Any Advice after you lose faith?

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I think that is part of the difficulty, I’ve never experienced Catholicism to be true is some experiential sense. I’m a little uncertain what others mean by experiencing faith or Catholicism. I’ve never had a “quite voice” or something like that.
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Hmm… It’s different from person to person. We can give you pointers and a place to start, but ultimately, the best way for you to cultivate your faith is something you must experience and find out for yourself. And you will need to do so for the rest of your life. It is not easy, but very worth it. To use myself as an example, as a Dominican, I contemplate and share the fruits of my contemplation. I don’t merely store up knowledge in my head, I share it, partly because I have no right to horde it as it would be hording up God, but so that others may know Him and contemplate Him to. As such, it is not enough to merely know truth. I must also have a relationship with Truth. I contemplate truth with the source of truth itself! Doesn’t that sound wonderful? It may be a bit of a cheesy question, but does this interest you in the slightest? I think you might like Dominican spirituality. I’m a Dominican because I best experience God though contemplating and adoring His truths, and the Dominicans have been cultivating their lives around truth for 803 years.

Have you read about the life of St. Dominic?

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05106a.htm
 
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My suggestion to you is to help others. Saint Teresa of Calcutta had battles with her faith. Yet she continued to help the poor and anyone who needed it. Continue to do good deeds as much as you can. Pray asking for the grace of faith every day. Follow the commandments.
I was in a very dark place a little over two years ago. But for the grace of God I wouldn’t be here. I had taken enough drugs to easily take my life. I’m still in awe of His power and Grace from that night.
God Bless!
 
I can somewhat relate to you. My intellect is my most prized possession, and that’s how I came to the Church, and it’s my primary mode of interacting with most things.

However, my most significant moments of real truth in the faith, my relationship with the Almighty, the things that keep me getting out of bed and doing what I do daily have no great intellectual explanation - they are simply lived experiences. Some of these were on retreats (I’ve been on group retreats and private/solo silent retreats staying with the Trappists - that’ll change you!); some of these have been in hospitals where I’ve literally begged God not to take my wife or my child (and I’ve been there with both children); sometimes it’s in a chaotic moment of my everyday life where a little unexpected out of the blue happens.

I would suggest to you not to overthink it; just be aware of what’s in the world around you and be open to the awesomeness. Faith has a way of settling in, taking hold - sometimes God slips up quietly, sometimes picks you up like a grandparent giving a child a hug, and sometimes smacks you with a 2x4 to wake you up.

I’ll be praying for you.
 
I tend to be extremely intellectual myself. I love the Truths of the Church, St Thomas Aquinas, the fact that everything I have learned in the Church fits together so well… I just love all that.

But my intellectual way of being Catholic is really limiting. It jas caused problems because that is not all that the Church is about.

However, my other failing, being erratic at prayer, has been a help in this way: I have had answers from God to questions I have had. Not often, but enough times that I can really believe in His existence.

And I know this is from God because the answers are far beyond anything I could come up with on my own. The answers are not like thoughts I would have. And they slip into my mind very softly and gently.

The other thing is that Faith is like a plant. It’s as if God leaves a plant there for us–we can take it or leave it, He won’t force us-- bit then in order to keep the plant, we need to take care of it.

And for me, much as I love the intellectual rigor of the Church–that is not enough to keep my faith plant alive.

I have to put my faith into action. If I believe in God, then I need to have a relationship with Him, and that requires communications. Pray and listen. Develop your prayer life beyond vocal prayer and into meditative prayer (this is not like Eastern meditation), and also chat with God.

When we love people, we make sacrifices for them, we give things up for them. Marriage, for example, is the forsaking of all others. Sacrifice for God: give up Starbucks one day a week and give that money to the poor. Make special efforts to treat those around you with kindness. Fast from 3 to 4. Just start with little things like that.

(I started with the last one, and now am working on fasting for longer, working up to a full day!)
 
Faith is a gift and in the rosary one prays for an increase in faith. If one stops praying ,for whatever reason ,faith in time will continue to dwendle. I would also go to confession and go regularly. Mary is our mother who at the foot of the cross knows full well the challenge and sufferings of faith. Will pray a rosary for you.
I almost lost my faith ,but it was because I couldn’t handle the suffering I was in and blamed God for it . Plus decided He couldn’t be loving if he allowed evil. It was a miserable road to travel on and through the sacrament of reconciliation, honest prayer and mass did I climb the ladder of faith in God and continue to do so. Also I spent lots and lots of time looking at the crucifix and thinking about Mary watching Jesus die. He is risen …Alleluia.
 
Don’t confuse the virtue of Faith with the feelings of “faith”. Faith is the first theological virtue; Hope and Charity are the other two theological virtues.

The only way you can lose the virtue of Faith is by committing a sin against the virtue of Faith. Heresy, schism, apostasy, religious indifferentism (i.e. it doesn’t matter what you believe; we’re all children of God etc.), human respect (e.g. not making the Sign of the Cross in public for fear of what people may think/say), etc. (There’s other ones too but I’m trying to keep this short.)

Suggestions:
  1. Pray. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you make a good examination of conscience and a good confession.
  2. Go to Holy Communion as long as you’re not in the state of mortal sin.
  3. Learn more about the Faith from good Catholic books, websites and other good material.
  4. Talk to a good Catholic priest/friend who is well-grounded in the Faith.
  5. If possible, go on retreat.
  6. Eucharistic Adoration. Ask Our Lord to help you.
  7. Devotion to Our Lady and the saints.
Hope this helps.
 
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My devotion had ebbed and flowed over the years. Where you sound like you have an intellectual edge to you, you might try my approach: Hit the books. Read up on philosophy and theology. Question, question, question. Meet with your priest and question some more. Unless you’ve become a rabid atheist, throw some prayer into the mix. I also enrolled in a particular course that you may appreciate and will message you the details.

Faith is not a static condition but a dynamic journey. Don’t get yourself in a rut or come to any “conclusions,” but surf along with these waves. You may not find Answers. But you’ll find some profound insights.
 
I didn’t make this clear in the beginning so there is a little confusion, but what makes me not Catholic in belief is two things.
  1. I believe that Jesus did not fulfill the Jewish messianic prophecies And because of that He was not the for told Messiah.
  2. If eternal damnation exists God is by nature evil.
I believe in God creator and sustainer of everything, but not in Christianity anymore. It’s not so much that I have doubts so much as positive beliefs that the above are true and because of that I can not be Catholic anymore.
 
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Yep said:
I believe that Jesus did not fulfill the Jewish messianic prophecies And because of that He was not the for told Messiah.
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This video lists all the foreshadowing of the messiah in the Old Testament fulfilled by Jesus:
 
Yep said:
If eternal damnation exists God is by nature evil.
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Look at it this way: When you do something bad, you feel guilty, because we know what you did was wrong. We cannot escape the feeling of guilt unless we repent and do the right thing which bears the fruit of peace of soul. If we suppress the guilt it harden our hearts. That guilt and remorse one experiences is God urging us to repent. When one refuses to repent and chooses instead to suppress the guilt, that guilt develops into all sorts of psychological complexes, the consequence of unrepentant. Hell is like guilt, in that we are 100% responsible for its existence. In other words, God did not create hell, it is a state of being created entirely by the beings who chose to embrace evil rather than goodness through repentance. That’s the reason why Jesus said that every sin will be forgiven except the sin against the Holy Spirit. The sin against the Holy Spirit is the refusal to repent. They rather hate and curse God than to repent.

Since God is Truth and Love itself, God created you to have a share in His eternal Life and Glory. You can either follow your conscience and repent, or you can choose to not repent and live with the world of evil you have created for yourself and for others. Incredibly, there are people who willfully commit cruel acts of savagery and depravity against others, and instead of repenting they thirst to do more evil, being that they have completely suppressed God’s inspiration to repent.

Our life on earth is either a process of sanctification or demonization. And the further we move away from God through a life of sin, the more our mind is being demonized. All the wicked spirits of the dark known as the fallen angels or demons, were angelic beings that God created good. They rejected God thus they made themselves into demons. The same thing happens with human beings. There are people who have chosen to demonize themselves to the point where in the face of a man, woman or child pleading for mercy and compassion they find pleasure in committing even more acts of hatred and cruelty.

When a person dies and their eternal soul separates from the body the soul will either rise and fly toward the source of Goodness and Truth itself (GOD), or the soul will be repelled away from the brilliance and perfection of God, like darkness is repelled by light.

It is God who spends our entire life urging us to repent and choose the path of Goodness and Truth. Being that our soul is eternal, the spiritual realm of those who reject the light of the eternal God, repel themselves away from the light, and that eternal abyss is called hell. Hell is an existence created by the damned who curse and reject God rather than than to love and repent out of love for God and neighbor. Heaven and hell are outside of time, that is, an eternal unchanging “eternal now” and we will either inherit the Eternal Kingdom of God, or reject that inheritance.
 
An outline of why I think God’s goodness is linked to our salvation can be found in the video below.

 
Yep said:
The reason why I believe Jesus did not fulfill Jewish prophecy are outlined in this article.
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The video of the Old Testament foreshadowing Christ squashes that article completely. Salvation is from the Jews in that it was through the Jewish people that the messiah was to come to teach us the way of Truth and to save the world from darkness, not to set up some political empire in the Middle East with military tanks and warfare, but to save the world from our sins and to bring us eternal peace. One has to realize that modern day Judaism is not the same religion of the Old Testament, where the people of Israel had a temple with priests who offered sacrifices.

Interestingly there is a huge movement in Israel by Israeli Jews who are converting to Christianity en masse. They put out great videos answering all the objections by the rabbis. Here are some brief samples worth watching:



 
I’m not happy about it, but nothing you’ve said is convincing. Christianity appears to be a post hoc explanation of why Jesus failed to fulfill Jewish prophecy where instead of bringing peace on Earth he was killed.

You probably think I’m being influenced by satan or I’m harboring hatred of God. I love God and I want Him so much! The thing is I want to love God as he truly is and that means having to follow my conclusions even when I don’t like them.
 
Well, after hundreds of prophecies fulfilled, miracles witnessed by thousands, history split in two, Christianity civilizing the earth, plus countless modern day miracles, Lourdes, Fatima, and countless NDEs all testifying to Jesus Christ, I’m not sure any evidence will suffice for you. At least you realize that God exists; there are atheists who also don’t believe all the obvious evidence and readily dismiss it. So it’s not a matter of evidence, it’s a lack of faith; faith is a gift. But like any gift it can be squandered, lost, or rejected altogether.
 
My advice is very simple. Pray with persistence and ask others to pray for you.
 
Mi_Rose said:
My advice is very simple. Pray with persistence and ask others to pray for you.
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My advice as well. It’s what I continue to do when my faith walk becomes a doubt walk. I would also add: continue seeking out grace through His sacraments, especially reconciliation and weekly Sunday Mass attendance (and more often if possible).

Once in a while He’ll give you a little poke to remind you He’s still there.
 
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