Renewal of my faith (part 1)

I have mentioned before that I was going to share about PREX. PREX stands for Parish Renewal Experience. By the name itself, it means renewal or rediscovering of faith and your activeness to the church.

I do not know why I forgot to include this on my list of topics to write about but I have mentioned it twice or thrice in my past articles. It was only the other night when I have remembered about it while I was reading gwapojohn's the family that prays together stays together article.

Just like him, I respect each and everyone's religions and your own perspectives about it.

To start off, I will just give a background about me. I was baptized as a Catholic. We were taught about God's teachings by my parents and teachers. We also hear Sunday masses but sadly it was not regularly and we were not complete as my dad was always absent. I only get to attend first Friday masses at school as it was our first subject every first Friday of the month. We were also required to wesr gala uniforms. It was just an all white counterpart of our regular uniform. I was lucky that I did not go to school wearing a regular uniform on the first Friday of the month or wear a gala uniform on regular Friday. Some of my classmates had worn wrong uniforms when we were in grade school. You would really stand out for wearing the wrong one.

Going back, other than first Friday masses at school, we only go to church when my mom feels like going to the church or when it was Christmas eve's mass or New Year's eve mass. As much as I do not want to say it but that is the truth. I even remember that when I was still a little kid, I would always sleep or play inside the church. Then I cannot wait for the mass to be over because I know that my dad will fetch us and we would go to the mall after. There was even a time when it was New Year's eve mass when I almost got hit by a car. I was happily to see my dad's car parked just outside the church that I ran towards him without even looking at the road. Good thing that the driver was quick to hit the brakes. I got a lot of scolding from my parents because of that incident. But that time I know I still do not know how to cross the streets so I was probably around 4-6 years old. Looking back I realized that God has always been there for me ever since I was a baby. I do not want to cry but that is the truth.

I have not yet asked my dad why he did not join us whenever we would hear Sunday masses. That behaviour has greatly influenced me and my brother. When we moved in this house, my mom wanted that me and my brother to join her in going to church. We all know that Sunday is the last day before we go back to school that all we want to do is to enjoy it. My brother would even reason out to my mom why he cannot come with us but she was very adamant. Though most of the times it was mostly me and my mom who always went to the church. There was even a time that after we went back from the church, we caught my brother playing game consoles. My mom was so mad that she confiscated it. LOL. But mind you, even if my brother rarely goes to church before, for me he is really a very good person. The exact opposite of me. LOL. That is why I believe in the saying that some church goers are sinners while some people who does not go to church are the real saints.

Growing up, I was really envious of other people who would go to the church with their whole family. When my brother stepped into high school, he would not sit with us in the same bench as with my mom. He would either stay at the back row or outside the church. I have observed that some guys are like that even my crush here inside our subdivision would always position himself by the door or outside even if there are many available seats inside. I was guilty of checking out some cute boys when I was inside the church back then. Let me know if you can relate to that. Whenever I would see a family that prays together, I was also hoping that we can also do that as a family. Little did I know that it was also what my mom had also hoped for. Did you grow up going to the church with the whole family?

Growing up I cannot say that I have lost my faith but I am positive that I drifted away from Him. I did a lot of bad things in the past and I know I am still doing some bad but not as bad as who I was before. Though I know in my heart that I have changed. What brought about that change? You will know on my next article.

P.S. lead image was a photo that I took when I was inside the church.