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Catholic education helps
strengthen relationship with God

By MICHELLE DELANEY, Globe staff reporter

Having the ability to take in various spirit-filled activities that enrich the faith is an opportunity that isn’t offered to every student.

Students at Catholic schools have an advantage when compared to others in this category. They work on strengthening their faith everyday in school through prayer, religion classes, Mass and many other projects and lessons.

Julia Feldmann, a sixth grade student at Sacred Heart School in Spencer, explained that she gets to go to Mass every Friday with her entire school. She also spoke about how she gets to study religion in class every single day.

“We strengthen our faith because every day in religion we get to talk about God and build a better relationship with him,” said Feldmann.

Feldmann went on to talk about how they get to go to confession every six months, do prayer services together and pray the rosary.

“Some other people don’t get to talk about God at all when they go to school,” said Feldmann. “We are very fortunate that we’re able to.”

Another sixth grade student at Sacred Heart School, Bailey Illg, discussed the many times she gets to pray in school.

“We do prayer services and we pray every morning before lunch, after lunch and at the end of the day,” said Illg.

She also explained that she learns about the 10 Commandments and stories from the Bible such as Noah’s Ark and Cane and Abel in her religion class.

“I like being able to learn about this in school. I think it’s important because it teaches us about how he sacrificed his life for us and it builds a better relationship,” said Illg.

Illg said that her favorite part about going to a Catholic school is Catholic Schools Week because of all the fun activities she gets to do that incorporate God and religion. She is looking forward to making cards for members of the school board, going bowling and participating in Mass on Sunday.

Ella Hoffman, a kindergarten student at Danbury Catholic School also enjoys going to Mass as a part of school. She explained that she is learning about the different parts of Mass and gets to pray several times in school each day.

“I like being able to learn more about Jesus,” said Hoffman. “We get to do prayer during school and it’s cool that we get to do that together.”

When given the choice about whether to attend Catholic school or go to public school, Cameron Doyle, a sixth grade student, chose to go to Danbury.

“I wanted to go to Danbury again because we were getting new math books and I wanted to learn more about Jesus and God. I just wanted to take the extra year here,” said Doyle.

Doyle explained that at Danbury he gets to learn about what Jesus did, about the apostles and how to be like Jesus. Father Dan Greving comes to the classrooms once a month for Gospel values and teaches the students more about their faith.

“I like being able to have a closer relationship with Father,” said Doyle. “I think having these classes help build a stronger relationship with God because you get more knowledge of your faith and you understand more of it.”

Doyle went on to explain having that relationship is important because it makes him a better person and helps him get to heaven.

Samantha Newborg, a senior at Spalding Catholic School in Granville, treasures her Catholic education because it has given her the chance to discover the value in helping others.

As a member of the Christian Leadership Team (CLT), she has the opportunity to volunteer, work with different charities and plan Masses and prayer services.

“I definitely learn about how to pick out the right Scripture for Masses and how to incorporate God in school,” said Newborg.

Newborg explained that going to a Catholic school has strengthened her faith and has shown her how important helping others is. She noted that being on the CLT has taught her that charity work goes beyond school projects and she believes she will keep helping others after she graduates.

Newborg feels that without Catholic school, she wouldn’t know her faith as well as she does.

“We have the freedom to talk about God however we want and I’m glad I got that opportunity,” said Newborg. “I think it’s important to learn about God and strengthen my relationship with him in school because if you didn’t you wouldn’t be close to God, you wouldn’t know the reasons why it’s important to go to church and you wouldn’t respect God as much as you do when you go to a Catholic school.”