Personal Narrative: How Religion Changed My Life

In Pat Conroy’s “Confessions of an Ex-Catholic”, Conroy describes the love he had for the Catholic mass rituals, the Georgian chants, and the prayer even though he left the character and swears to never return. Conroy includes that, although he was thankful for this upbringing, he will never force his children in the church. Conroy also confesses that while he is an ex-Catholic he is still part of the church and forever will be. The purpose of Conroy’s confession is to admit and almost convince the reader, the audience, that even after leaving a religion or certain belief, one is always part of it and it is a part of one. “Just as I always will be American and Southern, I will always be Catholic. I left the Church but she has not left me.” Many might think that after leaving a religion, the connection is over but it quite the opposite. Conroy proves in his confession that his upbringing within the Catholic Church shaped him as not only as a person but also as a writer.

The Catholic church has been highly respected for centuries throughout the world. But during the 16th century, a German monk named Martin Luther challenged the Catholic church of their holiness and revealed to the world the real truth behind their saintliness. He wanted to let the world know that the so-called righteous were not really as they seemed; they were as identical as the fraudsters we have today.

Because I am Mexican and live in a predominately Hispanic town, nearly everybody I know is Catholic. My friends, my teachers, and even my loved ones. It was difficult to explain to them that I did not share their beliefs. I was labeled and judged by many of those around me (which I found ironic considering Matthew 7:1). I began to feel pretty low, until I realized that our Lord Jesus was too judged and labeled and even humiliated for everyone to see. Everybody’s judgment only made me love Christ more. It made me feel a true connection with Him and what He went through to save me and give me eternal life. Every and any rude comment my religion and my love for Jesus only strengthens my faith even more. Jesus ignited a fire within me that I didn’t even know existed. He opened my eyes to the true beauty of what it means to be a Christian, and opened doors to many beautiful friends and opportunities I would have never received if I did not love

In early August of 2009, I embarked on a long drive from the beautiful state of Virginia

In this field observation I attended a catholic mass of a friend’s church. I was born in a Christian family and never thought that I would ever attend a Sunday catholic mass. I only have one friend who still attends a church, a catholic church. I attended this mass with my friend Paul and his family who are Pilipino. Paul was nice enough to let come to his church to be an observer and a bit of a participant. I wanted to know more about what happened at a Catholic Church mass and what it meant to the catholic community. In addition, the church is located on Vinland and Stagg in Sun Valley, and the church is named, our lady of the holy rosary.

In today’s world it is easy to become enchanted by worldly things. The deceptions that Christian’s allow themselves to believe (i.e. just this once, it’s not going to hurt anyone, I can handle it, I can stop whenever I want, etc.) come directly from Satan. There was a time when hearing a curse word or seeing too much flesh in a movie would be embarrassing; now it appears to be the norm and most Christians do not even bat an eye at such things any more. I remember as a young child feeling uncomfortable watching a movie with my parents when there was merely a suggestion of inappropriate behavior, but over the years my standards have “somehow” dropped. I honestly cannot pinpoint when I allowed it to become acceptable

Before I discuss my experience at Grace Lutheran Church I feel it would be beneficial to explain my Church Background, so that you can better understand my outsider view of the Sunday morning worship Service I attended. I have been raised in the Baptist/Southern Baptist church my entire life. My parents are from South Carolina, which is also where I grew up, so our idea of Church has always been a small community with a very relaxed atmosphere. I stopped attending the Baptists church when I was 16. I chose to join Bent-tree Bible Fellowship, a non-denominational church. I attended this church for about 2 years when I started my sophomore year at DBU and was offered a position in children’s ministry at First Baptist Colleyville. Bent-tree and FBC were the two largest churches I have been a part of both between 3,000-5,000 in total Sunday attendance. Both follow the same basic order of service. Begin around 11am with 10-15 minutes of worship singing, then announcements, followed by an special aspect of the service like a video a special song etc.… The sermon lasts about 25-35 minutes and we close with prayer and one final worship song. Again all the churches I have ever attended have been very relaxed, shorts

In the German states, Martin Luther realized that the priests were often unqualified, immoral, and corrupted. At first, he lack an assurance of religious salvation. Although he prayed and confessed his sins for hours, he realized that his afterlife was by justification by faith. This meant that our religious faith

Creating my own religion, this task does seem pretty fun. Well my religion would be very similar to the army and sports, it will contain structure, a need to compete/exercise, guidelines on how to treat others, and most of all it will be fun. There will be no reliance on a god/s, no prejudice against others and most of all, history will be made by each individual. And what I mean from that, yes there will be history but each person will be in charge of choosing their own paths in life. There will be no guidelines to follow (except to treat others kindly), just the freedom for one to create their own greatness. The goal of my religion is to instill hard work throughout life, and overcome obstacles to achieve success. I personally don’t believe

In this article titled “How Do We Know It's The One True Church?” the author “Fr.Dwight Longanecker” gives many critical points of defending his argument. In this article the author gives background on how he was brought up in the church. The author gives his conversion story on how he was raised as a protestant and then converted to Catholicism. All in all the author has a good understanding on what he is arguing about. Throughout this article the author defends his argument through Ethos Pathos and Logos in many topics such as how the church is rooted in history of the church, Divine Scripture and the authors conversion story.

I entered Bishop Connolly High School in fear. I thought I would be drowned by homework, and I thought that I would find difficulty in finding friends. Those notions were not true. But aside from my fears for high school, I had an aspiration to become to closer to God. My family is religious, and I intend to carry the tradition to going to Church every Sunday and every Holy Day of Obligation, but there is more beyond going to Church. As children of God, we are given a purpose to serve for and protect His creation. God created this beautiful world, and it is our job to maintain it and those who inhabit it. We are sent to spread the word of God, and to protect the Church and the Catholic faith. I hoped that I could carry out my mission by going

The religion I choose to observe for my fieldwork project is Catholicism. In order to complete the fieldwork assignment required for this paper I attended St. Lawrence Church on 5225 N. Himes Avenue in Tampa, FL. One of the reasons I chose to observe Catholicism for my fieldwork project is because it is a prominent religion throughout the world. In addition to the US, Catholicism is widely supported within Europe and Latin American countries. Another reason I chose Catholicism is because I found it to be relatively different from my own religion, Hinduism. I favored St. Lawrence Church over some of the other catholic churches in the area due to the fact that a few of my friends were already part of the community. Also, St. Lawrence Church

For Easter Vigil this year I had the opportunity to attend Saint Rose Catholic Church on April 15 with my roommate Javier Guerra. The church is located in his hometown Great Bend Kansas. For me, it was the first time in quite a bit that I have attended an Easter Vigil at a catholic church. I usually go to a different type of Easter service with my mother at her church. Great Bend is a very small town and a lot of Javier’s friends and family were all there in attendance, which really made me feel like I was at home. I would say that most people there in Great Bend are religious. Overall the experience was very peaceful and reminded me of the atmosphere I feel when I am home.

For my Reading Summary assignment, I chose an article from our Week Six readings, “Buddhism; An Introduction,” featured on PBS Online.

I grew up in a Catholic family—my parents and relatives are all Roman Catholics. In my younger years, I already remember my parents teaching me basic Catholic prayers and telling me stories or parables from the Bible. In addition, I spent my grade school and high school years in a Catholic school in Pasig. For ten years, we would pray before and after every subject and break time. Catholic retreats, recollections, seminars, and outreach events became a part of our student life, apart from having religion classes three times a week. In short, I grew up actively practicing the Catholic faith, with Jesus as the center and the role model of my life. I grew up believing that God, our Almighty Father, is the most powerful Being behind the creation of the universe—all of his attributes and characteristics are beyond measure. I grew up not doubting the