prayers for Orthodox Moms |

The Saints model for us pursuing a life of prayer. Saints like Saint Porphyrios teach the virtue of the parents praying, especially the mother and gives a hard word, which is that is better to pray than to lecture.

“Pray more and with less words,” Saint Porphrios would say.

In other words, prayer of the heart. Having raised three children, I can say this not always easy, but of extraordinary value as they grow and need more independence.

In retrospect, most of our parenting has had less to do with forming our children than with forming ourselves. Most of the bad behaviour exhibited by our children was our own bad behaviour. This is a humbling blessed part of parenting.

When my children were younger I used to simply pray for calm and patience – for it is a constant vigil of tending to the needs of others before your own when they were young . Looking back, God was gracious with His Grace.

As our children grew, our prayers expanded and changed though in hindsight the gift is in the prayer and the words can be less. Over time it is clear God always knew the intention of the heart and it was often enough simply to ask for Grace and acceptance of His Will.

Our homes are meant to be a place of prayer and blessing and Grace.

Saint Porphyrios encourages mothers to pray to God for their children and that God will secretly speak to their hearts toward their mothers concerns.

Recently a priest reminded me that for our kids to grow they will often rebel against us – they need to become themselves. It’s like taking a stone out of the sand to reveal what it truly is. The sand is the parent, and we need to let that fall off so we can see the beauty of the stone. This is difficult but the reward is joy and deepened relationships with your children.

I’ve made a page with prayers for mother’s – these are some of my most treasured prayers. They are from various prayer books. Thank you so much for stopping by. Click for the prayers…