Catholic New Year

Today, we decided to go to Mass--but do something slightly different. We visited a different Catholic parish in our neighborhood. This visit showed us that although the main structure of the Mass is the same, each church is slightly different.

 

For example, we knelt at different times, the congregation welcomed three new members to the church, and we noticed that instead of drinking the wine from a chalice at communion time, most people just dipped their wafers in the wine. At this church, after the Gospel reading, a woman gave a speech that seemed to be the homily. Usually the priest or the deacon gives the homily, but apparently a woman  was permitted in this church. It also used to be that only boys could be alter servers. We wonder why. Our church has boys and girls as altar servers. The church we visited today had adult altar servers, both men and women.

Just like at our church, when we sat down, we noticed the four Advent candles--which told us that there were only four weeks until Christmas. The picture above shows the four candles, three of them purple, one of them pink. The first two purple candles show us that we are waiting hopefully for the birth of our Savior. The third candle, the pink one, is a sign of celebration, since that is the last week before Catholics light the final candle, the Christmas one, on Christmas Eve. Catholic churches all over the world have wreaths such as this one at the time of Advent--and, like the Mass, each is slightly different. 

Another cause for celebration this week at Mass was the Catholic New Year. The Catholic Church's New Year is celebrated on the first week of Advent, which is, of course, a different date than the January 1st New Year. Catholics celebrate the new liturgical year on the first week of Advent because the start of a new Christmas season begins the new liturgical cycle.

All over the world, Christians are beginning to prepare for Christmas. Churches are lighting their Advent wreaths, families might be setting up their Nativity sets and perhaps even lighting their own wreaths as well. Different Christian denominations might have different traditions. What do you and your family do in order to prepare for Christmas? Comment on this post and let us know. 

Holocaust Memorial Museum Visit

Today we visited a Holocaust Memorial Museum to learn more about Judaism and also about the Holocaust. The museum we visited had a detailed timeline, which covered not only the history of Judaism but also other historical events that took place from the time of Abraham to the bombing of the World Trade Center.  This first part of the museum had explanations about Hebrew beliefs and covered everything from synagogues to religious ceremonies such as Bar Mitzvahs and weddings as well as festivals and holidays. This exhibit had several interesting artifacts including a Torah (the holy Hebrew text),  a Hebrew marriage certificate, scale models of a synagogue, and a section on the importance of music and theater in Jewish culture. 

We then moved into the Holocaust section of the museum. The design of the building changed. At first the rooms had been large and relatively airy, but now they were much more closed in and dark. We realized that this was the intent of the architects, because the farther we got into the exhibit, the darker and smaller the rooms got, probably symbolizing the feeling of being trapped that people must have felt in the concentration camps.

We learned about the Kindertransport establishment, which the British government set up to allow Jewish children from the ages of 3-17 to escape from Germany. Most parents told their children that they would come in a few weeks and join them. 10,000 children were saved, but four out of five children who left on the Kindertransport never saw their parents again. You can learn more about the Kindertransport program online.

We also saw a prisoner's uniform, Nazi uniforms, a model of a train car used to transport prisoners and even a wreath of hair that a survivor made from prisoners' hair. We decided to walk quickly through the "Abyss," a dark room in which videos were played showing what the Allied soldiers found when they liberated the concentration camps at the end of the war.  One of the museum guides said that the videos really weren't meant for children.

Learning about the Holocaust is hard. The horrible things that happened in the camps lead some people to wonder how God could allow such things to happen. In fact, some Jews that survived the concentration camps gave up their faith after they were released, since they didn't understand why this had happened. Others, however, had strengthened their faith.

In one section, we saw a "thought wall," a plain polished metal wall that small pieces of paper were stuck to. On the papers, people had written why they were glad that they had come, and some emotions they had felt while they looked at the exhibits. We were reminded of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the only remnant of the old Jewish Temple that Jews come to and stick small pieces of paper with prayers written on them in the cracks of the wall.

In one of the last sections, we were able to see a quilt made of beautiful patchwork squares, each square made by a Kindertransport survivor or survivor's descendants. One of the squares said something to the effect of "Thank you to the Kindertransport for saving our grandfather, (a name). From ___, ___, and ___. This message was obviously from a Kindertransport child's grandchildren--and without the Kindertransport, they wouldn't be there. You can see the actual quilt square at this link. The quilt squares were beautiful and they gave a message of peace, hope and faith to all. 

Skipping church and other thoughts . . .

Last week, we learned about Druidism and then we went to our own church, where two of us were signed up as altar servers that day. This week, we didn't make it to Mass, and we didn't have a chance to visit another church.

Do you feel as if you must go to church every week? Or do you feel as if it's no big deal if you don't go? For instance, we didn't go to church today but does this mean that we can't pray or reflect on our deeds? We don't go to church every single week. Sometimes we visit a different church. Here is a picture of a Catholic church we visited while we were on vacation in August:

Some weeks, somebody in the family doesn't feel well, or we just have a very busy weekend. We wonder how most people feel about going to a church of a different religion. Would you feel that this would not be loyal to your own beliefs, or that it "doesn't count?"

In this post, we'd also like to share more facts about Druidism. Last week, our hosts D and T gave us some background information about Druidry, for example, Druids originated in England, Scotland and Ireland, and Druids draw practices and traditions from Arthurian legends. We are familiar with the legends of King Arthur, and we knew that Merlin is a Druid from the stories. Our host told us about another famous Druid, the poet William Blake. We have read Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience. Druids also draw their practices on deities individual to their elements. These deities are associated with the four elements (air, fire, water and earth) and to the land surrounding the worship space. Our host called on the Great Bear of the North, the Fierce Hawk of the East, and the Swift Stag of the South, and the Snapping Turtle of the West.

Some Druids might not feel comfortable about sharing their religion. As our hosts told us last week, the word "pagan" has many negative connotations--therefore, many Druids face prejudice. This means that you might know a lot more Druids than you think! Mainstream religions such as Christianity and Judaism define themselves with symbols, such as crosses, or the star of David. Druids also have symbols that they might often recognize each other with.  Here is a photo of a pendant that our host T wears:

It is a good idea to be familiar with the symbols of various religions, because it can make you more aware of the many different ideas and beliefs in the world.


-Soklabi

"Live as you would and let people discover who you are and what you do"

Today, we were invited to visit the home of one of our mother’s colleagues who happens to be a practicing Druid.  She was willing to show us her worship space and some of the items used in her practice. As Druids generally worship outside, we were not surprised to see an outdoor circle raked in the leaves. We entered the circle from the west, facing the sunrise. Inside the circle, there was an altar and four mounds of stones in each of the four directions (north, south, east, and west). On the stones were objects symbolizing the four elements, one in each direction. There was earth for North, feathers for air for the East, fire for South, and water for West. She showed us her Grove opening ceremony. During the opening, she invoked a circle of protection to protect the circle and make it sacred. She said the Druid prayer of peace, purified the sacred circle, performed a chant and said another prayer. 

At that point, it was pretty cold outside, so we went inside her house. Inside her house, there were symbols of Druidism, such as an orange candle, which she explained stood for Fire and Air mixed together. She lights it when she wants to be inspired, since Fire and Air are elements she identifies with. She also explained and showed us that she had an Earth room, since the qualities of Earth were the ones she most lacked. Inside the Earth room, which was painted brown with trees, there was a small altar, a closet with some of her beautiful Druid robes, and many, many books. She invited us to take a look at the items.

We were soon joined by another member of her grove. We are going to identify them by initials—our host is D, her grove member is T. At that point, we were able to interview them both. They gave thoughtful and extended answers to our questions, and we really learned a lot from their responses.

Interview

Q. Do you believe in an after life?

A. Not all Druids believe in an after life but if they do, they see it in a different way then most people. Many Druids believe in reincarnation, and they also believe that not only humans have souls—trees and animals can all have spirits, so we can communicate with trees or animals.

Q. Do Druids have to make a pilgrimage?

A. Druids do not have to make a pilgrimage, but ruins are a source of inspiration and some Druids like to visit ruins, especially in the UK—Stonehenge and Glastonbury Tor are some of the most popular places to visit.

Q. Do you have a celebration every week?

A. Not every week, but there are 8 main celebrations during the year that almost all Druids celebrate (see the drawing of the Druid calendar in our previous post).

Q. Why did you choose Druidism?

D: I was raised in a fundamental evangelical Christian faith. I always loved nature as a child and when I discovered Druidism I said, "That’s what I am.” I felt like I had come home when I discovered Druidism.

T: I grew up in a conservative Jewish home, but my father encouraged me to ask questions, and I did have a lot of questions as I was growing up. As an adult, I was introduced to Native American theology, which shares a lot of similarities with Druidism. My husband was studying Druidism, and had lots of books on the subject, so I first learned a lot about Druidism from all those books. Later on, I traveled to England, and stayed there for about a year, and explored Druidism there as ll.

We also asked them both questions about being open about practicing Druidism, and how people react when they learn that a person is practicing Druidism. We also wanted to know about children raised as Druids. These questions will be in the next post, and we will also be posting the rest of the interview from our Universal Unitarian friends.

As always, we would love to hear from people who practice the religions we are studying. If you would like to leave a comment that adds to our explorations, please do so!

Interview, Part One

After visiting the Universal Unitarian church last week, we were able to interview two members about their church's traditions. Here is a summary of the first part of the interview. We'll post the rest soon!

Q: Do UUs believe in an afterlife?

We don’t have a single belief in a specific afterlife, but single members have their own individual beliefs about an afterlife.

Q: Why did you choose your religion?

1: I didn’t want a religion that was too fixed on God.
2: I was brought up as a UU from when I was very young.

Q: Does your religion have specific festivals/celebrations?

At Christmas time, UUs have many different holiday symbols displayed on their altars—for example, we have a Hanukkah candelabra, a Christmas tree, and other symbols for that time of year. UUs don’t just celebrate Christmas—we celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Yuletide as well. In the New Year, our church has an apple and cheese communion—we pass around apple slices and cheese. However, this is individual to our church, since we don’t know of any other UU churches that have this communion.
In the spring around May, we have a Flower Communion. In this communion, each church member brings a flower to their church and exchanges it for a different flower with another member.

Q:Is a person of your religion required to make a certain pilgrimage?

We don’t have any specific pilgrimages that we are required to make, but we do have a general annual convention, or meeting, that any Universal Unitarian who wishes to go can. UU historical roots are in New England, so if someone wanted to go learn about the history of UUs, New England would be a good place to go. Many UUs go there to learn more about their religion, so that is a pilgrimage of sorts.

"We ask all alike to think, not all to think alike"

As we mentioned in our last post, on Sunday we took a visit to a Universal Unitarian church. This was the first different place of worship that we visited since we started our religion project, and it was very interesting to point out differences and similarities between Universal Unitarianism and Catholicism.

For those of our readers who do not know much about this religion, it is a religion that welcomes all people and celebrates holidays and festivals of many religious traditions. Beliefs are based on questions and proof, rather than faith. There were many similarities between their service and a Catholic Mass (for instance there were hymns, a choir, a Sunday School, a lecture, and a sharing of sorrows and joys) but the beliefs are very different. Our youngest sister said it seemed like "a relaxed religion." We noticed that instead of displaying a cross or crucifix, the symbol of Unitarian Universalism is a lighted chalice, which symbolizes universal wisdom and a thirst for knowledge as well as the power of questions. We drew the chalice in the photo above.


Before the service started, people were very friendly and chatty. We noticed greeters at the door of the church, as well as greeters at the sanctuary (or chapel) entrance. Everyone seemed to be in a very good mood!

When the service started, announcements were read, and joys and sorrows were shared. We noticed a similarity in this from our own religion, since we have prayers offered during Mass. (although it is closer to the end, not beginning.) In addition, a lot of singing was done—there was a very good choir who sang in parts, along with a very good pianist, who played Schuman and Debussy at the beginning and end, among others.

The sermon, or perhaps lecture, was given by a woman, which of course is very different from our church. Only men are allowed to become priests in Catholic churches and lead the weekly service. Other differences we noticed: there was no communion, which for us was very odd because we are used to taking communion every week. When we've visited other churches in the past, we've noticed that some take communion and some don't.

The lecture we heard was perfect for visitors, since the preacher explained that Universal Unitarianism is not about getting answers—it is about asking questions. She told us that she had been raised by a fundamental Christian family in a fundamental Christian town, and that she had never been satisfied by the religion of her family—she asked too many questions for her own good. Instead of asking questions, she was told she had to have faith—and that is why she became a Universal Unitarian. UUs believe in "the never-ending search for Truth." We learned about this and other UU beliefs from a small printed card that is also pictured about with our drawing.

After the lecture, there was a quiet time of prayer, or meditation. Then a hymn was sung, and the service was over. Afterward, we went out to eat with our UU friends to interview them. The next blog post will contain excerpts of our interview with them. Look for it later in the week!

Again, if you yourself are a Universal Unitarian, please contact us and tell us about your church! We would love to hear from UUs all over the country, if not all over the world.

We have an upcoming visit planned with a practicing Druid, who is going to introduce us to a member of her grove (Druid groups are called "groves, just like church members are known as "congregations") and show us her altar.  We are really excited to share that visit with our readers, as well.

A New Religious Journey: Universal Unitarians

  

   We are continuing our religious journey tomorrow by attending a Universal Unitarian church; a friend will be guiding us. We were very interested in this religion because we were told that there are many forms to this religion. Tonight, we learned a couple main Unitarian ideas. We learned some facts about Unitarian beliefs by visiting the UU Church of Nashua website, which includes 100 Questions that Non-Members Ask.
    

•  Not all Unitarians believe in God. Unitarians ultimately believe that one should respect, be kind, and basically be a good person--but not all Unitarians believe in God.

• Many Unitarians don't have sculptures or icons inside their churches. Some, however, have symbols from many religions. The ultimate decision is left up to each individual parish--there is no rule about the use of religious symbols. 

As you can probably see, Unitarianism is a very unique religion--mainly because not all of the people inside the same place of worship have the same beliefs. We are very excited to attend a Unitarian service tomorrow, and will definitely write more about it. If you are a Unitarian, we invite you to let us know about your church. Do you believe in God? What does your church look like? How do you pray--at home, at church, or both? Let us know--we will be very grateful to you, and interested to find out some more information about this interesting religion.

To be continued...

Wondering about heaven

We have a question about heaven. What happens in a family, when two members of the family die, if one goes the heaven and the other does not?  How can the person who went to heaven be completely happy without the member of the family who isn't there? After all, the other person was a loved one of the person who went to heaven, no matter how many sins they committed. And since perfect happiness is supposed to exist in heaven, how can they be happy without one another? This situation seems not to make sense. We hope that this post will give our followers something to think about and we also hope that the people who read this post will post a comment or solution to this most puzzling of thoughts.

Book Review: Theo's Odyssey

Often, people don’t have any interest in learning about religions because of how these religions have been introduced to them. This is definitely understandable—stuffy textbooks that go on for about one hundred pages on the origins of the Copts do not inspire people to learn about this religion or any others. In order to have your knowledge of world religions stick in your head, you need a good book with a lively dialogue and a good story line to it.

Theo’s Odyssey by Catherine Clement has all of these elements—and is quite humorous at times, as well. What really hooks readers as they begin the book is that the story doesn’t begin with an analysis of a religion: it begins at the house of the Fournay family in Paris. The author introduces our main character—Theo, an intelligent 14-year-old who adores his computer games and books on ancient Egyptian and Tibetan mythology and is proud of his Greek heritage. Clement also introduces Theo’s best friend (and perhaps girlfriend) Fatou, a girl his age from Senegal who tells him stories about her homeland and her religion—Islam.

When the story begins, Theo is diagnosed with a mysterious terminal disease. Doctors expect him to die, and his parents, siblings, and Fatou lose hope for him. Theo stays at home all the time, “drifting on a sea of weakness,” slowly but surely pining away.

Then his eccentric Aunt Martha comes to the rescue. Aunt Martha arrives in Paris and announces that she will be taking Theo on a tour of world religions. They will travel to Jerusalem, Istanbul, Rio, New York, Prague, and more—except she makes a game out of it: Theo must read a clue at every city, and guess the next city that they will be traveling to. Fatou will be his “Pythia” or oracle, and will read him clues and teasers over the phone.

Theo and Aunt Martha depart soon after, and arrive in Jerusalem, their first stop. Here, Theo is introduced to three of Aunt Martha’s friends: Rabbi Eliezer, Father Dubourg, and Sheik Suleiman. Thanks to them, Theo is taught about Judaism, Catholicism, and Islam, and visits the Wailing Wall, the Basilica, and Bethlehem, among other places.

Next stop is Egypt, and after that, Rome, and after that........Theo continues to journey all over the world, battling his illness—and learning about a strange “twin” from the Underworld who speaks to him.

Theo begins his journey not affiliated with any religion. Aunt Martha is an atheist, and doesn't encourage him to follow a religion during his odyssey--the book, therefore, does not advocate conversion or adopting a faith, but it promotes unbiased learning of world religions. My personal favorite chapter is when Theo is learning about the whirling dervishes of Islam in Istanbul. This chapter shows the mysticism that goes along with many religions.

So, if you would really like to study world religions—but haven’t found a good book yet—I would really recommend Theo’s Odyssey. This book combines learning religions with humor, sadness, and joy. It’s a great read for late elementary and up, since it does contain some content inappropriate for younger ages.  Read it again and again—and you will have a complete knowledge of the major religions of the world.

Christian Studies

When we were a bit younger, we used to have a project called Christian Studies. The project required, among other things, to read a daily Bible story and then answer questions about it.( example: Why did the Wise Men visit a lowly baby born in a manger? ) Though it took us around two years to complete the series of three books full of questions, quotes, and time lines, (not to mention reading the Bible cover to cover) we feel that this project helped us understand the Bible.  

If you are interested in this series, you can order it from Memoria Press.

I

We recently received a copy of a book about Druidism, called "What Do Druids Believe?" We are going to look for more books in this series, which "introduces different belief systems from across the world in lively, accessible short books that never preach or try to convert -- instead they focus on the way beliefs affect believers' daily lives today."

 This book helped us learn a lot about Druids. Not only did it teach us about Druid beliefs, but it had a chapter on their religious festivals and ceremonies, a chapter on certain mystic and magical events, and a section on Druid roots and traditions. We found one particular festival quite interesting. Every year from October 31 to November 2 the Druids celebrate Samhuinn festival to honor their ancestors. This marks the new year, when summer ends and winter begins. Soon we will be visiting a practicing Druid who will answer our questions about her beliefs. We will write about it here.

Finally, here is a drawing one of us made of the Druid Wheel of the Year, which we found in this book.