Should our faith affect how we feel?

[Sailboat]

Someone mentioned this on another thread, chastising that we shouldn’t expect to feel different, that our faith is not about our feelings. I’m just wondering why not? Why shouldn’t we have some change within ourselves and how we feel? If our faith doesn’t affect our heart and our feelings, is it real? The religious people on TV (non Catholics) seem to be emotionally affected by their faith. Maybe if we aren’t moved by our faith, then it isn’t genunine.

It does seem like alot of Catholics at church are unaffected by Mass and their faith. We walk out of Mass and hop in the car to go to the mall. But then this person said that we shouldn’t expect to feel good or better from our faith. Why not? We are humans like Jesus and he was affected by his faith. Look at the disciples at the Transfiguration, they were full of joy.

So I think that a living faith should move us emotionally. We should feel different after recieving communion or confession. Why not? Maybe because it’s not real to us? If it doesn’t affect our emotions how can it be real to us? Are we more affected by watching a movie? Our faith should affect us more than watching a movie, but instead it seems to often be automatic. I never seen anyone cry or laugh with joy in church.

 

[Birdysboy]

Interesting topic. Allow this “trying to be more sensitive male” to stumble through what he “feels”

When I think about faith and feelings, I think that the Holy Spirit sometimes leads us to do some things that we normally would not do. I think that it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between “feelings” and “Divine leadership”. When we have a well formed conscience, with an educated mind and a “prayed up” disposition, I think our faith may be more in tune with what “God’s feelings” are.

Relying on the “Feelings of God” sometimes is the crux of our faith, to believe that we should something because “it feels good” may in fact be the Holy Spirit telling us someting is ok/not ok.

I agree that a lot of people go to mass and are unmoved. I have a serious problem with that. I cry during the Kyrie, I feel a great burden relieved during the Gloria. I feel great after the Eucharist. I am sorry Mass is ended. I love God and love to go to God’s Mass. Those feelings must come from God. I am thankful for those feelings. Those are feelings based on faith. What did I do for that great blessing? Nothing. God has blessed me so much with those feelings.

However, at no time will the Holy Spirit lead us to do something that is sin. So we are still called to “right discerne the spirits”. We are still accountable for our decisions. So to say it’s ok to do something if it feels good is sin, which means missing the mark.

So how do we tell the difference? Prayer, prayer and more prayer is all I can tell you. God bless you in your searching for the “Feeling of God”.

 

[Verbum]

Hi Sailboat,

Faith is an act of the mind. It is the acceptance of certain truths. It can be accompanied with genuine feelings, but they are not of the essence. Mystics have written about the “long nights” when they were without “consolation”. They had not lost their faith, but the “feeling” was not there anymore.

Just as God took our human nature, so faith takes the shape of our individual natures. Some people are more “feely” than others. Some are hardly “feely” at all.

Finally, it would be a grave error to confuse emotion with faith. Protestants often do so, confusing trust, as a feeling, with faith and being “saved.”

Verbum

 

[Sailboat]

Alot of Protestants seem more on fire for the Lord than Catholics. The people at my church mostly appear to be going through the motions and not enthusiastic. The Evangelicals I know are more enthusiastic. Sometimes I feel a little jealous of them and how their church communities seem more alive. Alot of Catholics seem to be just fullfilling their Mass duty then out the door.

 

[Magicsilence]

Alot of Protestants seem more on fire for the Lord than Catholics. The people at my church mostly appear to be going through the motions and not enthusiastic. The Evangelicals I know are more enthusiastic. Sometimes I feel a little jealous of them and how their church communities seem more alive. Alot of Catholics seem to be just fullfilling their Mass duty then out the door.

What would you like them to do?

Stay in Church praying the whole day?

Most of these people have families that need to be looked after, clothes that need washing etc…

Peace and God Bless.

 

[FCEGM]

Alot of Protestants seem more on fire for the Lord than Catholics. The people at my church mostly appear to be going through the motions and not enthusiastic. The Evangelicals I know are more enthusiastic. Sometimes I feel a little jealous of them and how their church communities seem more alive. Alot of Catholics seem to be just fullfilling their Mass duty then out the door.

As Verbum has pointed out, the lack of consolation or lack of emotional feeling is not necessarily a sign of a lack of faith; thus we cannot (must not!) judge by appearances on the basis of either the seeming absence of emotion or an apparent abundance of emotion. Lack of emotion - expressed or otherwise -can be a stage of one’s spiritual development wherein one is becoming more mature in one’s faith; an exuberance of emotion conversely can signal immaturity of faith.

One of the chief aspects of passive purgation of the soul is God’s seeming drawing away from the soul that the soul may learn to love Him in pure faith (a la St. Therese of the Child Jesus) and not for the spiritual comforts He can give. The immoderate desire for sensible consolations is being purged through this purification. Not all will experience the same degree or length of this abandonment since each person has his own degrees of self-love and sensuality that must be purified. As St. John of the Cross counsels, the soul in its beginning walk with God is comforted and urged along with sensible consolations because of its weakness; as the soul is strengthened through fidelity to prayer and renunciation, then God begins to treat the soul as a parent does with a child that is ready for stronger food.

St. John of the Cross is very insistent that we wean ourselves from anything that can distract us from a life of faith. So these senses would fall into the “category” of “seeing”, not that of faith. This, from a modern-day Carmelite priest might help: “[St. John knows that] we humans are much inclined to pleasure and we spontaneously seek satisfaction in the noblest of our actions, spoiling in that way the purity of our intention. We do the same thing many times also in the love of God. In love we easily experience pleasure and if in the love of God this enjoyment of ours should form our motive, in the very same love of God we are seeking ourselves,” Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D…

IOW, we tend toward self-satisfaction even in trying to serve God. Thus the Saint urges us not to “accept” that overflowing into our physical senses lest we seek these sensations in prayer more than/or instead of seeking God and transformation in Him; they keep the soul from “soaring to the invisible”, as St. John puts it.

 

[FightingFat]

If God IS Love, then emotion has to be a part of our praise, surely?

I only have to read the passion and I’m crying!

 

[Magicsilence]

If God IS Love, then emotion has to be a part of our praise, surely?

I only have to read the passion and I’m crying!

Yes… but… emotion is a human term. It doesnt apply to God in the same sense.

 

[Sailboat]

But, Jesus was fully human and brought that aspect of humanity into the world and faith. The absence of an emotional response to God doesn’t seem to me a sign of the Holy Spirit working.

 

[MariaG]

But, Jesus was fully human and brought that aspect of humanity into the world and faith. The absence of an emotional response to God doesn’t seem to me a sign of the Holy Spirit working.

There were great Saints who never felt anything. Think about it. God commends those who believe and did not see. People who “feel” nothing yet persevere in faith are like those who believe even though they have not seen.

I feel blessed that I “feel” things. I cannot imagine having to walk forward every day without that “feeling” of reassurance that I get. But I also know that those of great faith are called to do just that. Walk forward in faith, even though they “feel” nothing.

For those of us who are given the “feeling”, it is hard to imagine anything else. But to assume that because there is no “feeling” that the Holy Spirit is not working in someones life is wrong.

Faith *can *bring feelings.

But Faith does not = Feelings. Nor does absence of feeling mean that the Holy Spirit is not present. God does not come to all in the same manner.

God Bless,
Maria

 

[FCEGM]

If God IS Love, then emotion has to be a part of our praise, surely?

I only have to read the passion and I’m crying!

Not necessarily. If you are familiar with the life of St. Therese of Lisieux, then you will know that most of her life in the Carmelite monastery was one bereft of emotional highs; in fact, her life sometimes bordered on despair, as she herself writes. Yet the intensity of her love for God brought her to the offering of herself as a victim, not of His justice, but of His love. She was well-schooled in Catholic spirituality (especially through the writings of St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church) and so knew that it was faith, not feelings, that saves. She didn’t confuse emotional feelings (or lack of same) with the depth of the love she had for God, and neither should we judge the depth of our own love for Him if emotions either overwhelm us or seem to have abandoned us.

 

[fix]

1768 Strong feelings are not decisive for the morality or the holiness of persons; they are simply the inexhaustible reservoir of images and affections in which the moral life is expressed. Passions are morally good when they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case. The upright will orders the movements of the senses it appropriates to the good and to beatitude; an evil will succumbs to disordered passions and exacerbates them. Emotions and feelings can be taken up into the virtues or perverted by the vices.

1769 In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit himself accomplishes his work by mobilizing the whole being, with all its sorrows, fears and sadness, as is visible in the Lord’s agony and passion. In Christ human feelings are able to reach their consummation in charity and divine beatitude.

 

[Della]

But, Jesus was fully human and brought that aspect of humanity into the world and faith. The absence of an emotional response to God doesn’t seem to me a sign of the Holy Spirit working.

A good way of putting it, and the crux of the problem. What “seems to me” isn’t what may seem to God or to others. Yes?

A lot of Catholics may not throw their hands in the air and shout, but they carry away from Mass the graces of the Mass, which are far more important than having had “feelings” during Mass, although there is nothing wrong with having had such feelings. What is a bad thing is relying on our feelings to tell us if God is doing anything in our lives or not.

As to Jesus’ humanity, you may have noticed that no where in the NT does it tell us that Jesus laughed or even smiled, and yet we know he must have done those things, as well as cry. It’s simply not necessary to our faith to “feel good” after having received any sacrament, or listening to any sermon/homily, or in prayer.

We cannot judge others by what we think is going on inside. Nor can we judge the validity of any faith system based on how it makes us feel. Feelings are less than secondary–they may come and they may not, but they are not necessary to salvation nor to spiritual growth.

 

[Sailboat]

That may be so or it may just be an excuse for the lack of visable fruits of joy in Catholic believers. Thanks Fix for the citation, although I wish the Catechism wouldn’t use such ornate and roundabout language. So, the Holy Spirit DOES work through our emotions! However, it seems to be warning us that strong emotions aren’t always from the Holy Spirit.

I do tend to believe that some of our Protestant Brethren are more tuned into the Holy Spirit. They seem more unfettered to move with the Spirit than us Catholics.

 

[Sailboat]

As far as not judging others by what we see, what else are we supposed to go by? The Bible says that faith without works is dead. There has to be some visable fruit to our faith. I often don’t see it within my church. Alot of people just show up for Mass and then go on to live lives not much different than agostics and atheists. Jesus said that even taxcollectors do this or that, I forget where the passage is, but I think he was saying that even taxcollecters bury their dead and mourn for them, and things like that, that we shouldn’t think we’re special because we do ordinary human things.

 

[MariaG]

That may be so or it may just be an excuse for the lack of visable fruits of joy in Catholic believers.

As far as not judging others by what we see, what else are we supposed to go by. The Bible says that faith without works is dead. There has to be some visable fruit to our faith. I often don’t see it within my church. Alot of people just show up for Mass and then go on to live lives not much different than agostics and atheists. Jesus said that even taxcollectors do this or that, I forget where the passage is, but I think he was saying that even taxcollecters bury their dead and mourn for thems, that we shouldn’t think we’re special because we do ordinary human things.

These are two different issues here.

Not all will have “visible” joy as a fruit of the spirit. But there were great many Saints who “felt” nothing and had much “fruit”.

But there certainly are those who appear to “feel” nothing nor have fruit in other ways either.

The Weeds and wheat are supposed to grow together. One of the biggest differences between many Protestants and Catholics is that when Protestants lose faith, they just stop going. So what is left are those who truly love God. In the Catholic Church you get some who only come out of obligation, but they still come.

But you are mixing up two different issues here. (Actually, I did not notice that you had combined these two in your first post)

One is the title of your thread, should our faith affect how we feel. The answer to that is “not always”.

But the other issue is should our faith affect what we do. And the answer to that one is “ALWAYS”.

God Bless,
Maria

 

[rwoehmke]

Seems to me many of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit listed by Paul in Galations 5 are emotions and not intellectual higiras. The fruits of the flesh also appear to be strongly emotional. Being human beings I am not surprised that not a few Catholics leave the Catholic Faith for the “feel good” churches.

 

[MariaG]

I think this is one of the reasons that Protestants misunderstand that Catholics think they can work our way to heaven.

Some segments of Protestants have such a reliance on an inward change in feeling that “naturally” produces works.

But in the Catholic Church we actually are more biblical. It is like the story of the two sons who the Father asked to go work in the field. One happily said yes but didn’t do it. The other said no but later went out to do it.

One does not have to “feel” good about it to do the Father’s will. As long as the reason we do it is because we know it is the Father’s will, we can then ask for an attitude to match the actions, but we are still doing the Father’s will when we do things we don’t “feel” like doing.

Good works or “fruit” are not natural occurances from an inward change. They are choices to continue to follow Christ, doing the Father’s will. The more we accept the grace to do these things, the more natural they become.

God Bless,
Maria

 

[mystified]

If one’s faith is real, emotions can be a part of it, but not “feeling” does not indicate lack of faith.
I usually feel “lifted” after going to confession. In the Mass, there is sometimes a “soaring” sensation at the Gloria, and a sense of unworthiness and humility after receiving the Body and Blood of Christ.
That said, I sometimes leave Mass where the strident guitars and singers who seems to be entertaining themselves, or a priest who skips portions of the liturgy and dances around the church while presenting a homily from somewhere in left filed, wondering if I’ve even been at Mass…I feel nothing or am irritable. Last week I walked out of our diocesan cathedral before Mass with a headache because the “music” was almost deafening. It was so loud that the padded kneeler was vibrating. I understand English, Spanish and a little liturgical Latin that hasn’t left me, but I could not understand a word the group beside to the altar was singing.
I guess I was emotionally upset along with the headache. There are good emotions and those that are not.

 

[Sailboat]

So, if the more emotional people leave, it leaves our Church feeling even more dry and desolate. I’ve noticed here on Catholic Answers that people tend to be critical of expressive faith. There have been long thread critisizing hand holding, putting your hands up in the air, and other things that more emotionally expressive like to do to praise God. It’s frowned on to express joy in Church and seems to make alot of people nervous. Our church definately doesn’t encourage it, so people go elsewhere.