Novenas and scrupulousity

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I suffer from OCD. On sunday I started the Novena to our lady of good success. Yesterday, before starting the Novena for the day, I started having some Scrupulous feelings. After saying the Novena for the day I realized that any thought that makes me question my faith must be wrong, and that my feelings were most likely the devil trying to get me to give up. Will Mary and the saints still hear me in spite of my scrupulosity? Please help me, I would really like someone’s opinion on this because it is stressing me out.
 
Hi,
I also have OCD and scrupulosity. The Lord knows your heart, and knows that you don’t mean or want these thoughts. That being said, they cause you anxiety (I can relate). Trust in His mercy, say something like “Lord, you know I don’t mean or want these thoughts. I offer them up to you, and now let them go” Also don’t continue to do this, just ignore the thoughts/doubts as best as you can, it’s VERY tough I know.

By the way, I just started a group for people with OCD/scrupulosity, maybe you’d like to join?

God Bless
Kevin
 
Scrupulosity is not a sin - it is in your case directly related to and part of your Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Neither your OCD thoughts nor your scrupulous thoughts (which are also OCD, but of a different type of obsessive/compulsiveness) are of the devil. They are part of a very real illness, not supernatural in origin.

I have ADD and have had depression in the past - when in its grip I experienced some fairly grim thoughts, but these were not supernatural in origin nor of the devil - just a product of my illness.
 
I suffer from OCD. On sunday I started the Novena to our lady of good success. Yesterday, before starting the Novena for the day, I started having some Scrupulous feelings. After saying the Novena for the day I realized that any thought that makes me question my faith must be wrong, and that my feelings were most likely the devil trying to get me to give up. Will Mary and the saints still hear me in spite of my scrupulosity? Please help me, I would really like someone’s opinion on this because it is stressing me out.
jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2005/04/a_crown_of_thor.html?cid=118867622

Mary etc hears you… loves you for you are a son of God in Jesus Christ

and she loves you like a mother…

resist your scruples. act against them.

while scruples do not per se = ocd you said you have both…so you know what they are…now treat them as such.

scruples are to be ignored and passed by …like you would a barking dog…one does not stop to talk or argue with a barking dog does one? no they keep walking and going about their business…
 
I suffer from OCD. On sunday I started the Novena to our lady of good success. Yesterday, before starting the Novena for the day, I started having some Scrupulous feelings. After saying the Novena for the day I realized that any thought that makes me question my faith must be wrong, and that my feelings were most likely the devil trying to get me to give up. Will Mary and the saints still hear me in spite of my scrupulosity? Please help me, I would really like someone’s opinion on this because it is stressing me out.
they love you and will hear you regardless 🙂
 
Is having second thoughts about something, then realizing that deep down inside you really really do want it normal?
 
Is having second thoughts about something, then realizing that deep down inside you really really do want it normal?
Depends on the importance of the thing you’re having second thoughts about, and other factors as well.

If I go to a restaurant, spend half an hour poring over the menu trying to decide what to eat (when there are only three or four options), then finally make a choice, then spend another half an hour after the food has arrived thinking about how anything and everything else on the menu might have been better - no, that’s not normal.

A decision on what to eat is low on the scale of importance, and isn’t worth wasting that much energy on, especially when you’ve only got a handful of options anyway. And it’s not really like you can change your mind once the food’s arrived anyway.

If I’m considering a college to go to, or a man to marry, obviously there’s a lot more room for reasonable uncertainty and second thoughts. Where it gets to be a problem, and possibly abnormal, is where you’re SO unsure that you can’t even make a decision yay or nay.

For example, if you spend so much time dithering about what college(s) to apply for that you end up missing the application deadlines for ALL of them. Or you spend a semester each in four different colleges, one after the other, because you can’t settle on any one of them.

In a lot of circumstances in life, commitment to a decision, once made, is far more important than making the absolutely “perfect” decision in the first place - in fact there’s often no such thing as the “perfect” decision! Try to gently push aside thoughts of the grass being greener elsewhere once you’ve chosen your paddock.
 
What about temporary feelings of doubt? Can they effect Novenas?
 
What about temporary feelings of doubt? Can they effect Novenas?
Nope.

Think of it this way - if I ask my earthly father for some favour, say the keys to the car, while at the same time doubting that he will agree to give them to me - my doubts don’t in the slightest affect whether he will listen to me and agree with my request.

Temporary doubts while praying or asking for favours are a natural part of our dealings with God and our fellow man. Such doubts happen simply because we know our limitations - we know that what we ask for might not be God’s will, and might not always be possible for other people to do for us.
 
Basically, here’s what happened:

On day 2 of the Novena, before saying it for the day, I started thinking about my request and got kind of nervous about it realizing that it would require me to go outside my comfort zone a little (related to social anxiety). My OCD made me question weather or not I really wanted it. I knew in my heart that I still really wanted it, but the whole experience kind of “blew a fuse” in my brain, making me wonder if the saints would still hear me despite my pondering. Just now, I started thinking about how important it was to me, and realized that I still really really wanted it.
 
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