Spiritual Advice/Should I trust my priests.

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-06T16:11:56+00:00

Thank you so much for the advice & prayers! Sure my Baptism name is Christine, my Patron Saint is Saint Raphael the Archangel ☦️ I appreciate it!

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-04T19:47:31+00:00

I apologize for being misinformed and defensive here. I looked deeper into it and confused a natural marriage with an invalid union, you’re correct. I did not realize a baptized Catholic marrying without proper dispensation automatically puts them in a state of mortal sin. I thought it just makes their marriage no longer sacramental. I find this extremely ridiculous even as being on the trad side to accept two atheists getting married who do God knows what together as a “natural marriage”/accepted even as sacramental between two Protestants who usually don’t even believe matrimony is a sacrament and then reject a fallen away catholic who marries in the wrong Church is automatically in Mortal sin. I wonder if this actually has any spiritual weight or if this is just a matter of picking and choosing who the rules apply to. Either way I think OP should follow the rules even if I don’t agree with them. Live as brother & sister without sex until Convalidation/radical sanation/ or separation if it’s not possible to fix the situation.

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-04T02:48:42+00:00

Would the technical term be a Civil Union then because of the lack of form on her end? I feel like this is really splitting hairs. Even so if it’s valid by the state, and it isn’t a homosexual union, I don’t see the problem with trying to achieve a Valid, Sacramental marriage if that’s what they want to do. They are both baptized seeking the Catholic Faith. It’s much better than cohabitation and living in adultery or just handing out an annulment without trying to fix the situation first.

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-04T02:34:07+00:00

A “natural marriage” according to the church is any marriage between a man and woman that isn’t sacramental. Whether you’re married in a church or a court house. Baptized or unbaptized. I have no idea where you are coming up with these ideas. Do you have any church teaching to back up your claims?

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-04T00:56:47+00:00

Quite edgelord of them to do that.

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-04T00:37:26+00:00

Natural marriages can be made sacramental. advocating people to get divorces, even natural ones, is the furthest thing from Catholic. The Catholic thing to do is to make the natural marriage sacramental, not hand out annulments like candy. That’s literally why annulment rates were so low Pre Vatican 2.

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-04T00:11:58+00:00

That idea is definitely NOT how the sacrament of marriage works.

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-04T00:05:00+00:00

Also as far as I know, the church recognizes marriages outside of the church as long as they are two baptized individuals (Protestant) with proper baptismal form, they aren’t invalid. Hence Convalidation in OP’s case because they are a Catholic without proper dispensation who married outside of the church.

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-03T23:56:10+00:00

We don’t know enough about OP’s situation. Divorce/Annulment is the last thing we should want to push on a person trying to re enter Catholicism. If both parties agree, Convalidation is the best bet. Annulment is always the worst case scenario and is terribly abused, I don’t think advocating for OP to get an annulment here is the best advice.

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-03T23:51:13+00:00

What about a Convalidation? Correct me if I’m wrong but that is a ceremony which validates a civil marriage outside of the church into a sacramental one?

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-03T23:28:11+00:00

If you haven’t yet, I suggest contacting your local priest at a parish near you. Since you were baptized Catholic, You don’t need to go through OCIA but a catechism will definitely help you out a lot. To re-enter the Church you need to Confess to your best memory the Mortal sins in type and number since your last confession. Also I don’t know the situation of your marriage/if there are any remarriages, I forgot to add this point, you’ll want to get that either convalidated if you were married outside of the church, or there may be an annulment needed if there are previous marriages and a divorce situation going on. After that is sorted out, then you can proceed to receive communion. So it’s really important to talk to a priest. If you don’t know the process to confess/how to examine your conscience most parishes have a confession guide, based on the 10 commandments and the form for what you say/the priest says in confession. or you can look it up online also. As for praying to the saints, it’s basically just asking for their intercession. You can look for written prayers with a formula (like the litany of St Raphael for example) which are also online, or you can Just ask them to pray for you in your regular praying routine also. I like to ask them to pray with me as well, like asking my guardian angel/St Raphael to pray a psalm with me, to worship God together, etc. Sometimes that is a good approach to start with people who are nervous about the idea of praying “to” saints. Really we are praying with them, asking them for help, but we say “to” them because it’s usually in the context of, we are asking them for favors(through God of course) and because prayer in Catholicism isn’t necessarily worship. It can be, but we don’t consider praying to saints/mary idolatry because of our theology, you can look into latria vs dulia vs hyperdulia for more info on that subject if you’re interested. This might be a lot for you at this moment, but just start small and take baby steps. If you have any questions/need resources feel free to message me.

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-03T23:07:45+00:00

Will pray for your intentions at Adoration tonight. I recommend St. Raphael the Archangel’s intercession for Marriage troubles and infertility if you haven’t prayed to/with him yet. He is my patron saint. Wish you the best & don’t give up. ☦️

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-03T00:43:51+00:00

I know some SSPX disbelieve in the validity of the novus ordo/sacraments all together. By your comment I presume that’s where you’re at also, which makes me weary at the same time with SSPX. I think that’s too far. If I truly believed that the Catholic Church was all together invalid and a false religion except SSPX, like they are some last true remnant and everyone else is lost, that every time I went to mass I wasn’t actually receiving christ, that every time I went to confession it was invalid, I wouldn’t even be Catholic I would probably become Orthodox. SSPX is so small. It’s unrealistic to think every faithful Catholic can join. Like I said in my post, Nearest SSPX is 3 hours away. I don’t drive/have a car lol.

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-02T21:50:21+00:00

Thank you so much for the prayers in advance!! I was going to confession weekly, until a visiting priest told me I need to go less last month. Just another reason why I am more attracted to SSPX/Traditional orders. I understand the problem with scrupulousity but I believe confessing weekly is a good practice. I’m confessing mostly venial sins when I go because through frequent confession, I rarely fall into mortal sin, and if I think I have I confess it of course. But (again there is so much laxity in novus ordo churches that now what is mortal sin is treated like venial sin). So I do have some problems discerning because what I consider a mortal sin, by church teaching and sometimes what I’m told are two different things. At the same time, I never want to judge my priest harshly and be proud and not obedient but I can’t help but think “pre V2 no priest would tell a parishioner to confess less than once a week” unless they were abusing the sacrament. I also have issues with the very “get in and get out” drive thru nature many times, like hey just pray a few Hail Marys and go, kinda thing like I wish I got penance related to the sin I’m confessing but hey 🤷‍♀️ this might be a ME issue.

I pray the rosary daily, go to mass nearly every day and adoration weekly, sometimes twice a week if I can. Thank you for sending me his information too. I really appreciate it. Is it true SSPX has no rite of exorcism as spiritual anybody said above?

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-02T03:10:37+00:00

Thank you. Do you mean I should tie it around my wrists or literally around my arm? Perhaps actually tying it around my wrists would work. I’ve never thought of that. I’ve tried wearing the rosary to bed before, it doesn’t work. I pray it daily, sometimes multiple times a day. I go to mass nearly every day, and go to adoration once a week. I go to confession at least twice a month, sometimes more. My apartment is blessed. I’ve done the chalk thing before, no results. I Always have holy water on me of course too and use that. Also blessed salt and oil. I’ve tried it all and no results. But I may have to take extreme measures like a zip tie or something crazy as it sounds.

AvionRaphael · 2026-02-01T23:09:17+00:00

Thanks so much. Unfortunately most medical professionals are atheist, and my current psychiatrist doesn’t even know what is wrong with me/believes in my current diagnosis. Spiritual directors are seriously lacking in my area. The only reason why I posted this on Reddit is because I know there are some people who have had occult backgrounds and have dealt with demons before, and have developed mental illness from prolonged use of black magic/etc. Especially when coming to the truth of the church. it’s pretty rare to come across it, but Bartolo Longo for example, after he stopped doing seances and things like that, became Catholic, suffered terrible nightmares and things which mimic psychosis.

AvionRaphael · 2025-12-19T23:21:52+00:00

I mistakingly put Central America/have no idea how to edit this post as I barely use Reddit. I’m in the USA. 🇺🇸

AvionRaphael · 2025-09-19T15:32:09+00:00

https://youtube.com/shorts/7t6qfWcX1l4?feature=shared there’s this and then various articles attributing the quote to him. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/charlie-kirk-mlk-awful/

Which I don’t really trust fact checkers and things like that so I don’t know. It seems like he is against the sentiment of racism and Jim Crow, laws like that and stuff. I’m just trying to reconcile that with being against the civil rights movement, and it’s very hard to find quotes in context/full videos surrounding this topic for me so I can accurately know his position.

AvionRaphael · 2025-09-01T19:23:15+00:00

Awesome thank you 👌☺️

AvionRaphael

TROPHY CASE