My 13 year old is "Lost in the Desert"

[RepentorPerish]

My advice dont force him to go to Church or you will push him further away.

Just pray for him like augustines mother prayed for him.

In time he’'ll come around . Trust in the Lord he will grant your desire, this desire you have is a good and holy one and the Lord desires the samething.

He will come around I assure you , Just pray to God . and Dont force him to go to church and dont start talking to him about church , just pray for him.

dont be willful, just be prayerful.

 

[havemercy]

Express your concern, and let your son know that you’re there for him (as is his heavenly Mother, and Father). If you haven’t yet been praying the rosary, now is a good time to start. You can do so much for your son’s soul without him even knowing it.

Don’t despair. When I was his age I left the faith as well, only to return to it with great zeal. Remember that everyone is on their own journey, and that no one is ever alone on it. The child Jesus is always tugging on our hand, wanting to bring us home to the Father.

Have confidence in Heaven, have hope, and trust in the Lord.
Tony

:getholy:

 

[homewardbound]

There’s nothing wrong or forceful about being an example for your son. I was abused in church growing up and through my teen years really hated God. My mom’s faith and love for God helped keep me from falling into worse sin then I did, and even if there were times I got upset as she sat there reading her Bible or asked me to pray with her, she was a great example for me and the reason why I am still a Christian and definitely had a hand in me converting to Catholicism(though she’d sure hate to know that! ) The only reason non-believers get angry and “offended” is because they are jealous that we are not afriad of our faith. We have something they don’t have, and they think we’re shoving in their face just because we practice our faith. God IS great and I’m not going to stop praying over my meals or stop being a Christian example in any way just because someone else doesn’t want to hear it. If atheists don’t want to hear about God, why exactly do they hang around us Christians?

One of my best friends is an atheist, and she never gets angry or offended when we pray over meals or anything. She has respect for our beliefs, and we respect hers. IMO, the only atheists who are offended and get all defensive when a Christian is around, are the ones who know they’re in the wrong place spiritually.

As for your son, give him time. Continue to be an example of Christian love. Invite him to go to mass with you, pray for him, and just let him see God working in your life. When a prayer is answered, let the whole family know it! Don’t single him out, but let him see your love and faith. Also, definitely talk to him about his new beliefs to maybe find out why the sudden change.

I’ll pray for you. God Bless

 

[kresbrook]

I’m here because my best buddy is Catholic and asked me to go to church with him last week. After my initial revulsion I realized that he desperatly needs my support right now and he just wanted someone that he knows won’t judge him at church (hes struggling with some mortal sins). Since I only knew what I learned from movies about Catholicism I thought I’d do a little research and research of this sort is much easier done in a place like this than blindly searching the internet. My ideas have only been reinforced by what I’ve seen here and what I saw in mass last week.

I assume you mean your negative views of Catholicism have been reinforced by your experiences here and at Mass. Well, I would also venture to say that you have reinforced my negative view of athiests by what you have said. You say in your signature that you just want respect, but I would venture that you need to give respect to receive it. I personally don’t feel that your PP were very respectful.

I think what the OP was saying was that a parent needs to be an example to their children. I am not about to quit praying at my home (either in front of my children or not) just because my child might feel uncomfortable or not want to participate. I am going to be openly thankfull to God everyday in everything I do because it is what I believe. I don’t do this to make anyone uncomfortable, I do it because I believe that God is the creator, and in all that the Catholic Church teaches.

I respectfully urge you to read Catholicism for Dummies if you really want to learn about the Catholic faith (in order to assist your friend). Don’t rely on us or other Catholics because we are sinners and imperfect. Not that books are perfect, but they can give you an unbiased view of what the Catholic faith teaches. Not all Catholics practice perfectly, nor are any of us perfect. Anyone who claims to be or acts “hollier than thou” does not represent all Catholic’s.

Don’t judge all on the actions of a few, and I will try not to do the same

 

[love4mary]

On my son’s 9th birthday, his father died suddenly. That was 5 years ago. Now I am engaged to a wonderful-solidly, faithfilled Catholic, but we can only see each other on weekends due to his work schedule and the distance we live from each other.

As for the children in the youth group. He knows these kids well, been going to CCD with them for 4 years now. The further my son gets from the faith, the further these kids seem to be from him. That part is sad as he now more then ever needs to be around faithfilled kids.

As for not making him attend Mass with his family. That is NOT an option. As long as he lives under my roof, I am responsible for his faith education among everything else. He may not be interested in what is being Proclaimed from the Ambo, or may not seem to care about the homily, he at least Hears it. I pray that he will one day hear something that will cause him to think and come back to God.

Strange, when I had my conversion it never accured to me that my children would not feel the same, how they can not see what to me is so obvious,GOD! So I continue to pray to our Blessed Mother and St. Monica and most importantly of all, Jesus.