I'm a Catholic...I was born a Catholic. My family were not exactly what you would call, dedicated Catholics. My parents would take my sister and I to St. Joseph Church every Saturday evening but gradually as years flew pass, they started to take us to church less and less often. On the account that they were busy or they were tired. Now, we rarely go to church. Probably twice per month appart from First Fridays of the month. But I took a short while of my time everynight to say a short prayer and sometimes, I would pray the rosary. Though I didn't go to church as often as most Catholics but I'm glad that I wasn't one of those who never had God in my life or those who had pushed God out of their lives. I have a friend whose father was a Buddhist and mother was a Catholic but he chose to be a Buddhist because he told me that Buddhists pray less so that's why he chose to be one. I had tried to keep my faith strong all throughout 15 years of my life with or without going to church every Saturday or Sunday. People would usually go, "you rarely go to church? What sort of Catholic are you?". Well, I am a Catholic with faith, trust and love in God and I am proud to be one. I don't care when people insult my religion and tell me that Catholics do alot of nonsense. I have fought the good fight, I have won the race and I have kept the faith. And it feels great to know that.
I suddenly saw it all so clearly...
I suddenly saw it all so clearly as we were praying during LSS. It was almost like someone slotted a photo into my head. Next, everything just clicked into place. I saw all the faces of the people I have hurted and I realized that I hadn't spoken to them for months or perhaps even years without a cause. I realized that I had hated them without a cause, which, was clearly impossible. I realized how I had a tendency of harshly rejecting people and later, not speaking to them. I realized that it wasn't the best solution, indeed it wasn't even a good solution. Not only that, I realized that I had always waited for appologies whenever I got into a fight. I had a friend whom, used to be rather good friends with me but after we fought several times, we grew appart and now, we don't even talk. I don't even say a simple hello when I see this friend. It was during the prayer when I realized, I ought to appologize no matter if this friend chooses to appologize to me or not. I not only saw images of those I have hurted but images of those I love and cherish in my life. I realized how I never grabbed the opportunity to tell them how much I love them. I realized how I was one of those who tried to hide everything I felt because I was afraid of rejection and patrionization. It all just happened during LSS, it was like God slotted a slide show of how I showed people that I loved them into my head. I had never thought about this before. Now I realize, that if I never tell someone that I love them, I may not have another chance tomorrow for I wouldn't know if he or she would still be there tomorrow.