I have lost my faith. How do I get it back?

[BillTheSlink]

I don’t mean to thread dig, but I have an update. I thought long and hard about things and have decided I do have enough faith to go to confession, as I fear God and hell over my sins at least somewhat, as there is still a gnawing and uneasy feeling deep down inside when I consider what would happen to me if I died in my sins now. I had planned on going to confession tonight, but Grandma got to come home from the hospital and I take care of her. To be honest I had only been praying about this and hoping there was a God to hear me, as she was very sick and, to be honest, I didn’t expect for her to ever be able to come home.

One thing is for sure–if I don’t regain my solid faith it won’t be from lack of effort. I am going to ask my confessor about a deliverance minister, confess all my known mortal sins, go to daily mass as much as possible, keep watch with the blessed sacrament one hour per week, and of course go to weekly mass. I have committed to God to do this for a year.

I want to thank everyone who posted their thoughts on the matter. I took something away from everyone of you. What you all wrote really mattered.

 

[Lenten_ashes]

I don’t mean to thread dig, but I have an update. I thought long and hard about things and have decided I do have enough faith to go to confession, as I fear God and hell over my sins at least somewhat, as there is still a gnawing and uneasy feeling deep down inside when I consider what would happen to me if I died in my sins now. I had planned on going to confession tonight, but Grandma got to come home from the hospital and I take care of her. To be honest I had only been praying about this and hoping there was a God to hear me, as she was very sick and, to be honest, I didn’t expect for her to ever be able to come home.

One thing is for sure–if I don’t regain my solid faith it won’t be from lack of effort. I am going to ask my confessor about a deliverance minister, confess all my known mortal sins, go to daily mass as much as possible, keep watch with the blessed sacrament one hour per week, and of course go to weekly mass. I have committed to God to do this for a year.

I want to thank everyone who posted their thoughts on the matter. I took something away from everyone of you. What you all wrote really mattered.

Thanks for the update.

Honestly, we all have these dry spells , spiritually. I’m sort of going through one myself, at the moment. I’m in communion with the Church but not feeling the usual fire that I should have. Illness, loss of a loved one, marital problems can all be very taxing emotionally and spiritually. Mother Teresa had her doubts towards the end after seeing so much suffering. Nobody is immune to this.

You are doing well for yourself right now. The goal is perfect contrition - being totally sorrowful because of our deep love for God. But if we can’t muster up much love for God, then fear isn’t a bad place to start.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Sounds like you are on the right track, Bill.

I don’t say this very often to people, but because of what you wrote before about messing with the occult and then watching a lot of questionable Youtube videos, I do believe Satan may be messing with you. Pray the Prayer to St Michael a lot in addition to the other things you are doing. Ask the Blessed Mother to help you also.

One thing I read recently, I believe it was in Elizabeth Kindelmann’s “Flame of Love” diary, is that one prayer said in a time of spiritual dryness is more valued by God than effusive prayers said by someone who isn’t having that problem.

I’ll pray for you as well. And be sure to set reasonable goals for yourself coming back. Your priest/ spiritual advisor can help you with that. God bless you.

 

[jcrichton]

I don’t mean to thread dig, but I have an update. I thought long and hard about things and have decided I do have enough faith to go to confession, as I fear God and hell over my sins at least somewhat, as there is still a gnawing and uneasy feeling deep down inside when I consider what would happen to me if I died in my sins now. I had planned on going to confession tonight, but Grandma got to come home from the hospital and I take care of her. To be honest I had only been praying about this and hoping there was a God to hear me, as she was very sick and, to be honest, I didn’t expect for her to ever be able to come home.

One thing is for sure–if I don’t regain my solid faith it won’t be from lack of effort. I am going to ask my confessor about a deliverance minister, confess all my known mortal sins, go to daily mass as much as possible, keep watch with the blessed sacrament one hour per week, and of course go to weekly mass. I have committed to God to do this for a year.

I want to thank everyone who posted their thoughts on the matter. I took something away from everyone of you. What you all wrote really mattered.

HI, Bill!

I am glad that you are recommitted to God; there’s nothing more joyous than a Repentant sinner; give all your troubles and worries to God; let Him help you carry them. Ask Him for a new mind, a new heart and a new Spirit so that your Faith does not only become firm but that it may flourish.

I will keep you and your grandmother in my prayers.

Maran atha!

Angel

 

[Russell_SA]

I will try to be brief, but I will try to give all the relevant information I can.

I was a Catholic convert and was very militant about the faith. I tried to advocate for the faith a lot and was very “preachy”, and looking back on it I ended up driving a lot of people away from the Church because I was arguing from a position of wanting to be right and not being tempered with a spirit of love and compassion. Then, about three years ago I became involved with the occult. This was not your typical Wiccan “cast a love spell with roots and herbs” type of thing, but actually trying to conjure to visible appearance demons and spirits to make deals and pacts with them through rituals in manuscripts written in the dark ages and renaissance. I stopped going to mass at this time. About a year and a half ago I repented of that (I was still a believer then) and I made a good confession and never fooled with the occult again. Although I vowed to return to mass I never did.

About this time I began to watch YouTube videos put out by atheists who were battling modern feminists and social justice warriors. At first I was interested only for political reasons, but soon I started watching their other videos arguing against theism and Christianity in particular. Although there were a lot of things said I have come to accept, what I cannot get over is how cruel God is described in the Old Testament and how this runs contrary to the spirit of the New Testament. For example, God Kills millions of people and animals, including babies and young children, in a flood, he tells the Hebrews to bash infants’ heads against rocks when they invade several towns in the promised land, there is a test which would produce an abortion prescribed for a wife suspected of adultery, and he treats Job horribly in a bet with the Devil. I could continue, but to be brief I will say that if the God of the Old Testament is real, even if those stories were myth meant to convey some truth, if they were inspired by him I would have to say he is pretty much the opposite of good; I would have to say he’s pretty evil.

I could accept the teachings of Jesus and his claim of divinity if I could get over my rejection of the God of the Old Testament being the same as the God of the New, but I can’t and so the whole thing falls apart. I realize the Church views my position as heresy. I do not know what to do at this point.

My faith was a great treasure to me and to lose it has shaken my very being to the core. I am in poor health and found great comfort in believing I would live on with Jesus forever; now, however, I am terrified of dying and just ceasing to exist. I don’t think I can even go to confession because I don’t believe in God anymore so I don’t fear him or hell. It is annihilation that I fear. I was much, much more happy as a faithful Catholic. What can I do to get my faith back? Is there any hope for me?

Belief is not a choice. It is the result of your current understanding of reality and how logic works. A + B = C. People can sit + There is a chair = People can sit in a chair. Now try to sit in a chair and choose to believe you are not sitting in a chair. You can’t, it’s not possible. You can lie to everyone else and say you are not sitting in a chair, but you can’t lie to yourself. AKA “Fake it till everyone believes you.” approach to religion, but this is really just for the social acceptance, not an actual belief in the doctrine. Where ever your beliefs took you, that is where you are. Explore that and embrace it. That way if you discover you concluded that religion actually is true to you, you would have fully explored where you were before and would not have lingering issues on that previous position. But if you can’t find your way back, then there is something to that and it’s important to recognize that. If you don’t have a justified reason for your conclusions, then that would be faith in it. If you have a justified conclusion for your understanding, then it’s just called belief. Belief without justified reasons is what we call Faith. And you can justify any claim about any idea you want on that reasoning.

 

[jcrichton]

Belief is not a choice. It is the result of your current understanding of reality and how logic works. A + B = C. People can sit + There is a chair = People can sit in a chair. Now try to sit in a chair and choose to believe you are not sitting in a chair. You can’t, it’s not possible. You can lie to everyone else and say you are not sitting in a chair, but you can’t lie to yourself. AKA “Fake it till everyone believes you.” approach to religion, but this is really just for the social acceptance, not an actual belief in the doctrine. Where ever your beliefs took you, that is where you are. Explore that and embrace it. That way if you discover you concluded that religion actually is true to you, you would have fully explored where you were before and would not have lingering issues on that previous position. But if you can’t find your way back, then there is something to that and it’s important to recognize that. If you don’t have a justified reason for your conclusions, then that would be faith in it. If you have a justified conclusion for your understanding, then it’s just called belief. Belief without justified reasons is what we call Faith. And you can justify any claim about any idea you want on that reasoning.

Hi, Russell!

…how do you come to believe that what you purport to be Faith is in deed Faith and what you purport to be “choice” is in deed choice and what you purport to be not a choice is in deed not a choice… yeah we can spin tales till Kingdom Comes but you will still be out in the cold (er heat) when it does!

Maran atha!

Angel