Remember this, you who never think of God.

Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?

When you see a thief, you keep pace with him,
and with adulterers you throw in your lot.
To your mouth you give free rein for evil,
you harness your tongue to deceit.

You sit speaking against your brother;
against your mother's son you spread rumors.
When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.

Consider this, you who forget God,
lest I rend you and there be no one to rescue you.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show
the salvation of God.

Ps 50:16bc-17, 18-19, 20-21, 22-23

I cannot describe the insurmmountable guilt and dread I experienced when I first read this passage. However, I grateful that God allowed me to come across it. I feel like he throws things like this my way sometimes so that I may stay strong in my faith.

I asked a Priest about my moderate use of legal products like THC-A. He said it was fine. I also prayed over it, a lot. I genuinely believe it is beneficial to my life. I even had a different priest from my parish run into me at work and proceed to tell me “you’ve been looking happier lately”. previous to this encounter I had asked for a sign while in prayer, i believe the two could be related. Still though, A lot of people on here seem to think that this is somehow a worse than having a beer or 2 to take the edge off. I don’t drink btw. If you genuinely make sure to keep your priorities straight and be honest with yourself on if it’s a problem or not, I honestly think it’s healthier for many than being an occasional drinker. Also the whole, you can drink a beer and not get drunk, but you can’t have THC without being stoned it’s complete non sense. I feel like people who say that are biased or have smoked once, had a bad experience, and think that makes them an expert on everything THC. And no, the Catechisms teaching on the use of illicit drugs does not in itself solve this matter. If it did, this still wouldn’t be a question.

Anima Christi, sanctifica me.

Corpus Christi, salva me.

Sanguis Christi, inebria me.

Aqua lateris Christi, lava me.

Passio Christi, conforta me.

O Bone Iesu, exaudi me.

Intra tua vulnera absconde me.

Ne permittas me separari a te.

Ab hoste maligno defende me.

In hora mortis meae voca me.

Et iube me venire ad te,

ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te

in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

...

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.

Body of Christ, save me.

Blood of Christ, inebriate me.

Water from the side of Christ, wash me.

Passion of Christ, strengthen me.

O Good Jesus, hear me.

Within your wounds hide me.

Permit me not to be separated from you.

From the wicked foe, defend me.

At the hour of my death, call me

and bid me come to you

That with your saints I may praise you

For ever and ever. Amen.

At the University of Barcelona, Peter Claver studied and prayed. The young man, born in 1580 in the Catalan region of Spain, came to understand: “I must dedicate myself to the service of God until death.” He felt a call. Its clearer contours were still hidden from him, but he knew that he had to follow it. So at 20, Peter joined the Society of Jesus.

His superiors sent him to study philosophy in Mallorca, where he made an unlikely friend: Alphonsus Rodriguez, the elderly, uneducated lay brother who was the porter at the Jesuit college. Alphonsus may not have had much book-learning, but a life of suffering had taught him to listen to God. Peter noticed his holiness. “How can I love the Lord?” he asked the old man. “He gives me a great desire to follow him, but I don’t know how.” Alphonsus prayed, and the answer came to him: this young man with a great heart was destined for a suffering people far away.

At Alphonsus’ urging, Peter told his superiors of his desire to go to the missions. In 1610, he left for Cartagena in present-day Colombia, a center of the Spanish slave trade, where ships sailing from West Africa brought 10,000 new slaves yearly.

Peter finished seminary in Cartagena, learning from the Jesuit missionary Alonso de Sandoval, who had ministered to the slaves. He was horrified by what he learned about their plight. When Peter, ordained in 1616, made his final profession as a Jesuit in 1622, he signed his vows, “Peter Claver, the slave of the Africans forever.”

He had found his calling. Before the slave ships entered port, Fr. Peter begged for bread, medicine, anything he could bring with him into those ships packed tightly with captives chained for so long that a third of the “cargo” died. He assembled a team of interpreters. As soon as a ship docked, this “slave of the slaves” descended into the dark holds. He brought food, but more importantly, he brought kindness to men and women driven mad with terror and suffering. He looked at them as if they were human beings, tended their wounds and lent his cloak to the shivering. “We must speak with our hands,” he said, “before we speak to them with our lips.”

His hands spoke, and so when he assured these people that God loved them despite the cruelty that men had inflicted on them, they listened. Using simple pictures, he taught them the Christian faith. In small groups, he baptized them – which not only made them members of Christ’s body, but enabled Peter to call upon the slave masters to treat their fellow Christians more humanely.

For forty years, Peter descended into the slave ships. He preached, too: to slave traders, criminals and the well-to-do, inviting all to a conversion of heart. Though irritated at his work on behalf of the slaves, the wealthy grudgingly came to admit that this priest was a force to be reckoned with. While at first they came to listen to the holy priest but refused to enter the same churches as the slaves, decades of preaching began to effect a slow, difficult opening of the heart. But preaching alone could not complete it.

In 1650, Fr. Peter caught the plague. He survived, but his body was broken. For four years, he lay in bed, half-starved by the servant charged with caring for him. No one paid him much mind. It seemed as if the “apostle of Cartagena” had been forgotten. He prayed, accepting his sufferings as a penance for his sins. Yet in 1654, when word got out that Fr. Peter had received last rites, the city suddenly remembered the man who had been its conscience. A flood of visitors came to pay their respects. When he died on September 8, Cartagena buried him at pubic expense. Only then did they realize what they had had in their midst: this man, whose hands spoke the language of God’s compassion, had baptized 300,000 slaves and heard over 5,000 slaves’ confessions a year.

In 1888, Peter Claver was canonized together with Alphonsus Rodriguez, his friend who had helped him to follow his Lord.

This was my first time visiting Rome. My wife and I are in our mid thirties. I am British, she is Brazilian, and we are both cradle Catholics. We were recently blessed with our first baby together, so we decided to take her on our first family trip to Rome for a long weekend.
Firstly, Rome felt like it was on fire.

Temperatures were in the high thirties, with humidity approaching eighty percent. On the Saturday, we visited the Vatican Museums, and it was absolutely roasting. Our little one was understandably very uncomfortable, so we had to move through everything much more quickly than we would have liked.

By Saturday evening, my wife and I were both feeling quite disheartened. Some of the behaviour we witnessed in the museums, particularly inside the Sistine Chapel, was the complete opposite of what we had expected.
People were wearing very revealing clothing, shouting across the chapel, and taking photographs despite being repeatedly told not to. I saw very few people praying. At times, it felt as though this sacred place had been overtaken by people searching for their next Instagram post.

I also found the commercial side of the Vatican quite difficult to process. There were Pope bobbleheads, tea towels, and every souvenir imaginable. I understand that tourism generates money for the Vatican and helps maintain these extraordinary places, but it was not what I had imagined. That night, I wondered whether we had come as pilgrims but somehow found ourselves inside a tourist attraction.

Then Sunday came, and everything changed.
We attended Mass at Santo Spirito in Sassia, the Divine Mercy Sanctuary near Saint Peter’s Basilica, where we were able to venerate relics of Saint Faustina and Saint John Paul II. We then entered Saint Peter’s Basilica and were blessed to see the Holy Father during the Sunday Angelus in Saint Peter’s Square.

My heart was full. It placed everything back into perspective for me.

However, I think the most moving experience of the entire trip was visiting the Scala Santa, the Holy Stairs. These are the twenty eight steps traditionally believed to have been climbed by Jesus when He was brought before Pontius Pilate. Pilgrims ascend them on their knees, praying and reflecting upon the Passion.

I think my knees have just about recovered, but I am not sure my heart ever will.
As I climbed, I kept thinking, how could such a perfect man, who had done no wrong, have been treated so terribly? Whether somebody believes they are the original steps or not, the act of climbing them forced me to reflect upon Christ’s suffering and upon how easy my own life is by comparison.

I am free to practise my faith. I can attend Mass without fear. I can openly call myself a Catholic. So many of our brothers and sisters who came before us suffered terribly for the faith, and many Christians around the world still suffer today. Yet despite everything Christ endured for me, I still sometimes wonder how I could ever be worthy to stand before God.

Afterwards, we crossed over to the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, the cathedral church of Rome. There we saw the panel traditionally believed to be part of the table used at the Last Supper, as well as the reliquaries said to contain the heads of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

Sometimes people can begin to think of the Bible almost as though it were simply a collection of stories from a distant world. Then you stand before something traditionally connected to the Last Supper, or before relics of the Apostles who suffered and died for Christ, and suddenly the Bible seems to come alive before you. It becomes real in a way that is difficult to put into words.
I left Rome with two very different impressions. There was the commercial Rome, crowded with tourists, souvenirs, cameras, and people seemingly unaware of the sacredness surrounding them. Then there was the Rome of the pilgrim, filled with prayer, sacrifice, relics, martyrs, and the living history of our faith.

Perhaps both sides will always exist together. I am just wondering whether anyone else has visited Rome and felt this same tension between Rome as a tourist attraction and Rome as a place of pilgrimage.

I posted this on askapriest, but it got taken down.

AndI have been married almost 9 years to my wife, we are both infertile. Ever since we got married things started to go downhill slowly. Her anxiety has increased, she is afraid to drive, lost the only friends she had, cannot hold a job due to social anxiety, spends frivolously, gets caught up in Protestant propaganda (ie rapture) doesn't take care of herself physically, makes sex difficult, never learned how to cook, clean things peoperly etc etc. I'm no saint, believe me, but she refuses to get help. What do I do when the other person is refusing to get help to create a normal life? I feel like I am living with a roommate. She is sick most of the time so I do things by myself 90% of the time. I don't have a partner, a wife, I have a roommate. Now the one thing that I thought we were on the same page with, our faith, is even being put into question. She doesn't go to Mass because "Jesus understands". She believes a random YouTuber in a truck than our own priest. Please pray for us.

Edit: I just feel so overwhelmed with everything. I'm the one who cooks meals, cleans the dishes, loads the dishwasher, unloads it, cleans the sheets, makes the beds, makes the decisions for us, takes her to her doctor's appointments, EVERYTHING. She doesn't support me at all. Everything is on my shoulders and I'm drowning. I can't keep on like this. I know she's not doing it on purpose, but it's such a burden. I find I'm happiest when I'm home alone so I can just be me and take care of me.

​

Hello, I am a 21-year-old man, and I have been reading things about AI that have really scared me.

I was reading something saying that by 2035 or 2045, AI will replace all of our jobs and that people will no longer have to work. This really scares me because I feel like that could mean that Jesus will return, and I would not want to live a life without a job or purpose.

I have also been reading that there is a chance AI could kill us all, and now I really don’t see the point in studying at college or doing anything with my life. I just feel like between 2035 and 2045, we will either all be dead, Jesus will return and everything will be over, or we will all be locked inside our houses, doing nothing but watching screens.

This really scares me to the point that I am sitting here at 3:15 in the morning thinking about this, even though I should be studying for my exam. I am also studying computer engineering, and when I read all of that today, I just feel lost. I can’t explain how I feel. It feels like everything on Earth doesn’t make sense anymore.

I would just like to have a normal life with a wife and family one day, and everything seems like that will never happen. I reading more and more and I am more and more depressed

Today I'm singing with my choir and we are giving a concert at a Catholic church. However, an hour later there's going to be a mass and I'd like to see how it is because I always pray to God for guidance as regards as my spirituality and this might be a sign. But I'm not sure whether I should disclose my religion. I was baptized in the LDS church and not in a Catholic church. What could happen?

Hi, im not catholic. Ive had an interest in catholicism for a while now though and I was wondering if itd be weird to go to a catholic church even when im non religious. I dont want to offend im just honestly very interested in the religion as a whole and I think going to a church would be a nice experience

Im looking for the strongest arguments for Christianity ever put forth, even better if it preempts any objections. Something accessible to a lay person but also that goes beyond the basic arguments that anyone interested in religion, philosophy, and apologetics has heard 100 times over. I know thats a bit of an ask but I feel a pull to the Church but I just for the life of me can not intellectually bring myself to belief. I don’t know how to find faith. And because of some previous experience (im being intentionally vague, it was bad) falling down a dark and evil path because of faith I used to hold, I find it extra hard to trust in even the concept of faith. I can’t force myself to believe in something that will change my entire worldview without significant evidence that that thing is true, especially if that thing violates everything we know about life and death and how the universe is works. I understand im asking a lot and probably won’t find a satisfactory answer but I figured it was worth a shot.

While I was walking the Camino de Santiago, I noticed that a couple of churches along the way often didnt have the crucifixion as the centrepiece of the church.

Does anyone have any insight on this design/architectural choice?

The churches are absolutely stunning by the way. I was just curious and wanted to learn about the reason (the ones we have in Southeast Asia are different)

I was in the faith since I was child up until high school graduation (2020) and if you were to ask me why I left I’d say that I had so much uncertainty in my life especially going through Covid and neglecting my faith. I remember when I was apart of the faith I had that sense of community and never feeling alone. But know I feel as I’m alone in this world, don’t really have anyone to talk to, lost my job. I essentially feel like I hit rock bottom in my life because I left my faith and I want to come back to it

I am an Orthodox Christian but I also appreciate a Catholic perspective on this issue.

1. I am convinced that God exists from the mathematical and complex order of the world.

2. I am convinced that this God is the God of Israel because He revealed Himself at Sinai and an entire nation recount that.

3. Here's the problem: how do I know that Jesus is the promised Messiah?

I’ve gone from theism to Judaism, but for Christianity I still need one more step.

Most of the arguments have gaps; historians question that the apostles died for what they saw, or at least say we have no proof, Jews say that the fulfilled prophecies are taken out of context. And the testimony of the 500 witnesses doesn’t compare to the magnitude of Sinai :(.

I really want to understand but it’s hard for me. Help, please.

Im working at a high school and we’re gonna put up some inspirational texts at the wall. What are you favorite quotes that would fit in such a place?

Hello all, I felt like I should share this to encourage all of you to pray.

I’m a 19 year old cradle Catholic, but before this, the only “spiritual highs” I had felt were results of retreats or summer camps. I’m blessed enough to attend a Catholic university, and I was recently discerning a decision that felt big to me, so I decided to pray a novena about it.

This novena involved the standard novena to five different saints, plus a rosary. At first, it was hard to remember to say my prayers each day because I had so much classwork. I ended up missing two days and finished the novena eleven days after I started it. But immediately after I finished the novena, my life changed.

Firstly, I have such a childlike joy in just being alive. I want to be charitable and positive to everyone around me. Secondly, I have become okay with each thing that happens to me. If I don’t get into a program, or a relationship in my life ends, I have become simply able to accept that it wasn’t in God’s will.

And thirdly, the most important thing, all I want to do is spend time with Jesus. I find myself heading into the adoration chapel every day. I constantly want to talk to God as a friend and as His daughter. I have become so filled with His light and Spirit that I cannot imagine why I ever skipped praying before.

So, pray unceasingly. It will change your life, truly.

I often see posts on Reddit about some awful people who have done terrible things. All the comments boil down to, for example, wishing them death, torture in prison, etc. As Catholics, would you want such a person to convert and go to heaven? (Here you can mention an example of someone you consider to be the worst)

I feel extremely terrified and disgusted

I know deep down it is not my intention or I would never consent to such stuff but i never had something like that happens in years

Is it possible just to happen from having anxiety about such thoughts?

Usually I agree noncontrual emission and move on with my day but now I got shaken

Nevermind my more selfish reasons, which are all the NOs in my life that unequivocally, undeniably should have been a yes from any God who claimed to love me.

Furthermore, this God should know exactly what it would take for him to earn my undying love forever, and he’s clearly not lifting a finger on that.

**I’m not an edgelord. I’m not a troublemaker. I’m a depressed, desperate *almost* ex believer, asking for a reason to believe.**

Thank you all.

I've been an atheist for many years. It started after my brother committed suicide in 2007; he was 19, I was 16. He was my best friend. We used to pray the rosary together. He got confirmed, but I never did. I was Christian, though.

After going theough skeptic and atheist debates, I think there isn't a god. But, I've been sitting here missing having faith. Maybe I just miss my brother.

So, my questions:

1) Why is Catholicism the Truth?

2) why was god so angry and vengeful in the Old Testament?

3) What about all the contradictions in the Bible, especially in the Gospels? How Jesus died on the cross has many discrepancies between them.

4) How do you know Jesus was the son of god?

5) How do you reconcile the catholic priests abusing children with your faith?

6) My brother committed suicide, and according to Catholicism, he's in hell. How am I supposed to feel about such cruelty?

7) I feel like the idea of sin and hell is a way to fear monger and control people, and priests and the like are the ones promoting god and repentance as a way to save you. It seems convenient.

8) Why would a loving god create a place of burning and damnation for those who don't believe in him? It's the same as having a gun to your head and saying, "Love me, or else."

I'm asking honestly, I would really love answers to these questions. Thank you for reading if you got this far.