Archimandrite Emilianos Simonopetritul († May 9, 2019) speaks to us
God does not bless when we, desperate, put pressure on the child. Let's save the child's freedom! If we preserve the child's freedom, if we are attentive and polite ‒ like Christ, Who so simply and delicately left their midst, without forcing them ‒, if we do the same, then… what happens?
Since there are no coercions, demands, constraints, and within us there is neither exaggerated worry nor anxiety… Never in anxiety, in rushing, in stress, in quarrels, in exaggerations, in complaints, in grumbling does God hear us! Only in our silence, in our stillness does God hear us. Our peace, gentleness, dispassion, our faith, prayer – these are what give us the sweetness that we spread around, and the child tastes it and rejoices in it.
It is self-evident, however, that this spiritual bond and work will not nullify the gifts we will give to the child. And what are these gifts? Our peace, our love, the gentleness we have acquired, the study of holy books we undertake, the deepening, the pastoral measures we take, our fasting... Without fasting, it is impossible to save even a single person! We won't even save a mouse for all eternity if we don't fast! And, if we somehow have the impression that we have saved someone, we must know that another faster saved that person.
Our true pedagogy, our freedom, our spiritual relationship with the child, all these merely prepare him for the Kingdom of Heaven. And especially our prayer ‒ pay attention to what I am telling you now: through our prayer, let us place the children, not preach to them, but place them, like sick children, on a chair, within ourselves.
Within me, in the prayer I make, in my center, here, within me, let me gather all my children; let me embrace them all, draw them into myself! What do I understand by this 'within me'? I understand my heart and, especially, the feeling of God's presence.
When I say:“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me...”, this “on me” let it be my body; my body is the Body of Christ, and my children are in the Body of Christ. Here, then, let me seek my children, not in my mind, thinking 'This one is in Agrinio... the other in Crete... the other is lost... Oh, this one took off his monastic habit! Oh, the other is wasting time!'
No, no! They are God's children! They have a soul within them! Here, in me, within myself, I have them all, with peace, with peace, without fear! Let me say, with peace:“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me...” and this “on me” should mean Costin, George, Manole, Father Teodor who left his monastery, Father Mihail who got married, poor man, even though it wasn't allowed... In “have mercy on me” we include the whole world.
When we do this, well, when I melt ‒ 'Oh, oh, oh, what I have within me: both God and people! All earth and heaven are within me!' ‒ when I understand all this, then I can say the prophetic word:“Behold, I and the children whom God has given me!” (cf. Isaiah 8:18). But I cannot say it if I do not have them all in my heart and if I do not embrace them together with God!
From 'Orthodox Family,' December 2022
Translated by Father Theologos