Faith is complete trust

Faith is the complete trust in someone or something. As a Catholic Christian, I have faith in God. I trust that he will guide me through any struggles that come my way. When you have faith you feel powerful and confident that God will help and lead you. At my school,  we pray for each other and our families. We encourage others to keep fighting when times get hard. God never fails in his plans.  

At Mater Christi, we all are engulfed in faith, God, Jesus and religion. We have religion classes four times a week; we go to Mass every Wednesday as a middle school. During that Mass, three students are altar servers. 

When I walk into school every morning I feel safe and blessed by God.  Every morning and afternoon we say morning prayer, lunch prayer and end-of-the-day prayer. We share our intentions with each other. We do this together as a class and as a school family. Almost every Friday we come together in the church for a prayer service. Each prayer service is led by a different class. This gives everyone an opportunity to lead prayer. A few weeks ago our kindergarten and first graders led us in prayer.  

My family does many activities at home to live our faith. On almost every holiday or celebration, we decorate our house with symbols of Christianity. Even though it is not a Church holiday, Thanksgiving is one of my family’s  favorite holidays. We give thanks to God for all he gave us and for each other. Before dinner on Thanksgiving, we say a prayer that shows we appreciate what God does for us.  

Another sacred time is Lent. We don’t eat meat on Fridays and we give up some things too. Giving something up means that we appreciate the suffering that Jesus did for us and it’s the least we could do.  

This year our class went to Saint Peter’s to give out Thanksgiving cards to the elderly. It felt so nice to see the smiles on their faces. I thought this was a good way to share my faith with other people during the Lenten season.  Being a Catholic doesn’t always mean just praying and worshiping. You need to show you care by following what your parents tell you to do, helping out in a local food drive or even giving away old clothes to charities that will give them a great home.

I am a part of a foundation  called “Make A Wish.” I spent a day selling Christmas Angels at the mall with another volunteer and it raised a lot of money for that charity. I also helped raise money for my cheer team, Encourage Kids Foundation and more.  

Another activity I enjoyed was ordering and wrapping Christmas presents for children in need. Giving back to your community is a great thing,  It makes you feel good and it makes other people feel good too! 

My faith is a really big part of my life. It will be forever. I know God will be with me. I think  he will be proud of me for reaching out to the community and helping with my school. I love God with my whole heart and soul. No one ever can replace him. He made everyone different. No one is the same. No matter what you do God loves you and forgives you. 

Madison Leitch is an eighth-grader at Mater Christi School, who loves cheerleading and seeing the smiles on the teachers’ faces every day.