Author Topic: Scrupulosity (Read 1351 times)

Darcy · « **on:** May 05, 2011, 01:14:24 PM »

What is it as it pertains to Faith?
How would you describe it or know if you had it?
Can it protect someone from sin or can it become itself a sin?

marasmius · « **Reply #1 on:** May 05, 2011, 04:05:21 PM »

I once heard a priest on the radio say that scrupulosity is a vice. I find that description odd because vices are usually pleasurable whereas scruples are more like having a nasty mental illness. For St Ignatius Loyala obsessions represented the chronic interrogation of life.

Raoul76 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 05, 2011, 05:27:44 PM »

Scruples, in my opinion, have two sources:

( a ) They are an attempt to protect yourself with a set of rules like a child who builds a "fort" out of couch cushions where he thinks he is invincible. It's like saying "If I follow these rules, I won't go to hell." When it is happening, you don't necessarily know that you suffer from scruples, you think you're just trying to be holy and saintly.

( b ) Pride. It's a way to separate yourself from other Catholics by being MORE saintly and holy ( in your mind ) than they are.

But the two are really the same. Because to try to secure your salvation through rules is, in a way, to barter with God, to not let yourself be guided by Him, to show a lack of faith.

At any rate, there are two cures:

( a ) Love God more than yourself
( b ) Love your brother as yourself

Raoul76 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 05, 2011, 05:30:41 PM »

Scruples are extraordinarily dangerous in our time, because with Vatican II and its aftermath we have seen a clear case where the vast majority is wrong, and the minority is right.

This gives those with scruples an excuse, it makes them think that they really might be right to be on their own at home after all, because there is no denying the Church is on the ropes and faith is at low ebb. It's not implausible really that it is reduced to a mere handful, when you are sensitive to all the errors and heresies out there.

Feeneyism and home-aloneism is an obvious overreaction to Vatican II and the Apostasy. I've been there, I know. Be patient with them because some do come around ( me ).

Raoul76 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 05, 2011, 05:34:07 PM »

I recently told Father Gerard at CMRI that it was a miracle that I overcome my scruples, and he agreed. I have been through almost every possible attack of the devil in my life. I'm glad I only have to be alive once. I couldn't do it again, too exhausting.

shin · « **Reply #5 on:** May 05, 2011, 09:30:24 PM »

'Anxiety proceeds from an inordinate desire to be freed from a present evil or to acquire a hoped for good. Yet there is nothing that tends more to increase evil and prevent enjoyment of the good than to be disturbed and anxious.'

'With the single exception of sin, anxiety is the greatest evil that can happen to a soul. Just as ѕєdιтισn and internal disorder bring turmoil to a state and make it helpless to resist the foreign invader. So also if our heart is inwardly troubled and disquieted it loses both the strength necessary to retain the virtues it acquired and the means to resist the temptations of the enemy. And Satan then uses his utmost efforts to fit in those troubled waters.'

St. Francis de Sales

'Make of your fears and other silly scruples a bundle, and throw it into the fire of divine charity, which will at once consume it; then keep yourself in interior solitude, and rest on the bosom of your heavenly Father.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Darcy · « **Reply #6 on:** May 05, 2011, 10:45:25 PM »

Quote from: shin

'Anxiety proceeds from an inordinate desire to be freed from a present evil or to acquire a hoped for good. Yet there is nothing that tends more to increase evil and prevent enjoyment of the good than to be disturbed and anxious.'

'With the single exception of sin, anxiety is the greatest evil that can happen to a soul. Just as ѕєdιтισn and internal disorder bring turmoil to a state and make it helpless to resist the foreign invader. So also if our heart is inwardly troubled and disquieted it loses both the strength necessary to retain the virtues it acquired and the means to resist the temptations of the enemy. And Satan then uses his utmost efforts to fit in those troubled waters.'

St. Francis de Sales

'Make of your fears and other silly scruples a bundle, and throw it into the fire of divine charity, which will at once consume it; then keep yourself in interior solitude, and rest on the bosom of your heavenly Father.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Thank you, shin, for the references.
Those are beautiful and comforting words.

shin · « **Reply #7 on:** May 05, 2011, 10:53:35 PM »

God is good. Trustful surrender to the Lord. :D

Thanks be to God.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, hold us.