Hi, how to keep my faith alive when health is preventing me from attending church

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Anteries

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Any suggestions how to keep my faith alive and inspired while living on my own and not meeting many other Catholics or Christians. I always feel enormously encouraged when I talk to other Catholics about the faith, but I’m not able to get out very much due to health reasons and I’m not able to attend mass very often. Although I try my best on my own and use the Internet, I feel I need more inspiration.

I’m a Catholic convert of about 7 years. I have a condition affecting my joints which makes attending mass very uncomfortable. So I have all but stopped going. My faith is very dear to me and I used to love the catholic mass. But the last couple of years enduring physical pain has made mass rather an ordeal for me, not only that there is a lot of it is a social awkwardness, not being able to rise and sit and kneel, always having to have a slight fuss to get the Eucharist.
 
If you cannot make it to Mass, you can contact your parish to see if they have extraordinary ministers of holy communion who can bring the Eucharist to you at home. 🙂

Along with the Mass, the other liturgy of the Church is the Liturgy of the Hours (the Divine Office). You may pray any or all of the offices during the day. Most lay people pray Morning and Evening Prayer and perhaps Night Prayer. Each takes about 10 to 15 minutes to do. There are versions for lay people: Christian Prayer, which has all the offices along with the prayers for the major feasts, solemnities, and memorials and a hymns section, as well as other features. The other most popular version is Shorter Christian Prayer an abbreviated form of Christian Prayer, but nice for Ordinary Time as well as easier to carry with you. The LOTH is also available online: divineoffice.org.

Another thing you may want to do is read and meditate on the daily Mass readings: dailygospel.org. I like this website because it has several features I find quite helpful.

Many daily pray 5 decades of the rosary. There are several aids for meditation online.

Spiritual reading is also a good thing to do. Many saints and doctors of the Church have written many good spiritual works. Also, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a must read.
 
Della said:
If you cannot make it to Mass, you can contact your parish to see if they have extraordinary ministers of holy communion who can bring the Eucharist to you at home. 🙂

Along with the Mass, the other liturgy of the Church is the Liturgy of the Hours (the Divine Office). You may pray any or all of the offices during the day. Most lay people pray Morning and Evening Prayer and perhaps Night Prayer. Each takes about 10 to 15 minutes to do. There are versions for lay people: Christian Prayer, which has all the offices along with the prayers for the major feasts, solemnities, and memorials and a hymns section, as well as other features. The other most popular version is Shorter Christian Prayer an abbreviated form of Christian Prayer, but nice for Ordinary Time as well as easier to carry with you. The LOTH is also available online: divineoffice.org.

Another thing you may want to do is read and meditate on the daily Mass readings: dailygospel.org. I like this website because it has several features I find quite helpful.

Many daily pray 5 decades of the rosary. There are several aids for meditation online.

Spiritual reading is also a good thing to do. Many saints and doctors of the Church have written many good spiritual works. Also, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a must read.
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Hi Della, thank you very much for your lovely suggestions and links, really helpful stuff thanks. I’m going to get stuck into some of those practices you mention. I’m fortunate enough to have a bit of time on my hands. Also very excited about this forum because I join some years ago and completely forgot about it and have now rediscovered it. The reason I was searching the catholic forums is because I spend time on a secular Forum with all the negativity that goes with that. Thanks again, many blessings.
 
Anteries said:
Any suggestions how to keep my faith alive and inspired while living on my own and not meeting many other Catholics or Christians. I always feel enormously encouraged when I talk to other Catholics about the faith, but I’m not able to get out very much due to health reasons and I’m not able to attend mass very often. Although I try my best on my own and use the Internet, I feel I need more inspiration.

I’m a Catholic convert of about 7 years. I have a condition affecting my joints which makes attending mass very uncomfortable. So I have all but stopped going. My faith is very dear to me and I used to love the catholic mass. But the last couple of years enduring physical pain has made mass rather an ordeal for me, not only that there is a lot of it is a social awkwardness, not being able to rise and sit and kneel, always having to have a slight fuss to get the Eucharist.
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One parish I was in had friendly visitors, volunteers who would go out to shut-ins. I forget the name of it, but it was were volunteers would talk, pray with, read to, people who couldn’t make it out to church.
 
Hi Anteries,

My mother suffered from congestive heart failure and lung scaring and was on oxygen 24/7 and had a hard time going to Sunday mass. She was 82 and knew her life was coming to an end. I made a very beautiful and inspirational prayer site for her online, so she could grow close to God in Prayer without having to get out. She passed away this October, but the highly inspirational prayer pages (example page) she inspired lives on for others like her.
 
I don’t know whether or not you receive the Catholic TV station in your area – EWTN – or a Catholic radio station – both of these I find very helpful and the TV station celebrates Mass a couple of times aday. Sometimes I feel I have the Catholic radio station on 24 hours a day because if the radio is on it’s tuned into the Catholic station!
 
Hi

Many people have made good suggestions already and using some form of the Liturgy of the Hours, praying the Rosary and studying the Bible are all musts (do not feel you have to limit yourself to just the daily readings, its perfectly fine to just pick it up and read!). You can also watch daily Mass on EWTN which you can find online, along with many other faith based programs. I’d advise you though to see if you can have a talk with your priest sometime about your problem with going to Mass. There may be things that can be done to help you. For instance, I am sure someone would be happy to bring the Eucharist to you in the pew if you find it hard to get there in time. At my parish, Father does this for someone on a regular basis and I would hope that any priest would do this or have someone do it if he is aware of the need. If you can’t come to Jesus, he will come to you! Its also perfectly okay to stay sitting throughout if you find standing or kneeling difficult. Give it some thought and talk to your priest, you may find that all you need is a strategy to overcome your problems and you will be able to go to Mass again.

I’d also suggest spiritual readings and recommend the booklets published by the Catholic Truth Society, which cover different saints, devotions, prayers etc.
 
Besides all of the above suggestions which are very good, don’t forget to ask the priest to see you every month or so for confession and ask for the anointing of the sick.
 
Anteries said:
Any suggestions how to keep my faith alive and inspired while living on my own and not meeting many other Catholics or Christians. I always feel enormously encouraged when I talk to other Catholics about the faith, but I’m not able to get out very much due to health reasons and I’m not able to attend mass very often. Although I try my best on my own and use the Internet, I feel I need more inspiration.

I’m a Catholic convert of about 7 years. I have a condition affecting my joints which makes attending mass very uncomfortable. So I have all but stopped going. My faith is very dear to me and I used to love the catholic mass. But the last couple of years enduring physical pain has made mass rather an ordeal for me, not only that there is a lot of it is a social awkwardness, not being able to rise and sit and kneel, always having to have a slight fuss to get the Eucharist.
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Pray more often. You can read the mass readings online or watch them on t.v.
 
Thank you and bless you all for your kind suggestions and advice, I feel completely lifted up and encouraged in my faith. For me I realise I’ve got loads of little silly mental battle is going on, such as being embarrassed about my flat being rather cluttered and untidy. And then there are worries about being the topic of conversation within the church. But I realise these are hypothetical fears and I should be bolder trusting God and reaching out more. I’m also really excited exploring the fabulous links that have been posted, thanks again everyone.
 
Anteries said:
Any suggestions how to keep my faith alive and inspired while living on my own and not meeting many other Catholics or Christians. I always feel enormously encouraged when I talk to other Catholics about the faith, but I’m not able to get out very much due to health reasons and I’m not able to attend mass very often. Although I try my best on my own and use the Internet, I feel I need more inspiration.

I’m a Catholic convert of about 7 years. I have a condition affecting my joints which makes attending mass very uncomfortable. So I have all but stopped going. My faith is very dear to me and I used to love the catholic mass. But the last couple of years enduring physical pain has made mass rather an ordeal for me, not only that there is a lot of it is a social awkwardness, not being able to rise and sit and kneel, always having to have a slight fuss to get the Eucharist.
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You could have a priest visit your home for confession and communion…

Groups like st Vincent de Paul, missionaries of charity nuns and legion of Mary do home visits in my area

Also you could watch ewtn and pray along with the prayers on there and watch mass on there…if you don’t have the tv channel for it you can watch in online on the ewtn website.

savior.org/devotions.htm this website is for online adoration for those who cant get to church in person

spiritdaily.com/ if you look on this website there all kinds of interesting stuff to help you with your faith while you are unable to get to church
 
Listen to Catholic Radio 89.1 90.? It’s on every day and has some very interesting discussions.

You might also listen to EWTN on TV if you have paid TV. If not, I believe you can get a lot of it on internet.
 
Christ dwells within your very being, so you are in His presence and all you have to do is close your eyes and turned to Him in silent prayer.

Just say is name, Jesus, and repeated it as you put yourself in his presence.

Mass, gives us his physical presence in the Eucharist, but he is spiritually present within your soul.

Unfortunately, Catholics aren’t taught this more and they end up believing that the only place they can be close to Jesus is in Church or chasing after some apparition or looking out into the cosmos.

God is here, in the now, dwelling within you.

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Christ dwells within your very being, so you are in His presence and all you have to do is close your eyes and turned to Him in silent prayer.

Just say is name, Jesus, and repeated it as you put yourself in his presence.

Mass, gives us his physical presence in the Eucharist, but he is spiritually present within your soul.

Unfortunately, Catholics aren’t taught this more and they end up believing that the only place they can be close to Jesus is in Church or chasing after some apparition or looking out into the cosmos.

God is here, in the now, dwelling within you.

Jim
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I know what you’re saying about Christ dwelling within your very being and I appreciate you reminding me. Spiritually I see myself as a couch potato sitting around eating junk food and my faith journey is like some sort of exercise and health program. It feels like there is such a mountain to climb in order to get back to winning. Because all I have to work with is tired and dull selfish thoughts. Everything feels like a huge battle but this thread has given me a boost of encouragement. I’m not joking about that couch potato analogy because I’m doing the spiritual equivalent at the moment of walking around my house a few times to get some exercise. When I see so many people dedicated in their faith, they feel so far ahead of me and makes me feel unimportant. I’m talking about all the people that go to mass regularly, priests and deacons readers etc and I’m the crummy catholic barely hanging on to faith.

I agree with everything you say Jim, that’s the way I view things as well. As I have found on the last day or so, praying the quiet way opens us to the love of Jesus. But my goodness it is hard to pray, I long to be watching Netflix instead. Partly the problem I find the praying is the awareness of my own inadequacy and lostness. There are also intrusive thoughts, physical suffering echoes around very loudly in the quiet time of prayer. And it’s hard not to remember a time when quiet prayer brought easy bliss. I suppose my attitude is that my catholic faith is the only answer to my problems because I’ve tried slobbing out for weeks and months both physically and spiritually and is not really helped. So just keep chipping away and the mountain is my plan. I have truly been encouraged by this thread and particularly enjoyed the life masses from the Red Nuns and Walsingham.
 
Anteries said:
I know what you’re saying about Christ dwelling within your very being and I appreciate you reminding me. Spiritually I see myself as a couch potato sitting around eating junk food and my faith journey is like some sort of exercise and health program. It feels like there is such a mountain to climb in order to get back to winning. Because all I have to work with is tired and dull selfish thoughts. Everything feels like a huge battle but this thread has given me a boost of encouragement. I’m not joking about that couch potato analogy because I’m doing the spiritual equivalent at the moment of walking around my house a few times to get some exercise. When I see so many people dedicated in their faith, they feel so far ahead of me and makes me feel unimportant. I’m talking about all the people that go to mass regularly, priests and deacons readers etc and I’m the crummy catholic barely hanging on to faith.

I agree with everything you say Jim, that’s the way I view things as well. As I have found on the last day or so, praying the quiet way opens us to the love of Jesus. But my goodness it is hard to pray, I long to be watching Netflix instead. Partly the problem I find the praying is the awareness of my own inadequacy and lostness. There are also intrusive thoughts, physical suffering echoes around very loudly in the quiet time of prayer. And it’s hard not to remember a time when quiet prayer brought easy bliss. I suppose my attitude is that my catholic faith is the only answer to my problems because I’ve tried slobbing out for weeks and months both physically and spiritually and is not really helped. So just keep chipping away and the mountain is my plan. I have truly been encouraged by this thread and particularly enjoyed the life masses from the Red Nuns and Walsingham.
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What you have to keep in mind is that you do not transform yourself.

You are transformed through grace from Jesus Christ.

Often when we strive to be holy, it is our own ego desiring holiness for the sake of projecting an image of ourselves that we want others to see.

What happens instead is we become frustrated with ourselves and either decide to give up on prayer, or become fanatical taking on , false holiness and piety which again is the ego.

We need to be open to Jesus Christ and detach from anything which is not given from Him.

Most of the time, the positive transformation is invisible to us, but others notice without our being aware of their noticing. If we were aware, our ego would once again kick in and destroy anything we gained.

So, detach yourself from desires which are not from Jesus Christ.

You must pray, its the key path toward receiving his transforming grace.

In all, its an act of love between God and yourself.

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
What you have to keep in mind is that you do not transform yourself.

You are transformed through grace from Jesus Christ.

Often when we strive to be holy, it is our own ego desiring holiness for the sake of projecting an image of ourselves that we want others to see.

What happens instead is we become frustrated with ourselves and either decide to give up on prayer, or become fanatical taking on , false holiness and piety which again is the ego.

We need to be open to Jesus Christ and detach from anything which is not given from Him.

Most of the time, the positive transformation is invisible to us, but others notice without our being aware of their noticing. If we were aware, our ego would once again kick in and destroy anything we gained.

So, detach yourself from desires which are not from Jesus Christ.

You must pray, its the key path toward receiving his transforming grace.

In all, its an act of love between God and yourself.

Jim
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True.
 
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