“I believe” – Reflections on the Year of Faith was the title of our annual Catholics on Call alumni gathering at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. Steve Bevans, S.V.D. gave a presentation on the Year of Faith with the title “Entering the Door of Faith” and three panelists shared their own faith journeys in a witness talk.
Click here to listen to the podcast of Steve’s presentation “Entering the Door of Faith.”
You can download pdf files with the witness talks from our panelists: Matt Gummess, Krista Peterson and Eleanor Doidge:
1. A Clockmaker, a “Naked Mass” and a Goose – by Matt Gummess
I’m a cradle Catholic, but at some point in my teens I sort of fell out of the crib. My return to faith is a long story that begins with a clockmaker, takes off at the “Naked Mass” retreat, and ends, or begins yet again, with a goose, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Why did I lose my faith in the first place?… Click here to read the full text.
2. The Gift of Faith – by Krista Peterson
As a fairly new Catholic, I like to think that it was faith that led me here. And by here I mean the Big here, my life, my dreams, my goals, the things I love, the things that drive me to optimism. But I also feel like my faith is what leads me to much smaller acts of sharing God with others, like smiling at strangers and remaining hopeful in my daily frustrations. I know this because for a lot of my life, 22 years of it, I didn’t have faith to get me through big life crisis, I got through it by rationality and analysis, which I was taught by my agnostic culture. … Click here to read the full text.
3. Finding God in All Things – by Eleanor Doidge
I thought it important to give some history and context as I try to share some aspects of my journey with God in my life. It might be more correct to say “my journey with God present and absent in my life.”
For many years I have called myself “half an atheist.” This expression is an attempt to identify my ever questioning, sometimes believing, sometimes doubting faith. The roots of this can be found in my family. … Click here to read the full text.