Posted on 07/31/2013 2:08:18 PM PDT by NYer
The times in which we live are often described as “secular.” This word comes from the Latin “saecula” meaning “world.” Hence in saying our age is secular is another way of saying our times are worldly.
We may think it has always been so but such is not the case.
To be sure, it IS the human condition to be a little preoccupied with the world. But previous times have featured a much more religious focus than our own. The Middle Ages were especially known for way in which faith permeated the culture and daily experience. The Rose window to the right presents a typically Medieval Notion: Christ (the Lamb of God) at the center and everything surrounding Him.
In those days the holidays were the HOLYdays and one’s understanding of the calendar and the time of year centered around the Church’s calendar of saints and feasts. It wasn’t Winter it was advent, and then Christmastide. Even the word Christmas was ChristMASS. Halloween was the “Een (evening before) all Hallows (All Saints Day). Three times every day the Church bells rang the “Angelus” calling Catholics to a moment of prayer in honor of the incarnation. The Bells also rang summoning Catholics to Mass and vespers. In a previous article in this blog (By Their Buildings You Will Know Them) it was noted that even the architecture of the Middle Ages placed a large church at the center of every town.
Those days were not perfect days but they were more spiritual and the Christians everywhere were constantly reminded of the presence of God by the culture in which they lived. Seldom so today. Many people today almost never hear of God on a day-to-day basis.
But the truth is, God is everywhere. He indwells his creation and sustains every aspect of it. The Scriptures say that Jesus holds all creation together in himself (Col 1:17). Most people think of creation as a sort of machine or closed system in which we live. But that is not the case. Creation is a revelation of and experience of God’s love and providence. Not one leaf falls to the ground without God leading it there. Not one hair of our head is unknown and provided for by God. We are enveloped by God, caught up into his presence.
It is especially sad for young people today. Some of us who are a bit older remember a time when God was more recognized. I remember that we prayed every day in my PUBLIC school until I was in 6th grade.
I remember my 4th grade teacher often reminding me when I got out of line: “God is Watching!” She also kept a copy of the King James Bible on her desk and the worst thing a student could do was to put anything on top of the Bible. Within seconds Mrs Hicks would scold: “Don’t ever put on top of God’s Word….!” To this day I have a deep instinct never to place anything on top of a Bible. In that same public school we began each day as our Principal, Mr. Bulware read from the Bible, usually the New Testament, and then we prayed the Lord’s Prayer, then followed the Pledge of Allegiance….One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I remember when Christmas (not “winter holidays”) in School was actually celebrated and that we sang religious songs even in public school well into my High School years. I remember our public high school choir singing “O Come All Ye Faithful” and many songs with religious subjects. Can you imagine a public school choir singing today “O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord” ? Gone are the days.
But we need to teach and help our young people get in touch with God’s presence. Families out to pray grace at meals with their children and have numerous religious images. There ought to be family prayer and observances of the various feasts and seasons of our Church.
Question For Readers: What are some of the websites you might know that are helpful in families staying focused on God? Perhaps there are some devoted to helping Children and Teenagers experience the faith and the cycle of the Church’s year? Perhaps a few of you can also recommend sites that are helpful in this regard.
But the point is that we have to be intentional about placing reminders of God’s presence in our lives and those of our children.
Ping!
I’m reading my little boys a series of books about a young Catholic boy in the early 1940s. (Tomie DePaola, the writer and illustrator.) I was surprised to find that they began celebrating Christmas immediately following Thanksgiving - in fact, FDR moved Thanksgiving earlier in order to give more time for shopping. There’s no mention of Advent at all.
Doesn’t make me like the everlasting Christmas any better, but at least now I know it’s traditional.
I grew up in the 50s and don't ever recall celebrating Advent. I do recall going Christmas shopping but back then, it was a much more toned down celebration. We shopped at F.W. Woolworth for things like umbrellas (my mom explained the importance of counting the ribs), slippers, a new wallet, handkerchiefs, scarf and gloves. That first shopping trip also entailed selecting a Christmas corsage that was worn on one's coat until Christmas. Kids wanted the ones with Santa, snowmen or elf heads peeking out.
The other custom (perhaps DePaola mentions it), was to set up the Christmas tree on Christmas eve while the children were sleeping. Sometimes the tree would have a strand of bubble lights.
As for decorating the house, again, simplicity prevailed. We would place stencils against a window and smear on "glass wax".
There were no shopping malls back then. Stores were closed on Sundays, so shopping trips took place during the week or on Saturday. Sunday was the day set aside for worship and family dinner.
Mr. DePaola was born in 1934, so he will turn 79 this September. I hope he at least gets all the way through World War II in the series before he passes away! It looks like Volume 8, second part of 1942, is the last so far. We’ll start reading that tonight
They put their Christmas tree up in the last few days before Christmas, but not on Christmas Eve. He writes about stencils for decoration, but not on the windows.
We can thank government in general, scotus in particular for stomping religiosity out of the public schools. Wall of something or another doncha’ know.
We never prayed in any public school to which I went, and that's as far back as the 1960's.
I remember my 4th grade teacher often reminding me when I got out of line: “God is Watching!” She also kept a copy of the King James Bible on her desk and the worst thing a student could do was to put anything on top of the Bible. Within seconds Mrs Hicks would scold: “Don’t ever put on top of God’s Word….!” To this day I have a deep instinct never to place anything on top of a Bible. In that same public school we began each day as our Principal, Mr. Bulware read from the Bible, usually the New Testament, and then we prayed the Lord’s Prayer, then followed the Pledge of Allegiance….One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I did say the Pledge in elementary school (the revised version with God in it), but I can't recall a single teacher ever mentioning God in any other context. There was a History of Religion class available as an elective, but I didn't take it.
I remember when Christmas (not “winter holidays”) in School was actually celebrated and that we sang religious songs even in public school well into my High School years. I remember our public high school choir singing “O Come All Ye Faithful” and many songs with religious subjects. Can you imagine a public school choir singing today “O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord” ? Gone are the days.
We also went on Christmas (not winter) break. I was in our school choir throughout high school, and we sang a lot of classical music, much of it explicitly Christian. I wasn't a Christian, and I didn't mind...I still have an appreciation of classical music to this day because of it.
He presumes the reader understands that stencils go on windows and mirrors, where else?
Furniture. They decorated the baby’s crib with stencils. Walls, too, I think.
We used to get plastic holiday “window clings,” but I don’t remember seeing them lately. Maybe I’ll check Hobby Lobby around Hallowe’en. We like to decorate with spiders.
For some of us, that is recent history ; - ). Actually, you can thank Madalyn Murray O'Hair for that. In 1960, Murray filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore City Public School System, in which she asserted that it was unconstitutional for her son William to be required to participate in Bible readings at Baltimore public schools. In this litigation, she stated that her son's refusal to partake in the Bible readings had resulted in bullying being directed against him by classmates, and that administrators condoned it.
After consolidation with Abington School District v. Schempp, the lawsuit reached the Supreme Court of the United States in 1963. The Court voted 8–1 in Schempp's favor, which effectively banned mandatory Bible verse recitation at public schools in the United States. Prayer in schools other than Bible-readings had already been ended in 1962 by the Court's ruling in Engel v. Vitale.
Ironically, William went on to become a Baptist minister.
Source
Apologies for not pinging you to post #10.
True ... but not for Christmas. Glass wax was also a window cleaner. You decorated for the holidays and when you wiped it off .. voila! .. clean windows, to boot.
Well, yes. Paint on the walls, I’m sure!
And Madalyn Murray O’Hair went on to be murdered in a most gruesome fashion by members of her own atheist group.
Karma’s a b!tch.
Very few understand that our previously federal, now consolidated government, is supposed to encourage the civil society. Family and religiosity are the foundation.
Karma’s a b!tch.
Meanwhile, Mao Zedong, who was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions, died at the age of 82 of natural causes.
Karma's a fantasy.
Where is Mao nao?
The Mausoleum of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square.
[sarcasm]Nonsense! There was never any religion (or any guns) in American history until just a few years ago, when some really evil and scary people suddenly appeared out of nowhere attacking the universal and immemorial custom of homosexual marriage![/sarcasm]
No, that mausoleum contains mumified human remains, of the same composition as those of the many millions of his victims, differentiated only by the extent of preservation for the political purpose of public viewing.
Mao tse-Dong is somewhere else. The body dies, the spirit flies.
That is what takes place, isn’t it?
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