As you all know we are about to enter into the season of Great Lent, a season of the year that the Holy Fathers call the “tithe of the year” because we offer 10% of our time back to God through worship, fasting, and prayer.

For our Church School, too, in order to help focus our children and teenagers on to the opportunities given to us during this holy season, we will be undertaking a 5 week program called “The Resurrection in the Old Testament.” This program will study many of the Old Testament “prefigurations” of the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, mainly the binding of Isaac by Abraham on Mt. Moriah, betrayal of Joseph by his brothers, the crossing of the Red Sea at Passover, Jonah being swallowed by the whale, and the deliverance of the three Holy Youths from the Babylonian fiery furnace.

In order to help further these Old Testament studies, we will also be providing each family with the scripture readings for these stories along with a number of questions that the whole family can meditate on during the course of the week.

We also would like to emphasize that in the final sense, the best instruction for our children in the faith is participation in the Lenten Services themselves. We therefore ask that careful planning be done during the next 6 weeks so that other extracurricular activities do not impede our attendance at these divine services.

May God help us to have a blessed and fruitful Great Lent.

With love in Christ,

Fr. Paul Jannakos
Rector, St. Luke Orthodox Church