Title:  The Senses

Orthodox Life Session
Why the senses? The senses are gifts given to us by God that allow us to understand and experience His creation. Alone however, a worldly understanding of the senses does not satisfy our thirst for knowledge and desire to be in communion with God and one another. Many young and old share an understanding of the five senses and are taught the ways of empiricism (the world of fact and proof); yet, few are aware of their spiritual relevance. Frequently, we go about our daily lives unaware that the way we allow our senses to affect can lead us closer to God; or conversely, away from Him.

This Orthodox Life session will attempt to introduce an Orthodox understanding of the senses and consider our physical and spiritual relationship with God.

Materials:
1 piece of chocolate for each camper
1 stop watch per session leader
1 copy of an image for a "short-sighted" experiment
Senses Activity Sheet
Scenarios for the Senses

Begin the session with an opening prayer. Introduce the topic of Sense of Orthodoxy by saying,
"Of all of the senses, if you had to choose one to give up, which sense would you sacrifice and what would you miss most about it?" Invite each camper one by one to respond.

Continue with, "In prayer, how might we use our senses? Consider the Divine Liturgy, which of our senses do we use in our worship?" The following are just a few examples.

• When entering church, what senses do we use? Answers include, we light a candle, we smell the incense, we cross ourselves as we venerate the icons, we hear chanting or singing, we see the church and all of its icons.
• What senses are used during Communion? We taste the Body and Blood of Christ, we see others in the community, we hear our baptismal name.
• What sense are used at the end of the liturgy? We taste the antidoron; we hear and receive the priest's blessing; we kiss the cross in the priest's hand; we see the church and all of its icons; we greet people by hugging and kissing them.

Discussion Questions:
How many senses do we have? What are they? (The expected answers are that there are 5 senses: sight, smell, touch, sound and taste.)
Might there be other senses? Take love for example; can you see, smell, touch, hear, taste love?
According to the Church fathers, what are the gifts of the Holy Spirit?

• Sense of Wisdom: the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships
• Sense of Understanding: empathy, mercy, love
• Sense of Counsel: the ability to advise others
• Sense of Fortitude: strength of mind that enables a person to have courage when dealing with danger or pain
• Sense of Knowledge about the world and the ways of God
• Sense of Piety: a sense of duty toward fulfilling God's will
• Fear of God: humility befitting a creature of God

How are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, listed above, received? (Baptism, Prayer, Fasting, Service, God's grace)
How might fasting, prayer, reading of scripture, good works, bring us closer to the Holy Spirit?

Activity: A Test of Three Senses
The purpose of the activity is to illustrate how feeding our desires can lead to less control over the senses.

Begin the experiment by asking everyone to be silent for three minutes, using the stopwatch. Should people interrupt the silence, remain silent yourself until the three minutes are up.

After completing this exercise, ask the following questions:
What did you find difficult about being silent?
When studying, does anyone study with the TV or radio on?
Who must listen to music or watch television to fall asleep?
Who leaves the television on when not watching the screen?
Who finds it difficult not to listen to music when in the car on the way to church?
Why is it difficult to hear silence?
Are we addicted to sound? Has the need to hear noise become a habit?
Are we in control of our sense of hearing; or, is our desire for noise in control of us?

Activity: Short-sighted Attention Span
One by one, each camper is to stare at a particular image (to be provided), focusing all thoughts on the image. Using a stopwatch, each camper will be timed to determine how long he or she can stare without being distracted. Be honest! As you stare, as soon as your mind becomes distracted, or thinks of anything else other than the image you are staring at, then you should say, "stop." When it is not your turn to stare, you may try to distract the person staring; however, you may not touch the person, or make any noise.

Begin the experiment with each camper. When complete, ask the following questions:
How easy was it to become distracted? And, what distracted you?
Have you ever caught yourself being bored by a particular TV show but continued to watch it anyway? Why might you do this?
How often are commercials spaced out on television? How long does each commercial last?
Why might advertisers space their commercials in this way?
Have we become addicted to imagery and entertainment?
Are we in control of our sense of sight; or, does our desire to be entertained determine what we see?

Activity: Sense of Taste
Begin the experiment by asking each participant to rate how hungry each is on a scale of 1 to 10, while a camper tallies the results. Hand out a piece of chocolate to each person. Ask each participant to rate how hungry he or she is having eaten the piece of chocolate, again on a scale of 1 to 10, while another camper tallies these results.

Compare the results and ask the following questions:
Who would like another piece of chocolate?
Why is it that we want more to eat after we have just eaten? (habit, it tastes good, etc…)
Can you describe a situation when you may have eaten something when you were not hungry?
Are we in control of our sense of taste? Or, does our desire to taste good things control us?
Why, then, would we fast from certain foods? (to limit the control that our habits have over us)

Fasting and Feeding the Senses
What happens when our desires take control of our senses? (we distance ourselves from God)
Why might we try to fast?
How might we use our senses to become closer to God?

Close the session with a prayer.

Street Wise Session
Why the Senses? The senses are gifts given to us by God that allow us to understand and experience His creation. Alone however, a worldly understanding of the senses does not satisfy our thirst for knowledge and desire to be in communion with God and one another. Many young and old share an understanding of the five senses and are taught the ways of empiricism (the world of fact and proof); yet, few are aware of their spiritual relevance. Frequently, we go about our daily lives unaware that the way we allow our senses to affect can lead us closer to God; or conversely, away from Him.

This Street Wise session will explore practical ways to use our senses in an effort to become closer to God.

Begin the session with a prayer.

Making Sense of the Senses
What gives understanding and meaning to the information that is gathered by our senses? For example, think of all of the things you see, smell, or hear in a day. How does your mind decide what is important to remember and what is not?
Do we have influence over how our senses react? How might this work?
What is free will? Does free will mean that we can do whatever we want?
Do we have free will if we are not in control of our senses?
What happens when our senses become corrupted by our desires?
How might we limit the power our desires have over our senses?
How might we use our senses to please God?

Activity: Scenarios for the Senses
Divide the campers into 3 to 6 groups.
Give each group one or two scenario(s).
Give each group 10 minutes to discuss their scenario within the group.
Have each group present their scenario and conclusions. After each group presentation, open discussion to all campers.

Practical Senses
What might a person do to overcome habits and addictions? (fast, pray, support from others)
What might we do to keep our senses free and pure?

End the session with a prayer.