Basically, being a Catholic is awesome!

I used to think that my religion was a small part of my life, to be put in a box and taken out once a week for an hour on Sundays. But in recent years, I have become more involved with my faith by going to youth groups, pilgrimages and Faith conferences, and now looking back on my life so far, I have realised that Catholicism has been surrounding every aspect of my life. I went to Catholic schools - St Kentigern's and St Mary's - and all my family are practising Catholics and so so without my faith, life wouldn't make sense to me. Another thing is that recently I was looking through my 'friends' list on Facebook and well over three quarters of my contacts are Catholic and I have made life-long friends from being more involved with the Church. Basically, being a Catholic is awesome!

God can do amazing things in my life

Well i have been brought up in a catholic family and attended church on a weekly basis but never really understood my religion until i started to attend youth events such as impact and going on pilgrimages to Lourdes and WYD 08. These events changed everything for me and made me realise what my faith meant to me and how God can do amazing things in my life. However, more recently i was part of a ministry team at a camp in california working for the salvation army. This was again a life changing experience for me, i experienced the differences and similarities of two different denominations of christianity. I was also able to preach about my religion and allow others to start to understand different concepts such as transubstantiation and the importance of mother mary in our lives. A brilliant moment was when i realised the importance of the scriptures and how praying to god through the bible can help you get through some very stressful and difficult times in your life, these which i experienced helping under-privileged children from the inner city of San Francisco. All these things have allowed my faith to grow a great deal and allowed me to develop a personal relationship with God instead of just turning up to church once a week. Bring on WYD 11

God in the driving seat of my life

My parent's brought me up with a really strong belief in God and of His love for His people. Their example led me to my own understanding and deepening of my faith. So the foundations of my faith were built on rock, and when the winds of my parents splitting up blew and the rain came, my faith stood strong. Yes, there were definitely rough patches and my beliefs about sex and marriage in particular were thoroughly shaken and there were times when I couldn't feel God: I just felt lost and hopeless, but I kept believing that He was carrying me through, and that He did. Matthew 11:28 was a verse that kept appearing at these times when I was ready to fall apart, and was a much needed lifeline: 'I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls'. So though I have endured struggles and hardships, these have in fact only brought me closer to God. Though I feel close to God, I often need to remind myself of this fact, and the fact that I should be placing God in the driving seat of my life, rather than letting myself get swept along with not much thought. So that's where I'm at the moment, trying to place all my trust in God...

Not a burden but a grace

Being a young Catholic today has become increasingly more difficult with pressures to conform to a very unreligious society from which young Catholics can feel alienated and like myself are persecuted for their faith, and the challenge is to listen to what Christ said, “if they Persecuted me, they will persecute you too” (John 15:20). These words are very familiar to me as my parish priest back home in Jersey was always reminding me of them; Christ gave us these as a warning and is a reference to all who believe in Christ that you will endure hardships in the name of Christ which is the struggle of being a young Catholic today. This message however is of great hope and comfort that Christ was telling us of how with His Crucifixion He shares in our sufferings and hardships, and was the confrontation He had throughout His ministry when dealing with society, and in knowing this it is an important call I feel for young people to hold firm to the Truth which is Christ and manifested in His Church. It is a call to follow Christ more closely, which we all try to do but speaking from experience there are times where as a young person you can find yourself amercing yourself into society as it seems the easiest option and seems the most desirable. To do this we are indirectly rejecting Christ by accepting a society which has rejected Him. It becomes a challenge and a great pain to know that you have the truth but no one can see and they laugh it off. The secular and the sacred move further apart and is young Catholics job to determine how to strike a balance between the two through prayer, the Church and hope in the risen Lord who gives us hope through having overcome persecution by rising from the dead, so I know that holding on this we can be saved. I have always believed that the best way to live out faith in this way is for young people to get as involved in their church communities as much as possible otherwise they will not only be distanced from society but also fellow Christians which can lead to a loss of faith. Coming together as young Catholics today is hugely important and at home and here in Lancaster I have been very lucky that there are many opportunities for sharing faith and living out faith together but we need to always be renewing our faith and bringing others to faith who are willing to endure the hardships of being a Catholic today with us not as a burden of course but as a grace.

Trusting in God

The last year wasn’t a particularly easy one for me. After receiving my a-level results and not gaining my place at university I decided to repeat my last year at school, despite many people telling me it would be extremely hard. It wasn’t until my friend went off to university themselves that it really hit home and I felt very lonely. At the same time, home wasn’t very peaceful with arguments pretty much the norm. I found it increasingly hard to concentrate to believe that this was God’s plan. After all I felt like everyone was disappointed in me, why would God be any different?
With my friends off at university, the people I always talked to about everything gone, I bottled everything up inside. Church became more of a chore than a choice and I felt like I could no longer feel God.
I got asked if I would do the Philip course and agreed as at the time I didn’t have much else to do. One of the things we looked at whilst there was all about the Father’s love. One line stuck in my head; ‘no matter what you do, I shall always love you.’ I realised that God hadn’t left me, he wasn’t disappointed in me, and I had turned away from Him! After this I began to take more interest in church again and it no longer felt like such a chore.

Daydream Believer

When I was about 10 years old, I used to go to church every Sunday but sometimes I really didn’t want to go. My parents would often wake me up to get ready for church, but I often used to shout because I didn’t want to go. But as parents do, they made me go, and how thankful I am to them now.

I used to sit in mass, daydreaming and messing about and not concentrating on the priest at all. I felt like I didn’t understand what was going on, so why should I listen? Anyway as I got older and started high school, my thoughts began to change as I started to learn about God and his teachings. Normally I would find it hard to just sit and listen in lesson, but listening to my teacher talking about God seemed so easy. Sundays came and went and every week parts of the mass became much clearer. Not only did I want to start going to mass on a Sunday, but I used to set my alarm to get up and get ready for mass!

I felt like God was with me, wherever I was, whatever I was doing, I knew he was helping me, and now when I look back and think that I never wanted to go to church on a Sunday, I am grateful to not only my parents, but God as well for helping me get where I am today.

So Much More to Live For

I love being Catholic. Before I took my faith seriously, life was good, and I was happy, but looking back, I see that something was missing, and there was an emptiness inside me. Now my faith is a big part of my life, and it doesn't hold me back from anything I want to do, but it gives me so much more to live for.I know I have a reason to live, and it's to love and to serve God. It is often a massive struggle within - to love God, and follow His teachings given to me through the Church, even though everything the world tells me often seems to go against that... But when I'm praying, I feel strong and close to God.I have found that we can serve God in everything we do. Not just for 1 hour a week in Mass; but wether I'm praying a rosary, or out for a ride on my motorcycle, I know God is always there with me, and we can offer Him all that we do.