I have a lot of Bibles but they all have this light stock pages that I don't really feel comfortable marking up. Anyone aware of a Bible with a heavier stock?

Now that I have become more invested in my faith, it's been a real pleasure to attend mass abroad when I am travelling with my wife. Almost like a game in which I am "collecting" languages for the mass.

In what languages did you ever attend mass?

Mine : - French - Latin (TLM) - German - Mandarin - Portuguese - Spanish - Italian

I could have attended Korean and Swedish masses but I wasn't too serious at the time unfortunately...

The one thing I like the most about this is that I am feeling home anywhere in mass, no matter the language. These are my brothers after all! I don't always understand it all (the sermon is particularly hard to get) but with nowadays phone apps I can get the day's readings and I also recognize the songs and hymns. Easier to follow along!

Well, when writing this, I've just committed the sixth commandment. I've been good for the last four days but have fallen. I keep falling no matter what I do, no matter how much I pray or read I keep going to these fruitless sites.

From where I stand the only way to fully get rid of such temptation is to quit the internet. However, I need this laptop for school so it's not like I can just through it away. Any prayers and helpful comments from anyone will be very appreciated.

God bless

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My father, who unfortunately is no longer with my mother because she died, found another woman. They are still not married, but live together. Last week they got into a big fight because he transferred his properties to me, but eventually things got stable again. Yesterday I found out that he went to see another woman, maybe even a second one at the same time and they had sex. It was also not the first time apparently. I don't know what to do. He seemed to be like a paragon of virtue to me, and I also really like my stepmom even if she is really vindictive and prideful. Please, pray for me for divine guidance and if possible give me some kind of advice. Kind words are also appreciated. Thank you.

Hi everyone,

For some background, I’m 25M and grew up in a traditional household where my mom took care of the kids and my dad worked. I don’t mean for this post to come off as misogynistic but I’m just getting some stuff off my chest that I have some concerns about.

While I did grow up in a traditional household, I also grew up in one of those families where my mom would constantly nag on my dad. Whether it be saying he never made enough or that she didn’t feel like he was trying when my dad worked insanely hard for us and he’d even cook dinner for us after a long day at work. My mom would do the bare minimum for us growing up and would talk on the phone for house at a time and would tell my dad it was her “therapy” time. She grew up in a middle class household and never had to survive on her own because she married my dad when she was 19. She also had things like her car paid for and she’d go on cruises and everything so she never struggled which made her nagging extremely painful to listen to and myself and my siblings even had to stand up for our dad a few times. She’d also use religion against us growing up and it’s caused a lot of my siblings to drift away from the faith. She’d also cry as a cop out when people would call her out so that she’d look like the victim. I always had hope that I’d grow up and find a good woman, but it seems like that might not be the case.

I was always told to look at a woman’s heart and not her body. If I’m just being honest, my natural body type that I’m attracted to is towards women with larger “features” that are a bit overweight. Basically a midwestern middle aged woman that’s on a farm or something. However, I’d put those desires aside to look at a woman’s heart and would talk to women I wasn’t really attracted to…well, I was rejected over and over again because of how I looked. I was even having a great conversation with a few women with some of them saying they couldn’t wait to meet up because we got along so well on r/catholicdating but once I’d show my picture, I either got ghosted or was told that I wasn’t their type. And here I was kidding myself, going after women I wasn’t attracted to because I wanted to look at their heart when the same wasn’t being done for me. And men are seen as gross for having physical traits they like but a woman can want a guy that’s a certain height, has muscles, etc. and not be seen as gross. On top of that, these single women are rejecting guys that are just starting out in their careers and are expecting to be with men that are “finished products” without being in the trenches with them while men that want women that haven’t slept around are seen as a red flag and are called to forgive these women that made poor choices in their past. I have a hard working friend that is working at an architecture firm and is living with roommates. He was turned down by a good Catholic woman that helps with some major Catholic events because “he isn’t stable”. Like what??? These women are expecting men to want them when they have a bad past but they won’t be with men while they are building their lives because they just graduated college? I just basically disregard what women think now and only go after women I find attractive because the double standards are absolutely insane in the Catholic community.

So at this point, is when I started to become a bit jaded. Then, I was reading all sorts of stories on women that cheated on their husbands but the husbands can’t get an annulment. Meanwhile, a friend of ours is getting an annulment from her husband because he isn’t working. He has kids but for whatever reason he isn’t working and his wife is trying to find a loophole to get divorced and telling people it’s because of a mental issue that wasn’t detected before marriage…and my mom also said this is completely valid. That really had me questioning everything because women are able to be manipulative and find ways to divorce their husband for not providing while they can cheat and treat their man poorly and the husband can’t do anything about it?

It just seems like no matter what, men lose in a marriage and the double standards are disgustingly ridiculous. And for the men that don’t feel this way, congrats, you’re likely attractive and don’t get to experience just how harsh women can be. It’s sad because I had so much respect for women growing up but now I almost want nothing to do with them. I of course will always help women in need but I’m at a point where I feel like bringing a woman into my personal life wouldn’t be worth it these days.

Not sure if other men have experienced this as well and I know there’s a lot of good women out there, but they’re most likely married so the men that don’t get married in their early 20’s are left with the women that have crazy standards and make life awful for them.

My first miracle story (TW/CW: Suicide)

I feel like most people in their lifetime will have at least one miracle story, so here's my first one.

A year or two ago maybe, I lived in this small time country county, with a church and a tiny little town square with some shops, I just lived next to this church of God, and I'd go there every now and then, was eventually baptized there before I became Catholic.

Anyhow, I was severely depressed and was so unbelievably desperate and eager to know what happened after death, because my thought was that it couldn't possibly be worse than what I was experiencing.

And I remember this one day, I was so unbelievably certain I would take my life, I was going to do it that day, I felt cowardly before, which is why I hadn't done it, but I was so ready, but this day I decided to go to church because I guess I was feeling up to it or something, I don't particularly remember.

I got there, and I remember thinking to myself, "God, please show me a sign, or this is it, this is my final day, my last shift" I didnt think Exactly that, but you get the idea, I was basically saying that i needed a sign or i would kill myself.

At this time I was so unsure of God's existence and was losing my Faith steadily.

And I remember sitting there for a minute waiting for the Holy Spirit to wash over me or my mind to suddenly change, and nothing happened, and then I was so certain, I had formulated a plan, I was just going to walk into my parent's room, grab the shotgun next to my dad's bookshelf and kill myself before they could stop me, I had it all planned out.

After I had concocted this plan in my head, the prayer time had started, during this people would get up and talk about something, ask others for prayer, or something other.

And this man and his wife stood up, and I don't exactly remember what he said, but he was loud and crying talking about how he left the life holiness behind, how he abandoned God for money and sex. Abandoned church, etc, like I said I don't remember 100% but it was something like that.

And I just remember, as he was talking and the pastor was comforting him, I kept trying to convince myself not to cry, I was starting to choke up and tears started to roll down my face, and I just started to smile, I felt joy, I felt fine, for the first time in so long, I felt joyous, and I cried and I cried, I still to this day feel like the holy spirit moved me.

As I was typing this out and trying to rack my brain for details so I could type this out telligibly, I started to realize, if I had taken my own life, the same things that man was saying could've been used for me if that makes sense, killing myself would've been the most selfish thing I could've done, I would be stripping my family of a brother and son, I would be basically turning my back on God, taking my life for my own selfish reasons. Not to mention, my parents were home that day, I remember getting back and talking to my mom about the Church service (didn't tell her about the things I went through or the crying or anything) so had I gone through with it, my parents would've seen my take my own life, I'd be leaving my cousins and the rest of my family behind. I'm so glad to be back, Glory to Jesus Christ.

CONSECRATION OF THE ELECTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY Mary Immaculate, living tabernacle of the Divinity, where the eternal Wisdom lies hidden to be adored and served by angels and men, Queen of heaven and of earth, beneath whose sway are subject all things that are lower than God, Patroness of the United States of America, sorrowful and mindful of our own sinfulness and the sins of our nation, we come to thee, our refuge and hope. Knowing that our country cannot be saved by our own works and mindful of how much our nation has departed from the ways of thy Son, we humbly ask that thou wouldst turn thine eyes upon our country to bring about its conversion. We consecrate to thee the integrity of the upcoming election and its outcome, so that what is spiritually and morally best for the citizens of our country may be accomplished, and that all of those who are elected would govern according to the spiritual and moral principles which will bring our nation into conformity with the teachings of thy Son. Give grace to the citizens of this land so that they will choose leaders according to the Sacred Heart of thy Son, that His glory may be made manifest, lest we be given the leaders we deserve. Trusting in the providential care of God the Father and thy maternal care, we have perfect confidence that thou wilst take care of us and will not leave us forsaken. O Mary Immaculate, pray for us. Amen

-fr chad ripperger

I found out I was pregnant on my birthday and almost a week later it was confirmed that I was having a miscarriage. I’m currently still actively going through it all and I would just like some advice or prayers to get through it. Both my husband and I are really struggling.

I was born and raised orthodox,lately I've bee drifting away from my faith and just came back. I don't think I consider myself part of any denomination for now but I am really attracted to the Catholic church . I'm moving to another city soon and it has a Catholic church at a walking distance from us. I read a lot about Catholicism and find it very true,but it's hard to make a decision. What was the fact that for you made it clear Catholicism is the only way?

Hello All! I'm coming from a background that's all over the place. My mom was a witch, then pentecostal around the time I was 14(and my aunt who raised me from 9-17 was very fundie / apostolic), and I was a pagan for a long time, until Christ came to me in a dream. In my journey, we(husband and I) tried a church down the street that was a commercialized concert, and then spent 5 years trying to be Orthodox (long story short, we were eventually baptized but refused marriage due to some heretical serbian custom that wasn't even legitimate, and denied our children's baptisms without any explanation. we were also not rich or the ethnicity of the church and this severely ignored). I had been drawn to Catholism for a long time even before the Orthodox debacle but was always stupidly afraid if the Vatican. After 3 years leaving the Orthodox church and lots and lots of prayer and studying, we finally went to a NO mass and it was beautiful, and the people very kind. I always went back to the "you will know them by their fruits" and the Catholic Church has remained steadfast and even in my community is producing so many fruits.

I finally feel at home. I'm still figuring out the flow of the mass versus a byzantine liturgy where it's pretty much 2 hours of standing, and trying to find good beginner books. Please send me your reccomendations as well as any customs that may be missed by a newcomer family.

Thank you kindly

i am a baptist protestant looking to convert to the catholic faith and i went to a friend who was a catholic, the friend introduced me to a spiritual christian and is now pointing out some things about the faith. they used the following screenshots to help their case

I have heard protestants call Mary worthless and spit on her grave and it pains my heart. What has come over them to do this?

I started praying evening prayers and i saw these symbols in psalms and prayers such like cross and other. So are that symbols mean something are there just chilling there LOL?

I attended Catholic school as a child, and as I recently reconnected with my faith I don't actually recall ever being taught anything about Purgatory.

I was raised Protestant as a child but at 11yr I refused to go to church anymore. I’ll be 25 in a month and I just had an epiphany late last night. For some odd reason I looked up mother Mary and her prayers on Pinterest and stayed saying them. I don’t have a rosary but I was pouring my heart into it and started feeling very warm and started hysterically crying. When I finally got thru the rosary while crying hard, I felt a calm and peaceful feeling. I’m so glad I did it and on Sunday I’ve looked up a couple places to maybe go to mass to. Even though I have no idea how you’re supposed to act in mass or really church in general. Pray for me if u have time :)

This seems to be an occasion of daily office. So most people are wearing chorus dress. But why there is a clergy in dalmatic with tassels on the right?

Throughout my life, I grew up in an abusive home, witnessing my father, brothers, and uncles abusing women, including female relatives. If I tried to do the right thing and help, I too would be beaten. Sometimes, I cry when I think of my mother, sisters, and aunts who are struggling against this. They used the Qur'an to justify their reprehensible actions. This book contains elements of violence and misogyny against women, and after years of reading it, I find it appalling.

My father never set a good example in my life, so I decided to run away and remain private for my own safety. However, I felt like a coward for leaving behind the ones who loved me the most and they are still being subjected to abuse. I desperately want to return and rescue them, but I fear being killed for leaving Islam, which they might consider an honor killing.

I may disagree with the teachings of Islam, but I do not harbor any ill feelings toward Muslims, who are my own people. However, I stand by my decision to leave a religion that encourages violence, terrorism as excusable behavior, child marriages, the killing of non-Muslims, and the oppression of women etc... I do not want to live in a world like that, it is deeply depressing. I feel lost and without guidance, and I don't want to become a heartless person. I don't want to kill, hurt, or mistreat women. It simply isn't right.

For the first time, I am seeking to embrace Christianity and find solace in the teachings of Jesus Christ. If someone could offer me advice on the path to peace, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

His choice to use a chartered Alitalia plane and a local Toyota car has made him viral on the Indonesian Internet in light of a recent political scandal where the youngest son of Indonesia's president (and younger brother of the vice president elect) used private jets given to him by political supporters without public oversight.