Do or did any of you ever go through something like this? A time of doubt, where you begin to wonder, maybe the others are right? Maybe I’ve got it wrong?
Yep, for six months when I was fifteen years old, wondering whether Christianity was true or not. That was the hardest period in my life. The second hardest period was the journey into Catholicism, when I discovered that my Protestant beliefs were, insofar as they differed from Catholicism, wrong. Those were the two most painful periods in my life by a lot. I got through them through faith and God’s great, great help (though I didn’t sense how He was helping me during the six month period). Faith, sticking with Christ whatever your feelings are throwing at you, is an act of the will. We can choose faith; it’s not a feeling, though it comes to us through grace.
One person might feel he has all the faith in the world, but then when something goes wrong in his life, he crumples. Another person might feel that he has no faith, but when a trial comes, he sticks with his religion and in time (maybe even years) his spiritual life blossoms as a result. The second person had faith, the first did not, even though their feelings contradicted this.
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Matt. 11:28-30).
The Mass is the perfect place to do this. If you have time to go to Daily Mass, I strongly recommend it. It’s also valuable to approach Mass as a prayer. The words of the readings are God’s voice speaking to you, your life, and your personal situation. One should listen to them that way, and to all the hymns and prayers as your voice to God and His to you. The Mass in this way becomes highly personal, and the incredible thing you may well find is how amazingly
often the words of the Mass prayers, hymns, readings or homilies match exactly what you’re going through in your life. The Mass is truly the Lord’s divine loudspeaker, so that is the place to draw close to God.
Another couple ideas. One is by St. Francis de Sales, which is to pray each morning and night, in the morning praying against all sins you’re prone to committing and praying for graces and spiritual help and protection, and at night, praying in repentance for any sins you committed during the day and thanksgiving for all the favors you can remember receiving from His Providence.
The second idea is something we really should all be doing as much as we can, which is to try to make Sunday a day of rest, a day to put aside all unnecessary work and try to make time to rest and seek the Lord’s peace.
Jared’s novena idea was certainly a good one! Novenas are wonderful.
