Sometimes you know I have doubts even about our Faith itself. But I remebr how sad and indeed suicidal I was before 1981 ,every day since then is full of joy and increasing joy and I say to the devil who tempts me; well if it is all a fairy tale it brings me huge joy, unblief only ever borugh me misery. At this he flees, for it is the simple truth.
Padraig, me too. I have some times serious doubts even about the existence of God, but I think this is quite normal. Even Mother Theresa had very bad times where she seriously doubted about the existence of God.
Hi Jose! If you are a scientist, then you already can see better than others the wonder of creation, and probably already realize that there MUST be a Creator, because of the beautiful order of nature. You cannot just "throw together" the elements of life, and expect life to happen. This has already been tried and failed. So you know that just life in itself is a miracle! Anyway, I personally saw Jesus with my own eyes!! Twice as a matter of fact. I talked to Him, He took me out of my body to a another place not in our time, but in eternity. We spent a night looking at my sins, I learned about how sin hurts Him, and about the sacrament of marriage, and He more than ever showed me that He loved me, and was with me always, as well as telling me that He was with every soul on earth in that way. So anyway I can tell you that He is real, and these experiences are real, and changed my life back in 1997, but you probably won't believe them. If you want to see some evil things, you don't need to go anywhere to prove them. Just go to Target, buy a Oui ja board and play with it a while. I guarantee BAD BAD things will happen to you that are supernatural! But truly, take my advise, and so many others that have dabbled in that (we did as children)...DON't DO IT! Believe the testimony of the rest of us, the testimony of the Apostles, the testimony of the Saints, and all good honest people. If you cannot believe the testimony of the Saints and the Apostles, who in this world can you EVER believe? Certainly not other scientists.
To have serious doubts, is also known as the dark night of the soul. They are serious temptations where one could lose their faith. But God takes this risk. The nice comforts of our faith are taken away, that warm fuzzy feeling when we pray no longer exists. This can happen in two ways, when we suffer an awful lot, or when we witness suffering to the degree that Mother Theresa did. It can also happen as God is calling the person closer to Himself, and is asking them to rely on His Truth alone, not in what they think or feel.. When you get through this period and all the consolations come flying back, especially when you receive the Blessed Eucharist, they taste as sweet as honey on your lips. We hear of the women who lost her pearl in the gospels (the peace that comes from God) she gave up everything in search of it again. The dark night of the soul. When I have these periods, I read a good book of one of the lives of the saints, and I copy their example, I am always so grateful to them and so pleased when I come through this. This is actually true love .. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.. You love Him even when you lose sight of Him, You choose to believe Him in spite of all the temptations not to, and you carry on walking in His footsteps remaining true to all that you have been taught, even when you can barely see your way in the dark. Amazing, this is the stuff that saints are made of. Take Courage.
Dear Carmel333, I cannot prove, as a scientist, that God exist. There would be no way to do that. If there wild be a way , don't you think most scientist would believe by now in God? I have other reasons to believe but they are not important now. You tell me you have seen Him. You say I am not going to believe this. What I can say again is that there is not way to prove your claim. This was a personal experience. Of course, it could be a dream, an hallucination or reality. You are the only one that can tell. I would have liked to have such an encounter in my life, but I am afraid it will not happen in my life time because I do not deserve it at all. Non sum dignus!
I too think it is quite normal to doubt. It's not people who doubt I worry about , it's people who NEVER appear to doubt, like say Al Quaeda. My mother and father never doubted, but they were of that generation of Irish Catholics for whom God was as real as the sun in the sky.
Hi Jose, So if you believe in God, why not use your knowledge as a scientist to PROVE there is a Divine Creator? Actually, I would not think this to be hard at all except that many, many people are completely blind, including many scientists. They obstinately, no matter how much proof is put in front of them, refuse to believe! and yet will believe the dumbest little "proof" of something else, like the "big bang theory". And right now I am NOT talking about you, but about many in your profession. Can you not see this spiritual blindness happening around you? You can't see the air, you can't see your own heart, but yet reason and other witness tells you they exist. Why can't the scientific community believe the witness of the Saints and the Spirit??
Dear Carmel333, because I cannot. I can ask like Leibniz did: "why there is something rather than nothing". But neither from the scientific point of view nor from the philosophical one we can answer this question. A lot of people already tried hard. Again, if this would be so easy why are not all people already convinced about the existence of God as they are about the existence of starts, planets, dark holes, radioactivity, etc...? But there is something that I do not understand. If God wants people to convert and that is why the Virgin or Jesus is appearing, why is this happening only to a few people and not to a great number at the same time like it happens when Jesus resurrected (remember that it is said that more than 500 people saw Him) ? Would not be this more effective? Seriously, I do not understand this point. The seers tell us that the Virgin told them that we have to convert. But why doing it through doubtful messengers if there is a better way like it already happens to you or to Padraig?
Carmel - when you talk of the sacrament of marriage and what Jesus taught I am challenged to be a more caring and loving husband. I need constant reminding of this [every day] so you have a mission from God to keep 'teaching' on this theme!!
One cannot prove that God does not exist. Is it a 50/50 call? For me the greatest proof of God is LOVE. I know love, I can feel love, I am lifted by it, inspired by it and sacrifice myself for others because of it. It is a burning fire within my heart, a flame that can never be extinguished, so it is eternal. Love is more than a feeling or a personal experience - it is the reason for our existence. There is a mystery with love for no other creature loves as man loves. No scientist can measure love, test love, analyse love, dissect and dismantle love. Love has the scientists baffled
Jane & Jose - I hope I didn't upset either of you. My apologies if I did. Those were just my observations after reading the posts. I think it is wise for you to put Medjugorje aside for now. After all, it is being investigated right now as we speak, so we will get some guidance from our holy church soon enough. And of course I will be obedient to the church, no matter the rulings from the commission. I'm not attached to the Medj apparitions itself...but I am attached to the 5 stones and all I learned about prayer at Medj. I don't think you have to worry Jane, about Medjugorje being the great deception or apostacy foretold in prophecy. I think we are already seeing glimpses of what that will be with unfortuanely some priests and nuns starting to support some social issues that are clearly against church teaching. Priests I believe in Austria actually documented a plea for disobedience of fellow priests to go against the teaching of the church on social issues. That I believe that will be the apostacy. I actually have my own reservations on Garabandal, mainly around the 3 or 4 pope confusion and some other things that the seers have said. But my mind is open enough to see the fruits of Garabandal are good, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Garabandal is true. I cringe a bit when I read on other threads about Garabandal is the continuation/fulfillment of Fatima or the chastisements of Garabandal and not Medjugorje, etc. It's not a competition of Medj vs Garabandal. The fruits of both apparitions are a remnant army to battle for these times, apostles for these times. Whether we have been woken up and spurred to conversion by Garabandal or Medj I believe our calling is the same...to help those on earth after the warning and during the chastisements ( I personally believe the secrets of Medj and warning/chastisement of Garab are the same events). That is our calling, so we are all in this together. Once the warning, miracle and chastisements are upon us...we really won't care which apparition site or both are proven to be valid...we'll have our hands full with all that is going on!!
May our Lord Jesus Christ bless you and protect you all beyond your very last breath. I fall and fail a lot in my faith. I only lay solice that God is full of mercy and he will impart that to me even though I don't deserve it. I can't force it to come to me but wait as the poor sinfull beggar that I am. I am partial to Psalm 139. Shepard
Yes. I would love to hear what Carmel says. I have just opened a thread "The Holy Sacrament of Marriage." Carmel I invite you to go to that thread and give some words of wisdom.
That's ok PotatoSack. The problem is we can't hear people's tones when writing on forums to understand what they're meaning. I hope the Church finish their investigation before the warning. But I had heard the Church have postponed it. My gut feeling could just be a wild imagination. Hope so. If you have other things which makes you unsure regarding Garabandal, Why didn't you talk about it here? Your questions can help all of us. Just for the record. I think it is so silly to have the mentality of Garabandal v Medjugorje. (I'm not suggesting you or anyone says I have). If one is authentic, both authentic, or both a lie. Our Lady would be so unhappy about this mentality.
This mornings reading at Mass. Luke 11 :27-29 a certain woman from the crowd lifted up her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the breasts that nursed thee." But He said, "Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it." Is the Lord telling us something here? We all long for the loving of our Heavenly Mother, and want to follow Her voice. We are and can be confused on where or whom she is speaking to. But isn't it more important to hear and keep the word of God?
I have woken today to see the thread is talking about a different prophet. Talking about the creator himself. The existence of Jesus Christ our saviour. I may have doubts on some recent prophecies, but I have never doubted the existence of God the Father or His only son who was born of The Blessed Virgin Mary. I LOVE THE CREED. I believe in one God, the Father almighty, creator of Heaven and of earth.......etc I once heard a scientist say....... "A little science takes you away from God, But a great science brings you back to Him." God Bless you Jose. It must be hard when you have been given so much intelligence.
Ah yes, as Elisabeth filled with the Holy Spirit exclaimed to Mary, "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." Blessed indeed was Mary to hear the word of the Lord and keep it, as Jesus said. And blessed are we who follow such an example.
I think there is a simple answer to that Jose: “free will”. Being a scientist you are used to recognize patterns. And there is a pattern that I dare to say you will always find in any kind of miraculous interventions of God. They always leave room for some kind of alternative explanations, natural or not. That is because God does not want slaves but people that CHOOSE to love Him and trust Him with a child heart. In His relation with men He chooses to value to the highest degree our liberty. Since the Eden He reveals Himself to men but not completely in the open, so you always need some faith to understand and agree that something (miraculous that it may be) come for God, either it had happened just before your eyes or that you have heard others give testimony about it. For those that have no room to God in their heart there will never be undeniable miracles to give them the absolute proofs they need. At least in this side of the veil (I mean the material world). Take in Jesus time for example. How come those seeing Him give life to the death cure the paralytics and the blinds and to expel demons did not ALL convert immediately? Because, for many, there was not enough faith in their heart but plenty room for doubt and denial. They were more open to alternative explanations than to concede that He was really who He was saying to be (the and only true Sun of God). Now, back in those times, most of them were not skeptics searching for natural causes. But they were ok with other explanations like magic or, as some accused Him, of working through the power of the demon. Nowadays, answers are mostly searched in natural causes. That is ok because there are (almost always) natural explanations to the events. But, when something really miraculous do happen and science cannot explain it after rigorous scrutiny (see the miraculous cures in Lourdes for example or the miracles that are used to validate the canonization of Saints), some will just say: ok, that is just because science has not enough knowledge about that, but, one day, we will be able to explain everything. Now, most of us are now expecting the impending warning and, if Garabandal is true (and I do believe it is), it will come very soon. But, even this momentous event, that will be the greatest direct intervention of God in human affairs witnessed by all humanity, will not be enough for many to believe. But even in that moment we will need our faith. Many will seek and believe in spurious explanations and refuse God’s Mercy. Be sure that there will be lots of skeptics to say things of the kind: ok, ok, there was an unexpected astral phenomena that induced an unprecedented level of stress on people, we all thought for a moment that we were going to die, so the brain started a defense mechanism that induced some kind of global delusion, people start thinking they were being judged by God, but it was just our neurons sparking furiously and exchanging chemical signs, etc, etc. We have all already heard this kind of talk. Please remember. We only will have absolute proofs after we die. But the faith is the cement that unifies the so many evidences that are everywhere for all to see. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Remember also that “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
Thanks for your answer, bona fide. I agree that the pattern is there. But why? Some people argue that is the way God respect our free will. If a clear miracle could be declared by everybody on earth like a true one, it would not be room for freedom to believe. But i do not think this the right way to argue. A miracle is one or it is not. If there are doubts it is not declare as such. In the case of the saints, the ones whom canonization processes begun in our time many doubt about those miracles because are mainly cancers or degenerative processes that suddenly stop. This kind of things also happens naturally. There are spontaneous reversion of tumors without any miraculous process involved. That is why those kind of miracles are always seen with skepticism. A different history would be if it is said that somebody that was blind and without any possibility of recovering vision suddenly is cured. Or if somebody resurrected after been 4 days dead etc... Those are the miracles Jesus was doing when He was among us. This, as far as I know, it is not happening today. And it is normal that without serious investigations, such cases can be seen as fraud. Other kind of miracles are those that we are used to see in apparitions. They are the prophecies or predictions. If somebody says today that three major leaders of the world are going to be assassinated in few moths and know the names of the three, if this would happen I would immediately believe that something supernatural (no matter the sign) is going on. But in the case of Mary of Divine Mercy this did not occurred. She said she gave some journalists the names of the three leaders. When Gadafi was assassinated she published inmmediately the message. After that event nothing else happened. If in Medjugorge the seers say that something is going to happen and it happens, I will inmediately believe that something supernatural was going on there. At the moment none of the profecies and warnings and chatisemments have happened. Therefore, I will wait... Regards, Jose
