Summer time is over and hopefully everyone had a great time enjoying wonderful family time; whether you went to places as far as the ocean or just down to Funplex on 72’d street. God gave us physical families, just as we have spiritual families within our Orthodox faith (yes, we are all brothers an sisters in Christ!). Vacations are a fun way to relax and take care of our health.
This year’s class will talk about how we take care of something even more important than health; our souls.
Discussion point: What is a soul? How do we “take care” of it?
There are a lot of different ways that people try to take care of their souls; many of them wrong. If we watch T.V. a lot of different things are called “spiritual”, but only if we are honest and read God’s Word and the teachings of His Church; will the true way to “spiritual” be made known to us.
"We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18
The most important ways to understand the “things which are not seen” are by going to God’s House, the Church, each Sunday, opening our hearts and minds by attending Sunday School and praying to God. Most everyone knows that they should do these things, yet WHY do we need to go to Church and worship?
How do we worship? Who can tell us what it means to worship? Who is the Orthodox Church? What in the world does the word worship even mean? If we are supposed to pray, how do we do that?
During this coming school year we will explore all those questions and many more by looking at all the ways the Orthodox Church teaches us to worship. But what does worship really mean?
Taken literally it means “to adore”. As young adults (or even if you are grown up) that means to adore, admire and express love of God. But, if expressing love in any way we thought of were enough then God would never have given us all the ways to worship that we have received in our Orthodox tradition. All the people in all of history have had ways that they worshipped. Why do you think that would be?
Worship isn’t as simple as saying “ok, thanks” and flipping the T.V. back on. Worshipping God means:
· We believe in His existence, His presence among us, His fatherly kindness.
· We have deep feelings of love for Him
· We get closer to God through communion with Him, by turning our thoughts toward Him. To try and please God through what we say and do
Discussion point: Name different ways we worship in the Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church did not invent different ways to worship God, we have what is known as “holy tradition”, which means we are taught by those who came before us. Who were the first “Christians”? The Apostles! Who would be better able to teach us how Jesus meant for us to worship that His own students? So the Orthodox Church traces it’s Holy Tradition to Christ Himself. Many people will question your Orthodox beliefs, saying you should simply read the Bible and decide things for yourself.
That’s not the way the original (Orthodox) Church worked! The Apostles taught a great many people, wrote letters and formed Churches where ever they went. These Churches formed into groups and shared teachings with each other. The Bible did not exist yet as it does today, but there were very active and worshipped based on the teachings of the Apostles. The Bible wasn’t put together in the way we know it until the year 389, and it was put together by the Orthodox Church.
The Bible is one of the most important ways we can learn God’s Will, yet our tradition of Worship goes much deeper. During this year we will explore all the many ways the Orthodox Church teaches us to worship, and how we worship in private.
Orthodox worship uses everything from our art (icons), music, the design of our building (architecture), candles, prayers, our sacraments, the Divine Liturgy, etc. This year’s class will explore than through talks and fun projects; games, art projects, plays, watching movies, puzzles and making prosfora (for Communion).
As you are standing in Church, look around and bring to class something that you might not have noticed before! By the end of this school year you should not only understand the things around you in Church, but how they reflect our love of God and His love of us. In the moment when you feel that truth, often in a way that we can not describe to others, we have found what worship means.