Has your Faith ever Gone Dark?

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JamalChristophr

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Have you ever stopped believing? Or nearly stopped believing? Or weren’t sure if you believed any longer or not?? (for one reason or another) Maybe you still haven’t got it back. I’m wondering how many people on CA have experienced this. Perhaps you have just become extremely angry at God which is somewhat close to disbelief, or maybe just doubted the whole idea of Providence. Short stories are welcome. How long did this darkness last. Did you still pray. What did you do about this problem while you were experienceing it? Did it just go away one day…this darkness of Faith or did the anger fade?
Thanks for sharing.
 
JamalChristophr said:
Have you ever stopped believing?
Or nearly stopped believing?
Or weren’t sure if you believed any longer or not?? (for one reason or another) Maybe you still haven’t got it back. I’m wondering how many people on CA have experienced this. Perhaps you have just become extremely angry at God which is somewhat close to disbelief, or maybe just doubted the whole idea of Providence.
How long did this darkness last.
Did you still pray.
What did you do about this problem while you were experienceing it?
Did it just go away one day…this darkness of Faith or did the anger fade?.
Click to expand...
For as long as I can remember, I have always believed in God. I am a cradle Catholic, old school. My parents left the church, they didn’t like the new school. I spent a lifetime trying to find what I had lost. Never found it. I became angry at God, but still believed He is there. I lost faith in that there is a church. I am in waiting mode. Hopeful? The darkness has lasted 47 yrs.
I pray all the time. I am always asking God, always seeking, always knocking…I hope that one day the darkness goes away.
 
JamalChristophr said:
Have you ever stopped believing? Or nearly stopped believing? Or weren’t sure if you believed any longer or not?? (for one reason or another) Maybe you still haven’t got it back. I’m wondering how many people on CA have experienced this. Perhaps you have just become extremely angry at God which is somewhat close to disbelief, or maybe just doubted the whole idea of Providence. Short stories are welcome. How long did this darkness last. Did you still pray. What did you do about this problem while you were experienceing it? Did it just go away one day…this darkness of Faith or did the anger fade?
Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...
To answer your question, many many times. I struggle a lot with my faith. I just carry on and push through. There are probably others who can give you good tips on what to do.
 
Depends what you mean by dark.

But methinks everybody will hit that if they approach holiness as they should.

ICXC NIKA
 
JamalChristophr said:
Have you ever stopped believing? Or nearly stopped believing? Or weren’t sure if you believed any longer or not?? (for one reason or another) Maybe you still haven’t got it back. I’m wondering how many people on CA have experienced this. Perhaps you have just become extremely angry at God which is somewhat close to disbelief, or maybe just doubted the whole idea of Providence. Short stories are welcome. How long did this darkness last. Did you still pray. What did you do about this problem while you were experienceing it? Did it just go away one day…this darkness of Faith or did the anger fade?
Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...
Depends what you mean by faith and what you expect to “feel” … I know God is there and yes I have on one notable occasion, in a very wet field here in Ireland, shouted at Him and lambasted Him for the situation I was in… Loud, clear, very detailled…Makes me chuckle now… It was it emerged a needful part of progress to sorting the chaos out and was needful to shwo that I accpted how truly terrible it all was, and it was.

That is not unbelief. Far from it

We are frail human vessels. One famous writer wrote that if faith depended on how we “feel” then a headache or stomach upset wouldmean we had no faith.

How can we trust a human awareness that can be altered by caffeine, or sugar or any meds?

Old words found in a concentration camp… " I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in God even w hen I cannot see Him…"

If you expect to feel a holy glow 24/7? That is not what faith is. Faith is knowing and trusting wherever and however we are.

My life has been appalling in many ways, but never have I lost faith in God, In others, in myself, yes, But not in God.

NO shining lights, no deep thoughts! Just faith,

As I have been long in places without access to church, or in places where I was abused,for being ( wrongly diagnosed) mentally ill, my attachment to church has always been slight.
Used to get every religious programme there was on TV and radio

And for me, it has always been how i Lived my faith. How I honoured the God I knew by my life, by my loving and giving… choosing extreme simplicity so babies my family care for can be saved from death, , knitting my professional skills to sell for the same reason.

These are the fruit of my faith and I could not live any other way and honour my faith, and that matters to me more that getting to mass, Which given my increasing weakness is of God in itself and for which I am deeply thankful

SO many seem to expect a “holy glow”, That does happen but we are weak vessels.

Faith remember is for the smallest child; stop thinking so much and live it? It is simplicity itself… "UNless you become as little children "
 
My faith in God does not fail me, ever. My faith in many who claim to be Christians, often. Does my faith include wondrous revelations and a warm and fuzzy feeling deep inside? No, just an unshakable belief that there is a God, and he is aware of me, and does keep me on track!
 
One day … about 20 years ago … I was reading a brilliant economist … but, he was militantly anti-Catholic.

Doubts crowded in.

[fast forward]

One day, I was “moved” to … divert my walk enroute to daily Mass … NO IDEA why.

Ended up at a Catholic bookstore.

Walked rapidly down this aisle and around that corner … and there … sticking out … was a book … I picked the book and it opened to a page.

That book was “Relics” by Joan Carroll Cruz.

The page … that it opened by itslf … was the history of the True Cross.

Amazing.

Her other book, “Eucharistic Miracles” … by Joan Carroll Cruz … is amazing.

Get both books.
 
JamalChristophr said:
Have you ever stopped believing? Or nearly stopped believing? Or weren’t sure if you believed any longer or not?? (for one reason or another) Maybe you still haven’t got it back. I’m wondering how many people on CA have experienced this. Perhaps you have just become extremely angry at God which is somewhat close to disbelief, or maybe just doubted the whole idea of Providence. Short stories are welcome. How long did this darkness last. Did you still pray. What did you do about this problem while you were experienceing it? Did it just go away one day…this darkness of Faith or did the anger fade?
Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...
I would recommend carrying the Green Scapular in your wallet.
Mary gave it to us for precisely the reason you mentioned … faith.
She said if you trust her, she will convert a person to the faith, or make a person’s faith greater. And she would ward off the devil’s attacks.

She did ask this: to have it blessed by a priest, have it on the person somewhere, say the prayer at least once a day that is on the scapular, and trust her to carry out her promise. She said that the greater the trust the better.

Mary has never lied yet, so there no reason to suppose she will in this case either. So …

The real problem with this scapular is that few believe in it, like Naaman the leper didn’t believe the prophet Elisha. Elisha told Naaman that if he bathed in the Jorden he would be cured. He didn’t believe it. But then one of his advisor’s said “what do you have to lose?” So Namaan bathed in the Jordon and the rest is history.

So …
 
My belief in a “personal” God has been challenged at times because God is beyond the senses, imagination, and intellect. The only thing that kept me going was Jesus talking about "The Father " and my own need for a personal God.
 
I was tempted to watch pornography last
night and I was praying “Help me, Jesus
Son of the Living God NOT to watch
porn!!” Then the advice of the priest came
to me “Say the Rosary”, I didn’t have much
faith that it will work, but by the time I fin-
ished the Rosary, my desire has vanished!!
THAT is faith in action, praise the Lord!!
 
I FULLY believe in my Catholic faith, but do I have doubts? Sure, we all do. But the thought of the non-existence of God is way scarier than the existence of God. Now, I have always believed in, something. I have been an agnostic and a Buddhist, but I am glad to call myself Catholic. Buddhism has many wonderful things, the problem is, though, in Buddhism, you don’t really have the idea of being saved in the Christian sense, because in most (not all) forms of Buddhism, there is no soul (weird for a religion that believes in reincarnation). How could we exist without a soul? (By the way, when you evangelise Buddhists, you have to use terms they’ll understand). With regards to my Catholic faith, I mean, Jesus says he is the truth and the life, and no one gets to the Father except through him, and I tend to believe him. (John 14:6)
 
I don’t lose faith in the actual way of not believing … but I have gone for long periods where I didn’t pray or go to Church … then something happens and it feels like I was hit with a thunderbolt and my faith comes piercing back to life as strong as ever … I call it going cold or hot … right now I’m red hot … but I would like to persevere and stay this way … or at least when I cool down, make sure that I still continue to pray and go to Church … I do believe in prayer … have a thread in the prayer forum for perseverance … maybe you should start a thread in the prayer forum … I do believe that prayer makes a difference. I made a commitment the other week on the day of our Lady of the Rosary that I would say 5 decades of the rosary each day for the rest of my life … I’m hoping that this promise will stop me from ever going cold again … no one is hot all the time … but one should be able to persevere through the lukewarm times with prayer and Church … at least that’s what I am telling myself these days.

To make sure I answer your question … I think you are asking if there are ever times when people don’t believe in God … that has never happened to me … even when I was cold as ice and not going to Church and praying, if I had occasion to stumble into a conversation about my beliefs, I always was adamant about my belief in the Catholic Church, Jesus, Mary and every single thing that the Church preaches.
 
Rosebud77 said:
Depends what you mean by faith and what you expect to “feel” … I know God is there and yes I have on one notable occasion, in a very wet field here in Ireland, shouted at Him and lambasted Him for the situation I was in… Loud, clear, very detailled…Makes me chuckle now… It was it emerged a needful part of progress to sorting the chaos out and was needful to shwo that I accpted how truly terrible it all was, and it was.

That is not unbelief. Far from it

We are frail human vessels. One famous writer wrote that if faith depended on how we “feel” then a headache or stomach upset wouldmean we had no faith.

How can we trust a human awareness that can be altered by caffeine, or sugar or any meds?

Old words found in a concentration camp… " I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in God even w hen I cannot see Him…"

If you expect to feel a holy glow 24/7? That is not what faith is. Faith is knowing and trusting wherever and however we are.

My life has been appalling in many ways, but never have I lost faith in God, In others, in myself, yes, But not in God.

NO shining lights, no deep thoughts! Just faith,

As I have been long in places without access to church, or in places where I was abused,for being ( wrongly diagnosed) mentally ill, my attachment to church has always been slight.
Used to get every religious programme there was on TV and radio

And for me, it has always been how i Lived my faith. How I honoured the God I knew by my life, by my loving and giving… choosing extreme simplicity so babies my family care for can be saved from death, , knitting my professional skills to sell for the same reason.

These are the fruit of my faith and I could not live any other way and honour my faith, and that matters to me more that getting to mass, Which given my increasing weakness is of God in itself and for which I am deeply thankful

SO many seem to expect a “holy glow”, That does happen but we are weak vessels.

Faith remember is for the smallest child; stop thinking so much and live it? It is simplicity itself… "UNless you become as little children "
Click to expand...
I always enjoy reading the way you put things … thanks.
 
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