By Archimandrite Nektarios (Mohov)
“A strict fast – well, it is just impossible for a
modern person. Having such a stressful daily routine, people are not allowed to eat meat, fish or milk… Even oil is prohibited on some days! The Orthodox who keep the fast deserve
a monument to their feat!” I often hear such words from different people. At
such moments, I recall how my own family kept the fast and how my children
lived it through.
Matushka and I have a large family; we have 8
children. Their childhood fell on the 90s: it seems now that to nourish a
family with a lenten food at that time was not as easy as it is today. In
fact, I remember a completely different situation in our family.
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| Archimandrite Nektarios (Mohov) |
When I came back from the church, our happy children
ran towards me. They hugged me and announced solemnly that today their
mother has cooked… the coconuts! An appetizing smell of food was in the air,
which proclaimed that Matushka had cooked a delicious dinner for us. My wife
always invented various dishes made from usual products and gave them interesting
names. So, we referred to fried potatoes as “coconuts”. Matushka took potatoes, made
several notches on them and filled them with spices. Those coconuts tasted just
like potato chips. That dish was the favorite one in our family.
Once our friends came to us, we sat at the dinner
table and then our children began to ask for coconuts. Of course, our guests
were surprised, so we explained them what food it was and treated them, too.
Since than our friends always asked us to cook that dish.
There was another episode, when our kids stayed with
their friends and were offered ice cream there. The youngest son asked, “How
soon will Great Lent end?” They told him that it would end in a week. Then he
announced with a serious look that he was not going to “besmear his conscience”
when it was just a week before Pascha!
For our children Great Lent was a 49-day-long period
of joy. Why? I think it depends on the environment children are growing in and
the way this or that important idea is presented to them. We all were children years ago. If a child is brought up in the atmosphere of love and faith, then any
fast will not be something difficult for them. Perhaps, the relationships within
our family, the love and faith that I and Matushka, when she was still with us,
tried to cultivate, had a beneficial effect on our children’s future. They all
go to church today, they all begin to serve God just like their parents.
Translated
by The Catalog of Good Deeds
Source: https://foma.ru/zhuy-kokosyi-pochemu-moi-deti-tak-polyubili-post.html
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