Religious Experience Video

[AlexBr]

I’m in high school and I am taking a class called Christian thought. For one of our homework assignments, we have to create a video talking about a religious experience we had or a religious experience someone else had. I wanted to do a video of myself sharing my religious experience with God. I wanted to talk about how I smelled the smell of flowers while praying the rosary and how that’s related to Mary’s presence. However, I am a bit hesitant to make my video about this because 95% of my class is all protestant students. I wouldn’t want anyone saying anything bad about God, Mary or Catholicism and criticizing the video. I’ve also felt God’s presence while altar serving during communion, but Protestants don’t believe in transubstantiation. What should I do?

 

[CRM_Brother]

Hello Brianna,

When I was in college, I found these types of assignments an opportunity for evangelization. I lived in South Carolina for most of my life, deep in the Bible Belt, and most of my protestant classmates didn’t even know that Catholics were Christian. This assignment could be a wonderful opportunity for you to show your classmates that Catholics also have close personal relationships with Christ, similar to what they may experience in their Churches. It would also show the depth of Tradition and prayer of the Catholic Church.

Be assured, if you do do this on your experience of the Rosary, there will be questions and you should probably do some research on the Rosary and Mary so that you can answer the questions posed to you.

If you choose to do the video on receiving communion, it would be a good opportunity to dispell a lot of the protestant rumors about the Eucharist by being able to accurately describe what we believe and why we believe it.

I’ll be praying for you.

God Bless,
Br. Ben, CRM

 

[Tis_Bearself]

If this class is truly about “Christian thought” then it should be open to the experiences of all participants and nobody’s beliefs should be criticized, including those of any non-Christians or even atheists/ agnostics who would take the course in order to learn more about how Christians think. I would hope the teacher creates the kind of environment where people can feel safe sharing their experiences without fear of their beliefs being mocked by the class.

I think you should do the video YOU most want to do and prepare yourself as best you can to react to negative comments.

 

[Mary888]

However, I am a bit hesitant to make my video about this because 95% of my class is all protestant students.

So what? Are you breaking the limits of the assignment? They asked for a religious experience and you offer one. The students can roll their eyes but the teacher cannot give you a bad grade based on the substance of the video but how close you came to fulfill the task demanded.