Does Anyone Find Being Catholic A Lonely Experience?

[Paladin D]

[quote name='MissyP89' post='1570000' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:04 PM']Paladin, I always thought you were older! Don't take that the wrong way, though.[/quote]

It's no problem.


[quote]It really does seem that the non-married 20s, and even college kids like myself, tend to fly under the radar in the Church.

What I want to know is:
1) WHY?
2) Could this contribute to the decline in young adults/college-aged orthodox faithful?
3) How do we fix it, considering many of us are islands in our parishes?

This may be better suited for another thread. Let me know![/quote]

I can't say for sure, because I spent the past 30 minutes trying to figure out how to word my response, but I can't seem to think clearly. Maybe I'll answer it some time later.

[Lil Red]

+J.M.J.+
i definitely feel for you. there is not many Catholics around here who actually believe in what the Church teaches, and are willing to uphold it. and the fact that I'm lonely in my own household, with a husband who does not share my faith

[EricTheRed]

Lonely is my middle name

[Paladin D]

[quote name='The one pump wonder' post='1570042' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:43 PM']im a young 15 year old boy. And well.......I get lonely but ehhhhh...........Idc that much.

I do care much, its just that I pray when I get lonely. I think im only lonely because at my age I like girls more. When I was younger I didnt care at all if I had friends.
You know its weird, people at my school like me because im catholic, ( I KNOW CRAZY )

I dont really cuss, I dont get angry, I dont do alot of things normal people do. And quess what they call me!

They call me ,The Boss.
Idk why they do this. I go to mass every morning, I workout and play football. I quess in their eyes im the perfect person, though I know im not. But I think thats why they call me that. Any way I side tracked.[/quote]

That's cool, goes to show that you have favor. Keep it up, and if anyone ever has a question about your faith, don't hesitate to answer. God can use you at the right moment, to reach someone. Seems like you're doing something right.

About the girls bit, it happens to all of us. I wish I could proudly point to someone and say "Yeah, that's my girl", but I can't. Don't give your hopes up, even though it can be difficult not to.

[Norseman82]

[quote name='Paladin D' post='1569983' date='Jun 12 2008, 08:37 PM'][b]Absolutely[/b].

I can relate to you in many ways. I'm 21, live in a rural area of Virginia, with a small Catholic community, and devout Catholics in my age group are almost non-existant. I'm not aware of any who are single, with no children, and aren't 'Catholic in name only' (except for maybe one, but he lives about two hours away). It's very discouraging, considering I would prefer to hang with a group of friends whom I can not only small talk with, but also talk about our Faith and pray with one another. I feel that I'm missing out in my "Catholic youth" so to speak. I was never part of a Catholic youth group, and may miss out on the opportunity of being part of a Catholic young-adult group if this trend continues. Our parish is extremely diverse ethnically (for our size parish), and also diverse demographically, but it seems out of all the age groups, the 20's seem to be very lacking. Even the two nearby parishes seem the same way (some more so than others).

I'm a 4th Degree 'Sir Knight' of the Knights of Columbus, and even though our council is rather small, it's very active and pretty diverse age wise as well (though the majority are in their 40's and above). They're a fantastic bunch of guys and feel real comfortable around them; but at times, I feel that I'm some how 'old fashioned' or acting too old for my age, when my close-contact social life with other Catholics are people who are two, three, or even four times my age. The only type of close-contact social life I have within my own age group, is with people at work. I can tell ya this, even though I have a lot of fun with them, it still seems lacking due to me being practically the only Catholic there (except for one of my managers and my brothers). So the topics are limited, and it's hard to remain pure when certain subjects come up.

I get frustrated because I'm stuck in old-fashioned, Baptist, rural America, where a lot of the kids go away to college and go on with their lives, while I'm here trying to earn as much money as I can. Also hearing about how people here on Phatmass having rewarding experiences at places such as FUS or Christendom college, making friendships there, and even finding their spouses, makes me feel I'm truely missing out. I feel that one of my tickets out of this situation is the U.S. Army (though this certainly isn't the primary reason why I'm enlisting), so I can leave this place. Plus, I'm a red-blooded Yankee' (which I've been called by a few times locally), from Greater Philadelphia, born and raised in an urban environment and used to crowds... why l am I doing here?

So yeah, in the aspect of what you're referring to, I feel lonely as well.
[b]Edit:[/b] I feel like croutons complaining about this, considering I could be in a far worse situation. At least I have a roof over my head, a great loving family, and bed to sleep on. While millions of others don't have any of these.[/quote]

Maybe you should move to Chicago and I can refer you to the young adult group from Holy Trinity mission. Of course, you will have to brush up on your Polish....

Or......become roomates with:

[quote name='mommas_boy' post='1569743' date='Jun 12 2008, 03:21 PM']Hi, Augustine. I recently moved my life to Chicago, which by no means is a "small Catholic community", but the experience of moving, even into a large city, can make one feel very lonely. At 22, I am especially struggling in finding devout Catholics my age, by I do find them as the Lord sees it fit for me to find them.[/quote]

I wonder if I get a finder's fee like some rommate match services do??

(Don't beat me up tomorrow night, Kris!)

Edited June 13, 2008 by Norseman82

[Socrates]

-- nm --

Edited June 13, 2008 by Socrates

[mommas_boy]

[quote name='Norseman82' post='1570114' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:27 PM']Maybe you should move to Chicago and I can refer you to the young adult group from Holy Trinity mission. Of course, you will have to brush up on your Polish....

Or......become roomates with:
I wonder if I get a finder's fee like some rommate match services do??

(Don't beat me up tomorrow night, Kris!)[/quote]

Actually, I do need to find a new roommate ...

See ya at St. Mary's tommorrow, Norseman!

[Norseman82]

[quote name='mommas_boy' post='1570117' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:29 PM']Actually, I do need to find a new roommate ...[/quote]

Actually, I was just being a smart aleck, but keep your ears open tomorrow night...

[Paladin D]

[quote name='Norseman82' post='1570114' date='Jun 12 2008, 11:27 PM']Maybe you should move to Chicago and I can refer you to the young adult group from Holy Trinity mission. Of course, you will have to brush up on your Polish....[/quote]

One of the many goals in my life, is to speak Polish fluently. What is the Holy Trinity mission?


[quote]Or......become roomates with:
I wonder if I get a finder's fee like some rommate match services do??

(Don't beat me up tomorrow night, Kris!)[/quote]

[Norseman82]

[quote name='Paladin D' post='1570121' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:35 PM']One of the many goals in my life, is to speak Polish fluently. What is the Holy Trinity mission?[/quote]

It's a Polish parish.

[Paladin D]

[quote name='Norseman82' post='1570130' date='Jun 12 2008, 11:40 PM']It's a Polish parish.[/quote]

Wow, beautiful church!

[url="http://www.trojcowo.com/"]http://www.trojcowo.com/[/url]

[mommas_boy]

[quote name='Norseman82' post='1570120' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:34 PM']Actually, I was just being a smart aleck, but keep your ears open tomorrow night...[/quote]

Yeah, I had figured you were. I was just stating that I was in fact actually looking for a roommate.

[quote name='Paladin D' post='1570179' date='Jun 12 2008, 11:08 PM']Wow, beautiful church!

[url="http://www.trojcowo.com/"]http://www.trojcowo.com/[/url][/quote]

Yeah it is. Never knew that was the one; I pass it on the Kennedy all the time going to St. Mary's. Cool!

[fides quarens intellectum]

[quote name='Paladin D' post='1570179' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:08 PM']Wow, beautiful church!

[url="http://www.trojcowo.com/"]http://www.trojcowo.com/[/url][/quote]


reminds me of Sweetest Heart of Mary in Detroit.

[TeresaBenedicta]

Ya know, I hear you. It is a lonely experience for me as well, when I'm at home. My family is not Catholic and there are some... difficulties when I'm home when it comes to religion. It's hard to keep going, sometimes. But then, I also find that the loneliness and the difficulty somehow aid me in my drive and desire to keep living the faith as best as I can. Kind of like a challenge, I guess?

At school, for the first time in my life, I am surrounded by a group of friends who are solid Catholics seeking to live out their faith. It's an amazing experience, really, and I love it.

Sure is a bit of a knock over the head with reality when I come home, though.

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='MissyP89' post='1570000' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:04 PM']It really does seem that the non-married 20s, and even college kids like myself, tend to fly under the radar in the Church.

What I want to know is:
1) WHY?
2) Could this contribute to the decline in young adults/college-aged orthodox faithful?
3) How do we fix it, considering many of us are islands in our parishes?

This may be better suited for another thread. Let me know![/quote]

If I can throw in my two cents...

1) I honestly think most people in the Church (including priests and bishops) don't care about young adults. They think these things will take care of themselves. When you visit parish web sites, you never see anything about a young adult group, Bible studies, etc. among all the various "ministries," most of which are simply helping out at Masses.

2) It's a contributing factor, no doubt. There are many factors, however, and I think this is actually relatively minor compared to changes in society and the general attitude against authority and tradition.

3) This is what I struggle with because I never found myself as a Protestant needing to start something myself if I wanted to see what I was looking for in the Church. I've always been able to simply join up with what others had already started. For a while, I did attend a Bible study that a friend started, but there was so little interest even among faithful Catholics that it didn't last long. But I think inviting people to your home for a Bible study is the easiest kind of thing to do (or organize some kind of social event like bowling or whatever).

Without the kind of community among Catholics that I had (and still have) in my old Baptist church, I've become really apathetic about evangelism and the faith in general. I've never been much of a self-starter seeing as my discpline and self-control leave much to be desired. But, I'm finding a few ways to hopefully get out of that funk, although I have to admit much of my initial enthusiasm has waned and it's difficult to get that back.