Reflections... or a lack of it.

These past days - in prepering for Holy Week, I've often wondered how my family and I can best spend the time in proper reflection. Do we go 'bisita iglecia'? Do we do the stations of the cross?

Unfortunately, it seems that we've been waking up real late these past days, so before our day starts, it's close to luch time, and then the afternoon sun tells that it's not that good an idea to go out - and it's not jsut the heat, it's also because I've had warts cauterized and have been told not to bathe for three days, as my wounds get better - wounds that would start getting pricky when sweat gets mixed with their presence.

So what has been happening lately is the fact that this long vacation has been mostly days of rest - which we do need as well, but one with little reflection, as well. Then there's always watching DVDs, but as I looked at my collection - well, let's just say a lot of these don't really fit the holiday reflective mode... and somehow fit proper viewing for my kids... to explain a bit, I may not think they're ready to watch "The Last Temptation of Christ"; in fact, I wondered if they were ready to see the stark realism of another film... "The Passion of the Christ"... but watch this one we did.

What made me decide to enforce this viewing? Simple... yesterday, as we were having dinner, I asked my kids... "What is the significance of this week?". Now I rarely ask such questions, but I was wondering if they did indeed have some semblance of what we were observing. Needless to say, I found out that my kids guessed - and not too confidently at that, what Holy Week was about. So I said, okay... time to get the exposed to the Passion... with the hope that Christ's sacrifice gives them pause to consider their fun-focused plans for the week.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind fun - but we need to put it into perspective with Christ's sacrifice this Holy Week.

Is the lack of understanding mine? I'll have to admit to that - I assumed that their school would let them know this week's importance, but I guess we - that is, Barbie and I, needed to ensure that their knowledge of the story of the passion would be appreciated and inherently understood.

Do watch the Passion of the Christ we did... this afternoon. I found myself crying - and tried to spy to see my kids reactions. Either they're made of sterner stuff, or the film was just going above them - not being able to understand all it's implications, due to what I percieve are two things... their lack of knowledge for the story of Jesus, and the film's Aramaic dialogue. Reading the English sub-titles must have really been really 'ínteresting' to them.

So... lesson learned, I'll need to find DVDs with English versions of the Passion - maybe not the Passion movie per se, but other tellings like "The Greatest Story Ever Told" or it's likes. I'll also have to better plan for Holy Week activities - staying home may be cheap... but not at the continued expense of my kids' seeming ignorance to / lack of confidence in telling the story of Jesus.