Good morning!
Another week as come and gone and we may be wondering if we can do our next project. We have found ways as a community to Feed people, give people something to drink, but how are we going to do our cards and get them to those in our community who could use a bit of Pascha cheer. Well the first step is to make them. If you have paper, pencils, crayons or markers - you can do this! Be creative - through the years your creations have brought joy and a knowledge that even though they cannot be physically with us they are remembered by their Church Family.
Make your Pascha/Easter cards!!
As many as you like and if you can drop them in the church mailbox. Fr Nick will see that they get to our folks that need them.
Today’s Lesson: Saint John Climacus
The Church commemorates Saint John Scholasticus, or Climacus (which means ‘of the Ladder’), a 6th c. monastic and theologian at St Catherine’s Monastery in Mount Sinai, who wrote the famous book The Ladder of Divine Ascent. For the faithful, the Ladder is the spiritual guide on how to attain perfection in thirty steps – each step is the desired virtue that brings the soul closer to God.
LESSONS AND CRAFTS FOR ALL AGES
Lesson and activities for this week »
GOSPEL READING
Sunday of St. John Climacus
Mark 9:17-31At that time, a man came to Jesus kneeling and saying: "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able." And he answered them, "O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me." And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, "How long has he had this?" And he said, "From childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us." And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again." And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, "He is dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting." They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise."
THE LENTEN PRAYER OF SAINT EPHRAIM THE SYRIAN
This beautiful prayer is read on the weekdays of Great Lent. It is a supplicatory prayer to our Lord and Savior to take away our passions and give us virtues – prostrations recommended:
O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk. (prostration)
But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. (prostration)
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. (prostration)
Amen.
Before you end your Sunday School session
Light a candle and pray for those who are sick and suffering; those who are needy; those who are well; and our church family, that we may all be together again soon to worship in our beautiful church
Light a virtual candle » (For instructions, click on the HELP tab)
In the icon for this Sunday, the ladder represents our path in life and how we want it to lead to Christ. When we’re on the ladder, we are surrounded by angels to help guide us there. However, the dark figures are meant to remind us of temptations that can pull us off the ladder and away from Jesus. The bottom part of the icon shows a life without accepting Jesus’s love is lived in a dark place. On the left of the icon, we see St. John preaching. In the top left, the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist remind us to pray always and keep God at the center of our lives.