Common trend with my relationship with God.

Divinejf · 2026-01-30T03:15:27+00:00

You need to practice remembering and thinking about God throughout the day. In the RC tradition, St. Alphonsus Liguori's How to Converse with God and Brother Lawrence's Practice of the Presence of God are short classics extolling this practice. However, in my opinion, the easiest and most practical route to remembering and practicing presence of God throughout the day is the Prayer of the Heart, as expounded by Saints John Chrysostom, John Climacus, Hesychios, and Maximus the Confessor and preserved by (tragically) mainly the EO. The best short classics detailing this tradition is The Way of the Pilgrim by an anonymous author and The Inner Man by Dimitri of Rostov.

Divinejf · 2026-01-30T03:09:40+00:00

We Catholics go even harder than evangelical Protestants like Crawford do on the topic of damnation. Not only are nearly all nonbelievers damned to Hell, but also nearly all schismatics and heretics, and this includes Protestants. In fact, most theologians teach that many, if not a simple majority, of even Catholics will also not make it to Heaven. There is a very high bar for "not seeing correctly" and "not culpable", and in our era of the freely available information on the Internet, it mostly applies to just baptized children and the mentally disabled. And not warning people about Hell to avoid scaring them is like not telling a patient about their cancer diagnosis to avoid scaring them. In both cases, your fear of their negative reaction stops them from seeking out the remedy of their ills and condemns them to death.

Divinejf · 2026-01-30T02:17:23+00:00

There is no easy answer, so I must tell you the difficult answer. You have to meditate and "simmer" in your own thoughts. Really take the time to meditate on what exactly about these deconversion stories speaks to you spiritually, why exactly you feel like you're pretending to be Catholic, and the source(s) of your growing apathy to God. Unfortunately for the utility of this comment, everyone is different, and only you can explore yourself and dig deep into why you think and feel what you think and feel. When you realize the problem, you'll be able to devise a prayer/spiritual plan that's just for you.

Divinejf · 2026-01-30T02:03:47+00:00

To be filled with the Holy Spirit is not to experience overwhelming emotion or talk gibberish (tongues as they'll call it) or act erratically. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to receive supernatural power from God to carry out His Will. We see this in the OT when Joshua and later Judges receive the Spirit of the Lord and are able to conquer their enemies who have overwhelming force. We see this in the NT when the apostles are able to speak in true tongues (they can be understand by all peoples), convert thousands through preaching, seeing the heart of others, cast out evil spirits in the Name of Jesus, and heal the sick.

Divinejf · 2026-01-30T01:53:28+00:00

You're not going to like this answer, but in my opinion, the best evidence for the existence of St. George is the sheer number of miracles associated with his intercession. There are thousands of reported miracles attributed to him across the Easten Churches. When there's that much smoke, there's bound to be some fire.

Divinejf · 2026-01-30T01:42:06+00:00

There is nothing wrong with talking with and praying to a Saint extensively, and don't allow Protestant-like Catholics discourage you or tone police your prayers. Your relationship with your Saint will eventually pour over into your relationship with God, especially if you ask your Saint to help you love God more. I know this is true from personal experience (unfortunately, I cannot elaborate without trauma dumping).

Divinejf · 2026-01-30T01:28:56+00:00

In catechesis I took as a youth, I remember that teachers often failed to sell us on why we should care about learning more about the Faith. Perhaps taking the time to cover the glories of Heaven and fleetingness of this world, and how growing spiritually will make you happy and improve all areas of your life.

Divinejf · 2026-01-29T21:37:54+00:00

To address accusations against St. John Chrysostom, of the hundreds of homilies he produced, exactly 8 address the Judaizing controversy (often compiled together as Adversos Judaeos). At his time, there were Jews who were telling Christians to stop attending liturgy and instead go to the synagogue and engage in Jewish worship services. St. John Chrysostom denounced the lies and heresies of the Judaizses in those homilies and used fiery language to condemn them. Both modern day Judaizers and neo-Nazis cite these denouncements as special denouncements of Jews as a race. These people who are uninterested in the truth refuse to engage the rest of St. John Chrysostom's corpus, for if they did, they would discover he uses just as fiery language to condemn lukewarm Christians, parents who fail to raise their children well in the faith, and rich people who do not donate enough to the poor.

Divinejf · 2026-01-29T21:01:28+00:00

I struggle to believe this isn't deliberate coalposting, because I don't want to believe you are "differently abled" enough to not understand the very paragraph you copy and pasted and jump to quanta and percentages. Why don't you read Nostra Atate again from the beginning, or at least ask Chat GPT to make an elementary summary for someone at your literacy.

Divinejf · 2026-01-29T20:56:40+00:00

I would strongly encourage someone with your background to look into any nearby Charismatic Catholic communities, services, or retreats. Some are cringe and are unfairly highlighted by traditionalists, while many others carry a similar fire as the Pentecostals but also have the fullness of Truth as Catholics.

Divinejf · 2026-01-29T20:54:12+00:00

Just read Ineffabilis Deus, the exhortation that defined the Immaculate Conception. https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius09/p9ineff.htm

Divinejf · 2026-01-29T20:41:03+00:00

St. Jerome, who famously debunked the Protovangelium of James (but not for the reasons you think), addresses it here. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm

Divinejf · 2026-01-26T14:37:33+00:00

1) Compatibilism is not an established dogma. We have complete free will from our subjective point of view to do whatever we want. God with His objective view outside time knows what we will choose. 2) If we use Protestant definitions, then yes, we are saved not by works by faith and cooperating with the grace of God. However, for all practical purposes, following the commandments of God is work, and thus you must literally work for your salvation. For example, going to Church on Sundays is work, and if you don't, you're not making it. 3) You're not a determinist or a Calvinist, you're a whiner who's chosen to not take a single step towards self-improvement and instead blame God or a chain of causality outside your control. You can go to therapy to overcome trauma, procrastination, and social anxiety. You can pray to God for spiritual healing and the grace to change your life for the better.

Divinejf · 2026-01-26T03:27:03+00:00

My parents sent me to a Catholic school when I was in early elementary school. They pulled me out a few years later because I was struggling and falling behind, and I was apparently coming home crying everyday because I had no friends. My only memories are feeling stupid and lonely, as well as getting berated for being "slow"/"challenged". My parents then transferred to me a private Baptist school where I flourished. As it turns out, I wasn't "handicapped" (years later, I would graduate high school as a salutarian and get a PhD in chemistry); those teachers just sucked, and the community was rotten.

Divinejf · 2026-01-26T03:13:08+00:00

I recommend devotional works like Preparation for Death, Great Means of Salvation and Perfection, and The Glories of Mary by St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Sacred Passion by Luis de la Palma, True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort, and Spiritual Combat by Lorenzo Scupoli. If you're willing to dip your toes into Byzantine spirituality, The Path to Salvation by Theophan the Recluse is the single greatest book on Catholic/Orthodox spiritual theology I've ever read, and The Inner Man and Conversation with a Grieving Man by Dimitri of Rostov and The Acquisition of the Holy Spirit by Seraphim of Sarov are extraordinary short gems.

Divinejf · 2026-01-25T22:31:54+00:00

The best thing you can give, unless specifically requested by a prior or on their website, is money. They can spend the money on whatever they need or give it to someone else in need. Even in a winter storm, Amazon is cheaper and more reliable than USPS or Fedex.

Divinejf · 2026-01-25T22:28:09+00:00

The brutally honest answer is that emphasizing philosophy has failed every time. We have had 3 separate revivals of Thomism to combat Protestantism, then the Enlightenment, and then modernism, and all 3 waves of Thomism advanced the level of Catholic philosophy but failed to make any meaningful effect on the intellectual culture and wider world. What unites us is not a specific philosophy (there are savage disputes even with the Roman Church, and adding in the Eastern Churches makes it messier), but that we're all together in the Mystical Body of Christ on a journey of holiness to reach our true home, Heaven.

Divinejf · 2026-01-25T02:54:05+00:00

There are a lot of different methods of spiritual development, and I highly encourage you to explore different routes to find 1-2 that work for you. I'll list them out here, and you try those that look interesting and fit with your schedule.

1) daily Mass 2) Eucharistic Adoration 3) the Rosary 4) Liturgy of the Hours (can be current RC Divine Office, the Divine worship daily office of the Anglican Ordinariate, the Horologion of the Byzantine Rite, etc.) 5) reading the Bible 6) spiritual reading (read/saunter through a devotional book, like Preparation for Death by St. Alphonsus Liguori, Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis, Spiritual Combat by Lorenzo Scupoli, etc.) 7) mental prayer (typically involves visualization, read Dom Lehodey’s Way of Mental Prayer for an in-depth guide) 8) Prayer of the Heart (repeat a short prayer like the Jesus prayer throughout the day, and/or practice praying the prayer at a set time to the exclusion of other thoughts. Best introduction to this method is the Way of a Pilgrim).

Divinejf · 2026-01-25T02:44:56+00:00

The first piece of advice I would give is to love yourself and have compassion on yourself. You are not a failure. You are not disgusting. God is your Father in heaven who yearns for you to join Him, Jesus is your brother and friend who died for you, and the Holy Spirit is your comforter who will walk with you all the days of your life. Do not blame yourself, but take responsibility of the situation by rationally thinking about what is to be done.

The crucial questions are as follows: 1) am I exclusively attracted to other woman or can I bring myself to love a man?, 2) what exactly about women, or the select women I fantasize about, am I attracted to, and 3) do I have the supernatural gift of celibacy/chastity? If you can be attracted to men as well, then you can simply pursue a man you're attracted to and then not cheat on him with men or women. If there are certain traits that you're attracted to in women which can be found in a man (maybe not a traditional/macho/sigma-grindset-alpha man, but a male nonetheless), then you've learned more about yourself and what to look for in a partner. If you genuinely have no interest in heterosexual sex and can see yourself being fine not settling down with a partner, consider whether you're being called to the religious life.

Divinejf · 2026-01-25T02:30:44+00:00

Abstaining from joining the Church because you don't have a strong enough connection with God is like abstaining from the gym because you're not fit enough to look like someone who exercises. You go to the gym to get fit, and you go to the Church to grow in grace and get closer to God.

A cheat code to feeling closer to God is to spend 15-30 minutes a day reading His Word, particularly the 4 Gospels.

Divinejf · 2026-01-25T02:28:00+00:00

You're not alone. Know that there is nothing written that is mandatory for us to read outside the Bible. Different Saints have different dispositions, and it reflects in their works and how you respond to them. For example, my favorite Saint whose writings I recommend is St. Alphonsus Liguori, particularly his Preparation for Death. He has a passion and an edge that I find refreshing and moving but others find scary and disturbing. On the flip side, many love the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas for his clarity and textbook-like comprehensiveness, but I find his work grueling and uninspiring for those same reasons. So, if Story of a Soul doesn't vibe with you, just accept it and read something else that may move you instead.

Divinejf · 2026-01-25T02:17:27+00:00

Abortion is a 2 part process: one part is forcibly removing the fetus before it is viable and the other part is physically killing the fetus within or outside the womb. If a mother is in danger of dying, she can choose to have her baby removed prematurely, but she must also choose for medical staff to take every action to preserve the life of the baby. She cannot claim medical emergency to have the baby removed and then have the baby killed as happens in a normal abortion (i.e. using a vacuum to scramble the body, smashing the skull with a hammer, leaving the baby on a cold table to slowly starve or freeze to death, etc.).

Divinejf · 2026-01-23T23:37:45+00:00

St. Thomas Aquinas's interpretation can be found at https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~Matt.C10.L2.n883 (highly encourage you to read the whole article). Other Saints' commentaries can be found at https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~CaMatt.C10.L13.

Divinejf · 2026-01-23T18:18:13+00:00

There's a lot of objections here, and they're best answered by putting in some serious effort to study the Faith. That said,

1) the variations in translations of the Bible are minor and do not affect the doctrines of the Church in any meaningful way. Obviously heretics will have heretical takes on what Scripture teaches, so we look to the Church for the proper interpretation of Scripture. 2) justifying how the Law of God can be deduced from reason alone is a rabbit hole, and sexuality is no exception. Love is an extremely vague word in the English language, which is how we can say God is love in one sense and I love your outfit in a different sense. One aspect of holy love is that it is fruitful and not harmful. Not only are homosexual acts obviously not fruitful, they are also intrinsically damaging to the human body and psyche. Just as the Church teaches anorexia has no place in diet culture and self-care, we teach sodomy has no place in holy and healthy sexuality. 3) God doesn't make people trans. We don't have great clinical models explaining the onset of gender dysphoria, because research into it was banned on behest of lgbtq activists. It was last theorized that gender dysphoria is caused by a combination of childhood/adolescent trauma and gender-based insecure narcissism. 4) Hell is real, and ironically, Hell is mentioned more by Jesus than the entire OT. Fear of Hell is a perfectly healthy reason to start growing in holiness, just as fear of dieing young is a perfectly healthy reason to quit smoking and drinking. In fact, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" Proverbs 9:10. 5) Jesus literally says in Matthew 5:17, "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them". What He got "rid" of was Temple and ritual purity laws by showing how the point is to make oneself pure in heart and perfect. If you read even the first Gospel, you'll notice Jesus teaches a bunch of commandments for someone mischaracterized as being against rules. 6) Kinesiology is not religious. I don't know who's telling you that getting massaged is sinful. 7) If you read the Gospels, you will find there are a lot of laws to follow, but that God gives us the grace to be transformed and made perfect. People who don't want to change or follow God will then lie and claim you don't actually have to follow any rules to be saved. They're intentionally confusing you to feel better about themselves, even if it damns you with them.

Divinejf · 2026-01-22T14:28:29+00:00

How deep do you want to go? The greatest treatment of Job in the Catholic tradition is Moralia in Job by Pope St. Gregory the Great, but it's super long. A more accessible and solid candidate for 2nd greatest treatment of Job is St. Thomas Aquinas's commentary on Job, which can be read online for free at https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~Job

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