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As we draw near to celebrating the Nativity of Christ, we often ask what gift can we offer to Christ, especially a tangible one for our children to make. It is easy to overlook and under value the simple things that we can do with our own hands. If we are attending Church, one of the greatest offerings we can bring to Christ is the bread used to become His Holy Body. "Prosforo" literally means offering, as in offering a gift....perfect for Christmas! See the lesson below for Scripture quotes and ingredient significance. Many of you may have held Prosforo workshops before at your parishes. Great! Do it again and again - the kids love it! Next time, arrange a few of the following activities to enhance the experience: NEW Lesson Plan & Puzzle activity of the Proskomidi: located here where each child cuts and glues the pieces of the Seal to understand their significance. NEW book from Potamitis Publishing " Yiayia and the Prosphoron" located here in many languag...

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 pra...

It can sometimes be a very frustrating task, getting kids to cooperate at daily prayer times..beyond just meals that is. I'm sharing the bare bones of our morning/evening routine with you, so that we might encourage each other in the daily struggle to teach our kids to pray with their whole   mind, body and soul: to learn that communicating with God is an ongoing relationship and gift of love that requires effort, attentiveness and sacrifice. Here is what we do....please comment and post your tips for others. May God strengthen and illumine us as parents! MORNING PRAYERS - before breakfast and school Stand and make the sign of the Cross or bows to begin Light individual candles at vigil lamp (vigil lamp is constant flame in our home in front of our icons using olive oil as our continuous offering to God for His presence and blessing. A big void is noticed if this light goes out. Try it for a month and see!) "Through the prayers of the holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, our God,...

A Very Popular Activity Using the handout below, consider introducing your young people to many of the items from the altar that they rarely get to see. Start with pictures if you'd like and ask your local priest to invite the kids for a close-up encounter! Can they find those items on the page? He can remove them and bring them to the Solea, or kids can stand at the royal doors and point to objects they'd like to see. Here are a few items to identify and DISCUSS! (If you need more on the meaning of an item, its location in Scripture, or its name in Greek, please e-mail me as I have a great reference book of these things!) The Altar itself as Paradise and the Holy of Holies Tabernacle Antimension cloth to serve Liturgy on Identify the Place of oblation Prothesis Lance - Knife, double-edged spear which the soldier pierced Christ with on the cross Star - placed over the Disk, as star which stood over Bethlehem at birth of Christ Paten or Disk manger for Christ Spoon - as ...

What to do with icon catalogs and paper icons? Here's a quick craft to decorate with your Orthodox kids and religious education classes while offering a small lesson. Print out the black and white drawing of the iconostasis or icon screen,  and glue icons to match your local parish. Look and discuss where special icons are. Help each child to properly place them in order, Christ always being to the right of the royal doors, and the Mother of God with Christ to the left. Your parish may even have the Annunciation scene depicted on the royal doors, or the Mystical Supper above. St John the Baptist has a fixed position next to Christ. The Patron Saint of the Church is next to the Mother of God. This can also be an opportunity to discuss how for us Orthodox Christians, the altar is Paradise, the holy of holies, where the greatest miracle on Earth happens - our offering of bread and wine becomes the Holy Body and Blood of Christ our God. It is our tabernacle with manna, our food from h...

Here's a very nice resource to add to your weekly preparation for the Divine Liturgy. At this link , you will find illustrated handouts for each Sunday's Gospel offered at five levels with discussion questions. The schedule is according to the Antiochian Orthodox so confirm it with your jurisdiction. For the icon coloring pages alone, it's beneficial! Just be sure to treat these as holy images, and never throw icons away in the garbage!

Here is a step by step guide to the Proskomedia (Offering) which is completed during Orthros or Matins before the Divine Liturgy begins. 1. After strengthening himself through a few prayers and venerating the icons, the priest enters the Holy Altar and kisses the Gospel and Altar Table in preparation to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. 2. Next, he puts on his full set of vestments, blessing and kissing each item while reciting a matching Scripture verse. 3. The priest then washes his hands, thus expressing his desire to be more cleansed of his sins, while reciting Psalm 26:6-12. "I will wash my hands among the innocents, and so will I go around Thy Altar, O Lord..." 4. Next, he bows 3x before the Prothesis, or table used for the Proskomedi, and prays "O God, cleanse me, a sinner, and have mercy on me" (Luke 18:13) 5. The priest then selects one of the prosphora breads to hold in his left hand, while using his right hand for the lance. He touches the lance on the seal,...

Saint Vladimir's Press and Jane G. Meyer were generous enough to send me a copy of their recent book, "The Woman and the Wheat" so that I may share my thoughts on this blog. In some ways, I feel very unqualified to do so, not having a literary background. Therefore, I can only speak as a mother who happens to have studied Theology in order to better teach my own children, if God so wills. "In the “Woman and the Wheat”, Jane G. Meyer introduces to adults and children the phrase from the Divine Liturgy “Thine Own of Thine Own we offer unto Thee.” With poetic rhythm and soothing illustrations, the book preserves the ancient art of baking prosforo as a joy-filled offering to God to be consecrated and received back again in the Holy Eucharist. It captures the cycle of God’s blessings, through hard work and prayer for one’s self and one’s neighbor, encouraging all of us to a fuller experience of the liturgical life." Because the book touches on very important eleme...

Have you ever said to yourself, where are the miracles of today? Or wouldn't it be something if we were able to witness a miracle in today's day and age? What was it like to be in the presence of our Lord during His Transfiguration (which we celebrate today) or at His first miracle at the Wedding in Cana? Without a doubt, that water became wine to all who witnessed His first public miracle, and to all who called themselves followers of Christ. Then it happened. This morning, as we knelt for the consecration of the Holy Gifts. We too witnessed a miracle. In fact, the greatest of all miracles. The same One who was capable of transforming water into wine, displayed His glory again and continues to do so for us in every Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church. He accepts the bread and wine from our hands, and offers us Himself in return. How? By miracle. Just as the disciples, we too become eyewitnesses of His majesty (Peter 1:10-19) Therefore, if you believe in the God who transfo...

Whoso Eatheth My Flesh and Drinketh My Blood Hath Eternal Life (quoted from pages 29-35 of Elder Ephraim's text linked below) "So much has been said about this "controversial point" of the Holy Eucharist that the faithful wonder what they should do in the long run. Two questions mainly arise: a) how often and b) after what preparation may and should the faithful receive the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist? The answer has been given by the Church, which has been guided, is guided, and shall be guided by the Holy Spirit "to the whole truth"...(read more here ) "... Fasting means continual temperance. In other words, we should not only fast on the set days of the year when we want to receive Communion and then eat so much for the rest of the year so as to replace in the shortest possible period what we had been deprived of on the days of our preparation for the Holy Communion...." "...It is through this Sacrament that we define our relationsh...

Here's an excellent SHORT book in PDF format by Geronda Ephraim from 1991 - absolutely worth reading over and over again - (I had never seen it before it person ) If you don't have time for it all... scroll to the sections of interest to you personally! Call from the Holy Mountain