The first prayer for the godchildren is the Creed, which is read by the recipient or the recipient during the sacrament of baptism. When an adult is baptized, he himself reads this prayer. The recipient, as it were, replaces his future spiritual son or spiritual daughter, is entrusted before God for him. Therefore, it is especially important to comprehend every spoken word. The responsibility is great, the moment is unique. A mistake or a frivolous attitude will adversely affect the future life of the baby, and possibly his eternal life.
Symbol of faith
A churched person knows the text of the Creed by heart, the one who came to the temple to perform the rite on the baby is obliged to learn it. It is advisable to try to make out every word, if difficulties arise, you need to seek help from a priest. It is necessary to try to remember the correct arrangement of stresses. Yes, it doesn’t matter to the Lord whether we pronounced all the words correctly, but a mistake can cause embarrassment for the priest performing the sacrament and those present. This can have a bad effect on the general mood and bring down the priest, especiallyinexperienced. But the most important thing is to put all your heart, all the faith that a person has into every sound he utters. You need to try to connect with the baby in spirit and read the Creed as if with him.
Godparents pray for their godchildren all their lives
After the sacrament of baptism is completed, the recipient or recipient begins their work aimed at the correct spiritual education of their ward. The spiritual parent will need help in this difficult work. For her, he turns to God. Since the baby cannot yet pray on his own, it is the direct duty of his godparents to do this instead of him until he can communicate with the Lord on his own. But even after the child has begun the first attempts to turn to God, spiritual parents pray for him. This is their duty until the end of their lives, their own or a little person entrusted to them by God. There are several specially composed prayers for godchildren, but you can read any others for them. It is advisable to remember your spiritual child during personal prayer in the morning and evening. Perhaps, for someone, the obligation to pray for the godson will become an incentive to establish their own communication with God.
Morning prayer of the Optina elders
If services in the Church are held in the Church Slavonic language, then at home for those who do not know it well enough, it is appropriate to pray for a godson in Russian. Many Orthodox Christians include in their morning rule the famous prayer of the Optina Elders. It will be wonderful if spiritual parents begin to read it for their wards as well. Saying the words of any prayers for yourself, you can mentally remember your loved ones, relatives, spiritual children. This can also be considered a commemoration.
Psalm 90
Prayer for godchildren should include a request for blessing, help and protection for them every day. It would be useful, and reading Psalm 90 before leaving the house, remember the name of the spiritual son or daughter. This psalm is known for numerous cases of miraculous help in mortal danger. Many mothers sewed a sheet with the text of this prayer into their children's clothes. It is good to have the habit of reading it with the belief that it will protect all those mentioned in it from every evil that affects the soul and threatens the bodily he alth. A person thus tunes in to a peaceful mood, feels protected, calm for himself and loved ones. You need to help the baby gradually learn several prayers, including this one. For a very small person, it is difficult, and at the age of 9-10 you can try to pronounce the words of the psalm together. If the child has an interest and desire, you need to help him memorize his text.
Special Prayers
Some of our saints and elders wrote their special prayers for parents and godparents for children. If there is time and a special desire to invoke God's blessing on a spiritual son or daughter, then it is good to read them at least once a day. Especially famous are the prayers for the children and godchildren of Father John Krestyankin and the prayers written by St. Ambrose of Optina. You can and should turn to God in your own words, but the prayers written by holy people are an example of how to express your feelings and thoughts before the Lord. It's about personal prayer. If a person does not know a word by heart, but only remembers the general meaning, it is not a crime to convey it with the help of words that come to mind and heart.
Prayer in your own words
Prayer for the godson for he alth should contain a request to grant him he alth, not only bodily, but also spiritual. When compiling it, you need to remember that it is desirable to start with words praising God, continue with words of gratitude, and only then make requests. Most people ask God for earthly blessings, academic success, healing from illnesses. But this approach is fundamentally wrong. The fact is that we do not know what is good for a particular person, and very often we ask for children what will hurt them.
What to pray for
Prayer for godchildren must necessarily contain a request for spiritual he alth and growth of the wards, instruction in faith, help in studying the Word of God, and the fight against passions. You can't ask them for a good job, a rich husband, or a new apartment. But it is possible and necessary to ask God to help the child get rid of laziness or addiction to sweets. There is one cautionary tale about this.
One couple prayed fervently for a long time for the gift of a child. But since they were both ugly, to the point of ugliness, they asked for a beautiful baby. The Lord finally gave upand sent them a baby, unusually beautiful … but blind. Since then, they have asked God for only one thing: "To You alone, in known ways, have mercy on us." It's not that God is cruel, but that we should just trust Him completely. We ask for happiness on earth, and He wants to save us. And only He knows what will serve to save a particular person.
Why doesn't God grant prayers
You can't expect miracles from your prayers. We alth is good for someone, and poverty for someone, he alth for someone, and it’s good for another person to get sick, etc. Not everyone will be able to wisely dispose of we alth, and the same Ambrose of Optinsky, being he althy, suffered from the fact that he was drawn into a noisy society where he only dissipated. When God sent him an illness, his character became much calmer, which helped him pay more attention to people. Illness did not allow him to attend church services, but he spent all his time on the spiritual support of pilgrims, who flocked to him in thousands for advice and help. Most likely, he was more useful here than at the altar.
Praying for another person is an expression of love
The godfather's prayer for the godson may contain requests for granting him wisdom, fortitude and other positive male qualities. On the right side of the recipient, he will carefully observe the spiritual son and notice where he has weak points, but not in order to reprimand, but in order to cope with the problem together. It's aboutproblems and troubles of a spiritual nature. You can ask God, the Mother of God or the Guardian Angel that the godson would have a desire to visit the temple more often, to study the New Testament.
Regular prayer for godchildren supports and develops in the recipients a sense of love for the spiritual child and responsibility for the little person before God. Any sincere words uttered with love are useful, first of all, to the one who prays. They open the heart of man to God and sanctify him. The godmother's prayer for the godson should be filled with maternal tenderness and care for the ward. It is especially good for the recipient to turn to the Mother of God or the saint - the heavenly patron of the baby.
We must not forget about church prayer. When visiting the temple, it would be useful to submit a note with the name of the godson for commemoration for proskomedia. During its fulfillment, you yourself need to pray for a spiritual son or daughter. When the clergy list the names of people who are remembered for their he alth, one must mentally pronounce the names of their loved ones, including godchildren. The prayer of the godparents for their godchildren is a prerequisite for the fulfillment of duties voluntarily assumed at the time of the performance of the Sacrament of Baptism over the baby. But this is also one of the talents bestowed on man by God for his own salvation, as well as other duties of sponsors in relation to spiritual children. The next common step with the baby is a joint appeal to the Lord.
