Why is my faith suffering so much?

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scapularkid8

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I can’t understand it. It goes in waves, like one month I’ll be totally comfortable with my faith and firm in my convictions and the next, I’m wondering whether or not maybe the mormon, bhuddist, islamic, ect. way of thought is right. I know it’s not and my reason tells me it isn’t, but I just can’t stop the thoughts and doubts from resurfacing. I feel so gullible! Suggestions?

I guess it dosen’t help that today I was confronted by an atheist (not the first time by the same person, mind you) who told me to “close your book of fairy tales, put it on your shelf, and grow up… He dosen’t exist”. I prayed to the Holy Spirit for the gift of Courage, but I felt like crying after she said that to me.😦
 
scapularkid8 said:
I can’t understand it. It goes in waves, like one month I’ll be totally comfortable with my faith and firm in my convictions and the next, I’m wondering whether or not maybe the mormon, bhuddist, islamic, ect. way of thought is right. I know it’s not and my reason tells me it isn’t, but I just can’t stop the thoughts and doubts from resurfacing. I feel so gullible! Suggestions?
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Just keep praying and keep studying your Faith. AsCatholics we have 2,000 years of teachings and traditons to fall back on-we dont have to figure it all out for ourelves!

I find the MORE I grow in my faith the MORE Satan tries to put doubts in my mind. in a way having these doubts is a sign of progress-you have advanced far enough to make Satan nervous!
 
scapularkid8 said:
I can’t understand it. It goes in waves, like one month I’ll be totally comfortable with my faith and firm in my convictions and the next, I’m wondering whether or not maybe the mormon, bhuddist, islamic, ect. way of thought is right. I know it’s not and my reason tells me it isn’t, but I just can’t stop the thoughts and doubts from resurfacing. I feel so gullible! Suggestions?

I guess it dosen’t help that today I was confronted by an atheist (not the first time by the same person, mind you) who told me to “close your book of fairy tales, put it on your shelf, and grow up… He dosen’t exist”. I prayed to the Holy Spirit for the gift of Courage, but I felt like crying after she said that to me.😦
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Your faith is being tested. Stand firm. Read the Bible. Read Spiritual Books (like The Way). Read Theological Books (Mere Christianity is a good one). Most importanty, go to Mass, go to Confession, recieve the Eucharist.

Good luck and God Bless 😃
 
“No pain no gain” someone once said! I’m a firm believer in that, especially spiritually. In my adolescence/early adulthood I questioned my faith tremendously. It kept me up all hours of the night at times…I’m still trying to catch up on sleep:eek: . But the fruit of those intellectual and spiritual struggles was to dive deep into what the Church teaches about things and why. It fostered a desire not only to learn my faith, but it also deepened my faith. “Proof” for God’s existence comes everyday. The more one is truly in touch with the Lord the more one recognizes His obvious presence and activity in one’s life. It blows my mind everyday to see how God is so active in our world and the lives of those I serve. Faith is that which gives you X-ray vision to see through the darkness and lies of our Godless age. The more faith you have, the better you see. Don’t let others discourage you. Pray for them.👍

God Bless.
 
I can certainly sympathize with your situation! At the end of July, I began experiencing extreme doubts about my faith, most particularly God’s existence. In fact, when I was in Lourdes, France for a pilgrimage in August, I was praying a rosary to try to come to peace with the feelings, and came to the conclusion (in the midst of praying, mind you!) that GOD DIDN’T EXIST!

Thankfully, those feelings subsided, and my faith was renewed in France in an absolutely amazing way. At Nevers, where St. Bernadette’s incorrupt body is visible for all to see, I met a nun named Sr. Theresa. Her charisma and holiness were obvious to everyone around her, and I decided to ask her what to do about doubts about God’s existence. My initial idea had been to “offer them up…” but she told me to THANK GOD FOR THEM!
She reassured me that doubts help us to become more aware of God’s true nature and presence around us.

I still experience the doubts, but now I know that they are really a gift from God (sounds odd, doesn’t it?)! I would also echo Fr. Joe’s sentiments. Keep praying. 🙂
 
scapularkid8 said:
I can’t understand it. It goes in waves, like one month I’ll be totally comfortable with my faith and firm
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I was 25 years an atheist. Lee Strobel’s books helped reconcile my intellectual arguments against God, so I would suggest picking up some of them from ebay. He’s a Prot., but gives good, solid intellectual advice that will strengthen your understanding.

Don’t feel guilty - doubt and questioning happen to many! Best of luck!
 
This is interesting… I just picked up my Bible to see what God had to say to me today and I opened it to the book of Job (the Epilouge, to be precise) and read :" And it came to pass after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and with your two friends for you have not spoken rightly concerning me, as has my servant Job…let my servant Job pray for you; for his prayer I will accept, not to punish you severly. For you have not spoken rightly concerning me as has my servant Job. … Also the LORD restored the prosperity of Job, after he prayed for his friends”

The atheist (my friend) I mentioned who confronted me along with two of my other friends about God’s existence the other day was obviously wrong and now I know what I have to do! Thanks God!🙂
 
My faith suffered for years! I left the church, and deeply missed it, 😦 and didn’t realize just how much I had missed it until I came back! As alot of people tell you when they come back, they truly
feel like they have come home. Our faith can be sorely tested at times, and we need to give it all to Jesus, lean on Him, and trust in Him, and don’t give in to doubt. The devil loves it when we doubt our faith, the more we doubt it, the more he draws us away
from God, and His True Church. Islam and Buddhism and athieism are false beliefs. We have the truth, and it is worth fighting for! Don’t give up! Lean on Christ, for His yoke is light, and
He never gives us more than we can bear. God bless you!
 
I agree with what everyone here has written. The devil must somehow think that you are “worth it,” so count yourself blessed in your doubt! He sure bamboozled me for years, and is always trying to throw me a few curves to tempt me. Pun intended! Hang in there. Pray the rosary every day!
 
I know how you feel about your questions on other religions. I have often wondered how I can be sure that I am in the right place–after all, don’t buddhists, muslims, and others all believe that THEIR religion is the true one? How can we be sure? In times like these, however, I recommend researching Mary of Medjugore. This always restored my faith in a way. Also, in a vision Mary said that all religions were just different levels, and we are placed in our level because of what where we are at spiritually. I liked this thinking because it doesn’t condemn other religions, yet still allows Catholocism to be, for lack of a better phrase, “your best option.” I do not mean to cause the impression that I am gambling with my religion or anything, I just mean that if you cannot help but feel doubt sometimes, this was always a rather guilty but comforting thought.
 
I hate the question. First of all, despite all translations from the original Greek Scripture giving us the word “Faith,” it is a terrible word that is not far from psychotic fantasy. Did Adam and Eve have “Faith” in God? Or did they just know - without Catholicism’s Magisterium - the TRUTH and the LIFE? The only thing Jesus came here to do was to restore the WAY. Our core vision is Faith, yes … faith that God’s promise to raise us up on the last day - not our Resurrection (everyone will get this) - but our Ascension into heaven is a real promise Jesus will fulfill. Our Hope is that we do not deny the TRUTH of this which we already know - not as a BELIEF but as a TRUTH - as Peter himself did 3 times. Our Charity in God and neighbor is our greatest need - and our greatest asset. So don’t worry so much about whether your faith is shaken … worry more on your hope and on your love. Here where I live we have a bunch of Scientologists. They have a brilliant explanation for everything but for how it was that Jesus and Mary are now in eternal incorruptable bodies in heaven promising the same for all of us. Everything else is just junk, and as I always tell even the Church - get rid of the junk in your lives, and build Christ-centered relationships, and let God take you to exactly where He is already trying to lead you.
 
To put the icing on this cake, we watched a video on Islam in my history class today and I had to get a pass to go to the drinking fountain and pray that I would not let the lies get to me.
 
When people say stupid (yes, stupid) things like that, I like to say (if I haven’t just punched them), “Leaving God to one side, how do you know fairies don’t exist?”

I’ll bet my head against a chocolate orange they can’t come up with a reason better than “everyone knows.” Then you just point and laugh and deride their intellects. Remember: their pride rests on their illusion of knowledge, so show them how ignorant they really are.

Atheists are easy, being stupid. So are Muslims, they’re just us with the interesting parts (and all the fun) taken out because they’re hard. But Buddhists…hmmm…
Okay. Buddhism, don’t forget, was created around the founding of Rome. In other words, six centuries before Christ. Now, forget what you’ve heard; the fundamental idea in Buddhism is that nothing is worth desiring, so desire is the source of suffering. Purge yourself of desire, and you will no longer suffer (or exist, they don’t like to mention).

Sound like a downer? Well, yes. But it’s a compelling downer, that’s at least true to human psychology if not to the ABSOLUTE OF THE UNIVERSE. Anyway, though, remember: Buddha decided all this before Christ, when Gentiles basically couldn’t worship God. But now, there is something worth desiring: God! It wasn’t worth it when Buddha had his Enlightenment, because you couldn’t get Him, but Christ’s sacrifice changed all that. They call it the Good News because Christ really changed the world. It wasn’t, “Hey, this Jesus fellow knows something we didn’t,” it was, “Hey, the, um, universe works differently now. Apparently God…died, it seems, and came back to life. Oh, but first he got born. Well, anyway, forget about Mithra, we can worship the Supreme Being now!”
 
After being fed up with asking myself this question last night, I picked up my Compendium to the CCC and began reading through the part that explains the Creed line by line. It helped tremendously. Then I came to realize that Islam is just a step backwards from Catholocism because all they have is Allah and not the rest of the Trinity which is equal and just as important. Then I remembered that on that video I mentioned a post ago, they said that Muslims don’t believe Christ was crucified! (Which has piles of proof against that statement!) So I was renewed in my faith, for now. I just know though that in about a month I’ll start this process all over again and ask myself the exact same question.

I guess I could go to my grandpa with my questions. He’s a Deacon and when I was confused by Islam in the past he helped me clear things up.
 
Hastrman said:
When people say stupid (yes, stupid) things like that, I like to say (if I haven’t just punched them), “Leaving God to one side, how do you know fairies don’t exist?”

I’ll bet my head against a chocolate orange they can’t come up with a reason better than “everyone knows.” Then you just point and laugh and deride their intellects. Remember: their pride rests on their illusion of knowledge, so show them how ignorant they really are.

Atheists are easy, being stupid.
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I really have to take exception to this. Calling others stupid just might be a sign of your own pride. I became an atheist about 7 years prior to joining Mensa, so I am living proof that your statement above is incorrect.

In intellectual discussion, the burden of proof rests on the one making the positive assertion. One cannot prove a negative. Asking someone to do so (as in the example of fairies) is ridiculous and makes the speaker look to be the fool. The Bible says we must always be prepared to defend our faith! I fail to see how your approach allows for a defense of the faith.

Strobel’s books allow for extra-biblical proof of Christ and faith. Given that Catholics do not subscribe to sola scriptura, this approach is a solid one. He presents the defenses to the common objections in such a manner that the whole of the arguments go way beyond a reasonable doubt. Since those causing the OP to question his faith are not Crhistian, this will work wonders. It may not convert, but it may neutralize their objections. If nothing else, it might give them pause, and perhaps the Holy Spirit will be able to push some grace their way.

I disagree with your Buddhist-related conclusions (but not the all of the premises), but I don’t wish to push the discussion off-track.

Pax Tecum, Juli
 
today I was confronted by an atheist (not the first time by the same person, mind you) who told me to “close your book of fairy tales, put it on your shelf, and grow up… He dosen’t exist”. I prayed to the Holy Spirit for the gift of Courage, but I felt like crying after she said that to me
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My father (a former Atheist) told me that he heard the best evidence for the existence of God by that young priest, the Vatican Spokesman, who appears from time to time on Fox News. Dad told me the priest had said, “You know there is a God because when you are dead, you are dead.”

My dad had converted from Atheism to Agnosticism slowly with my own conversion a few years ago, and he told me that this quote had struck him as the best evidence for the existence of a Divine Being, in that if you’re dead, where do you go? You’re not in your body anymore. And also, the fact that life and death are facts, the fact that life and death exist as concrete realities suggests there is an unseen power at work. That power is God’s Omnipotence and Will, in that by His Essence, He is in all things as the cause of their being, their life. He Wills creation by His Essence, which is Love and Mercy.

For me, the best evidence that God exists is the fact that Love exists. Man seeks this mystery called Love. Man will die for love. He will kill for love. Where does that natural drive come from? The fact that Man, who now understands how to harness the energy of an atom but still doesn’t understand love is also good evidence for the existence of a Divine Being. And, that fact that you mourn when your heart is broken is also evidence for the existence of God, for God is Love.

Fear not. The Atheists are wrong. God exists.
I’m wondering whether or not maybe the mormon, bhuddist, islamic, ect. way of thought is right. I
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Also, cast aside the doubts entering your mind regarding other religions such as Buddism and Hindi, etc … Most of those religions existed before the Birth of Christ, excepting such religions as Islam and Mormanism, which came later. If those other religions are valid paths to God, then why did Christ come and replace those religions with Christianity? Why bother with the Incarnation and Redemption if Buddism and Hindi already lead people to Heaven? Why would God the Father give up His only begotten Son to severe torture and ignominous death on a Cross if souls could get to Heaven through an already existent religion?

The answer can be only this: You can’t get to Heaven without the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Period. See, the Gates of Heaven were closed before the Redemption, closed by Original Sin. The only one who could open those Gates was Jesus Christ. God Willed Christianity into existence because all the other pagan religions weren’t working.

Fear not. The Pagans are wrong, too.

Rest assured that you’re in the right place, Sweetie.

God Bless!
 
Dear brother in Christ,

The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, dealt with those questions from a purely rational approach centuries ago. Since then, no one in one’s right mind can be Atheistic (see newadvent.org/summa/100200.htm ).

But keep in mind that faith is a grace from God. He offers us all that grace, but we must freely open our hearts to it. For only a free being is capable of loving. Pray for your friend to step down from his proud soap box.

:blessyou:
 
You are an adult, free to make your own choices and form your own opinions. Your friend who is an athiest is an adult, free to make their own choices and form their own opinions. Your friend is being disrespectful to you by expecting you to adhere to their choices and opinions and you must not enforce your choices and opinions on your friend, neither must you attempt to enforce your faith upon your friend, simply you must pray for your friend.

You know that in life we do not meet people by accident, we are each interwoven into each others lives for a purpose, above all to love each other. So that being the case God has put this person in your life, so you might like to say to your friend.‘You are my good friend and I love you as a friend and whatever I say to you you know I say it because I love you. When you speak to me as you do about my faith it hurts me. It hurts me because I love God and I love my faith and that is my choice. It is your choice to be an athiest and I respect that though I don’t agree with it and I do that because you are my friend and I love you, therefore because you are my friend would you please respect my choices and my faith.’ This is not too much to ask of a true friend. If this friend can accept that and stop their taunts towards your belief in Christ Jesus then you have deepened your love as brother and sister and that is very pleasing to God. If your friend cannot accept this then I suggest you consider if this person truly is a friend of yours.

Whatever the outcome bear this in mind:

Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of falsehoods against you for my sake.
Rejoice and be glad, for great will be your reward in heaven. In the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.

Whoever suffers insult and ridicule, hardship and suffering for the sake of Jesus and of the Gospel will be greatly rewarded. There is no other faith in the course of history that has been persecuted like the Catholic Church, it is a sign of it’s final Heavenly home and it’s conflict with the world.

You should not be surprised that ‘in this world you will have trouble, but behold I have overcome the world’. Everything, especially these days, conflicts with the faith Jesus established over 2000 years ago in the Catholic Church; we swim against the tide, but we swim with the One who calmed the stormy waters.

Faith is always tested so be courageous for Jesus and say to yourself as St Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face said 'I will believe’

Offer this spiritual suffering united to Jesus’ sufferings for someone you love.

In my prayers
 
One cannot prove a negative. Asking someone to do so (as in the example of fairies) is ridiculous and makes the speaker look to be the fool. The Bible says we must always be prepared to defend our faith! I fail to see how your approach allows for a defense of the faith.
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I did not say “prove there are no fairies,” I said “why do you think there aren’t?”. It is not the same thing at all. See, the fact you can’t prove a negative was my point! If you make them give reasons, they can’t give rational ones! Wow, I know I’m impressed with MENSA. MENSA: we said we’re smart, so it must be true.

My point was that they have no valid reasons for disbelieving most of the things they disbelieve; it’s only custom, convention, in a word…dogma. If you show your opponent to be irrational, and atheism is an irrational, sola-fide belief, then you win. You’ve shown up the enemy of your faith, and the Faith, and saved face for both. It’s more satisfying than logic, and far more assured of success. I’ve never met an atheist who could follow an argument, let alone be convinced by one. They drag in their little dogmas more quickly than the most backward bible-thumpers.
 
Perhaps the tone of this thread could be more civil, there is no need to trade insults.

There is no need to argue, wouldn’t it be better to debate kindly with each other?

Wouldn’t it be better to keep the peace?
 
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