You can download free, full-color adult and teen discussion guides from the Worship & You website.

Tips for discussion leaders are indented beneath each question.

1. How can Christ’s Incarnation be celebrated through the Little Entrance?

Particularly emphasize that the Gospel symbolizes Christ in the Little Entrance because it tells us so much about Him. For a further patristic explanation of this point, use this quote from St. John of Damascus: “It is one and the same God Whom both the Old and the New Testament proclaim, Who is praised and glorified in the Trinity: I am come, saith the Lord, not to destroy life law but to fulfill it. For He Himself worked out our salvation for which all Scripture and all mystery exists. And again, Search the Scriptures for they are they that testify of Me. And the Apostle says, God, Who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. Through the Holy Spirit, therefore, both the law and the prophets, the evangelists and apostles and pastors and teachers, spake.”

2. How does singing the Trisagion enable us to participate in heavenly worship?

This point is covered in reasonable detail in the study guide, but you might want to read Revelation 4—focusing on verse 8—to emphasize the incomprehensibly cosmic worship into which we enter. You can also point out the Trinitarian nature of the hymn, using this quote from St. John of Damascus: “For that the Trisagium refers not to the Son alone, but to the Holy Trinity, the divine and saintly Athanasius and Basil and Gregory, and all the band of the divinely-inspired Fathers bear witness: because, as a matter of fact, by the threefold holiness the Holy Seraphim suggest to us the three subsistences of the superessential Godhead. But by the one Lordship they denote the one essence and dominion of the supremely-divine Trinity.”

3. How should we experience hearing and reading Holy Scripture?

Stress St. Kosmas’ description, particularly emphasizing the concept of Scripture as a treasure. Ask the people in your group to think about some of the things they own which they particularly value—does their Bible have the same importance to them?

4. What are some of the ways in which we can read and/or study Holy Scripture?

There was not room in this unit to talk at length about Bible reading and study; you can find useful information in my free booklet, You Can Read the Bible, which you can download at http://www.orthodoxyouth.org/biblebooklet/biblestudybooklet.pdf. You can either print out copies for your group, or direct the members to the Orthodox Christian Bible Studies website.