I have always been told that I was lacking in faith by the religious teachers I had growing up. That was because I would ask questions. LOTS of questions. To the point when most of them couldn't answer them and would answer with - You just have to believe, that's why they call it faith. Naturally, this only exasperated me more. Again, not getting into that here.
Despite all of that, for whatever reason I chose to send my children to parochial school. I won't go into all of the reasons here but I can assure you guilt is not one of them. I don't have the Catholic guilt you hear about, probably because I don't have enough faith. Whatever.
Anyway, we are in the time of Lent that has food restrictions of not eating meat on Fridays. This would not be a sacrifice for me because I enjoy seafood and would like to eat it at home on a regular basis but hubby is not a great fan and so I don't make it often. that is except during Lent. We do fish on Friday's mostly, I think, because of hubby's guilt. He's the one who brings it up. This year for the first time, my kids are joining in. Both of my children went to services on Ash Wednesday and went to mass last Sunday - on their own. I have not taken my children to mass since 16 graduated from parochial school in 8th grade (3 years ago). I have been to mass and so have they but not a required event on a specific day. I was surprised to hear that they both happened to decide that they need to go back to the church. They each separately told me that they found it comforting. 19 actually told me that he felt like he "...found something that had been missing..." and 16 said he thought it would help him "...get it together..."
It made me feel good that they had something (their religion/church) to do this for them. I believe that's a good thing and I hope that it will give them years of comfort ahead. I have many issues with the Church but I am glad that my children have had a positive experience with it.
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