Children learn the love of God by the example of their parents
Every Orthodox parent wants their children to grow up attending Sunday Liturgies and staying active in the life of the Church throughout their lives. Yet many parents don’t demonstrate the importance of having a relationship with God in front of their children. If we do not make God important, neither will our child. Children observe their parents, and they see hypocrisy when we are not following through with the teachings of the Church during the week. They hear when we take the Lord’s name in vain, and observe when we don’t make prayer central to our day. They notice if we only speak of God on a Sunday morning, or when our priest pays a house call.
When we make the sign of the cross, and light candles only when attending Sunday Liturgy, teaches our children to compartmentalize their own faith, and leaves them defenseless in a world fulled with temptations and distractions from things that are of a spiritual nature.
If we do not demonstrate the importance of prayer before our children, we will leave them defenseless in a world that hates Christ. Our children need to pray with us, read the scriptures with us, and learn the importance of faith as demonstrated by our own acts of piety.
If we do not make our home a domestic church, our children will be lost to Christ, and Orthodoxy will not be lived out beyond our own grave, and future members of our family will ultimately see the Orthodox Faith of their older family members, as simply quaint practices of a bygone age.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photos: The Monastery’s parlor and library was inspired by the warmth and coziness of the monastic parlors I saw on Mount Athos.
The Feast of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker (Julian Calendar)
Our father among the saints Nicholas of Myra, Wonderworker, was the archbishop of Myra in southern Asia Minor in the fourth century and is also the basis for the Santa Claus legends and imagery which accompany Christmas celebrations in much of the world.
While widely honored and venerated, not only in the Orthodox Church, but throughout most Christian groups, little is known historically of the life of Nicholas. He is known to have been archbishop of Myra and he may have participated in the Council of Nicea in 325. In addition to being honored as the patron saint of many countries, notably Greece and Russia, and of cities, he is the patron of many occupational groups, most notably of sea-farers.
Tuesday December 19, 2017 / December 6, 2017
29th Week after Pentecost. Tone three.
Nativity (St. Philip’s Fast). Fish Allowed
St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, archbishop of Myra in Lycia (345).
Blessed Maximus, metropolitan of Kiev (1305).
New Martyr Nicholas of Karamanos in Asia Minor (1657) (Greek).
St. Nicholas, bishop of Patara.
St. Theophilus, bishop of Antioch (181).
St. Abramius, bishop of Cratea in Bithynia (6th c.).
The Scripture Readings
John 10:9-16
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep,and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
Hebrews 13:17-21
17 Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
Prayer Requested
18 Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably. 19 But I especially urge youto do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
Benediction, Final Exhortation, Farewell
20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Luke 6:17-23
Jesus Heals a Great Multitude
17 And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, 18 as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. 19 And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.
The Beatitudes
20 Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you poor,
For yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
For you shall be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.
22 Blessed are you when men hate you,
And when they exclude you,
And revile you, and cast out your name as evil,
For the Son of Man’s sake.
23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!
For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
Good examples reach much further than your immediate family. We love all of you.
I love the sight of your cozy rooms, and am glad to see that it is not just women who try to bring comfort to their environments. Out here in the secular world, it often seems as if it is up to women to create that solace in their environments. …The Christmas that I turned four, my father began reading the story of the nativity to my two younger brothers and myself. That began a many year journey in which he read a chapter of the Bible to us every night before bed and only ended when we had been through it three times. I took up the same practice with my sons at around the same ages, and made it through two and a half times (always starting with the New Testament). Not only are church attendance and prayer necessary cornerstones in passing on our faith to our children, the knowledge of the Word of God is foundational. I am thankful to God to have had the opportunity to share Him in such a manner with my sons.