Making God Real in the Orthodox Christian Home

by Anthony M. Coniaris

In the "domestic church," parents, like the Orthodox priest, represent God to their children. Here is a wonderful book filled with ideas to help Orthodox Christian parents become effective religious educators in their own homes.The first part is titled Some Practical Things to Do, and the second part is titled Some Practical Things to Think about and Do. 250 pages

Genres: Religion, Christianity, Theology, History, Christian

250 pages, Soft bound

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Michael O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We are rearing children whom we don't know, and who will never know us." T.S. Eliot

Although this book was written during the 1970s, I think its points are as valid today as they were at the time the book was first published. Orthodox Christianity and its sacraments are timeless, but in the eyes of a generation that prizes novelty even over utility even to the point of neomania and faddishness, anything seeming from the past or the ancients is worth discarding. We face a generation of children who, if not filled with good things from the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church, will have that void filled by others with the 3 isms ---- narcissism, materialism, and nihilism --- in whatever various quantities a particular child's personality and social circle trend toward.

So the challenge for an Orthodox parent trying to raise their child in the faith is to make the Church's sacraments, teachings, traditions, and practices relevant, meaningful, and understandable to them. As Fr. Anthony points out, you can't rely upon the Church to do it for you --- and I would point that goes for anyone desiring to raise their child in any faith ---- the Church gets one hour a week on the average via Sunday School. You've got much more.

So this book provides a lot of great ideas for teaching and involving one's kids into the life of the Church --- such as with the Divine Liturgy, Nativity, Lent, Pascha, etc. I have to admit that I felt a little guilty -- it's got many great ideas, but ones I'm not doing that I'd wish I'd thought of. But I don't think that's the way to take this book. Use the ideas outright, or modify and adapt them based upon how your kids are. After all, we need to know our kids better than anyone and should!

As a collateral benefit, having recently joined the Orthodox faith, I found it did also more fully explain some of the Church's traditions and practices that weren't covered quite as thoroughly during catechism --- which I appreciated.

If I could make one improvement to the book, I think it would be great if an updated edition of it could be produced. Fr. Anthony tends to work from the premise that both parents are cradle Orthodox ---- when in today's Church, it's far more likely that the parents themselves may be new converts, or that one parent, for whatever reason, is handling the spiritual development of the kids. I also think that more guidance would be great on the influence of social media as far as its role in children's lives.

Overall, however, this is a highly useful book that I will be referencing as I look for ways to better raise my children in the Orthodox Christian faith, and highly recommend it for other Orthodox Christian parents aiming to do the same.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an inspiring little book! It's easy to read because it's broken into many brief chapters--perfect for a busy mother of young children. It is filled with good ideas for incorporating the Orthodox faith into daily life at home. Many of these things are well established practices in our home, but there are plenty of other helpful suggestions therein which have inspired me to develop for our children an even richer environment of faith. Within this book is also contained encouragement for the weary parent, which is much needed during the moments when we lose sight of what we're really doing.

May God have mercy on us as we put our hands to the great task of spiritually nourishing our children!

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely book with short chapters that make it easy to read a little at a time. The book gives many good ideas for living out our Orthodox faith with our families, and it also challenges us as parents to do the best we can with the important task God has given us - teaching our children. We need to love them unconditionally, be fully present in their lives, spend time with them, be approachable, and most importantly, give them a true picture of God, that will cause them to love their heavenly Father.

[Courtney Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A practical little book on bringing the church into the home and your everyday life.

[Chiara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book. It was very helpful for my research project. I imagine it would be very helpful for parents although I will say I found it to be a little less organized than Blueprints for the Little Church.

There was also a rather embarrassing mistake when they recounted the story of Les Misérables, except the story was closer to the plot of A Tale of Two Cities, except it wasn't quite the plot of A Tale of Two Cities either. It doesn't damage the didactic point they made by recounting the story, except the source of the story was wrong. Maybe only I care about this, but Les Mis and ATOTC are two of my favorite books. I intend to write the publishers about it so hopefully they can get it fixed for the fourteenth edition (I read the thirteenth).

[Pelagia, TX · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes hard to find but q must buy old school orthodox book that you can read and enjoy, yet reach for weekly as a reference book. I use it 1,000 times a year. A must have for converts and the “cherry on top” for cradle. Hands down my most loved and used orthodox book as a mom.

[Magda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather useful ideas and suggestions, but this book seemed to skim over the surface of things. I think examples or stories of how things worked when implemented would have been a good addition to the structure.