St. Teresa in Ecstasy by Bernini

Let nothing disturb you,

Let nothing frighten you,

All things are passing away:

God never changes.

Patience obtains all things.

Whoever has God lacks nothing;

God alone suffices.

Amid the worries and uncertainties of life, these words of Saint Teresa remind us that everything in this world is passing, but God remains. May we learn to trust more in His providence and find in Him the peace that the things of this world cannot give us.

Saint Teresa of Ávila, pray for us!

I watched the podcasts Fr. Chad Ripperger and Fr. Dan Reehil were on and both of them double and triple down that you shouldn’t celebrate Halloween because it’s the devils holiday.

After watching those I learned from one of those “Everything is Catholic” videos, and they said we get it from All Hallows Eve the day before All Saints Day.

So my big question is doesn’t it seem like these exorcists are misinforming the viewership of the Catholic Church’s stock in the holiday it’s self by claiming that it’s the devils holiday?

Furthermore, don’t you think God knows the difference between you worshipping the devil vs dressing my two kids up as Spider-Man and the Hulk to make memories and enjoy our time together while they have fun?

I visited a catholic church that is also sort of a tourist attraction last week and they had some religious objects for sale. Among them there were some beautiful rosaries that I probably just didn't buy because of their price (tourist spot) and a certain sense of pointlessness and cringe of being somebody that does not believe in a god or supernatural beings.

I was raised evangelical baptist (but I am not american, so it wasn't like the westboro baptist church, it was chill) in a historically and culturally catholic country that is becoming increasingly evangelical. I've been an atheist for more than 15 years but I am very interested in religions as a whole and I admire lots of things in different faiths, like catholic aesthetics and intelectual tradition. It is maybe the beauty and ritual of the rosary that compells me to partake in it, even if I don't believe in the "metaphysics" of it. The point is I would probably feel like those pagan larpers that pretend to believe in Odin or Athena to fight against the disenchantment of everyday modern life.

What would be your advice?

I want to start this post off by saying I am incredibly blessed and married to a wonderful woman. We have almost zero married strife and God has blessed us with four incredible kids. several times a week for the purpose of my job I have to interact with a woman who I occasionally have feelings for. I have never acted on it but do feel the attraction some days and while most of the time I go out of my way to talk about my wife and how lucky I am, I find myself drawn to my co-worker. I went to confession last Saturday and my Priest said my situation is similar to King David and that God has blessed me and I completely agree. Does anyone have any advice? I will pray more on this tonight.

I had a copper IUD inserted years ago, back when I was an atheist. At the time, I was sexually active outside of marriage and really did not want to get pregnant. Over time, through a series of encounters with Jesus, my heart began to change, and I eventually chose to be baptized earlier this year. I’m incredibly grateful for how far I’ve come in my faith journey, and I’m still learning so much about what it means to live as a Catholic. The last time I had sex was about two years ago.

A few months ago, I visited an OB-GYN intending to have my IUD removed. It had already been in place for several years, and I didn’t want to wait until the full 10 years before removing it, especially since I’m not expecting to be sexually active anytime soon. But my OB-GYN advised me to keep it because it was still properly positioned and would continue to provide protection against pregnancy. I decided to follow her advice and didn’t insist on having it removed.

I understand that through baptism, my past sins were forgiven. However, I only recently learned that the Catholic Church actually teaches against contraception (I thought the Church was only against premarital sex), and now I’m wondering what that means for my situation. I do now want to have children someday, but I’m not ready to become pregnant soon nor do I plan to have sex outside of marriage. So my IUD is just there, and I haven’t made a decision about removing it since my OB-GYN advised me to keep it.

Am I currently sinning by having the IUD in place, even though I’m not sexually active? I plan to talk to a priest later on but I’m still a bit nervous about it because I haven’t had confession yet. I would appreciate your input.

Hello. I was wondering which actions should I take in order to become a proper believer.

I grew up in the faith but strayed and stopped believing at about 10 years old, I was an atheist until 18, when I felt drawn towards faith again, I'm now 22 and I really wish to do better.

I've sinned during these years (and still do sometimes...), I'm not very knowledgeable about Christianity anymore, at least not as much as I'd like to be. I don't attend mass either.

Is there anything I could do without having to see a priest or go to church? I feel too apprehensive.

Where do I start?

I wish you all a great day.

Edit: thank you, you are all truly kind.

I'm sorry to get a bit personal but I was hoping there would be ways to do this without interacting with a priest or mass, but I understand it's not quite possible. I am too nervous to go, I've had some issues that I took antipsychotics for and they make me wary and apprehensive about going, but they're also what brought back my faith. I feel like something is off with priests and they cannot be trusted

A not-serious question: Do you pronounce rosary:

A) rose-er-y (the S sounds like the S in rose)

B) ro-zhur-y (second syllable sounds kind of like the word “zhuzh,” as in to “zhuzh something up”/improve it)

C) another way

Hi. I just wanted to come on here and share my story about how Saint charbel healed my father I’m so happy and just want to share. A couple months ago we found out that my father had had a neck cancer and unfortunately it’s spread very quickly and it was much more aggressive than the doctors had thought it was originally. We found out a couple weeks later that he now had stage four lung cancer, and our doctor advised us to start preparing for my father’s death telling us that hopefully they could preserve his life for a couple more years. We were writing wills, crying, thinking of where to bury my father. It was an extremely difficult time and I turned to Saint Chapelle and prayed is novena and fasted at his honor. Towards the end of my fast, I was praying using an app and I had opened my app and on there it said a random quote of the day and that day when I happed to open the app it said RUTH 3:11
"And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask."
I immediately started, crying, praying to God and hoping it was a sign that it would be in his will to heal my father since the next day we were supposed to be getting confirmation, whether or not my father’s cancer had spread to his lungs . In the moment I had believed that God was telling me that the doctors would be wrong like I was hoping for, however when the news came back, it wasn’t what I hoped, for. They had confirmed that the cancer had spread to his lungs and that it was bad. I kept on praying and I kept on believing even though it was hard and at times I doubted my faith. However, as of today, my dad is 100% cancer free. The spots in his lungs I’ve been replaced with a gray fog in the scans. I kept on believing and in the lords will he did what the doctor said was almost impossible. Even the doctor was so surprised by this news it is truly been such a blessing. I wanted to share my story in case anyone needed to hear it.

Someone told me that the Japanese Shogunate's persecution of Christians was a justified self defence against a foreign cult who was enslaving their people and overthrowing their government. He said modern Japan is a shining beacon of modernity not corrupted by Christianity. What a wild thing to say...

I have been doing some reading online, trying to learn what the Eastern Catholic Church believes about the devil and demonic affliction. I came across some writings by my Archbishop where demonic affliction is more and more shrugged off as mental illness. Clergy and laypersons speak as if it doesn't exist at all. As someone who spent years doing demonic occult practices, including the summoning of demons, to the point it lead to demonic oppression (not possession), this is very concerning to me.

I have very real experiences with demons. They laid dormant when I was non-religious doing the occult stuff, but as soon as I decided to go to church, they immediately reared their ugly heads and tore me to pieces, doing everything they could to stop me. Yes, I've been cleared by the mental health field, and I have the cognitive discernment to know the difference. The idea that my horrifying experience with demons is brushed off as some sort of fairytale or psychosis breaks my heart, and I don't understand how the Church can be so dismissive of a very real spiritual peril.

Souls will be lost if people who are experiencing demonic affliction cannot find help within the Church.

I'm genuinely curious.

Hi all,

I’ve been seriously considering the Church for a number of years now. But I keep missing the RCIA cycle and it is frustrating me how hard it is to become a catholic. I was out of town the past few weeks and am worried I missed the boat again. Is anyone aware of RCIA classes that start late (NYC)? Is this a thing? Or do I have to wait until next September.

Thank you all in advance.

I have an interest in Catholicism as it is today as well as the history of it. Are there recommendations of books on where I may begin? I am open to any if they are history, study guides, or specific focuses. Looking forward to seeing your responses below.

How non-Catholics overturned what Jesus in Mat. 19:6 and Mark 10:11 said about divorce?

“What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” — Matthew 19:6 (KJV)

“Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.” — Mark 10:11 (KJV)

Any idea how then can still proceed with claiming solo scriptura?

Long story short, husband and I married through Catholic Church in 2019. We strayed from our religion and have not attended mass regularly. We have a 6 year old daughter (who we have taught prayers too, sign of the cross, bible stories, etc.) and has gone to church before but not regularly. We have been through some rough moments in our marriage and we both realized we are lacking structured faith in our home. We decided together that we needed to invite God back into our lives especially with our daughter & one on the way. Well we never baptized my daughter, and now she is turning 6 next week and I’m so embarrassed. I am embarrassed and ashamed that my baby was never baptized because of her parents indecisiveness and irresponsibility. I want to baptize her but I’m afraid of being shamed and judged at her baptism when she is the oldest one there among babies :(

I love and hate myself. I’m 18 and a freshmen in college and I have an amazing family and great friends. However I hate how ugly I am. Everywhere I go on campus I feel like the ugliest person around and when I think i see somebody who’s I think is uglier I use that too boost myself and that makes me feel bad because I don’t want to judge. Sometimes my friends or people with us will say something about my looks to boost themselves up and it just fucks me up. Im passing all my classes but my self esteem and self worth is just so low. I hate pictures of myself because of how bad I look my favorite ones are where I don’t look like myself. It doesn’t help I look young for my age either. I’m w5’9 which isn’t bad and I’m in good shape I would say I go the gym 3-5x a week. I pray and try to go to adoration one or two times a week along with mass. I lost a cousin to suicide so I wouldn’t want to do that because I know what it does to families but id be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it. I’m also living in a state of mortal sin so that doesn’t help either and I can’t confess because I’m only a candidate in the church but I will hopefully be confirmed in march. I want nothing more than to have a wife and kids but I am discerning the priesthood because I don’t think I will ever find a wife and if I do I don’t want my kids to be ugly like me

Hello there.

I have a lot of questions and am dealing with an unending feeling of unworthiness. I am a woman (34) married to a man who had been married previously. I was raised Baptist and was baptized. I fell away from Christianity in my early 20s but have heard the calling back to Christ.

His ex and he got married at a courthouse and had a son. He left after she cheated with multiple people and told him to take his son with him. She married a women then divorced married another man and divorced and now is in an open relationship with her newest ex.

We have main custody of his son she only gets him summers and alternating holidays.

I had never been married before. My husband and I are married (courthouse because of exes’ harassment we had to elope) and have a daughter. I was the first and only person he was with after they broke up.

I don’t feel like my marriage will ever be seen as real or true and though my mom has converted to Catholicism because of my step-dad (he divorced his wife for my mom) and it was made ok with the church that I can have the same grace.

My husband got a vasectomy after I started having health issues after our daughter and also doesn’t believe in the church though he was baptized and raised in it the same as me.

I want to become Catholic, I just feel that I have messed up too much to be worthy of it.

Any advice?

Im a Catholic candidate in the OCIA class. My OCIA director informed me that it isn't a requirement to join the church but would like for me to start the annulment process even though I'm not dating anyone right now. I'm a domestic violence survivor and I never want to be in an abusive marriage ever again.