Why Do I Go To Church?

As a little girl, growing up I remembered my parents, sister, and I would attend church every Sunday and my sister and I attended Catechism. Fast forward to 2016 and as a young adult in my thirties, I still go to church. Saturday evening, I went to church with my parents and we had a visiting priest from Nigeria. Something about this priest made me think on a deeper level of my Catholic faith. His homily was about why people go to church. Yes, I go to church because of being a sinner, rarely go to confession, gossiping, being mean to people for no reason, not being happy, and complaining to others for no reason. To me, I don’t see myself as this perfect holy woman, but I still attend church and I feel embarrassed and at times I don’t want to attend church.

Well, honestly and my confession is that I was raised to attend church every Sunday to learn about God. Did I learn something from attending Mass every Sundays? No!

Looking now, I realized that God is important in my life because of his suffering, humility, and sacrificing his life for everyone (though it’s a choice).

I never took the time to learn about God throughout my life or even pray for people. I felt if I attended church or prayed for others in need or offered daily prayers, good things or events would come along my path – but not exactly.

I realized something was missing inside of me. All my life, I was scared of trusting God because I was in control and wanted things done my way – well, that didn’t work, or I could go to hell. Now, I’m learning that God is in control and is telling me to let go of all my worries, anxieties, stress, and depression.

The last couple of weeks, I did attend a few events at my church and another parish that a friend invited me too. The first one was a Bible Study Meeting at my church, which meets once a month. The Deacon who was leading the meeting discussed Hebrews Chapter 1 through 6. The second event was a Couples For Christ, Christian Life Program at a different parish. The meetings have different guest speakers giving presentations about the Catholic Faith, besides praying, singing, and of course, eating – basically a gathering of meeting new people who share the same faith. The name of the presentation was called Who is Jesus Christ?

Why did I write about these two events? Well, something inside of me – could have been the Holy Spirit or God – to go, even though I didn’t listen. I wasn’t sure what the purpose would be of attending these events. For me, I felt good about myself and felt at ease.

Back to the question, why do I go to church? Well, I need to listen more to God because he has invited everyone and me to his home. To add, I need to be around people who share the Catholic Faith, to share the news about God with others, to have a loving relationship with God because he is always there for us 24/7.