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Quote by Sister Magdalen

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Children in the Church Today: An Orthodox Perspective

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Sister Magdalen

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“Children need to exercise their freedom of choice while we are there to guide them. We must loosen the reins gradually as our children grow up. We should be prepared for moments when our children’s freedom causes us anguish—this anguish is akin to the compassionate suffering of God, who undertook the ”risk” of creation. Restraint of almost grown-up children is a cheap solution; it is easier, but less effective, than understanding and prayer. If a child has been brought up in the spirit of Christ, it will hardly ever be necessary.”

“The question for Christians who are already married and raising children is not: “How can I reduce to a bare minimum my family obligations so as to be ‘free’ to lead a ‘more spiritual’ life?” It is rather: “How should I nurture within my family life my love for God and my neighbor?”

“I have no children of my own, but I love a lot of kids and love a lot of people with kids, who, it seems to me, are in constant communion with terror, and that terror exists immediately beside . . . let’s here call it delight—different from pleasure, connected to joy, Zadie Smith’s joy, somehow—terror and delight sitting next to each other, their feet dangling off the side of a bridge very high up.”