Unable to feel sorry for my sins

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Lost_sheep2

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I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Every time I try to live a holy life I inevitably fall into mortal sin within a matter of days and i just give up and give in to all matter of horrible sins and I just stop feeling sorry. I genuinely do not feel sorry for my sins and I have no desire to stop. I feel like some sort of spiritual sociopath.

I know I’m going to Hell and it scares me to death. Whenever I read about what the Saints said about Hell and mortal sin, I think ‘there’s no way in the world I or almost anyone in the modern world is not going to Hell’. I just can’t see the point in trying anymore. What’s the point if I’m going to Hell anyway?

I’m really tempted to leave the Church and God in general. I’m not strong enough for this. I just want to be able to live a normal life without being crippled by guilt for doing normal things. It’s even worse because I know that a worldly life won’t make me happy, in fact it’ll most likely make me depressed and empty. It’s happened before when I’ve lived apart from God and the Church. But I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place because I’ll either be miserable in the world or miserable in the Church. At least if I give up I don’t have to try anymore, it’s exhausting.

I guess I’m just trying to find a reason to stay. It’s nobody here’s responsibility to try and convince me to stay but if anyone has something to say I’d really appreciate it.
 
Take what you have said above to your confessor. Don’t despair; many of us feel that we’re not holy enough (because the truth is no one really is - it’s a long road to perfection). Sometimes we are so eager to be saints we trip up over ourselves - and that’s a good lesson in humility too.
Keep the faith and do the little things. Maybe take some time out to read Luke chapter 15.
 
You’re being tempted to despair, and there is no need for it. You don’t have to be “strong enough.” That is not the way the Divine Mercy works. I don’t mean to say this to belittle you, but to let you know that you’re being dragged down by the Tempter and the Predator and the Liar and the Accuser and not by the truth of your situation. The truth of your situation is that you can change, there is Infinite Mercy and Patience there to help you do it, and that when you eventually do learn virtue to replace whatever habitual vice you have learned, you will be infinitely happier and you’ll be happier forever. You may even be in the situation of the tax collectors and prostitutes who were entering the Kingdom of God more easily than those who not only think they are strong and virtuous on their own merit but who think they have nothing to repent of. (You know Our Lord said as much: that is, it isn’t the people who see they have a problem with sin who have the worst problem with sin!)

By all means, do talk to a priest. You can’t arrange private appointments with things closed down, but by now any of them who don’t know how to video-conference can find you a priest who can. You literally need some en-couragement, and from someone whose reassurances you will believe.
 
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Lost_sheep2 said:
I’m not strong enough for this.
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This is true. But guess what - none of us are. Not even the greatest saint - not even the greatest angel - is strong enough. The good news of the Bible is that you don’t have to be. You only have to let Jesus be strong enough for you. That doesn’t mean to stop trying - definitely don’t do that. But accept the falls, resolve to not sin again when you do, and then try to stop worrying (easier said than done, I know).

PetraG is right - this could be a good lesson in humility. Humility gets a bad wrap - I know that I used to look down my nose at it for a being a ‘lesser’ virtue. But there is peace in recognizing that even at your best you aren’t strong enough, and that only by accepting your weakness and turning to Jesus can you possibly succeed. It sounds counterintuitive, but true humility can lead to great strength.
 
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You didn’t invent sin; it’s been around for a long time. priests are used to getting people who come in on the weekend, confess, and then come in the next weekend to confess the same thing. People are weak and we screw up.
Remember Saint Paul who boasted about how strength could be made perfect in weakness? Give your weakness to God, again and again, as many times as are necessary. When you have little victories (like an extra day before doing the same thing) give that to God too.
It seems to me from your post, that your biggest struggle right now is that you are having a tough time repenting.
Give this to God too. Pray for the grace that will help you come to repentance, and when you repent and then screw up again, pray some more.
God is drawing you to him and it is great that you have a sense of the obstacles, but don’t forget to remember that He values you so much that he will keep right on calling and be there for you.
He wants you, and your recognition of unworthiness is bound to be pleasing to him-after all, we say that at mass every Sunday. he knows that you are weak-it’s not news. And he loves you.
Take a break; hide in his wounds. Bask in His love.
May God bless you and may you be cognizant and responsive to His blessings, in His good time.
Amen.
 
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First of all, contrition is an act of the will, NOT feelings. You can be have true contrition for your sins and feel nothing. Contrariwise, you can cry your eyes out and NOT be truly sorry for your sins.

Second, true contrition is being sorry for your sins “…because I have offended Thee, my God, Who art all good and worthy of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, to amend my life, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin. Amen.”
 
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Take it from someone who’s been there: You’ll be more miserable in the world. I know because it’s happened to me.

I’ve been tempted to give up countless times. I’ve gone to confession and communion, resolved to do better and fallen again the same day. I’ve begged the Lord to help me to be good for one day, one week and the rest of my life.

Someone once wrote that confession is like taking a bath. You come out all clean. However, eventually you get dirty again and have to take another bath.

Ask the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Mother and your Guardian Angel to help you make a good confession. And don’t forget to thank Him and them for helping you to make a good confession. God and His Saints like to hear “Thank you.” too.
 
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“To Sin” actually means “to Miss the Mark”.

If you want to hit something, you feel bad if you don’t hit it.
But if you are not aiming at anything, there is no reason to feel bad when you don’t hit anything. Sure, you hit something that seemed desirable, something that the church calls sin, but how can you really feel bad about something that tasted so good?

If you want to feel bad about missing the mark, it is time to figure out what the Mark is that you really really want, and anticipate doing that virtuous activity today.

Mary anticipated some targets after talking with Gabriel; she saw herself heading to see Joseph and telling him she was pregnant; she visualized a rushed trip to the hill country to Elizabeth and an extended time there.

If she were in any way sidetracked she would have been devastated after all the anticipation of seeing those visualizations of what she intended to do. There would be sorrow that the anticipated Marks were Missed (sorrow for ‘sin’).

Jesus did not say, “Go and sin no more,” to the woman caught in adultery; he said, “Go and no longer miss the mark.”
Before she was not looking at “virtuous doing”; now after hearing Jesus she was anticipating and aiming at right rather than aiming nowhere and doing whatever showed up next.

Figure out what mark of virtue you will have completed tomorrow. If you miss that mark you will feel bad (sorrow for sin).
 
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Hi John,
What Bible translation are you using?
My Douai Rheims has this:
And Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst. [10] Then Jesus lifting up himself, said to her: Woman, where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee?

[11] Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more. [12]

We are called to avoid sin and avoiding near occasions of sin can help us to be more successful at this. God has given us the sacraments, conduits of His grace, to support us during out earthly pilgrimage. When we properly confess our sins and the priest, acting in persona Christi grants absolution, we are cleansed of sin.
 
Just the fact that you “see” your sin is pleasing to Gid. You acknowledge it. You are like the man in the Bible who said “have mercy on me, a sinner”. God was pleased with him!

I TOTALLY GET the thing about “not feeling sorry enough”. Just step back and say “mary, through your son, help make me sorrier for my sins, and more loving”.

Also, think of Little Therese…she said its glorious that Gods justice is with his mercy…because in His justice he ALWAYS takes account of our weakness, which lessons our culpability. What a beautiful thought! It gives me hope for ALL of us…and shes a Doctor of the Church!
 
Don’t despair over your shortcomings. Start over each day. You make spiritual progress by beginning again and again…

~ St Francis de Sales
God never tired of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking His mercy

~ Pope Francis
O soul, whoever you may be in this world,
Even if your sins were as black as night,
Do not fear God, weak child that you are,
For great is the power of God’s mercy.

~ St Faustina Kowalska
Repentance is not always a “feeling,” but a sincere will to change. It seems from your post as though it’s not the same sin you fall into each time (?) Which is good. When tempted to sin ask Mary to help you, this has helped me so much! Literally just thinking “Mother Mary, help me!”

And if you want to “feel sorry,” (which it is dangerous to rely on feelings to gauge one’s spiritual state, but actions tell more) just think of Jesus’s passion…each time we sin we are piercing His heart like the soldier at Calvary and shouting with the crowds, “Crucify Him!” And ask Him to give you sorrow and a tender pity for His Passion and His Sacred Heart which is wounded even as He reigns in Heaven.

Imagine a most loving Father, who, when we repent, is filled with mercy and picks us up and holds us in His arms close to His Heart, and longs to remain in this embrace forever with His beloved child. But when we sin, we push away His loving arms and walk out as if saying “Oh Father, I know what you want, but I don’t love you enough to follow it.” And He waits brokenheartedly for us to come back to Him. Now if we stay away too long He may become angry, but He is so patient and longs to pour out His mercy on us. Remember the prodigal son, even before he got to his father, he was at the gates, and his father ran out to meet him and threw his arms around him and kissed him because he loved him so much. This is how it is with Jesus. Now let us not leave again after being reconciled, but if we do, He will always embrace us again and again.
 
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