The Children’s Word is a weekly bulletin for Orthodox Christian young people. Copyright 2017 Alexandra Houck.

Email is orthodoxchildrensword (at) gmail.com. Find it each week at myocn.net.

Rejoice in the Lord!

“Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for to such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Mark 10:14

Sunday, April 9, 2017 Volume 5, Issue 15

Rejoice in the Lord!Rejoice in the Lord!Rejoice in the Lord!Rejoice in the Lord! What makes you happy? Can you

think of something that always makes you

smile? A friend? A favorite thing you do? A joke?

Did you know God wants us to be joyful, to be

happy?

Today is Palm Sunday, a day full of joy and hap-

piness. When we hear the Gospel reading, we

hear how the people were so joyful when they

saw Jesus coming into Jerusalem. They shouted

and waved branches. They were so happy that their

King, Jesus, was coming to the royal city!

In today’s epistle reading, we hear words that tell us, “Rejoice in the Lord

always. Again, I will say, Rejoice...The Lord is near.” God wants us to re-

joice today...and every day! When we think about how God is with us, we

have a reason to rejoice, to be full of happiness. When we think about

what God has done for us, we have a reason to rejoice, to be full of happi-

ness.

Palm Sunday is a beautiful day, and we can celebrate how God is the real

King! But can you try to keep those special words in your heart all the time

(not just today)? “Rejoice in the Lord always!” Be full of joy because God

is with us!

A Ministry of the

Orthodox Christian Network

The people rejoiced when The people rejoiced when The people rejoiced when The people rejoiced when

they saw Jesus coming!they saw Jesus coming!they saw Jesus coming!they saw Jesus coming!

In the Bible, we hear how the

people put clothes down on the

ground so the donkey could

walk over it.

In the icon, can you find the

children laying the clothes

down?

What’s in the icon?

WORD SEARCHWORD SEARCHWORD SEARCHWORD SEARCH

Can you find these words in the jumble? DONKEY

HOSANNA

ICON

JERUSALEM

LOVE

PALM SUNDAY

PUSSY WILLOWS

REJOICE

F Q K B R Q J M M U K S Q W S

S M O R S O P E D H K J W D Z

Y W J L S O L I N D R A I O Z

H P O O Y A R E J O I C E N Y

O F I L S S R B P S N A Y K N

V T X U L D I K P N I J A E C

A Y R I F I H W Z U I P D Y Z

J E E I C M W O N P T C N E F

J C U I H R Y Y S D X D U X G

M T C Y Q K D R S A F Q S V O

S O V O Y F M E L S N A M Q H

N E V O L N Q M Y M U N L F J

L P C F T M O X S Q Z P A C A

N F D Y O Z P R N X L Q P J L

A K U I B K R C V J I U T O E

Do you have palm trees in your backyard? Do you have palm trees in your backyard? Do you have palm trees in your backyard? Do you have palm trees in your backyard? Probably not, but you might still receive a beautiful palm cross after church today. Most of the palms

in America have been shipped in from Florida. But did you know that Orthodox

Christians in some countries celebrate this day without palms? In some places,

palms are too hard to find. Let’s look at how people

around the world celebrate the Sunday before Easter!

In Romania, faithful Christians call this day Flowers Sunday (Florii). Instead of palms, people bring spring flowers from their gardens, and after church, everybody brings home bouquets of flowers and basil.

In the Middle East, like Pal-

estine, Lebanon, and Syria,

Orthodox faithful carry

branches from olive trees and

palm trees. The priest

blesses everybody with an

olive branch dipped in holy

water.

In Russia and the Ukraine,

the climate is too cold for palm

trees to grow. Instead, Ortho-

dox Christians receive pussy

willow branches to remember

the branches that Jesus’ fol-

lowers laid down on the

ground. They use pussy wil-

lows in Albania too!

Bulgarians Bulgarians Bulgarians Bulgarians also celebrate this day with flowers. If you have a

flower-related name, like Lilia or Violeta, you would celebrate

today as your nameday.