Speaking Out

Faith. Recently, I have been puzzled with this five-letter phenomenon. This tiny word is loaded with huge potential. Faith is belief, a leap, a trust in a force beyond ourselves. Mother Angelica, an American Roman Catholic nun, said “Faith is one foot on the ground, one foot in the air and a queasy feeling in the stomach.”

During times of hardship, our faith is challenged. We look towards God, others and even ourselves to find comfort in our pain. That is why I initially thought there was a profound difference between faith in God, others and ourselves.

The monthly e-mail I share with a group of Catholic friends was sent recently following a disturbing personal situation where I was reminded of the sickness of impurity, even in our circle of faith.

Just a few days prior, at a Catholic function, I was made very uncomfortable by a married man’s questionable behaviour towards me. Though many might have trivialized the incident, I felt objectified in a setting where I expected safety and protection.

With a new year upon us, many of us find ourselves seeking new methods for self-improvement. Often we make resolutions to either end our bad habits or pick up better ones.

Yet by late January, most of us have either given up on our resolutions or simply forgotten about them altogether.

I find the circumstances of my birth quite interesting in light of public efforts to pass Bill C-384. When I was born 15 weeks prematurely I weighed less than two pounds. I also had underdeveloped lungs and experienced extreme pain. To ease the pain, my doctors gave me morphine which I had a bad reaction to. I stopped breathing and my condition became critical. The doctors said I wouldn’t survive. If I did I would have a disability.

Fortunately, while I did acquire cerebral palsy, I did not die. I was nursed back to health by dedicated doctors and nurses.

My generation has grown up with confidence as something of a buzzword. Especially for young women, self-confidence — or a lack thereof — is a constant issue, something that we are always told needs building up. We are taught that post-modernity is characterized by our uncertainty and our lack of confidence in ourselves and our environment.

Is there really a way to fix this? Our favourite scapegoats, mass media, entertain and inform us daily. While we may decry its influence over us, media consumption is a hard habit to shake. In our secular world, having confidence is indeed a challenge — except for believers.

It’s Boxing Day. A group of friends get together, put on strange clothes and cover their faces with masks and pillow cases. They walk to a stranger’s house, bang on the door and, in a fake voice, demand to be let in. You may think I’m describing a robbery, but it’s a favourite Christmas activity for many Newfoundlanders. It’s called mummering.

Mummering, which came to Newfoundland with the first settlers from Ireland and England in the 1500s, is all about having a good time with friends and strangers alike during the Christmas season.

A wise priest recently asked me to reflect on the Wedding at Cana, the site of Jesus’ first miracle.

At Cana, when, to their great shame, the hosts of the wedding run out of wine, Mary informs Jesus of the situation and then tells the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” Jesus guides every step from then onward until He miraculously turns the water into the very best wine.

Love: it’s a simple four-letter word, often misused, that brings to mind the picturesque image of a couple frolicking towards each other through a meadow of sunflowers. If that’s what love really is, I wouldn’t understand why everyone was chasing after it. Especially since sunflowers attract bees and various other buzzing insects.

As a Catholic teen, I am often conflicted between the difference between God’s love and the world’s idea of love. At first glance, the worldly love seems much more interesting. Red roses, candy hearts with cheesy lines and love letters. They are all symbols of love given to someone. However, I noticed, even as a child, that these symbols quickly fade: the red roses wilt and turn brown, the candy hearts are eaten and the love letter is often torn in two or forgotten.

My family billeted a group of young adults at our house for one night this month. Because I didn’t know any of them, I was afraid that I would be rejected and I felt very shy and insecure inside.

During the evening I went down to the basement to get something, and as I walked, I asked Jesus to help me be myself around them. I heard His voice speak very clearly in my heart.

Adults often call youth the “church of tomorrow,” but on the pro-life front youth are already very much the church of today as they influence others on campuses across Canada as only peers can.

Campus pro-life clubs are effective because every effort and event reaches the target demographic. Statistics show young adults are more likely to procure abortions than any other demographic.