religion and me

I am a Catholic and I have always been raised a Catholic. Me and my family have gone to church every single week since I was born and I have sadly fallen away from this routine when I moved away to college. I attend mass sometimes but not on a regular basis, which always upsets me when I head home and go to mass again for the first time in a while. So this upcoming semester I am going to try a reasonable attempt of going to mass every other week, and hopefully I can increase the number once I get rolling.

When I was about 16-18, I'm not positive when, but I started becoming very interested in Buddhism and I seriously talked to my parents about becoming a Buddhist, which they didn't really like. I was attracted to the mediation and the laid back sense of the religion, no having to attend a weekly ceremony and you still have a god that you look up to. I eventually decided to stay with Catholism and maybe just leave more time to pray and do a form of meditation, and this has seemed to work. One other thing I did not like about Catholism is the church, I cannot stand going to mass and being asked for money for a number of different things. I do not mind giving money to charity and helping people but when the church asks for money for themselves and other things I cannot stand that.

I do now still think of myself as being religious, because even though I do not attend mass every week I still believe in God, pray, and do good to others when I can, and I believe those are some important parts of being religious. I definitely want to be married in the Catholic church. I believe that being married in the church creates a sense of oneness with the husband, wife, and God, and that is a bond that is stronger and more sacred than anything else. And even though I don't agree with all the church's views I will sacrifice my beliefs and take my children to mass every week. My friends and I were actually talking about this last night and I said the same thing. I want my kids to grow up going to Catholic school and going to mass every week, because even if they decide it is not for them there are priceless lessons that they will learn just by sacrificing about an hour a week to go to church.