i've lost my faith..............................

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Hi Itullian:

I am sorry that you are not feeling well. If you feel depressed, you may wish to talk to your doctor in case there is a medical issue.

As far as your faith, I believe that spending time with God daily in prayer, and reading the Bible, helps a lot with this. It is important not to miss days. See Isaiah 40:31.

Of course, don’t miss Mass and use the Sacraments.

In confession, often the priest can give good tips also.

There may also be some good books or CD’s that can help strengthen your faith. I can’t think of any off hand; however, if you are regularly doing some spiritual reading / study then you are very likely to find one. Once, I had a spiritual question that was bothering me and “coincidentally” I found a book in a religious bookstore that cleared up the issue.
 
Life can be very difficult sometimes and that can affect our faith.
Some of your questions may find answers in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
For the index so you can look up sections that might help understanding:

vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/ccc_toc.htm

I’m sorry that you are hurting so badly.
Our love and prayer for you
 
thank you, yes, very badly.

all i thought i knew seems gone and i stare into a void…
 
Hello Itullian,
If you lost your faith , you alone can put it back. When failures and losses come over in life, it is a time for self- introspection and faith building, I was once like you, but the person I am now, is someone I truly am proud of. All you need to do is pray the rosary everyday. In your condition without faith, it will be blunt and meaningless, but start doing it in a simple and humble manner and it will all be fine. If you feel absolutely dejected, like as if you were not meant to be, I will tell you what my father always tells me, “Look up to the sky and see the stars. The starlight given out by these started it’s journey millions of yours ago , to actually reach the earth. If you can actually see the stars and admire the beauty, your existence was indeed destined by God and YOU DO HAVE A MAJOR ROLE TO PLAY IN HIS CREATON”

Regards
Irene
 
**You are in my prayers.

Prayer for the Help of the Holy Spirit
O God, send forth your Holy Spirit into my heart that I may perceive, into my mind that I may remember, and into my soul that I may meditate. Inspire me to speak with piety, holiness, tenderness and mercy. Teach, guide and direct my thoughts and senses from beginning to end. May your grace ever help and correct me, and may I be strengthened now with wisdom from on high, for the sake of your infinite mercy. Amen.
Saint Anthony of Padua **
 
Itullian, can you tell us what happened? Why you lost your faith? Is it something you can share with us, because it is hard to offer advice and encouragement if we have no idea why you are suffering.

God bless.
 
on_eagles_wingz said:
Itullian, can you tell us what happened? Why you lost your faith? Is it something you can share with us, because it is hard to offer advice and encouragement if we have no idea why you are suffering.

God bless.
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just all of a sudden everything supernatural seemed ridiculous. and all the different religions. and the Bible seemingly started to look more like hopeful myths than reality.

so i started praying for God to reach out to me somehow to show me he’s real.

all i get is silence, silence, silence. nothing nothing nothing

i’ve lost faith and hope. please God, help me…
 
Hey, I’ve been there. I’ve also suffered with clinical depression. The world gets us down. We don’t know where to turn. You’re right, anything we can’t see and scientifically explain sometimes seems outlandish and ridiculous; that’s our society now.

Look, I’ve studied everything. I’ve converted to Judaism, become a Buddhist, been a Unitarian Universalist, was baptized Seventh-day Adventist, joined an Anglican (Episcopalian) church, studied Scientology, Jainism, Islam, Wicca… you name it. Never have I felt so at peace and so comforted as with my study of Catholicism. Every question you will have will have an answer. You will feel part of something bigger.

Hang in there. Talk to a doctor. Pray. Go to Adoration. Say a rosary. Go to confession and Mass.

Our prayers are with you and we’re here for you. Please keep us updated!!! PM me if you’d like and know that you’re not alone. I don’t know much but I know we’re in the body of Christ and I want to be like those who have been like Christ’s arms, ready to hold and comfort.

:hug1:
 
SurlyMermaid said:
Hey, I’ve been there. I’ve also suffered with clinical depression. The world gets us down. We don’t know where to turn. You’re right, anything we can’t see and scientifically explain sometimes seems outlandish and ridiculous; that’s our society now.

Look, I’ve studied everything. I’ve converted to Judaism, become a Buddhist, been a Unitarian Universalist, was baptized Seventh-day Adventist, joined an Anglican (Episcopalian) church, studied Scientology, Jainism, Islam, Wicca… you name it. Never have I felt so at peace and so comforted as with my study of Catholicism. Every question you will have will have an answer. You will feel part of something bigger.

Hang in there. Talk to a doctor. Pray. Go to Adoration. Say a rosary. Go to confession and Mass.

Our prayers are with you and we’re here for you. Please keep us updated!!! PM me if you’d like and know that you’re not alone. I don’t know much but I know we’re in the body of Christ and I want to be like those who have been like Christ’s arms, ready to hold and comfort.

:hug1:
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All good advice.

For me the key is to be certain I seek God every day, between Masses.

Another thing I think helps is to work in time to serve someone else who is worse off. Most churches have an opportunity to do this somewhere. Serving someone who is worse off seems to benefit me more than those that I am serving. It changes perspective.
 
dedo said:
Another thing I think helps is to work in time to serve someone else who is worse off. Most churches have an opportunity to do this somewhere. Serving someone who is worse off seems to benefit me more than those that I am serving. It changes perspective.
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Oh absolutely! 🙂
 
itullian said:
just all of a sudden everything supernatural seemed ridiculous. and all the different religions. and the Bible seemingly started to look more like hopeful myths than reality.

so i started praying for God to reach out to me somehow to show me he’s real.

all i get is silence, silence, silence. nothing nothing nothing

i’ve lost faith and hope. please God, help me…
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Silence is God’s first language. All other languages were invented for and by man to communicate ideas.

I’ve had this exact problem, that “supernatural” just seems like “fairy tale.” It’s a long story, but the Lord has deigned to make Himself known to me in a very personal way, and I can hardly describe it for lack of words that would be even close to adequate but not shocking at the same time.

Also remember that despair and faith/hope are sort of like polar opposites, and the deeper the despair you feel now, the more peace and joy you will receive when your prayer is answered.

There are many people who talk about God from an academic POV, but I was lucky enough, that after many years of well, like I say it’s a long story, that my eyes, ears, and heart were opened and were joined with the Lord’s. What I didn’t know before is that each of us actually – if you’ll excuse the supernatural references – one of God’s points of view at experiencing Himself. He is experiencing your pain through your experience – that may be true but I just can’t prove it; you must come to this conclusion yourself.

Let’s hit this “supernatural” thing, though. Let’s look at some science and see a few things in the “natural” world that are complicated enough that for a scientist it’s not too far a stretch to say they are observing things that only God could have done. From a scientific POV, that just means they haven’t figured out how something works but they just know that it does.

Look at Einstein. He wondered, “what would it be like to ride on a light beam” and he found that space is curved and light travels at the same speed everywhere, compared to everything material. That is, if five beams are shining on me, the energy travels at the same speed for all of them. But did you know that if you are moving toward or away a light source that you will STILL be getting closer to the light at exactly the same speed?

Let’s look at time travel. Quantum physics has known about this for many decades, and is best documented by the double slit experiment. It turns out these electrons which we think are tiny things with no brains, behave in ways that cannot be explained by modern science. One is that electrons act like particles sometimes, but also like waves. So depending on how they are treated is which way they act. They can also act like both at once. But again, depending on the conditions, you can fire two electrons, one after the other, and they will interfere with each other even though they’ve never been to the point of interference at the same time. Time as measured by us, that is… obviously time is not a constant, and this resonates with Einstein’s talks as well.

Or how about this. Did you know that electrons apparently know when they’re being watched? Again out of the same quantum physics experiment we find electrons that like to act like waves, but as soon as you put a camera there to watch them, they straighten up and act like particles.

Now we have “string theory,” and physicists so far have defined about 11 dimension in math they need to keep everything in accordance with known measurement data. That means that we have 3-D space and 1-D time, PLUS 7 more dimensions which open up in directions that humans have no way to directly sense or even imagine. So my result is this:

Alan’s axiom of God and science: No honest physicist who believes there are at least 11 dimensions to this world can deny the existence of a spirit world. In fact, if their theories turn out right, they are basically proving the existence of a spirit world.

Reference:

Quantum physics and the Double Slit Experiment: Check out Dr. Quantum on that. After you watch that you will know that there is more to this planet than meets the eye.

Also Dr. Quantum does a decent job of explaining the 100+ year old book Flatland, about being able to see more dimensions than we’re made of. I don’t remember if Quantum mentioned this, but the book itself (you should read it; it opened my mind when I was young) even goes so far as to distinguish between a being that has powers we don’t, v. an actual God.

Here’s Dr. Quantum’s take on Flatland: youtube.com/watch?v=B5yxZ5I-zsE

I hope some of this helps. My idea is to help you open your mind to accept truths beyond what you were taught your whole life. Jesus says that you need new wineskins for new wine because the old ones would burst. That means that Jesus knows we are taught everything is a certain way our whole lives, but that before we can accept new information that is truly revolutionary, we have to discard the notion that all we see/know/imagine is all there is.

Alan
 
Prayers. . . !

To Jesus My Friend
by St. Claude de la Colombiere

Jesus! You are my true Friend, my only Friend. You take a part in all my misfortunes; You take them on Yourself; You know how to change them into blessings; You listen to me with the greatest kindness when I relate my troubles to You, and You have always balm to pour on my wounds.

I find You at all times; I find You everywhere, You never go away: if I have to change my dwelling, I find You there wherever I go. You are never weary of listening to me, You are never tired of doing me good. I am certain of being beloved by You, if I love You; my goods are nothing to You, and by bestowing Yours on me, You never grow poor; however miserable I may be, no one nobler or cleverer or even holier can come between You and me, and deprive me of Your friendship; and death, which tears us away from all other friends, will unite me forever to You. All the humiliations attached to old age, or to the loss of honor, will never detach You from me; on the contrary, I shall never enjoy You more fully, and You will never be closer to me than when everything seems to conspire against me to overwhelm me and to cast me down. You bear with all my faults with extreme patience, and even my want of fidelity and my ingratitude do not wound You to such a degree as to make You unwilling to receive me when I return to You. O Jesus, grant that I may die praising You, that I may die loving You, that I may die for the love of you.
 
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