Explaining the Orthodox Christmas Fast to Children

Up until a few years ago, my family belonged to an Orthodox church that had never been large in membership and whose numbers were steadily declining.

My husband and I created a religious education for the handful of youth (which actually grew in number during this time). We also created space for a youth group by remodeling buildings on our property and adding an additional one.

We also planned a number of programs to engage them (and us!) in the liturgical life of the Eastern church.

One of those programs was an annual retreat shortly before the start of the Nativity fast. Most people know this season before Christmas as Advent, except that, in the Eastern Christian church, Advent begins on November 15.

The retreat consisted of activities, lunch, plenty of conversation, and a workbook that I wrote. Yes, if I couldn't find the materials I wanted, I wrote my own.

Below is the introduction to one of those workbooks, this one from 2006. The attempt was to explain eternal truths in a way that children and adults could both grasp.

I'm sharing it today because it's the first day of Advent in the Orthodox church but, more importantly, I'm sharing it today because maybe you, the reader, may find something of value in it - a word, a phrase - that deepens the Christmas season for you this year.

The Orthodox church, in its wisdom, gives us a few weeks to prepare our bodies, minds and hearts to receive the gift of salvation that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ offers to us. The Nativity (Christmas) fast begins on Nov. 15. It is also sometimes called St. Philip’s Fast, because Nov. 15 is the feast day of St. Philip.

 In a traditional Orthodox fast, people do not eat any milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, sour cream, eggs, meat or olive oil until Christmas. But for many of us, this will be impossible. We should try to give up at least one of these foods until then. Either way, we try to eat less, so we can feel hungry. This will remind us that we need God in our lives. But we can also do some other things too to prepare for Jesus’ birth.

 We should go to Holy Confession at least once during the fast and try to fast from sin. What kinds of things are sin?

 We can also try to cut down on the things that amuse us—movies, video and computer games, CDs and ipod, talking on the telephone—and replace that time with reading the Bible or other books about Jesus (see our church library) and doing do things for other people.

 What other kinds of things can we do?

 Why is this preparation necessary? Have you ever had a birthday party? Supposing you had been playing outside all day. Perhaps you might want to take a shower and put on some clean clothes before the party.

 Well, that is kind of what the Nativity fast is like. By sinning, we have been playing in dirt. But now we are preparing to receive a gift greater then the best birthday present, Jesus Christ, who takes the punishment for our sins and restores us in image and likeness of God.

 There is another reason why we prepare. Remember how when Mary was about to give birth to Jesus she and Joseph had trouble finding somewhere to stay? Remember what they were told?

 If we compare our hearts and minds to an inn, then we can understand how important it is to make room in our lives—our inn—to let Jesus come into it.

 What a beautiful miracle Jesus’ birth is. Let’s think about this. He who created the whole world is born as a helpless baby. He, who holds the entire universe in the palm of His hand, was held in the arms of his mother Mary.

 The Nativity of Jesus Christ—Christmas—is not just about God coming down to us, but us rising up to Him.

 Sin makes us dead to God. The more we sin, the less we want to pray, go to church and read about God. Without God, we are dead inside because we are not the people he created us to be.

 It is only with God that we can ever live a full life. When a baby is born, the doctor gives it a little slap to make it cry, to force air into its lungs. If this doesn’t happen, the baby will not live.

Christmas, for us, is like this. Some wise person once said that people took their first real, deep breath when the baby Jesus cried His first cry.

 Because only then could life in God happen. “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” John 10:10.

 

 

10 Surprising Facts About Me

A rare piece of self-indulgence.

For those who'd rather here about my writing updates, a quick summary of this weekend: some reading, some walking, good progress on both The Phoenix and Lycanthropic Summer, and some editing for two clients (first round on a book of short horror stories and third round on a literary novel).

Scant progress on the short story for a special project.

LOTS of great interviews set up for today for Herald-News features stories.

Have a wonderful Monday! :)


10 Surprising Facts About Me


1) I have never colored my hair.

The gray is in there...somewhere. And will eventually overtake all the brown. I'm cool with it.

2) I eat the same thing for breakfast every day.

Banana, cereal (uncooked oatmeal, wheatgerm and reconstituted powdered milk), half a cucumber, water, dark roast coffee

3) My childhood pets were goldfish.

Even if I wasn't allergic to everything else, my grandfather raised goldfish. He had a beautifully landscaped pond in his backyard on Parnell in Chicago (before it was chic to have such things) and built a 90 gallon tank into the floor of his basement.

He griped about the kids who crept into his yard and stole his fish by carrying them away in empty coffee cans ("Don't they realize you need a gallon of water for every inch of fish!" he'd fume) and surprised me on the Christmas when I was nine (the first year I realized Santa Claus truly didn't exist), much to the annoyance of my mother. I named every fish.

4) My favorite activity in the whole world is reading.

The real reason why I write. Writing is work; reading is heavenly. I have to make myself write every. single. day.

But I love great stories. So I keep pushing myself to write one.

5) If you are talking to me on the phone, I am probably walking.

Unless I am interviewing you. If not, I am up and moving. As soon as the phone rings, I am on my feet.

6) I was one of those weird nursing moms who nursed their kids for a long time.

Average weaning age: 4. And lest you think it makes kids "dependent," my six kids are some of the most strong-willed, opinionated, independent group of adults you'll ever meet.

7) I'm allergic to the world.

Real allergies, the stuff that sends people to the ER and and for allergy shots for a long time. Too many to mention all here.

And I have chronic hives, for which I've been prescribed off-label amounts of antihistamines. And asthma. I cover up in the sun or I wind up in welts. I layer up in the cold or I end up in welts.

Molds, trees, grasses, animals, peanuts, sunflower, several antibiotics: the list goes on.

8) I'm alive because I figured out my own rare tumor.

It's called a pheochromocytoma.

I figured it out by tracking symptoms and my blood pressure and glucose levels with home monitoring systems. The endocrine team was impressed at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, although it was pretty scary to have a semi circle of these professionals surround your bed because they're concerned of how sick you are. Especially when you have little kids back home.

This will kill you unless it is discovered and then removed by someone who knows how to handle this tumor, which is a landmine of lethal catecholamines.

Read more about this rare and dangerous tumor here.

9) My husband and I remodeled parts of our property to support a youth group.

Our church had no space for one. So we spent upwards of $30,000 to convert two garages, a wooden shed, and the built another structure to create space for a playroom, work shop, game room, and movie room complete with a state-of-the-art TV (at the time).

We called it The Higher Ark and we ran it from 2005 to 2009 until my husband (who wound up with early onset dementia) was too ill to continue it. He lost his job the following year, and we lost our home (which his parents built) in 2013.

We are now divorced, and he is in a nursing home. But if he was proud of anything in his life, it was The Higher Ark.

10) In 2006, I had a Grammy award-winning singer perform my backyard.

My favorite Christian band is Petra. Its lead singer John Schlitt (all my husband's idea) hung out with the youth group and their families on the feast day of St. John the Baptist that June.

We had a pig roast and John performed karaoke style on our back porch. We have the DVD and newspaper clippings to prove it. The next day, he attended church with us and gave a short performance at our church.

"Eat a Bug"

The following event brought back a memory that made me grin.

https://www.reconnectwithnature.org/news-events/event-calendar/october-2019/eat-a-bug/eat-a-bug-october-12

Years ago, when Ron and I ran The Higher Ark youth ministry on our property for our church, we had a back porch full of kids eating bugs.

Live crickets, to be exact.

For a celebration of the feast day of St. John the Baptist.

It started off with one man in his early 20s, who brought his younger siblings to the group. He approached me and asked if I thought if the kids would like to see him eat a live cricket dipped in honey. Knowing kids, I told him they would.

So he stopped at pet supply store on the way to my house to buy a bag full of live crickets. He poured honey on a plate, dipped a live cricket, and to a chorus of Ewwwws!" ate it in front of a dozen kids.

 The kids all thought it was gross until a 17-year-old, who had been running late due to babysitting, showed up and said, "Game on!"

From that point forward, the kids outdid each other as to who could eat more of them. One teen girl got a feeler stuck in her tooth and simply pulled it out.

One teen boy polished off the last three with a large spoonful of honey and turned a bit green. But he only said, "The honey is too sweet."

I was fearing latent cricket allergies and irate parents.

Neither happened.

But it turned out to be a great lesson in peer pressure for the kids.

This is nothing against the Forest Preserve District of Will County's event (many of the world's population do eat bugs, enough that the Old Testament has rules of the ones the Israelites may eat), which is a good way to teach cultural awareness.

But it does show how easily kids, maybe even adults, can be swayed, in either direction, if the right person sways them.

They went from "ick" to practically tripping over themselves to try the same activity once one of their own thought it was cool.

Something to ponder.

Illustration by Matt Coundiff for "Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony."