Is it possible to come only to the evening service? In recent years, after Sunday liturgy, I have started to have severe headaches, especially on communion days. With what it can be connected? I have a thyroid disease, I can’t go to church without drinking water
How to prepare for confession and communion? Preparing for confession and communion, especially for the first time, raises many, many questions. I remember my first communion. How difficult it was for me to figure everything out. In this article you will get answers to the questions: what to say in confession to a priest - an example? How to take communion and confession correctly? rules for communion in church? How to confess for the first time? how to prepare for communion? The answer to these questions is given by the modern Greek preacher Archimandrite Andrei (Konanos) and other priests.
Other useful articles:Communion was instituted by Jesus Christ Himself at his last meal with the Apostles. The modern Greek preacher and theologian Archimandrite Andrei (Konanos) says, if people realized what a gift of unity with God they receive during communion, because now flows in their veins Christ's blood... if they realized this fully, their lives would change a lot!
But, unfortunately, most people during communion are like children playing with precious stones and those who do not understand their value.
Rules for communion can be found in any Temple. They are usually presented in a small book called “HOW TO PREPARATE FOR HOLY COMMUNION.” These are the simple rules:
- Before communion you need Fast for 3 days- eat only plant foods (no meat, dairy products and eggs).
- Need to be at the evening service the day before communion.
- Need to confess either at the evening service or on the day of communion at the very beginning of the liturgy (the morning service, during which communion takes place).
- Need a few more days pray hard- for this, read morning and evening prayers and read the canons: Canon of repentance to our Lord Jesus Christ ,
Canon of prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos,
Canon to the Guardian Angel,
Follow-up to Holy Communion *. * If you have never read the Canons (in Church Slavonic), you can listen to the audio (available on prayer book sites at the links provided). - You need to take communion on an empty stomach (do not eat or drink anything in the morning). An exception is made for sick people, such as diabetics, for whom food and medicine are vital.
If you begin to receive communion at every liturgy, every Sunday, your confessor will be able to allow you to fast less and not read all the indicated prayers. Don’t be afraid to ask the priest and consult with him.
How is communion celebrated in church?
Suppose you decide to take communion on Sunday. This means that the night before (Saturday) you need to come to the evening service. Usually evening service in Temples starts at 17:00. Find out what time the liturgy begins ( morning service) on Sunday, where the communion itself will take place. Usually, the morning service in Temples begins at 9:00. If there was no confession at the evening service, then you confess at the beginning of the morning service.
About halfway through the service, the Priest will remove the Chalice from the altar. Everyone who was preparing for communion gathers near the chalice and folds their hands on their chest, right over left. They approach the bowl carefully so as not to tip it over. The priest gives the communicants the Holy Gifts with a spoon - a piece of the body and blood of Christ under the guise of bread and wine.
After this, you need to go to the end of the Temple, where you will be given a drink. This is water diluted with wine. You need to drink it down so that not a single drop or crumb of the Eucharist is wasted. Only after this can you cross yourself. At the end of the service, prayers of thanksgiving should be heard.
How to prepare for confession? What to say to a priest in confession - an example? List of sins
The main rule in confession, which priests always remind us of, is not to recount sins. Because if you start retelling the story of how you committed a sin, then you will unwittingly begin to justify yourself and blame others. Therefore, in confession sins are simply named. For example: pride, envy, foul language, etc. And so as not to forget anything, use a list of sins against God, against neighbors, against oneself(usually such a list is in the book “HOW TO PREPARE FOR HOLY COMMUNION.”
Write down your sins on a piece of paper so you don’t forget anything. Come to the Temple early in the morning so as not to be late for confession and the general prayer before confession. Before confession, go to the priest, cross yourself, venerate the Gospel and the cross, and begin listing your pre-recorded sins. After confession, the priest will read a prayer of permission and tell you whether you are allowed to receive communion.
It very rarely happens when a priest, for your correction, does not allow you to take communion. This is also a test of your pride.
It is important during confession, naming a sin, to promise yourself not to repeat it. It is very important on the eve of communion to reconcile with your enemies and forgive your offenders.
How to confess for the first time?
The first confession is often called the general confession. As a rule, a piece of paper with a list of sins includes almost all the sins from the list of sins against God, one’s neighbor and oneself. The priest will probably understand that you have come to confession for the first time and will help you with advice on how to try not to repeat sins and mistakes.
I hope the article “How to prepare for confession and communion?” will help you decide and go to confession and communion. This is important for your soul, because confession is the cleansing of the soul. We wash our bodies every day, but we don’t care about the purity of our souls!
If you have never confessed or received communion and it seems to you that it is very difficult to prepare, I recommend that you still perform this feat. The reward will be great. I assure you that you have never experienced anything like this before. After communion, you will feel an extraordinary and incomparable spiritual joy.
The most difficult thing usually seems to be reading the canons and following to Holy Communion. Indeed, it is difficult to read the first time. Use the audio recording and listen to all these prayers over 2-3 evenings.
Listen in this video to the story of priest Andrei Tkachev about how much time (usually several years) separates a person from the desire to go to the first confession until the moment of the first confession.
I wish everyone to enjoy life and thank God for everything!
Alena Kraeva
Where did morning or evening prayers come from? Can something else be used instead? Is it necessary to pray twice a day? Is it possible to pray according to the rule of St. Seraphim of Sarov? Should children pray according to the “adult” prayer book? How to prepare for Communion? How do you understand that prayer is a dialogue and not a monologue? What should you pray for in your own words? We are talking about the prayer rule with Archpriest Maxim Kozlov , rector of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University.
- Father Maxim, where did the existing prayer rule - morning and evening prayers - come from?
In the form in which the prayer rule is now printed in our prayer books, other Local Churches do not know it, except for those Slavic Churches that at one time began to focus on the church press of the Russian Empire and de facto borrowed our liturgical books and corresponding printed texts. We will not see this in the Greek-speaking Orthodox Churches. There as morning and evening prayers for the laity, the following scheme is recommended: in the evening - a reduction of Compline and some elements of Vespers, and as morning prayers - unchangeable parts borrowed from Midnight Office and Matins.
If we look at a tradition that was recorded relatively recently by historical standards - for example, we open the “Domostroy” of Archpriest Sylvester - then we will see an almost fantastically ideal Russian family. The task was to provide some kind of role model. Such a family, being literate according to Sylvester, reads the sequence of Vespers and Matins at home, standing in front of the icons along with the household and servants.
If we pay attention to the monastic, priestly rule, known to the laity in preparation for receiving the Holy Mysteries of Christ, then we will see the same three canons that are read at Little Compline.
The collection of prayers under numbers arose quite late. The first text known to us is the “Road Book” by Francis Skaryna, and today liturgists do not have a clear opinion when and why such a collection was made. My guess (it cannot be considered a definitive statement) is this: these texts first appeared with us on southwestern Rus', in the volosts, where there was a very strong Uniate influence and contacts with the Uniates. Most likely, there is, if not a direct borrowing from the Uniates, then a certain kind of borrowing of the liturgical and ascetic logic characteristic of the Catholic Church at that time, which clearly divided its composition into two categories: the church of those who teach and the church of students. Texts were offered for the laity, which had to be different from the texts read by the clergy, taking into account the different educational level and intra-church status of the laity.
By the way, in some prayer books XVIII- XIX century we still see a relapse of that consciousness (now this is not reprinted, but can be found in pre-revolutionary books): say, prayers that a Christian can read at the liturgy during the first antiphon; prayers and feelings that a Christian must read and experience during the small entrance... What is this if not some kind of analogue for a layman of those secret prayers that the priest reads during the corresponding parts of the liturgy, but only assigned not to the clergyman, but to the layman? I think that the fruit of that period in the history of our Church was the emergence of today’s prayer rule.
Well, the prayer rule became widespread in the form in which it is now already in the synodal era in the 18th-19th centuries and gradually established itself as a generally accepted norm for the laity. It is difficult to say in what year, in what decade this happened. If we read the teaching on prayer of our authoritative teachers and fathers of the 19th century, then there is no analysis, reasoning about morning-evening rule We will not find it either with St. Theophan, or with St. Philaret, or with St. Ignatius.
So, on the one hand, recognizing the existing prayer rule has been used for several centuries within the Russian Church and in this sense has become partly unwritten, partly written norm of our spiritual-ascetic and spiritual-prayerful life, we should not overestimate the status of today’s prayer books and given they contain prayer texts as the only possible norm for organizing prayer life.
Is it possible to change the prayer rule? Now this approach has been established among the laity: you can supplement, but you cannot replace or reduce. What do you think about this?
In the form in which they exist, morning and evening prayers are in some inconsistency with the principle of construction Orthodox worship, which combines, as we all know well, a changeable and an unchangeable part. Moreover, among the changing parts there are repeated - daily, weekly, once a year - cycles of worship: daily, weekly and annual. This principle of combining a solid, unchanging backbone, a skeleton on which everything is built up, and variable, changeable parts is very wisely designed and corresponds to the very principle of human psychology: on the one hand, it needs a norm, a charter, and on the other, variability so that the charter does not become into formal reading and repetition of texts that no longer evoke any internal response. And here there are just problems with the prayer rule, where the same texts are used in the morning and in the evening.
When preparing for Communion, the laity follows three of the same canons. Even in priestly preparation, the canons differ by week. If you open the service book, it says that each day of the week has its own canons. But among the laity the rule remains unchanged. So what, read only this for the rest of your life? It is clear that certain types of problems will arise.
Saint Theophan gives advice, which at one time I was very happy about. I myself and other people I know have found much spiritual benefit in this advice. He advises, when reading the prayer rule to combat coldness and dryness several times a week, noticing the standard chronological period taken to read the usual rule, to try in the same fifteen to twenty minutes, half an hour, not to set yourself the task of necessarily reading everything, but repeatedly returning to the place from which we were distracted or wandered in thought, to achieve utmost concentration on the words and meaning of prayer. Even if in the same twenty minutes we read only the initial prayers, we would learn to do it for real. At the same time, the saint does not say that it is generally necessary to switch to this approach. And he says that you need to combine: on some days, read the rule in its entirety, and on others, pray in this way.
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For many of us, on the day of receiving the Holy Mysteries of Christ, especially for the laity, regardless of the frequency of communion, the soul, and not laziness, prompts a person to rather seek thanksgiving to God on that day than to repeat again in the evening the words that “we have sinned, lawless” and so on. . When everything in us is still full of gratitude to God for accepting the Holy Mysteries of Christ, so that, for example, we don’t take this or that akathist chant or, say, an akathist to the Sweetest Jesus, or some other prayer book and make it the center of our prayer rule for this day?
In fact, prayer, I’ll say such a terrible phrase, needs to be approached creatively. It is impossible to dry it down to the level of a formally executed scheme: to have, on the one hand, the burden of having to carry out this scheme day after day, year after year, and on the other hand, some periodic internal satisfaction from the fact that I am fulfilling what is due , and what else do you want from me in heaven, I did, not without difficulty, what was required. Prayer cannot be turned into reading and fulfilling only a duty, and counting - I don’t have the gift of prayer, I’m a small person, the holy fathers, ascetics, mystics prayed, but we’ll just wander through the prayer book - and there’s no demand.
Who should decide what prayer rule should be - should the person himself decide, or should he still go to his confessor, to a priest?
If a Christian has a confessor with whom he determines the constants of his internal spiritual structure, then it would be absurd to do without in this case without him, you can decide for yourself what to do with your own head. We initially assume that a confessor is a person at least no less experienced in spiritual life than the one who turns to him, and in most cases somewhat more experienced. And in general - one head is good, but two are better. From the outside it is clearer that a person, even a reasonable person in many respects, may not notice. Therefore, it is prudent, when determining something that we seek to make permanent, to consult with our confessor.
But there is no advice for every movement of the soul. And if today you wanted to open the Psalter - not in terms of regular reading, but simply open and add the psalms of King David to your usual prayer routine - shouldn’t you call the priest? It’s another matter if you want to start reading kathismas along with the prayer rule. Then you need to consult and take a blessing for this, and the priest, based on whether you are ready, will help you with advice. Well, as for just natural movements of the soul - here you somehow need to decide for yourself.
I think that it is better not to omit the initial prayers unnecessarily, because they contain perhaps the most concentrated experience of the Church - “To the Heavenly King,” Holy Trinity", who taught us the prayer "Our Father" we already know, "It is worthy to eat" or "Rejoice to the Virgin Mary" - there are so few of them, and they are so obviously chosen by the prayer experience of the Church. The charter sometimes asks us to abstain from them. “To the King of Heaven” - we wait 50 days before the Feast of Pentecost, on Bright Week We generally have a special prayer rule. I don't understand the logic of this refusal.
Why is it necessary to pray exactly twice a day - morning and evening? One of our readers writes: when I work with children, cook or clean, it’s so easy for me to pray, but as soon as I stand in front of the icons, everything seems to cut off.
Several themes arise here. Nobody calls us to limit ourselves to morning or evening rule. The Apostle Paul says directly - pray without ceasing. The task of a good arrangement of prayer life implies that a Christian strives not to forget about God during the day, including not to forget in prayer. There are many situations in our lives when prayer can be developed in a distinct way. But the reluctance to stand up and pray precisely when it is supposed to be a duty must be fought, because, as we know, the enemy of the human race is especially opposed there when there is no self-will. It's easy to do, it's done when I want. But it becomes a feat that I have to do regardless of whether I want to or not. Therefore, I would advise you not to give up efforts to put yourself in morning and evening prayers. Its size is another matter, especially for a mother with children. But it should be like some constant value of the prayer structure.
As for prayers during the day: if you stir porridge, young mother, chant a prayer to yourself, or if somehow you can concentrate more, read the Jesus Prayer to yourself.
Now for most of us there is a great school of prayer - this is the road. Each of us travels to study, to work, public transport, in a car in all the well-known Moscow traffic jams. Pray! Don't waste your time, don't turn on unnecessary radio. If you don't hear the news, you'll survive for several days without it. Don’t think that you are so tired on the subway that you want to forget yourself and fall asleep. Well, okay, if you can’t read the prayer book on the subway, read “Lord, have mercy” to yourself. And this will be a school of prayer.
- What if you’re driving and put on a CD with prayers?
I once treated this very harshly, I thought - well, these discs are some kind of hack, and then, from the experience of various clergy and laity, I saw that this could be an aid to the prayer rule.
The only thing I would say is that you don’t need to reduce your entire prayer life to listening to discs. It would be absurd to come home in the evening and take the evening rule, turn on the disc instead of yourself, and some reverent Lavra choir and experienced hierodeacon will begin to lull you to sleep in their usual voice. Everything should be in moderation.
- How do you feel about the rule of Seraphim of Sarov?
How can you relate to the rule given by the great saint? Like the rule given by the great saint. I just want to remind you under what circumstances he gave it: he gave it to those nuns and novices who were in difficult labor obediences for 14-16 hours a day. He gave them so that they could start and end their day without having the opportunity to fulfill regular monastic rules, and reminded them that this rule must be combined with internal prayer work during the labors that they carry out during the day.
Of course, if a person in a hot shop or in equally tiresome office work comes home so that eating a dinner, whipped up by his beloved wife and reading prayers is all that he has the strength left for, let him read the rule of St. Seraphim. But if you still have the strength to leisurely sit at your desk, make a few not-so-necessary phone calls, watch a movie or news on TV, read a friend’s feed on the Internet, and then - oh, you have to get up for work tomorrow and only have a few minutes left - then, perhaps, it is not the most correct way to limit yourself to the Seraphim rule.
Father Maxim, if during prayer in your own words some successful words arise that you want to write down and then pray according to them, is it possible to do this?
Write it down and pray, of course! The prayers that we read in the prayer book, created by great saints, were born that way. They prayed with these words as if they were their own. And someone, they or their students, once wrote down these words, and then they personal experience became the experience of the Church.
For the most part, we cannot claim that our successes will receive wide church dissemination, but, let’s say, the prayer of the Optina Elders, the prayer of St. Philaret, some of the prayers of St. John of Kronstadt, which recently emerged and has become dear to many Orthodox Christians, is exactly that. appeared. There is no need to be afraid of this.
Many parents say that some of the evening prayers are completely incomprehensible and not close to children and adolescents. Do you think a mother could create some kind of prayer rule for her children?
That would be very reasonable. Firstly, because in other cases we're talking about about sins that children do not know, and the later they learn about them, the better. Secondly, these prayers are largely correlated with the experience of a person who has already walked a fair path in life, who has some concepts about spiritual life, about his own weakness and about the failures that we experience in spiritual life.
The main thing that we should strive to cultivate in children is the desire to pray and a joyful attitude towards prayer, and not as something that must be done under pressure, as a painful duty from which it is impossible to get away. The main word in this phrase will be “painful”. The children's rule must be treated very, very delicately. And it’s better for children to pray less, but willingly. From a small sprout it can grow over time a big tree. But if we dry it to the state of a skeleton, then even if it is something big, there will be no life in it. And then you will have to laboriously create everything again.
Father, what if, while reading the sequence to Communion, you read for the first ten minutes and really feel that you are praying, and then it’s purely reading?
First, we need to notice whether this happens to us regularly. And if there is some tendency towards this, then it would be prudent to try to spread the rule for Communion over several days. Indeed, it is difficult for many to read with concentration first the three canons, then the canon for Communion, then the rule for Communion, and place the vespers or morning prayers- this is, as a rule, more than a person’s regular norm. Well, why not distribute the same three canons over the two or three days that follow before Communion? This will help us to go through the path of fasting and preparation more consciously.
- And if a person receives communion every week, how do you think he should prepare?
I hope that the question of the extent of preparation for Communion will become one of the topics of the corresponding commission of the inter-council presence. Many of the clergy and laity realize that it is impossible to transfer mechanically those norms that developed in the 18th-19th centuries with the very rare communion of the laity - once a year or in four multi-day fasts, or a little more often - rarely any of the laity, including very pious ones , took communion more often then. I don’t want to say that this was necessarily bad, but this was the practice of the spiritual and sacramental life of the laity at that time.
Already in Soviet time A practice has developed in which a significant part of our laity began to receive communion often or very often, up to and including weekly communion. It is clear that if a person receives communion weekly, it is impossible for him to fast for a week; his life will be entirely fasting. Without in any way suggesting this as a norm for everyone, based on the advice of experienced priests whom I have known in my life, and from some assessment of the benefits for people in the parishes in which I had to serve, it seems to me that if a person takes communion on Sunday , then Friday and Saturday will be sufficient days of fasting for those who partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. There are canonical problems with the Sabbath, but it would still be strange to cancel fasting on the eve of Sunday communion. It would be good not to miss the evening service on the previous Saturday evening if life circumstances as much as they allow it.
For example, for a mother with children this is probably not always realistic. Perhaps there is no need to take communion so often, but there is a desire, but it is not possible to attend the evening service. Or for a person who works a lot, the father of a large family. It often happens that such a person cannot cancel work on Saturday, but his soul asks for Communion. I think he has the right to come and receive communion without an evening service. But still, if he preferred to go to the cinema or somewhere else on Saturday evening, then he preferred leisure. Still, visiting a movie, theater or even a concert - I don’t think that can be a way of preparing for the reception of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
Certainly no one should in any way cancel the canon and prayers before Holy Communion. But others - what we talked about the three canons and so on - can probably, on the advice of the confessor, be somehow distributed over the days, replaced by other aggravation of prayers.
the main task prayer rule for Communion - so that a person has at least a small, but segment life path, in which his main focus would be preparation for receiving the Eucharist. What this segment will be in his specific life circumstances is today determined rather individually by the person himself, together with his confessor. I hope that the conciliar mind of the Church will provide some clearer guidelines as a result of the work of the Inter-Council Presence.
Question from our reader: “Christ said not to be like the pagans in the verbosity of prayer, but our prayers are still quite long.”
The Lord said this, first of all, so that we would not pray verbosely for show. The Lord reproached the Pharisees for this to a large extent.
With the many words that we see in our prayer books, these prayers have three main goals - repentance, gratitude and praise to God. And if we focus ourselves on this, then this will be the good purpose of prayer.
Many words are often needed for one simple reason: so that out of the ninety to ninety-five percent that will turn out to be ore for us, we still find five percent of diamonds for the soul. Rarely do any of us know how to approach prayer in such a way that, knowing that it will last three minutes, these three minutes, cutting off all everyday worries, concentrate and enter into our inner hearts. Need some overclocking if you want. And then during this somewhat lengthy prayer there will be several peaks of concentration, some kind of movement of the soul and heart. But if there is no this path, then there will be no peaks.
When discussing creativity prayer rule, most people are sensitive to this. This applies to fasting and many other things in church life. Why do you think this happens?
There is a certain tendency, our Russian one, which is the flip side of another positive trend - this is a tendency towards ritual belief. It is known that, according to St. Gregory the Theologian, among the Greeks, despite the general theological and contemplative direction of the soul of the people, the other side of this was idle talk about lofty things. The saint’s famous phrase is that you cannot go to the market to buy fish without hearing discussions about the two natures and the relationship between the hypostases. We Russians never had such a penchant for theology before the advent of the Internet era. But there was a tendency rather towards a sacred, sacral, sublime, church-like existence, and at the same time a life in which everything would be united in the Church, everything would be churchly. The same Domostroy is a very indicative book in this sense.
But the flip side is the extreme sacralization of ritual and everything connected with the letter. The late professor at Moscow University Andrei Cheslavovich Kozarzhevsky liked to say at his lectures back in Soviet times that if in the Church a priest suddenly says not “Our Father” but “Our Father,” then he will be considered a heretic. This is true, for many it can be some kind of challenge. Why would a priest say that is another matter, but even at the level of some kind of reservation, they will think that this is a very, very strange and dangerous trend. So I would associate this with general structure our Russian mentality.
On the other hand, there is some understanding here that there is no need to shake what stands firmly (I quote St. Philaret) so that reconstruction does not turn into destruction. A person seeking good order in his prayer life should always strive for utmost honesty before God and understand that he cares about prayer, and not about shortening it. About filling it, and not about feeling sorry for yourself, not about creatively looking for something, but simply praying less. In this case, you need to honestly say to yourself: yes, my measure is not what I imagined, but this one is very small. Not that “I found it through creative prayerful searching.”
How can you feel that prayer is not a monologue, but a dialogue? Can you use some of your own feelings here?
The Holy Fathers teach us not to trust our emotions in prayer. Emotions are not the most reliable criterion. Let us recall, for example, the Gospel parable of the publican and the Pharisee: it was not the one who was more justified by God, as Christ the Savior tells us, who left satisfied with his prayer, with a correct sense of his inner order.
Prayer is recognized by its fruits. How repentance is recognized by results - by what happens to a person. Not because of what I went through emotionally today. Although each of us cherishes tears in prayer and the warmth of the soul, we cannot pray in such a way as to evoke tears in ourselves or artificially warm up the warmth of the soul. It must be gratefully accepted when the Lord gives it as a gift, but not feelings, but our relationship with God should be the goal of prayer.
- What if you feel tired during prayers?
Ambrose of Optina says that it is better to think about prayer while sitting than to think about your feet while standing. But again, just be honest. If fatigue sets in after the thirtieth second of prayer, if we are able to pray much better while sitting in a chair or lying on a pillow, then this is no longer fatigue, but internal deceit. If a person has a pinched calcaneal nerve, well, let him sit, poor thing. Mom is pregnant - why bother her with a child at 6-7 months? Let him recline as best he can.
But we must remember: a person is a mental-physical, psychophysical being, and the position itself, the structure of the body during prayer, matters. I will not talk about high things that none of us have any idea about - how to focus attention in the upper part of the heart, for example. I don't even know where top part the heart is located and how to focus attention there. But the fact that scratching the ear or picking the nose affects the way we pray - this, I think, is understood even by less exalted mystics.
What about prayers for beginners? There are special prayer books for them, but the prayers there are no more understandable than in ordinary ones.
It seems to me that beginners need, first of all, to be taught this - so that the prayers become clear to them. And here good role can perform prayer books a) explanatory and b) with parallel translation into Russian. Ideally, this should be combined: it should be both a translation into Russian and some kind of interpretation.
Let's say, before the revolution, a series was published on the twelfth holidays of N.A. Skabalanovich, where all Slavic text holiday services, parallel translation into Russian and explanation of the meaning of what is sometimes not enough to translate. I think that if people make the text of the prayer understandable, this will remove many difficulties. And the size of the prayer rule is a matter that should rather be determined individually.
Can a person who has just become interested in church life be advised to pray the Optina Elders, for example, as a prayer rule?
Yes, more often than not, beginners should rather be limited from overdose. My experience speaks rather differently: beginners, in neophyte zeal, strive to take more than they can. They rather need to be told: “Read this and that’s all, dear, then someday you will pray more. There is no need to read three kathismas.”
Question from our reader: he has a difficult relationship with his father; they never communicated particularly closely. After joining the church, he felt that he could not talk to God as Father with a capital F.
This is some kind of specific spiritual complex, I would say. It is difficult to speak in relation to a person whom I do not know, much less make any judgments that can speak critically about his internal structure, but let him ask himself the question: is he not experiencing a certain kind of absolutization of personal experience on the scale of the Universe? That is, doesn’t it turn out that if I had some negative experience within the limits of my tubercle and bump, then I can’t teach myself to look in any other perspective except from this bump and from this tubercle?
According to this logic, children whom their mother abandoned cannot or should not learn to love the Most Holy Theotokos... It seems to me that here is an unwillingness to accept that difficult experience, but for some reason God allowed this person, and not just an unsuccessful relationship with his own father. But I repeat: I’m arguing this way in three lines of this question, the problem can be much deeper, you need to know more than a person to say.
Father, what should you pray for in your own words? Sometimes they say: don’t ask for humility, because God will send you such sorrows that you yourself won’t be happy.
You need to pray for one thing that is needed. Why, in fact, not ask for humility? It’s as if we are being overheard in the heavenly office, and if we say something like that, we’ll immediately say: oh, you asked, here’s a stick to your head, take it. But if we believe in the Providence of God, and not in some heavenly KGB tracking down incorrect words, then we should not be afraid to ask for the right one.
Another thing is that in other cases you need to be aware of the value of prayer. Let's say, a mother asking for deliverance from the passion of drug addiction for her son must understand that this is least likely to happen in such a way that tomorrow he will wake up like a lamb, having forgotten about his addictions, hardworking, abstinent and loving his neighbors. Most likely, when asking for her son’s deliverance, she is asking him for sorrows, illnesses, or some very difficult life circumstances that the son may encounter - perhaps the army, prison.
The value of prayer must be realized, but, nevertheless, one must pray for the right thing and not fear God. We believe in our Heavenly Father, who sent his only begotten Son so that those who believe in Him would not perish, and not in order to rein them all in some correct way.
- What is the general meaning of asking for prayer, if the Lord already knows what we need?
God knows, but expects good will from us. “God does not save us without us,” these wonderful words of St. Peter of Athos fully apply to prayer. And we are saved not as cubes that are rearranged from place to place, but as living individuals, as hypostases entering into a relationship of love with the One who saves us. And these relationships imply the presence of free will and moral choice from a person.
Interviewed by Maria Abushkina
Is it necessary to attend the evening service? You can confess right during the liturgy. Or should attendance at the all-night vigil become as mandatory for believers as attendance at the liturgy?
Our sacrifice to God
Archpriest Igor Fomin, rector of the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky at MGIMO (Moscow):
Liturgical day - the totality of all services daily cycle, the crown of which is the liturgy.
Why is it so difficult to pray at the all-night vigil and so easy at the liturgy? Because all-night vigil- this is our sacrifice to God, when we sacrifice our time and some external circumstances to Him. And the liturgy is God’s sacrifice to us. And taking it is often much easier. But oddly enough, the degree to which this sacrifice is accepted by God depends on how much we are willing to sacrifice to Him.
In formal terms, the All-Night Vigil is an obligatory service before communion.
The entire structure of worship reminds us of the events of the divine world order; it should make us better, tune us to the sacrifice that Christ prepares for us during holy communion.
But there are various circumstances under which a person cannot attend the all-night vigil: a grumpy wife, a jealous husband, urgent work, and so on. And these are reasons that can justify a person. But if he is not present at the all-night vigil because he is watching the football championship or his favorite TV series (note, I am not talking about guests here - after all, this is a little different), then, probably, the person is sinning internally. And not before the church charter, not even before God. He's just robbing himself.
In general, it is impossible to rob a Church or a temple, even if you take out all the icons and some material values. Spiritual world– this is not a bank or a store. You will not harm the Church with your unworthy behavior. But for you, the internal consequences of this are disastrous.
Everyone should think for themselves. If he has the opportunity to attend the all-night vigil, then he should do so. If this is not possible, then it is worth thinking: how can I worthily spend this evening before communion in order to prepare for the reception of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Maybe you shouldn’t watch TV, but rather focus on spiritual reflection?
If a person wants to take communion every Sunday and worries if he will also be in church every Saturday and remain without days off, without rest, the question arises - why should he take communion every Sunday?
The Lord says: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). If your treasure is in the cinema, at the TV, at the stadium, put off the sacrament until better times: for a week, for a month, for a year.
The motivation that drives a person is very important here. If you are used to receiving communion every Sunday, and this does not change you spiritually, does not transform you, then why do you need it?
Maybe then take the measure of frequency that is in the church charter: communion - once every three weeks. The time of preparation for communion in the statute is defined as follows: for a week - you prepare, fast with dry food, and read prayers. Then you take communion, internally store what you receive for a week, rest for a week and prepare again. There is an option when everyone discusses the form of preparation for communion with their confessor.
If a person sets himself a certain schedule for communion, that’s good. Only then should he treat this sacrament accordingly.
Not just debt...
Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko, rector of the Church of the All-Merciful Savior in the former Sorrow Monastery (Moscow):
First of all, it is necessary to say about the beauty of the all-night vigil, its content, its spiritual and factual richness: the service reveals the history of the holiday, its significance, and meaning.
But since, as a rule, people do not understand what is read and sung in church, they simply do not perceive much.
It is amazing that the Russian Orthodox Church has preserved in its entirety a very complex, thoughtful service. For example, in Greece there is no such thing in parishes anymore. There they adjusted to modern life, and this is justified in its own way. There is no evening service, no vespers are served, the morning begins with Matins.
We serve both Vespers and Matins in the evening. This is a kind of convention, but it was thought out, and those who made the decision about this particular course of worship understood the charter better than us and decided that it would be more correct to maintain fidelity to tradition.
In Greece they made a different decision. Matins is served there, as a rule, according to one type. We have an all-night vigil - solemn, bright, colorful, during which many chants are sung. In Greece it’s more monotonous, but it’s fast. The entire service, including the liturgy, takes about two hours. But this is precisely in parish churches.
In monasteries, and especially on Mount Athos, the rules are preserved in all strictness. Their all-night vigil actually goes on all night.
With us, no, and this is also a kind of convention, a kind of reduction. But those who developed this decided to reduce it based on certain circumstances; they still wanted to preserve the beauty of Orthodox worship for the laity.
But here a difficulty arises - we live in the 21st century: we are busy, the distances are long, people are tired, the environment is terrible, health, or better yet, ill health, corresponds to it. Although I think that the peasants who worked tirelessly from morning to evening in the summer were more physically tired than we were. But still, they had enough strength to finish the work day early on Saturday, wash in the bathhouse and go to church for the all-night vigil, and in the morning for the liturgy.
It may be more difficult for us in some ways than for our recent ancestors; physically we are much weaker. But, nevertheless, we urge you not to hide behind your weaknesses, but to find strength and go to the all-night vigil, especially those who want to receive communion. So that they can confess on the eve of the liturgy without taking up time Sunday service.
But if people have small children who have no one to leave with, or there are some other objective reasons, you cannot tell them: “If you have not been to the all-night vigil, then you will not receive communion.” Although it is possible to say so to someone: if a person showed sloppiness, laziness, relaxation...
It is important to strive to ensure that our parishioners love the worship of our Church and consider it not only a duty, but also a joy to be present in church.
Without "social protection"
Archpriest Alexy Uminsky, rector of the temple Life-Giving Trinity in Khokhly (Moscow):
There is a certain circle of services, and the all-night vigil is a necessary part of the Sunday service. But there are life circumstances of a certain level when a person is not able to go to the all-night vigil. But he can go to the liturgy and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
The completely common practice of worship in our Russian Orthodox churches abroad is such that the majority of parishioners living in different cities, come only for Sunday services. Therefore, in most cases, only Sunday liturgy exists in churches.
This is also due to the fact that if the priest serves not only the liturgy, but also adds, say, Matins to it, then the service will take about four hours. This is not only difficult to understand, but also connected with transport schedules, parking fees...
But the fact that only the liturgy is served is not an obstacle for parishioners who come to receive communion to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
But if a person has the opportunity to attend an all-night vigil, and simply out of laziness, carelessness, does not want to go, then this can become an obstacle to receiving communion.
Yes, it turns out that the temple “occupies” both weekends of an ordinary person working five days a week. But only those living in XX, XXI centuries are used to things like two days off. Previously, people did not have such " social protection" They worked for six days, and dedicated the seventh to the Lord God.
The question is not whether it is possible to lie on the sofa instead of the all-night vigil. The answer here is clear. Another thing is that people may have completely justified family concerns. In the end, it is at this time that the ordered furniture from the store should be delivered. Or - they invited a person dear to the whole family to the anniversary. If we spent this anniversary piously, why can it become an obstacle to receiving communion?
But all this does not happen every Saturday. But simply deciding that the all-night vigil is an optional thing, and I won’t go to it, is wrong.
Holy mysteries - the body and blood of Christ - greatest shrine, God’s gift to us sinners and unworthy. It’s not for nothing that they are called holy gifts.No one on earth can consider himself worthy to be a communicant of the holy mysteries. By preparing for communion, we cleanse our spiritual and physical nature. We prepare the soul through prayer, repentance and reconciliation with one’s neighbor, and the body through fasting and abstinence. This preparation is called fasting.
Those preparing for communion read three canons: 1) repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ; 2) prayer service to the Most Holy Theotokos; 3) canon to the guardian angel. The Follow-up to Holy Communion is also read, which includes the canon for communion and prayers.
All these canons and prayers are contained in the Canon and ordinary Orthodox prayer book.
On the eve of communion, you must be at the evening service, because the church day begins in the evening.
Fast
Before communion, fasting, fasting, fasting - bodily abstinence are attributed. During fasting, food of animal origin should be excluded: meat, dairy products, and eggs. During strict fasting, fish is also excluded. But lean foods should also be consumed in moderation.
During fasting, spouses must abstain from physical intimacy (5th rule of St. Timothy of Alexandria). Women who are in purification (during menstruation) cannot receive communion (7th rule of St. Timothy of Alexandria).
Of course, it is necessary to fast not only with the body, but also with the mind, sight and hearing, keeping one’s soul away from worldly entertainments.
The duration of the Eucharistic fast is usually negotiated with the confessor or parish priest. This depends on the physical health, spiritual state of the communicant, and also on how often he approaches the holy mysteries.
The general practice is to fast for at least three days before communion.
For those who receive communion frequently (for example, once a week), the duration of fasting can be reduced with the blessing of the confessor to 1–2 days.
Also, the confessor can weaken the fast for people who are sick, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and also taking into account other life circumstances.
Those preparing for communion no longer eat after midnight, as the day of communion arrives. You need to take communion on an empty stomach. Under no circumstances should you smoke. Some people mistakenly believe that you shouldn’t brush your teeth in the morning so as not to swallow water. This is completely wrong. In the "Teaching News" every priest is prescribed to brush his teeth before the liturgy.
Repentance
The most important point in preparation for the sacrament of communion is the cleansing of one’s soul from sins, which is accomplished in the sacrament of confession. Christ will not enter into a soul that is not cleansed from sin and not reconciled with God.
You can sometimes hear the opinion that it is necessary to separate the sacraments of confession and communion. And if a person regularly confesses, then he can begin communion without confession. In this case, they usually refer to the practice of some Local Churches (for example, the Greek Church).
But ours Russian people He was in atheistic captivity for more than 70 years. And the Russian Church is only just beginning to gradually recover from the spiritual catastrophe that befell our country. We have very little Orthodox churches and clergy. In Moscow, for 10 million inhabitants, there are only about one thousand priests. People are unchurched and cut off from traditions. Community and parish life is practically absent. The life and spiritual level of modern Orthodox believers are incomparable with the life of Christians of the first centuries. Therefore, we adhere to the practice of confession before each communion.
By the way, about the first centuries of Christianity. The most important historical monument of early Christian writing, “The Teaching of the 12 Apostles” or in Greek “Didache”, says: “On the day of the Lord (that is, on Sunday. - O. P.G.), having gathered together, break bread and give thanks, having confessed your sins in advance, so that your sacrifice may be pure. Let anyone who has a quarrel with his friend not come with you until they are reconciled, so that your sacrifice is not desecrated; for this is the name of the Lord: in every place and at all times a pure sacrifice must be offered to Me, for I am a great King, says the Lord, and My name is wonderful among the nations” (Didache 14). And again: “Confess your sins in church and do not approach your prayer with a bad conscience. This is the way of life! (Didache, 4).
The importance of repentance and cleansing from sins before communion is undeniable, so let’s dwell on this topic in a little more detail.
For many, the first confession and communion was the beginning of their churching, their formation as Orthodox Christians.
In preparation for welcoming our dear guest, we try to better clean our house and put it in order. Moreover, we must prepare with trembling, reverence and care to receive into the home of our souls the “King of kings and Lord of lords.” The more closely a Christian follows spiritual life, the more often and more diligently he repents, the more he sees his sins and unworthiness before God. It is not for nothing that holy people saw their sins as countless as the sand of the sea. One noble citizen of the town of Gaza came to the Monk Abba Dorotheos, and the Abba asked him: “Eminent gentleman, tell me who you consider yourself to be in your city?” He replied: “I consider myself great and the first in the city.” Then the monk asked him again: “If you go to Caesarea, who will you consider yourself to be there?” The man replied: “For the last of the nobles there.” “If you go to Antioch, who will you consider yourself to be there?” “There,” he answered, “I will consider myself one of the common people.” - “If you go to Constantinople and approach the king, who will you consider yourself to be?” And he answered: “Almost like a beggar.” Then the abba said to him: “This is how the saints, the closer they come to God, the more they see themselves as sinners.”
Unfortunately, we have to see that some perceive the sacrament of confession as a kind of formality, after which they will be allowed to receive communion. When preparing to receive communion, we must take full responsibility for the cleansing of our soul in order to make it a temple for the acceptance of Christ.
The Holy Fathers call repentance second baptism, baptism of tears. Just as the waters of baptism wash our soul from sins, tears of repentance, crying and contrition for sins, cleanse our spiritual nature.
Why do we repent if the Lord already knows all our sins? God expects repentance and recognition from us. In the sacrament of confession we ask Him for forgiveness. This can be understood with the following example. The child climbed into the closet and ate all the candy. The father knows perfectly well who did this, but he waits for his son to come and ask for forgiveness.
The very word “confession” means that the Christian has come tell, confess, tell your sins yourself. The priest in prayer before confession reads: “These are Your servants, in a word be kind to me." The person himself is resolved from his sins through the word and receives forgiveness from God. Therefore, confession should be private, not general. I mean the practice when the priest reads a list of possible sins, and then simply covers the confessor with a stole. " General Confession"was an almost universal phenomenon in Soviet times, when there were very few functioning churches and on Sundays, holidays, as well as fasting, they were crowded with people praying. It was simply unrealistic to confess to everyone who wanted to. Conducting confession after the evening service was also almost never allowed. Now, thank God, there are very few churches left where such confession is held.
In order to prepare well for the cleansing of the soul, you need to think about your sins and remember them before the sacrament of repentance. The books help us with this: “To help the repentant” by St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), “The Experience of Constructing a Confession” by Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) and others.
Confession cannot be perceived as just a spiritual wash or shower. You don’t have to be afraid of messing around in the dirt and soil; everything will be washed off in the shower later anyway. And you can go on sinning. If a person approaches confession with such thoughts, he is confessing not for salvation, but for judgment and condemnation. And having formally “confessed,” he will not receive permission for sins from God. It's not that simple. Sin and passion cause great harm to the soul, and even after repenting, a person bears the consequences of his sin. This is how a patient who has had smallpox ends up with scars on his body.
It is not enough to simply confess sin; you must make every effort to overcome the tendency to sin in your soul and not return to it again. So the doctor removes the cancerous tumor and prescribes a course of chemotherapy to defeat the disease and prevent relapse. Of course, it is not easy to immediately leave sin, but the repentant should not be a hypocrite: “If I repent, I will continue to sin.” A person must make every effort to take the path of correction and no longer return to sin. A person must ask God for help to fight sins and passions.
Those who rarely confess and receive communion cease to see their sins. They move away from God. And vice versa, approaching Him as the Source of light, people begin to see all the dark and unclean corners of their soul. Similar to bright sun highlights all the untidy nooks and crannies of the room.
The Lord does not expect earthly gifts and offerings from us, but: “a sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a contrite and humble heart, God will not despise” (Ps. 50:19). And preparing to unite with Christ in the sacrament of communion, we offer Him this sacrifice.
Reconciliation
“So if you are bringing your gift to the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go, first make peace with your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matt. 5:23–24), the word of God tells us.
The one who dares to take communion with malice, enmity, hatred, and unforgiven grievances in his heart sins mortally.
The Kiev-Pechersk Patericon tells about the terrible sinful state people who approach communion in a state of anger and non-reconciliation can fall into. “There were two brothers in spirit - Deacon Evagrius and priest Titus. And they had great and unfeigned love for each other, so that everyone marveled at their unanimity and immeasurable love. The devil, who hates good, and always walks “like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8), aroused enmity between them. And he put such hatred into them that they avoided each other, did not want to see each other in person. Many times the brethren begged them to reconcile with each other, but they did not want to hear. When Titus walked with the censer, Evagrius ran away from the incense; when Evagrius did not run away, Titus passed by him without showing any signs. And so they spent a lot of time in sinful darkness, approaching the holy mysteries: Titus, not asking for forgiveness, and Evagrius, being angry, the enemy armed them to such an extent. One day Titus became very ill and, already near death, began to grieve over his sin and sent to the deacon with a prayer: “Forgive me, for God’s sake, my brother, that I was angry with you in vain.” Evagrius responded with cruel words and curses. The elders, seeing that Titus was dying, forcibly brought Evagrius to reconcile him with his brother. Seeing him, the patient rose a little, fell prostrate at his feet and said: “Forgive and bless me, my father!” He, unmerciful and fierce, refused to forgive in the presence of everyone, saying: “I will never be reconciled with him, neither in this century nor in the future.” And suddenly Evagrius escaped from the hands of the elders and fell. They wanted to raise him, but they saw that he was already dead. And they could neither stretch out his arms nor close his mouth, like someone who had died long ago. The sick man immediately stood up, as if he had never been sick. And everyone was horrified by the sudden death of one and the speedy recovery of the other. Evagrius was buried with much weeping. His mouth and eyes remained open, and his arms were stretched out. Then the elders asked Titus: “What does all this mean?” And he said: “I saw angels retreating from me and crying for my soul, and demons rejoicing at my anger. And then I began to pray to my brother to forgive me. When you brought him to me, I saw an unmerciful angel holding a flaming spear, and when Evagrius did not forgive me, he hit him and he fell dead. The angel gave me his hand and lifted me up.” Hearing this, the brothers were afraid of God, who said: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).”
When preparing to receive the Holy Mysteries, we need (if there is such an opportunity) to ask for forgiveness from everyone whom we have voluntarily or unwittingly offended and to forgive everyone ourselves. If it is not possible to do this personally, you need to make peace with your neighbors at least in your heart. Of course, this is not easy - we are all proud, touchy people (by the way, touchiness always stems from pride). But how can we ask God for forgiveness of our sins, count on their remission, if we ourselves do not forgive our offenders. Shortly before the communion of believers on Divine Liturgy The Lord's Prayer is sung - “Our Father”. As a reminder to us that only then will God “leave ( forgive) we are in debt ( sins) ours,” when we also leave “our debtor.”
- Can God really forgive any crime, even the most terrible one?
We have talked about this several times. Although we use the term “forgive,” we need to deeply feel that God’s forgiveness is not at all what happens when one person forgives another. It’s just that in relation to man and God it is necessary to use completely different terminology - unfortunately, there is none. The first thing that came to mind was music. So we sometimes say: the music is happy or the music is sad. But in reality, music is not divided into happy and sad. It’s just that some music gives most people the impression of sadness, and the other - joy, but this is very conditional, because the musical language is not the language of human speech. There are some similarities. For example, a musician creates a piece and calls it “Drops”, and every person can hear the spring drops in this music, but if you cross out the name and write “Bell”, then the person will hear the ringing of bells in the same piece. It’s the same here, we say: God has forgiven, but completely different concepts are put into this. For example, we quarreled and then decided to make peace - what does this mean? This means that the sin that each of us committed against each other becomes non-existent, that is, we move on to the relationship that existed before the quarrel, that is, we have forgotten everything and forgiven each other. And also in a relationship with God. Here is a man who has sinned a grave sin. What does “God forgive” mean? Sin no longer existed, this does not mean that historically it disappeared, but the consequences disappeared, and the person became different. What does “became different” mean? That is, in a similar situation, he will never do this again - this means that the sin is forgiven. The most common sin in our country is drunkenness. Drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God. So a man stops drinking - and he doesn’t even want to, and he doesn’t strive for it and doesn’t buy wine, and even at a party they offer him - he refuses, not because he’s sick, but simply doesn’t want to - this means God has forgiven him this sin.
- But it was a long way to get there...
Maybe it takes a long time, but sometimes it happens right away. Here we have one man in the village, Ilya, he immediately stopped drinking, he is almost 90, and 5 years ago he stopped smoking, and he had been smoking since he was 12 years old.
I say: “Have you quit smoking?”
- "Yes"
- "And why?"
- “Yes, I started coughing something.”
He took it and chopped it off - that’s the man’s will. So he decided to give up everything. What does it mean? This means that God forgave him for his sin. Of course, God helped because without God’s help this is not possible. I don’t know whether he prayed or not, but it’s a fact. This is God's forgiveness. This doesn’t mean “please forgive me,” but tomorrow they do the same thing.
- Many women repent of the sin of an abortion committed many years ago. Of course, she doesn’t commit it and dissuades others, but the sin torments and oppresses. And what? God hasn’t forgiven since he’s pressing?
No, why? So I asked the elder when I was young, what to do if your sins are remembered and oppressive? He said - it’s like penance, so that you don’t become proud and don’t undertake to teach anyone. Always remember that you killed your child. Hitler - even better, he didn’t kill his children - he was childless.
- Hello. How to determine what constitutes crucifixion for a particular person, and how to learn not to shy away from it?
Well, the cross is our whole life. The cross is: our climate, our clay soil, our history, our judiciary, our government, our bureaucracy, our chronic or newly acquired diseases. Everything is a cross. It started to rain - this is a cross, if we didn’t take an umbrella, and the sun is baking, it’s hot - this is a cross, the crush in the subway is a cross, the wife’s character is a cross, the disobedience of children is a cross, people smoking around is a cross. For me, our pavements spattered with cross are like a cross. It seems like we live in the capital of our state, but if you look, the barn is even cleaner. This is also a cross, but the only way to bear it is with patience.
- Father Dimitri, please explain the meaning of the saying “whoever humiliates himself will exalt himself, whoever exalts himself will humiliate himself.” How to understand this correctly, and if possible, then with a specific example.
We are talking about earthly and heavenly life. Ancient icons depict all sorts of objects in reverse perspective because our earthly life is the same as heavenly life, only upside down. What people consider highly is an abomination before God. When a person exalts himself, he thereby moves away from God. Therefore, we see that the most ardent atheists - Lenin, for example, during his lifetime named cities and streets after themselves, thereby exalting themselves and moving away from God. And the person who humbles himself, the modest person, is very high before God. The more modest a person is, the more humble he is, the higher he is in the eyes of God.
- Alexander from St. Petersburg asks who the scribes are, and why they are spoken of as opponents of Jesus Christ along with the Pharisees.
Well, the scribes, they mostly belonged to the party of the Pharisees, these are such intersecting sets, speaking in mathematical language, so we, speaking about the scribes, can safely say that they are Pharisees. What is the damage to the religion that arose from the legacy of the holy prophet of God the Pharisee? The fact is that, without seeing the spiritual component Old Testament, by God given to a person, they prioritized the fulfillment of moral precepts. And our Lord Jesus Christ wanted to ensure that a person cleanses the inner bottle of his soul, that is, spends the energy of the soul, mind and body not on fulfillment external rule, but I saw the internal spiritual content behind the rules - this is a big problem. The scribe studied the word of God in order to extract from it some kind of rule, some kind of instruction. Here, for example: three o’clock in the morning, a completely deserted street and a red traffic light, we drive up to the traffic light and get up - why? The rule says: “red light, no go.” From point of view common sense this is complete absurdity: there is no one, and the wheels don’t rustle, it’s night - if the car is moving, then the headlights are visible. A man in uniform jumps out and says: you broke the rules. Not traffic safety, there is no threat to anyone, but the rule as such, that is, it turns into absurdity. Something similar happened then. The scribes extracted certain rules because they were experts in the text of the law of God from the Holy Scriptures. And in general, every scribe memorized some part of the Holy Scriptures. This was done for such a purpose that if the text is lost, then the scribes immediately gather and restore it from memory, because it was written on such media that are exposed to danger from fire or dampness. They were great experts in the text, but, reading the text formally, they did not see any depth in it.
- Many people, starting to become church members, are horrified by the abundance of rules in our church life and often ask the question: is all this really necessary and important, or can something be neglected?
That's not the point. We need to understand the main algorithm - what is Christianity? And in the light of this, to see the rules, but with us, on the contrary, a person begins: rule-rule-rule, and Christianity eludes him. He turns into a modern scribe and Pharisee.
A man came to confession. A priest comes up to him and asks: have you read the canons?
He says: he didn’t have time, he worked late yesterday.
And the answer was: you can’t take communion. And the person leaves in bewilderment: is canon really all that?
Not really. The fact is that until the 18th century in our country no one, except perhaps monks, ever read any canons. These rules arose only in the 18th century, and so who read the Jesus Prayer, who read the “Our Father”. What, priests are not Pharisees? Yes, as much as you want! The Scripture says about such people: they themselves do not enter and they hinder others. They don’t even look at age, or maybe the person doesn’t see? Such a formal approach.
So should a person leave humbly or can he ignore the rules?
Everyone will find their own way out.
- Good evening. My name is Vladimir. Tell me, please, I read from Saint Ignatius that in order to achieve sincere repentance, you need to have the determination to forsake all your sins. How to find this determination if nothing works out, especially since due to your negligence, pride and extreme sinfulness you are placed in such conditions that if you don’t pray, then you’re not far from despair?
You described everything correctly. You just need to start small and then move on to something more serious. Well, some very minimal effort can always be made. And if a person is not able to say: “Lord, have mercy,” then let him say: “Lord!” So be brave, child, your faith will save you.
- How does written confession correspond to oral confession, and can it replace one another?
After all, confession is only a tool, and not repentance itself, so it doesn’t matter whether our crutch is made of aluminum or oak, it is important that there be repentance.
- Many people say: I can’t say it, it’s a shame, father, read it.
Well, that's fine. It happens.
If the priest does not accept written confession. Go to someone else?
Well, I don’t know, it’s different. A person must search. Seek and you will find. When I was young, on Christmas and Easter, they didn’t give communion anywhere in Moscow churches, and we found a priest who agreed to give us communion.
- Tell me, do you know anything about the fact that the State Duma adopted amendments to the Law on Secondary Education, so that now it will be paid? I would like you to comment.
My dear, unfortunately, I don’t know. How can I comment on something I don't know? Everything is clear here.
- Often priests refuse communion to people who were not at the evening service the day before. How legal is this?
This is absolutely illegal! Here, I'll give you an example. When I served in the Altufevsky Church, we had a parishioner named Olympiada, she had one leg, and the prosthesis was made of wood. She came to church every Sunday, and only in winter, when there was already ice, did she not go. I then gave her communion at home. And how can we demand from her that she defend two services?! You just have to be a sadist. The priest should be a person who opens the entrance to the temple for people, and not closes the Royal Doors in front of their noses. But we still have few such priests in Moscow. I don't know what's next. It is very good when a person attended the full circle of the Divine Service, and it is also good if a layman has a full circle of Menaion, and when he cannot, he will take it and read it. Well, it is clear that for most this is impossible. The Apostle Paul never took communion in his life, having defended the all-night vigil, because it did not exist in nature then, and neither did Basil the Great, therefore to demand from a person what even Basil the Great did not do is simply absurd.
- Is it possible to communicate with Baptists?
We even communicate often with crooks. What about the Baptists? These are ours little brothers, why can’t you communicate with them? Unless, of course, you are approved Orthodox faith, then they will beat you with a cascade of certain quotes from the Holy Scriptures, with a certain Baptist interpretation. But if you are guided by the Holy Scriptures, then on the contrary, they can very easily be confused. And if the communication is just friendly, then we have a lot in common - we love the same God. True, they don’t like saints; they consider themselves saints. And we believe that we are saved in hope. As the Apostle Paul says: they have a number of errors that contradict the church. Well, if a Baptist man is sober and able to listen, which is not often the case, then he can easily be shown his absurdities.
- Father, maybe it’s better to avoid religious topics altogether with such people?
Well, if a dispute arises, then, of course, there is no need. A Baptist can only be perceived as weak in faith, without arguing about the truth, with fatherly love and warmth. I personally have a very good attitude towards Baptists; they have many advantages. I would advise most Orthodox Christians to learn something from Baptists.
- Can a mechanical yoga exercise, without meditation to strengthen the muscles, harm the spiritual state?
I think no. But on the other hand, it all depends on the person. I think if I worked out, which is difficult with my stomach, it wouldn’t hurt me. It all depends on the person - one person drinks a glass and nothing happens, while another drinks a glass and gets rowdy. We are all different.
- How to properly use the consecrated land from the grave of the saint? Some say - take it, it helps.
But there is no such thing as a sacred land. They bring it as a keepsake. But I don’t know. In our church life it is not written what to do with this. I do not know. For example, I have a piece of plaster that crumbled from the Chapel of Xenia of St. Petersburg. She was not yet famous then, but I went to St. Petersburg and took it as a souvenir, and now I keep it. Or I still have a piece of ceramics that lined the floor of the temple where my great-grandfather served in the village of Znamenskoye. I entered this temple and the windows were broken, there was no dome, and the floor was partially lost. I took this pebble for myself. It’s so nice that my great-grandfather walked on this floor! Well, for me this is a shrine, and he is now a famous person, but this does not mean that he should be bitten and swallowed.
- Dear Father Dimitri, based on the timing of his death, is it possible to canonize Patriarch Alexei I? Can we lay people help bring this closer?
- I think no. This will become clear over time. We are now experiencing some kind of excitement around canonization. What is canonization? This is glorification. Patriarch Alexey I famous throughout the world. The time will come - there will be miracles at his grave. This is a natural process. This doesn’t happen right away.
- Father, how can you not fall into negligence and overcome the reluctance to pray after fasting if you feel joy and a certain relaxation on Easter days?
We must act not by feelings, but by faith. Faith commands us: pray unceasingly. Therefore, I want it or I don’t want it, I can or I can’t – should I brush my teeth? Necessary. Do you need to wash your face? - Necessary. Do you need to pray? - Necessary. As one person put it: you need to pray more often than you breathe - see how great it is!
- Many people are confused by the fact that on Sundays or Easter days one cannot bow down or read the psalter...
- Not possible again! Well, who will ban? Well, do you want me to bow to the ground now? In the temple - yes, there is a certain order in the temple, but at home in your cell, who is your boss? Well, in our church the altar boys didn’t light the chandelier - I gave them penance, they worshiped, though not in the church, but at home - but what’s wrong? What's wrong with bowing? a good thing- bow.
- They are afraid to offend God with this.
Oh... Let this be the biggest sin in our lives. How can you offend God by bowing? This is an opinion about God as... I won’t even say what.
- Is Ivan the Terrible a murderer or not, and what can you read on this topic?
Well, any history book, and it’s clear that he’s a murderer. Moreover government in some cases, she is forced to resort to murder. In our country, thank God, the death penalty is prohibited, but still, militants are extinguished in the jungles of the Caucasus - a necessary thing, otherwise cities will be blown up. The element of murder is always present, but Ivan Vasilyevich did it with voluptuousness and sometimes completely unfairly. A large number of innocent people suffered from it.
- What to do if a 2.5 year old child starts to show anger?
You need to love him more, and you need to make sure that anger doesn’t show up in front of him. Remove from home all sorts of modern cartoons, where there is always anger, fights, ridicule, although every person, even a small one, is a sinner. It is necessary to create an atmosphere of rejection of evil, and then he will see that when he shows evil, everyone turns away from him, and he will feel that this is not true and will begin to resist it within himself.
- What is it like to love and turn away?
- For pedagogical purposes. When a person loves... A lover says to his beloved - you know, I think about you all the time. It very often happens that people loving friend each other, they call each other, and so do we, if we love a child, we are not distracted from him for a minute. We think about his mental health all the time. Our every word and action should carry an educational charge.
-We are commanded to pray without ceasing. How is this possible in modern conditions?
- It's very possible. Praying does not mean saying words all the time. To pray means to have God in your mind and heart all the time and never be distracted from him.
- That is, the motive for an action is to please God?
In theory, our whole life should be like this: whether we eat or drink, we do everything for the glory of God. We raise children for God. Everything is for God.
“I didn’t intentionally tell a lie to the priest in confession, and I didn’t have the courage to admit it right away.” I took communion with the determination to tell everything as soon as possible, but then it didn’t work out. Now I'm suffering. Maybe she received communion in condemnation, since she deceived? So what should we do now?
Well, you can always start over, you can always repent.
- Father, when you don’t have the courage to admit something in confession...
Well, you said it yourself - write then.
-Well, it’s a shame to write.
- Well, what do you mean by shame?! Shame - of course, it burns, but it heals like mustard plaster. If a person does not feel shame, then this is a very serious spiritual illness.
- Many people say that I lie so that things don’t get worse because telling the truth can greatly complicate the relationship. And what to do - stop lying? But then difficulties will arise, or is such a lie possible?
This specific situation needs to be analyzed.
- They appear all the time.
Well, let them arise and pester me? If you want, lie, but what do I have to do with it? Figure it out for yourself - there is conscience, there is God, there are people. Why put this on me?
- It’s clear that it’s not a specific answer that is needed, but some kind of reasoning.
We have already talked about this topic. A man is running. He runs into the entrance, calls - open, hide me. A bandit with an ax runs after this man and rings the doorbell: has so-and-so dropped in on you?
What do you need to do: tell the truth or “no, I didn’t drop by”? Well, of course, to lie. Again, what is the motive - do we want to save a person by doing this or to protect our own self-interest? And then you can always remain silent.
- Often people ask to lie to cover up their sin.
Well, it’s different in every situation. If you act not rashly, but wisely, you can avoid a bad situation in 99% of cases. People are just used to lying - the easiest way since childhood.
- How to communicate correctly with sisters in faith and just acquaintances in order to avoid idle talk and gossip?
As the ancient monk said - run away from people and you will be saved. How to avoid? - Avoid communication. The less you communicate, the less idle talk. Especially with my sisters. With whom you sit in the same room side by side 5 days a week and 8 hours a day. A difficult task, but quite doable.
Such teams have quite strict principles, and if you don’t obey them, then leave. Where will you go if you are approaching retirement age? There is a way out of any situation. For example, give everyone sitting in this room a box of chocolates on their birthday, name day, Christmas, Easter, son’s birthday, husband’s birthday and thereby compensate for the shortcomings of their silence. They’ll say, well, that’s just his nature, but they gave me candy. If there is a problem, then you need to solve it. There are still no ready-made answers, because I advised, what if they all have diabetes - they don’t eat sweets, which means they need something else.
-A relative refuses to wear a cross. What to do - persuade or give up?
- Burn at the stake. Why persuade? The Apostle Paul did not wear a cross, neither did the Apostle Peter, John the Theologian loved Christ very much, and he also did not wear a cross. Why persuade if a person doesn’t want to? I don’t understand. You can persuade a child to put on a coat, if it’s windy outside, he doesn’t seem to understand yet.
“Many people feel panic or tragedy if their son or daughter takes off the cross, and they try with all their might to put it back on.
Because treating the cross as a magical amulet is wrong and sinful. The tragedy is not that he removed the cross, which hangs on a string around his neck. The tragedy is that he is not a Christian - this is a tragedy for a believing heart. But there are a lot of people who wear a cross and are not Christians. Is it better to formally wear a cross? In my opinion, this is more blasphemous.
Well, maybe some kind of hope glimmers in the soul that since he wears a cross, maybe he will come to his senses. Or some say - he doesn’t take communion, but at least he drinks holy water.
Well, that means some kind of connection with the church is preserved, but still this does not save a person, but is saved only by repentance. That is, people demand in a pharisaical way external signs manifestations of religiosity, but this is nothing in the eyes of God. And for some people there is general panic - you know, we buried the deceased, but forgot to put on the cross - what to do now? Well, why tear up the grave, open the coffin and put on a cross? It stands on the grave, and that’s enough. People just give importance to things that don't mean that much.
Some fathers do not even give communion if a person comes without a cross.
How do they know that there is no cross? What, are they doing x-rays? I have wooden cross, the x-ray does not show it. How can you determine?
- Let's say the person confessed himself.
A-a-a, well, there’s nothing to give communion. If for him it has such a formal essence, well, that’s it - get treated from magic.
- The child went to church, received communion, prayed, confessed, but at the age of 14 he began to resist, at 16 he stopped going to church altogether, and no force could drag him there. So what's now?
- Nothing. The man has grown. What we managed to sow will slowly germinate. There will be a struggle in the soul. As F.M. Dostoevsky said, the devil will fight with God. The child's apostasy turns into a man's apostasy, and he himself decides in whom he should believe, where he should go, how he should live.
- But what does it mean that the child stopped going to church? Lack of education?
- This is the flaw of the father's example. He did not see an example in his father Christian life- that's the problem. This means that this family was not a home church - absolutely certainly in 99% of cases.
- Father, I know the family; the mother, father and children always went to church. Then one of the children says: I don’t want such a family, and does everything contrary to what was in his family.
- Quite possible. The spirit of contradiction. What is Christianity? This is when people become the best morally. When a son can say - my dad is the best, because he has never seen greater love from anyone than the one that his father sends to him from his heart. And he will be like dad. I want to be a policeman like my dad. Dad is a Christian and I am a Christian. But something is wrong here. This means that someone on the street, in the classroom, at school, on the screen turned out to be better than dad - more attractive.
- A modern dad, if he takes care of the family, he works, and the child spends much less time with him.
It's not a matter of time at all. The point is that he loves. My late father had a tremendous influence on me and my other brothers. He never taught us anything. He never uttered more than one phrase every two days; he was always silent. He just was. This is his reaction - how he answers, how he walked, how he looked, how he smiled - this was educational. And not at all for some time. He also worked, everyone works. But if the father doesn’t work, then what kind of upbringing is this? A non-working father - who can he raise? Real freaks. All dads who don't work have ugly children.
- We’ve been married for almost 10 years, but the Lord doesn’t give us children. We mourn and pray, we go to shrines, we ask, but the Lord does not give. What is this? Maybe some unrepentant sin in life or some other reason?
Well, you need to ask the doctors. There are 1 million orphans in the country - you can choose.
-I want my own.
- Let there be one. I see that in our parish someone who is adopted, after 2 months they completely forget that he is not their own. They buy a cat at the market and love it, and then there’s a baby.
You need to humble yourself, but humility is not enough.
I sympathize - without humility there is no salvation.
Well, in this situation, are some other ways to give birth to a child acceptable?
- Depends on what. Insemination is acceptable.
- Or is it better to wait until God decides and show concern for someone?
This, of course, is preferable, because by taking an orphan from an orphanage, you save a person from prison - this is a great benefit. You might, by doing this, save someone’s life - not only his, but someone whose head he could break in the entrance to take away his bag. Because ours modern system caring for orphans - she does not teach children. Here in our Orphanage The prosecutor's office recently came and asked: why are those children's panties hanging? Well, we answer: the children did the laundry. Ka-a-ak??!!! Do you force children to do laundry? Just imagine, it turns out that according to the law, the prosecutor’s office is against children washing their panties and T-shirts. And what will grow from them then?
This is where our show comes to an end. God help you.