Doubt/Spiritual Dryness

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Not setting a timeline is a good idea. I had lost my little dog right before Christmas. Later I wanted to adopt another one, but every time I found one I would like to adopt, the circumstances kept making it difficult. I prayed to God to help me be patient. Soon afterward, I found a dog someone was looking to rehome. She was on the verge of giving him to a shelter. She said she couldn’t keep him much longer. I was able to take that dog and I will be forever grateful to God in helping me find him. So God does recognize our prayers if you don’t give up too quickly.
 
This is simple. Use your will. You can feel whatever, but will to remain faithful. That’s what Lord wants from you. Your will. Even when you doubt.
 
Your doubts are as old as the church itself. Tolle_Lege shared a graphic from an event after Christ was risen.

John 20
24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.” 26 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

Yes, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.
 
The scriptures were written by human beings under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Human beings make mistakes, exaggerate and sometimes even plagiarize. John says in Ch 19:17 that Jesus carried his own cross. He was the only apostle who stayed with Jesus and was with his mother even at the crucifixion. This statement contradicts the other three gospels which were written previously which state that another helped Jesus carry his cross. See Mt 27:32, Mk 15:21 and Lk 23:26.
 
tp3192000 said:
This statement contradicts the other three gospels which were written previously
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Not necessarily. Jesus could have carried his own cross part of the way and then Simon of Cyrene helped him the rest of the way. Then both versions are true.
 
This may be true, but John was aware of the previous accounts and seems to be deliberately contradicting those statements.
 
The passage doesn’t really say what you claim it does. “Carry his own cross” is meant in the sense that he carried the instrument of his execution. The statement doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not someone helped him.

The NABRE reads “carrying the cross himself” and its footnote is predictably skeptical NAB, claiming that it “contradicts” the other Gospels.

The RSV reads “bearing his own cross.” DR reads “bearing his own cross.”
 
This discussion of Scriptures is getting totally off topic for the thread. Please consider making a new thread in the Apologetics/ Sacred Scripture subforum if you want to discuss at length. It doesn’t really do a person suffering from spiritual dryness any good to have people arguing over the Gospels in a thread about how to deal with doubt.
 
I disagree. I am reading the New American Bible from 1970, but I doubt it has changed much since then. It reads in Jn 19:17 that “Jesus was led away, and carrying the cross BY HIMSELF went…”
And “bearing his own cross” means the same thing. John, who was the most reliable of the evangelists, a person who was recognized by the previously released gospels as being an eyewitness to the event of the crucifixion of Jesus states that Jesus carried his own cross in direct contradiction to the other accounts.
 
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It is interesting to see how people understand this normal issue. And their solutions.
 
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