Bringing Children to God through Prayer
As Orthodox parents, our most basic task is
to bring our children to a sense of the truth, of the real-ness, of God. This
is not the same thing as head-knowledge about God; it is a personal experience,
through prayer, of the reality of God in our lives.
When we bring our children to God through
prayer, we are performing a truly God-pleasing act, as He Himself said: Suffer
the little children to come unto me…
St. John of Kronstadt said that the most
wonderful moments of our lives are those we spend in prayer, for “only then do
we truly live.” And this is because prayer brings “Christ into your heart, with
the Father and the Holy Spirit, and will thus strengthen your soul against any
evil.”
May the following incident from the life of
Abbot Theodosius of Optina, wherein a holy bishop instructs children on the
subject of prayer, serve as an example and inspiration to Orthodox parents of
the last times!
***
One
episode from our life in the town of Atkarsk was especially engraved on my
memory, leaving an indelible trace on my whole life. This episode was bound up
with a visit to Atkarsk by His Eminence James, Bishop of Saratov and later
Archbishop of Novgorod.
On a tour
of his diocese, the Bishop visited Atkarsk and served the Divine Liturgy in the
cathedral. He was a highly educated man and he always delivered his sermons to
the people without the help of notes, extemporaneously, for which reason he
left no trace in the literature of church sermons. The people loved His
Eminence and listened to his sermons with great reverence. The simplicity and
heartfelt warmth of his sermons were extraordineary, and so clowe were these
qualities to the hearts of the people, and so deeply did they penetrate, that
even I, a boy of eleven at the time, have clearly retained in my memory one of
these talks of his which, in passing, I wish now to record in my memoirs.
The
people considered His Eminence to be a saint. And so it was that this holy man,
after celebrating the Divine Liturgy in the Atkarsk cathedral, came out onto
the amvon in his hierarch’s mantle, surveyed with his kind and penetrating gaze
those standing before him, and, noticing in their midst some children, amongst
whom was I myself, said: “Children, come closer up to me!”
Several
of us came forward, and I stood in the very front. I stood before the very face
of the Bishop and he, as if addressing me personally, began to speak.
“I wish,
children, to talk to you about prayer. Do you know how to train yourself to
pray? First, you must pray just a little, but as often as possible. Prayer is
like a spark: in time it can turn into a great flame, but in order to kindle
this flame you must have untiring zeal, and you must also have time and skill.
Let us take for example two pieces of coal: one is red-hot, and the other cold.
Try to kindle the cold one with the other. What must you do? You must put the
cold one next to the red-hot one. But simply to place them together is not
enough to make the cold piece of coal red-hot, unless you constantly and gently
blow on the burning piece. If you blow to hard, sparks will fly out but the
cold piece will not begin to burn, and your efforts will be in vain. But if you
blow on the burning coal constantly and not to hard, then soon your entire
piece of coal which was placed next to it will become itself red-hot. Then not
only will these two pieces burn, but if you separate them one from the other a
certain distance, everything that you place between them will also catch, and
then it can spread into a whole sea of flame.
“But just
think how much time is needed to light a stove of wet wood or to ignite and fan
a damp piece of coal – how much time, effort, patience and, most of all, perseverance!
And so, I would say to you my children: prayer is a fire; and even more I say:
it is a burning coal, while our hearts are dead coals. For this reason we must
pray every day. This is the same as placing the dead coal of our hearts next to
the burning coal of prayer and blowing on it a little at a time. Believe me,
children, if you listen to me and pray just a little every day, but
consistently, then your hearts will become ignited by the love of the divine
flame. But take care not to pray simply in moments of inspiration – do not just
scatter sparks from the burning coal of prayer. Remember that after such
outbursts laziness follows, and it is not by sparks that you will ignite your
hearts.
“Begin
this way: at first make three prostrations with these words: ‘Lord Jesus
Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner,’ and again a prostration; ‘All
Saints, pray for me a sinner,’ and again a prostration; and let that be enough
for you. And the next day again repeat this without fail. Continue in this way day
by day, and then you will notice, my children, that in the beginning you will
be overcome by laziness like some heavy burden. But if you persist in making
these three prostrations, later you will see that instead of three you will
want to make more, and then prayer itself will demand an increase in the number
of prostrations. This will mean that already the coal of the heart has begun to
burn by the power of faith and has become ignited with love towards God and
that the constancy of your efforts has begun to bear fruit, from which comes
the thirst for more prayer.
“Test my
words in action, children, and you will see for yourselves that it is just as I
have told you. Run to God as to your own mother. He is good and all-knowing; He
loves us as a Mother loves her own children. If you ask Him, He will surely
hear you and will fulfil your request, if only it is not contrary to His holy
will. He Himself said “Ask and it shall be given you” – and so run to Him with
boldness with all your needs: on yur way to school get down on your knees but
in such a way that only God sees you, and ask Him to enlighten your mind and
memory, and you will see that you will be able to learn your lessons more
quickly and more easily than others or than you yourself when you were not
turning to God for this. Do this always before you begin anything. Pray,
children, pray more often. Forgive those who offend you, and the God of peace
will be with you always. Every evening and every day, repent before the Lord
for whatever sins you have committed, and implore His goodness and try not to
sin in this way any more; and if somehow you fall again into sin, again
straightway repent and say: ‘Lord, I have sinned; have mercy on me and help me
to change my ways.’ And He will forgive you and help you to change. Pray more
often to God, children, and He will save you.”
This
teaching so impressed itself on my memory that although already so many years
have passed, I am recording it as if reading it from a book.
When the
Bishop finished speaking I took his blessing, and ever since then, from the
evening of that ever-memorable day, I begin daily to make three prostrations:
to the Lord Jesus, the Mother of God, and to all the Saints.
Source: http://stvladimirs.ca/children-and-prayer/
