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"Циљ веронауке и јесте да се млади људи укључе у литургијски живот"
The purpose of religious education is that young people are included in liturgical life!
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Our Church School children would like to thank all the Kumovi/godparents who
were able to share this wonderful day with their godchildren. We hope you had a
very special and memorable day. With God’s blessings, we hope to make this an annual special event for our Church School students and their Kumovi.
Wishing you many blessings,
St. Elijah Church School Teachers |
Now is the time to devote particular attention to the relationship
established between the God-child and the God-parents. This relationship is
formed at Holy Baptism and lasts throughout life. Eternal life is the goal of
the relationship....(details)
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ХРИСТОС ВОСКРЕСЕ! ВОИСТИНУ ВОСКРЕСЕ!
ХРИСТОС ВАСКРСЕ! ВАИСТИНУ ВАСКРСЕ!
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN! Important message for parents! Please read:
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Dear Parents,
Please bring your children to the services of Holy Week. Make this a memorable time for your children, and help even the youngest ones to intensify their fast. Give them the opportunity to witness why HOLY WEEK is set apart in the Orthodox Ecclesiastical Year. This is the time they will treasure and draw upon in their future years. Permit them to slow down their hectic pace and together meditate upon and relive the glory and the agony of that week in our Lord's life. How else will they understand that this is the time which opened once again to all creation the doors of Paradise, unless you bring them to the services. The events of Passion Week are presented to us by the church as a drama, which unveiling its mysteries to us, helps us identify with them and elevates us in the all embracing movement toward our Lord's triumph over sin and death. We have service books in English for the services for your convenience.
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On the Saturday before Holy Week, the Orthodox Church commemorates a major feast of the year, the miracle of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when he raised Lazarus from the dead after he had lain in the grave four days. Here, at the end of Great Lent and the forty days of fasting and penitence, the Church combines this celebration with that of Palm Sunday. In triumph and joy the Church bears witness to the power of Christ over death and exalts Him as King before entering the most solemn week of the year, one that leads the faithful in remembrance of His suffering
and death and concludes with the great and glorious Feast of Pascha.
REMINDER TO ALL PARENTS AND CHURCH SCHOOL CHILDREN:
THE PROCESSION WITH THE WILLOWS, VRBICA,
WILL BEGIN AT 5:00 P.M. AT OUR ST. ELIJAH CATHEDRAL. PLEASE BE ON TIME TO PICK UP YOUR BELLS AND WILLOWS!
ALL ALTAR SERVERS ARE NEEDED FOR THE PROCESSION!
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Dear children of the church school,
I received the lovely Birthday Card today after services and wish to thank you for your beautiful wishes for my birthday. I treasure your efforts on my behalf. The card is beautiful; your names are written so nicely. God bless you, dear children! It is a joy for me to know that you love to come to God's House every Sunday and at other services.
I thank your teachers who come always to guide you in your studies of the Law of God.
Wishing you all a spiritually fulfilling Great Lent.
Your priest,
Fr. Lazar
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| St. Seraphim's Beatitudes by Fr. Daniel Marshall This hardcover, beautifully illustrated book tells the story St. Seraphim of Sarov. Written for children in an easy to follow format with lively pictures. An entertaining and captivating read! Recommended reading for ages 5-14. Written by Fr. Daniel Marshall, illustrations by Paul Drozdowski. Large format. 32pp. ISBN-13: 978-0-9786543-0-6 From the Publisher: "See the Virtues Christ taught brought to life in the story of St. Seraphim!
This life of St. Seraphim of Sarov delights with lavish, historically-accurate illustrations and inspiring stories that every young Christian will enjoy reading again and again. Short sayings
patterned after the Lord's Beatitudes present St. Seraphim's wisdom in clear, memorable phrases. You and your children (and godchildren) will discover:
-St. Seraphim's advice to those who visited him
-The most interesting events in his life
-Virtues toward which all Christians can struggle
-A window to an era of great piety in Russia."
You may purchase the book for $20.00 from our tutor, Mr. Tode Trisic, or contact Fr. Lazar.
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Kum Milan Savich:
On a Slava that we all share, I'm very honored to be choses as Kum, and I welcome each and everyone of you by saying: Dobro Nam Dosli! i Cestitam Slavu!
Our Orthodox church honors and celebrates many great saints, but, i have to believe that we probably wouldn't be here today if St. Sava didn't do so much for the faith of the Serbian people.
Many volumes of books can be read on the history of St. Sava, but what I would like to focus on are some things that most people either never heard, or rarely think about.
Young people need to know that St. Sava could have become anything he wanted. He was very brilliant, wealthy and handsome.
But first and foremost, he chose to follow god. It came with his influence that other church leaders permitted St. Sava to administer to the needs of our people.
As generations increase here in America, it becomes tougher for many young people to speak Serbian. Many of us don't speak the language at home. Bot on this day, in honor of St. Sava, all of us should worship our patron saint by speaking in the words of our mother country.
After all, this world is always in political dilemmas. And after hundreds of years after the death of St. Sava, a vile man named Sinan Pasha, decided to burn the holy relics of St. Sava - thinking that Serbian Orthodox people would forget about him.
At the time, as the ashes of St. Sava covered Vracar Hill, Serbs said that our people will always celebrate his name.
And so, here we are, hundreds and hundreds of years later - and we're celebrating St. Sava - OUR PATRON SAINT.
I would like to thank everyone for attending today. I would also especially like to thank my grandfather, Proto Milan Savich, for traveling all the way from Lake Forrest, Illinois,to be with us. I thank my grandmother Dusanka Gligic for making the Zito!
Ziveli! ---- Srecna Slava! ----and I hope everyone enjoys themselves.
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Kuma Daniela Tarailo:
I'm proud to have had this opportunity of being named Kuma here on St. Sava Day.
At the beginning of the new church school year, Ciko Alex, my teacher, opened up our first lesson by asking: "What do you believe being Serbian is?" We all stared blankly at our paper pondering what to write. I thought to myself, how could a question so easily said, be so so hard to answer. Well after a while I came to thinking and I figured that, that is how everything is in life. It is easy to say, but not easy to do.I am the daughter of Nick and Kathy Tarailo...I am the product of quite a few "American Serbian generations." Being a Tarailo, we first came to these shores during the California Gold Rush, hence placing our feet in America during the 1840's. My Baba Milka's and mom's side also came during those early years. Baba Danka, my mother's great grandmother gave birth to my mother's Baba Kata in St. Louis, MO., near the turn of the century.
My Baba Ruth, born in Canada, her great-grandfather, a coal miner buried in Virginia, in the 1800's, was the grandson of a merchant marine whose daughter Jovanka Kovacevic was the first born on American soil in 1802. these were the beginning sof the roots that make up who I am. Sitting here today I have my Baba Milka who is a very active Serbian American member. From my knowledge she has taught my mother everything there is to being Serbian... Being Serbian is about how you went to church and who you were with when you partook of Holy Communion... it's about the friends you have made and the friendships you have developed over the years. By going to church camp or "vbs," folklore dances, and even SNF basketball tournaments, we define what and who we are together. By being together with friends and family we love, we celebrate and glorify God, our faith, our culture, and our background with sometimes not even realizing it.... Fala, thank you... not only to you, but also to my +Djedo Bronko and Baba Ruth, and my +Deda Mitch Medich and Baba Milka, and all the ones that came before them. They made sacrifices that enabled me to be here today as a Serbian American. And most important thank you to my parents, who followed in their parents' footsteps to raise me to be the American Serbian Orthodox I am today. I hope to one day do the same, and do it as well as they did. SVIMA HVALA!
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Should grown children continue to honor their parents
according to the biblical commandments?
The Bible teaches, “Honor
your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the
Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus
20:12). Since the relationship of parent to child endures until death, so does
the honor due parents from children.
Jesus condemned the Pharisees for
breaking this commandment. They did so, by saying to their parents, “Whatever profit you might have received
from me is Corban,” which means dedicated to God (Mark 7:11). They did
not give the money to God, they merely dedicated it
to the temple for a future time and thereby avoided their obligation to their
parents. People today need to understand that
grown children owe their parents the duty of material financial support as a
part of honor and respect. Apostle Paul has said
that if a believer will not take care of his own, “He has denied the
faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8).
(From
A Catechetical Handbook of the Eastern Orthodox Church by D. H. Stamatis)
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Archbishop
Vikenty urges women to spend their time on prayer instead of make-up
Yekaterinburg,
Febrary 1, Interfax – Archbishop Vikenty of Yekaterinburg and Verkhniaya
Tura urged women to renounce cosmetics and stick to natural beauty.
'The Lord makes us beautiful, and we deform ourselves, we make freaks of
ourselves. It is fraud and false understanding of beauty. It is just fashion.
Look at eight or nine year-old girls. Why make them up? They are beautiful like
angels! We spoil people with cosmetics,' the archbishop stated in a live
broadcast at the Soyuz TV channel
and on air of the Voskreseniye
radio.
According to him, eye shadows today 'are really frightful and make beautiful
people ugly, but for some reasons they think it is beautiful.'
'It's a scorn to natural beauty given by the Lord. We want to be more beautiful
than God created us,' the archbishop said as quoted by informational
publications department of the Yekaterinburg diocese.
The archbishop noted that the true beauty 'goes from the soul, transforms the
body making it lightful and spiritual.' According to him, it is a beauty 'the
saints strived to achieve.'
'It's necessary to seek spiritual beauty and receive physical beauty from the
Lord through this spiritual beauty. It is hard work. But make up and cosmetics
also take effort. Poor women spent a lot of time sitting before the mirror and
making up. They are smudging and making up to look beautiful as they think. But
in fact it isn't better than natural beauty,' the archbishop stated.
If this time was given to prayer and repentance, he further said, 'then their
beauty would be natural and everything would shine.'
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MIR BOZIJI! HRISTOS SE RODI!Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I write with great joy and thanksgiving to our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ for the gift of our beautiful children and their involvement in our Church School! With Fr. Kostur’s pastoral leadership and blessing, we are continuing to do our best to provide education and enlightenment to our youth. Our dedicated teachers, Susie Pavlic, Bonnie Manojlovic, Bonnie Trisic, Zorica Stojic, Neveka Schumacher and Aleksandar Stojic , have been tireless in their efforts to bring interesting topics to the classroom. And we now have the enthusiastic stewardship the children are involved with: Coat drive, Toys for Tots and Jar Wars for Life Line, to name a few. This coincides with our beloved St. Elijah Folklore Ensemble “Frula”, led by Sophie Krnich and her board, to round out our spiritual and cultural program. We have much more to do, but we trust in the will of God, that we shall continue to improve and gain support for this vital ministry in our St. Elijah parish. As the holidays approach we will need to begin planning for Christmas and St. Sava celebrations with Ojdana Milos to teach anyone who is interested in the Serbian language and declamacia’s for St. Sava Day Program on January 27nd. I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all the families who volunteered and donated their time and talent for our Church School. Thank you!! As we celebrate the joy of the Holidays and the anticipation of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of our families find love, peace and togetherness in His Holy Name. Yours in Christ,
Cindy Stojic, 2007
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Who of our readers has not experienced something similar to the following? You walk into a convenience store to buy a loaf of bread. Ahead of you at the check out counter there is a middle aged man in a sleeveless shirt. His arms and seemingly the rest of his entire upper body are covered by the most colorful and varied tattoos. You try not to stare, but the sight of this “art” disgusts you none the less. The man makes his purchase and departs. It is your turn at the cashier, where you are met by a pleasant young lady. You look up at her and notice that she is “adorned” by various piercing in her nose, ears, and even her eyelids. It is painful to look at her. You pay for your loaf of bread no longer looking at her and depart as quickly as you can, making a mental note to buy your bread elsewhere next time. ....
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We would like to take this opportunity to remind our parents and students that church school begins every Sunday morning at 10:00 A.M. with Divine Liturgy. Attending Divine Liturgy is part of our church school program. It is not optional; worship at Divine Liturgy is a mandatory part of our curriculum for all children enrolled in St. Elijah Serbian Orthodox Cathedral Church School in Merrillville, IN. We kindly ask your cooperation to see to it that you and your children arrive on time for worship and particpate fully in the Divine Liturgy.
From the Church Fathers: "The Divine Liturgy is truly a heavenly service on earth, in which God Himself, in a particular, immediate and most close manner is present and dwells with men, for He Himself is the invisible celebrant of the service; He is both the offerer and the offering. There is on earth nothing higher, greater, more holy, than the liturgy; nothing more solemn, nothing more life-giving.
Great is the Divine Liturgy. In it there is recalled the life, not of some great man, but of God incarnate, Who suffered and died for us, Who rose again and ascended into heaven, and Who shall come again to judge the whole world.
The Divine Liturgy is the continually repeated enactment of God's love to mankind and of His all powerful mediation for the salvation of the whole world, and of every member of the human race separately. It is the marriage of the Lamb, the marriage of the King's Son, in which the bride of the Son of God is every faithful soul, and the giver of the bride the Holy Spirit."
-St. John of Kronstadt
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| The Holy Fathers speak to us: "If from the beginning we fix good rules for our children, good habits will be formed. Let us now allow them to do what may be agreeable, but hurtful to them. We need to admonish them and warn them. Remember: we are charged to keep our children free from evil."
St. John Chrysostom "Raise your children in the Lord. Teach them from the infancy the Word of God. Discipline them when needed, and render them respectful to authority."
The Apostolic Constitutions "Teach your children this lesson: the rewards of evil are temporary. The rewards of Godliness are eternal."
St. Cyprian
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 | Mrs. Cynthia Stojic with group picture |
|  | St. George Church School joined us for Wednesday's activities |
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Special thanks to our Church School Superintendent Mrs. Cynthia Stojic and her dedicated co-workers for making
St. Elijah Day Camp - VBS 2007 - a most memorable and treasured success!
GOD BLESS YOU ALL!
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Our church school children with Father Lazar, Mrs. Cynthia Stojic - church school superintendent, and teachers.
Fr. Lazar celebrated his namesday on Lazarus Saturday, and his birthday on Palm Sunday. Upon the completion of Divine Liturgy, St. Elijah Cathedral Choir greeted Fr. Lazar with MNOGAJA LJETA. The children presented him with a special card full of special wishes and priceless signatures. GOD GRANT MANY YEARS TO ALL!
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 | Our Church School Children with Fr. Lazar, Mrs. Cynthia Stojic - Church School Superintendent, and Teachers |
|  | Palm Sunday, April 1, 2007 |
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Following their joyful participation in the Procession with the Willows, VRBICA, on Saturday, March 31st, our wonderful children returned excitedly on the Feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem to receive their blessed VRBICA. Following the Divine Liturgy the teaching staff and children posed for this group picture.
Photography by Jovo Dejanovic
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