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.

The Steady Struggle For Truth

As I write this rather a large part of me feels that being a young catholic today is in fact very much like being a catholic of any age. It brings, I assume, much the same joys, struggles, hopes and fears. In fact I consider one of the most beautiful aspects of my Catholic faith the unity it gives me with so many others of all ages, of all walks of life.
One thing that surprises me however is how a path that has been trodden by so many before does not get any easier to follow, you would have thought the track would get wider and smoother over the years! It seems not. It can be tempting to wonder why I cannot live by the lessons that others have learnt, why I cannot be satisfied by the solutions that others have come up with. The more I journey the more I find that it is only in allowing my heart to ask again that I truly encounter God. It is the search for truth and life that makes faith meaningful, and it is the discovery of meaningful faith that makes my life true.
It is that discovery of true life in Christ that enables me to follow the narrow path, challenging though it is in today’s society. I have found one of the gifts of youth is the freedom and flexibility I have to commit time to His ends, and in offering what I have my life takes on a whole new dimension. True, there are exhausting weeks when I wonder if life wouldn’t be easier some other way, but as my favourite young saint Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati wonderfully expresses “To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth, that is not living, but existing.”

Live the Life

My name is Charlotte Sadler and I was raised a Catholic. I have never minded going to Church because for as long as I can remember I have found ways to get involved in the Mass: Altar serving, reading, sacristan, youth worker or little things like partaking in the offertory.

However, I never truly understood the importance of what I was taking part in at Mass until my priest invited me to start going to the Faith Conference, a movement set up 30 years ago to help young people grow in their faith. Their conferences are certainly the highlight of my summer and my Christmas Break and where I have met the people who have inspired me. When I started going to Faith I found it rather overwhelming at first and when I sat at my first talk I can remember thinking after that I didn’t understand a word of that. But, “ask and you will receive” and I received better understanding of my Faith.

Some of the people that I met and who I found most inspiring are the Sisters of the Gospel of Life who work with women who are having a crisis pregnancy. It became clear to me after meeting the sisters that it was one thing to say you’re Pro-life but another thing to live that out. So, when I go back to College and my peers ask me about it, I use a lot of the stories and things the sisters have taught me just by their example to help me to put my idea across clearly and I challenge my friends to think about the issues they ask me about just as the Word of God should challenge all of us.

Finding My Faith

Hi there, people say you don’t truly understand things unless you investigate and find out for yourself. That is how I found my Catholic faith.
I’m Jon Lord, and I have just started my second year of studying journalism at the University of Central Lancashire.
I was brought up into a Catholic background but only in the last couple of years has my faith truly meant something to me.
The experiences of prayer, forgiveness and bonding with other young people have all helped in changing me from a passive spectator in faith to someone overjoyed by God’s love and mercy for us all.
To know that you are part of God’s plan, a child before Him, fills me with delight and freedom.
It’s not easy being a young Catholic though. Most of my friends are non-Christian and it’s often difficult to talk to them about my faith. But my ‘suffering’ is nothing in comparison to the many Catholics all over the world who are persecuted and oppressed for their beliefs. That is what drives me on to share my faith and God’s good news. It’s a great challenge to share our faith with those who do not have the same beliefs. But it’s an opportunity to bear witness to our Lord and show His love through our actions.
English Martyrs church, in Poulton-le-Fylde, has really helped me belong to a community of faith; a feeling of unity that is so important.
I really treasure my faith now and find it an honour and privilege to serve God.

Thank God for what he has done for us

Being a young Catholic means the world to me, without my faith I think I would feel a bit lost, because it has brought so much to me.
God has placed me in such a loving and understanding family, also God has given me the chance to meet so many amazing friends, they’re my life; you mean so much to me, without you people in my life I would not be where I am today, the support you give me is much appreciated.
A whole part of life is growing up, so many challenges and opportunities have popped up for me, it’s been a bit up and down but my faith has been a big part, along side my family and friends pushing me along.
My mum always says “its your Sunday duties to thank God for what he has done for us, listen to your heart” this little saying keeps popping in my head when my mates used to say
“what is the point in it? just come out, ignore it, it’s nothing!”
Well it’s not nothing to me it’s a big part of me and with out it I would not be who and where I am today.
Going to Lourdes is a major link in my life, being with the youth section of Lancaster diocese looking after our youth and our VIP’s in Lourdes it’s so rewarding to help out, having the opportunity to go . It’s amazing, its such a laugh to meet with old friends and to have the opportunity to make new ones, to join in with the social life but also find peace to take time out of my life! Lourdes has helped me experience youth work which has directed me more to do work here at Castlerigg Manor our diocesan youth centre. I have been given the opportunity to stay another year and I love it, having such a laugh allowing young people, to learn in an informal environment about faith and everyday life and through this, it is helping me to find out who I am, I have found more confidence in my self and I know for a fact we are all apart of God’s family and he is always going to be there for us, you and me!