Chapter 5: Owning Your Own Faith, Adolescent Catholics
For those of us born into the Catholic faith (cradle Catholics), we look at our Catholic upbringing and its worth as we develop from childhood through adolescence into adulthood. We explore how preparing for and sharing in the sacraments helps build within us a foundation of faith that leads to virtuous decision making throughout all of life. We look at how living in and of this world leads many to fall away from their faith and to form self-defined truths that cast doubt on Church teachings. And we look at how all these facts combined cascade into the families we are nurturing. We define that through acceptance and understanding, we can own our own faith journey, which leads us to discernment and resting peacefully in grace and clarity of truth. With a healthy understanding of what it takes to chip away at our daily pursuit of “owning our own faith” we will come to understand that God will make each step easier in our efforts. His reflection of love for our efforts will be undeniably seen in every step we take towards owning our own faith. This reality will strengthen the will of the faithful so that their efforts may stay focused on all that is needed to chip away at sin and to fight the good fight daily as we continue to identify and rise above our sinful nature.