By Fr. Charles Fox, Catholic World Report - Spiritual consolation and desolation, on the other hand, refer to basic states of one’s spiritual life, in which a person either experiences God in a richly-felt, close way or experiences God as remote and oneself as desolate, dry, or ill-at-ease. We should know how to act during times of consolation and desolation, but one rule that applies to both is that when we experience one we ought to be mindful of the other. In a time of consolation, we should spend some time preparing for desolation, and in a time of desolation, we should remember former times of consolation and put our hope in God.