Advice on how to keep the faith

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You must have great devotion to do that. Personally, I have a Church 2 minutes down the road with a perfectly reverent Ordinary Form Mass. I am happy there. But I would welcome other options.
 
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catholic03 said:
You must have great devotion to do that.
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Probably. And a load of time to spare. But it seems to me you do have devotion to our Lord.
But I get it, and I’m not saying anything about the Novus Ordo. I’m just saying that in my experience young people come to the TLM. 😉
 
God Bless. Your profile says you are from Denmark. It must be about 9/10.30 in the morning? It’s 10.30 pm here!

I’ll check my thread again in the morning.
 
I have heard that a lot of teens come to the Extraordinary Form. Good for them.

I’ve seen the EF by watching online and it is beautiful.
 
Firstly, trust in God, in all things, turn to him in everything, make that a habit, talk to God constantly about everything even seemingly trivial things, like what to wear, eat or buy, everything. If you talk about the small things, you will naturally talk about the big things and then fleeing to God for all things, will be as natural as breathing. Which brings me to the second thing, you cannot fail, if you pray. Pray as much as you can, formal prayers like those of the church, mass and meditation as well as the casual friendship prayer I already mentioned. Next stay in a state of grace, that is make use of the sacraments, when you sin go to confession, get used to it, just like exams, doctors, dentists, eye tests etc. add it to the list of things in life that aren’t the most fun, but you need to do them and pretty soon, you wont mind it so much. It is a fact of life. And of course don’t miss mass. Then go about daily life and you won’t fall away from Christ and his Church because he’ll guide you. You’ll be listening cos you are praying and you will be able to hear him as you are in a state of grace. He will guide you and love you no matter what you do. But if you dont pray and you aren’t in a state of grace you may not hear him and you might not care cos you are so blocked up with sin. So those two are important. He will never leave you though, so if you fall from grace and forget to pray then just get up and go to confession and begin again, he’ll be there with his loving arms waiting for you. Believe me I know. God bless you.
 
It is hard to live in this secular world as a Catholic there’s no doubt about it. I’m 49 and I find it very difficult as well. Of course, in my case that is made harder by being disabled and having several chronic disorders. Although in some ways it’s easier because I don’t work due to my disability and so I don’t have to be among a lot of secular people who don’t believe and don’t respect the Faith.

I would say try spend the time you have now without many Catholic friends by building your faith foundation, learning all you can about the Faith and growing in virtue, self-knowledge, self-discipline, etc, building that foundation for the rest of your life. Maybe God wants that to be your focus right now. To a certain extent you may have to accept that you’re just not going to have any Catholic friends right now. Some times we just have to accept things as they are for awhile. But that won’t necessarily be forever. In time as you get older you may move away from the area you live now and be able to meet with other orthodox Catholics. In the meantime just stay close to your Evangelical friend and appreciate that friendship. At least you have someone who shares your belief in Christ.

As far as working and dealing with secular people, just try to stay close to the Lord always. You can let it be known that you’re a serious Catholic but you don’t have to overdo it. You don’t have to always talk about it, just try to live a calm and quiet witness of your faith. Don’t get into the habit of talking about other people which is so common in the workplace. People will notice that you don’t join in and that will be a quiet witness as well.
 
I am blessed to have the four volume Liturgy of the Hours set. I’ve had it since Christmas but haven’t gotten into it yet. I plan to do so once my school craziness is over with in less than a month.

This weekend I am blessed to be attending Mass with two Cardinals present, including one who is very old (became cardinal in 1983). God blesses me with such a good faith life, especially considering how busy I am with school.

I also do YouTube as well which is a great way to share the faith.
 
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It is hard to love on the secular world. We need to re evangelise the West.

It seems that the richer a country is, the more secular it is. Which is the case here in New Zealand, in Europe and the US.

It’s sad really.
 
Last night I was reading an article about how Catholic teens often leave the Church. One of the reasons given is that Evangelical Churches seem so much more enticing.

This is a reason that gets thrown at me all the time. In my city, we have an evangelical megachurch, which has just opened a multi million dollar worship Centre and preaches the ‘prosperity Gospel’ .

It doesn’t seem very enticing to me.

Especially when I get to receive Jesus every Sunday at Mass. Which is something those young Catholics who leave the Church will never experience again.
 
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Besides what others have said, I highly recommend reading the Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis.
 
Bluebright said:
Firstly, trust in God, in all things, turn to him in everything, make that a habit, talk to God constantly about everything even seemingly trivial things, like what to wear, eat or buy, everything. If you talk about the small things, you will naturally talk about the big things and then fleeing to God for all things, will be as natural as breathing.

Which brings me to the second thing, you cannot fail, if you pray. Pray as much as you can, formal prayers like those of the church, mass and meditation as well as the casual friendship prayer I already mentioned.

Next stay in a state of grace, that is make use of the sacraments, when you sin go to confession, get used to it, just like exams, doctors, dentists, eye tests etc. add it to the list of things in life that aren’t the most fun, but you need to do them and pretty soon, you wont mind it so much. It is a fact of life.

And of course don’t miss mass. Then go about daily life and you won’t fall away from Christ and his Church because he’ll guide you. You’ll be listening cos you are praying and you will be able to hear him as you are in a state of grace. He will guide you and love you no matter what you do.

But if you dont pray and you aren’t in a state of grace you may not hear him and you might not care cos you are so blocked up with sin. So those two are important.

He will never leave you though, so if you fall from grace and forget to pray then just get up and go to confession and begin again, he’ll be there with his loving arms waiting for you. Believe me I know. God bless you
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Paragraphs help a great post be even better 🙂
 
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catholic03 said:
This is a reason that gets thrown at me all the time. In my city, we have an evangelical megachurch, which has just opened a multi million dollar worship Centre and preaches the ‘prosperity Gospel’ .

It doesn’t seem very enticing to me.
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It will seem very enticing once you meet and fall in love with a young woman (or man, depending on your sexual orientation) who attends that church

Be incredibly careful.

Most of us are called to marriage, but be careful about who you fall in love with.

A romantic interest/spouse who is not a committed Christian Catholic will make it extremely difficult for you to keep practicing your faith.

Remember, if you fall in love with a non-Christian, it is not likely that you will bring them to the faith, but that they will gradually draw you AWAY from the faith. Many many former practicing Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians will testify to the truth of these words.

I am a convert to Catholicism (2004) from Evangelical Protestantism. I attended some very large and even “famous” Evangelical Protestant churches, and I testify here that around 25% of our members and attendees were former Catholics! In one church, the figure was closer to 50%!

So be careful that you don’t become one of those statistics by falling in love with someone from those churches!

It’s important that you remain IN the world, but not OF the world, unless you are called to a vocation on this earth that takes you out of this world, e.g., religious life (but remember many of these vocations still involve their people IN the world). Learn to continue to keep the faith not only when you are in a faith-filled setting like Mass or Adoration, but also when you are at school, at work, at home alone, or at various recreational activities.

And when I say, Keep the Faith, I hope that you can learn to practice your Catholicism and still remain a loving person who attracts people rather than repels them. Your motive isn’t popularity, but kindness and friendship which will hopefully ultimately be a witness and draw people to the Lord Jesus.
 
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One of the best ways a teenager can learn to “keep the faith” is to volunteer through your parish in a SERVICE activity.

If you are musical, I strongly advise you to get involved with your parish choir or to play an instrument at Mass if that is done in your parish.

If you’re not musical, then find another activity in your parish where you can regularly and faithfully serve the Lord and His people, and come into contact with devoted, faith-filled people who will help to firmly ground YOU in your faith!

Just be careful–when you tell your priest that you are interested in volunteering, he might just drop dead from the shock!

No matter what vocation you are called to, SERVICE to God and to man will be part of that vocation. So start now to learn to serve.
 
Peeps said:
It will seem very enticing once you meet and fall in love with a young woman (or man, depending on your sexual orientation) who attends that church
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I’m sure you didn’t mean it to come across this way, but we must remember that homosexual relationships should always be condemned without question.

The rest of your replies were very insightful, God Bless.
 
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