St. Paisios on Motherhood

It is good for a mother to be involved with the nurturing of her children… A mother can speak to her children about Christ; she can read the Lives of the Saints to them. The mother’s spiritual life will then quietly help the souls of her children. Thus, her children will live happily, and she will be joyful because she will have Christ within her. If a mother doesn’t find the time to say even the Trisagion, how can she expect he children to be sanctified? When she does her housework, can’t she pray at the same time? It was my mother who taught me to way the Jesus Prayer. When we were children and had done some mischief, and my mother was about to get angry with us, I remembering her saying, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” When she put the bread in the oven, she would say, “In the name of the Christ and Panagia.” And whenever kneading, or cooking, again, she constantly said the Jesus Prayer. In this manner, she herself was blessed, as were the bread and the food she was preparing, and so were those who partook of it later.

+Saint Paisios