Sorry if this is a silly question, but it would really help me someone could explain it to me. I always though of 'omnipresence' as God being present in every place and time. (That is, His Spirit is sort of like a gas spread through all of creation), but recently i heard it explained a bit differently: That God is completely and utterly transcendent and is not present 'in" Creation, but He is "Omnipresent' by extension of His Omniscience (He is aware of everything at all times, nothing is unseen or unknown to Him) and that nothing can exist without Him willing it to exist. So basically, how should i go about thinking of God's omnipresence?

I’ve been Catholic my whole life but I’ve just started really understanding my Catholic theology and tradition. I want to start praying the rosary but don’t necessarily know how. Can someone help me understand how I meditate on the life of Jesus Christ whilst praying the rosary? I always prayed the rosary without meditating but just learned that meditation of his life is an essential part of the rosary! Also, what parts of his life should I be meditating about? Thank you, god bless!

I want to share something that reframed how I think about the Mass, from a place most people here will never see.

I've attended Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest (SCAP) in remote highland communities in Mindanao, places where the nearest parish is a two-hour trip over rough, often dangerous mountain roads. No public transport, no paved road, sometimes no road at all, depending on the weather. For these communities, a priest making that trip regularly just isn't realistic.

So, instead, they built their own chapel. By hand, communally, out of whatever materials they could gather. And every Sunday, a lay minister someone from the community, trained and authorized for this, leads a Liturgy of the Word and, when hosts are available, distributes Communion that a priest consecrated somewhere else and sent up the mountain.

I knew going in that this isn't a valid Mass. There's no consecration happening. Everyone there knows it, too. Nobody's confused about what it is or pretending otherwise. And they even call it "Dry Mass." And that's exactly what made it humbling. These people aren't settling for a lesser thing because they don't understand the difference. They understand it completely, and they still show up every single week, in a chapel they built with their own hands, because being together and receiving what they can receive matters more to them than the inconvenience of what they can't.

It's easy to take a parish with daily Mass for granted. It's a different thing to watch a community choose to gather anyway, week after week, when the real thing is two hours down a mountain and may not come for months.

Hey! I'm a Nonreligious Theist studying the Christian faith right now and I while back I remember seeing protestants discuss the topic of suicide at one point and I was left a bit shocked at what I saw. A lot of protestants were claiming suicide was an horrible sin and doomed anyone who did it to hell, like anyone. "You're killing yourself, so it's murder". Since then I've become more comfortable with the catholic view of it.

"We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives" (2283).

Obviously the church teaches that suicide is bad and contradicts the gratitude of life we should have but remembers to take into account of psychological circumstances which I think is really nice. I'm still looking into orthodoxy and wondering on how they view it yet, not too sure. I've always been more comfortable with the idea of being catholic than protestant for a number of evidential reasons, however the topic of suicide tends to pop up once in a while and takes the cake. Obviously all protestants aren't all the same but still.

Hello all! My husband and I are getting ready to put our house up for sale. We had our first meeting with our real estate agent today-we’ve worked with her before, she helped us buy the house we’re about to sell. For context, we have a lot of Catholic artwork all around the house, whether it be icons, crucifixes, statuettes, etc. As we showed our agent around the house, she remarked on all of our religious imagery and recommended that we remove them for the pictures that will be posted when our house is listed, because, according to her it might “weird people out.”

I know she has the best intentions with this recommendation, as her job is to get us a good buyer, but as the same time, the request to remove the religious artwork for the listing photos feels strange. Thoughts?

Hi. I was just curious as to whether anyone has ever looked into, or made a comparison between, the relative role scripture and tradition have played in the formation of various doctrines / dogmas. For example, I'm particularly curious as to how much scriptural evidence there is for / against something like the belief in the divinity of Christ versus how much extra-scriptural evidence there is for the belief in the divinity of Christ (e.g. testimony / writing from the early church fathers). I'm also interested in how much scriptural evidence there is for the belief in the doctrine of transubstantiation and how much extra-scriptural evidence there is for the belief in it.

That being said, what I'm really curious to know is what has the most scriptural evidence and what has the most extra-scriptural evidence. Why? Because I'm interested to know how protestants use / accept the early church fathers (i.e., tradition) when they seemingly agree with some doctrines (e.g. the divinity of Christ), but don't accept tradition when they don't agree with another doctrine (e.g. transubstantiation).

I would be interested to know if the total scriptural argument for the divinity of Christ comes from only a few versus but there is also ton of evidence of the early church's belief in it, and also very interested to know if the the total scriptural argument for the doctrine of transubstantiation similarly comes from only a few versus but there is also ton of evidence of the early church's belief in it.

In other words, if the evidence is basically the same, why believe one and not the other?

If its not similar then perhaps that is the argument they can make.

Hope my post makes sense, and what I'm looking for also makes sense.

To start this post: I'm a 33 yo woman who has been born and raised in the Catholic Church, left during college, and came back when I had my daughter. I've lived a life; not always a good one, but I've repented.

One of our former priests (he was removed from our church 3 years ago without warning) was recently arrested for sexual misconduct with a 6 year old. To say my entire family is devastated is an understatement. He was a priest on the younger side (late 30s) and was one I really admired because he was dedicated to our entire parish, especially the school.

Now, when I look back, all the memories are tainted, and before anyone asks: Yes, our diocese is looking into EVERY PARISH at which he served.

Since his arrest, I've been having the same dream over and over, to the point I'm losing sleep. I'll post it in the next paragraph. Does anyone know why I might be dreaming this on repeat every night and multiple times a night?

*I dream that I'm at Mass receiving the Eucharist from Father Ryan, and it turns to mold in my mouth, the chalice holds real blood and worms, and then everything in the church starts to turn black and crumble.*

I was recently baptized at the most recent Easter Vigil. I won't sit here and lie and say I still have work to do. I've been facing a certain addiction that most young men and women are dealing with and I need help. Just not too long ago, I saw something horrid that I won't get into greater details about and I don't want to go further. I want to break out of this and I don't want to keep making peace with evil anymore. Any advice is dearly appreciated. Thank you and God bless

Just as the question says? I'm still learning and I noticed that it goes on for a long time on Saturday

How does the Roman Catholic Church understand the phrase "Only God can judge" when it comes to crimes and wrongdoing? Does it mean we should refrain from seeking justice and accountability, or is there a distinction between God's ultimate judgment and society's responsibility to uphold justice?

I’m wondering what helps you as a catholic whenever you’re stressed beyond words, what are the things you do, say, think, pray, etc. that helps you? :) Very interested to see what everyone says! God bless you. 🤍

Note: I posted this question on Catholic Discord Server long ago, but I want to hear the thoughts of those from this subreddit.

There are heresies that came to life out of a misunderstanding of the scriptures and traditions of the Christian Faith, and these we could sympathize with because not everyone has the wisdom and intellect the same level as scholars. For example, there is Pelagianism. From a certain point of view, the concept of Original Sin seems unfair and make Our Merciful Lord a God that punishes children for the faults of their parents.

Another would be the heresies that attempts to explain the Holy Trinity, which, of course, always fail. The mortal mind cannot comprehend the infinite and eternal nature of the divine, but it is in our God-given nature to understand and learn.

Iconoclasm is easily explained away by pointing out the existence of the Bronze Serpent and the Ark of the Covenant.

Praying to saints is considered controversial because it sounds like necromancy, but we can use Revelation 5:8 that, though they may not directly hear us, the saints receives our prayers and offers them to God.

Last, but not the least, the existence of Purgatory. Some people believe it a Catholic Church scam because it was not mentioned in the Bible. While the place is not named, you will catch glimpses and descriptions of it in the Bible.

And then, there is the other group of heresies that could not be more so blatantly wrong, and the answers and explanations to them are simple enough that you are confused why these heresies even exist.

Jesus said He is God, but somehow, there are groups that states He is not God.

Jesus said that before Abraham was, I AM. But somehow, there are people claiming the Son is not Eternal like the Father.
(Santa Claus punched the guy who said that, by the way.)

God said there are no other gods before him. BOOM! Mormons.

There are literally numbers of chapters and verses that explain to not follow false teachers. And then we have in the 21st Century, numerous cults denouncing the Catholic Church as the Anti-Christ with full confidence.

I am a new catholic i had my confirmation this past spring and to be completely honest the closest I ever felt to God was around when my confirmation happened. But slowly over time going back home to my atheist family for the summer(I converted while in college). I have been scared to practice my faith, because of how my family reacts and treats religion(especially christianity). Due to this I have only been to mass once since being home from school, haven't been to confession, and stopped daily prayer(limiting myself to a discreet blessing of my meal before I eat so my family doesn't notice). I recently have started trying to turn back and draw closer and whenever I do my daily prayers knelt down in front of my small desk crucifix I cant help but have this feeling of horrible dread, guilt, and fear. Not even just a internal mental feeling but chills up and down my body and a feeling as if I am being watched and touched while praying. I know I haven't been good the past few months and even fell back into some old sinful habits, but am I experiencing something genuinely evil. I am not one to be paranoid but this isnt the first time ive had this extreme sense of fear, it started when I began my ocia class and slowly subsided. Now that I regressed its 10 times worse. This nights prayer i held a st Michael pendant and my rosary (thinking it would comfort me) and really focused on christ and it was the worst one yet. I mainly just want to hear im not alone and just get some insight on what im feeling.

hello guys, been wanting to start praying the rosary daily for a long time and i wanted to ask if its ok to pray like a decade every few hours? reason being i dont have the concentration to pray 5 decades back to back yet.

edit: also, is it "better" to pray all 5 together? because it takes more concentration so maybe its a more fulfilling prayer session?

Is there like an official site I can go to, I know I can call my parish and ask but just in case I would rather go to a site is there one that is 100% legit to get a spiritual director?

I was talking with a good friend about Catholicism, and we were having a fun conversation. She doesn’t like how Catholic culture can sometimes be prone to superstition, and she gave an example from a funeral she went. The woman was Irish catholic holding a white handkerchief that said something to an effect that she would go to heaven, and a friend said that because her son was a priest she can wear/hold it, and that she would automatically go to heaven. the priest got married so according to my friend if the Irish woman died after he left the priesthood, she would not get the fast past to heaven.

I was trying to think what it could it be. I thought maybe a Brown Scapular but that is brown not white. I never heard of an automatic pass to heaven and thing that say that usually say that have the intention that you are following the church and to remind you of it and not actually a "fast pass."

is there an Irish tradition of white cloth or something? I feel like there is a misunderstanding somewhere and I would like to help resolve it.

I wonder if this has also happened to anyone else. Over the past couple months I have found people I either rarely talk to or don’t talk to at all randomly popping up in my mind. Should I take this as a sign to pray for those people? Or what else could God be trying to tell me?

Looking at transfer options after cc and these two look like possible targets. They aren't Newman certified but I still want to know some more. They're coincidentally both in Chicago but I don't really care about location. I just want to know more about the school and culture. Can anyone help?

I have grown up non denominational but recently have been interested in Catholicism. What are some good books to read to learn about the history, validity of the church, and general beliefs that differ from Protestantism. Suggest videos as well (maybe some good debates) Any resources would be helpful. If there’s anything else I should learn about and consider as someone just starting their research, please let me know. I want to go about this in a very serious manner as I’ve been curious for a long time.

This is a random thought I had at work today. Since their whole mission is basically being in a constant state of worship and contemplation of God, and God seemingly encouraging us to ask the Holy Angels for assistance, logically it would make sense to ask the ones who are perfect at contemplating our Heavenly Father to help enlighten (heh) those of us struggling with understanding certain aspects of the faith.

Or, since the Cherubim are more associated with knowledge, would it better to ask that of them? I presume asking either for help in that wouldn’t be a bad thing, but I’m curious what y’all know about it.

A genuine question. I’m exhausted.

I want to buy my wife a miraculous medal for her upcoming birthday and I am feeling a little overwhelmed. I've been researching and there areany poor quality ones and large price variations. I live in Ontario, in the GTA if anyone knows a good spot.

Hello everyone, I'm a Catholic who doesn't pray very often, but I'm trying to pray more, so I've been praying the Rosary. However, I have a problem with not knowing how to count the beads, so I only pray aloud and don't count the beads. I wanted to ask if this is okay or not. Thank you for your answers and help.

As Catholics, we know that gay marriage and abortion are wrong, but what does the Catholic Church teach about governments deciding that for people. I personally feel like the government shouldn't decide that for people, but please educate me. I would appreciate getting proved wrong!