Confessions of an Ignorant Protestant

I love blogging! No wonder…I love journaling, and blogs are glorified journals. Ones we choose to make public. When I was a young girl, Mother used to get after me for being so “public” with my thoughts. She’d say, “Cathee, you always wear your feelings on your sleeve.” I honestly had no clue what that meant, so it did little to deter me from sharing everything I thought or felt. Today, a whole trendy culture has come into being which encourages us to tell the world what we think. While I have learned to temper my sharing with propriety, I nevertheless am pretty much an open book.

Before I launch into my topic, I want to let our friends know that between us, Fran and I have sold about 300 books in our first month. We won’t know for some time what Amazon and Barnes & Noble have sold, but we’ve had good success in moving books almost every day. Of course, if Stephen King were reading this, he’d have a good chortle. I guess everything is relative, huh?

There’s still time to order for Christmas. We can ship to you directly from our own supply or you can order from http://www.pleasantwordbooks.com/. We continue to be blessed by the many responses to the book (see side column) and the re-orders of multiple copies. Thanks.

As a mainstream, non-liturgical evangelical protestant, I never observed the tradition of lighting Advent candles to herald the four weeks leading up to Christmas. In my Christian experience I didn’t know such a thing existed. Through the years I would hear the term “Advent” from time to time, or thumbing through a magazine I’d come across a table set with an Advent wreath, four candles set amidst the greenery, but I never connected the dots.

Looking back, I see that I must have quickly sized up any references to Advent as “high church,” or “ultra religious,” though I would have had a hard time defining either of those if you had questioned me further. I know now that my beliefs were shaped somewhat by events that took place after Martin Luther’s opposition to excesses in Roman Catholicism. I am a product of the Reformation. As so often happens when mankind attempts to correct an extreme, the darling little baby gets dumped out with the dirty bath water.

In an attempt to purify the corruption, all ritual, symbol and ceremony were immediately suspect. Consequently, we ended up with ordinary, unattractive buildings stripped of their art, grandeur, and majesty. We travel to Europe nowadays to visit places like the Notre Dame Cathedral so we can stand in awe of the creativity of gifted people who used their talents to glorify God.

As a side note, I will concede that the Church herself is not a building at all, but the physical Body of Christ now present in the earth. However, that does not do away with mankind using all that is within us to draw our attention and worship toward our magnificent God. It’s quite interesting to note that the first time someone is “Spirit-filled” happens to be as Bezalel (Exodus 31:3 ) is endowed by the Lord “to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze” in order that the Tabernacle be filled with beautiful things that would teach us about God. It is refreshing to see a resurgence of art appreciation within the Church today. It’s long overdue.

Because I now occasionally attend a liturgical church, I am learning many things that were hidden from me all these years. Beautiful ceremonies that incorporate form and substance. This year I decided to commemorate Advent for the first time by using a devotional tool designed for that purpose. God With Us – Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, a work of art itself, is a book filled with histories, meditations, prayers, poems, Scriptures, and famous paintings. It has a reading every day starting with the first Advent Sunday. It was here, I am almost ashamed to admit, that I discovered that Advent, the fourth Sunday before Christmas, marks the beginning of the Church year.

Last Sunday I began to read and to observe the season, a time of heart preparation, by lighting the first candle in the wreath. No wonder we rush about like maniacs trying to find the perfect gift for the least amount of money, or pledge not to max out our credit cards this year only to end up saying once again, “There has to be a better way to keep Christmas than this!” No one ever showed us how to prepare for the advent of the child. The coming of God with us, in us, beside us, around us.

I find the season of Advent to be a meaningful paradox: it’s a celebration and a solemnity all at the same time. “It is said that the door to the stable where the Christ-child has been born is very low – and only those who kneel find access.”[i] Advent is a time for repentance, humbling and evaluating how we can prepare a way for the Lord by making a clear and level pathway in our own lives for Him.

The young girl, Mary, gave the most wondrous response to the angel who told her God Himself would be enfleshed in her womb and ultimately in our humanity – “Let it be to me according to your word.” Oh, how I want that to be my constant response to Him.

Tonight, the Second Sunday of Advent, as the westering sun’s colors fade from red to coral, and the lavender twilight moves in, I light the second candle on my wreath.

“We are forever seeking, while the forever for which we seek is now.”[ii]

[i] Celtic Daily Prayer, (The Northumbria Community, 2002) p. 228
[ii] God With Us – Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, (Paraclete Press, 2007) p.19

Am I trying to sell books or what? I can’t deny that I’d like to see everyone reading a copy of Thresholds and Passages, but there is more to this blog than selling books. The truth is that amidst the many tidbits of instruction – some practical, some quite meaty – that Paul writes to Timothy in his first letter, is a sweet little sentence that I’ve often wondered about.

“Until I come, pay attention to your reading (1 Timothy 4:13).” My paraphrase, for sure, but the gist of the sentence nonetheless. While many would say this is talking about reading the Bible, I wouldn’t be so quick to jump to that conclusion. The context does go on to instruct the young minister, Timothy, to also give his time to “exhortation and doctrine.” Those are big religious words that most people skip over in their reading, but for the purpose of this blog, let’s use their common definitions that infer the idea of “urging people to listen to the teaching around them.” Or, as Rob Bell says in his DVD entitled “Breathe,” pay attention to the burning bushes on our left and right. We’re passing them every day and we don’t even notice they’re there. Pay attention!

Reading is FUNdamental! It’s stretching, and necessary to our growth. “I cannot live without books,” said Thomas Jefferson. Francis Bacon, the English essayist, said, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed on and digested.” What have you been chewing on lately?

Since I’m allowed to climb up on my little soapbox when I write these pieces, I must pontificate by saying that watching today’s TV is a colossal waste of time that robs us of a treasure trove of ideas, questions, and things to consider through reading. Christian writing is being honed to a fine knife-point of thought that cuts to the heart of things. If you are interested in the shift taking place in that marketplace, I’d highly recommend you read Mick Silva’s blog for a few weeks. You can locate it http://www.yourwritersgroup.com/mywritersgroup/. I promise you’ll learn more about life, reading, and who’s writing what in ten minutes on that sight than you’ll get in ten hours of American popular television programming.

‘Nuff said about that! If you are thinking of ordering some of our books for Christmas gifts, may we suggest you order them through www.pleasantwordbooks.com? That is our publisher’s site and we make the best royalty through those sales. If you live in the area you can drop by the house to pick up your copy, or ask us to ship to you directly. Sales are doing well and we’ve posted a few of the many wonderful words directed our way over the past few weeks. We got to autograph books for the first time at our recent conference at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Bonita Springs, FL. (See pictures.)

What have you read in the last two weeks? Write and tell us about it.

Brazen Hussies

Fran and I write you today from the position of two brazen hussies: brazen because we are unashamed, and hussies because we are without self-restraint. We make no apology for sending this out to every person we know even remotely.

The book is here!!!

We received our first shipment of books yesterday and to hold the actual book in our hands, after two years of prayer, agony, sweat, arguments, crying, and writing, is beyond description – even for us. Except to say, we are overjoyed. The cover has just enough mystery to engage the attention of a passerby gazing along a bookshelf, hoping something will catch her eye and reveal the secret to a better life. (Isn’t that the book we are all looking for?) We are delighted with the finishing touches added by copywriters, editors and the publisher – WinePress Publishing. Sue Riger’s cover design was the icing on the cake.
During the editing process, we were moved to tears to receive this note from one of our proofreaders:

Dear Cathee and Fran,

I proofread your upcoming book, Thresholds and Passages, and I felt I had to write and express my overwhelming amazement of how God works in our lives. Just like your example of the license plate with the word "trust" on it that came to the fellow at just the right time, this proofread coincidentally fell into my hands at a time in my life when God is taking me to a threshold and bidding me enter and take a risk with my writing.

To me, this book was not a "job" but an experience to treasure and gobble up. I
was moved more than once to tears as I recognized His beckoning me to "jump off
the cliff" and into the lake of His will, and He'll refresh me with His abundant
life.

Not only is your book superbly written, it also has the mark of authority--you've "been there-done that" and have found the Lord faithful. I look forward to getting a copy of this book when it comes out, to keep near me to re-read and begin to apply the principles you have so clearly laid out. In the meantime, I hope you won't mind if I occasionally print out a page or two of the proofread to refresh my soul and keep me on track.

May the Lord richly bless you with the distribution of Thresholds and Passages. Every woman should read this book.

We couldn’t ask for a better endorsement that that!

It will be about three weeks before the book is available online at Amazon.com. We’ll send a short email later to let you know when you can order it. If you live in Naples, we’d love to have about 30 of you call the Family Christian Bookstore or Barnes & Noble and ask them to order the book for you. We are still in the process of meeting requirements for Barnes & Nobles and other local stores. We will have several book signings scheduled during the winter months.

We’ve completed the task God gave us in writing and now we ask Him to bless the work of our hands and give us favor in many places, so that the message of hope to women searching for an answer to the ache, and a way to write new scripts for their lives, will come into their possession though this volume. We believe in asking BIG. It’s one way we can honor our big God.

Cathee & Fran

A September of New Beginnings

September 2007! As I flipped the pages on the three calendars scattered throughout the house and gazed with longing at blazing yellow trees that resemble a forest on fire, I realize how much I love this month. When I was a kid we never started school until the day after Labor Day so September heralded a new year in school – something I was invariably excited about. I married in September and Bob and I will celebrate our 44th anniversary this month. Neil Diamond's song, "September Morn - we danced until the night became a brand new day" always reminds me of our wedding. Even the Jewish New Year is in September as Yom Kippur falls this year on my anniversary.

While September will never be a month in which I step out on my back porch in sub-tropical Florida and smell the crisp rich tang of fall, I am as full of anticipation as though I woke up in my beloved Blue Ridge Mountains to scarlet oaks, red dogwoods and orange neon maples. There’s an increase in my heart rate and a little extra skip in my step. The book is finished and has gone to final print!

When WinePress emailed us a copy of the cover last week, both Fran and I cried. It wasn’t so much seeing our names on the front of the book – although we would be fibbing if we said that wasn’t an emotionally packed moment. It was the cover itself.

Let me share how it came to be. Just as Thresholds and Passages is all about the journey of life and how to capture the adventure, the evolution of the photo on the cover was quite an undertaking. All through the process of writing the book, Fran and I talked about what we wanted the cover to evoke. It had to be intriguing with a bit of mysticism thrown in, and by all means it could not depict some safe, easily visible path through a happy garden gate.

Over the course of the past two years we have taken dozens of photos of gates, passageways, windows, doors, paths, corridors and portals. We’ve always been looking for the perfect image. “We’ll know it when we see it,” we said more than once. As two committed bibliophiles, we know more than the average person about book covers. For instance, did you know that most readers take about 20 seconds to choose when purchasing a new book? It’s often simply the cover that seals the deal.

Once the manuscript was completed in June, we then turned our attention to cover design. We knew we would be asked for suggestions, but cover design is usually left to the marketing and publicity people who know what kinds of covers sell books. So when we were invited to give our input, we sent a few of the pictures we’d taken over the last few months.

In the meantime, Sue Riger – who is a close friend and a graphic artist – began to play around with some of the shots we had taken. She began to send designs she reconstructed from two or three different photos and asking if this was what we were looking for. We had settled on one particular image and had even sent it to the publisher and they accepted it, when late one night, she sent an email that said, “Take a look at this last one before you decide.”

It was love at first sight! “That’s it!” I emailed back at 11 PM. That’s the cover. I could hardly wait until the next morning when Fran could see it hoping she would have the same reaction. The rest is history, as they say. She called me in tears, her words spilling out like a small waterfall.

We love the scary, tangled vines, the partially hidden steps ascending to some unknown point, and the very greenness of it all. We hope you like it to. Thank you, Sue, for the hours of time you put into this project. While each of us always carry the reward with us because we have Christ, we nevertheless pray your reward for this will be doubled.

Most of all, we hope you, our friends and relations and those who have attended our conferences and retreats, will buy the book. Not only because we wrote it, but because we know it has a message crafted from God’s own heart. It’s fitting that this goes out on Labor Day as we have certainly labored for several years to arrive at this place.

The book will be on shelves in early December. Right in time for Christmas gifts. In our next update, we’ll relay some tips on how you can help us get the books in certain stores. The price of the book has not been set as of this blog, but we expect to have that information very soon. We will be scheduling book signings in several cities and hosting several events here in Naples this winter.

Will you join with us in asking that God will open wide doors for this book to find entrance into the hearts of women who are aching for more? And favor with the booksellers? You have invested in this book, many of your stories are in it. We can hardly wait to see what God has planned for this little volume.

Almost there,

Cathee & Fran

Victoria Returns

A friend recently sent me an email to share the good news that Victoria Magazine is coming back this year in November. My reaction to the news surprises me immensely. A bubbling of joy surges out of nowhere and a huge grin creeps into the corners of my mouth.

I go immediately to my Google search bar and put in the words Victoria Magazine. The search produces a list of articles with the news of the magazine's merger between Hoffman Media and Hearst Publications. Among the list I see http://www.victoriamag.com/ and when I open the link, tears spring up as quickly as the site opens. I am puzzled.

During the era of the magazine - mid 90's to 2003 - there was a resurgence of Victorian art, clothing, home decor, and the likes. We all drug out our grandmother's lace doilies or bought them in quaint Victorian gift stores that abounded everywhere. We found chintz prints and made pillows, purchased flowered teacups and reveled in a lost age of charm.

But this is what puzzles me most. I wonder why I am so enraptured with this magazine coming back when my home looks a lot more like Pottery Barn than anything else these days. I've changed so much, and so has everyone else. As I ponder the whole idea, a voice from somewhere whispers, "It isn't the style of the Victorian Age that makes your heart sing, Cathee." "It's the simple beauty, the capture of quiet moments, the detail of a single setting for afternoon tea."

I don't know what you'll be this time around, Victoria, but I do hope you haven't lost your loveliness, your penchant for sweet modesty, your focus on the fading grace of enjoying simple pleasures. I look forward to those same lush arrangements of flowers and objects, quotes from literature, thoughts about life that provide a sumptious picnic for my soul. As I feast my eyes on the image in this article, I hear you say, "I'm back," and my heart skips a beat as if I've run into an dear old friend I haven't seen in a long time.

Zerrissenheit

After two years of writing, the book is finished. My partner, Fran, and I are dancing circles in the grass, grinning and spinning and thanking God that it's finally off to the publisher. Perhaps it will be available for you to give as a Christmas gift this year - to your dearest and most loved friends.

What is the book about? It's about women - although we think men would also get a lot out of reading it - and it centers on the big question: "Since the world assumes you will be there to take care of everybody, who takes care of you?"

Labeling it as a "self-help" book, or even a "self-care" book is not really a fair assessment. It's so much more than that. It's about living your life to its fullest, becoming the embodiment of your most awesome, and best dreams. It's about the life Jesus came to give all of us.

Is it a religious book? We hope not! Because we aren't religious. We're alive. We're having fun too, and that's just not allowed if you're religious. (If you don't believe us, just ask a few Pharisees.)

Thresholds and Passages is about reclaiming the life that was bequeathed to you at birth. And as you read about how to take possession of what is already yours, you'll also learn how to combat Zerrissenheit. That's a new word I learned today. It's German and it means "torn-to-pieces-hood," as in shattered, broken, confused, bewildered.

We face centrifugal forces today that pull us away from a solid, peaceful center, and the really sad thing is, we often don't know we're headed for destruction until we wake up in the miasma and can't see our way through the labyrinth.

So...plan to get a copy of the book and find out some really good ways to make the journey not just more sane, but an adventure of epic proportion. We'll let you know as soon as it's available.

In the meantime, check our blog every so often and see what's drifted across our path. We probably shouldn't use the word "drift" because that seems to indicate random occurances. None of them will be by chance though - because nothing is.

Cathee & Fran