As Orthodox Christians, we strive for that inner stillness, hesychia—but St. Vladimir’s Seminary alumna Amber Rose Prather wants to make sure kids and their parents alike know that it’s still okay to move.
Prather authored the new children’s book A Saint’s Guide to Praying with Your Feet from Ancient Faith Publishing. The book is inspired by the life of the sixth-century saint Elizabeth the Wonderworker.
“A lot of Christianity in our culture tends to be very disembodied in the way it approaches faith,” Prather explained in an interview about the book. “It’s very much an intellectual exercise. And Orthodoxy is not just that, it’s not just your mind. There’s holy movement in our faith.”
As the mother of an active toddler herself, Prather understands the struggles and emotions children and their parents go through as kids learn to control their energy and movement during church services.
“I know the moment where your kid is the one bolting across the church like, ‘Oh, please. I'm sorry! I'm sorry!’ So having a book like this—where you can talk to your kids about the holy ways to move in church and talk to your kids about how God can use what we have to make us holy—can also remind the parents that it’s okay. It’s okay that your kid struggles with something. It's okay that you struggle.”
Watch the full interview about the book on Ancient Faith’s YouTube page.
Amber Rose Prather graduated from St. Vladimir’s Seminary in 2024 with an M.Div. degree, alongside her husband Andrew. Amber and Andrew met as seminarians at St. Vladimir’s and were married at the Seminary’s Three Hierarchs Chapel in 2021. Amber also holds bachelor’s degrees in Medieval and Byzantine Studies and Theology and Religious Studies from the Catholic University of America. She has a master's degree in Philosophy, also from Catholic University.
Andrew and Amber were married at the Seminary’s Three Hierarchs Chapel in 2021.
