Student Testimonial

Having been baptised into the Catholic Church, a cradle catholic I suppose you’d call it, I’ve always taken my faith for granted. I knew what the sacraments were and I lived as best I could in the most genuine way possible. However, as the years have passed and with the growth of ‘new atheism’ coupled with the mass exposure to different thought and ideologies shared on social media platforms I realised that my own foundations of faith, were not as steady as I thought. I knew God existed but I was a lot less sure about why the Church taught what it did. I’ve always encouraged my children to question everything and now I was in the position where I had so many questions myself and didn’t have the tools to find the answers. The opportunity arose for me to do the course in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. My soon to be adult son was interested in doing it and I went along to the information evening to offer him moral support. What I hadn’t envisioned was that I was going to be moved by the Holy Spirit to take the course myself. But moved I was!
I’ve now completed year one of the course and I feel like my faith has been totally transformed. The daily readings and the weekly meetings have been a joy to participate in. With a diverse group of people from all different backgrounds sharing and teasing out the texts of the catechism I can truly say that I come away each week more enriched and joyous. What I have found most since beginning the course is that I have become more open to allowing the Spirit move within me. I have taken up the challenge to become a better Catholic……a better person. It’s not, as I initially thought, about ‘rules and regulations’. It’s about love and how love is the central teaching of God and His Church and when we are motivated in the first place by love then it becomes easier to understand how everything else falls into place.