Post date: Jan 25, 2015 9:30:31 PM

Dear Parents of Kindergarteners and 1st Graders,

Below is a summary of the lessons for the past few classes. We hope that you find this helpful when you discuss church school with your children. We have been focusing on the parts of the Divine Liturgy and we are trying to help the children understand what is happening in church and what they are seeing. This coming Sunday we will be discussing the Gospel and we will be going into church to discuss with Father Nick, parents are more than welcome to join us.

Lesson 7: For this lesson we concentrated on the Lord’s Prayer and discussed what each verse means. The kid’s also practiced the prayer as we do every Sunday. Please practice the Lord’s Prayer with each of your children during the week. We will be starting to have the children recite a verse from the Lord’s Prayer when we say it as a group so that each child becomes comfortable with the words, etc.

Lesson 8: For this lesson we talked about the Little Entrance or Small Entrance in the Divine Liturgy. We talked about: When is the Little entrance? When father comes out with the altar boys and is holding the Gospel early in the service. What do we see when this happens? The altar boys come out first holding candles, then the priest and deacon follow with carrying the Gospel. What does it symbolize or mean? There are angles surrounding them as they guide God’s entrance into the world, it symbolizes God coming into the world and his baptism. Who is on the altar? The altar boys, priest and deacon. Why does father hold the Gospel in front of his face? In the Orthodox faith we focus on Christ (Gospel), not the priest. Why is father’s back turned to us? So we can focus on the altar where the blood and body of Christ are. We discussed that we focus on Christ instead of the priest and this is what makes our faith different from other faiths. The kids have been working on an ongoing project about the Divine Liturgy and when they are complete they will bring them home and you will be able to discuss the different parts with them.

Please bring in your items for the Thanksgiving Food Drive to help SOS Community Services before November 16 :

Each Church School student should please donate one item based on their Grade as shown below:

Preschool: 1 can of Corn

K–1st Grade: 1 box of Potato Flakes

2nd–3rd Grade: 1 can of Green Beans

4th–5th Grade: 1 box/bag of Stuffing

6th–7th Grade: 1 can of Cranberry Sauce

8th–9th Grade: 1 can of Mixed Fruit

10th–12th Grade: 1 small box/bag of Rice.

A collection box with a sample food item has been placed in each classroom. All donated food items are due no later than the Sunday before Thanksgiving: November 16, 2014 Please try to bring your donated food item as early as possible.

It has been a pleasure to teach your children so far. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Have a Blessed week and we look forward to seeing you and your children on Sunday!

Maria Hochendoner

Andrea McRae, DVM

Margarita Bekiares

Dr. Karen Kolias