7th of July, 2014

Intern Shareef's Blog #12:

  Today we were back to work. This morning we woke up and got our laundry, which made me so happy because now I have clean clothes! After that we went back home and got ready for the day. We then departed to work and I went to spanish class. Spanish class is getting a lot better and I am starting to learn a lot more stuff now so that is good! I enjoy learning spanish and I hope to be fluent one day. 

     After spanish class we headed to the Basillica which is a catholic church that has the following: 

1. The pope has had to visit, 2. A miracle has had to happen there, 3. There has to be a relic. This specific Basillica's miracle was on December 12th 1531. The picture of the Virgin Guadelupe appeared on Juan Diego's clothing. He was once upon the hill where the Basillica is now, and the Virgin Guadalupe appeared to him, so he told a local priest but he did not believe him and he questioned why she would come to someone like him. So he went back and the Virgin Guadalupe told him to carry these flowers that were out of season but he had dozens of them. So he picked them all up in his shirt and he brought them to the priest and out of nowhere an image of the Virgin Guadelupe appeared on his cloth. So then the priest was able to see she really did come to Juan Diego. 

The relic they have there is that same cloth where the image of the Virgin Guadelupe appeared. So today I learned a bit more about Catholicism and I asked Leticia, Jennifer, Tania, and Vania (in no specific order) what they thought was the most important thing I should know about Catholicism and this is what they said: "I don't think this is the most important thing but it is probably the thing that confuses people the most. People wonder why we pray to Saints instead of god." Catholics pray to saints instead of god because they believe their word is more powerful than the general publics. It's not that they believe that the general publics not powerful and is not listened to but the saints have more power than others. They also pray to the Saints for favors and each Saint has a specific trait for instance St. Josephs patron is for workers and St. Sebastians Patron is for Athletes. "In the catholic religion you must have a lot of obedience and loyalty, but you also need to follow the 7 sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation or Chrismation, Eucharist, Penance, Anoiting the Stick, Holy Orders and Matrimony." Some people also have a downside to Catholicism even though they were once apart of it. "Catholicism is more of an act people play instead of a lifestyle. Many people will just say yeah I'm catholic but they don't live a Catholic lifestyle." Some are in between "Many Catholics every time they walk past a church they do the crosses on their body. One in between their forehead and nose, one between their nose and chin, another between their chin and mid-chest, and then a big one from forehead to mid-chest. Some also believe in Saints more than they do God or Jesus Christ. There are many Saints too so they may be very faithful to a specific Saint. Catholics can also be very hypocritical and play the role of a Catholic but don't follow the lifestyle of a Catholic." So many people have different beliefs on most religions wether they are apart of that religion or not or even used to be so it was very interesting to get peoples answers and see what they believed. I am sorry if I got any information wrong on any part of the Catholic church.