#cradlecatholic

(I clearly suck at titles.)

So I bumped into a childhood friend of mine recently. 

We were tight. Church choir since eight years old, hung out with her fam almost every Sunday after Mass, and even celebrated our birthdays together (somewhat-- hers is fifteen days after mine). My brother got close to her brothers and my parents got close to her parents. (Amidst all this, I managed to develop an awesome friendship with her dog haha)

Sadly, this all stopped when I got homeschooled and she got busy with school. I began playing for choirs at other churches so we didn’t see each other often at the church we’re registered at. Every now and then when I wasn’t playing at another church, I’d see her family and we’d chat for a little while but things never returned to how it was back when we were wee little kids. 

Fast forward to the present, my childhood friend and I are attending the same university but as different majors.

A few weeks ago I had texted her asking if she’d like to go to Sunday Mass and her response was heartbreaking (for me, at least): 

I don’t consider myself Catholic anymore.

I kind of asked her about it (I hope I wasn’t too intrusive) and she simply replied that she doesn’t believe everything.

I wonder, now, how many Catholic teens are going in the same direction? How can this be prevented? What is causing this?

It’s easy to put the blame on society and the culture the children are raised in. It’s also easy to put the blame on the child himself/herself because, afterall, s/he is capable of making decisions. But what really happened?

I don’t have a definite answer to this but I’m pretty sure it was the result of a combination of lack of spiritual guidance and bad influence from peers.

We can’t control what others believe in but we can control the environment they are in.

This blog is for you. It will be about my journey through life through the eyes of faith (or lack of it? - sometimes maybe). But you don’t have to read it. 

I’ll leave some personal details about myself for as long as I can but here are some things about me:

I love music and I’m a freshman at a university in California. I’m somewhat discerning my vocation. My favorite saint is St. Thérèse of Lisieux. I think priests, brothers, and the like are some of the coolest people on Earth. I fully believe everything the Church teaches although I can’t say I know enough to defend my faith (I’m still learning). 

A few warnings: 

I use slang and colloquial terms sometimes and because of that you might get scandalized. I’ll try not to but it might happen, y’know?

My posts probably won’t be structured (like an essay format or whatever). I tend to go on tangents a lot so be prepared for the ride.

The length of my posts vary depending on how much homework I have left to do. If I suddenly realize that I have to do something mid-post, I’ll say so (and thus the post will end abruptly and will wait to be continued in the following post).

Let me just get this out there: I’m struggling to stay Catholic. (Hence my username)

I’m a Cradle Catholic – I’ve been a Catholic since birth – and this transition to college life has squeezed out some things that were (and I guess still are) central to how I practice the faith. 

It’s so hard to pray here. Not just because of the many distractions but also because there’s zero prayer spaces on campus. The Catholic Center is somewhat nearby (off campus) but it’s near the frat houses which is kinda unsafe. The best place for me to pray is the bathroom but, y’know, I can’t stay in the bathroom forever finishing my daily rosaries. My roommates will think I’m having trouble taking a dump. LOL

In addition, where the heck are the Catholics? A priest advised me to pray for fellowship before I left for college. The only people I know who are Catholic are those at the Catholic Center. I’ve only seen two people from there on campus, only because they are in one of my classes. Everyone here is promoting immoral values (same-sex “marriage,” abortion, use of contraception, etc.). With the amount of people supporting these and the great number of groups/clubs that hold events to “educate” people on these, anyone could easily be influenced to support these values.

Recently, I bumped into one of my childhood friends.