Forming one's faith

[AveChriste11]

So I keep thinking that I want to believe in the basic premises of Christianity, and most importantly in the teachings of the Church. But my mind has a hard time getting there, refusing to accept everything she (the Church) teaches. What do you do when you want to believe, but you’re not really quite there just yet? I wrote down ideas that seemed to make sense to me, which included Eastern ideas like reincarnation and the idea that there are multiple spiritual beings which aren’t really God but some people could confuse them for gods in the plural sense of that term.

I know that I believe in one God, that this Being revealed himself to the Jewish people as recorded in the Old Testament. I know I believe that Jesus too came to reveal God as well, calling him our heavenly Father. I believe that there are angels, which pagans might once have confused for being gods – and I believe there are evil forces in this world which some have called demons, or which the Muslims have called djinn (from which we derive the word: genie).

I’m absolutely positive that no good deed goes unrewarded, and that those who commit wrong in this life will be held accountable for it. But I still get confused over where people claim to remember previous lives. Some have chosen to blame the Devil for bringing these memories, claiming that they are not our own. Yet it seems to me that we would blame the Devil for far too much than he’s actually responsible for.

I also get confused as to why Christ is a person, and not a state of awareness or a state of mind. But I know when the Jews were expecting a Messiah, this person had to fill out a very specific criteria which not just anyone could match.

Do you all have any advice or suggestions for me? I feel so confused.

 

[FrancisBenedict]

Do you believe these statements?

(Ask if you want any explained).

catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=220

Peace be with you +

 

[AveChriste11]

Do you believe these statements?

(Ask if you want any explained).

catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=220

Peace be with you +

Why is Jesus his only Son? Israel was called God’s firstborn son, and “sons of God” is used in different ways in the Old Testament.

 

[FrancisBenedict]

While it’s true we are all children of God, as is all creation, Jesus Christ is God’s son in a unique way.

Jesus Christ is fully one with God the Father.

Every birth is a miracle of God but Jesus Christ was made directly by God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ has a unique relationship with God our Father.

By God’s grace for us he came among us and remains with us and shares our humanity.

 

[AveChriste11]

While it’s true we are all children of God, as is all creation, Jesus Christ is God’s son in a unique way.

Jesus Christ is fully one with God the Father.

Every birth is a miracle of God but Jesus Christ was made directly by God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ has a unique relationship with God our Father.

By God’s grace for us he came among us and remains with us and shares our humanity.

Okay, but how do we know that? I understand a lot of these ideas were formulated over time, but it’s not something that the mind readily accepts. The Gospel accounts portray a man who was also God, who was born of a virgin. Now there are accounts of parthenogenesis (virgin birth) but those children are usually of the same gender. It definitely seems to take a leap of faith to say that “Yes, this is the God of gods Incarnate in human form. Possessing both a divine will and a human will, a divine nature and a human nature.”

There are beautiful aspects to the story in that it portrays a God who loves humanity very much, and chooses to forgive the inexcusable within us. That goes after that one lost sheep, if only to leave the 99 behind who have already found a safe pasture. But it also seems that someone left a clue and scattered it widely. As per St. Justin Martyr:

“And this food is called among us Eucharistia, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, “This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body”; and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, “This is My blood”; and gave it to them alone. Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn.” (First Apology, 66)

Many have noticed the similarities between these pagan stories, and what Catholicism currently teaches. Yet it must be said that the story of Christ is very unique, in spite of the similarities – that the Christian story is truly it’s own. But like I was saying, how do you arrive at that faith? I’m told faith is a gift of God, that you cannot earn it, you cannot work for it – it must be granted to you.

 

[ComeHome2Rome]

The Eternal Being/God is: One God: Father, Son & Holy Spirit

• side note: among everything, God knows all the thoughts of human beings & also can inspire thoughts in the minds of human beings, like inspiring someone to go to Mass for the 1st time

Angels: spirit beings created by God before the creation of human beings & accept/love God

• side note: angels are able to hear & deliver to God the silent prayers of human beings to God (ref. Tobit, book of the Old Testament) & also are able to inspire thoughts in the minds of human beings, like to notice a boy struggling underwater so him can be saved

Jinn/Demons: once were angels but rejected God in a rebellion led by Satan/the Devil in Heaven when they learned God’s Plan: that God the Son would come down from heaven and become a human being while remaining fully God and being born of Woman, they could not accept God lowering Himself to become Man which allowed human beings to raised a place of judgement above the angels

• side note: all demons are NOT able to read human beings thoughts, they Are permitted to plant thoughts into human beings in order to tempt the human being to commit evil actions or to provide confusion of the Truth, like planting false memories - keep in mind, demons have been around since before the beginning of the world and are able to plant exact details of someone else’s life into the memories of a living person why would they do this? to confuse the person, and the others that person tells of this false memories, away from the Truth. The demons’ goal is to pull every human being way from God and the Truth in any way that will accomplish that goal.

This is why as Christians we are called to watchfulness, to examine & purify our thoughts - read or re-read the New Testament. All sinful actions from anger outbursts to gluttony to adultery, etc are all proceeded by thoughts, either our own or those planted by demons, we must stop sin where it begins, in our thoughts - the primary spiritual battle ground, where the spiritual war is either won or lost.

So I keep thinking that I want to believe in the basic premises of Christianity, and most importantly in the teachings of the Church. But my mind has a hard time getting there, refusing to accept everything she (the Church) teaches. What do you do when you want to believe, but you’re not really quite there just yet? I wrote down ideas that seemed to make sense to me, which included Eastern ideas like reincarnation and the idea that there are multiple spiritual beings which aren’t really God but some people could confuse them for gods in the plural sense of that term.

I know that I believe in one God, that this Being revealed himself to the Jewish people as recorded in the Old Testament. I know I believe that Jesus too came to reveal God as well, calling him our heavenly Father. I believe that there are angels, which pagans might once have confused for being gods – and I believe there are evil forces in this world which some have called demons, or which the Muslims have called djinn (from which we derive the word: genie).

I’m absolutely positive that no good deed goes unrewarded, and that those who commit wrong in this life will be held accountable for it. But I still get confused over where people claim to remember previous lives. Some have chosen to blame the Devil for bringing these memories, claiming that they are not our own. Yet it seems to me that we would blame the Devil for far too much than he’s actually responsible for.

I also get confused as to why Christ is a person, and not a state of awareness or a state of mind. But I know when the Jews were expecting a Messiah, this person had to fill out a very specific criteria which not just anyone could match.

Do you all have any advice or suggestions for me? I feel so confused.

 

[PaulinePresbytr]

Okay, but how do we know that? I understand a lot of these ideas were formulated over time, but it’s not something that the mind readily accepts. The Gospel accounts portray a man who was also God, who was born of a virgin. Now there are accounts of parthenogenesis (virgin birth) but those children are usually of the same gender. It definitely seems to take a leap of faith to say that “Yes, this is the God of gods Incarnate in human form. Possessing both a divine will and a human will, a divine nature and a human nature.”

The Gospels only touched the surface. We know this because it is the Apostolic Tradition. Church Councils do not establish doctrine, they define Orthodoxy. Hope this helped

 

[FrancisBenedict]

Okay, but how do we know that? I understand a lot of these ideas were formulated over time, but it’s not something that the mind readily accepts. The Gospel accounts portray a man who was also God, who was born of a virgin. Now there are accounts of parthenogenesis (virgin birth) but those children are usually of the same gender. It definitely seems to take a leap of faith to say that “Yes, this is the God of gods Incarnate in human form. Possessing both a divine will and a human will, a divine nature and a human nature.”

Well one way you can know is by the results. By the fruit of a tree we know it.
Also think about at the time, how many thousands of people were affected, and how the few who knew him personally were affected. And all the effects since!

 

[Lancer]

For your consideration.
Pax christi

**THE SPIRIT OF CATHOLICISM
[Father] Karl Adam
**

Chapter IV: Through the Church to Christ

So we see that the certitude of Catholic faith rests on the sacred triad: God, Christ, Church.

How does the Catholic attain certitude about God, and achieve his “I believe”? He comes thereto finally by the way of revelation and grace, but in the first instance and preparatorily by the way of natural reason. The Vatican Council lays it down that God, as the beginning and end of all things, can be certainly known, by the natural light of reason from the visible world. This knowledge of God will be more easily attained, the more clearly we are conscious that the quest after God, the religious inquiry and investigation, is specifically different from any profane inquiry, as for instance an investigation into the habits of insects. The conditional, finite, imperfect character of our being gives the religious inquiry this specific character. If I consider my own nature I readily discover that I am not an absolute being, but utterly and entirely conditioned. Everywhere I find bounds and limits. Everywhere are lines which suddenly break off short. The fact that there is an Absolute is not the laborious product of speculative philosophy, but rather the mediate consequence of a dispassionate consideration of my being. For when I recognize that I am a conditioned being, by that very fact I affirm the existence of the Absolute. Thus I reach without more ado the practical judgment that my utterly conditioned being is ordinated to and postulates an Absolute. I do not stand on the same level with the Absolute. And so my mental attitude towards this Absolute must have a moral and religious character, that is to say that it must be characterized by humility, reverence, purity and love.

ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/SPIRCATH.HTM#04

Karl Adam, one of the greatest of living theologians, was born in Bavaria in 1876, one of a family of ten. He received his education at the Classical Gymnasium at Amburg; the Philosophical and Theological Seminary at Regensburg; and received his Doctorate at the University of Munich in 1904. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1900 and spent the following two years doing parish work. His scholarly and theological interests soon became apparent and it was to this field that he naturally turned. In these early years his writing was specialized and was concentrated on the history of dogma. These earlier specialized works have never been translated but have been described by scholars in the field as outstanding.

In 1915 he became a professor at Munich and two years later assumed the Chair of Moral Theology at Strasbourg. In 1919 he went to the University of Tuebingen to take over the Chair of Dogmatic Theology. It was at Tuebingen that he delivered the famous lectures on the Church which brought him world-wide fame. He is also considered an outstanding authority of the theology of St. Augustine and is known for his great love for tradition and the Fathers of the Church.

 

[Lancer]

Faith is a gift of God’s grace…with it and your reason…you will overcome all obstacles…but you have to ask…accept…and let God the Holy Spirit work in your Soul…intellect and will…faith and reason are perfected…in docility to the Holy Spirit.

For your consideration.
Pax Christi

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
SECOND EDITION

Faith is a human act

154 Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason. Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe what other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their promises (for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity to “yield by faith the full submission of. . . intellect and will to God who reveals”,26 and to share in an interior communion with him.

155 In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace: "Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace."27

Faith and understanding

156 What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe “because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived”.28 So "that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit."29 Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church’s growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability “are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all”; they are “motives of credibility” (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is “by no means a blind impulse of the mind”.30

157 Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but "the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives."31 "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt."32

158 “Faith seeks understanding”:33 it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith, and to understand better what He has revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love. The grace of faith opens "the eyes of your hearts"34 to a lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of God’s plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other and with Christ, the center of the revealed mystery. "The same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and more profoundly understood."35 In the words of St. Augustine, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe."36

159 Faith and science: "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth."37 "Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are."38

The freedom of faith

160 To be human, "man’s response to God by faith must be free, and. . . therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. The act of faith is of its very nature a free act."39 "God calls men to serve him in spirit and in truth. Consequently they are bound to him in conscience, but not coerced. . . This fact received its fullest manifestation in Christ Jesus."40 Indeed, Christ invited people to faith and conversion, but never coerced them. "For he bore witness to the truth but refused to use force to impose it on those who spoke against it. His kingdom. . . grows by the love with which Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws men to himself."41

The necessity of faith

161 Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation.42 "Since “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life ‘But he who endures to the end.’"43

scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s1c3a1.htm#159