Don't know what to do about Confession

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The sins of pride, vanity, and love of comfort apply to every soul.

Saying they don’t simply points back to number 1 or 2.
 
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Edward_H said:
The sins of pride, vanity, and love of comfort apply to every soul.

Saying they don’t simply points back to number 1 or 2.
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I’m sorry to say it, but this particular method of evangelization really isn’t working. I want to have a sincere relationship with Jesus and avoid committing sacrilege by receiving the sacraments badly, but there are some doctrinal points I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around. Then you come in and say, “Well, the problem is you. You dare to question your religion, so you must be full of pride.” That’s the kind of language that drives people away.
 
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The purpose of evangelization is to get someone closer to the truth about God and their distance from Him.

Your first post used the “I” word 10 times in 4 sentences.
 
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Edward_H said:
The purpose of evangelization is to get someone closer to the truth about God and their distance from Him.
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Which you really aren’t doing.
Edward_H said:
Your first post used the “I” word 10 times in 4 sentences.
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🤨 I’m describing a personal situation, and sometimes I write run-on sentences. Geez Louise.
 
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Go back and examine slowly every point and assertion made, detached. Plain as day.
 
I used to hit up the confessional fairly often (though not regularly),
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This is an assertion, and it’s self-contradictory.
but it’s been about 17 months since the last time I went.
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this is an assertion
I’ve committed plenty of mortal sins in the interim, and I am sorry for them,
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this is an assertion

Now comes the self-protecting/evading motive spurred on by pride
but I’ve also been struggling with some of the Church’s positions on gender and sexuality, and I haven’t come >across any arguments that were persuasive enough to fully convince me of their validity.
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So you here set yourself up as the judge of the Church’s position on this moral matter. It’s an ego-centric reference to truth. Pride.

Catholics don’t believe that we generate our own criteria about such matters. We get them from God through the Church. This is an act of humility and trust. Which you’re rejecting in your assertion.
 
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TheAmazingGrace said:
Because of this, I don’t feel comfortable seeking out absolution and receiving Communion, so I’m at a lo
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Good for you for abstaining from Communion when you’re not truly in communion with the Church. A lot of people would sacrilegiously just receive Communion anyways.
 
Edward_H said:
So you here set yourself up as the judge of the Church’s position on this moral matter. It’s an ego-centric reference to truth. Pride.
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I don’t know about you, but I never really found that telling myself that I ought to believe something, had a whole lot of effect on whether I found myself able to actually believe it. I could tell myself until I was blue in the face that I morally ought to believe something and still not generate any actual belief. I never really understood people who talked about “deciding” to believe something - it always seemed more like trying to trick yourself into thinking you believed something that you really didn’t.

In this case, I think submission in the face of questions is the best move of humility. I expect, like I have found, what you are saying to OP is simply not a thing that’s going to work.
 
Edward_H said:
I used to hit up the confessional fairly often (though not regularly),

This is an assertion, and it’s self-contradictory.

but it’s been about 17 months since the last time I went.

this is an assertion

I’ve committed plenty of mortal sins in the interim, and I am sorry for them,

this is an assertion

Now comes the self-protecting/evading motive spurred on by pride

but I’ve also been struggling with some of the Church’s positions on gender and sexuality, and I haven’t come >across any arguments that were persuasive enough to fully convince me of their validity.

So you here set yourself up as the judge of the Church’s position on this moral matter. It’s an ego-centric reference to truth. Pride.

Catholics don’t believe that we generate our own criteria about such matters. We get them from God through the Church. This is an act of humility and trust. Which you’re rejecting in your assertion.
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First off, my “often but not regularly” statement was not self-contradictory. There were some periods where I went every week, and some where there were months-long stretches between confessions, but it added up to a fair number of visits every year.

Also, yeah, I’ve made assertions insofar as I described the facts of my situation, but I haven’t made any assertions with regard to Church doctrine. I didn’t baldly state that the Church is wrong, or that I know better, but that I am struggling, and don’t want to receive the sacraments badly.
 
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TheAmazingGrace said:
Also, yeah, I’ve made assertions insofar as I described the facts of my situation, but I haven’t made any assertions with regard to Church doctrine. I didn’t baldly state that the Church is wrong, or that I know better, but that I am struggling, and don’t want to receive the sacraments badly.
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Can I suggest you stop engaging with @Edward_H? It won’t help you with this dilemma.

I think you can go to Confession, and I would raise your concerns with the priest about your struggles with the faith. He might be able to help.

My own advice for dealing with your struggles - and I’m a convert who had to overcome all of these issues before I joined - is that you might want to consider reading more of John Paul II’s work, or if they are a little heavy for you, than some good books about his life and teachings. Jason Evert’s book is really good at explaining some of these issues.

I’ll pray for you that God helps you and brings you to understanding of His teachings.
 
You missed the point.

When we run into such difficulties and seeming incompatibilities, it’s a grave responsibility of every Catholic to not “agree to disagree” but instead to go ever deeper into Church teaching…to consult sound authorities, to pray, to work through the seeming contradiction with heroic energy UNTIL it’s resolved in line with the Church teaching.

That’s the work that many no longer do. They instead fall back on soft sounding, empty-headed mantras like “agree to disagree”.

Faith working with reason.
 
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Sure you did…you said “struggling with some of the Church’s positions on gender and sexuality”.

You told us the reason you haven’t gone to confession is because of the conflict you have with their positions.

You can put words around it…but that’s what you said…and it’s what you believe.
 
casslean said:
Jason Evert’s book is really good at explaining some of these issues.
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I’ve read almost everything Jason Evert has ever written. A lot of his writing strikes me as woefully naive/misinformed, and his habit of recycling the same passages over and over in different works annoys me.
 
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I’ve read almost everything Jason Evert has ever written. A lot of his writing strikes me as woefully naive/misinformed, and his habit of recycling the same passages over and over in different works annoys me.
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@casslean

As I said, it’s pride plain, painful and simple.
 
I got the point, I just think it’s the wrong point at the moment.

Yes, going deeper into Church teaching is what ought to be done, long-term…but there is simply no reason for every questioning Catholic to separate themselves from the sacraments while they do so, unless it concerns a matter at the very heart of what it means to be Catholic. Nor is that a process that I have found one can put a time frame on. Staying away from confession and the eucharist is not an improvement in the situation!

Rather, I suggest that an obedient Catholic can submit to the Church by not practicing or teaching in contrast to what the Church teaches, and to ope themselves as best they can. It is not a sin to struggle with a teaching, and if we turn people away from the sacraments in such a time we do nothing but deny them a source of strength.
 
Have you read his biography of John Paul II? I was trained as an historian before going to law school, and his research is sound. He’s also often just quoting John Paul’s own works (translated).

You can also go find the talks John Paul II gave from 1979-1984 that form the “Theology of the Body”. Just remember to approach them with an open mind, from a place that wants to be taught, not persuaded out of an opposing position. It dramatically changes the way you read.
 
It’s a sin to stop struggling to understand a point of teaching. It’s deliberately not seeking God.
 
But nowhere does the OP say that. She only stated that she struggled with it.
 
Nope. To not approach God in a Sacrament because of a teaching is to put up a barrier
 
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