More About Pascha, er Easter

Along with my response to a comment I got on the post "Is Easter Pagan??", I thought I'd post a link to this article as I found it to be especially helpful:

It IS Pascha, Not Easter

I offer no judgment toward people who use the term "Easter" rather than "Pascha."  None at all!  I just put this out there as food for thought because I thought Father Michael makes a lot of sense and gives biblical justification for the use of the word "Pascha."

Off my soapbox now! 

To Train Up a Child: A Review

I wrote this review on Amazon a few years ago and thought I'd post it here.  Please keep in mind that this review was written before the deaths of Sean Paddock and Lydia Schatz, both of which implicate the Pearls' teachings as contributing factors to these deaths.  I would have MUCH stronger words today then I did several years ago... but this review is a pretty good summary of what I think about their godless, evil teachings.


One star out of Five

I think a few of the main problems I have with this book lie in a couple of areas:

1. The Pearls view training children the way some people view training animals. Several times in TTUAC, Mr. Pearl states that the biblical way to train children is the same way we train a mule or a dog. He seems to ignore the fact that children are human beings made in God’s image. Biblically speaking, we are to treat human beings with a great deal more dignity and respect than a dog.

2. The Pearls set up an antagonistic relationship between parent and child. The child’s will must be subdued and conquered and the only way to accomplish this, it seems, is through switching. If parents fail to use this method, Mr. Pearl states that parents are creating a “Nazi.” He commands parents to look for opportunities to “thwart” the will of one’s children. I don’t see that in the Bible anywhere.

3. Obviously, parents react to the Pearls’ materials in different ways. I see TTUAC as a manual for child abuse. Pearl supporters claim its saved their homes. It seems to be a matter of interpretation. How can we know how anyone is going to interpret what is in that book? Even some Pearl supporters say that they don’t agree with everything they say which means there are elements that just don’t sit right with many, many people. I would hope that those folks ask why those elements bother them so much.

4. The Pearls represent themselves as biblical authorities on parenting and “child training”. Parents who don’t have a good support system in place tend to get desperate very fast. Mr. Pearl states in his introduction to TTUAC that once you read his book, the techniques will seem obvious and you’ll wonder why you didn’t figure it out on your own. Desperate people often tend toward extreme behavior. There are many MANY pro-spanking parents who feel that the Pearls’ methods are extreme. Switching for each and every single offense. Placing a child’s hands on a hot stove to teach him not to touch it. Shoving an unsuspecting child in a pool to teach them fear of the water. Hosing down a child who’s soiled his pants while learning to potty train as punishment for not using the potty.

Believe me, there are innumberable ways to raise godly children that have nothing whatsoever to do with the abuse advocated in this book.

5. This book is also full of horrible theology which I believe stems from the Pearls errant view on the nature of man.

6. The Pearls are just bad writers. They are totally unclear about several of their ideas and they contradict themselves in a number of places. Never show mercy to your child, show mercy to your child. Pick your child up when he cries, don’t pick him up when he cries. Things like that. I know for a fact that their style alone has left a number of parents totally confused about what to do with their kids. If the Pearls believe that consistency is the key, perhaps they should work on being more consistent in their writing.

Please, please don’t buy it. Amazon should stop selling it.

I’d give it zero stars if I could.

Christos Anesti!

Christ is Risen from the dead

And through death, He did trample upon death

And thus bestowed upon those in the tombs the gift of life.

Alithos Anesti! Truly He is Risen!

I cannot believe that Pascha has come and gone!  This past week was so incredibly moving for my whole family that I'm kind of sad to see it go.  Holy Week is an incredibly intense time of prayer, services, standing, repentance, sorrow, joy, hope... And it all culminates in that glorious and hope-filled proclamation that Christ is risen from the dead!  Truly, He is Risen!

Can I just brag on my kids for a moment?  They did AWESOME this week!  They attended just about every service I went to and they behaved so well and were so patient, I started to wonder who traded in my babies for these adults who sat still and didn't ask to be taken the loo 100 times.  I think, in total, they attended about 15 hours of services from Wednesday through Sunday.

My husband was received into the Church by chrismation just before the Resurrection service began late Saturday night.  I cannot describe the joy that I feel now that we are all united together in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  I am so grateful to God for bringing my husband home to His Church and for giving Mark a genuine conviction about the veracity of the Orthodox Church's contention that it is the Apostolic witness alive in the world.  He could have converted just to please me- and that would've been enough for me at this point- but he seems to have genuinely embraced the Church's teachings and the demands made on your body and soul and mind.  I am very proud and very RELIEVED!

I want to write more.  I so do.  I am full of stories about Great and Holy Friday and how the Lord brought me to a wonderful place of repentance and peace before His cross that afternoon; what we do in the services; the JOY and emotion and hope of Pascha... the look on my priest's face as he sings "Christos Anesti" is priceless; you can tell that THIS proclamation- that Christ is Risen from the dead- is the center of his very soul.  It is what fuels him.  I'll never get a picture of it except in my mind.  We sing Christos Anesti/Christ is Risen at least 20 or 30 times on Pascha night alone!

As I was saying... I want to write more on these things and I plan to... but I'm falling into a post-Pascha coma at the moment.  Somehow, while we were out all week at Church, my house went to pot.  Mount Washmore looks like Mount Everest and while I started from base camp and made it a few camps upward, I still need to tackle the summit.  I put declared today a TV/non-school day and fixed up my house.  Tomorrow, its back to school and back to live as usual.

Except that life can never be the same as long as those words, Christos Anesti, continue to ring in my heart.

Hades Groans

"Today hades groans and cries aloud: 

'It had been better for me, had I not accepted Mary's Son,

 for He has come to me and destroyed my power; 

He has shattered the gates of brass,

 and as God He has raised up the souls that once I held.' 

Glory to Thy Cross, O Lord, and to Thy Resurrection!"

~A Hymn from Holy Saturday

Until yesterday, my heart had been weighed down with troubles and I just couldn't focus on repentance and genuine sorrow for the part that my life has played in placing Christ on the cross.  But somehow, sitting in the church with my husband in silence, God trampled down those walls and those sorrows I was feeling for the troubles in my life turned into that repentance and sorrow for sin I had been longing for and seeking.  I started weeping.  I left the service last night, no longer weighed down by my earthly cares.  I hope this feeling stays, at least through tomorrow.  

I will write more about yesterday, Great and Holy Friday, in the days to come.  For now, I am basking in the truth that Satan has been defeated and the grave can no longer hold those who call Christ their Savior.

Kali Anastasi!  Blessed Resurrection!

Is Easter Pagan??

Is Easter pagan?

No.

I came across this article and thought it might be helpful for those who have questions about the origins of the commemoration of Christ's Resurrection.

Was Easter Borrowed From a Pagan Holiday?

Here's a little snippet to whet the appetite:

Anyone encountering anti-Christian polemics will quickly come up against the accusation that a major festival practiced by Christians across the globe—namely, Easter—was actually borrowed or rather usurped from a pagan celebration. I often encounter this idea among Muslims who claim that later Christians compromised with paganism to dilute the original faith of Jesus.

The argument largely rests on the supposed pagan associations of the English and German names for the celebration (Easter in English and Ostern in German). It is important to note, however, that in most other European languages, the name for the Christian celebration is derived from the Greek word Pascha, which comes frompesach, the Hebrew word for Passover. Easter is the Christian Passover festival. 

Of course, even if Christians did engage incontextualization—expressing their message and worship in the language or forms of the local people—that in no way implies doctrinal compromise. Christians around the world have sought to redeem the local culture for Christ while purging it of practices antithetical to biblical norms. After all, Christians speak of "Good Friday," but they are in no way honoring the worship of the Norse/Germanic queen of the gods Freya by doing so. 

But, in fact, in the case of Easter the evidence suggests otherwise: that neither the commemoration of Christ's death and resurrection nor its name are derived from paganism.

And for what its worth, the Orthodox do not generally use the term "Easter" to describe this holy day.  I've heard it used by some but the correct term for us is "Pascha."

Okay, I'm off to decorate the church for this afternoon!

She Knows My Pain

Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung on the tree. The King of the angels is decked with a crown of thorns. He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery. The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the Cross with nails. The Son of the Virgin is pierced by a spear. We worship Thy passion, O Christ. Show us also Thy glorious resurrection.

Today the blameless Virgin saw You, O Word of God, hanging on the Cross, deeply mourning you within herself, and bitterly pierced in the heart, she groaned in agony from the depth of her soul.  Exhausted by beating on her breast, with hair disheveled, she cried out wailing: "Woe to me! My Divine Son! Woe to me! Light of the world!  Why O Lamb of God, have You faded from my eyes?" Wherefore, the legions of the Heavenly Hosts were seized with trembling, crying out "O incomprehensible Lord, glory to You."

But God, our King, before all ages wrought salvation amidst the earth.

Seeing You hanging on the Cross O Christ, the God and Creator of all, Whom as a Virgin she bore, she cried out bitterly: "O my Son, where has the beauty of Your form vanished? I cannot bear to see You unjustly crucified; hasten therefore and rise up, that I too may behold Your Resurrection from the dead on the third day."

School News

I. am. not. creative.

Plus

I am a homeschool mom.  Those two are difficult to mesh together successfully, I think.  I actually have to stretch my creative muscles in order to do anything not out of a story or workbook.

In other words, I am the most boring teacher ever.

Not really.  My kids seem to enjoy school and they are learning a lot.  And I must say, the wannabe creative mom in me came out yesterday in an effort to keep the interest going.

1. We sang our math lessons.  Made-up melodies for math problems.  It was hilarious, but it kept my son's attention- and we were having some attention issues yesterday... It was his idea to sing and we ended having a lot of fun!

2. The kids created "cave paintings" to go along with the lessons about early humans.  I crumbled up some grocery bags to give the paper some texture and they painted something from their daily lives- Alex did an amusement park (not part of our daily lives, but still pretty cool).  Sophia did... well... a Jackson Pollack, also not part of our daily lives.  But they had fun AND did some art.  Alex really enjoyed it which brought me joy because he's not an art kind of kid at all.

In other homeschool news:

I picked up the Simply Charlotte Mason All-Day Seminar and our homeschool was lifted out of the doldrums overnight!  Katherine over at Evlogia suggested that using the wisdom found in this seminar would be the best thing we could do for our homeschool and she was totally right.  I am THRILLED and recommend this DVD set wholeheartedly.

I am starting to wonder whether or not we need the charter school to fund our homeschool... We will be using A LOT of Simply Charlotte Mason products and recommendations (Spelling Wisdom, Delightful Reading, English for the Thoughtful Child, Outdoor Secrets, etc.) and the school won't fund those purchases.  Totally fine.  So what do I need the school for?  Yes, the school will pay for extracurricular activities and field trips but is it worth it?  The only drawback to leaving now is that we'd have to give back everything they've bought for us and repurchasing those things would cost us significantly.  So, for now, we're sticking with it.

We recently revolutionized our math lessons by FINALLY picking up the Singapore Home Instructor's Guide which, I must begrudgingly admit, is the KEY to teaching math the "Singapore Way."  Manipulatives Manipulatives Manipulatives!  Less text/workbook.

I picked up A Child's History of the World which I LOVE because it does not come from a Young Earth Creationist perspective.  My kids love the stories. They are far more engaging then Story of the World.

Along with "A Child's History," I did purchase the first set of timeline figures from Homeschool in the Woods. These figures are beautiful and the descriptions will be really helpful... but the dates are wrong.  A lot of the dates are wrong.  I don't have a problem with the timeline beginning in 5005 BC- if they want to come from that perspective, that's fine.  We just won't use their dates for anything before Genesis 12.  Not a problem.  BUT, I'm finding that a lot of the ancient history dates are incorrect- some of them are off by centuries.  And this does present a problem for us because we are putting together a Book of Centuries.  I don't mind changing pre-history dates because I expect that they will have their dates wrong on those events, but I do not want to have to change 700 dates.  That is definitely no bueno.

We have eight weeks left in the school year and I intend to finish STRONG!  I feel like I have finally hit my stride as a teacher.  My kids don't complain about the lessons anymore (thank you Sonya Shafer!) and I'm hitting every subject I want to cover.  We've even managed to have a school week during Holy Week, the busiest time of year for us liturgically speaking.  But if you keep the lessons short, sweet, and interesting, its easier to fit school in to the rhythm of liturgical life.