The theme at the recent Clergy-Laity Congress in July focused on the Orthodox Christian family. One of the forums featured had the title Faith and Family: Building Generations of Faith. What a challenge it is for parents to model the faith for their children!  What a challenge, too, to ensure that our treasured Orthodox Church continues far into the future!

Transmitting our faith is an experience in transformation.  One vital way to transform the faith of our families is to commit to a regular time for prayer, making it an occasion wherein each member of the family participates. Regardless of the ages of your children, family prayer time can be offered in a practical and meaningful way. Our Orthodox tradition offers many resources and tools for you to consider.

The first step is to prepare a place in your home that will provide an atmosphere conducive to prayer. The location for your “prayer corner” can be a simple shelf mounted on the wall, a small table covered with a tablecloth, or on top of a piece of furniture. Arrange your sacred place to include many of the prayer tools that the Orthodox faith has used for centuries, including icons of Christ, the Theotokos, and the patron saints of each of your family members; a small incense burner; candles; a Bible; prayer books; a bottle of Holy Water; a prayer rope; or any other item that has special significance for your family.

The next step is determining when to schedule a prayer time with your family. The key is consistency! At which time will your family plan to meet each day for prayer: in the morning before school, after dinner, or maybe before bedtime? Having a regular prayer time is the steadfast advice of Church Fathers and saints from the dawn of Church history. Strive for a regular time that accommodates everyone in the family. The years will fly by, and you will be glad that you did. It will give your children a foundation that they will need to lean on when they are young adults.

When you have created a place to pray and a time to pray, you can then establish what should occur during this time. Certainly the ages of your children will determine what style of prayer to offer. Let us first suggest ideas for younger children:

• Simply lighting candles and burning incense in your prayer corner will create a lasting visual memory and ambience for the younger children during your prayer time.
• Since young children rarely sit still, you can use this to your advantage. Teach them the physical aspects of prayer: the sign of the Cross, bowing, kneeling, prostrations, and kissing icons.
• Recite the Trisagion prayers while including the Lord’s Prayer. The children will memorize these building-block prayers very quickly.
• Children love a parade!  During your family prayer time process around the home with each child holding an icon and a parent censing each room in the house.
• Read Bible picture books to your children. This practice will help when reading longer passages as they grow and mature.
• Teach your children short hymns from the Divine Liturgy such as “Through the Prayers of the Theotokos, Savior, save us” and “Save us, O Son of God, Who Rose from the Dead, We Sing to You, Alleluia” and “Blessed is the Name of the Lord, Both Now and to the Ages.”
• Encourage your children to verbally pray for members of the family, teachers, parish priests, for those in need, and for any special request they would like to share.

As your children grow, many more resources are available to enhance your family prayer time. Suggestions include:

• Develop the practice of reading from prayer books as a means of centering the family prayer. Encourage each family member (who can read) to participate.
• Refer to the daily readings (found on goarch.org) to recite aloud the assigned Gospel and/or Epistle passages for the day. Make use of the study notes at the bottom of the Orthodox Study Bible as a means of explanation for better understanding.
• In their own words, have kids summarize the Bible passage read aloud. One method of concluding the Scripture reading section of your prayer time is to make a game of it; ask each member of the family to verbally create a newspaper headline of the passage using only five words!
• Recite the Jesus Prayer aloud five times (or ten or more) together or by taking turns.
• From prayer books or sources online read together one of the many worship services of the Church, including the Hours or the evening Compline.
• From prayer books and sources online learn to chant hymns from the Church year.  Include the major feasts of Pascha, Pentecost, The Elevation of the Holy Cross, and some of the Lenten hymns. One of the most popular and beloved services in the Church is the Paraklesis (Supplication to the Theotokos), which comprises easy-to-learn hymns that can be chanted as a family at home.
• From published books or sources online read together the lives of saints. The benefits of such a practice are many: 1) children of all ages love to read stories, 2) children will recognize the great diversity of saints – young, old, male, female, educated, simple-minded, from every race and nationality, and 3) children will connect the dots from the time of Jesus to the present, understanding that saintliness is alive today and not just part of ancient history.
• As a family, create a written list of people to pray for and intercede on their behalf. One list can include the names of the living (family members, teachers, parish priests, and for those in need). A second list can include names of departed loved ones—a useful reminder to children that we are all members of the one Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12) whether here or in the Kingdom of Heaven.
• Encourage your children to verbally pray for any special request they would like to share.

While consistency and flexibility are essential, family prayer time does not have to be long and drawn out. Deep theological dialogue is not the point of family prayer time. Rather, it is building relational bonds between family members and with God and also developing a holy habit of daily prayer.

A few helpful resources to get you started include:

• My Orthodox Prayer Book by the Dept. of Religious Education (GOA)
• My Daily Orthodox Prayer Book edited by Anthony Coniaris
• The Bible for Young People by Zoe Kanavas
• The Orthodox Study Bible published by Thomas Nelson
• A Child’s Paradise of Saints by Nun Nectaria McLees
• Let’s Take a Walk Through Our Orthodox Church by Anthony Coniaris
• From I-ville to You-Ville by Mersine Vigopoulou
• The Service of the Small Paraklesis to the Most Holy Theotokos published by Holy Cross Orthodox Press

Fr. Alexander and Presbytera Lisa serve the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Lancaster, PA. They have three teenage children: Julia, Nicholas, and Sophia. Fr. Alex has published four books on the Orthodox faith, including, Renewed Day By Day: An Orthodox Prayer Workbook.