By: Pope Shenouda III

How astonishing are the persons whom God gives blessing but they turn it into affliction!

Money is a blessing, beauty also is, art, freedom, knowledge, power, discipline are also blessings. But, practically it is so easy to find all these blessings turned into afflictions by different means!

Misusing such blessings may turn them into afflictions. Money buys and sells conscience and beauty becomes a means of enticement. Art turns into entertainment and frivolity and freedom becomes means of rashness and inattentiveness. Power develops into an instrument of tyranny and science is used in destructive and harmful inventions while discipline -- through misuse -- turns into routine and an

Author: H. H. Pope Shenouda III.

INTRODUCTION


Many write for adults and few are those who write for children.
Also, many occupy themselves talking with adults, but rare are
those who love to talk to children.
So, sometimes children feel they are not the core of attention
and respect of adults, and accordingly they try to draw their
attention by many ways, perhaps by outcry or stubbornness or
(naughtiness).

In this book, we need to talk about the child, his mentality and
how to relate to him and gain his love, and to serve him
spiritually, socially and culturally.
Because the child is the first cell of the society and the church, if
we gain him, we win an entire generation, and if we lose him we
lose the future of the generation we live in, and consequent loss
of the other generations. 

I personally love children and love to joke, play, talk and make
friends with them. In childhood I find innocence, truth and
openness, as well as the quick response which we lack in adults.
This book is not the outcome of a study of books of psychology
and education, but the result of personal experiences with the


The Child Saint Martyr

Abanoub was only twelve years old when he was martyred by the Roman ruler. On July 31 our Church celebrates his death, as the day of his birth into eternal life.

Abanoub's relics, as well as the relics of many Christians who died with him, are still preserved in St. Virgin Mary and St. Abanoub church in Samanoud. It is also said that the Holy Family visited that place during their Flight into Egypt. The church still contains the well from which The Lord Jesus, St. Mary, and St. Joseph drank. Numerous apparitions and miracles do occur in that church until this very day. Abanoub was born in a town called Nehisa in the Nile Delta. He was the only son of good Christian parents who died when he was a young child. At age twelve Abanoub entered the church to hear the priest asking the congregation to remain faithful during the persecutions provoked by Diocletian, the Roman emperor.

Abanoub received the Holy Sacraments, then he