Introducing Religion to the Kiddos

The interesting thing about being a mixed household is deciding how we introduce religion to our children.

I haven't always had the best relationship with the Catholic church and until the last few years I wasn't sure if I wanted to pass that down to the next generation.  Just after my confirmation I was pretty much rejected all things Catholic.  Interestingly enough, it was the two year process prior to my confirmation that convinced me that I should not be confirming my faith but in our catholic community and in my catholic school that didn't really seem to matter.  I was supposed to be confirmed and so I was going to be confirmed (whether or not I wanted to).  It's the idea of "going through the motions" left a sour taste in my mouth.  No surprisingly, I left the church for a very long time.  I find myself back at the church a few years ago.  Thankfully, under the direction of the Jesuits that seem to dominate the churches in California, I was able to approach religion and Catholicism in a new way, a way that made sense to me.

Fast foward to the late-2000s when I fall in love with and marry a Jewish man.  The question of religion is an obvious one... what religion will the children be?  Traditionally, in the Jewish community religion comes from the mother but at the same time more and more conversions are being accepted in the Jewish community.  Also, most of the Jewish holidays are celebrated in the home where as Catholics church is where we celebrate the major holidays.  Ultimately, we decided that we would celebrate both Jewish and Catholic holidays.  We would expose the children to both religions and ultimately leave it up to them to decide which path they wanted to follow.  Having had my religion forced on me even when I knew I didn't believe what I was being taught, I never wanted to put our kids in that position.  Our goober has been baptized and we are in the process of working that out for our newest wee one.  Aside from that, we're letting the kiddos decide if they want to take it any further.

Having grown up in the church, it is easy for me to think about how I want to introduce the wee ones to Catholicism.  But what about Judaism?  Aside from the Old Testament, I have no clue.  Luckily, since most of the holidays are celebrated in the home, I have learned a LOT in the last few years of heading over to the in-laws but learning by osmosis is not really the best way to try to pass on traditions to the kids.  Enter in the PJ Library.  My MIL signed up the goober for the program.  Every month he gets an age-appropriate book that talks about an upcoming Jewish holiday or prayer or tradition.  Last Easter, I thought it was fitting that the goober wanted to bring his new Passover book to church to entertain him during mass.  It's a great idea.  An amazing way to introduce kids to religion in a fun and simple way.  I'm actually jealous now that there is no Catholic version of the PJ library.  I've looked.  Of course, there are plenty of books for kids about Catholicism including the children's bible that the goober has.  It's just not the same as his excitement when he gets mail and it's a new book from the PJL.  We rip open the envelope and read whatever book he's gotten right away.  Maybe there is something out there that I have missed.  I know it's not a competition but it's just a really cool idea that is well executed.

Right now, I'm just happy that he's into his books.  Right now, I'm just happy that the wee one sleeps through most of mass tucked away in her carrier :) Right now, I'm just happy that in the life we've made for ourselves it's okay if they want to be Catholic or Jewish or whatever feels right for them.

Round 2, Day 17

It's amazing how many folks have come up to me because of this blog to let me know that they are also doing P90X.  I never knew that so many of my friends are also struggling through these videos with me :)  So today, although the middle of Hanukkah, was the night that my family decided to celebrate with a dinner.  I'm am stuffed to the gills with potato and sweet potato/zucchini latkes.  If you have never had them, you are missing out (lots of info here on latkes).  Yes, it's fried and unhealthy and all that but it's just the 1 time of year.  I was "good".  I only ate 1 to 1.5ish of each kind... hahahahha.  I'm terrible. 

Sooooooo having fallen off the potato latke wagon, I came home tonight to do my P90x PLUS Kenpo Cardio +.  I'm a sweating like a mad woman but at least feel a bit better about the indulgence of fried Jewish goodness.  I'm still sore from yesterday's Total Body workout and I'm sure my arms will be jello-like.  I'll be hurting but it's good to get my muscles back into gear! 

Today’s Workout
Day: 17
Program: P90X +
Workout: Kenpo Cardio +
Length: 45 minutes
Time: Evening
Place: Home
Buddies: the potato latkes bouncing around in my belly

Next Workout: Upper + and  Abs/Core+

What have we learned?

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="280" caption="Agora the Movie"][/caption]

This past weekend Steve and I went to go see Agora at the Laemmle in West Hollywood.  The movie is a great film.  I would definitely recommend the movie.  It's set in Alexandria during the time that Christians were increasing in size and power.  There were clashes between the Christians and Pagan and then the Christians and Jews and then the Christians and the government (made up of mostly converted Christians).  Being Catholic myself, I was not that surprised at the portrayal of Christians as a confrontational group that "needs" to convert everyone. The story follows the astronomer Hypatia (Rachel Weisz).

On the ride home, Steve and I started talking about different aspects of the movie we enjoyed, thoughts it provoked, the usual sort of thing.  The one thing that we hit on the most was the idea that regardless of the changes in the last few thousand years we really haven't learned much.  Despite of all our advances in science, medicine, philosophy, we still haven't learned the basic lesson of tolerance.  No matter how "civilized" we are, as a group is difficult to "allow" others to believe as they see fit.  Most religions feel that they believe in the "true god", the "only god", to the exclusion of all other religions.  In the movie, the Christians mocked, fought, and persecuted members other religions because they didn't believe in what they did. In one of my favorite lines in the movie one of the former students asks Hypatia what she believes in and she says that she believes in philosophy.  She tried to teach her students that "we are all brothers" that we are more similar than we are different.  With all the fighting she refused to be pulled into the fighting fueled by intolerance.  In over 2,000 years we haven't yet learned tolerance.

Thinking inward, it amazes me that we are still fighting the same fight we did on the streets of Alexandria almost 2,000 years ago.  Is it really so difficult? Are we, as a people, so small minded hat we cannot allow others their beliefs, their god, their happiness?  Are we so arrogant in our beliefs that we are the only ones who could possibly be right?  Can minds that have built the miracles of the modern age simply not hold the concept of tolerance?  Are we so foolish? So in the last 2,000 years what have we learned?  A lot, but are we still missing?  Learning tolerance.  I'm going to work it.  Hopefully I'm not alone.

Ash Wednesday

There is a comfort in ritual and a familiarity that comes at the beginning of Lent.  It doesn't matter what church I go to or where it is, on Ash Wednesday we sing the same songs I recognize and tell the same stories that I remember.  Ash Wednesday was always an interesting experience growing up.  We would get out of class and troop on over to the church as a school.  After mass, we would all compare the size of the smug we had on our foreheads.  At St. Brendan's, if you got Fr. Rento, it was a pretty big and dark smudge.  Fr. Joe and Fr. Bill they went big but not so dark.  And then there was always the visiting priest (we always had one around Lent), who knows what he would do.  Granted, we were kids and so our foreheads weren't that big to begin with so maybe the smudges weren't THAT big.  And so began the season of tuna fish Fridays :) .  When I went to college it was upgraded to clam chowder Fridays.

So continuing the tradition, I went to mass this morning with all of the other "trying to go to mass before work" folk.  I sang the familiar songs.  I heard the familiar stories.  I marveled yet again that on the day in which the gospel warns us to “[t]ake care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them" (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18) we wear a large ashen cross on our foreheads.

The mass was simple but nice.  I did enjoy the homily during which the priest this morning talked about how we all give up something during Lent but that we should also take something on.  Do something actively during Lent.  I hadn't really ever thought of that before and so maybe Lent will be a wee bit different for me this year. It should be interesting.