A prayer in a time of spiritual emptiness

Spiritual emptiness – an increasingly common experience

More and more people declare that they believe and that they belong to the Church, while at the same time speaking of an inner emptiness, a lack of meaning and spiritual exhaustion. Studies of religious life in Poland and in Europe show a growing group of people who describe themselves as believers, yet experience no joy, no sense of being moved, no feeling of closeness to God.

This experience:

• is not rebellion

• is not a departure

• is not always a deliberate decision

It often comes after years of religious practice, after crises, professional burnout, losses, or a long stretch without any felt presence of God.

The voices of those living through spiritual emptiness

In conversations, intentions and messages the same sentences keep returning:

„I pray because I know I should, but I feel nothing.”
„Everything in my life is in order, and inside me there is emptiness.”
„I do not know whether I still believe, or whether I have simply grown used to the practices.”
„I search, I read, I listen – and nothing moves me.”

Spiritual emptiness affects:

• people who do not believe

• married couples and parents

• people deeply involved in religious life

• those who were „close to the Church” for a long time

It does not choose an age or a stage of life.

„Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why do you groan within me?”
(Ps 42:6)

Dzika & Figa – the perspective of the road

Dzika & Figa – wife and husband

We know this experience from our own journey.
There are moments when the prayer continues, the practices remain, and the joy and the meaning disappear. The silence of God can be harder to bear than his absence.

That is why the Prayer on the Sycamore also embraces those who are on the road, but are walking through a desert.

What this prayer is – and what it is not

This prayer:

• does not promise immediate relief

• does not restore feelings

• does not give simple answers

It is a prayer of presence and perseverance.
A prayer for those who have run out of words, yet still hold on.

Without judging.
Without compulsion.
Without pretending that „everything will be fine”.

Shared prayer

Every day we pray the Rosary for those experiencing spiritual emptiness, a weakening of faith and a sense of distance from God.

It is the prayer of many „poor little figs” – imperfect people, but faithful to the road, even when they feel nothing at all.

If you are living through spiritual emptiness – you are not alone. This experience has its place in prayer.

Every day we pray the Rosary for those experiencing spiritual emptiness, a weakening of faith and distance from God.

One fig is not enough, but a cry raised together from the Sycamore begins to be heard.