Dorothy Day’s 1934 Letter to an Agnostic is republished in this week’s America Magazine. In it, she writes about her own struggles with belief and unbelief, sounding this very Ignatian note:
We are taught that our souls never exercise just as our body does, otherwise it will never be healthy and well, and if it is not in a healthy state, of course we feel morbid. And prayer is that exercise for the soul, just as bending and stretching is the exercise of the body. It is intellectual pride, the arrogance of youth which makes the physical act of prayer difficult.
Read the whole thing here.
Yes, I think it’s arrogance and sometimes fear that make it so hard for some people to sit down (or kneel) and pray…