Paulist seminarian Tom Gibbons reflects on his formation experience and his life as a seminarian right now. Along the way, some questions will be will be answered, and a lot more will come up.
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What do YOU like about your faith?
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In today’s media environment, we invariably hear the stories about which things go wrong. I guess it’s human nature to focus on the negative, but the focus of news organizations do have its place. I think that when issues like the sex-abuse crisis continue to unfold, we do need to be reminded of it so that we don’t turn our eyes away from it, lest we conveniently skip over the lessons that we may have to absorb as a Church. I remember during Benedict’s visit a few years ago, a Catholic commentator was on television claiming that the Church sex-abuse crisis had been put behind her and now we could all move on… 18 months later it exploded again in Europe. Sadly, negativity has its place in the world.
That being said, I realized after writing my last post which focused on the letter a friend of mine wrote to me concerning the sex abuse crisis, it might be important to take a step back and share what I like about the Catholic Church. Because I can get stuck focusing on the wrongs of a person or the failures of an institution as much as anybody. I am more than capable of expelling gobs of self-righteous energy over issues that include (but are not limited to) the failure of McDonald’s to provide breakfast after 10:30 a.m. But the danger is that while I can get so stuck on the negative things, in the process I can frequently miss the Quarter-Pounder with Cheese through the fries.
So for this post, I’d like to open up a conversation around this question: what do you like about your faith? This is a conversation in which anyone and everyone is welcome to participate and it can be for whatever reason; the reason you share can come from the depths of your soul, or it can be just a fun factoid of your life that others outside of your tradition might not get to participate.
For example, if you are Wicken, you might feel a certain sense of ownership the rest of us don’t feel for the Harry Potter franchise. If you are Jewish, you might get a special thrill out of seeing the jealous faces of all of the other kids who DIDN’T get the day off for particular holidays. You might not have even practiced your faith in a long time, but there are elements about it you either miss or really appreciated… that’s fine too, join right in! Whatever the reasons might be, feel free to leave a comment, as long as the comment is affirming of your own faith and does not condemn another faith tradition or group.
So I’ll start. I know that one reason I liked being Catholic growing up was because we were not allowed to eat meat during Lent, so my family always went out for pizza on Fridays. During the rest of the year, dinner on Fridays was a role of the dice. Dinner could be burgers (yum!) but it could also be corned beef and cabbage (not so yum). Fridays during Lent, however, usually meant PIZZA. And not just any pizza, but Scotto’s pizza. Of course, that’s my fun reason. Another reason is that my Catholic faith has exposed me to the needs of others in ways that I might not have otherwise having grown-up in my comfortable middle class environment of Northern New Jersey. My faith has challenged me to look at the person who is asking for a dollar on the street in the same way I might look upon a family member in need… and has also provided me with forgiveness during the countless times I have failed to do so.
Of course, there’s even more to my faith than that, but that’s a good primer for now. Start your commenting!
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It helps me with my anxiety disorder and depression. It gives me hope. It helps me to help others.
I love being a Catholic because for every ritual or act their is a purpose and a loving tradition that accompanies these acts. When I found out that everytime I make the sign of the cross I am saying a prayer I was in awe. It’s not just swatting flies, it is a prayer itself and it gives me comfort that at anytime through out the day there are millions of my Catholic brothers and sisters doing the same thing!
No ! reason: The Eucharist
but I also like that I can go anywhere and feel at home when I walk into a Catholic Church.
Truth! If I wasn’t convinced that Catholicism wasn’t the truth (or at least the closest thing to the truth than humans can get), I wouldn’t be a Catholic.
Nitpick: “Wiccan” and “ROLL of the dice.”
I like that Catholicism helps me keep time during the day and the week and the year. My life ebbs and flows with the church calendar; I join in the mourning the loss of light and the anticipation of its return in Advent, and the Christmas season is truly joyous. I like being aware of one’s frailty and mortality during Lent. I love the St. Thomas Sunday after Easter and the (hopefully) great homilies that go with it.
I love that even if we’re alone, or just being introspective, there are millions more being alone or introspective, and we can do that together, so we’re never truly alone. No one is an island, after all.
I love the tactile nature of the Sacraments and sacramentals.
I am a cradle Catholic with more years of being a Catholic than most of your readers. Being a Catholic means everything to me. Its the community, the Eucharist, the knowledge that the Triune God is with me each day, Its all these things and more. I find solace in my religion. Living a good life has brought three converts to the Church.It is my home.
As a Roman Catholic, there are many part of my faith I have grown to love. The more I grow in the knowledge of the church’s teachings, the more beautifully it opens to me.
For a singular characteristic, I would point to RECONCILIATION. It refreshes me to have a moment with a priest to confess my sins aloud – to take ownership of my faults – and to hear that I am forgiven. It is a cleansing process unlike any other. Sometimes, I’m so embarrassed and awkward in my approach because I don’t want to admit the truth about my fallen nature, but I know I have to admit it and move on. Talking with the priest about this, hearing his recommendations about moving forward and a meaningful penance ties up the bundle of my sins and removes them from my shoulders.
Tom,
Great post. I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that both of our articles this week invoked McDonald’s – during Lent no less! Hope you are well :)
I love being Catholic. I can’t imagine my life without my faith. I was baptized in the Catholic Church when I was a baby, went to Mass throughout my childhood and into adulthood, experienced the sacraments, etc., but it wasn’t until the past year or so that I realized how IN LOVE I am with my faith.
I love going to Mass. I love the tradition–especially because there is meaning in every single act. I love the communion of saints. I love that we honor Mary (not worship her, as many non-Catholics mistakenly believe). I LOVE the respect we have for other faith traditions…that we are constantly working to build bridges of peace with people of different faiths. I love that I can go to any Catholic Church anywhere in the world and feel at home–because the Catholic Church IS home to me–to my heart and soul.
I love the personal relationship I am able to have with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I love having priests to go to as spiritual advisors…that those priests have committed their own lives to Christ and to his followers in a very special way. I love having nuns to go to as role models and spiritual advisors.
I love the Eucharist. I love knowing that Jesus is RIGHT THERE with me in that moment. I’ve always felt something was missing when I went to other churches that weren’t Catholic, and I realized that it was because things actually WERE missing. Important things.
Being Catholic is such a blessing to me. I can’t imagine my life without it. As a 33-year-old modern gal, I feel like this faith helps me be who I truly am.
{I could write a novel on why I love the Catholic faith…but I’ll stop for now!}
as a Catholic, you can’t beat fish and chips on Fridays. and Guinness.
Spent a year in Europe and attended mass weekly in many different languages I didn’t speak, yet I shared the faith of those there and always felt at home. The universality of the church and its history is pretty awesome to ponder…
Ring the bells no more for the Most Great
Bell has wrung…. This is part of the letter sent to the Pope by Baha’u'llah. Christ has returned with a new name. That is why I love my Faith. I am a Christian of the Second Coming.
I love the Eucharist….we can receive Jesus every single day & we can do this all over the world! It’s a fresh start for us daily, offering hope & grace & strength to be better people. LOVE it!
I love so much about being Catholic, it’s hard to choose just one thing! Holy Eucharist, celebrations like Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper and Easter Vigil (can’t wait!), my own parish community… yikes! There is just too much to love!
I love that we have sacramentals – water, incense, beads, candles, etc, and that we have so many ways to celebrate outside of the mass (feast days, liturgical seasons…) It brings faith to life when you encounter it with your whole person and in so many ways and places, not just sitting in the pew on Sunday.
I love learning about the saints. Hearing their stories, especially saints like Augustine, who was not so saint-like in his youth, but through the power of the Holy Spirit and the prayers of his mother was brought to see the truth.
Prayer gives me strength to face the challenges of each day. The rosary is wonderful for its tactile and meditative. My thoughts often wander when I pray, but the rosary helps me to come back from my mental wanderings. To contemplate the many gifts God has given me and appreciate the things that I may not have realized as a gift at the time I was experiencing them.
I love the community of the church and the mass. Reconciliation is a wonderful gift, though I do not partake of this gift often enough.
I love the extensive treasure trove of thought, prayer and reflection that makes up our traditions and expressions of faith. I also love the diversity of charisms of the different saints and religious orders as well as the different religious and cultural traditions within each country and region of the world. It reflects a great Church tradition of being truly Catholic (universal) in both social justice and morality. Mostly I love the dedicated people who have dedicated their lives in the service of others. Their love and committment was built on a solid foundation of our Catholic faith. Great post Tom!
Aside from the Eucharist, Confession and the other things mentioned here already, I like that we have a few thousand years of history. The sheer amount of rich historical documents that we have available to us to learn from is amazing. There’s always something to learn about our faith. If we get bored, we can pick up a book about the saints or another devotion, we can strengthen our faith.
It really is amazing, and there is just so NYC we can never hit the botto of it.
That last sentence should read “It really is amazing, and there is just so much, we can never hit the bottom of it.”
iPod autocorrecting and such..
I am a Catholic. One thing I like about my faith is it is about community. For example, we abstain – as a community – from eating meat on Fridays during Lent. It is something that is not well understood among some of Protestant family members (they go out for burgers on Lent Fridays because “they can”).
I love that when we study the Bible, why we do what we do is marvelously reflected there. It’s all in here, people!
I love love love traveling all over the globe and being able to hear mass with whoever lives in the country I’m visiting. Even if we don’t speak the same language, we greet each other at the sign of peace and mean it. Even if I don’t understand the homily, I know the readings are the same as back home in Chicago, and I can pray the Our Father in English as they say it in French, Tagalog, Polish, Italian, Latin, German, or Spanish. I treasure the universality.
I love the Eucharist.
I love the way Jesus is present in all.
I love the Tradition of the saints.
I love the Stations of the Cross.
I love that we are imperfect, since I am, too.
I love the candles, icons, beautiful art, beautiful churches.
I love the support you get in the Church to grow and be a better person.
I love Catholic Relief Services.
I love that I spend all the important times of my life—losing my Dad, getting married, anticipating giving birth–kneeling in prayer. The church, circumstance, my age, locale, concern–all may change, but yet it is all the same. It provides stability and an anchor in a changing life.
I love our excellent educational institutions.
I am Catholic. I would agree with all of the comments about bringing depth to the calendar of days and traditions. But there are so many of those:) So in a new way, for community, for having a spiritual home no matter where I am or how many times I move. I am blessed.
I love being Catholic because after being raised a cradle Catholic, Catholic schools and all, I spent a lifetime wandering and basically living my own pride. After much reading and searching I found myself back home. Why? Because nothing else made sense.
I travel for work and I love being in a different city, feeling like a stranger and then walking into a church and feeling at home, like I am with family.
I love the history, learning all the traditions and the way the Word of God puts order to our chaotic lives. And I especially love the Sacraments, Saints, Martyrs, Angels, Mary, Jesus and God … pretty much everything about being Catholic.
What Tom no fillet-o-fish on Fridays? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bJOIqVAD-s
and I thought I was the only one who loved dinner on Fridays during lent. :)
I love our Catholic tradition of radical reformers and advocates for social justice — usually it takes the Church a while to catch up with them! Ss. Francis and Clare, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena, Dorothy Day (Servant of God), etc…
I love that Catholicism is a wisdom tradition. The sidewalk preachers who tell me all I have to do is say the magic words, “I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Savior,” and I will instantly be “Saved” make me want to throw up.
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