How to Pray When Depressed

How to Pray When You're Depressed

10 spiritual techniques to help Christians find your prayer voice even in your darkest hours.

By Kathryn J. Hermes, F.S.P

When you're depressed, you may discover that the shadows and tempests of that depression alter the way you look at God and the way you believe God looks at you. When you pray, you may be unable to sit still or to keep your mind focused for more than a few moments. Everything may appear to be a huge gaping hole of silence--all so useless. God may seem to be mocking your attempts to pray.

I know people who have gone three, five, ten years without "praying," though they were faithful to setting time aside for prayer regardless of its seeming uselessness. In the haunting darkness where all communication had gone silent, they found loneliness, boredom, frustration, anger. Were they praying? Yes.

If this is happening to you, try these forms of prayer and contemplative love.

Read the first way to pray when you’re depressed.

Reprinted from Surviving Depression: A Catholic Approach with permission of Pauline Books and Media. Kathryn Hermes is a religious of the Franciscan Sisters of Peace.