Reflection Paper

I was raised going to a catholic school until high school, and there in catholic school they taught me what it meant to believe, love, and accept. I learned to believe when things cannot even be seen. I studied many things and went to church two times a week, once on wednesday and once on sunday. I was surrounded with people who were able to find hope even when it seemed like there was no way out, people who were able to believe when many couldn’t, and I was able to find that motivation too.

My family is Catholic and raised me as Catholic. I have been in classes at my church since pre school and continued to be in them all the way through sophomore year. In Catholicism, teenagers who have had their first communion go through three years of middle school Faith Formation and two years of high school Faith Formation before they can be confirmed. Being confirmed means that you confirm that you want to be Catholic and that you believe without a parent or guardian making you.

My parents have discovered a different religion since then, one even closer to God, and me not being religious drives a wedge between us. I believe that if I hadn’t gone to catholic school, there would be a possibility of me being religious, as I would have been taught a different mentality than Catholicism regarding religion.

I went to Catholic school because my great-grandmother influenced my mother to do so, arguing that the values that I would learn there would not compare to anything else. As a single mother, she took as many advices as possible on how to raise me, especially coming from the most important person for her. However, my mother has never considered herself a devout catholic, or religious person whatsoever, and although she enrolled me in Catholic school she tried to give me as much religious freedom as possible so that I could find my own spirituality when the right time merited it. I was raised with a hybrid of religious and liberal values, and while I consider to have a strong pillar of moral values based on what I learned in Catholic school,

For my entire life I have been raised Catholic, and for a while that is really all I knew. I was baptised as a baby, I was confirmed in second grade, I went to sunday school, and I

Growing up I was always told religion was false and that I was above my friends who were Christians because I believed in science. My mom was raised by Catholics, but when she graduated High School, she vowed to never be religious again. My father enjoyed feeling more elite over the “religious plebeians” that worked for him. I remember having an argument with Victoria Henderson in 3rd grade because I believed in The Big Bang and she was a creationist. Everyone took Victoria’s side, and I learned it was better to just not talk about religion. In high school, I began reaching out of my comfort zone, and also questioning what my parents had ingrained on me as a person. My first religious experience was dating a boy named Luis who was Catholic, as my mother was raised. He was only allowed to date Catholic girls, so I

I was raised as a Roman Catholic. This meant waking up early on weekends, going to church every Sunday and the days of obligation, and attending catechism, no matter how much I protested. It also meant being unhappy. I detested most of the rules. I did not believe in an almighty God that could give me free will, but wanted to limit my actions. I also could not stand to believe in someone who could kill one of my best friends and continue the world like nothing had happened. All I wanted was to be able to live, not just survive. Six months after I was confirmed, I stopped going to church. After that I did not know what to believe. God was supposed to be watching over me. Instead, I felt He had forgotten my name.

Since birth, I have been a Christian. Specifically, I belong to the United Methodist Church. My mother was a Catholic, but had decided to become a United Methodist and to raise me in that church. I have always believed in Christian beliefs such as God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, as well as having read Bible stories since childhood and participating in Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, retreats, and many other things. I have many essential memories of being in church, from asking the pastor to allow me to finish the bread and grape juice from Communion at the end of every Eucharist Sunday service (she always obliged) to being certified as a Youth Lay Servant and giving a few sermons. My faith has been a big part of my life for all nineteen years of it, and I try to live my life in a way I believe God wants me to.

I grew up in a family devoted to the Roman Catholic (RC) faith. We, my brothers and sisters, have taught and disciplined in this faith to become good Christians. My family faithfully come to church every Sunday, followed the RC customs and traditions, prayed the rosary every night, and served in the church by joining the choir and other church activities. We have taught that by serving God this way, we could merit eternal life from Him.

When I was younger, I would go to church with my Grandma and attend Catholic religion classes to prepare for my first communion. At the time, I was happy to go; I looked forward to those days. Around the summer before fourth grade, I stopped attending religion classes since they were at a time which conflicted with my schedule. From then on, much to my grandparents dismay, I slowly stopped going to church. After a few years of not attending religion classes and church, I started to notice my own beliefs didn’t match those of the church. Being away from the church gave me time to explore ideas other than those of which I had been taught all of my life. In sixth grade, I remember being curious and wondering if my beliefs matched those of another religion. My interest was sparked by my love of history and culture. I discovered that Celtic Pagans have similar beliefs. Celtic Paganism, specifically, is a polytheistic religion from the Iron Age practiced by the ancient Celts. I learned about specifics of the

I came to conclusions about my faith and Catholic Education. Catholic Education still does not mean much to me. However, it brings together people who (most of the time) come from a Catholic/Christian backgrounds, and creates a sense of community. For that I appreciate Catholic Education. What I do not find as nice about Catholic schools is that despite being centred around religion, people in Catholic schools can be just as mean-spirited, rude, and uncompassionate as people in public schools, if not worse. I am aware that it is unrealistic to assume that those in Catholic schools are all wonderful people, but I find reality ironic. In my opinion, Catholic Education is like public education, except Catholic students have school masses and are obligated to take religion courses. As I introduced previously, being subject to Catholic Education and those devoutly religious for the better part of 13 years has guided me to my brand of Catholicism so to speak. Catholic Education has inadvertently, or possibly intentionally, started me off on my own spiritual path by showing me what I do not like about Catholicism (eg. the belief that not going to church is bad). Spirituality and personal religious beliefs are lifelong works in progress, and I suppose that without Catholic Education my progress would have started later in my

The belief that Catholics were not Christians was subtly implied from the start. When my family signed our contract, we had to sign a Statement of Faith. We were supposed to take the Bible as literal and not metaphoric, which is not what Catholics believe. In my Bible classes, I would bring up Catholic views, and I would be told, “Taylor, that’s not relevant.” and “That’s not what we are talking about.” We had a project in my Bible class freshman year, we had to create a sermon to give to our class. I had taken the Catholic stance and not taken the passage literally. My grade of an 85 reflected what had been taught to me the past the three years, that Catholics do not belong there. With comments on my sermon of “You didn’t complete the assignment correctly.” and “This is a Christian project not a Catholic project.” Baffled, I finally brought these instances to my parents’ attention, who helped me find the strength to challenge this belief system by only contributing the Catholic viewpoint. The situation at the school was not improving for me, and I was left feeling more like an outcast than ever

My parents have been avid Christians since a few years before I was born. Both had been Catholic as children, and both stopped going for different reasons. After my

I grew up in a Catholic home. From my earliest memories, I believed in God and knew He existed. Every week we faithfully attended our local parish. There was no Sunday School so we sat with our parents during mass. I remember my youngest sister, Jennifer, playing with my Dad’s keys

Since the beginning of the semester, my writing has changed and evolved to accommodate and sustain longer essays. With longer essays, there is more room for in-depth analysis. Further analyzing a topic has led me to findings that I did not know existed. As I continue to write, I uncover addition and superior methods to approach my writing to the benefit of me and therefore, my audience. Throughout the semester, I have incorporated techniques to further my narrative throughout my writing.