I LOVED Growing Up CATHOLIC!

[hiramross]

Hello Everyone!!

I wanted to share in hopes that others would share their experience of growing up Catholic!

I’m a 29 year old male from Texas and I grew up Catholic and enjoyed it greatly! My faith in the beginning was accepted of course because it was all I knew but all that I’ve experienced and learned throughout the years have given me a solid foundation not just for Catholicism but Christianity.

The past 5 years I’ve been challenged about my faith from other religions and protestant Christians. This motivated me to study more and gain a greater understanding about the faith. I would encourage all Catholics to do the same; not just to “defend” the faith but because the more I studied and learned the MORE I was assured of my Catholic faith (and I used Catholic, protestant, and other religion materials to understand my faith so it wasn’t a bias study material used to “swing” my understanding).

With all that said I feel it’s important to also share why I ENJOYED growing up Catholic for the Catholics that grew up in the faith to share and inspire Catholic parents to more than encourage their children to the faith and realize it’ as important (if not MORE) as taking them to public school!

GROWING UP CATHOLIC!!

My family traveled a lot in my early years because my dad was a construction manager and we moved from site to site because of this we visited a lot of different Catholic Churches. As a child I always loved it when the kids were dismissed during Mass for the Children’s liturgy. It was there in the Children’s liturgy that I could truly feel like I can share the Mass because I understood it (most of the time).

I remember Sunday lunches after Mass; sometimes at Church as a community or my parents taking me and my brother to Chinese Food Buffets, Lubby’s Cafeteria, or my brothers favorite any Mexican Restaurant.

Sunday’s were a time to enjoy my parents company and relax with them doing easy task or chores. But for my dad doing the lawn on Sunday’s was an “easy relaxing” task and he would employ mine and my brothers help. Because of this we did dread leaving Mass because we knew of what was to come!! HAHAHAHA!!

Looking back at just some of these things truly makes me miss these times and I look forward to sharing the experience with my own children in the future…God willing of course.

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

What a lovely post, thank you for sharing.

I did not grow up Catholic and wonder what that would have been like.

 

[hiramross]

Thank you!

There is a lot more positive attributes and I hope the Catholics that did grow up in the faith can share to give you true insight.

 

[OraLabora]

I grew up Catholic and I hated it. But mostly because I was an active little boy and Mass, and catechism class, bored me, and I never caught on to the concept of God. Probably that’s why I left the Church in my late teens and stayed out for 22 years.

However I smartened up and came back at age 39

I’m now 56, BTW.

Interestingly it was when I came back that I faced the onslaught of evangelicals (friends and colleagues). What I tried (but failed) to convey to them is that when I read the Bible, what they were telling me about the Bible and Sola Scriptura just didn’t make any sense, but the Catholic view, did. So all their invocations to read the Bible (along with the usual blather about Catholics being banned from reading the Bible and all that nonsense), ended up reinforcing my faith instead of converting it to theirs.

 

[hiramross]

Thanks for sharing!

I do understand! As a young boy Mass wasn’t exactly “exciting” for my brother and I because we had to wake up early, dress up, and it imposed on my time that could have been spent watching cartoons, playing with friends or adventuring outside.

But the family time and hanging out with other Catholic families made it more enjoyable. Then as I to got older, wiser, and gained a better understanding and appreciation for the faith I now enjoy Mass in a completely different way. But looking back as a child I’m thankful my parents had my brother and I involved in the church and activities.

I could write more and more about things like the yearly festivals, Catfish frys, teen night lock-ins, teen dances, and soo much more!!

Looking back I view it as learning to play an instrument; at first you learn the basics and attending the lessons are uneventful and more of a burden but then the more you learn and the more you practice and get involved the more you start to enjoy. I thank my parents for taking me to “practice”!!

 

[signit]

Thanks for posting your experience.

My experience was a little different as I was a mixed marriage child. Mom was the Catholic; Dad didn’t belong to any church, so he was okay with Mom raising me as a Catholic. I never knew what it would be like to be part of an entire family attending Catholic Mass together, but I don’t think I was harmed by not having that experience.

And of course I was a “cultural Catholic.” I was close to my relatives on my mother’s side and grandfather, most of whom were Catholic; my aunt went to a different Catholic church than us and lived right near a third Catholic church.

I was kind of a “lazy Catholic” until I became involved with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. This actually was a good experience for me, as it forced me to become knowledgeable about my own faith.

 

[hiramross]

I’m glad you shared that!! My dad was raised a mormon but it was until I was about 10yrs. old when my dad finally attended RCIA. He is now a very active Catholic. It was my mother as well to make the push for attending Mass and getting involved. That got my dad guided to learn and really pick up more load of support with my mom to have the family in the faith.

 

[mountee]

Me too, I loved every minute of being a Catholic in an entirely Catholic family. I loved playing sports year round in the CYO, I loved going to Catholic school, I loved eating fish on Fridays especially if we went to Grandma’s for fish and mac and cheese. But, I have deeply imbedded in my soul these remarkable memories of my grandparents and how much they loved the Church. My grandma used to let me sit in her kitchen, gave me some coffee and we would say the rosary together. How I love thinking of that time. My grandpa retired at 65 and walked to 6am Mass everyday until his death at 92. The highlight of my life was getting to go with him when we were visiting them, it was such a joy to get to do that with him. Oh those were the days!

 

[hiramross]

Mountee if there was a Like button to press on the forum this would be the moment I would press it!! !

Thanks for sharing!!

 

[edwest2]

Hello Everyone!!

I wanted to share in hopes that others would share their experience of growing up Catholic!

I’m a 29 year old male from Texas and I grew up Catholic and enjoyed it greatly! My faith in the beginning was accepted of course because it was all I knew but all that I’ve experienced and learned throughout the years have given me a solid foundation not just for Catholicism but Christianity.

The past 5 years I’ve been challenged about my faith from other religions and protestant Christians. This motivated me to study more and gain a greater understanding about the faith. I would encourage all Catholics to do the same; not just to “defend” the faith but because the more I studied and learned the MORE I was assured of my Catholic faith (and I used Catholic, protestant, and other religion materials to understand my faith so it wasn’t a bias study material used to “swing” my understanding).

With all that said I feel it’s important to also share why I ENJOYED growing up Catholic for the Catholics that grew up in the faith to share and inspire Catholic parents to more than encourage their children to the faith and realize it’ as important (if not MORE) as taking them to public school!

GROWING UP CATHOLIC!!

My family traveled a lot in my early years because my dad was a construction manager and we moved from site to site because of this we visited a lot of different Catholic Churches. As a child I always loved it when the kids were dismissed during Mass for the Children’s liturgy. It was there in the Children’s liturgy that I could truly feel like I can share the Mass because I understood it (most of the time).

I remember Sunday lunches after Mass; sometimes at Church as a community or my parents taking me and my brother to Chinese Food Buffets, Lubby’s Cafeteria, or my brothers favorite any Mexican Restaurant.

Sunday’s were a time to enjoy my parents company and relax with them doing easy task or chores. But for my dad doing the lawn on Sunday’s was an “easy relaxing” task and he would employ mine and my brothers help. Because of this we did dread leaving Mass because we knew of what was to come!! HAHAHAHA!!

Looking back at just some of these things truly makes me miss these times and I look forward to sharing the experience with my own children in the future…God willing of course.

I’m a bit older than you and feel exactly the same. Being Catholic centered me, even when I was a boy. Children need guidance and direction, and I was blessed to have friends, and especially adults, who were wonderful role models. Even when I was a boy and did not fully understand what being a good Catholic adult meant, I could see those good role models do their best to restrain themselves from using profanity, getting into fights and arguments. They, and my parents, did their best, and corrected me when they had to. No, it was not perfect. I was told to avoid those kids that were known to steal, for example. And we had a handful of adults who were angry and ‘bad apples.’ My parents told me to be polite to all, but to not bother the ‘bad apples.’

Peace,
Ed

 

[Celtic_Maiden]

I grew up Catholic and I hated it. But mostly because I was an active little boy and Mass, and catechism class, bored me, and I never caught on to the concept of God. Probably that’s why I left the Church in my late teens and stayed out for 22 years.

However I smartened up and came back at age 39

I’m now 56, BTW.

Interestingly it was when I came back that I faced the onslaught of evangelicals (friends and colleagues). What I tried (but failed) to convey to them is that when I read the Bible, what they were telling me about the Bible and Sola Scriptura just didn’t make any sense, but the Catholic view, did. So all their invocations to read the Bible (along with the usual blather about Catholics being banned from reading the Bible and all that nonsense), ended up reinforcing my faith instead of converting it to theirs.

As a Convert myself, I think its an awful shame that the local Bishops don’t make sure that the Catechism is being taught properly when one is a child, as this is the time in one’s life when it matters most, and if not taught properly at this stage its a 50/50 chance that one is going to change to another Religion, maybe and maybe later on in life the light goes on,
while Converts get to learn the faith in a more intense way, which generally sticks, maybe with the odd question, that is why we should have Faith Camps during the Summer for a week or two, play and learn about the Catholic Faith, would just be powerful for kids.

 

[OraLabora]

Thanks for posting your experience.

My experience was a little different as I was a mixed marriage child. Mom was the Catholic; Dad didn’t belong to any church, so he was okay with Mom raising me as a Catholic. I never knew what it would be like to be part of an entire family attending Catholic Mass together, but I don’t think I was harmed by not having that experience.

And of course I was a “cultural Catholic.” I was close to my relatives on my mother’s side and grandfather, most of whom were Catholic; my aunt went to a different Catholic church than us and lived right near a third Catholic church.

I was kind of a “lazy Catholic” until I became involved with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. This actually was a good experience for me, as it forced me to become knowledgeable about my own faith.

I was also brought up in a mixed family. My parents married in 1955. My mother was Catholic and my father, Anglican. He was a widower when he met my mother and I had a stepsister who moved out when I was 5 (big difference in age).

My parents were married in the Church with the proper dispensations. My father had to sign an agreement that the children would be raised Catholic.

He took his duty very seriously. When my mother didn’t feel well (which was fairly often as she was something of a hypochondriac), my father would take me to Mass. He also never let me set foot in an Anglican church except once, when my stepsister married (when I was 5). I remember thinking how strange the Anglican church looked inside.

So although he wasn’t Catholic, he was Christian and for all intents and purposes ours was a Catholic home.

I must have learned something, I’m married to an Anglican myself

As for catechism, the way we were taught was the rote learning, like your Baltimore Catechism, but of course mine was in French as I went to a French Catholic school and French is my mother tongue. I could rattle off the responses but hadn’t a clue about the meaning. All this was in the 1960s (I was born in 1958); my first Mass experiences would have been the TLM but I don’t remember. I do remember Mass in French in the mid-60s when the Church was experimenting with vernacular Mass before the 1970 Missal. But I didn’t pay much attention as I hated Mass and couldn’t wait for it to finish.

My father died when I was 12, and I got to miss Mass more often as when my mother didn’t feel well, I didn’t have to go alone even though it was a fairly short walk from where I lived.

Still managed to find my way back though!

 

[Ethernet]

I didn’t LOL

Let me explain… me and my three brothers and my dear mother raised us alone. Sunday mass was mandatory of course. I remember as a little kid my mother would click her fingernail a certain way as a warning to us misbehaving in church. Her grabbing us by the arm and digging in nails was the next level warning. That’s usually all it took.

Then, she got involved in a local latin mass group and we drove a long way to attend a small latin mass every Sunday. It got a little better when I got to altar boy age - I got more involved in the goings on in the mass.

I went to Catholic schools. Grade school was ok. I think I liked the structure as a little kid. It was run by nuns then and they did a good job and actually taught Catholic faith. I did confirmation, first confession, communion all that. High School was different. Ours was a small private Catholic high school - small classes, very cliquey. Was not a good experience for me. I was kept out of a lot of what my mother thought were ‘wild’ religion retreats (to call her a pre Vatican II Catholic is an understatement). And I started working at age 16, so after school I went to straight to my job. And I worked full time in summers. So not the typical social experience many may have had in high school Not all has to do with growing up Catholic; some of it does.

I grew up under fear of damnation over things like sex and impurity. a) didn’t have a lot of time to date given work (my mother’s design I think) and then b) not a lot of girls took to dating a guy that never kissed (or more). Catholic High School kids were very active back in my day both alcohol/drugs/sex.

Anyway… got through all that - went away to College - drifted a little - graduated. Got a job. Moved away. Did the single rebellious young guy thing (minus the premarital sex) so needless to say I stayed single a long time LOL. Met a gal, married her. First marriage for both of us. She wasn’t Catholic. Is now. No kids.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

Count me as another one who loved growing up Catholic. When I was a kid, everyone in my school was Catholic as was just about everyone I knew. The idea of not being Catholic was so foreign to me that I just assumed the ones who weren’t Catholic actually were but were too lazy to go to Mass. I loved the festivals, preparing for the Sacraments, being a server and seeing our family’s name in the bulletin when we were scheduled to bring up the gifts. I loved all the hymns in the Glory & Praise books, I couldn’t wait to join choir and the few times I got to do the readings at Sunday Mass were a huge thrill. When my dad still went to Mass, I loved going with him to the early Mass on Sunday then having the whole rest of the day to enjoy while the rest of the family was in limbo until after the late Mass. I loved our Nativity Scene, Advent wreath, Advent calendar, and the little manger I made out of construction paper in first grade that I’d put a piece of straw into every time I did something good during Advent so that the plastic baby Jesus would have a comfortable bed by Christmas Eve. Granted, the straw smelled funny by the time I was in 7th grade but I still regret throwing it out sometime during freshman year. I loved Christmas Midnight Mass, how packed the church was, seeing the once-a-year folks decked out in their finest, then taking the long way home afterward so we could see all the Christmas lights. I always looked forward to Lent and picking something to give up that wouldn’t be too hard to go without, then having fish every Friday. I loved the fact that my entire, big, extended family was Catholic so we always got to go to everyone else’s Baptism and Confirmation parties, weddings and funerals.

It’s kind of bittersweet looking over the list, though. So much of what’s on there are things our kids will miss out on. Catholics are the minority in their Catholic school classrooms and the number receiving the sacraments seems to shrink each year. There are very few big family events and things like the May Crowning went away years ago. We still carry on a lot of the same traditions my family did, and we’ve thrown in a few of our own. We try to get to Midnight Mass every year and we show up early so we get a seat. We also go to all the Holy Week Masses, which is something I missed out on as a kid. Not nearly as many people decorate their houses around Christmas, although one street right by our church never disappoints us. My extended family is still Catholic in name, but we’re no longer welcome around them, in no small part due to the fact that we practice our faith. Also, looking over my list you see a lot of the cultural aspects of Catholicism but nothing about prayer. That’s one thing about my childhood that I’ve tried to change with my kids, so we pray the Rosary together every night and make our faith a part of our everyday life.

 

[hiramross]

Wow Gordon!! That’s a great telling of your experience! I almost forgot the Midnight Mass experience!! Christmas Eve was centered around the Midnight Mass when I was a kid.

Its sad to think about the things you mentioned like less family events, less kids celebrate the sacraments etc… but its people like you that we other Catholics give a huge THANKS to for bringing the light of Christ to the next generation as you are doing for your kids!! Thank you Gordon!