Help me accept faith

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nicolejosephine

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Hi,

My name is Nicole, I am 17 years old and I live in Massachusetts. I was born into a Catholic family that is generally loose about practicing (I was confirmed but we don’t attend church, ect). I have always been generally liberal because of this upbringing and have generally not concerned myself with religion. I don’t attend church on Sundays because I have to work to support my family.

However, for some reason, I have recently gone through a particularly rough patch in life with the upcoming momentum of graduating and teenage life, and I truly want to accept my religion. I believe in God. However, I’ve done regrettable things in the past that are against my religion and I am having trouble feeling forgiven for being so unconcerned with the faith in the past. I also wonder how, in a modern society, is it an any way okay to accept social norms (believing in gay rights, for example), while still being Catholic? Is that okay?

I truly wish to accept Jesus and God into my life but I feel uncertain and afraid that He will not accept me. Please offer me support, advice, guidance, please… I wish to be enlightened by the God that helps so many people feel amazing.
 
nicolejosephine said:
I truly wish to accept Jesus and God into my life but I feel uncertain and afraid that He will not accept me. Please offer me support, advice, guidance, please… I wish to be enlightened by the God that helps so many people feel amazing.
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Of course you can accept Jesus and He will accept you. Don’t feel uncertain or afraid! Make an appointment with the priest from your local parish, or even another parish around you, go to confession and discuss your feelings about the issues you’ve mentioned.

The Church isn’t for perfect people, the Church is for imperfect people trying to conform themselves to the likeness of Jesus. Read your Bible, Jesus welcomed the sinners, tax collectors, sick, blind, etc. If we were alive at that time that would be all of us…

I came back home to the Catholic Church 3 years ago and went to confession after 30+ years. You wouldn’t believe the relief you’ll feel after confession and attending weekly mass and going to communion…

Welcome home!
 
God is Love and he who abides in Love abides in God.

There are many stories in the gospels that tell of God’s amazing love for each one of us. Most of us are familiar with the story of the woman caught in adultery.
There is also the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, who had been married five times and was living with a man not her husband.
Jesus is the divine healing. We come to Him where we are at the moment and trust Him to bring us the rest of the way.
None of us gets into heaven through our own merits, but only by the grace of God. It is He who reaches across the great abyss to pull us across.

You can pray the following prayer to help you on the way:
“Jesus, may I not treat your gracious gift as pointless (Gal 2:21). I repent of my sins, accept You as Lord, God, and Savior, and place my life on Your altar as a living sacrifice to God (Rev. 12:1).”

The Promise that goes with that prayer: “[Jesus] became the Source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.”
 
nicolejosephine said:
Hi,

My name is Nicole, I am 17 years old and I live in Massachusetts. I was born into a Catholic family that is generally loose about practicing (I was confirmed but we don’t attend church, ect). I have always been generally liberal because of this upbringing and have generally not concerned myself with religion. I don’t attend church on Sundays because I have to work to support my family.

However, for some reason, I have recently gone through a particularly rough patch in life with the upcoming momentum of graduating and teenage life, and I truly want to accept my religion. I believe in God. However, I’ve done regrettable things in the past that are against my religion and I am having trouble feeling forgiven for being so unconcerned with the faith in the past. I also wonder how, in a modern society, is it an any way okay to accept social norms (believing in gay rights, for example), while still being Catholic? Is that okay?

I truly wish to accept Jesus and God into my life but I feel uncertain and afraid that He will not accept me. Please offer me support, advice, guidance, please… I wish to be enlightened by the God that helps so many people feel amazing.
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I am 18 and just recently started returning to the church too. First and most importantly: He will accept you. :hug1: That’s His promise. Go to confession as soon as you are ready.

I see that you still want to support gay rights and other social norms. This has been the hardest part for me. But the Church, which is guided by the holy spirit, has a position on these issues that we need to accept, because it is Christ’s infallible church. There is a lot of apologetics information on this website, and links to other websites, with explanations of why the church has these positions. Something I find very inspirational and informative is the catechism. You can find it for free online or buy it at a bookstore.

I know you said you don’t go to church on Sundays because you have to work. Don’t forget there is the Saturday vigil mass on Saturday night. Some parishes have a sunday evening mass too. Hopefully you can fit one of them in to your schedule.
 
Nicole,

it’s okay that you don’t see the reasoning behind all of the Church’s teachings right now. The most important thing is that you should go to Confession because of God’s Mercy in giving us a way that we can come back to him. God is calling you, and He will help you, all you need to do is respond to His Grace. Whatever you have in your past, don’t let it affect your future. If you have specific questions, we will try to help you. Please don’t give up, no matter what happens!
 
the_hazel_nut said:
I am 18 and just recently started returning to the church too. First and most importantly: He will accept you. :hug1: That’s His promise. Go to confession as soon as you are ready.

I see that you still want to support gay rights and other social norms. This has been the hardest part for me. But the Church, which is guided by the holy spirit, has a position on these issues that we need to accept, because it is Christ’s infallible church. There is a lot of apologetics information on this website, and links to other websites, with explanations of why the church has these positions. Something I find very inspirational and informative is the catechism. You can find it for free online or buy it at a bookstore.

I know you said you don’t go to church on Sundays because you have to work. Don’t forget there is the Saturday vigil mass on Saturday night. Some parishes have a sunday evening mass too. Hopefully you can fit one of them in to your schedule.
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You might want to get the *United States Catechism of the Catholic Church for Adults.
  • It will be easier to read than The Catechism of the Catholic Church.
    Each chapter starts with a story of a saint or other inspirational person. The relevant teachings of the Catholic Church are taught with reference to the CCC. At the end of each chapter you will find prayers and questions for reflection.
    If you are 17, I take it you are still in school. You also mentioned that you were confirmed, even if it was out of family ritual. Talk to the priest at your local parish about Faith formation classes for high school students. You can read the United States Catechism during the summer when you are out of school.
    I agree with everybody on this thread who have stated your first step is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It may not be an easy step but is where you will find the love of Christ personified. Say the prayer I gave in my earlier post and then go to confession. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you make that confession.
 
(i had to put this into 2 posts, hope you don’t mind)

Nicole, Jesus has already accepted you, He has always been with you, and He never has and never will leave you,
when we are distant from God, it is by our own choice, but God never leaves us, even when we ourselves leave Him,
when we leave Him, He is still there, we just don’t see Him, so it seems like He’s not.

This is just a small example of the extent of Gods love for you alone,
imagine Jesus speaking to you here -

*Christ : Consider how important each soul is to
Me. Consider Me, Jesus, in the form of
My humanity. As I suffered anguish in
the Garden, I was tempted with every
form of temptation. Let us say that the
enemy offered Me every soul on earth,
but one. For stepping away from the
chance of saving this one soul, I could
escape the cross. Add to the consideration
that this one soul might reject Me
and be lost anyway. Would I be tempted?
Would you?

Now consider that this one soul was
yours.

What do you think I would say?
I assure you, My beloved, I said NO.*

God is love, and His love is beyond measure, but we must welcome His love, we need to open our hearts to God to be filled with Him, but God cannot fill a heart that is already full of other things,
it is our love and attachment of worldly things and creatures that keeps us from loving God completely, but it is not the things themselves that keep us from Gods love, it is the importance we put on those things that makes us struggle to love Him,
God gave us the world and all that is in it for good reason, we use everything, to sustain our health, to shelter us, to clothe us, for recreation, and much more,
but there reaches a point that those things are no longer used by us, but instead we are used by them, we become slaves to what we love, they have a hold on us and we cannot escape them, except by turning away from them and towards God,

imagine all the people in your life that you love, everything you love about them, and think of everything that has ever moved or touched you in an especially deep and loving way,
now after bringing those things to mind, consider the source, they all came from one source, and that source has all those same things you love, plus an unmeasurable amount more,
and that source of course is God,
God is everything you love already, when you say “i love my friend because she is so sweet and kind” you are also loving that about God, even without knowing it,
however, the same scenario does not apply to material things, although we can be thankful for what God gives us, and appreciate their usefulness or beauty, but those things will not love us back, and if we love them to much, we are liable (as i said before) to become slaves to them, and in turn, offend God by our love of them over our love for Him.
 
do not stress though, stress and despair can easily be manipulated by the devil, and those feelings do not come from God, God wishes for you to have peace in all things, and there is an easy way to obtain that peace, which is simply this - Put all your trust in God, seek Him in all things, in all your needs, temptations, troubles, sorrows, confusions, and everything else,
God has created heaven and earth, all the creatures and plants, He takes care of their needs, even the smallest creatures are fed and sheltered, even the flowers which are not seen by anyone are nurtured and cared for, so don’t you think that you, who are infinity more precious and loved by God then these lesser creations, will not be cared for in all your needs, especially your spiritual needs, as long as you trust in Him?
God loves you so much, and as soon as you seek Him, you will find Him, and He will embrace you, and never let go.

if you are having trouble feeling forgiven, then perhaps you need to look at it in a different way,
when we hurt a friend, and we seek their forgiveness, they are very likely to tell us “forget about it, it’s no big deal” you know?
but with Jesus it is not quite like that,
remember when Jesus told Peter that he would deny him three times? and Peter said “Although all shall be scandalized in thee, I will never be scandalized.”
and then of course Peter went and denied Jesus 3 times as he was told.

well, when Jesus came back, can you imagine how Peter felt? how ashamed and broken hearted he was to have denied his beloved friend Jesus and offended Him so greatly?
well, Jesus of course acknowledges his offense, He is hurt by it, and He does not say “well, eh, forget about it, it’s ok”…on the contrary, He would instead say “You have offended Me greatly, you have hurt Me very much, But…I forgive you”
He doesn’t tell us to forget about it it’s no big deal, because it really is a big deal, it’s a very serious thing when we offend God,
but because He offers us His forgiveness, even though we do not by any means deserve it, we must, out of His love for us and our love for Him, accept it,
because although Jesus is very offended when we sin against Him, He is even more offended and even broken hearted when we reject His forgiveness…
of course that is not to say that when we accept His forgiveness that we will completely forget our sins and be ok with them…that is not the goal we should have in mind, because even though God has forgiven us and forgotten our sins, there is still a punishment due to those sins that we must satisfy for, which we will either satisfy for in this life, or in purgatory,
which can be done by penances, prayers, acts of charity, indulgences, using sacramentals, partaking in the sacraments, and more.
and although by confession we should feel at peace with God and with ourselves, that is not to say that we should not acknowledge our weakness and unworthiness, because it is by our weakness and failure to seek Gods help in the first place that we have sinned,
but even in acknowledging those things we must still remain at peace, because by becoming angered or despaired over such things with ourselves is like saying “I should be able to do better” thinking we should be able to avoid sin on our own, without Gods help, instead of regarding ourselves as the weak and pitiable creatures we really are, completely dependent on God.

so, in order to feel forgiven(although we must not trust in our feelings) you must have complete trust in God, and complete dependence on Him,

i think it would help you much more if you could read some good catholic books on how to live as God wants and how to see things from a good catholic perspective,
here are a few that i think would be very good to start off with -
tanbooks.com/index.php/page/shop:flypage/product_id/147
tanbooks.com/index.php/page/shop:flypage/product_id/218
tanbooks.com/index.php/page/shop:flypage/product_id/113/keywords/surrender/
store.fraternitypublications.com/aqshsu.html
store.fraternitypublications.com/thisisfaith.html

if you would like to learn about anything specific about the catholic faith, i would be happy to recommend some books for any of that as well.

ok well i hope this helps you, if you need help with anything else please ask, take care.
 
Nicole, Jesus cannot wait to have you back to the church.

I suggest you to make an appointment with the priest in your parish. Have a heart to heart talk with him as the starting point of your journey home.
“So Jesus addressed this parable to them.
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?
And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
and, upon his arrival home,
he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.”
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Do not be afraid. Praying for you. God bless!
 
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