Prayer

[Catholic_Lady]

As for my own experience, I've only told a handful of people so don't feel offended lol.

Of course not.  As I said, I understand that it can be quite personal.  I will survive my curiosity.

You seem to be all over the place here.  In one breath you're bending over backward to explain what the afterlife will be like, in the next you simply "don't know".  I suppose the afterlife is something you've given thought to, the things I am asking are not, so I guess it's understandable.  A little frustrating on my part, but I'll get over that too.  I would mention, though, that if every single miracle in the Bible, regardless which one you choose, has a clear and obvious purpose behind it and there are miracles today about which that cannot be said, that kind of suggests that the "miracles" of today are not the same thing as what's mentioned in the Bible.  The "God works in mysterious ways" excuse just doesn't do it for me here because the God of the Bible, even just the NT, doesn't work like this.  HE didn't change, but miracles did?  That doesn't make any sense.  You may believe that miracles in the NT were designed to bolster the burgeoning church, but even you must admit that's a personal opinion, not a fact.  The fact is that each and every miracle, bolstering belief aside, had a clear and obvious purpose in the Bible and miracles today do not.  In fact I don't know if they EVER do today.  At some point you have to address the fact that these things are not consistent, that this is not how the God of the Bible works, that not only did God NEVER do something so petty as to put on a laser light show for the masses, Jesus actually REFUSED to do just that, to display his power just to prove his power.  Fatima doesn't match God's MO.  What happened in Fatima, that's not how the God of the Bible operates.  That's not how the Bible says God works.  So I can't help but wonder, why are miracles so petty and seemingly pointless today when NO miracle of the Bible EVER even so much as "seemed" petty or pointless?

I know that's pretty harsh, but from my point of view it's all magic tricks, so to see a clear difference between what was written about and what is claimed today, that is pretty damning evidence that the "miracle" of Fatima wasn't really what was claimed.

But, I think you already answered that anyway when you essentially said that you just believe what the church tells you to believe.  I could easily point out some very good reasons not to just take them at their word, such as the fact that your faith pays for the golden throne the pope sits upon and all, but I'm sure you've heard it all before.  I don't think this is going to be the conversation I was hoping for anyone since "blind faith in the Church" was already one of your answers.  You haven't really "figured it out", it's more like you just "believe what you're told to", and that kind of precludes having the conversation I was hoping to have.

Dismissing my beliefs as blind faith is a bit insulting considering you don't hardly know anything about me or how much I've thought things through.

Yes, I do trust the church's judgements on approved miracles, but that goes along with the fact that I've chosen to stay catholic in the first place. So of course I trust them as a reliable source when it comes to miracles.

Anyhow, sorry I haven't been of more help to you. If youre curious about our beliefs, I would recommend joining a forum called catholic answers forum. It's pretty active and there are plenty of ppl there way more qualified to help you than myself.