Children, are you happy when your name day arrives? Yes, this is a joyful day in the life of every Christian. On your name day, your parents try to come to church with you and give you Holy Communion. They ask the priest to serve a prayer service to the saint or saint whose name you are called. During the prayer service, you hear the priest say many times: “Saint or saint, pray to God for us,” and together with you and your parents he fervently prays to God. After the prayer service, the priest will give you prosphora and congratulate you on Angel’s Day; Your parents and friends will also congratulate you. What does all this mean? Why do we celebrate name day not like ordinary days, but as a joyful and cheerful holiday? Because name day is a rare and expensive day for each of us. The Holy Church established that every Christian should be named in honor of some saint and, while living on earth, could imitate his godly life; to walk, so to speak, the path of life that the saint of the same name walked and achieved eternal salvation.
Earthly life is full of various difficulties and seductions that make the path to the Heavenly Kingdom difficult and dangerous at all stages of human life. To live our earthly life safely, each of us needs a reliable, experienced leader. This leader, children, is that holy saint of God or that saint in whose honor we are named, that is, the saint of the same name to us, who has the same name with us. We definitely need to try to find out how he lived on earth, how he overcame adversity, resisted temptations, so that, following his example, we too can resist worldly temptations. The saint, to whose protection our parents entrusted us, is our quick helper and at the same time a prayer book for us before God. Seeing our efforts to imitate his pious life, he invisibly helps us in all our good desires and deeds, and on name days he seems to come closer to us, invisibly standing next to us to listen to our prayers and pray to God with us.
This is why, children, on the day of the Angel it is so pleasant for us to pray to God in church: then the saint whose name we bear prays to God with us and for us. Let us try, children, to certainly learn the life of the saint of the same name and every day in prayer ask for his help and intercession for us sinners, since he is a quick helper to us in everyday troubles and a faithful prayer book before the Lord God for the salvation of our souls. In colloquial dialect, you can say a prayer to a saint like this: Pray for me to God, holy saint of God (name), because I earnestly ask you, who are always ready to help me and pray for my soul.
The saints are called saints of God because, while living on earth, they tried to act according to the teachings of Jesus Christ and to please God in everything. Having moved to heaven after death for the bliss and glorification of God, they all have one occupation: to help people living on earth, overcome sinful temptations and do good, pious deeds. The saints are quick helpers to everyone who diligently asks them for help and prayers, because they are close to God, the source of all good. With all this, they do not help themselves, but only with their holy prayers, asking us from God for everything necessary for salvation.
Of all the saints of God, the one closest to each of us is the one after whom we are named. In church, the prayer to the holy saint of God sounds like this: Pray to God for me, holy servant of God (name), as I diligently resort to you, your quick helper and prayer book for my soul. The words of colloquial speech: Pray for me to God, holy servant of God, are said in the church way: pray to God for me, holy servant of God. Because I earnestly ask you, who are always ready to help me and pray for my soul, in the church way: as I earnestly resort to you, a quick helper and prayer book for my soul.
In addition to this short prayer, with which we can address all the saints of God without distinction, there are also separate prayers for each of them. They are called troparia and briefly describe the lives of the saints. The troparion to the saint in whose honor we are named is something that each of us definitely needs to know.
How do you spend your name day? Why is name day an expensive day for us? Why are we named after a saint? What is our duty towards the saint of the same name? How can you say a prayer to a saint in spoken language? Why is a saint called a saint of God? Why are saints our first aides? How do they help us? How does a prayer to a saint sound in a church way? What words in prayer are spoken differently in church than in colloquial speech? Which ones only have a different ending? Is there a special prayer for each saint? To which saint is each of us obliged to know the troparion?