/lit/ - Literature

>>17914369
>>17914395
>Look at what Christianity teaches, give earnest prayer a chance, and decide for yourself. If you won't try to pray earnestly, or openly, but are hardening your heart before you even try, then what's the point? Hardening your heart to God's grace - not even attempting to seek Him or be open to Him - is listed in the Bible as the one sin God won't forgive (because you won't let him). But your mere presence in this thread suggests to me you're seeking, and I know what a painful, difficult process that is. When I started on this path, some 6 years ago, I found particularly helpful Mere Christianity by CS Lewis as an intro, then Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man by GK Chesterton, Confessions by St Augustine, Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton, and various works of apologetics after that (The Essential Catholic Survival Guide, Peter Kreeft's 'A Shorter Summa', and Screwtape Letters by Lewis are highlights).

>I wish you the best of luck regardless and will pray for you and everyone in this thread. I may have faith, but I am probably a worse sinner than you. Faith doesn't stop you sinning, but it certainly takes all the fun out of it.

>(I would also recommend some of the short YouTube videos covering chapters from Screwtape Letters, and Fulton Sheen's sermons/10 minute videos. He was an excellent orator).

This is the only worthwhile advice in this thread. Once you know God everything else falls away. I know my father exists. If I had no pictures of him and he lived far away, and someone was convinced he didn't exist, I would shrug my shoulders. I don't just believe he exists, I know for a fact he does. Nothing can ever shake that. I hear his voice, I see him every time I look in the mirror. I can trace his indelible influence in my life and the trajectory of my life. I have experienced his company and know and love him.

I could never prove definitively that he is alive through purely conceptual, logical argument. I might persuade you, might influence your opinion slightly, but I could never prove it. In any case, your arguments that my father doesn't exist could never persuade me otherwise, because I know he does. You could show me his death certificate that you'd acquired, but it would be meaningless, because I don't just think he's alive, I KNOW it.

The best way to convince you - the only real way - would be to bring you to meet my father. That only happens with God through prayer. It's a terrible misconception that prayer is eyes shut before bedtime asking for good things. Real prayer is an entire life of the soul.

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