Spirituality

I feel like religion, spirituality, and faith are all separate aspects of human beliefs that can intersect but still maintain their separate entities. Religion is a belief in a higher power that affects human destiny, spirituality is more how intact you are with your beliefs about life, religious or not, and then faith is just an unadulterated trust in someone or something, be it a religious figure or not. I was raised Catholic by my mother. My father is an atheist and none of his side goes to church but my mom’s side is pretty involved with Catholicism. I love being Catholic and the idea of believing in a higher power and just something greater than oneself. Before college, I was unsure whether I would keep attending church here at USC because I have always been a firm believer that God does not spite you for not attending church and that you are allowed to keep your faith close to you no matter where you are or what day of the week it is. When I got here I decided I would keep going to church because it’s just something I want to do for myself and I enjoy it. I found the Catholic parish and I attend church every Sunday at nine with my roommate. I feel like spirituality and faith are the more personal sectors of religion and they are unaffected by geographical location. I have heard that religion is a lot more intense in the South though. I mean, I’ve always grown up with it and I actually like how intact people here are in their faith. I believe that in order to live, you have to have hope for something in your life, or there’s no point. Faith is also extremely important. A belief in something greater than oneself, even if it’s just a simple faith in say, a sports team, is a beautiful thing and perhaps one of the purest aspects of the human race.