Lesson No. ( 42) Prayer - Anba Shenouda

References

+ The Precious Gem (Alkhareeda Al Nafeessa) Part I

+ The Biography of the great Saint Anba Shenouda the Archimandrite.

Notes for Servants

«         Do you feel that you are in need of the power of prayer, and that prayer for your soul is like food for your body?

«         Do you contemplate the prayer when you recite it?  Does your prayer come out from your heart or only out of your mouth?

«         Pray earnestly to God that He may help you in your life and in your service.

Objectives

General: Love of prayer.

Specific:

The children will be able to...

1. Learn that prayer is a relationship and communication with God.
2. Practice to think about the words which they may say in their prayers and feel that they are talking to God.
3. Know that God will hear our prayers, but only if it come out of our hearts.

Bible Verse

                                            " Men ought always to pray. "

(Luke 18:1)

Teaching Aids

A picture of Anba Shenouda.

Instructions

(1) Review last week's lesson.

(2) Who remembers the verse?

(3) Remind the children about the church occasions for the coming week.

(4) Teacher should prepare the appropriate questions to emphasize the objectives during the lesson.

(5) Servant may start the lesson by asking the following:

How often do you pray? 

Do you pray with your family?

Story Time

The picture in your hand is the picture of a great holy man whose name is Anba Shenouda.  He was born in Souhag and his father owned many sheep.  Some shepherds asked his father to let Shenouda go with them to take care of the sheep.  He was seven years old at that time.  His father agreed on the condition that his son would spend the night at home.

Shenouda took all that he needed (food, water, etc.) and went out in the morning and spent the whole day outside with the sheep and shepherds.  He used to give his food to the shepherds and fasted for the whole day.

He leave the field at sunset to go home.  His mother noticed that he always come home late at night.  When his mother asked him why he was late, the shepherds told her that the boy leave them at sunset.  The next day, one of the shepherd followed Shenouda from a distance and watched him.  Shenouda stop at the edge of near the village and stood there to pray.  His fingers were shining like candles and smell of incense filled the place.  The shepherd went and told his mother what he saw.

Shenouda became a monk.  Few years later Anba Shenouda became a father for many monks as he loved the Lord, so he loved to pray.

Discussion

1 - Follow up the story by talking about it with the children.

2 - Continue the discussion while they do the activity.

Learning Activities

Activity Sheet.