God does not need me?

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perfectpeach

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Yesterday, I received the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time in over a year. I have been MIA from the Church for about 14 months now.

After the birth of my 4th child, I was struggling with God’s plan for me and decided I could no longer use NFP. I forced my husband to become sterilized (would have done so myself, but I had no insurance), but before he agreed, I became pregnant and had an abortion.

Afterwards, I stopped going to Mass altogether, and worse, began questioning my belief in God.

Over the past year, I have felt ‘the call’ to return quite often, but could not bring myself to come to reconciliation. I recently have come to realize just what a monstrous thing I have done after my sister recently miscarried for the 5th time.

Yesterday during reconciliation, I was told by my priest that God does not need me and it makes no difference to Him if I come to church or not. I suppose I was surprised about hearing this. I have been in a very dark place for a year now and I was hoping for a warmer welcome. I feel completely rejected right now…

Although I am struggling with accepting that I have truly been absolved, I received Eucharist for the first time in a LONG time this morning and it was the most magical moment of my life. I am so eager to return to Christ and be with Him the way I once was, but I know this will be a long, difficult journey to healing…
 
Welcome back! :hug1: I can’t speak to what you experienced during the sacrament of reconciliation, but please know that I will keep you in my prayers! :):gopray2::console:
 
perfectpeach said:
Yesterday, I received the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time in over a year. I have been MIA from the Church for about 14 months now.

After the birth of my 4th child, I was struggling with God’s plan for me and decided I could no longer use NFP. I forced my husband to become sterilized (would have done so myself, but I had no insurance), but before he agreed, I became pregnant and had an abortion.

Afterwards, I stopped going to Mass altogether, and worse, began questioning my belief in God.

Over the past year, I have felt ‘the call’ to return quite often, but could not bring myself to come to reconciliation. I recently have come to realize just what a monstrous thing I have done after my sister recently miscarried for the 5th time.

Yesterday during reconciliation, I was told by my priest that God does not need me and it makes no difference to Him if I come to church or not. I suppose I was surprised about hearing this. I have been in a very dark place for a year now and I was hoping for a warmer welcome. I feel completely rejected right now…

Although I am struggling with accepting that I have truly been absolved, I received Eucharist for the first time in a LONG time this morning and it was the most magical moment of my life. I am so eager to return to Christ and be with Him the way I once was, but I know this will be a long, difficult journey to healing…
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Ok, before we go forward, there are a few ways this statement could be interpreted, but in either case it would not be very pastoral for a priest to say it exactly like that.

In the first case (interpretation), you put the emphasis on the second half of the sentence: “it makes no difference to Him if I come to church or not”. That is patently false. Either you’re suppose to think that God doesn’t care what we do or that you don’t actually need to go do Church; both are false. Going to Church is a very important part of our relationship with God, and God wants us to be in relationship with Him.

The second interpretation is putting emphasis on the first half: “I was told by my priest that God does not need me”. I’m going to illustrate this by looking at Common Preface IV
It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.
For, although you have no need of our praise,
yet our thanksgiving is itself your gift,
since our praises add nothing to your greatness
but profit us for salvation,
through Christ our Lord.
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What these mean is that God is everything, He’s perfect, so we add nothing to God. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything; on the contrary God wants us to be in a relationship with Him, it’s one of the reasons He became one of us. I’m guessing the priest was trying to articulate this point, although I have no idea why he’d pick the Sacrament of Reconciliation to try and do that (I’m not a priest, so I couldn’t say).

In any case, Welcome Back! Remember our priests in your prayers, there’s far too little of them and they’re way too overworked.
 
i usually do not try to offer advice on questions like this, but i thought i had to chime in…

he was correct in saying that God does not “need” you, but rest assured, and take comfort in the fact that God most definitely WANTS you …He does not need any of us, but wanted us enough to come and die on the cross for us…each and every one of us equally
 
If you want to know how God feels about your coming home, read Luke, Chapter 15, the parables of the lost sheep, and of the prodigal son. 👍

Praise the Lord for your return, and God bless! :extrahappy:
 
Check out Project Rachel.
**
It’s normal to grieve a pregnancy loss, including the loss of a child by abortion. It can form a hole in one’s heart, a hole so deep that sometimes it seems nothing can fill the emptiness.
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**

I don’t have any personal knowledge of them, but they are well recommended by sources I trust. One of the pro-life groups in your area may be able to give you a local contact if you can’t get it from the link.
 
perfectpeach said:
Yesterday, I received the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time in over a year. I have been MIA from the Church for about 14 months now.

After the birth of my 4th child, I was struggling with God’s plan for me and decided I could no longer use NFP. I forced my husband to become sterilized (would have done so myself, but I had no insurance), but before he agreed, I became pregnant and had an abortion.

Afterwards, I stopped going to Mass altogether, and worse, began questioning my belief in God.

Over the past year, I have felt ‘the call’ to return quite often, but could not bring myself to come to reconciliation. I recently have come to realize just what a monstrous thing I have done after my sister recently miscarried for the 5th time.

Yesterday during reconciliation, I was told by my priest that God does not need me and it makes no difference to Him if I come to church or not. I suppose I was surprised about hearing this. I have been in a very dark place for a year now and I was hoping for a warmer welcome. I feel completely rejected right now…

Although I am struggling with accepting that I have truly been absolved, I received Eucharist for the first time in a LONG time this morning and it was the most magical moment of my life. I am so eager to return to Christ and be with Him the way I once was, but I know this will be a long, difficult journey to healing…
Click to expand...
Praise be to God on your return. I find what you were told a bit disturbing. My undertanding of what he told you (I’m not an expect of doctrine at all) is that God is compleate in and of himself. We have a need for being loved honored and respected. God is filled up and overflowing in all of these. He creates and loves and reaches out not in need, but rather out of desire. A poor reflextion of that would be a persons desire to bake a cake for a family members birthday. They do not need to bake the cake, but their love brings out the desire to do so as a reflection of love.
I’m not sure why the priest told you that, I would like to belive it was a case of poor wording. True love, does nor reach out in need of a positive response, but it does desire one like you gave today.
peace be with you may his healing love fill you this and every night. I ask this in Jesus’ name
amen
 
Your priest is kinda right. Except it’s that everyone is unneeded by God and it doesn’t really affect him if anyone does good or evil. However, God loves us and wants the best for us. It truly is amazing and is the greatest mystery you can ever find. So, God died on a cross to save us, even though he would have been completely justified and unnaffected if he had simply let us die and never enter Heaven. This should not be offending as it is the simple truth.

As C.S. Lewis said in Perelandra (a great book that I would recommend to everyone) "“He has no need at all of anything that is made. An [angel] is not more needful to Him than a grain of dust: a peopled world no more needful than a world that is empty: but all needless alike, and what all add to Him is nothing. We also have no need of anything that is made. Love me, my brothers, for I am infinitely superfluous, and your love shall be like His, born neither of your need nor of my deserving, but a plain bounty. Blessed be He!”
 
What the priest said was true, God doesn’t need you, I, or anyone for that matter. The thing is, however, that He wants us. He wants us to love him but if you do not return the love does not harm to him.
 
perfectpeach said:
Yesterday during reconciliation, I was told by my priest that God does not need me and it makes no difference to Him if I come to church or not. I suppose I was surprised about hearing this. I have been in a very dark place for a year now and I was hoping for a warmer welcome. I feel completely rejected right now…
Click to expand...
God is complete; He “needs” nothing. However, this seems to be a very poor choice of words to say to someone who has been in pain and is trying to return to the friendship of God.
If someone says to me, “I don’t need you”, what I hear is, “I don’t love you”. I do not interpret their words to mean “I am complete and require nothing to make me somehow more complete than I already am.”

God is Love. This Love is difficult to imagine, and often difficult to believe; it is, as in Samuel Trevor Francis’s hymn, “Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free”. It is a wonderful thing that God does not “need” you - you are not just an object that is used and discarded. You did not “need” to exist, yet you do. You are not simply “useful”; you are loved, and you were loved before it ever occured to you to love in return.
We’re all “useless” - and its a good thing! :cool:
 
Heuchler said:
As C.S. Lewis said in Perelandra (a great book that I would recommend to everyone) "“He has no need at all of anything that is made. An [angel] is not more needful to Him than a grain of dust: a peopled world no more needful than a world that is empty: but all needless alike, and what all add to Him is nothing. We also have no need of anything that is made. Love me, my brothers, for I am infinitely superfluous, and your love shall be like His, born neither of your need nor of my deserving, but a plain bounty. Blessed be He!”
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I love that quote! 😃
 
God looked down from the heavens and saw man dead. To show us how much He loves us He came down and shed His own Blood for our Salvation, and to show us the path is in fact as He stated from Abraham to Moses to David.

He choose’s to lose not one soul. Cooperation is all thats needed.

God looks down from the heavens to see if there are any wise men, they will eat his bread but they will not call His name.
 
The Heavens rejoice for your conversion! I disagree, however, with the way your priest approached the situation! Remember Sunday’s Gospel reading John 3:16? “For God so loved the world that He gave up His only son”…and He did not send His son into the world to bring condemnation! Your return is just like The Parable of the Prodigal Son. It is very timely that you should return during Lent. You have ever more the reason to rejoice on Easter!

I want to give you a big hug now. Welcome back, my sister in Christ! God bless you and your family.
 
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