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bclustr9
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I really wanna believe but it’s just hard. I struggle to believe much of Catholic doctrine.
I really wanna believe but it’s just hard. I struggle to believe much of Catholic doctrine.
“ubjectively, faith stands for the habit or virtue by which we assent to those truths”
Aveling, F. (1907). Belief. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02408b.htmThat state of the mind by which it assents to propositions, not by reason of their intrinsic evidence, but because of authority.
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By the definition given above we are enabled to distinguish belief
Belief, however, as has already been noted, is often indiscriminatingly used for these and for other states of mind from which for the sake of accuracy it should be as carefully distinguished as is possible.
- from intelligence, in that the truth of the fact or proposition believed is not seen intuitively;
- from science or knowledge, since there is no question of resolving it into its first principles;
- from doubt, because belief is an assent and positive;
- from opinion and conjecture, in which the assent is not complete.
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The distinction drawn between the assents of knowledge and belief cannot be said to be observed at all closely in practice, where they are frequently confused.
1813 The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.77
Faith
1814 Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God."78 For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God’s will. “The righteous shall live by faith.” Living faith "workthrough charity."79
1815 The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it.80 But “faith apart from works is dead”:81 when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body.
To test? Perhaps you mean to strengthen us?Not only is it a gift, but God may remove it in part to test us.
Just wanted to point out that persevering in something that is “just hard” is a pretty good definition of a strong faith.I really wanna believe but it’s just hard.
Blessed John Henry Newman wrote, “Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.” He adds that a difficulty is not a doubt. The person with a difficulty says, “How can that be so?” whereas a person who doubts says, “That can’t be so!”I struggle to believe much of Catholic doctrine.
How do you imagine that things would be different if you had “the gift of a strong faith”?I really wanna believe but it’s just hard. I struggle to believe much of Catholic doctrine.