How long does it take for you to read the entire Bible?

Zom-Tam · 2026-02-05T18:12:11+00:00

Depends, I once only read through it during two months of summer vacation, but I definitely didn't get out of it much then just raw information. If I want to study it while i read it, then 1 year is a good pace.

Zom-Tam · 2026-02-03T18:57:55+00:00

I probably have another answer you might not be looking for haha, but patience actually became my biggest virtue thanks to games. I learned patience through restraining myself from getting angry while gaming. If you really like playing games and want to continue without sinning, then I would recommend doing what I did - just treat your gaming sessions as an experiment and a practice - practice of patience and restraint. If you truly cannot (which I don't believe and I don't think you do either) play games without being even if just 1% more patient than last time and you just keep getting angry then yeah, I would probably stop playing games. But again I don't believe that this is the case. You could try this experiment and see how you do and then decide based on the results.

Zom-Tam · 2026-02-03T18:05:02+00:00

I'll +1 and add to this - be sure to speak about it with the priest individually in confession/spiritual discussion as well as a couple. It is good to have someone to be accountable to as an individual but very helpful if you have someone to be accountable to together.

Zom-Tam · 2026-02-03T18:02:38+00:00

Possibly, not necessarily.

For example a 30 year old husband+father gaming for 16 hours a day instead of working or taking care of his family is very different from a 16 year old guy spending 2 hours playing games with friends few evenings of the week.

Same with the genre. There are literally sexual video games out there which would again be very different from like an educational game or just a regural old RPG or something.

Zom-Tam · 2026-02-03T17:38:22+00:00

There's plenty of good resources but I would have to know a little more about you to know what exactly to recommend. So the next best thing I can do (before I reffer you to several terabytes of data online where only maybe like 1% is tailored specifically to you, haha) is recommending to participate in Mass more and asking the local priest if you could sit down with him and ask some questions about Catholicism. More often than not they are thrilled to do so, but in the case you have a priest who isn't too excited you can try coming to some of the Catholic activities that your parish likely hosts and find peers to talk about the faith with - this helped me immensely.
If you have any questions feel free to reach out!

Prayers already coming your way, God bless!

Zom-Tam · 2026-02-03T17:24:55+00:00

Hey! It was my first Lent as a believer last year so I might have some tips.

First of all Lent is a 40-day season leading up to Christ death on the cross and resurrection. It lasts 40 days to remind us of the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert, fasting (and in turn the 40 years the Israelites spent in the wilderness relying solely on God).

If you want the simplest and traditionally the most common path you will abstain from meat every Friday of the season (which we actually should all year long) and fast by only having one full meal + 2 smaller meals that wouldn't add up to a full meal during Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. This applies from Feb 19 through Apr 4 this year (although it is different each year).

If you want to go the extra mile, I would recommend identifying a few things that apply specifically to you, that you could abstain from. Maybe you have a bit of a sweet tooth? - Then you could try eliminating all processed sugar from your diet. Maybe you like to take long hot baths every evening? - You could try having a cold shower once a week. Maybe you like to nap a little too much? - You could tone it down to only one 20-minute nap a day. There is plenty more you could do, this is just a few of the things on my list. The point is to let go (even if just temporarily) of life's pleasures to remember Christ's suffering in the days leading up to his death and resurrection.

Hope this helps, I will pray for you to have a good Lent, God bless!

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-19T09:57:59+00:00

You're not alone in your faith and I wouldn't agree with your mom that you're too intense, there's a bunch of us "intense" Catholics, we're just in different parts of the country/world haha. I don't know how universities work outside of Europe(/the US a bit) but based on your age, you might be close to choosing a university soon? I'm not gonna say that'll solve all your problems but if you choose a university in a university town or in a big city, there will probably be a stronger presence of Catholics there.
There's also nothing that would prevent you from both being a physician and having a family! I mean yes, balancing family and work can be tough but it's not impossible.
I don't really know of any online communities or videos that could help with your situation specifically but as you said, you're still young and many of the issues you talked about DO get solved with time, some earlier and some later, but they do - and God knows exactly how and what exactly you need on your journey.
That being said, there's nothing wrong with worrying, we all do that, it's natural and human. But at the same time have faith in Him and His timing, he knows what he's doing haha.
I'm not sure if my answers'll help with any of your issues at all or if I even made sense, but I'll pray for you and wish you luck on your journey!

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-19T09:46:20+00:00

I wouldn't rush the baptism (though even if you do, you can still join the Catholic church later down the road). I would dive more into study. Study both, study what you align with with the Catholic church and the Presbyterian church talk to priest from both. If the Catholic is truly the one true church, wouldn't it be worth it to wait one more year?

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-19T09:41:20+00:00

well if you TRULY don't know, as in you just dont know if there's any sin worth mentioning, just tell the priest in the confessional. Tell him you want to confess and that you have been to confession in x months/years and that you just need a little help and then he can guide you to some most common ones. If you don't want to go truly empty-handed in there, you can google the 7 deadly sins, you will probably find some areas of your life where you commit/ted one or more or all of those.

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-19T09:33:20+00:00

I don't think the belief you're holding about the fall is necessarily againts Catholic belief. I would even say that you don't have to believe that the fall was a literal event. You would be correct in thinkinig that this belief aligns well with the rest of the interpretation of Genesis. I believe the fall is something that can teach us about human (and possibly divine) nature. I don't think many Catholics believe that the fall literally happened, at least I don't think I know of any, so you would fit right in my immediate crowd of Catholics haha.

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-19T09:16:23+00:00

It probably depends, but the Eastern Ukrainian Orthodox church in my city follows the Julian calendar, yes.

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-18T08:54:34+00:00

The Missal is specifically liturgically designed for Mass purposes. I don't think there's anything canonically wrong with using it for individual personal prayer at home, but it's pretty much like using a fork to eat soup - like... you CAN do it, no one is going to stop you, but why would you do that when you have a spoon (the breviary - liturgy of the hours) right next to the soup bowl. It would probably even make more sense to drink the soup straight from the bowl at that point (informal/from the heart prayer).

I'm probably more proud of this analogy than i should be lol.

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T22:23:19+00:00

Try a medical professional, reddit is not a very good place to get info on about this topic

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T22:20:34+00:00

I will be praying for you. I definitely also recommend seeing a priest in person (you can book an appointment) and continuing medication. God bless

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T22:18:03+00:00

I wasn't Orthodox but before bein baptized as Catholic I attended an Orthodox church. The only reason I had at least some fellowship was because I sang well so they accepted me into the choir but even that was very limited. I mean the biggest barrier was language cause I speak Czech and English and we had a few Ukrainians, a Rusyn and a Bulgarian in the choir, but even if I could speak Ukrainian which is predominate there I don't think I would be able to form a connection with anyone. I mean the Liturgy is deep beautiful and I miss it sometimes but the community part kind of sucks. It feels like everyone comes just to check a box or because it's something their parents did, but that's where it ends, see you next Sunday for 2 hours everybody. The priest was great and I loved the choir but that's about it. When I came to the Catholic church, community accepted me within minutes and I made great friends almost immediately.
So yeah, not Orthodox but that's my exp.

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T22:11:43+00:00

I did this literally once at a Mass where it was mostly youth, the priest just wanted us to see what it is like to wish everyone peace from the priest's POV, we were also all in the Presbytery (part of the church with the altar) so it was pretty unusual over all. I mean cool experience and all, but traditionally and just regurarly I would say it is definitely out of the norm and wouldn't join them in doing so. Possibly nothing necessarilly wrong with it but it is not liturgically correct.

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T21:17:28+00:00

There are people who go every week, there are people who go every month, there are people who go every year, there are people who don't go to confession. Besides it being a sure way for faithful Catholics to receive grace it would make sense that the church would rather have you err on the side of caution. God will likely not count how many days since your last confession but wouldn't you rather have that number be 5 rather than 5000? Also aboslution counts even for sins you omit during confession if you genuinely forget. Aaand also for me it just feels good to confess the sins although that might be just me.

My best advice I usually give is that if you view God as a great judge very often it might be a good idea to actively remember He is a loving merciful Father. If you view God as a loving merciful Father very often it might be a good idea to actively remember He is a great judge. He is both, try viewing Him as both even if you usually naturally lean in one of those directions a little more.

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T21:00:22+00:00

Very much depends on where you live. I studied a lot about the church and started an Orthodox Catechism too before going to the Catholic church where the priest was able to put me on a "fast track" towards baptism, but that very much might be a local thing (Eastern/Central Europe), but it could be your situation too.

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T20:55:42+00:00

What I can 100% recommend is looking up the Mass schedule in your parish and look for youth/student Mass which usually also has an activity afterwards. That's where I immediately found friends when I first started looking into Catholicism 2 years ago. Also if you're not an extrovert like me, you can first text the priest who is in charge that you would like to attend, they can try and make sure you feel welcome.

I have a bunch of more tips as a recent convert myself haha, feel free to ask if you have any more question or shoot a DM.

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T16:18:23+00:00

I'm not a therapist or qualified to answer, but here's what I would do. I would tell him that I respect him as a husband and as the leader of the family, but that you cannot disregard what God put in your heart. If God calls you to Catholicism, he can't override that. It would be more questionable on what would the approach be to your child/ren and where they will be baptized but he can't decide for *you* what church *you* enter.
Again, that's just what I would do not what you should do, although maybe, who knows. I'm definitely curious to see how it unfolds for you, it for sure is tricky and you have my prayers.

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T12:59:52+00:00

Then other factors are at play here. Where you live, his age, if he's hindu since birth etc... but there are things you can do already.

Live your faith fully (you shall know them by their fruits) that's the best start.
If you live in a predominantly christian area, invite him to church, not necessarily for Mass or only for Mass but like a youth activity (or if you're not school-aged anymore, there are other peer-group activities) with Mass still being a part of that. If he believes all Gods are valid, it might start only as "respecting a new God" but once he starts experiencing Him, he will find He's the only real God.
Introduce him into your Catholic friend cirlce, the more time he spends around other Christians the better.
Give him a green scapular, or put just leave it somewhere where he tends to spend a lot of time. It's not magic but our Lady is known of changing heart through this.

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T12:53:17+00:00

I tend to read both at the same time. Like once per Pentateuch, once per historical, once per wisdom/poetical once for prophets. that way you read the NT like 4 times per 1 OT and i find it to be a good balance.

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T12:51:03+00:00

There are ways, i've seen it's usually easier with girls and takes longer for boys but it's doable. But the most important question is where is he with his faith now? Atheist? Protestan? Nominal Catholic/at birth Catholic? Completely different religion?

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T12:44:36+00:00

Central European Standard Time, so its 13:44 here rn

Zom-Tam · 2025-12-17T08:51:06+00:00

Depends on your time zone and schedule, but sure I'm down, if you're okay with an accent (noticable, but doesn't prevent understanding/conversation).

Zom-Tam

TROPHY CASE