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!

St. Teresa in Ecstasy by Bernini

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.

Edit: God bless you all. I truly appreciate your kindness and advice! I love this community!

And with such caution, especially considering how deeply rooted they are in Catholic theology and Christian tradition.

It also seems that relatively few priests are authorized or specifically trained to perform exorcisms, which makes me wonder why the Church approaches this part of its ministry with so much discretion. A strict Catholic friend of mine even tried obtaining a copy of the Catholic Rite of Exorcism for myself to review but was unable to get one due to certain restrictions.

I understand that these are serious and sensitive matters, but I've always felt that there's something valuable about understanding this side of our faith rather than avoiding the conversation altogether. Angels, demons, and spiritual warfare have been part of Christian belief for centuries, so why does the Church seem so hesitant to discuss them more openly? Wouldn't a deeper understanding of these teachings help Catholics better appreciate their faith, the nature of evil, and the Church's role in confronting it?

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’ve been Anglican my whole life, and recently I’ve been learning more about Catholicism and am moving towards joining the church. A big difference between the two churches is that the Catholic church is a lot less relaxed, which I do agree is a good thing, but in learning about things like purgatory, mortal sins and confession etc, I’ve been feeling a lot of anxiety. I was wondering if anyone experienced anything similar. I know that it’s a good thing to have fear of God, and I do disagree with the lukewarm faith a lot of anglicans tend to have, but I just feel that i’ve seen christianity in a completely different light. Almost like i’ve moved from a class with a really chill teacher to one with a really strict teacher (dumb analogy but i hope that makes sense)

For context, this is the previous post I made over two years ago.

(TL;DR: After it came up in marriage prep that my fiancé had been SA’d several years before, we went back and forth with our assistant pastor, pastor, and a counselor for several months, trying to work out a path forward to set a wedding date. Our prospective date was fast approaching and we still weren’t even given the go-ahead to get *betrothed* in a formal ceremony yet.)

Shortly after I posted, my then-fiancé contacted a canon lawyer at the archdiocese level, who was able to connect us with a counselor over Zoom, who talked to my fiancé for 10 minutes and saw that he was a well-adjusted guy whose previous trauma had no bearing on his current life and ability to handle stress. Counselor wrote a letter to our priests essentially clearing my fiancé of any impediments to marriage, and we thought that would be the end of it, especially because the canon lawyer was keeping in touch with our priests and essentially making sure that they weren’t denying us marriage.

Unfortunately, our priests are FSSP, and they get reassigned to different parishes every 1-3 years. Reassignments were announced right as we got the letter from the second counselor, and our priests wouldn’t be staying. Our pastor recommended that we wait another six months to get married, since the new pastor would be starting our marriage prep over from scratch. The incoming pastor, however, turned out to be the brother of my godmother. He’s a family friend I have known my whole life.

We were able to meet with him 2 days after he moved to our parish to discuss our marriage prep case. We explained all that we’d been through, he said that none of it mattered to him, and he officially set our wedding date for September 28th, 2024 (which was 46 days away). He also agreed to do our betrothal ceremony, which took place 2 weekends later. He covered all of our marriage prep catechism in several extended meetings over 3 weeks. We spent 6 weeks scrambling to get everything arranged for our wedding, and it was the most beautiful day of our lives (so far).

I don’t really know what lesson to take away from our struggle to get married. The whole thing felt pointless. All the back-and-forth with priests and counselors and a canon lawyer, only for a new priest to come along and tell us that he didn’t see any impediments and he’d marry us ASAP. All the stress, the toll it took on my autoimmune disease, and the strain it put on our relationship. The pessimism that invaded every corner of our lives to the point that marriage prep was the only thing we could talk about, even if we were supposed to be celebrating something else: a birthday, a graduation, another wedding. The lack of trust I have in priests now, the people who were supposed to shepherd us and instead practically drove us out of the fold.

I don’t have ill feelings towards the assistant pastor whose scrupulosity sent us down that path; in fact he’s visited our parish and we were able to make it clear that there’s no hard feelings. Our former pastor… I don’t know what I’d say to him. His pride and unwillingness to give a second opinion was the reason we were stuck for so long. If our incoming pastor had listened to him and made us wait six months to marry, we wouldn’t have our beautiful baby daughter now.

Some friends of ours had a similar case where they gave up and moved permanently to another parish to get married there, after nearly 3 years of being told by our priests that “you can’t get married yet because you’re imperfect.” We’ve met several other couples who were also told by our assistant pastor that they couldn’t marry for some reason or another. Honestly I don’t know if he ever married anyone. So many pregnancies that never had a chance…

My little brother is now engaged to a young lady with whom his first date was our wedding. They’re in marriage prep with the same pastor who married us, and he let him set their wedding date before my brother even popped the question.

I’m glad that nobody at our parish currently has to fight to get married. That’s not something that anyone should ever have to do, especially as a devout Catholic in good standing with the Church. I‘m just at a loss when I think about it. Why us, why our friends who wanted desperately to have children, what good was it to make us wait and stress and suffer? Free will, I guess.

Hello everyone! How are you all doing?

I'm a young man who struggles quite a bit with religious questions. Recently, I attended a retreat at the Lutheran Church that made me realize that perhaps that wasn't where I belonged. Today, almost on impulse, I went to the Catholic Church, went to confession, and decided to give Rome another chance.

The thing is, I learned some good things during my time in Lutheranism. I even came to admire Luther and his attempt to reform the Church — whether that attempt was successful is another debate, I know, lol.

One of the things that bothered me about Catholicism was certain expressions about Mary that seemed excessive to me, especially some passages in True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, by St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort. On the other hand, I also missed hearing more about Mary in the Lutheran environment.

Anyway, I've probably mixed a few things together, but my question is sincere: Is it possible to live the Catholic faith fully while maintaining a more restrained Marian devotion, without ceasing to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, while keeping Christ at the center of one's spiritual life?

I don't want to disregard Our Lady or disrespect the spirituality of any saint. I would simply like to find a way of living my faith that allows me to have a clear conscience.

Are there any saints, theologians, or Catholic spiritual traditions that could help me with this?

More specifically, are there Catholic authors who openly criticize or raise objections to certain traditional Marian devotions, such as The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary and True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin? I would like to learn about Catholic perspectives that question some of these practices or expressions, especially when they seem to give Mary an excessive place in comparison to Christ.

Thank you in advance to everyone who can offer me some guidance. God bless you all!

My husband has a lot of resentment and contempt against me. He spends a lot of his time criticising me, but saying i can't take criticism. He doesn't show affection unless he is ready and open for it.

He talks about his regrets marrying me, saying in he didn't come to the UK he wouldn't have ruined his life. Including marrying me and having children. Im due our second baby next week. He says he missed his calling to be a priest.

He needs my endless attention whenever required. With his being out of work for 1yr, this usually includes 6hrs a day minimum of talking to me about all his realisations or trying to school me on how to live a more meaningful life. Saying how dissatisfied he is with me, or just general analysing.

I have lost my enthusiasm within this time. I can't enjoy conversations with him anymore, as one sentence i say could lead to a 30 minute analysis. All my past conversations and things ive told him are brought up and used against me. I don't want to be hiding myself but i dont feel comfortable opening up in the way i used to. He can get angry easily if i don't immediately understand what he is saying, despite him talking hours about complex topics and me trying to also give attention to our toddler.

He says im in a catatonic state lately, feeling sorry for myself and being selfish, but i dont know how else to be. Its like a defense mechanism. I just flatly said goodnight to him, he complained about it, but he was just complaining at me for something being moved in the kitchen which 100% wasn't me but he says my memory is so bad that i can't be trusted. So i flatly said ok, im 100% sure but i know i dont have the right to he trusted so its me by default.

I think he was expecting something more from me before bed. But even on a good day when i could show affection and was more my normal self, he isn't that open to affection, he just takes up more time talking and doesn't usually accept a hug properly.

My heart feels hardened perhaps. He just said i must be feeling sorry for myself and even though im mentally ill and ruining his life that im making it about me. But i just have no energy. Im agreeing with everything, im even believing it mostly. I just don't know how to live. He says its false humility and fake shame. Ive just been praying about it.

Does anyone have any advice?

Imagine Mama Mary giving you that look

I don't mean to cause a stir but I remember saint Therese of lisieux prayed for someone who was about to be executed and that person converted I think we should all do the same. Pray for the conversion of that man who was going to be livestreamed. Fast, rosary, whatever you can for his conversion.

if this goes against sub rules you can delete, I'm not frecuente here so Idk the rules.

My husband and I have been married for 5 years but it's always felt like we're friendly roommates, even when trying for a kid. We have a toddler now and want another one. He's a great, attentive husband and father and I love so many of his qualities, but our chemistry is non-existent. I didn't know where else to go for advice - I was thinking about couples counseling about building attraction so I'll seek that out, but I wanted to know what else to read / where to start.

We've tried to talk about it before but it hasn't gone anywhere. We are intimate 1-3 times a month in our 20s. It's always been that way even when we were newlyweds. I've never felt a spark between us. Even when we were dating, we've never struggled to control ourselves or get close to crossing a line. In previous relationships, that was always a struggle but not with this one - I thought it was because he was so good at respecting my boundaries but now I realize that wasn't the case. I don't know if he just has a way lower libido, but I don't feel desired as a woman. And it's gotten to the point where I daily contemplate a way out - that's how desperate I am to feel wanted and seen as a woman. Has anyone else had the feeling of feeling alone after intimacy? Like more lonely than before? Every time I think to myself, "Is this it?" I feel a pit in my stomach and I feel more distant than before. It doesn't bring us closer and so I find myself not wanting it either.

But now that I'm entertaining dangerous thoughts of leaving even though I don't want to do that, not now when we have young kids, now I'm seeking any books or advice on how to switch directions in re-inspiring our marriage. Please be kind in any advice. I just didn't know where else to ask. I love my husband and want to make it work, but I'm desperate for change and to be seen in that way.

Some context: He did used to have an eating disorder before we dated and likes to feel in control of how he looks. When we were dating, he did say one time that he struggled with comparing me to other women. It could be that he's just never been attracted to me. But with having a kid, it's hard to control my fitness as perfectly as before. I don't know if it's achievable for me to become an athlete or anything overnight but willing to work on that too.

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

In a literature/philosophy class at my college, we analyze texts from Plato to Aurelius, to Exodus and Augustine, with open discussions. Each lecture a student presents on the reading of the day (each student was able to sign up for one) and I recently presented on the New Testament (of course), specifically Matthew, Romans, and Galatians. The discussions are meant to be somewhat critical and political (in the sense of analyzing political powers over civilizations through the lens Aristotle and Plato). Nevertheless, in group discussions I couldn’t help but here the group next to us going on about how “Jesus is a scam artist”, “he ran the worlds biggest marketing scheme”, “he spewed nonsense that was easy and worked for people so they didn’t have to think about things themselves” “it’s a hoax” etc. etc. This group was primarily from one specific religious background, and I hope that not be the cause for the foundation of their perspectives. While debate is welcome in the class and I personally have no problem with some good intellectual push back, a lot of the rhetoric was just plainly uncalled for, at not at all intellectual. Although the same treatment to others would of course call for university level disciplinary action, it’s more of the blatant and almost intentionally “showy” or proud and confident form of disrespect. I honestly was taken aback since no discussion has gone that way before, so I sort withdrew a little bit from the conversation to collect myself. But thoughts? Not explicitly gospel but we will continue to dive a little deeper with Augustine, how should I approach?

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

I will start excusing for my english, because it's not my first language, so if there will be some following sentence that doesen't make sense. Let me know so i can clarify, btw.

I have this questioning about Jesus will when it comes to asking intercession of saints. I mean, i can see why intercession can be a grip to the church, how it can really bring the church (both militant and triumphant) together. But i can imagine that's not the only way to do that. Even if the church was not allowed to communicate with the saints (and I don't really know if it is), heaven's would still be heaven's, God still God, Jesus still the One mediator.

It all leads me to question: Does Jesus explicitly said that he wants us to ask for intercession? or to communicate with saints, to honor them saying compliments as we do at some prayers. Actually, it doesn't need to be explicit, but is there any register that bases that doctrine? This doctrine is based exclusively on tradition? because, i confess, my first thought is that a doctrine that bases exclusively on tradition is insecure.

again, if something on my post isn't clear because of language, let me know. I really want to understand that theme

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...

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?

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.