Lack of Faith

[CRATUS]

I pray, but I do not have faith. The stories of the saints read inspiring, but very impossible. The same with anything in the bible, it does not feel real. It feels abstract. I do not believe in hell, heaven or purgatory. A friend of mine recently died. I do not think he went anywhere. People ask me to pray for him. I do not see the point. Even praying for the family, I do not see the point either. Sooner or later they will get over it and move on like normal people do. If we have free-will, what exactly does God do anyways? When I read about all the lists of transgressions - I cannot think of one person I know (myself included) who could enter heaven? As for repaying every last debt, you know how many ingrained habits I have acquired over the years, every last debt, I will never make it heaven. What is the good in knowing God anyway - the more you know the more you are accountable for.

 

[MarcoPolo]

What is the good in knowing God anyway - the more you know the more you are accountable for.

From a Catholic perspective, the more people who are faithful actually are a benefit, a “draw” if you will, of the conversion of the whole world. So that is why it is best, for the sake of the whole Church, not to stay far from God. In fact, it is Catholic understanding that reception of the Eucharist benefits the whole world. In a mystical sense, the more who genuinely receive His body, the more heavenly power penetrates the world.

I won’t go into lots of reasons to believe right away. Some people are better moved by reason. Some by a larger dose of emotional experience. Some by their own epiphanies in daily life. I’ll just post 2 things that I can think to offer at the moment. 1. Blog post Is faith belief without evidence?; and 2. the following quote I transcribed by the late actor Ricardo Montalban, from an interview in 1999. It speaks to not worrying about having a certain “feeling” associated with faith:*“In Mexico, I used to go to Communion maybe once or twice a year, and I confess my sins and I felt so good and clean. And when I would go to Communion, and I have tears in my eyes, of emotion. And now, you know, I go to mass and Communion every Sunday, and now I go and I don’t feel anything. ‘Well, that’s good,’ [the priest said to me]. ‘Now you’re a Catholic of conviction. Before you were a Catholic of emotion which goes up and down according to your mood.’”*Hang in there.

 

[Mary_Estelle]

So…if you can’t see it, touch it or feel it…then God does not exist for you? I think it is yourself you don’t believe in or trust, rather than having faith and believing in something other than self. If you don’t want to pray for someone or for your own good and needs…fine. We will pray for you. Peace and many, many prayers.

 

[CRATUS]

So…if you can’t see it, touch it or feel it…then God does not exist for you? I think it is yourself you don’t believe in or trust, rather than having faith and believing in something other than self. If you don’t want to pray for someone or for your own good and needs…fine. We will pray for you. Peace and many, many prayers.

Don’t believe in myself?

 

[pianistclare]

Don’t believe in myself?

You do.
Too much. You have come to a point where you think “what’s the use? God doesn’t care about anything. why should I?”

That’s dangerous, and far far from the truth.
I’ll say it again, when we don’t look outward and reach out to God, we miss a lot of things. We miss beauty, we don’t receive love gracefully, we miss an opportunity to serve others, we miss interactions that benefit us, we miss opportunities to bring peace into he lives of strangers as well as friends.
God is real, alive, and working in the world to draw us closer to Him.
You friend DID go somewhere. If he’s in purgatory, why wouldn’t you pray fro his soul so that he can enjoy eternal happiness sooner? Isn’t he a “friend”? What do suppose friends do for one another?
Jesus laid down His life for His friends. How can we do less?

Peace.

 

[tawny]

Praying to the Holy Spirit to give you guidance, direction, strength, fortitude & wisdom in your time of need.

 

[mountee]

You have some interesting thoughts that I am sure others share and I will admit to having had at points in my life. Faith, for me, was a choice to have it, enjoy it and stop questioning it. Once I put the thoughts like you are sharing out of my head and replaced them with the joy that having faith can bring my life changed. One of the most vivid images of my life is trying to picture heaven and to deny its existence would deny me the belief that I might someday get there. So, I choose not to entertain thoughts like you are sharing and to block them from my mind. Choose faith if you can, I will pray for you to be at peace,

 

[Bonnie]

Cratus -

You might want to redefine what you think of as “faith.” I thought I had little to no faith but then realized that my definition of faith was flawed.

Another thing that helped me was a quote I found from a Protestant minister: “If you remove your body from the truth, when you are ready the truth is nowhere to be found. But if you continue to bring your body to the truth, then when you are ready the truth is waiting there for you.”

–Reverend Rollo M. Boas
Anglican minister, a member of the Columbia Coast Mission (boat missions on west coast)

 

[midori]

“I’ll never have to use algebra, so why take the effort to learn algebra?”
“I’ll always be around English-speaking people, so why take the effort to learn a foreign language?”
“Why should I learn how to cook? It’s too hard. Ramen and frozen pizza are good enough for me.”
“Why learn more about God, because if I learn about God, then I’ll have to change.”

I thought of the soul as resembling a castle, formed of a single diamond or a very transparent crystal, and containing many rooms, just as in heaven there are many mansions. If we reflect, we shall see that the soul of the just man is but a paradise, in which, God tells us, He takes His delight. What, do you imagine, must that dwelling be in which a King so mighty, so wise, and so pure, containing in Himself all good, can delight to rest? Nothing can be compared to the great beauty and capabilities of a soul; however keen our intellects may be, they are as unable to comprehend them as to comprehend God, for, as He has told us, He created us in His own image and likeness.

As this is so, we need not tire ourselves by trying to realize all the beauty of this castle, although, being His creature, there is all the difference between the soul and God that there is between the creature and the Creator; the fact that it is made in God’s image teaches us how great are its dignity and loveliness. It is no small misfortune and disgrace that, through our own fault, we neither understand our nature nor our origin. Would it not be gross ignorance if, when a man was questioned about his name, or country, or parents, he could not answer? Stupid as this would be, it is unspeakably more foolish to care to learn nothing of our nature except that we possess bodies, and only to realize vaguely that we have souls, because people say so and it is a doctrine of faith. Rarely do we reflect upon what gifts our souls may possess, Who dwells within them, or how extremely precious they are. Therefore we do little to preserve their beauty; all our care is concentrated on our bodies, which are but the coarse setting of the diamond, or the outer walls of the castle.

Try reading just the first two chapters.

 

[Mary_Estelle]

When I say that someone lacks faith in oneself or does not believe in oneself I am referring to a lack of self love and identification. You need to love yourself in order to love God. Faith and love for God is not an intellectual exercise. It must start in the heart and can be as small as the mustard seed, to grow and move mountains. Reading about the saints is good, but many did not do anything outstanding or do works of wonder while on earth. It was their unshakable faith and commitment to the Lord that made them special.

I don’t for one moment believe that the poster CRATUS Is without faith, but is trying to find her mustard seed that is growing within her. It’s there. It just needs to be nourished so that it can grow.

Sometimes I can seem a little harsh, but don’t intend to be. It’s just that I often think that others can understand and digest what I am saying with just a few words because most of the time I try to get straight to the point. I am basically a person of few words and it is my weakness.

P. S. There are living saints among us that live, work and pray in quietude. Peace and prayers. I wish I could say that I walk among them.

 

[GLam8833]

It’s supposed to be my fast day today,
but I broke my fast right from the get-go.
Why is it I feel a “freedom” to do my own
thing today, isn’t it slavery to sin if you
stray from the Path of the will of God?
I think that it is the devil who is trying
to fool me into thinking that I am now
“free” to do my own thing today!!!

 

[O_Lumen]

… it does not feel real. It feels abstract …

I say this a lot, both under this user name and my old one, but one of the most pernicious issues for today’s Catholic has got to be this preoccupation with feelings and immanentism. (And this applies to our general culture too. How often people say “I feel” when what they mean is “I think.” No, it is not correct to say “I *feel *he told me he would be back at two.”)

We absolutely cannot judge truth based on our feelings alone. Any life that is based on one’s emotions will eventually devolve into a sort of insanity, because feelings change, and they contradict themselves. There must be a solid anchor of reason to which feelings are made subject, not the opposite.

Regarding the question of faith: well, we know that faith is a supernatural virtue that’s infused into our souls by God, and which gives our will the **ability **to assent to truth as perceived by our intellect. I almost hate to be blunt, but anyone who seemingly lacks supernatural faith is either (a) not in a state of grace or (b) the “amount” of sanctifying grace in their soul is very “small” or (c) reason (b) holds, but also they are not actively trying to grow in holiness and dispose themselves to an increase of faith or (d) they’ve willingly and obstinately embraced even so much as **one **formal heresy.

The key to having faith is to get into a state of grace, and then to grow in holiness. It really is a simple process, and it’s such a shame that all of us, at one time or another, have fought so hard against it.

 

[CS15]

CRATUS,

Looking at all your posts, it seems like you’re having a lot of serious questions about your faith. Catholic Answers is great, but can only help you so much. I don’t know your position, but have you considered talking to a knowledgeable priest or religious person in your area? As a scrupulous person, I think that it’s helpful to me to talk to a real person sometimes. It might be embarrassing to talk about your issues with faith, but it could be very helpful too.

A lot of what everyone else has said here is really good stuff; listen to it. Remember that faith is not dependent solely on emotions, like what “O Lumen” said. “It is ultimately an act of will” - Catholic Answers. Everyone has doubts, but it is a true act of faith to continue to believe despite your feelings. If God was able to be fully explained and made self-evident by reason, you wouldn’t need to have faith.

Check out the articles “Why Believe?”, “What to Do Without Doubt” on Catholic Answers and any other good books or articles you can find. I have a feeling there’s a lot on this topic. Never stop praying, and I will pray for you too!