Don't forget that I'm interested in your parents as well - were they believers, did they stop going to church the second their youngest kid left the house, were they apathetic/hostile to religion, etc?
In my home, the religion instruction essentially went like this:
1. Went to church every time I spent a Sunday with my maternal grandparents. About 7 times a year for a 7year period.
2. Christmas, Easter, and for about a 3 month period Dad was on some church committee when I then had my First Communion. We switched churches, but their hearts weren't in it and we pretty much just stopped going other than Christmas, Easter, and then not every one of those.
3. I went through a period about a year ago where I started going to church again, more as a response to the Sophie question as anything else. Laura was more resistant, though spiritual matters concern her far more than I and I haven't gone in a few months.
My mother was raised Catholic and was more devout than my father, who changed religions to marry her (a man who changes religions for a woman has greater concerns in his life than pleasing God), though it wouldn't surprise me that my mother's devoutness was a partial result of the need to put on a act for the neighbors and business associates whom themselves are going to church to see who's there and who isn't.
When she died (1968, I was 1 year old), my father remarried and the new wife (also named Betty) was Catholic as well. They separated and divorced in 1976/77, but the church attendence had plummeted to zero by then because of my unfortunate accident referenced above. Once my grandparents came to visit and we all blissfully went off to the 10:30 Mass, serenely unaware that the church had been closed for 4 months. My father gamely said (and this is a by-God direct quote) "This wasn't in last weeks bulletin!"
My grandparents laughed about that for years. Laughed and raged, for they considered religious education important.
In my home, the religion instruction essentially went like this:
1. Went to church every time I spent a Sunday with my maternal grandparents. About 7 times a year for a 7year period.
2. Christmas, Easter, and for about a 3 month period Dad was on some church committee when I then had my First Communion. We switched churches, but their hearts weren't in it and we pretty much just stopped going other than Christmas, Easter, and then not every one of those.
3. I went through a period about a year ago where I started going to church again, more as a response to the Sophie question as anything else. Laura was more resistant, though spiritual matters concern her far more than I and I haven't gone in a few months.
My mother was raised Catholic and was more devout than my father, who changed religions to marry her (a man who changes religions for a woman has greater concerns in his life than pleasing God), though it wouldn't surprise me that my mother's devoutness was a partial result of the need to put on a act for the neighbors and business associates whom themselves are going to church to see who's there and who isn't.
When she died (1968, I was 1 year old), my father remarried and the new wife (also named Betty) was Catholic as well. They separated and divorced in 1976/77, but the church attendence had plummeted to zero by then because of my unfortunate accident referenced above. Once my grandparents came to visit and we all blissfully went off to the 10:30 Mass, serenely unaware that the church had been closed for 4 months. My father gamely said (and this is a by-God direct quote) "This wasn't in last weeks bulletin!"
My grandparents laughed about that for years. Laughed and raged, for they considered religious education important.
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