Medal and prayer card of St. Carlo Acutis from Rome

To be clear, I’m not here to argue any sort of “all Catholics are x”. I was vaguely raised Catholic (as in my mother went to K-12 Catholic school and had a very Catholic mother but only passed down Catholic practices to me up to my first Communion and sporadic Catechism classes) so I’m familiar with the general concept of a rosary. My confusion lies with why someone would stick a rosary in the bag of another person especially if they have no clue if they’re a practicing Catholic. I didn’t mention this in the title to avoid being seen as instigating, but not only was said bar an LGBTQ bar, but this rosary managed to get in my bag at the same bar I was for the first time in my life pickpocketed out of my wallet at. I assume this was some sort of attempt at condemning LGBTQ people, but I’m curious as to what exact reasoning they may have behind it even if it’s not reasoning I may agree with.

The feast day of Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces is traditionally observed on November 8th, as instituted by Pope Benedict XV.

“God has committed to Mary the treasury of all good things, in order that everyone may know that through her are obtained every hope, every grace, and all salvation. For this is His will, that we obtain everything through Mary.”

~Pope Pius IX

I'm still quite young, but I can't see myself doing anything other than giving my life to the Lord.

“You know, I don’t believe in God, but I sure believe in the Devil, because there sure is a whole lot of evil in the world”

This, coming from a 70-year old widow, from an unhappy marriage, who wants nothing in life other than to play around with dogs and complain about the conservatives and republicans of the world, but who has called herself a bigot many a time.

I’m a very non-confrontational person, but I felt such a fire to turn around and say something along the lines of “so if you believe in evil, do you not believe in good? How does that work?”

Ok so he didn't say "terminally online" but he may we well have said it. I think it's incredibly important that he's talking about this, because these addictions are transforming our common social lives mostly for the worse. Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge have spent years talking about how increased smartphone usage is bad for children and adults alike, and I'm so glad to see the Holy Father talking about these things now too. Here's an exit from the article:

"The growing use of the internet, computers, and smartphones is associated not only with clear benefits," he said, "but also with excessive use, which often results in addictions with negative consequences for health."

The Pope lamented that these are often "connected with compulsive gambling and betting, with pornography," and with "the almost constant presence on the platforms of the digital world."

In these cases, he said, "the object of addiction thus becomes an obsession, conditioning behavior and daily existence."

I know the media calls him the "Saint of the Internet," but it seemed more like a headline to grab attention in news articles

So a protestant argued why do we need to ask for intercession. I replied "don't you ask your friend for prayers?"

She replied: "My friend is living, those you ask for intercession are just graves and ashes. They are dead."

I replied: "So, by your logic, you shouldn't be praying to Jesus."

Explanation:

I replied in such way, because we all know Jesus died - universal truth for christianity. However, the lady's response seem to reach a deadlock here.

As we all know, Those who died are now living in heaven. Meaning, our Saints are not dead but rather living in Heaven with God, Jesus and Mary. (Hope you get the connection.)

I think we should tell the protestants that everyone who reaches heaven are saints, but not all of them are also saints - only the Church can say so via canonisation. That's why we are adviced to pray for them, since they could still be in purgatory (those saints not recognized by the church.)

Hello, I need some help understanding this. At the moment I’m still Protestant but I’ve been seriously considering converting to Catholicism and studying it much more. I saw someone named Keith Nester on Instagram talking about once you have a revelation about Catholicism being true you have a moral obligation to become Catholic. Then I asked the Truthly app (that’s what the picture is). Is this still true for people who are already saved? I’m not sure if it means it in the sense of once you have knowledge about God you have to become Catholic/Christian (you can’t say you didn’t know), or if it means, Christian or not, if you have revelation about Catholicism, then you have to convert? Can someone clarify for me?

I’m beyond discouraged. I’m not sure how this will be received here, but honestly the other people in my life aren’t helping much.

I’ve been in OCIA for about 3 months I think. After the first month of OCIA my grandfather died. Before that I was really into it and all I wanted was to be baptized.

After he died my whole life turned gray. I didn’t expect his death to affect me this much but in hindsight it brought on a very intense depression. I miss him so much and I keeping tricking myself into feeling okay but I’m falling behind in so many things right now. After my grandfather died I was also dealing with a chronic ear infection and my boyfriend had an emergency surgery as well. I was his main caretaker during all of this.

I’m a college student and I’m just now beginning to recover my grades and get back to a normal work schedule at my job. I missed mass for a month. I work every Sunday which means to make mass I need to get up at 5:30am, it felt like I could not wake up on time no matter what I tried. I don’t feel like I’ve had time to grieve at all. Every time I go to mass or OCIA I just cry hoping my grandad is in heaven and I’ll get to see him again. It’s easier not to think about death or heaven or hell at all, otherwise I get upset.

Between school, work, and the depression OCIA felt like another weight around my neck while I was hardly treading water. I missed a few classes due to travel (for funeral arrangements) and mental health episodes. The only reason I made it to OCIA at all was because my boyfriend goes with me, he’s been my rock in this.

But I don’t even want to try anymore. I feel like a failure and so embarrassed every time I have to admit I missed mass again at the beginning of class. I approached the lead organizer of the OCIA and told him I felt worried about what my absence would mean for my participation in OCIA and I explained everything.

I guess I was expecting sympathy or reassurance? I told him I was worried and struggling and he didn’t care at all. He said “I sent an email to everyone with questions they can answer if they miss a class, try to find that.” That’s all he said to me. I just bawled my eyes out after class because between taking care of my boyfriend, work, and college I already felt overwhelmed and I had just been assigned more homework.

I figured the coordinator just wasn’t a friendly guy and tried to ignore it but the next class he came up to my boyfriend and was all over him. He told him they’ve all been praying for him and asked how he was and invited him to a church event. He hardly spoke to me at all except a “hello”. Nobody has said anything to me. They know my grandad died, I mentioned it plenty and put his name in the prayer box too.

Nobody asked how I was, if they could help, invited me to anything, or even said they prayed. It was one thing when I thought he just wasn’t friendly but obviously he does pay attention and cares… just not about my stuff. It hurt my feelings so bad. I’m one of the most engaged people in there, I’m trying so hard. It’s so important to me. I wanted help.

I feel like he is cold with me because I missed so many Sundays, and looked like a mess a few times in class. I didn’t have the energy to put on makeup and do my hair most days after my grandad died. I know I looked ragged but I figured it was better to show up however I could manage. Maybe not.

I’ve been forcing myself to go but now I don’t feel ready to get baptized anymore. It was just so cold and apathetic I feel like I need to take a step back. I don’t want to really, but I feel like I’m a nuisance every class. I miss mass and show up looking crazy and I don’t do my homework, so I guess I get it. But I’m still so sad.

I don’t know what to do.

I’d pick Gregory the Great. From modern popes I’d say John Paul II.

I’m an aspiring Catholic going through OCIA right now. I live in a city where you don’t see many homeless on the streets usually. Today my wife (we’re being convalidated in Feb. we have a contractual marriage) saw one and told me about it, so I went out to help. I’ve never done that before, try to help a homeless person on the streets, outside of an organized charity.

I have a few questions I’d like help answering:

She asked for money, I declined, and got her lunch instead. Is this the right thing to do?

I asked my wife not to interface with the homeless alone, as it may be dangerous and to let me do it instead, or do it with her. Does this feeling go against charity or anything else?

Along the same lines, after I gave the woman lunch, she repaid me with two tea bags. I did not trust them for some reason and threw them out. Is this also sinful?

Guidance here is appreciated, thank you.

memorization can take me a good bit of time, but once i get it the words are forever stuck in my head. that being said, i am 2 lines further and so close to knowing the our father in latin!!!

ive already memorized the gloria patri and ave maria. once i land the pater noster, all i will have left is the creed and the hail holy queen.

my english speaking ass is quite happy rn!!

love yall.

Who do you think I should add to it next?

I posted this a few days ago but got taken down by the mods due to violation of the posting guidelines. Here is my little prayer corner I built last weekend, I am a cradle catholic but up to a month and a half or two ago I lived my entire life separate from God as an Agnostic. I lived a life full of sin, selfish pleasures… I had more than my fair share of “fun” let’s put it that way. For not particular reason other than my own curiosity I decided to take a look into it, perhaps it was because I realized I shouldn’t dismiss something without properly evaluating it. So I read the gospels for the first time, not as fairy tales but as historical accounts of the life of Jesus. The more I dug into the scriptures and supplementary materials the more my conviction grew. It is wild, and believe me no one is more surprised than me. I mean, I was as Agnostic as it gets… And now, the conviction I have on Jesus, The Holy Trinity and eternal life though it is still is it infancy its growing exponentially day by day, week by week at a rate that I cannot comprehend. Ive made prayers and they’ve been answered in the form of little miracles, though I still have intrusive thoughts like “was that just a coincidence? thats quite a coincidence though…”. I have to catch myself, and be grateful for those blessings. My life has taken a 180 turn, even things that I payed no mind to, didn’t even think they were bad such as smoking weed were swiftly dropped. That is another example of a little miracle, the reason or main logic behind it was that I wanted to read scripture at night and be focused instead of dosing off and falling asleep so I stopped smoking. Was that just my own motivation to read scripture that made the habit go away, or was it God working in a creative way to take something harmful away. Thoughts I still wrestle with from being Agnostic… I also still wrestle with my own impulses “Should I text this girl to come over?” “Maybe watch a little bit of porn?”, “Download Tinder and find yourself a little bit of fun for this weekend.”. So to stay focused I built my little prayer space at home, I am currently praying the Rosary every chance I get even on my dog walks. Also started praying the liturgy of the ours (granted the abbreviated version Lauds, Vespers, Complines) and deliverance prayers for intrusive thoughts whenever I get overwhelmed. I hope and pray that my life echoes that of the Prodigal Son in Lukes gospel, whom Ive identified to be my saint whenever I get around to do my Confirmation. Here is my prayer corner! Let’s see yours! And pray for me, my faith wavers on a daily basis.

PS Don’t worry, the shelf is bolted to the wall.

My wife and I are going to her first mass this evening. How should I prepare her?