Prayer in childhood and the power to bless in old age

Whatever concerns our feelings always comes back in some form or other. You will probably remember the typical instance I have often given. If we teach a child to pray — if, that is, we teach him to develop a prayerful mood and feeling, the effect of it will swing back into his life after  many years. It swings back in the interval, but then swings out again further, and only later, after a very long time, does the feeling of prayer come back and manifest in a mood of blessing.
As I have often said: No-one will be able in old age to bestow blessing upon others, merely from his presence, from the imponderable elements in his nature, if in childhood he has not learned to pray. Prayer turns into the power to bless. That is how things come back in life. And it is becoming imperative that men should understand these things.

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 194 – The Mission of Michael. The Revelation of the Intrinsic Secret of the Human Being: Elemental Beings and Human Destinies – Dornach, December 6, 1919

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