Choosing a Profession

—Geronta, some parents try to steer their children towards their own professions, and often get very pushy at it.

—No, they don’t manage well. Parents shouldn’t pressure their children unwillingly to do that which they enjoy themselves. I knew one young man who wanted to study theology and become a priest, but his mother wouldn’t let him; she forced him to go into medicine. The young man had studied Byzantine music and chanted; had made his own musical instrument; had learned the tones on his own; and knew the music by heart. He had a gift. He wrote troparia and services. As soon as he finished high school he took the entrance exams and got into Theological School. His mother suffered nervous shock from her anxiety. She would come to me later and beg me: “Pray for me to get well, Father, and I’ll let my child do whatever he wants.” When she got well she again refused to let him do what he wanted. Later he abandoned it all and finally wasted away.

I say to the young people who are perplexed about what discipline to follow: “See what field you like so as to do that which is natural to you.” If what they are thinking of doing does not come naturally to them, I try to help them give their hearts to that which is natural to them. In other words, I help them follow the discipline they want and keep a profession that is within their capability—provided they do so in harmony with God. Does someone have a calling to music? He should become a musician or a good chanter who, with his life and with his chanting, will help whomever hears him love the Church and prayer. Does he have a calling to paint? He should become a painter or iconographer, and make icons with piety, which will work miracles. Does he have a calling to a certain discipline? Let him dedicate himself to it and work with philotimo.

You see, it is noticeable early which calling one has. Once in the monastery in Stomio a man came with his two nephews. The one, who was six or seven years old, sat next to us and constantly asked us different questions. I asked him, “What will you become when you grow up?” “A lawyer!” he told me. We couldn’t find the other one, so I asked his uncle, “Where did the other kid go? He might fall off a cliff or something.” So we went outside to find him and heard banging coming from the woodshop. We went in and what did we see? The countertop that we had sanded down and which was very smooth, he had completely destroyed with a hammer! “What will you become when you grow up?” I asked him. “A cabinet maker!” he tells me. “May you become one,” I told him. “Okay, so you destroyed the countertop! It’s alright!”

Translation by Fr. Luke Hartung from the book Family Life [in Greek], by Elder Paisios the Athonite, published by the Sacred Hesychastirion of St. John the Evangelist, Souroti, Greece (2002).