Doubting My Faith

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Hello everyone,

My name is Justin & i am 18 years old. I’ve been a Catholic all my life and attended catechism and had my communion. Recently, I have been doubting God, Jesus and everything that has to do with them. I feel as if I have never had a connection to Jesus and I truely accepted him into my heart when I was younger. I feel abandonment as if I was not looked for. I admit I have sinned a great deal in my life, and I have never been to confession. I can’t seem to find him and find my faith again, i feel as if this is the end of my belief. I want one last chance to have that brought back to me. I need guidance or else I am lost for good.

Thank you
 
justin1194 said:
Hello everyone,

**My name is Justin & i am 18 years old. I’ve been a Catholic all my life and attended catechism and had my communion. Recently, I have been doubting God, Jesus and everything that has to do with them. I feel as if I have never had a connection to Jesus and I truely accepted him into my heart when I was younger. I feel abandonment as if I was not looked for. I admit I have sinned a great deal in my life, and I have never been to confession. I can’t seem to find him and find my faith again, i feel as if this is the end of my belief. I want one last chance to have that brought back to me. I need guidance or else I am lost for good.

Thank you**

This is good… by that I mean you are human , many people experience this - doubt can be scary sometimes, if you take time to do some of what I suggest below it will help you immensely

you state that you have never been to confession - I would do that first, ASAP

GREAT CD on confession
lighthousecatholicmedia.org/store/title/confession

you say you doubt God, Jesus and everything that has to do with him also you state that you never have felt a true connection to Jesus

God and Jesus - well it is normal to doubt God at times, but there is an easy solution to this - and I will list a few things you can do to bring your Faith back in God, and Jesus

1 - prayer life - do you have one, do you take time everyday to tell or ask God about things? if you don’t start doing it… a few mins a day everyday

2 - The Sacraments, we meet Jesus in the Eucharist and Confession, when you don’t come to the Sacraments you keep yourself from his grace - go to confession, let it all out - then go receive the Eucharist, maybe go to Adoration and ask God for strength

3 - Books, start reading books on your faith, the biggest problem with Catholicism today is the lack of education and poor catechesis of our members - start learning about your faith - I will give you a list of books at the bottom that will help increase your faith, and I am not making this up - I own and have read everything below .

4 - don’t have time to read or want to… CD’s/ mp3 light house Catholic media has CD’s on every subject from God, to Jesus, to why be Catholic , Church teaching and so on - find em here at www.lighthousecatholicmedia.com - you can also shop here at Catholic.com to find books and CD’s - GREAT for long car rides shop.catholic.com/tag/product/list/tagId/51/

5 - Internet and Radio - if you have access to a Catholic radio station, listen to it, they often answer questions that you may have, and places like this forum are great for asking questions and finding answers

http://shop.catholic.com/media/cata...5d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/g/o/godless-delusion.jpg

I just read this book and it tackles a lot of questions about Atheism

http://shop.catholic.com/media/cata...e95/e/s/essential-catholic-survival-guide.jpg

This is a great book that answers a multitude of questions on Catholicism - A MUST HAVE

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51iINRhtPVL.BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01.jpg
Mere Christianity by CS Lewis is a great book especially if you doubt God

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Z5tzEvOD.../s1600/largerediscover-catholicism25469lg.jpg

This is also a great book starter book and you can get it free, just pay shipping here
cart.dynamiccatholic.com/Free_Rediscover_Catholicism_p/1rc.htm

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HKA4ou-CL.BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01.jpg

Don’t let the title scare you, its a well written book that talks about all the hard topics and address them charitably and with great understanding - an easy read, I read this book and I pick it up all the time to reread certain parts. if you do read this book, I suggest get a pen or pencil for underlining !!!

CD’s that may help

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/...S91zVIbD5pXw614jVDOb6J8E-I5paEpCVSOxvP5vjHssN

lighthousecatholicmedia.org/store/title/answering-atheism

http://shop.catholic.com/media/cata...d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/w/h/why-be-catholic_1.jpg

shop.catholic.com/why-be-catholic.html

http://shop.catholic.com/media/cata...b8d27136e95/h/o/how-to-talk-to-atheists_1.jpg

shop.catholic.com/how-to-talk-to-atheists.html

**** go here to get a free CD from lighthouse Catholic media ****

lighthousecatholicmedia.org/kiosk/freeSample
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Others will be good with long answers. This one will be short.

I’d simply like to recommend that you take a look at the Christian ThinkTank, given how it helped me when I was having a crisis of faith.

God bless.
 
God must mean much to you, otherwise you would not tell us about your doubts.

We all will/have doubt our faith at some point. But that is normal. At some point in our life we are confronted with the “big question”. You are for sure not alone. I have not yet have doubts but I will, that I am sure about.

And you tell us that you have sinned. Welcome to the club. And never went to Confession? It may be hard to tell all your sins to a priest but belive me, he have heard all you can imagine and then som, many many times before, and he will not judge you, he will guide you, so I think you need to go and tell at least the biggest sins, reckon you can’t remember them all? Look, I am not judging you either, and you should not judge your self. Thinking about the fact that you have not entered the confession booth before it would be a good idea to make a appointment with your priest, and talk about your sins face to face. That is a bit harder, but in a case like this, the better way. You have more time to go thru your life so far.

Ask your self why you have doubts. Has something happen that you think have something to do with your feeling that God is not real? Maybe a unanswered prayer? Well, God hear all our prayers, and in due time He will answer. It might take time, but He always answer. Is your life a mess? If so, try to change it a bit. Not to much to fast but just enough. Most important though, talk to a priest. The first step is the hardest one and it will be uphill for a while but it get easier the closer you come to the peak, and from that forward you will not only see that your doubts was unneccesary but you will feel better as well. Understand, or at least try to, that the biggest doubt is only fear, fear of let your self in the hands of God, but I can assure you that Gods hands are the safest place there is.

I really hope things will work out OK for you. Have no fear, you are in safe hands.
 
justin1194 said:
Hello everyone,

My name is Justin & i am 18 years old. I’ve been a Catholic all my life and attended catechism and had my communion. Recently, I have been doubting God, Jesus and everything that has to do with them. I feel as if I have never had a connection to Jesus and I truely accepted him into my heart when I was younger. I feel abandonment as if I was not looked for. I admit I have sinned a great deal in my life, and I have never been to confession. I can’t seem to find him and find my faith again, i feel as if this is the end of my belief. I want one last chance to have that brought back to me. I need guidance or else I am lost for good.

Thank you
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Hmmm… You say you are 18, been Catholic all your life, but just received your 1st Communion, and have NEVER been to Confession; seems odd that you did not received the Sacrament of reconciliation before you received 1st Eucharist when you were much younger. You didn’t say you have been confirmed, so I am making a stretch that there was a lapse in your formation earlier in your youth. You say that you are a sinner (Don’t worry, we all are… Just keep trying to do better.) Here are a few recommendations from me…

*1. God never abandons us, He is infinite love. He wants us to seek Him.
2. Go talk to your local parish priest.
3. Start some spiritual reading… mab23 gives you some excellent choices.
4. Enroll in your parish RCIA classes/program.
5. God gave us free will so He is unable to force His will on any of us. It is up to us to foster our relationship with Him through prayer. Prayer is the basis of our relationship with Him… Pray, Pray, Pray.
6 Always remember that God’s answer to your prayer is sometimes NO. Not because He doesn’t love us, but because there is something to be gained.
*
I pray, that if YOU are true to your faith, that YOU take the necessary steps to grow in your relationship with God. It is up to YOU to seek Him. Catholicism is a way of life centered around God’s Will. It is a continuing journey… Are YOU willing to embark on the journey?
 
justin1194 said:
Hello everyone,

My name is Justin & i am 18 years old. I’ve been a Catholic all my life and attended catechism and had my communion. Recently, I have been doubting God, Jesus and everything that has to do with them. I feel as if I have never had a connection to Jesus and I truely accepted him into my heart when I was younger. I feel abandonment as if I was not looked for. I admit I have sinned a great deal in my life, and I have never been to confession. I can’t seem to find him and find my faith again, i feel as if this is the end of my belief. I want one last chance to have that brought back to me. I need guidance or else I am lost for good.

Thank you
Click to expand...
As cradle Catholics we were fed the faith, but when we reach maturity we have to *want it for ourselves. * This is no different than anything else in life that we may wish to keep, or attain. When it comes to faith we really don’t attain it, in any meaningful way, until we begin to want it, until we begin to ask, seek, and knock on our own. And sometimes it takes time; we must learn that this world is sort of a pigsty, relatively speaking, effectively cut off from God, in order for us to begin to recognize that we’re really not home here-that something’s missing-then we have the opportunity to begin value the faith that teaches us about our true home, with a Father who waits for us with open arms to turn back to Him. That’s why we’re here on earth, to come to recognize the existence, trustworthiness, and love of God, and of our absolute need for Him. This is a life-long process, during which you’ll probably be surprised that Church teachings will kick in, so to speak, when you need them. Our faith increases over time, God increasingly proving Himself to us as our hunger for Him increases as well. It will happen, as you need and want it.
 
This is a normal process in our lives. I went through it as well.

When we grow up believing we believe as a child, from our hearts. We live and grow daily in our hearts. But as we reach adulthood and engage in the deeper parts of education we discover a new part to ourselves. A reasoning mind.

Until this time the mind has been engaged in learning, but not any complex reasoning. With the advent of this new reasoning mind we reach an argument between the heart we use to know and the new reasoning mind we now have.

It’s not that you lost your faith, but rather you must expand that faith from your heart to your new reasoning mind. This reasoning mind has not constructed any part of God yet. The world is full of works, surrounding academia, purporting a great accident. Science has determined, by none of the same rules of science it imposes, that God does not exist. And it would love to convince you of this. Without a construct of God in this new reasoning mind, the reason of the world finds no competition.

Your reasoning mind is growing and your heart is diminishing. As Christians we must have faith and reason. We must keep that old heart alive, and fill that new mind with the truth of God. There is plenty of evidence out there that God exists, and books upon books on the subject. We can also do our own investigation of life to see that there is a God.

Hold on to that old heart, and start to investigate God. He needs to reach your reasoning mind. There is enough evidence of God to do so, but without that old heart you will not find who He is.

When ever a few stones are gathered together, stacked on top of each other, we see the evidence of man. However when we see millions of living cells working in perfect harmony thousands of times more complicated than a few stacked stones we call it an accident. That is the wisdom of the world.
 
justin1194 said:
Hello everyone,

My name is Justin & i am 18 years old. I’ve been a Catholic all my life and attended catechism and had my communion. Recently, I have been doubting God, Jesus and everything that has to do with them. I feel as if I have never had a connection to Jesus and I truely accepted him into my heart when I was younger. I feel abandonment as if I was not looked for. I admit I have sinned a great deal in my life, and I have never been to confession. I can’t seem to find him and find my faith again, i feel as if this is the end of my belief. I want one last chance to have that brought back to me. I need guidance or else I am lost for good.

Thank you
Click to expand...
Welcome to CAF! 👋

Do not underestimate the significance of the sentence I have bolded.

Sin drags us down. Sin makes us want to explain away the divine so that the sin doesn’t seem so bad. Sin drives a wedge between us and God.

Confession absolves us of our sins and restores us to a life of grace. There is enormous power in the sacrament.

Trust me, I was in a much similar boat when I was your age. I went years without Confession and just kept committing sins. Although I continued going to Mass every Sunday, my faith slowly eroded over the course of a few years. The Church was just a human institution. The Bible was just a book. Jesus was just a man. I had cut myself off from the life of grace.

Only after I encountered a group of devout, on fire, intelligent Catholics did I start to rethink things. But I still couldn’t get over those doubts. It was only after I started going back to Confession that things started falling into place. Grace flooded into my heart. I had faith again. And then, God put such books into my life (like Peter Kreeft’s Yes or No?) that gave me the words to articulate why the doubt was melting away.

If you want one last chance at faith, you owe it to God and to yourself to go to Confession and talk to the priest. It’s not going to happen without some effort on your part.

God bless. I will pray for you.
 
^^^👍

Well said, Joe.

Confession is the easiest, and most overlooked of the sacraments–yet it’s signifcance can not be overstated.

We are called to repent. Perhaps repenance can be effected outside of Confession–but the sacrament of Confession is repentence, par excellence, when done sincerely.

Let me re-state it this way (for Justin/OP’s benefit): ***It is no coincidence, when one’s faith is falters…and they have neglected confession. ***

Even the glorious, powerful, sacred and Holy Eucharist, suffers in efficacy when we neglect confession. As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

“Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworty manner, will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord”. 1 Corinthians 11:28-29.
 
Supplemental:

I would suggest reading St. Augustine’s Confessions. He was born Catholic–that is, his mother, St. Monica, was a devout Catholic, and she sought to rear him up in the faith. But he rebelled, fell into sin, went off to Italy (from Thegaste, in North Africa) seeking to learn, to study rhetoric, and become a man…and ultimately came around, became Catholic, and in fact, went on to become arguably the most influential Catholics in history (along with St. Thomas Aquinas), one of the great Saints, and one of 33 doctors of the Church.

His story is amazingly compelling, and is recounted in Confessions, which is widely viewed as the first authobiography (although it is actually written as a prayer). Confessions is one of the most widely read books and enduring literary classics in history. It has helped literally millions of believers, rediscover their faith (or discover it, or appreciate it more profoundly, as the case may be…).
 
Thank you for your replies. I will schedule a confession this week. I hope i find it.
 
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