Having Faith

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PelagiathePenit

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Would consider askapriest.org a good source of spiritual direction? I don’t have any trouble with the rules of the faith. I just have difficulty believing in the supernatural. There are moments I undoubtedly feel there is a Christ, others I suffer from very strong doubt. My family is not the type of talk about our faith. If I express any doubt, it would be an argument. I don’t think I see God the same way others do or the way I believe I “should.” I don’t want to talk to friends because I may poison them with my doubts.
I am scared of God because it is difficult for me to understand or believe He can forgive me of my sins honestly. I have done confession but I have never truly felt forgiven or even felt comfortable enough with the priest to bear it all. It embarrasses me.
 
You can call it pride. Confessing your sins doesn’t change anything. I wish for time, I cannot regain. I wish I would have said this, listened more, etc.
What is the point in repenting or trying to be a good person?
Some of these habits are deeply seated by now.
Sure I’m only in my 20s. Some of these things I have done since my preteens.
There is this humbling feeling I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH and I’LL NEVER BE.
That is what scares me.
 
Well, we can’t fake faith, or force it, even if people often seem to counsel others that they should-out of fear I presume. But it does no good to be dishonest with ourselves about it-and God certainly already knows anyway :). So the best course of action is to be honest with ourselves and then, if we sincerely want to know, to seek God/Truth sincerely and earnestly. That’s the only way we’ll ever come to know Him BTW.

And He responds to that kind of seeking, because He happens to exist-and wants us to know Him. And the more we know Him the more we love Him, because we find out that He really is that good. We overcome the “distorted image” (from the catechism 399) that all humans have of God from birth. We begin to find out just how much He really is on our side, and how accurately His very own nature is described in 1 Cor 13:4-7
 
PelagiathePenit said:
Would consider askapriest.org a good source of spiritual direction? I don’t have any trouble with the rules of the faith. I just have difficulty believing in the supernatural.
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I wouldn’t recommend that site; they seem to verge quite dangerously on indifferentism.

Spiritual advice is best sought face-to-face from a priest, and not from an online forum, even if it’s called “Ask a Priest” or “Ask a Pope”. 🙂
 
fhansen said:
Well, we can’t fake faith, or force it, even if people often seem to counsel others that they should-out of fear I presume. But it does no good to be dishonest with ourselves about it-and God certainly already knows anyway :). So the best course of action is to be honest with ourselves and then, if we sincerely want to know, to seek God/Truth sincerely and earnestly. That’s the only way we’ll ever come to know Him BTW.

And He responds to that kind of seeking, because He happens to exist-and wants us to know Him. And the more we know Him the more we love Him, because we find out that He really is that good. We overcome the “distorted image” (from the catechism 399) that all humans have of God from birth. We begin to find out just how much He really is on our side, and how accurately His very own nature is described in 1 Cor 13:4-7
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I never understood the importance of being honest with yourself was. I have always been afraid well because I’m not perfect. I haven’t given myself to know the living and loving God many talk about. I fear disappointment, responsibility, and I have questions for why the Lord permits certain forms of evil to persist or suffering. The lives of the saints both fascinate and scare me.
 
PelagiathePenit said:
I never understood the importance of being honest with yourself was. I have always been afraid well because I’m not perfect. I haven’t given myself to know the living and loving God many talk about. I fear disappointment, responsibility, and I have questions for why the Lord permits certain forms of evil to persist or suffering. The lives of the saints both fascinate and scare me.
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Ok. It’s still up to you if you’d prefer to become stronger, in faith or in character, or not. You seem to be honest in many ways now, unless you’re overstating things, just beating yourself up, etc. But either way you can pray for faith and strength and courage; God can take our weaknesses and turn them into strengths.
 
“Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

~ Pope Benedict XVI Deus Caritas Est

“I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day.”

~ Pope Francis (The Joy of the Gospel)

“Faith opens us to knowing and welcoming the real identity of Jesus, his newness and oneness, his word, as a source of life, in order to live a personal relationship with him. Knowledge of the faith grows, it grows with the desire to find the way and in the end it is a gift of God who does not reveal himself to us as an abstract thing without a face or a name, because faith responds to a Person who wants to enter into a relationship of deep love with us and to involve our whole life.”

~ Pope Benedict XVI (Sunday, 14 August 2011)

w2.vatican.va/content/vatican.html

I recommend making an appointment with a Priest …
 
Bookcat said:
“Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

~ Pope Benedict XVI Deus Caritas Est

“I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day.”

~ Pope Francis (The Joy of the Gospel)

“Faith opens us to knowing and welcoming the real identity of Jesus, his newness and oneness, his word, as a source of life, in order to live a personal relationship with him. Knowledge of the faith grows, it grows with the desire to find the way and in the end it is a gift of God who does not reveal himself to us as an abstract thing without a face or a name, because faith responds to a Person who wants to enter into a relationship of deep love with us and to involve our whole life.”

~ Pope Benedict XVI (Sunday, 14 August 2011)

w2.vatican.va/content/vatican.html

I recommend making an appointment with a Priest …
Click to expand...
This is an excellent post.
The POINT is your relationship with the Most High.
Full stop.

Get a Spiritual Director soon.
Spinning Christianity isn’t going to bring you peace.
Making up your own version of a process of faith that is easy or agreeable to your way of thinking won’t get you anything but continued sorrow.

**Peace is available to you. **
Seek it in the right places.
 
It would seem that you have many ongoing problems, questions, doubts, concerns, and misinformation.

Asking a priest online one time is not going to help you clarify things. And no way is an online priest going to devote his time to continually answering your questions.

You really do need personal, face-to-face spiritual direction to get things synched with what has gone on and is going on in your life, not a priest on line that is trying to answer numerous questions that would interest a large group of readers.
 
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