Teaching our children to pray ceaselessly

It would be a blessed practice for the parents (the mother, for example) to gather their children under (or in front of) the ikonostasis (icon screen) and invite them to jointly practice the Jesus Prayer for 5 minutes.

“This is how we begin”, said gracefully Elder and contemporary Saint Paisios of the Holy Mountain, “to pull the belts of the machine, to start the machine of our nous.” Especially a child, who’s soul is pure and, compared to us, has not so many passions or thoughts (logismoi), rejoices and easily understands what the noetic prayer is. After that, children like it and want to practice it constantly.

Children are not as darkened as adults are, so after the first attempts, very soon those 5 minutes become 10, 15 and so on…

When we (the mother) begin our day this way, and try to continue the Jesus Prayer also during breakfast, and do it again for another 5 minutes before having lunch with our children, and again for another 5 minutes in the evening, before going to bed, we gradually immerse into this state (and procedure) of ceaseless memory of God, progressively…

However, we will have to advise our children to put an effort to remember Christ all through the rest of the day as well. Because, if we build for 5 minutes and then demolish during the next 3-5 hours, we are obviously doing nothing significant.