Third Saturday of Great Lent

...And just like that, we are halfway through Great Lent prior to Holy Week. My kids love counting each day of the Lenten journey. As every year, Great Lent is flying by, and as we reach the halfway point, it leaves me in a state of reflection and questioning of myself: Am I trying hard enough to change for the better? Am I reading something spiritual each day? Am I praying more than I do outside of Great Lent? Am I going to Holy Communion often, and if so, am I trying to keep my behavior holy afterwards? Even though it can seem a struggle to keep to all of these little (or rather not-so-little) goals, it is encouraging to know that there is still time to change, still time to try harder...

Today we spent our day in preparation for tomorrow - the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross. I had high hopes of planning out several activities for today last night. But as usual, motherhood got the best of me and I was exhausted, so I went to sleep with zero plans other than our usual Russian letter of the week to work on. I woke up this morning though, realizing that I have to decorate the cross for church, and at that same moment I realized that that is the perfect activity to do with the kids.

So we began our day with their Russian work (the letter "O"), while I prepared an icon to show them. (Btw, these books put out by the Greeks are incredibly useful!!! I am hoping to expand my collection of them soon).

We had a little discussion about the Sunday of the Holy Cross and talked about the meaning of the cross, and why we venerate it right now especially. This icon served as a great quick visual for our little chat.

We also worked on a few preparations for Pascha. I am working on teaching the kids a poem for Palm Sunday, as well as several Russian Pascha carols. We have one in our repertoire from last year that we are reviewing, and I have chosen two new ones as well. Thanks to YouTube, we can hear the songs and sing along with them. I have high hopes of finding a well-priced used piano for us soon...

This evening as we listened to a live stream of tonight's vigil, we tackled the job of decorating the cross. This is a fairly new job for me because I have only been a priest's wife for short of two years. I have had to do this a few times now though, so I was a little more prepared. I wanted the kids to participate in this project to make the Veneration of the Cross more real to them... and also in hopes that they will someday be able to do this on their own for our parish. I love when children participate in decorating the icons or the Holy Shroud on Holy Friday, and it is something I have memories of doing as a kid, too.

Here is our final result.

Before Thy cross, we bow down and worship O Master, and Thy Holy Resurrection we glorify...