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News / Understanding my belief

Understanding my belief

Interfaith Voices

F&BF Communications

15 / 05 / 18

Daniel considers this months theme, Tradition and Change: My faith and belief story to reflect on his upbringing as a Catholic. He considers his exposure to religion and his inability to understand it at a young age. Daniel reflects on the experiences that solidified his belief and lead him to understand more about himself. 

My interest and beliefs in Religion has significantly changed over the past couple of years. I am 21 years of age originally born in Liverpool but now living in London. My father is a strong Catholic and my mother is not religious at all. When I was born my mother agreed with my father for me to have a Catholic upbringing i.e. attending Church every Sunday and going to Catholic schools. As a young boy I felt forced into this and I didn’t understand anything about Religion. I attended Mass on a Sunday morning because I was told to. My parents divorced when I was young, however my mum continued to take me to Church every Sunday. Maybe it was something she wished her parents did for her.

As I got older my friends all played for football teams that would play on Sunday mornings. I felt extremely left out as I would have to attend Church. I explained this feeling of exclusion to my mother which gave her a chance to look more into Mass times. We decided to attend on Saturday evenings instead. Even though my mother was not a catholic she was extremely interested in the Bible readings and the stories the priest used to talk about. However, she could no longer enjoy the hymns as they were only sung on Sunday Mornings.

It wasn’t until the age of 11/12 when I completed my First Holy Communion, it hit me how important Religion is. Although my mum has forced me to go to church over the years, it eventually became a place I could go to relax and release all that was on my mind.

A few years ago my Granddad who lived in India passed away, I was not close with that side of my family as I had never been. However, I received a memorial card with his picture on and a prayer. This was the first person in my family who had died and it was the first time I had been exposed to death. Seeing this memorial card  really made me think long and hard about Religion and what happens after we die.

I currently work Full Time in Retail, which means I have to work weekends. Why do I have to go to Church to pray, when I can pray every day at home/in my day to day activities, or at work. This kind of explains how much Religion changes in one persons life, to another. I go to Church every year for Midnight Mass and that is all. It is nice to meet other friendly people to sing Christmas carols and I get a real feeling of festivity from this tradition. I find Religion a inspiring topic to talk about, as people have so many different understanding of what it actually is/means. I work in an environment with people who have different views on Religion, but we have one thing in common, an openness that means we can come together.

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