Okay, now how does Lent play into being a TBall Mom? At first I thought one would not affect the other. We had high school class dinner on a Saturday night the week Lent began. One of our classmates, a Catholic, did not come and told her friend it was because she had a church obligation. She does attend mass on Saturdays with her family. She won me over by sticking to her plan to continue that, despite the fact that she would miss being with several people she hadn't seen in a while. I digress here to mention that the death of a classmate last fall is the catalyst for our continuing to gather. I once heard a priest say that chosing to celebrate during Lent was not exactly walking through the shadow of the valley, so I worried that it was because the dinner was during Lent that she wouldn't come. I asked her about it, and she assured me that it wasn't...that Saturday night is her family time, that she would never fulfill her obligation (designated to us in the Ten Commandments) to keep the Sabbath (now the 7th (sunday) in Christianity ) holy by attending Mass if she went to the dinner on the night before... She put her God before anything else...I was endebted to her for the lesson. I made a POINT to be at Mass the next day--no matter what.
Then I found out that the TBall Fun Night would be scheduled for April 2...this is Good Friday...the day Jesus died. I already don't think people should be required to work on this day. Church is open on Good Friday with so many opportunities to spend with Jesus in his final hours. After spending the whole week in HIS Passion, we should have this day as well. In the Catholic Church on Thursday night there is the Feet Washing Ceremony, and at my church, adoration until the late hours. On Friday there are the Seven Last Words of Jesus and some other homilies during the day and a Veneration of the Cross at night. On Saturday is the Easter Vigil service that lasts for about three hours, and it is the time when those who are being baptized or confirmed are done so and receive their first ever HOLY COMMUNION. It is a beautiful service..late for the little ones, but beautiful just the same.
I digress to Friday. I don't believe that there should be any TBall Fun Night on Good Friday. I almost think it is sacreligious. I'm so glad that it worked out to not have Fun Night. The ball association found another way to make money. See? God is still in charge!
And then, there is the EASTER PARTY at a PUBLIC SCHOOL!!!! Don't get me wrong. I think it is great that a public school would want to celebrate Easter with their students. I am not going to be the parent who says that my kids can't pray in school. I'm a firm believer that as long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools! Students need to pray together over anything. School is sometimes the only place they will have to pray with each other...and sometimes things just happen that need to be prayed about. Right then. I just find it interesting that the public school my daughter attends is having an Easter Party.
Now I have Good Friday off, and my younger daughter's daycare, being a church, is closed. I fully expected for some reason to have the older daughter with me... I don't know why. I had planned to take them to church. Then there came word of the Easter Party. Now, I know my daughter will be heart broken, but I don't believe in celebrating EASTER on GOOD FRIDAY. It is contradictory to everything that I am trying to teach my children about the Faith. A lot of denominations focus only on the Resurrection of Jesus. It is not wrong to celebrate the resurrection, but it is not right to overlook the death. Yes, Jesus rose from the dead, but to believe that, you have to believe that he actually DIED. His death is what makes his Resurrection all the more fantastic. I once overheard a mother and daughter both way older than me have this conversation as they walked out of the theater having just viewed Mel Gibson's Passion of Christ:
"That was so awful. How terrible the things that Jesus went through."
"Mom, you know it wasn't really that bad. They just souped it up for Hollywood." ( I was astonished. It was probably worse.)
See, in the Catholic Church Easter begins with the Resurrection of Jesus and continues on until the Pentecost. Easter, or the Resurrection, is not celebrated during Lent. I don't feel as if the school should have an Easter party before Easter, especially not on Good Friday. Then my day care, the church, is having an Easter Party also, it is not on Good Friday, but it is during Holy Week, before Easter. I do not have this day off work. Now, what do I do? God will prevail...just keep praying.
The two lessons I am learning here are to fulfill my Catholic obligations first before my worldly ones, and to not worry about what everyone thinks about me and also to have faith that God will provide ways for his will to be worked out...I heard this statement my whole life, but I always find new ways to apply it.
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