If a child is born on a fasting or a holy day he may be born with a moral or physical flaw. Thus the child might become uncontrollable, disobedient. Usually in a family there are some healthy children but also some sick ones. The sin of the parents affects the children and they suffer because of that.
Those parents who although they have small babies curse, have fights, do harm and live only for the flesh are mindless. All their passions will reflect on their child. Even if the baby is in his mother’s womb he feels her mood and may be born sick. If the pregnant woman drinks, smokes or makes other sins, the child will be born with an inclination towards passions. When in a family there are small children we must not think that they don’t understand anything. They understand everything. The children are like a sponge, they absorb everything from their parents.
The mother of the blessed Augustine went to saint Ambrosias of Mediolan and said: `Father I am crying day and night because my son doesn’t know the Lord and lives in sin.` The bishop said: `Remember that God won’t forget your tears. Your son will come bac to God.`
After that her son went to Mediolan when the bishop was preaching. The blessed Augustine heard him and believed and saint Ambrosias baptized him. God gave to the newly baptized such a faith that he became a great theologian. He dictated to the copyists texts of theology and they couldn’t keep the pace with him. To read all his works for 8 hours a day you would need 80 years.
At his mother’s prayers the child received this special gift. When the mother prays for her child the child is not burnt by the fire, he doesn’t drown in water…The prayer of the mother takes him out even from the bottom of the sea…It is as powerful as the prayer of the church. But we are lazy to pray and that’s why our children and our close-knit don’t believe in God.
Source: Father Ambrosius Iurasov – Christian guide for nowadays, vol.1, Sophia Publishing, Bucharest, 2008, p.179 – 181.
