September: Day 16: Teaching 1:
Holy Great Martyr Euphemia
(On the Education of Children in the Spirit of Faith and Piety)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
(On the Education of Children in the Spirit of Faith and Piety)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. Today the Holy Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Great Martyr Euphemia. She suffered during the most severe persecution of Diocletian. She was a virgin and at a very young age. All 49 Christians were taken with her. The other Christian martyrs feared for the young maiden Euphemia and exhorted her to be firm in the faith. When they were brought before the judge, he soon noticed the young maiden Euphemia, who, raising her eyes and hands to heaven, cried out: "Do not abandon me, Lord Jesus Christ. I trust in You, strengthen me, Your weak servant." The judge meanwhile turned to her with an admonition to renounce Christ. But she firmly answered: "Do not think that I am deceived by your words. Of course, I am a woman and by nature weak in body and young in years, but my heart is strong, faith strengthens my weakness, and by this faith I am stronger than you and wiser than the wise men who worship soulless gods." The judge ordered the girl to be tied to a wheel on which there were many sharp knives. Euphemia prayed and suddenly the wheel stopped. The torturer ordered her to be thrown into a fiery furnace, but the soldiers saw two angels and refused to fulfill the judge's command, and they themselves believed in Christ, while the others who threw her in were themselves scorched, and the Saint glorified God in the fire. The torturer condemned Euphemia to be devoured by wild beasts. The Saint, when brought to them, began to pray: "Lord of hosts! You have shown Your invincible power in me, now stop my suffering, accept my sacrifice, brought with a contrite heart and a spirit of humility, and grant rest to my soul, for You are blessed forever." While she was praying, animals, lions and bears were released upon her. But instead of attacking her, they licked her legs. Finally, one bear slightly wounded her leg. The Saint heard a voice from heaven and immediately gave up her soul to God. Suddenly, a terrible storm with an earthquake arose and everyone ran home in fear. Her parents buried her body.
II. We see a young maiden, ready and going through all sorts of suffering for Christ. Where does such faith, such courage, such ardent love for Christ come from? Who raised her in such a saving fear of God? Of course, her parents: they put everything good and beautiful into her young heart, put it in both by word and especially by the example of their life. So this is why the children of pious parents are mostly God-fearing.
a) Such parents strictly watch over their offspring, watch every word, every step, every action of theirs – they teach them goodness, and themselves serve as an example of only goodness for them. "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord;" and they, knowing this, inspire to flee from all evil, because wickedness offends God first of all, and that through a wicked life one can lose His love and favor.
1) "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." This is the first and greatest commandment, and pious parents, knowing this, instill in their child to love God above all else. From the earliest years they teach him prayers, and take him to the temple with them to pray, and in the temple they will place him near them, instilling in him to stand in it with fear and reverence. Love for God is known through love for reading and fulfilling His word, and pious parents first of all hasten to acquaint their children with the word of God, they themselves read selected passages to them and make them read at least a chapter from the Gospel and a Psalm from the Psalter every day.
2) Children need a living example of how to put into practice what they have read in the word of God - and parents, knowing this, hasten to acquaint them with the lives of the Saints; either they tell them orally about the lives of the Saints, or they supply them with books that tell about the deeds of the Saints.
3) Do they want to send their children to school? They send them to one where they are taught the fear of God and the rules of Christian morality more than anything else.
4) Are they surrounded by friends? They choose those who will not harm, but can help with their influence and good example.
5) Do they pray to God for their children? First of all, they ask for the spirit of piety, the spirit of love, the spirit of the fear of God. And their prayer is not in vain. There are many historical examples that show that even deeply corrupted children, almost completely lost for God and people, by the power of their parents' prayers rose from their fall, corrected themselves and became pious.
b) But do the children of today’s Christians always grow up and are brought up this way?
1) No, we see many children spoiled at an early age, many of them are infected with vices that are not childish, many, far from reaching adulthood, can already be called completely lost for the family, for society, they are the grief of their parents, they are the burden of the family, they are a temptation for strangers, they fade without blossoming, they leave the arena without having done anything useful.
2) Who is to blame? Are not the parents primarily to blame, who often allow their children to grow up without any supervision, paying no attention to them? This child, consciously or unconsciously spewing obscene words in the street, making all his friends cry with his rude, insolent, completely unchildlike behavior, finding pleasure in torturing innocent animals, not going to church, or even going there, but standing there without any reverence - tell me, why does he behave like this? It may well be that the parents are to blame, who either do not want to know how their children behave in their absence, or know, but look at their behavior with indifference.
And the children of the peasantry, from their earliest years accustomed and forced by adults to drink the pernicious drink, sometimes seeing in their parents themselves an example of rude treatment and indecent abuse and drunken behavior - tell me, who will be to blame for their death, their licentiousness, their depravity? Is it not the same parents? How can we look for the fear of God, love of prayer, purity and innocence of childhood in such children? And how difficult is it for each of them to become a good Christian upon reaching adulthood, when he received an inclination to do worse in early childhood?
III. Therefore, brethren, let us be attentive to our duties, let us watch as strictly as possible the behavior of our children, let us not give them temptation in our own person, let us remove from hearing and sight – these doors of the soul – everything that tempts or teaches sin. Let children, looking at you, learn and be taught what they should be. Let them learn from your example to love God and neighbor more than anything, to love the temple and prayer more than worldly pleasures. And only then, upon reaching adulthood, will your children be firm in faith and piety, only then will they fully console you.
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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