How can I rebuild my faith?

[SuperDarkMan12]

For about a year and a half of learning about my faith and practicing it my faith life does not have that joy that it once had. My ability to resist temptation has lessened, my knowledge on my faith has been dwindling, and the feeling of the closeness I once had with God has also been less then what it once was. On top of this my confessor is no longer in my diocese and has decided to become a monk! What’s wrong with me?

I think this started when I was struggling to decide to accept what I thought God willed for me. This struggle in my faith also started around October or November. My questions are how can I jumpstart my faith, am I going through the dark night of the soul, how can I get out of this, and what is wrong with me?

 

[littlestsouls2]

For about a year and a half of learning about my faith and practicing it my faith life does not have that joy that it once had.

Keep seeking God. If you persevere in aiming to please God, joy will come. To seek Him in the midst of dryness, confusion and desolation is a true sign of love; it is very pleasing to God, and it draws down an abundance of grace.

“Jesus, most loving Ruler of all things, I know that all my happiness comes from Thee alone, and I fully understand that I must not, even for a moment, depart from Thee."

• St. Crescentia

My ability to resist temptation has lessened, my knowledge on my faith has been dwindling, and the feeling of the closeness I once had with God has also been less then what it once was.

Have greater confidence in God; He gives us His grace in the measure that we trust in Him and rely on His strength. The greatest sinner in the world is more powerful than all of Hell, if only they cast themselves without reserve into the Arms of their Heavenly Father. Good-will, says St. Therese, is all-powerful. ‘And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity.’

• 2 Cor. 12:9

Make frequent acts of faith and confidence in God’s Love. Spend time before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, asking Our Lady of Sorrows, who stood lovingly at the foot of the Cross, to help you keep your eyes on Jesus. “O Jesus, King of Love, I put my trust in Thy loving mercy!” Pray this often. It works.

“He (the obedient soul) feels no bitterness when his desires are not satisfied, because obedience makes him really desire nothing but Me who can satisfy, who know how to satisfy, and who want to satisfy all his desires.”

• The Eternal Father to St. Catherine of Siena

On top of this my confessor is no longer in my diocese and has decided to become a monk! What’s wrong with me?

Nothing is wrong with you. God will find you another confessor. He is pleased to guide us by means of His priests - every last one of them.

I think this started when I was struggling to decide to accept what I thought God willed for me. This struggle in my faith also started around October or November. My questions are how can I jumpstart my faith, am I going through the dark night of the soul, how can I get out of this, and what is wrong with me?

For starters, be consoled by the fact that God is drawing you to Himself. Were this not the case, you would have no desire for Him; you certainly wouldn’t be discerning his Will.

Don’t fret if things aren’t perfectly clear to you; they rarely are. Simply keep seeking God as best you can according to your state in life, and you can be sure that God will be leading you to a greater knowledge of His Will and His love for you.

Again, nothing is wrong with you. Read something consoling, like the Revelations of St. Gertrude, ‘The Glories of Mary’ by St. Alphonsus, ‘Life is Worth Living’ by Ven. Fulton Sheen, or anything by Fr. Faber.

The dark night of the soul is experienced by those who have already detached themselves from all (voluntary) sin, venial or otherwise. Whether or not this applies to you, I cannot say. Your confessor - don’t worry, you will find one - will be able to guide you.

Keep these words in your heart:

“You seek Me, indeed, but know that, however ardently you seek Me, I seek you more ardently still. And it is your fears that prevent your progress in Divine love.”

• Jesus to St. Margaret of Cortona

Pax.

 

[roseo64]

think again…this question, in my mind, would better be: How can I “build my faith”.
faith is not something that we can “will” to come and go. once we are on the path
of our pilgrimage to our Lord…it will at times be a struggle…at other times, a battle,
at other times, joy, at other times darkness, or grays, and the times of light. ah-ah moments, and everything else in between.
the St. Michael prayer: " St. Michael, the archangel, defend us in battle…etc, etc."
Recall and read more about the “Passion of Our Lord” and the apostles who were
with Him, before and after. Jesus, in the Agony in the Garden, was in such agony
He sweated blood. He also was tempted by the devil. how can we ‘humans’ expect
or think faith will always make us feel joyful or happy. One of the “gifts” God gave
us was and is the ability to make choices…AND one of the “gifts” he gave us is prayer.
so yes, we from the very beginning of our baptisms are on a pilgrimage, wherever
we are and whatever we do, with choices to make and gifts galore, while we are
building our faith. and prayer is Thee Gift, along with the sacraments, Masses, devotions
and so on…when it comes to prayer, St. Alphonsis Ligouri urges to talk to God
like you would your best friend. Our Lord wants to be your best friend. Read
some of the lives of the Saints. they have offered so very much help in so very
many ways. and even in dark times , trust me on this one, I have found sometimes
in the darkness moments, our Lord is trying to show me something, and I may not
like what I see…BUT…invariably what He tried to show me, only brought me closer
to Him and my faith grew. it has been said by a few of the saints, that the closer we
get to God, the more the devil tries to tempt us to turn away from our Savior.
and that’s where the building of our faith and the journey gets difficult. Trust
in God. because your individual journey to our Lord will be the best and most wonderful
and inspiring journey you will ever take on earth.

 

[Todd977]

Fr. John McCloskey’s booklet, Seven Daily Habits for Faithful Catholics, might be of some help.

 

[tweedlealice]

Hi
My cursor is not acting right. Please forgive my typos and inappropriate capital letters.
You have not been reading your Bible. It makes you like a salmon swimming up hill to span of you. You aren’t keeping
Fellowship with your church. Get involved In your Church ministries. Go to confession and do face to face. Go to that same priest and ask for His council ,as well as , an absolution.
We live in the world but are not to be of the world.
If one lives in sin, watches pornography, stays angry ,feels hatred. This will cause some of your unsettled faith feelings
Love for Christ. Live for Christ
in Christ love,
tweedlealice
Pray to St ,Anthony helps w all causes .
Jeremiah 29./11 "I HAVE A PLAN FOR YOU
IT IS A PLAN FOR GOOD AND NOT FOR EVIL
IT HAS A FUTURE AND A PURPOSE.

 

[tweedlealice]

Salutations superdarkman5,
Life is like a tapestry. When we look at the front, it is so beautiful. But turn it over and you see the struggles and hard work the artist had. The knots in the back, give strength to the beauty in the front.
We all go through dry spells. Usually, we are fatigued with every day trials. We live in a natural and supernatural world. Sometimes, the devil and his legions are playing havoc with us. Sometimes, we are just tired with things going on in our lives. Put on your whole armor of God. It is found in one of the last chapters in the Epistle of Ephesians . Ephesians chapter 3 is a blessing for me each time I read it. St. Paul is telling us how much God loves us. Watch THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST,to experience the pain that Jesus bore for us out of His love. Matthew 11 has the scripture verse that is always helpful.
COME UNTO ME, ALL YOU WHO LABOR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN. TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU FOR MY YOKE IS EASY AND MY BURDEN IS LIGHT. If you can, go to daily mass, the Stations of the cross, play happy, praise music. “MY PEACE I LEAVE YOU, MY PEACE I GIVE YOU " " I WILL NEVER FOSAKE YOU, MY CHILDREN. I HAVE CARVED YOU IN THE PALM OF MY HANDS. I WILL NEVER FORGET YOU. I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU ORPHANED. I WILL NEVER FORGET MY OWN.” That is Isaiah 41, I think.
If your friends are pulling you down, take a vacation from your friends. “Daily, take up your cross and follow me,” If your having a cross and He isn’t answering your prayer, he is answering it. Ask Him to open your eyes, so you may see where He is acting. He’ll say, yes, no,maybe later.
in Christ’s love
Tweedlealice

 

[clem456]

From what you are describing, no you are not going through “the dark night”…
Faith is a theological gift. God gives it to you as he sees fit.
Faith is a relationship with a person, Jesus Christ. We surrender to him in trust.

So faith is a gift to which we respond. It takes practice. We “practice” our faith. It takes work.
You will be fine. Keep moving forward through the ups and downs.

 

[fred_conty]

Frankly I don’t think it is something you should fret about. Lots of people go thru this and come out of it just fine.

I don’t know your life well enough to give you any depth of understanding, but I can offer you what it might be.

The first is … sin will do this very thing…put distance between you and Christ. It blocks the light and then a person lives in darkness.

But it may be just what others have said in these posts, especially littlestsouls2.

Or it may be that you had a burst of enthusasim for the faith for a while, but now the honeymoon is over and reality sets in. This happens to many a convert. They bloom with the odor of sweetness for a year, and then the flower dies and they wonder what happened to their zeal. This happens quite often.

Sometimes it is because we get sloppy in our prayers and conversations with God. We skip prayers, not deliberately, but just causualy and forgetfully. The effort at attention is weak, and we don’t really try to realize that God is everywhere and is with us and in his presence. So the prayers drift into hardness and routineness. This just sort of happens because we haven’t put on our thinking cap for awhile and in a sense, this requires too much effort and we don’t want to put outselves out.

We could also be skipping the little thoughtfull heartfilled prayers during the day off and on. God does look at our heart more than anything else. Doing the little things out of love for him means more than a lot of things with casualness.

It may be also be that you are running out of new ideas and all the old ideas, while good, are really stale and offer no incentive to get excited over. Buy a good book, or go to the library and get one that will purk up your interest and challenge you a bit.

I would recommend to go further into the study of the Eucharist.
Try to find something every once in a while that you will particularly think about. And then from time to time, find another great idea about the Eucharist and think about that for a while. Or you might do the same with the Bible. When you read it, especially the Gospels, look for a specific idea, like pride, or the characteristics Jesus desplays in his life, or how the people around him behaved, and so on. It makes it more interesting, and it also informs us about ourselves as well. In that way we advance more towards our oneness with Jesus.

One idea that will move Jesus especially, pray for those going to hell … the really hard cases. And plead with Jesus for them. And offer Jesus in the sacrifice of the Mass to your heavenly Father for them. How can the Father refuse his beloved Son? You will find all kinds of graces…one especially fitting for you.

But last but not the least, is the green scapular.
Mary specifically gave this to us to help our faith. She promised this under certain conditions.

The scapular must be blessed, on us, the prayer on it said each day, and we must have trust that she will do what she said…increase our faith, die a peaceful death, and protection from the devil. It does work over time, but don’t neglect the everyday prayer. She will work it out for you in some way.