I need help.

[rossum]

You have received a lot of good advice. Here is some more, hopefully it is good as well.

My mother is sad and depressed. She thinks she almost failed as a parent. I am crushed. I still want to go to church for my mom. What should I do?

Tell your mum that you love her and give her a hug. You may (temporarily?) disagree on religion, but you need to let her know that you still love her. It sounds like she needs some help in this as well as you.

rossum

 

[4EverHis]

Hello, I am new to the fourms and I am going though some tough spiritual times right now. I am 15 years old and just a couple days ago I told my mom (who is Catholic) I didn’t want to be confirmed. I don’t feel anything from church anymore. I considered the priesthood a year ago and now I am not sure if I want to be Atheist/Agnostic. My mother is sad and depressed. She thinks she almost failed as a parent. I am crushed. I still want to go to church for my mom. What should I do? Should I stay were I am, and not look at other possible religions, or something else?

Thanks.

Hi, I went through something similar when I was in high school. I was baptized Eastern Orthodox as a child, but then I became agnostic and wasn’t really sure about Christianity. It was in university that I found my faith again, and later became a Catholic.

I suggest maybe just learning more about Catholicism try to not look for how much you can “get out of it”…but seek the truth, and pray. Pray the Rosary. Go to Mass and Adoration if you can. There’s soo much to be learned about the Catholic Church…no matter where you are…even if you feel you know a lot already. Have you ever read anything by the Saints?

Have you ever read “Mere Christianity” by CS Lewis? if you’re struggling with Christianity in general, it might help to gain a good understanding of it. This book really helped me. It’s available online: philosophyforlife.com/mctoc.htm

I think what you’re going through is very common… it’s when people were raised believing in God, but then reach that age where they question their beliefs and have to find their own faith. Try to make your faith your own and learn about it. Do some research. Ask for help and resources… don’t do it alone. Just give it a try

God bless

 

[4EverHis]

I feel like it could be lies. What makes sin wrong? Maybe we could be the ones that are wrong, or am I being brain washed? Those are the questions I am asking myself a lot. I don’t really feel bad for rejecting the church but disappointing my family.

all the commandments and the ‘rules’ that God gives us, they’re all based on love. We are taught to love God and to love our neighbour, and everything comes from that. When we fail in that love, that is sin. We were created to know God and to be with Him, and to be happy… what we need to do on earth is to come back to Him and learn to love Him truly.

Again, I suggest learning more about the faith, until it becomes your own. (and not just something you were taught as a kid). This is a process everyone has to go through at some point. Don’t give up prayer

 

[Bob_Crowley]

Hello, I am new to the fourms and I am going though some tough spiritual times right now. I am 15 years old and just a couple days ago I told my mom (who is Catholic) I didn’t want to be confirmed. I don’t feel anything from church anymore. I considered the priesthood a year ago and now I am not sure if I want to be Atheist/Agnostic. My mother is sad and depressed. She thinks she almost failed as a parent. I am crushed. I still want to go to church for my mom. What should I do? Should I stay were I am, and not look at other possible religions, or something else?

Thanks.

I think you need some sort of experience which assures you God is real, and not just something in a box that you’ve been taught about for years, with no personal experience to back it up.

In my own case, I didn’t really become a Christian till I was about 28. It was at the end of the worst four years of my life (to date anyway). AT that time I was Protestant. About a year later, I was down in the dumps, but helping out at a thing called a Scripture Union beach mission at a place called Forest Glen Caravan Park (just south of Nambour, Queensland, Australia), feeling out of my depth and very uncetain of myself. I remember wondering if Christianity wasn’t just a personal, psychological crutch.

It was the practice to have a 'Bible Study" each afternoon held by the overall team leader. Nambour has a sub tropical climate, and it gets hot in summer. So I was sitting on a bench seat with the others under a marquis, and half drifting off. The leader read some words from one of the Samual books and as he did so I got hit with this “double whammy” (as my Catholic psychiatrist tagged it, as he’s had it too), It was like a breath going through you in very strong waves from head to foot. I’d been contacted, yet not one other person there had any inkling of what was happening. It wa personal, yet God remained hidden, as He always does.

From that time on, despite some very discouraging periods, I’ve never been able to kid myself God doesn’t exist. He exists all right, and if it suits Him, He can let you know about it.

There’s one drawback. As soon as He uses what might be called a supernatural method to contact you very clearly, He gives permission by default to the enemy, the devil, to do the same thiing. And that’s when you find out the devil can dress up as an angel of light.

God exists all right. And so does the devil. I just hope you have your own salutary experience. Believe me, if you wander away from the church, you can get yourself into a lot of trouble. You really can.

 

[bpbasilphx]

Hello, I am new to the fourms and I am going though some tough spiritual times right now. I am 15 years old and just a couple days ago I told my mom (who is Catholic) I didn’t want to be confirmed. I don’t feel anything from church anymore. I considered the priesthood a year ago and now I am not sure if I want to be Atheist/Agnostic. My mother is sad and depressed. She thinks she almost failed as a parent. I am crushed. I still want to go to church for my mom. What should I do? Should I stay were I am, and not look at other possible religions, or something else?

Thanks.

Do you really think faith is about how you “feel”?

Feelings come and go and change.

Faith is based on facts.

 

[arcee]

It is dificult at times to understand our Catholic Faith. There is nothing wrong in questioning your faith. I’ve learned that Faith can be explained. There were times also in my life that I have so many questions. And with prayerful contemplation they were answered. Some times over a perid of days or weeks. It also surprised me that most of the time they were answered during Sunday’s Mass homily.
Perhaps the need to know “the whys” of what we believe would be the first step. Talking to your parish priest will also be helpful in the process. Try to educate yourself by reading some books. I would like to recommend to you a book about conversion and a journey to the Catholic Church, “Rome Sweet Home” by Scott & Kimberly Hahn.
God bless. Live Jesus in our hearts.

 

[jpk1313]

it seems from what you said you are going through a dry spell in your faith. Even the greatest of saints went though it. st john of the cross said that faith darkens the soul in preperation with divine wisdom. what he means is that when we feel god is far from us he is really so close that his “light” blinds us till we adjust to his glory. dryness in our faith life will come and go and come and go again. just wait it out and continue to pray even if your not sure there is anybody up there to hear you and you will come out of the “dark night of the soul” more full of life, light and love than you can imagine.

I will pray for you my sibling in christ.