The Children’s Word is a weekly bulletin for Orthodox Christian young people. Copyright 2017 Alexandra Houck.

Email is orthodoxchildrensword (at) gmail.com. Find it each week at myocn.net.

The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple

“Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for to such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Mark 10:14

Sunday, November 19, 2017 Volume 5, Issue 47

Joined together in ChristJoined together in ChristJoined together in ChristJoined together in Christ Have you ever watched your

priest or deacon use his censer?

Do you watch where he censes? He censes the

altar, and he blesses the holy things. He censes

the icons, and we remember the saints in the

pictures. He censes the people, and we remem-

ber that we want to be like the saints too.

When the priest or deacon censes the whole

church, we remember that we are all one body, one church. We have dif-

ferences, but we are all one church.

We hear the same thing in the epistle reading today. Our Lord, Jesus

Christ came to bring us together, to bring us to Him in heaven! Saint Paul

writes in the epistle today, “You are citizens with the saints and also mem-

bers of the household of God.” In Jesus, we are all “joined together and

grow into a holy temple in the Lord.” The church is one body together.

The saints who have already died are together with us as a church. We are

all one body together. We are all joined together and we grow into a holy

temple in the Lord.

So, the next time you see your priest or deacon censing, watch! You’ll re-

member that he is censing one church body. You’ll remember that we are

all joined together to grow into a holy temple in the Lord.

A Ministry of the

Orthodox Christian Network

Here is a closeup of an icon of the

this week’s feastday. You can see

little Mary and the priest.

Do you see how her mother and fa-

ther are guiding her along? They are

helping her to grow close to God.

What’s in an icon?

WORD SEARCHWORD SEARCHWORD SEARCHWORD SEARCH

Can you find these

words in the word

jumble?

ENTRANCE

EPHESIANS

EPISTLE

GREAT FEAST

ONE BODY

TEMPLE

THEOTOKOS

TOGETHER

G Y A E I W O E I J E K R T Q

C L O C I Q E K P W X E X E C

J Y I N J E C Q O I H U Z M Z

V G X A L U L O D T S C U P W

H P J R C E P W E G I T O L I

G A E T S P I G R Z R C L E W

K N L N P N O E J P S T J E J

G V I E F T A S L Q B H Q O C

F F X V O T O I Z Q G L P C H

L O X I F E E A S K C I W X N

O B Y E R J C O N E B O D Y V

H X A M U F X D A L H V U Y F

E S A S P E F C A P W P G K D

T H E H N H G H G I V T E N V

L T K V W S O K O T O E H T I

THE ENTRANCE INTO THE TEMPLE THE THEOTOKOS GIVES HER LIFE TO GOD

Have you ever been to

a baptism (that you can

remember)? Or maybe

you’ve seen a little baby being

brought to the church for the

first time when he was only 40

days old? You might remember

how special these services are. A

little child begins his life in our holy Church!

This week, we celebrate one of the 12 great feasts of our Orthodox

Church. On this day, we remember when Mary, the Theotokos, en-

tered the temple. She lived there until she was engaged to Joseph.

And not too long after that, baby Jesus was born to her!

On this day too, we remember how Mary began her life, close to God.

And she lived her whole life close to God. Even now, she is close to

God in heaven.

When you were brought to the church to be baptized, your parents

wanted you to be close to God. They prayed for you to be close to God

not just on that day, but for all your life! Of course, you don’t have to

live on the church grounds to dedicate your life to God. You can try to

make good choices that God is happy with too. Let’s use the Theoto-

kos as our example, and always stay close to God and His holy

Church!

We celebrate this great feastday on Tuesday, Nov. 21st (Dec. 4th, OC).