September 30, 2026

Pray Without Feeling

Pray inwardly, though thou think it savour thee not: for it is profitable, though thou feel not, though thou see nought; yea, though thou think thou canst not pray.

Julian was an anchoress in fourteenth-century Norwich, walled into a small cell attached to a church, where she chose a life of silence to listen more closely for God. She received her visions in 1373 during a near-fatal illness, then spent the rest of her life in that enclosed room writing and praying over what she had seen. This passage answers a doubt every contemplative meets: the fear that silent prayer is failing because nothing seems to be happening. She insists the dryness itself is not proof of absence, and that the listening still counts even when it feels like nothing is being heard.