Materials - Oven-hardening clay, gold paint, toothpick and twine.
A note on why the symbol for Samuel is a horn (because I didn't quite understand it, myself, at first) - here's a passage from the Matthew Henry Commentary: "He (God) sends him (Samuel) to Bethlehem, to anoint one of the sons of Jesse, a person probably not unknown to Samuel. Fill thy horn with oil. Saul was anointed with a glass vial of oil, scanty and brittle, David with a horn of oil, which was more plentiful and durable; hence we read of a horn of salvation in the house of his servant David." Luke 1:69.
Read 1 Kingdoms [1 Samuel] 1:1-2:10
-St Romanos the Melodist - Vol. 2, On the Nativity of the Virgin
“O mystery brought about on earth!' After the birth Anna prayed To our God and Maker Who knows all
in advance `Thou hast heard me, O Lord, as Thou hast heard Hannah who was accused by Eli of being
drunk. She promised Samuel after his birth to the Lord To become a priest. Just as formerly, Thou hast
given me, too, a gift, The barren woman gives birth to the Mother of God, And the nurse of our life.
(Orthodox Study Bible p. 321-22)
St. Cyprian sees the praying Hannah as a type of the Church pouring her heart out in prayer silently and
modestly. Hannah is a type of Mary, as Samuel is a type of Christ, because as St. Cyprian states,
“Samuel [was born] not according to the order of generation, but according to the mercy and promise
of God.” ...The word horn had become a symbol for strength, honor and power.
-St. Cyprian
We must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own.
From the Prologue from Ohrid, by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich, December 19
For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him. Therefore also I
have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord (I Samuel 1:27-28).
Besought of God and dedicated to God, Samuel was a prophet and leader of the people of Israel. The
blessed Hannah, his childless mother, besought him from God with tears and sacrifices. And she gave
him, her one and only greatest blessing, to the service of the Lord from his infancy. A wise mother does
not consider her children as her own, but rather as God's. They are God's both when God gives them
and when He takes them, but they are mostly God's when a mother herself dedicates them to Him.
God's gift is returned to Him as a reciprocal gift, for we have nothing of our own to give to Him but
only that which we receive from Him. The young Samuel lived in the Temple among the iniquitous
sons of Eli the high priest, and he did not become corrupt. The Lord would not reveal Himself to the
sinful elders, but He appeared to this pure child: for Samuel did the will of God, and did let none of his
words fall to the ground (I Samuel 3:19). Samuel was a judge of the people of Israel from his youth to
old age and committed nothing wrong either before God or before the people. God gave him the power
to prophesy and work miracles. He defeated all of God's enemies and the enemies of the people, and he
anointed two kings, Saul and David. When he grew old, he called the people together and asked them if
he had ever committed any violence against anyone or accepted a bribe from anyone. And the people
replied with one voice: Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of
any man's hand (I Samuel 12:4). Behold, such a man was he, who was given by God and given to God
as a reciprocal gift, and who grew up with the blessing of God and the blessing of his mother. Let
mothers benefit from the example of the blessed Hannah; let judges and rulers of the people benefit
from the example of the righteous Samuel.
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