On the Liturgical Year for Teachers: Pentecost and the Time After Pentecost (part 7 of 7)

This series of blog posts will offer basic information and resources regarding the liturgical year. It is our hope that Sunday Church School teachers will find this series helpful as they live the liturgical year with their students. The series will follow the church year in sections, as divided in the book “The Year of Grace of the Lord: a Scriptural and Liturgical Commentary on the Calendar of the Orthodox Church” by a monk of the Eastern Church. May God bless His Church throughout this year!

Our final installment in this series on the liturgical year for teachers focuses on Pentecost and the time immediately following Pentecost. The time of Pentecost is a fitting “end” to the liturgical year, for Pentecost marked “both a culmination and a start. A new way was opening to the disciples, but they had prepared themselves for it.” (1, p. 213) The monk continues, “…we cannot enter into Pentecost without preparation. We need first to have assimilated the whole spiritual substance that the fifty days between Easter and Pentecost have offered us. Before that, we need to have experienced the risen Christ: the days of the Passion, too, need to have been lived through. In short, one must have matured.” (1, p. 213) So, in many ways, Pentecost is the logical ending to the spiritual work we have done throughout the liturgical year. And when we join together with the apostles and the Theotokos in prayer and expectation, the Holy Spirit is able to move in our lives just as He did at Pentecost. The author goes on to talk about how the theme of light in the liturgical year comes to its fulfillment at Pentecost: “this divine light first appears with the birth of Christ; it grows with Him; on Easter night it triumphs over the darkness; at Pentecost it reaches its full zenith… The riches and symbolism of the liturgical year are worth nothing if they do not help this ‘inner light’ to guide our life.” (1, p. 217)

Historically, pentecost was an Old Testament feast, celebrated 50 days after Passover, and it celebrated the 10 Commandments being given to the Israelites. At Pentecost, “…the pentecostal feast is fulfilled and made new by the coming of the ‘new law,’ the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples… This moment has traditionally been called the birthday of the Church.” (2, p. 113) The feast of Pentecost “is the celebration of what must happen and does happen to us in the church today. We have all died and risen with the Messiah-King, and we have all received his Most Holy Spirit. We are the ‘temples of the Holy Spirit.’ God’s Spirit dwells in us… We… have received ‘the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit’ in the sacrament of chrismation. Pentecost has happened to us.” (2, pp. 115-116)

And the Church year does not stop with Pentecost! A few more important feasts remain for us to note after Pentecost and before the beginning of the new Church year. Among them are the Feast of the Transfiguration, the feast celebrating the event which confirmed for His disciples the divinity of Christ. “Next to Jesus appear Moses and Elijah. Moses represents the law. Elijah the prophets. Jesus is the fulfilment of all law and of all prophecy. He is the final completion of the whole of the Old Covenant; He is the fulness of all divine revelation.” (1, p. 240)

The Feast of the Dormition also falls during this final portion of the Church year. The monk who wrote “The Year of the Grace of Our Lord” offers this thought about the importance of the placement of this feast, calling it a feast “not only of Mary, but of all human nature. For, in Mary, human nature reached its goal. One week after the start of the liturgical year, we celebrate the birth of the most Holy Virgin. Two weeks before the end of the liturgical year, we celebrate the death and glorification of Mary. Thus, associated with and subordinate to the cycle of Jesus’ life, the cycle of Mary’s life manifests the destiny and development of a human nature which is entirely faithful to God. It is the human race which is carried up and received into heaven with her… the perfect flowering of grace that we marvel at in mary on August 15th suggests what the line of development could be in a soul which applied itself to making the great gifts received during the liturgical year  — the gift of Christmas, the gift of Easter and the gift of Pentecost — bear their fruit.” (1, p. 244).

Of the liturgical year as a whole, the monk writes, “This cycle never repeats itself; each one of its aspects reflects the inexhaustible depth and fullness of Christ, and, as a result, becomes new for us to the extent that we understand it better. The liturgical year is a prism which receives the white light of Christ and splits it into different colours. Christ is the year.” (1, p. 246) As we live live each liturgical year that our Lord bestows upon us, may we continually grow to understand the liturgical cycle better. May we also help our Sunday Church School students to do the same.

Footnotes:

1. A monk of the Eastern Church. The Year of Grace of the Lord. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press; 2001.

2. Fr. Thomas Hopko. The Orthodox Faith volume ii: Worship. Syosset, NY: OCA, 1972. Fifth printing, 1997.

Here are some related links, including ideas for teaching students about Pentecost and the time after Pentecost:

***

The book featured in this blog post offers a plethora of information about each of the feasts, and can help you to prepare to teach your students about Pentecost! https://orthodoxchurchschoolteachers.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/gleanings-from-a-book-heaven-meets-earth-celebrating-pascha-and-the-twelve-feasts-by-john-skinas/

***

Find ideas for helping your students learn about Pentecost here: https://orthodoxchurchschoolteachers.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/teaching-children-about-the-feast-of-pentecost/

***
This blog post about teaching children about Pentecost looks at light and its involvement in the feast: https://orthodoxchurchschoolteachers.wordpress.com/2016/06/10/on-light-and-the-feast-of-pentecost/

***

Share this book with younger students. http://www.stbarbaramonastery.org/product/TGF-PENT Listen to Dr. Chrissi Hart’s reading of the book at the beginning of this podcast: http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/grapevine/readings_from_under_the_grapevine_program_7

***

Find a short lesson on Pentecost here: http://www.orthodoxabc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/023-EN-ed02_Pentecost.pdf

***

Find printable activities about Pentecost for use with students in the middle years here: http://dce.oca.org/assets/files/resources/Pentecost-Activities.pdf

***

Find out about the Serbian tradition of strewing grass on the floor of the church in the Pentecost portion of the article “How Orthodox People Celebrate the Feasts” in the Little Falcons Magazine “Feasts.” (back issue #31, available here: http://www.littlefalcons.net/pdf/2016_Backissues.pdf)

***

Begin a discussion about Pentecost with your students by looking at the icon of the feast. Perhaps you could also share with them one of these children’s homilies about the icon:
Fr. Noah Buschelli’s children’s homily on the icon of Pentecost can be found here: http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/letthechildren/pentecost

Fr. Seraphim Holland’s homily includes enthusiastic answers from children: http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/redeemingtime/childrens_sermon_on_pentecost

***

Discuss with your older students the “kneeling prayers” before the service itself. Read slowly through the prayers, thoughtfully wondering about each part and allowing students to make connections as they are able. This post summarizes and offers some of the scriptures behind each prayer, and could be a helpful starting place: http://stgeorgegoc.org/pastors-corner/fr-ricks-sermons/why-kneel-before-god-purposemeaning-of-kneeling-prayers-of-pentecost (Find the text to the service here: https://www.goarch.org/-/the-great-vespers-of-pentecost)
***

Listen to St. Romanos’ words on Pentecost, read here by Kh. Frederica Mathewes-Green: http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/frederica/on_pentecost   

***

You and your students can prepare for the Feast of the Transfiguration by studying the homilies about the feast found in this blog post: https://orthodoxchurchschoolteachers.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/preparing-for-the-transfiguration-of-christ-august-6/

***

Here are some ideas of ways to help your students learn about the Feast of the Transfiguration:
https://orthodoxchurchschoolteachers.wordpress.com/2016/07/29/on-the-feast-of-the-transfiguration-of-christ-august-6-or-19/

***

Learn together about the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos with some of the ideas found in this blog: https://orthodoxchurchschoolteachers.wordpress.com/2016/08/05/on-the-feast-of-the-dormition-of-the-theotokos-august-15-or-28/

***

Help your students to make these (free!) printable centerpieces for their prayer table or dinner table, for each feast: http://www.antiochian.org/1127698508

***

On the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ (August 6 or 19)

The Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ (commemorated on August 6 or 19) is an important one for Orthodox Christians to celebrate! After all, the Transfiguration was a revelation of the Holy Trinity (God the Father spoke, Christ was there, of course, and the Holy Spirit was revealed in the form of a cloud). Also, at the Transfiguration, Christ’s radiance was physically seen by the disciples so that they could better realize His Divinity. In addition, Moses and Elijah were present, showing the disciples that in Christ the law and the prophecies are fulfilled. And so it was that on Mt. Tabor, God allowed the disciples to have their own “mountaintop” experience, just as Moses (Mt. Sinai) and Elijah (Mt. Horeb) had during their life on earth.

Since this Feast is important, we need to learn about it ourselves, help our children know about it, and together celebrate the Feast! Transfiguration is a difficult concept for anyone to grasp, but especially so for children. How can we help our children learn what it was like for the disciples to see Our Lord’s Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor? Our Lord did not slip into a hidden wardrobe and change out of His ordinary clothes into shiny robes, nor did He simply step into a giant spotlight shining down from the sky. Rather, the disciples were simply permitted to physically see some of His Divine Glory shining through. (But not all of it: just “inasmuch as they were able,” according to the troparion of the day). So, how can we begin to explain or show the Transfiguration to our children?

One way to illustrate this concept would be to decorate three little plastic tubes to represent Christ, Moses, and Elijah.

We used permanent marker to turn two (upside down) spray hand sanitizer tubes to create “Moses” (holding a walking stick and tablets with the Ten Commandments) and “Elijah” (hands folded in prayer, over a burning fire). Then we took a new (blue) glow stick (also upside down) and added a smiley face for “Christ.” The story can be reenacted with these “characters,” using a throw pillow “Mt. Tabor.”

“Christ” can climb to the top of the mountain to pray.

While the disciples (all the people gathered to hear the story) watch, “Moses” and “Elijah” can appear, sparking a discussion that includes why they are holding what they are holding, and why they were even part of this event in the first place, as answered in the paragraph above.

At the moment of Christ’s Transfiguration, break the glass vial inside the glowstick, allowing the blue to emanate from it. Be sure to explain that, just as the glowstick could have been glowing at any moment (all of the right ingredients were there, but protected from mixing and glowing), Christ is always Divine. However, His disciples could not always see Him illumined, because God was protecting them from something that they would not have understood. It might have even scared them if He was always radiant! (At some point, you may also want to explain that God did not have to “do something” to Christ to make Him radiate; as we have to do something to the glowstick to make it glow. Unfortunately, as always, the analogy falls short of the truth.) However, on Mt. Tabor, God allowed the disciples to see some of His radiance, to help them know beyond the shadow of a doubt that He is God (and also to help them understand that His forthcoming crucifixion was voluntary, according to the kontakion of the day).

As the shining glowstick “Christ” sits atop Mt. Tabor, talk together about what it must have been like for the disciples to have experienced this reality, and why it is so important to our Orthodox Faith that we celebrate the Transfiguration as one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Church.

“When, O Christ our God, Thou wast transfigured on the mountain, Thou didst reveal Thy glory to Thy Disciples in proportion as they could bear it. Let Thine everlasting light also enlighten us sinners, through the intercessions of the Theotokos, O God Thou Bestower of light, glory to Thee!”

Here are some links that can help you and your Sunday Church School Students learn more about the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ, as well as ideas to help you celebrate the feast together:

*
Continue to learn together about the Feast of the Transfiguration in the book http://store.ancientfaith.com/heaven-meets-earth

*

Listen to the hymns for the feast: https://www.goarch.org/-/listen-to-the-hymns-of-the-feast-of-transfiguration?inheritRedirect=true

*

If there is time during class (or in place of the lesson), watch this video by the Department of Religious Education of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America with your students. “Rich with enlightening interviews, music, festal hymns, icons, and beautiful visuals, this program is sure to inspire and provoke thoughtful exploration of Orthodox worship. At the end of the presentation is a set of questions for exploration and discussion. It is designed to be used by an individual or family, as well as in a group setting such as a parish Bible study or adult church school class.” https://www.goarch.org/-/the-transfiguration-exploring-the-feasts-of-the-orthodox-christian-church?inheritRedirect=true

Print this folding stand-up centerpiece about the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ for your students’ dining room table or icon corner: http://www.antiochian.org/sites/default/files/assets/asset_manager/44cc08f7375825e0a722417e140a9cce.pdf

*

Find printable activity sheets about the Transfiguration, geared for older children here: https://www.scribd.com/document/273631504/Orthodox-Transfiguraton-Worksheets

*

This transfiguration activity can help to explain the word itself. Use the content in the context of the story of Christ’s transfiguration to add to the mystery of transfiguration! All you need is paper, a cotton swab, lemon juice, and an iron:  http://aprilfiet.com/theology-culture/now-see-transfiguration-sunday-childrens-lesson

*

“Saint Seraphim of Sarov’s life teaches us how we are to nourish our experience of the Transfiguration of Christ. The New Testament, the Psalms, the teaching of Saint Isaac the Syrian, the Jesus Prayer, prayer to the Mother of God, Paschal joy, hiding away from the limelight, compassion and absence of harshness: these were the characteristics of Saint Seraphim’s life. We can acquire some of them. Let us start by seeing what we can do with the New Testament, with the Jesus Prayer, and with the Mother of God…” Read more about the Transfiguration and how we can allow God to transform our lives, in the same way that St. Seraphim of Sarov did: http://www.pravmir.com/can-nourish-experience-transfiguration-christ/

*

Older students will benefit from reading and discussing +Metropolitan Anthony Bloom’s homily on the transfiguration: https://myocn.net/37960-2/