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Introducing a fun way to get your youth involved in service projects. On this BINGO card are listed 20 ideas for Great Lent that will enhance your spiritual journey to Pascha. Mix up the squares and distribute, or have each child draw from a bag to play. There are various ways to adjust this game, but the main idea is to establish 5 goals with your children to accomplish over the period of 40 plus days. Here is the file posted on Scribd. If you would like the Word document to mix up the squares for different BINGO cards, just email me at eleniemarie@gmail.com. Ask the students to complete their BINGO boards through activities outside of church, in daily life, and return their completed sheet to you for a "spiritual prize" I like to give Orthodox CD's, books, magnets, etc Have fun, and please share other ideas for the squares by posting a comment.

Ayios Vasilios bears a title that few Saints share with him. He is known as "Saint Basil the Great." Some attribute this title to him because he organized cenobitic monasticism, or because he was a warrior-bishop who preached thunderous sermons throughout Caesarea to defend Orthodoxy against the heresy of the Arians. Below, however, I share why he is considered "Great" in my mind. Two things convicted the heart of St Basil during his formative years. The first was when his younger brother  Naucratius, died, and then second was the influence of his elder sister Macrina, whose rock-like faith led her to join a community of religious women who served the poor, owned no personal items, slept on the ground, ate only enough to sustain them, and lived completely for God.  Saint Basil followed this example and experienced himself the ascetic life, before being ordained and recruited to defend the Church. He went on to address the rich "who let their wheat rot, while...

Every Orthodox Christian must visit this link - then get to work for Christ! FOCUSNorthAmerica.org What an absolute blessings to see Orthodox Christians working together for the homeless, the orphaned, and those in need. If we're not involved, we should be.