{"id":152814,"date":"2016-04-01T05:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T09:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-can-i-reconcile-with-god-after-being-an-atheist\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T15:18:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T19:18:00","slug":"ask-a-priest-can-i-reconcile-with-god-after-being-an-atheist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-can-i-reconcile-with-god-after-being-an-atheist\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAsk a Priest: Can I Reconcile With God After Being an Atheist?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Q: I was an atheist for many years after being raised Catholic. After 12 years of not believing, the only thing that did was to make me believe that I need God and his grace to guide me in this world. How do I reconcile with God, after my blatant disregard for him and his principles for such a large portion of my life? -L.P.<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/p>\n

A: It is good to hear that you have discovered God\u2019s place in your life and how much you need him.<\/p>\n

He is your loving Father in heaven, and he only wants the best for you. It would give him great joy to see you back fully with the Church.<\/p>\n

He is always ready to extend his mercy to anyone who is repentant. Anything you have done wrong can be forgiven, so long as you have a spirit of contrition and want to change your ways.<\/p>\n

A good step would be to go the sacrament of confession and unload your sins. With absolution, you could return to the reception of Communion. Online guides can help you prepare for confession, such as the one here<\/a>.<\/strong> We even have a free online Retreat Guide that you can watch in order to understand this sacrament more fully. It is called \u201cFrom Sorrow to Joy\u201d<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the meantime try to pray daily and read a bit of Scripture, especially the Gospels. Attend Mass, even if you can\u2019t receive Communion yet; just hearing the readings and the homilies will be a way for Our Lord to speak to you. Stay close to the Blessed Virgin Mary, too; she will intercede for you.<\/p>\n

If you are willing to make some time each day to spend with God, you might find my colleague’s book of meditations on the four Gospels a useful resource (it also comes as an app): The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith & Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152814"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=152814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}