I don't care anymore...

I'm just saving my energy for the fight. I don't know if I've felt indifferent yet so much as very wary of this "post-viral Church". There have just been so many political and religious machinations happening in the past couple years really coming to a head with the Amazonian synod and the plagues that have followed that I don't trust anything anymore.

I still have faith that Our Lord is with the Church, but I'm inclined to agree with Abp. Viganò's statement that a parallel Church rose out of Vatican II. At this point though I'm just waiting for an actual, external war. We seem to be only inches away at this point.

Lord have mercy.

Is there a monastery near you, Stabat? If so and if they are accepting visitors, maybe you could visit. I'm not Catholic (anymore), obviously, but the Benedictine monastery I visited when I still was and I was struggling in my faith was a very serene and did a lot to help 'recharge my batteries', so to speak. In fact, in the Coptic Orthodox tradition (and so maybe in the Coptic Catholic? I don't know), it is encouraged to regularly visit monasteries in order to gain strength from our experiences there and taste a bit of the life of the holy monks to our own spiritual benefit...they are, after all, the holy fighters against the maladies of the world and the soul, being as they have devoted themselves completely to Christ. This is part of the reason why we have had multiple attacks from Islamic terrorists on busses of travelers to the monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor in Egypt in recent years, as they rightly know to expect us on the road that leads to it. Anyway, it is an option that you could look into.

The answer when faith slips is always the same. Turn to the very person of Jesus Christ and His scriptures. The church may never be the same again, our countries ( especially mine) may never be the same again but Jesus is calling all of us to Him in this time. I know it in my heart of hearts and He is true, faithful, God above all Gods and Jehovah/Yahweh-Rapha ( Healing God), the same yesterday today and tomorrow, never changing, Holy God.

Stabat said:

I find myself in a state of indifference. I mean real indifference! I dont care if them liberals are enjoying their time as midcenter of the church. I don't care if they ruin the church or not! I dont give a F... about their agenda.
I'm lukewarm and I'm tired of fighting off heterodoxy in general.

If the church evolves into a marxist club, so what?
How do you feel? Is it even worth your time to work against them?

I'm trying to pray and I'm trying to attend service on a regular basis, but I'm simply not that invested in the Catholic church anymore. I guess it's connected to the fact that mass was taken away from me for a long time (the corona crisis).

How do I regain my interest in the church? How do i revitalize my faith? As it is now it comes of as a meaningless catholic battlefield where one battle is followed by the next. Im not interested in fighting a lost war for the rest of my life. How should I approach this?

Should I simply be a nominal catholic or should I search for a more conservative faith community? I'm indifferent and I'm lost. Please share your advice with me. I've only been a catholic for six years and I'm burnt out...

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I don’t know.... I’ve felt the same way off and on. There are times I wonder if I should not just go back to the faith I first accepted and followed. I do not find a lot of inspiration in it anymore. There are things I truly believe but I have come to question an awful lot anymore. I really don’t know what it is but I’m not in the best spot with Catholicism right now myself. I don’t know what it is. Sorry I could not be more help. Us converts seems to struggle so much more than those born into it.

Wow.

Best wishes.

Feeling really discouraged

I guess I'm one of the few whose faith in the truth of the Church doesn't change. Although I do question if the Traditional Catholics are correct about a certain thing.

Maybe the reason we get discouraged is because we're focused on success and not fidelity. That's a take off Mother Teresa's quote that she wasn't called to be successful, only faithful.

Most of us would become incredibly discouraged in her circumstance and the flow of people constantly coming into her care with no end. But focusing on faithfulness without having visions of success that are then disappointed can be very freeing I think.

She would spend an hour with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament every day, and then just get up, put one foot in front of the other, and do the next thing she needed to do. And that was more than enough.

The only thing we're responsible for changing is ourselves and then letting Christ work through us as He wills. And be content that we may never know the impact of that this side of heaven, but confident if we are faithful, the rest will be okay.

And the Church will be okay too because He promised it would. It's not on our backs to carry either. We're just to make it more holy by our own faithfulness and sanctity.

Hey, Stabat. The things that have helped me are taking my focus off of the news, even and maybe especially Vatican news, and focus on following Christ. The Church is not just the Pope. The Church is also the Saints, people who are awesome and holy, and in Heaven now. Holy men and women who have given us devotions to keep us strong, even if we can't get to Mass, even if some folks seem to fall. The Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Chaplet of the Holy Wounds. We have Jesus and His Mother.

We can't control others. But we can do our best to fight our little battles in everyday life, and I think at the end of the day, this is what Christ asks of us mainly.

Stabat said:

I find myself in a state of indifference. I mean real indifference! I dont care if them liberals are enjoying their time as midcenter of the church. I don't care if they ruin the church or not! I dont give a F... about their agenda.
I'm lukewarm and I'm tired of fighting off heterodoxy in general.

If the church evolves into a marxist club, so what?
How do you feel? Is it even worth your time to work against them?

I'm trying to pray and I'm trying to attend service on a regular basis, but I'm simply not that invested in the Catholic church anymore. I guess it's connected to the fact that mass was taken away from me for a long time (the corona crisis).

How do I regain my interest in the church? How do i revitalize my faith? As it is now it comes of as a meaningless catholic battlefield where one battle is followed by the next. Im not interested in fighting a lost war for the rest of my life. How should I approach this?

Should I simply be a nominal catholic or should I search for a more conservative faith community? I'm indifferent and I'm lost. Please share your advice with me. I've only been a catholic for six years and I'm burnt out...

Click to expand...

No need to be a supercatholic. Being an ordinary Catholic is sufficient. So relax in that.

This whole quarantine thing has not been good for me spiritually. My anchors of the mass and an hour of adoration each week were ripped away from me. My hour for 20 years was 9 PM on Monday. And now it feels like they really don't want me to physically go back to mass. I should be content to watch it on TV, not even necessarily even live. That just does not work for me. So I get it when you say the Corona virus that took the mass from us deinvested us. I just moved, and it's very hard to think of actually belonging again when they tell me I'm too old to be coming physically to mass.

So I'm in the exact same boat, or maybe a similar boat properly socially distant from yours on a parallel course. What I want to do is see if I can find a weekday mass with a good priest. And an adoration chapel. Then go from there. Right now I am so disconnected. And the Church is still a mess, more of a mess maybe, and the fault lines have grown more visible by this clarifying virus from Wuhan.

Michie said:

I don’t know.... I’ve felt the same way off and on. There are times I wonder if I should not just go back to the faith I first accepted and followed. I do not find a lot of inspiration in it anymore. There are things I truly believe but I have come to question an awful lot anymore. I really don’t know what it is but I’m not in the best spot with Catholicism right now myself. I don’t know what it is. Sorry I could not be more help. Us converts seems to struggle so much more than those born into it.

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You have different struggles. But then you have had the advantage of taking your faith seriously and many of us cradle Catholics never have done that.

Gracia Singh said:

Hey, Stabat. The things that have helped me are taking my focus off of the news, even and maybe especially Vatican news, and focus on following Christ. The Church is not just the Pope. The Church is also the Saints, people who are awesome and holy, and in Heaven now. Holy men and women who have given us devotions to keep us strong, even if we can't get to Mass, even if some folks seem to fall. The Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Chaplet of the Holy Wounds. We have Jesus and His Mother.

We can't control others. But we can do our best to fight our little battles in everyday life, and I think at the end of the day, this is what Christ asks of us mainly.

Click to expand...

It's true dude, exposure to the news of any kind has become detrimental to our health whether it's secular or religious news. Society has made a golden calf out of "being informed" and in so doing we've traded out wisdom for knowledge. But which one is actually the virtue?

I'm always getting riled up by news, what's happening in the world and what's coming out of Rome. These last two Vigano letters that came out were excellent but they also upset me because it just made me feel hopelessly angry about where to go from here. Obviously I'm not going to abandon the Church, but we laypeople have no recourse against the hierarchy for their corruption (I mean, when's the last time an army deposed a pope and had the college elect a new one? Besides it seems like doing that today would fulfill Leo XIII's vision, but I digress...).

I noticed an immediate change though when I sat down with my spiritual director and we talked for a while last Friday, not even about anything particular but we just chatted about stuff. When I left I felt compelled to take a much more "micro" focus of the faith inasmuch as my participation in it. All we can control is ourselves right? So let's do things the right way and leave the pope and the cardinals to their just deserts.

Stabat said:

I guess im just spiritually dry and tired of conflicts. Its easier to just stay away.

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Spiritual dryness is, as you well know, different than being tired of conflicts. Conflicts can wear you down though, and be the cause of spiritual fatigue and emotional distress.

Which Is why I have found this little prayer VERY useful for me: "It's your Church, Lord. I'm going to bed." John XXIII

It IS easier to just stay that way. Inertia is one of the defining characteristics of when I am in a bout of depression. I don't care to move. I'm not saying you are depressed. Just full of a non-moving inertia. And most of the stuff you can't change anyhow, because it is other people. Do what you can. Ignore what you can't do. The Vatican has embraced Pachamama. I can't fix that except to do tiny bits of reparation. We know we will end up a remnant. That's what we get to be, and it will seem strange, but we were born for this, to be saints in our times.

Look we know scripture clearly tells us there will be trials ahead. We are moving toward the latter times and things will be tough. Are we going to role over in the face of adversity or cling to Christ Jesus?

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ b If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’ c

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@Stabat , I hear you. I agree with Chev, dryness and depression can feel and seem alike. What helps me is taking out chunks of time throughout the week to pray. Chaplets, mostly. That helps. Or just Googling images of the Sacred Heart, and gazing at them. We're all about to go on micro tiny mode now. Remember Our Lady of Akita? It's coming. Take care of your soul, friend. Hang in there. The entire Christian world is about to go through an upheaval. The remnant will be tiny. EO, OO, Catholic, Protestant. The remnant will be tiny. Hang in there, friend. You've got us, and you're not alone.

chevyontheriver said:

Which Is why I have found this little prayer VERY useful for me: "It's your Church, Lord. I'm going to bed." John XXIII

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Boy that's an important prayer. I need to remember that more often.