My Catholic Faith

Lauren Highfill - 6th grade:

I was born on July 28,1997, and I’m in 6th grade at St. Joseph Cathedral School. I like having different teachers in junior high this year. My favorite subject is science, and I also like math. I play volleyball, and my team is very good. I like our team because we all have a different talent in volleyball, which God gave us. I also love to read books in my free time because when you start to read them, you just want to keep going on to find out what will happen!

I love going to a Catholic school so you can learn about Jesus Christ. I go to church twice a week and always try to go on holy days of obligation. Our Catholic faith teaches us there are three people in the Holy Trinity. God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus died on the cross to free us from our sins. I love religion class because you get to learn about the Holy Bible and spread the Good News to everyone around the world. I will always remember our school mission statement: “We will be disciples of Christ and fishers of men.” The Catholic faith is a important part of my life, and I’m glad to be a part of St.Joseph Cathedral School.

The Survivor!

Ally Burkemper - 7th grade student:

It was a stormy night, and we could not find my cat, Toby, anywhere. Before I went to bed that night, I bowed my head and prayed for God to protect him. The next morning a lady from up the street called and told us that she found Toby, but that he had been hit by a car. He was unconscious; he was bleeding from his nose and around his eyes and had some scrapes. I was mad at God. I thought he was supposed to watch over us. I had prayed to him, and he had let me down. When I finally made it to school, I told Mrs. Busby what had happened. Before math class Ms. Minor had us pray to St. Francis to protect Toby. I was still really upset that God did not help him.

After school that day I was scared to get in the car. I thought my mom was going to say that Toby had died. Instead she told me that the vet thought that he was going to make it. He wasn’t out of the woods yet, but he didn’t have any broken bones and was responding to the medication they were giving him. Every night Toby was gone, I prayed to St. Francis. Every day the doctor called and told us how he was doing, and we even went to visit him. We finally got to pick him up five days later. He has to take it real easy for two weeks, and he limps and has some cuts and scrapes. He lays around most of the time and is definitely calmer than he used to be.

The reason I wanted to tell you my story was because I almost lost faith in God. I was so angry with him. How could he let this happen? Then Ms. Minor had us pray, and I prayed every night. Toby began to get better, and I realized the power of prayer. He had no broken bones, so God must have been watching over us. What I’m trying to say is that just because something happens that you don’t want to - don’t let go of your faith. Believe me, it almost happened to me. They say everything happens for a reason, and maybe this happened to teach me something - the power of prayer!