The Way

After watching The Way, I have been able to look at my life from a slightly different perspective.  Just as Tom started his journey with the sole purpose of honoring his son, I started my journey at the Mount with the sole purpose of doing well academically so I could go to a good and respectable college.  Like Tom however, I met new people, I opened up in sharing parts of my story and listening to parts of others' stories, and I made some very valuable friends that will stay with me forever.  I learned from Tom's pilgrimage, that a true pilgrimage has an individual and a group component.  Each of them are equally important.  As an individual, I have learned to find my boundaries, test them over and over again, and than create new boundaries.  I have learned to speak up during these past four year, and not be afraid to give my opinion.  As a group at the Mount, I have learned how to be proud to be a woman, how to accept and help other women, and how to refuse to be treated any differently from a man.  Tom's pilgrimage taught him to value life and to live a life that he is going to enjoy.  I am hoping that as I leave this stop (the Mount) on my pilgrimage of life and continue on to the next (Boston College), I will find the life that I enjoy living and am meant to live.

Mixed Messages

While reading Emily Reimer-Barry's interview, I noticed that she made some very valid points of the negative messages that the Church sends to women.  However, the Church does send a multitude of positive messages to women.  One of the Church's most prominent messages sent to women is to respect and honor their bodies, because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.  This specific message has been relayed to me through grade school, high school, my church community, and my family.  The Church acknowledges the need for intimacy and intercourse to conceive children, but it also states that each partner should treat the other with dignity and one person is not completely dominant over the other.  I have been taught that women should respect their bodies extra carefully, because they are the reason that the church can continue.  Another positive message to women was allowing them to become alter servers and Eucharistic ministers.  Even though we can't be priests, we can still participate in the mass in a multitude of ways.  The Church's negative messages towards women have decreased because of the fact that they are no longer required and/or expected to be quiet and submissive.  Women are taking a stand and becoming leaders; the Church is finally accepting that.

Abortion

While reading Bryan Cones' article, I noticed that his view on abortion is very different than that of the Catholic Church.  The Catholic Church believes in natural family planning and that every time a couple has sex, they should be doing it with the purpose of conceiving a child.  However, most couples don't practice that rule.  Bryan Cones took a very realistic approach on the fact that abortion rates are rising in underdeveloped countries.  One way to reduce those rates would be to increase the availability of contraceptives to women in those countries.  I think that I agree with his view, because I think it's better that a baby is not conceived and therefore escapes the risk of being aborted.  If an unplanned pregnancy occurs, the baby will most likely be aborted and in these underdeveloped countries, the mother could die as well.  I do believe that every form of life has a right to live, but abortion is a very complex subject, and I think that the Catholic Church could probably modernize its stance a bit to coincide with the majority of its members.