If it was found to be true that we have had past lives, would this affect the Catholic Faith?

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If it was found to be true that we have had past lives, would this affect the Catholic Faith?
 
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No, it would just mean God had some reason to send the same soul to earth twice.
God is certainly capable of doing that if he feels like it.
It is not Catholic teaching that He does this, however.
 
Thanks for the reply. I just find the idea of this interesting. I think, hypothetically speaking it is possible that God may send a person back twice or more, and not necessarily in a different body but to relive the same life, in the hope that they may grow in some way or maybe to face some evil they had done. Perhaps someone could be saved this way.

Its just hypothetical of course.
 
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It would seem a bit unfair for one soul to get two bites at the apple, so to speak, in getting two lives/ two chances to be saved through living a good earthly life, when others only get one.

We also don’t believe, unlike some other religions that believe in reincarnation, that one achieves perfection by living a series of earthly lives.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
It would seem a bit unfair for one soul to get two bites at the apple, so to speak, in getting two lives/ two chances to be saved through living a good earthly life, when others only get one.
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Lol. I see what you mean. Having said that i imagine that i would find many things unfair that would make sense in God’s eyes. Imagine a man kills your whole family and because of that you reject God and your life is in ruins, while the murderer is saved because later on in life he opens his heart to God.

I don’t think its as much about fair as it is about God wanting to save everyone he can, and if living again made that possible i guess i would like to imagine that God would grant that possibility despite it not being the normal way of things. Of course i could be wrong and this is just a hypothetical.

And yes, i understand that reincarnation is not a christian teaching, that’s why i asked that if someone had lived before on earth, would this conflict with Catholic truth.
 
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We have to remember that “Catholic truth” is the truth as revealed to us. We haven’t been made privy to everything going on in the mind of God or the plan of God. Our brains likely couldn’t take it all in. If and when we have a “need to know” (as they say in the government), then God will make us aware of more knowledge at the appropriate time.
 
I have had constant dreams and live perceptions in 2011-2016 I was Jewish in my past life. Just a nobody. And I died during the Holocaust. I had died on January 1st 1940 aged almost 16. I was married. My parents and husband died too. I missed seeing them to the point of insanity.
I don’t know what that was. I can tell you my name I dreamt I had.
Voices of St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Mary Magdalene were telling me to stop thinking about it. I used to wake up every morning crying.
It all stopped on Easter 2016. I dreamt King David pushing me away until I was on side and he on the other and there was glass between us. I could only see him not touch him. I then had a vision of me being stabbed in the church I had went that Easter. I was thinking this is the new Holocaust just beginning. This was the night before Easter Sunday.
Next week Fr. Hamel was stabbed in France. I felt so sad.
What did I see actually?
 
Could have been demonic, or the brain sweeping itself out.

If I had such a dream I would take it as a message that I should pray for Jewish people who died in the Holocaust and start doing that regularly.
 
Very Interesting. I have had strange dreams that seemed more like messages then just random dreams. You obviously have a strong sense that you have lived before but i will not tell you this is true because i don’t know.

I have also had dreams that came true in the real world.

Its very interesting nonetheless . It sounds very deep.
 
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IWantGod said:
Thanks for the reply. I just find the idea of this interesting. I think, hypothetically speaking it is possible that God may send a person back twice or more, and not necessarily in the same body but to relive the same life, in the hope that they may grow in some way or maybe to face some evil they had done. Perhaps someone could be saved this way.

Its just hypothetical of course.
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Actually that is (sort of) the premise of the film Groundhog Day. And look at the calendar! It’s coming soon.

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Tis_Bearself said:
No, it would just mean God had some reason to send the same soul to earth twice.
God is certainly capable of doing that if he feels like it.
It is not Catholic teaching that He does this, however.
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Does God act on his feelings? Does God have feelings?

I wouldn’t suppose it is Catholic teaching that God acts on or does things because “he feels like it.”
 
This concept is as close to impossible as can be proposed within the context, a.k.a. truth, of catholic teaching.
Human persons are a composite of body and soul. Neither body nor soul will suffer eternal decay. When the soul departs from the body at death the person will undergo personal judgement. How could a “second life” happen after personal judgement? As what whole person, body and soul, would the person with two lives be at the final judgement?
Relevance and relative truth are integral within these false perspectives on who God made us to be as human persons. Is not this permanence of being, “die twice, live forever, rather than, live twice, die forever” a cornerstone of Christian life? Die to self through the graces of baptism, die twice and live forever, as you, as the person God made and loves. Do not live this life discover the life of heaven is real and die forever in sin. This reincarnation idea is a lie of the enemy who tries to use partial truth, “two lives,” that of here and now and the fullness of life that Christ purchased for us on the cross to lead us astray. The “two lives” God gave us are that of here and now and that of the world to come. We live as that man or woman which we were formed to be by God. We will celebrate life and the eternal nature of our life with Him forever when we reconcile to Him.
God creates each human life to be lived forever. This beauty of life and the permanence of life, even if lived apart by soul and body for a time, are reflected in the sacred aspect of marriage as the seat of new life co-created by one man and one woman. Denying the permanence of each human person is denying the providence of God’s creation. Many today feel greater than God and presume wrongly about the nature of the life and the body that God ensouled. Know truth and live fully in the knowledge God intends by natural law, that which is truly written on our hearts, not that which we want for sinful desire.
 
I do pray for them. With all my heart. And light up candles. But not that it would make it stop. I do it with love and sadness like I want them to be well and I want to be with them. Wherever whatever whenever. I also want to know if it was real or not. Like if God would take pitty on me to just tell me.
Please pray for me. And for all the victims of Shoah.
God bless.
 
I know Father. Please pray for me even if I am just orthodox not sure still if we and you are one. But you can pray for pagans too right?
 
IWantGod said:
If it was found to be true that we have had past lives, would this affect the Catholic Faith?
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It is a dogma of faith that one experiences the particular judgment at death which assigns one immediately to Hell, Heaven, or Purgatory.
 
Vico said:
It is a dogma of faith that one experiences the particular judgment at death which assigns one immediately to Hell, Heaven, or Purgatory.
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I agree. But i don’t think that there cannot possibly be a special situation where God decides that someone should live again. Its just not the normal situation and neither is it an affirmation of any belief system involving reincarnation as they see it…

It’s Catholic Dogma that the Catholic church is the only true church of Jesus Christ since he is the way the truth and the light and he founded the church and only through him and his Church can you be saved. And yet special conditions can arise where people outside of the faith can be saved.

So i’m not entirely convinced that it is impossible although i am not saying that it has ever happened either.
 
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There are many levels to our being and we are conscious of only the smallest percentage. Dreams can seem to take us to the heights of heaven and depths of hell. Mostly it is a way of processing subconscious concerns and perpressed feelings. This is why I find meditation so helpful. All the distracting things come from the depths into consciousness. We can become aware of them more objectively than in a dream and diffuse them a bit. I thin it is fascinating. Is it there and after a while a though or more often an image comes very similar to a dreamy image. I not the feeling or mood with it and let it go returning to the inner silence. And it is all in the presence of God.
 
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