My 8-Week Pilgrimage

Throughout this class, I have learned a lot more than I thought I would. I learned a lot more about the Church's teachings on more then just sex before marriage. I learned about their view on homosexuality, and why they feel that way. While I may not agree with their view, but now that I know more about it I can respect it more. Another thing that I really found interesting was learning about the "hookup culture." I understood what the hookup culture was, but I did not know the extent of it. I learned what the Church believed and how to go about a relationship in a healthy way. The video of the couple who talked about "good relationships" and being responsible really left an impression on me.
These things that I learned were great, but I also learned more concrete facts in the Church. I never really understood what Natural Family Planning was, but having talked about it I now understand what it is and why people choose to use it as an alternative to birth control. The discussion about abortion we had and the video we watched was also helpful because I new what Abortion could do to the body, but not what it could do to the soul. This class helped me a lot because it gave me a factual base to stand on so that I can make informed decisions in the future. I am really going to miss this class and the discussions we had.

Well, love is...

The qualities that I look for in a loving, committed, relationship are patience and loyalty. Both of these qualities are important to having a great love; patience because sometimes love can turn passionate. By having patience, each person is able to keep a cool head and work past the issue and move on. Loyalty is also important because  you can love someone but if there is a conflict, sometimes the one person will leave and give the love to someone else. With loyalty, you can trust that the person will be there no matter what. I see love in music in several different ways. One way is through almost every Taylor Swift song, because she writes a lot of songs about her love life. These songs range from 1st love to being in a relationship to the break up and after. Another way is through songs by people like Justin Bieber or Usher. They sometimes talk about physical  love with a spouse or girlfriend or romantic love. Music is a way that people express their different views and feelings in a way that doesn't mean direct confrontation. The view on soul mates is a little weird.  I do believe that the person you marry should be the one you spend the rest of your life with. But, the 1st person you marry may not be the one you are meant to be with. For example, if a couple gets married, but then one of them dies and the living one remarries and is happier, that means she has found her soul mate. Not that she didn't love the other spouse, but this is the one she is meant to be with. There is no universal "Mr. Perfect,"it is different for everyone.

What Marriage Looks Like Now.

I think that we have a domestic church in our lives whether we want to or not. The concept of a domestic church is where one develops a sense of love and a sense of community. Personally, my domestic church has been very loving and nurturing. It includes my parents, my sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and many more. As we have gotten older, our domestic church's have developed and expanded to include different people, depending on their relationship to us. I think that having a united family, and domestic church, creates a good base for a child to grow up in, but it is not the only way. I have known people who have come from divorced homes who still have a great family base or domestic church. I think it really depends on the people and the situation that is occurring. All that really matters is that there is love present.

Marriage Before and After Vatican 2

Vatican 2 changed a lot for the Catholic Church. Times have changed, however, and now their are some differences between what marriage was in Vatican 2 and what it is now. Here are four example: number one is that Vatican 2 calls marriage "a vocation." While this is true for some people, but for many people marriage is something that happens, not something that we have been destined for our entire lives. Difference number two is that the church says that marriage, or conjugal, love is never fleeting. As we learned in class, we live in a 'hook-up' culture so sometimes marriage does not always last, hence the high divorce rate. A lot of times people fall out of love just as easily as they fall into love.  Difference number three, though not specifically stated, is the view on Same-Sex Marriage. 50 years ago, same-sex marriage was not even a suggestion, so it was not discussed. Vatican 2 does say, several times, that marriage is between a man and a woman. It can be inferred that the makers of Vatican 2 would not support same-sex marriage. The forth and final difference is that Vatican 2 says that marriage is a necessary part of the church, like any other vocation, but not all forms of marriage are allowed. This is a nicer way of saying that they only support heterosexual marriages. Vatican 2 helped move the Church forward, but there is room for more change. 

Response on Dating

        I can understand where they are coming from when they say that more dating can lead to divorce. Younger people often don't want a super serious relationship, so the "hook-up" culture seems more appealing. This, however, causes  more issues than anything else. By hooking up, people don't make the needed connections and that leads to a bad relationship or no relationship at all. This can cause issues later in life, but it doesn't mean that people who hook-up when they are young will have a hard time making a commitment when they are older. People mature as they get older, and more often then not, get over the whole "hooking-up" thing. They then become involved in serious committed relationships
         Hooking-up can be defined as many different things. It can mean kissing, touching or a combination of the both. It really depends on the situation that the two people are in. It is commonly thought that when people say 'I hooked up with him' it is thought that the two people had sex. While it is not always true, it is what most people think. This perception is very heavily influenced by popular culture. Many TV shows portray "hooking-up" as sex, so that is naturally what we think of when we hear 'She hooked up with him!' No matter what culture says, "hooking-up" is dependent upon what the situation is.

Response to "When Will He Propose"

I really liked the article on Busted Halo, but I, like the reader who responded, disagreed with the author's opinion. While I have seen some shows that featured the attitudes he was talking about, it is not solely the women who put a large investment in the traditional "man proposing" scenario. Many men feel that it is their duty to propose because that's how their fathers did it and the tradition needs to be continued. I also think that men believe they need to "take care" of the women, they believe that the ring will signify the start of that. It's sweet and everything, but it's a little out dated. Marriage is something that people really talk about, instead of the man surprising the woman with a romantic dinner and candles. The part in the article, that talks about how marriage should be a discussion between the two people, and not a surpass really applies to my parents because that's what they did. My parents dated for 6 weeks and then had a discussion about marriage. They ultimately decided that they should get married, but I bet that if my dad had just surpassed my mom, it would have taken a lot longer.

Wonderful Gift and Awesome Responsibility Response

In this article, the themes that I recognized are the one teaching that is called "unitive dimension" or saving sex until marriage and  the teaching that is called "the procreative dimension," which says that if people have sex, they are trying to have to have a baby. I have learned these teachings in previous religion classes, although they were called different things. Some things that I didn't recognized as much was the church's teachings on natural family planning. Also, the church offers counseling for those who are uncertain or confused about the church's teachings. I think that this is a good thing because some people don't fully understand what the teachings are, and thus don't consider themselves Catholic. The one part that I really didn't agree with is the view of homosexuality. The article says that the church feels bad that homosexual people are being discriminated against, but they feel it is still morally wrong and the feelings shouldn't be acted on. This statement is very confusing and very contradictory.  

My Mission Statement

I believe that all people should be treated equally, no matter what they believe or what disability they have. I will use my strengths to help others in need. I will become a teacher to share my knowledge and empathy with the world. I will use my free time to be an awesome friend and to read and discover something really special. I would like to feel as inspired as I did when I was in Europe, and hope to be able to bring my family there, so they can feel the same way. I pledge to use my talents to make the most of the present and to better the future.

Who am I?

The first thing that I remember my life changing was when I switched schools in 6th grade. I went from  a small parish school to a private school where my classmates came from all over instead of my street. This was hard for me because I have always been I shy person. So having to make all new friends and meet all new people was very hard for me. I went a few days where I didn't talk to many people, just because I was to scared to. Eventually I got fed up with being alone and went up and started talking to some girls. It wasn't as bad as I thought and after that I came out of my shell a little. I am still a shy person, but not as shy as I was before.
http://www.waldronmercy.org/RelId/33637/ISvars/default/Home.htm

Another thing that helped to shape my life, which happened around the same time, was theater. I remember, the first musical I was in, which was called "Bernies does Broadway." It was a show that my church put on and was basically the best musical numbers from very famous shows, like "Oklahoma" and "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown." I remember being in that show and loving every minute of it. It again, got me out of my shell, but in a different way. On stage, I found that I liked being a part of a cast and putting together a story in front of the audience. Since this show, I have been in several other productions, and I can't imagine stopping. Theater became a love of mine, and helped make me who I am today.

The last thing that influenced, my future plans more than anything else, is my cousin Griffin. Griffin was born with Down syndrome 9 years ago. He has a more mild form of Down syndrome, but it is present. The reason that Griffin has influenced is because he has helped me figure out that I wanted to be a Special Education teacher. I've always wanted to be a teacher, but seeing Griffin as a baby and growing up, I realized that I wanted to help children like that. I even had the opportunity to see one of Griffin's teachers helping him, and that's when I knew that being a Special Education teacher. Griffin has not only helped me figure out my future job, but has also changed my life for the better.