Am I turning into a religious fanatic? What should I do?

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migencluz

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I am discerning my vocation into the priesthood, so that may explain why I seem so interested about Christianity. However, my mom thought I’m turning into a lunatic. She bases it out from the fact that I have an altar in my room, and a religious study nook that kinda looks like an altar too. Every Sunday Mass, I have some holy cards in my missal that are for enthusiastic children to whom I can give these to. I always wear a cross around my neck, and I’m always so excited to talk about my faith. Two LDS men for three times this month, have been coming to my front doorstep. I don’t let them into the house, but I stick around outside with them for them to talk about the Mormon faith, and for me to talk about my Catholic Christian faith–and we three learn so much from that. My mom is a doctor, and have dealt with psychologically weak patients, and so she is comparing me to these people. As a nursing major myself, I know that it is a possibility that I may just not see that I really am turning into a lunatic, but I don’t see that I am, so I am kinda clueless, and I don’t know if my mom is right (btw, she claims she is okay if I become a priest, but I know that deep down, she full-heartedly can’t accept that) and that I should tone down a bit, or what. What are your thoughts?
 
Can I just say that you sound a lot like myself. I am a college age teenager, but I have an altar in my room/closet, and I have prayer cards everywhere and am always eager to talk about my faith. This isn’t religious fanaticism. This is a really good thing and a blessing as you have such zeal for the faith, especially as you discern your vocation.

God bless
 
migencluz said:
I am discerning my vocation into the priesthood, so that may explain why I seem so interested about Christianity. However, my mom thought I’m turning into a lunatic. She bases it out from the fact that I have an altar in my room, and a religious study nook that kinda looks like an altar too. Every Sunday Mass, I have some holy cards in my missal that are for enthusiastic children to whom I can give these to. I always wear a cross around my neck, and I’m always so excited to talk about my faith. Two LDS men for three times this month, have been coming to my front doorstep. I don’t let them into the house, but I stick around outside with them for them to talk about the Mormon faith, and for me to talk about my Catholic Christian faith–and we three learn so much from that. My mom is a doctor, and have dealt with psychologically weak patients, and so she is comparing me to these people. As a nursing major myself, I know that it is a possibility that I may just not see that I really am turning into a lunatic, but I don’t see that I am, so I am kinda clueless, and I don’t know if my mom is right (btw, she claims she is okay if I become a priest, but I know that deep down, she full-heartedly can’t accept that) and that I should tone down a bit, or what. What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...
What you describe does not sound abnormal for a young person considering a vocation or otherwise serious about the faith. The word “lunatic” seems to have a bit stronger connotation than the more typical “fanatic” that I have more often heard but that may just be my reaction to a particular word choice.

When you say “altar”, I presume you are talking about a devotional area with various objects of piety…not an actual altar such as in your parish church. Before I went to seminary, I had a prayer corner that others would have certainly described as somewhat elaborate. Of course, my contemporaries who were not aspiring to be seminarians had rather elaborate displays of sports related collections, trophies, medals and posters and such, as I remember. They could talk about statistics and such at considerable length and well beyond my interest or ability to keep up. My area of enthusiasm was different from theirs but the level of intensity may not have been that different, reflecting back after all these years.

I have certainly known young men and women who have devoted a great effort and deployed elaborate resources over a long period of time to attain something they were passionate about – in terms of hobby or sport or school or a future career path or whatever they were passionate and motivated about…including the faith.

There is a zeal and enthusiasm that marks our youth…perhaps it is that joined to a difference in the manner of expression of personal piety between you and your mother that your mother is seeing and remarking on. I can’t really know.

Over the years as a priest, I have gone into the homes of many people and encountered all sorts of elaborate displays memorabilia collections, art collections, and the manifestations of various other hobbies, if that helps relative to your devotional space.

Not knowing you or your situation, I can’t really give you much advice on this topic beyond the obvious…if you are functioning in your nurse’s training and clinical practicums and you have friends with whom you relate and who relate to you with ease and no disquiet and the medical professionals you interact with as a student nurse are not raising alarms, that would all seem to point toward the reality that you are not a lunatic. 🙂 Family members will some times speak very freely in their communication and use terms that can seem blunter than they really mean.

I assume, though, if you are seriously considering a vocation to the priesthood that you are in dialogue with a priest and have, perhaps, even reached out to a vocation director. Such a person would be in an excellent, even ideal, position to gauge any cause for concern and could alert you if there really is something problematic or troubling.

There actually is something radical in a choice to leave “father and mother, wife, children and property for My sake and the sake of the kingdom,” as Jesus said. One unquestionably makes many sacrifices, if one pursues a vocation to priesthood and/or religious life. It is not just another career choice. It is a life.

I will just add that your training as a nurse could be a very great blessing, particularly if you discern a vocation to religious life.

God bless you. I will be praying for you. May the Lord show you His will for you and for your life.
 
If you can still function in the day to day world, keep up with your current studies (as in don’t quit your day job!) and are not tempting fate, assuming Jesus will save you from obviously hazardous things, then you may truly feel a calling to the priesthood. Be thankful your mother is supportive and talk to your parish priest about it!

Good luck!
 
Your religious zeal is great, but try not to let it alienate you from those around you. If we are called to evangelise we have to walk in this world with those who do not share our faith. If our zeal has the effect of pushing people away from us then we ought to consider how we express our zeal to others. It is a fine balance if we are to draw others to our faith. We should present our Faith with complete honesty and enthusiasm, but we also need to present it in a way that will evangelise most effectively, and this might in some occassions mean an outward moderation of our approach.
 
I would be very circumspect in terms of approaching and dealing with children and how my actions could be perceived in these times.
 
It sounds like newfound zeal to me, which is very common. Like Don Ruggero said, make sure you have a parish priest to talk this discernment over with. He can guide your zeal appropriately and help you deal with your mother. May God bless you abundantly and I’ll keep you in my prayers.
 
My thoughts are that those who lead their lives without God as the most important person and faith as the most important thing in their lives are lunatics.

Isn’t it strange that were you to have a mini football hall of fame on a corner, with pictures of players and coaches, an armchair in the theme of a team and an expensive cable sports channel on all the time you’re at home you wouldn’t be considered a lunatic or even fanatical, but merely a football fan?

Well, there are more “altars” to football than to God and His friends in this country and this is supposed to be normal and even healthy? :doh2:

Pax Christi
 
Get a hobby. Take up fishing or photography or buy a bicycle. That’s all.

There is a difference between zeal and fanaticism. Zeal means to have great energy or enthusiasm for something. Fanaticism means you are zealous about one thing and exclude everything else. Fanaticism is not healthy. We have to have balanced lives. Work-prayer-recreation. Physical-intellectual-spiritual.

Even monks are not fanatics. They have times for exercise and recreation, work and study, etc. It doesn’t mean that God isn’t the most important. God wants most people recreate.

***Recreation ***means re-creation. So get a hobby. Take up archery or take dancing lessons or something.

-Tim-
 
You sound like a perfectly normal sincere Catholic Christian serious about their faith- praise God! Think how absorbed other people are about sports etc- being over joyed about growing closer to the Lord is to be commended- Blessing and I will pray about your vocation.
mlz
 
In your busy schedule, you should seek the advice of a spiritual advisor, or, at the very least, I’d recommend that you read Ralph Martin’s book on spirituality entitled Fulfillment of all Desire.

This book is challenging but I think it gives a good overview of what spiritual development is like, what to expect, and “what is normal.” I had one false start reading this book and now I’m stuck in the middle of it; but these, doctors of the church, who Martin quotes, give some very good advice about spiritual development, setbacks, discouragement, etc.

To a great extent, I’d say not to worry too much about being politically correct in the spritual sense, by which I mean not to let other people get down on you, judgmentally. Thank them for their opinion, and to do some evangelization, ask THEM what they are doing to improve and grow their spirituality. Don’t let them get away with just criticism of what you may be doing.

On EWTN radio, Fr. John Riccardo had a pre-recorded talk the other day about some aspects of spirituality, and he gave some advice, PRAY, don’t just say prayers. You have to get in touch with Jesus, heart to heart. Ask Jesus to change you into what he wants you to be, and let him show you the way. Set a short term goal of praying before the Blessed Sacrament one hour a week, with a long term goal of one hour a day, in prayer, talking to Jesus.
 
migencluz said:
I am discerning my vocation into the priesthood, so that may explain why I seem so interested about Christianity. However, my mom thought I’m turning into a lunatic. She bases it out from the fact that I have an altar in my room, and a religious study nook that kinda looks like an altar too. Every Sunday Mass, I have some holy cards in my missal that are for enthusiastic children to whom I can give these to. I always wear a cross around my neck, and I’m always so excited to talk about my faith. Two LDS men for three times this month, have been coming to my front doorstep. I don’t let them into the house, but I stick around outside with them for them to talk about the Mormon faith, and for me to talk about my Catholic Christian faith–and we three learn so much from that. My mom is a doctor, and have dealt with psychologically weak patients, and so she is comparing me to these people. As a nursing major myself, I know that it is a possibility that I may just not see that I really am turning into a lunatic, but I don’t see that I am, so I am kinda clueless, and I don’t know if my mom is right (btw, she claims she is okay if I become a priest, but I know that deep down, she full-heartedly can’t accept that) and that I should tone down a bit, or what. What are your thoughts?
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Hello Migencluz,

If you’re going to be a lunatic, it might as well be for God!

I’m happy to be one - welcome to the club.

Oh. And catch my signature line. Keep going!

Fran
P.S. I guess it’s okay to be a shopping fanatic or a football fanatic or a movie fanatic. Any fanatic is better accepted than a fanatic for God. Interesting, isn’t it? And sad.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
I would be very circumspect in terms of approaching and dealing with children and how my actions could be perceived in these times.
Click to expand...
Of course. I know what you mean. Two things I have to say. First is that because of the Paris incident, I felt the need to tone down a bit. The Paris incident has been said to be an extreme case of religious fanaticism, and so I don’t want to be thought differently because of that. And second, the kids in my area are really approachable. When I go to confession, I commonly would see at least one child who would come towards my direction. I would often give holy cards and miraculous medals to the parent right behind.
I remember getting a lot of religious gifts from strangers as a kid, and though it feels weird to accept them, I always feel blessed to do so. I’ve gotten a statue of the infant Jesus, the diary of St. Faustina, etc.
 
frangiuliano115 said:
Hello Migencluz,

If you’re going to be a lunatic, it might as well be for God!

I’m happy to be one - welcome to the club.

Oh. And catch my signature line. Keep going!

Fran
P.S. I guess it’s okay to be a shopping fanatic or a football fanatic or a movie fanatic. Any fanatic is better accepted than a fanatic for God. Interesting, isn’t it? And sad.
Click to expand...
I actually had a heart to heart talk with my dad at 1 in the morning because my dad saw my mom crying because of that. I told him that I can be super in to many different things. I have been so much into K-pop, foreign languages, arts, etc. But it is only now that I chose to take my faith seriously that my mom decided to speak up.
 
migencluz said:
Of course. I know what you mean. Two things I have to say. First is that because of the Paris incident, I felt the need to tone down a bit. The Paris incident has been said to be an extreme case of religious fanaticism, and so I don’t want to be thought differently because of that. And second, the kids in my area are really approachable. When I go to confession, I commonly would see at least one child who would come towards my direction. I would often give holy cards and miraculous medals to the parent right behind.
I remember getting a lot of religious gifts from strangers as a kid, and though it feels weird to accept them, I always feel blessed to do so. I’ve gotten a statue of the infant Jesus, the diary of St. Faustina, etc.
Click to expand...
It’s not so much the Paris incident but rather how it may appear regarding outreach to children. I think what he was getting at is that due to the scandals of the past years, priests, seminarians, and religious have to be very careful in their actions towards children, so as not to cause any undue suspicions. This is why all priests, seminarians, religious, and church workers go through safe environment (child protection) training.

It’s sad that it has to be that way, I know, but on the other hand, it is good and necessary, both for the protection of children and for those who work with them.

As to your original post, I don’t think you’re a fanatic at all, just very zealous. Be sure to keep a balanced life, as a previous poster said. Cultivate hobbies, have fun. Enjoy life. St. Athanasius said, “The glory of God is man fully alive!” Remember that! Oh, and get a spiritual director! ASAP! A spiritual director will help you dive deeper and see things you can’t see with your own eyes.

Case in point: in my own life, I have a deep devotion to our Lady, pray the rosary regularly, keep small religious items around to give to people that might need them, etc. I carve out time every day for spiritual reading, scripture, etc. God is first in my life, or rather, that’s what I strive for (we all fail at that I think). So by the world’s standards, I’m probably a fanatic. But that’s OK. What they don’t see is that after those things, I have a deep love for astronomy, writing, and archery, but all of that gets overshadowed by some people’s opinions. Oh well.

The key: Stay healthy, stay balanced, and make God first in all things, and don’t worry too much about what the world says. I will be praying for you! 🙂
 
sirach2v4 said:
In your busy schedule, you should seek the advice of a spiritual advisor, or, at the very least, I’d recommend that you read Ralph Martin’s book on spirituality entitled Fulfillment of all Desire.

This book is challenging but I think it gives a good overview of what spiritual development is like, what to expect, and “what is normal.” I had one false start reading this book and now I’m stuck in the middle of it; but these, doctors of the church, who Martin quotes, give some very good advice about spiritual development, setbacks, discouragement, etc.

To a great extent, I’d say not to worry too much about being politically correct in the spritual sense, by which I mean not to let other people get down on you, judgmentally. Thank them for their opinion, and to do some evangelization, ask THEM what they are doing to improve and grow their spirituality. Don’t let them get away with just criticism of what you may be doing.

On EWTN radio, Fr. John Riccardo had a pre-recorded talk the other day about some aspects of spirituality, and he gave some advice, PRAY, don’t just say prayers. You have to get in touch with Jesus, heart to heart. Ask Jesus to change you into what he wants you to be, and let him show you the way. Set a short term goal of praying before the Blessed Sacrament one hour a week, with a long term goal of one hour a day, in prayer, talking to Jesus.
Click to expand...
I do. I am pretty close with my spiritual director, as well as my vocational director. I have asked this to them before, and they both agreed that I’m not a fanatic–just that I can get too enthusiastic and passionate about things (that is true in everything that I do).

I am blessed to go to confession in a church that puts together confession and adoration, so before and as soon as I get out of confession, I get to speak heart to heart in the physical presence of Jesus Christ. I think that is super awesome.
 
migencluz said:
I actually had a heart to heart talk with my dad at 1 in the morning because my dad saw my mom crying because of that. I told him that I can be super in to many different things. I have been so much into K-pop, foreign languages, arts, etc. But it is only now that I chose to take my faith seriously that my mom decided to speak up.
Click to expand...
What is K-pop? Been out of the states a long time.

I know what you’re talking about. You could be caught up in so many different things and nobody bats an eye. Auto racing, swimming, dancing. Some kids and adults are so focused on their “hobby” that they can hardly think of anything else.

So why is God a problem? God is better. Because you could take Him with you wherever you go! To auto racing, to swimming to dancing. He’s portable and will keep you company at all times. So even though we can enjoy different things, and it’s healthy to, I think it’s okay to be at least as obsessed with God as we can be with any other hobby.

But it would be good if we were a little bit MORE obsessed with Him!

We have one brand new priest in my area who was ordained in March of this year. Another young priest we’ve had for about 10 years. We know both the families and they are very happy to see their sons fulfilling their desire to serve God and man. I think when your mother sees that this makes you happy, she’ll also be happy. Moms are like that.
And even if you never become a priest, you can still serve God in many ways.

God bless you
Fran
 
TimothyH said:
Get a hobby. Take up fishing or photography or buy a bicycle. That’s all.

There is a difference between zeal and fanaticism. Zeal means to have great energy or enthusiasm for something. Fanaticism means you are zealous about one thing and exclude everything else. Fanaticism is not healthy. We have to have balanced lives. Work-prayer-recreation. Physical-intellectual-spiritual.

Even monks are not fanatics. They have times for exercise and recreation, work and study, etc. It doesn’t mean that God isn’t the most important. God wants most people recreate.

***Recreation ***means re-creation. So get a hobby. Take up archery or take dancing lessons or something.

-Tim-
Click to expand...
I actually do have a hobby. I am artistic, and I also do other things like bowling and cooking. I can cook Pad Thai as good as the next guy, and I try my best to get a perfect 300 on the lanes. I hand-paint t-shirts, which a lot of people buy from me. And I also do a lot of calligraphy work, like thank you cards, and invitations. I keep those separate from my religious hobbies, which I do not do a lot. I make chained rosaries, decoupage pictures of saints, write icons, etc.
Also, I walk home, so I enjoy the view to take away the exhaustion I have from school–and as a nursing major, I have a lot of that. And I dance too. I really love dancing samba no pe.
 
Don_Ruggero said:
What you describe does not sound abnormal for a young person considering a vocation or otherwise serious about the faith. The word “lunatic” seems to have a bit stronger connotation than the more typical “fanatic” that I have more often heard but that may just be my reaction to a particular word choice.

When you say “altar”, I presume you are talking about a devotional area with various objects of piety…not an actual altar such as in your parish church. Before I went to seminary, I had a prayer corner that others would have certainly described as somewhat elaborate. Of course, my contemporaries who were not aspiring to be seminarians had rather elaborate displays of sports related collections, trophies, medals and posters and such, as I remember. They could talk about statistics and such at considerable length and well beyond my interest or ability to keep up. My area of enthusiasm was different from theirs but the level of intensity may not have been that different, reflecting back after all these years.

I have certainly known young men and women who have devoted a great effort and deployed elaborate resources over a long period of time to attain something they were passionate about – in terms of hobby or sport or school or a future career path or whatever they were passionate and motivated about…including the faith.

There is a zeal and enthusiasm that marks our youth…perhaps it is that joined to a difference in the manner of expression of personal piety between you and your mother that your mother is seeing and remarking on. I can’t really know.

Over the years as a priest, I have gone into the homes of many people and encountered all sorts of elaborate displays memorabilia collections, art collections, and the manifestations of various other hobbies, if that helps relative to your devotional space.

Not knowing you or your situation, I can’t really give you much advice on this topic beyond the obvious…if you are functioning in your nurse’s training and clinical practicums and you have friends with whom you relate and who relate to you with ease and no disquiet and the medical professionals you interact with as a student nurse are not raising alarms, that would all seem to point toward the reality that you are not a lunatic. 🙂 Family members will some times speak very freely in their communication and use terms that can seem blunter than they really mean.

I assume, though, if you are seriously considering a vocation to the priesthood that you are in dialogue with a priest and have, perhaps, even reached out to a vocation director. Such a person would be in an excellent, even ideal, position to gauge any cause for concern and could alert you if there really is something problematic or troubling.

There actually is something radical in a choice to leave “father and mother, wife, children and property for My sake and the sake of the kingdom,” as Jesus said. One unquestionably makes many sacrifices, if one pursues a vocation to priesthood and/or religious life. It is not just another career choice. It is a life.

I will just add that your training as a nurse could be a very great blessing, particularly if you discern a vocation to religious life.

God bless you. I will be praying for you. May the Lord show you His will for you and for your life.
Click to expand...
Yes, that’s what I meant–fanatic. She keeps calling me fanatic. And yes, a devotional space–I always hear them called “home altars” so I thought that’s what they’re called.

I think it is really interesting that I don’t really talk to her about religion. I just tell her what she wants to know, and that’s about it. If she asks me about confession, I would answer briefly and concisely. She never was really open towards discussion of religion, because I displayed interest about it even as a little kid, but she always tells me something for me to completely mute that interest.

Yes, I do have a spiritual director and a vocational director. I frequently talk to these two priests, and they are super awesome. They told me that they see that I am an enthusiastic and energetic person, and that can sometimes lead people (including myself) to mix that with taking faith seriously. They said that though that is not necessarily a bad thing, it is important to maintain an equilibrium. Though I am enthusiastic with my faith, I am just as enthusiastic with everything that I do, and that’s the awesome part about it. With all that, they don’t think I am a fanatic.

I have thought of vocations outside the priesthood too. I have looked into the Marist Brothers, as I have gone to a school ran by them. That inspiration ceased after several days. But, there is always this thought in my head about the diocesan priesthood. That never ceases.

Thank you for keeping me in your prayers. That really means a lot to me. I will keep you in mine too.
 
frangiuliano115 said:
What is K-pop? Been out of the states a long time.

I know what you’re talking about. You could be caught up in so many different things and nobody bats an eye. Auto racing, swimming, dancing. Some kids and adults are so focused on their “hobby” that they can hardly think of anything else.

So why is God a problem? God is better. Because you could take Him with you wherever you go! To auto racing, to swimming to dancing. He’s portable and will keep you company at all times. So even though we can enjoy different things, and it’s healthy to, I think it’s okay to be at least as obsessed with God as we can be with any other hobby.

But it would be good if we were a little bit MORE obsessed with Him!

We have one brand new priest in my area who was ordained in March of this year. Another young priest we’ve had for about 10 years. We know both the families and they are very happy to see their sons fulfilling their desire to serve God and man. I think when your mother sees that this makes you happy, she’ll also be happy. Moms are like that.
And even if you never become a priest, you can still serve God in many ways.

God bless you
Fran
Click to expand...
Off topic, but to suit your curiosity, K-pop means Korean pop–a genre of adorable Korean singing groups that dance while they sing. It’s like One Direction for Asians. You hate it, you obsess over it, or you absolutely don’t know about it, and there rarely is someone who is in between those three options.

My vocational director did tell me that. He said that all a mother wants is for me to be happy, so if mom doesn’t think I would be happy as a priest, I would expect her to be a little bit turned off about it. As with a lot of moms who are Catholic but are not into the faith, they would be concerned at first, but become super fans of their sons when they become ordained, then become ultra religious too.
 
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