A Prayer for Our Children: An Introduction

I have been finding that praying for children is one of the most important roles of a parent. Even as an infant, there is so much about a young child that a parent cannot control, and so prayer is a way of both acknowledging in humility our inadequacies as a parent and journeying with our children in their spiritual journey.

In January Frederica Mathewes-Green read a prayer “Akathist to the Mother of God, Nurturer of Children” on her podcast. The prayer struck me as a focused, meditative way to prayer for your children.  My wife had also begun reading Praying the Scriptures for Your Children, so I wanted to explore ways that ancient Christians have prayed for their children, and the prayer that Mathewes-Green had read seemed like a great place to start.

The prayers are daunting in their language and archaic terminology. Even the title, “Akathist to the Mother of God, Nurturer of Children,” is cryptic to  most contemporary Christians. An Akathist is simply a collection of prayerful songs. Each section of the song is made up of an kontakion and ikos, which are best understood as call and response, respectively.

The language and theological view of this akathist are high, and are hard to understand in some parts. Much of the terminology seems worshipful, particularly passages addressed to the Theotokos (Mary, Mother of God). Many contemporary Christians, including myself, have been conditioned to be wary of such language, lest we worship Mary and not God. It is important to realize that, while we should always be wary and critical of how we worship and prayer, it is also important to put ourselves in the theological framework of Christians from other times and cultures and not view their terminology and understanding through our own cultural lens.

The understanding of Mary in this song is that she is the Mother of God and Nurturer of all Christian children. While Protestants may feel uncomfortable giving Mary such titles, it is theologically accurate. Christ, who is divine, was born of Mary, therefore she is the Mother of God. Mary also nurtured Christ himself, from a newborn through his toddler years, scolded him for disappearing in Jerusalem and cared for him throughout his life. In effect, Christ’s nurturing of our children through his Church and his Spirit is the fruit of her own nurturing of Christ. This does not make her higher or more important that Christ—it is one of the mysteries of the Incarnation, and something I feel I will never completely grasp.

What I will be publishing is my own paraphrase of the “Akathist to Mother of God, Nurturer of Children,” which can be found on various Eastern Orthodox websites. I am using the version compiled by Father Nektarious Serfes. I have changed the title to “A Prayer for Our Children” and the organization from “kontakion” and “ikos” to “call” and “response.” I have tried as best as I can to change the more reverent language directed toward Mary so that it cannot be interpreted as worshipful or requires thought or pause. I am not completely happy with some of the language changes: any paraphrase will not completely live up to the original intent, and I recognize that. Why I have decided to change the language or make the language more contemporary is because this is foremost a prayer, meaning we are supposed to be active and engaged. This whole exercise is helpful for me, and I hope for you, because I do not find it beneficial to look up terms or think about theological interpretations while praying. I find such interruptions counter-intuitive to prayer in general and counter to the spirit of the specific ancient prayer itself. I hope one day that I myself may be able to read ancient prayers, with their archaic language, imagery and world view, as second nature. But for now, I find this practice of paraphrasing a “theological translation” beneficial to my prayer life, because I can pray along with those Christians who have served so faithfully before us.

I will be publishing a section of the Akathist every day or so. I welcome you to use these prayers for your own devotion.