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Your little bird: A Short Story for Children


Boris Ganago is a well-known Orthodox children’s author, who wrote a lot for little children, is a lector in Minsk Eparchial School of Catechists, a laureate in the sphere of spiritual restoration of Belarus, and the leader of national laureates’ community “Dukhovnoe Slovo” (“Spiritual Word”).

For the past 20 years, Boris Ganago has dealt with education of the youth in tradition of purity and good deeds. Children and adults read his book with great pleasure. His books are written in the form of  entertaining short stories and conversations and are often read in Sunday schools. Audio versions of the author’s books are quite popular among people of all ages.

Your little bird

A young little bird fell from its nest. It was small and helpless and its wings were not yet ready for flight. All it could do is squeak and open his nib to ask for food when he was hungry.

Two kids found the poor little bird and took him home. They built a small nest out of grass and small branches for the bird. Vova fed the nestling, and Ira brought him out into the sun from time to time.


Soon the nestling became stronger, and small feathers appeared on his body. The children put the bird inside a cage that they found in their attic. They put their beloved pet inside for protection from their cat, which began to look at the bird with hungry eyes. He would wait by the door all day waiting for the right moment. No matter how many times the children would send the cat away, the cat would not give up and continued to hungrily glance at the little bird.

Summer went by very quickly. The bird grew bigger and began to fly inside the cage. Soon enough the cage got too small for the bird. When he was brought outside he would beat his wings against the bars as if asking to break out to freedom. So, the children decided to release the rescued animal. Of course they felt sad to release their favorite new pet but how could they keep an animal cages, if it was meant to fly freely?

During one sunny afternoon, the children said their goodbyes to their winged friend; they brought the cage outside and opened the cage door. The bird jumped out of the cage and turned to its human friends.

At that moment the cat appeared. He had been hiding in the bushes, prepared to attack and then jumped out, but… the bird was already flying up in the air, rising higher and higher...

Saint John of Kronstadt compared our soul with a bird. The enemy is hunting each should and wants to catch it. In the beginning the human soul is like a small bird, featherless, unable to fly, helpless. How can we save our soul, how can we grow spiritually, in order to not fall down on sharp stones and not to get caught in a nets of the evil one?

The Lord, created a safety net and God’s home - the Holy Church, behind which our soul can grow and strengthen. It is where the soul learns how to fly high up into the sky. As the soul rises spiritually it begins to feel the type of joy and no longer fears any of the earthly barriers or traps.

CONVERSATION