I have heard of people who have had such experiences, seeing Jesus or Mary as clearly as a literal figure, as they would any other person. I would love to experience this myself, does anyone here have any testimony of an experience to share?

I am 14 years old and a male. I am an altar server and I love the celebration of mass. I always want to be early. My parents and siblings dont care if they're late. My grandparents are always on time, but I want to be there a lot earlier than most people would even consider getting there at. I love being in the church and talking to the priest and other servers beforehand. I love prayerfully preparing myself for mass. I love being able to ask the priest for a confession before mass if I need one. I really just wanna know why they dont really care if they're late and also how to approach this whol3 situation.

I'm a gay man, been mostly agnostic most of my adult life. I was raised Catholic. I have a sudden urge to go to Confession.

I used to be very left wing before I reconverted into the faith, and I feel like that just made it harder for me to accomodate the faith, every new thing I discover feels extreme [marital debt or objective taste (?) for example] to the point where I get confused and don't know who to trust (the no-rock, no-halloween crowd, the charismatic guitar playing fellers, the radtrad people, etc...), I remember a meme and I think it almost fits me, and maybe one day it will: "I am too Catholic for my secular friends and too secular for my Catholic friends".

Does anyone else feel this way? As if you didn't fit anywhere, in a bad way?

Aware we are a universal religion but I’m curious from an European perspective, what would you say are the peculiar characteristics of American Catholicism?
Just asking as for the first time since my last WYD (decades ago) I’m coming across a lot of Americans on this r/.

I know it is so hard to trust God when you are going through a rejection or the painful fracture of a relationship with a partner, friend or loved one. But ironically, God has faced more from humanity than any human ever could. And despite all of that? He still chooses to love us unconditionally anyway. Our Lord is the definition of pure love, so who better to run to when you are hurting?

Yet, when things go wrong, we blame Him. Look at the Agony in the Garden. Right before His passion, Jesus was in Gethsemane experiencing heartbreak. He was literally sweating blood from the stress and grief, and was completely alone. His closest friends fell asleep and abandoned Him when He needed them most.

He already knew every single time we would break His heart before He even formed us in the womb. He knew exactly who would reject Him, yet He chose to create us and die for us anyway.

If you are feeling lonely, rejected or heartbroken today, remember that Jesus completely understands your pain because He lived it. So don't blame Him, run to Him instead.

Taken from the best book explaining Mariology: "Glories of Mary" by St. Alphonsus, Doctor of the Church (read for free): https://www.saintsbooks.net/books/St.%20Alphonsus%20Maria%20de%20Ligouri%20-%20The%20Glories%20of%20Mary.pdf

I find my mind think of St. Lazarus from time to time. I really don’t know why. Is there any particular devotion to him? I feel like I should get an icon of St. Lazarus. Where would be a good place to get one? Any help would be appreciated. On a separate note. I got a single decade rosary a couple of weeks ago. I have been praying a single decade as I walk back and forth to my car while I am at work. I think that I say about four decades a day.

I just had to get this off my chest because it does register in my mind often. Especially reminders of videos circulating on social media seeing hypothetically visuals of how dismemberment abortions are performed. Anyways, this was about about 9 months ago, my ex girlfriend told me she was pregnant about a week in, but told something along the lines of “I might get an abortion because nothing may or may not be forming and I don’t want to get attached if something isn’t forming”. She ended up getting the abortion. This is the third time. Apparently when we broke up, another guy that barely knew her knocked her up. She decided to abort his too. Another time was when she was 18 years old, another guy knocked her up, but she aborted it. I’m just wondering if it was true that “nothing could be forming is a lie”? I mean if it happened three times, it’s no coincidence. Another indicator was her telling me “I’m thinking of getting a copper IUD” or something similar to prevent pregnancies.
We still keep in contact but I see her in a different way. I’m a Catholic that is pro-life, she isn’t religious. I’ve been going to church more to ask god for forgiveness of not doing more on my end to convince her to keep it, because I have a guilty conscience. Is my ex-girlfriend going to hell? Maybe my value meant more to myself than her and she’ll never understand? What does God say about people like this?

Hey yall. A while back I posted about the teaching of NFP with my gf. Well since then we couldnt agree and ended up splitting up. But over the course of us dating and now not dating I’ve been having dreams and thoughts of the priesthood.

Even right now me typing this out makes me feel like this is more real now. I plan on talking to my priest this weekend “if he has time,” about this. Right now all I want to ask for is prayer and anything that may help with discernment in anyway shape or form.

I’m truly grateful to see this feed explode more as more people come, whether Catholic or not, and engaging with one another. It makes me appreciate how the faith looks even in a community like this.

Please pray for me, God bless you all!

Hi there, I come from a Byzantine Rite Catholic tradition, and I wanted to know more about the Latin Rite's Liturgy of the Hours. How is it laid out, and why do you all have four books for the whole year? Is it that long because it has all of the daily prayers? I ask this because our Liturgy of the Hours books are typically 1 main book (Horologion) that contains Daily/Great Vespers, Compline, Midnight Prayer, Matins/Orthros, 1st hour, 3rd hour, 6th hour, 9th hour, and Typica (used in place of Mass when the Priest/Bishop cannot be there on Sunday). That one book will also typically have some of the Lenten versions of the hours. Then, in separate books, we have the general prayers based on the Tone of the week (Octoechos) that are inserted into the Horologion, the daily prayers (Menaion) that are based on the feasts that are inserted into the Horologion, the seasonal prayers that are inserted into the Horologion during Lent, Holy Week, and Pentecost (Lenten Triodion, Pentacostarion, and Holy Week books), and then the Old Testament (Prophetlogion), Psalter, Gospel, and Epistle readings. So, how does this compare with the Latin Rite's Liturgy of the Hours? What makes your set of books 4 large books long?

Hey, so I made the decision that at 20 I wanted to convert to catholicism and would like some advice on what the process Is? As I do know you will have to study it which takes a long process just not sure on what to expect or what the process is. And thank you.

Depending on the severity (venial, grave, mortal) of the sins you’ve committed, how soon do you go to confession? Are you waiting until your parishes regularly scheduled confession time or are you making appointments to confess ASAP?

“A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God."

I’ve always dressed tomboyish and I’ve never really thought about it until now. I do need to dress baggy because I have gerd. Some people have assumed I’m lesbian. I keep my hair long (at least a bob or longer) I’m not deliberately trying to look like one, I’m just lazy.

As I said I am very new to Catholicism in general and I want to know how I should properly honor venerate and pray to the saints as well as Mary and what role the saints should play in my life, as well as Mary how I should honor and venerate them properly how I should pray to them properly and how and what part they should play in my life, and what role Mary should play in my life, I understand that all of the saints, and Mary are below the holy Trinity and worship stands only to the father, son, and the holy Spirit. I want to know how to properly treat this subject with out infringing upon the worship of those who get it (The holy Trinity)

Hey everyone, please don't just scroll over this

So, this is going to come off as desperate plea for help, because I really am desperate and I really need help. For the last few days my faith has really been shaking, and I'm very worried that I might not make it till the end.

The reason for this is because I simply thought about the possibility of God not existing. Despite all of the physical and metaphysical arguments, the fine tuning of the Universe, despite all of the thousands of miracles and human experiences with the supernatural, the simple "what if we just got it wrong" just makes me desperate. All of these very strong proofs of the existence of God, which I have build my faith on, all now simply just aren't enough. I feel like I will always be doubting them for the rest of my life, and I'm afraid that when I get older and closer to death I might despair and damn myself.

I really want to KNOW that God exists, to be ABSOLUTELY and UNDOUBTELY SURE of His existence and love for us. The mere possibility of Him not existing is so desperating that it simply cannot be true, and if freezes me and makes me anxious to the point where I can't live properly.

The Catechism says in the paragraphs 31, 35 and 36 that one can achieve knowledge and certainty about God's existence, but that only seems possible in my case through a miracle. I really wish that the Eucharist would let blood flow in front of me, or that Jesus Christ or Our Lady Themselves appeared to me in an undoubtful manner, or anything of the kind.

Please help me: how can I TRULY and UNDOUBTEDLY know that God exists? Please also pray for me. God bless

Hi guys, one of my best friends has joined a Catholic monastery in Spain. I believe she is a cloistered nun. I want to write her letters, but I want to know if cloistered nuns are allowed to write back? Sorry, I know nothing about Catholicism and how cloistered monasteries work, so I thought I’d find some answers here.

Hi all, I need help. I’m only 20 but I’ve been finding that within the past year, I’ve pretty gradually but rapidly have lost my faith and it scares me a lot. I grew up with Catholicism, but again I have found myself so lost from it lately. Specifically when it comes to the afterlife, I used to believe in a heaven, but I find it to be so incredible that I think there is simply nothing, just as before we existed. But this thought scares me so much as well. I like to talk to God when things get tough but I need help. Please tell me what I should do or read to 1. Help me regain faith, what helps you believe in the Lord and 2. Handle my doubts about our afterlife? Thanks💕

"Ancient relics including an 800-year-old bloodstained bandage of St. Francis of Assisi have arrived in San Francisco for an ultra-rare public display.

Two sacred Catholic relics — including a cloth stained with the blood of the 13th century saint and an Italo-Byzantine style painted panel that once covered his tomb — are now on display at St. Mary’s Cathedral of the Assumption after leaving Italy for the first time.

The bloody cloth, encased in a silver reliquary, is linked to one of the most famous mystical encounters recognized by Catholics."

This might be a bit of a weird one so bear with me…

Last night, I had an awful dream. Not a nightmare but a vivid, horrible dream and the only way I can describe it is it felt evil (and I don’t get that feeling with straight nightmares). It was a horribly detailed dream with torture and infidelity.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing and are there any prayers you’d recommend?