The Miracle of Saint Theodore the Recruit With the Kollyva (For Children)

Saint Theodore the Recruit was a Roman soldier who suffered for believing in Christ in Asia Minor at the beginning of the 4th century (about 300 years after Christ), during the rule of the pagan Roman emperor Galerius who persecuted Christians. But many people know about this great Saint because of a miracle that happened after his death.

About 50 years after Saint Theodore’s martyrdom, a Roman emperor named Julian the Apostate ruled in Constantinople. He was the nephew of Saint Constantine the Great. Although he had once been a Christian, Julian turned away from Christ and became a pagan like his ancestors before Constantine.

At the beginning of Great Lent, Julian decided to mock the Christians. He secretly ordered the governor of Constantinople to sprinkle the food in the marketplace with blood from animals that had been sacrificed to pagan gods.

The Apostles had taught Christians not to eat food offered to idols or food mixed with blood (Acts 15:29), and the emperor knew this very well. His evil plan was kept secret and would have succeeded — but God worked a miracle.

Saint Theodore appeared in a dream to the Archbishop of Constantinople, Eudoxios. The Saint told him to warn the Christians not to buy any food from the markets, but instead to prepare food at home called kollyva — boiled wheat mixed with honey.

The Archbishop quickly gathered the Christians, told them about the Saint’s appearance, and gave them his message. When the emperor saw that his plan had failed and the Christians were not deceived, he canceled his order.

To remember this miracle, the Church honors Saint Theodore the Recruit on the first Saturday of Great Lent. On the Friday before, after the special Lenten service, prayers are offered to Saint Theodore. On this day, kollyva is blessed in church and shared with everyone.

(Illustrations by Ksenia Naumova)

 

A Sample Sermon for Children at the Presanctified Divine Liturgy

A Sample Sermon for Children at the Presanctified Divine Liturgy 

By His Eminence Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

First of all, I want to congratulate you for coming to church today and for standing quietly and reverently here in the house of God.

I will say a few words to you about the Presanctified Divine Liturgy — this special Liturgy — which is celebrated only during this period of Great Lent. The wise Fathers of our Church established the Presanctified Divine Liturgy because during this time we cannot celebrate the regular, bright, and complete Divine Liturgy, as we call it. And this is because this period is penitential — a time of fasting, greater self-restraint, and prayer — a time of more intense spiritual struggles. We say everything in a lower tone of voice, the lights are few, everything is more compunctionate. Whereas when we celebrate the regular Divine Liturgy, everything is bright, joyful, and full of praise.

It is called “Presanctified” because the Precious Gifts — that is, the Bread and the Wine offered on the Holy Altar — have already been changed into the Body and Blood of Christ at the previous Divine Liturgy. That is, they have been sanctified beforehand.

Children and the Nativity Fast

By Fr. George Christodoulos 

 

The Nativity Fast is slightly more relaxed compared to Great Lent, though both last forty days. From November 15 to December 25 the Church has established a fast, which ends immediately after the Christmas Divine Liturgy. We eat fish (except Wednesdays & Fridays) until December 17. The last days of the fast we do not eat fish.

It is worth remembering that Christ himself urges us to fast so that the devil may have no influence over our lives. The purpose of fasting is that it is a weapon to combat our passions, sinful inclinations and bad habits. Everyone in the Church, no matter what age they are, should try their best to be their best. Along with fasting from certain foods, we should also lessen or even eradicate bad habits, such as less cigarettes, less drinking, less junk food, less anger, less judgmentalism, etc. We do this by replacing them with the increase of virtuous living, such as more philanthropy, more patience, more humility, more prayer, more Holy Communion, etc.

Youth and the Church: Who Is To Blame?

By Archimandrite Porphyrios, 

Abbot of the Holy Forerunner in Veria

Just a short while ago, I read another article on a topic that interests many. A respected monk from Mount Athos, who has now passed away, analyzes the subject: Youth and the Church.

Specifically, who or what is to blame for young people not attending Church?

I do not believe that young people do not go to Church. They do, and quite frequently. However, young people have certain expectations, and they express them more intensely than those who have since become set in their ways and indifferent. But that is a discussion for another time.

The text that will follow has been contemplated countless times, and, to tell the truth, each time I was about to write it, I was seized by an indistinct fear. Fear, because what you are about to read is not easily spoken.

A long and severe labor. And behold, now, the outcome. And since we are in Lent, in its second half, on the downward slope, which is also the more difficult part, I ask in advance for the sympathy of our readers.

Children and Ecclesiastical Life (Fr. Alexander Schmemann)

 

By Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann 

As a general rule, children like attending Church, and this instinctive attraction to and interest in Church services is the foundation on which we must build our religious education. When parents worry that children will get tired because services are long and are sorry for them, they usually subconsciously express their concern not for their children but for themselves. Children penetrate more easily than do adults into the world of ritual, of liturgical symbolism. They feel and appreciate the atmosphere of our Church services. The experience of Holiness, the sense of encounter with Someone Who is beyond daily life, that mysterium tremendum that is at the root of all religion and is the core of our services is more accessible to our children than it is to us. "Except ye become as little children," these words apply to the receptivity, the open-mindedness, the naturalness, which we lose when we grow out of childhood. How many men have devoted their lives to the service of God and consecrated themselves to the Church because from childhood they have kept their love for the house of worship and the joy of liturgical experience! Therefore, the first duty of parents and educators is to "suffer little children and forbid them not" (Matt. 19:14) to attend Church. It is in Church before every place else that children must hear the word of God. In a classroom the word is difficult to understand, it remains abstract, but in Church it is in its own element. In childhood we have the capacity to understand, not intellectually, but with our whole being, that there is no greater joy on earth than to be in Church, to participate in Church services, to breathe the fragrance of the Kingdom of Heaven, which is "the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit."