How many people here are both isolated and alone and also have the Christian faith?

Using the phrase "exact quote" is a dodgy proposition.

It depends on which translation you wish to look at (assuming one can only read English).

I think, if you want to say "exact quote", then you should only quote one of the following two possibilities;

Sorry to be a pedant about it, but you are in one of my special interests here !

It is a very interesting document.

Right. I didn't know that . I knew the Gospel of Thomas wasn't in the Bible . It was a quote I found interesting .

Almost everything in Thomas can be found in the canonical gospels.

And the exact quote here:

“the kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, but men do not see it.”

Yes, I've just found the correct quote from the Gospel Of Thomas - 'The Kingdom is inside you, and outside you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize it is you who are the sons of the living Father.'

The quotes from John and Thomas are both very similar 

I read just now it was John, but that quote sounded a lot like something from the Gospel of Thomas to me. The Kingdom is spread before our eyes, but no one sees it. Split a piece of wood and you will see me. Look under a stone and you will find ne. 

It's a really interesting subject . I believe that quote came from the Gospel of Thomas that didn't appear in the bible . There is also a Gospel of Judas where Jesus said to Judas ' Everything you see will be yours . You are my most important Apostle but will be the most hated'  

Well, yes! Bricks and mortar means institutions and hierarchies. 

I once read ' The Kingdom of God is inside you and all around you , it's not found in bricks and motor ' I was raised Christian but I am very curious about facts and ideas surrounding religion. The problem is it's difficult to talk about it with people . I always believed that any faith is a personal thing and never understood why it was necessary to share it or the need of a Priest , Vicar etc. Why can't you talk to God yourself , why do you have to go to church ? Monks Isolate themselves . So isn't Isolation and worship the perfect union ?  

I didn't say it was bad. I'm just pointing out that our comprehension is limited, and a lot of things that people take as "absolute truths" about their religion are actually ideas that have been influenced by society.  Hence I no longer subscribe to certain arbitrary values, like attending a church every week or praying for divine intervention. 

But other people are free to do whatever works for them and I will respect their right to do that as long as they respect the rights of others.

I’m not going to claim to be isolated as such. My parents and sister live within ten minutes of me. I have a very small number of ‘IRL’ friends, who I catch up with every couple of months over a meal or a coffee or at a show. I belong to two two online communities - here and a small Doctor Who discord - with meaningful if geographically remote friendships resultant from each, much to my deep and lasting gratitude. 

I was raised Catholic. I found as a child, a teenager, a young adult, and still now, many of the central tenets of the faith from the New Testament profoundly moving and hugely important to a fulfilling and ‘good’ life. I remember vividly a very powerful moment when I was in primary school when a young substitute teacher only with us for a few days, burst into tears while relating the events of the Last Supper, so overwhelmed was she by the ongoing revelation of that event’s profundity and by the duty she felt she had to adequately convey that to hearts and minds just on the threshold of being able to absorb it while in a state of grace we humans really possess at only one brief moment in time  - a perfect balance between sufficiently retained receptive innocence, the beginnings of sophisticated abstract thinking, and total near absence of learned reflexive or studied cynicism. 
 
Now 45, if I label myself as anything it would be an agnostic (basically an acknowledgment that all I truly know is that I know nothing, so I will never make any claims to having THE answer). I attend church seldom, usually for family/friend milestones (funerals, weddings, baptisms) and I go at Christmas for largely sentimental reasons and to share midnight mass with my parents for what could always be a final time - who ever really knows?  
 
I am godfather to a nephew and a niece. I hope I have been a good moral example to them, even though I relatively seldom talk to them explicitly of religion per se. 
 
I suppose my take on it all is that I will never throw the baby out with the bath water. A lot of good has been done by the inevitability imperfect institution (name one that isn’t) that is the Christian church collectively across its many forms. And of course much harm too, with a lot of self examination ongoing as a result. Though in an age in which the church’s tendency to think in centuries, not make snap populist (even if progressive) decisions has it more under pressure to continually reassess the meaning of integrity like no other time in history… the path ahead looks unclear in some respects.

I was just reflecting earlier that my small group of IRL friends are nearly all firm believers, Catholic, and active mass-goers, givers of their time to charity etc. Three of them I wouldn’t even know if the fourth (my oldest friend, from secondary school to now) had not joined the prayer group they all participated in for quite a while. None of them interrogated me on my lapsed ways, I think it is enough for them (and SHOULD be) that I am a good hearted person who cares about people and no less imperfectly embodies the spirit of the beatitudes than they do. I am not materialistic, I am not competitive, I need only the simpler things in life to be largely at peace, and while I certainly like the escapism of television, podcasts, books (though of course those all still embody much important discourse on morality, ethics, etc. anyway - irrespective of how ‘highbrow’ or otherwise they might be) I make time too for sombre and contemplate silence, and the processing of grief, and attempts at radical acceptance of pain. Would Jesus mind that conventional prayer is less often part of that than once it was? I doubt it, I hope not anyway. I think I’m still on a path he’d approve of. It’s just a less overtly church-y one, though by no means entirely detached from its teachings. 
 
My parents remain firm believers. Their Catholic faith got them, personally, through some very hard times. Some burdens have been so heavy for them that they have prayed and ‘handed it over’ as they would say. I’m so glad they have that. 
 
But I know some people who feel very disowned by the church too - some online LGBTQ members of the discord feel that there’s no place for them in the faith they were raised in while a recent pope described them as ‘disordered’ and the current one softens that only to ‘who am I to judge?’ though of course I appreciate that he can’t snap his fingers and change centuries of thinking overnight. The church will never rush the big questions. 
 
I visited my parents last night and ended up in a two hour theological discussion with my father. Including how I don’t like some of the revised wording of the responses in Mass (the cheek of me when I’m so seldom there I know, but some of the poetry went out of the wording when they tinkered I think) All of it respectful (I’m long since past any cheap shots, I just have a genuinely open mind that likes to turn things over in it when the subject comes up - which, in my dad’s case, is frequently). My parents have been asking me for some time to watch a ten part dvd series called Catholicism that they recommed highly (it’s presented by Father Robert Barron, and is beautifully shot all over the word, so even for the scenery alone it’s worth spending time with) and I watched the first two hour long episodes tonight - the only real reason, to be honest, that the beatitudes are so clearly in my head, it’s barely an hour since I got a refresher course! 
 
Here’s a nice quote to try and live by: 

“Good is good in the final hour, in the deepest pit, without hope, without witness, without reward”

Sounds biblical doesn’t  it? It’s actually from Doctor Who. And not a million miles away from what Christianity would ask of us. I think I’m surrounded by good people and good role models - fictional and real - and I’ll keep doing my best to be a decent person. I remember the actor Paul Eddington (from The Good Life and Yes, Minister) terminally ill with skin cancer, doing a final interview - this was two decades ago- and when asked what he wanted as an epitaph he simply said (he broke down while saying it) ‘He did no harm’. I could sense his relief in those words, that he felt it was broadly true - he’d always meant well and beven kind where he could. Was he a Christian? I’ve no idea. I’m not sure that matters. 

Glitter said:

I believe that if there is a god, then it is not possible for us to know them without our own experience and culture influencing how we view such a deity

Yes but is that bad? How would you explain quantum physics to a child? You’d start with their everyday experience. If god is talking to us everyday it only makes sense he’d reach out to us using things we understand.

My mum took supplements religiously for her low energy and breathlessness till the day her heart gave out. Nothing she took would have done her as much good as giving up smoking though.

Thank you.

I'm in a similar situation, numerous forms of arthritis and other diseases (including lung diseases) put me in the official high risk category. Then I got cancer, I'm still having treatment. I especially need to avoid catching Covid because the effects would be terrible for me.

Therefore, I'm still shielding. I only go out for medical appointments that cannot be handled over the phone because I need to be examined, plus I go for scans and tests. I always wear a mask, sanitise my hands and observe social distancing. I just went to a major hospital in London and I was appalled and anxious because nearly all people (hospital staff and patients) were not wearing masks. Two women sitting near me were not wearing masks - and coughing!

Stay safe  

O.K. Fair comment.

Thank you for accomodating my unwanted screeds with such grace.

It would be wonderful if you could respect my beliefs as I have stated them instead of trying to persuade me back into something that I have stated was hurtful.

As for prayer, I heard a lot of the same advice at the time. Honestly, you can't tell me anything about Christianity that I haven't heard and considered before. The problem is that when a child or young person hears this advice when their prayers are not being answered, then it tells them that either what they were asking for is wrong (is it wrong to want an end to physical pain or support for emotional pain?) Or that god has chosen for them to suffer alone, which is not only lacking in comfort but does a lot of damage to their sense of self esteem.  I cannot accept that I was so mishapen that I needed to go through all the abuse that I went through to make me a better person or to be put on a particular path.  It is much more powerful for me to say that what happened to me was wrong and that I, through my own choice, can draw strength from it to make sure that others do not go through the same thing.  People can be good or bad on their own merit, regardless of divine intervention.

I'm not saying any of this in an attempt to hurt anyone or undermine their faith, but as a word of caution because this kind of teaching/preaching can be very harmful and hurtful to some.

During the pandemic I was as isolated as everyone. There was a curfew at 8, so unless there was a good reason, everybody was grounded. However, that led to a great opportunity, as a rather special spiritual community based in California opened its virtual doors, and I was able to attend its services via Zoom!

I can no longer do this regularly, as this now clashes with a drawing group that existed before the lockdown, and which has recently reformed.

Unfortunately the woman who ran these has died, but her husband has taken over. Luckily the Zoom option has remained for those who are in other time zones. 

Sounds like you've got most of the love your neighbour bases covered, and you might well in your heart believe in a creator, but you've been et down by the "people part".

Just go round the "people part" AKA religion and the "church" and find God anyway you want to. Hell is pretty much where most of us are at already, sins bring their own rewards.

IF you want a relationship go direct.

When you pray, think hard about what you are asking for. At first it is all asking, and when you eventually figure out what the right things are to ask for you get them, (that's what I was told would happen and that was what did happen) unless there is a hidden reason why you should not. A lot of the bad things that happened to me, HAD to happen in order to make me able to do a couple of really brilliant things I've accomplished. there's no way at the time I could see any utility in my suffering, it looked like the work of a cruel and uncaring God, now I look back, it looks far more like "essential tempering" as one does to a blade...

Also, to me it feels like having any kind of belief in God is isolating these days (at least where I am), and my own particular outlook on God/Judaism seems especially isolating.