Acts of Faith
Acts of Faith Reflection We understand that from Patel’s visit to a Catholic Worker House he immediately sees and can even hear the diversity amongst him in this home or shelter. He hears American voices, Spanish speakers and he sees white, black and brown children all galloping around and playing with one another. Just like Dorothy Day, Patel wanted everyone to live the abundant life. Patel describe a great deal of his life to be separated into two rooms. A different way of speaking, a different group of friends in separate rooms, but here at this house; he could ultimately be himself, in one room. We know that in Patel’s younger years, he went through a series of rejections, based on his heritage, for that in America; no one believed that they could co-exist with India and Islam. One of the tasks that we learn is that people and programs can shape young people’s lives. We understand that a task of religious faith is the recognition that we are all one. The small things such as, race, gender, beliefs and practices shouldn’t hinder us in living in peace and harmony. From the story we can generate many things, one of them being that when we realize the tasks on religious faith is when we will live in a better world. During Patel’s trip to Israel, he realizes that he himself has yet to create his own identity. This comes about after a talk with Sarah about how she has a community that looks out for her, cares for her and that she has principles. That is when he realizes that he has none of this. He realizes that if he were to disappear at that very moment, no one would even notice or care that he was gone. This is important because ultimately every one need to develop one’s own identity. After all, your identity is what makes you, you! It is also important to have some sort of support system that Patel is missing at this time in his life. We all need to have someone or maybe even a group behind us simply saying that they are there when we need them, someone