Saturday of Souls and Memorial Coloring Pages

I've made three printables appropriate for teaching children about Soul Saturdays of Lent or Memorial Services. Grab and save jpgs.

Koliva

Tomorrow we will have a 5 year memorial for my dear friend's husband, and I'm grateful to offer this along with my prayers for his soul and his family. 

I treasure being asked to make koliva for memorials. I am unendingly grateful to the friend who taught me how to make it, and I'm humbled and honored by the friends who have asked me to make it in their grief. This task takes time and draws my hands into beautiful symbols of color and smell. It is a gift that reminds us of our hope in the life of God, the sweetness of death. 

Wash and boil the wheat about 1.5 hours.

Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients: deseed pomegranate, chop fresh parsley, toast almonds, measure spices, process graham cracker crumbs

when the wheat is cooked, I lay it out on a towels covered with a clean white table cloth. 
I was taught to pour it out in the form of a cross, and I never skip this step!

Spread the wheat out to dry, overnight if possible. This will take many hours. 

When the wheat is ready, put it in a bowl with the mix-in ingredients.
Be sure to set some aside for decorations. 

Sometimes it is made on a platter, which is very pretty when making a large amount.
Smaller quantities are pretty in a glass bowl through which you can still see the wheat.  

Even though the wheat dried a long time, it still contains some moisture. A layer of graham cracker crumbs separates the sugar from the moisture. 

Next comes the powdered sugar covering. I was taught to smooth it perfectly with wax paper.

Except I can never keep it perfectly smooth! So I started sprinkling an even pattern
of sugar over the smoothed layer. This helps hide the smudges I will inevitably make in the
sugar when I add the decorations. 

First the cross with Jordan Almonds. Someone from our parish got these beautiful silver ones
(and some accompanying decorative candy shapes) from Greece. 

Next the initials of the departed beloved one. I used the white almonds to make the border. 

I like to use the pomegranates (or raisins in some seasons), parsley, and seeds in the
decorations to add color and reflect the hope and life in the cross. I use a tiny paint brush to
dust off sugar that gets on top of my decorations. 

May his memory be eternal!

Magiritsa

Before we started our mission church, we traveled 2 hours to attend church in Memphis. We love this church so much, but often felt like we were observing this community from a distance and not able to participate in their life. We attended Pascha, but we couldn't stay for the picnics and parties, and so a lot of our celebrating happened alone. We wouldn't even be Orthodox or have our own mission for a few more years, and so it was lonely at times.

One year Kh. Susan (who was my first Orthodox friend), wrote about one of their traditions: making Magiritsa on Pascha. A friend had taught her this recipe, which is meant to feed the whole church, and the instructions factor in the timing of the services. After her friend Urania died, Kh. Susan wanted to pass on the tradition to other women in their church. When I read Kh. Susan's writing about making soup with her friend, I wanted so badly to be one of those women learning to make lamb soup in the kitchen at St. John. I don't imagine that Greek soup or red eggs are among the more important parts of Christianity, but they play a really beautiful role, sanctifying our daily lives and connecting us to each other. This special meal on this special day is one of the ways they are bound together in community. I wanted to belong, too.

So I made her soup. At home in my own kitchen. I remember that was the year we were choosing a house site on our land. We put some soup in a thermos and had a picnic during Bright Week on our house site. The kids were just babies, our house was just a dream, and my Orthodox community was in a thermos hours away from the church.

But it was a beginning.

our magiritsa picnic

Now, we have a thriving parish with many friends who teach us their faith. I am grateful for the time my friend Tina spent teaching me to make kolliva; and for Emily, who helped me to make my prosfora loaves more even; and for all the others who share their life and faith with us in these simple and cullinary ways. And now I'm making this soup for my parish, carrying on a tradition of someone I didn't know, but who was well loved.

So anyway, make some soup. You should read her full directions at the link above with directions for making the soup for a large parish around the services, but the proportions I used (about 1/4th recipe) are as follows:

Ingredients:
2 lbs lamb
1 small batch parsley
1 small batch cilantro
1 bunch green onions
1/2 yellow onion
1/2 TBSP fresh dill
2 TBSP butter

Avgolemono Sauce:juice of 3 lemons (9 TBSPs lemon juice)
1 1/4 TBSP cornstarch
4 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Cook the lamb in a big soup pot. When cooked add the butter and all the chopped herbs and onions. Add enough water to make soup. [ I think I added 8-10 cups of water.] Simmer for 1 hour or longer. Meanwhile, whisk together the Avgolemono sauce. Shortly before serving, slowly add some of the broth to the avgolemono sauce a little at a time, stirring constantly so that the eggs do not curdle. Then add the mixture to the soup pot, and stir constantly. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. (I always make mine ahead of time and my eggs always curdle from sitting in the crock pot so long. Its still wonderful, though!)

Koliva

Most assuredly, I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain. – John 12:24

I love that the church is so physically involved in all the important moments of our life including times of grief. When our parish suffered a difficult loss, I found it helpful to have something tangible to do, to offer for the family.

I used instructions and prayers from the GOA website, although my recipe for kolyva/koliva from a friend varies a little.

The children wanted to help decorate, but I wanted to be sure it turned out nicely, so I let them play decorate some sugar and almonds on a pate, rather than on the kolliva. 

Memory eternal!