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Author Topic: On the sin of despair  (Read 767 times)

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Offline Miser Peccator

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On the sin of despair
« on: January 15, 2021, 12:31:58 PM »
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    • I think my biggest fear as I face the coming troubles is falling into despair.

    I'm not sure I understand it well, however.

    Is saying to God, "Where are you?  You aren't here.  Why are you allowing this to happen," an example of despair.

    I've heard some say you can get mad at God and tell Him your feelings.  Is that not a sin?

    What if you get mad and then say, "But I know I deserve even worse because of my sins."

    Is wanting to die despair?

    I'm just not sure about the definition and boundaries of this sin.

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    Offline SeanJohnson

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    Re: On the sin of despair
    « Reply #1 on: January 15, 2021, 12:45:52 PM »
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    • Quote from: Miser Peccator on January 15, 2021, 12:31:58 PM
    I think my biggest fear as I face the coming troubles is falling into despair.

    I'm not sure I understand it well, however.

    Is saying to God, "Where are you?  You aren't here.  Why are you allowing this to happen," an example of despair.

    I've heard some say you can get mad at God and tell Him your feelings.  Is that not a sin?

    What if you get mad and then say, "But I know I deserve even worse because of my sins."

    Is wanting to die despair?

    I'm just not sure about the definition and boundaries of this sin.

    This is not at all what despair is.  Here is the old Catholic Encyclopedia definition:

    "Despair, ethically regarded, is the voluntary and complete abandonment of all hope of saving one's soul and of having the means required for that end. It is not a passive state of mind: on the contrary it involves a positive act of the will by which a person deliberately gives over any expectation of ever reaching eternal life. There is presupposed an intervention of the intellect in virtue of which one comes to decide definitely that salvation is impossible."
    https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04755a.htm  

    You cannot accidentally or against your will "fall" into despair.

    God help us all, if despair is mere self-doubt about how we will handle the final test, should God ask it of us!  Only a mad man would not be anxious when pondering that question.

    You are doing just fine.

    To be anxious regarding your prospects for salvation ("work out your salvation with fear and trembling") is proof that you are not despairing, since those who despair believe themselves, here and now, damned for a certainty.  That same anxiety about salvation implies the virtue of hope (maybe I will be saved, etc.), which is antithetical to despair.
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    Offline Matto

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    Re: On the sin of despair
    « Reply #2 on: January 15, 2021, 12:57:07 PM »
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    • Isn't despair giving up hope of salvation? Perhaps because temptations are too strong, or one believes his sins are so great that they cannot be forgiven. So wanting to die is not necessarily despair. If one wanted to die so that one could sooner experience the happiness of heaven, it would be alright, as long as you accept God's will.
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    Online Viva Cristo Rey

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    Re: On the sin of despair
    « Reply #3 on: January 15, 2021, 08:17:35 PM »
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    • I; (Name), a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today in thy hands the vows of my Baptism; I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before. In the presence of all the heavenly court, I choose thee, O Mary, this day for my Mother and Mistress. Knowing that I have received rights over all my exterior goods by the promulgation of the Natural Law by the Divine Author, I deliver and consecrate to thee, as thy slave, all of my exterior goods, past, present and future; I relinquish into thy hands, my Heavenly Mother, all rights over our country and I retain for myself no right of disposing the goods that come to me but leave to thee the entire and full right of disposing of all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God in time and in eternity. As I now interiorly relinquish what belongs to me exteriorly into thy hands, I entrust to thee the protection of those exterior goods against the evil one, so that, knowing that they now belong to thee, he cannot touch them. Receive, O good and pious Virgin, this little offering of what little is, in honor of, and in union with, that subjection which the Eternal Wisdom deigned to have to Thy maternity; in homage to the power which both of You have over this poor sinner, and in thanksgiving for the privileges with which the Holy Trinity has favored thee. Trusting in the providential care of God the Father and thy maternal care, I have full confidence that thou wilst take care of me as to the necessities of this life and will not leave me forsaken. God the Father, increase my trust in Thy Son’s Mother; Our Lady of Fair Love, give me perfect confidence in the providence of Thy Son. Amen.
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    Offline B from A

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    Re: On the sin of despair
    « Reply #4 on: January 15, 2021, 08:59:03 PM »
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    • Quote from: Miser Peccator on January 15, 2021, 12:31:58 PM

    Is saying to God, "Where are you?  You aren't here.  Why are you allowing this to happen," an example of despair.

    I don't know if this helps, but think about these examples: .


    (Luke 2:48)   "And seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing."
    .
    (Matthew 27:46)    "Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying: Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani? that is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

    Quote
    [2] O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me? Far from my salvation are the words of my sins. [3] O my God, I shall cry by day, and thou wilt not hear: and by night, and it shall not be reputed as folly in me. [4] But thou dwellest in the holy place, the praise of Israel. [5] In thee have our fathers hoped: they have hoped, and thou hast delivered them.   (Psalm 21)


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    Offline donkath

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    Re: On the sin of despair
    « Reply #5 on: January 15, 2021, 09:18:50 PM »
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    • You are certainly not despairing.   Moments/hours/days/years can and have been experienced by the great saints.  But that knowledge does not help us unless we know the HOW of it.  When a great fear takes hold of the soul you can be certain the enemy perceives that God is about to offer a great grace to the chosen soul.  The penitent has the tool of KNOWING this, which in turn triggers off the spiritual gift of fortitude.  You cannot stop this from happening because God is merciful and does it without any help from us.  Nobody can separate you from God unless you actively will it as described in above post where St. Thomas is very clear about it.

    This is the true understanding of Mercy.  God gives us moments to know and experience the weight of our sins so that we have to throw ourselves completely on His Mercy.  There is nowhere else to go!  At such times we are humbled knowing our pitiful state.  When we emerge after patiently co-operating with this action a great chunk of our inherited sin of pride has been chopped off and replaced with humility.  The saints learned to welcome these times.  They thwarted the devil by their ever-ready submission and used the fear to come close to our Saviour and Lord.
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    Offline MMagdala

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    Re: On the sin of despair
    « Reply #6 on: January 20, 2021, 01:33:03 AM »
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    • I agree with the poster donkath that the OP is being gripped by fear, not despair.  If not confronted, or if submitted to, fear can lead to despair, but not if we use fear as an opportunity to ask for and cultivate trust and fortitude.
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    Offline Miser Peccator

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    Re: On the sin of despair
    « Reply #7 on: January 20, 2021, 02:30:57 PM »
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    • Thank you everyone for your advice and prayers!  

    Very helpful.

    I feel encouraged. :)
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    I exposed AB Vigano's public meetings with Crowleyan Satanist Dugin so I ask protection on myself family friends priest, under the Blood of Jesus Christ and mantle of the Blessed Virgin Mary! If harm comes to any of us may that embolden the faithful to speak out all the more so Catholics are not deceived.



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    Offline donkath

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    Re: On the sin of despair
    « Reply #8 on: January 20, 2021, 05:58:22 PM »
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    • Thank you for having the courage and humility to pose the question.
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    "In His wisdom," says St. Gregory, "almighty God preferred rather to bring good out of evil than never allow evil to occur."
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