Children's prayer

Immediately after ordination to deacon or priest, newly minted priests are required to undergo the necessary forty-day daily practice of service, which is called the forty-mouth.

I remember when my deacon's magpie was already ending, in the regional center, we served an all-night vigil on the Feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem ("Palm Sunday"). The service was held in the Cathedral and was headed by Vladyka.

When Vladyka serves Vladyka on Palm Sunday (goes to the Russian Orthodox Church in the evening, not all night), small bouquets are prepared in advance. For priests - a palm and five carnations, and for deacons, a palm and three carnations. The Church is strictly hierarchical, and even in the smallest detail, this hierarchy is emphasized in every possible way. During the anointing with oil, which is performed by the Bishop himself, each of the concelebrants, anointing his forehead, gives consecrated bouquets, or, as we say, "vaiechki" (ie literally: palm branches, as they met Jesus Christ 2000 years ago) ...

I received my wiyechki and began to decide where to put them? In those days I lived in a dormitory at the diocesan administration and it was not interesting to carry flowers to a room where I could not please anyone with them. I was going home only in a few days, and there was no point in taking them with me, since the flowers by that time would have already wilted, or frozen on the way. Easter was early that year.

Vaiyechki had to be presented to someone, but to whom? In a regional city where you don't know anyone, this is problematic. There were more than eight hundred people at the service in the church, but that did not make it any easier for me. I didn't know any of them. Give flowers to a man? They won't understand. To a woman? If you give it to a young woman, then you could also get into a mess. This is me now already gray-haired, but then there was still an "eagle" You never know what thoughts can come to mind of a young girl. Give it to an old woman, so she will not remain in debt and will climb into her wallet.

And suddenly, a wonderful thought comes to me: I’ll give them to my child! Which child? Well, of course, a girl of about eight or nine years old. After all, I myself have stayed at home and is waiting for a daughter, whom I missed very much. Wonderful! I decided who to give a gift to, and there was only one thing left to do - to choose a suitable child and give him a gift.

At that moment, which I am describing, several subdeacons and I became so as to divide people into streams, giving them the opportunity to approach the Vladyka in an orderly manner for anointing with oil. At first, people passed behind me, and then, making a turn, they went to the anointing, and then I could already see their faces. Turning my head slightly to the left and back, I noticed exactly the kind of child I was thinking of. When the girl drew up behind me, I turned around, and, congratulating her on the holiday, put a bunch of roses and carnations in her palm ...

Out of surprise, the child did not say a word to me and walked on, but her grandmother came up to me from behind, whom I never saw. She told me the following, I quote her words literally:

- Father, you have no idea what happened now. We have a big friendly family with many children. Every time on this day we buy willows for everyone and go to bless them in church for service. Tonight, the girl and her parents were late at the appointed time. We thought that they would not come at all, and we divided all the branches between her other cousins ​​and sisters. And when they finally arrived, none of the children wanted to share with her. The child was crying so bitterly, and I, in order to comfort her, said: “You pray, and God will definitely hear you. On such a day, He cannot help but hear. And you will have even better wines than your brothers and sisters. "

By the time my grandmother finished her story to me in a broken voice, the girl had already entered the straight path to the anointing with oil and the consecration of the bouquet from the hand of Vladyka. The girl walked and held in front of her on outstretched little arms her wonderful wines, which were incomparably more beautiful than those that they did not want to share with her. She held them as a banner, the banner of her faith, confirmed by prayer ...

It turned out that the whole train of my thoughts about who to give a gift to was prompted to me from the outside. The child's prayer, ardent and sincere, made me become a part of God's providence. For some reason, He needed to strengthen the girl's faith, even in childhood, maybe so that this faith would be manifested later and bear many fruit?
And also, probably, and for me, a novice priest, to show an example of a prayer that needs to be imitated. We were both at the beginning of the journey, and this brought us closer.

Years later, a boy of about five years old was brought to our church. At that time I was in the altar. I was asked to go out to a child who wanted to tell me something. When I came out, the boy, prompted by his mother, asked me to pray for him. He had a bad heart. The other day, an operation was expected, during which, a catheter was to be inserted into his vein, and then, with the help of this device, enter a small diseased heart so that it would stop suffering.

I suggested to him:
- Let's pray together for your healing.
The child agreed. We come to the image of the Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon.
“Ask a holy man, kid. He will pray for you before God.

The child looked at the image of the healer Panteleimon and began to pray. His prayer, without any exaltation, pretense, or doubt, was just a conversation of a little man with an understanding and infinitely loving Father.

Trustfulness and hope, the absence of any doubt, this is what a child's prayer teaches. I looked at the child, listened to his unpretentious appeal to God and understood that if at the end of my days I reach the measure of childish prayer simplicity, then, probably, I will enter into the joy of my Lord.

Priest Alexander Dyachenko.