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Lenten Resources for Parents and Sunday Church School Teachers

For many more resources throughout Great Lent and beyond, be sure to follow ​the Ascetic Life of Motherhood blog. These resources were originally gathered by the Antiochian Orthodox Department of Christian Education in February, 2019.​

  1. Ancient Faith Radio offers many podcasts to help you prepare for Lent, including this one. 
  2. Chart idea to help Children embrace Lent
  3. Coloring for Lent and Pascha:
    "Color Your Way Into Pascha" offers pages for little ones to color, from the Triumph of Orthodoxy through Pentecost. 
    "Color Your Way Through Holy Week" offers coloring pages for each day of Holy Week. 
  4. A wide variety of Lenten activities, including printable charts that can help children keep track of where they are during Great Lent can be found here. 
  5. Help your children learn some of the vocabulary of Lent with the ideas found here.
  6. For a daily study based on the Sundays of the Triodion period,​ check out Y2AM's "Live the Word Bible Study Guide." This free guide offers 100+ pages of explanations, quotes from the Fathers, and study questions to help you learn from the readings for the next 10 Sundays. Y2AM created this resource to help you to make the most of Great Lent. Find more information (and the link to download your free copy) here. 
  7. Orthodox Pebbles present lessons and activities for Great Lent here. 
  8. Pascha Passports are booklets that take their readers on the journey to Pascha, with descriptions of the "destinations" along the way. At each "destination" (Lenten services, confession, the Jesus Prayer, Lenten retreat, and other important parts of the Lenten journey), travelers are given a stamp (beautiful icon sticker) to place in their passport with the destination information. These books are a pocket-sized way for children to mark the passage of the Lenten season, and embrace the journey! These passports can be used by a family, at home, but they also could be easily incorporated into a Sunday Church School classroom. Find the passports, stamps, and other materials, available individually or in quantities for parishes/church schools here: https://lenten-embassy.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage
  9. Here you will find a printable workbook for children for Lent.

(2021 update: Presbytera Alexandria Ritsi creating mini one page books with an accompanying lesson for Orthodox children throughout this Triodion Period. She is graciously sharing the mini books and lessons here.  

  1. Tending the Garden of Our Hearts: Daily Lenten Meditations for Families is a book published by Ancient Faith Publishing, written by Elissa Bjeletich and Kristina Wenger. Each day's meditation can help your family's spiritual growth through stories, questions, and discussion. You can purchase it here: https://store.ancientfaith.com/tending-the-garden-of-our-hearts-daily-lenten-meditations-for-families/((2021 update: there is also a related activity book with a spread of activities to accompany each day's meditation in the book. The activity book is available here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/970766999/tending-the-garden-of-our-hearts-daily. There are a few scholarship copies available to families who would use the book but can not currently afford it. For more information, contact the author through her shop.)