The Effort Graph

Dan Burke describes a graph: as you progress in prayer, YOUR effort decreases and GOD'S action increases. In meditation, it's 90% you, 10% God. In the Prayer of Simplicity, it might be 50/50. In full contemplation, it's 10% you, 90% God. The Prayer of Simplicity is the midpoint — you're learning to let God take over. (Ep 492)

To appreciate the full significance of this teaching, it helps to situate it within the broader framework of the Catholic spiritual tradition. The great masters of the interior life — Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Francis de Sales, and Ignatius of Loyola — each brought their distinctive charism and experience to bear on questions like this one. Their convergent testimony, spanning centuries and diverse vocations, gives this teaching a depth and authority that goes far beyond any single author's perspective.

Understanding "the effort graph" requires attending to both its doctrinal foundations and its practical implications. The Catholic tradition insists that authentic spiritual knowledge is never merely theoretical — it must be tested in prayer, refined through experience, and ultimately verified by its fruits in the life of the soul. This is why the Church's greatest teachers on the spiritual life are not only theologians but saints — men and women who lived what they taught, and whose writings carry the authority of verified experience.

At the same time, the tradition is careful to anchor experiential testimony in sound doctrine. The Doctors of the Church do not simply report their own experiences; they interpret those experiences in light of Scripture, the Fathers, and the Church's magisterial teaching. This integration of experience and doctrine is one of the defining characteristics of Catholic spiritual theology, and it is what gives the tradition its remarkable combination of depth and reliability.

The richness of the tradition becomes apparent when we listen to the voices of the masters themselves. Each brings a distinctive perspective to this teaching, yet all converge on its essential truth.

St. Thomas Aquinas writes:

For having said, He is preferred before me, for He was before me, he proceeds, From this I know that He is before me, because I and the Prophets who preceded me have received of His fullness, and grace for grace, (the second grace for the first.) For they too by the Spirit penetrated beyond the figure to the contemplation of the truth.

(Source: catena_aurea_john.txt)

St. Teresa of Avila writes:

Lord in these houses are so great that, if there be in them one sister whom our Lord is leading by the way of meditation, all the rest are advancing by the way of perfect contemplation ; some have gone so far as to have had raptures ;* to others our Lord gives His grace in a different way, together with revelations and visions, which.

(Source: book_of_foundations.txt)

St. John of the Cross writes:

Proofs from reason and the Holy Scriptures. . . . . . a . . . 67 a CONTENTS. Vv PAG sii How the soul must be in darkness, in order to be duly guided by faith to the highest contemplation , . mit Se tals € > 2 rt The union of the soul with God.

(Source: ascent_of_mount_carmel.txt)

St. Francis de Sales writes:

It is enough here to say that these passages are taken from the grand and most religious essay " On Prayer," near the beginning of which Montaigne speaks as follows of what he calls his fantaisies informes et irresolues.

(Source: 03_catholic_controversy.txt)

St. Ignatius of Loyola writes:

When he arrived at Montserrat, he passed a long time in prayer, and with the consent of his confessor he made in writing a general confession of his sins. Three whole days were employed in this undertaking.

(Source: autobiography_oconor_1900.txt)

The Church Fathers writes:

The Catechism (PD) writes:

"I consider it a most useful if not necessary book, not only for Sunday school teachers and for advanced classes, but for all who may desire to have a clear, definite knowledge of Christian doctrine."

(Source: baltimore_catechism.txt)

St. Thomas Aquinas writes:

BEDE; Farther, if the word declared have reference to the past, it must be considered that He, being made man, declared the doctrine of the Trinity in unity, and how, and by what acts we should prepare ourselves for the contemplation of it. If it have reference to the future, then it means that He will declare Him, when He shall introduce His elect to the vision of His brightness.

(Source: catena_aurea_john.txt)

The Church's doctrinal tradition provides authoritative grounding for this teaching. Proposition T4.G.011 (sententia_certa) states:

God truly gives grace to those who pray for it. Prayer is infallibly efficacious when the conditions of perseverance, humility, and conformity to God's will are met.

• Scripture: ['Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you.', 'And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer,...

For the engaged learner, understanding "the effort graph" opens a path to deeper prayer and more fruitful cooperation with grace. The sources cited above show that this is not abstract theology but a lived reality that has shaped the spiritual lives of countless saints and ordinary Christians across two millennia.

The practical challenge is to take this teaching into one's own prayer and daily life. This might begin with reflective reading of one or more of the sources quoted above, followed by prayerful consideration of how this teaching applies to one's current spiritual situation. The tradition consistently emphasises that spiritual growth comes not from accumulating information but from allowing truth to penetrate the heart through prayer, sacramental life, and faithful practice.

As St. Francis de Sales reminds us, the devout life is possible in every state — what matters is not extraordinary circumstances but extraordinary love applied to ordinary duties. This teaching invites precisely that kind of response: a deepening of one's relationship with God through understanding and practice, sustained by the rich resources of the tradition.