March: Day 21: Teaching 2: Saint James, Bishop and Confessor

March: Day 21: Teaching 2:*
Saint James, Bishop and Confessor
 
(How to Raise Children in the Spirit of Piety?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint James, whose memory is celebrated today, was distinguished by the strictness of his life. From his youth he loved piety, which he preserved until the end of his days. For his holy life he was appointed a bishop, and he labored greatly for the veneration of icons, which in his time were under persecution. But his zeal resulted in exile and imprisonment, in which he also reposed.

II. We have said that Saint James loved piety from his youth. Even in our own time, many children from an early age show an inclination toward a pious life. See how some children are obedient, gentle, yielding; how well-behaved, diligent, and zealous in prayer they are. See with what attentiveness a child listens to lessons in the Law of God, how long and fervently he prays, how he loves the house of God. Tell him something divine, wondrous, extraordinary — he will never forget it; read to him stories from the lives of the saints — he will listen with remarkable attention, for hours at a time. And how compassionate some children are toward the poor! For them, their greatest joy is to give alms. In some, the inclination to piety is innate, but in many their pious disposition also depends on external causes.

a) Those who surround the child have great influence. A good nurse, Christian in spirit and imbued with piety, has an irresistible influence on the child. The child hears her gentle, meek, and kind words, sees her fervent and prolonged prayer before his eyes, and is inevitably imbued with the spirit of piety. What the nurse says is law for him, and when she instills what is good, that good is first assimilated. Therefore, parents who desire the true good of their children must be extremely careful in choosing those who care for them, selecting those who show a pious disposition, and under no circumstances entrusting children to servants of low moral character or of another confession. What will children hear from such people? About God — omniscient, all-good, and ever-present — they will certainly never speak, but will behave toward the child as though God does not exist. Whereas a good nurse — she will first teach the child to make the sign of the cross, she will impart the first notions of God, she will teach him to pray, and she will certainly pray together with him.

b) The environment surrounding the child also has great influence — his peers, with whom he plays and spends all his time. God forbid that he should become close with a child from a corrupt family, who knows the vices of his elders and is capable of passing them on to others. Such companionship is complete ruin. Parents who allow their children to go out must strictly watch with whom they spend their time, what kind of children they associate with, what games they play, what they say — all this parents must know; otherwise they will not see the spirit of piety in their children. A child may imperceptibly, from an early age, become infected with such vices as are dreadful even to think of.

c) The home environment in which the child grows up is also very important. It is not the same for a child to see in the parental home on the walls either scandalous images or those of religious content. A sacred image has a powerful and most beneficial influence on a child — such that it is never erased from his memory and imagination throughout his life. The child stops before such images, asks his parents about their meaning, reflects, and inwardly experiences what is depicted. Images from the life of the Savior, from the history of the Old Testament — for example, the life of Joseph and others — all this is edifying, instructive, and deeply impresses the child’s soul. Therefore, parents must diligently remove from the home everything that is scandalous, so as not to defile the pure heart and imagination of their child. For any negligence or carelessness in this matter they will have to give a grievous account before God for their children.

d) Most of all, the spirit of piety is instilled in children through the Christian and pious conduct and way of life of the entire family. Every Christian family should be, according to the Apostle, a domestic church. And if in such a family life proceeds according to the rules of faith and the Church, then this spirit is naturally imparted to the children. A feast day comes — all go to church. A fast comes — all, both young and old, gladly and with love take up fasting food; no one permits himself to break the fast without necessity. In the evenings and on feast days, the reading in the family of the Gospel and other spiritual and moral books, common prayer morning and evening, upon entering and leaving the home, before every task and after — all this powerfully influences children. One immediately recognizes a child coming from such a family. In our time, the way of life according to the spirit of the Church is being driven out of homes. A worldly spirit takes its place. Because of this, we see fewer and fewer children with a pious disposition. In such families, children often have no understanding of feasts and fasts. Not long ago, a priest encountered in one worldly family a nine-year-old boy who had no idea, and had never even heard, what the Gospel is. A very sorrowful phenomenon! May such things never exist in the Orthodox world!

III. And they will not exist when every mother, with full attention, devotes herself to her child. Yes — more than anyone, it is a pious mother who can accomplish the most for a child. A true mother is not occupied with dress, outings, or social gatherings — but is most of all concerned with raising her children in the spirit of the Christian faith. The fruit of this is evident before us. All the saints had pious mothers. Saint John Chrysostom, Gregory the Theologian, Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk — all of them received the first beginnings of piety from their pious mothers. Oh, may God grant that in our time as well every mother, giving birth to children for earthly life, may know how to raise them also for the Kingdom of Heaven. Then we shall encounter more and more children who are modest, well-behaved, and God-fearing; and with the increase of such children, piety will also increase among adults — in the whole Christian society, in all its ranks — and may the Lord grant us this consolation.

(Compiled from the instruction of Priest P. Shumov, in the supplement to the journal “Kormchiy,” 1896, No. 12).

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
 

Notes:

* Saint James the Bishop and Confessor is commemorated twice in the Slavic calendar, on March 21 and March 24. In the current text, there is an entry for him on both days, and the one above is the entry for March 24th. Because in the Greek calendar he is only commemorated on March 21, this translation is moved to March 21.