Catholic School Reflection

To be quite honest, majority of my education on Catholicism took place during high school, which was also catholic. Every semester we were required to take classes on topics such as the history of the church, classes that broke down the different parts of the mass, etc. At Loras I have only taken one class, The Religious Imagination, where we did talk about the Catholic faith and identity but not to the extent I was taught in high school. Again, this just might be due to the volume and quantity of catholic classes I took in high school. However, Honors Service Learning has served to teach me new elements of the Catholic faith and created much discussion that has furthered my own Catholic faith and identity. I have found the discussions on values and what it means to live the good life to be awesome in terms of making me think what it means to live a good life, and a good life that is tied into Catholicism.
Besides the obvious differences between catholic and noncatholic college education experiences such as mandatory catholic identity classes, etc., I actually do not think there is too big of a difference between the two. Yes, there is an abundance of more opportunities to be involved in Catholic experiences such as Campus ministry, more religious groups, etc. but I dont think the different is too massive. Again, my whole life I have only been to Catholic schools (exempting one year) and so I do not know the other way. I try to keep away from arguments on religion, so I can't truly say I have ever had an in-depth argument on religion. However, if I were to, I feel like knowing more on Dorothy Day and the worker movement would have been beneficial.

Service Reflection

Thus far with my service experience working at the Humane Society, I can honestly say it is something I have come to love and look forward to. Whenever catching up with family or friends, when talking about what's new in our lives I always mention volunteering at the Humane Society as something new and exciting for me. With everything from one of the dogs, Slug (what a name right?) finally being adopted after spending months at the shelter to realizing just how much of an impact one can have with something as simply as walking and playing with dogs, this service opportunity has been nothing but amazing for me. Although there is some challenges, I know they are also a good learning opportunity. For example, as I mentioned in an earlier blog post, with about any volunteering experience, it's easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of help that is needed or work that needs to be done in a certain area, and the subsequent feeling that you wish you could do it all, but knowing you can't. For me specifically, when I first started volunteering, I had this feeling quite a bit, with knowing that I could only walk so many dogs and give them the much-needed outside time in my time at the shelter. I know that there are some dogs that may not even get to go outside every day, and this did (and still does) make me sad and feel a bit hopeless. However, I've realized you need to rather focus on the impact you are having on your service. For me, I am giving dogs the opportunity to play, and giving them the attention and love they deserve. What people don't realize is that if dogs are not let outside to play, they develop a serious mental condition in which they get too used to being in a kennel, and they lose the urge/desire to be outside, engage with people, etc. When this happens, the dog becomes unadoptable, and the shelter has to put the dog down. So it is indeed a much-needed need for the people to come engage with the dogs and let them be dogs, and play outside, etc. I have also realized just how much of an impact Humane Society can have-not only is it merely a place for homeless animals to stay, and give another chance at living with a happy family, but also a place where dogs and cats get needed vaccinations, spayed/neutered, among other things. It really is a safe haven for animals that have nowhere else to go, and without animal shelters like the Humane Society, the world would be a much scarier and desperate place for animals who are lost or do not have a home.

Voluntary Poverty

In reflection to Peter Maurin's quote on voluntary poverty, I believe that, yes, voluntary poverty is maybe ONE answer to the evil forces in the world today, but not THE answer. Not enough people would choose to put themselves in poverty, so this force field battling poverty is not the whole solution, but the part of a solution. In my opinion, I had a fairly surface-level understanding of voluntary poverty before our visit to the Catholic Worker Farm. I thought that maybe it meant, yes, one chooses to live in poverty, yet I did not understand how exactly one would do so. The visit gave me a greater understanding of voluntary poverty-the people living and working at the farm could have lived a life where they gathered and accumulated wealth over time, yet no-they chose to live closer to poverty. This is what voluntary poverty seems to be to me. Honestly, I believe majority of my understanding of voluntary poverty has come from this class, and the visit to the farm. I also believe this is a life that not all are called, just as the woman at the farm told us. As the couple at the farm seemed to project, it seems to be more of a calling to live that way. Not everyone has the vocation, patience, or desire to live that way. I also believe this extends to Christians-we all have our own way in which we can help; living in voluntary poverty is not for everyone. We all have our ways we can help serve our community and the world.

Pete: Exemplary Character

The person whom I wish to talk about is a man named Pete. Pete is one of the main guys at the Dubuque Regional Humane Society- every time I am there, so is he. He is a passionate guy who I can easily tell has a lot of passion- passion not only for the animals that he serves every day but for the customers who come in, the people he talks to on the phone, his coworkers, everyone. A story that helps demonstrate his passion and good character is when I was being trained as a Certified Pet Handler, which means I now have the ability to take the animals out of their cages by myself, and assist customers in this process as well. Pete is the guy who trained me, and during the session, he made sure to give me detailed instructions on how to handle the animals in a way that did not hurt them, and in a way that would not hurt the person I would give the animal to. He spent a lengthy amount of time describing different behaviors the animals might be showing, and to avoid the animals that are showing bad behavior as that could potentially put the animal in a bad situation, as well as myself. I could tell he took his job seriously and really cared for the safety of not only me, but the animals as well. I believe this shows good character as the job Pete has is one that someone could not take seriously and only do half the work, but in Pete's case, his compassion showed through.

I believe virtues that are necessary for someone serving in my particular project are love, charity, and courage. Love because not only are you demonstrating love for your neighbor by taking care of an animal that somebody had to give up due to a variety of reasons, but also love for ALL of God's creations, including animals, a category that a lot of the time gets thrown to the side in my opinion. Charity is an important virtue in my opinion for those who work for the Humane Society because they realize they are doing a job that is indeed part service, for the Humane Society cannot afford to pay high wages. As everyone who works at this animal shelter clearly loves the animals they work with, charity I can see present because the vets, etc. who work there could be getting paid higher wages elsewhere. Lastly, courage is important because I believe I need to be courageous in my work, for it's quite easy to succumb to feelings of sadness when leaving the animals and realizing that if an animal is kept in the cages long enough, they have to be put down.

Some habits that people might want to engage in to cultivate these virtues is gauging their emotions towards all of God's creatures, not just their fellow human beings. It is important for people to realize all of God's creation is just as important. Another way to cultivate charity is to, again, keep aware of one's emotions and by realizing there is a greater need. If someone has a lot in life, or even a little- they should give help to those who need it. Courage is a bit harder in my opinion, and to work on this, one needs to be proactive by attempting to do things that scare them, such as in my case, letting myself get attached to an animal that I know one day might be adopted.