How do you know if you're having a spiritual awakening?

[Redchic12]

Omg that priest ought to be thrown out of the church IMO

Maybe you should send him a note saying: judge not lest ye be judged”

[SmallVoice]

Originally Posted by Redchic12

Omg that priest ought to be thrown out of the church IMO

Maybe you should send him a note saying: judge not lest ye be judged”

It occurred to me after the fact that they were trying to go through the CCD classes and weed out any "heretical" beliefs. They had us all fill out a survey that said, "Circle any of the following that you believe," followed by a list of different "new age" spiritual beliefs and practices like tarot cards, channeling, auras, mediums, reincarnation, crystal healing, etc. The only one I circled was reincarnation, and next thing I know, I was sent to go see Father O'Mara.

He asked me if I knew what reincarnation was, and I said yes. He then told me that Catholics don't believe in that because Jesus loves us so much, he wants us to go straight to heaven with him instead of incarnating over and over again. I remember thinking at the time, "But wouldn't reincarnation be more merciful for the bad souls than sending them to hell?" Hell was always where I got hemmed up. I couldn't think of any possible way to reconcile an unconditionally loving God with the concept of eternal damnation, even for the wicked.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by SmallVoice

They had us all fill out a survey that said, "Circle any of the following that you believe," followed by a list
of different "new age" spiritual beliefs and practices like tarot cards, channeling, auras, mediums, reincarnation, crystal healing, etc.
The only one I circled was reincarnation, and next thing I know,
I was sent to go see Father O'Mara.

LOL. the next thing I know!

OMG -this is just TOO funny. (Ex Catholic here confirmed by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen himself.)
Ya gotta tow the line, girl. It's a Club gotta wear the shirt and tie in the dining room, or else.

People are tossed out of the Baptist Church if they believe on healing or Speaking in tongues ...all sorts of reasons OR
you condone your gay friends!
They are all ''Clubs' with their Rules to believe in.
Like a Forum -we have Rules if you don't agree with them ---"Move on."

Shoulda quoted some Bible verses from the New Testament ---that woulda stumped him!
I'll look 'em up soon if you need them.
You know like, Who do they say that I am ...They say you are Elijah...
Why didn't he say, WHAT? BLASPHEMY!...they are heretics!

[RedEmbers]

Not really a joke but it amuses me for unknown reasons; I know I am having a spiritual awakening because I am awake.

To me, it feels as though each day is offering another opportunity for new perspectives but then, I am quite a curious person and I do like to learn.

To pinpoint an exact moment of spiritual awakening in my own life, I would say that it was the moment when I started to become unsettled with the status quo and wanted to walk the path of my own heart and soul rather then be fed whatever program I was unconsciously choosing beforehand.......................

It feels like it's been quite a long road but I am also quite stubborn at times heheh.


Peace.

[SmallVoice]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Shoulda quoted some Bible verses from the New Testament ---that woulda stumped him!
I'll look 'em up soon if you need them.
You know like, Who do they say that I am ...They say you are Elijah...
Why didn't he say, WHAT? BLASPHEMY!...they are heretics!

Oh, I know the Bible verses now, but I didn't when I was a kid. Personally, I like the one about the man born blind ("Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents?"). I also know all about the Church Fathers who taught about reincarnation and the Jewish mystics who taught about reincarnation (in fact, I currently follow a rabbi on YouTube who teaches about it...)

But I don't think arguing scripture would have worked. I once tried arguing scripture with my ultra Catholic grandfather and he told me to to leave it the Magisterium to interpret the Bible because I wasn't educated enough to understand it.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by SmallVoice

Personally, I like the one about the man born blind ("Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents?").

I know, right? Not many know that one, so good!

PS The Admin wants us to only quote 2-3 sentences of others when we respond ...diff than other forums, I know.

[Unseeking Seeker]

Addressing the opening post, all I can say is that God is love (all embracing & unconditional) and as such, there is no judgment.

As iamthat has pointed out, the soul has decided to have this particular human experience. So let’s enjoy it. We are each, unique.

As for spiritual awakening, the fact that we are here, alive, breathing, learning by touch, moment to moment, we are, as we are, on our spiritual journey.

It’s controversial to say so but I’ll say it anyway ~ discard all scriptures and vicarious knowing. Choose vibrant, bliss vivified silence. All answers are within. If the priest says there’s no reincarnation, refer him to Jeff Mara’s podcast and innumerable NDE experiences, Akashic records* (*why, even the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ affirms this as does all variants of Hinduism and in a different way, Buddhism too) and so on. Not that he’ll reform, conditioning and dogmatic, fundamentalistic beliefs go in deep.

Just relax and be. Enjoy life, expand as much as heart allows. Take it slow. Smell the roses. Life is beautiful!

[jro5139]

SmallVoice...from what you wrote in your beginning post, it sounds to me like you are having an awakening. A lot of what you wrote, also happened to me during what I would call my "spiritual awakening." It's interesting. I wouldn't call any of it "new age" necessarily. It's more like the new age took ideas from very old traditions and philosophies. A lot of it, I feel and knowing what I know now, stems from Buddism, Hinduism, etc... or at least a lot of what I personally learned and experienced.

Christianity was forced on me for the first 18-19 years of my life, so I suppose it's no wonder I rebelled from it as soon as I was able to support myself. I would say now, in my 40s, that I have similar values and morals to Christianity; however, I do not consider myself a Christian. Many of my beliefs are outside the dogma of what Christianity is now so how could I call myself a Christian?

I also question a lot of it. Not to go off-topic but not the least of it being was Yahwah really the one source creator? I think if you follow Yahwah, you have to follow "his" dogma and that includes thinking homosexuality is wrong. That would also include, btw, many things that lots of people who call themselves "Christians" do all the time, that the Bible says are wrong but people ignore that stuff.

And I do question where I should stand on such issues, as I completely believe there is a spiritual war going on as well as it's playing out in the physical, it's even more spiritual, imo. But I also question who to believe.

[TattieHowker]

Originally Posted by SmallVoice

I have been wanting to be out in nature more, to be of service to the people around me (even though I generally don't like people lol), and I'm coming off of an anxiety medication I've been on for two years.

That's how you know. If that's what you feel rather than it being something you think you aught to do, then you know because that comes from somewhere deeper. It's OK to doubt yourself but take the time to get to the bottom of those doubts, and the more you subject them to scrutiny the more they'll come apart. Enjoying Life is also not a 'mind thing' and considering what you've been through, it's about time.

And remember, if people think there's something wrong with you then there's something wrong with them. Similarly with all this "God wanted nothing to do with me because I'm gay." That's not what the Bible says, and a mere mortal couldn't hope to understand what God would want or not anyway. A God who judges isn't much of a God.

[lemex]

Are we not here to learn. Can one learn in their own system? In fact, you can find you can have "spiritual awakening" even in the system you follow and you do not have to drop it. I like the idea of the values mentioned and I realized its opposite long ago. I hold the same values as other systems and I do not consider myself that system. In fact one does not need to, imo of course. All systems have their owns dogmas, you find not just one system does and another doesn't. Also my experience of that. Imagine spiritual awakening in your systems.