“Living the Christian Life: A Research on the Values and Way of Living of the Modern-

Day Catholics”

Submitted to:

Ms. Mia Eballo

Theology 2 professor

Submitted by:

SANTOS, Annissa Luz C.

TAPAOAN, Francine Allyros R.

103C

March 2019
Introduction

The number of Roman Catholics in the world (nearly 1.1 billion) is greater than that of
nearly all other religious traditions. There are more Roman Catholics than all other Christians
combined and more Roman Catholics than all Buddhists or Hindus. Although there are more
Muslims than Roman Catholics, the number of Roman Catholics is greater than that of the
individual traditions of Shīʿite and Sunni Islam. (Frassetto, 2019)

At one level, of course, the interpretation of Roman Catholicism is closely related to the
interpretation of Christianity as such. By its own reading of history, Roman Catholicism
originated with the very beginnings of Christianity.

Filipinos are generally religious people. Being converted into Christianity by the
Spaniards for 333 years and more, Filipinos are religious people. Often reciting Latin praise they
were taught when they were young, which they may or may not know the meaning of. These
kind of religious responsibility were passed onto our parents by our grandparents. But the
question is, did we did well to preserve this kind of religious upbringing?

With the dawn of technology, people have been more lenient with a lot of aspects of life.
This leniency includes the generation’s discipline regarding with religion. As the researchers
noticed most of church attending mass do not observe proper decorum. There are children
running around the Church, some are eating, and some are gossiping. Clearly, this shows lack of
taught Church decorum.

The researchers chose this research “Christian Way of Living: A Research on “ solely for
the purpose of raising awareness on the decline of discipline regarding religion and praise. This
research will focus on how Millenials and Generation Z live as a Catholic, if they still know the
prayers by heart or if they strictly follow the Teachings of the Church.

The aim of this research is to either gauge or show how instilled the values and the way
of living as Catholic are ingrained in the hearts of the newer generation of Filipinos. This study
also aims to present the data in the most organized way and to provide numerous
recommendation as to how to improve the new generation’s religious upbringing.
 The research’s format is IMRaD, a new and more summarized format of research. The
parts include the Introduction, Methodology, Results, and lastly, the Discussion of the data
gathered. This format was chosen for the convenience of the reader. This format allows the data
to be presented as compact as possible, thus making it easier for the reader due to its fewer
pages.

Review of Related Literature

The are numerous studies on religion, especially on Catholicism. Though, there are a
scarce number of Filipino researches on this topic. The researchers used foreign researches as its
related literature to help with the development of this research. The researchers provided the
abstract of said related literature and provided parallels

Based on the research of Froyshov and Salomonsen, entitled “Ritual and liturgy
research”, the aim of liturgical history, as a discipline in church history, is to reconstruct
historical Christian rituals and to investigate their theological and contextual (social, political,
etc.) significance. The history of liturgy studies central Christian rites such as eucharist, baptism,
ordination, the daily office, festivals etc. The scholarly discussion at the faculty focuses in
particular on the history of liturgy in the first Christian millennium, and in particular on the
Eastern church, both the first three centuries, with their considerable variety and development,
and the following centuries, during which various Christian liturgical traditions are developed
and fixed. (Froyshov, 2008).

Based on the research of Earey, entitled “Beyond Common Worship”, it was focused on
the Anglican’s way of worship, how diverse it is. In a mixed economy Church in which fresh
expressions of church, alt.worship and new monasticism all sit alongside traditional parish
churches, he asks whether it is time for the current rules-based approach to Church of England
liturgy to make way for an approach based on trust and accountability. Such an approach would
allow for more local flexibility and creativity, but raises big questions about how such worship
can be truly indigenous yet authentically Anglican. (Earey, 2013)

Most of the used related literature were similar with the research conducted in the fact
that they all deal with how Christians follow and obey the teaching of the Church. The major
difference is that the religion is not exclusively Christian Catholic, but also other types of
Christianity. And another difference is that the researches used as related literature were all
conducted outside the country, they were for foreign studies.

METHODS

The purpose of this section is to explain in detail the research method and its
methodology used in order to gather data in this study. The chapter will first explain the choice
of research approach, then will proceed to the explanation of the research design, as well the
advantages and disadvantages of the chosen research tools.

Research Method

This study makes use of qualitative research approach, wherein the approach is
implemented by interpretivism. Interpretivism is an approach which is implemented by the
researchers in order to synthesize facts which are gathered mainly from primary sources.
The interpretive approach aims to provide methods for developing understanding of different
religious traditions. The interpretive approach aims to increase knowledge and understanding and
it sets out neither to promote nor to undermine religious belief.

Research Design

This research made use of a qualitative research strategy, wherein there will be no
numerical data. The research strategy is appropriate for this research hence its parallels to several
variables. The researchers used random sampling method to gather respondents. The
respomdents include College students who are Catholic roaming the streets near St. Scholastica’s
Manila.

Research Tools

The researchers conducted an interview to random students. The interview is specified to

gather data about the respondents’ frequency in attending mass, knowledge on the values and
teachings of the churches, their personal opinion on whether or not they diligently uphold the
values expected of Catholics.
RESULTS

In this section, the results will be presented into several paragraphs to show the gathered
data from interviewing several respondents. The data gathered with be in the form of paragraphs
explaining the results and how it was gathered. The Researchers conducted a survey to the 10
respondents which consists of three research questions. The first research question is “Do you
attend the mass every Sunday?” based on the conducted survey, most of the respondents
answered yes, which is a positive thing. The second research question is “Do you know the Ten
Commandments?” and Lastly, “Do you follow and apply the Ten Commandments to your daily
lives?” Most of the respondents are churchgoers, they know the Bible and the prayers, but
they’re not that strict when it comes to following the teachings and norms.

Respondent 1 answered “Yes” to the question(s): “Do you attend the mass every
Sunday?” “Do you know the Ten Commandments?”. And answered “Not all” to the question:
“Do you follow and apply the Ten Commandments to your daily lives?”

Respondent 2 answered “Yes” to the question(s): “Do you attend the mass every
Sunday?” “Do you know the Ten Commandments?” and “Do you follow and apply the Ten
Commandments to your daily lives?”

Respondent 3 answered “Yes” to the question(s): “Do you attend the mass every
Sunday?” “Do you know the Ten Commandments” and “Do you follow and apply the Ten
Commandments to your daily lives?”

Respondent 4 answered “Yes” to the question(s): “Do you attend the mass every
Sunday?” “Do you know the Ten Commandments” and “Do you follow and apply the Ten
Commandments to your daily lives?”

Respondent 5 answered “Yes” to the question(s): “Do you attend the mass every
Sunday?” “Do you know the Ten Commandments?” And answered “Yes, but not all.” to the
question: “Do you follow and apply the Ten Commandments to your daily lives?”

Respondent 6 answered “Yes” to the question(s): “Do you attend the mass every
Sunday?” “Do you know the Ten Commandments?”. And answered “I’m trying to apply and
follow the teachings every day.” to the question: “Do you follow and apply the Ten
Commandments to your daily lives?”

Respondent 7 answered “Yes” to the question(s): “Do you attend the mass every
Sunday?” “Do you know the Ten Commandments?” and “Do you follow and apply the Ten
Commandments to your daily lives?”

Respondent 8 answered “Yes” to the question(s): “Do you attend the mass every
Sunday?” “Do you know the Ten Commandments?” and “Do you follow and apply the Ten
Commandments to your daily lives?”

Respondent 9 answered “No” to the question: “Do you attend the mass every Sunday?”
And answered Yes to the questions: “Do you know the Ten Commandments?” and “Do you
follow and apply the Ten Commandments to your daily lives?”

Respondent 10 answered “Sometimes” to the question: “Do you attend the mass every
Sunday?” And answered Yes to the questions: “Do you know the Ten Commandments?” and
“Do you follow and apply the Ten Commandments to your daily lives?”

DISCUSSION

This section includes the summary of the research. It will also include recommendations
to future researchers as well as recommendations to improve the country’s decline in religious
discipline and awareness.

To summarize the data we have gotten, most of our chosen respondents do know basic
knowledge of prayers and values expected from a Christian Catholic teenager, though they do
not strictly abide to the teachings. The respondents do succumb to smaller temptations, and
would atone for the sins done. With the data gathered, it is safe to say that the modern Catholics
need more of the discipline to enforce the teachings of the Lord.
Recommendations

The researchers have come up with several ways for the newer generations to improve
their faith and religious discipline.

1. Read books on religion, especially what is expected behavior inside the church.
2. Advocate your religion to friends and relatives.
3. Reprimand those who break decorum while the mass is ongoing.
4. Start young. Teach younger generations, your younger siblings or nieces and
nephews, how to pray and how to behave while in the Holy House of the Lord.
5. Give out fliers about Christian Living.
6. Give seminars or talks to raise awareness that we may be considered the most
religious in Asia, but we lack proper discipline in enforcing behavior.

References:

Catalogue. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://search.library.utoronto.ca/details?9108019

Jackson, R. (2007). Studying Religion:The Interpretative Approach in Brief. European

Wergeland Centre.

Oakley, F. C., McKenzie, J. L., Knowles, M. D., Frassetto, M., Cunningham, L., & Pelikan, J. J.
(2019, January 09). Roman Catholicism. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-Catholicism

Ritual and Liturgy research. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.tf.uio.no/english/research/subjects/ritual-and-liturgy-research/