Dwelling Place for Christmas

The Nativity lenten season has begun...
will God find an available "dwelling place" to be born?
Will there be room at our inn?

When He comes, as He did then to the city of Bethlehem, to knock on our doors....will there be room in our homes, in our hearts, and in the sometimes darkness of our lives for Panagia to lay and give birth to the giver of ever-lasting peace? What state will He find our caves in? Ready, asleep, or full to capacity with other things?

You see, the cave is not only a physical place of historical importance, but a spiritual metaphor for each one of us. Isn't it also interesting that so many monks/nuns in our Orthodox tradition took up residence in an actual cave, where they decorated it with icons and burning vigil lamps living their lives in complete concentration and stillness. Hence, the "Light was born into darkness." Literally, and symbolically.

How, might we ask, could God who is grander in size than any other "fit into" the smallness of our bodies and hearts? If He wanted to, couldn't He force out the things in His way to make room? Sure, He could, but He wouldn't. Instead, He invites us to do this work because it encourages a cooperation with Him. In fact, He asks that we do so, to put forth some effort.

You see, the greatest of man's sins and the true opposite of love is not hate, but actually "indifference."  We simply ignore Him everyday, and pretend He's not there. Like when we pass someone poor, in need on the street, and pretend we don't see them, even though our hearts feel differently.

If you choose and are willing try the following:

• Give Him the greatest of gifts - your time and your attention. We do this by isolating ourselves in prayer, with the door shut behind us, and the television off. Eliminate all distractions.
• Physically clean out space in your souls through fasting and confession. Even at the last hour if you have not yet done so, it is well worth it.
• Lastly, shut out the consumerism and over commercialization of these holy days and fight to remain focused and available to Him. This has to be a conscientious choice.

Any other suggestions? Please leave a comment!

Wishing you and your families a truly joyful preparation this year of Christmas ~ 2014.

The Way We Worship

Introduce to your children an activity illustrating  the way we worship and more importantly, why we worship the way we do in the Orthodox Church. Below are some talking points for the lesson, as well as a coordinating activity or craft.

1. When we enter the Church, we try to leave behind the cares of the world. School, Homework, Chores, Tomorrow, What's for dinner....etc. Beginning in the Nave (like a boat in the "Navy") we travel closer and closer to God during the service, moving towards Paradise, which is represented by the Holy Altar, ultimately receiving the Eucharist just at Paradise's doors.

2. Each week, we worship the same way and celebrate the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom from the 5th century. The word "liturgia" literally means "work of the people." By attending the Divine Liturgy, we are choosing to give back this time to God.  This is our "work." We offer our gifts to Him - our time, our attention, our prayers, our voices. and more tangibly the wine and bread, made with our own hands from the very gifts that God has given us - grapes and wheat. We become co-workers in God's activity.

3. Everyone in the "Ekklesia" is united by a common Orthdoox baptism and confession of faith. We are one created family, surrounded with the Angels and Saints in heaven. Those in the world, the Church militant or army in spiritual battle, mirror the same actions in heaven by the Church Triumphant, the Saints who have already passed the test of life on Earth! We worship God in the Orthodox Church with all of our senses in order to fully participate with our mind, body and soul.

This "ascesis" or spiritual way of life is our path to sanctification (becoming holy through His holiness)

Activity - Ask the children to correctly match the ways we worship God with our senses- if possible, they can make the drawings themselves on colored paper, or you can cut and paste from pictures

• Ears - We hear the word of God in the Gospel and Epistles readings 
• Voices - We chant the praises of the angels 
• Hands- We form the sign of the life-giving Cross 
• Nose - We smell the incense as an offering of our prayer rising to heaven 
• Body - We bow our heads, bend to the ground and kneel to worship God 
• Eyes - We see the light of Christ in every candle and focus our prayers to the windows of heaven, the icons.
• Mouth - We taste the very Body and Blood of Christ, the blessed five loaves of artoclasia, wine & oil, the blessed boiled wheat kollyva, and/or the blessed antidoro or dismissal bread, and blessed grapes at the feast of the Transfiguration.

4. Lastly, let us not forget that the Divine Liturgy is for the whole world, and through this special service, God helps and saves His creation. We not only say prayers for the weather, for our food and crops, for our protection from danger and for a faithful life, but we pray for the "peace of the whole world." Although our local Church may not offer a Divine Liturgy everyday, don't forget that in monasteries around the world, the Divine Liturgy is being offered daily, without stop, as a constant prayer to God.

"A Russian priest was speaking with a minister of another denomination one day. The later spoke at great length about all the wonderful things that his church did for the poor and the environment through service projects, soup kitchens, volunteering, and the likes. Then he asked the Russian priest what the Orthodox people do? And the Russian priest paused quietly for a moment, and simply responded, we offer the Divine Liturgy on behalf of the whole world."    

Faith Journals

A powerful way to get your tween/teens to start writing, thinking, and spending time with God is through a "Faith Journal!" As a parent or youth worker, you can use these for down time, and inspire them to discover the power of solitude in a location that's special to them. The only goal is that it's private and quiet. However, you might choose to lead them into understanding exactly what to do with this "time."

Certain days, they'll write, other days draw, reflect, answer tough questions, read prayers or complete activities. Grab a smaller lined notebook or even sketchbook, and consider adding some of these components from the list below to get them started.

Decorate the front/back as they wish, with guidelines that it is "spiritual" and inspiring. Provide papers, markers, icons, glue, glitter, etc

Add Quotes: Ask them to write and decorate those pages:

• "What will you do with the time that is given to you?" Gandolf, Lord of the Rings
• "Be still and know that I am God."
• "Teach your mouth to say what is in your heart." Abba Poemen
• RE“The Christian is one who imitates Christ in thought, word and deed, as far as is possible for human beings, believing rightly and blamelessly in the Holy Trinity.” - See more at: http://www.hchc.edu/studentlife/vocation/octev_resources/quotes/johnclimacus#sthash.48fAHQ
  "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice"

Glue Icons: Ask them to write about what they see and ask:

• 10 virgins icon - 5 inside Kingdom with Christ, 5 left out (loyalty to Christ, importance of Orthodox friends, Courage to confess Him in today's world. Do we know Him?)
  
• Racheal weeping for her children icon
  (Life if precious, children are blessings, sadness over abortions today, Does the world repent?)
• Christ being betrayed by Judas in garden (Evilness of jealousy, hatred, greed vs. the humility and love of Christ)

Add Questions:

• "What was your cross today that you carried?"
• "How did you put someone else first over yourself today?"
• "Consider your sins from today and write how they happened"

Read Prayers:
"From the years of my youth, many passions combat me, but You who are my Savior, assist me and save me."

Encourage creativity! Consider including:

• Memory Scripture Verses
• Hymn lyrics
• Orthodox Photos 
• Poems
• Miracle Stories
• Saints lives

What is a Spiritual Father?

If the best doctors help to heal our physical bodies by knowing the "right" medicine, so even more does the spiritual father, who is enlightened by God, prescribe the much-needed healing for our soul. “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." This is the path to purification, and one does not accomplish it on his own. The Church is our hospital offering the healing medicines of Holy Confession, the Holy Eucharist, and Holy Unction. Without the Church, we are easily mislead into wrong "treatments" prescribing ourselves pain killers when we might need a spiritual heart transplant!!! (Mark 2:17 or Matthew 9:11-13, Luke 5:31)

Parenting by Chrysostom

"When we teach our children to be good, to be gentle, and to be forgiving- all attributes of God; to be generous, to love their neighbor, to regard this present age as nothing, we instill virtue in their souls, and reveal the image of God within them. This then is our task: to educate both ourselves and our children in godliness; otherwise what answer will we have before Christ's judgment seat?...

Let us be greatly concerned for our wives and our children and for ourselves as well. The good God Himself will bring this work to perfection, so that all of us may be counted worthy of the blessings He has promised."

- St John Chrysostom  (Whose feast is celebrated today, Nov 13)

Monthly Curriculum: Orthodox Girls

This year, our parish has designated separate classes for boys and girls ages 10-16.  I thought I'd share our program with you, as it seems to be well received so far. The idea of splitting the genders has  truly allowed us to concentrate on specific issues related to their challenges while also eliminating much of the chatter and drama! We do not have a text per say, but rather a structure that gives us
flexibility yet predictability.

Every month our girls follow this schedule:

• 1st Sunday: Koumboskinia/Prayer Ropes (Craft & Theology)
• 2nd Sunday: Chanting (Theology & Hymns from the Divine Liturgy or Feast)
• 3rd Sunday: Diakonima (The girls can bake, assist, serve, & clean-up at the coffee fellowship- the boys tend to the altar and candles)
• 4th Sunday: Journaling from the Lives of the Female Saints

Today, as an example, the girls were asked to walk around the church after the Divine Litrugy,
and to write the names of the female Saints that they found on the walls. Afterward, we discussed our vocation to be like these holy women who remind us weekly of virtue and our potential. Our plan is to create small journals that the girls will read a life of a female Saint in, then draw out a few inspiring details from the short story that impacted them. We will be sure to include the patron Saints of the girls in the class so that each can learn her story and share with the others.


If you have other ideas, please share~ It's truly a great blessing to walk along side these pure souls!

Here is the book I assembled at Shutterfly:
 http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0BatWTZozbs3Gw

Take a Close Look

Since we're on the theme of self-image, and coming to know what it means to be made in God's image....I decided to post one more activity for kids or teens to get them thinking a bit more about being living icons.

Start by gathering reflective objects in your home

Scratched CD's - compact mirrors - spoons - curved glass - metallic vases - platters, etc.

The idea here is to come up with a range of distortions where a face could be flipped, re sized, stretched, or hard to make out because of tarnish, cracks, and stains. If you're a Macintosh user, there is even a setting on the built in camera to play around with these types of funny images.

Next, gather your kids and ask them to pick up the items, observing their own reflections in each. What happens to the way they look? Which item shows them in the worst form and in the truest form? How might these objects be considered like other things in the world that alter our God-given form? (Here is the chance to further the discussion according to the responses.)

Possible examples that might arise:
* not taking care of our bodies
* an over concern for how we look to others
* the altering of our outer beauty through make-up
* the distortion of ourselves through drug and alcohol use
* eating too much or too little
* body piercings and tatoos
* slander and gossip (to damage someone else's image)
* promiscuity (tarnishing our purity in pre-mature relationships)
* a general build-up of everyday sins

Read together this quote from 1 Samuel 16:7

"The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

Discuss together how our Lord intends to purify our souls to be radiant in the world, but many things can get in the way. For each person, the struggle is personal. First and foremost however, each of us is charged with the responsibility to care for God's image within ourselves, as our bodies are the living temple of our Lord. We are united with Him, so whatever we might do to ourselves or to others, we are essentially doing to Him. (I try to emphasize this with teens especially, since too often they inwardly hope a parent or friend will rescue them from a harmful situation, relationship, or decision, when in the end, it must be their own voice that chooses the path of holiness.)

Lastly, use the analogy of a bathroom mirror. Ask the kids what happens to the mirror when we shower?Explain, if this mirror represents our souls, which can become clouded by the things we mentioned above, how will we be able to see God's image in ourselves again, and reflect it to others? How do we clean the crud, build-up, and dirt from our souls?

Our answer is through the Holy Sacrament of Confession. Through God's grace, and the prayers of our spiritual fathers, our souls are wiped clean. But just as the mirror needs frequent attention, so too, does every soul. Therefore, may we be encouraged to follow in the footsteps of the Saints - who were sinners that simply never gave up trying.