For Orthodox, springtime usually comes smack in the middle of our Lenten season. The Lenten season, or Great Lent, is definitely a time of reflection, more of self than other things, and renewal. It is the time of anticipation before Pascha (Easter), the biggest, best feast day in the whole year. The reason why Christianity exists in the first place!
So, why is it a reflection of yourself? Why a "renewal" of sorts? Well, the purpose of Great Lent is to deny yourself things that might take precedence in your life over the things that really matter, as in spiritually. So, you deny yourself materialistic needs/wants/pleasures and focus on your inner self, your spiritual needs and most importantly, your journey to salvation. It is a time to feed your soul, which (let's be honest here) is pretty much starving, or atleast very hungry, for most of the year.
This isn't an easy task. By far, I have always found Great Lent to be one of the hardest, yet most gratifying times of the year. The services are so incredibly solemn, even Sunday liturgy is sung in a less "festal" way than the rest of the year, the food is meager (well, technically it should be but that's another blog post), thoughts are checked, activities are restricted and the general mood of an everyday Orthodox household becomes one of contemplation and quiet refection. Now, I write this knowing full well that this is the ideal situation. How many times (countless, really) have I said to myself "hmm, this is probably not such a great idea to do during Lent" and still gone ahead and treated myself or not thought twice about whatever it is I want to do - wrong attitude? Yes. Am I human? Yes. But that's not an excuse. Trust me.
So, with all of this in mind, and knowing that the true meaning of Great Lent is to "deny oneself, as Christ did for us." How in the world do you do so with a 5 year old, and a 15 month old? Are they too young to participate fully in Great Lent? I believe so. But I do believe that they can try to contribute in their own small way to the season of fasting. And I do believe that as parents, we need to lead by example so as my children do grow older, they follow in our (very humble and faulty) footsteps. So what exactly do we do in our household? I've come up with a few ideas that I'll share here.
First off, we don't make a giant deal of it. We treat Great Lent not like a huge journey or a massive undertaking. We treat it as a way of life - as an important part of the journey to Pascha and the ultimate reason for us being Orthodox Christians. I explain it to my daughter as it's just something that we do. Did Christ deny himself for us? Yes. So why can't we do the same for Him?
We read the Prayer of St. Ephraim every morning, except on weekends. This is such a small, yet powerful prayer. And the simple task of prostrating is such a beautiful way to show your ultimate humility before God that it really speaks to children. My daughter was incredulous when she first started to read this prayer with me in the morning. She looked at it like "exercise, mama." Well, I guess in a way, sweetpea, it is, but really it's about showing God that nothing is too hard for us to do for Him. Including this small prayer asking Him to cleanse us of our sins, have mercy on us and make us better.
We create a spiritual map of the 40 days of Lent. This is a wonderful way for my daughter to see what the Lenten season is all about. What feast days are included and how each week has a different dedication, based on the Lenten calendar. For now, we are just illustrating a makeshift calendar and colouring in the different dedicated Sundays but eventually we hope to turn this into a lesson and then in depth readings. The older children get, the more detailed the calendar can be.
Food in our house has only changed for my husband and for myself. Our children don't fully fast yet. My daughter does appreciate, however, and makes remarks about how our food is different and how she's glad she doesn't have to "eat that right now." Oh boy. This will hopefully change!
Taking them to church on a regular basis (as services allow, based on when the local church we go to has them) is important to us. Although my daughter is still too small to understand the special meaning behind the services, she does catch on that there is something different to them, or that the feeling in the church is different to her. The more exposure to these special services, including regular Sunday attendance, the better for her and eventually for my son too. It is my wish for my children to feel at home in church, and to look around and say "this feels right." Rather than me telling them that it is so.
This year, I will also be encouraging my daughter to start thinking of others, and how she can become a better person by helping in some way. She is 5, but she can come up with ideas of her own that I will help her with. Last year, she decided that "being nicer to Mama and Papa" was a goal of hers (bless her little heart). We solemnly wrote it down and tacked it to our board in the kitchen as a reminder to her. Every time she felt she was "nice" and we would agree with her (this was the important part, since every 5 minutes she'd think she was "good." We told her that it wasn't about when she said she was good, it was about showing us instead. So we had a lot of "let's try again" moments) we would let her put a little checkmark beside her goal - in the end, she didn't win anything or get a prize for how many checkmarks she had, but it was more out of interest's sake to see if she could keep up with her goal for the Lenten fast. Let's just say it was forgotten about after a few weeks of solid effort. BUT at the end of Lent, we still addressed the board and showed her just how much she tried and encouraged her to keep it up all year round. Some great ideas and goals for children can be found in a link at the bottom of this post.
Paschal prep is always a treat too. This is an exciting time for my daughter. She loves to help make the kulichi (Russian Easter bread) and dip the eggs in their traditional red colour. This I will leave to another blog post, however, since Pascha prep deserves one all on its own.
And ultimately, the reading of Christ's journey to the Cross and His Resurrection is also very important throughout the Lenten season. At 5, my daughter understands that Pascha is all about Christ and His Resurrection, but she doesn't quite understand the details of this. The excerpts from the Gospel have been made into wonderful children's books that we will be reading this year. I will include the link to the publisher of these little gems below.
So, all in all, Great Lent brings on a spiritual season all on its own. One of reflection, and understanding Christ's great sacrifice for humankind.
May you all have a blessed Lent and may God bless you in your efforts!
Affiliated Links:
Lenten Calendar: http://manymercies.blogspot.ca/2014/02/orthodox-lenten-calendar-printable.html
Lenten/Paschal books and activities:
http://orthodoxchildrensbooks.com/eng/index.php/Paschal/View-all-products.html
Another fellow blogger's ideas for how to get children involved with Lent:
http://www.theorthodoxmama.com/the-lenten-journey-ways-to-involve-children-in-great-lent/
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