Christ is Risen!

We Worship Thy Passion, O Christ!

Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung on the tree,

The King of the angels is decked with a crown of thorns.

He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple

of mockery.

He who freed Adam in the Jordan is slapped on the face.

The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the Cross with nails.

The Son of the virgin is pierced by a spear.

We worship Thy passion, O Christ.

We worship Thy passion, O Christ.

We worship Thy passion, O Christ.

Show us also Thy glorious resurrection.

Nightly Devotions during Great Lent

As Lent approaches, I have been trying to make a plan for nightly devotions with my children. My children love doing this during Advent, and so I've been looking for resources to continue this practice. As much as I love handmade, creative ideas, my life is not conducive to creating right now! It's either beautiful, handmade crafts or school work and a clean house!

Thankfully, I've been able to find some easy ways to incorporate nightly readings, and hands-on activities that will capture the interest of my children. Here are a few ideas:

Paidea Classics sells a wonderful Lenten calendar. It has numbered doors for each Sunday of the Triodion, and then each day during Great Lent. It also comes with a booklet that contains short readings for each day.

We will also be using our Advent wreath, just redecorated! There are 7 Sundays in Lent, so we have 7 purple candles, plus a white candle for Pascha.

The highlight of our nightly devotions during Advent was our Jesse Tree. Paidea also sells shrink plastic ornaments for Lent! There is a pack for the seven Sundays in Lent, and another that has an ornament for each day of Holy Week. We will be using our Jesse Tree, with a spring-time tree skirt.

I'm so happy that with just a few clicks we have something tangible for our family to embrace Great Lent at home!

A Life-Changing Morning

There's so much to say about this morning, the day when we were blessed to approach the Kursk Root Icon of the Theotokos. Honestly, though, I don't have sufficient words. Thankfully, my dear friend does! Please visit Anna's site to catch a glimpse.

Family Readings for Lent

If you're like me, you already miss the nightly readings and ornaments of the Jesse Tree. my 2 year-old embraced our devotions fully this year, and still asks to "do Advent" every night! Today I heard about a wonderful way to integrate daily family readings during Lent, which will be here before we know it! This Orthodox Mom is developing the readings and posting them as she finishes them. I am inspired, and would love to eventually come up with ornaments to go along with the readings.

A New Chapter

Some of you may have visited the Festal Celebrations Gallery, especially to get more information on the Jesse Tree project. I'm excited to announce that I am the new owner of that site!

With God's help, I hope to continue the work of the previous owner, and continue to offer ideas to families who would like tangible ways to bring the Church's Feasts home. Please visit the site, and look forward to contributions from several individuals over the next few months.

I hope to add pictures and updated reading lists for the Jesse Tree project in the next few days. Please pray for me that I am able to live up to the task given to me.

Advent Activities

Since I am starting to gather my Advent activities in one place for my own use, I thought it might be helpful to write about some specific activities my family participates in.

Let me preface my first posting by giving you a little background info. If you are not familiar with the Orthodox Church's fasting periods, our Nativity Fast begins on November 15th and is a 40 day fast that ends on Christmas. The word Advent is the Latin word for "coming". We Orthodox use other Latin terms, such as "Trinity", so I personally have no problem using the word Advent when speaking about this time period. Here's a great article on that topic.

Instead of writing one long (and possibly overwhelming) post about everything my family does in our home, I thought it would be more helpful to post about one at a time. To me, the best way to do this is to first write about the activities that may take longer to get ready, in case anyone would like to incorporate them this year.

Activity #1 40 Books in 40 Days

One fun way to involve my children in our nightly activities is to have a children's book about the Nativity Season for each night. In our house my husband and I wrap each book individually and place them under our tree on November 15th. (More about our tree later). Each night our 3 children take a turn picking a book and unwrapping it. Then we read the book aloud together, and the book is placed in a basket so that the children can read it again during the rest of the season. There are some books that are designated for special nights, like the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos, or St. Nicholas, and I do this by writing on the wrapping paper, so we don't forget!

There are several ways you can do this activity, and I encourage you to make it YOUR tradition. If you don't put your tree up until later in the season, you can put your books in a big basket. If it is overwhelming, you don't have to wrap the books at all.

I will share some of my favorite book selections with you, but don't feel the need to duplicate them in your household. You may be surprised at how many you already have, if you gather all your Christmas books in one place! Some families may want to include secular Christmas books about Santa Claus, reindeer, etc. Because every family has their own beliefs on this topic, I will only share my top choices that are religious in nature, and some that are specifically written from an Orthodox point of view. I have linked as many books as possible to websites where you can take a closer look:

The Nativity of Our Lord by Sister Elayne (This is one of the books from The 12 Great Feasts for Children)

The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple by Sister Elayne (we read this book on the feast, which falls on November 21st.)

The Saint Who Became Santa Claus

Who is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate (there is also a board-book version for toddlers)

Baby in a Manger by Julie Stiegemeyer

On This Special Night By Claire Freedman

The Little Drummer Boy by Ezra Jack Keats (also available as a board book)

The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg

What Star Is This? by Joseph Slate

The Legend of Saint Nicholas by Demi (We read this book on the Feast of St. Nicholas, Dec. 6th)

The Usborne Advent Nativity Book (This book has pop out characters for each day that make the nativity scene. It starts on Dec. 1st)

North Star: St. Herman of Alaska by Dorrie Papademetrious (read on Dec. 13th)

Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo

Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell

Tonight You Are My Baby: Mary's Christmas Gift by Jeannine Q. Norris

Please feel free to add any great books from your collection by leaving a comment!