The weeks before Great Lent are preparatory Sundays , giving us an in sight into what our spiritual journey may encounter in the 6 weeks and Holy Week leading Pascha . Last Sunday was Zacchesus , also you may have  heard it called the story of a man up s tree . The objective of last weeks lessons were to have the different age groups have an understanding of

forgiveness 

Desire 

Faith 

Overcoming 

Prek- grade 3 theme was love and forgiveness . The children heard the story of Zacchesus 

Learned how he was a tax collection was not well liked 

He heard about Christ and wanted to see him 

But couldn’t because of the crowd snd his small size 

He climbed a tree to see Christ 

And more importantly Christ saw him and told him to come down that he Christ would go to his house that day 

This showed that Christ loved him even though he was not always a good person 

And Zacchesus said if he did take anything wrongly he would give it back 4 times  as much . 

The children brought home take home sheets of Zacchesus giving back ; times the money he stole 

They made a Zacchesus up the tree being called down by Christ . 

The middle school group did a activity of overcoming challenges with faith 

Each group of two kids were given a verse from the story scrambled in various ways 

Some were a combo of Serbian Cyrillic,  Latinica, backwards letters and English

Some were written completely backwards  B 

And one was written down small it was not legible even to a child’s good eyesight 

Each child faced the challenge differently 

The first reaction from all was this isn’t possible this is all gibberish this is hard I can’t do it 

It was only after they really focused that they were able to find a solution to problem 

this is a lesson that we need to focus on Christ and through our oneness with God all obstacles in our lives can be overcome 

The point of the activity was to show how Zacchesus overcame all obstacles in his way when   wanted to see Christ ( be near Christ). For him he had both physical and spiritual obstacles ( height and weight, and the sin of deception and the sin of thievery his spiritual obstacle ) both of which he overcame by climb the tree,  climbing high to physically see Christ and climbing above his passion of greed and desiring to make things right in his life. 

Each of the children had to find  a way to overcome the obstacles in their letters to make sense of what was written . 

The objective behind this lesson was to realize what is repentance 

We have to first recognize what is wrong what is pushing us away from God 

Then we have to desire  to want to rise above the obstacles like Zacchesus 

( they kids had to want to find a way to figure out their scrambled sentences) 

Say we are sorry and mean it 

And find a way to make things right again 

In doing  they need to know that Christ is always there to call us back to Him 

Continue to talk about these topics during the  week  have them write at least one question that comes to mind that we can discuss the following Sunday . 

A online lesson on Publican and Pharisee will be sent out on Friday 

Please review these topics to keep them fresh in the minds of the children .  

Sunday of Publican and Pharisee 

Objective : to understand pride vs humility

What is pride 

What is humility 

How and when to pray 

Make prayer bracelets 

Prek - grade two introductory level

What is prayer?  prayer is asking  God to help us. Prayer is thanking God for all His  blessings , prayer is giving glory to God 

When I get up in the morning I say Lord have mercy upon me 

When I have breakfast I say Thank you God our Father for the good you have given me

When I go to Church I sing Lord have mercy Gospodi pomilju

When I go to sleep I say God watch over and protect me during this coming night 

At anytime, before anything I say Lord have Mercy 

Let’s here the story of two men who went to the temple  to pray. 

The one man was a wealthy Pharisee 

Who followed the Law, he prayed, he fasted, he gave money to the temple . He appeared to do  right. 

The other man  like Zacchaeus from last week , was a tax collector who took more money from people the. He should from people. He was not well liked . He cheated people of their savings to make himself . Both came into the temple to pray . 

The Pharisee boated proudly of all that he did. I pray, I give away my money to the temple, I fast all the time , I follow the Law. I’m not like the others or even this publican behind me. 

The Publican, not even able to look up in the Temple, bowed down and prayed Lird have mercy on me a sinner .whose prayer was heard by God 

The prideful man who did everything by the book 

Or the humble Publican who could not even look up to God knowing what he had done wrong. 

Draw a line to match these words  to the correct man

Bragging.                                             Publican 

Sad 

Sorry 

Prideful.                                                Pharisee

Simple prayer 

Followed the Law

Have the children memorize  prayer 

Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me 

Make a prayer bracelet string beads on a cord pass out a laminated Jesus prayer sheet 

Grades 3-5 intermediate level 

After hearing the parable of the Publican and Pharisee 

What were the Pharisee good qualities 

What were his bad attributes

What was the publican good qualities 

What were the publicans bad qualities 

Why did  prayer  of the Pharisee who had less  good attributes  find favor with God  over  the  and the prayer of the Pharisee who did many good things go unnoticed? 

What does it mean to be humble what is pride 

Why is being prideful not pleasing  to God and others