The Shepherd, April 2009
FROM THE SACRED CANONS
FROM the Holy Day of the Resurrection of Christ our God until New [Thomas] Sunday, for the whole week the faithful must continue uninterruptedly in respite, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, rejoicing and keeping festival in Christ, in reading the Divine Scriptures attentively, and delighting in the Holy Mysteries. For thus shall we be jointly resurrected and exalted with Christ. Therefore, during these days, let there be no horse races [a popular pastime of the period] or other popular spectacle held at all.
Canon 66 of the Holy and Sixth Council
THE RELIGIOUS UPBRINGING OF CHILDREN
By Archpriest S. Shchukin
UPBRINGING AND THE CHURCH
THE CHURCH always has been and always will be the most important aid to parents in the work of educating their children. In the emigration, its significance has increased. Among people of different beliefs and often different languages, the Orthodox Church is a spiritual beacon for adults and children. Without it, it would be difficult to bring up children in the Faith of their fathers.
If we compare which confession of faith shows most concern for children, then Orthodoxy takes the preeminent place. Roman Catholicism, as is widely known, only permits children over seven to receive communion. The Protestants only permit it at adolescence (after Confirmation). If we go into Roman Catholic or Protestant churches, do we see many infants in arms? This is understandable - what can an infant gain from a pastor’s learned sermon or from a mass, performed for those who can only follow from a prayer book? We know that many Protestants, moreover, send the children to a kindergarten under the church during the service.
We follow a completely different course in Orthodox churches. Orthodox Divine services simultaneously effect both the body and the soul, and are easily accessible to a child. The burning candles and lamps, the splendour of the vestments, the fragrance of the incense, the chanting of the choir, the peel of the bells - all these effect even an infant and nourish his soul. Do not believe the Baptists,* who say, “Why do you torment your children, taking them to church? It only disturbs the adults praying there….” Does having infants in church really disturb us? If their mothers constantly come to church, they quickly learn from her, and even love being at the services. We know how they themselves will sometimes refuse food, when they are going to receive Communion, so that they can fast like the adults.
And both in the church itself and outside, the Orthodox have a treasury of feasts, rites, homely customs, which influence the child’s soul. Let us recall our Palm Sunday, our Passion Week, our Pascha, which nobody celebrates as the Orthodox do, our Theophany Blessing of the Waters, our Trinity Day with the masses of flowers, the Elevation of the Cross, and the other days when the services are special and not like the normal Sundays. And what an array of Orthodox customs adorn our family life at home: our icons, the lamp before them, our meals which break the fasts, our days of remembrance, the blessing of homes, and all the rest, which all provide rich nourishment for our children’s souls. But, for their children’s sakes, the parents must be diligent about these things, not always trying to excuse themselves for being absent from church because of lack of time or other circumstances.
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