as the song says…’teach your children well…’
I always emphasize that young people should try to live as spiritually as they can before marriage, since preserving chastity secures their physical and spiritual health.
The spiritual life is a basic perquisite to whatever life one chooses.
The world has become like a wheat field that is ready for harvest, but swine enter and trample it.
So now everything is in disarray – weeds, mud, wheat stalks, but here and there on some edge, there is an occasional wheat stalk standing on upright…
The more spiritual work one does during his youth the easier it will be for him in all things later in life…
The better equipped and prepared one is before the battle, the better off they will be when bullets are flying and bombs are falling.
Elder Paisios of Mount Athos