Acquiring Faith

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Hi,

I am in conversation with a woman who has been questioning me a lot about things religious. She is a lapsed Lutheran and I am Roman Catholic. She claims to be an atheist although acknowledges that she may be more Agnostic (I would like to think that the Spirit has been at work through me on this last point). Anyway, she asked me today how one acquires Faith.

I know Faith is a gift but … that seems like a bit of a weak answer in this case.

She is very logical, intellectual, and prefers scientific proofs. I have managed to help her understand that there is a difference between 'proof" and “certainty”, so at least I don’t have to come up with some sort of algebraic formula.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Dave
 
I don’t know if it answers your question, but when I was decerning becoming a Christian, the thought of the immensity of the universe, the order of nature and all living things, just re-enforces by belief that there was a God. It made a lot less sense (for me) to believe that this was all random and created out of some stellular stuff before time. Where did the stuff come from? And when I hear about the ‘Big Bang’ theory, I just think to myself, maybe that is how God did it!
 
When I first read this post, I thought “this will be something I can answer.” But even though it’s a very simple and straightforward question, it is a lot tougher than I had anticipated. So I turned to the Catholic Encyclopedia for help.

I’ll take a couple of quotes I found to maybe help you formulate an answer.

*Faith, according to St. Paul, is composed of several elements; it is the submission of the intellect to the word of God, the trusting abandonment of the believer to the Saviour Who promises him assistance; it is also an act of obedience by which man accepts the Divine will. Such an act has a moral value, for it “gives glory to God” (Romans 4:20) in the measure in which it recognizes its own helplessness. *

And…
we can define *an **act of Divine supernatural faith **as “the act of the intellect assenting to a Divine truth owing to the movement of the will, which is itself moved by the grace of God” (St. Thomas, II-II, Q. iv, a. 2). And just as the light of faith is a gift supernaturally bestowed upon the understanding, so also this Divine grace moving the will is, as its name implies, an equally supernatural and an absolutely gratuitous gift. Neither gift is due to previous study neither of them can be acquired by human efforts, but “Ask and ye shall receive.” *

So in one respect, faith is the product of the believer… I mean you could have faith that there’s a magical land of unicorns at the center of the sun, that obviously requires nothing from God, and technically, this can be defined as faith. It is not divine, or inspired by the Holy spirit, it is simply a belief in something unseen.

In another respect, faith is the product of grace. We believe that God grants us enough understanding of the Truth that we can follow Him. We would know nothing of the Divine Infintie God if it had not been revealed to us.

I’m going to keep thinking about this - it’s really a very good spiritual exercise. I hope this was helpful to you. 🙂
 
Basically, practice makes perfect. It is said some of the saints could hear God because they were so attuned to the divine will. The more we understand God’s gift of freedom for excellence, the more easily we follow His will, the more obvious and real it becomes for us (I think the Greeks called this theosis).
 
Thanks respondents.

This gives me something to chew on.

When she asked me the question, I was going to shoot from the hip but thought better of it, in this instance.

I think I judged rightly.

This virtue of faith or Faith is a simple but complicated kind of thing …

Dave
 
This wonderful little poem shows us most clearly the love for which we have been made. In “Love" by George Herbert the soul is the “reasonable” party, and Love — Christ — is the gentle but firm ironist. The poem is a dramatic dialogue between the mere man, who is right about everything, and Christ, who makes everything right.

I think if your friend understands what love is and how we have all been loved into existence that her faith will come along with her comprehension.

The poem (an its interpretation by Catholic scholar and translator of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Anthony Esolen) is here:

payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/06/29/reasonable-damnation-unreasonable-love-herbert%e2%80%99s-the-temple/

See if it doesn’t move her…

dj
 
djbarnas said:
Hi,

I am in conversation with a woman who has been questioning me a lot about things religious. She is a lapsed Lutheran and I am Roman Catholic. She claims to be an atheist although acknowledges that she may be more Agnostic (I would like to think that the Spirit has been at work through me on this last point). Anyway, she asked me today how one acquires Faith.

I know Faith is a gift but … that seems like a bit of a weak answer in this case.

She is very logical, intellectual, and prefers scientific proofs. I have managed to help her understand that there is a difference between 'proof" and “certainty”, so at least I don’t have to come up with some sort of algebraic formula.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Dave
Click to expand...
To acquire faith, your friend must decrease and she must allow God to increase in her life. She must trust that God knows best for her and be willing to accept his judgement and plan for her life. At some point she must be able to look up at the sky, and say to God that she believes it is green and not blue just because He tells her so.
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you …

🙂

Our conversations of late have proven fruitful with a minor set back or two as is expected when questions of such weight are quested after.

She has moved from an “atheistic” position to an “agnostic” position but struggles with a “personal” God … (incidentally this summary does not do justice to the incredible change that has been going on. The Holy Spirit is definitely at work in all this, for both of us).

She is very logical, analytical and “scientific” in her thinking, so I opted (truly at the prompting of the Spirit) rather than “prove” God or provide some sort of “technique to acquire” Faith as if that were possible … to simply “give” her “me” … my witness so to speak.

I kept thinking what has moved me over the years … and it is about relationship and the love my parish community has for God and Neighbor …

Funny in doing that my relationships with … well “everyone” is just so much better.

Quite frankly I didn’t expect that because I was looking to help her and I have been helped in turn.

Again thanks to all … the post replies have been helpful …

God bless,

Dave
 
djbarnas said:
Hi,

I am in conversation with a woman who has been questioning me a lot about things religious. She is a lapsed Lutheran and I am Roman Catholic. She claims to be an atheist although acknowledges that she may be more Agnostic (I would like to think that the Spirit has been at work through me on this last point). Anyway, she asked me today how one acquires Faith.

I know Faith is a gift but … that seems like a bit of a weak answer in this case.

She is very logical, intellectual, and prefers scientific proofs. I have managed to help her understand that there is a difference between 'proof" and “certainty”, so at least I don’t have to come up with some sort of algebraic formula.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Dave
Click to expand...
One begins to acquire faith by opening oneself up to the possibility of God’s existence. If one begins to believe in the possibility, mentally and intellectually, then one can begin to actually PRAY, or ask God “help me, Lord, in my unbelief”. Prayer leads to the supernatural gift of faith from God, since God desires to give it to us, if we only ask…

There are many resources and websites to help your friend to begin to accept that God exists, whether as the Ultimate Creator of the universe, and then later on, to the Christian view of God. While none are ultimate empirical “proofs”, the convergence of evidence is very strong and calls into question the stubborn refusal of society’s practical atheist viewpoint. As one reads and begins to accept the many arguments regarding God and His existence, the person seeking will indeed find God, in time.

I was once such a person.

God bless,

Fdesales
 
This is a blog which might help your friend…the young lady who writes it was in the same place as your friend and she might have the right words for your friend. I would also give her a copy of “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis. He was an atheist who found faith in God and his book does a great job of explaining many of those hard questions for people who have to have proof.

conversiondiary.com/2006/12/on-having-proof.html
 
The concept of God is not illogical nor is it anti-science. In fact, it makes a whole lot of sense as an answer for many questions we have e.g., the reason behind the existence of our universe and the design of its various systems. If a person really wants to know if there’s a God, they need to exercise the smallest amount of humility before Him-because a general lack of humility is usually the true reason we don’t come to believe. Bowing our knee-literally or metaphorically- before a superior being and asking is hard for us at first-but the answers are there when we do.
 
Wow! I spent the last 2 hours reading that link, and I’m still not done. The dialogue is great on there. That math teacher (I think the screen name Paladin?) has great rebuttals to the arguements presented. Thanks for that link.
 
djbarnas said:
Hi,

I am in conversation with a woman who has been questioning me a lot about things religious. She is a lapsed Lutheran and I am Roman Catholic. She claims to be an atheist although acknowledges that she may be more Agnostic (I would like to think that the Spirit has been at work through me on this last point). Anyway, she asked me today how one acquires Faith.

I know Faith is a gift but … that seems like a bit of a weak answer in this case.

She is very logical, intellectual, and prefers scientific proofs. I have managed to help her understand that there is a difference between 'proof" and “certainty”, so at least I don’t have to come up with some sort of algebraic formula.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Dave
Click to expand...
Theology for Beginners by Frank Sheed is a great book for explaining the logic of Catholicism, from the existence of God to the Real Presence. The only thing is that while transubstantiation can’t be proved scientifically, logically it must be so. And this book led me to that conclusion. The knowledge of faith requires study, but the gift of faith comes from prayer and reception of the Sacraments.
 
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