Temptations of doubt

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Monica4316

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I haven’t had temptations to doubt the faith in a long time, but yesterday I was really tempted to no longer believe in Christianity, and today I was tempted to not believe in the Eucharist 😦 rather, it’s like I begin feeling that it’s all untrue, but I still try to hold on to it in my will. This was really difficult but it helped praying the Hail Mary. It was like believing through the will alone, while feeling the opposite, and I couldn’t seem to find God.

I was just wondering, why could this happen to a person? Could it be a test, or demonic attack, etc? I don’t regularly go through doubt regarding Christianity or the Eucharist. Those are two things that I really believe.

thanks!
 
Dear Sis Monica, God bless you…We have an enemy that wants to steal kill and destroy. The Lord left us armor/tools in Eph.6. Remember the mind is a great battlefield
for the enemy which he uses constantly with our thought life. Resist him and he will flee.
We do that by bringing our thought life into the obedience of Christ…We replace doubt/fear with
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6(NASB)

“Now the God of peace, make you perfect in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be the glory for ever and ever.”

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3)

Great peace to you dear Sister Monica beloved by our Lord…
 
I think i know what you mean, but one thing that helps me when it comes to those feelings is to know that Belief is more intellectual, discerning and reasoning the truth. Then faith is an act of the will by the Grace of God to trust Him. Other then that it was just praying through it, finding apologetic resources, talking about it with other people; that sort of stuff.

I had it explained to me as like fighting gravity, if you can stand up to it and fight the fight in something difficult with Gods Grace to help then people will notice.
 
Monica4316 said:
I haven’t had temptations to doubt the faith in a long time, but yesterday I was really tempted to no longer believe in Christianity, and today I was tempted to not believe in the Eucharist 😦 rather, it’s like I begin feeling that it’s all untrue, but I still try to hold on to it in my will. This was really difficult but it helped praying the Hail Mary. It was like believing through the will alone, while feeling the opposite, and I couldn’t seem to find God.

I was just wondering, why could this happen to a person? Could it be a test, or demonic attack, etc? I don’t regularly go through doubt regarding Christianity or the Eucharist. Those are two things that I really believe.

thanks!
Click to expand...
I am like this sometimes. I was at Evening Prayer last night at the seminary, and one of the priests gave a homily about the time he was about to be ordained a transitional deacon. He was all stressed out and said how he listened to the demons of doubt, fear, and anxiety. He was in Rome for his ordination, and he happened to go to this museum a day before with his family. He was all stressed out to the point where he was shaking. He came across this painting by a famous artist, and it depicted a king sitting on a throne who was listening to these manifested voices of lust, fear, doubt, anxiety, anger, etc. and then there was a naked woman - “truth” who was pointing to Heaven. The moral of the story is that he was that king listening to all those demons trying to feed him lies. The thing is that we cannot let ourselves listen to those demons. God leads us to the truth, and that truth also lies within the Eucharist. Satan HATES the Eucharist since it is completely Jesus. The Eucharist makes us more like Jesus, but since Satan doesn’t want us to be more like Jesus, he will try to tear you away from the Eucharist and make you think, “Oh, there’s no way Jesus is in that.”

Satan does put you to the test, but it will only make you stronger through the grace of God.

I love this quote from St. Therese, the Little Flower: “Do you realize that Jesus is there in the tabernacle expressly for you - for you alone? He burns with the desire to come into your heart…don’t listen to the demon, laugh at him, and go without fear to receive the Jesus of peace and love…”
 
Monica4316 said:
I haven’t had temptations to doubt the faith in a long time, but yesterday I was really tempted to no longer believe in Christianity, and today I was tempted to not believe in the Eucharist 😦 rather, it’s like I begin feeling that it’s all untrue, but I still try to hold on to it in my will. This was really difficult but it helped praying the Hail Mary. It was like believing through the will alone, while feeling the opposite, and I couldn’t seem to find God.

I was just wondering, why could this happen to a person? Could it be a test, or demonic attack, etc? I don’t regularly go through doubt regarding Christianity or the Eucharist. Those are two things that I really believe.

thanks!
Click to expand...
doubts are not bad.
 
Are there any reasons you are doubting the two. If you don’t want to stop believing then why are you? If there is a particular question you need answered we’re here for you. But no matter what, don’t give up and know that you are in our prayers 👍
 
Thank you everyone 🙂

I don’t have any intellectual disagreements with Christianity… I believe every dogma of the Church that I know about… I have no idea where that temptation came from. It wasn’t intellectual, it was just a feeling, out of nowhere. It was similar with the Eucharist… I did have some difficulty figuring out if the Novus Ordo Mass has the Real Presence after speaking to sedevacantists, - but I came to believe that it does.
 
There can be all sorts of reasons, including particular periods in the spiritual life for ones purification etc.

Catechism:

Faith and understanding

156 What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe “because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived”.28 So "that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit."29 Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church’s growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability “are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all”; they are “motives of credibility” (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is “by no means a blind impulse of the mind”.30

157 Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but "the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives."31 "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt."32

vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__PX.HTM

Also remember that there is a difference between “voluntary doubt” and “involuntary doubt” --This is what the CCC says of that latter:

“Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity.”

Temptations against Faith can come …the best way to fight against such is more by flight then by fight. (such is the age old advice).

And the great Catholic Philosopher Josef Pieper noted sometimes one has to even to simply stand fast as a kind of martyr in silence holding fast to ones Faith…in the midst of temptations against faith…even in the the midstof ones own involuntary feelings or thoughts --that assail one like arrows…(not consenting).

or as St. Therese did… simply say or write “Credo” (I believe).

Or silently make the sign of the cross…(as ones profession).

Hold fast to Jesus of Nazareth
 
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