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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.

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...

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 wall...