usapang religion...

i've always wondered what my life would be if i grew up in a non-catholic household...

i mean, my family is tenaciously devout... every room has a designated "santo" (image), we have "pabasa" every holy week, we used to pray the rosary everyday at 6pm when i was younger (this tradition brokedown when everybody was suddenly busy even to have dinner together....), mass every sunday... all that catholic-whachamacallits.... name it, we've probably done it (or doing it still).

-------side story start-------
there was this one time, when i was a little kid, my mom was "forcing" me to dress up for sunday mass. i asked her what's the point of going to mass. (yes, the early beginnings of a religious anarchist...hehehe) Her answer was that jesus would be angry if we didn't, which i think confused me more at that time.
-------side story end-------

i was educated in catholic schools from kinder to college... which i think made matters worse. more questions were derived from the answers received... some questions were simply given shrugs and answers like "it's a mystery..." or "it's God's will" or "it's the church's tradition" yadayadayada...
don't get me wrong, i believe in God, but i really can't quite put my trust in the Catholic religion...

it was in college when i talked to someone about my situation. she said that it's good to question one's religion, but it shouldn't stop there. it is one's responsibility to find the answers. nothing's wrong with exploring other religions, she said she did it once before, and realized that the Catholicism is the religion for her. she said it gave her a greater appreciation of her beliefs. somehow i believe her because she really seems happy and at peace with her choice...
i wanted to do what she did... to go on this "religious journey" aka "religion-hopping" as she fondly calls it, but somehow, other things in my life got in the way, school, then work, then other things... i went on with my life, while my soul was miserably rotting away...

now i have this time to for myself, i figured i should be giving more time to the best (and quite neglected) part of me...

let the journey begin...