Religion 

         

Religion has played throughout history countless papers, the majority fundamental to the development of humanity. What is religion? Religion is the set of beliefs, feelings, dogmas and practices that define the relations between human beings and sacred or divinity. Exist many religions around the world, in Puerto Rico the Catholic religion is one of the most practiced. The Catholic Church is one of the most numerous; have a lot of followers. All Catholics are Christians but not all Christians are Catholics, Christians are divided into different groups, whether Orthodox, Christians, Evangelicals and Protestants. There should not be any difference between Christian and Catholic, as Catholic is required to be a Christian, that is, to believe in Christ and in the teachings of Jesus. Both believe that Jesus is the Savior, and the Holy Trinity. But there are differences, Catholics believe in Christ through an institution called the Catholic Church, also believe in the Virgin, Saints and worship these holy figures. Christians only believe and follow Christ as the one true God and do not feel the need to worship figures or images. Religion is a very broad concept and it is impossible to try to explain in a few words, as politic provoke a lot of discussions, for these reason, I decided don't talk about the concept of religion but talk about my experiences with the religion.

I have studied since child in a catholic school called “Colegio La Merced”, my parents are catholic and they enrolled me in this school for learn more thoroughly about the catholic religion. Since I had 5 years, each morning in the school we had to pray in our classrooms. The school director was beginning to pray for an intercom and we followed her, praying in the classroom. I began to pray since I was very little; I remember that one day in the month each group had to go to meet in a chapel for a eucharist. In this eucharist I read psalms or lectures, also sometimes I sang in the choir and carried the offering. Also the school conducted a eucharist for all the school students; the eucharist was in the school auditorium with all the groups from pre-kinder to twelve grade. In the school every year we made a "Way of the cross" and each group had to prepare one or two stations, and I remember that I was always the “Virgin Maria” in the stations. Also I made the station when Veronica’s dries Jesus face, and I was Veronica. One time, I made the fourteen Ways of the Cross stations, and I was the Virgin Maria. I remember that I enjoyed very much participate in this activity. Also, I danced in the eucharist and was my favorite part because I like very much to dance. I remember that I made a dance with my face painted as a mime and was a very beautiful experience. Besides dancing in the school's eucharist I danced too in the Montellano Church in Cayey. Also, I was in a Group called “Camino Neocatecumenal”, in this group I read different bible lectures; and also in this group I had the opportunity of participate in many eucharist in different churches. I met with this group two days in the week, and we reunited with other groups for doing different activities. The thing that I most like about this group was that the “Camino Neocatecumenal” had people of different ages, and I had the opportunity of shared with people of my age and with people with twenty years or more than me. In the present I'm not in this group but was a very enriching experience for me. Many times people refuse to become members of a church on the grounds that "there are too many hypocrites in the church."But we have to admit that we are humans, and in all religions exist good and bad people. All the experiences that I mentioned here made me learn most about the Catholic religion. But I think that the characteristics that define a real catholic, christian, protestant or of whatever religion that form part, is live a life of integrity practicing the church teachings in our life as: avoid the bad acts and always follow the right way. How Santiago 1:21-27 said: “True religion is not simply come to services, hearing the word, and think that we are religious. By itself, it is a vain religion. We must be doers of the word, remove the worst of our lives, keeping us unspotted from the world, restraining our tongue, and actively serving others.”