In just a few days we will begin Great and Holy Lent. My goal for all of us during this time, is to journey together as families through Great Lent as we await the Feast of Feasts, Great and Holy Pascha and to grow in our soul towards Christ and in our life as we center it around God.
I want to share with you a folktale from the Congo.
In the thick jungle of the Congo, a clearing was made in the trees. Sun had shone for the first time on a portion of ground that had only been in darkness. Strange plants started to grow that no one had ever seen before. But, these plants were very beautiful. No one ever thought that these plants could ever grow in a place like this. A dark place, an ugly place, a place that was not nice.
The same is true for us. We hide ourselves from the light of God. We let our sins and bad habits cover us, like the jungle trees that keep everything in darkness. We do not let the light of God shine through. But Great Lent is a time for us to make a clearing in our lives, to listen to the call of God to slow down and focus on Him.
Every week we will be learning about how to live out our faith, learning about the lessons of Great Lent, through the Gospel lessons, Saint Days, and Services. From the Sunday or Orthodoxy to the Feast of Annunciation. From the Akathist Hymn to Holy Week.
I will help you to teach your family and children about each week of Great Lent. We will have a goal for each week. Questions that you can use as a discussion for your families. A craft to engage your children in learning about each week. And of course, a Lenten recipe.
On Sunday night, we will begin Great Lent. How will we begin this time? With Forgiveness Vespers. It is a time for us to join together as a church family and to ask each other for forgiveness.
Why do we do this? It is actually a very simple action, but for some, especially me, it is a little uncomfortable. As you might remember, forgiveness was not something I was taught to practice very much when I was younger. But since meeting my husband and his family, I have learned how important forgiveness is and how good it is for our souls and our minds.
How many of us have held a grudge or said “I will never forget that you did that?!” It can be something that consumes our minds and our hearts. It can cloud our happiness and not forgiving someone can take a toll on our bodies.
Forgiveness can be a simple as saying: please forgive me. Asking for forgiveness should never feel easy. It should be a struggle because that means that we have realized that we have made, said, or done something that was not right. But once we ask for forgivness it can feel as if a weight has been lifted off our shoulders.
I know often times, when I ask Moses to ask for forgiveness for something he has done or said sometimes it takes him awhile to follow through with this action. But more times than not he feels better afterwards and he is very quick to make sure we, as parents, also ask for forgiveness for anything we might have done that was not right.
Something that I am working on personally, that has been quite difficult, is that I have a hard time understanding that I did something or said something wrong if it was misunderstood. I say way too often: I cannot be responsible for how someone else understands something. But what I am learning is that how I deliver my words, with tone, and how I come across, in my actions and facial expressions, directly effects how I am perceived.
This problem prohibits me often times from asking for forgiveness because I don’t think that I did anything or said anything wrong. A lot of times I think that it is the other persons fault for how they understood what I said.
It is something that I am working on, slowly slowly, but I hope that this is one way that I can grow in my soul towards Christ and in my life centered around God.
How can we teach our children about forgiveness?
There is a beautiful story from the life of St. Dionysios I would like to share with you. Did you know he is sometimes called the Saint of Forgiveness?
St. Dionysios was born in 1547 on the island of Zakynthos in Greece. He excelled in the field of theology and was tontured a monk in 1568 and was ordained a Priest in 1570. In 1578 he became the Abbot of a monastery on the island of Zakynthos.
One day a man came to St. Dionysius's cell and begged him to hide him. He was being chased by a family and they wanted to kill him. When St. Dionysius asked him why he was being chased, the man told him that he had killed a man. The man had no idea that he had actually killed the brother of the Saint, who’s name was Constantine.
St. Dionysius was very sad once he learned who the man was, but hid the man and did not turn him into the police. Instead he taughthim and the man repented for his sins.
Later on, the man eventually became a monk himself at that same monastery. St. Dionysius is an example to us all for his forgiveness of even the most difficult of sins against us.
That brings us to the question of how can we actively practice forgiveness in our homes and families?
One way that we can do this is to practice asking for forgiveness before we go to Liturgy to receive Holy Communion.
Another way is at evening prayers to ask forgiveness from each other for anything we may have done wrong.
Asking for forgiveness and accepting someone’s apology is not very easy. It really takes a lot of humility to do both of those. But as the saying goes “practice makes perfect.” And at this time we can say: “practice almost makes perfect.”
We are always going to sin and make mistakes. It is a consequence of Adam and Eve. But we can follow the words of Christ as He tells us in the Lords Prayer. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Craft: 40 Day Prayer List
One way I like to focus my family around God during Great Lent is with prayer. At the beginning of this year I was thinking of what special prayer list we could do that could incorporate Moses.
So the idea I came up with was a list. But it’s not just a list of prayers. It is a list where Moses can pray for one person a day. He will tell me names of our family members, friends, and people from Church, and I will write them down. We will write one name in each box. Sometimes he has repeated names and wanted to write more than one name in a box. All options are okay, there is no right or wrong answer.
After writing the names in the boxes, we come to the topic of how to pray for the people on our list.
Some things I enjoy discussing with my son about prayer are:
What is prayer? Prayer is when we speak to God and when God speaks to us.
When can we pray? We can pray anytime and anywhere! God is always listening. We can pray in bed, at school, at home, walking, playing, and of course in Church.
Great Lent is a time where we want to try and pray to God more, talk to God on a daily basis and listen to God.
One way we can talk to God more regularly is by praying for people that we know. They do not have to be Orthodox, or even Christian. You can pray for anyone and God will listen!
How can you pray for the person? It can be simple: God bless (name of person). If you know that the person is struggling or you know something about them, you can make it more personal. (For example: God bless Amelia. She has a test today and I want her to do well and to concentrate so she can get a good grade. Amen.)
The most important thing is that when you are talking to God you are honest and speak from your heart. Also, remember you can also pray for people who you are having a difficult time with and for people you do not get along with. We need to pray for everyone, good and bad, and we need to make sure that we have God’s love in our minds during Great Lent.
When praying to God about the people on your list, remember to have a few moments of silence to also listen to God. Praying to God can be like a conversation. Try and figure out how He is speaking to you in your life!
Recipe: Lady Lent (Kyria Sarakosti)
The last thing I want to share with you is a recipe for Lady Lent. You may have seen on social media or maybe you have made this before. For us, this is the first time we will be making Lady Lent.
But what and who is Lady Lent?
Let me begin by telling you that it is kind of like a bread biscuit, but you do not eat it. The recipe is made with ingredients that are not for eating. Let me tell you a little about her for you to understand.
When there were no calendars and people wanted to have some sense of time during Great Lent (before Pascha), they came up with an easy method of doing this. They drew up an image of a nun. They took a piece of paper and cut out a shape of a woman. Lady Lent does not have a mouth as she is fasting: her hands are crossed in prayer. She has seven feet for the seven weeks of Great Lent [including Holy Week]. Every Saturday one of her feet is cut and put it outside in a garden or somewhere that no one will step on it.
On Holy Saturday, after morning Liturgy, we break up her body and sprinkle it on the grass and plants outside for the birds and the animals. This is so that all of God’s creation can rejoice!
It is recommended that you bake Lady Lent 1-2 days before you want to use it.
I look forward to our time together as we Journey through Great Lent. Let us make a clearing in our life and in the lives of our family to let God shine through.
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