Pentecost

I hope you all have a glorious Ascension Day feast today!

I am putting up a Pentecost post a bit early in order to participate in an Anglican friend's liturgical blog carnival over at Homemaking Through the Church Year. Be sure to participate too!

This year, Pentecost falls on Sunday, June 7th for the Orthodox Church. It is celebrated every year 50 days after Pascha. On this day we commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. This event occurred on a Jewish feast called Pentecost and is seen as fulfilling the revelation of the Trinity.

We will be throwing a birthday party for the church this year, complete with special festal decorations and gifts 'of the Holy Spirit'.

For the decorations:

• Greenery: The Eastern Rite Orthodox Liturgical colors for Pentecost are green, the symbolic color of the Holy Spirit, life and the wood of the cross(Western churches wear red on Pentecost). It is an old custom to decorate the churches (and homes) with lots and lots of greenery.

• Dove Mobile: In some Catholic churches, a dove (real or a model) would literally be lowered down as trumpets sounded or choirs mimicked the sound of rustling wind, and as the dove descended, red rose petals would be strewn to symbolize the tongues of flame. So make a Dove Mobile with kids! We will be making one and I will document the event with instructions, but for now, why not look here and here or here for some inspiration.

Party Time-complete with cake and presents!

• Fruits of the Holy Spirit Cake....: Don't forget the birthday cake!!! Use fruit filling or bake a fruit pie to represent the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Read the story of Pentecost in Acts prior to cutting the cake and sing "God grant you many years" to the church.

• ....and presents: Finally, no birthday party is complete without presents. But these presents have a special twist. Give your children tiny gifts to symbolize the fruits of the Holy Spirit. I would suggest picking one fruit (or two) each year to focus on. For example, you might pick 'Generosity' and give your children little packets with things to give to a homeless person (like a hygiene kit). Or you might, for older children, choose self-control. Give them a favorite candy and if they can manage not to eat it for a week, then tell them they will get another candy. The gifts can be more light-hearted and fun too! You might give your child a gift and explain that it is for a kindness they performed earlier in the week, or for their patience during a certain event. Regardless, use this as an opportunity to explain some of the virtues/fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Happy Feasting!

Holy Ascension

Thou hast ascended in glory O Christ our God, granting joy to Thy disciples by the promise of the Holy Spirit. Through the blessing they were assured that Thou art the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world! (Troparion).

When Thou didst fulfill the dispensation for our sake, and didst unite earth to heaven, Thou didst ascend in glory, 0 Christ our God, not being parted from those who love Thee, but remaining with them and crying: I am with you and no one will be against you! (Kontakion).

The 40 day Paschal celebration will come to a close this next Thursday with the feast of the Holy Ascension. This feast marks Christ's ascent into heaven after the 40 days he spent with the disciples demonstrating his Resurrection. Here are several ideas to help you celebrate the day with your children:

• In Western Christendom, it is common to eat some sort of bird on this day since Christ "flew" into heaven.

• Another popular custom to take a hike up hills or Mountains on Ascension Day to commemorate Christ and the Disciples climbing up Mt. Olives. The Swedes have a tradition of getting up very early in the morning and going to a forest glen to hear birds singing at sunrise. Dependent on when the sun rises in your city, you might want to try some variation of this. Maybe start a morning hike at sunrise and end on top of a hill with a picnic breakfast?

• In the Catholic Church, there is recorded an English custom of a processional involving a banner bearing a lion at the head and a dragon at the rear to symbolize Christ's triumph in his ascension over the evil one. So, the project for Ascension Day is to make a Banner of Triumph. Here are two links for paper plate lion and dragon crafts. You can draw the faces and let your toddlers color them in before attaching them to a banner. Then, at the end of the day before extinguishing the Paschal candle, make a processional around the house during prayer time singing the hymn "Christ is Risen from the dead" one last time. Then, hang the banner on the wall until Pentecost (remove the Christ is Risen banner) and extinguish the Paschal candle together before bedtime.

• One last idea is a little 'puppet' show. Help your children to make Toilet Paper Tube Dolls. Make disciple dolls and a Christ doll. Attach a long string to the Christ doll. Make a stage with a large cardboard box. Decorate the box and set the dolls in it. Run the string through the top/back of the box, with a hole cut out large enough for the doll to be pulled through. Read the story of the Ascencion from a Children's Bible, and pull on the string as Christ ascends into heaven.

St. Thomas Sunday: The Antipascha

Apolytikion in the Grave Tone

Christ our God, You are the Life that dawned from the grave, though the tomb was sealed. Through closed doors You came to the Apostles. You are the Resurrection of all. And, You renewed us through them with an upright spirit, according to Your great mercy.

Tomorrow is St. Thomas Sunday. In Orthodoxy, Thomas is seen not as Thomas the 'doubter' but Thomas the 'believer', who laid aside his disbelief when he touched the living Christ!

Always held the Sunday after Pascha, the 8th day after the resurrection when Thomas first saw Jesus (John 20:26-29), it is custom for some cultures and parishes to travel to the cemetery with their pashcal candles lit and cry out "Christ is risen!" and leave a Paschal egg on the grave.

Other activities for the day:

• Saint Thomas the Believer Cookies: Make your favorite sugar cookie dough. Roll out the dough and cut out in the shape of hands. To do this, trace a child's hand on a piece of thick cardstock paper and cut out. Place this over the dough and cut around with a knife. Have your child press his thumb into each hand and fill the hole with red jam. Then bake according to your recipe. The hands are representative of Christ's hands which St. Thomas touched.

• Make Koliva and discuss with your children why we make it. Goarch provides a good discussion outline here.

• If you will not be visiting graves, have a special service at home. Remember the names of loved ones departed and cry out, "Christ is risen!" after each name.

Saint George the Great

Troparion for St. George
Liberator of captives, defender of the poor, physician of the sick, and champion of kings, O trophy-bearer, Great Martyr George, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Today marks the feast of St. George, the dragon slayer. My apologies for not posting on this earlier, but I have been debating about which saints to include apart from the great feasts and fast periods and finally decided that this one is too good to pass up.

Activity suggestions for the day:

• Read/tell the story about St. George and read the Troparion with children (or sing it if you know how!)

• Read Margaret Hodges children's version of the story. It is very beautifully illustrated and is a favorite with our children.

• Make a dragon mask

• Make a St. George costume out of household items. Simply cut out a sword and shield out of cardboard and cover in foil. Paint a red cross on the foil covered shield. The kids will love it. Painting on foil is quite the novelty.

• Finally, put those costumes on and put on a play!
  

Fun facts: St. George was a relatively minor saint until 8th century England when his story was translated into English (or Anglo-Saxon to be more proper). He was later adopted as patron saint of soldiers and became, known as the patron saint of England in the 14th century. In honor of England, why not have a good ol' English pub dinner. Bangers and mash. Steak and kidney pie. Whatever sounds good. And don't forget a pint of Ale (well, for you, that is)!

Happy Bright Week!

I love Bright Week! Who doesn't!?

Need some ideas to celebrate? Check out my original post on Bright Week. Here are a few extra ideas to add:

• Collect large rocks with your children and paint them in memory of the stone that was rolled away from Christ's tomb. Use them as door stoppers and let in the lovely spring air.

• Spruce up your house and bring out the spring colors in your home decorations! If you don't have the materials to do so, buy some cheap streamers and balloons to decorate with for the week.
  

• Print out copies of the Resurrection Icon from this great online Icon coloring book (page 25). Have the kids color the icons and decorate each room with a copy. You can even turn them into homemade icons (see instructions here).

• Lastly, if you haven't already used your Lenten savings to do some charity work, use it now. Help out with your local homeless shelter or bring a nice meal to a family in need.

I wish a joyous Bright week to you all! Don't forget to light your Paschal candle the next 40 days and sing the Resurrection Hymn!

"Christ is risen from the dead and by his death has trampled death and to those in the tombs he has granted life."

Holy Week Activities

Here are some photos to illustrate some of the Holy Week activities.

Our Simple but Purposeful Holy Week Clock
A bit pitiful, I know, but I had a lot less art supplies on hand than I had thought!
The kids thought is was great, though.

A plate of homemade Hot Cross Buns w/cards

Pa washing Mary's feet during our Last Supper

Coloring Easter eggs on Good Friday

A photo of the kids after their Easter Egg hunt on Pascha

Pascha Greetings!

CHRIST IS RISEN!

egg dyeing tip

Sick of your Pascha Eggs turning out pink? Well, here's a simple tip: use brown eggs.

I made up my normal coloring potion (1 bottle red food coloring, 2 tsp red vinegar and 1/2 cup hot water) and dumped my brown egg in the cup and voila! a RED egg!

Farewell, pink wannabes!

Resurrection Cookies

Because you won't be busy enough on Holy Saturday, here is a great recipe for Resurrection Cookies with scripture readings included! Head on over to Orthodox Mom and check it out!

On Scheduling

I have fought it, fought it, fought it and now must finally give in. I hate schedules. Detest them. I like plans but when it comes to actually nailing down a schedule for every day, I cannot stand it. However, I am finally facing reality. I need a schedule.

I first tried doing a pie graph with basic activities that should be done everyday. But the reality of not having a time frame set aside meant that activities were often missed or they were all crunched together in a random, spastic time. It was not going well. I was struggling with slothfulness and depression and feeling overwhelmed all the time.

My Lenten resolution for this year has been to try to integrate prayer throughout the day. Trying to accomplish this led me to realizing that I was unable to do this consistently because my day had no set routine. I fought the routine hard. However, the Lord has humbled me this lent and I have realized that the so called freedom and control I tried to grab at through NOT having a schedule was not freedom at all.

So we are on a schedule now and it is great. It is refreshing. It is hard. But struggle is good. Struggling for self discipline over the body and desires is healthy and needful for our salvation.

Our new schedule revolves around the Hours. I wake up and jog (focusing on praying while I do so. If I am unable to focus on intercessory prayers, I simply say the Lord's Prayer over and over and the Jesus Prayer). Then I come home and read Matins. Our time is now blocked into 3 hour allotments around prayer times. Each time block involves chores, education (reading, math, art), read aloud time and free play. At the beginning of each time block we read aloud one prayer from that section of the Hours. We end the day as a family with Vespers, reading Scripture and talking about it and a hymn for the week.

It is strange to me having such a disciplined schedule now. But oddly, I feel much free-er. Who would have thought?

I highly encourage every stay at home mom to try to schedule your day this way. Centering each day around prayer is beneficial not only for the souls of us mothers, but also for the souls of our children.

Blessings.