Come prepared ...

At St. Gregorios Orthodox Church in Oak Park before Sunday School begins, we have all the children sit together and after a few songs we spend the next 10 minutes reading the Gospel verse for the day followed by a short discussion.

We started this over a year ago, and is a a wonderful practice that I've always felt other Churches should adopt, particularly Orthodox parishes. I've noticed that on good days, we'll also have many elders just standing to listen :)

Note, the Liturgical Calendar of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (which can be accessed at this link) and other Orthodox Lectionaries are a Google search away ... very easy to access with today's technology.

I cannot claim responsibility for coming up with this brilliant idea, nor do I really remember how it actually developed .. but I can attest to the incredible blessing it has has been for me and my family.

Having to prepare for these short sermons developed into what is now a regular practice that the children look forward to - as a family during the car-ride to Church each morning (about 20 minutes), my oldest son reads the verse in the car and then we all talk about it. There has been several examples of insightful questions or comments even from the mouth of my 5-year old, and its always amazing the questions and perspective that those younger than us have. The spiritual growth has been beyond words for me both as a parent and an adult, and I find I'm better prepared for the Divine Liturgy and receiving the Body and Blood.

I also found myself starting during the week itself thinking about the upcoming Gospel reading and using my Orthodox Study Bible to read what the Fathers have taught on that Scripture verse. For me, this always leads to further readings (especially on the Internet) and in my growing library of books at home to understand the early Church teachings - yeah, they are all available! For reasons I don't remember I began updating the Sunday reading on Facebook and Twitter status which turned into yet another surprise, as a number of people mention that the sharing of the verse has helped them as well which never is a point of personal pride for me, but rather an unexplainable joy that someone else is beginning to understand the pure beauty of our Faith and Church.

Hence my surprise - although shouldn't be - when I read this saying from St. John Chrysostom that he had asked of his congregation before a sermon -

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

I wish to ask one favor of you all before I touch on the words of the Evangelist. Do not, I beg, refuse my request, for I am asking nothing weighty or troublesome. Let each one of you, on some day of the week, even on the Sabbath itself, take in his hands the selection of the Gospels that is going to be read to you. Read it frequently as you sit at home in the time intervening, and often ponder with care the thoughts stored up in it and examine them well. Note what is clear and what obscure, and which thoughts seem to be contradictory, though they really are not. And when you have finally sampled all of it, thus prepared come to the sermon.

Indeed, both you and we shall derive no small profit from such effort. We shall not need to work much to make clear the significance of what is said, since your minds will have become familiar with the general tenor of the words. And because of this preparation you will become keener and more discerning, not only in hearing and learning yourselves, but also in teaching others.

So, knowing now that preparing for the Gospel on Sunday has the backing of the strong wisdom of St. John Chrysostom, I'll really begin encouraging everyone to be prepared each Sunday.

It's really not about whether the preacher was entertaining or that we found the sermon interesting, but rather how we can become more Christ-like with the infinite wisdom contained within the Scripture. This is why we come to Church, but we must do so prepared.