Another busy combined Holiday week

As many of you know, our house shares two religions: Judaism and Catholicism. I am the resident Catholic, and Andy is the resident Jew. The boys have not chosen one over the other as of yet, but they understand the beliefs and practices of both.

So this week we have celebrated Passover and are also celebrating Holy Week and Easter. For many of our family and friends, this always starts lively discussions about how and why we are raising our children in two faiths. It also brings discussion of how to honor the traditions of both faiths on weeks like this.

The boys and their Dad all give up yeast and levened bread for Passover and we celebrate a HUGE Seder dinner on the first night. I have learned to cook potato latkes and to make a Seder dinner the correct way. We have a family Haggadah that we read from, part in Hebrew and part in English, during the meal. It is a wonderful, family tradition.

The week gets more complicated as we get to Good Friday. Today the boys will continue to eliminate leavened breads from their diet as well as fast and eat no meat. Our family will go to Stations of the Cross at the cemetery where my mother is buried and then out for a Seafood Buffet. The boys will look longingly at the breaded shrimp and mountains of desserts, but they will try to keep to the rules of Passover and Good Friday. They do this on their own. Andy has always told them that they could choose to forget about the Passover rules during this feast, but neither boy has ever been willing to forgo one for the other and so they both eat whatever they can find that meets the guidelines.

I am proud to have sons that have an understanding and an acceptance for religious differences. I am proud that they choose to honor two faiths traditions and feel like it is the right thing to do.

Andy and I always set as our primary "faith goal" for the boys:
To believe and know that there is someone out there greater than they are, someone in charge of their destiny. A loving God who will be there when they call out to him.

Somehow today it seems, with them at 10 and 13, we have almost got the message through. I feel blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Happy Passover.
Blessed Easter.