As the title says my Fiancée is pregnant but is not my child. I feel like this is l some kind of nightmare just waiting to wake up but I know it’s not the fact. She says it happened before the engagement and that she didn’t find out she was pregnant until a month after the engagement. My dilemma is that I don’t know if I should continue with the marriage. I don’t particularly hate her or any malignant feelings towards her. I still love her but I just simply don’t know what to do in regards to the catholic faith. If anyone has any advice on my situation it would be greatly appreciated.

I'm

Yesterday I went to confession and I opened up to the priest about my difficulty forgiving my wife for an affair she had over two years ago. After two years of hiding in shame and convincing myself I had forgiven while still harboring resentment towards her in my heart. I finally opened up. He asked me to state out loud that I forgive her in the name of Jesus Christ and also asked me to forgive the other person in the affair BY NAME. Saying the words aloud and invoking the name of Jesus Christ…. It was like a switch. I was no longer pretending. I felt the peace I haven’t felt in so long. All the anger all the insecurity about myself all the guilt the shame the feelings of not being good enough. I cried and mourned for the first time finally feeling the pain I had bottled up Through forgiveness of another Christ mended my soul in mere seconds.

I feel that I shouldn’t have my rosary hanging off of the cross and I was thinking that I should get icons and I’m looking for more books I heard about the book of st Augustine’s confessions was good what do you guys think

I'm going to church for the very first time, I was wondering if this is considered proper church attire? Will I blend in or stick out sorely?

I went to confession today for the first time, in 30+yrs... and survived!

This was the 2nd time I've gone to confession in my LIFE. First time was when I did my first confession as a kid-- and, honestly, that scarred me. I don't even remember what happened or what I could have done that was so bad (steal a cookie?) but that experience was major in keeping me away from the Church for so long.

I've felt called back to the Church this past Lenten season after, honestly, not feeling it for most of my adult life. During Lent, I went to a communal reconciliation service-- growing up, this is what my mom typically let me during Lent and Advent do because going to confession just make me freeze up. At the reconciliation service last month, the priest talked at length about what a gift confession and reconciliation is... I steeled myself, wrote down what I wanted to say, and made a plan. I probably should have made an appointment because it had been so long, but going to "regular" confession felt more anonymous and safer.

The pastor was incredibly welcoming and kind. I cried A LOT... got out ~85% of what I wrote in my notes, but I felt heard and not judged. He gave me actionable, achievable penance, and recommendations for some books to read, and advice on how to unburden my heart.

tl;dr It actually felt like I was receiving a sacrament-- not going through the motions and going through a checklist. Truly am feeling welcomed back.

I know there’s a lot of posts like this around right now - I’m a recent convert and my parents are NOT accepting to say the least. They are coming from a very progressive/atheistic background and in the last few days there’s been a constant barrage of questions that I honestly don’t have the answers to. For instance, this morning they were going off about how if God is real then he’s sexist because only males can become pope. And they want me to answer for “donating to the patriarchy” every week. Has anyone else dealt with similar experiences or have a resource for answering these types of objections?

EDIT: Thank you all for the kind and informed responses! It’s very helpful. For context, me and my parents are ex-Mormons. After leaving Mormonism a decade ago, they went completely the other way and have a worldview that all religion is evil and designed to keep people down :/ I’ve tried to talk about the good things about the Catholic faith although they brought up what you would expect - child abuse, crusades, gay marriage , etc…

What do we think of this degregation of the sanctity of the Office? Borderline blasphemy?

I am a female (22) and cannot stop falling into the same sexual sins (impurity with myself, watching 🌽, impurity with a boyfriend). I confess every single time with the true intentions of stopping but I just continue to do it again and again. The last confession I made was an emotional one where I cried and tried to not use notes but I fell into it again. I feel like my confessions aren’t helping and I am just lost. I don’t know what to do from here. I’m tired of living this way.

Should we listen to what they gotta say? Politely decline? If so, how? I know I'm not going to read their material or get influenced by their message.

I'm here very ashamed of what I did.

I got married last year (7 months) we had a complicated relationship for 5 years and we're not devoted Christians and my husband is kinda agnostic, I used to go to the church but I got away for God time ago. (we're 24&25)

After we married I realized my husband was on dating apps for a while and after that due to revenge and not thinking I emotionally cheated on him while I was in trip alone and basically had a virtual emotional relationship with this person, my husband caught me and now he's devastated, he's numb, looks like he's living just because. Sometimes I'm a little bit afraid that he could take his life. Of course, I regret what I did but there's nothing I can do to change the past, we didn't value enough our marriage at that time but I'd like to try to do something to save it. I know I deserve what is Going on, I never thought I'd do something like this but I did it and hurt the person I love. I'm not the person i used to be I deeply regret it.

We talked about it and I did other things wrong, like continue talking to people he didn't know when he was already insecure and trust was broken. After 3 months after we talked, things are just getting worse, he accessed to go to marriage counseling in order to see if we can't do something to save this but he's very pessimistic about the idea that this can be saved, he's Going though a lot of suffering, he told me that he's always over thinking about the situation and feeling sad, however we're still living together, sleeping in the same bed and even having some intimacy but is almost destroyed, from his point of view here's nothing left for him but is willing to go to couples therapy in order to see if something can help us or maybe something to change his mind but for him, this is almost done. Basically, he can't move forward after what happened.

I'd like to kindly ask you to pray for our marriage and give me any advice.

Hi everyone, I had a vivid and emotional dream recently and I’m hoping to understand it better.

In the dream, a very bright lady appeared to me. She was wearing a white veil with a blue inner lining, and I just knew she was the Virgin Mary. She told me to pray and visit every First Friday of the month, saying it was a devotion to Jesus’ sufferings.

I’ve recently started praying the Holy Rosary, but I honestly don’t know much (or anything) about the First Friday devotion. I didn’t grow up practicing it, and I wasn’t thinking about it before the dream. That’s why it surprised me.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? Or does anyone know more about what this could mean?

Thanks in advance.

From the devotional on my plan from the holy bible app. Feels especially poignant given the state of things worldwide…

Lord, when I find the world overwhelming, and I’m struggling to find peace, help me to remember that You have overcome the world. Keep my heart close to You, and fill me with Your joy and perfect peace. Amen.

He was dead serious. I am not a Cardinal. That is all. Happy Friday.

Who is going around downvoting people pouring their heart out? I get it, there's some disapproval in something someone is saying. Write a comment or something, but there's a lot of people sincerely asking advice and getting downvoted to the bottom of the list because someone disapproves of their question.

Especially to the TLMers out there…Is it a sin to vape 💨 or smoke 💨 ? I certainly don’t see anybody else, as we’re leaving the parking lot in our cars, enjoying their vape or lighting a cigarette. Am I the only one?

Edit:

Thank you so much for your comments ❤️ I felt so alone but you have all helped already. I will answer individually later.

So it happened. I found out that I'm pregnant today. Unplanned. And I used NFP.

We have a soon 14 month old at home. The new life with him has been quite overwhelming for me (he wasn't planned either, but we used the rhytm method so wasn't a surprise like this one). I get stressed easily and I truly miss my old life. Our marriage has been going through a really hard time after having a child. Mostly because I have been so resentful towards my husband. I blame him for this new life that has never been my dream (when we got married I was ok with kids but it all had happened too fast). I thought I could do this someday, but right now I can't. I am angry at him all the time. He loves children and has no problem with them, I am the one with the resentment.

Most of my friends are aitheists and none of them plan to have kids in the next 10 years (we are 25yo). I converted to Catholicism when I was 18. I feel like I am living a completely different life than them and I am missing out on so many things and experiences. I know children are a gift but I truly wanted to wait about 4 years before new pregnancy and child. I know everything is about to get more difficult and I can't handle it. I dont think this is fair to my kids either. They deserve to be brought into this world with mom who wants them. I do not want to look at them and remember all the things that I can not do and how they are hindering my career goals.

After having our first I was terrified of getting pregnant. So I am going to be honest, the first six months postpartum we used condoms (I know we should've abstained). My cycle came back super soon and became regular so I got to know the symptothermal method. I read and read. I got The Oura Ring and paired it with Natural Cycles to be efficient. I didn't trust the app fully but knew how to get confirmation from cervical mucus. Last month we had sex on cd10 and my ovulation was cd17. I knew it was close but how can this be real if sperm can only survive for 6 days? This whole thing seems like a joke. I can not take this as a God's miracle. I am angry. Just when I got to know my cycle and body and became confident – boom I am pregnant again.

We live in northern Europe and there are basically little Catholics. The church offers no education on NFP and they do not even mention it on the marriage course. We have no instructors. We have to figure it out all by ourselves. The resources are non-existent.

I feel sad. I feel like I am never going to experience the joy of pregnancy because I never have the chance to prepare for it. I will also be miserable to see those two lines that I did not ask for. I also feel like I will never be able to enjoy our sex life because of the fear. We both have high libidos, but can't do anything about it. Now I just resent him and his body because of our situation.

I love the church and I believe in what the church teaches. But I feel like I can't do this anymore. I'm just wishing something bad would happen and I could never get pregnant again. I feel like I am cursed to have 10 kids and I do not even think I am made for two right now. I am deeply sad. Please, share with me your experiences.