Orthodox Portal

People concern themselves with Christian upbringing but leave it incomplete: they neglect the most essential and most difficult side of the Christian life and dwell on what is easiest, the visible and external. This imperfect or misdirected upbringing produces people who observe with utmost correctness all the formal and outward rules for devout conduct, but who pay little or no attention to the inward movements of the heart and to true improvement of inner spiritual life. They are strangers to mortal sins, but they do not heed the play of thoughts in the heart.

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The beginning of any new ecclesiastical year invites us to enter once again into the mystery of our redemption, for it is in the context of the Church’s yearly liturgical cycle that God’s saving interaction with humanity is both experienced and celebrated. Our liturgical year, with its own cycle of feasts and fasts and its own rhythm of jubilation and penance, is a prelude to the joy of eternity. In the liturgical year, time and eternity forge an inseparable bond, and we are united to the great and saving events of the past even as we are called to enter the fullness of that which is yet to come.

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1. Limit the amount of time you spend watching television, listening to audio equipment or the radio. Use media such as the Internet sparingly except for spiritual reading or religious-oriented programming.
2. Donate money to others, to the Church, to some poor family, some social or educational work of which you know. Be sure not to tell anyone what you have done.
3. Maintain the Fast as much as possible. Try to avoid all flesh meat. This should be the absolute minimum requirement of the Fast and an example of practicing self-control…. Do not judge others who may not seem to be fasting. It may be possible that their personal struggle is, in reality, much more difficult than your own.
4. Observe prayer time at home, school, or work, at least once each day, preferably at the same time. Observe a short Rule of Prayer, but keep it faithfully every day of the Fast.

(The Orthodox Chruch A to Z. Father George Grube, Light and Life Publishing.)

The Presentation or “Meeting” of our Lord Jesus Christ is better known in the West under the name of Purification of the Holy Virgin. Like the majority of feasts of Palestinian origin, that of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple belongs to Christian antiquity. Aetheria (end of the 4th century) saw it celebrated in Jerusalem with a procession and with great solemnity. This feast was to be introduced in Constantinople in the 6th century under Justinian, and thence passed to Rome in the course of the 7th century. The practice of holding candles during the Feast, introduced in Jerusalem about 450, has been preserved in the West: hence the name of Candlemas….

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“Don’t pressure your children,” says Elder Porphyrios. “Whatever you want to say to them, say it with your prayers. Children don’t listen with their ears. They’ll only listen to what we want to tell them when divine grace appears and enlightens them. When you want to say something to your child, say it to the Theotokos instead and she will do all the work. Your prayer will become a spiritual hug, which will embrace your children and captivates them….”

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