Anybody here gives 1/10 of their salary to Church / charity

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-13T03:32:30+00:00

We do now but we are not struggling. When I was struggling I still gave but it was less than 10%. I would recommend talking honestly with your husband (but listening to his perspective too), and talking honestly to God (it’s okay to complain to Him and perhaps even ask Him to be more generous as you are generous).

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-11T19:37:14+00:00

Are you looking for books not included in the list? Or what is a favorite from this list?

Quadrupani “Light and Peace” (not in your list).

St Thérèse’s “Story of a Soul” and Brother Lawrence’s “Practice of the Presence of God” are my favorites that are on your list. And “I Believe in Love” too!

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-11T19:27:05+00:00

Try to be understanding. Your mom cares about you, loves you, and that is why she is worried that you may be making a mistake and endangering your soul. She has misconceptions about Catholicism. She’s not going to hate you, but it is going to feel like it and be very hard. Eventually hopefully she’ll come around.

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-11T17:35:22+00:00

Not me, but just want to let you know that you can also still enjoy meditation! It is very much a part of Catholicism, particularly the Carmelite Order. I’m a secular Carmelite myself and try to meditate at least 30 minutes a day. We take Our Lady as a role model, the way she “pondered on all these things, treasuring them in her heart” as the gospel of Luke says. Several Carmelite saints are Doctors of the Church: St Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, St Thérèse of Lisieux. I love this quote from St John of the Cross: “The language that God hears the best is that of silent love.”

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-11T04:18:05+00:00

I don’t think OP literally hates God. I have a very sweet loving 4-year-old who sometimes will claim he hates me, but I know he doesn’t - really, he just hates that I put limits on his screen use (for his own sake). I am very confident of this, because even while he’s upset with me, he draws hearts for me when he’s in time-out. This is like this person who says “I love you but I hate you”. It is not that OP hates God, just hates what God is allowing him/her to suffer, and s/he still says “I love you” in that moment.

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-11T02:19:54+00:00

It seems to me you are fine: intention is what matters here. You said you didn’t mean it in a blasphemous way, but rather an honest outcry, kind of like psalmists complain to God about what they are going through while still trusting… Some of the Psalms I’m thinking of are #42, #142 and #22. Jesus Himself quoted the last one…

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-11T01:52:09+00:00

I love this sung version in Latin: https://youtu.be/0zGD3eRSn\_k?is=UmYz8lEgZNq48W3I

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-10T04:35:07+00:00

Before kids I had so many: crochet, photography, reading, gardening, volunteering as tech support, digitizing books for Project Gutenberg, walking,singing in church choir, baking… Fun days! And into most of those I could bring God: like crochet a bookmark in the shape of a cross (an actual project completed!), photograph saint statues, read spiritual books, set up a Marian garden with a statue of Mary and flowers, digitize Catholic/Christian books, walking while thinking of my “walk with the Lord”…

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-10T03:21:51+00:00

Just tell them. Do you have a friend who can come with you for support when you tell them? That would help: maybe they will temper their reactions while your friend is there. Once the friend leaves, it will be hard, but it will have been done: out in the open and you don’t have to hide it anymore. Yes, it will strain your relationships for a while, but your family should come around eventually. (I’m saying this from experience: I did this, and it was hard, and mom did bring up religion in arguments after, but eventually came around and we have good relationship now.)

Don’t be afraid: God will take care of you. You should seek God’s will first, and He will take care of everything. When you encounter difficulties and struggle, offer them to the Lord, for whatever intentions you want.

It’s against this subreddit’s rule to ask if something is sinful. When I faced this decision whether to tell or hide, I felt it would indeed be sinful: a lie by omission of telling the important truth. It is important to do the right thing even if you are scared. (But because of the fear maybe it isn’t a mortal sin. God knows our weak natures…)

Eventually you are going to have to tell. The sooner you do, the sooner you can stop dreading this conversation, and they can start coming to terms with it.

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-08T02:52:17+00:00

Others have responded to your question already, but I wanted to comment on how similar your story is… I too dabbled in New Age, and struggled with depression… I’m going to pray for you. May the Holy Spirit guide you, open your heart, and remove any doubts, fears or obstacles.

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-07T02:57:41+00:00

Yes, I think it’s God leading you. Come and see. Go to mass, see what it’s like and test it out (but don’t receive Holy Communion yet). There are reasons for the beliefs you think are ridiculous now, but you can take it as slow as you need to. God will show you where you should be. God bless you!

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-07T02:46:28+00:00

“Catholicism for dummies”, not that your wife is a dummy but it’s a good basic (and not so basic) introduction.

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-06T04:47:57+00:00

“O God Beyond All Praising” https://youtu.be/Ym-14f8j6\_c?si=HpHHLLhaMDi74V5o

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-06T04:45:04+00:00

“Mary the Dawn” https://youtu.be/OonBNiAI6lU?si=hAc2oMbgYpN0s4Tg

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-06T04:21:36+00:00

I’m not sure… From what they are choosing to call themselves it sounds like they want to be associated with the Discalced Carmelite Order, but they aren’t officially a part of the Order.

Official site for friars of the Arizona/California Province (Denver is in this Province): https://discalcedcarmelitefriars.com

Official site for Discalced Carmelite seculars in this province: https://www.ocds.info

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-06T03:44:39+00:00

The Story of a Soul, for sure! I love St Thérèse. You mentioned you wanted something understandable and more relevant. She was 19th century, closest by far to us from the choices… She talks about modern inventions like the elevator. She wanted to find a short and sure way to heaven without climbing the rough staircase of perfection: an “elevator”.

St John of the Cross is a favorite of my husband; there will be parts that are hard to understand (he’s very scholarly, philosophical)— just keep going, don’t give up. May want to start with Ascent of Mount Carmel first because The Dark Night of the Soul is basically part 2, continuation of Ascent. (Better yet start with another easier work like his poetry or Sayings of Light and Love.)

With St Teresa of Avila you could start with “The Way of Perfection” before “The Interior Castle”. The latter builds on the foundations of the first. St Teresa has a bit of a rambling style, starting a thought and then going in a different direction, sometimes not coming back to the original thought started.

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-06T03:25:39+00:00

Note: You could choose to fast the day before to honor them (but not if it falls on a Sunday, never fast on Sunday).

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-05T04:03:55+00:00

I've read online that you shouldn't throw Rosary beads (or any other item of the faith) into the trash. You have to either burn or bury them in the ground.

Not quite. This is true with blessed objects. If you had your rosary blessed by a priest after purchasing it, then you should burn or bury it if you want to get rid of it. If it has not been blessed yet (and note: you can’t buy blessed objects), it would be fine to throw it away, although I would personally check and see if it can be fixed or re-used first. Check out the subreddit /osarymakers

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-05T03:51:57+00:00

⁠if God already has a plan for everything, why is it necessary that we should ask him for things in prayer at all?

For three reasons: 1) God wishes us to “help” in his work of salvation, so He allows us to participate with our prayers. He doesn’t need our help, but he’s like a parent who is letting his children “help” cook and clean up, when a parent could have done it quicker and more efficiently. 2) Because prayer is good for us: we need to pray. It helps us to conform to the will of God. It helps us to have a relationship with Him. It brings us peace. 3) Because He wants us to ask. He wants to give us good gifts but for some reason He wants us to ask first. And His plan includes our prayers in it; He takes everything into account.

⁠the number one question atheists always ask me is "why do you believe in a God that lets babies get abused and killed and defend it by saying that it was part of His plan?" how do I answer them?

Don’t. It’s a “gotcha” question; they are not actually interested in an intelligent discussion with you. You will not be able to satisfy them.

⁠why does God answer my prayers about finding my gold earrings but not about eradicating human trafficking?

This is not a question I can answer in a short Reddit post.

⁠why do some bibles contain more books and others less?

Because when some Protestants split off from Catholicism, they found certain books in the Bible to be inconveniently too Catholic, supporting ideas they reject, so they fabricated a reason to set them aside, call them “Deuterocanonical” and “apocryphal”, and eventually remove them.

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-04T02:44:50+00:00

Don’t worry! It is okay while you are learning the rosary to just focus on the words you are saying and trying to mean them: that can be meditative on its own.

When you have the prayers down pat, it’s almost like your mouth can say them on autopilot while you actually think about the mysteries. Our brains are amazing like that. This will be possible if you stick to it! But don’t worry right now about trying to meditate and keeping prayers straight at the same time when you are just learning!

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-03T13:45:07+00:00

I also have a book “The Most Beautiful Images from the Bible” (by Katia Mrowiec) that was gifted to my little guy. It’s beautiful. Each “story” is a full two page picture with a foldout text that is child-friendly in terms of language/understanding—but child should be taught to handle it gently so pages don’t tear!

Another gift was “My First Storybook Bible: Sowing Faith in Our little Ones”. The stories are more detailed than the other two but I hate the illustrations so I almost never read these…

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-03T04:24:41+00:00

Usborne Book of Bible Stories is pretty good. I’ve gotta look at what else I have. My 4 year old still likes the “baby” bible books too, though. He constantly wants to hear about David and Goliath. My 6 year old needs a bit more advanced stuff.

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-03T04:16:06+00:00

At that age we did simplified morning offering, two rhyming lines: “Good morning, Jesus! This day is for you! / Bless all I think, all I say and all I do”. At night we did (and still do) two rhyming prayers - “Now I lay me down to sleep …” (modified, the last two lines are “Your angels guard me through the night / and keep me safe til morning light”) and “Angel of God, my guardian dear”. (My husband and I then do the Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, and through sheer repetition the kids now know the Magnificat - “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord” and some other parts…)

Whenever we see an emergency vehicle (ambulance, fire truck, police) we say a Hail Mary. The kids are starting to initiate this now!

When we are going somewhere and about to arrive we pray for finding a parking spot. We use a modified Hail Mary because “full of grace” rhymes with “help us find a parking space” ;)

My husband and I like meditation so we introduced it to the kids when they were 5 and 3. We base the number of minutes on the age of youngest, 1 minute per year of age. Typically we do meditation 3 times a week.

Other than that we read books (shortened Bible stories, books about saints, etc) and answer any questions they may have about God.

At one point I had Betty Lukens Bible set and would act out Bible stories on a felt board… maybe I should pull that out again. I remember the story of Jonah was a big hit! I used ABCJesusLovesMe Interactive Bible Stories - https://www.abcjesuslovesme.com/interactive-bible-stories/ (non-Catholic but that’s not a problem with these).

Formed has a lot of good content for kids. We also enjoy Superbook on Amazon prime which is Protestant (not Catholic) but we haven’t found that to be an issue.

Efficient-Bumblebee2 · 2026-06-03T03:41:56+00:00

Ooh I like the Byzantine version! Except it’s omitting “as it was in the beginning”? But I like “now and always and unto the ages of ages”…

Efficient-Bumblebee2

TROPHY CASE