The Divine Liturgy and My Children
The Divine Liturgy and My Children
Question
I am unable to attend the Divine Liturgy because of my (mischievous) children. Even if I attend, I do not benefit from the Liturgy because of their constant talking, their noise, their many movements, and their running inside the church. So I have been forced to take them outside… So what should I do? Should I come to church or should I not come?!
Answer
• Of course, raising your children and training them to be quiet is another subject that I do not wish to discuss now. Rather, I will answer your question according to the reality in which you are living…
1- It is possible to attend the Divine Liturgy alternately between you and your wife. One time you attend the Liturgy and receive Holy Communion while she stays at home taking care of the children. Another time she attends the Liturgy and receives Holy Communion while you stay at home with the children.
2- Or both you and your wife may go to church while leaving the children with their maternal grandmother or paternal grandmother, or with an aunt on the mother’s side or the father’s side, until you return from church.
3- Or the children may be left at a nursery during the Divine Liturgy.
• As for your not attending the Liturgy regularly because of your children, this is unacceptable. It is not for your spiritual benefit to be deprived of Holy Communion, to be deprived of the influence of the prayers, hymns, and readings of the Divine Liturgy, and to be deprived of the spiritual atmosphere of the church in general.
• Likewise, it is not for the benefit of your children to be deprived of the church, nor is it for their benefit to continue in misbehavior. They must be taught and raised, trained to respect the church, and taught not to run inside it or create disturbances. Along with teaching, you must also use a measure of firmness in raising them.
• They should also be trained to obey and to practice a measure of quietness even at home. Otherwise, they will become a cause of weariness for you and for their mother at home, and perhaps even a cause of inconvenience to the neighbors as well…
• In any case, this problem may exist during the period before they enter school. At school age, children become accustomed to being quiet because the school is stricter in raising them. There is also no room there for the pampering that exists at home. If they become accustomed to quietness at school, it will also become easier for them to be quiet in church. The Sunday School servants will also help them in this.
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