Doubt

[HopeInChrist]

Hi all,

I need some advice. I love being Catholic - especially the Mass. My problem is private, personal prayer. It just feels akward to me. Lately I’ve been listening/reciting the rosary in the car going to and from work. I want to be a good Catholic and a spiritual person, but I just feel so hipocritical about it. The desire is there, definately, and the Holy Spirit is working on me in a big way, but I was brought up by an avowed cynic and my desire to pray and develop spiritually is fighting with the cynical arguments that what I want is “hooey and hocum”. My cynical “friend” can quote a hundred reasons and sources as to why organized religion is ridiculous and those that are following it are brainwashed. I am just confused, and I know that probably means that I am not sincere in my wanting to be a more spiritual person, or that I have a lot more to read and learn, but I truly don’t know how to overcome this and move forward. I hope this all makes sense.

-Hope

 

[Eucharisted]

Regarding your friend, tell him, straight up, to quit bugging you with his cynical talk. If he can’t respect your request, end the friendship. Better to have good friends than bad ones.

Regarding sincerity and prayer, ask Jesus for the graces and virtues necessary to overcome the evil in your heart. And do penance. Prayer will unite you to God and He will help you and penance will cultivate in you human virtues, like how a garden is grown.

 

[prayerchanges]

If you find personal prayer awkward, try asking Mary to take up your prayers to her Son. She makes them more perfect, and Christ is much more inclined to help you feel more comfortable. Also, someone told me to pray to St. Gemma (she was quite devout), so that she might intercede, because I too, have trouble praying. In the few hours since I prayed to her, she has really helped me.

 

[John_Russell_Jr]

My dear friend

In your faith and spiritual life there is no place for cynicism. The closer you get to God the happier you’ll be. Is your friend really happy, full of joy, peace and serenity? I bet if he’s honest he’s not. I find many people have no idea there miserable. It’s all they’ve ever known all too often. God is Love, and Love makes us happy.

Here is a great quote on how we should be if we want to be truly happy.

St Josemaria, founder of Opus Dei-
Friends of God > Getting to know God > Number 147http://www.escrivaworks.org/images/misc/pixtrans.gifhttp://www.escrivaworks.org/images/misc/pixtrans.gif147http://www.escrivaworks.org/images/misc/pixtrans.gifBe very childlike! the more childlike, the better. I speak from my experience as a priest, who has had to pick himself up many times in these past thirty-six years (how long and yet how short they now seem to me!) which have been spent striving to fulfil a very precise requirement of God’s Will. There’s one thing that has helped me always, the fact that I am still a child, and I am always climbing onto my Mother’s lap and finding refuge in the Heart of Christ, my Lord.

Serious falls, of the kind that can do great damage to the soul, at times almost irreparable damage, can always be traced back to the pride of thinking oneself to be grown up and self-sufficient. In such cases, people seem almost incapable of asking for help from those who can give it: not only from God, but also from a friend, or from a priest. And the poor soul, alone in its misfortune, sinks into confusion and loses its way.

Let us beseech God, right now, never to let us feel self-satisfied, but rather to make us grow ever more desirous of his help, his word, his Bread, his consolation and his strength: rationabile, sine dolo lac concupiscite, foster your hunger, your ambition to be like children. Believe me, it is the best way to conquer pride; and it’s the only way to make our conduct good, great hearted, divine. ‘Believe me, unless you become like little children again, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.’

May our Blessed Mother watch over you, Her son, and protect you always:thumbsup:
John

 

[poetryforjesus]

Hi all,

I need some advice. I love being Catholic - especially the Mass. My problem is private, personal prayer. It just feels akward to me. Lately I’ve been listening/reciting the rosary in the car going to and from work. I want to be a good Catholic and a spiritual person, but I just feel so hipocritical about it. The desire is there, definately, and the Holy Spirit is working on me in a big way, but I was brought up by an avowed cynic and my desire to pray and develop spiritually is fighting with the cynical arguments that what I want is “hooey and hocum”. My cynical “friend” can quote a hundred reasons and sources as to why organized religion is ridiculous and those that are following it are brainwashed. I am just confused, and I know that probably means that I am not sincere in my wanting to be a more spiritual person, or that I have a lot more to read and learn, but I truly don’t know how to overcome this and move forward. I hope this all makes sense.

-Hope

Keep up with the rosary! As time goes by you will notice the difference. Also, have you tried to visit Jesus in the Eucharist?

 

[HopeInChrist]

Hello Friends,

First of all, thank you so much for taking time to help me. I will tell you this which I did not before. The cynic is my mother. What confuses me, and really always has is that she took me to church, taught CCD, was on committees (sp?) at church and the whole bit. Then when I was a teenager and becoming cynical myself she told me that I could stop attending Mass because “she wasn’t going to force me” and then it came out that she really doesn’t subscribe to the Doctrines of the Faith anyway. She said Vatican II ruined her faith for her.

I have a heart yearning for The Spirit, Love, and All Encompassing Forgiveness of the Triune God. I also feel very awkward since my mother feels so strongly in the way that she does. This is now made more difficult in that we have had to move in with them in times of difficulty.

I know that I should be continually talking to her about this, and offering to bring her to Mass, pray with her, etc, but she is so SET in how she feels. I have no arguments that can get through to her. She says that whatever one wants to believe is okay with her, she just doesn’t.

No, John, as far as I can remember in my lifetime, she has NEVER been happy. It seems to me as if she’s carrying a lot of grief and pain with her. She tells me that she’s happy and that there are different types of happiness, but I just don’t see it. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my mother very much. I just feel so sorry for her, but am also very intimidated by the wall she has put up.

Ok this is rambling and getting off topic so I’ll leave it as I am trying daily to be a good Catholic. I do continue with the Rosary, and I know that He know’s that what’s in my heart is good. So I will take it day by day and see what happens.