Lent Begins

Here is something that I posted on my personal blog site for the beginning of Lent. Many of the ideas are basic, but if any help you in your lenten journey this year, Glory to God.

Lent began this afternoon with the Forgiveness Vespers Service. This is our first year in an Eastern-Rite Orthodox Church. I really enjoyed the service today and look forward to encountering more lenten services the weeks ahead.

The focus of lent is truly about fasting from sin, but fasting from certain foods, prayer, and almsgiving are avenues to this end. Here are some of my "tips" or getting through lent. Let me add the disclaimer that I am NOT an expert at fasting. These are just some things that I have found helpful.

1. Pray! Pray like you are really in a battle (it is more real than we know). If I begin the day praying, I have more energy to journey on and am less likely to despair. I suggest Met. Philaret's prayer for the beginning of the day, and the Lenten standard: The Prayer of St. Ephraim (see below). Really embrace the words and keep them with you throughout the day.

2. Go to the extra church services if at all possible. It is SO encouraging to remember that we (the Church) are all in this together. It is easy to get bitter if you feel alone in fasting. Truly, I have found that struggling through Lent with my fellow parishioners glues our community together in a way that nothing else can.

Since Luke doesn't do well at the night services in general, I am going to try to listen to Ancient Faith Radio podcasts during the season. We will try to actually make it to church too, but it may not always be possible. AFR is such a tremendous resource for families to bring the Church into their homes.

3. Have a project. If you are spending less on food, buy extra food for the local food bank, send money to Haiti, etc... Almsgiving really helps fasting make more sense to me. Volunteering works if you cannot give, just have a goal.

4. Find good recipes and recycle them. I always face the temptation of trying out all sorts of recipes and spending hours in the kitchen. As our priest in CA said, Lent is about simplification. The fast is to focus our minds on the spiritual, not on proper meal preparation. OrthodoxMom.com, Orthodox Mother's Digest , and this site have hosted several fasting recipe swaps.

5. Have a baked potato night each week. Baked potatoes are great, and there is little prep time involved. I like to rub oil on the skins before baking them. They are 10x better this way and it encourages everyone to eat the skin (the best part in my opinion!). Vegans-serve with baked beans, chopped green onions, BBQ sauce, salt, pepper, grilled onions. Vegetarians- use cheese, cottage cheese, butter, sour cream, etc... Homemade pizza once a week is also good, and fun for a Saturday night.

6. Make breakfast easy. I like Emily's idea of having oatmeal every day. For myself, I know that the more I have to think about, the more distracted with food I become. I also like cheese or a homemade energy bar for breakfast.

7. Prep veggies and fruit and dips to have on hand. Tomorrow I will make hummus, ranch dip (160z sour cream + 1 packet dry ranch dressing mix), and cut up a bunch of carrots.

May God bless you all and multiply your efforts to His glory!

Lenten Prayer Of St. Ephrem The Syrian

O Lord and Master of my life!
Take from me the spirit of sloth,
faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity,
humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.

Yea, Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother, for Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

Presentation of Christ in the Temple

On February 2 the Church celebrates Christ's presentation in the Temple. In the Western Church it goes by the name of Candlemas and was traditionally the day to take Christmas decorations down. But I don't know much about the Western traditions other than that.

In the East, this feast commemorates Jesus' first visit to the temple (Luke 2:22-39) 40 days after his birth. It was custom to offer a lamb for sacrifice or two doves (if one was too poor for a lamb). Joseph and Mary brought to doves (they were poor) and Jesus--the Lamb of God. St. Simeon and St. Anna, both of whom were very old were there to witness Christ's entrance. The former's prayer (Lord now lettest thy servant depart in peace according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to enlighten the gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.) is still a staple prayer in the Eastern Church being said at the end of every Vespers and when leaving the Nave.

In our home, we read this story and talk about how special it is to be able to go to church. We also read My Forty Day Blessing Book by Christina Kyriacou which talks about the blessing infants and their mothers receive when they are churched. We look at pictures of my childrens' churchings and talk about how special it is to be welcomed into our church family in this way.
We also bring a special offering to the church-whether it be money or decorations. I always read the kontakion as well as the scripture readings we will hear in church beforehand so that we can talk about their meanings before and after the service.

For a craft I suggest making a lamb and birds out of paper and cotton balls or other decorations. Coloring pictures of the feast's icon is also of value since it allows children to identify this story when they're looking around during church.

St. Brigid of Kildare

This coming Monday, February 1, marks the feast day of St. Brigid of Kildare, Ireland, a pre-schism Western saint, a contemporary of St. Patrick, and also my patron.

St. Brigid "did not take her mind or her attention from the Lord for the space of one hour at any time, but was constantly mentioning Him, and ever constantly thinking of Him, as evident in her own life [. . .] She was very hospitable and very charitable to guests and to needy people. She was humble, and attended to the herding of sheep and early rising, as her life proves [. . .] She spent indeed 74 years diligently serving the Lord, performing signs and miracles, curing every disease, and sickness in general as evident in her own life, until she yielded her spirit, [. . .] A.D. 525 [or] 522, [. . .] and she was buried at D/un in one tomb with Patrick, where Colum Cille was afterwards interred."


It's too late to order it for Monday, but there is a new children's book about St. Brigid with beautiful illustrations written by an Orthodox mom and published by Conciliar Press. (See thumbnail on the right.)

In lieu of the children's book, you can learn more about Saint Brigid online. There are many primary sources available here. (I also wrote a brief tribute to her on my own blog last year; click here to read it.)

Here are several ideas for celebrating her wondrous life of devotion and faith:

• Make a St. Brigid Cross and hang it over the doorway; keep it there until next year and then replace it with a new one. If you don't have rushes or long grass near you, you can substitute with palm leaves, plastic straws, or something else creative. If you can, take the rushes to church on Sunday to have them blessed by the priest before you make the crosses.
• In the spirit of St. Brigid's generosity, assemble emergency kits for IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities) to send to people in places like Haiti.
  
• Collect dandelions, which are sometimes spoken of as "Brigid's Flower."
  
• Make wheat- or cross-shaped bread and serve with butter. (For example, see Pain d'Epi recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, or use an oat bread recipe.) Before she became an abbess, Brigid was a dairy maid.
• Visit a (dairy) farm and feed the animals.
  
• Serve corn beef and cabbage or other hearty Irish dinner, and invite some friends or neighbors to share it with you (perhaps a poor family who cannot afford to eat nice dinners).
  
• And don't forget the beer (for the adults, that is)! Brigid is known as the patron saint of beer because of her miraculous multiplying of beer to supply the county churches for Bright week after Pascha.
• If someone in the family (or one of your guests) has St. Brigid as her patron or namesake, have her wear a white dress and pretend to be the saint knocking at the door saying "Go on your knees, open your eyes, and let Brigid in." The family should answer from within "Greeting, greeting to the noble woman."
• Pray and sing hymns to St. Brigid, the "Mary of the Gael":

Troparion (Tone 1)
O holy Brigid, thou didst become sublime through thy humility, and didst fly on the wings of thy longing for God. When thou didst arrive in the Eternal City and appear before thy Divine Spouse, wearing the crown of virginity, thou didst keep thy promise to remember those who have recourse to thee. Thou dost shower grace upon the world, and dost multiply miracles. Intercede with Christ our God that He may save our souls.

(Saint Bride painting by John Duncan)

Bonny Saint Brigid, pray for us!

Spring Cleaning Preparations

Lent is quickly approaching. Valentine's Day marks Forgiveness Sunday and Clean Monday follows directly!

In the past, I've used Clean Monday as a "Spring Cleaning" Day, but it really wasn't an adequate amount of time. Start NOW with the purging and be done before Lent. When getting rid of stuff, think of how you might bless others with things you don't need or want. Maybe some old clothes to give to a homeless person? Some toys for some children you know who might be less fortunate? Some books for students?

On Clean Monday, read Is 1:1-20. Talk to your children about how just like we need to clean our bodies and our houses regularly so that they don't get dirty and grimy, we also need to cleanse our hearts and minds. Clean something that is dirty to demonstrate visually the need for cleaning. Then talk about how we need to put away wicked thoughts, feelings, habits, etc. These are the things that dirty us. Talk about how we do this through repentance, prayer, fasting, almsgiving and mediation of the scriptures. It is only by putting on Christ that we can truly be holy.

Another activity we plan on doing on Clean Monday is to make a "Kyra Sarakosti" (a Lady Lent). Cut out a paper doll. The doll has no mouth (because she is fasting), her hands are joined in prayer, and she has a long skirt with 7 feet for the 7 weeks of Lent. Let the children decorate the paper doll. On each Saturday during Lent, cut off a foot. On the last Saturday, Holy Saturday, insert the foot into a dried fig and tradition has it that it brings luck to the finder.

Quick Theophany/ Epiphany ideas

After two weeks of travel, it dawned on me this morning that Theophany was tomorrow and that our liturgy for it was tonight, so I quickly pulled myself together and this is what I came up with.

1. First, my pre-schooler and I read through the Old Testament stories of Creation, the Flood, the crossing of the Red Sea, the Children of Israel crossing the Jordan and Jonah and the Whale. We also read the NT stories about Jesus' baptism, calling the fishermen, and walking on the water. We read from a toddler Bible (stories are short) and I edited the stories as we went. We talked about how God blessed the water, motifs of cleansing, tried to make connections with the stories and focused specifically on how Jesus blessed the water by being baptized in it (as much as one can do with a three-year-old). As my boys get older and I don't have to rely on Children's Bibles (and/or I have more time) we'll read all of the stories which we will be hearing in the service tonight which include the washing of Naaman, Elijiah being taken up and Elisha crossing the Jordan just to name a few!

2. We also looked at the icon for Theophany and photos of my sons' baptisms and discussed them as well. My first son was actually baptized on Theophany 3 years ago, so it is also a special anniversary for us to remember.

3. We sang the troparion for Theophany over and over again (Byzantine-tone 1: When thou oh lord was baptized in the Jordan worship of the Trinity was made manifest/ for the voice of the Father bore witness to thee calling thee his beloved son/ and the Spirit in the likeness of a dove confirmed the truth of his word/ oh Christ our God who hath appeared and enlightened the world glory to thee) and also the baptismal hymn "As Many as have been baptized into Christ"

4. Finally we made a very quick version of a Kings Cake. I used a Trader Joe's Apple Bread mix I had lying around, letting my son help me by hiding a nut in it. I cooked it in a bunt cake pan to keep the appearance of a crown and decorated the top of the cake with blue icing (made from powdered sugar, butter, milk and food coloring) and Swedish Fish candy (we had it left over from Halloween). I want to learn more about the cake traditions for next year, but I wanted to start it now. I added the blue icing to look like water and the fish are pretty obvious. We're going to take the cake to church to enjoy with others after the service tonight. My son is so excited about finding the nut--what a fantastic idea!

Thankfully our church will also be blessing the Ocean water this coming Sunday so it will allow for more learning and fun to continue despite my lack of planning!

I wish all of you a Blessed Feast!
-Sara

Kings Bread

[Updated January 2011]

Ma Torg has graciously invited me to be a periodic contributor here at the Liturgical Year for Little Ones, and I am honored to accept.

I thought I'd dive in with a recipe for your Twelfth Night/Epiphany/Theophany celebration. I know Ma Torg has shared fun ideas for a Twelfth Night party on her other blog.

For now, I'll just offer a simplified recipe for Kings Bread, so called after the three "kings" or magi, the first gentiles to worship the child Jesus as King, God, and Savior of all the nations. Kings bread is formed in a ring or crown shape with jewel-colored candied fruit toppings.

I've adapted a more traditional recipe using the high-moisture method of the excellent Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe François. (And, oh my goodness, I am now drooling over their newer book, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Whole grains, baby! Whole grains! But I digress.)

The wonderful features of the high-moisture method are (1) mix dough one day and bake another, (2) no kneeding needed!

I'm still experimenting with this recipe, so improvements may be posted later. Let me know if you have any tips.

Kings Bread
Mix in a 5-quart bowl or a lidded (not airtight) container:

• 3/4 C lukewarm water
• 1/2 T salt
• 1 T granulated yeast (1 packet)
• 1/4 C honey
• 1/2 C (one stick) unsalted butter, melted
  
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
  
• 1/2 t lemon extract
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 t lemon zest

Mix in without kneading, using a spoon or stand mixer with dough hook:

• 3 & 3/4 C unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 C chopped mixed candied fruit, and/or cranberries and golden raisins
  
• 1/4 C chopped almonds and/or other nuts
  

Cover (not airtight) and rest at room temperature (or in a warmed oven) until the dough rises and collapses, about 2 hours. Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container to chill. Use when chilled and within five days.

When you're ready to bake, grease a baking sheet with a small amount of

• butter.

Insert into the chilled dough

• 1 whole almond, 1 raw bean, or 1 well-washed penny.

Dust dough with

• flour

and quickly form into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Place the ball on the baking sheet, seam side down. Make a four-inch hole in the center and push dough into a ring. Butter the outside of a three or four-inch custard dish and set in the hole.

Loosely cover the dough with oiled plastic wrap and let rest in a warm place for 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375º.

Remove plastic wrap and brush the loaf with

• 1 egg beaten with
• 1 t water.

Press dough lightly with more

• whole candied fruit/cranberries/golden raisins and
• whole nuts and/or sliced blanched almonds

Sprinkle top with

• 1/4 C sugar.

Bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden browned on the outside and hollow sounding when tapped. Cool on a wire rack.


Whoever gets the whole almond/bean/penny in his or her slice of bread can either be king/queen of the Twelfth Night party, or be the one to bring a baby Jesus doll in christening gown on Candelmas (a western tradition--I'm the Western Rite dark horse that Ma Torg is trotting out--Hope you all don't mind my western ways), or be the one to host the Twelfth Night/Epiphany party next year.

Happy and blessed festivities to you all!

Orthodox Book Giveaway!

Do you love children's books? Would you like to win a copy of The Woman and the Wheat by Jane Meyer? If so, head on over to her blog to enter her giveaway!!!

Name Day Celebrations

Nameday celebrations are quite fun for us. We try to make them unique to keep it distinctive from a birthday celebration. We also view them (as my husband likes to call it) as 'hobbit' parties in that the idea is to 'give' rather than 'recieve'. To encourage you to creatively come up with ideas for your own family, please read my ideas for our family's saints and our godchildren. If there are any saints you would like me to post about, please just ask!

Sunday of our Forefathers, Jesse and King David (Whatever Sunday falls between December 11-17 of each year. Note that Kind David is also celebrated on December 30th)

On this Sunday we celebrate my husband and godson's nameday. For our own family, this is the day we get our Christmas tree. We then pray a special blessing of the tree and sprinkle the tree with holy water. We then decorate the tree and enjoy fast appropriate treats for the celebration. In the past, I've bought tiny Christmas trees at Trader Joe's to give as gifts to our guests.

St Lucy (December 13)

I have blogged about this before. Look here for how we celebrate this at home! For a gift, we give our guests white candles wrapped in red ribbons.

St Mary of Bethany (June 4th)

It is Mary of Bethany who anoints Christ's feet with ointment and wiped them with her hair. We do not require our daughter to do anything of this kind! However, within that theme, we have Mary give a special 'ointment' to our guests (lotion or a perfume of sort). I do struggle with this one a bit (maybe you can help). Ideas are to 'act out' the story either in costume or with homemade puppets.

St Catherine of Alexandria (November 25)

For this feast day, there are lots of fun food themes. I like the ideas at Catholic Cuisine, which include eating pasta (using the special wheel pasta you can find at the store) and making heart shape cakes (an old french custom on St Catherine's Day. Read the above link for more info). For a fun activity, bake St Catherine's Wigs together or have a cake decorating contest. For a gift for your guests, send home a small lace doily or something else of that sort, as St Catherine is the patron of lacemakers and spinners. Her anniversary is still celebrated as the lacemakers feast in England!!!

St Edmund (November 20)

When we were in England last year, we had a grand time celebrating our son's name day. We visited Bury St Edmunds where this great saint was martyed and enjoyed pints of St Edmund's Ale. The kids and I painted our very own St Edmund flags on construction paper and hung it in our living room. While there, we had the foresight to buy our very own St Edmund's flag from Bury St Edmund's and hang it on his feast day. We unfortunately can't buy St Edmund's Ale here in the US. However, we can still honor his British (or, really, Anglo Saxon) heritage with a fish and chip supper. In England, there' s a silly custom (I think new though they claim it is old) of handing out sticky buns in remembrance of his 'sticky' end. Quite the breakfast story, no? A fun activity for the little ones would be to 'crown' the king. Decorate crowns and read the story of his martyrdom together. For gifts, make bookmarks with a Psalm on it (St Edmund was known for having memorized the Psalms). Simply type a Psalm in columns on your word processor and print unto cardstock. Cut it into bookmarks and give to your guests.

Christmas is coming!

We are going crazy in our house finishing up the graduate school term and preparing for an extensive road trip over the holidays (3 1/2 weeks!). However, if you haven't already, be sure to check out the compilations of crafts and activities for the Nativity Fast to do with your little ones.

Besides those listed, here are some other activities to do together this year:

1. Assemble together on Xmas eve and sing Advent songs. The next evening, gather together and drink Mulled Wine and sing Christmas carols together. We use a hymnal we have, but you can easily find music and lyrics on the internet.

2. Get a small gift for your children for each of the 12 days of Christmas. Or another idea (for older children) is to give your child a new clue each day that will lead to a hiding spot on the 12th day of Christmas and have a special gift hidden.

3. Wait until Christmas Day to put baby Jesus in the manger. On Christmas Eve, say special prayers and bless the crib with Holy Water.

4. Bake a cake for your Christmas dessert and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus before opening presents.

I hope you all have a wonderful Advent and Christmas season! Please share any ideas you have!

Trick or Treating?

In not too long, Americans will be celebrating the ghoouulisshhh feast of Halloween. What will you be doing?

I am well aware that most Orthodox are told not to celebrate Halloween because of its pagan roots. I know many Orthodox who don't. But I also know many that do.

In the past we have not celebrated Halloween, but this year we are. My reasoning: I see nothing counter-cultural through simply abstaining from celebrations. I think true counter-culture actions are ones that seek to transform. What better thing can we do then to do our best to transform Halloween into something holy?

I'm not sure yet what that will entail in the years to come. Western Christians have the advantage of celebrating All Saint's Eve on Halloween in anticipation of their feast day. We Orthodox do not. However, there is always a time and place to celebrate Christ's victory over death and what better time than Halloween to do just that.

For those of you looking for wholesome ways to celebrate Halloween, below are some ideas. If you are not celebrating Halloween, feel free to talk more about why in the comments.

• An appropriate opening to any celebration of this holiday will be to sing a triumphant song. Although it is NOT pascha, I do think the paschal song is appropriate. "Christ is risen from the dead and by his death he has trampled death and unto those in the tombs, he has granted life."
• Carve pumpkins. I have always loved this activity as a kid. We will be having a 'silly face' competition. Whoever carves the silliest pumpkin face wins a prize! For the little ones, simply let them go crazy with markers and glitter and glue.
• Play doughnuts on a string or apples and flour for some great laughs.
• Watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown for some old fashioned American fun.
• End the evening fun with vespers and light candles for your departed loved ones.

Do you have any ideas to contribute?