Today I decided I will no longer identify as Catholic

[TheIttyBitty]

Random Supernatural side bar (feel free to disbelieve):

I want to take one thing back, while I couldn’t likely verify much, I searched out a priest’s name from a locution. Then my fiancé had discovered priests that are able to marry locally to him in English, and the person had same name, same spelling, as in my locution. Since I said the name before my fiancé, his jaw dropped, and he asked how I could possibly know that…the name is unlikely for that country, as it’s foreign.

I showed my search history from the day or two prior to that.

But then, that priest had hoops set so high that my current local parish wouldn’t hurdle over, so we decided on a different priest entirely. And I still ponder if I’ll be smote on my wedding day…

So there are some things that could possibly be verified, I’m sure, but it gets weird I think. It is worth it to use the gifts God gives us, in whatever manner intended, and that may require a great deal of prayer and meditation.

 

[Nononony]

Yes, that is very likely what will happen. I feel like it’s what I’ve been living now anyway. I mean, I’m already not going to Mass… but I do participate in a bible study with a group of Catholics. When I pray a “standardized” prayer (not sure what word to use there…) it’s a Catholic prayer. It really is the incongruence between my experiences and beliefs and what the organization says about them that I struggle with. I adore and live the message of Jesus.

 

[Nononony]

(name removed by moderator) - Thank you for the many links!

Obviously I am not going to go to a Catholic priest and tell him I believe in reincarnation and expect him to speak to me further, which is why I’ve never done it. But I’ve still never found one who would discuss the things that happen with me.

The messages aren’t anything fearful or bad. And they’re not from the dead people… they are about the living. The dead people mostly show up, I pray for them and they are gone. The messages are to pray for so and so… or to turn this way instead of going straight, which results in avoiding an accident… It’s the vibration I’ll feel in my heart right before a car t-bones the car in front of me in an intersection… it’s the warm feeling I got in the center of my body when the person who prayed the Our Father for me in this post prayed the Our Father and I knew someone was praying for me before the post was posted… it’s the thoughts I experience about someone that let me know difficult details of their life which they’ve never shared but subsequently come up in conversation the next time we meet… it’s a feeling in my heart that tells me the person who just popped into my head is feeling crushed and then the thought in my mind of what I’ll need to be prepared to talk to them about… even when they’re all the way across the country and we haven’t spoken in months. It’s music I hear in the air when someone who is exceptionally holy died. It’s the knowledge in September of 2019 that 2020 was going to be rough and to buy a deep freezer and a cow and toilet paper.

None of those things sound like a big deal. I realize it’s not special. It’s probably much more common than we know because people don’t discuss it, but there have been some extreme cases of things like this that I would like to discuss with priest. Things I won’t talk about here, but that deal with prayer for a person and warm heat running through the center of my body and out of my head.

Is that spiritual warfare? Because I don’t feel like I’m at war. I feel like I’m being asked to help.

This is actually separate from the issue at hand. The actual issue is that I believe in things that the church does not teach. And if I can’t conform myself to those beliefs I can’t go around saying I’m Catholic when I’m not. I believe in reincarnation. If that is not congruent with the teachings of the church… if it is an untruth… then I am lying to everyone I might ever tell I’m Catholic.

I know someone will tell me I’m scrupulous, but I’m really not. It’s just very important to me that I not lie about what I am, and I don’t think I’m Catholic.

Anyway, I have no idea what your level of knowledge is… so I don’t want to put you in a tough spot, but does what I described sound like spiritual warfare? Because it doesn’t feel like it… it feels like a… job or something. That is what I want to discuss with a priest, but can’t find a willing participant.

 

[Nononony]

Thank you Lara, yes, I understand it is not about me. I think my reply to (name removed by moderator) will help you understand where I’m coming from, if you care to read it. The people in my real life that I discuss these things with would tell you I am quite humble. I realize that saying you’re humble does’t exactly imply the statement’s truth… but it is what they say. I don’t know.

I don’t want lauding or recognition for these things, I would like to have a mind to mind intellectual conversation with someone who is educated in these issues so I might understand. But when I try to find that I am told to stop differentiating myself and that I’m not special. So I stopped talking about it… but in my years I have experienced a few things that are just completely unbelievable, and I would like to discuss those things with someone who would have both spiritual insight and the ability to hear my story without assuming I’m being an egomaniac.

Perhaps this issue is my cross. Who can say. But it’s not even the issue at hand. The issue at hand is that if I believe in reincarnation, which I do, I am not Catholic because it’s incongruent… and that means I am lying to everyone I ever tell I’m Catholic. So no, it’s not some new age thing about being the best version of myself… (dislike that phrase and notion) it’s about not lying to God and others about who or what I am.

 

[Nononony]

Hi! Yes, I’m quite familiar with Jimmy Akin. I used to have a long commute and enjoyed Catholic radio to and from work. I’ve not heard this pod cast though. Only about it. And then I forgot… ha! Thank you!

 

[Nononony]

Hi Lucy -

Yes, I’ve never fit anywhere! I don’t anticipate I ever will, and I just think it’s one of the lessons of my life. The crux of the issue isn’t the sensitivity or the experiences. It’s that when I tell people I’m Catholic it’s a lie. And I don’t want to spend my whole life lying to people. I say it’s a lie because, while I do follow Jesus, I don’t agree with major fundamental aspects of the church teaching, reincarnation being the major one. Reincarnation causes a lot of problems with the teachings on the divinity of Jesus, I’m not saying I doubt that… it’s a rabbit hole and it’s the middle of the night so I’m glossing, but I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this… anyway, until I can find myself in agreement with this issue I am lying to anyone I tell that I’m Catholic. I’ve never lived my truth in that realm, so it feels important to live authentically and perhaps later I will learn differently.

As for prayer, I dedicate 45 minutes to prayer every morning before I start my day. Sometimes I’ll do ready-made prayers, but sometimes I’ll just talk. Sometimes I’ll journal. Sometimes I’ll just sit and see what happens. Also spend a lot of time in silence, sometimes up to six hours a day, during which God will sometimes “speak” to me. I do the occasional rosary or novena if there is something pressing going on. And recently I was guided to a method of emotional clearing (the one with the magnet) first through my very Catholic aunt and then my friend who is a psychologist who both reported that using the method had improved their lives exponentially. So I’ve been doing some of that during the prayer time as well. Often times I will pray in the evening too before bed, but sometimes that falls to other demands. I used to have an hour of adoration in the local church, but time demands got the best of that.

In April of this year I was “told” to pray “Dear God, please arrange circumstances that result in the most freedom and the least slavery” and to do it regularly, so I’ve been doing that. I don’t totally understand what it means.

I pretty much talk to God through-ought the day as I pray for others, ask for clarification of what I’m “getting” or run into difficulties.

 

[Margaret_Ann]

It’s one thing when you feel that the Poor Souls in Purgatory are asking for your prayers. Reincarnation is NOT the same thing. St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews writes: “It is appointed for men to die once, and after that the judgement.” (I’m going by memory so I hope I quoted that correctly.)

You and I seem to be kindred spirits because something similar happens to me when people are dying. Occasionally I find myself singing the propers from Panakhyda or Good Friday just out of the blue. I also pray for all the dying, especially those who are in danger of dying in mortal sin during the night or day. Yesterday I found out that the aunt of one of my coworkers died.

Conversely, when I forget to pray for the deceased it seems that God does not want me to pray for the dying for some reason. Remember in Genesis 18: 17-33 when Abraham begged the Lord to spare Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord said that He would spare Sodom and Gomorrah if 50, then 45, then 40, then 30, then 20 and down to 10 people were found in them. After 10 He disappeared (v. 33) Now if Abraham had asked the Lord to spare those cities if 5 just people had been found in them (which he didn’t), those cities never would been destroyed because Lot, his wife and daughters (5 people) were in Sodom. So the Lord disappeared.

If I had prayed for the dying that night/day, maybe God in His mercy would have granted them the grace of perfect contrition for their sins so they could be saved. Or maybe He wanted someone else to pray for them - I don’t know.

What I do know is that this happens especially in my family. When my one uncle was dying, I was praying for him every day. The night he died, I fell asleep during prayers and forgot to pray for him. A few hours later (about 2 a.m.), my aunt called to tell me that he died. I asked her if he was wearing the Brown Scapular and she said yes.

This past March, my mom’s oldest sister (She was 96) passed away. Again, I had been praying for her but forgot to pray for her the night she passed away (and she died in her sleep without the sacraments in a Catholic nursing home).

On a similar note, sometimes I think of people (oh I haven’t seen so-and-so in a while…) and then they either call me or I see them in person!

And to top it all off, my mom was the same way. About 40 years ago, she woke up horrified because she had a bad dream. She was in a church that was burning and full of smoke. She tried to get out and suddenly woke up. My father comforted her and told her it was a bad dream. That morning, my father’s best friend called up and asked him if he heard the news. What news? my dad replied. St. Jude’s burned down (click on “Parish Directory and History”: St. Jude Church and Shrine | Welcome! | Chalfont, PA for the story).

Cont’d in next post

 

[Margaret_Ann]

Pt. 2

My mom was horrified. Here she had a dream about a church burning down and it happened! Now most people would say that’s coincidence but mom didn’t take it that way. She was scared to death.

I think I have the same gift as my mother but neither of us ever had a priest guide us as to how to use it (if it IS a gift of God and not our own intuition).

PLEASE don’t leave the Church. The Catholic Church is not just an earthly organization; it is the Mystical Body of Christ. Read 1 Cor. 12, esp. v. 25-26. Your leaving the Church does not just hurt you - it hurts me, all your friends here at CAF and the entire Church. As St. Augustine (whose feast was yesterday) said: “If I step on your foot, it is your tongue which cries out. I did not do a single thing to your tongue; I stepped on your foot.” We may be the smallest members of the Mystical Body of Christ but what we do affects the entire Church.

Most of all, 1) pray, asking God to help you understand what the Church teaches, 2) read the Catechism and learn WHY the Church teaches that reincarnation is false, 3) talk to your priest and ask him to help you prepare to make a good confession.

It’s going for 2 a.m. over here & I’m way past my bedtime. Please, please, PLEASE pray and think about what we’ve posted trying to help you. Sending you a virtual hug. Good night!

P.S. Pray to St. Michael & your Guardian Angel to help you too!

 

[Tota_Tua1]

Firstly, I am sorry to read of your difficulties and assure you of my prayers for you, that you become what God wants you to be.

I don’t understand your last sentence: you say you “adore and live the message of Jesus” yet you no longer go to Holy Mass (or Confession?) so deny yourself the graces of the Sacraments and the salvific reception of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
How can you adore Him and live His message if you don’t receive His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, nor hear the teachings of Holy Mother Church?
Please be clear that this is not to be taken as an attack on you. I really don’t understand.

Many good books etc have been recommended to you and I will add one more in addition, of course, to the Bible: “The Screwtape Letters” by C S Lewis.

I also heartily commend you to the protection of Saint Michael and to our Holy Father Saint Benedict, imploring their aid for you, to let you have a ‘clear thinking space’ as you try to work your way through this tangled web and back to the loving arms of Our Lord in the Church instituted by Him.

Dominus vobiscum.
Pax Cordis Jesu

 

[umamibella]

HOW are you getting that highlight thing to happen? I can’t figure it out. Ha!

Highlight the words you want and select quote.

I have lived a fully Catholic life in the past.

Are you baptised Catholic?

Living a fully Catholic life means you did reject reincarnation and all the other new age stuff.
Why cant you reject it again now?
Living Catholic is hard, we are the minority in a secular world. There is so much we must reject for our love of God.
We must put God first and any self stuff second.
In accepting chakras, reincarnation, new age gimmicks, talking / communicating with dead people you are putting yourself first.

This is where we are called to put God first, in rejecting all that is unholy.

There are people who beg and pray for things to go away their entire lives.
God doesnt want us to give up. God wants us to keep fighting.

You are giving up, stop giving up and keep fighting. We all fight to stay or get back to holiness.
Life was not meant to be easy. Find that narrow rocky thorny path and walk it barefoot

 

[Tis_Bearself]

If you were baptized Catholic, then you’re Catholic, for good. What you choose to “identify” as is irrelevant.
If you go around rejecting your Catholicism then you’re just a fallen-away Catholic.

Hope you will reconsider. I’m also not sure why it’s so important that you get some kind of affirmation from other Catholics about your choices in life. If you truly think in good conscience you can carry on like you’re doing then it should be between you and God, not you and God and other Catholics.

 

[TheHolyTrinity]

Pax

From what I have read in both your threads, it seems that you have spoken to the people.

People who are ‘asleep’ or have had no experience in the preternatural lack the spiritual understanding to be of any assistance to you and your preternatural experiences. It is really important you are able to discern (identify) who is the right person to discuss preternatural experiences too, without feeling that when you are talking it is well beyond that persons spiritual comprehension/understanding/experiences.

I am not sure if you have contacted your area Bishops Office before. I would urge you to and ask to be referred to the Exorcist Priest or the lay people that is assigned to him. Your preternatural experiences warrant this level of support. I feel that you need to have people who you can talk to without having to feel that you are being judged or ridiculed. There are some examples that you mention that are of concern and others are examples of our Lord saying ‘I am the way and the Light’.

Whilst most will akin an Exorcist Priest involvement is indicative of spiritual warfare this not entirely correct and can give guidance to situations that arise where you are uncertain or just need to talk. You do not need to be a practicing Catholic to seek assistance and advice.

It is really important to keep an inner circle of people who know and understand you, for your own emotional and mental well being.

I understand from what I have read, that you have moved away from being Catholic and having no desire to contact or talk to a priest. If you can summons up the strength and will power to make that phone call, just ask simply to be referred or speak to the person who deals with preternatural issues within the church. You do not need to go into detail, nor do you on your first meeting. Discern before you do talk. Ask the good Lord to open the right doors for you to find the right Exorcist Priest

Each person is on a spiritual path with the Lord and at different stages of that spiritual path to the Lord. I feel this is where you have experience the closing of doors.

A couple of Bible verses come to mind:

Ephesians 5:14 Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

14: Wherefore he saith: Rise thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead: and Christ shall enlighten thee.

1 Thessalonians 5:6 Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

6: Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch, and be sober.

 

[umamibella]

It does always annoy me that people imply I need to put my immaturity aside. Why is it impossible that this is how God speaks to me? And if this is how God speaks to me, wouldn’t it be understandable that I might need a community in which I could discuss it? Instead of a community that tells me that when I’m “perfect enough” and “believe enough” and reject myself enough it might go away?

We are discussing this with you, we are the community that will tell you when we follow God, we must put away all these ways of the world and take up God’s ways. He wont speak to you through dead people, He will do just as He did with Paul, hit you fare and square in the face with his message.

You are special, you are called to God, to follow God to reject all that is un Catholic and become obedient and submissive to the Will of God.
We are all special because God loves us and has called us to Him.

It probably will never go away, you will have to fight to reject it in one form or another until your last hour. We all are faced with this battle.
Whoever told you all your wordly battles will go away is dreaming. There will always be something. Even for the greatest saint.

 

[Vico]

I wrote a post yesterday about supernatural occurrences that have been happening to me since childhood and how any time I try to speak to a member of the clergy I am told that it’s not real and I am not special. I received a number of replies…

You said “it seems” which implies that all possibilities have not been explored.

You did not respond to my post on charisms from your other thread.

Those that receive a Sacrament properly disposed, have a supernatural experience each time. Are you willing to give up the Sacraments of the Church?

 

[Justin_Mary]

I have read many stories of many Saints who did not believe or understand “everything” the Church teaches.

I have read many stories of many Saints who were told what they were experiencing wasn’t of God.

But they’ve all moved towards the Church, not away.

I don’t doubt your experiences. God is always calling us, always speaking to our hearts & while it’s often difficult to understand & relate our experiences with truth, I believe He always directs us to the right people.

I’m not saying you should listen to the people in your life who are saying should seek psychological help, but at the same time you can’t keep rejecting what they are saying.

You need help. We all do. Honest truth, I was speaking to my priest three years ago & he suggested counseling. I was like, “I’m sure I’m not crazy.”

He gave me the, “it’s not for crazy people” talk & somehow mentioned spiritual direction. I had never heard of such a thing but immediately knew that was my answer.

If I were you, I wouldn’t focus too much on what separates you from the Church & seek spiritual direction. Your parish may not provide an explicit program of spiritual direction, but next time you go to confession tell your confessor explicitly you desire spiritual direction.

Tell him about your prayer life, your relationship with God. Where you think it’s really good, where you think it’s lacking.

Then try to spend time, at least weekly in front of the Blessed Sacrament, even if it’s just 15 minutes before/after Mass, & pray about your relationship with God.

John 6

67Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” 68Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

 

[Justin_Mary]

HOW are you getting that highlight thing to happen? I can’t figure it out. Ha!

On my phone I high light the section of the post I want to reply to & select the “reply” button that pops up. Then type my response.

I can’t figure it out.

Then select the next group of words I want to respond to, click on the “reply” button that pops up, respond… then repeat if necessary

 

[Limoncello4021]

The OP is announcing he’s leaving the church founded by Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, because no one on earth regards him as “special.” Ok then. I suspect you will realize your error in due time. In the meantime, I have said a prayer for you.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The OP is announcing he’s leaving the church founded by Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, because no one on earth regards him as “special.”

Yeah. OP, please prayerfully consider whether this is an issue of the sin of pride.

It should not be important to you whether other people think you are “special”.

 

[RolandThompsonGunner]

@Nononony, the majority of the time, when people make claims like yours, it because of some mental illness or quirk of their psychology. I’m not saying it’s not possible that you are having genuine supernatural experiences, but you can’t really blame people for going with the most likely explanation.

It does seem a bit like you’re peeved that you’re not widely recognized as “special.”

 

[Temporary1]

Dear @Nononony I would like to share with you my experience. My great grandpa was some kind of traditional healer. Usually this role ‘runs’ in the family; the healer picks at the time of death one of the blood relative to continue in the same role. He didn’t choose a ‘heir’ but, as a family, we are somehow still affected by this. I grew up very shy and soon realized that odd things were happening to me. I kept quiet. After college I was living far from the Church and met with some people involved in occult/spiritual practices. At that point the ‘odd things’ spiked. It was a weird feeling, I felt special and some of these ‘oddities’ were cool but I also started being deeply disturbed by nightmares and by the strong awareness of other people feelings and pain. By God’s grace I came back to the Catholic Church. These phenomena slowly faded away; now I feel more like ‘an average fellow’ but I have peace in my heart. I think God changed my ‘oddity’ into an intense desire to pray for others. There is no way back for me to the old times, I feel so much happier now. May God bless you and keep you close.