Dear Participants,

Today, we’ll talk about doubt. Most people nowadays go through a phase of confusion and uncertainty. Inevitably, they will find themselves wondering what’s the purpose of their life, what are God’s plans for them, what’s their real calling. Maybe they’ll even doubt of God’s existence. Or perhaps they’ll question themselves and second guess their actions and decisions.

This is where counseling them comes into action.

Today, we will learn about the following spiritual work of Mercy: to counsel the doubtful

From the Old Testament:

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in company with scoffers. Rather, the law of the Lord is his joy: and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season; its leaves never wither; whatever he does prospers.” Psalm 1, 1-3

“If you eat honey, my son, because it is good, if pure honey is sweet to your taste, such, you must know, is wisdom to your soul. If you find it, you will have a future, and your hope will not be cut off.” Proverbs 24, 13-14

From the New Testament:

“Then [Jesus] asked [the boy’s]father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ He replied, ‘Since childhood. It has often thrown him into fire and into water to kill him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you can? Everything is possible to one who has faith.’ Then the boy’s father cried out, ‘I do believe, help my unbelief!’” Mark 9, 21-24

From the Saints’ life:

Frédéric Ozanam: at the age of fifteen, like many teenagers, Frédéric suffered through a crushing period of doubt. He would later write: “The muffled din of an unbelieving world reached me. I experienced all the horror and doubt which by day gnaws at the soul without ceasing, and at night hovers over our pillows.” He promised to God that, should he be freed from his doubt and regain his faith, he would spend his life defending it.

His religion and philosophy teacher, Dominican priest Abbé Noirot, helped him out of this crisis. With the support of Noirot, Frédéric regained his faith entirely a year later – and started fulfilling his promise.

But the trials weren’t over for Frédéric. When he moved to Paris to study Law at the Sorbonne, the city harbored rampant poverty, and skepticism was the dominant ideology. Frédéric wrote to one of his friends: “Paris displeases me for there is no life, no faith, no love: it is like a dead body to which I, full of youth and energy, am tied. Its coldness chills me, and its corruption is killing me.”

In the Sorbonne’s environment, Frédéric’s faith was tested daily, as mockery and disdain of Christianity were in vogue. But he found strength in his friend, André-Marie Ampère, great scientist and faithful Catholic, with whom he lived. Their nightly discussions over the dinner table comforted Frédéric in his faith, despite all the surrounding attacks on Christianity.

Edith Stein: Edith’s first substantive work, “On the problem of empathy” explains how she perceived empathy – an essential quality for any listener and counselor. For her, empathy is an act of ideation which enables us to comprehensively discern not only other’s spiritual types, but also our own. In her work, she explains the development process of empathy in depth, moving beyond major disagreements found in the contemporary empathy debate. But without entering into philosophical and psychological debates, we can summarize Stein’s view as follow: empathy is an experience of another person’s experience. And ultimately, she would write: “As for what concerns our relations with our fellow men, the anguish in our neighbor’s soul must break all precept. All that we do is a means to an end, but love is an end in itself, because God is love.”