Churching for beginners in church life. Alexander torik churching for beginners in church life

The first steps on the path of churching can be difficult, because many things in the Church seem incomprehensible, alien and even scary to new beginning Christians. Who to contact with questions? How to get the opportunity to communicate with the priest? How and how much to pray? Archpriest Andrey Baikov, cleric of Epiphany cathedral Gorlovka, tells what needs to be done so that churching leads to a deep and conscious life in the Church.

What questions to ask yourself?

A person who wants to become a church, first of all, needs to turn to the origins, to his past. It is important to know if he was baptized, who his godparents are. Each of us bears the name of an Orthodox saint - his own heavenly patron. It has its own story, biography - we call it life. This life is a must read. As one gets acquainted with it, a person will surely have many spiritual and practical questions: is it possible to achieve such holiness? Isn't this a fairy tale? How are we related to invisible world God and saints? All these questions should be asked to the clergyman during live communication with him.

It is difficult, and sometimes dangerous, to become churched yourself according to some textbook or book. The fact is that now there are many false religious movements that one way or another offer their teachings under the guise of ideas of goodness, peace and universal happiness. A person before coming to the Church is usually so-so and represents spiritual values. But often these beautiful words there are things that can cause serious spiritual harm. To avoid such errors, you need to live communication with a priest.

How to "catch" a priest?

Now all the priests at the end of each service give announcements about what services will be performed in the temple during the week. According to this announcement, as on a road map, you need to navigate. In the temple, you can ask any candlestick or person in vestments what time it ends Divine Liturgy(morning) or evening worship. If you approach the priest after the end of the service, it will be easier for him to find time to talk with you. It is especially convenient to come up for a conversation after the evening service.

There is nothing to be afraid of! Answering the questions of beginners is the direct task of any clergyman. I can’t imagine anyone among them who would refuse to pay attention to a church-going person.

Many are afraid to directly address the clergyman with their questions. To get rid of this fear, you can prepare a little theoretically. Take the books "The Basics of Orthodoxy", "Spiritual Crops" or "The Law of God" as presented for the family and school and read the initial theses about our faith. Who is Jesus Christ? Why did he come into the world? How does He distribute Himself in the form of Body and Blood during communion? These are fundamental questions. When a person is puzzled by them, he still has to turn to the priest and talk to him. It is necessary to find time for this. When a person comes with a book in which incomprehensible places are marked with a pencil, any priest will give him time and help him understand the most important thing: that the Head of the Church is Christ, He came to save mankind. That Confession, Communion and other sacraments that are performed in the Church is not terrible. All of them are for us, and even he, a person who is still unchurched, can come, confess his sins and take communion - if he is baptized, of course.

Another way to become churched is to visit holy places, that is, places of a special manifestation of God's grace. However, I am more inclined towards the first method, because worldly people do not always realize what the relics, icons and other shrines of the temples and monasteries they visit are.

How and how much to pray?

Sometimes unchurched people decide that they can determine a prayer rule for themselves, but here there is a danger, on the one hand, of not praying at all, on the other, of imposing burdens that are unbearable. To determine the size of the rule, you must first contact the clergyman. He will recommend prayers that are not only filled with meaning, but also inspired by God - with such prayers the morning begins and evening rule. They give not so much information as spiritual powers.

Just as we offer milk to an infant first, and then solid food, so also a novice - a spiritual infant - must be offered prayers that are unconditionally assimilated by the soul. Only after a while can one move on to long canons and following Communion: when he already understands that prayer is direct communication with God, the Mother of God and the saints.

Do you participate in the sacraments?

One must try to move oneself to confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, because this miraculously gives spiritual strength. Then the person will really begin to become churched, and this will be visible both to himself and to the priest. It is no longer scary to go to confession, venerate icons, ask for help from the Mother of God, take a blessing. He will begin to live not only by physical concepts and standards, the world will expand for him. A churched person becomes necessary not only at work and in the family, but also for members of the Orthodox family, the Head of which is Christ.

Internal churching must always be continued. One must strive all the time to consider oneself insufficiently enlightened, insufficiently understanding God. If a person finds time in his life, shows a sincere desire to understand what the Church is and who Christ is, then the Lord will always reveal Himself to him.

Recorded by Ekaterina Shcherbakova

60 simple tips for beginners in the spiritual life. Of course, it is impossible to perform them all at once, but perhaps you can start ... Little by little, lightly, without strain. God help!1. Waking up in bed, first of all, remember God, and put the sign of the cross on yourself.

2. Do not leave the prayer rule that you have, and start spending the day with it.

3. During the day, with every deed, pray short prayers. Prayer is the wings of the soul; prayer makes the soul the throne of God.

4. In order for God to hear a prayer, one must pray not with the tip of the tongue, but with the heart.

5. None of those around you will be left in the morning without your sincere greetings.

6. Do not give up prayers when the enemy catches up with insensitivity; whoever forces himself to pray in the dryness of his soul is higher than the one who prays with tears.

7. You need to know the New Testament with your mind and heart, learn from it constantly, do not interpret the incomprehensible yourself, but read patristic interpretations or ask your spiritual fathers for clarification.

8. There is no salvation without confession and Communion. Do not forget to drink holy water with a thirst for sanctification of the soul and body.

9. Greetings to the Queen of Heaven: “Rejoice in the Virgin Mother of God ...” say more often, or at least for every hour.

10. In your free time, read the writings of the Orthodox Fathers — teachers of spiritual life, and if you don’t have it, then persistently ask the one who has them.

11. In temptations and misfortunes, repeat the psalter more and read prayer canon To the Most Holy Theotokos: "We contain misfortunes by many." She is our only intercessor.

12. When demons throw their arrows at you, when sin draws near to you, then sing the hymns of Holy Week and Holy Pascha, read the canon with an akathist to the Sweetest Jesus Christ, and the Lord will loosen the bonds of darkness that have bound you. Call also to the Most Holy Theotokos and the Guardian Angel. Read many times "Theotokos, Virgin, rejoice ..."

14. In fasting times, fast, but know that not only abstinence of the womb is pleasing to God, but also abstinence of ears, eyes, tongue, and also abstinence of the heart from passions.

15. A person who begins spiritual life must remember that he is sick, his mind is in error, his will is more inclined to evil than to good, and his heart is out of purity from seething passions, therefore, at the beginning of spiritual life, everything must be directed towards acquiring spiritual health with humility.

16. Spiritual life is a constant unceasing war with enemies for the salvation of the soul. Never sleep with your soul, your spirit must be alert, be sure to always call on your Savior for help in every battle, Mother of God and guardian angel.

17. Be afraid to agree to sin and unite with sinful thoughts suggested to you by the advancing enemy to you. He who agreed has already done what he thought. If you crawled in your thoughts, then break your heart and repent, the enemy will inspire: "You have already sinned in thought, commit sin in deed." Answer the mental killer: “I have sinned before my God, and I will repent before Him. And who are you?"

18. Remember, God wants your salvation and has done everything for your salvation, therefore, in order to perish, you need to be negligent.

19. Ask the Lord constantly: "Put your fear in my heart." Oh, how blessed is he who has a constant trembling before God.

20. Give your whole heart to God without a trace and you will feel heaven on earth.

21. Your faith should be strengthened by frequent repentance and prayer, as well as by association with people of deep faith.

22. Get yourself a memorial, write down all those who hate and offended you, as well as the sufferers of our age and those for whom there is no one to pray for, remember them daily.

23. Seek constantly and tirelessly works of mercy and suffering love. Without these works it is impossible to please God. Be the sun for everyone, mercy is above all sacrifices.

24. Without the need for an emergency, do not go anywhere, do not fuss at home. Striving for wealth, multiplicity of care - the trick of the enemy for our time.

25. Talk as little as possible, laugh, be curious, be idle.

26. Never be idle, church holidays and Sundays consider it the fulfillment of the works of God, and not sinful amusements or idle pastime.

27. Love holy solitude.

28. Endure all insults first in silence, then by reproaching yourself, and then by prayer for those who offend.

29. The most important thing for us is to learn patience and humility. With humility we will conquer all demons, and with patience we will conquer the passions that fight against our soul and body. Asking in prayer for humility, we ask God to allow some person to reproach us. Humility and love for enemies will not come by itself. They need to be acquired by correctly enduring reproach and humiliation.

30. Do not show your tears of compunction and your zeal for salvation to anyone but God during your prayer.

31. Orthodox priest venerate you as an Angel, an Annunciator, sent to rejoice you and bring you deliverance.

32. Treat people as carefully as with the heirs of the Great Kingdom, but also as carefully as with fire. Remember the words of the Savior that everything you do to your neighbor, you do it to Himself. Our salvation or destruction is in the neighbor.

33. Forgive everyone everything and sympathize with everyone in their sufferings. —

34. Do not rush only with yourself, like a chicken with an egg, forgetting about your neighbor.

35. Whoever seeks rest here cannot have the Spirit of God in him; there is no love for God and neighbor in him.

36. Anguish and embarrassment attack from lack of prayer.

37. Always and everywhere call on your Guardian Angel for help. His suggestions bring heavenly peace into the soul, and from the evil one - confusion of the spirit, even though the thoughts seemed right to us.

38. Keep always weeping heartily about your sins. When you confess them and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, then quietly rejoice in your liberation.

39. Know only your own obscenities and shortcomings, and carefully beware of strangers. Do not ruin yourself by condemning others, the one who condemns is the Antichrist. One judgment of God, the other - human. Weep for the infirmities of others, so that they do not perish forever. He who weeps for himself does not condemn others, but loves them, wishes them, as himself, eternal salvation.

40. Don't trust anyone, even good wishes theirs before an experienced confessor approves them. Do not believe your heart, check yourself with the writings of the Orthodox holy fathers.

41. Every evening confess to God all your sinful deeds, words and thoughts that were during the day. Previously, in monasteries every evening, the novices revealed their thoughts to the elder.

42. Before going to bed, put up with everyone from the bottom of your heart.

43. You shouldn't tell dreams to others and don't believe them yourself. More than once the devil has deceived and even destroyed those who believe in their dreams. *

44. Sleep with sign of the cross and the Jesus Prayer.

45. Night prayer is more expensive than daytime.

46. ​​Keep in touch with your spiritual father.

47. Thank God for everything

48. You must always divide yourself into yourself and the enemy: avoid what your inner enemy wants.

49. Inner sorrow for one's sins is more salutary than all bodily exploits.

50. No best word in our language than “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Lord, save me a sinner."

51. Love all the statutes of the Church and bring your life closer to them.

52. Learn to be vigilant and always watch yourself, especially your external feelings. Through them, especially, the enemy enters the soul. Watch your thoughts carefully.

53. When you recognize your weakness and impotence to do good, then remember that you do not save yourself, your Savior the Lord Jesus Christ saves you.

54. Your faith must be impregnable, for it does not sleep fierce enemy guards your every step. But God loves a courageous soul who always trusts in Him.

55. No one entered heaven while living cool.

56. Sorrows, labors and illnesses bring us closer to God; do not grumble against them, do not be afraid of them.

57. As often as possible, with compunction and contrition of heart partake of the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are alive only by them.

58. Never forget that death can snatch us away at any moment, do not forget that Judgment and retribution are coming soon. Remember that you are always in the presence of God and under His omniscient gaze.

59. Remember also what the Lord has prepared for those who love Him, and His commandments to those who do.

60. Read this alphabet, at least once a week.

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Where do we begin, who have never explored our hearts? Standing outside, let us knock with prayer and fasting, as the Lord commanded: "Push, and it will be opened to you."

Rev. Macarius the Great

Often beginners ask this question: “Why should I pray in other words in a language I don’t know?” The question, it must be said, is essentially. Indeed, why, when opening a prayer book, we read the words of other people, and many of them are completely incomprehensible.

The prayer rule should be understood as a way of acquiring prayer habit. A rule is a straightening, a correction of our spiritual life, that is why it is necessary, and this is its only necessity. Saint Ignatius wrote: “The soul that begins the path of God is immersed in deep ignorance of everything divine and spiritual, even though it is rich in the wisdom of this world.<…>To help the infant soul, the holy Church has established a rule of prayer. The purpose of the rule is to deliver to the soul the amount of prayerful thoughts and feelings that it lacks, moreover, thoughts and feelings that are correct, holy, pleasing to God.

Often we automatically say the words of a prayer, completely unaware that we are talking to God. But the word is not an empty sound, it is alive and active. When a person approaches God and begins to say something to Him, this is a great boldness. In order to say real, sincere, living words to God, one must have some basis for this. After all empty words Don't tell God. Meaningless words that weigh nothing, cost nothing, you will not turn to God.

When we open the prayer book, there are amazing, correct and simple words: “Before you start to pray, stay a little, be silent, make sure that all your spiritual feelings calm down, reconcile, and then only from silence say:“ God, be merciful to me a sinner, ”- imagining yourself now standing before God. It is not God that needs to be imagined, because no one has ever seen God and it is impossible to imagine Him - this is an erroneous and dangerous phenomenon when a person, in order to set himself up for prayer, begins to represent the image of God. You can only present yourself before God, and this is what you need to do - to appear before the Invisible and Living God, in whose presence you are, and from this depth begin to say something.

What can you say to God? And there is nothing to say, except: "God, be merciful to me a sinner." And therefore, in order to learn how to talk with God, the Church offers us prayers written by the holy fathers. Their prayers are living words coming from the heart, not invented on purpose. The inner spiritual instrument of a holy person is tuned very harmoniously, so his words are in tune with God. This is a real spiritual song.

The soul of every person is like a musical instrument; it always sings to the Creator. Man is arranged by God in such a way as to always praise Him, only our instrument is out of tune, and it is impossible to listen to this falsehood. And the Lord listens to us patiently. We do not know how to listen to each other as the Lord listens to us. But when we read, say, the prayer of Basil the Great, something amazing happens - we tune the instrument of our soul to a very high prayer tone, if we pronounce these words, the words of the saints, really deeply, we try to accept them in our hearts, make them our own. words. It is very, very hard, it is the greatest exercise. There is nothing more difficult, as the saints say, than to pray. There is a Russian proverb that the two hardest things are caring for the elderly and praying. This means shedding blood in both cases.

Reading prayer rule like setting musical instrument. But not only by prayer do we tune our souls to communion with God. For for long years life, a person sets himself up both by repentance, and participation in worship, and good deeds. And finally, prayer acquires a certain quality, over time, the sound of the words: “Have mercy on me, God” begins to resemble what it was with the king-prophet David.

The path to God is prayer

The path to God is prayer. Learn to pray to God correctly. Having learned to pray correctly, pray constantly - and you will conveniently inherit salvation.

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov.

The prayer rule should correct us, but it should not become an obstacle for us to prayer. We subtract a large number of prayers, not understanding what we are doing, why it is necessary, and thus it is not the prayer rule that becomes necessary for us, but we become slaves of the prayer rule.

The fulfillment of a rule that we have not comprehended, not understood, not perceived to the extent of our spiritual strength, leads to the fact that what should serve a person for salvation sometimes becomes the cause of inhibition and even spiritual death. You can't become slaves to some prescribed meaningless content, otherwise you'll lose all prayer. For those who reject the experience of the prayer of the holy fathers, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov wrote rather harshly that a person should not pray on his own. “Do not dare to pronounce to God the multi-verb and eloquent prayers that you have composed, no matter how strong and touching they may seem to you. They are the product of a fallen mind and, being a defiled sacrifice, cannot be accepted on the spiritual altar of God. And you, admiring the graceful expressions of the prayers composed by you and recognizing the refined action of vanity and voluptuousness as a consolation of conscience and even grace, will be carried away far from prayer at the very time when it will seem to you that you are praying and have already reached a certain degree of pleasing God.

But St. Theophan the Recluse writes exactly the opposite things: that praying only according to a prayer book is about the same as talking with God using a phrase book. And this is also absolutely true. Do we not have our own words for the Lord at all? If we believe in God, how can we limit our prayer life only by rules? This means that we must simultaneously follow the second path, we must look for words to express our spiritual life, our need for God.

But it happens, unfortunately, that a person read morning rule and breathed a sigh of relief - you can not remember about God until the evening. It's horrible. Spiritual life, if it is real, living, is such that a person cannot help remembering God for a single minute. He must constantly be in communion with the Lord, walk before God all the time, whether he sleeps, whether he speaks, whatever he does.

The apostle Paul says about this: Pray without ceasing(1 Thess. 5:17). It is clear that it is impossible to constantly read the rule, then pick up an akathist, a psalter - and so on in a circle. Not about it in question. When the apostle Paul speaks of unceasing prayer, he speaks primarily of the state of human soul about how much his soul abides with God.

If a person does not have words for God, this is a very dangerous phenomenon. It is very disturbing if a person, as it were, lives a spiritual life, confesses, takes communion, observes fasts, but he has no words for God. Therefore, our spiritual life primarily consists in acquiring the habit of prayer.

The purpose of the prayer rule is that the desire to pray in a person does not cease, so that prayer is always present in him, in any form, even when it is not expressed in words, there is such a form of prayer. When a person prays for real, he no longer needs any prayer rule.

Archpriest Alexy Uminsky.

Peace to you, dear visitors of the Orthodox island "Family and Faith"!

FROM today we will analyze important question spiritual life: where to start your churching?

The churching of a person begins from the moment when he realizes that he will not be able to live further to live God. It is in these moments that the reappraisal takes place. life values person, and he realizes that the real, real life, is possible only in the Bosom of the Church, only according to the Gospel Word, only with God and only for God.

When a person realizes that without a living faith in God and without God's help it is simply impossible to live, it is difficult and meaningless, then he begins to look for a way to God. And, probably, the very first and most correct steps of a novice Christian on the way to churching is attending church services.

In the Temple of God, staying on church services, you can be imbued with grace and ask the Lord to direct yourself on the true path. At first, the words of the service, and the service itself, may be incomprehensible. But gradually, day after day, month after month, the service will become more understandable and understandable, more and more dear and necessary. After all, it is there, in the Temple of God, among the praying fellow believers, that you can strengthen yourself in faith and like-mindedness, with the same Orthodox as yourself.

In addition to going to the Temple, a novice Christian should become familiar with the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion. To do this, you need to find out the schedule of services of the Temple of which you want to become a parishioner, then you need to find out when the priest of this Temple receives Confession (as a rule, this happens at the evening service).

It is good to purchase pamphlets in the church shop on preparing for Confession, which describe those sins to which a person is especially prone. At home, you should read the purchased brochures, take Blank sheet paper and write detailed list of your sins, which, subsequently, will be read by you to the priest at the Sacrament of Confession.

The second step on the path to churching is the responsible observance of fasts, both multi-day and one-day. If a person intends to seriously change his life, “because the gate is narrow and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Mat. 7:14) and to follow the path of salvation in a narrow and strait way, then he must, with all seriousness and responsibility to approach such an issue as fasting. If a person has serious illness, he can take the blessing of the priest to relax the fast, but if he is healthy, then fasting, for the sake of the Lord, will be a joy to him!

Don't try to study Holy Bible at home, focusing only on your mind. As St. Fathers of the Church - this is very dangerous, since the enemy of our salvation can easily confuse us and lead us astray.

The Holy Scriptures should be listened to in the Temple at divine services (the Gospel, the Psalter, the Apostle, etc.), or you should enroll in the Sunday parish school for the Law of God (if there is one at your Temple). Of course, at home you can and should read the Holy Gospel, and the Psalter, and the Acts of the Apostles, and the Lives of the Saints, but you should not try, at first, to understand anything from what you read, since the Lord does not immediately make a person wiser, but only later .

Taking the first steps on the path to God, you should not be afraid and fear that you will not succeed. Our first steps in the Temple are like the first steps of a baby. When the baby takes his first step, he feels the support of his dear and beloved mother, whose hands are always ready to pick him up if he suddenly stumbles and falls. Similarly, a person, taking his first step on the path to God, is invisibly supported by God Himself, Who is ready at any moment to extend a helping hand to us, to catch us and not let us fall.

Therefore, you should never be afraid and afraid that you will not understand something or do something wrong. Yes, you still do not know many subtleties of church life, but you have a head on your shoulders, and, therefore, you will soon learn everything, much that is not clear will become clear, everything will fall into place. This is comparable to how you start to learn something: whether it is professional development, new job, new profession. At first, everything seems alien and incomprehensible, but with time and effort, everything turns out to be not at all so complicated, understandable and even interesting.

Similarly, church life is difficult and incomprehensible at first, but if you are serious about achieving your goal, if you seriously and responsibly approach the issue of changing your life, then, with the help of God, everything becomes simple and understandable.

Archpriest Oleg Kitov, Dean of the Bezymyansky District of Samara, answers questions from readers.

When I was twelve years old, my parents christened me, but they did not teach me to go to church. I believe, but in the everyday sense of the word. Always understood that it was wrong, felt the need for spiritual guide, but I just didn’t know where to go, because none of the people I know can tell me anything in this matter. Now I am 27 years old, I am married, and my husband and I are planning to have a child. I really want to go to church before that, confess and, in general, so to speak, join the church life. But I just don't know where to start and where to go - to the nearest church to the house, who to turn to? Maybe I should read something about this?

Pauline

Your question is simple, and the answer should be just as simple and clear, without undue sophistication. The question and answer, although simple, relate to the most important thing in human life, the spiritual side of our existence. And we can join it and ultimately understand everything for ourselves only in the Church.
The Lord founded our Holy Orthodox Church teaching His Apostles everything that we should know about faith and God. He consecrated and established the Holy Mysteries in it, so that we, using them for the salvation of our souls, would receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And so, living in the church fence, they were in spiritual security, they were children of the Heavenly Father.
So how do you start your spiritual life in the Church?
First of all, be determined and start regularly visiting the nearest Orthodox church. According to tradition, Sunday is dedicated to Christians precisely to the cathedral church prayer. So come to the service on Sundays. In every temple Sunday service the priest delivers a sermon, and it is very important to listen carefully to it. When you arrive, find out the schedule of services. Find out from the servants and parishioners when the Liturgy begins, when confession is held, when prayers are served. I also advise you to take a closer look at how to dress properly when visiting the temple, and how the rest of the parishioners behave during the service, as there are special moments in it when special reverence is needed, such as: reading the Gospel, small and great entrance with the singing of the Cherubim, the moment of the consecration of the Gifts, when the choir begins to sing: "We sing to you, we bless you ...".
And of course, find out the name of your parish priest. If you have questions, then after the service or between them, do not hesitate to approach the priest and, taking his blessing, ask what you want to find out. And also be sure to tell about your desire to become a parishioner and ask his prayers for you. Any shepherd will warmly rejoice at this and sincerely pray for one more sheep that has replenished the Lord's flock. What you do not yet know or do not understand, everything will be clarified and revealed in time. First, the Lord Himself through your church and home prayer will enlighten you, secondly, your conversations with the shepherd will lead you to this and, thirdly, your reading of spiritual literature for beginners.
I also advise you to read the Holy Gospel at home - at least one or two chapters every day. Until you know the Church Slavonic language well, read the Gospel in Russian. Prayer at home (morning and evening rule), ideally, should be read in full according to the prayer book, but for beginners who are not used to it, you can start with the so-called Seraphim rule (three times “Our Father”, three times “Our Lady of the Virgin, rejoice” and one times "Creed"). It takes time, persistence and hard work. And if you do not retreat, but follow this graceful path, then the fruits will be truly miraculous. But start slowly. This also applies to the prayer rule, and the complexity of what is read, and the everyday way of life. Begin everything and do it with the blessing of the priest and with wise reasoning. Showing neither laziness nor "jealousy beyond reason."
If you are not married to your husband, then be sure to get married, and if there is no resistance on his part, try to pray together, especially for giving you a child. Be sure to confess thoroughly, remembering your sins from the moment you were baptized. And when you cleanse your soul with repentance, then get ready and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. And all of you will be thankful to God. Peace to you.