I'm a highly flawed individual, as we all are, and because I was raised by Jesuits, I'm constantly, 'What is it about me and what I can do to be better?'
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Jesuits encourage an intellectual rigor in a way that I like.
I'm indebted to the teachers who shaped me - from the Sisters of St. Joseph at St. Croix Catholic elementary to the monks of St. John's in Minnesota to my professors at Georgetown.
Philosophers see no harm in the Jesuits other than in their effect on humanity and the sciences. The vulgar and especially the prejudiced only hate them from an envy and jealousy born out of conspiracy and intrigue at an organisation which overshadows them.
Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, I am motivated to be a better person.
Even as a small child, I wondered why the Dominican nuns who educated me were subservient to the Jesuit priests who educated my brothers.
I'm a human being who lives a flawed, contradictory life. And I have all sorts of problems and all sorts of successes.
I try hard to be a good Catholic.
At a certain point, I felt the need to submit to a higher level of religiosity... to move away from my intuition and to accept an ultimate truth. I felt that in order to become a good person, I needed rules - lots of them - or else I would somehow fall apart. I am reclaiming myself. Trusting my goodness and my divine mission.
I repent daily my sins, my faults, and my shortcomings.
With my Roman Catholic upbringing, I have a set of principles that serve me well in good times and bad.