Plan. Reason for conversation; the name of the fast Great. The reasons for this name are; the establishment of fasting by Jesus Christ. Communion - lenten food and church prayer; Its advantages over home. Reasons for abstinence in food. Time of retreat; confession. The establishment of the sacrament of repentance by the Saviour. Application. H. Soon, children, Great Lent will come. It lasts seven weeks, and the last week is called Passion. Of course, you know that fasting is the time when we eat lenten food. The word "great" means "great". This fast is called great because it is the longest of all, and also because after it there is the greatest feast - Pascha. Great Lent was established by Jesus Christ. After His Baptism, He did not eat anything for 40 days and 40 nights. God fasted and commanded us. But it is difficult for us not to eat anything for so long, and therefore we fast only by not eating fast food. How long does Lent last? What is the seventh week called? What does the word great mean? Why is this fast called Great? Who established Great Lent? How did He fast? How do we fast? In Great Lent, good Christians fast, confess and commune. You will also fast, confess and commune. Now we will talk about how people fast, why they confess and what they commune. When people fast, they go to church every day, pray to God, eat less than usual, and try to sin less. When a person prays to God, who is he talking to? Of course, we will not say anything bad to God, so the more we pray, the less we talk and think about bad things. We always work for our body, but we also have a soul; We need to work for it too. Our prayer is work for the soul. It is best to pray in church, because there is a service going on, there are many icons, and many people pray together. When a lot of people do one thing, then the work goes on more controversially. That is why we go to church on feast days and during retreats. What do good Christians do during Great Lent? Where do they go to pray? How much do they eat during the retreat? What are they trying to do? Why do we need to pray more? Why do we work when we pray? Why is it better to pray in church than at home? During the retreat, in addition to prayer, people try to eat less and sin less. People eat less because it is difficult to pray for a well-fed person. When a person eats a lot, he wants to sleep, and not pray. The holy people who prayed constantly ate only one piece of bread, and even then not every day. When we fast, we ask God for forgiveness for our sins. What will be the use of our prayer if we sin during the retreat, as we always do? Therefore, whoever fasts must constantly remember God's law and sin less. What do people try to do during the retreat, apart from prayer? Why do they eat less? What does a well-fed person want? How much did the holy people eat? Why is it necessary to make a special effort to live righteously during the retreat? Usually people fast from Monday to Friday, and on Friday they confess. During Holy Week, they fast only until Wednesday. Why confession is made during Holy Week on Wednesday, you will find out later. The repentant approaches the priest in church, makes two prostrations before the icon, bows to the priest and tells him his sins. Then the priest reads a prayer and forgives the sins of the communist. From what to what day do they fast? What do they do on Friday? What do they do when they come to confess? What does a priest do? A priest forgives sins because God Himself gave him this power. When Jesus Christ lived on earth, He said to the Apostles: "What sins you forgive, God will forgive, and what sins you do not forgive, those sins God will not forgive"[1]. The Apostles first forgave sins themselves, and then gave the power to forgive sins to other people: bishops and priests. The priest will hear what sins we have, and will find out whether they can be forgiven or not. Then we tell our sins to the priest. Who gave the priest the power to forgive sins? What did Jesus Christ say to the Apostles? Who forgave sins first? To whom did the Apostles later give this power? Why do we tell our sins to the priest? When we fast, we prepare for confession: we pray to God and remember in what ways we are sinful before Him. When the priest forgives our sins, we take communion. I will tell you about Communion another time. If we do not confess, then many sins will accumulate on us. Although we sin again after confession, the more often we confess, the fewer sins we have. When our body gets dirty, we wash in the bathhouse. After the bath, we get dirty again, but the more often we wash, the cleaner our body is. Our soul is polluted with sins, and by confession we wash them away from the soul. Cf. Jn. 20, 23.- Ed.^

Lesson 31. Discourse on the Sacrament of Communion

Methodical Instructions and Lesson Notes on the Law of God

Plan. Establishment of the Sacrament of Communion. The Sacrament of Communion is a remembrance of the Savior. Substance during the sacrament. Performing the sacrament in the Christian Church. Repetition. Application. H. Last time we said that after the retreat, Christians confess and then take communion. The Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to partake of Communion. You know He lived on earth and died. On the eve of His death, Jesus Christ came to Jerusalem with all 12 Apostles. He knew that He would soon die, and therefore He wanted to say goodbye to His disciples. For this purpose, Jesus Christ ordered to store supper in a certain house and came there in the evening. When everyone sat down at the table, Jesus Christ took the wheat bread, blessed it, broke it, distributed the pieces to the Apostles and said: "Take, eat, this is my Body, which is broken for you for the remission of sins"[1]. Then He took a cup of red wine, gave it to the Apostles and said: "Drink from it, all of you, this is My Blood, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins"[2] Who commanded us to commune? Where did Jesus Christ come on the eve of His death? With whom did He come? What did He want to do? What did he tell me to store? When did you come to the house? What did Jesus Christ do when everyone sat down at the table? What did you take first? What kind of bread? What did he do with him? What did he say? What did he take then? What was the wine in the cup? To whom did he give the cup? What did he say? The apostles ate the bread and drank the wine from the cup together. They looked like they were eating bread, but in reality it was the Body of Christ; the Apostles drank from a cup that looked like red wine, but in fact it was the Blood of Christ. This means that the Apostles communed of the Body and Blood of Christ under the guise of bread and wine. When they received Communion, Jesus Christ said: "Do this always in remembrance of Me"[3]. The Apostles obeyed Jesus Christ, communed of the Body and Blood of Christ, and commanded all Christians to partake of Communion. What did the Apostles do? What did they eat and drink by sight? What was it really? So, they communed of what? Under the guise of what? What then did Jesus Christ say to them? What did the Apostles do next? As Jesus Christ and the Apostles commanded us to do, so we do now: we partake of Communion in the form of the bread and wine of the Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ. We commune during the Liturgy. Whenever the Liturgy is served, wheat bread and red wine are prepared. This bread is called prosvira or, rather, prosphora. Bread is made during Mass by the Body of Christ, and wine is then made by the Blood of Christ. You can take communion every time the Liturgy is served, and sick people are communed at other times. For this purpose, the Body and Blood of Christ are always guarded in the church. When you come to church for the Liturgy, then listen to the very words that Jesus Christ said when He communed the Apostles. In church, the priest says these words in Slavonic as follows: Take, eat... Drink of it, all of you... You already know how to say these words in Russian. I will now speak Slavonic, and you speak Russian. The students translate the quoted words in unison. Who told us to take communion? When do we take Communion, during what service? What is prepared for the Liturgy? What are they made of? Why do we partake of Communion? When is the sick communed? What is being done for this? How to say the words in Russian: Take it... Drink of it?... When are they spoken? Who says them? After that, all the content of the lesson is transmitted by the teacher of religion coherently. Jesus Christ commanded us to take communion always in memory of Him. Christians should always remember Jesus Christ. Without Him we will not receive the Kingdom of Heaven, and therefore whoever does not partake of Communion forgets Jesus Christ and, therefore, will not receive the Kingdom of Heaven. Never be lazy, children, to commune and commune. See: Matt. 26, 26; Mk. 14, 22; Lux. 22, 19.- Ed.^ See: Matt. 26, 27-28; Mk. 14, 23-24; Lux. 22, 20.- Ed.^ Cf. Luke. 22, 19.- Ed.^

Lesson 32. Prayer for the living and the dead

Methodical Instructions and Lesson Notes on the Law of God

Plan. An Incentive to Love Your Parents. Its manifestation is in obedience and prayer. The subject of prayer for the living. Calling people slaves in prayer. The text of the prayer for the living. Repetition of the content of the prayer. The state of the souls of dead people. A condition for the repose of souls. Prayer for them of the living. Its content, its text. Application. In every family, children are fed and watered by father and mother. They take care of children because they love them. Therefore, children need to love their father and mother. We can show our love for them by obeying them and praying for them. As long as they are alive, we must pray that God will preserve or save them from every sickness, from want and sorrow, and that He will forgive them their sins. In prayer we call all people servants of God. Why do you need to love your father and mother? How can we show love for father and mother? What should we pray for when they are alive? What are people called in prayer? For the living father and mother one should pray thus: Save, O Lord, and have mercy on Thy servants... Here you need to say the names of your father and mother, put a cross on yourself and make a bow. The same prayer can be prayed for other living people: say the words: Save, O Lord, and have mercy, and then add the names of those for whom we pray. What do we ask God for people in this prayer? Read it. You know that the souls of people do not die after the death of the body, but live in different ways: some live in peace, while others suffer for their sins. When people pray that God will forgive their sins, God forgives them. If God forgives the sins of the deceased, then his soul will cease to suffer and will live in peace. That is why we pray and ask God to give the dead a life of peace. The prayer for the dead is read as follows: Give rest, O Lord, to the souls of the departed Thy servants... After these words, the names of those people for whom we are praying are said. How do people's souls live after the death of the body? How will the soul live when God forgives its sins? What do we ask of God for dead people? How is the prayer for this read? Stand and read it, adding the names of your deceased relatives. God commands us to honor our father and mother, so we need to obey them and pray to God for them. As long as they live, we pray that God will give them health, and when they die, that He will give their souls peace. We have prayers for the living, in other words, prayers for health, and prayers for the dead - or for the repose. When, children, you pray to God, read these two prayers as well.

Lesson 33. Prayer to the Saints

Methodical Instructions and Lesson Notes on the Law of God

Plan. The concepts of "saints", "saints of God"; the manifestation of their love for people in earthly and heavenly life; our need for their help. Transition to the text of the prayer to the saints; the reading of a prayer to one saint of God. The name of each person; the benefits of prayers to one's namesake saint. Feasts in honor of saints. Application. H. You children know that those people who obey God in all things are called saints. The saints always do what is pleasing to God, therefore they are called God's saints. What kind of people are called saints? What are they called differently? Why are they called God-pleasers? Holy people, like all others, die. As long as they live on earth, they care more about others than they care about themselves. When they die, they also care about other people, about all of us: they pray to God for us. God Himself is holy, and therefore the souls of the saints live with Him, and God gives people everything that the saints ask Him for. We ourselves pray to God little and badly. In any case, when we do not know how to do it ourselves, we ask others to help us. We pray to God badly, and therefore we ask the saints to help us, we ask them to pray to God for us. The saints pray to God for us and soon help us in good deeds. For whom do the saints care on earth? What do they do after death? With whom do the souls of the saints live? Why do they live with God? What benefit do the prayers of the saints bring to people? When do we ask for help from other people? Why do we need the help of the saints in prayer? What are we asking them for? We ask the saints of God to pray to God for us, to help us, and we call them quick helpers and intercessors for our souls. The prayer to each saint is read as follows. I will now read a prayer to the God-pleaser Basil: Pray to God for me, holy God-pleaser Basil, for I fervently run to you, a quick helper and intercessor for my soul. Memorization by the choir follows, and then the same prayer is read with the pronunciation of various other names of the saints. Each of us has our own name. My name is Eugene, and you? The name is given to us before the baptism of each of us. No one invents our names, but they are given in memory of the saints. People wrote down the names of the saints, and now we are given the names of various saints. There were so many saints all over the earth, so we have many names. The saint whose name each of us bears always cares about us, so we should always pray to the saint whose name we bear. So, what saint should you always pray to, Vanya? to you, Petya? to you, Vasya? When are we named? Whose names are we given? Which saint should each of us pray to? Why should we pray to this saint? For each saint there is a special day in the year, and for some saints - several days a year. On these days, special prayers are read and sung to the saints in church. You know that there is a year of St. Nicholas's Day, Peter's Day, Midsummer's Day. This means that in those days there is a service to the saints of God: Nicholas, Peter, John. The day on which the feast of the saint whose name is given to us, we call name day, and on that day we call ourselves birthday people. What is appointed in the year for each saint? Are all the saints appointed one day? What is read and sung in church in those days? What day do we call our name day? Now we know that we all pray to the same God, but we pray badly, and therefore we ask the holy people to pray for us. The saints, living on earth, did only good deeds, and they help only good people in good deeds. Therefore, if we wish ourselves well, what should we do?

Lesson 34. The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem

Methodical Instructions and Lesson Notes on the Law of God

Plan. The Journey of Jesus Christ through Different Cities. Jerusalem is a place of temple and pilgrimage for Jews. The Savior's Journey to Jerusalem and His Last Entry into It. Showing the icon. A story based on it. The meaning of the name of the feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. The concept of Holy Week. This lesson falls on the second half of the fifth week of Great Lent, so its subject is the story of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem, and the next two lessons - the Passion and Resurrection of the Savior. You know that Jesus Christ lived in the Jewish land. He never lived long in one place, but went to different cities and villages and taught people the law of God. The main city among the Jews was called Jerusalem. In this city they had a temple, and in other places there were only synagogues. Therefore, on the greatest annual holiday, the Passover, Jews from all places came to Jerusalem. In what land did Jesus Christ live? Did He live in the same city? What was the name of the main city among the Jews? What was in it? What was there in other places for prayer? When did the Jews come from all places to Jerusalem? Together with other Jews, Jesus Christ also came to Jerusalem at Passover. The last time He came there with the Apostles was five days before His death. On the eve of this day, Jesus Christ spent the night in a village, four versts from Jerusalem, and from there He went to Jerusalem. And how He walked, you will now see on the icon. The icon "The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem" is shown. You see Jesus Christ setting astride a donkey. A donkey is similar to a horse, only it is smaller than a horse, and its ears are longer than those of a horse. The people and the Apostles spread their garments under the donkey's feet. Many people meet Jesus Christ. People took branches from trees in their hands and began to glorify Jesus Christ, because they had heard about His miracles and about His teaching. People cried out to Jesus Christ: "Save us! We glorify Thee, because Thou art coming for the glory of God. Salvation is given to us by God from heaven!" These words are also pronounced as follows: "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" [2] The word hosanna is sung among us even now at Mass. Hosanna in Russian means "save". Remember this word. When did Jesus Christ last come to Jerusalem? With whom did He come? Where had He slept the night before? How did He come this time? What did the Apostles and some people do? What did others do? Why did they glorify Jesus Christ? What were they shouting? How else to say these words? What does hosanna mean? When do we sing this word? The last coming of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem is called the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. In memory of this parish, there is a feast that is called either the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem or, in other words, Palm Sunday, because on this feast people stand with willows in church at matins. People met Jesus Christ with branches from trees, and we also stand in the church with willow branches. After this feast, from Monday to the next Sunday, there is a week in which Jesus Christ was tortured, and He suffered, and therefore this whole week is called Passion. See: Matt. 21, 1-9; Mk. 11, 1-10; Lux. 19, 29-44; In. 12, 12-19.- Ed.^ Cf. Jn. 12, 13.- Ed.^

Lesson 35. The Sufferings of Jesus Christ