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Orthodox Christian Parenting, hosted by Faithtree Resources Executive Director (and mom of four!) Michelle Moujaes, is a weekly podcast for parents and grandparents navigating the holy struggle of raising kids in the Orthodox Faith. Each episode offers honesty, encouragement, and practical wisdom from the Church—creating space to exhale, freedom from the pressure to be perfect, and openness to grow as you raise children who are deepening their knowledge and love of Christ.
We don't want to be too hard on ourselves, number one.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay, good. I needed that. Thank you. Say it again.
Fr. Nasr:Don't be hard on yourself. If you judge yourself, you go
Michelle Moujaes:down. Okay.
Fr. Nasr:You want to be step by step positive. Now children can learn that by observing the emotions or by observing the expressions, hearing the conversation around the table at dinner,
Michelle Moujaes:at
Fr. Nasr:lunch, or in the house.
Michelle Moujaes:Welcome to Orthodox Christian Parenting, where we bring the church's timeless wisdom into the everyday chaos of raising kids. I'm Michelle Moujaes, and today we're talking about something that I am genuinely so excited to bring to you because I think it's one of the most important conversations we can have as Orthodox parents in this cultural moment. We're talking about raising children who can share the faith, not children who can argue about it, not children who can memorize all the right answers and then recite them when asked, but children who can speak about Christ and his church with confidence, with humility, and with joy, the way you talk about something that you actually love. But here's what I think is true. A lot of us as Orthodox parents have done a really beautiful job teaching our kids to love the faith quietly, privately, like it's a family heirloom kept in a drawer.
Michelle Moujaes:And our kids are growing up in a world where everyone around them is sharing so much about what they believe about politics, about identity, about wellness, about everything. Everyone except sometimes the Orthodox kids. Today's conversation is about how we change that, not by turning our kids into evangelists with a capital e, but by helping them become the most natural thing in the world. Children of the living God who can talk about their father without flinching. Before we jump in, just a quick reminder to download the free digital discussion guide linked in the show notes.
Michelle Moujaes:It's designed to help you take this conversation home to your spouse or to discuss with a friend or with others in your parish community. You can find it in the show notes below. I cannot wait for this conversation. My guest today is without exaggeration, one of the most beloved priests in the Orthodox Church. He comes from a long line of clergy.
Michelle Moujaes:And by long, I believe he's the twelfth generation in his family of priests. For decades, he pastored Saint Elijah Antiochian Orthodox Church in Oklahoma City. And over those decades, he became known across North America as one of the most gifted evangelists that Orthodoxy has. People came to him. They came home through him, and families were brought into the church through his pastoral care, his teaching, his books, and maybe more than anything, his warmth.
Michelle Moujaes:He has poured his whole life into welcoming people into the faith. And today, he's going to help us figure out how to raise children who do the very same thing. It is my absolute joy to welcome to the podcast, Father Constantine Nasr. Father, welcome and thank you for being with us today.
Fr. Nasr:Well, you. Christ is risen.
Michelle Moujaes:Truly He is risen.
Fr. Nasr:I am very happy to be on your podcast on Orthodox Christian Parenting. Looking at you, I see behind you this beautiful icon, which is an invitation Jesus invited, asked for all the children, let them come unto Me. This is example of our responsibility as parents is to encourage our children to read them in the faith, to bring them to Jesus, not only on Sunday morning, but in the chapel of the home. The home is a chapel. Yes.
Fr. Nasr:Last week at Father John Salem, took my place at St. Elijah, called to check on us a few days ago and we were just chatting and he said, you know, we had three thirty four people on Wednesday night program. Wow. That's mean, that's mission and evangelism people calling people. Wow.
Fr. Nasr:We have over 75 catechumens plus catechumen number one and number two, the other lectures. But I'm saying is that we were in our ethnic ghetto mentality and we don't know much about our faith. We don't read books, we don't read the Bible.
Michelle Moujaes:I know. I'm guilty of that father though. Tell me what parents do?
Fr. Nasr:What do we do? Let me say let me share with you what I have done.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay. Okay.
Fr. Nasr:Everyone who have joined the church, I ask him or her to write her or his personal journey to Orthodoxy.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay.
Fr. Nasr:Even we have classes as a priest, how many cradles do come to these classes? We have speakers to come, how many people do come to attend these speakers? It costs money. But we do it for a reason, we want to educate not only those who are coming, we want to educate our own people, still we need to eat. I need to eat.
Fr. Nasr:I can't just give the food to, I need to eat. So let's eat together around the table of Christ. So I asked Michelle, Michelle, will you write your personal testimony? Eight to ten minutes, whatever it may be, give it to me. I read it, review it, and once I see and read and hear, I say, okay Michelle, next month on this Sunday instead of I give the homily, I want you to stand and read your personal journey.
Fr. Nasr:Oh father. I said, want you to do that. I'm doing three, I'm hitting three birds in one stone. One, I'm introducing Michelle to the community because everybody's looking who these people are coming from. They're taking my seat.
Michelle Moujaes:Know? Which is a real thing.
Fr. Nasr:And We get territorial, yes. And some will kind of try to move the other one That's great. It's amazing. Yeah, yeah. I can't believe it.
Fr. Nasr:But it happened, I've Yeah, seen for sure. I have seen it.
Michelle Moujaes:They're in my row, I know that.
Fr. Nasr:So I introduce Michelle to the community, number one. Number two, I am teaching everybody who are sitting in the pew, because I have captive audience, about comparative religion. He's a Protestant, non denominational, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, whatever denomination, he or she going to speak where she came from. What that was, yeah. Now the third thing is the purpose, why she is here.
Fr. Nasr:That is the third Really important part. I am teaching everyone about, she's teaching everyone why she became Orthodox. So I'm teaching cradle and non cradle and the observer. So three birds in one stone.
Michelle Moujaes:What is the role though? Let me jump in here, father. What is the role for families? Because just as a mother myself, I don't have the opportunity to decide what's going to be spoken from the pulpit. I certainly I don't even know if I've ever thought about my faith journey.
Michelle Moujaes:I mean, I know I was born into the faith. I was raised in the faith. I had a family that was active, but I've never articulated that. So what what what how could we extract lessons from what you just described to help our own children become more comfortable speaking about the faith, sharing it with their friends? Because what I hear you saying is, if it doesn't go horizontal, as you've said, then one, we're not being obedient.
Michelle Moujaes:Right? So we are called by God to share the good news with everybody else. But two, also, we'll never be effective evangelism. I mean, the one thing and I know I was a parishioner for five years at Saint Elijah under your leadership. I know you had an uncanny ability to meet people exactly where they were and invite them into what is the good life.
Michelle Moujaes:You invited them into a bigger story than just like what the world is selling out there and all the stresses. You brought them and said, come home to use, you know, to quote father John Brown's book. But how do I do that as a mother? And how do I help my children do that if they're called to do that and then it's important part of what God expects of them so that when they stand before His judgment seat one day that He'll say, well done, you did it.
Fr. Nasr:We don't want to be too hard on ourselves, number one.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay, good. I needed that. Thank you. Say it again.
Fr. Nasr:Don't be hard on yourself. If you judge yourself, you go down.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay. You
Fr. Nasr:gotta be step by step positive. Now you have people that you deal on a daily basis.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay.
Fr. Nasr:Around having cup of coffee, the way you talk, the way you talk, the way you express yourself, that's reflect the love that you have for Jesus Christ, the love you have for humanity.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay, that feels good.
Fr. Nasr:You know, being in a positive way. Now children, children can learn that by observing the emotions or by observing the expressions, by hearing the conversation around the table at dinner, at lunch, or in the house you can shut the TV on and discuss about, you know, what hap Here's an example.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay.
Fr. Nasr:We go to church on Sunday, where the children are going to Sunday school, supposedly to learn. And thank God for the teachers and the volunteers and the message is being presented. But what wonderful thing if that message had been taught, if it is a message for everybody or even the sediment itself. Okay. I mean, the gospel is play written in the bulletin where a question and answer or fill in blank or yes, you know, expounded in the bulletin where you go back on your way going back home, discuss in what did the father speak about, about this gospel.
Fr. Nasr:Tell him and I mean, you can make the trip fifteen minutes, a beautiful conversation with your children to see if they were attentive, but at the same time reminding them of things that they need to be reminded of. Not only just hear it on Sunday in the church and then after the door closes at the church and you leave the parking lot, it's forgotten. Of course we will forget.
Michelle Moujaes:Sure.
Fr. Nasr:But constant reminder, you know.
Michelle Moujaes:Sure. So let let me just clarify, father, what I think I'm hearing you say. First, I love the take it easy. Don't be so hard on yourself because I think certainly myself, but also a lot of the people in our audience, we're tough on ourselves. Are we doing it right?
Michelle Moujaes:Are we hitting it? Are we, you know, checking off all the boxes and not just exhaling and knowing that God is good and we need to keep struggling up towards the heights that you said? But what I also heard you say was and tell me if I'm I I don't wanna put my own ideas on this. But ultimately, start by living the faith. Start by being an example by how you talk, by how you behave, by how you spend your money, all the things, let's say.
Michelle Moujaes:And then maybe you'll have the opportunity to actually preach the gospel with words and go out and say, this is whatever. Why we make the sign of the cross? This is what we believe about Mary. But maybe more important than that is for us to teach our children that every interaction and every person in front of us is where we start to evangelize. Is that right?
Fr. Nasr:Well, you have to use the word evangelize, you know, but just the living.
Michelle Moujaes:The living is
Fr. Nasr:the key. That's the first focus. Living itself is you living, you're following, don't lie, don't steal a
Michelle Moujaes:That's so good.
Fr. Nasr:You know, honor, love your dad and mom, you know, don't make all the 10 commandments. It's just a very simple thing.
Michelle Moujaes:But how is that go make disciples of all nations?
Fr. Nasr:I don't think really we expect children to make disciples for all nations.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay. Love it that you just said that. I feel like I just got let off the hook. Good, keep going.
Fr. Nasr:Don't think so. Don't think so. It's very, very hard because children are reflection of their parents.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Fr. Nasr:So if their parents are good, the children are going to be good. Okay. The children go to church because their parents take them to church. So that's in itself. So I don't expect, I would say maybe teenagers, high school students, they are more mature, more knowledgeable, more wiser, they can see the right from wrong.
Fr. Nasr:Okay, but still they need that kind of guidance. They can be encouraged to bring their friends as they take them to the sport events, to the dance, they can bring them also to the, come and see, come and see the church, come visit us wherever.
Michelle Moujaes:Come be with us.
Fr. Nasr:You know, even if there's a basketball program, well, maybe they can take them to see the church, to tour the church, to have an idea what we believe in. You know these are, I don't think we expect from young kids to be Christ.
Michelle Moujaes:Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Fr. Nasr:I mean they didn't have them, they need to be fed. We the adult are the model called to be follower of Christ. To set the tone, to set the scale with compassion and mercy. I love it. You know, with embracing.
Fr. Nasr:You know, I have people come every Sunday. I am priest emeritus. So we have a welcoming table, the priest welcome people and this table is designated with a burgundy color cover, so they could, sometime we have ten, fifteen, 20 people coming with families or nothing. And I sit with them and talk to them and their children come and sit with them too. I mean, it's wonderful.
Fr. Nasr:And I asked what denomination, what the church they belong to, and you could see the hunger, you could see the joy, you could see the desire, they want to know something, they want to stand on something concrete.
Michelle Moujaes:Yes, in a shaking world.
Fr. Nasr:And I said, I always tell them, don't be hard on yourself because now you discover not on the Orthodox church. You're entering into the Orthodox church, know nothing about. But in time you would know something. And I said, I am 82 years old almost. The more I know, the more I become to know that I don't know.
Michelle Moujaes:Bet
Fr. Nasr:you don't know. I love that. So again, people can be very hard on themselves and crush their spirit, we don't need that. Yeah. In term of mission evangelism, we don't need that.
Fr. Nasr:We need just let it flow from the heart, you know.
Michelle Moujaes:That's so good, father Constantine.
Fr. Nasr:Just let it flow.
Michelle Moujaes:It's good.
Fr. Nasr:You know?
Michelle Moujaes:It's the love you talked about. Right? And then it's also, I think it goes back to the lady mama Johomesy that you talked about, which is she wasn't sitting there memorizing facts to just, you know, spout, she was embodied, you know, it was embodying in her, the faith.
Fr. Nasr:We have the, you know, thank God for Metropolitan Phillip for the hierarchs, for the lay people who have invested so much, wise enough to establish the camps. The Elkan village or the camps, the camp in California, because that bring kids together.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Fr. Nasr:They learn. And live in community.
Michelle Moujaes:They pray. Yes,
Fr. Nasr:yes, They live in together. Build the fellowship. And you never know what this might weave into.
Michelle Moujaes:Yes.
Fr. Nasr:So thank God. Thank God. We need to have a refuge. These places are refuge for our children.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Fr. Nasr:So our people, our adult people are investing their talent.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Fr. Nasr:In education.
Michelle Moujaes:Which is its
Fr. Nasr:own, yeah, it's
Michelle Moujaes:its own form of evangelism. It
Fr. Nasr:is, it it is. And some of the kids will say, come and see. You know, we have quite a few young people on their own, not even a college student, high school students on their own, and they ask their parents to bring them to the visit, Santee I love it. I ask, how did you know? He said, well, I am always passing by this place and see the church and I wonder what's in it.
Fr. Nasr:The other one said, I read history and I don't agree with what I see in the Latin church, the Catholic, he used the word Catholic. Each one come for a reason.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Fr. Nasr:Whatever reason it is he or she know it, and thank God we say, welcome home and come and see. The only thing you can do as a Michelle, with the people who ask something about your church or about your faith, say it's just very simple. Just come and see.
Michelle Moujaes:See, that's right.
Fr. Nasr:Don't say nothing beyond that. Come and see. And then when they become they come and see, it is possible That's right. That they can open the door of welcome and asking questions.
Michelle Moujaes:I love that. So what I just heard you say is that inviting people to come and see is the starting place. But also, would you agree that that means as parents, we've got to have some joy about what people I mean, nobody wants to come and see why you're irritated and angry all the time. So for us to really lean into our own growth in the faith, knowledge of the faith and the exhale that you just talked about. Is that right?
Fr. Nasr:Yes. Well, we say come and see. You come into the church and what you're going to see? You're going to see the church adorned with beauty. You're going to smell the aroma of the Holy Spirit.
Fr. Nasr:You're gonna hear the voice, the angelic voices of the choir on the cantors. You're gonna see the priest vested in the heavenly colors. All this, plus you will see people of God from all walks of life. It could be Greek, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Japanese, Muslims, whatever you people who come to church, I mean in the church we say all of you. It doesn't say all of me as Lebanese, Orthodox or Greek Orthodox, of you and all ortho so all of you include the unbelievers or the the one who are seekers.
Michelle Moujaes:Beautiful.
Fr. Nasr:All of you and all Orthodox Christians. So we pray first for everybody outside, then we become like selfish, we pray for ourselves. Need to that's what you're talking about the prayer of vertical and horizontal. Beautiful. And so come and see, there is a great joy into that.
Fr. Nasr:But still we are short, we will be short because the church is growing to a point, the harvest is plentiful. It is. But we don't have enough people to harvest the land.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Fr. Nasr:We need more priests, we need more deacons, we need more institutions to spread the education, to spread the ministry of charity. Because what is the Orthodox church if you have million dollar in your pocket, sit in the church and do nothing with it.
Michelle Moujaes:That's so true. And I do think that's a natural place where families can really lean in and serve, which is you don't necessarily have to be out there, you know, with the sign on a street corner or a megaphone talking about, you know, certain scripture verses to evangelize. But serving, being the one who is visiting the sick or those in prison and teaching your children to participate in that way know, to harvest the
Fr. Nasr:many of those people who have joined the church, at least from my experience, never gave me a rough time. Always ready to help to say what could I help your father with.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right. That's right.
Fr. Nasr:The one who give us the problem is the cradles.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Yeah.
Fr. Nasr:Yeah. Who say, well, she's taken my seed. They're going to take the church over. They're going to control us. This lack of sensitivity, lack of education, lack of understanding, the role, they have to they have a role, layman have a role to embrace one another.
Fr. Nasr:We're saying, let us embrace one another in the Paschal season.
Michelle Moujaes:Whoever is not interested in the salvation of everyone, you know, that we have to be concerned with the salvation of the world.
Fr. Nasr:She was we are concerned about our own circle. We cannot save the world Yeah. But we can save our own world. You have your world. You could identify it.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay.
Fr. Nasr:To that, you say broken hearted person who in need or person who's crushed in his spirit and you know that, or a sister or You an go and make up, you go and set the that is your world. If you can save one soul, you can have one soul to stop weeping.
Michelle Moujaes:That's so good, Father Constantine.
Fr. Nasr:Make And do all somebody else smile.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah, and that's doable. We don't have to go and convert anybody but
Fr. Nasr:Absolutely serve the person in front of not. Two examples.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay.
Fr. Nasr:One is about twenty years ago, who joined the church from the Episcopal church. Okay. We were at the coffee hour and you know how it is your children come and hug you or you see your uncle, you hug your uncle. The same thing, people came and I don't know whether Constantine with me that time or Philip, no, it will be Philip with me. We hugged each other, we are in the conversation.
Fr. Nasr:And he sees people doing like that. Afterward he says, is this natural? I said, David, it is we grew up this way. We hug everybody maybe 10 times a day if not more, kiss everybody like we never kissed them before.
Michelle Moujaes:He's so affectionate.
Fr. Nasr:It's the way we are. He said, really? He said, yes. He said, you know, almost tears in his eyes, still man is alive, Oklahoma. He said, you know, I don't remember when is the last time my dad hugged me.
Fr. Nasr:That's very emotional. So he said, I can't wait to see my son again because the first thing I can do, I'm gonna hug him.
Michelle Moujaes:I love it.
Fr. Nasr:I mean, it's it's it's a I wanna speak about it, I almost choke because that love, that affection, that feeling is missed in the Western world. And we are being influenced and we have that locust coming at us.
Michelle Moujaes:That's true.
Fr. Nasr:You know, we need to get rid of that locust. We need get that sin. We need to be compassionate. And another person that also who came to the church maybe about a year ago or less, sitting around the table. I said, what church did we go?
Fr. Nasr:He was non denomination, but he said, I have been in eight different churches. I said, how did you come here? He said, I'm just looking to find the church. Yeah. So I said, don't you just go have cup of coffee, bring coffee and come sit over here?
Fr. Nasr:So he went. Do you know, two months ago he came back, he has not so I saw him last week, a week before, talked to him. He said, thank you for the hospitality the church has been coming to, being hospitable.
Michelle Moujaes:Oh yes. Yes, yes. It's so important, you know, we actually at Faith Tree, we created a digital course. It's free to churches, free to priests if they wanna use it, and it talks about building an intentional hospitable community. It's called welcome home.
Fr. Nasr:Welcome home.
Michelle Moujaes:And it's basically to help churches. How do you create an environment for your entire community to very easily slip into being that place of welcome because people are hungry.
Fr. Nasr:People Look, are sixty to sixty five percent of people who at one time belonged to a church, they don't go anywhere.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Fr. Nasr:For whatever reason, they are good people, just don't know who to believe anymore.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Fr. Nasr:So if you come at St. Michael or St. Anna, Catherine Church and find out those who are embracing the church, you will be surprised where they come from. These people are hungry to We're find the
Michelle Moujaes:weary, the world is weary.
Fr. Nasr:So, you know what I do, I make take a sheet of paper very fast and I go like this.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay.
Fr. Nasr:Just cannot. And I says, okay, here what do you see? You are sitting around my table with another 20 people. I say, what do you see here?
Michelle Moujaes:The cross?
Fr. Nasr:The image of the cross. I said, you know now this is the image of the cross, but you know what it is? This cross has been shattered. You like this from the cross, you like this from the cross, you like this from the cross, you don't like this from the cross. Now you have all six thirty to 40,000 denominations Now chopped up tell me what is this?
Fr. Nasr:Nothing. So now Michelle Musaez has her own church. It's Michelle Musaez church of California. She said, Come on Father, seek my church. Yes.
Fr. Nasr:And she would say, I have it. I said, yes you do. That's your church, yes you have it. But I said, you know one thing, you have part of it, part of the truth. You don't have the whole truth.
Fr. Nasr:Got it. We have to work very hard to put this mosaic back together.
Michelle Moujaes:I love that image.
Fr. Nasr:So as you see, we are shattered. Yes. Need to come back to the foundation, to the faith that once and for all was delivered to the saints. Tomorrow I am nine generation priest, I will pass away by the grace of God, I don't know how many days or years I have, but I'm gone. But the truth will remain.
Fr. Nasr:The message will remain, but we have an obligation because one of these days, the Lord, you're going to stand everyone before the judgment seat. What have you done? Have you pleased me? What have you done? You know in your heart what you do.
Fr. Nasr:And if you do good, you know your heart, you have pleased God, pleased your husband, pleased your wife, pleased your children. So as a community, we need to work very, very hard to put this mosaic that God created us as one people of God. At our time, I don't know, but at least in my own world, I will try.
Michelle Moujaes:That's oh, so good to
Fr. Nasr:say What
Michelle Moujaes:would you say to a family? This question came from Daniel from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was a father of two, and he says, I'm a convert. My in laws are evangelical Protestants and constantly ask my kids questions about why would the Orthodox worship Mary? Why would we pray to dead saints?
Michelle Moujaes:My kids are way too young to handle this and I don't want to start a family fight. Any suggestions on what I can do?
Fr. Nasr:People who join the church, they have their loved ones are not pleasing or they have lots of questions. And it's natural for them to question, but questioning the children is one thing, but questioning the adult is something else. That's right. Okay. But the gentleman who asked the question about worshiping Mary, we don't worship, we need to explain.
Fr. Nasr:So he need somebody to explain to him the role of Mary, the only one we worship God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we honor Mary. Mary does not save us, He saves us, but she is the mother of all mothers. That's on the motherhood of Mary, our mother was obedient from childhood till the end of her life. I love that. In term remembering the departed, you find it in the book of Maccabees, as well as in the New Testament letters, we were got to remember the house of Nopharus, Nopharus for the compassion and the love and the mercy.
Fr. Nasr:So, but even above all, the one who saves God Himself. Yes. Okay. However, remembering the departed is important for us to remember that we also will be departing.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right. That's right.
Fr. Nasr:And we don't want anybody to forget us either. So in remembrance of the departed, you bring remembrance to your own self. I mean, if I don't remember my dad in prayer or having a service, I forget about him. But when I bring it to remembrance, I'm thinking of him, of his words, of his wisdom, of his activities, even of the beating that I got. Because he was the principal of the school, he made me lay on my feet.
Fr. Nasr:But that was the custom in
Michelle Moujaes:those Yes, sure, sure.
Fr. Nasr:So I really think that education, education for the one who he has, there's so much to learn and to understand the role of Mary or remembering the departed.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. And you know what? Sorry to do a hard sell plug here, but we actually created these foundations of faith cards. Faith tree made them so that people who are just coming to the church or even people like me who've been in ministry for decades, but I don't know so much.
Fr. Nasr:We don't know so I cannot even drop in a pocket, I know.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right. So let me just show this so anybody wants them, you can get them on our our website, faithtree.org. There's a
Fr. Nasr:puzzle, right?
Michelle Moujaes:Their cards. Oh, alright. So this one says, preparing for illumination,
Fr. Nasr:and then
Michelle Moujaes:it has information. Or if you say, confession, what is confession? Wonderful. Yeah. So there are an easy way, the Eucharist, so many different categories and
Fr. Nasr:things to
Michelle Moujaes:help with that.
Fr. Nasr:Can I purchase one?
Michelle Moujaes:How about I just give you one? Here, this one's What's
Fr. Nasr:because you know
Michelle Moujaes:what I'm
Fr. Nasr:going to do? I tell you what, I'm to take it on the table I sit next
Michelle Moujaes:Sunday, share
Fr. Nasr:it to those people.
Michelle Moujaes:That's good.
Fr. Nasr:Well Now you have a website, And an
Michelle Moujaes:easy way. Yeah.
Fr. Nasr:Come to
Michelle Moujaes:faithtree.org,
Fr. Nasr:much is this
Michelle Moujaes:one's yours. It? You buy them in bulk, I think they're $12.
Fr. Nasr:Okay. In bulk?
Michelle Moujaes:Yes. In bulk. How much?
Fr. Nasr:20. Okay. Otherwise, I think they're $15 That's what's helped a lot Good. Good. Christian education.
Michelle Moujaes:That's yours. Yeah. Because families need it. Even families, you know, like us that have been raised in the church with generations behind us, we don't know so much.
Fr. Nasr:Oh, I tell you.
Michelle Moujaes:That's good. Oh, good. I like it. He likes it. Okay.
Fr. Nasr:What is the process of becoming Orthodox? Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. That's good. So let me
Fr. Nasr:just give us one more, Father Constantine. This will be our last question and I'm It's so grateful for your worth it coming here, Michelle.
Michelle Moujaes:Good. Good. If there was one thing, Father Constantine, that you could leave parents with, you know, young families or families like mine that maybe were raised in the faith or maybe those who are new to the faith, what's the one thing that you would want them to teach their children about how we share the faith with those around us?
Fr. Nasr:First and foremost is prayer.
Michelle Moujaes:So good. Yes.
Fr. Nasr:Prayer in the morning, prayer at the table, prayer before you go to bed, having a couple to pray together with their children in a corner. Beautiful. Kneel together if possible. Just to set a model of the chapel. Beautiful.
Fr. Nasr:The extended chapel of St. Michael in, Van Nuys, it is in your address home. That's your chapel. Beautiful. If prayer takes place.
Fr. Nasr:And I remember, dress her soul mom, she died in Florida, in Fort Lauderdale in Hollywood. Every Saturday she would, light the handle sensor. And that's, I saw that in the old country, mama. But the same thing, she never stopped during our lives at the home. Every Saturday she would light the handle sensor and she will go and make the sun lacrosse on the icon and every picture that is in the household.
Fr. Nasr:Wow. Because these are the triumphant saints. These pictures over there where I see some pictures, these are the militant personalities. So she pray for us and remember us. So prayer, it should be the first thing to set the example.
Michelle Moujaes:Beautiful.
Fr. Nasr:If it is in the in the house, will be transmitted in McDonald's or other restaurant people or in the flight, make the son of the cross will bring the attention to our people, other people. But you don't do it for other people, but this is a form of silent evangelism. I was on this airplane coming in and sitting in this seat next, there's a lady and a gentleman. And I closed my eyes and then I opened my eyes and made the sign of the cross. As soon as I was making the lady was making the sign of the cross
Michelle Moujaes:Catholic.
Fr. Nasr:She's a Catholic.
Michelle Moujaes:I love it.
Fr. Nasr:And I didn't tell her to make the sign of the cross, it just naturally.
Michelle Moujaes:Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Fr. Nasr:If I am not, but I saw the son of the cross, other maybe have seen it. So prayer in, reflected outside.
Michelle Moujaes:I love that. And actually, another hard plug, sorry everyone, but we have a free prayer app called the encounter, and we actually have whole sections where you can pray with your children or you can pray for your children. The prayers are even read by children aloud, so you should check out The Encounter.
Fr. Nasr:Wonderful opportunity for for families to indulge themselves, to set a time, a moment for prayer
Michelle Moujaes:and That's right. That's good.
Fr. Nasr:If you don't set that, you're not going to make priorities Sunday morning to the church.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right, Abuna. I'm so grateful for your time here. Tell me where people can find you. I know, I didn't know you have a podcast. I wanna
Fr. Nasr:also You know I used do to take people to The Holy Land to travel Yes. To The Middle East and to The Holy Land. Now because of the war, unfortunately it's sad, we pray for peace and stability. I decided to fill another gap because I'm hunger and thirst for wisdom. I eat the word, I want to know more.
Michelle Moujaes:Love that.
Fr. Nasr:And the time is running out, okay? For all of us, but at least I have to realizing that. So I decided with the help of another person who joined the church three years ago, to encourage me to establish my podcast. So I had one, I still in it, active, it's called on YouTube, Faith of Our Father's Podcast. Had to put Faith
Michelle Moujaes:of Our Father's Yes,
Fr. Nasr:and I have 95 segment there, about 20 of them on the Divine Liturgy. Beautiful. Step by step in the liturgy. So I have, I am ongoing program just releasing my, I feel good.
Michelle Moujaes:Good, good. Well I know I learned so much from you, my husband does, my children have and we're so grateful.
Fr. Nasr:I want to thank you for the privilege and the opportunity share with you little of what I have experienced in life and what I have contributed is just little drop. But I pray to God for your podcast, to anyone who's listening.
Michelle Moujaes:You. Thank you father.
Fr. Nasr:Take it to heart to be encourager, to share it, to tell other people about it because what you are doing, you are reaching people to love God God willing. Embrace God and place society as one.
Michelle Moujaes:God willing.
Fr. Nasr:Pray for that.
Michelle Moujaes:Thank you. We have so much love for you father. Thank you for your time.
Fr. Nasr:Thank you. Thank you for
Michelle Moujaes:this Enjoy.
Fr. Nasr:No, that can be busy at the airplane.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Good. Good. Good. Love it.
Michelle Moujaes:Oh, what a gift this has been. We thank father Constantine for his generosity of time and wisdom in the decades of pastoral love that have shaped so many of us. Our church is genuinely a different place because of men like him. And thanks to you for being with us today. I want you to hear this clearly.
Michelle Moujaes:Your children are not waiting on a youth program. They are not waiting on a curriculum. They are not waiting on you to become a theologian. They are just as father Constantine said, watching you. They are watching how you love Christ.
Michelle Moujaes:They're watching how you talk about the church. They're watching whether the faith is something you tuck away or if it's something that you live out loud. And the beautiful news is this. We don't have to do it perfectly just like father Constantine told us. We just have to do it with joy in our homes or the home chapel as he said, and we need to start today.
Michelle Moujaes:So invite the friend over, pray out loud at the table, make the sign of the cross, or talk about the saint of the day in the car. Let your child see you, sit at a restaurant and pray without shrinking from it. That that is where the soil that he talked about is tilled and where evangelists are grown. Don't forget to download the free digital discussion guide in the show notes. And if today's conversation moved you at all, please share it with another Orthodox parent who needs to hear it.
Michelle Moujaes:We grow this thing together. So the more you share, the more we can do. Until next time, God bless you. God bless your families, and may your homes become the places where the door to Christ is always wide open. I'll see you next time.