Today is the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos. Last night, we attended Liturgy as a family at our parish. On the ride home, we talked about what nativity and Theotokos means.
We started by asking them, "What do we celebrate on the Nativity of
Christ?"
They responded with - "Christmas!"
So then we asked them, "What do you think the word nativity means then?"
Our oldest two responded with, "being born".
"Good. Now...who is the Theotokos?"
One of our kids said, "Jesus' mommy". Another said, "Mary".
"Right. The word 'Theotokos' means - Christ-bearer or the one who gave birth to Jesus. So today, we are celebrating the Nativity of the Theotokos. What does that mean?"
"The birth of Jesus' mom."
The conversation was not a long one. Maybe ten minutes at most. The ride home gave us an opportunity to talk about why September 8th is a feast day in the church. September 8th is also a special day to us on a personal level as well. It is my brother, Jacob's, birthday today. It is also the day that our state filed paperwork to petition for us to adopt our three boys 3 years ago.
For a bedtime story, I read one of my favorite Orthodox children's books to my kids - "The Story of Mary the Mother of God" by Dorrie Papademetriou.
1 comment:
We'll have to get that book - my son adores her!
Post a Comment