Franzetti Religious

The following Grad-at-Grad speech was delivered at Morning Assembly on April 11, 2012 by Megan Franzetti (’12). “A Loyola Student is Becoming More Religious” As Ms. Meyers gave her speech last Tuesday, I looked at Ms. Baber and all I could think was, “Oh God, Ms. Meyers and I wrote the same speech!” Like hers, my background is also religious. I live right next to a church. My parents said prayers with me every night when I was little. I attended a Catholic grammar school for nine years, where some of my teachers were nuns. I have seen Pope Benedict XVI at a youth conference, and my big Italian family prays before every single meal. I work at my church’s rectory every Saturday for three hours and I attend Church on Sunday.

For many of you, I bet this information would be enough to write me off as the typical religious poster child. Sure, these things can make someone a truly religious person…but not me. The organ music I hear in my room on Sundays, my fire-and-brimstone grammar school education, and the prayers I have recited with my family are important to me because they provided me with my first exposure to a religious life. But they are not the parts of my life that have made me the person who can stand in front of you today and say, “I love God.” They are by no means what I want to talk about today.

By the time a Loyola graduate reaches graduation, she is beginning to take more responsibility for exploring and affirming her own faith. Talking about the true origins of my strong faith in God is a sensitive area for me because it involves talking about the areas in which I have invested my love. I once heard a retreat leader say, “It is easy to live with a God you have been taught to believe in, but it is easier to love a God you have found for yourself.” The notion of religion I retained for a long time gave me a God I was taught to believe in – a God who was all-powerful and mighty, who would judge the world on the Last Day. This conception of God was easy for me to live with: it required no contemplation or action on my part and it was an image of God that required the least emotional attachment.

My true faith began when I found God by myself. Loyola, of course, has played a significant role in reforming my faith life.

The January Camden trip during my freshman year sparked my realization that there is more to religion than mass and scripture. January Camden was the first glimpse I had of God’s love working through each of us. I transformed from the Westchester girl into the girl who

grappled with issues of welfare, poverty, and unfairness. I worked at a placement I’m sure a few of you have experienced called Francis House, a haven for people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS. A mere conversation at Francis House was my first powerful glimpse of hope through despair. It’s corny, but I found God in Camden and on each of the service trips I’ve attended.

In sophomore year art history, Ms. Meuler pointed out that the common image of God – an old man sitting on a cloud – was highly flawed. She asked, “How could such a powerful force be depicted as such an inactive character?” Wasn’t this the question I had been debating since Camden a year ago?

My faith was also ignited by the Jesuit belief that we should use whatever talents we have to glorify God – the famous “ad majorem dei gloriam.” I like that my Catholic faith has a factor that challenges me to pursue my talents to their utmost extent in order to do God’s work… to serve others. I feel encouraged to pursue what I am good at, as long as I can find a way to serve God. “Of those to whom much is given, much is required.” In addition to the challenge to reach my highest potential, I feel a responsibility to reach my highest potential.

Joining liturgical singers took my enthusiasm for religion to a new level. Realizing there were songs out there to verbalize my kinetic faith life and finding friends with whom to break into song made me ecstatic. I began vocalizing my faith, and I was able to identify the God who I had found through my own journey with the universal Trinity.

A Loyola graduate “understands that being fully alive and human necessitates an active relationship with God.” I have realized that God is in each one of us, in the love we share. So when we love one another, God -- through others -- loves us. As the New Testament says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am present.” It was easy to compare this active relationship of love to an experience such as Kairos, where my group and I bonded and shared our stories in a serene retreat environment.

But in reality, and by reality I mean a world not structured by a retreat, it is exponentially harder to have an active relationship with God with love and understanding. Take, for example, my friends. I love them a lot, and I do not know how I will be without them next year. But it hasn’t always been an easy road. We have had fights and misunderstandings, and sometimes we just need our space. But having an active relationship with God means we can forgive each other’s shortcomings. I have learned through all my relationships that there is no way to be

human and interact with each other without considering how we are fostering or destroying God’s love that is innately within us. We cannot have an active relationship with God if we don’t have an active relationship with those around us, forgiveness included.

There is a popular parable Jesus tells us about a seed that is planted in different types of soil. When the seed is planted in rich soil, it grows strong and healthy. When the seed is planted in rocky soil, it cannot take root. I have realized that this parable applies more strongly to me than I thought. When I am too preoccupied with my own ordeals, there is no way for God’s love – and therefore other people’s love – to take root in my heart.

Finding God in all things has been one of the pinnacles of my faith life and is another characteristic of a Loyola graduate at graduation. Only recently have I gotten into the habit of seeing God’s work in all the people, places, and emotions, I have around me. Finding God in small events has solidified my faith and reassures me in the slightest ways that God is present in my life – just lurking around the corner. Things like laughing with someone who understands me, working with a patient teacher on one impossible math problem, sharing fondue, or walking around my favorite lake, remind me that God is present everywhere.

I have talked to you about how I have tried to affirm my own faith, to maintain an active relationship with God through others, and to find God in all things. I hope you can take time to explore and develop a part of your faith that remotely interests you because it may surprise you in terms of what you thought you knew about your faith, how you can find God, and how your faith will change you.