Prayer of St. Ephraim Printable

I printed these for our sunday school class. The image is a little smaller than a full sheet of paper, so you can cut a piece of cardstock into fourths and glue these neatly onto the cardstock. 

Prayer at Lighting a Candle

Set our hearts on fire with love for You, O Christ our God, so that in its flame we may love You with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul and with all our strength, and our neighbors as ourselves, so that by keeping Your commandments we may glorify You, the giver of all good gifts.

The candle you place before the Lord is a metaphor of the fire and light within your soul. Your whole life’s purpose is to intensify its warmth and illumination. - source

St. Simeon and the Meeting of the Lord Scroll project

I'm way behind sharing this, but perhaps others will find it useful for next year. St. Simeon is dad's patron saint, so we wanted to have a little craft and lesson about him. We talked about St. Simeon's work on the septuagint, and how he had waited a long time to see the fulfillment of God's promise. 

Then we made scrolls! I used a piece of legal paper since it is a bit longer than usual, and lined it with three columns. Then the girls wrote the prayer of St. Simeon as copy work, and decorated the borders of the paper. We slipped wooden beads on the ends of wooden skewers (with some glue to hold them in place), and then folded and taped the ends of the paper around the skewers. Then we practiced rolling and unrolling to read. We used this image as a suggestion. 

Download my lined legal paper scroll to make your own scroll. 

Scroll rolled up and tied

Prayers at Meals printable

For little ones learning prayers:

St. Phanourios

My very plain Phanouropita, we had a slice at home, and shared it at church the next day

Some links and resources for St. Phanourios:

• Litya Service to bless Bread or Kolyva offered in honor of a Saint
• Beautiful prayer to Christ with the intercessions of St. Phanourios by Nun Isidora (also reprinted below).
•  I used the recipe below (half a recipe) from my dear friend [but more recently I've found this recipe, which is now my go to]

Phanouropita
3/4 cup oil
1.5 cups sugar
3 cups flour
2.5 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1.5 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups orange juice

bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean

A Prayer to Christ with the Holy Great-martyr Phanourios by Nun Isidora

Master Lord Jesus Christ our God, the maker of light and source and fount of wisdom and knowledge, the cause of all that is good, the fullness of goodness and the incomprehensible sea of compassion, Who does excellent things and works wonders in His Saints, by whom Your magnificent and All-holy Name is glorified, Who reveals to us the ways of salvation by the knowledge of Your holy commandments, O Good One, and shines upon our souls with Your gladsome and un-waning light, You Whose grace is wondrous through all Your Saints, Your chosen and faithful stewards, to all those who call upon them with their whole heart, who through Your all-working power working awesome and paradoxical wonders, of which there is no number, Who through your Holy Great-martyr Phanourios the newly-revealed, revealed that which was hidden from us and reveals them speedily, Who teaches us to ask faithfully in humility, that richly You may give according to Your compassionate and all-merciful nature, Who wishes that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, Who said that “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life”. Do therefore now, all-good King and Lord of all, by this Your Holy Great-martyr Phanourios the wonderworker whom we entreat, bestow upon us who faithfully honor him, an intercessor towards You armed with Your strength, and grant to us the illumination of Your grace, make us worthy to walk in the paths of Your commandments, to come to the knowledge of Your good and complete will, reveal to us the paths of salvation, show to us the way of repentance, that pleasing You through these, Who works what is beneficial to our souls, reveal to us the treasures of Your knowledge, that to those seeking these, we who entreat You in faith, make our heart the dwelling of Your bright Holy Spirit and a receptacle of Your grace, so that with all Your Saints from the ages we may glorify You O Light-giving Lord, who in these is glorified and to You do we offer up honor and worship, together with Your beginningless Father and Your All-holy and Good and life-giving Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

The Nativity Fast

Date: November 15 -December 24 
Liturgical color: dark red
Themes: the Incarnation

Special prayers: 
The Akathist of Thanksgiving
Advent Paraklesis
Akathist to the Nativity
Royal Hours of the Nativity (for Dec. 24)

Reading for the Fast:
The Tree of Jesse (on the Old Testament prophecies of Christ)

On St. Nicholas (from the Winter Pascha)
On the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (from the Winter Pascha)
On the Geneaology of Christ  (Winter Pascha)
More reading for the Feast

Home activities: 
Manger activity and Creche countdown (for the fast)

Listen to Nativity Hymns: Make Ready, O Bethlehem
Jesse Tree ornaments and readings (find also supplemental readings for older children and adults)
Read the Winter Pascha

Around the Web:

Nativity podcasts on AFR

Printable Prayer Copywork

One more quick post before bed tonight: I found it was helpful to have some coloring pages or copywork on hand to keep the kids busy while I transitioned from subject to subject (or when I needed a break!).

I made several pages of copywork of simple or common prayers that I thought the girls could begin to learn. My 6 year old actually gave me the idea today, when she said very matter of factly to herself, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips." The youngest can't read, so she just practices tracing the letters. My older daughter can read these as she traces. At some point I'll make copywork with ruled lines below because she doesn't really need the tracing. But anyway, this is a start.

The dashed font I used is a free font: Print Clearly. I also use Penmanship for a free font with ruled lines. Download the pdf below.