Does God love me?

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How can I become certain that God loves me? I know he had infinite love but I suffer from fear that I am excluded and I can’t shake it.
 
JamesATyler said:
How can I become certain that God loves me? I know he had infinite love but I suffer from fear that I am excluded and I can’t shake it.
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You’re afraid you are excluded from God’s love? That is ontologically impossible. God literally is love.
 
Seraphim73 said:
You’re afraid you are excluded from God’s love? That is ontologically impossible. God literally is love.
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What happens if you’re sent to hell? Does God still love you or does he forget about you?
 
Cone said:
What happens if you’re sent to hell? Does God still love you or does he forget about you?
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Still love. Some fathers would say that hell itself is the fire of God’s love and that it is torment to those who don’t want His love.
 
JamesATyler said:
How can I become certain that God loves me? I know he had infinite love but I suffer from fear that I am excluded and I can’t shake it.
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If you are in a state of grace (nothing mortal sin needing to be said in confession and are trying to live a good life, then be peaceful About this). God loves everyone infinitely and would die for you on the Cross again He loves you so much.
, as if you were the only person He ever created.
You are priceless to a Him because He was willing to suffer on the Cross to show you, Jesus act on the Cross is infinite worth, for you because He loves you infinitely.

Yes He loves sinners also. But someone in unconfessed mortal sin have themselves cut themselves off from God’s protection and grace.
 
Have you ever gone to Adoration? Or even sat in the sanctuary where the tabernacle is?
Try that, and notice the body there. It is a body without blood in it, a sacrifice. (note: sacramentally it is the body of Christ; by faith we know Jesus lives and where his body is, there also is his blood, his soul, his divinity. But sacramentally, what your eyes see is the body).
There is a body on the altar. Look at it. It didn’t happen to be there by accident. Jesus put his own life on the line and gave it up for you personally to look at, and for you personally to consume to make you his Brother, and let his Father be your Father, and even give you his own Spirit. Look at the Body on the Altar - that is your Brother’s Body, drained of its blood so that you can live. At mass, don’t just eat without thinking, but know what your are eating, the flesh of your Brother and Lord which he wants you personally to eat and be part of him and his covenant.

You are loved, your Brother’s Body is all the proof you need.
 
Yes, Love loves you!

St. Gertrude "learned that when anyone turns towards a crucifix, he ought to persuade himself that Our Lord speaks thus lovingly to his heart: “Behold how, for your love, I have been fastened to this Cross- naked, despised, torn and wounded in My Body, and in all My members; and still My Heart has such tender charity for you, that were it necessary for your salvation, and were there no other means of saving you, I would even at this moment suffer for you alone all that I have suffered for the whole world.” (‘The Life and Revelations of St. Gertrude’)

In relation to the souls in Hell, there are some beautiful words of Our Lord to St. Bridget of Sweden found in her book of Revelations, confirming the truth of God’s unchanging love. These words are addressed to a soul who has rejected God at the moment of death:
“I showed you all the love I could in order to make you turn to me. However, since you have turned away from me, you deserve to be sentenced, because you scorned mercy. However, I am still so merciful that, if it were possible for me to die again, for your sake I would again endure the same torment I once endured on the cross rather than see you sentenced to such a sentence. Justice, however, says that it is impossible for me to die again, even if mercy tells me to want to die for your sake again, if it were possible.” (Book 2, Ch 12)
 
read your BIBLE *** esp. the NEW testament***** you will be left with no doubt how much christ the lord loves you and wants you to be his…he said “come unto me”…you have a standing invitiation at his banquet - as do we all !

sad how many catholics dont read their bible…if they did questions like this wouldnt even surface !
 
JamesATyler said:
How can I become certain that God loves me? I know he had infinite love but I suffer from fear that I am excluded and I can’t shake it.
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It’s only natural you have self doubt, I do, most of us do, because we Judge ourselves,
Our own character , we see our own failings, we see ourselves of little if any value,
just remind yourself of the bible quote Mathew 21:42
Read it, it won’t bite,
 
Yes God loves you. If you can’t shake that feeling it could be because you feel guilty about something. Talk to Jesus and ask for help. Read Psalm 51, we are all sinners and need to ask for His help and mercy.
 
Feelings are notoriously deceptive. Many of the saints had to endure the desolation of the Dark Night of the Soul. The reason is that perfect love expects nothing in return:
After John joined the Carmelite order, Saint Teresa of Avila asked him to help her reform movement. John supported her belief that the order should return to its life of prayer. But many Carmelites felt threatened by this reform, and some members of John’s own order kidnapped him. He was locked in a cell six feet by ten feet and beaten three times a week by the monks. There was only one tiny window high up near the ceiling. Yet in that unbearable dark, cold, and desolation, his love and faith were like fire and light. He had nothing left but God – and God brought John his greatest joys in that tiny cell.
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After nine months, John escaped by unscrewing the lock on his door and creeping past the guard. Taking only the mystical poetry he had written in his cell, he climbed out a window using a rope made of strips of blankets. With no idea where he was, he followed a dog to civilization. He hid from pursuers in a convent infirmary where he read his poetry to the nuns. From then on his life was devoted to sharing and explaining his experience of God’s love.
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His life of poverty and persecution could have produced a bitter cynic. Instead it gave birth to a compassionate mystic, who lived by the beliefs that “Who has ever seen people persuaded to love God by harshness?” and “Where there is no love, put love – and you will find love.”…
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“What more do you want, o soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfaction and kingdom – your beloved whom you desire and seek? Desire him there, adore him there. Do not go in pursuit of him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and you won’t find him, or enjoy him more than by seeking him within you.”
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catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=65
 
Seraphim73 said:
Still love. Some fathers would say that hell itself is the fire of God’s love and that it is torment to those who don’t want His love.
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That sounds like saying “thirst is the suffering of those who don’t want water.” IF we are hungry and thirsty for God’s love AND we actually touched it, then how could we not drink? Any examples or analogies I can think of involve the substance not actually abating our hunger or thirst.

If a father’s child were in the hospital and dying of thirst, how would we think it loving for him to sit by instead of forcing fluid merely for the sake of the child not losing their free will?
 
littlestsouls2 said:
Yes, Love loves you!

St. Gertrude "learned that when anyone turns towards a crucifix, he ought to persuade himself that …” (Book 2, Ch 12)
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The idea that we are persuading ourselves seems problematic if we want to hold to the claim that something is objectively true. Is faith a gift or something closer to an act of self-hypnosis?

It strikes me that neither Christ nor the disciples had to “persuade themselves” that God spoke after Jesus’ baptism. Nor did Christ “persuade himself” that angels consoled him in the garden.

Did Peter have to persuade himself that Christ walked on water or did Thomas persuade himself that there were holes in Christ’s hands?
 
I think we do have to persuade ourselves. Sometimes Faith is all we have. It is a temptation, do not give in to this feeling, My advice is to stay strong and pray everyday for as long as it takes.

Here is a link to a group I started if you are interested. It has some beautiful prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Jesus love is beyond anything we can imagine. We need to remind ourselves of this everyday and stay strong in our Faith especially when we are tempted and feel unworthy.

forums.catholic-questions.org/group.php?groupid=1829&gmid=151142
 
It is entirely possible that the force we call God is not even aware of our existence…anymore than you or I are aware of a virus on our hands.
 
oldcelt said:
It is entirely possible that the force we call God is not even aware of our existence…anymore than you or I are aware of a virus on our hands.
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Then we would be superior to our Creator - which is as absurd as regarding the “force” as a product of our imagination.
 
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