Session 2: Chapter 1, God Has No Grandchildren

For  Discussion:

In your own faith:

Have you always been Catholic?

Yes, I'm a Cradle Catholic.  Before my parents divorced, which was when I was about ten years old, they prayed together every evening in their bedroom and our family went to Mass together every Sunday.  We said Grace before meals always.  After my parents divorced, we lived with my grandmother.  Afterwards, going to Sunday Mass became infrequent due, in part, to my mother working full-time to support us.  We stopped saying Grace.  My two brothers never completed their sacraments of Reconciliation, Holy Communion or Confirmation while growing up. My grandmother didn't learn to drive so she couldn't take us kids to church when my mother worked.  But grandmother prayed the rosary almost every evening.  I was always at her side during her prayers.  These things that she did, I remember.  They kept me content and always in awe of the faith.  I can still remember, when as a child, memorizing prayers with her and staring at the cross; that feeling in my soul how close God was at hand.   Yes, I was always happy to be a Catholic.
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How did the instruction and mentoring you received help you - or prevent you - from having a personal relationship with God?

 I had religious instruction, from the time I was six years old until I was a junior in high school.  I dropped out of RE classes afterwards.  I'm going to say I received, what some refer to our catechism after Vatican II,  as a 'lukewarm education.'  In my opinion, that's what it was.  I can't recall anything in RE classes that stuck with me all these years.  I learned whatever was required in order to receive the next three sacraments after Baptism.  As I got older and got out on my own, I tried to go to Mass on Sundays and before going to work.  At some point, I quit going in the morning before work; I attended Mass maybe twice a month.  I had thought of becoming a nun in my twenties; it didn't happen.  But I was blessed to have my grandmother and an aunt (Yolanda); my mother's sister.  They were the example. I watched them; keeping in prayer and remaining devoted always to the Church.  So, yes I believe I have a relationship with God because of them.
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If you were raised in a Catholic home, are your family members all still Catholic? 

   My father stopped going to church twenty years ago, for whatever reasons that he has.  He won't discuss them.  But he refers himself as a Catholic and has always continued to pray nightly.  My mother goes to church every Sunday.  My brother doesn't go to Mass; but he believes in God.  He prays and reads the Bible.  He calls himself a 'Christian.'  My other youngest brother passed away when he was seventeen.  He attended Mass whenever he could before he died. At some point in my life, I have to admit that I stopped going to church, and put God 'on the shelf' for a length of time.  It's when I married, at thirty-four, and gave birth to my first child, that I took our Lord 'off the shelf' and made sure he was a real presence in our home and in my children's lives.
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What events among your friends and family seem to explain why some are Catholic, and others are not?

I'm only guessing; but the Church has been under scrutiny for some time relating to some of the scandals of the priests,   The debate of whether a priest should be married or not.  Should we have to confess our sins to a priest?  Why do we honor Mary through prayer?  Homosexuality.  Is the body and blood of Christ really in the Holy Eucharist?  Why can't women be priests in the Catholic church?  etc. I'm guessing these are only some of the reasons that so many Catholics have left the church or refuse to practice their faith.  Embarrassed to be Catholic, maybe?  For some, it's not cool to be Catholic. Lastly, because they have not been well-educated on the faith of the Church.
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In your parish:

How’s your “retention rate”?  Don't know.

What percentage of 8th graders in your parish are still practicing the faith at age 18?  Honestly, I don't know.    

 At age 24? I don't know.

Do young adults in your parish stay in touch with their childhood faith community, or do they drift away to an unknown fate?"

  I believe that if they go off to college, they probably drift away to an unknown fate.  Possibly, some may rekindle their faith when they're a little older, in their thirties perhaps, or when preparing for marriage.  But I'm only guessing.  I have a niece that hasn't gone to Mass since she went off to college two years ago.
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