Anyone here a former agnostic or atheist here?

[Kei]

Yes, while the Church is infallible by God, it is often led by fallible, weak men. Indeed, when Napoleon tried to destroy the Church, the pope laughed at him, he could not do what the clergy had been trying to do for thousands of years!

Most priests take an oath of poverty.
That should have been I believe a suggested donation, but not a service that one pays for, with the man coming to your house.

 

[mkoopman]

If one needs to discern a matter of enormous concern, where better to go than before The Eucharist?
The Spirit speaks to us when we listen, not where we are, although God speaks to our condition; where we find ourselves.
Before the Eucharist is more than where we may be, it is also who we are with, Jesus. Why do you shrink from accepting Our Lord where He chose to be when remaining with us?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Why do you shrink from accepting Our Lord where He chose to be when remaining with us?

Who says I shrink from it? i go to Adoration frequently. However, the Lord can and does talk to people when they are not at Adoration. You acted like the Lord never talks to anyone who doesn’t take part in Adoration, and now you are twisting my words. Have a nice day.

 

[joshringsell]

Random thought - Something positive to take away from this post is that often when we get lost we lose sight of what is true and most important - God, I’ve experienced this soooo many times. We fall into sin, we fall away from our faith and into faith in the world, but when life strikes back with a traumatic event or an ecstatic event we are reminded of our fragility and the truth that we are all part of, and so we come back to our faith knowing that even if painful, Christ is the way, the truth and the life.

 

[Thom18]

I was somewhat hostile to the faith in my teens, probably because I identified myself as a communist for many of those years- but I’m not sure I would have called myself agnostic or atheist. I’m only really positive that I was hostile towards Christianity. I’m not sure why, since I only had positive experiences with the Catholic and Episcopalian churches I attended during my childhood, but that’s what happened.

I became politically conservative in my senior year of high school, and that made me more sympathetic towards religion, particularly Christianity. I have my civics teacher to thank for that. He told us one day about Genesis 40, and how the pilgrims decided to adapt it for their own use because of how badly they were faring (recall in Genesis 40 how Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams and instructed him on how to prepare for the coming famine). That got me interested in Christianity, but I didn’t act on it until college, when I was invited to attend a service for a Holy Day of Obligation. On top of the Mass (which was great), there was an event later that night in the convent (this was a Catholic college). A Taize group came, and we sang with them. Later that night, I began reading the Bible, and I’ve been a devout believe ever since.