An anonymous listener, M.T., wrote in to The Inner Life to ask a profound question about their personal prayer life. In the early-morning quiet, M.T. slips into a guest room to pray before anyone else is awake. There, just before Holy Communion, this listener wrote that their sins suddenly feel “very profound” and heavy. Why would silence before Jesus in the Eucharist make past sins feel so loud?

Guest spiritual director on The Inner Life, Fr. Michael-Joseph Paris, said this may be less a sign of failure and more a sign of a tender conscience. Even after Confession, venial sins and imperfections remain, and when we finally grow still they rise to the surface. The evil one can’t reach the depths of the soul, so he tries to stir up our imagination instead. In those moments, Fr. Michael-Joseph encouraged M.T. to hand everything back to God. The more you surrender, the more you’ll find your peace.

Host Patrick Conley admitted he has also experienced those moments, when impure or uncharitable thoughts appear in prayer, “the farthest thing from what I was thinking about.” That pattern, he said, looks like the work of an enemy who wants to pull us away from the Blessed Sacrament, not the voice of a loving God inviting us closer.

A caller named Maureen joined the conversation, pointing to St. Faustina’s diary, where the devil would “go to flight” at Confession and at the words “and the word was made flesh.” She said she loves an empty Adoration chapel because she can go “deep into conversation and intimate with our Lord.” If your sins feel louder in the quiet, stay. Confess, surrender the noise to Jesus, and let that “positive silence” become a place of mercy, not fear.

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