Candles and Easter

Why are candle so expensive? And why is it so hard to find plain, white, unscented pillar candles? I have been looking for 3 by 6 white pillar candles for the last few days. We need 20 of them for my grandparents' 50 wedding anniversary party and it looks like we are going to have to buy scented candles for 4 bucks a piece. You would think that a basic candle like that would sell for $2, max!

Speaking of candles, I went to Easter Vigil with my grandfather (Mom's dad) Saturday night (Eben was getting my grandparents' (Dad's parents) yard ready for the anniversary visitors). Even thought I grew up Catholic, I had never been. (I don't know why my mom didn't think it would be fun to take 4 kids to a 3 hours mass where they give everyone lit candles.) Anyway, it was even more beautiful than I had imagined. Earlier in the week I was listening to The Catholic Channel on my Sirius radio (I am addicted to that and EWTN!), and I caught "A Conversation with the Cardinal." Cardinal Egan was explaining how they bless and light the Paschal Candle and the significance of what they place on the candle. This really helped me to appreciate the beauty and depth of what was going on since I could hear the bishop but I couldn't see him. Really I just wanted to say that I was once again amazed at the reverence and depth of worship. After Lent, having such a wonderful celebration, seeing the baptisms and confirmations, and rejoicing that our Lord IS risen was amazing.

Well, I am just rambling now, so I'll stop.

Holy Thursday

One of the things I am becoming more and more thankful for is the Catholic Church's sincere and reverent devotion to Christ, the true Christ, the Jesus Christ in the Holy Scripture. So often in our culture we try to fit Jesus into what we feel He should be. We say and hear, "I feel Christ would (fill in what is most convenient)," or "I just don't feel like Christ would (fill in whatever you don't want to do)." We go on living our life according to our feelings about Jesus instead of delving into Scripture to find out who Christ really is.

This is why I love Lent. We are encouraged to walk with Christ. We place ourselves in each scene of the last days of his life. We are encouraged to recall our sins and failures, repent, ask for forgiveness, and change. We are to forgive others and move past the pain of their failures. We meditate, sacrifice, and offer these small things up in union with Christ's Great Sacrifice. Then we come to Holy Thursday, the first day of the Triduum, and we join Christ in the Upper Room for the Last Supper. We witness Him washing the feet of His disciples as He shows us how to humble ourselves to serve others.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about how unworthy I am. I run from pain and avoid discomfort. Christ freely accepted pain and death. I am quick to anger and seek revenge. Christ remained silent while he was mocked and asked for His enemies' to be forgiven. I allow my pride to convince me I am too good to speak to or be in the presence of certain people. Christ surrounded Himself with the sinners and social outcast and died a criminal's death.

So, I ask you, my brothers and sisters, along with Our Blessed Mothers and all the angels and saints to pray for me. Pray that my fears, weakness, and pride would be replaced with a yearning to do God's will. That I may seek only to follow Christ to the cross, accepting the pain and suffering of this world, so that I may rise just as he did.

Praise God for His love and mercy!

A Time To Uproot...

So, I guess Eben can blog consistently, but I seem to have trouble with this. (See "Almost a Year Later") To be honest, I haven't felt like I have anything interesting to blog about. Well, things have changed. It may not be interesting, but I think I have plenty to say.

So, why "A Time To Uproot..."? First, Ecclesiastes 3: 1-15 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. I turn to it when I feel like I am the only person who have ever gone through whatever is going on in my life. Also, that seems to describe our life pretty well lately. We have moved from Tulia, gotten out of ministry, bought a home, started a business, and converted to Catholicism. As you can imagine, all of these new events are related.

About 3 years ago, Eben and I started feeling like there was more to Christianity that what we were a part of. Don't get me wrong, we were surrounded by wonderful, God-fearing people who we loved and who loved us. It wasn't the people, it was the system. We started to notice thing that we felt like were flaws. So, we started studying, and Catholicism kept popping up. The more we studied, the more it seemed like the Catholic Church had right.

Now, I grew up Catholic. My family was very disappointed by my conversion to the Churches of Christ. So, for me conversion meant I would have to admit that I was wrong. For Eben, conversion meant leaving everything he had known for the last 13 years. So, we tried really hard to talk and study ourselves out of it. I think I probably came around before Eben. I think I finally realized that that yearning I had been feeling was a yearning for the Sacraments (especially the Eucharist). Eventually, Eben began to feel that he could not stay in the pulpit of a Protestant church if he was agreeing more and more with Catholicism. So, we announced in November that we would be moving. At the end of December, we bought a home and moved to Lubbock. In January Eben finally committed to converting (after I told him I was tired of being in limbo and needed to know where he was leading our family).

Things went really well until we announced that we were converting. Eben posted it on his blog in February, and boy did we get a response. I guess since we had been away from Tulia for a month and a half and so much had been going on in our lived, we didn't really think that it would cause waves like it did. In many ways, it was a blessing though. We have found out who our true friends are and have learned a lot about the character of some people we thought we knew. So many people have surprised us with either their amazing, loving reactions or with their hateful, malicious reactions. I'll say this though...it has given us a lot to pray about!

Well, that is probably enough for this post. For more details, you can head over to Eben's blog (www.ebenemerson.blogspot.com). I am really going to try to post more, now that I feel like I have more to say!

Almost A Year Later...

Okay, so I haven't done so well as far as blogging goes. Not too long after setting up this blog, my sister set up a MySpace account for me. I became addicted (still am) and neglected this page. So, a few months ago my husband started his own blog (http://www.ebenemerson.blogspot.com/- check it out...it is great). That got me to thinking...if he can blog consistently, well so can I. The only difference is probably that his is interesting and mine could very possibly not be.



Changes...

Since Novemeber (my last post), so many thing have changed in my life. First, the whole high school teacher thing turned out to not be so fun. Don't get me wrong, I loved my kids, and I loved teaching, but I felt like I was not really able to focus on my students or teaching for all of the other ridiculous stuff I was required to do. So, I decided to go back to school and get my MS in Math. I start back in about 2 weeks. I have a teaching assistantship, so I will get to teach 2 classes this semester. I am hoping that gettting my master's and teaching at a junior college will be a better fit.

Another change is that I have a new nephew as of a week ago. His name is Suede, and he is quite possibly the cutest little boy in the world. He was in NICU for a few days after he was born, but he is home an doing great! My sister tells me he is sleeping pretty well and eating like a little piglet. I just love him so much!


That is all I can think of right now. Hopefully, I'll have a new post in the next week or so...we'll see.

First Post

As Kristen Blankenship would say, "I have now joined the blogging world." Actually, she doesn't know it yet, but it is because of her. After about a month of not checking my Hotmail email account, I finally got around to reading the emails that had piled up in my inbox. Her email announcing the birth of her blog was sitting there waiting for me. I thought her blog was so cool that I just had to have one of my own! So, thank you Kristen for introducing me to something that I will probably be addicted to but not have enough time to do.

As of right now, I don't have a clue what I will blog about. I don't have kids to write about, and I don't have any funny bird poop stories like Kristen. I do have a husband and a classroom full of kids to provide me with material.

For those of you who don't know me but stumbled upon my blog accidentally, here is a little bit about me. My name is Jennifer. I am married to Eben. I am a high school math teacher (first year), and Eben is a preacher at the local Church of Christ. We live in the Texas Panhandle. We don't have kids, but we do have 3 dogs. That is all I can think of to share right now.

Until next time-
Jennifer