A Show of Faith
Millennial, Priest, Minister, and Rabbi walk into a radio station...
A Show of Faith
April 27, 2025 Life's Cycles
When flags flew at half-staff across Texas following Pope Benedict XVI's passing, it offered a striking reminder that faith rituals transcend religious boundaries to touch something universally human. What makes us pause collectively to honor life's pivotal transitions?
Our multi-faith panel explores the ceremonial markers that guide us through existence's most profound moments. From Catholic sacraments like baptism and confirmation to Jewish rituals like bar mitzvah and shiva, these traditions create sacred space within ordinary time. We unpack how these practices distribute emotional burdens across communities while connecting us to something eternal.
The conversation reveals surprising parallels between seemingly different faiths. Catholics recognize seven as the "age of reason" when children become spiritually accountable. Baptists speak of an "age of accountability" around twelve or thirteen when young people make conscious faith decisions. Jews celebrate bar/bat mitzvah at thirteen when children become responsible for their own religious obligations. Though the explanations differ, the human recognition of childhood's end remains consistent.
Father Mario shares how Catholic life follows liturgical rhythms marked by changing altar colors and seasonal observances. Rabbi Stuart explains how shiva gatherings distribute grief among community members, with each person symbolically taking on a portion of the mourner's burden. David describes how even non-liturgical Protestant churches maintain meaningful traditions through scripture readings and hymns at key life moments.
What emerges is a deeper understanding of ritual's profound purpose: to help us navigate change, distribute emotional weight, and find meaning in transition. As one panelist beautifully expressed, "That which is true at all times and in all places must be recognized and celebrated at a specific time and a specific place." How might your own life transitions benefit from meaningful ritual? Join our exploration of the ceremonies that help us make sense of our brief, beautiful journey through time.
There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear. There's a man with a gun over there Telling me I've got to beware. I think it's time we stop. Children, what's that sound? Everybody, look what's going down. Welcome to A Show of Faith behind every time we stop. Hey, what's that sound? Everybody, look what's going down.
Speaker 2:Welcome to A Show of Faith where a professor, priest, millennial and rabbi discuss theology, philosophy, morality, ethics and anything else of interest in religion. If you have any response to our topics or any comments regarding what we say, we would love to hear from you. Email us at ashowoffaith1070 at gmailcom. That's ashowoffaith1070 at gmailcom. You can hear our shows again and again by listening pretty much anywhere. Podcasts are heard. Our professor, david Capes, is our Baptist minister. Director of academic programming for the Lanier Theological Library.
Speaker 3:Hey, it's great to be with you, Rabbi.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello. Our priest is Father Mario Arroyo, retired pastor of St Cyril of Alexandria, the 10,000 block of Westheimer. Good to be with you. Rudy Kong is our millennial. He's a systems engineer, master's degree in theology from the University of St Thomas. Howdy howdy. I am Rabbi Stuart Federo, retired rabbi of Congregation Shahr Shalom in the Clear Lake area of Houston, texas. Miranda is our board operator and together Miranda helps us sound fantastic. And also Valerie's here too. Valerie's here, yes.
Speaker 3:So welcome to A Show of Faith. Indeed, indeed, it's good to see you guys. Good to see you. First of all, I think I want to express my condolences to our Catholic friends in the passing of Pope Francis earlier this week, absolutely, and the funeral and all that entails.
Speaker 4:Were you able to see any of the funeral, David?
Speaker 3:A little bit of it. Yeah, a little bit of it. It's an amazing ceremony, isn't it?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I was just thinking that that kind of ceremony just you don't see it very much these days. You can see a little bit of it in maybe the funeral of a president, but man, it was pretty much close to like the funeral of the queen. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:It's full of tradition and pageantry. I was watching a video that gave the history of the funerals of popes back a couple of centuries and it's interesting it changes. It's not something that has been exactly the same all the time, so they're updating it because there's no specific way that it has to be done, but they try to keep tradition. But I think they did a very nice job of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and what a setting that is. I mean, when you think about the significance of St Peter's Basilica and you think about that city and it's the history that's there, the architecture, it's just stunning, it's absolutely stunning. Yeah, but I guess, in terms of what's next, Mario and Rudy, I'm just curious what should we look for happening next? I know the Cardinals are going to gather. They've already gathered, I'm sure.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they're already there.
Speaker 3:They're already there and I know there's sessions and times of prayer and worship and those kind of things.
Speaker 4:So any idea what to talk about yeah.
Speaker 4:Well, let me ask Rudy Rudy, you're kind of a little more fact-based than I am. I tend to be. My mind floats in the clouds. Do you have any sense of? I know there's a certain amount of days within which they have to begin the conclave. So as soon as the—there's something that happens initially, which is by what's called the Chamberlain, which is an official verification of death, and once this happens, certain traditional things, they break the papal seal, they remove some rings and then the's a period of nine days essentially where the church, the, the main papal sort of uh offices and and and those kinds of, because the church doesn't really stop but the, the, the papacy itself has, has particular offices and things that that in operation, that are in operation, so that all kind of stops stops until the new pope is elected. But initially there's essentially a period of mourning that goes on Normally in St Peter's Basilica, so particularly Francis' pedagogy.
Speaker 4:Right, he was kind of known to be not so much this pope that was into, you know, all the how do I say all the pomp that comes sort of with the office. It's very traditional, but he just wasn't really about that. He didn't wear a lot of the vestments. He didn't like people kissing you know the hand or the ring. He stayed in a. I don't know if you guys saw a room of where he stayed, but his room was very austere Very modest, very modest.
Speaker 4:Very modest, and so after that, then, the official process starts, the conclave process where the coronal process.
Speaker 4:That should begin in the next what week or two? It seemed to be. Yeah, so after nine days he passed away on Monday, so it should be Wednesday or Thursday. That that is like kind of officially starts and there's masses and then there's particular readings that go on, but pretty much, um, the cardinals, they're just kind of locked in these, in these, uh in in in a particular place, um, in rome, in the vatican. They have absolutely no contact with the world. Uh, they're given meals, they perform prayers and then, essentially, a voting process begins.
Speaker 4:There's a lot of deliberation where, you know, for any of you who have seen the movie the Conclave, the Cardinals that have spoken about that said it's so far off from what really happens, even though it was very well acted. I have not seen it, but it was very well acted. It's interesting because the Vatican now makes sure that not only are the cardinals locked away, but they can't have any kind of communication with the outside world. There's no cell phones, there's no way for cell phones to get out. They have, I don't know the, the technology, but there's all kinds of blocking things from, from people getting in, from drones being able to listen. Uh, they, because they really when the word conclave conclave means with a lock, clave means lock, and so conclave means locked in. And not only are they physically locked in, they are psychologically and electronically locked in, because the Vatican does not want any outside influences to influence the work of the cardinals.
Speaker 4:And so it's very, very interesting, and so we will wait. We'll see either black smoke, where the black smoke just means no pope yet, and the white smoke means yes, we have a pope, but then the first day there's one ballot, and then the next three days there's two ballots a day until they get a. What is it, rudy? Is it a two-thirds majority? It's two-thirds majority. And then they get up to the point where they can have up to four ballots a day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon.
Speaker 4:But, they need at least two-thirds majority for the official election.
Speaker 3:It's an amazing moment. I've seen a number of these through my life and have watched with a lot of interest because of the significance of the Pope's office, the significance of the person very often on the stage of world affairs in terms of influencing the world and I noticed everywhere. Flags are at half staff right now, everywhere you go.
Speaker 4:You know, I was going to ask you guys about that. Wherever I've been driving around Houston, flags are at half-staff. Is that for the Pope or someone else?
Speaker 3:I think it's for the Pope. Yeah, For the while.
Speaker 2:People forget that the Pope is a head of state. It's no different than God forbid, but it's no different than I don't know Prime Minister of England or somebody like that Diner or Queen.
Speaker 4:But we don't have half staff.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think sometimes we actually do.
Speaker 4:For heads of state of other states.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 3:I don't think, I don't know that we do. I thought we've done that In terms of that. But I think the Pope is of a transcendent nature, right?
Speaker 3:I mean, I think his chair, his place, is a greater place, honestly, than you would find with any other king of one country, Because when you think about a billion or more Catholics around the world and he's the head and Catholics are everywhere, right, I agree. So I think there's throughout the world. So I just think that that is for the Pope. I don't have any other knowledge about that, but it just made perfect sense when I began seeing it immediately. Stuart's going to look it up here in just a minute and find out for sure. But I can't imagine any other figure garnering that kind of world attention, honestly, even another head state.
Speaker 4:You know what I thought of even another, you know what I thought of Dr Pence is there was a lot of also heads of state that went left, right, everybody, and there's not too many figures of course, and Father Mario said the Queen of England, I can't think of too many figures in today's day and age that could kind of bring all these people together.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4:In a sort of yeah.
Speaker 3:I think it's just a remarkable testimony to the ongoing significance of faith, religion, morality, the whole connection. We may live in a secular state, in a secular time, but I think that there's something bigger that pulls us all together at a time like this, and it seems like well, you just looked it up to make sure.
Speaker 2:No, it did say for the Pope, and there was a specific letter from the governor of Texas that he was lowering the flags to half-staff because of the Pope, because of the Pope, yeah.
Speaker 4:Oh, good okay.
Speaker 2:By the way, I just want to add oh go ahead Reverend. No, go ahead, say it again.
Speaker 4:I was just going to say you've got to remember. I want to add almost a fifth of the United States is Catholic right, so I mean it represents a pretty large demographic. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Like David said, it's every country in the world pretty much is going to have a Catholic community. Yeah, large Catholic.
Speaker 3:Right Asia Africa Catholic community.
Speaker 2:Right. Most of it Asia, africa.
Speaker 3:Europe. I mean there are countries where we don't know because there's not that kind of information available, Right, but throughout most of the world you're going to find you Catholics are everywhere. I'm telling you they're taking over the world.
Speaker 2:I just want to remind people that the newest movie, conclave, isn't the only movie Going back to the Shoes of the Fisherman. I remember seeing that when I was a kid and being very impressed by it. But there are other movies that talk about the death and election of a pope.
Speaker 3:And this one, the most recent one, I don't know. It had a lot of problems to it. I think it has a lot of questions about it.
Speaker 2:I think has a lot, a lot of questions about anthony quinn the shoes of the fisherman.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the one I remember, yeah, anthony quinn, great actor. Hey, tonight we're gonna, we're gonna. I know we gotta go to a break here in a second, but tonight we're going to be talking about it, ironically, maybe not ironically, maybe providentially. Uh, life cycle events, and we're gonna, and and and. One of the chief life cycle events in all of our faiths are funerals, deaths, burials, mourning and the significance of what that means for not only the person who's died but also for those that live behind. You're listening to a show of faith here on AM1070, the Answer.
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Speaker 2:Welcome back to A.
Speaker 3:Show of Faith on Intensively.
Speaker 2:Answered.
Speaker 3:Hey, there is a season indeed.
Speaker 2:I'll be born at a time to die.
Speaker 3:There is. You know, many years ago, you and I taught a course at Houston Baptist University. Great days Called Introduction to Judaism. Yep, at Houston Baptist University, great days Called Introduction to Judaism, and one of the phrases that stuck with me, that I had not grown up with, that I didn't have any theological training in regard to, is life cycle events, and so what I thought we would do tonight is talk a little bit about life cycle events and their meaning, their significance, the significance of ritual when it comes to doing these kind of things, because all of us have them All of our faiths do.
Speaker 3:Now I think that the the more liturgical churches have, more very often than those that aren't liturgical.
Speaker 2:But in Judaism— and by liturgical you mean—.
Speaker 3:Well, there's a particular way that worship is conducted.
Speaker 2:Set collection of prayers, set things to do.
Speaker 3:Right set things to do on particular days and such as opposed to more of a free church, the free church tradition. So where did that phrase come from, stuart? Let's start with that. Life cycle events.
Speaker 2:Well, life is a cycle. We are born and we die. That right there, covers two life cycle events. And then usually there is some recognition or acknowledgement of the child growing up at two other places, which are puberty and marriage. So these are the major changes in a person's life.
Speaker 3:So birth, birth there's certain rituals around birth, right and Father Mario, I want to kick this to you and Rudy both in a minute to think about these kind of four moments that we're talking about Right. So birth and coming into this world.
Speaker 2:Birth, coming into this world, and then moving from child to to adulthood.
Speaker 3:Puberty is usually 12, 13, somewhere in that age group, so that's a key moment.
Speaker 2:Or confirmation at 16. It's still the same basic idea.
Speaker 3:And then marriage, very often Marriage. Not everybody gets married, but a lot of people do.
Speaker 2:But it is a life cycle event, because the event of marriage is a major change in a person's life. Yeah, and then, of course, death.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, right Now. What about? I mean? What about things like the birth of children? What about?
Speaker 2:finishing college, what about? I mean those kind of things. The baby doesn't know it's got a celebration of having been born. Okay, the baby doesn't know, it's got a celebration of having been born. So I think that all rituals for a birth is kind of mainly for the parents Okay, to acknowledge for them the change in their lives of having a child.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But it's also to welcome as well Father Mario. We've talked about four moments in life. We've talked about birth, We've talked about coming of age, we talked about marriage, or we mentioned marriage here and we talked about death. Are there Catholic rituals kind of focused in upon?
Speaker 4:those. Well, for a Catholic, you've got to remember here that you have to talk about practicing Catholic, and those are what I call Catholic in name only. You know there's people that you say, well, what religion are you? And they say, well, I'm baptized Catholic, but they've marked their lives in no way with any Catholic ritual or Catholic meaning, and so we have to put that aside. Yeah, for a Catholic young person growing up, the cycle would be their first communion.
Speaker 2:What age, would that be?
Speaker 4:Around seven years old. The Catholic Church considers seven years old to be the age of reason. You're stopped being, for example, if you are less than seven years old, you can be baptized by the authority of the faith of your parents, and your parents promise to bring you up as Catholic. But the moment you hit seven years old, that ends, and from then on you have to go through a period of formation to understand what you're doing in terms of baptism. That's a major change in a young person's life. And then the next part would be when they get to be 13, 14, 15, which they do confirmation, and that's another very strong life cycle event. And, of course, from there you go into marriage. But I was thinking, you know, for me I did not go into marriage.
Speaker 4:You know, my own life cycle was baptism, confirmation and then ordination, which occurred when I was 27 years old.
Speaker 4:So those orders become very the holy orders, right, that become sort of the guiding thing of your life. Oh, my god, let me tell you when I was ordained to the priesthood, oh, you talk about my life changing. You know, it's funny because I I love to say it this way in the catholic church, when the sacrament that makes a priest A priest is called holy orders, okay, just take away the adjectives and you get the word orders. Okay, so for a Catholic Christian to receive holy orders. You know, it's funny because I and I say this very, very proudly in a good way Whenever I see Jesus who I'm looking at right now on the cross, I see my commanding officer, I see the person who gives me orders. Who gives me orders.
Speaker 3:And my life is a response to the orders that I get from him through various channels. Interesting, interesting. I know we've got to go to break here in just a minute, but when we do I'm going to come back. Rudy, I want to hear about you because you're the most recently married of our group and I want to hear about that a little bit as a life cycle events. Father Mario had baptism confirmation, then holy orders, and you've had a similar experience, at least at first, but not necessarily the orders. I don't know. Does your wife order you around?
Speaker 4:Is that safe? Is that safe Okay?
Speaker 3:Okay, all right, stuart, all right this is a show of faith.
Speaker 4:My commanding officer.
Speaker 2:This is a show of faith and we will be right back.
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Speaker 3:All right, we're talking about life cycle events tonight, the kind of things that we sort of just go through in life, and the importance of those rituals and what they mean and the significance that we take from them in our lives. And such Rudy, most recently married among us. What a fool believes. Oh sorry, no, no, no, no Watch out. Watch out Stuart what. I didn't see anything His wife is seated right next to him.
Speaker 2:I was just randomly singing a song. No, you weren't. No, you weren't.
Speaker 3:Rudy baptism right. First thing, and then confirmation.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I was. I don't know how to say this. I was very fortunate because I was sort of born into a family that was practicing Catholics at least my mother was.
Speaker 4:And she took this quite seriously and I think it's just. It makes an enormous difference when you have a parent, you know, and to all, I guess, christians, I mean my First Communion, just normal stuff. Normally confirmation is done around kind of early teens, sort of 12 to kind of 16-year-old, that's sort of how it's done, although people can do it at all times, right, I mean when you convert or when you can kind of postpone it. I've known people who have done it later and then, yeah, from there, once you're confirmed, you're just kind of coasting, I guess, until the next life cycle event, if you will.
Speaker 4:So for me, of course, that was marriage, and marriage is, of course, a covenant, right, it's what we consider something that is indissoluble. Right, it's a bond, it's something that is done in the presence of God and only God alone can sort of undo it right, by either death or till death. Do us part, right, and that is it. Right then, right, exactly. So my life is, if you will, mine exclusively anymore, everything I do. I think about her as well, and it's hard because we and I'm speaking for me too right, I mean, I tended to be sort of a bit selfish, right, I went where I went to. I traveled where I wanted to.
Speaker 3:I always wanted to talk to you about that. I just felt this yeah, that was a problem for you. Yeah, you were just very selfish, just kidding, just kidding. But you're right, when this change comes, it puts everything into a different perspective, a different world altogether.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and you really have to make things, and so am I. I mean, I know, of course you didn't take the sacrament of Matthew, but to a large degree I think it kind of applies too. It's like your life isn't sort of yours right. I mean you're kind of turning it over to Jesus, you're turning it over to the sacrament. I mean, it's not about just what I want to do. I mean, of course it's like, yes, I want to work and I want to, you know, be successful, and I want to have kids and I want to do these things. But so largely, it's okay. How can I love this person correctly? How can I be the father and the family man that I need to be an example of a community that I need to be? It's not just I don't know, it just kind of gets you really thinking outside yourself, which, frankly, is more probably what we need in today's day and age than ever. It's just kind of not thinking so selfishly.
Speaker 3:One of the things that kind of keeps coming up in the conversation is this idea of ritual and that these things that we do are ritual-like. Stuart, let me start with you. Why is ritual so important?
Speaker 2:I think there's a whole lot of psychological benefit that comes from rituals, and it doesn't matter if it's religious ritual or even what we might term secular ritual. Like I always use the example and you've heard me say it a million times how would you like to go to an Astros game and not begin the game with the Star-Spangled Banner? You'd feel like something was weird, like something was missing. I mean, it sets the tone. It's like you know we're all singing this song about the United States together. It doesn't matter we're on opposing teams, but it's the country's pastime, as they say, and you know we're still in this together, kind of thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, father Mario doesn't know what baseball is.
Speaker 2:Oh, I forgot. We forgot. We should explain that to him someday. Yeah, exactly, but we were talking about in the break that even the secular world has rituals for even something like birth, like a baby shower. You know there are. We have a need for rituals because the ritual reminds us. You know what's the line. So teach us to number our days that we may get us a heart of wisdom. So teach us to number our days that we may get us a heart of wisdom. So by numbering, by having these rituals, it helps us count and realize the passage of time.
Speaker 4:But you know, Stuart, let me just start it in here. There's a sentence that I've always liked, and it goes like this that which is true at all times and in all places must be recognized and celebrated at a specific time and a specific place.
Speaker 2:And that's what ritual does for us. That's what it does.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so you're taking what is true and taking something that is, in a way, eternal, true for all time, right, and you're taking but it to be acknowledged acknowledged in a certain place at a certain time right yeah yeah, well, a part of what I think a ritual does too is it brings people together, you know, in a community kind of to, to help you understand that you're not going to raise that baby on your own, exactly. I mean, yeah, there'll, there'll be nights where you're doing it alone.
Speaker 3:You feel very much alone, but raising a child is very much a group effort, right, and the people that come together as a part of that. And the same thing is true in a child's baptism. I don't know if it's the same thing, stuart.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's the same thing, stuart where the community comes together to say we pledge to be a part of this child's life in a Jewish life and to train them in ways of Judaism. And I would argue that that's the real reason why we attend a wedding is to say to the person person getting married in the same way that we are here for you now, for this, we will be with you in times of trouble. I think that the it's not just to celebrate the love between the two and the, and the wedding and the vows and the marriage and all that. It's also to say to the couple we are here with you now, we will be with you later, and I think that it's. It's like a funeral god forbid is. We are still here for each other. The deceased is gone, but we can share in the memory, we can share in the grief. You know, aiding somebody to grieve takes away some of their grief not all of it, but some of it. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I remember when Lisa passed away. Yep, this was back around 2001. 2001. Mm-hmm and I came and we had a ceremony at your house, right?
Speaker 6:And it's Shiva service.
Speaker 3:Right, which is a particular kind of mourning, mm-hmm. And one of the fellows there said to me we look at grief like poison, that if you put too much poison in any one person it's too much for them. They, they, they die. But we come and take a little bit of all the poison ourselves. Uh, each person who comes to sing, to pray, to bring food, to be a part of the ceremony is taking on a little bit of that poison in themselves, that part of that grief, so that you, in that particular case, would not be overwhelmed with the grief that was there Right, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great way of, I think, thinking about that and understanding it.
Speaker 4:You know I'd like to add something.
Speaker 4:We're talking about major, I'm going to say overarching time time, but there is in Catholic life, there is a ritual moment which organizes for a Catholic your week, and that's the celebration of the Eucharist on Sunday.
Speaker 4:You know, because that is, I can tell you that my life, not just because I'm a priest but because I'm a Christian, my life revolves around remembering the death and resurrection of the Lord every single week, and so the week has very much a structure to it and for the Catholic Church, what is called the liturgical year, which begins with the four weeks before Christmas and then the Christmas season, the Advent season is four weeks before Christmas, and then the Christmas season, and then we have what's called ordinary time, and then begins Lent, which is the five, six weeks before Easter, and then we have the Easter time, which we are right now, and then we go into Ordinary Time, and so that's marked by different colors.
Speaker 4:Like, if you walk into a Catholic church during Advent or Lent, you're going to see everything in purple, which is a color of intense reflection, and if you go in during Christmas or Easter time you'll see white, but when you go into ordinary time you'll see the whole church done in green, which is the color of nature. So it sets up for us a very recognizable pattern of a ritual way of going through the year and marking the seasons that the Church says. It's not just the seasons of the year but in terms of the seasonality of the Christian, Because, remember, for the Catholic Church our year does not begin on January. Our year begins four weeks, four Sundays, specifically before the Feast of Christmas, and that's what's called the new liturgical year, which we begin. So it's an entire cycle, or that is another life cycle event that most Catholics who practice your faith are involved in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, is there anything like that Stuart in Judaism, where you I mean, I know you have services, but do you see that? Or is that regarded as life cycle?
Speaker 2:think of, in terms of changing colors and that kind of thing would be for the High Holy Days, the mantles, the coverings on the Torah scrolls. They usually change to a white color. Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:That's it, but still these weeks of gathering together with the community to read Torah and to hear a sermon.
Speaker 2:Weekly services, daily services, those are part of formation right, right, absolutely.
Speaker 4:I mean it'd be hard hear from you in terms of what is high church and low church, in terms of the Protestant tradition. How is practice there?
Speaker 3:Well, protestants are all over the place. It's all over the place and honestly, I want to finish up thinking about the passing of the Pope again, and and and the morning rituals that that take place with that. So, listening to a show of faith here on AM 10 70, the answer.
Speaker 8:AM 10 70, the answer.
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Speaker 2:And together we will see how lovely heaven will be Welcome back to A Show of Faith on AM 1070,.
Speaker 3:The Answer hey, and that's our ritual tonight, on a Sunday night, it is Right, I mean Miranda plays that song and we know that that is for Father Mario Yep.
Speaker 4:Thank you, thank you, thank you yeah.
Speaker 2:And we have certain phrases that are part of our ritual. Yeah, you know you'll keep us in your prayers. You will certainly be in ours.
Speaker 7:Right.
Speaker 2:So life has a whole lot of ritual to it, and I think it's because it gives us a sense of belonging. We know what's expected of us, you know we follow through, and I think that that's another element of rituals, the importance of rituals in our lives you were talking one time about, about ritual and and kids children about children about.
Speaker 3:You know when you sing a song and they'll say do it again, do it again right you know, because even though maybe you've done that or you've read that thousand three thousand times. Now they want you to do it again. Right, Because there's something comforting about it. They know what to expect. Exactly, and so all these things are important.
Speaker 2:The first word they learn may be mommy. The second word they learn may be daddy, but the third word is going to be again, again.
Speaker 3:That's probably true. Yeah, thanks for, yeah, the protestant tradition is all over the place on this because, uh, you, you've got protestant churches like the anglican church that uh follows very much a liturgical way and liturgical year. They may, they work very much. If you were to go into a Catholic church or an Anglican church, a lot of times you don't know the difference, you can't tell the difference.
Speaker 3:In some Lutheran churches. Yeah, exactly. So you do have Protestant churches like that that are high church, that are liturgical and that they follow set prayers and calendar and those kind of things and that the life cycle events though that term may be unknown there, they still have those particular. They have baptism and confirmation and they follow very much the same kind of calendar, as it were. It's interesting to me and I don't know that I knew this until you said it earlier, father Mario that the age of reason begins at the age of seven, which I thought was interesting. That was new to me. I didn't know that in the Catholic Church, baptists have historically followed this idea of an age of accountability, and this is a phrase that you will often hear among Baptist churches. Baptists have a thing called believer's baptism, have a thing called believer's baptism, that is, that you must express personal faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior before you seek baptism. So they don't typically Baptist churches don't baptize babies. Let me just say that. They don't baptize children.
Speaker 3:So it's not until a person has made actually a personal confession and profession of faith that they are baptized. So that could be. You know you're going to have rituals in a sense, but they're nothing set rituals about the birth of a child. In some churches that I've been to, the first time a child comes to church after being born. There's very often something on a small scale done. It's not done necessarily in front of the whole church.
Speaker 2:But would members of a Baptist church still have a baby shower? Would they still have?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, absolutely All those kind of things Right, but those wouldn't be considered again.
Speaker 3:Religious no, no yeah yeah, but there's the recognition of that. But baptism itself there's no such thing as confirmation in baptism, because it's the idea that you have confirmed your faith through its profession and through submitting to baptism. I was baptized at the age of seven, but there have been people baptized in their 20s and 30s and 40s and 50s. It could be at any time in a person's life after they've made a profession of faith. We do have marriage as a very important piece of our lives.
Speaker 3:There's nothing really necessarily marking a coming of age, except the idea of the age of accountability, that a person is now considered to be accountable before God if they were to pass away, to die and not to have made a profession of faith. Is that a specific age though? Well, it's described as the age of accountability. It's 12, 13 years old, very often described but there's nothing really that's firm in the tradition about it. It's sort of just from church to church, and this is another distinctive of Baptist churches, that Baptist churches typically are not connected in the same way as liturgical churches. The Baptist churches typically are not connected in the same way as liturgical churches, with a bishop and that kind of thing, In other words every church is autonomous.
Speaker 3:Every church is independent. Every church makes its own sort of decisions. You want to be connected and you want to cooperate, but you want to cooperate and you want to associate, but you don't necessarily look to them to help you confirm people who are new believers, that kind of thing. So marriage obviously is very important. It's not considered a sacrament. In the same way, it's considered a very important time before God and before witnesses, and very much of our traditions and words often used in marriage ceremonies are derived from Anglican and maybe even Catholic services as well. Obviously, funerals become very important, right, right.
Speaker 2:And they're usually the same the end of life, same collection of psalms, same collection of. They're usually the same the end of life, same collection of psalms, same collection of prayers, same collection of things for all of our faith.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know you're going to hear the 23rd Psalm.
Speaker 3:You're going to hear that, you're going to hear that and you might hear other things that are familiar from the Hebrew Scriptures as well in that particular time. But there are also then New Testament readings and there are certain hymns, like how Great Thou Art. I remember my cousin who passed away. She was in her 50s recently, last fall, and you know that's one of the songs that's kind of a stalwart song, a song of Baptists, particularly rural Baptist, now more so than anything, churches when there's a funeral. How Great Thou Art, it's a great hymn, a great hymn of the faith.
Speaker 2:And so it's I would think that Amazing Grace would be up there. Yeah, Amazing.
Speaker 3:Grace is often up there, yeah, as well. So there's a lot of there's some overlap, but you find a lot of there's a lot there's some overlap, but but you, you find a lot of catholic sorry, a lot of protestant churches that operate similarly to what we might find in catholic churches, um, particularly some anglican and lutheran churches and churches like that, david?
Speaker 2:wouldn't the same thing be true for, like a wedding service, you You're going to hear most likely you're going to hear love is You're going to have to help me, david 1 Corinthians 13. You're going to hear the love chapter very often, so there is a ritual for it.
Speaker 3:There's a ritual. There's no doubt about it. There's a ritual, but it's not considered a mass. There's not necessarily the Lord's table there and such, and I know we've got to go A couple minutes. So, gosh, my time is All right, so here's my final question. Final question, all right. I have a good friend, a Jewish friend. His name is Moshe Dayan. Okay, moshe. Dayan, I've heard it Jewish friend, his name is.
Speaker 2:Moshe. Dayan Okay.
Speaker 3:Okay, moshe Dayan, I've heard of him and he has a son named Danny Dayan. Okay, and so Danny Dayan is going to be bar mitzvahed what?
Speaker 2:do I get him for his bar mitzvah? Anything that you would get for any other child coming of age. What do they like? A CD of a music they like, okay, you know, just those.
Speaker 3:Any kind of any kind of thing absolutely doesn't have to be Jewish in terms, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:I'm sure the child would much more appreciate you know rock and roll CD than they would a but what they probably say. What is the CD? Oh, I'm sorry, I'm showing my age. You are Please do not get him a TV See. For weddings we make it easy. We have the list at the store or whatever, whatever they call that.
Speaker 3:But for bar mitzvahs and births and everything else you've got to, I know I mean because we're all going to know somebody's being confirmed being baptized Right At some point, or being bar mitzvahed or a Jewish wedding whatever. What do?
Speaker 2:we give, what kind of present? It's? How do you give a gift? You give a gift according to what the recipient would like the most, not what you want them to have, but what they want to have. Okay, that's how you give any gift. It's the same kind of thing.
Speaker 3:All right, father Mario gave me some good advice earlier this week on a con, a, a first communion.
Speaker 2:uh service what was it huh? On what to give, on what to give which was.
Speaker 3:Well, she may be listening, so I better not say okay too early. You don't it's supposed to be a surprise. Yeah, yeah, it hasn't arrived from Amazon yet. We're hoping it'll arrive in a day or so, but anyway, I know our time is. Thanks, father Mario.
Speaker 4:Get to feeling better thank you very much, I will complete and speedy recovery speedy recovery and, rudy, greet your fair bride for us.
Speaker 3:She has a lot of work cut out for her.
Speaker 2:All right, this is a show of faith. On AM 1070, the Answer Keep us in your prayers because you will be in ours.
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