By Anya, Fall ’23 Intern
“The only thing in his sock drawer is a sandwich!” my brother said as he frantically prepared for school one morning. It was Holy Week, and he was looking for socks. He couldn’t find any in his dresser, so my mom told him to look in his brother’s drawers. He found only a sandwich, forgotten by our exhausted brother one night after services. We were trying to juggle the demanding work of private school with the many services we had during that week.
For us Orthodox Christians, the climax of the liturgical year is the Feast of Feasts—the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. Preparing for Holy Week and Pascha is a very important season, as we focus on our spiritual growth through prayer, abstinence, alms, and confession. It is a blessing that, as homeschoolers, we are able to arrange our days and weeks to focus on Christ, His Church, and what He did for us. We can adjust our family schedules to prepare for and go to weekday services. For instance, we celebrate Presanctified Liturgy on Wednesdays and Fridays, and before each of these, we are asked to abstain from eating to receive communion. Often, school days can be tough and draining, and trying to fast and spiritually prepare for liturgy on top of homework and extracurricular activities is especially challenging. I cannot recall how often we had to rush home from a long day at private school and cram in all our school work before going to church. What a difference homeschooling made for us! The flexibility allows us to plan our lessons and workload around church.
As I ponder celebrating and participating in the Lenten season, there are many things that I am grateful for.
I am grateful for the flexibility we have as homeschoolers during a time of year when our schedule rarely fits into the world’s. We live in an increasingly secular world, and the bit of Christianity that is around us is very Western in its orientation and calendar. Dates for Lent, Holy Week, and Pascha (Easter) rarely align between East and West, and on the rare occasions they do, our observances and focus during this time vary significantly from those of our neighbors. The flexibility of homeschooling allows our family to balance our call to fasting, repentance, prayer, and moderation without worrying about how to mesh these priorities with those of public or private schools.
I am grateful that during this time of preparation in the Lenten season, my family and I can take advantage of flexibility in scheduling. We can schedule time to help the church prepare in other ways. Since parishes have more services and people attending during this season, the church might need more cleaning and help with making and putting out service books, scraping wax off the floor, decorating the tomb, preparing candle sleeves, etc.
I am grateful for my family during this time, and for the unique things we do and the traditions we share. Many of us go to choir practice together. We make kulich (Pascha Bread); we visit the Russian store to buy all our favorite feasting foods for our Pascha baskets, often making Pascha baskets for our friends, too. Most importantly, each service can spark so many conversations with family about Theology, the life of Christ, and the lives of saints from hymns and homilies.
I am grateful that in the eight to nine days leading up to the Feast of Feasts, we have no school scheduled. We know, in advance, our schedule of services and know that we want to do very little that week other than focus on the meaning, lesson, and beauty of each service, and how it helps prepare us for what we are about to celebrate. On Lazarus Saturday, our focus shifts from ourselves to Christ. On Palm Sunday, we remember the Entrance of Our Lord into Jerusalem after His miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. Early in Holy Week, at the Bridegroom Matins services, we learn from the Parable of the Ten Virgins, which calls for preparedness at the Second Coming. On Holy Wednesday, we are anointed and receive the sacrament of Holy Unction. On Holy Thursday, we go through the gospels and hear the story of Christ’s Passion. On Holy Friday, we contemplate the burial of Christ and His sufferings with solemnity. On Holy Saturday, we celebrate the beautiful Vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. Basil when the altar cloths are changed from black to white, and we first hear of the Resurrection.
I am grateful on Pascha, as we all are, that Christ has risen from the dead and has trampled down death by death, bestowing life to those in the tombs. We celebrate and partake in all the richness and beauty that is Pascha, and break the fast.
I am grateful that during Bright Week, we don’t just forget about Pascha and move on as we would if we would have had school that week. Instead, the feast continues, and we can go to all Bright Week services and learn from them as well.
The story I shared about my brother reminds me of the many demands we have during the time of Lent and Holy Week and how hectic it can get. At that time, my brothers and I were attending a private school, and much of our time and schedule was dictated by their Roman Catholic calendar, which only occasionally overlapped with that of the Orthodox Church.
When we began homeschooling, one of the gifts it gave our family was the ability to focus on learning through experiences. The flexibility of homeschooling allows us to experience, in its fullness, all the Church has to offer the faithful during Lent and Holy Week. It is not only a time of year to learn and experience, it is a time when we more earnestly live and see the gift God has given us because He loves us and wants us to live in eternity with Him.
I am grateful I don’t miss out on these blessings which I am grateful for.