Dryness in Prayer

The retreat I made before my profession: it brought me no consolation with it, only complete dryness and almost a sense of dereliction.  Once more, our Lord was asleep on the boat; how few souls there are that let him have his sleep out!  He can’t be always doing all the work,responding to all the calls made upon him; so for my own part I am content to leave him undisturbed.  I dare say he won’t make his presence felt ’til I start out on the great retreat of eternity.  I don’t complain of that, I want it to happen.  It shows, of course, that there is nothing of the saint about me; I suppose we ought to put down this dryness in prayer to my own fault, my own lukewarmness and want of fidelity.  What excuse have I, after seven years in religion, for going through all my prayers and my thanksgivings as mechanically as if I, too, were asleep?

– from Story of a Soul,by Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897)