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Tad wrote:

Hi, guys —

I have been having trouble with my faith. I know there is a God, but I need help believing. I often find myself worrying about death and whether Heaven actually exists.

I want to believe but I simply need help.

Thanks,

Tad
  { What should I do if I want to believe in my faith but am having troubles believing? }

Mike replied:

Hi, Tad —

Thanks for the question.

I want to first share with you some of the foundations for: What faith is from the Catechism:
III. The Characteristics Of Faith.

Faith is a grace

153 When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood", but from "my Father who is in heaven". (Matthew 16:17; cf. Galatians 1:15; Matthew 11:25) Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.'" (Vatican II, Dei Verbum 5; cf. DS 377; 3010)

Faith is a human act

154 Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason. Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe what other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their promises (for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity to "yield by faith the full submission of. . . intellect and will to God who reveals", (Vatican I, Dei Filius 3:DS 3008) and to share in an interior communion with him.

155 In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace: "Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace." (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,2,9; cf. Vatican I, Dei Filius 3:DS 3010)


As my colleague Paul said in another answer:

Faith is what we need to believe and morals are how we are to live. It relates to the two powers of the soul — intellect and will.

Given what the Catechism says and your question, your desire to believe requires prayer and asking the Holy Spirit to help you believe. (CCC 154)

Thoughts where you worry about death or question whether Heaven exist come from the demonic ones. Heaven is real and does exist. Our Lord tells us as much in the Scriptures and through His Church today.

Every person is made for a specific purpose and vocation in life — that include you too!
Our job is:

  • to discern our own vocation
  • fulfill it the best we can, and
  • not be obsessively concerned about our particular judgment at the end of our earthly life.

I would recommend praying the Rosary on a daily basis and asking Our Lord, Our Blessed Mother, and similar saints who have had similar struggles, to pray for you and guide you appropriately.

I hope this helps,

Mike

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