which means it's an active kind of thing. Again, there's sometimes we come into rest in the Lord's presence. But oftentimes, if I want to see what he's doing, if I want to hear what he's saying, I'm going to engage with his word. So my invitation, of course, let the Lord speak how he speaks, let him reveal Himself how He reveals himself. But also when you dive into scripture, try that Ignatian prayer not as, merely as an experiment, but as an exercise in trust God Holy Spirit, come guide my imagination and let me see how you are. Let me know who you are so that I can love who you are. Because that's the goal. The goal is not to just have insight or answers. The goal is to have him. Anyways, for all this here at Essential Presents, my name is Father Mike. God bless. Hey, guys. My name is Father Mike Schmitz. I am excited to announce that I'll be launching the Parables tour this spring. We'll come together and we'll see what the Lord wants to share with us in his word through his parables. And we'll follow that with a live Q and A. If you're interested. The shows are coming up soon. Go to ascensionpress.com fathermiketour that's ascensionpress.com Father Mike Tour. God bless. And we'll see you there.