Doubt

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Vivat_Christus

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I’ve always thought I was very strong in my faith, but I sometimes go through periods of great doubt about the Catholic Church and even Christ Himself. A few weeks ago I had doubts about the papacy and that the Orthodox Church might be true. Then I had doubts about Catholic teaching on justification (faith + works), again that the Catholic Church might be wrong and the Protestants reformers were right. Most recently, I was wondering what some of the reasons were that the Jews don’t believe in Jesus as the Messiah and I’ve grown very concerned about their objections to Him.

I love Jesus Christ and His Church, I read Scripture and Catholic apologetics and pray regularly (not the rosary, unfortunately, I can never seem to pray it for more than a few days in a row), but I’ll read or hear objections I’ve never encountered before and I go through mini-crises of faith. Sometimes I think that following Christ might only some kind of phase I’m going through and that some day I’ll lose my faith altogether, which terrifies me. Whenever I go through these doubts though, I pray that God will lead me to His Truth and I always find the answers I’m looking for. But that I’m so susceptible to doubt worries me. Please pray for me that I might have a greater trust in God and faith in Him and His Catholic Church.

*Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Even; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we made be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.*

St. Thomas, pray for us.
St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta pray for us.

(I’m asking these saints to pray for me specifically because they went through periods of great doubt.)
 
Praying to the Holy Spirit to give you guidance, direction, strength, fortitude & wisdom in your time of need.
 
Praying for you…
O most beautiful Flower of Mount Carmel, Fruitful Vine, Splendor of Heaven, who brought forth the Son of God still remaining a Virgin, assist us in this necessity. O Star of the Sea, help us, and show us that you are our Mother.

O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth, we humbly ask you from the depths of our heart to help us in this necessity. There are none who can withstand your power. O show us that you are our Mother.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Sweet Mother, we place this cause in your hands. Amen.

Flos Carmeli
 
Prayer for Faith

Lord, I believe:
I wish to believe in Thee.
Lord, let my faith be full and unreserved,
and let it penetrate my thought,
my way of judging Divine things and human things.
Lord, let my faith be joyful
and give peace and gladness to my spirit,
and dispose it for prayer with God
and conversation with men,
so that the inner bliss of its fortunate possession
may shine forth in sacred and secular conversation.
Lord, let my faith be humble and not presume
to be based on the experience of my thought and of my feeling;
but let it surrender to the testimony of the Holy Spirit,
and not have any better guarantee than in docility to Tradition
and to the authority of the magisterium of the Holy Church.
Amen.

:signofcross:
 
(Can’t help you vis-a-vis the Orthodox Churches and the Jews.)

As regards faith and works. God doesn’t regard our prior works as deciding His willingness for us to be regenerated and for Jesus to come and indwell in us and for His Holy Spirit to start filling us for power for living out the fruits of the Spirit. (He has of course been working in us to lead us to this point as well.) This Catholics share with Protestants but it is commonly the Catholics that don’t explain it well or disbelieve it.

Where works come in is that He is henceforth looking for the talents to be traded profitably, for us to gain or crown by helping others gain a crown, to bring forward others’ spiritual gifts like the disciples brought forward the boy with the loaves and the fishes, to be keen that our fellow Christians (the widows and orphans) should be fed with Scriptures and supplications be made for their fruitfulness as well as the concretes in their lives. (There are many overlapping lists of gifts of the Holy Spirit in both Old and New Testaments as well as a list of the Fruits.) Sadly a lot of both Protestants and Catholics are confused about all this in my observation.

“Egg each other on to good works” and foremost to join in intercessions.

If you like me can’t count while you pray all I can mention is that I string together Our Fathers and Glory Be’s without counting them. (I don’t know whether one is allowed to do that with Hail Marys.)

Our Father said.
 
Those doubts are lies of satan,
shield yourself and say: “satan,
leave me alone, in Jesus’ Name”
out loud when you have these
thots, my friend in Christ!!

Prayer to Our Lady of Mental Peace

O Lady of Mental Peace,
Mother of Tranquility
and Mother of Hope,
look upon Vivat Christus in this time
of weakness and unrest.

Teach his/her searching heart
to know that God’s Love
for him/her is unchanging and
unchangeable, and, that
true human love can only
begin and grow by touching
His Love.

Let your gentle Peace -
which this world cannot give
  • be always with him/ her.
    And, help him/her to bring this
    same Peace into the lives
    of others.
Our Lady of Mental Peace,
  • Pray for us!
    Amen.
 
Prayer to the Sacred Heart

O most holy heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore you, I love you, and with lively sorrow for my sins I offer you this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to your will. Grant, Good Jesus, that I may live in you and for you. Protect me in the midst of danger. Comfort me in my afflictions. Give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death. Amen.
 
Without doubt,there is no faith. He gave us a different path to tread from the Angelic
 
St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defence against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

:angel1::angel1::angel1:
 
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