Please Sisters help me, I can not pray anymore I losing all my hope and faith. I have been prayer for this prayer in my heart for 39 days and things just keep getting worse, I feel so down and the sadness is killing me. I am so lost and lonley. I will never be happy again. The pain of that hurts so bad.

Dear Babylou,

Please seek professional help. I have suffered from depression myself for over 20 years, and this is sounding like clinical depression.

I also pray that Our Lady on her great feast of the Immaculate Conception, by her fiat, place her mantle over you.

Whenever we feel that God has abandoned us, it is because we are up against His chest. He is holding us to Himself, and we can't see Him because we're so close.

I know exactly what it feels like to not be able to pray. Sometimes people around us oppress us spiritually without our realizing it.

With prayers to St. Michael for your protection, and St. Dymphna for your depression. . .Gemma

Dear Babylou,

I know it's virtually impossible to see beyond deep depression when you're smack dab in the middle of it. Now, it's just dark all around you. It feels like you've fallen down a long, dark tunnel. You look up but can't even see the light at the top. Truely, a dark night of the soul, as St. John of the Cross so aptly termed it.

I know, I've been there, too.

Please promise me that you won't do anything to hurt yourself. Make a pact with yourself that, no matter what, you will NEVER give up. Years ago, I did the same thing when I was going through a particularly rough time and my confidence in my own worth was at an all-time low. I even wrote it down on the inside cover of one of my favorite books. I signed and dated it.

Do you know how resiliant you really are?

Peace to you,
Sr. Maria