Future...

Before I begin, I just want to thank everyone here for all of your past prayers, I think they're having a very positive effect on me, I improved a lot since joining this site.

Now, I have a complicated prayer request -or perhaps a few complicated prayer requests- that I want to post here, I have been struggling a lot with college work lately, I have been working on this online, semi-self-paced college course and have fallen badly behind, due my busy life. My college/university life in general is difficult because I have been going to secular colleges and universities and the atmosphere is just so hostile to the Faith, I actually had to drop a course last Autumn and complicate my post-secondary education plans, because the course was just so hostile the Catholic Faith, and I couldn't take it.

I want to go to a Catholic college or university,-(Actually right now, I'm trying to settle for a Protestant University, namely Trinity Western, but even that's a struggle- however my parents are very reluctant to pay for a private college or university. They say they are reluctant to even consider it until my brother completes part of his post-secondary education course, which could take years. Then, while I was discussing this with my dad, he made a comment about his view of my future which really upset me.

This Summer, -In addition to a huge Evangelization campaign I'm working on at the moment- I'm going to start looking for my own place again, as well as a job, and then in the Autumn, I'm going to start looking for a spouse and a future adult life.

Please pray for my future, as well as for all the other stuff mention above, if you are able to. Sorry about this, it's just that my dad's comment really shook me.

 

RosaryWielder,

I will keep you in prayer. Your situation sounds similar to mine at different points of my life; and my wife has remained immensely patient with me! I'm an unsettling combination of hyper-focus and procrastination. If I were to be in your shoes, I'd hyper-focus on the evangelization program and procrastinate in my studies. Why? Because the first I would love while the second would only be a practical requirement. There would be immediate satisfaction on the first, while the satisfaction on the second would be significantly postponed.

But it is hopes for future marriage that must now give you the proper impetus. No matter what degree your studies produce, there must be a decent income in the end to support a family. Yes, God will provide, but I have always needed to remember my love of God and my desire to bring him joy must be demonstrated in the practical as well as the spiritual dimension of life.

Your parents' reluctance might be due to limited resources. I haven't the foggiest what the nature of your Dad's hurtful comment was so I have nothing to say there. Turn to the Two Hearts and beg for the grace of persevering in your studies. Though the resistance in a secular college can be burdensome, I don't have a sense that it is the crux of the problem.

Entrust both your strengths and weaknesses into the hands of Our Lady and forge ahead!

All for the Love of God!

 

Dad's can be a problem. I knew mine was. I read a lovely saying one time that when you forgive your father you will know you are an adult.

I find looking back on my own life that nothing I ever planned to happen ever, ever did and thank God for that! My plans were awful back then and so was I.

Praying for you at mass. It's wonderful to me that at your young age you have God so much at the centre of your life. I am afraid at your age back then I had kicked him right out.

There is a truly wonderful article, well worth reading in , 'Aleteia' about two young people, St Teresa of Liseaux and and the Servant of God Marcel Nguyen Tan Van.


https://aleteia.org/2018/05/27/mira...-man-and-taught-him-to-be-an-apostle-of-love/



The thing that strikes me most about these two saints is the extreme suffering they went through in their young lives; the immense suffering they went through.

There is a slideshow there of rare photos of St Therese taken by here sister. But if you look in her eyes you can see such an ocean of suffering. Very moving.

 

In the case of St Therese you could say that she planned her future and it worked out just fine. But at another level she could never have expected what was to come. A Dark Night that cmae on her and plunged her into the very darkest depths of Calvary.

In the case of poor Tan Van everything he touched seemed to turn into utter failure. Total disaster. It just always seemed to stay that way ending with him dying in a Communist prison.

 

So bad indeed did things become for poor Van Tan that he was at the end of his tether down and out and sleeping on the streets having run away from home ; but it was at that point that his spiritual sister St These came to him in visions and began to set him back on the path again.

 

I suppose the whole lesson for us in this is that the Holy Spirit of God is such a joker. We build the houses and He keeps knocking them down again. ...and what He really wanted all along for us to lie down like little babies and let the Wind of His Infinite love carry us to heaven.

 

When received the gift of faith I found myself like a single blade of a grass sprouted up in the desert! literally and lyrically because living in a Muslim country I had no one around me, with whom I could talk about God. My husband (Christian non-believer) could not understand this sudden change, it began to annoy him very much. So I had to hide with my faith. There were moments that it was really hard, I thought I would not take it anymore. And so, for some time, we stayed both in hiding – God and me. I was often saying: Lord, 'Here I am''.

Perhaps Lord wants you to be 'His monstrance' in the place you are just now?


Thank you guys for this website.

 

I wish he were alive so I could tell him how wrong I was about so many things.....but I can tell him in heaven. I heard a story about a Derry seminarian a few years back, his father died two day before his ordination. Someone told them how sad they wre that he was not there to which he replied,

"he is standing here watching!'

Now THAT'S faith.

 

Are you trying to do too much too soon? I don't know what "a future adult life" means. Are you sure you know what it means? Whatever it means, maybe it would be better to have some experience of actually living it before looking for a spouse rather than, as you put it, "looking for a spouse and a future adult life".

There's an old saying "bloom where you're planted". Maybe that's the best you can do until you finish your education. We can evangelise without working on a huge evanglization campaign. If your life is busy now when you are living at home with your parents, wouldn't it be even busier if you were living independently and having to maintain your own home? Your parents don't owe you a college education, private or otherwise. Even if they can afford the college fees, they aren't obliged to pay. How they prioritise their funds is a decision entirely up to them and they don't have to justify their decisions to their children. Sorry if this comes across as too negative, but maybe you need to focus on finishing what you started before moving on to something else. Set realistic, attainable goals. Go to whatever college you can afford. If your heart is really set on a private college, maybe you could work for a couple of years, live at home and save up the college fees. Or maybe you could find out what scholarships are available and see whether there is some way you can qualify for one.

You are likely to encounter a hostile attitude to your faith wherever you are, even in "Christian" colleges. And it won't stop when you finish college. Learning how to handle that hostility is part of what will make you the adult you are aiming to be.

I'm just a stranger on the internet giving an opinion based on scant information. It would be better if you could sit down and talk to a responsible adult who knows you and your family situation. Parents are usually the best people to give advice because they tend to know their children better than the children think they know themselves. Sometimes they can come across as being overly harsh when they feel their loves ones are not making the right decisions. Perhaps there's another adult relative whose opinion you trust if you can't talk to your father? And I don't mean someone who only ever says nice, flattering things to you and would never correct you. Pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance.

I will say a prayer that it all works out for you.

 

Good common sense, Dolours
I will say a prayer as well
RW, God has a plan for our lives
Being single is a vocation as well as marriage or holy orders
I agree that plans will unfold for you if you seek first the Kingdom of God
One day at a time
One rosary at a time
I used to pray that God would put the right people around me to help
me
I think I need to keep doing that

 

Cathy,

Apart from my own interior prayer life, I 've rarely thought of my relationship with God other than being shared with others. I'm interested in knowing how your single blade sprouted and at what point were you transplanted into a field of grass.

Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!

 

Mario, happy to share some experiences but will take a while, will be traveling- family member at the end of the road.
Union with God- this is what you may be looking for ❤️.

 

I am planning for spouse and future adult life. Wow

Too much thinking...not enough being. To much thinking of where you should be and what you should be doing.

The magic is the moment...the eternal moment. The past is gone and God will decide the future. Gods will.

I read your post and see good things but I also see someone not accepting the moment.

So much good can be accomplished, where you are at, at any given moment. In the big picture, living your faith in the moment is the answer. Yes, you can dream and have goals but the eternal moment is your refuge.

The path you have taken is hard but has many blessings. But instead of walking your journey... you keep trying to find different roads. That is not Christian Spirituality

I am not trying to take away your goals. It is wonderful to have goals. But my advice is to slow down and find the eternal moment. That is where you become one with God and your daily actions become a example of Christian life. And don't think living in the moment is acing like you are holier then thou.

It's really about doing ordinary daily actions orderly, focused and for the greater glory of GOD. That includes doing dishes, doing your homework and talking to friends.

Hope that helps
Brother al

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