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The Easter Bunny That Overslept

By Priscilla Friedrich, Otto Friedrich; illustrations by Donald Save

 

 

Imagine a story of how a rabbit named Peter came to be called the original Easter Bunny of a place called April Valley. Filmed in what was billed as “Animagic,” a stop motion animation project using figurines, Animagic’s original claim to fame came in 1964 for the mother lode of Christmas animation specials, second only to “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. It was called “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Sound familiar now?

 

 

But for this particular 1971 hour-long, made for TV special that the team of Rankin/Bass also put together, it was titled “Here Comes Peter Cottontail.”  It featured an all-star voice cast heralded by such notables as Danny Kaye, Vincent Price and Casey Kasem as the voice of Peter.

 

From numbers topping five hundred thousand hits on the YouTube space where it appears, as well as purchase on DVD, many enjoyed this made for TV special as children. Now, they revisit it with their own children. I remember seeing it for the first time in the 1970’s with my own kids. By my calculations, that’s more than 44 years ago. Yikes!!!

 

Then, imagine in 2015, you discover the original story, probably began from a picture book from 1957, called “The Easter Bunny That Overslept.” Why is it so hard to fathom that many of these animation ideas always begin with the written word? Liz, you’re a goose!

 

Nine times out of ten, the movie starts with the book!! I guess what I’m getting at is: “Always go back to the source material and give it a read.” Witness the current hit movie, “Cinderella.”  Please have children read The Brothers Grimm version, plus Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” that generated the movie “Frozen” and also his story of “The Little Mermaid.” Did you think that the story of Ariel just popped from the sea? Nope.The original story was a creation of Hans Christian Andersen that morphed into the movie for modern audiences. Please don’t let your young readers miss out on the original stories! 

 

It’s only, oh about 40 years from the TV debut of “Here Comes Peter Cottontail”, that I discovered a copy of the original story from whence, I believe, rose the TV tale. The picture book tells the tale of the Easter Bunny that arises from a snooze on Mother’s Day to discover he’s missed Easter entirely! It’s called “The Easter Bunny That Overslept” by Priscilla and Otto Friedrich with illustrations by Adrienne Adams although other editions have illustrations by Donald Saaf.

 

The Easter Bunny post nap goes through the holiday themed calendar with his egg basket. Imagine trying to palm off eggs on July 4th? Halloween? Pretty tough sell for this bunny, no? It takes a gift from Santa himself to prevent a repeat of the napping lepus the next year. 

 

Here’s a link to the original Rankin/Bass special, plus another that features three songs from the special that are, well, endearingly comforting and sweet.

 

My absolute favorite is “In The Puzzle of Life.” Great philosophy behind its lyrics for young readers today! Enjoy!

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2_ZdknLMIo

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zpu_eSmY28

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Not long now until the Easter holidays and one of the key design motifs of the season is the cute rabbit. These Easter bunnies in lovely sugary colours were spotted on lounge/nightwear in Primark last week.

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One of my key destinations whenever I need a greeting card is Paperchase. This Easter they have some fab painterly designs from Sooshichacha (above & below) as well as their own exclusive designs. Their main theme features 'Easter Tweets' with a selection of colourful birds, some wearing glasses, A complimentary print of multicoloured diagonal gingham is used for packaging, gift wrap etc.

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We end today with a few designs spotted in supermarket Tesco who had a mixture of exclusive designs and Hallmark cards.

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The Story Of Easter

By Aileen Fisher; illustrated by Stephano Vitale

 

 

As Easter 2015 approaches, I am always looking for picture books for young readers that emphasize both the holiday and holyday components of Easter.

For young children growing up today whose families celebrate Easter, perhaps it is harder than ever to find picture books that combine both.

The Easter Bunny, rebirth and spring, dominate the cultural landscape in April, and that is not necessarily a bad thing for children. But, for those families for whom Easter is the central holyday of the Christian calendar, they are looking for something more.

 

And Aileen Fisher’s “The Story of Easter” is one picture book that offers that “moreness.”

Originally published in 1968, her book opens with the central theme of “rejoicing.” Nature, it appears is reflecting the greatest holiday of the year for Christians as it signifies their belief in the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Ms. Fisher and the elegantly subdued pastel folk art feel of Stephan Vitale combine completely in a depiction of the events in the life of Jesus leading up to Easter,  whose events can be a difficult thing to present to very young children. Ms. Fisher, I think, does a fine job here.

Her picture book also provides an interesting overview of the spring festivals that preceded Easter, as people celebrated the renewal of life from winter. I can certainly identify with that after our “winterus horribilus.”

 

“After the Christian religion spread

to many lands, the joy of Jesus’

Resurrection became mingled with

the joy of the spring festival. Both

celebrations stood for new life. Both

stood for new hope in the hearts of people”

 

Ms. Fisher gives a wonderful thousand  years perspective on many of the symbols of Easter such as the egg. It takes its significance of new life from cultures as ancient as Persia and China. Plus the egg is also ….”one of the ritual foods eaten at Passover.”

From Ukranian and Polish dyed eggs to the beauties that Carl Peter Faberge created, the Easter egg takes on a whole new history. Did you know that Sephardic Jews invented a way to dye eggs using ONION SKINS? Who knew?

And the Germans, Ms. Fisher relates, were the first to initiate the Easter Egg Tree. Poked holes in an egg shell with the liquid blown through, then dyed or painted and hung on a tree or bush, is a tradition that we have done with our children ourselves for years. Try using quince branches in a pot to hang the eggs from. It blooms beautifully and usually in time for Easter!

Traditional Easter egg hunts are here of course.

And the tradition of new Christians baptized at Easter with white robes as a sign of renewal, perhaps is also reflected in the wearing of new Easter outfits?

Sunrise Easter services and lilies blooming all announce to your young reader in this great picture book, a very interesting perspective on the history, holyday and holiday combination of celebrations that make up Easter.

Ms. Fisher’s book is an entertaining and informative prelude to the old saying concerning Easter Sunday – “The sun dances as it rises on Easter morning.”

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Our Easter coverage continues today with some brand new artwork which is available for licensing. These cute seasonal patterns were created by Berlin based freelance illustrator and surface pattern designer Nastja Holtfreter. To see more from Nastja or to make inquiries go online here.

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More Easter designs with a selection from Marks & Spencer on greetings cards wrap and packaging. There are some fresh designs in yellow and turquoise on Kraft card, some interesting hand drawn type, and last years food packaging designs by Darling Clementine make a reappearance. Most of their cards have sold out online but there are still a selection available in stores.

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And we end today with a few Easter greetings card designs snapped in Wilko.

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Betty Bunny Loves Easter

By Michael B. Kaplan; illustrated by Stephane Jorisch

 

The picture book reflects, in a certain sense, the culture and attitudes of the time in which it was written. Its art and narrative are born of an age that speaks to that generation of readers – and many times, thank goodness, beyond. You have only to look back on the Caldecott Award winners and Honor Books that began in 1938 to the present day to see proof of that reality.

If you have the time, it’s pretty interesting to see the evolution of childhood reflected in these charming books. And sometimes, it’s even a bit unsettling to see the culture of today reflected in, and through the eyes of a child in the current crop of picture books.

Enter Betty Bunny. There is no doubt that she is an independent, challenging handful who has a mind of her own. No problem there. It’s a good thing to be independent, curious and push the limits of the status quo – at times. Betty is all of those things. A bit on the high energy, overactive range of normal, Betty is consumed with whatever new experience comes her way, whether it be shopping, chocolate cake, playing soccer, admitting mistakes, or here, in her latest adventure, taking on the tradition of egg gathering at Easter – as a competition.

Betty may typify the average young person today who is on a learning curve when it comes to adjusting expectations with reality.

Betty is determined to BE the Easter Bunny when she grows up. Sweet.

Betty sees endless days of coloring eggs, consuming chocolate and carrying chock full baskets! She is gently reminded by her mom that the specialness of anything is BECAUSE it is not the everyday. No convincing this hare, via mom’s hint.

A determined Betty avers that “I always find the most eggs..” But this year, she is quick on the uptake as she notices the help she is receiving from her family members, nudging undiscovered eggs her way. Hey, Betty! You really are beginning to notice things and an awareness of the larger reality is important. You are growing up; as she instantly insists on solo egg gathering.

But there’s the rub. For Betty, left to her own devices comes up empty and declares in high dudgeon that “Easter is yucky.” “I hate Easter.” Whoa, Nellie er Betty!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Her parents come to the rescue, reminding Betty that they are proud of her independence in wanting to find her OWN eggs and therefore will mean so much more – even if it’s only a trio of eggs. Praise from parents is good – for really important things that mean something.

Okay. Did our bunny heroine really learn anything? Maybe. But what did she learn? When her mom finds her rifling through her purse toward the close of the book in order to find funds for a BIGGER basket next year, she is told that she has to ask permission first. So Betty, the feisty finagler, replies with a smirk, “If I ask, you’ll just give it to me. It means so much more if I find it myself.” Cute.

Turning the logic table on her mom, I am fairly itching to see the imaginary page AFTER this picture book denouement. Does Betty’s behavior have any consequences? And, what will she learn from this episode, if it does not? That, to me, is the bigger question.

Redirecting children’s behavior to better choices is part of the value learning curve of childhood.

The ending of this book put me in mind of a children’s TV host long gone, named Soupy Sales. On his January 1st 1965, Channel 5 morning children’s show, he jokingly told his young listeners to go into mom’s purse and dad’s wallet. “Take those little green pieces of paper with the pictures of men in beards, and mail them to me.” Many moms and dads were sleeping in from night before New Year’s Eve parties. Soupy asked the kids to send those “pieces of paper” to him. Result? Complaints flooded in, and some to the FCC about teaching kids to steal. And a 2-week suspension was the result. And when he returned, his popularity was bigger than ever!

Now, let me be very clear on this point, I am in no way suggesting this picture book is in any way akin to Soupy’s request, but its ending is not cute by half.

Young readers see themselves in picture books many times – the good and the not so good; and that’s great. Life is for children, after all, learning about the journey through their mistakes and successes.

But just perhaps, we may want to at least have our parent/child tete a tetes in picture books, end on a note that doesn’t allow the child to have the final say as to what THEY feel is acceptable behavior – when it’s not. Not in a picture book or in real life.

I love you, Betty; truly I do. And that is why we’re going to have a little chat, sweetie, about you and mom’s purse. I’ll talk and you listen – for a minute.

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With just four days to go before the Easter Holidays I will be posting various card designs. We begin the week with a selection from John Lewis where these designs from Peggy Oliver caught my eye. John Lewis are also stocking vintage designs by John Hanna from publishers Pigment Productions, Caroline Gardner, The Art File, and Kirstie Allsop. The John Lewis website is actually quite bad at

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John Lewis also have a fab range of decorations, egg hunt kits, paper plates, napkins etc. by Talking Tables which are all very colourful and beautifully illustrated.

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via http://ignitingwriting.com/gmabookclub/hopping-on-easter

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It wouldn’t be Easter without a bit of a hunt. Whatever your predilection, chocolate eggs, fairies, time spent with loved ones; this small but sweet selection of Easter inspired treasures are perfect to pop into your Easter baskets this year. For the very young bunnies:  Little Barry Bilby by Colin Buchanan and Roland Harvey, including […]

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This year, Sam McBratney’s timeless, endearing story of Big and Little Nutbrown Hare, Guess How Much I Love You, turns 20!

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My very first intentional collection, from start to finish. A sweet Easter lamb surrounded by tulips, joyful bold colors, and a hint of earthy textures.

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Disclosure: We received a free copy of Carrot Saves Easter for our review, but as always my opinions are honest and I'd never promote a book we didn't enjoy!

Since becoming a mother over 5 years ago, it's been important to me to not only teach my children the ABCs and 123s, but also teach them practical skills, values, ethnic and religious heritage, and instill in them a sense of identity and belonging. Through our family's traditions, my children are not only learning all of these things, but are forming lasting memories for years to come.

What are our family traditions? 

Well, each October a "Halloween Ghost" visits us for 31 days and leaves a little treat behind (yes, each day). In November we trace our hands, cut them out, and write one thing we are thankful for on the back, then hang our "leaves" on our "thankfulness tree" built out of branches we find in the yard. In the winter, we donate toys to children in need, and cut down our own tree at the local farm. At Christmastime, our Elf Sparkle brings us a Christmas book to read each day, and leaves a new version of The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve each year.

We have smaller traditions and rituals like having pizza every Friday night, going out for dessert on Thursday evenings, and reading exactly 3 books before bed.

A new tradition
Today I'm sharing a new book, Carrot Saves Easter, that will inspire our newest family tradition.

Created by a local Philadelphia mother of two and speech pathologist, Amanda Macielinski , Carrot Saves Easter teaches children about the importance of doing good deeds. While the book is about Easter, it isn't overtly a religious story. The creator's intent with writing the book is to bring families closer through a new tradition, and hopes that families enjoy reading all of their good deeds together, year after year.
The story of Carrot Saves Easter takes place on Easter Island where a magical factory relies on kindness to help make sweet treats for little boys and girls to eat on Easter. But a problem arises when the Easter Bunny realizes the supply of good deeds is running low! A bunny helper named Carrot comes to Easter's rescue by traveling far and wide to bring stories of good deeds back to Easter Island.  

Each copy of the book comes with its own bunny helper like Carrot, who reports back to the Easter Bunny all the good deeds that your child does during the Easter season. Children are encouraged to "Each night before Easter tell your bunny helper the good deeds you have done" so that Easter can be saved year after year. There is a journal in the back of the book to record all of your child's acts of kindness.

What do I love about this book?

• It provides great talking points for parents and children to discuss what it means to be a kind person, perform selfless acts, and why these things are important. Discussions like these are important for receptive and expressive language development.
• It's a book that truly encourages parent and child bonding time in an age of technology 
• It gives specific examples of children doing good deeds.
• It provides the opportunity for children to practice writing skills with the inclusion of the journal.
• It makes a wonderful family keepsake to look back on each year.
• It's a sturdy and well-made product! The book will withstand being a favorite and the bunny helper is high quality to withstand cuddles from any child for many years. 

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My friend Theresa's Easter ducklings

The bunny puts the duckling it his place.

That is the saying isn't it? Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

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©the enchanted easel 2014

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By David Yamane

For many Catholics in America, waking up in the morning to find no news about the church is a relief. They won’t have to deal with stories about the lingering stench of the priest sexual abuse scandal, the consolidation of parishes and closing of schools, controversy over Catholic hospitals and the loss of Catholic youth, fewer and older nuns and more and younger “nones.”

But what if no news was not the only good news? What if Catholics turned on their TVs and opened their papers on Easter Sunday and heard some real good news instead?

At Easter Vigil Masses on Saturday night, 19 April, something truly remarkable will take place. Tens of thousands of adults in thousands of parishes across the United States became Catholic. For most of them, this rite of passage is the climax of a months- (and in some cases years-) long process of formation called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).

As I have written previously, the implementation of this modernized ancient process of initiation is an excellent example of the contemporary re-invention of rites of passage and a fruitful legacy of the Second Vatican Council. It is a Catholic success story.

Although based on a single, universal ritual text, the way the RCIA process is implemented differs from parish to parish. We do well to remember a variant on Tip O’Neill’s quip that “all politics is local.” All Catholicism is local. In some parishes we find elaborate and beautiful rituals, rich with fragrant oils and soaring hymns and full body immersion in the waters of baptism. In some parishes, we see minimalistic ceremonies that strain the use of the term ritual.

Regardless of the quality of the celebration, however, through the sacraments of initiation—baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist—individuals become Catholic. When the officiating minister speaks the words and performs the actions of the sacraments—“I baptize you…” and “Be sealed…” and “Receive the Body of Christ”—from the perspective of the church, they have the intended effect. It does not matter if the priest says the words excitedly, sincerely, or in a monotone while yawning under his breath. It does not matter if a team of 20 catechists and thousands of parishioners welcome the new Catholic warmly and profusely, or if a single deacon rushes through a minimalistic ceremony while a few dozen assembled individuals wait impatiently for communion. It does not matter if the symbols of the initiation ceremony are rich or sparse. An individual who receives the sacraments of initiation in a Catholic Church is a Catholic. The individual now can check the “Catholic” box, join a parish, receive communion, get married in the church, and so on.

This fact reminds us that, at the same time that all Catholicism is local, we can also say that no Catholicism is only local. Without the universal church, there would be no RCIA process in local parishes. The Vatican II document Sacrosanctum Concilium (promulgated in 1963) led to the editio typica of the Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum (issued in 1972), which led to the vernacular typical edition of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (published in 1988), which has gradually been implemented in US parishes. Understanding this movement from universal to local is important. I think of this as being like the image on the cover of Pink Floyd’s album, “Dark Side of the Moon.” The album cover shows a beam of white light hitting a triangular prism, which refracts it to create a rainbow of colors. The culture and resources of local parishes do act as prisms, but without the light, you have no rainbow.

With unprecedented opportunities to choose a religion (or no religion) and to choose how to practice that religion (or not practice), the fact that tens of thousands of people still voluntarily chose Catholicism again this year is indeed good news for American Catholics.

David Yamane teaches sociology at Wake Forest University and is author of Becoming Catholic: Finding Rome in the American Religious Landscape. He is currently exploring the phenomenon of armed citizenship in America as part of what has been called “Gun Culture 2.0″—a new group of individuals (including an increasing number of women) who have entered American gun culture through concealed carry and the shooting sports. He blogs about this at Gun Culture 2.0. Follow him on Twitter @gunculture2pt0.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
Connect with Donna McDine on Google+


A Sandy Grave ~ January 2014 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.

Powder Monkey ~ May 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.

Hockey Agony ~ January 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.

The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
~ Literary Classics Silver Award and Seal of Approval, Readers Favorite 2012 International Book Awards Honorable Mention and Dan Poynter's Global e-Book Awards Finalist

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By David Yamane

“It has often been said that one of the characteristics of the modern world is the disappearance of any meaningful rites of initiation.”

Mircea Eliade made this comment in his 1956 Haskell Lectures on the History of Religions at the University of Chicago (subsequently published as Rites and Symbols of Initiation). The qualifier meaningful in Eliade’s statement is significant, because something so fundamental to human societies (across cultures and over time) as rites of initiation do not simply melt into air, modernity notwithstanding.

Contemporary ritual studies luminary, Ronald Grimes, highlights a unique and contradictory aspect of Western industrialized societies when it comes to initiation, one perhaps implied by Eliade. “Initiation goes on all the time,” Grimes writes in his book, Deeply Into the Bone: Re-inventing Rites of Passage. But we lack “explicit or compelling initiation ceremonies.”

The centrifugal forces of modernity have rendered the initiation that does take place in Western industrial societies more diffuse, haphazard, individualized, and even sometimes only imaginary. In the face of this, some communities are attempting to create or re-create rites of passage that are mindful and intentional.

Perhaps not surprisingly, then, less than a decade after Eliade’s lectures, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church meeting at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) called for a restoration of the “catechumenate”—the ancient process for ritually initiating adults. As I noted yesterday, this culminated in the publication in 1972 of Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum, subsequently translated into English in 1988 as Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

In his work on re-inventing rites of passage, Grimes does not mention the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), but he could have. In “returning to the sources” in the ancient church for an earlier model of initiation (what French theologians call ressourcement), the creators of the contemporary RCIA engaged in the very process of reinvention that Grimes calls for.

When fully implemented, the RCIA process takes those considering becoming Catholic on a journey through four distinct periods of formation which are demarcated by three ritual transitions.

Period 1: Evangelization and Precatechumenate

The opening stage of the RCIA process is intended to introduce individuals to the Catholic faith and to answer questions about it. Also during this period individuals are paired with sponsors, members of the church who will accompany the individual on their journal toward initiation.

Ritual Transition 1: Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens

Those who decide to continue in the RCIA process go through this first of three major ritual transitions. During a liturgy individuals are asked to affirm their acceptance of the Gospel of Christ and the assembly is asked to affirm their support of the candidates. The passage to the status of “catechumen” is then ritually enacted by the priest, catechist, or sponsor tracing the sign of the cross on the forehead (and often also the ears, eyes, lips, chest, shoulders, hands, and feet) of the candidate.

Period 2: Catechumenate

This is the main time of formation for those seeking initiation. The purpose of this period is to give catechumens “suitable pastoral formation and guidance, aimed at training them in the Christian life” through catechesis, community, liturgy, and service (RCIA, no. 75). Once catechumens are ready to receive the sacraments of initiation they must publicly declare this and go through a ritual transition to become one of the “elect.”

Ritual Transition 2: Rite of Election

Typically held the first Sunday of Lent and presided over by the bishop, this ritual brings together individuals in the RCIA process from the entire diocese so that for the first time the candidates are able to see and experience the church writ large. In this rite, God “elects” those catechumens who are deemed ready to take part in the sacraments of initiation and who affirm their desire to do so. The candidates’ names are enrolled in the diocesan “Book of the Elect” which is countersigned by the bishop who declares them ready to begin their final period of preparation before initiation.

Period 3: Purification and Enlightenment

This period focuses on spiritual preparation for the rites of initiation and coincides with the 40 days preceding Easter, known as the season of Lent. As part of their spiritual cleansing, the elect undergo three public “scrutinies” which typically involve prayer over the elect and an “exorcism” enacted by a laying on of hands by the presider. The elect are also ritually presented the text of the Nicene Creed and Lord’s Prayer. At the conclusion of this period, the elect undergo the most significant ritual transition: the reception of the sacraments of initiation.

Ritual Transition 3: Reception of the Sacraments of Initiation

This moment of incorporation—literally becoming part of the body of the church—normatively and most often takes place during the Easter Vigil, what Augustine called “the mother of all holy vigils.” In and through this ritual, individuals receive the sacraments of initiation (baptism, confirmation, and eucharist) and in doing so become Catholic.

Period 4: Mystagogy

This is sometimes called the period of “post-baptismal catechesis” because it seeks to lead the newly initiated more deeply into reflection on the experience of the sacraments and membership in the church. It is a springboard from the RCIA community to the broader church community.

By the turn of the 21st century, more than 80% of American parishes were using some version of this RCIA process to initiate adults. Although it is not yet fully implemented in every parish, the RCIA is the officially recognized liturgical and catechetical process by which adults become Catholic today.

As a reinvented rite of passage, the RCIA process has been very successful at bringing individuals into the Catholic Church in a mindful, intentional, and compelling way. As I noted in my first OUPblog entry, it is also helping to shape the process of ritual initiation in other churches. I will suggest in my third and final entry that the RCIA, therefore, represents a bit of good news amid a lot of bad news for the Roman Catholic Church in the contemporary United States.

David Yamane teaches sociology at Wake Forest University and is author of Becoming Catholic: Finding Rome in the American Religious Landscape. He is currently exploring the phenomenon of armed citizenship in America as part of what has been called “Gun Culture 2.0″—a new group of individuals (including an increasing number of women) who have entered American gun culture through concealed carry and the shooting sports. He blogs about this at Gun Culture 2.0. Follow him on Twitter @gunculture2pt0.

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I wrote this story a few years ago for something called a Monthly Write off at a writing forum I am part of.  The writing prompt specified the story had to be about a villain, and the overall theme had to be on the side of horror.  For some reason this story wrote itself in my head at the prompt, and while I think it is well written, it gives me a sort of shudder whenever I read it.  A good, somber kind of shudder.  I hope you enjoy it.

I sat before the fire, hiding myself amongst the other folk in the courtyard.  I swallowed wine in an effort to warm away the coldness in my heart, but it could not be thawed.  I weighed the purse in my hands, hefted the silver I'd gained for the price of a kiss.  Such a bargain.

Why did I feel so dark inside?

"They say he's to die."

I looked across the fire toward the speaker, a young girl with features obscured by conflicting shadows of flame and night.

"They say he's to die.  How can they commit such a sin?  He is no criminal!"

My fingers curled so tightly that the coins within the purse bit into my skin.  I recognized her.  I'd seen her long ago when she lay defeated on the sands before her accusers, and he had bent down to write her defense into the sand.

Who was she, to speak the words that gnawed into my very soul?  I shook away the voice that reminded me, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, he shall betray me, and rubbed away the cramp that stiffened the fingers of that hand.

Her eyes burned in the flames to the murmuring of voices.  "He is my lord," she said, "and he was betrayed."

She wept, faded into the crowd, and became no more than a formless shape amongst so many other formless shapes of men.  I brushed my fingertips together, the red fury that her words had kindled gradually fading to a black horror.  Woe to that man, memory whispered, by whom the son of man shall be betrayed:  it were better for him, if that man had not been born.  I shook the bag of coins until they rattled in the cloth, trying to blot out his face.

he night was suddenly very cold.  Not even the fire could warm me.  I touched my mouth with my fingers and my lips burned with the acidity of my traitor's kiss.
Dost thou betray the son of man with a kiss?

Were the words memory, or did the fire speak them to mock me?


I rose, wrapped my cloak about me, and left the fire and courtyard and the mass of staring men.  I lost myself in the night, but I could not lose myself from myself.

"He is no king," I told the wind.  "He is a liar and a blasphemer!  He is worthy of death."  But my own heart revealed the lie.  I remembered his eyes, those eyes that had looked deep into my own with love and pleading.  Dost thou betray the son of man?

I walked faster, the clinking of the coins becoming tin rattles of death within the smothering folds of leather.  The gnawing loss in my heart was growing, becoming something worse,  something awful and devouring.  It was as though my inner darkness were changing into a monster that opened a flaming mouth to reveal a far-off pit of fire.  As the monster grew, so did my horror.


What had I done?

Clink, clink, clink, clink.  The coins chattered in my purse.  Trai-tor, trai-tor, they whispered as they jingled.  Had I betrayed him for this, these thirty pieces of silver?

You are not all clean.  Ah, that whispering voice of memory!  Would it not leave me be?  "He saw the temptation in me!"  I shouted to the stars.  "I was the treasurer!  Money is my desire.  How could I not put him aside?"  I stopped in the darkness, plunged my hand into my purse and held the silver to the night.  "The chief priests do not want him either.  They gave me this in exchange for him.  He is a blasphemer!  Death is his just reward."

The monster inside me laughed and the night turned a pitiless eye to me.  Friend, dost thou betray the son of man?

I choked, dropped to my knees in the darkness.  The silver fell about me, each coin striking off the cobbles with the sound of a sharply-tuned bell.  Their thirty separate chimes beat at me, played in counter melody to the laughter of the devil in my soul.

I had betrayed him.  Now he was to die.  Remorse painted my soul black.  I'd known.  Of course I'd known!  Did I not exchange him for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a dead slave?  I knew the priests' hatred of him.  I shared it.

But now... now...

On my knees I gathered the coins into my hands and made my way to the hall where I knew the chief priests and the elders would be gathered.

I burst in on them and didn't recognize my voice as I said, "I have sinned in betraying innocent blood."

For a moment there was a silence, and then one of the priests said, "What is that to us?  You see to it!"

The devil within me chortled louder, and it seemed the flames in his smile rose up and devoured me.  There was no thought in my mind, no sense of action.  There was only a choking well of guilt as I flung the silver from my hand.  The coins rang out again, but colder this time as they clashed upon the marble floor.

Then I turned and went out.

There was no point in going on.  I had sinned.  I had betrayed him, my lord and my God.  For love of money, for earthly power, for avarice, greed, and selfishness, I had betrayed him.

There was no way to atone. 

Beneath the shadows of a tree, I bound the halter around my neck.

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By David Yamane

The American religious landscape is ever changing. The rise of religious nones, the spiritual not religious, thoughtful spirituality, the emerging church, online religion, megachurches, and on and on.

As a sociologist of religion who specializes in Roman Catholicism, it is easy to feel old-fashioned in the face of so much novelty. But in its typically deliberate way, the original megachurch in America continues to make its mark on the religious landscape.

On Saturday night, April 19th, at Easter Vigil Masses in most of the 17,000+ parishes in the United States, tens of thousands of individuals will join the Catholic Church. On average over the past ten years, 67,000 adults annually have been baptized Catholic and 83,000 baptized Christians annually have been “Received into Full Communion” with the Roman Catholic church in the United States.

To put these numbers in perspective, these 1.5 million people becoming Catholic over the past decade in themselves would comprise one of the 20 largest religious bodies in America. Catholic converts collectively are about 11% of all Catholics in the United States today. These 5.85 million individuals would be the fifth largest religious body in America, just ahead of the Church of God in Christ and behind the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormon Church).

These numbers are impressive, but even more notable is that most adults who become Catholic in America today do so through an elaborate initiation process that is both ancient and modern: the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).

In the ancient church, adult baptism was preceded by a structured period of instruction (“catechesis”), which could last as long as three years. Individuals undergoing instruction were called “catechumens” (“hearers of the word”) and the period of instruction was called the “catechumenate.” The process also called for a number of pre-baptismal rites associated with purification and exorcism in preparation for initiation.

As the church’s attention shifted to infant baptism, these rich traditions of adult initiation fell by the wayside. By the mid-20^th century in the United States, the process of adult initiation was brief, private, and focused on doctrinal instruction. But the church would soon “modernize” the process of adult initiation, not by looking to the future, but by looking to the past.

French theologians call this ressourcement – looking to the ancient church for models of liturgy and practice to be implemented in the contemporary church. In this way, the church uses tradition to renew tradition. This is exemplified by the call to restore the ancient catechumenate for adults in the Second Vatican Council’s 1963 Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium, nos. 64-66).

That call led to the publication in 1972 of a new book of rites for adult initiation, in Latin of course, called Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum (the Latin editio typica or “typical edition”). A provisional English translation of this new “order of initiation” was introduced into the Catholic Church in the United States in 1974 and the final official American English translation of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (the “vernacular typical edition”) was published in 1988. At that time, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops also issued guidelines for and mandated the use of the new process.

Like the ancient model, the modern RCIA takes individuals through distinct periods of formation with public ritual transitions that move individuals from one period to the next. The process can take anywhere from months to years to complete. (Tomorrow, I will discuss in greater detail the nuts and bolts of the process.)

Since it was mandated in 1988, at least two million adults have been initiated into the Catholic Church through the RCIA process. But the Catholic Church does not only make its mark on the American religious landscape numerically. The RCIA has also become an influential model of initiation for other Christian traditions. Among the denominations that have implemented a catechumenal process of initiation are the Episcopal Church USA, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Mennonite Church USA. In 1995, the North American Association for the Catechumenate was founded as an ecumenical group to support and promote the catechumenal process of initiation outside the Catholic Church. Denominational partners include the Anglican Church of Canada, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Presbyterian Church (USA), Reformed Church in America, and the United Methodist Church.

The influence of the RCIA both inside and outside the Catholic Church suggests that it is one of the most fruitful — if one of the least recognized — legacies of the Second Vatican Council.

David Yamane teaches sociology at Wake Forest University and is author of Becoming Catholic: Finding Rome in the American Religious Landscape. He is currently exploring the phenomenon of armed citizenship in America as part of what has been called “Gun Culture 2.0″ — a new group of individuals (including an increasing number of women) who have entered American gun culture through concealed carry and the shooting sports. He blogs about this at Gun Culture 2.0. Follow him on Twitter @gunculture2pt0.

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