Faith and service, #3

“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink…I was naked and you gave me clothing…Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matthew 25)
I have grown up with a strong Catholic background, and one that always centered on service. The quote above is one of my favorites from the bible, and something I tend to live by in my life. I was raised on the values of helping other people, not for the fact that I would gain anything out of it, but that it was just the right thing to do.
I strongly believe that my service is rooted in not only my faith but also my personal beliefs. Service is just a part of who I am, and what I enjoy to do. I am a person that sees the good in all situations and can see God’s face peering out behind someone struggling for help. My beliefs all stream back to the bible verse above, that when each of us reach out a hand to someone in need, we really are helping a member of God’s family and in turn helping him. I believe that the project we are helping with in Belize fits perfectly in to the mold of service and faith. We are going down to Belize to lend a hand to those less fortunate then us, and we are going down there to make us or Bellarmine look good, we are going to better the lives of the people and families that live there.
Recently in my Theology class, which is based on the journey/ path to God, focuses a lot on the finding of our inner spirituality and connecting it with the world and people around us. Our teacher, who is a Baptist minister helps guide us that to find our true path and calling to the growth and deepening in our relationship and faith in God that we need to simply look around us, and see what we can help with and be a service too. It is in the situations of service that we are truly called to journey closer to God and our path that he has laid out for us. We talked about the development of spirituality, and how experience in what drives us, and what we feel by our emotions are the keys to the complete development and growth in our faith. It also goes in to how we define ourselves and see ourselves in the world. God calls us to help others, whether they are poorer then we are or not, we need to stick up for our fellow man, keep the dignity of humans alive to make the world we live in a better place!