Can you obtain inner peace through religious practices?

Do you feel your religion enriches your spirituality? Do you think that meditations and prayer gives you peace of mind? Does it feel better to confess your sins to a preacher. Or do you feel more at peace by keeping your privacy to yourself. Would you recommend your practices to others?

Originally posted by WindDancer
Do you feel your religion enriches your spirituality? Do you think that meditations and prayer gives you peace of mind? Does it feel better to confess your sins to a preacher. Or do you feel more at peace by keeping your privacy to yourself. Would you recommend your practices to others?

Yes and no. Doing what is right, and avoiding what is wrong will in the end help you find inner peace. But doing what is right is inscribed in our hearts "Do good, avoid evil.". From that Christianity is fully founded upon because that is the way Christ taught us to go to heaven Name it, ten commandments, church doctrine, books of the Muslim, Jews, societies laws, are all attempting to do good avoid evil. Which then becomes a religion. But Christianity isn't a religion, but a way of life.

At times I feel that I am a Jedi, and prayers are my meditation with the force. I use this way of life, because it helps me enjoy my religion because of the similarities that Star Wars shares with Catholicism. And when you confess your sins to a priest, you don't confess it to him, but rather to Christ. And He's the perfect ear in which to tell your troubles to. However I'm going to tell you this, and about half of the people are either going to blantenly argue because the hate Catholics in general (or don't agree with them), or argue over the petit details.
So to avoid any and all confusion, this is my opinion and probably only workd for me...

I think meditation is a great way to connect and find peace and answers. I am happy I started do it. My faith has changed a bit to see the enormity of God. That has brought much needed peace. I don't feel the need to condemn any other view that people might have, only that they could at least be open minded to what could be found. I don't feel a need to confess to anybody and talk to God all the time. I feel nature is a wonderful way to connect with God and His creation. I enjoy all the synchronises and coincidences that happen when I listen and pay attention. It's Gods way of communicating...Life is just a wonderful thing to experience....It really is full of mysteries to be explored.

When I was fairly religious, I kept it very private. I don't really know why, I wasn't embarrassed or anything, it was just almost like instinct for me to be private about it. As far as talking to preachers goes, I attended a Catholic church and never once confessed my sins, but then again, I wasn't a baptised Catholic, either, so I guess it wasn't too expected of me. Honestly, I couldn't have done it even if I had been baptised and had to fulfill that sacrament, even though I guess it's what you're supposed to do in the Catholic church. Kind of hard to explain, I suppose. Sorry if this is full of gibberish.

Serving God through His will gives me inner peace. This is the God who commanded His chosen people to serve and worship Him and Him only... with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind.

I' m wondering why god merits such worship, our absolute, unfettered and unadulterated devotion.

My Dad usually practices meditation to relax and feel tranquility. He also likes to confess his sins to a preacher because according to him "it releases those emotions that cloud his mind". I sympathise with those ideas but I would like to know is what exactly does a person (other than my Dad) experience during those meditation and prayer? I used medidate myself but nowadays I feel that doesn't work for me. It longer gives me that sensation of tranquility. Maybe I'm doing something wrong or maybe there is a need to confess my problems to someone. I dunno...I'm just curious as to what others feel through religious practices.

There are many kinds of meditation..Do you use visualisation? For me, I visualize Gods love radiating into my whole being down from above. Filling every space. I guess it's kinda New Age meditation, but visualizing it really brings a sense that it is really happening..It affects my emotions more. I mainly do it at night when in bed. I feel like I'm drifting, and floating, and rising in a flow. It's harder to relax during the day to do it. It's very calming and you do feel one with God..At least that's how it works with me.

What kind do you do? 😄