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Saint Sophia Cathedral
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Topic of the Week –
May God Give Us a Good Beginning So That We Might Find a Good End!
How much better things turn out for us when we prepare ourselves and make plans ahead of time!
While Great Lent, our time period of preparation for Pascha, begins in 6 weeks on March 15th which seems like a long time away, the Triodion (the preparatory time before Lent) begins February 21st.
Let us use the time wisely now to ‘prepare to prepare’!
Adult/Family:
“Every year it seems Great Lent creeps up on me with such speed I find it’s Clean Monday before I’ve even realized it was Prodigal Son Sunday.
The Church, in her wisdom, gives us the Triodion season (three weeks before the beginning of Great Lent) in order to prepare us for the Fast which is itself a preparation for the Feasts of Feasts, Pascha. And yet, too many Triodion seasons pass me by before I’ve had the time to look ahead to Great Lent.
This year, I want it to be different; I want to be prepared to prepare.
I haven’t fully worked out just how I’m going to fully prepare myself to become prepared for Pascha, but I’m at least forcing myself to think about it. Perhaps that’s a step in the right direction: keeping before me the knowledge of the impending beginning of Great Lent. I guess it’s kind of like the Orthodox practice of memory of death. The idea being that so long as we keep before us the knowledge – the memory – that we will one day, any day, die and face the Just Judge, this memory enables us to live well today….”
Read the entire article here, this summary of the Triodion Period, and about the Preparatory Sundays for Great Lent.
Preschool/Elementary:
Read about the Sundays of the Triodion and their icons.
Listen to the Hymns of the Triodion.
What spiritual books will you be reading this year during Lent? Here are a few recommendations:
Middle School:
- “…The devil called a meeting of the demonic horde one day to come up with new ideas for more effectively distracting man from working on his salvation. “New ideas, anyone?”
- A demon raised his hand. “How about we tell them Christ is just a myth?”
- “No,” Satan answered, “that works on the arrogant, but it doesn’t have a broad and lasting appeal.”
- Another hand went up. “What if we tell them salvation is easy, that there’s really no work to be done?”
- “We tried that,” said the chief of deceivers. “It’s worked well for the last five hundred years, but it too is losing ground.”
- Then a lethargic arm, slowly rising high enough to be noticed, caused all to turn and face the demon of Sloth. “All we have to do is whisper in their ears, ‘You’ve got time, lots of time. No need to hurry, no need to do anything today, you’ll work on it tomorrow; there’s lots of time.’”
- A rumble of pleasant agreement rippled through the dark host, and the devil smiled. “Brilliant. Go forth and whisper, ‘Urgency is a myth,’ and, ‘there’s lots of time….’”
High School:
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A Message from Maria Spanos
I am passionate about our Orthodox Christian faith and seek to help others learn as much as they can about it. My purpose here is to share online resources that help strengthen our relationship with Christ and bind us closer to His Church. I believe they are invaluable in learning about our precious Orthodox Tradition, and are a great aid for teaching family members, friends and others about Orthodoxy. ~Maria
Two of my favorite quotes:
“A true Christian behaves in this life so that it may be a preparation for the future one and not only a life here below. In his actions, he does not think what will be said of him here but of what will be said there in heaven; he represents to himself that he is always in the presence of God, of the angels and all the saints, and remembers that someday they will bear witness of his thoughts, words, and deeds.” — Saint John of Kronstadt
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“Of all the holy works, the education of children is the most holy.”
— St. Theophan the Recluse
