A Word for Parents

The Anti-Gnostic reports on a lecture given by Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America last night at Atlanta’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation.

Asked what advice [Metropolitan Jonah] would give parish priests, he again quoted a Russian father who told parents to pray for their children ten times as much as they speak to them. This prayer will become contagious through the community. His former abbot has prescribed a rule of two hours daily private prayer for the brothers in addition to their four to six hours of public prayer and worship.

He recommended all Orthodox study the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil, as in really read it, take notes, get a commentary and track down the Scripture references, etc. He called it the sum of all Orthodox dogma.

Posted

July 23, 2009

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John Couretas

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Metropolitan Jonah, Orthodox Church, prayer, Theology

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4 responses to “A Word for Parents”

Fr. Johannes Jacobse

July 24, 2009

Fr. John Peck, occasional contributor to the AOI blog and a founding director of The Preachers Institute is the author of a book on the Scripture in the Divine Liturgy.

Description:

The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, with Scripture references and commentary and quotations by the Church Fathers. A terrific text for students, seminarians, church school teachers, busy clergymen or anyone who wants a thorough reference of Orthodox Eucharistic worship. This is not a book about worship. This is the actual liturgical text of the Orthodox Church, with Scriptural and patristic references.

Direct link: http://www.interiorstrength.com/

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Joe

July 31, 2009

A word to parents from Elder Porphyrios (who is Greek by the way):

“Don’t pressure your children..Whatever you want to say to them, say it with your prayers. Children don’t listen with their ears. They’ll only listen to what we want to tell them when divine grace appears and enlightens them. When you want to say something to your child, say it to the Panagia instead and she will do all the work. Your prayer will become a spiritual hug, which embraces your children and captivates them. We, you see, often try to hug them, but they object. They never object to a spiritual hug, though”

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John Panos

July 31, 2009

With all due respect to the Elder, if he really said it, this is bad advice.

Children need contact, and to be connected. Simply praying for them is like saying, “if you want to feed your children good food, feed the poor instead.”

Perhaps he should have said, “ALSO say it to the Panagia…”

I don’t doubt the Theotokos will help parents trying to reach their children, but she won’t help parents who won’t do their own job of parenting.

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Joe

July 31, 2009

Elder Porphyrios really said it.

It’s only “bad advice” if you jump to conclusions.

If anyone is interested in reading more of this Saint’s teaching on child rearing:

http://philokalia.org/porphyrios_children.htm

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A Word for Parents

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4 responses to “A Word for Parents”

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