The Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Little Rock
Young Faith is a column series featuring Catholic student writers from Catholic and public schools in Arkansas. They share stories of struggle and triumph in their lives, all through a lens of faith.
As a high school student, I can identify with my fellow students who have challenges in their lives that can block us from being strong in our faith. But little things like simple prayers, going to Mass, being involved in a prayer group or volunteering keeps me grounded in the Church’s teachings.
I was raised in a Catholic household and have always been involved in church and youth groups. This has taught me the importance of More... 
Getting adjusted to the hustle and bustle of New York City and Columbia was not easy.
I was used to the slow and calm feeling of a small town, but all that changed when school started. All of a sudden, I felt like I had to always be productive, and I struggled with giving myself time to relax. I could no longer watch Netflix because I did not feel productive, which also made going to Mass More...
Faith has been a concept I have struggled to grasp throughout my life.
Ever since I can remember, I had questions about my Catholic faith. When I was younger, I would ask plenty of questions to more fully understand the different lessons and concepts being taught in almost every religion class I took. Slowly but surely, these teachings started to take root in my young mind and shape my outlook and actions.
Certain stories stuck with me. More...
God will open doors with the best surprises behind them if you let him lead you. I just completed my first semester of college at the University of Dallas. It was a rollercoaster. I have never been happier, but it did not come without hardship. Academic, social and spiritual struggles were always plentiful. I first tried to tackle them by myself but remembered how poor of a strategy that is. I quickly turned to God More...
To gain the full Razorback college experience, I recently got up at 4:30 a.m. with a couple of my friends to wait in the student section line for the Arkansas vs. Alabama football game.
While the morning cold and then afternoon heat during 10 hours of waiting for the game to begin were not the best, there were some really fun sides to the waiting: I got to bond with some girls that I met through More...
Starting my senior year of high school has been one big combination of emotions, such as excitement, worry, stress, hopefulness and exhaustion.
I love where I go to school, so I was very excited for school to start back up again. I was especially excited because we just got a brand new high school building, and I spent the last few weeks of summer helping my mom move into her classroom and get ready for school. More...
Teenagers today have much more on their plate than ever before. The perfect teenager earns good grades, participates in multiple clubs and sports, has a social life in person and on social media, spends time with their family and has a strong relationship with God. For me, it felt very overwhelming; it seemed like I had to be all or nothing.
For a long time, it felt as though school and social media came first; I More...
When dealing with obstacles in my life, I have always viewed them as an inconvenience. To me, those issues felt like a setback or a failure.
It wasn’t until I attended Benedictine Encounter at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., that my perspective changed. That weekend, I was introduced to two women who, while facing death, managed to praise God through their actions.
Blessed Chiara Luce Badano demonstrated her love for God through her acts of kindness. Growing More...
Growing up in a small town, the topic of saints was always a conversation starter when questioned about my faith. “What is a saint?” “Do you worship them?” “Those are just good people; why do you label them saints?”
I have been asked all of these questions and more regarding sainthood. I may not have always done my best to answer the questions, but as I’ve grown up, the saints have become an important factor in More...
I too often choose not to include God in parts of my day. The trouble often starts when tasks come my way, and I decide to face them alone. When the thought of saying a prayer crosses my mind, I often end up in stubborn self-talk. I still say or have said the following to myself: “I got myself into this situation, I can get myself out of it. My other peers would be smart More...
Anxiety is a tough thing. It creeps up when you least expect it, and it does not readily leave. It is easy to let fear and anxiety overtake us and nestle their place into our minds. But if we trust in God’s plan and know that we are enough no matter our circumstances, what power does anxiety hold over us?
As a high school senior, I get asked a myriad of questions. Questions about what college More...
As a busy high school junior with a job, I often struggle with balancing between work, school, friends, family and even time for God.
Finding time to do everything I wanted has always been a little difficult. Still, as I have gotten older, the stress of trying to fit everyone in has become increasingly noticeable. I worry that if I do not spend enough time with my friends, they will think I don’t like them or More...
As a child growing older, I began to notice certain things about myself: the way I spoke, what I liked doing, how others treated me and the direction I was headed in life. When I was in fourth grade, I pompously began to feel self-assured that I knew where I was going in life. Shockingly, it turns out I was wrong.
At 9 years old, I began to cough a lot, which worried my parents. My More...
Not so long ago, thinking of my future would make me panic.
While I knew that I wanted to help people by being a pediatrician, I didn’t know the steps to get there: Where am I going to college? What happens if I get rejected by my top school? What if I never become a pediatrician? How far away from my family am I going to be?
These questions kept running through my head as I started More...
Sitting in the living room with my family at 11:59 on New Year’s Eve in 2021, counting down those last few seconds of the year, I realized something: I graduate this year.
I am done with high school this May, and then I go to college. As the new year began, all I could think about was how this new part of my life was starting and if I was ready or not.
The plan for after More...
Memento mori: “Remember you must die”
I had the privilege of listening to associate pastor Father Keith Higginbotham’s homily on the first Sunday of Advent at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Rogers, where he talked about the beauty of death.
The way in which he preached about witnessing one dying on their deathbed felt both peaceful and jarring. By putting all of our focus on the present moment, we experience a sense of peace as everything More...
Now that I am in my final year of college and about to take on the world as a full adult rather than a college student, I have learned a lot of difficult lessons regarding my faith and spirituality. I am so fortunate to attend a Jesuit university that tries to incorporate faith and God into my nursing education. Thankfully, I can practice my faith every day during my studies.
However, it took me a long More...
I find it fruitful to let my imagination wander as it pleases. Doing this provides me with ideas for my creative writing, school, sports and other aspects of life. While it does no harm to rejuvenate the mind and use the imagination, I began running into problems spiritually.
During Mass, I often choose not to stop my mind from flooding with unrelated thoughts and ideas. Finding the self-awareness to stop a wandering mind and bring focus More...
During the pandemic, I became very attached to my phone. With not a lot going on, I spent most of my time on social media. When I wasn’t in adoration or reading my Bible, I was on Snapchat, TikTok or YouTube. As school started, that habit became hard to break. I would go home and, unintentionally, spend hours scrolling through TikTok. Then I would have to stay up late to be able to finish my More...
Going through high school is tough. During junior high, your hormones are at an all-time high, your skin is breaking out, and for some reason, you feel like crying all the time. Throughout the years, I struggled with self-confidence and the fear of being unwanted by everyone.
In middle school, I felt too skinny, and my clothes fit awkwardly. I was insecure about my hair, my voice and anything else I could think of. I felt More...
We live most of our life by standards that we create ourselves or others create for us.
These expectations apply in many situations such as work, home and school. Many of us have trouble with setting these standards and dealing with them because we create unreasonable goals.
Whether we make them too high or put them too low, not having the right standards can cause turmoil in our lives with ourselves and our peers. That is why More...
After recently becoming a part of the Catholic High alumni, I’ve had a lot more time to reflect on the previous four years. After having many nostalgic moments and asking myself, “How did this all happen so fast?” I began to look at the more serious aspects of my high school experience.
I entered the halls of Catholic High as a faithful graduate of Christ the King. At the start of that year, my faith was More...
As a nursing student, I’ve worked with every vulnerable person you could imagine: refugees, the mentally ill, those without homes, the elderly, even people who are simply lonely. While I enjoyed caring for them and helping them in the hospital setting, it often broke my heart when they shared how unsupported or alone they felt in their communities.
I often struggled with what to say or do with these patients, especially when I didn’t feel like More...
“... The son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Matthew 24:44)
Upon schools closing because of the COVID 19 pandemic, panic quickly set in. Fear of the unknown was looming over society as the future became very obscure. My household along with others planned for the worst by stocking up on food, water and other necessities.
I am by nature a paranoid person, so the coronavirus worried me a lot initially. The More...
For the longest time, I thought because I went to Mass every weekend and youth group every Wednesday, that meant I had a strong relationship with God. In my mind, God and I were best friends because he knew who I was and I knew who he was.
But the reality was, I only thought about God when I needed him. It wasn’t until I started to go to retreats my freshman year of high school More...
During this day and age, many perceive leadership roles in the Catholic Church as only being available to men. However, if we look back at Scripture, along with the teachings of the saints, we will see that women have and continue to make significant impacts in the Church.
The New Testament mentions a number of women in Jesus’ close circle, most notably his mother Mary, whom we hold dear to our hearts, and Mary Magdalene, who More...
Every person on this planet has God-given gifts called emotions. We were given emotions to help us live our lives to the fullest and make many great memories. The emotions we feel have another purpose, though: they indicate where we believe we stand with God.
It can easily be seen in prayer. When one prays out of joy, prayers tend to lean towards happier sentiments, while a prayer from sorrow tends to lean toward more disheartening More...
“Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.” -- Frida Kahlo
We might not have seen or heard this exact saying by Kahlo, but we should know its meaning. We do not know what God has in store for us. Everything changes. In fact, some of these things or events happen in a matter of milliseconds. Some of these quick occurrences can change our whole way of life, and we More...
A few weeks ago, I saw a post on social media from a Christian man who claimed that the reason this year has been so difficult is because humankind is being punished for straying away from God. Although many people rushed to defend or condemn the man’s post, it made me wonder whether or not people could actually believe that God is vengeful and wants to use fear and negative acts against us.
I remembered a More...
In a recent conversation with a teacher, I brought up that I had just tested positive for COVID-19. She had been out of town, so she was not aware of the news. She expressed her sympathy and recalled something that her dad used to say. He called people like me a “victim soul,” because God calls me to suffer for others because of my strength and persistence.
Over the last year or so, it feels like More...
Whether by politics or plexiglass, the nation is divided. The flames of sociopolitical turmoil are quickly engulfing every aspect of daily life. Controversial issues such as mask-wearing, social and racial justice and the upcoming election are all breeding grounds for conflicting viewpoints.
While it is good for a group of people to have differing opinions, it is also important to discuss these opinions in a reasonable manner. Unfortunately, much of the “debate” around these issues has More...
Our current social climate has brought attention to oppression in the Black community. The sad reality that we must remind our society that Black lives matter is something that has been on my heart. The gravity and the widespread nature of this movement has caused members in Little Rock communities to speak out. One community was the students and alumni of my high school alma mater, Mount St. Mary Academy.
It seems that even though MSM More...
Life has changed drastically because of COVID-19, especially for students. We have missed so many experiences and learning opportunities because of the pandemic, but we have also gained something that many of us may have not seen until now: the perfect chance to grow our connection to God.
Hard times typically do one of two things to our faith life: they either drive us away from God or cause us to cling to him. While quarantine More...
When we enter this world, we all come with certain innate talents and gifts, bestowed upon us by the Lord. Some of them include our athletic abilities or our intellect, but there’s one gift that stands out above all in a time like this: adaptability.
The past few months have been hard for all people. It’s changing our whole way of life. In order to combat these harsh times, we desperately need this gift of God, More...
If there is anything that the world has learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that the world can stop in an instant. Whether we see it coming or not, there is always the possibility that change is just around the corner to knock us out of our familiarities and routine.
Nonetheless, something that we as Christians, as humans, need to consider: that even though the world might appear to stop, that simply isn’t true.
Many would More...
In almost every religious education class or Catholic school, as children and young adults are being formed in their faith and coming to know God, the topic of “signs from God” arises. These signs can be events that seem to be a coincidence, a person that is put into our lives or even something as small as hearing an uplifting song at just the right time.
I think I speak for a lot of people my age More...
Teenagers have a problem with authority. However, there is a single authority that most teens, including myself, have the most conflicts with: our parents.
Our parents are a profoundly influential authority throughout our early lives, and consequently, are the ones we push back against the most. Regardless of whether we think we know better or not, adhering to the Fourth Commandment is important and necessary. Honoring our parents, however, isn’t as simple as just doing what More...
The start of a new year signals the start of intentional goals that aim to revive and replenish the mind and soul. We are called to take this opening chapter as an opportunity to center our lives around the one thing that can truly refresh our souls, our Heavenly Father.
A simple way to do this is to choose a word to pray and focus on for the coming year. I came across this intention while More...
School is back in session and now begins the quick countdown to graduations. For us high school seniors, this may be the most daunting semester of our lives. Every day we face another major life decision, and the time for choosing our futures is quickly slipping from our hands. Almost all college admissions have closed and now we must decide where we will spend our next few crucial years.
Of all the pressures placed upon our More...
I believe that being content is the weakness of man. I believe that the moment that we stop trying to improve ourselves, we have failed.
During my sophomore year, I reached a point in my spiritual life where I had stopped. I had noticed myself becoming a better person. Morally, I was growing; I was becoming more selfless and I believed I was doing exactly what the Bible instructed, but I still felt empty.
I had focused More...
This semester, I have had the amazing opportunity to live abroad at Creighton University’s campus in the Dominican Republic. Since my childhood, I had always wanted to study abroad so I could see other countries and cultures. When I was introduced to the service and volunteer based Encuentro Dominicano program at my college, I knew that I wanted to spend my time abroad doing more than just touring.
As a service-based study program, every week we More...
Our lives are centered on our relationships with other people. The definition of relationship according to the Oxford dictionary is, the way in which two or more people are connected, or the state of being connected. In our current culture, we are told to balance as many old and new relationships as possible.
There is also a standard of how much effort we should give to each one depending on the person. To be considered “connected” More...
I recently had the honor of taking a tour of the Holy Family Mission in Morrilton with my local Catholic faith group, Ignite.
On this tour, Luz Sandoval-Lord and Raymond Freyaldenhoven, also known as Brother Joseph, showed us what they do at the Mission, including retreats and conferences. They also taught us about the many saints they had statues of and had made videos about. While explaining who each statue represented, they kept returning to one More...
It is easy to feel like we are in control, especially when our lives seem to be going just as planned.
Some of us believe that we are so powerful that we can control our own fate and the fate of others, but we only have power because it was given to us from above (John 19:11). Some of us consider ourselves opportunists who will jump at every change and adapt it to suit ourselves, while More...
When I think about the phrase “God has a plan for you,” I recall a homily where we heard about a visiting priest’s call to the priesthood.
He had his entire life mapped out, was attending medical school, and had wanted to be a doctor for as long as he remembered. However, he struggled immensely to balance school, working nights in the emergency room, and staying committed to his parish. He continued to fail classes again More...
As humans, we naturally fear what we do not know, whether it be about another culture or a close friend. We have the choice to either face our fear by emerging ourselves into unfamiliar territories, or to give way to weakness and cower from the possibility of something that may lie out of our control. But our Father is a father of love. God does not speak to us through fear. Therefore, we need not More...
Now that the season of Lent has ended, so have our Lenten promises, and with our Lenten promises, the daily reminder to try and grow closer in your relationship with Christ.
Much like New Year’s resolutions, Lenten promises are often forgotten and given up on. Whether you give up desserts, soda or sleeping in, we usually go right back to living out bad habits right when Easter begins. But the entire point of making these promises More...
In C. S. Lewis’ book “The Screwtape Letters,” the demon named Screwtape writes, “We have made men proud of most vices, but not of cowardice.” The implication of this is that there is also at least one virtue men are always proud of, which is courage. Despite humanity’s positive outlook on courage, the devil detests it as much as any other virtue, but since we happen to like courage he has to take a circuitous More...
St. Katharine Drexel, whose feast day was March 3, is one of my most favored Catholic role models. Katharine Drexel was born into a privileged family in Pennsylvania in 1858. Her family was very wealthy and Katharine and her sisters never wanted for anything.
She traveled often across the country and saw the struggles faced by Native Americans and African Americans, who were recently freed from slavery and yet still faced prejudice, poverty and lack of More...
My life has recently been filled with new experiences and environments since starting my first semester of college at the University of Arkansas.
I have been immersed in the “college culture” and forced to become independent fairly quickly. Between going to class, studying and hanging out with friends, I struggle to make time for God. In high school I took advantage of how easy it was for me to find God because of my positive environment More...
Skimming through the racks of old T-shirts in my parents’ closet, my eyes briefly land on images of a Lynyrd Skynyrd album cover, various NASCAR racers and Ducks Unlimited magazine covers, before moving onto the next.
My mom tells me of the infamous “No Fear” T-shirts of the 90s, which had distinct slogans implying that if you weren’t willing to try, to play hard, you shouldn’t play at all, and you should have no fear. The More...
My entire life I have been taught by the greatest teacher of all — Jesus — not only in church but in school as well.
The underlying mission for all Catholic schools is to provide a safe environment for learning and to strengthen a student’s relationship with the Lord. I grew up in the parochial school system where strong Catholic ideals helped to shape my values. The schools’ focus on spirituality as well as academics aims More...
This year, I began my first semester of college at Creighton University, a Jesuit college in Omaha, as a student in the direct entry nursing school.
So far, despite the rigorous courses and the high stress that every college student is bound to experience, I love it. But very soon after I began this semester, I found that my classes and education was very different from those of my friends who are also going into similar More...
Who is responsible? How deep does the corruption go? What is going to be done about this? Why doesn’t God do something?
Disrupting the relative peace we had before, the scandals in the Church have brought in a storm of questions. All of these questions point the finger away from us though. This does not mean that the scandals are our fault. It means that we do not need to sit around waiting for someone else More...
In our world today we have several civil rights issues plastered all over our newspapers, social media and televisions. Some include the recent news of separating immigrant families at the border, pro-life issues, unfair treatment from police toward different races and the list goes on. One movement that I believe has changed my perspective and has tugged at my heart the most is the #MeToo movement.
It is a movement that exposes sexual harassment and misconduct More...
I was alone. There was no real place to go, no real thing to do. Aimlessly I walked; My head heavy, my mouth motionless and my hands hidden. I wanted detachment — isolation — yet the thought of loneliness sent aches to my fumbling mind. I was desperate to find security.
Spring break had passed and marked the final stretch for graduation. I was ready. Months of rhetorical analysis and Pythagorean’s theorem and photosynthesis and Henry More...
Sportsmanship is far too overlooked in the competitive world of sports.
I have played sports my entire life, partly because I grew up with an active older brother who helped expose me to all types of sports at a very early age and was a role model. This past school year, I only played lacrosse competitively, but I have always been infatuated by virtually all competition.
Many people believe a healthy amount of competition is essential to More...
“I just don’t understand why people believe in God when we have so much scientific proof that he doesn’t exist.”
This was what one of my best friends told me when we were discussing our personal beliefs. As an atheist, he has told me multiple times he believes in science more than he will ever believe in God. And unfortunately, this is an idea that is becoming more and more popular with the more scientific developments More...
Walking into Eucharistic adoration is always a transforming experience for me. To begin with, the Eucharistic chapel is an extraordinary environment. Illuminating the room, soft beams of light fall on the kneeling figures and the silence is profound. It is a place of great tranquility. The silent and peaceful atmosphere alone can be transforming since God is found in peace and silence. (1 Kings 19:11-13)
However, everything pales in comparison to the true significance of Eucharistic More...
The Catholic Education Resource Center defines “sanctity of life” as “human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end.” This doctrine of the Catholic Church is constantly challenged in modern society through abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia and is now extending into gun violence.
I did research on gun control from the perspective of More...
During the Christmas season, it is popular for news channels to publish inspirational stories about couples who rescued animals, donated to the needy or the rare few who managed to save their failing marriages. It just so happens that I came upon an article about the latter.
A couple who married one another with unrealistic expectations of love found themselves on the brink of divorce many years later. In a last-ditch effort to save their marriage, More...
No matter where I was, I loved being the center of everyone’s attention. I had no idea why. Seeing friends and family laugh as I made a joke or told a story was a feeling of fulfillment.
And, as a 12-year-old who constantly had energy, I could have been jumping up and down with the class hamster in my hand, singing for the world to hear the original song I had written about it, just so More...
I have to admit, I’ve always been hesitant about reconciliation. My mom or one of my friends will ask if I’ve been to confession recently, and I get this terrible anxious feeling in my stomach. There’s something about telling a priest all my sins that just terrifies me. I’ve been this way even since my first confession, and I was in second grade then, so I didn’t even have anything to confess, really.
It used to More...
I’ll be transparent. Being a teenager is hard. With school, work, college applications, keeping a social life and an abundance of other things, it begins to stack up.
Being a Catholic teenager is even harder. You get caught up in a whirlwind of expectations that you know aren’t right. Social media and everyday society will tell you it’s OK to be wild and crazy during your youth. It tells you to throw caution to the wind More...
When you think of body image, negative or positive, you typically think of teen girls or just teenagers in general. However, recent studies have shown that when younger girls, around the ages of 8 and 10, are asked how they feel about their body image the results are concerning. These young girls are feeling the same negative thoughts about their bodies as teenagers do.
Why do girls start to dislike the way they look earlier? I More...
Do you qualify as human? Surely you understand the ink shapes printed on this paper. A living human is breathing, his heart is beating and his mind conscious — to an extent — of the world surrounding it. The dictionary collecting dust on my dresser defines “human” as “a bipedal primate mammal.” A Brazilian short film directed by Jorge Furtado takes human classification one step further, adding that humans having a “highly developed telencephalon” and More...
When I was little, I always wanted to drive. I always wanted to be in the special seat; tall enough to nudge the gas pedal down to drive me far, far away. When I was little I always wanted to be older, always wanted to be wiser, always wanted to be in control.
That yearning for the driver’s seat has served as a metaphor of my life. I have always wanted to take control of what More...
I have always thought of college as some kind of foreign experience that I will go through years from now, but a scary realization recently hit me. Since I just finished my junior year at St. Joseph High School in Conway, I am soon going to be faced with choosing the university where I will spend the next four years of my life while I am preparing for my future career in nursing. With this More...
Heart pounding, I walked through the front doors of Catholic High and began my high school experience.
I was expecting to grow physically and emotionally, but I had no idea of the tremendous changes my faith life would go through.
Before I go into detail about my time at Catholic, let me share some facts about myself and my family. I’m a cradle Catholic. Both of my parents and most of my family are Catholic, so I’ve More...
It is state mandated that every school in Arkansas must have a one minute moment of silence before the school day. That moment is used to either reflect on the day to come, to do something quietly or to pray.
Usually when you look around the room at my high school during this minute, you can easily see that most people use this moment to scroll one last time through Snapchat, scribble answers on the homework More...
Ancient people believed that their gods needed human support in the form of sacrifices — animal or even human — in order to live. God, however makes abundantly clear in the Bible that he is not like that. He does not need our sacrifices. He is self-sufficient.
Renowned Baptist preacher and author Charles Spurgeon said it best: “The Gospel is like a caged lion. It does not need to be defended. It just needs to be More...
As a child, the challenge in life was to sit still. Not the easiest for a bouncy and impatient boy. Often, I would be told to stop moving, sit quietly and think about God. One time, I asked my mom, “Is there anything God can’t do?” She paused, and after a moment, she looked back into my curious eyes, smiled, and said, “Yes. There is something God cannot do. And that is to stop loving.”
In More...
It was my fourth day in Puebla, Mexico, and the bus I was on shook with the impact of the pot-hole ridden ground so violently I was convinced we would never make it back to our missions center without popping a few tires along the way. The dust that had collected on the street swirled up and into the aisles, settling on the unusually quiet group of teenagers surrounding me. Without even looking, I knew More...
When I was entering freshman year as a student at St. Joseph High School in Conway three years ago, many thoughts were swimming through my head: What do I need to do to better fit in with my friends? Is becoming friends with students in other grades a good idea? How should I improve my physical appearance? Should I date people this early?
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, all of my thoughts were never really centered around my academic abilities or my relationship More...
Sister ministers on the Mexico border as Jesus would
Goal: CPR, first aid training for ushers across diocese
Catholic leaders concerned over new state child labor law
Catholic faith a front runner in Oaklawn Park backstretch
Your baby's name ‘almost like a prayer for their life’