Sunday School lesson on Mid-Lent Sunday of the Cross 2016
- Thanksgiving prayer for Holy Communion
- Hand out prosphora
- Hand out prayer ropes and pray the Jesus prayer together
- Because of unforeseen circumstances (illness), the Pascha Passports have not been handed out yet and the quilted ‘map’ has not begun. So we are going to do some
catch up here, a good reminder to the kids of where they have been in Lent
via the Sundays of Lent and where they are now in Lent (midway point).
To catch up please do the following:
- Put the Sundays that are already done on the Lenten Journey map -
This will be the first two Sundays of Lent and hand out the post card icons that go with these.
Note: let the kids take turns on putting these up, they love to do this!
- Hand out the Pascha Passports, have them put their names in the front where there is a ‘name place’ for them.
- Hand out the stickers for the Triodion Sundays and the first two Sundays of Lent (you will do the third one, for today, later).
4. Our lesson will be the following:
- Put cloth icon of the Adoration of the Holy Cross on the Lenten Journey Map (let a child who has not had a turn put it up!)
- Hand out today's Postcard icon
- Today is the Sunday of the Holy Cross - the following is the lesson, with areas where you can have the kids talk about the ideas just mentioned.
This Sunday is here, right in the middle of Lent, to encourage us.
Sometimes Lent is a time of unexpected challenges and struggles - things we could not of foreseen, sometimes it can be sickness, or grief or just the inability to do what we wanted to do in Lent this year - maybe you are not praying as much as you meant to and are struggling with Great Lent.
So, in many ways we all feel tired and maybe discouraged.
Or we realize that while we feel good, we did not do anything ‘special yet for Lent’ and forgot
That Great Lent is a time to pray more.
Maybe you forgot to do your Jesus Prayer in the last weeks or forgot to say
Good morning to Jesus before you went to school and forgot to pray.
Or maybe you meant to be kinder to your sister, brother or parents and you forgot.
Or maybe you are struggling to love and obey your Mom or your Dad.
In many different ways we can feel like we forgot all about Lent and were not able to do
What we meant to do for this special time of Great Lent.
TALK:
Have you felt any of this discouragement?
Have you forgotten to honour Lent by doing an extra prayer to God?
What are ways that kids can struggle and find Great Lent hard?
This can be a time to let them talk about the above and about how God forgives us when we fail, that all those who are old enough can go to Confession about the struggles and that we ALL struggle with Great Lent.
After talking about this, continue…:
So today we need to do something!
We need to look UP and see the Holy Cross.
We must LOVE the Holy Cross.
Just like in your icon, the Bishop and the people are holding up the Cross and loving the Cross of Christ that St. Helene found, so we need to look up to the Cross and be glad also!
Something that can be hard is that we all have ‘Crosses’ in this life.
Maybe your cross is sadness or that you are sick or your sibling is sick or
You get teased at school or you feel discouraged or sad in some other way.
Everyone has struggles. But the Cross is the answer to these struggles and where we can get
Real encouragement in them!
What the Cross of Christ can do for us and why we need to honour Christ’s Cross is that the Church Fathers call the Tree of Life - so even our personal crosses can contribute to bring us to Christ where we will find LIFE and encouragement too.
Christ was crucified on the Cross and by the Cross He defeated Death.
We must see the Cross like someone in earlier times would see
The King’s Banner held high and know that the King is coming and he is victorious!
So the Cross is a Cross of Victory because Christ won over death and went down to hades where
Adam and Eve and others we know from the Old Testament were waiting for Christ to come and bring them out to be with Him forever.
We can bear our personal Cross - our struggles - because Christ went to the Cross first. Christ can show us the way. The Lord knows that we struggle in this life and He loves us. He is here to be with us. He sends His Cross to us at this time to encourage us, to remind us that He has won the final victory over struggle, over sadness, over illness and over death.
TALK:
What are ways that you can see that Christ’s Cross can help you?
When you see a Cross what do you think of?
Have you learned anything new about the Cross since we have been talking about It here, today ?
Why is the Cross linked to Pascha?
Answers can include….
Because Christ went willingly to the Cross to die for us and then rose from the dead on Pascha, we can be in heaven with Him forever. Christ’s LOVE is BIGGER than anyone else’s love for you. Christ went to the Cross for you so you can be with God forever and can have the comfort of Christ’s Presence in your life NOW and in heaven.
It is worth every suffering we have now and it is worth being a Christian and following Christ
and struggling to love Christ more by remembering to pray to Him, by obeying His instructions, looking to Him to save us in our struggles - this is how we carry our own cross in this life.
The Cross is our Protection, it is our HOPE because Christ won over EVERYTHING that causes
suffering, pain, disappointment and sadness.
The Cross we wear around our necks reminds us of Christ’s Victory and that with Christ we can be in heaven one day, where all sadness, sickness and sorrow will be gone forever
And we will be glad and happy with Christ who loves us more than anyone else in the world.
TALK:
Why is it worth following Christ and taking up His Cross and bearing our own sadness in this life?
Answers can include and be suggested …
~Christ’s love for us is bigger than anyone else's
~Heaven is the best place we could ever want to be, with no more struggles, disappointments, pain or sorrow - no more worries either
~The Cross gives us encouragement, comfort & protection when we are feeling alone, tired or sad
~When we bear our sadness in this life as our personal cross that we need to take up, Christ is with us helping us carry our Cross. If we did not take up our suffering for Christ, we would have no reason for it and we would be alone with it instead of with Christ.
~The Cross and our personal cross can be what saves us and leads us to heaven if we will keep looking to Christ and His Cross to help us
DO:
Draw how the Cross of Christ can help you and why the Cross brings encouragement to you.
