This episode has had a profound effect upon me. I too once suffered with scrupulosity. It was like being tethered to a bolder with a chain which I had to drag wherever I went. It was my saintly father who explained the deadly affects of scrupulosity to me. I was amazed by his wisdom that this spiritual defect was grounded in self love. My eyes were opened at that moment because I knew he was right. I thought too much of myself and failed to pray prayers of Gratitude to God for the many graces I had to admit came from Him.
Before she entered the convent at age 15, St. Teresa, the Little Flower, experienced a time of excessive anxiety and introspection - fearing that even her thoughts could lead to eternal damnation. When she was 12 years old in 1885 she attended a retreat, the theme of which was “Better to die than sully one’s soul with a mortal sin.” The titles of the retreat conferences that Theresa heard were “Hell, Judgment, Mortal Sin, The Necessity of Making a Good Confession, and Sacrilegious Communion.” Theresa wrote: “What the priest told us was frightening. He spoke about mortal sin, and he described a soul in the state of sin and how much God hated it.” And she wrote: “One would have to pass through this martyrdom (suffering) to understand it well, and for me to express what I experienced for a year and a half would be impossible.” And Teresa continued to suffer even in the monastery. Numerous preachers of spiritual retreats at that time were infected with the heresy of Jansenism and preached fire and brimstone, stressing sin, and the sufferings of purgatory and of hell. This did not help Teresa who in 1891 experienced “great inner trials of all kinds, even wondering sometimes whether heaven existed.” One phrase she heard during a retreat made her weep: “No one knows if they are worthy of love or of hate.” But in October 1891, a sermon preached by a Franciscan priest gave Teresa a great comfort. She wrote: “His preaching on abandonment to God’s mercy expanded my heart...” So Teresa received a grace from God that liberated her from crippling “over sensitivity.” And the emotional difficulties she endured would enable her to counsel the Lisieux Carmel’s novices with wisdom beyond her years: “God our Father loves us always, absolutely, unfailingly, eternally.”
I have dealt with scruposity since my teenage years. I'm now 73, and only in the last couple of years have I realized that self-obsession is certainly a result, if not also a cause of, scrupulosity. In my case, scrupulosity is a particular manifestation of OCD. I found relief through therapy with a Catholic practitioner, the guidance of a spiritual director, and medication. I would recommend the same regimen for anyone with lifelong scrpulosity. It's often not simply a problem of ignorance or spiritual immaturity, but can be a symptom of psychological illness. I'm doing very well now, but it's a daunting spiritual trap for even a person of the strongest will and determination. I have great compassion for anyone who suffers from it.
@@johnsposato5632 Happy you've made progress. God bless you. Scrupulosity is one of the most painful psychological states there is. It can feel like hell to the sufferer. Scrupulosity is an age-old problem that the OCD Foundation describes as “a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) involving religious or moral obsessions. Scrupulous individuals are overly concerned that something they thought or something they did might be a sin or other violation of religious or moral doctrine.” It’s like being a moral hypochondriac. In Catholics, this problem manifests itself in people who are always going to confession obsessibly. They have irrational fears that, somehow, one’s confession wasn’t really valid, or the sacrament didn’t quite count because of some imagined technicality. People with Scrupulosity/OCD worry excessively about sinning - whether by having “bad thoughts” or other human imperfections - and they have to struggle to accept God’s forgiveness. They fear that God is angry with them, and often try to make up for things with perfect devotional practices. Instead of trusting in the mercy of God, scrupulosity-sufferers live with an awful anxiety. When you’re in the bondage of a scrupulous mind set, nothing you do will ever be enough to bring lasting peace.
St Therese my patron saint, please pray very urgently that my son and daughter will deal with our property issue peacefully. Help them also to come back to the good relationship they had earlier. Thank you for caring for me all these years.
I also suffer with OCD, anxiety, and sometimes the inability to enjoy things. This has become physically painful, and is actually more of the effect of my sentimentality and naiveness to become deceived into a heresy. I went to confession about this three months later, but this three months had a great effect on me, because I taught myself to live in habitual fear. Please pray for me, especially to Saint Therese so that she can intercede for me, and prayer from others is powerful. I have been struggling now for 1 year, and this has been physically painful for 6 months. I am also a teenager.
Hello from France. I live near Lisieux, next time i will visit Sainte Thérèse de Lisieux place, i shall pray specialy for you. Message for Our Lady of Théologie...
I love you Jesus and thank you Mother Mary and St.Therese for helping me and my family! Amen!! ❤thank you for sharing Father! I pray for all the religious vocations and thank Our Lord for Mother Church! Amen amen!!! 🙏🏼
I read 📚 St Teresa Book she wrote a while back. I still have the Book. I remember what you say about St Teresa was fighting bad influence that made her very sick. I remember it was awful for her. But I remember Book tell Our Lady Appered to her Smiled at her and she was Cured. She had her as she put it herself Her Littel Way . ❤❤❤❤❤her sisters were nuns too. I think she was only 16 when she wanted to be a nun but they said was to young yet but she kept trying and eventually she did after an effort cause she was very young lovely Book sad how she suffered when she died but she wanted too for her love for Jesus Our Lord. I Love ❤️ you St Teresa please try not forget me though I am unworthy ❤ AMEN ❤❤LOTS LOVE LIZ X X 💖 💕 ❤️ 💗
Thank you Father, I'm struggling with scruples. I always think of something very small as bad. This video is a Gift from God on the very day I needed to. God Bless and St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us along with Queen Mary and All the Angels and Saints
I'm afraid you have committed a great injustice against Ste Therese. It seems to me that you do not have sufficient psychological nor spiritual selfunderstanding to "see" the power of Original Sin over your immortal soul, which would invite tremendous Sanctifying Graces so that you would have much more Christian humility and be much less inclined to project your own dismal interior spiritual state onto this great Saint. It's doubtful if Therese ever committed a venial sin, her scruples, to the contrary, not withstanding. Did she, the self-aware subject, have have a perfect understanding of the great sainthood the Holy Spirit was calling her to? No, she did not which, paradoxically, may be accounted for by her awesome SPIRITUAL humility. You're letting your imagination carry you away(that she could have been "lost" to hell was impossible)which may be revealing lots about the state of your wounded soul and nothing about Ste Therese.
@@tomhealey8214 Do you think she could have been saved without the Virgin Mary? Is humility the cause of scruples? Was it really impossible for her to be lost? Did Br. Vincent say she consented to any sin? I tried looking for that part but probably missed it. Although it is true that where sin abounds grace abounds all the more, the ends don't justify the means. Sin is not justified by the grace of conversion/repentance which follows and the effects of sin are effects of sin and not grace. Grace is something distinct from sin and it's effects. God uses our defects and faults to make us humble but that doesn't justify our faults. Keen to know what you think about this. But I liked your confidence and assuredness about what you said. It seems like you are a very strong personality and have had a very intense catholic formation.
@@brothernimishcoelho Your reference to the Blessed Virgin and salvation, in your opening sentence, looks to me like an ad hominem evasion. And I'm sure you'll have an excuse to justify yourself. Not a good start! You completely misunderstood my mention of the great Spiritual Humility of this remarkable Saint. So please strive to pay more thoughtful attention to my few categorical statements regarding Ste.Therese. I did NOT mean nor intend that her great humility caused her attacks of scruples. Your observation is too shallow and simplistic. Her humility was absolutely spiritual. IOW, it was only possible due to a great in-flow of Sanctifying Graces into her beautiful soul, which l'm convinced began in her infancy. Whether she was a 3 year old or a young adult on the point of death, THERESE LIVED THE GRACE FILLED SPIRITUAL LIFE OF A LITTLE CHILD. HER CHILDLIKE TRUST IN CHRIST WAS **ABSOLUTE**. " UNLESS YOU BECOME LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN YOU SHALL NOT ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN" MATTHEW 18:3 Nothing more need be said about the absolute assurance of her salvation. Regardless of the stages of struggle in her daIly life, Therese was absolutely committed, by grace, to her unyielding LOVE FOR HER SAVIOUR, FOREVER. Here is the point you missed: Genuine HUMILITY and VULNERABILITY inevitably go together. At the stage of her life, where she had scruples, God did not protect her from struggle and trials. Her holiness/humility did not cause her torment; they existed side by side. Her psychological life had tantrums, impulses, likes/dislikes, scruples, however her spiritual life was quite serene, which she only dimly grasped, if at all. Her triumph over these emotional trials came later. Psychological vulnerability carried to the utmost by her great spiritual love for Christ carries with it a helplessness which makes impossible any desperate attempt to protect oneself, thus grace guided her to surrender fully to Christ in ABSOLUTE TRUST. It's a common misunderstanding that those few chosen souls, raised up by the Holy Spirit, must have perfect selfunderstanding. Not so! As a small child she had the difficulties that are common to children. That did not mean she was not holy, nor that she was. She demonstrated holiness for those who have the spiritual "eyes" to see, and l'm convinced that this remarkable chosen child, never committed a venial sin in her abbreviated life. And for you to propose that if she remained trapped in her spiral of scruples, she might end up in hell, is not just offensive to the memory of Therese, but it reveals an embarrassing spiritual superficiality that unfortunately characterizes much of the Catholic Church today, starting with the hierarchy. To finish, l will tell a story I once heard about this great Saint that I love so devotedly. I cannot confirm its veracity, so here goes... As you no doubt realize Ste Therese spend the last 18 months of her life confined to her bed where metastasizing tuberculosis ravaged her body. There were no painkillers, no "Tylenol". Morphine was commonly used yet her Mother Superior for her own reasons, did not permit its use for medical reasons. The Lord disciplines those he loves. God placed the Saint in the Dark Night of the Soul. She never had a consolation during the long trial of her suffering. GOD HID HIMSELF FROM THESESE. She had nothing besides her suffering This great soul did not need to suffer. She chose in the depths of her heart to suffer for the world. It is reported that Therese once cautioned the sisters who cared for her temporal needs to not leave anything remotely poisonous on her night table, because she was terrified that she might be tempted to kill herself.(this must have been in one of the few biographies I've read of her life. I no longer remember). If this is factual, there's no question that she was sincerely worried. Her suffering was so great. Not one of the sisters, including her biological sisters, who shared the convent, had any idea that a great soul lived with them, albeit in extremis. However I remain convinced that she did not have a clear understanding of God's great love for her and her ONTOLOGICAL childlike love for Christ. It's paradoxical. It was her total helplessness and trust in Christ that was her true strength, not the strength of an adult. Christ's statement in Matthew 18:3...unless you become like little children.... implies that this trust of a child is no ordinary trust but means that all worldly and personal spiritual attachments have been rejected, and this is the spiritual state of a soul, ready to be accepted into the Beatific Vision. Yet, as long as we live in this fallen world, we still have worldly inclinations and "needs", until the point of death. Ste Therese was without doubt a "living saint". God's Predestination implicitly held that the beloved Therese would by adoption, participate in Christ's Divinity forever. V
Excellent! Went through something similar. God was very good to bring me through a devasting mental health crisis. I am so grateful to Mary and St. Therese. Under the old calendar, her feast day was on my birthday. Had a great pastor and also a spiritual director at Scrupulous Anonymous. God bless you!
lol father vincent, lol, lol, lol 😂😂😂 a carmelite nun lent me the book of st. therese entitled "the story of a soul", I read it but till I heard you now, I had been wondering *for years* why Sr. Ann, God rest her soul, wanted me to read that book. I was like, "what does st. therese have to do with me" 🤔 now I know father 😂😂😂 and dooon't say it 🤣🤣🤣 noooo, I'm nooooottt 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤭🤭🤭🤫🤫🤫😇😇😇🙏🙏🙏 and it's actually because of st. therese that I have called myself a *victim soul* 'cuz I'm a *copycat* 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣 *Jesus, I trust in You.* Jesus, I love You to folly. - Victim Soul Salve Maria. 🙏😇🌷 S.A.G. 🙏🙏🙏
Thank you Father for this great presentation on St Therese may she intercede for us always. I have a devotion to St Philomena would it be a possibility to do a presentation on her. God bless. Nicholas Dyson
Fr. Please pray for me that I am suffering from terrible scruples. It is destroying my entire life. I am 83 years and suffering from the early 20years. Please pray that my daughter Melissa will go to church when her friends come to town.
@@gracezach9451I think she is talking about scrupulosity. It is a mental health condition that causes obsessive worries and fears about violating moral or religious principles. Constantly feeling guilt and shame.
Hello Mohan. Scrupulosity comes from excessive trust in self and little trust in God. It helps to understand that we don't have to prove anything to God who created us. Rather, we should realize that all that is good in us, including our virtue, comes from Him. This abandonment in His hands is a great remedy for this spiritual illness. Besides, one should practice virtue not to feel good about oneself, but out of pure love for God.
@@gracezach9451 Hi Grace, Here is the dictionary definition from OED: scru·ple (noun) (plural noun: scruples) 1.a feeling of doubt or hesitation with regard to the morality or propriety of a course of action. [example:] "I had no scruples about eavesdropping" As you can see, the concept of having scruples is not bad in and of itself, however when we say "scrupulosity" we are referring to a disordered sense of hyper-exaggerated personal perfectionism. With scrupulosity, we can start to focus too much on our own attempts to be perfect, and lose sight of our dependence upon God's Mercy. The better we think we are doing at it, the more we are susceptible to pride. The more we perceive that those around us are failing to live up to our own ideals, the more susceptible we become to judgmentalism, lack of charitability, even gossip or slander. This can also lead to superstitiousness, an irrational fear that if we don't conduct ourselves in all of our spiritual matters "just so," that God will not honor them (instead of depending upon His Mercy and His Bountiful Desire to do Good for us.) At last, our inability to be perfect (as poor sinners in this Fallen World,) can result in despair, emotional issues, broken relationships, even falling away from the faith. In all of these examples of the dangers of scrupulosity, the common element is focusing upon oneself rather than focusing upon God. Hope This Helps. God Bless...
I suffer from scruples but it has gotten better a lot lately, specifically trust. My scruples have come from not understanding, but when I am explained things it makes my scruples go away. I scruple on if sins I have committed if they are mortal or venial and I freak out prior to receiving the Eucharist. But if I am unsure I make a best decision based on what I know and stick with it. What really gets me is if what I did is grave matter and if I freely chose to do something. Then I run around in my head for a while. Then I stop, review everything and 99% of the time it’s venial. Then I receive the Eucharist, but when I go to confession I bring it up and ask the priest if it’s mortal and it’s always venial. Not saying that venial sin is nothing (cuz it still offends God just doesn’t sever the relationship) but I will not receive the Eucharist if I’m in mortal sin, never. I’ve already hurt him enough I don’t want to add that horrible torture to Jesus. Scruples are tough but I always ask Our Lady and my Guardian Angel to really help me understand if I’m in mortal sin. And when I know it’s venial but the devil tries to make me think it’s mortal I just stop and state the facts in my head. Sometimes I’ll write it out and read it and then I’m like come on bro I know that’s not grave matter then I move on.
If you are questioning whether it’s venial or mortal, it proves you don’t have enough knowledge and therefore does not make it mortal. Ripperger explains this in his video
@@tylerhochrein17 but we must keep on searching for knowledge on moral issues , not knowing doesn’t always exclude us from being guilty, it may make lesser the charge
St. Theresa pray for my siblings and their spouses, my nieces and nephews and their spouses, my grandnieces and grandnephews, and also my little health problems
I tried to join the Consecration course but the starting date was the 7th of October. So i exited the group because admin wanted me to forward messages to 5 other people - effectively a modern "chain-letter." 😔 Please could you post when the date when the next course is starting? Have a past history of trauma and am instinctively wary of getting involved in anything - especially when the first thing im asked to do is forward chains messages 🙏🏻
Salve Maria! Brother Vincent thank you so much for this reflection. I can relate to what St. Therese went through in her life having gone through many myself with sentimentality and self doubt. Through my Consecration to Our Blessed Mother, these feelings are starting to go away. She has helped me in so many ways that I can feel her loving gaze and her arms around me that I feel such peace in my heart and soul. I have also have had the help through Confession receiving a grace I can't put into words that has lifted the guilt of self doubt. Salve Maria! Brother Vincent 🙏😇🕊🌹
I can totally understand how tjerese felt i came through simikar sits and YyI found that one only trust yESHUA AND MARY NO ONE ELSE LIFE IS ONLY SOMETJING WIRTH BECAUSE OF THESE 2 ML M LOOK AT TBE WORLD TODAY AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND
ST. AUGUSTINE: God our Father, we find it difficult to come to you, because our knowledge of you is imperfect. In our ignorance we have imagined you to be our enemy; we have wrongly thought that you take pleasure in punishing our sins; and we have foolishly conceived you to be a tyrant over human life. But since Jesus came among us, he has shown that you are loving, that you are on our side, and that our fear of you was groundless. So we come to you asking you to forgive our past ignorance, and wanting to know more and more of you and your forgiving love, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Terezina terezina waddab lil ta dinja hafna Ward,fejn id -demm iccarcarfejn hemm glued Inti biss tista twarrad dawk il pjagi ta nies mwegha Ghax bil pjagi ta Gesu ,tkompli twarrad demm ulied Biex il genna int tiehu l- ikbar ward ,taghmlu jfuh Terezina terezina kemm ihobbok il -Bambin !❤=❤😅=😅
Hello. We are the Heralds of the Gospel, a Catholic and International Association of Pontifical Right. You can learn more about the habit of the Heralds of the Gospel here:ua-cam.com/video/IwHU2amI8_s/v-deo.html
Weird that people who deny God the Father Son and Holy Spirit and Blessed Mother Mary and there is proof of God. When I was agnostic in highschool I was in the hospital.
In my opinion, scrupulosity is a totally logic reaction of a person´s psyche to absolutely anti-natural, extremely detailed prohibitions concerning the very common and natural features of humans´ lives, if it is connected with absolutely incomprehensibly cruel threats. I heard (I don´t know whether its true but I guess it is) that, I guess St. Thomas Aquinas analyzed the borderline between a venial and a grave sin at sexual excitement. Huge analysis whether a person is sexually excited still only within the frames of a venial sin or its already too much and it is a grave sin... I feel this as a tragedy-comedy. Its awful. The eternal punishment itself is something so mad that we cannot compare it with anything we know from our earthly living. And its totally clear that it terrifies those who believe. A natural consequence of that is to get scrupulous. If we talk about St. Theresa´s risk of getting lost though it was, if I understand well, a consequence of her suffering cause of the lost of he mom, I can only say it sounds absurdly cruel and unjust. Those happier who were not facing such a deep pain could not fall into those "bad" things as Theresa. Now, what is fair on this if the reasons for her behavior is not regarded? I can only hope that God takes regards on those different conditions and reasons for people´s behavior. I was stuck to God firmly. I tried hard to keep trust to Him. And I have been disappointed. If a person has repeated disappointments with prayers, st. masses, novenas, how can we judge such a person if she/he seek rather a human´s love? The humans act. The God is only to believe in His existence and answering our prayers, at least in things concerning our earthly requests, seem extremely rare. If we would be really fair, frank and just, we would have to fully understand those who lose trust to God.
I dont believe that $t Therèse was close to being lost, she lived her life all for God, the short 24 years of her life and she had huge trust in our Lords Love
Terezina terezina kemm ihobbok il -bambin Ghax tkun diek ic - ckejknz madre ta komunita Kemm rajta topi kids bil - qalb xaghra kollha Nokli Ghand in - nanna le hadE?'t gost " ejja poggi hemm Ja pastaZA qaltliha ,terezina terezina kemm ihobbok Il - bambin ....Ghad ni...drilha min go sema .w nferaha HaFNa jien,
POPE BENEDICT XVI: “The Jansenist mentality presented a grim and severe face of God, very remote from the face revealed to us by Jesus. It lead to a very strict and widespread interpretation of moral life.” Scrupulosity can certainly be emboldened by bad theology which emphasizes a wrathful God. Such a theology became very prevalent in the Church, starting in the 17th century, and continuing for over 200 years. It is called Jansenism, named for the French bishop, Cornelius Jansenius, who originated and promulgated it in the Church. Like 16th century Protestant Calvinism, 17th century Jansenism preached a religion of fear and anguish. Priests and bishops with the Jansenist mentality were obsessed with “sins of the flesh.” They preached a distorted Christianity that presented God as severe, cold, and distant. Jesus was presented only as a harsh and condemning judge, not as a merciful Savior and Good Shepherd. The truth of God’s love proclaimed by Jesus in his teaching and deeds and his ultimate sacrifice for all people was overshadowed by this heresy. And this heresy received a great deal of acceptance throughout the Church for more than 200 years in spite of the efforts of several popes who condemned it as false teaching. The Jansenists taught that all infants dying without baptism were condemned to hell. Pope Pius VI, however, condemned that teaching in 1794. But the most far-reaching part of the Jansenist heresy was its teaching on the Eucharist. Jansenism held that it was only the purest of souls, free of all taint of sin, that could approach Communion without the fear of committing a sacrilege. Jansenistic piety was excessively rigid and moralistic. It held that the possibility of committing a mortal sin was an ever present and constant danger. It deeply affected spirituality in the Church, and traces of it can sometimes be seen to this day. These beliefs gave rise to excessive introspection that was the breeding ground of scrupulosity. Jansenism tainted the pulpit and Catholic teaching, which, in turn, infected the faithful. Instances of this kind of preaching and teaching can still be found today.
That is a really beautiful comment - and very timely for me, personally. Am eaten up with self-blame and fake-humility - at this stage afraid to drive, afraid to leave my own house without my husband (a very good man he is bydway, but he himself has lost his faith in the Catholic Church because of all the scandal etc. My own trauma was more to do with wrongful and abusive medical interventions for which i have (in vain) sought Justice and am completely unable to forgive those.. "doctors" for what they did. Pursuing a legal case has taken up at least 20 years of my life indeed the hurt, harm, fear, blacklisting by other doctors will never go away - and - i also fear being condemned to hell because i cannot find it in me to forgive those doctors. I just can't even pretend to forgive them 😭. St Thérèse was recommended to me by a priest - she is also one of my patron saints - and, indeed, her writings are sooo accessible, so down-to-earth... Maybe i was stupid allowing myself be persuaded (for many years) by thoughts/ comments of others - eg - it was all my own fault/ i deserved what i got etc/ family were right to abandon me/ I'm a jinx etc etc Jesus does not abandon us! He did not abandon Thérèse!!
Because i stopped driving (due to severe anxiety and some blackouts after a flu vaccine a few years ago - and am often too ill/ depressed to ask my husband to bring me (he has lost faith in Catholic church but still believes in God) - i don't go to mass regularly and therefore when i DO go, am afraid to go to communion because itsa mortal sin to miss mass and you can't go to communion if you have committed a mortal sin - but there are almost no confessions nowadays! And (what's just as bad) no spiritual advisors ANYWHERE for lay-people. No wonder people feel abandoned! And many are turning to false prophers, witches, clairvoyants etc. Itsa minefield out there now, for those who are genuinely seeking God, Truth etc. Nobody trusts Catholic priests anymore, we are all afraid and don't know where to turn
This episode has had a profound effect upon me. I too once suffered with scrupulosity. It was like being tethered to a bolder with a chain which I had to drag wherever I went. It was my saintly father who explained the deadly affects of scrupulosity to me. I was amazed by his wisdom that this spiritual defect was grounded in self love. My eyes were opened at that moment because I knew he was right. I thought too much of myself and failed to pray prayers of Gratitude to God for the many graces I had to admit came from Him.
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Before she entered the convent at age 15, St. Teresa, the Little Flower, experienced a time of excessive anxiety and introspection - fearing that even her thoughts could lead to eternal damnation. When she was 12 years old in 1885 she attended a retreat, the theme of which was “Better to die than sully one’s soul with a mortal sin.” The titles of the retreat conferences that Theresa heard were “Hell, Judgment, Mortal Sin, The Necessity of Making a Good Confession, and Sacrilegious Communion.” Theresa wrote: “What the priest told us was frightening. He spoke about mortal sin, and he described a soul in the state of sin and how much God hated it.” And she wrote: “One would have to pass through this martyrdom (suffering) to understand it well, and for me to express what I experienced for a year and a half would be impossible.”
And Teresa continued to suffer even in the monastery. Numerous preachers of spiritual retreats at that time were infected with the heresy of Jansenism and preached fire and brimstone, stressing sin, and the sufferings of purgatory and of hell. This did not help Teresa who in 1891 experienced “great inner trials of all kinds, even wondering sometimes whether heaven existed.” One phrase she heard during a retreat made her weep: “No one knows if they are worthy of love or of hate.”
But in October 1891, a sermon preached by a Franciscan priest gave Teresa a great comfort. She wrote: “His preaching on abandonment to God’s mercy expanded my heart...” So Teresa received a grace from God that liberated her from crippling “over sensitivity.” And the emotional difficulties she endured would enable her to counsel the Lisieux Carmel’s novices with wisdom beyond her years: “God our Father loves us always, absolutely, unfailingly, eternally.”
Thank you for sharing that! Beautiful.
@@HeraldsoftheGospel_official You're Welcome.
I have dealt with scruposity since my teenage years. I'm now 73, and only in the last couple of years have I realized that self-obsession is certainly a result, if not also a cause of, scrupulosity.
In my case, scrupulosity is a particular manifestation of OCD. I found relief through therapy with a Catholic practitioner, the guidance of a spiritual director, and medication.
I would recommend the same regimen for anyone with lifelong scrpulosity. It's often not simply a problem of ignorance or spiritual immaturity, but can be a symptom of psychological illness.
I'm doing very well now, but it's a daunting spiritual trap for even a person of the strongest will and determination. I have great compassion for anyone who suffers from it.
@@johnsposato5632 Happy you've made progress. God bless you.
Scrupulosity is one of the most painful psychological states there is. It can feel like hell to the sufferer.
Scrupulosity is an age-old problem that the OCD Foundation describes as “a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) involving religious or moral obsessions. Scrupulous individuals are overly concerned that something they thought or something they did might be a sin or other violation of religious or moral doctrine.” It’s like being a moral hypochondriac. In Catholics, this problem manifests itself in people who are always going to confession obsessibly. They have irrational fears that, somehow, one’s confession wasn’t really valid, or the sacrament didn’t quite count because of some imagined technicality. People with Scrupulosity/OCD worry excessively about sinning - whether by having “bad thoughts” or other human imperfections - and they have to struggle to accept God’s forgiveness. They fear that God is angry with them, and often try to make up for things with perfect devotional practices. Instead of trusting in the mercy of God, scrupulosity-sufferers live with an awful anxiety. When you’re in the bondage of a scrupulous mind set, nothing you do will ever be enough to bring lasting peace.
Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen Ahmen
St Therese my patron saint, please pray very
urgently that my son and daughter will deal with our property issue peacefully. Help them also to come back to the good relationship they had earlier.
Thank you for caring for me all these years.
I also suffer with OCD, anxiety, and sometimes the inability to enjoy things. This has become physically painful, and is actually more of the effect of my sentimentality and naiveness to become deceived into a heresy. I went to confession about this three months later, but this three months had a great effect on me, because I taught myself to live in habitual fear. Please pray for me, especially to Saint Therese so that she can intercede for me, and prayer from others is powerful. I have been struggling now for 1 year, and this has been physically painful for 6 months. I am also a teenager.
Hello. Absolutely, we will pray for you. God bless you.
God bless you, don´t be afraid, God is in your inner mind and soul loving you. I´m praying for you in this moment.😇❤🙏🌻
Hello from France. I live near Lisieux, next time i will visit Sainte Thérèse de Lisieux place, i shall pray specialy for you. Message for Our Lady of Théologie...
Thank you all who are praying for me!
@@HeraldsoftheGospel_official Thanks.
I love you Jesus and thank you Mother Mary and St.Therese for helping me and my family! Amen!! ❤thank you for sharing Father! I pray for all the religious vocations and thank Our Lord for Mother Church! Amen amen!!! 🙏🏼
I read 📚 St Teresa Book she wrote a while back. I still have the Book. I remember what you say about St Teresa was fighting bad influence that made her very sick. I remember it was awful for her. But I remember Book tell Our Lady Appered to her Smiled at her and she was Cured. She had her as she put it herself Her Littel Way . ❤❤❤❤❤her sisters were nuns too. I think she was only 16 when she wanted to be a nun but they said was to young yet but she kept trying and eventually she did after an effort cause she was very young lovely Book sad how she suffered when she died but she wanted too for her love for Jesus Our Lord. I Love ❤️ you St Teresa please try not forget me though I am unworthy ❤ AMEN ❤❤LOTS LOVE LIZ X X 💖 💕 ❤️ 💗
Thank you St. Therese❤ My Bestfriend❤❤❤
St Therese pray for us ❤
Thank you. St. Therese is my patron saint.
Mine too❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥🕊
Mine also
This is an amazing talk, thank you Father!
Thank you Father for such a lovely story. ❤
Thank you Father for this great presentation on St. Therese of the Child Jesus. I appreciated the delivery and content.
Thank you Father, I'm struggling with scruples. I always think of something very small as bad. This video is a Gift from God on the very day I needed to. God Bless and St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us along with Queen Mary and All the Angels and Saints
Thank you Fr. for your presentation. ❤😊
Thank you Fr. Vincent! I needed to hear this, I’ve been going through trials. Please pray for me. God bless you.❤️✝️🙏🏻
Love and gratitude instead of sin and guilt.❤
Thank you Father for sharing.
You are very welcome!
Prayer to the Little Flower
by John Joseph...
..Oh Little Flower
Now is your Hour
Show us your Heav'ly Pow'r
Grant us a Jesus Joy Show'r
I'm afraid you have committed a great injustice against Ste Therese. It seems to me that you do not have sufficient psychological nor spiritual selfunderstanding to "see" the power of Original Sin over your immortal soul, which would invite tremendous Sanctifying Graces so that you would have much more Christian humility and be much less inclined to project your own dismal interior spiritual state onto this great Saint.
It's doubtful if Therese ever committed a venial sin, her scruples, to the contrary, not withstanding. Did she, the self-aware subject, have have a perfect understanding of the great sainthood the Holy Spirit was calling her to? No, she did not which, paradoxically, may be accounted for by her awesome SPIRITUAL humility.
You're letting your imagination carry you away(that she could have been "lost" to hell was impossible)which may be revealing lots about the state of your wounded soul and nothing about Ste Therese.
@@tomhealey8214 Do you think she could have been saved without the Virgin Mary? Is humility the cause of scruples? Was it really impossible for her to be lost?
Did Br. Vincent say she consented to any sin? I tried looking for that part but probably missed it.
Although it is true that where sin abounds grace abounds all the more, the ends don't justify the means. Sin is not justified by the grace of conversion/repentance which follows and the effects of sin are effects of sin and not grace. Grace is something distinct from sin and it's effects. God uses our defects and faults to make us humble but that doesn't justify our faults.
Keen to know what you think about this.
But I liked your confidence and assuredness about what you said. It seems like you are a very strong personality and have had a very intense catholic formation.
@@brothernimishcoelho Your reference to the Blessed Virgin and salvation, in your opening sentence, looks to me like an ad hominem evasion. And I'm sure you'll have an excuse to justify yourself. Not a good start!
You completely misunderstood my mention of the great Spiritual Humility of this remarkable Saint. So please strive to pay more thoughtful attention to my few categorical statements regarding Ste.Therese.
I did NOT mean nor intend that her great humility caused her attacks of scruples. Your observation is too shallow and simplistic.
Her humility was absolutely spiritual. IOW, it was only possible due to a great in-flow of Sanctifying Graces into her beautiful soul, which l'm convinced began in her infancy.
Whether she was a 3 year old or a young adult on the point of death, THERESE LIVED THE GRACE FILLED SPIRITUAL LIFE OF A LITTLE CHILD. HER CHILDLIKE TRUST IN CHRIST WAS **ABSOLUTE**. " UNLESS YOU BECOME LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN YOU SHALL NOT ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN" MATTHEW 18:3
Nothing more need be said about the absolute assurance of her salvation.
Regardless of the stages of struggle in her daIly life, Therese was absolutely committed, by grace, to her unyielding LOVE FOR HER SAVIOUR, FOREVER.
Here is the point you missed: Genuine HUMILITY and VULNERABILITY inevitably go together. At the stage of her life, where she had scruples, God did not protect her from struggle and trials. Her holiness/humility did not cause her torment; they existed side by side. Her psychological life had tantrums, impulses, likes/dislikes, scruples, however her spiritual life was quite serene, which she only dimly grasped, if at all. Her triumph over these emotional trials came later. Psychological vulnerability carried to the utmost by her great spiritual love for Christ carries with it a helplessness which makes impossible any desperate attempt to protect oneself, thus grace guided her to surrender fully to Christ in ABSOLUTE TRUST.
It's a common misunderstanding that those few chosen souls, raised up by the Holy Spirit, must have perfect selfunderstanding. Not so! As a small child she had the difficulties that are common to children. That did not mean she was not holy, nor that she was. She demonstrated holiness for those who have the spiritual "eyes" to see, and l'm convinced that this remarkable chosen child, never committed a venial sin in her abbreviated life.
And for you to propose that if she remained trapped in her spiral of scruples, she might end up in hell, is not just offensive to the memory of Therese, but it reveals an embarrassing spiritual superficiality that unfortunately characterizes much of the Catholic Church today, starting with the hierarchy.
To finish, l will tell a story I once heard about this great Saint that I love so devotedly.
I cannot confirm its veracity, so here goes...
As you no doubt realize Ste Therese spend the last 18 months of her life confined to her bed where metastasizing tuberculosis ravaged her body. There were no painkillers, no "Tylenol". Morphine was commonly used yet her Mother Superior for her own reasons, did not permit its use for medical reasons.
The Lord disciplines those he loves.
God placed the Saint in the Dark Night of the Soul. She never had a consolation during the long trial of her suffering. GOD HID HIMSELF FROM THESESE. She had nothing besides her suffering
This great soul did not need to suffer. She chose in the depths of her heart to suffer for the world.
It is reported that Therese once cautioned the sisters who cared for her temporal needs to not leave anything remotely poisonous on her night table, because she was terrified that she might be tempted to kill herself.(this must have been in one of the few biographies I've read of her life. I no longer remember).
If this is factual, there's no question that she was sincerely worried. Her suffering was so great. Not one of the sisters, including her biological sisters, who shared the convent, had any idea that a great soul lived with them, albeit in extremis.
However I remain convinced that she did not have a clear understanding of God's great love for her and her ONTOLOGICAL childlike love for Christ. It's paradoxical. It was her total helplessness and trust in Christ that was her true strength, not the strength of an adult. Christ's statement in Matthew 18:3...unless you become like little children.... implies that this trust of a child is no ordinary trust but means that all worldly and personal spiritual attachments have been rejected, and this is the spiritual state of a soul, ready to be accepted into the Beatific Vision. Yet, as long as we live in this fallen world, we still have worldly inclinations and "needs", until the point of death. Ste Therese was without doubt a "living saint". God's Predestination implicitly held that the beloved Therese would by adoption, participate in Christ's Divinity forever.
V
Dios los bendiga, Heraldos del Evangelio
Thank you Father for this beautiful teaching. Helped me so much that I just joined as a member. God bless and keep you all. 🙏✝️
Thank you, Father, your message is coming at the perfect time for me. God bless you!
Thank you Father for the great presentation on Ste Therese.God bless you 🙏
A great video and things that I didn’t know about one of my most favorite Saints . I knew she suffered 😢
Thank you for this beautiful video❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥🕊
How great Our God is!!!
Thank you Father, I have a special devotion to St. Therese 🙏🙏🙏
Thank you for your ministry 🙏🏼
Thank you, Father 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Thank you Father for sharing, God Bless You Father. God look after my family and keep them healthy and safe AMEN ❤️❤️❤️🙏🙏🙏🌹🌹🌹
Sainte Therese prie pour moi et pour tous ceux qui le nécessite.
St. Therese, pray for us 🌹❤️🙏🙏🙏
Beautiful ❤🙏✝️
Glory to Christ!🙏♥
Excellent! Went through something similar. God was very good to bring me through a devasting mental health crisis. I am so grateful to Mary and St. Therese. Under the old calendar, her feast day was on my birthday. Had a great pastor and also a spiritual director at Scrupulous Anonymous. God bless you!
I love Therese
lol father vincent, lol, lol, lol 😂😂😂 a carmelite nun lent me the book of st. therese entitled "the story of a soul", I read it but till I heard you now, I had been wondering *for years* why Sr. Ann, God rest her soul, wanted me to read that book. I was like, "what does st. therese have to do with me" 🤔 now I know father 😂😂😂 and dooon't say it 🤣🤣🤣 noooo, I'm nooooottt 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤭🤭🤭🤫🤫🤫😇😇😇🙏🙏🙏 and it's actually because of st. therese that I have called myself a *victim soul* 'cuz I'm a *copycat* 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
*Jesus, I trust in You.*
Jesus, I love You to folly. - Victim Soul
Salve Maria. 🙏😇🌷
S.A.G. 🙏🙏🙏
Thank you for sharing this
You are very welcome! Please pray for us.
@@HeraldsoftheGospel_official I will pray
Thank you Fr. Vincent.
God love you.
Beautifully narrated 💌
Thank you Br Vincent
Thank-you. I love your videos. I learn so much. God Bless. Salve Maria.
You are so welcome!
God bless you
SALVE MARIA, BROTHER VINCENT!
Thank you for sharing and for the link as well.
This is so special went to novena for st therese to night it was so good thanks for video from dublin
Thank you Father for this great presentation on St Therese may she intercede for us always. I have a devotion to St Philomena would it be a possibility to do a presentation on her. God bless. Nicholas Dyson
Fr. Please pray for me that I am suffering from terrible scruples. It is destroying my entire life. I am 83 years and suffering from the early 20years. Please pray that my daughter Melissa will go to church when her friends come to town.
Hello, a question , what is a scruple? I'm guessing it's something spiritual?
Peace be with you❤
@@gracezach9451I think she is talking about scrupulosity. It is a mental health condition that causes obsessive worries and fears about violating moral or religious principles. Constantly feeling guilt and shame.
Hello Mohan. Scrupulosity comes from excessive trust in self and little trust in God. It helps to understand that we don't have to prove anything to God who created us. Rather, we should realize that all that is good in us, including our virtue, comes from Him. This abandonment in His hands is a great remedy for this spiritual illness. Besides, one should practice virtue not to feel good about oneself, but out of pure love for God.
@@gracezach9451
Hi Grace,
Here is the dictionary definition from OED:
scru·ple
(noun)
(plural noun: scruples)
1.a feeling of doubt or hesitation with regard to the morality or propriety of a course of action.
[example:] "I had no scruples about eavesdropping"
As you can see, the concept of having scruples is not bad in and of itself, however when we say "scrupulosity" we are referring to a disordered sense of hyper-exaggerated personal perfectionism.
With scrupulosity, we can start to focus too much on our own attempts to be perfect, and lose sight of our dependence upon God's Mercy.
The better we think we are doing at it, the more we are susceptible to pride.
The more we perceive that those around us are failing to live up to our own ideals, the more susceptible we become to judgmentalism, lack of charitability, even gossip or slander.
This can also lead to superstitiousness, an irrational fear that if we don't conduct ourselves in all of our spiritual matters "just so," that God will not honor them (instead of depending upon His Mercy and His Bountiful Desire to do Good for us.)
At last, our inability to be perfect (as poor sinners in this Fallen World,) can result in despair, emotional issues, broken relationships, even falling away from the faith.
In all of these examples of the dangers of scrupulosity, the common element is focusing upon oneself rather than focusing upon God.
Hope This Helps.
God Bless...
She nevere risked to be lost. 🙏
I suffer from scruples but it has gotten better a lot lately, specifically trust. My scruples have come from not understanding, but when I am explained things it makes my scruples go away. I scruple on if sins I have committed if they are mortal or venial and I freak out prior to receiving the Eucharist. But if I am unsure I make a best decision based on what I know and stick with it. What really gets me is if what I did is grave matter and if I freely chose to do something. Then I run around in my head for a while. Then I stop, review everything and 99% of the time it’s venial. Then I receive the Eucharist, but when I go to confession I bring it up and ask the priest if it’s mortal and it’s always venial. Not saying that venial sin is nothing (cuz it still offends God just doesn’t sever the relationship) but I will not receive the Eucharist if I’m in mortal sin, never. I’ve already hurt him enough I don’t want to add that horrible torture to Jesus.
Scruples are tough but I always ask Our Lady and my Guardian Angel to really help me understand if I’m in mortal sin. And when I know it’s venial but the devil tries to make me think it’s mortal I just stop and state the facts in my head. Sometimes I’ll write it out and read it and then I’m like come on bro I know that’s not grave matter then I move on.
same to everything!!!
@@dulcejocelyn7102I’m glad to know I’m not the only one.
If you are questioning whether it’s venial or mortal, it proves you don’t have enough knowledge and therefore does not make it mortal. Ripperger explains this in his video
@@tylerhochrein17 thanks!
@@tylerhochrein17 but we must keep on searching for knowledge on moral issues , not knowing doesn’t always exclude us from being guilty, it may make lesser the charge
Amen
St. Theresa pray for my siblings and their spouses, my nieces and nephews and their spouses, my grandnieces and grandnephews, and also my little health problems
12:02
Our Lady if Victory pray for us. 🙏
St. Therese of Child Jesus pray for Clemence, pray that he be heal of his bipolar
I waited 63 years for this words😢
Thanks!
Thank you so very much, Cindy. God bless.
I tried to join the Consecration course but the starting date was the 7th of October. So i exited the group because admin wanted me to forward messages to 5 other people - effectively a modern "chain-letter." 😔
Please could you post when the date when the next course is starting? Have a past history of trauma and am instinctively wary of getting involved in anything - especially when the first thing im asked to do is forward chains messages 🙏🏻
l.reconquest.heralds.org/en-lp-consecration-virgin-mary/?t=
Salve Maria! Brother Vincent thank you so much for this reflection. I can relate to what St. Therese went through in her life having gone through many myself with sentimentality and self doubt. Through my Consecration to Our Blessed Mother, these feelings are starting to go away. She has helped me in so many ways that I can feel her loving gaze and her arms around me that I feel such peace in my heart and soul. I have also have had the help through Confession receiving a grace I can't put into words that has lifted the guilt of self doubt. Salve Maria! Brother Vincent 🙏😇🕊🌹
Thanks for sharing that. Please pray for us.
🙏
I can totally understand how tjerese felt i came through simikar sits and YyI found that one only trust yESHUA AND MARY NO ONE ELSE LIFE IS ONLY SOMETJING WIRTH BECAUSE OF THESE 2 ML M LOOK AT TBE WORLD TODAY AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND
ST. AUGUSTINE: God our Father, we find it difficult to come to you, because our knowledge of you is imperfect. In our ignorance we have imagined you to be our enemy; we have wrongly thought that you take pleasure in punishing our sins; and we have foolishly conceived you to be a tyrant over human life. But since Jesus came among us, he has shown that you are loving, that you are on our side, and that our fear of you was groundless. So we come to you asking you to forgive our past ignorance, and wanting to know more and more of you and your forgiving love, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Tuberculosis and/or psychotic signs and symptoms during brain disfunction too could happen to anyone.
⚜️🌹🕯️🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🕯️🌹⚜️
It is really traumatic for a 4 year old to lose her mother.
Terezina terezina waddab lil ta dinja hafna
Ward,fejn id -demm iccarcarfejn hemm glued
Inti biss tista twarrad dawk il pjagi ta nies mwegha
Ghax bil pjagi ta Gesu ,tkompli twarrad demm ulied
Biex il genna int tiehu l- ikbar ward ,taghmlu jfuh
Terezina terezina kemm ihobbok il -Bambin !❤=❤😅=😅
🎉
Scruples are also a manifestation of self hatred in my experience.
what kind of habit is this? it's really cool looking
Hello. We are the Heralds of the Gospel, a Catholic and International Association of Pontifical Right. You can learn more about the habit of the Heralds of the Gospel here:ua-cam.com/video/IwHU2amI8_s/v-deo.html
whats the song playing during 1:00??
Away in a manger
Away In A Manger
I think the married couple Sts Isadore and Maria might predate Teresa’s parents into sainthood?
No why'd you stop the episode there 😭
She was her sister❤❤ NOT her mother . Siblings are only siblings
Weird that people who deny God the Father Son and Holy Spirit and Blessed Mother Mary and there is proof of God. When I was agnostic in highschool I was in the hospital.
In my opinion, scrupulosity is a totally logic reaction of a person´s psyche to absolutely anti-natural, extremely detailed prohibitions concerning the very common and natural features of humans´ lives, if it is connected with absolutely incomprehensibly cruel threats. I heard (I don´t know whether its true but I guess it is) that, I guess St. Thomas Aquinas analyzed the borderline between a venial and a grave sin at sexual excitement. Huge analysis whether a person is sexually excited still only within the frames of a venial sin or its already too much and it is a grave sin... I feel this as a tragedy-comedy. Its awful.
The eternal punishment itself is something so mad that we cannot compare it with anything we know from our earthly living. And its totally clear that it terrifies those who believe. A natural consequence of that is to get scrupulous.
If we talk about St. Theresa´s risk of getting lost though it was, if I understand well, a consequence of her suffering cause of the lost of he mom, I can only say it sounds absurdly cruel and unjust. Those happier who were not facing such a deep pain could not fall into those "bad" things as Theresa. Now, what is fair on this if the reasons for her behavior is not regarded? I can only hope that God takes regards on those different conditions and reasons for people´s behavior.
I was stuck to God firmly. I tried hard to keep trust to Him. And I have been disappointed. If a person has repeated disappointments with prayers, st. masses, novenas, how can we judge such a person if she/he seek rather a human´s love? The humans act. The God is only to believe in His existence and answering our prayers, at least in things concerning our earthly requests, seem extremely rare.
If we would be really fair, frank and just, we would have to fully understand those who lose trust to God.
I´m agree🤩💥👋💐
Ma ma ma le
Thallium lil uliedkom
Hafna zghar ,ghallmu
Lil ukidkom li xi darba
Jkununl genna ghaliehx
Ommhom market ma gesu jhejji Post
I dont believe that $t Therèse was close to being lost, she lived her life all for God, the short 24 years of her life and she had huge trust in our Lords Love
I talk to Jeshuah only for important things I do NOT love the Pjysical world AT all we ARE souls and HAVE a body got ity??
It is cluckbait for a lecture on Therse. He diesn't get to the subject.
Terezina terezina kemm ihobbok il -bambin
Ghax tkun diek ic - ckejknz madre ta komunita
Kemm rajta topi kids bil - qalb xaghra kollha Nokli
Ghand in - nanna le hadE?'t gost " ejja poggi hemm
Ja pastaZA qaltliha ,terezina terezina kemm ihobbok
Il - bambin ....Ghad ni...drilha min go sema .w nferaha
HaFNa jien,
POPE BENEDICT XVI: “The Jansenist mentality presented a grim and severe face of God, very remote from the face revealed to us by Jesus. It lead to a very strict and widespread interpretation of moral life.”
Scrupulosity can certainly be emboldened by bad theology which emphasizes a wrathful God. Such a theology became very prevalent in the Church, starting in the 17th century, and continuing for over 200 years. It is called Jansenism, named for the French bishop, Cornelius Jansenius, who originated and promulgated it in the Church. Like 16th century Protestant Calvinism, 17th century Jansenism preached a religion of fear and anguish. Priests and bishops with the Jansenist mentality were obsessed with “sins of the flesh.” They preached a distorted Christianity that presented God as severe, cold, and distant. Jesus was presented only as a harsh and condemning judge, not as a merciful Savior and Good Shepherd. The truth of God’s love proclaimed by Jesus in his teaching and deeds and his ultimate sacrifice for all people was overshadowed by this heresy. And this heresy received a great deal of acceptance throughout the Church for more than 200 years in spite of the efforts of several popes who condemned it as false teaching. The Jansenists taught that all infants dying without baptism were condemned to hell. Pope Pius VI, however, condemned that teaching in 1794. But the most far-reaching part of the Jansenist heresy was its teaching on the Eucharist. Jansenism held that it was only the purest of souls, free of all taint of sin, that could approach Communion without the fear of committing a sacrilege. Jansenistic piety was excessively rigid and moralistic. It held that the possibility of committing a mortal sin was an ever present and constant danger. It deeply affected spirituality in the Church, and traces of it can sometimes be seen to this day. These beliefs gave rise to excessive introspection that was the breeding ground of scrupulosity. Jansenism tainted the pulpit and Catholic teaching, which, in turn, infected the faithful. Instances of this kind of preaching and teaching can still be found today.
That is a really beautiful comment - and very timely for me, personally. Am eaten up with self-blame and fake-humility - at this stage afraid to drive, afraid to leave my own house without my husband (a very good man he is bydway, but he himself has lost his faith in the Catholic Church because of all the scandal etc. My own trauma was more to do with wrongful and abusive medical interventions for which i have (in vain) sought Justice and am completely unable to forgive those.. "doctors" for what they did. Pursuing a legal case has taken up at least 20 years of my life indeed the hurt, harm, fear, blacklisting by other doctors will never go away - and - i also fear being condemned to hell because i cannot find it in me to forgive those doctors. I just can't even pretend to forgive them 😭. St Thérèse was recommended to me by a priest - she is also one of my patron saints - and, indeed, her writings are sooo accessible, so down-to-earth... Maybe i was stupid allowing myself be persuaded (for many years) by thoughts/ comments of others - eg - it was all my own fault/ i deserved what i got etc/ family were right to abandon me/ I'm a jinx etc etc
Jesus does not abandon us! He did not abandon Thérèse!!
Because i stopped driving (due to severe anxiety and some blackouts after a flu vaccine a few years ago - and am often too ill/ depressed to ask my husband to bring me (he has lost faith in Catholic church but still believes in God) - i don't go to mass regularly and therefore when i DO go, am afraid to go to communion because itsa mortal sin to miss mass and you can't go to communion if you have committed a mortal sin - but there are almost no confessions nowadays! And (what's just as bad) no spiritual advisors ANYWHERE for lay-people. No wonder people feel abandoned! And many are turning to false prophers, witches, clairvoyants etc. Itsa minefield out there now, for those who are genuinely seeking God, Truth etc. Nobody trusts Catholic priests anymore, we are all afraid and don't know where to turn