By Katie Osman
This month my mother chose the easy way to finish her column: She hired me, her oldest daughter, to write it for her. The task seemed easy enough at first, how hard could hammering out 900 words really be? I have seen my mother compose her column before lunchtime!
But as I began to think about what I could write, I asked myself what I could really bring to this month’s issue. What do I really know about anything? My parents are always reminding me that I am still very young.
However, as a young adult I do have a few advantages over my mother, one being my youthful perspective.
Entering the second half of my junior year in college, I have experienced many challenges regarding my faith life, to which I am sure many other young adults can relate. As young adults we are surrounded by many pressures: school, friends, substance abuse, significant others, jobs, family, to only name a few. Between class, work, weddings, parties and visiting family there is barely enough time to catch your breath. With everything constantly piling up, it is easy to slip into a daily routine and forget about our faith. And as we get older, it seems to become easier to come up with excuses for not attending Mass and for pushing our faith life onto the back burner.
Attending a Catholic university, I thought it would be easy to steer away from bad influences and surround myself with other “real Catholics” who would share my same background and convictions. I also assumed it would be fairly easy to involve myself in activities that encourage faith growth.
However, it seems that no matter where you are, there will always be reasons not to take your faith seriously. No matter whom your closest friends are, Catholics or non-religious, you have to take charge of your own faith. It does take an effort to ask off from work every Sunday, and actually go to Mass, but it takes an even greater effort to consciously and actively participate in your faith with all your being: soul, body and mind.
Since I have a strong Catholic background, I feel that I am one of the lucky ones in this struggle. My family will always support my decisions and remind me that maintaining our faith only takes a little bit each day. It is the simple act of forgiveness, helping a charity, getting involved in your community, constant acts of kindness, being willing to share your faith with others and always having an open mind. As 20-somethings, our daily acts strengthen the young adult presence in the church and encourage our fellow 20-somethings to get involved and become spiritually active.
With the arrival of another year, perhaps this is the perfect time for all, young and old, to re-evaluate our own presence in the church and how overlooked our own faith life has become.
This year, I have decided to make my resolutions things to which I am really committed. This way I might actually keep one! Forget the annual resolutions of trying to lose weight. This year I am making a resolution to actively participate in my faith.
Active participation is a good resolution for anyone of any age, if that means being involved as a liturgical minister or simply actively participating from your very own “third pew” each weekend.
To have a relationship with God, you must light your own fire and burn your own path. Actively participating in the Mass is a good place to start that fire.
I know that being a young Catholic is difficult, especially in this media-frenzied age where we are bombarded with messages telling us who we should be, how we should act, and what we should look like. Although we 20-somethings claim we are too old or sophisticated for peer pressure to influence us, we cannot deny that it exists. As is true for people of faith of all ages, we need encouragement from our fellow Catholics, allowing us to make mistakes and creating an open environment with plenty of room to grow.
With the new year beginning, I think this is an excellent time to take a step back, breathe a little and perhaps re-vamp our own faith life.
Reprinted by permission from Catholic Spirit, January 2006
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