On April 1, 2012 we celebrated the 5th Sunday of the Great Lent which is dedicated to St. Mary of Egypt. St. Mary teaches us a special lesson on the true meaning of repentance. In her earlier years, she did not live a Christian life and made some very bad choices. Our children in church school learned that making bad choices can happen to any of us, and that these bad choices only take us further from God and sometimes we even forget Him. When St. Mary realized her sins and that God was not pleased with her, she spent the rest of her years in the desert fasting, prayer, fighting temptations, and asking God for forgiveness. We also need to remember that when ask God to forgive us for our sins, we need to change our ways and try not to make those same mistakes and become better Orthodox Christians.

The children were asked to write down what they have learned from the Great Lent so far, as we have encouraged all of our children to regularly pariticpate on this lenten journey so that they can truly learn why the Great Lent is so important. Thank you for bringing your children! There have been some children who have not missed one Sunday, which is worth every good praise.