My most recent commission. Egg tempera and 24k gold over gessoed board.

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 :(

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.

I'm genuinely curious.

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

Sometimes we only see the Divinity of our Lord, yet not the man. He who suffered so, He who had to deal with His role as the Eternal Sacrifice, He who had to deal with people who misunderstood Him, He who cried to God before entering into His Passion for our sake.

Let us give thanks to the Lord for struggling all His life for us and for the chance that we may be made worthy before the Father.

Let us not forget that He was human, like us, and cried, ate, laughed, made jokes, was angered so and was humiliated in His suffering.

Amen!

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 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 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.

And is it the same for kings queens etc.? And would it be like “Saint senator” or because that’s not a true title just “Saint x”

In 1835, Maria Monk's Awful Disclosures claimed nuns at Montreal's Hôtel-Dieu strangled newborns and threw them into a lime pit in the cellar. It became a transatlantic bestseller, though investigators who visited the convent found nothing matching her account. The essay argues that the 2021 Kamloops Indigenous unmarked graves claims drew on the same old template of murderous priests and nuns, and notes that the 1834 Charlestown convent burning had a modern echo in the 2021 church arsons.

I was just wondering why isn’t John the Baptist as big as he is in the Orthodox Church? He’s considered to be the forerunner and the person who paved the way for Jesus and died as a martyr. He usually is the person on the other side of Jesus, Mary being on the other side.

I'm so disappointed. I went to a support group this week that is being offered by our church. Most of the discussion from the moderator revolved around annulments & how to get one. By the end it felt like you just needed to find the right excuse.

Honestly, I was hoping for help healing from the massive betrayal the divorce was. And ways to feel more connected to my faith. Maybe even ways to help my kids come to terms with what has happened & the Catholic faith's teachings about marriage & divorce. Not a lecture convincing me to file for an annulment because "you never know if you'll want to marry again."

já pedi vários concelhos nesse sub e me sinto culpada de pedir novamente sendo que das últimas vezes eu também não consegui me conter. Eu queria nunca ter tido contato com literatura erótica, pornografia e masturbação.
Me sinto um zumbi, tentando fugir mas sempre que aparece uma tentação eu cedo.
Estava lendo “easy peasy” mas não terminei ontem e hoje cai novamente. Me sinto pobre,suja, como um animal selvagem que segue seus instintos. Como as pessoas conseguem se controlar tanto?

Eu tive contato com estímulos sexuais desregrados a partir dos 13 anos. Eu tenho 17 e sou mulher. Desde lá eu tento me segurar e não consigo. Fui entender como vício esse ano e minhas confissões são sempre sobre esse pecado.

Sei lá, parece que eu não tenho salvação. Me sinto um caso perdido. Se minha família soubesse eu seria a maior vergonha da vida deles. Eu só queria mudar, eu queria ser livre dessa escravidão.

Não me sinto no direito de pedir perdão a Deus. Eu sei que a misericórdia dele é maior que tudo, mas eu não confio mais em mim. Não consigo mudar

Hi, so I'm fairly new to learning about the catholic faith. Not completely unfamiliar, I have been exploring it for about 5-6 months. Pray the rosary multiple times a day, have participated in online novenas, and have been watching lots of clips from Blessed Folton Sheen, mother Angelica, Father Mike Schmitz, and the sisters at Openlight.

But I'm in crisis right now, and wish to talk to a priest about some faith questions. I want guidance, and don't know how to go about it. Do I need to make an appointment? If I just show up at the church during open hours will there be someone to talk to? Is it appropriate for me to even go considering I'm not a baptized Catholic?

I want to continue to learn about the faith. But am recovering from growing up and living in a religious cult for 26 years(only got out mentally 6 months ago, physically 2 months). So I'm not ready to commit to anything, to claim any church. I'm Christian, I love God, I have been really loving my rosary. But I'm currently mentally at the lowest place I've ever been. I've had to call mentally health hot lines and had emergency mentally health personal come to my house today. My brain is sick. And the mental health people just can't and don't understand my faith problems, how some of my feelings are coming from religious lenses. So I want to talk with a priest about the religious view on my situation.

What do I do? How do I go about this?

Thanks in advance! God bless.

sorry but I’m not Catholic Ive thought about doing it for a long time and just never made the move but I have a lot of respect for the culture. I’m asking my question here because I’ve been struggling with shame. l don’t know what to do I should be more ashamed of myself and my actions than I am. more than anything I feel detached from them and from myself more often. I feel guilty about all sorts of silly things; not giving alms to the poor, holding grudge, gossip, but eh choices I make the ones that hurt the people closest to me I don’t feel guilt over I feel ashamed embarrassed. I’ve been reading my bible and it doesn’t excite me anymore and I struggle with loving my family. I need to make penance for my actions and while I regret them I don’t feel guilty over them. why don’t I feel as bad about hurting the person closest to me but I do for total stranger? please help me repent.

Long story short, I have been away from any Christian faith a very very long time. During my teens I became a radical atheist, despite having been baptized and confirmed in my youth within the Roman Catholic Church. In my early twenties, I became agnostic again, and since 2 years I am quite steadfast in believing Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the cross three days later. However, this solidification of my faith has so far only been on a deeply individual and personal level, while having spent a lot of time reading up on the theology and the history of Christianity, as well as the Bible to some degree.

I have not yet made the jump to attend mass again. I'm from Europe, and live in a VERY atheistic family as well as friend group. They know that I do have a lot of appreciation for Christianity on an intellectual level, but don't know the full extent of it, i.e. that I indeed am a firm believer in Jesus Christ.

I wrestle a lot of that, and would like to attend mass again, altho I feel anxious/nervous to finally do it. Any tips for this?

Anyone experience on annulling first marriage to enter catholic church? Share experience/thoughts/process/length/ if it fails what next?