All we are

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ProdigalSon4293

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“We, all of us, are what happens when a primordial mixture of hydrogen and helium evolves for so long that it begins to ask where it came from.”

-Jill Tarter

How I’ve felt about life itself lately. Losing any/all faith in the spiritual or supernatural.
 
Do you mind if I ask, how is your prayer life? Have you previously spoken to anyone about your crisis of faith? I know when I was struggling with this, I desperately prayed for help. To my own fortune, my prayer was answered and my heart was filled with the most overwhelming feeling I couldn’t possibly imagine. I don’t know why God chose to help me the way he did. Perhaps he knew it was the only way. As a result of this, however, I find myself less than equipped to guide other people through the same issue. In spite of questioning the validity of my faith, I continued to pray and (sometimes) went to mass. I can’t say that my results will be duplicated. I can only say Catholicism does teach the Truth. And I know, you have no reason to believe that I am being honest in my personal witness, but it’s all I have to share with you. I will pray for you. Please continue to pray as well. Please don’t allow that divine spark inside you to be extinguished by the mundane explanations of cynics.
 
ProdigalSon4293 said:
“We, all of us, are what happens when a primordial mixture of hydrogen and helium evolves for so long that it begins to ask where it came from.”

-Jill Tarter

How I’ve felt about life itself lately. Losing any/all faith in the spiritual or supernatural.
Click to expand...
How do you justify your faith in the power of chemical processes? 🙂
 
Try not to give up hope in the moral meat grinder that has become college. Find a good prayer group and watch what you allow into your mind. A lot of the stuff you will run into will challenge your faith and may even try to break or infect it.

Thoughts are not all equal or harmless.

You can be (and it sounds like you are being) bombarded with secularism, materialism, relativism and humanism.

It is your choice to accept these but try to remember that a real relationship with your Creator is possible but it is a choice and you will be challenged both but the evil-one and current society. If you accept a lie into your mind and play with it as truth then you may end up forsaking your relationship with God by choice (even accidentally unfortunately).

The good news is that God is ever patient and waiting for you no matter what happens. It sounds like these thoughts are bearing (bad) fruit in your life and you do not like it. Try studying something more hopeful like Pope John Paul II’s writings.

God Bless:highprayer:
 
SinnersAnonymus said:
Try not to give up hope in the moral meat grinder that has become college. Find a good prayer group and watch what you allow into your mind. A lot of the stuff you will run into will challenge your faith and may even try to break or infect it.

Thoughts are not all equal or harmless.

You can be (and it sounds like you are being) bombarded with secularism, materialism, relativism and humanism.

It is your choice to accept these but try to remember that a real relationship with your Creator is possible but it is a choice and you will be challenged both but the evil-one and current society. If you accept a lie into your mind and play with it as truth then you may end up forsaking your relationship with God by choice (even accidentally unfortunately).

The good news is that God is ever patient and waiting for you no matter what happens. It sounds like these thoughts are bearing (bad) fruit in your life and you do not like it. Try studying something more hopeful like Pope John Paul II’s writings.

God Bless:highprayer:
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👍 Secular society is a spiritual desert which offers nothing of lasting value.
 
Bad theology (as in Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism or other filth of a religion) & your negligence are responsible for this. Search the Scriptures for in them is life eternal.
 
Make a good confession and receive Holy Eucharist. Go to Church every weekend and if possible attend daily. Read a Catholic prayer book or something like the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Pray constantly. Ask God to increase your faith. You could also find some time to volunteer at a soup kitchen or some way that you like to help others. Don’t give up. Persevere. Let Jesus take your hand and lead you through this dryness. God bless and I will be praying for you.
 
ProdigalSon4293, everything in this world changes, decays, rots, and is eventually gone altogether. Change is constant.

Except for one thing.

Try to imagine a wheel without a hub.

God can be that hub for you. I know He is for me.

The whole world spins around in constant change and sometimes in chaos. But the hub remains the same, always. Always there. Always with you. Always ready to forgive, forget, and love you just as you are.
 
Faith is a double edged sword.

Time has taught me that people of faith can go through periods when their faith is tested to a lesser or greater extent. I do believe this.
It is human to doubt but it is superhuman to have faith.

Faith is a precious commodity which we need to keep replenished.
Prayer is a wonderful means to help replenish. Doing good works too.

I find meditation an excellent way to replenish faith.

Try to enter the core of your being by picturing, or better still placing, yourself in an environment where everything is stripped away from you.
Every person, every possession, all stripped away from you. And dwell in that utter emptiness for a several moments. You may feel the Spirit.

I remember descending in to a mineshaft. As I descended all natural light and all artificial light slowly began to dissipate.
As I descended further in to the darkness, the blackness slowly enveloped me more and more.
I descended to a point and stood utterly still. I could see nothing.
I placed my right hand in front of my face but saw nothing.
In that utterly dark place, even my own body was not apparent to me through sight.
Yes, I could feel the damp of the mine on my skin but my senses were utterly stripped in that dark and noiseless place.

Even in that pitful and helpless state, one thought occurred to me above all other thoughts.
I was not alone.
God was there. As He is everywhere at all times.
 
ProdigalSon4293 said:
“We, all of us, are what happens when a primordial mixture of hydrogen and helium evolves for so long that it begins to ask where it came from.”

-Jill Tarter

How I’ve felt about life itself lately. Losing any/all faith in the spiritual or supernatural.
Click to expand...
Challenges in faith life are opportunities for development. If a particular ‘alternative’ philosophy is worrying/interesting you, the best thing to do is to read, study and reflect.

Growth in spiritual life generally takes the form of a ‘leaving behind’ of spiritual consolations, certainties, etc. Keep going forward. The search for truth is the search for God, even if it might take us be a seemingly wayward path.
 
I wonder where Mr. Tarter gets his ideas of “hydrogen” and “helium”. Surely he must have inferred it from his sensory perception. But what he forgets is that he has another means of perceiving something entirely different from what he perceives with his senses: introspection. Introspection enables him to perceive a conscious mind. Introspection has never told him anything false. Perception has. Thus, if inference from perception asks him to reduce what his mind to something physical, he should place introspection above perception. He should insist on believing that the object of introspection is metaphysically primary, while being willing to question the same about perception.
 
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