Hope this helps! Like I said I was really worried that I was being selfish in my praying the other day… but that might have been the devil whispering in my ear. Because it’s not like that at all. Society is so corrupt, it places all of these ideas in our minds that are barriers to God on occasion. We really have to knock these walls down, you know? Such as what I’m working on is doing the sign of the cross before and after my lunch at a public school… (I’m a senior) and even though my friends are all Catholics (it just happened that way), not all of them are very devout… but it doesn’t matter because they all know I’m devout anyway. And I am trying to condition myself to not be afraid of what people think of me because I’m so close to college. We need to stay faithful to God both inwardly and outwardly no matter what, right? 
Stick with the material in the Scriptures and approved by the Church. The visionaries of Medjugorje have contradicted themselves several times, and are not approved by the Church.
Welcome jongenaro!
(btw talking about Medjugorje is off-limits… since it hasn’t been approved yet. And threads tend to dissolve into speculation and slapfights over it. We’re just waiting until the apparitions stop and they can be evaluated officially.)
In the journey to Holiness and Godly Love, we almost all start out with this kind of “reward” mentality. We even refer to it that way as in, “He went to his Final Reward.”
.Sorry, I don’t mean to carry on the subject, but isn’t the world supposed to end when they end? We won’t need to evaluate them, in that case.Welcome jongenaro!
thanks for the informations bro…In the journey to Holiness and Godly Love, we almost all start out with this kind of “reward” mentality. We even refer to it that way as in, “He went to his Final Reward.”
The myatics of the Church, (Francis DeSales, Catherine of Sienna, John of the Cross etc.) all dealt with this in one degree or another.
We begin by turning away from sin, accepting God, praying and getting our life in order. While we are doing it for Love, tht Love is often a servile Love - Savish fear - Fear of Hell or desire for heaven.
Next as we grow in our Journey, continuing to pray and rooting out those deep sins our Love growss stronger. Both our Love of God and Our heighbor. But it is still a “mercenary Love” (servise of God motivated by reward)
In the higher stages of development our Love becomes a “Spousal Love” or Filial Love. In this stage we are “ruled by Love”. Even Love of our enemies. Love of God as a very Dear Friend whom you would never hurt under any circumstances, not because of reward or punishment, but because of Love.
If you would like to pursue this an excellant book is “The Fulfillment of All Desire” by Ralph Martin.
I promote this book so much I should get a cut
Seriously though it is an excellent read and will answer your questions on this subject.
Peace
James
A proper Christian should desire to be one with God, love him for his own sake, and obey him out of love. Merely desiring heavenly pleasures or avoiding hellish suffering is not the proper attitude for a Christian. If one repents of sin with the sole or primary intention of experiencing heavenly pleasure, avoiding the suffering in hell, or do so out of fear of death, then it would not be perfect contrition, but imperfect contrition, and the guilt of sin would remain. Now, Perfect contrition is when one repents out of love for God and intends to repair one’s relationship with him, it would follow also that one must promise to partake of the sacrament of confession whenever the opportunity arises and resolve to never sin again. This would remove the guilt of sin.
Sorry about that. I didn’t know that unapproved apparitions were off limits. Thanks for lettin’ me know. =)Welcome jongenaro!
Good one 