Alex Bruce

I grew up a cradle Catholic. I grew up in a Catholic home, went through the entire Catholic education system of Ontario from Kindergarden all the way through to Grade 12. Because of this I also had the chance to make my way through youth ministry programs like Edge and Life Teen. These ministries taught me a lot of what I know about the faith. And I had small misunderstandings or doubts as I grew up though I never really walked away from the Church.

But even with all of these things surrounding me, I had become very static in my faith. I wasn’t growing anymore. I had kept hearing the same or similar messages, but I felt like something was missing in my own heart. I felt like I knew all the details of the faith and the “what’s” of the faith, but I lacked the “why’s”. Thats not to say anything negative about growing up Catholic or going through Life Teen and Edge like I did, because i think it was all essential to my overall growth as a person. But I lacked a necessary spark that I needed to grow.

Then very recently, just last summer of 2019, I discovered the beauty of philosophy, more specifically that of St. Thomas Aquinas. I was shown a podcast called “Pints with Aquinas” by Matt Fradd. I listened to all if not most of the 100 or so episodes there were at the time while i worked in landscaping. And I started to learn the why’s for all the different what’s that I had been taught all my life. And that had inspired me to really grow.

Reflecting on my experiences I find that God truly has a very good sense of humour because I never saw myself as an academic person. I always thought I might have an experience with God through music or sports (since those are my two biggest talents). And I always said that I wasn’t very logical but rather a very emotional person. And then God threw this amazing gift into my life that I never would’ve known to look for on my own because it was so opposite to what I thought I would’ve planned for myself. Just another very good example of how God knows best for all of us.

Now I’ve recently finished my second and final year of college and hoping to become involved in Youth Ministry myself so in some way I can continue to pass on the things I’ve learned over the course of my life. Even today I’m continuing to grow in my understanding of the faith and all the different reasons why we believe what we believe and learning how to defend it.

Through this experience, I learned that there will always be room to grow. As stagnant as we may get sometimes, it may feel like there’s no room to move forward. But it’s crucial to remember to leave our hearts open to growth. Because I know that once I finally stopped being complacent with where I was and thinking I couldn’t grow any further, I was given the best gift I could have been given.