"Raise up Children that God recognizes, not that the world honours. Worldly honour may come and that's wonderful when it does but that's not the job of a parish and the job of a parent is to raise up children and say to God, "Lord they are Yours." And to raise them up in such a way that God will recognize thom in every moment of their life.
It might be easy when you're in church and you and the children are being anointed during an Orthodox service or when you're saying prayers together, but there are times when parents and parishes have to struggle to raise up children that God would say to them "I know you".
There's also the opposite side of that...children have to know the voice of their mother, the Church. They have to know the voice of the Church and the only way that children know that voice is by time spent with their mother. Only by time, again and again and again, so that they get used to the mother's voice, our mother the Church. She's a good mother because she always calls us, she's always calling her children to her to come and to be with and spond time and receive the blessings of God that are there and awaiting them.
These blessings are unique, they're many, they're special, they're often individual but they can also be corporate but in order for child to know it's mother's voice it has to be close to her. The child has to be embraced by her, fed by her, held by her, guided by her, sometimes chastised by her, but always loved and cared for by her...and that's the Church.
And as a parish and as a people and as parents that's where our children belong, that's where they find out who they are, that's where they know who they are. It's so essential to spend time with our most holy mother the Church.
I would not trade anything for these kinds of beautiful moments in the Church because they are the seeds that grow the right fruit. It takes a while for us but those seeds grow into the right fruit, properly watered and properly tended to, properly cared for, properly embraced by our mother the Church."
Spoken by a humble Priest, father and servant of the Orthodox Church, September 2024
