Scrupulosity Support

  • Thread starter Thread starter melissa09
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
nahbios said:
I thought it was OCD even before you said it. :o I live with the same disorder. It makes saying prayers difficult sometimes, and I find the examination of conscience difficult too. It is tempting not to go through my examination of conscience too thoroughly, and then I worry about how well I’ve done it and if I’ve left anything out. I generally say in confession something along the lines of, “And for any sins that I’ve forgotten that I need to confess, I am sorry.”

I’m so glad your doctor was good to you. I believe it’s very important to have an empathetic doctor, particularly in cases concerning religion and faith. 🙂
Click to expand...
You said it, you would not believe the relief I have now…I can`t believe how long I put off getting help…knowing how normal I feel now!

🙂
 
God isn’t going to send people to Hell if they are truly sorry for their sins.
Click to expand...
I too deal with scrupulosity myself:o

I’m not sure why, but i felt i should mention perfect and imperfect contrition.

It is my understanding that only perfect contrition can take away the eternal punishment of hell, should someone in mortal sin die before confession.

Is this true? does the catechism say this?
 
S_V7 said:
I too deal with scrupulosity myself:o

I’m not sure why, but i felt i should mention perfect and imperfect contrition.

It is my understanding that only perfect contrition can take away the eternal punishment of hell, should someone in mortal sin die before confession.

Is this true? does the catechism say this?
Click to expand...
From here, I found the teaching of the Catechism. Here it is…

1453 The contrition called “imperfect” (or “attrition”) is also a gift of God, a prompting of the Holy Spirit. It is born of the consideration of sin’s ugliness or the fear of eternal damnation and the other penalties threatening the sinner (contrition of fear). Such a stirring of conscience can initiate an interior process which, under the prompting of grace, will be brought to completion by sacramental absolution. By itself however, imperfect contrition cannot obtain the forgiveness of grave sins, but it disposes one to obtain forgiveness in the sacrament of Penance.

Italics are my own. So, yes, I think that perfect contrition is what is needed if one was to die before Confession.

This is one of the reasons why it’s so important to avoid mortal sin. I worry about it myself. What I have found is that prayer to God for the grace of perfect contrition can help to move one towards perfect love for God and therefore perfect contrition.

I feel terrible because of the wrongness of grave sins that I have committed and need to confess. I’m not sure that that’s perfect contrition as understood in your links, SV_7 (i.e. perfect and imperfect contrition). I guess the way to be safe from anxiety is to confess these sins as the Church teaches, to avoid the occasion of such sins, to do our best with God’s Grace not to sin again (at least not so gravely), and to trust in God.
 
I am also a bit scrupulous. I am not afraid of eternal punishment, because I know that God is mercy, and some quotes from the Bible have helped me a lot (I’ll write them down latter), but I used to be afraid of getting to Purgatory. I can’t understand how can somebody say calmly: It seems I’m going to get to Purgatory and stay there for some time and suffer a bit, and then go to Heaven.
So in a period of my life I was very afraid of God’s punishment. I couldn’t understand why everybody was saying that God is so merciful, if He would make us suffer more than we could ever suffer in this Earth. I saw my weakness and I saw that I can’t do anything about it! I saw that I can’t change by myself.
The reason why I was so afraid was my proud and self-confidence. I wanted to do everything by myself, so when God showed me that I alone can do nothing and that I am so poor and powerless, I got afraid. It lasted for a while. I searched on internet a lot in hope that I will find just one article that would say to me: Do not be afraid of Purgatory! God wants you in Heaven, He loves you!
And God showed me His mercy. I found a great article on Internet! When I saw its title, I knew that was it. Teaching of St. Therese of Lisieux on Purgatory
franciscan-sfo.org/ap/litfwrpu.htm
Please never be afraid of your weakness, dear brothers and sisters! If God wanted you to go to Hell, then He wouldn’t come to die for you! You know what St Paul says?
"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32
Don’t be so afraid of the good God! Everything we have, even our trust, is a gift from Him. Now you probably think that God maybe doesn’t love you so much as the others, and that He doesn’t want to give you those gifts. But if He only had to save you and nobody else, He would still come and die in those terrible tortures out of love for you!
You know what Jesus said? “So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.” Luke 12:32
Jesus loves you. God is first our Father, then our Judge. He judges us only when we make Him to. We make Him judge us when we don’t trust His mercy. He said to St Faustina: “My daughter, My pleasure and delight, nothing will stop Me from granting you graces. Your misery does not hinder My mercy. My daughter, write that the greater the misery of a soul, the greater its right to My mercy; [urge] all souls to trust in the unfathomable abyss of My mercy, because I want to save them all. On the cross, the fountain of My mercy was opened wide by the lance for all souls-no one have I excluded!” Diary of St Faustina, 1182
My advice for the scrupulous persons are to read Story of a Soul. Read it slowly, let those words penetrate your souls. One priest I know once said that the more we read books written by saints, the more we become like them. I noticed that at myself, too. The more I’ve read books that talk about God’s mercy, like Story of a Soul, the more I trusted in Lord’s mercy.

I would also suggest you to avoid books like Confessions of St Augustine, books by Teresa of Avila and Bridget of Sweden and other books written by mystics. I don’t say that those books are bad or harmful for all people - of course they are not! They are written by saints so they can’t be bad. The reason why you shouldn’t read them is because your conscience is too soft and then Satan uses good books to make you more scrupulous. He makes completely normal sentances look like God’s wrath on you. I experienced this by myself. For example, one person can read a verse from the Bible, and see God’s mercy in it very very strong. But another, scrupulous person will not see the real side and meaning of this verse, but will interpret it in completely other way.
 
I suggest you also to think like this: God’s mercy is real, He really loves me and will give me everything I long for, I can’t see that right now because He has hidden His mercy behind a curtain. But now I will, out of love for Him, handle this pain I have to endure, in hope that one day all the pain will dissapear and I will be united to Him forever!

“The soul will receive from God exactly what she desires”, said St. Therese. Trust that you will recieve everything you desire!
I know that it is hard, because scrupulosity actually comes from Satan, and it can be a real battle for a soul. I am only a bit scrupulous, and still I feel terrible when I stuck again in that feeling. But fight, pray (especially pray to Mary), and trust!
Trust is the only thing that will lead you to Heaven!
I also suggest you to read Romans in Bible! They talk a lot about our weakness and inability to deserve Heaven. You can’t deserve Heaven, you get it by God’s mercy. Know that if you want to do God’s will completely, if you at least try and if you have great trust in God’s mercy, not only you will not go to Hell, but you will not go to Purgatory, too! That is the only thing that makes a person saint! When a soul trusts and when it tries to do good, God does everything else in a soul. Just commit yourself to God and let Him do everything He wants with you.

Here are some great and helpful parts of Bible:
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20
“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” Romans 8:14-25
If st Paul said that he is carnal and that he does what he hates, and he was a SAINT, that is the proff that we don’t need to be perfect, but just to try as hard as we can and trust.

I hope that this long reply of mine will help somebody who is in struggle with scrupulosity.

God bless you all, my dear brothers and sisters!
 
Get a regular confessor. Such is very important for you.

Form your conscience with his help…and good sources like the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of the Catechism etc

As for scruples (your confessor can help you see what is a scruple and what is not)

Scruples are to be dismissed.

As a Carthusian put it centuries ago…scruples are to be treated like a barking dog…or hisssing goose…one does not stop to argue with a barking dog or a hissing goose does one? No…one keeps walking…

When scruples arise turn to God and let them pass by…

And of course remember that Jesus of Nazareth is the Good Shepherd…he loves you…trust in that love…and hold fast to him…he is your anchor …your hope 🙂

May Mary the Star of Hope also help light your way …
 
I really like the barking dog/hissing goose image.
And often it is so that if we stop and start arguing with the scruple and thinking about it, then it takes hold, and becomes stronger… when we just push it away before we think any deeper about it, then it may just fly away like a bird, not to return…
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top