Alyssa Ference

Dr. Leap

Faith, Religion, and Society

15 December 2018

Faith Journey

Chapter I: Introduction to Religion

My faith journey has been quite simple. It started when I was a baby. My mother’s side

of the family are all strong Catholics, which determined the fact that I would be baptized, along

with the rest of my siblings. That was my first introduction to religion and it was the only

religion I would know for the next few years of my life.

I was taught how to pray and have grace at family dinner. We pray by bowing our heads

and folding our hands together and end pray with the father, son, and holy spirit, Amen. My

family always took turns leading grace so that each person would be given a chance to thank

God for what he has done for us. One particular belief I have had since I was a young girl is that

the statue of the Virgin Mary that my mother puts in the window the night before an expected

storm, blesses the house and pushes the storm away. She protects all of us from harmful weather.

I believe in this because my mother has believed in it and has told me it since I was a young

child and because I have faith in my mother, I trust her beliefs. Another practice I have done for

my whole life is put a statue of the major under my Christmas tree I have in my room, but baby

Jesus is not allowed to be placed there until Christmas day of course.

My mother was also a CCD teacher, meaning I participated in every year of CCD, helped

decorate the room, and plan activities for her class. W all completed our first communion and our

confirmation. It was known that every one of my siblings and I would be taught the Catholic
religion, but what we decided to practice as an adult was left up to us to decide. My parents made

it apparent that they wanted us to be educated in all religions before we made a choice of what

we would practice. That’s when I started exploring other similar religions.

Chapter 2: The beginning of questioning

As a teenager, we are known to question everything. Why we have to get out of the street,

why we have to clean our room, why we cannot hangout with friends, why we have to do our

homework. That is why my faith journey truly began as a teenager. This is the time when I

started attending other church’s events with my friends, both Lutheran and Greek church events.

I learned a lot and was able to think about what I believed in and who I wanted to put my faith

in. My best friend, Maddie, belongs to a Lutheran church and brought me to youth groups with

her. I thoroughly enjoyed these nights where we played games, sang songs, and went into deep

discussions about our faith journeys. It was there that I listened in on other individual’s point of

view and wanted to understand how their practices were different than the ones I grew up

knowing. To put it in a short explanation, what I learned from the Lutheran church is that they

believe in the same God that we do and mass is practically the same, but Lutherans tend to be

less strict with their practices and events. I attended a few of the Greek celebrations with my

friend Sarah and was able to learn dances, traditional foods, and how they practiced.

After coming home and talking about what I learned about the Lutheran church with my

mom, I began to realize I was more comfortable and knowledgeable with the Catholic religion

and tended to belief more in the practices they preached. When it was all said and done, I was

extremely happy that I was able to try out other religious practices in the Lutheran church and

also experience Greek traditions, celebrations, and dances. I believe it is important to gain

outside religion experiences to properly guide yourself on your own faith journey. From this
experience, I learned more about my beliefs, like confession, communion, and the importance of

masses.

After determining that I wanted to stick with my Catholic religion, I wanted to learn more

about it, which brings me to my next and current stage of my faith journey.

Chapter 3: Understanding Religion

In order to understand Catholic traditions more, I started attending church and truly

paying attention to the way mass is played out. I realized that every mass focuses on different

topics. The priest begins with readings from the Bible and then goes into a speech about how it

applies to individuals lives today. Because of my new interest in getting to know my religion, I

chose Seton Hill as the college I would attend, along with other reasons as to why I chose the

school.

The stage I am in now is where I have the most doubts about my faith. It was during my

freshmen year that one of my friends passed away due to a car accident. I started doubting in

God because I could not understand how someone so sweet and so young who has never hurt a

soul could be taken away. My mother is often the one I go to when I face my doubts because she

seems to remind me that God has a plan for everyone and although we might not understand

why, it is our duty and our challenge to trust him and to keep our faith in him because everything

happens for a reason. After we lost Maggie Murray, who graduated from Seton Hill and the

Women’s Volleyball team last year, I doubted religion again. It is hard for me to understand why

such awful things happen in the would if we supposedly have this God who is almighty and all

powerful who can change the course of the world. Once again, it is my mom who reminds me

that everyday God challenges us to help us grow as a person and sometimes the way we are

challenged is painful, hard, or frustrating, but God will guide us through it. Without my mom to
remind me of all of our beliefs and bring my mind back to the ground, I do not know what my

faith journey would look like.

I find that I tend to question and doubt now because when it comes to religion, it is hard

to know for certain why things happen. You just have to believe in your God and have faith that

it will work out in the end. Right now, my personality finds it hard to wrap my head around just

accepting that we are uncertain and to belief it happens for a reason. One way I keep my personal

relationship with my religion is by praying before bed every night. I say an our father prayer,

thank God for everything he has given me, and pray for peace, happiness, health, and success for

myself and my loved ones. I think praying before bed is my way of enforcing my faith and

reminding myself how lucky I am to be where I am.

Looking forward, I am excited to see where my faith journey takes me. I think I have a

lot more to learn about my religion and to understand about why we practice the way we do. I

have grown wisdom in God and what he stands for, what he does, and even a little in

understanding why he does it. I look forward to making a greater connection to God and

experiencing the good he does for me as I grow up. As of now, I am going to keep praying every

night, attending church when possible, and wondering the why’s and how of religion.