Need a just a tiny bit of help

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What answers are you looking for? Do you want us to say we agree with you? You’ve received some very sound advice from people here. Have you experienced the (name removed by moderator)ut from a Spiritual Director? If not, you may want to seek one. I’ll be praying for you. God bless.
 
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Forget about science, everything of this world. We are not of this world. Jesus died for our sins, believe in Him you shall EVERLASTING LIFE. When we die our body returns to dust, but our souls go to be with Jesus. We wait there until Judgement Day, when we are welcomed into New Jerusalem, pain-free and worry-free, Forever.

Read Corinthians, it always gets me excited for Jesus.
 
TY. Making sense a little bit.

A 'Manuel ’ to find God would be great- a step by step guide! Sounds like I’ve got to put some time in - praying, reflecting, and keep asking questions.
 
You might try an Ignatian retreat l, just a short one. The Exercises literally changed my life.
 
It is not a feeling, not an emotion, although both can be involved. Conversely, how many times have feelings and emotions lead us astray, or simply to make poor decisions? Coming to faith is an act of the Holy Spirit. Yet, the door must be open to Him.

It is a sober, reasoned conviction in your heart and soul. It is reason which leads you most of the way to belief - nearly all the way there, but faith must bridge the gap. If proof is absolute, it is not a faith.

Have you gone before our Lord yet? If not, it is no wonder that nothing has changed. Notice in the scriptures that our Lord made others come to Him? He was very close to them - even loved them - but he waited even for Martha and Mary to come to Him.

He made Lazarus come to Him! Now, as to the paralytics, the crippled and the demoniac in the tombs, He had to go to them. But you are only spiritually crippled. It is incumbent upon you to go to our Lord. He extends an open invitation.

This is a case in which you have nothing to lose that you haven’t already lost. You have only to gain from going to Him. “To him who has, more will be given. To him that has not, even that which he has shall be taken away.”

He is waiting for you.
 
Is Heaven a 'place?
Does Hell exist? What if someone kills a person, then repent, is she / he “saved”?
How can an omnipotent God allow bad things like Sandy Hook happen? Doesn’t seem like a kind loving God would allow this?

Does Catholicism say a person’s body is resurrected? Or the soul? Is the soul judged at time of death?
 
Heaven is a place… with God for eternity with no pain or suffering… hell is the opposite- no God, with pain and suffering…

The body is resurrected at the last judgment… how you behaved on earth with your body is how your judged…
 
Bad things happen on earth… earth isn’t heaven or utopia… that’s what heaven is for, a place we won’t die but live for ever in… dying is a “Passover” to heaven… by dying we enter a door to eternal life…

A murderer can be forgiven if he truly repents before death…
 
Sin comes from free-will of ourselves…
Our state of sin comes from the way we decide to use our free will…
 
I can’t help you on your religious journey. But this helps me a lot when I’m feeling the existential dread.

existentialcomics.com

Existential Cooking

A philosophy webcomic about the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world. Also Jokes
existentialcomics.com existentialcomics.com
 
@dmbarker have you thought about going to The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, It may help you be peaceful enough to seek the Lord.
 
There is much to be admired in Catholic tradition. Learning are about it can help your own choices. If in the end you know there is no God,you can know why we as humans wish there was a God, and how we have come to know what it is we wish he was.
 
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dmbarker said:
On a test, I can DEFINITELY KNOW what answer is correct. Maybe that’s a bad anology.

I just don’t feel ANYTHING. I’ve gone to church, I’ve read books and pamphlets. Nothing.
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Many of us have felt this way, or feel this way now. I am one of those who never get the warm fuzzy feelings people talk about. I am not sure why and yes it is unsettling but I do still pray daily.

You know what you are supposed to do, than do it. Pray like you were taught and take comfort in knowing with your head what you wish your heart knew. I tell my CCD students that they were all given the gift of faith at Baptism but if you don’t use the gift than it has no value. And I have been told that faith only increases when you give it away…like love…and hope…the more you share and give it to others, the more you will have.
 
This is a beautiful testament to Catholicism…and one I will print and read over and over. Thank you.
 
dmbarker said:
Does Catholicism say a person’s body is resurrected? Or the soul? Is the soul judged at time of death?
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According to Catholic teaching, a person’s body and soul are separated at the time of death, but only for a time. At the end of time, our body and soul will be reunited and we will spend the rest of eternity in heaven with glorified, resurrected bodies. In other words, we will still be human even in heaven. We don’t become angels (i.e. pure spirits).

Our individual judgment happens at the moment of death. The general judgment comes at the end of time.
dmbarker said:
How can an omnipotent God allow bad things like Sandy Hook happen? Doesn’t seem like a kind loving God would allow this?
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This is, indeed, one of the most difficult things for us to understand. Why do bad things happen to good people? If God is all knowing, he would know that something bad was going to happen. If God is all loving, he wouldn’t want something bad to happen. And if God is all powerful, then he would have the power to stop the bad thing from happening. These are the types of questions that kept me up at night.

Fundamentally, it comes down to free will. God made us free so that we could freely choose to love. Love that is coerced or forced is not really love. And if we have the capacity to choose to love, that means we have the capacity to choose against love and do evil things. If God always and everywhere protected all people from the consequences of the evil acts of themselves and others, then we wouldn’t really have full freedom.

It is still a very hard thing to come to terms with. And truly, I don’t think that we can understand it fully. It should grieve us to see such evil things happen. God permits the evil things to happen so that greater good can come of it. But we don’t always see how that happens. Generally, we can’t see the long game.

For me, it also helps to recognize that the entire concept of goodness makes little sense apart from God. Without a God who is Goodness itself, and who orders the universe, how can we even call any particular act “evil” (i.e. lacking in goodness)? If there is no God, on what basis can we say the mass murder of innocent people is wrong? Where do we get our measuring stick from?
 
I am still struggling with my purpose and purpose at all but before was agony now with God is a way better 🙂
 
Haha, ‘praying to get things’.

That alone would invalidate the entire purpose of life! Just as you can’t fathom faith, so to is it for me the other way round. I can’t fathom non-belief.

I’m sure it’s likely not intentional but you can’t make someone believe when they don’t want to. They call that dictatorship in most cases. Which isn’t God’s business.

You are right, some truths are difficult to see. Much of it is unlocked by point of view and will alone. But certainly not all.

Many people study scripture for those reasons at times. An alternate ‘explanation’. To the science they found wanting.

I’m a scientist, not much of an atheist however. So we are out there still!

If you prefer intellectual arguments look to the great apologists of our age. Some of their arguments have flaws, as all science does in fact, let alone philosophy. My point being, chances are something might catch your attention amongst the myriad of theories and research. You don’t have to agree with a specific point they make but it might just get you thinking more broadly and then something will click.

Some of my favourite professors at Oxford for Christian. Very few people as smart as them in the UK where I’m based. So perhaps a more scientific direction will help you.
 
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Depends on the study.
Now this is new-agey and probably all the studies involving how prayer affects the body physically is new-agey and involves ideas of “divine energies”. But it is an actual study of how prayer changes the physical capacities of the brain. The scientists here were not interested in religion, they were just curious. So it’s the case of some Christian scientists “hired by the Church”.

www.vice.com

How Prayer and Meditation Changes Your Brain

What's most important is doing something that has meaning to you.
www.vice.com www.vice.com
 
You are familiar with the theory of evolution correct? Do you believe it to be true? If one believes something to be true, but it can not be proved true, it could be called faith. I challenge my faith every in a while. And here’s what happens; 1) I realize how small and insignificant I really am. 2) I end up a little dazed at the wonder of it all. 3) I end up with a slight headache from trying to comprehend God. 4) I accept my faith as it is because I can’t fit God inside my head
Ok now for the meat and potatoes bad analogy aside. When I was sixteen I was on a confirmation retreat. I hadn’t picked a confirmation name yet and I was out of time, Submission was in two days. We were at eucuristic adoration, and I knelt there praying for what had seemed like a few hours, it had been less then an hour I think. Nothing, no hints, no clues, absolutely nothing. I felt abandoned. At that moment my heart cried out, not my mind, but something within; “Father, am I the only one who you won’t confirm into the faith? After all my suffering you abandon me? Has all of this been because you don’t want me?” (I was going through a lot at that time , abusive family members, being bullied at school, and at Scouts, I felt pretty much worthless, God was the only reason I hadn’t driven my K-bar through my heart or hung myself, and it wasn’t for the promise of salvation that I remained alive but for fear of hell. So can you attempt to understand how much this hurt? To feel abandoned by your only reason for existence and watch as those around you some of whom are your aggressors are brought into the fold and you are left standing at the threshold with a slamming door in your face?) ( crying as I write this, from remembering the pain) An instant of nothing but absolute dispair followed by an instantaneous “snap” of my faith breaking in its entirety. That’s when it happened, I was still on my knees when my faith broke, I found myself being pushed back and yet lowered into sitting on my heels. All of my senses were muffled for an instant niether time nor space affected me and one name went through my mind. a name I had scarcely heard before “Raphael” and in that instant (mind you all of this occurred nearly at once) I was filled with absolute peace and absolute terror as that name was spoken to me. And as my hind end reached my heels I cried and was ashamed of myself for being such a fool. And the role model of St. Raphael the Archangel fits me almost perfectly. I will always have room to improve. Almost a year later I was called on another retreat,during eucuristic exposition, to be a priest. I asked God, what do you want me to do(with my life, I.e. vocation, trade etc.)? He replied “Be my Priest”. I didn’t answer immediately, because Catholic Priests can’t marry. He called me again when I was 18, then at 19, and now at 20 i’ve run out of viable options. Seek Him and you will find Him. Ask him to show him self. But be accepting of the little ways he does it, such a call from a friend you haven’t heard from in years immediately after asking Him to show him self, or a book that was securely placed on a shelf suddenly finding its way to the floor. All you have to do is ask.
 
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