Children and Ecclesiastical Life (Fr. Alexander Schmemann)

 

By Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann 

As a general rule, children like attending Church, and this instinctive attraction to and interest in Church services is the foundation on which we must build our religious education. When parents worry that children will get tired because services are long and are sorry for them, they usually subconsciously express their concern not for their children but for themselves. Children penetrate more easily than do adults into the world of ritual, of liturgical symbolism. They feel and appreciate the atmosphere of our Church services. The experience of Holiness, the sense of encounter with Someone Who is beyond daily life, that mysterium tremendum that is at the root of all religion and is the core of our services is more accessible to our children than it is to us. "Except ye become as little children," these words apply to the receptivity, the open-mindedness, the naturalness, which we lose when we grow out of childhood. How many men have devoted their lives to the service of God and consecrated themselves to the Church because from childhood they have kept their love for the house of worship and the joy of liturgical experience! Therefore, the first duty of parents and educators is to "suffer little children and forbid them not" (Matt. 19:14) to attend Church. It is in Church before every place else that children must hear the word of God. In a classroom the word is difficult to understand, it remains abstract, but in Church it is in its own element. In childhood we have the capacity to understand, not intellectually, but with our whole being, that there is no greater joy on earth than to be in Church, to participate in Church services, to breathe the fragrance of the Kingdom of Heaven, which is "the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit."

The Response of Saint Amphilochios Makris to a Request for Spiritual Advice from a Sixteen Year Old Girl

My child, the advice I give you will be a beacon throughout your life. These paternal words will guide you and bring you like a hurricane and auspicious wind near the eternal and happy port of your adoring love. Let your soul sail quietly on the calm waters so that it can reach its end. But to be able to reach this end of happiness, you need a lot of struggle and wrestling against the passions.
 

It is a struggle throughout this life of bitter exile, because in this life we are strangers and wandering sojourners, asking for refuge everywhere. We will find refuge and perfect rest only near our eternal homeland and there we will live in real security. There we will enjoy the unfading and all-white crown of our efforts.

A Revolutionary Spirit for our Youth Today

By Monk Moses the Athonite

Young people in Greece today have a number of weaknesses. They don’t like hard work, they’re indifferent towards matters of real importance, they reject concepts out of hand and they’re easily led astray with trivial ideas. On the other hand, however, they retain a great desire for truth, they hanker for authenticity, they’re sensitive in a good way, spontaneous, bright, self-restrained and humane.

They’re wary of the Church, which they associate with the mistakes of its representatives. They’re somewhat wary of patriotism, after the anti-patriotic harangues of certain modern non-patriots. They make fun of politicians, who have displayed more than enough incompetence and iniquity, but they also include politics itself, which is a pity. The sacred past doesn’t inspire them and they’re rather afraid of the future. To a large extent, the attitude of our young people is justified, since they’ve seen the hypocrisy of the “great and good”, who’ve said one thing and done another.

Counsels in the Spiritual Life for Orthodox Youth (Elder Daniel Katounakiotis)

The following letter of Elder Daniel Katounakiotis, who reposed on September 21st 1929, is a reply to a letter written by two young brothers who sought from this holy man of Mount Athos some guidance in the spiritual life. Elder Daniel's primary aim is to encourage the two brothers to stay away from vice and to love God-pleasing virtue. The letter was written in 1902.

To the beloved brothers Constantine and John, I pray from my soul.

With great joy, I recently received your two letters, which I read with great zeal and diligence. It is my duty that I answer and guide you accordingly. I will, however, address my response to both of you, since the two of you are God-loving brothers, and both of you have equal need of spiritual guidance and education. You are therefore obligated not only to ask, but to listen to what the Fathers have said.