Questions to the priest abbot via email. How do people come to Optina Pustyn for a spiritual experience? Is it possible to bet on sports at bookmakers?

Maria, Kaluga

19 hours ago

Good afternoon. I work as a salesperson in the Pyaterochka store. Can I work on Good Friday and Holy Saturday? After all, a lot of alcohol passes through my cash register, like any other, these days.

Priest John Kurbatsky

It's your job. And what people buy is their choice. After all, the Lord does not deprive each of us of freedom, does not destroy alcohol and its consumers. Keep your fast in secret and do not be tempted by drink, do not judge. After Easter, beware of drunkenness yourself. And pray for people when you see something like this: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Evgeniya, Rostov-on-Don

2 days ago

Priest Nikola Muravyov

Hello! At one time I had to read quite a lot on the topic you raised. As far as I remember, the fathers, who with their lives and deeds proved their Orthodoxy and loyalty to God and the Church, believed that the imposition of the seal of the Antichrist by his false prophet would take place during those 3.5 years of the reign of the Antichrist, at the same time the construction of a temple with accession to the throne was expected Antichrist, the preaching of the prophets Enoch and Elijah, their murder in Jerusalem, the preaching of the false prophet. That is, in the times that will immediately precede the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we assume that the placing of seals has already begun, then we will have to accept the priestless idea of ​​a “spiritual Antichrist.”

I really liked the opinion of Priest Georgy Maximov about the so-called “electronic concentration camp” (improving means of tracking people): “ If you want to hide something, you won't be able to do it anyway. Even if you don’t accept the TIN, even if you don’t accept SNILS and everything new you come up with there, save paper money, etc. etc.. The Antichrist will still know where you are, what you do, who you are - all your ins and outs. Because the Antichrist will be associated with Satan, he will be served by demons who know everything about you perfectly well and who know much more information about you than is available in any state system... Demons do not need any chips to track you... Lead your life according to Christian. Lead your life in such a way that you can be watched and nothing can be found about you.».

Religious philosopher and controversial protodeacon of the mainstream church Andrei Kuraev points out: “ If the holy fathers remained silent on a certain issue, then one must be able to remain faithful to patristic silence. For example, the holy fathers never discussed the question of what material, what technology would be used to make the seal of the Antichrist. This means that any person who, on behalf of the Church, tries to see a laser as a tool for applying the seal of the Antichrist is engaged in theological hooliganism. They say: ... lasers or the Internet, a computer is all printing, barcodes are a technology for applying the seal of the Antichrist - this is not true».

I came across an interpretation, it seems, from St. Andrew of Caesarea, that seals on the forehead and hand mean our personal susceptibility to passions, both spiritual and mental, i.e. thoughts and sinful dreams, as well as our deeds, which are represented by a mark on the active right hand.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen" (Matthew 28.19-20).

If God is with us, then all the seals and lasers cannot harm us.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord " (Rom. 8.38-39).

It is only important that we ourselves do not turn away from the Savior, that we do not betray Him and our part in the Kingdom of Heaven.

So, accepting the seal of the Antichrist is associated with the rejection of Christ, with such a sinful life, which in itself, regardless of accepting the seal of the Antichrist, leads to death. The violent technical or medical-biological imposition of the seal of the Antichrist on a believer in Christ and living according to His commandments, especially if he is not aware of this, cannot separate him from Christ.

Throughout its history, when the Church lived in various state systems (imperial-pagan, Orthodox appanage princely and autocratic, liberal-democratic, totalitarian-communist, occupation), it was subject to civil regulations related to military service, census and tax collection , even if these institutions were indicated by pagan religious symbols and inscriptions.

The martyrs refused to participate in the civil-religious festivities of the Roman Empire when this was connected with their personal direct participation in the religious cult, in the sacrifice.

But there is also a sinful opportunity to burn out of fear, when people, in the vain hope of being “holier than the Pope,” consider themselves worthy of “divine revelation” about the future destinies of the world (for example, I came across “Urgent prophetic warning from God the Father and His Son Yahushua HaMashiach ( Jesus Christ) received through Julie Whedby (dated September 4, 2017)"). Cool!

Christ says: " It is not your business to understand the times and seasons which the Father has set in His power"(Acts 1.7). And further: " Fear not, little flock! for it has been your Father's pleasure to give you the kingdom"(Luke 12.32).

Therefore, the Church is not silent, but tries to shout out to everyone who considers himself a Christian, rings all the bells: “ Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven!"(Matthew 6.33).

Pray, cleanse your soul with confession, and, if possible, partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Avoid sin, not forgetting to be careful in the “signs” of the times. Thus you will be saved!

God help you!

Valery, Tyumen

4 days ago

I have a large painful mole (wart) on my neck. The chain and cord constantly rub it. I'm afraid this may cause a complication. Is it possible not to wear a cross around your neck?

Priest Nikola Muravyov

Hello! In my understanding, wearing pectoral cross only shows, both to ourselves and to those around us, our acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice made for us. The fact that He was crucified and resurrected for our salvation. This can be correlated with the words of the Apostle Paul:

“I always bear the death of the Lord Jesus in my body, so that the Life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body” (2 Cor. 4.10).

The specific place where the “symbol of salvation” is worn is not specified in Scripture, although it is customary to wear it around the neck. I think this is part of the tradition. Its fulfillment in the sense of obligation is probably more correct to coordinate with your spiritual father.

Regarding health. Now there are medical techniques for removing formations, quite harmlessly and without consequences (according to today's statistics). Maybe it makes sense to contact the appropriate people in “white coats”?

Evgeniy, St. Petersburg

a week ago

Hello. I am 55 years old. At the age of 48, I lost my job and became of no use to anyone, despite my education and experience, they refused as soon as they found out about my age, they had instructions - no older than 45. With difficulty, I managed to get a job as a parking lot watchman - the job of a pensioner, the salary was appropriate, from kopeck to kopeck, in the literal sense, not figuratively, a small glitch - and already a pawnshop. In his youth he was engaged in business, you may not believe it, but honest, due to his profession, he did not accumulate treasures on earth, but, apparently, he did not accumulate treasures in Heaven either and met a poor old age. And the years pass, with them strength and hope, I turn...

Priest Nikola Muravyov

Hello! You puzzle me! In my opinion, you and I live in a fairly dynamic world. You can feel sorry for yourself for seven or twenty-seven years, remembering the past, without trying to change the situation from the inside, i.e. in itself.

If you were a businessman in your youth, as I understand it, then you understand that despite all the risks, there is a chance to change the situation, to find new opportunities without getting hung up on narrow professional activities. Unfortunately, Soviet-Union social guarantees ended soon after the death of the state.

We are almost the same age, I think we can give you examples of how our peers react to difficulties, including economic ones, but, most importantly, mental ones. Someone conveys their professional experience, not being lazy to communicate on the Internet; someone is engaged in needlework, weaving, knitting, and sewing (these are one hundred and thirty-kilogram men) and have an additional two hundred to three hundred enemy pieces of paper per month; There are people who have hobbies and have learned to make money from them: aircraft and ship modeling, growing flowers, breeding parrots and other exotics. Now, with the availability of networking opportunities, there is a demand for almost everything except despondency and laziness. If there is a river nearby, then there is always a demand for live, albeit small, fish (I checked it myself). If you manage not to get hung up on limiting your working hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or in another interval, then you will be able to find an area of ​​application of your strength that will give you not only a decent reward, but also internal satisfaction with the fulfillment of life. And if, despite all this, you remain grateful to God for every hour you live and it is filled with warmth towards others, then consider yourself to have won the jackpot.

I don’t know you at all, your preferences and thoughts, to give a “non-standard answer”, this requires a real spiritual father. So - thoughts. Devastation begins not outside, but in our heads. And only we determine how our future will be built. The age of 55 is the time when people begin to learn new things and strive to realize themselves in what interests them. In the village of Pavlikovo, Yaroslavl region, Aunt Anfiya Filippovna, having retired at this age from a leadership position, began to practically “from scratch” master the rules of worship and hook singing; Now she is approaching eighty, she does not vacation in Hawaii, everything is simpler: she is calm and satisfied with life, thanks to her, service to God is performed in a remote temple.

You can reproach yourself for not becoming a millionaire, a general or an authoritative bandit (everyone has their own guidelines), but the feeling of being needed by the world and the desire to be included in its life is in us.

Wake up, your head and hands will help you get out of despondency, don’t limit yourself, fantasize, and you can find your “niche”!

God help you! Pray, ask for hints, but it’s up to you to work and “spin”!

Maria, St. Petersburg

a week ago

Good afternoon. I have always been interested in one question. I don’t like children and never have, but I am categorically against abortion, not because it is murder, but because it is a vile operation, unworthy of a real woman, it is cowardice and the inability to take responsibility for one’s actions. But what if a woman/girl was raped by some male creature (I’m sorry, but this is the mildest thing I can say about such individuals), after which she became pregnant? It is clear that even in this case the church will say that abortion is murder. But what about women who have been raped? Give birth to a child they already hate, and then act out...

Priest John Kurbatsky

Yes, the Church will say, abortion is murder. Science will say so, because life begins from the moment of conception. If this thesis is accepted as the truth, which it actually is, the rest of the question disappears by itself. The child is not to blame.

Why do you think that women will certainly hate the child?

By having an abortion, she will make an irreparable mistake. No, she won’t be right a thousand times, although somehow you can understand. You write correctly, you won’t be able to live happily after an abortion. Happiness cannot be built on sin and blood.

Rest assured, God will find a way to bless the mother who refused an abortion even in such a situation and still gave birth and raised a child.

Mila, Shatura

a week ago

Hello. Could you tell me what this dream could mean? Thank you in advance. My mother became very ill. She was found to have benign tumors in both breasts. They grew, and the doctor said that they needed to be removed so that they would not develop into malignant ones. Mom was taken to the hospital, and on the eve of the operation I had a strange dream. I see a gloomy restaurant, round tables, twilight, almost quiet and deserted. I’m sitting at one of the small round tables, I’m sitting alone and I clearly understand that he’s coming now, that I’m having a meeting with the devil. He came to me in the guise of a man, a TV presenter of the “Wait for Me” program. I understood everything perfectly, who was in front...

Priest Nikola Muravyov

Hello! I think you know the attitude towards dreams in the church community. It is indifferently cautious. The “brain” processes the amount of information that has entered it. Sometimes it’s yesterday, and sometimes it lifts up deeper layers, showing us in pictures either cartoons, or football, or the 27th Congress of the CPSU. The attitude should be like this: “looked” - woke up, prayed, let go and forgot.

Regarding the sinfulness of decisions made in a dream, I can give an example with men. With prolonged abstinence, and among monks even lifelong abstinence, from time to time a “discharge” of semen occurs. If this happens, then a person must judge for himself what the reason for what happened. It happens that it’s just physiology, and it’s sinless. There are outflows with dreams, i.e. “sort of” dreams. And then it’s time to think whether they appeared by themselves or whether the person warmed himself up by something he had once seen or been with him before? Were there “dreams of fornication” or were they just watching cartoons? Was there an opportunity and desire to wake up so as not to fall into sin? Those. “sinlessness” was mixed with an arbitrary passionate subtext. There are other cases, but let’s keep quiet about them. But everything is ambiguous and is learned through reasoning with an experienced confessor.

For your case. It is clear that most of your daily thoughts were subordinated to your mother’s well-being. Perhaps in your thoughts there was also a willingness to sacrifice “everything” for the sake of her health. The question of “selling your soul”, “sinfulness or sinlessness” of your dream and the decision made in it, in my opinion, relates to confessional ones. Next time you are at confession, do not forget to discuss this issue with your confessor.

May God grant us and our neighbors spiritual and, if possible, physical health!

Marina, Reutov

2 weeks ago

Good evening. My dad died. He was unbaptized, because... my grandfather, my father’s father, was a military man. Subsequently, the pope was not baptized. Died suddenly and suddenly in 2 minutes - heart. My dad believed in God and went to church with my mom to get Holy water. Well, when the funeral service was held for his parents - his grandfather and grandmother were baptized - dad believed in God in his soul. Tell me, please, what should we do with mom? How to pray for an unbaptized soul? Can we go to temple?

Priest Nikola Muravyov

Hello! My condolences! As far as I know, it is customary to pray for those who die outside Orthodoxy to the martyr Uar (his memory is November 1, according to the new style). According to his life, he has the grace from God to pray for the forgiveness of their sins and deliverance of them from eternal torment.

Try not to give up prayer for the deceased and do acts of mercy in memory of him. I hope that your father not only believed in God in his soul, but also tried to live in truth and in conscience. You can hope for God’s mercy, because, as the Apostle Paul writes:

When the pagans, who do not have the law, by nature do what is lawful, then, not having the law, they are a law unto themselves: they show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as evidenced by their conscience and their thoughts, now accusing, now justifying one another ( Rom.2.14-15).

Neglect of accepting Holy Baptism is very serious, but at the Judgment everyone will be convicted by their conscience and “ for every word that people say, they will give an answer on the day of judgment"(Matthew 12.36).

May God's mercy cover all our misfortunes and rest us in bright and peaceful places!

Hello! My husband left me for another girl. We only lived for 4 months after the wedding; he cheated with that girl even before the wedding. She survived a strong blow, forgave her, and thought that if she marries, she will take responsibility for the family, for what will be different. Before that, they lived in fornication for 2 years, were “formally believers”, and forgot God. I understand that everything happened because of our sins. I was left in soul-crushing loneliness and despondency. I understand that without this grief I would never have reached the temple. Now I’m slowly praying and starting my spiritual life. But it's very difficult. We're not divorced yet. He lives with someone else and he has...

Priest Nikola Muravyov

Hello! I may be wrong, but I think it's worth separating the revival of your spiritual life from your failed marriage. Knowing that the future spouse is combining attention to you with the “other girl”, i.e. The fact that the Law of God is not “guiding and directing” in the construction of a person’s life is worth stopping and thinking about before entering into marriage. Without hoping for a miraculous change in a person who is outside the framework of the Church...

The fact that you and he lived “next to the Church” for two years, forgetting God, shows that perhaps a miracle is happening specifically to your soul. Make the effort to learn prayer, perhaps even start praying the Psalter with prayers of repentance. The Lord, through your prayer, will strengthen your soul and tell you how to build your bright and godly “tomorrow.”

« Pray for those who offend you"(Matthew 5.44), but at the same time build your own future based on Christ’s Commandments, and not simply according to carnal desires and movements. Trust God, and “He will nourish you”! Don’t try to “peep” your future now - live day by day, with faith and patience!

Priest Nikola Muravyov

Hello! In my not so distant past, in Soviet times, coins from 1 to 5 kopecks were called copper, or coppers, and from 10 to 50 - silver, although I strongly doubt the percentage of these metals in those coins.

The Gospels do not indicate which coins are called pieces of silver. These could be denarii or drachmas, but usually this name is associated with Tyrian staters or shekels, which were in circulation in Jerusalem - they were minted in the city of Tire in the period from 126 BC. and 19 AD - or with ancient Greek tetradrachms.

Payments in such “currency” are discussed in the book of the prophet. Jeremiah, chapter 32; prophet Zechariah chapter 11; book of Exodus, chapter 21.

Attention to details, especially such detailed ones, is, of course, very remarkable, but let us still try to remember the main thing in the Gospels - the Gospel of Christ, so that, buried in the little things, we do not lose the essence and fail to see the forest for the trees.

Priest Nikola Muravyov

Hello! The Lord says:

“Let the little children come and do not hinder them from coming to Me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19.14).

He reminded those around him of the words spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “ My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" and added on his own behalf: " And you made it a den of thieves"(Mark 11:17).

Raising children in a Christian manner, instilling love for God, prayer, and worship is a very difficult process. This matter requires enormous patience and prudence. Children who consciously take part in the service, singing and reading sacred texts, can touch the hardest soul. Disorder, running around, shouting and other vanity, even caused by children, can distract even the most pious prayer book from reverent prayer. On this I completely agree with you.

In the service book of the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom has a reminder for the priest " About the fact that worldly people, except the sexton, should not enter the altar. Let no people enter the holy altar, except for the one Orthodox Tsar, when he brings the gifts of the Lord, according to the 69th rule, hedgehog in Trulla", because There are no more Orthodox tsars in our time, so even for the priest’s children free entry into the altar is not correct.

It seems to me that we can try to offer the priest A.I. Osipov’s opinion on this issue, who in many speeches touches on the inadmissibility of disorder during divine services, including that coming from children (for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkxwVWLVVog). If he doesn’t listen, I can suggest turning to your dean; I think that the senior priest will be able to find the right words to restore order in the heads and in your temple. The next step is the diocesan administration, but I hope you won’t have to go there.

We believe that all the efforts of our shepherds will not be in vain, even if at least one of those who asked receives some spiritual benefit!

Number of entries: 16441

Good afternoon Some time ago I dreamed of my mother’s death several times, after the last such dream my mother died (a month ago). Now I dream that my husband is dying (I have dreamed about this twice already). I also often dream that my mother seems to have come to life. I don't understand anything. Help me understand what this is all about. What should I do??? I'm very worried about my husband.

Maria

Dear Mary, do not be afraid of dreams, but trust all your fears to the Lord God in prayer. Since you began to worry about your husband, pray especially for him, it’s good to read the Holy Gospel. God bless you!

Priest Sergius Osipov

Hello, priests! I want to thank you, and in your person the entire Orthodox priesthood, for your invaluable help and blessed work! Glory to the Lord for his care for people with your hands and words! A question. In my prayer book there is a sequence on the departure of the soul from the body, consisting of one canon. It is signed that it is read by the laity if there is no priest. I just can’t quite figure out whether this is a canon about a single deceased person or another canon that must be read immediately after the death of a person? I would like to read it for the repose of my father’s soul. Is it possible? And further. Is it possible to wipe the face on icons with a cloth or do you just need to carefully blow off the dust from it? I was told that I couldn’t touch my face. This is true? Save me, God!

Tatiana

Hello Tatiana. The canon of the one-dead and the succession according to the exodus of the soul are different successions. You can read it. You can wipe the icons without touching (or kissing) the face, so as not to damage it, and not for sacramental reasons. God help you!

Priest Sergius Osipov

Hello. I am interested in the following question: Is it possible to pray for the health and well-being of unbaptized children and grandchildren? (son-in-law does not consent to the child’s baptism) And will the Lord hear such prayers?

Natalia

Hello, Natalia. Of course, you can and should pray, both at home and in church. Only in church remember them yourself during the reading of the hours (then a proskomedia is performed before the liturgy); only baptized people can be written in notes. God bless you.

Priest Sergius Osipov

Hello priests Is it possible to listen to the audiobook of Abbot N Hidden Athos I liked it when I listened to it once and Abbot N is Abbot Efrem Vinogradov he also wrote a book why they want to save us I liked both books Is it possible to read and listen to these books?

Catherine

Yes, Ekaterina, you can. God help.

Priest Sergius Osipov

Hello! Thank you very much to Priest Sergius Osipov for answering my question about “... is it possible to change the name given to me at baptism if no one remembers or knows it...” But the fact is that when my wife goes to church, to a temple and writes notes with names, then my name is crossed out by the grandmothers who accept these notes, citing the fact that my name is not on the lists of Orthodox Christians (my name is Eduard) and this has already happened in no church or temple .Believe me, I’m not complaining to you, I just want to know what to do in such situations? Is it possible to film your answer on your phone and show it in churches and temples if my name is crossed out again? Or change the name of your heavenly patron? Excuse me if you are annoying and illiterate in church affairs. Thank you very much in advance.

Edward

Hello, Eduard. This issue will be resolved with the blessing of the priest of the temple where the candle makers so zealously check the notes. The wife can approach him, but it is better, of course, for you to defend your saint yourself :) God bless you.

Priest Sergius Osipov

Hello. My child is 1.9. Baptized with Love. That was the name of her father’s mother. He left me about 5 months ago and I want to change the child’s first and last name. Name for Vitaly. There are no patron saints with that name among the female saints, as I understand from the Internet. What even seems significant to me: let her be love in baptism, I loved her father, even though we lived in fornication, he left the family first and even divorced. If I had immediately called her Vitalia, she would still have been baptized with a different name, do I understand correctly, since there are no female saints with that name? I change her first and last name because it is difficult to bear the reminder of the name and memory of this person constantly. Will I sin a lot if I make such a change or do I have the right to slightly alleviate my grief at the loss of support and hope for family happiness with such a step? After all, that's all I can do. I’ll say right away that I don’t believe in God’s mercy and I can’t wait for relief through prayers and cultivating faith in myself, it’s too hard to be left alone. I need more effective and real support.

Maria

Mary, the name given at baptism does not change. If you decide to change your child’s “worldly” name, think about whether it will be difficult for her to live with the somewhat unexpected, unusual name for a girl, Vitaly. God bless you.

Priest Sergius Osipov

Good afternoon Father, I have three godsons - Alexander (born January 5), Sergius (January 12) and Pavel (July 29). Which saints should be considered their heavenly patrons and when is it correct to congratulate them on Angel’s Day?

Tatiana

Dear Tatyana, in order not to guess and make mistakes, it is better to ask your parents which saint is recorded in the baptismal certificate. It will be possible to determine the day of the angel by the name of the saint by turning, for example, to the website days.pravoslavie.ru. You can congratulate in any words that fit your heart, and on Angel’s Day it’s good to take them (if the godchildren are still children, of course) to church for communion. God bless you.

Priest Sergius Osipov

Good afternoon, a question for Sergei Osipov. I have a small child, her father, my partner for two years, left me in the summer of this year. The feeling of tenderness and admiration for the child has disappeared. I live only with a sense of duty, that I do not honor life and that it is a great burden to her. The father is not against taking her away, according to his words. I myself feel that in his family, where he left me and got divorced, his daughter will be calmer in every sense. What is more sinful - to give it to him (I myself am ready to go to the monastery, I have no debt to the child here, I am already 40, we have several monasteries in the city, I have already written to the abbess, to seek humility and faith) or to keep it with me out of principle (the principle, i.e. that it is generally accepted that children with mothers are better off), tormenting her with his inescapable despondency (I can’t fight it, I’m tired). Thank you.

Maria

Dear Mary, do not choose the lesser of two evils. “Inescapable sadness” is called depression. The doctor will help you cure it. Then you won’t have to choose from unacceptable options. God help you!

Priest Sergius Osipov

Hello, Father Alexander. If I took the books of Mother Photinia to the temple, and then let them do what they want with them, did I do the right thing? It happens with us that people bring icons and books to the temple, and others take them.

Catherine

Hello, Ekaterina. When something useful, but no longer needed, is brought to the temple so that others who want or need it can use this thing, then this is good. But sectarian literature must be immediately destroyed so that no one catches the infection. Imagine that someone will take the book you left and read it with confidence, because he took it from the temple, which means it is permissible to read. If this person turns out to be ignorant of Orthodox doctrine, he will be harmed, and the sin will be on you. Correct what you have done, if it is not too late, and be sure to confess.

Priest Alexander Beloslyudov

Hello, fathers! Help me understand this issue. I believe that God is not subject to change. I also believe that Jesus Christ, our Savior, ascended to heaven along with human nature (since in Jesus Christ both natures were united inseparably and forever), and thus human nature through Jesus Christ became part of the Holy Trinity. It seems to my unenlightened mind that a change did occur in God the moment Jesus ascended into heaven. Help me find the error in such reasoning. Save me, God!

Paul

Hello, Pavel. The Chalcedonian Oros defines the image of the union of natures, Divine and human, in Christ with four negations (apophatically): unfused, untransformed, inseparable, inseparable. You paid attention only to the last two, “inseparably and inseparably.” Now notice that these are the third and fourth definitions, and the first and second point to the "unconfluence and immutability" of the natures in Christ. Neither human nature acquired anything unusual for it, nor did the Divine nature undergo any changes. Humanity was “hypostatized” - perceived by the Son as the second Person of the Holy Trinity, and not perceived into the single nature (essence) of the Divinity, the One and indivisible Holy Trinity. Otherwise, both God and man would have changed, but this did not happen. And even in the Hypostasis of the Son, His Personality, there was no transformation into something in between Divinity and humanity. Oros describes the properties of the compound apophatically, because nothing cataphatic can be said about it without distorting the truth. We do not even see our own created nature, we see only the skin, so how can we judge the nature of the Divine? Therefore, the Holy Council simply cuts off everything that distorts the truth, but does not formulate the truth itself, for lack of the possibility of logical understanding of this issue. The mystery of God's existence cannot be comprehended by the mind, but can be known by experience. As the fathers expressed it, God is known by the power of life. The mystery of intradivine existence is learned in the Kingdom of God, about which Christ said that it is within us. The entrance is narrow and not many people find it. But those who entered saw a truth there that cannot be expressed in human language. The experience cannot be expressed in words. The experience can only be repeated. So that those seeking to know God through their own experience would not get lost, the fathers set guidelines for them. These guidelines are dogmatic definitions and ascetic teachings. They are in our coordinate system, but by using them and forcing ourselves to an appropriate way of thinking, a way of life, we can gain experience that corresponds to our structure, about God, about Providence, about Love. In the primal Church, only those who knew God in the cell of their hearts were called theologians, and not those who spoke well about God. I think that you are quite capable and will find it useful to read the works of Rev. Isaac the Syrian: and “Words of Asceticism”, and “On Divine Mysteries”.

Priest Alexander Beloslyudov

Hello, Father. I recently came across this video testimony (...), and as a believer, an Orthodox person, it shocked me. I know that this evidence cannot be trusted, but still I wanted to know if this evidence is true? God bless you!

Dmitriy

Hello Dmitry. Most likely, this girl is speaking sincerely. But what bothers you? In Catholicism, the delirium of a sick imagination, demonic delusion and outright demonic possession have long been elevated to the rank of revelation. The content of such “revelations” is not a reflection objective reality, but reflects only what was shown to the unfortunate demons. She tells the truth, what she saw, what she heard, that’s what she says. I just mixed up the source. But she has no means of distinguishing a demon from an Angel. In Orthodoxy, this phenomenon has been known for a long time and has its own name - prelest. I advise you, for your personal spiritual safety, never, under any circumstances, watch, listen to or discuss anything related to supernatural phenomena and mystical experiences. The Lord gave man after the fall leather vestments to protect him from the direct influence of demons exiled to earth, into the same space as man. But we are curious.... So we strive to dig a hole in these protective vestments. But what enters the gap is not the knowledge of the truth, but the knowledge of demons. The goal of these subjects is death.

Priest Alexander Beloslyudov

Question to priest Alexander Beloslyudov. Father! Please tell me. I am married, my husband is not a church member. I miss communication. And this has been the case since the very beginning of our relationship. Few general topics for conversation. I have few friends, and I am always very happy when I find like-minded people. This happens to all my friends, regardless of gender. In this regard, the question is: what to do if a congenial person with whom you develop a warm relationship is male? Should we stop communicating just because he is a man? Or is it still possible to be friends? And if so, how can we understand where the acceptable boundaries of this friendship are? God bless you!

Olga

Hello Olga. It is difficult to draw a clear line in communication. In actions, yes, it is possible. While we are drinking tea, this is normal, but when we are already hugging, then this is fornication. But pay attention to whether voluptuous thoughts are creeping into the conversation itself. It seems to me that we should pay attention to the words that the Apostle Paul addressed to wives with unbelieving husbands: “How do you know, wife, whether you will not save your husband?” Probably, we should not run away from our husband in search of communication, but look for points of contact from which we can, drop by drop, lay the preconditions for spiritual interest. I can’t tell you specifically what to do, you have to find it yourself. Just think in this direction. And friends are a good thing until you begin to value them more than your husband. God help you.

Priest Alexander Beloslyudov

Please resolve my confusion. What is the degree of obedience of a parishioner to a confessor? 7 years ago I asked for a blessing to buy a car, but I never received it. Father said: “You will die.” I studied and got my license. But since I don’t have a car, I didn’t start driving. Now I understand that a car is necessary for traveling to the dacha, transporting, bringing building materials, things, crops, going to order something, for transporting pets. Until now, I traveled by train (it’s really hard to carry 20 kg) or with my parents by car. But the parents will soon grow old. I'm single. I was afraid to buy a car, but I understand that without a car it’s difficult to manage a dacha. Sorry for asking this question.

Evgenia

Hello, Evgenia. The priest has no moral right to give orders. Obedience in the proper sense is possible only in the relationship between a student and an elder. This is a phenomenon of monastic life. This word also refers to the relationship between a subordinate and a boss. In a broad sense, following Christ is like obedience to God. In the relationship between a layman and a parish priest, this form is unacceptable in principle. In spiritual matters, a priest, if he has sufficient experience and common sense, can give useful tips, and you can fulfill them or not, according to your reasoning. If you see that the advice is useful and does not contradict the teachings of the fathers, follow it. If you see that the advice contains passion (power, vanity, pride), or it contradicts the teachings of the fathers, then you do not need to follow it. And everything that concerns privacy, relationships with people, work, everyday life, does not concern the priest in any way. If he gets into these topics, then this is a warning sign. Maybe in all other respects the priest is wonderful. Then don’t tempt him anymore, don’t ask questions related to your everyday life. Take blessings only for spiritual things. For prayer, fasting, any good undertaking. But you make the decision. You, and only you, are responsible before God for your decisions, actions and intentions. If you need a car, take it. Anyone can get killed. Everything is in God's hands. However, since you do not have practice, be sure to take special safe driving courses. Learn useful skills that are worth the money and time spent. God help you.

Priest Alexander Beloslyudov

Hello, Father Alexander. Did the Apostle Paul lose his freedom when the Lord appeared to him and asked why he was persecuting Him? And if sometimes I want the Lord to appear to me Himself and show me the demons, or to put me in hell for at least 5 minutes, so that I know what it’s like to be in hell, is it possible to ask Him for this? Venerable Seraphim Sarovsky also saw demons.

Catherine

Hello again, Ekaterina. Saul was always a sincere believer in One God. He persecuted Christians out of ignorance. When the light shone on his path, and the Divine voice addressed him, he immediately fell to the ground, bowing before God. Having learned that it was Christ, he immediately cast aside his previous conviction and freely surrendered himself to the Lord: what do you tell me to do? Remember how the Virgin answered the Angel: behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word. How the apostles abandoned their nets and followed Christ at His call. There is no loss of freedom here, there is choice. And the choice is obvious. The Jewish leaders, after all, also did not doubt the Divinity of Christ after the resurrection of Lazarus, but did not recognize Him, but became embittered. They made a different choice. And Judas made a different choice. Asking God to show demons and hell is foolish. The Lord protected us from the perception of spiritual beings for our own safety. If your child asks you to let him run barefoot in the snow or eat an icicle, will you allow him? Isaac the Syrian said that in order to see Heaven and the Lord, you must force yourself to enter your heart. The Kingdom of God is within you. And Angels, and demons, and hell are there too. Be sure to read "The Word about the Sensual and spiritual vision spirits", St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. Get comprehensive and sound information about this issue.

Priest Alexander Beloslyudov

Hello, Father Alexander. In the letters of abbot Nikon Vorobyov about suicide it is written that anyone, even on purpose, in order to scare other people, climbs into a noose, the demons will strangle him against his will. How can they do this if they are spirits, and without God’s permission they cannot do anything with a person? And if I had thoughts that it was better to die than to live with sorrows, was it from demons? Is there an audiobook on the Internet “Great Russian Elders” by Abbot Aristarkh Lokhanov, and is it possible to listen to the soul-helping teachings of Abba Dorotheus in audio format?

Catherine

The answer to the first question, Catherine, you will find in the same “Word” of St. Ignatius. The suicide gives himself over to the demons, so they gain power over him. But even in this case, they remain an instrument of God’s Providence. The books you are looking for are here: http://predanie.ru/audio/izdanija-predanie-ru/velikie-russkie-starcy/ - these are the “Elders”, and this is Abba Dorotheus: http://predanie.ru/audio/jitija_i_tvorenija_svjatih /prepodobnii-avva-dorofei/.

Priest Alexander Beloslyudov

Can a priest serve two liturgies in one astronomical day? One in the morning, as usual, and the second in the evening, after Vespers and Matins, on the next church day?

Elena

Hello, Elena. The day is counted from midnight to midnight. There are instructions about this in the “Teacher’s Certificate” placed in the Service Book. And every priest uses the Missal. During the day, only one celebration of the liturgy is possible. Once a day on one throne, by one priest. Here is an extract from " reference book clergyman": " Ancient rule determines the time of the Divine Liturgy to be the third hour, according to our calculation the ninth. It can be performed earlier or later, as circumstances require, but not after noon and not before dawn. The only exceptions are some days when the liturgy is celebrated “porana” or combined with the evening service. These are the day of Holy Easter, the days of Holy Pentecost for the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, the days of the eve of the Nativity of Christ and Epiphany, as well as the days of Great Saturday and Pentecost. A priest cannot perform more than one liturgy on one day. The participation of a priest who has already served on the same day in the conciliar celebration of another liturgy is unacceptable. On one altar on one day, only one liturgy can be performed due to the unity of the sacrifice of the cross made by the Lord Jesus Christ." Although the liturgy is celebrated several times a year in conjunction with Vespers, it is not celebrated at the usual time for Vespers, not in the evening, but in the morning, so that the liturgy is celebrated during daylight hours. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts does not contain the Eucharist, but is simply Communion, therefore it can be celebrated in the evening. Let me remind you that in Great Lent the Eucharist (the complete liturgy of Basil the Great and John Chrysostom with consecration of the Holy Gifts), is performed only on Saturday, Sunday, the Annunciation and Maundy Thursday.

Priest Alexander Beloslyudov

Father, tell me, how does the church feel about circumcision among Orthodox Christians? Medicine talks about the hygienic benefits of this procedure, but from the point of view of religion, if a person abstains, wouldn’t this be a kind of help for him in this? Or is it self-harm? Sorry for the pun.

Dmitriy

Hello Dmitry. Circumcision has no effect on lust, and therefore does not help abstinence. Hygiene should be maintained with water and soap, equally for circumcised and uncircumcised. So this is not an argument either. The only one medical indication circumcision is the inability to have sexual intercourse due to the anatomy of the genital organ.

Priest Alexander Beloslyudov

Question No. 18313 (Spiritual life)
Hello, Father Alexander, happy Easter to you, please explain to me, at the clock Easter in the first week, which read prayers and when is the chorus and irmos of the 9th song of the Easter canon read in the morning or evening, after Christ is risen from the dead? Thank you (Tatiana (Lugansk), 04/24/2019 19:28)

Question No. 18310 (Spiritual life)
Father, bless me. Are the hours of Holy Easter read from Monday to Saturday, instead of morning and evening prayers? Or from Easter (Sunday) and last time on Antipascha? (Vladimir, 04/24/2019 14:24)

Question No. 18309 (Christian Doctrine)
Bless, Father! I have two questions: Is the Crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ a choice of humanity, an abuse of free will, or fate, fate, and there was no other way out for the salvation of man? And second: in the Gospel (Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus) the Lord says that the transition from hell to Paradise after death is impossible. On what grounds does the Church believe that this is possible through prayers for the dead? Until the Last Judgment, hell was abolished, but in the Parable the Lord does not say anything about the possibility of waiting for the Judgment for the rich man, but reveals that finally and irrevocably a person, with his free will, must determine his own participation during his lifetime? (Julia (Kyiv), 04/24/2019 11:52)

Question No. 18304 (Miscellaneous)
Thank God! Please tell us about what appearance An Orthodox Christian needs to have one, and is it true that in what form and clothing death finds the body, the soul will be dressed in it? How can we include here the fact that Adam and Eve were initially without clothes in paradise?(L., 04/23/2019 22:57)

Question No. 18303
Hello Father! In Orthodoxy, it is believed that children (even adults) must be obedient to their parents, listen to them, and take blessings for important occasions in life. For example, you need to take a blessing for marriage, etc. Undoubtedly, you need to love your parents and it is a sin to rebel against them. And if parents (well, let’s say parents are quite sinful people) force a child to do something immoral, and the child intuitively understands that this is wrong, then is such disobedience a sin? Or, for example, a son or daughter strives for the Orthodox faith, but the parents are avid atheists and say that if you accept Orthodoxy, then you are no longer our son or daughter - is such disobedience a sin? Is it really impossible for a person to even become Orthodox without a blessing if his parents are against it? For some reason, in Orthodoxy this issue is viewed one-sidedly and exclusively from a positive point of view, that is, parents are always meant to be all-knowing, wise, and good, but in life, although rarely, there are also the opposite situations, for example, a father or the mother is an alcoholic or drug addict, listening to such parents can be very sinful, especially if the child has some moral guidelines and the parents only have a bottle or a needle on their mind. Or here’s another example. After all, it is believed that many talents are from God. For example, a person has an ideal voice and could become, say, a singer in a temple. But parents do not bless this. Then, too, is it worth showing obedience and burying your talent in the Earth (of course, we are not talking about sinful “talents”)? (Yuri (St. Petersburg), 04/23/2019 22:47)

Question No. 18302 (Spiritual life)
Hello, father. I have a question about humility. I worry for too long about the fact that I committed some kind of sin (non-mortal), these worries bother me, as they take away energy and lead to paralysis of the will, and interfere with prayer. I read from various ascetics (for example, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, Theophan the Recluse, the Optina Fathers) that worrying too much about your sins is a sign of pride, that since we are all damaged by sin, there is no need to be too embarrassed, if you have fallen into sin, you need to humble yourself before God, repent and strive further. I roughly understand what it means to humble yourself before a person. What is humility before God? How to teach yourself such humility? (what exactly do I need to do for grace to do the rest). Thank you. (Ksenia (Kyiv), 04/23/2019 19:43)

Question No. 18301 (Man. Woman. Family. Children.)
Hello Father. I wrote to you about my son - he has a blood disease - now you are praying for him (his name is Sergei). My husband and I have been living for 27 years, we have a common son - he is 20 years old. When we got married, he took me and the child -Seryozha was 8 years old. When Sergei got sick, of course I had to help him with money - I still help him now (I’m still working but retired). Now he kicked me out of the house and said that he wasn’t going to help my son and that it wasn’t his problems. I went to my mother’s apartment (she died 3 years ago) and live there. My youngest son lives in two houses. I ask for your advice - how should I approach this situation? What to do and how to live next? In any case, I will not leave my son and I will help as much as I can. It’s very difficult for him now - he has two children - one child is disabled from childhood (his granddaughter has been deaf since birth). The work is hard and there is a mortgage. How can I leave him? Blood transfusions last him for 2-3 months and then again to the hospital. In May he will go to Moscow for a consultation and there they will probably make a final diagnosis. In the future, probably a bone marrow transplant. My husband abandoned us. Father, thank you in advance for your answer - I’m really looking forward to it. (Svetlana (Ulyanovsk), 04/23/2019 19:41)

Question No. 18298 (Miscellaneous)
Hello Father. 1.Who are psalm-readers? My great-grandfather gave his whole life to the church and was a psalm-reader. How are they different from the laity? 2. And my grandfather, his son, was already a party member, a member of the CPSU Central Committee, chairman of the city committee. During the war, he was a party organizer at a factory. They are essentially slackers. What do you think? at the same time, they lived happily during the war and were not eager to go to the front. My grandfather’s children from his second marriage, his 2nd sons, drank themselves to death and died early. My mother from the 1st cannot say that everything was fine. She perceives me as a rival. I have never loved. I suffer a lot, apparently from the consequences of her upbringing or lack of upbringing by a stepmother. At home, for some reason, we had our grandfathers’ leather Chekist cloak. Although no one knows for sure whether he was in the authorities. Perhaps he was involved in personnel at a military plant. But he was not an evil person, he was kind. He loved his second wife very much. The first one died - my grandmother. Do I need to pray for relatives with such a difficult past? I don’t really want to. And I pray for the psalm-reader’s great-grandfather. His family was friendly - 10 children. No one drank. Everyone lived with dignity and were friendly with each other. (Irina, 04/23/2019 00:27)

Question No. 18297 (Man. Woman. Family. Children.)
Hello, Father Alexander. Please advise how I can make the right choice? In the first way, I plan to continue to work and live, it turns out, abroad; I am applying for a three-year job even after a work visa. There is also a way back: a loving wife , she is very sick, it’s very difficult for her without me, her blood pressure is up to 200, she’s on pills every day and often on injections, it doesn’t help much. We lived together for 32 years. I’m afraid that she might die from these experiences and illnesses and I’ll be left alone. Of course , The Lord will rule here, all hope is in Him. But the choice is mine. I think I go home more often, once every three months, but this is also a lot for my wife - every day of waiting crosses out on the calendar. Then I will blame myself if something happens with her. And you can’t take her here. She doesn’t want to because of her age and state of health. This is a difficult question for me. What would you do, father, imagining yourself for a moment as a layman? God bless you and accept my heartfelt congratulations on such important and terrible (for Christ) days of this week. (Arkady (Poland), 04/22/2019 20:01)

Question No. 18296 (Miscellaneous)
Hello, father! Tell me, why does your soul, sometimes your heart, hurt so much? It seems that you lose consciousness when you think about the person with whom there was a misunderstanding? God bless you. (Elena (Rostov-on-Don), 04/22/2019 19:32)

Question No. 18294 (Spiritual life)
Hello, Father Alexander! Through your prayers on Lazarus Saturday, the Lord vouchsafed me to receive communion... If possible, I wanted to ask you what I should do in my current situation. At work at the Institute, I am engaged in writing and publishing articles on English language in the international citation databases Scopus and Web of Science. These are very difficult publications for most scientists due to the language barrier and some aspects of writing and reviewing articles. Last year, in cooperation between scientists from our Institute and Kherson Agrarian University was paid for and an article based on my personal data was published at the beginning of 2019 in the journal indexed by Web of Science. For this they paid me a little on top of the price of the publication itself (now I don’t do that anymore, I regretted that for money I simply included people as co-authors, since they needed an article in such a journal). After some time, I found this article in the list of publications from the Web of Science database, everything was as expected - it was loaded into the database, which means it began to be indexed. But! Now this journal has been excluded from the Web of Science database, and there are dashes next to the article in the list of publications. Other articles (earlier) from the same journal do not have any dashes, everything is the same as before. Unfortunately, my free period of extended use of the Web of Science database has ended (it was only about six months, it seems, they gave it, I don’t know for sure), and I cannot check whether this article is still indexed in the database or not. I asked a colleague from the university to try to find out if they have a paid subscription (it costs hundreds of thousands of hryvnia, not every university can afford this), and if so, look at the article for indexing. Now I’m wondering what to do if suddenly the article was thrown out of the database? Give people all their money back? Although the article was published, I did my job, on the one hand. After all, I couldn’t predict that after some time the journal would be excluded from the Web of Science... But on the other hand, it turns out that although the work was done well, the result is not quite the same (if the article is not in the database). I am very worried about this, and I will be grateful for your wise advice. God bless and strengthen you! I wish you to pass Easter of the Cross of Holy Week “without losses”, and meet the Bright Resurrection of Christ! Thank you very much! (Pavel (Kherson), 04/22/2019 16:09)

Question No. 18290 (Man. Woman. Family. Children.) Replies: 3 (Archpriest Alexander Bilokur 04/23/2019 20:00) Dear brothers and sisters!

Hello, father! Can you listen to the sacramental prayers on Orthodox channels or do you have to read them yourself? Thank you

Hello. You can listen to prayers, but if possible, it is better to work yourself.

Hello, father! We can't baptize the boy. I don't have a godfather. You cannot baptize without it. So, don’t take your child to church and don’t teach him Christianity... that’s normal... the neighbors have the same situation. No one can baptize. I'm feeling some disappointment towards the church.

Hello. With such a question, it is better to contact the temple you go to or is nearby and tell the priest about your problem. I don’t think that Father won’t offer you a solution to your problem that would suit everyone. God's help.

Hello, is it considered a sin to give birth to a child in marriage from an elderly husband? (60-70 years old). Thank you.

Hello. If you live in a legal marriage, please give birth.

Hello. My dad recently died. February 5th was 9 days since he was gone. I wanted to ask you if it’s possible to occupy yourself with knitting or is it a sin?

Hello. Please, you can knit, it is not a sin.

Thoughts like a river constantly flow through my mind. They arise from the subconscious on their own and why they also disappear without a trace. The brain, while alive, works without stopping, just like the heart, breathing and everything else in the human body. A whole universe, with its own rules and laws.
The river of thoughts that visit me is sometimes not even pleasant. Condemnation, envy, anger, even aggression. I don’t want this, my whole consciousness is against it, but my subconscious constantly slips this nasty stuff in. The result is no friends, difficult relationships with my husband and adult children.
I even managed to condemn my spiritual mentor and stopped visiting the Temple of God.
This made the situation even sadder.
Mentally, I understand everything that the bad things that I attribute to people are in MY head (or heart) and this is the result of my conclusion. If a person, with the help of self-hypnosis, can change his inner world, his consciousness and subconscious, then how to do this without resorting to outside help???
I don’t want to allow anyone into my inner world, probably for this reason, that split occurred between me and Fr. Sergius. Spiritual people say that after confession they experience a period of purification, lightness and love. For me, everything is completely opposite: after confession, I felt like I was covered in dirt and, worst of all, I was rejected from the church.
I went to confession with a spiritual problem. I am worried about the lack of love, humility, and patience in my soul. But in the end, the confessor was more interested in my bodily sins of a sexual nature. Disgusting and disgusting. He probably enjoys such speeches. Here I am again judging. I can remain silent, but I THINK SO.
The last hope for spiritual healing is lost.

First, make peace with your confessor and ask him for forgiveness by telling him about your thoughts. Because with such questions you need to contact a priest and communicate live.

Hello. We have this situation: father, with 3 light storey building I pasted an image of a cross only on the 1st floor in the living room, room, hallway and in the bathroom. And nowhere else... is this right??? I heard that you need to stick them in every room and what should I do now if this is so??

Hello, father did everything right. The crosses are glued in the form of a cross. In the seminary there is a subject in which they study the rites, so there is no need to listen to the “knowledgeable” people who do not have a theological education.

I came to God, like probably many others, out of need... My parents baptized me in infancy, my grandmother talked about God all my childhood, bought me a children's Bible with pictures and thereby taught me. Sometimes I went to church, lit candles for health and peace, prayed in front of the icons as best I could, often in my own words. This was my whole faith. Now I’m 28 years old, I’ve been married for 7 years, we’ve been dreaming of becoming parents for 7 years, but alas...it’s not working out. Once again (rarely) I came to the temple. I stood in front of the icon of the Mother of God of the Quick Serendipity, begged and cried. A woman who serves in this church came up to me and said that I needed to turn to the priest, saying he would help. Father talked to me, at some point he even calmed me down and said that I needed to consecrate my home and come to confession. I did just that, and from that moment on, I became very interested in all this. I purchased icons for my home, the Psalter with parallel translation in order to better understand the meaning of what is written, Old and New Testament. Little by little, and whenever possible, I read and get to know each other. I purchased a prayer book for evening and morning prayers, as well as akathists. But here in this moment I am in complete confusion... I have been asking the Lord for a child for so long, but nothing changes - that means it is God’s will, but I keep asking... And often I cry in prayer, but if I cry, it means I feel sorry for myself (I rather regret that I won’t have a child, that I won’t be able to play with him, teach him something, go with him to first grade, classes... I have no one to give myself to in life, namely my maternal part, and in my old age, who will be my support?!!), and if I feel sorry for myself, it means I don’t agree with the will of God. It turns out vicious circle? I ask him, he doesn’t give, but I still insist, by asking in my prayers. One day a picture came to mind: a small child asks his father for something, and the father, not with malice, but rather with concern for the child, refuses his request, and the child continues to ask, cries and asks. I probably look like that from the outside too... I’m completely confused... I know that you can’t beg for something or someone. But all the same, even if secretly, if not with words, but with my heart I ask God for a child. What do i do? Are my requests in prayer an expression of disagreement with the will of God? Maybe I should be humble and never even think about it again? But I can’t... When I think about the child, I cry, I feel very sad and scared, but isn’t this despondency and grumbling about my life? Tell me, please, what to do?
I think this topic will be of interest to many, because deep down in our souls each of us has a cherished desire for which we ask God. But we don’t always receive an answer to our prayers in the form of the fulfillment of our desires, so how should we approach this? Continue to ask and pray, in the hope that one day God will give us what we ask for. Or is it still worth coming to terms with the fact that since God didn’t give it, he won’t give it anymore, and for the rest of your life restrain your impulse to ask for what you want within strict limits.
Please forgive me for writing it long and chaotically, but I think I got the main idea across. Thank you in advance.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for everyone who asks receives...” (Matthew 7:7,8). Such thoughts should not be allowed, because the Lord, as a loving Father, provides everything necessary for the salvation of the soul, and not by fulfilling the passionate impulses of the soul. Calm down and humble yourself under the strong hand of God. And in due time the Lord will give you what you ask for. You are only 28 years old. God help you.

Hello. I like to embroider with beads, landscapes, icons, but I don’t know when it’s possible and when it’s not, and what prayer to read at the beginning and end of the work? Thanks in advance for your answer!

Hello. In church, in order to do something you need to take the blessing of a priest or bishop. The same goes for writing icons or embroidering them. Pious icon painters fasted before work and read an akathist to the person whose image they were going to depict.

Hello. This question worries me: when my husband and I quarrel, I begin to dream about another man, imagine how my life would turn out with another, and have erotic fantasies. The marriage has been completed. What is the correct name for this sin? What should you call him in confession? Adultery? So this is like physical betrayal, but it has not happened and will not happen. Thanks for the answer.

Hello. This sin is called adultery. “Whoever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).

Hello! This is nonsense, but as a person of little faith, it is unpleasant for me. There is an inscription from the ceiling of the temple of Takht-i-Sulaiman (Throne of Solomon) at Dal Lake in Srinagar, which says: “The columns were created by Bihishti Zargar, in the year 54. Khwaja Rukun, son of Murjan, built these columns. At this time Yuz Asaf declared about his prophetic mission, in the year 54. He is Jesus, the prophet of the children of Israel." References to legends of the traveling Jesus also survive in medieval Islamic chronicles. The 15th century book Rauzat as-safa, which describes the lives of kings and prophets, mentions him in the following words: “He was a great traveler. From his country he came with several disciples to Nasibain. And he sent them into the city so that they could teach." The second part of the theory of Jesus' sojourn in India is connected with the period of the so-called missing years of his life, when, according to the writings of St. Luke, "Jesus gained wisdom" (although the Gospel does not indicate where And How). In 1887, during a trip to the Himalayan Ladakh, called "little Tibet", Nikolai Notovich (1858-?), a Russian journalist, officer and explorer, learned some details. In the monastery of Himis, he came across a manuscript about the life of Saint Issa, who seemed surprisingly similar to Jesus. No less controversial topic and subject of search by Yuz Asaf. He went to look for the descendants of the so-called 10 lost tribes of Israel. They disappeared from the map when their country was occupied by the Assyrians. In the Middle East and the Indian Peninsula there really are ethnic groups and communities whose traditions date back to the history of the lost tribes. The best known are the Afghan Pashtuns and Bnei Israel, a community of Hindus who recognize themselves as descendants of Israelis. Despite years of isolation, numerous Jewish traditions were preserved. In the spring of 1925, during his Central Asian expedition, N.K. Roerich visited Kashmir, where he wrote down that the legend of the presence of Christ was widespread in India and beyond. The Master's tomb is located in the basement of a private house in Srinagar. The existence of an inscription is indicated that the son of Joseph lies here; healings seemed to take place at the tomb and the smell of aromas spread. N.K. Roerich also cited lines from a Kashmiri song about Christ. Or maybe Jesus actually survived the crucifixion and fled to a country where he could count on a warmer reception than in his homeland? I ask these questions to believe in Christ, and not to rant about whether Jesus was in India or not.

Hello. First, read “The Law of God” as edited by Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskov. God's help.

Is it possible to consecrate stones in a church? The fact is that my uncle brought a carnelian stone from the Urals and I would like to consecrate it, but there are suspicions that I might be denied consecration when I go to church.

Answer:

Hello Andrei.

Actually, it's possible. There is a prayer in the breviary, which is called “For the sanctification of every thing.” But you need to be prepared to give a reasonable answer to the question: “Why did you need this and how are you going to use this stone.” If your answer does not satisfy the priest, then refusal is possible.

Priest Sergius Demyanov.

Hello!

Please tell me what is correct, from the point of view of the Canons Orthodox Church, what to do with documents and photographs of a deceased person if it is not possible to store them at home? So as not to harm the soul of the deceased and not insult his memory? Thank you in advance!

Anastasia.

Answer:

Hello Anastasia.

If it is not possible to store documents and photographs of a deceased person at home and you do not need them at all, then it is best to burn them and bury the ashes in a decent place or pour them into a river.

Priest Sergius Demyanov.

Hello. There is a problem with working in a small town. And soon there will be a wedding. Pray for me and give me help. God bless you.

Answer:

Hello Mark.

I can only advise you to turn to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in prayer for help in this matter. From his life it is known that during his lifetime he helped in similar situations. At least twice a week, read an akathist to him and ask for help in your own words. I will try to pray for you to the best of my ability.

Below is an excerpt from the life of the saint. Nicholas.

“In the city of Patara there lived a man who had three daughters, who were known throughout the city as beauties. At first he was very rich, but then, due to unfortunate circumstances, he lost everything he had and fell into extreme poverty. Not to mention the fact that he had nothing to marry his daughters to, he did not even have the money to buy food and necessary clothing for himself and his family. What extreme poverty can bring a person who is not sufficiently imbued with Christian humility! It led the unfortunate father, who had lost all hope of improving his situation, to the terrible idea of ​​sacrificing the honor of his daughters and extracting a livelihood from their beauty for himself and for them. But, fortunately for him, Saint Nicholas lived in the same city as him, vigilantly monitoring the needs of the flock entrusted to him.

Having received a revelation from the Lord about the criminal intentions of this man, he decided to deliver him from physical poverty, thereby saving him and his family from spiritual destruction. As a true disciple and shepherd of Christ, Nicholas planned to do them a favor so that no one knew about him as a benefactor, not even the one to whom he intended to do good. With Christian humility, expressed by the Savior in the words: See that you do not do your alms in front of people so that they see you (Matthew 6:1), the Saint of God combined deep life experience, knowing how difficult it is for those who are rich to accept alms. suddenly fall into extreme poverty.

Taking a large bundle of gold, at midnight, when the unfortunate father and his daughters were sleeping, Saint Nicholas quietly approached his hut and, opening the window, threw the gold inside, and he hastily returned home. In the morning the owner woke up, and his gaze first of all fell on the bundle of gold lying in the hut. One can imagine his unexpected joy when, having untied the knot, he found in it something for which he wanted to give his daughters to shame. Not believing his eyes and wondering if it was a dream, he felt the gold with his hands and finally came to the conclusion that it was reality. For a long time he thought about who could be such a selfless benefactor, but he could not settle on anyone. Deciding that God’s Providence had sent him a secret benefactor, he warmly thanked the Lord and used the gold he received to marry off his eldest daughter.

Saint Nicholas, when he saw that his good deed had brought the proper fruits, decided to see it through to the end: on one of the following nights, he also secretly threw another bundle of gold through the window into the poor man’s hut. This time the poor man no longer became lost in conjecture as to the identity of his benefactor, but directly fell prostrate to the ground and thanked the patron saint of the unfortunate - the Lord. “God, You are the source of mercy,” the touched father thanked, “You are building our salvation. First of all, You redeemed me with Your Blood, and now You are delivering my house and children with gold from the snare of the enemy. Show me the one who serves here as an instrument of Your mercy and philanthropic goodness. Show me this earthly Angel who protects us from sinful destruction. Let it be known to me who frees us from the poverty that oppresses us and deviates us from the evil plans we have conceived. By Thy mercy, shown to me secretly by the hand of Thy saint, I am also marrying off my second daughter according to the law and thereby avoiding the need to fall into the enemy’s snare and give my daughter to a bad cause.”

Having thus thanked the Lord, the father gave his second daughter in marriage, firmly hoping that the Lord would send mercy in the same way for his third daughter. At the same time, he decided, at all costs, to recognize his secret benefactor in order to thank him in a worthy manner, and for this he did not sleep at night, waiting for his appearance. He didn't have to wait long. Soon the good shepherd of Christ came to the hut for the third time, also at night, and, throwing a bundle of gold out the window, hurriedly headed home. But this time he was unable to hide his good deed. The poor man, hearing the sound of falling gold, hurriedly left the house and caught up with his secret benefactor. Recognizing Saint Nicholas in him, he fell at his feet and kissed them, thanking them as the liberator of himself and his family from imminent misfortune. “If the Lord had not inspired this good deed in you,” he said to Saint Nicholas, “then I, unfortunate one, would have died long ago along with my daughters, whom I decided to give up to a bad life. And now, thanks to you, we are saved and delivered from the fall of sin.”

Saint Nicholas raised him up and, advising him to be more grateful for the mercy of the Lord and to pray to Him, took an oath from him not to tell anyone about the good deed he had done.”

Priest Sergius Demyanov.

1. Bless! I am 22 years old, originally from Latvia. Father, I want to explain my situation, something bad happened to me. For a long time I played computer games in which everything was based on murder and violence, smoked cigarettes, and drank. Once, I ended up in a sect where rituals were performed on me, after which, at home at night, I began to hear the voices of demons - they came in a crowd like a zoo, like some lions, snakes and demons, knocked on my house... and after each attack once the sign of the cross - they ran away. At the moment I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I don’t play games anymore, I go to church, I’m a sexton. The psychiatrist prescribed pills to calm down nervous system, because I can’t sleep at night without taking pills, but this medicine that I take sometimes causes me to have cramps, heartburn, and gain excess weight. I ask for God's help and your advice.

2. My grandmother rarely comes to Latvia from America and constantly teaches us how to live, starts scandals in the family, calls my mother names in every possible way, spits on her, humiliates her, my father is a burden to her, I am an underdeveloped schizo. What to do in this situation? Should you constantly humble yourself, remain silent and give up? I bow to you.

Answer:

Hello Dmitry.

I can't give you any advice about taking medications. This is beyond my competence, here you need to listen to the doctor.

“Honor the doctor according to the need for him, for the Lord created him, and healing comes from the Most High, and he receives the gift from the king... The Lord created medicine from the earth, and a prudent person will not neglect them... For this reason He gave people knowledge so that glorified Him in His wonderful deeds: with them He heals a person and destroys his illness... My son! in your illness do not be careless, but pray to the Lord, and He will heal you. Leave your sinful life and straighten your hands, and cleanse your heart from all sin. Bring up the fragrance and from the seven-stone a memorial sacrifice and make a fat offering, as if already dying; and give a place to the doctor, for the Lord created him too, and let him not move away from you, for he is needed. At other times, success happens in their hands; for they also pray to the Lord that He will help them give the sick relief and healing to continue life. But whoever sins against Him who created him, let him fall into the hands of a doctor!” (Sirach 38:1-2, 4, 6, 9-15) Listen to the advice of those closest to you - your father and mother, who definitely will not wish you harm. It is clear that the use of such drugs leads to serious side effects that destroy your health. It's better to try to find gentler sleep aids, but will they help you? Here you have to choose the lesser of two evils. But first of all, try to lead a correct spiritual life, only this can be the key to your healing. And I advise you, given your medical history, you don’t need to go online at all. Using it will again and again undermine your psyche.

As for your grandmother, there can only be one answer - ask God for patience and love for her. Our parents and other ancestors are the roots from which we grow. And we cannot have other roots. What does it mean to stop tolerating? This means cutting off the roots from which you grow, and from this you yourself will wither first. And the reason for impatience is inside you - wounded pride and condemnation. Don’t try to teach your grandmother by pointing out that she’s wrong, it won’t help at all. The anger and malice between you will only intensify. Remember the words of St. Joseph of Optina: “If you see a mistake in your neighbor that you would like to correct, if it disturbs your peace of mind and irritates you, then you also sin and, therefore, you will not correct the mistake with an error - it is corrected with meekness.” Always separate a person from his words and deeds. After all, a person and his illness are not the same thing. Words and deeds can be bad, but a person should not be condemned, but pitied. And repent before God of those sins that are revealed in your heart through communication with your grandmother. If you heal your soul, you can help your grandmother. And your parents also need to be patient.

Priest Sergius Demyanov.

Hello!

My wife is about to give birth. So the question arose. My mother-in-law attends a “school” where they study runes, subtle energies, space, etc. and so on. She doesn’t pester my wife and I with these questions. But the birth is coming soon and the question arises: can she approach the child until he is baptized? If not, then tell me how to explain this to her, because... She naturally doesn’t see anything wrong with her studies, but she loves us very much, sincerely participates in our lives and will be very offended.

Answer:

Hello Alexey.

If you want to protect your child from the effects of evil, then first of all you should not multiply it in your family. After all, you yourself understand perfectly well how much resentment, condemnation and, perhaps, even anger will appear in your family if you forbid your grandmother to communicate with her grandson. Of course, it is no good that her mind is fed by false spirituality. And this false spirituality will of course manifest itself in her deeds and actions and influence on other people not with the best side. But the Lord has care for each of His creations, especially for a person, regardless of whether he is baptized or not. If you pray and ask for daily help for your family from the Lord God, the Mother of God, and the holy saints, then, undoubtedly, no evil from outside will touch your child. We are all carriers of sinful passions and therefore, in some way, we also have a bad influence on our children. Try to cleanse your hearts from sin through repentance, then your baby’s life will be peaceful.

Priest Sergius Demyanov.

Hello, Father Sergius.

I still have to study at school Last year, but in choice educational institution I can not decide. Please tell me how I can choose the right university.

Alexander.

Answer:

Hello, Alexander.

In order to give you advice on which university to choose, you need to know well your interests, abilities, character traits, financial capabilities of your family, i.e. It's good to know you. Therefore, with such a question, it is better to turn to the people closest to you, those who are authoritative for you, for example, your parents, or other close relatives, or one of your teachers. Try to listen carefully to their advice; often an outside perspective allows us to get to know ourselves better. First, be sure to pray to the Lord God, the Mother of God, your saint, and ask God’s will for your future life path revealed itself to you through people close to you.

Priest Sergius Demyanov.

Hello, father!

Please explain what to do in a situation where the church is against conceiving a woman through donor cells and encourages spouses to accept their childlessness as a special calling in life with subsequent adoption, and the spouse wants her own child, but the spouse is doomed to be infertile and does not want to deprive his half of her joy life and agree to raise a child who is not your own? Those. It turns out that, according to the moral canons of the church, such a couple should stop living together and get a divorce, in this case, get debunked, so as not to doom the child conceived in this way to the consequences associated with the concept of violating the integrity of the marriage union? By the way, what consequences could this have, for whom exactly will this be a great sin, for the spouses or for the conceived person? And can the use of donor cells justify the desire to preserve the marriage union, otherwise the couple finds themselves in a situation that is hopeless according to church principles (I will not talk about the Will of God in the desire to maintain the demographic indicators on this planet at a level known to Him) and is left to either sin or adopt or to do nothing, in the last two cases the infertile spouse is responsible for crushing all the feasible desires of his wife, followed by divorce sooner or later... we will include depression and neuroses here. Also comment, if the future spouses, in fact, thanks to the divine will, met and got married, but unfortunately the impossibility of having a common child can destroy the marriage, then what is the point of the church foundations called upon to create and strengthen this very marriage, so that the spouses have a joyful life? You can, of course, counter with the assertion that the choice of the spouses was not correct and God is hinting at this, then why did He, with the power of His unusual, let’s call it a beautiful word, instruments, bring people together if their attempts to correct the grief will then be unwelcome and condemned by the church?

Answer:

Hello Pavel.

Undoubtedly, it was not without God’s providence that you met your future wife and entered into a legal church marriage with her. What is God's providence? This is the care and concern of the Lord for each of his creations and, even more so, for each person. “God is love” (2 Peter 4:8) and according to great love God's prayer to us, the Lord tries to place us in the best external life circumstances favorable for our salvation. God's providence will never push us to destroy the family, which is an undoubted evil, i.e. sin. Why do you (that is, you and your spouse) have thoughts about divorce? The external reason is clear - your infertility and, as a consequence, the inability to have a natural child conceived naturally (i.e. by God) in the family. But Christianity has never believed that the purpose of creating a family is necessarily childbearing. The love of spouses for each other in itself (if, of course, it is present) is a sufficient reason for creating a family, which the church likens to the Church of Christ, calling the family a small church. It is impossible to define the concept of “love”, because it is a primary concept, but the Apostle Paul gives the exact signs that accompany love: “Love is patient, is kind, love does not envy, love does not boast, is not proud, does not act rudely, does not seek its own, is not easily provoked. , does not think evil, does not rejoice in untruth, but rejoices in the truth; covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails, although prophecy will cease, and tongues will be silent, and knowledge will be abolished” (1 Cor. 13:4-8). The italics are made by me. Read these phrases carefully, if you really love each other, then is it really possible that the inability to have a child of your own can kill love? Obviously not. But it is also obvious that divorce is brewing in your family. What is the reason? As has already become clear, not in the love for each other that the Lord gave you and which you have warmed up in your hearts, but in the sinful passions of selfishness and selfishness (I want my own child, otherwise divorce!), which act in the same ones of yours. hearts. The inability to have a natural child undoubtedly entails pain and sorrow, but the example of so many families shows that one can live with this pain and sorrow without losing love for each other, without destroying the family and, moreover, bringing joy to other people (adopted children) . If you got married, then you probably consider yourself Christians. And the whole meaning of a Christian’s spiritual life comes down to freeing your heart from the influence of sinful passions, cleansing your soul, so that nothing interferes with your meeting with God. Fight this egoism and selfishness, which are the true source of your suffering. The desire to have a natural child, of course, is not sinful in itself, but when it is associated with unnatural actions from the point of view of Christian morality, it (the desire) becomes sinful. Sinful - means undoubtedly bringing evil to both the parents and the child born unnaturally, whose life will pass under the power of ancestral sin, i.e. in this case, a sin committed by you, just as children suffer on a physical level from genetic diseases received from their parents. The child will not be responsible for your sin, but it will certainly bring him suffering. Therefore, the Lord, through His commandments, stops us from creating sin, because sin always carries suffering.

I know several families who could not have natural children and took adopted ones. From their experience I can tell you that when a child they want to take into a family lives in it for at least a few days, the parents, as a rule, sincerely, from the bottom of their hearts, begin to consider him their own and even for a short time it is difficult for them to part with him until the end of the registration procedure for adoption. Moreover, as you understand, any responsible person always has a certain fear of taking a child into the family.

Priest Sergius Demyanov.

Hello, dear Father Sergius!

Yesterday was Epiphany, Orthodox Christians undergo a ritual of ablution in special ice holes. Tell me, is it possible to just wash at home on this day or not? The whole family washed ourselves, but my friend said that this should not be done for 3 days (from the day of Epiphany). Thank you in advance,

Answer:

Hello Marina.

According to church tradition, it is believed that after the blessing of water on the feast of the Epiphany, all the water carries this grace for three days. But this does not in any way prevent it from being used for everyday needs, because the grace of God is transmitted not physically, but spiritually, i.e. only if a person uses water with faith and prayer for spiritual needs. Therefore, wash for your health. And about the holiday of Epiphany, look at the website http://www.orthodoxy.eparhia-saratov.ru/2005/01/13.html. Bathing in ice holes is only a small part of this holiday.

Priest Sergius Demyanov.

Hello!

I would like to know if the Orthodox swastika exists and how the church generally relates to this symbol? I heard that this symbol was very popular with Nicholas II and it brings good luck. Thank you in advance.

Answer:

Hello Ivan!

Swastika (Sanskrit “prosperity”), or gammatic cross, is a sign in the shape of an equal-armed cross with ends bent at right angles. In Eastern countries, this is an ancient symbol of perpetual motion, fire, life, as it depicts rotational movement. In the era of geometric style in art Ancient Greece(XI-VIII centuries BC) this sign influenced the type of ornament, which was called the meander. In Russia, it was also widely used in the design of palace interiors, cast iron gratings, and was used in the applied arts of the 18th-19th centuries. The cross acquired a new meaning in the Christian period, when its two symbolic meanings were combined - the source of immortality and the instrument of execution of Jesus Christ. The cross became a sacred symbol of eternal life and deliverance from suffering. The cross, as an instrument of the salvation of the world by Jesus Christ, has long been the subject of the greatest veneration among Christians. The Universal Church of Christ has been using the gammatic form of the cross for two thousand years, and that “the cross of any form,” as Saint Theodore the Studite teaches, “is the true Cross”!

From well-known ecclesiastical and secular specialists in history and archeology one can learn that among different forms cross “there was also in use the form of a gammatic cross, consisting of (the Greek letter) gamma,” as Archimandrite Gabriel reports in the book “Guide to Liturgics, or the Science of Orthodox Worship, for Theological Seminaries,” published in 1886 in Tver. And from the book “Christian Symbolism” by Count A.S. Uvarov, you can find out that the gammatic cross is depicted on the chalice (vessel for communion) already in the 4th century. In the album “Byzantine Miniature” you can read that in the 9th century, by order of Empress Theodora, a Gospel was made in the imperial scriptorium, decorated with a gold ornament of gammatic crosses, with elements of an ancient meander ornament (M., 1977, p. 13, tab . 4).

Indeed, I came across a photograph depicting the personal car of Emperor Nicholas II with a cross - a swastika on the hood of the car. The words “the cross brings good luck” are extremely unfortunate. The concept of luck refers to success in this world, and the cross lifts us to the heavenly world.

Undoubtedly, the perception of the cross - swastika was negatively influenced by its use by Nazi Germany and modern nationalists, but this sin (the use of the cross as a symbol of political parties far from Christian commandments) remains on their conscience.

Priest Sergius Demyanov.

Hello, please tell me what should I do. I communicate with a circle of very ambitious people. These people are very critical of others, and this criticality turns into total condemnation and ridicule of human shortcomings, or those traits that are different from them, and what is different from them goes into the category of persecution. Moreover, they set their appearance as a model for others, tirelessly repeating about their ideality. How should I behave with such people, because their negativity is so destructive that it often shocks me.

Answer:

Hello Anton!

From your question I cannot fully understand what circle of people you are talking about, i.e. with whom you are forced to communicate. Your question is largely personal; in order to give an accurate answer, it requires deep understanding and it would be better to ask it to a confessor (priest) in a personal conversation. I will try to give you at least a general answer.

Let us turn to the Holy Scripture: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, and does not stand in the way of sinners, and does not sit in the seat of the wicked, but his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night! (Ps 1, 1-2) says the psalmist David in the first lines of the psalter. These lines do not require comments and largely answer your question. If we turn to the New Testament, then the answer to it may be the words spoken by the Lord to His disciples: “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away from you, for it is better for you that one of your members should perish, and not all.” your body was thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you, for it is better for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell.” (Matt. 5:29-30).

St. John Chrysostom explains these Gospel lines this way: “When giving this commandment, Christ did not speak about members - no, - He nowhere condemns the flesh, but everywhere accuses the corrupted will. It is not your eye that looks, but your mind and heart. When our soul is turned to some other objects, then the eye often does not see what is in front of it. Consequently, not everything must be attributed to the action of the eye. If Christ had spoken about members, he would have spoken not about one eye, and not only about the right one, but about both. For if anyone is offended by the right eye, he will undoubtedly be offended by the left. So, why did the Savior mention only the right eye and the right hand? So that you know that we are not talking about members, but about people who have a close connection with us. If you love someone so much that you rely on him as your right eye, or recognize him as so useful to you that you consider him instead right hand his own, and if he corrupts your soul, then cut off such a person from yourself. And notice the power of expression here. The Savior did not say: leave me alone; but says: change it, and turn it away from yourself, wanting to point out complete removal. Further, since He prescribed a rather strict commandment, He also shows its benefit in both respects - in relation to good and in relation to evil. For you are, He says, continuing his allegory, let one perish from your blows, and not your whole body be cast into Gehenna (v. 29). In fact, when a person close to you does not save himself, and destroys you with himself, then what kind of humanity would it be for both of you to wallow in the abyss of destruction, while, having been separated from each other, at least one of you can be saved? ?.. If your friend who harms you is completely incurable, then he, being cut off from you, will free you from all harm, and he himself will be delivered from great condemnation, since he, in addition to his sins, will no longer be subject to responsibility and for your death."

But there is an exception to this rule, for example, this kind of temptation, other than the sin of adultery, is not a reason for the divorce of spouses. Indeed, we live among close relatives, obviously given to us by God, we have bosses at work, and in these cases we need not to cut ourselves off from communication with them, but another thing is to change our behavior. But you can only talk about this specifically after learning your life situation in detail.

Priest Sergius Demyanov.

Bless.

We asked and they gave it to us.

When it comes to a person, for the good we answer:
- Save me, God.
After the Lord has fulfilled our request, in prayer we say:
- Thank you, Christ our God...

Explain what benefit we give, unworthy of God, because it was He who did the benefit to us? What's the point? When I was thinking about this question myself, 2 facts came to mind:
1. The commandment about 10 healed and 1 grateful.
2. Adam and Eve did not thank God in paradise (there is no indication of this in the Bible).
I cannot ask the question more clearly and specifically.
Forgive me and help me understand.
Olga.

Answer:

Hello Olga!

Your question is more philological than spiritual, but I will try, perhaps unprofessionally, to answer you. According to Dahl, to thank someone or for what means, to give in word or deed, or to wish someone good or good; express gratitude, appreciation; declare oneself a debtor for a service; say thank you. As can be seen from the above, we, the unworthy, can give God sincere words of gratitude, i.e. give your heart to the Lord as a sign of thanksgiving. And thanksgiving in action should be expressed in the desire to fulfill God’s commandments.

In the parable of the ten lepers, indeed, only one of the ten who were healed bowed their hearts before Him as a sign of thanksgiving to the Lord.

As you write, there is no clear indication that Adam and Eve thanked God in words during their stay in paradise. But in the first Old Testament chapters, which talk about God’s creation of man, they speak, first of all, about the actions of God Himself and almost nothing about the actions of man. People begin to speak in detail about a person’s actions, in fact, from the moment of his ingratitude to God, i.e. the fall of Adam and Eve. However, it is clearly said that in the beginning Adam and Eve lived in complete harmony and love with the Lord, which undoubtedly means that they fulfilled the will of God, i.e. His commandments, which means giving thanks by action.

It may also be noted that the words “thanksgiving” and “good gift” are translated into Greek by the word “Eucharist” (this is the name of the main, central part of the Divine Liturgy). If we combine both of these meanings, then “Eucharist” will mean “thanksgiving” for a certain “good gift,” gratitude for grace. In this sense, one can only “give thanks” for something undeserved, for something received freely, for “grace.” With our love for the Lord we thank you for the grace.

Priest Sergius Demyanov.

Hello!

I'm in Lately I'm confused by this question: why, in my opinion, is there a certain amount of contradiction in Christianity?

Here are some of them:

1. I read that armed confrontation with the enemies of the Faith of Christ was previously considered a godly deed. I thought that all violence was rejected by Christianity. And in general, I don’t understand the attitude of the church towards soldiers. Clergymen bless military personnel during military operations. Of course, this is done in the name of protecting the Motherland, but it is still an encouragement of violence.

2. I read that faith should not be instilled by force. Because of this principle, Jesus allowed himself to be crucified without resorting to a miracle in order to save himself, but not to force the souls of people to faith. But if we look at the history of Russia, we will see that Orthodox faith grafted by force and now Russia is the center of Orthodoxy.

3. Many scientists have already become convinced that the Egyptian pyramids were built for a reason. Their geographical location and orientation constitutes a certain complex system. There is a suspicion that these are not just tombs, but something more. That is, the construction of the pyramids is a fairly large and significant part of human history. But this is not reflected in the Bible (maybe it shouldn't be, but it seems strange to me).

4. Even as a child, having read the children's Bible (Old Testament), I was surprised at its bloodthirstiness. I believed that the Lord could not encourage so many murders, including for the sake of faith.

5. I can’t understand why the true God appeared only to Jews? Why are they God's chosen people? Somehow it's not fair. And in general, where did other peoples come from besides the Jews, if all humanity came from them?

Many of this may not be true due to my limited erudition, but I ask you, please answer these questions for me. It is very important for me!

Thank you very much in advance!

Answer:

Hello Igor!

First of all, I want to congratulate you on the holiday of the Kazan Mother of God. For us, this holiday is patronal (one of the chapels of our church - the lower one - was built precisely in honor of the Kazan Mother of God).

I will try to answer your questions point by point, but first let me make a small digression so that the answers to the first and fourth questions are more clear. The modern culture of our society is brought up and permeated through and through with the ideas of humanism, the essence of which can be indicated by the thesis: Man, his life, health, freedom are the highest value. This idea is completely incompatible with Christianity, the highest value of which is God, and the meaning of life is the salvation of man from the bonds of sin, his deification. At the same time, Christianity does not neglect man; it calls people the image and likeness of God, his children. The human body is called the Temple of God, in which the grace of the Holy Spirit must abide. It inextricably links the value of a person's life with his communication with God. Christ calls everyone to freedom, but to freedom from sin. What is the difference between the ideas of humanism and Christianity? Humanism considers a person as an intrinsic value; by his life and health he means life today, i.e. trying to fight for something that will inevitably end in illness, suffering, death. Freedom means, first of all, the inviolability of the human ego, its selfhood (my will is free and should not depend on the will of other individuals within the framework of civil legislation), i.e. the basis of the fall of Adam and Eve is “... and you will be like gods...” (Gen. 3, 5). Christianity speaks of two lives and two deaths that await a person. The first life is our life from birth to bodily death. The second life is eternal life prepared for believers in the Kingdom of God. The first death is an inevitable death, i.e. separation of the soul from the body is not evil in itself. It is a consequence of evil - the transgression of Adam and Eve of God’s commandments “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou shalt eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day on which thou eatest him, you will die.” (Genesis 2:16-17). She was arbitrarily chosen by man. The second death is a spiritual eternal death, which is chosen by a person who rejected the true God in the first life. Christianity takes the first life very seriously, because according to its fruits a person inherits either life or eternal death, but seriously not in the sense of health and comfort, but in the sense of healing a person from sinful passions, acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit. And he is even more serious about avoiding the second death, i.e. spiritual death “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but fear Him more who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Matt. 10:28). This is why there is a temptation for a person brought up on the ideas of humanism when reading the Holy Scriptures, when questions about life and death arise.

You write in the first question, “I thought that all violence was rejected by Christianity.” This is Tolstoyanism, not Christianity. Think about it, the devil - the enemy of the human race - was forcibly cast out of Heaven “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning...” (Luke 10:18). The Lord commanded the apostles: “...as you go, preach that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons; Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matt. 10:7-8). As you understand, expulsion cannot occur without violence. The Lord speaks about our salvation “...from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and those who use force take it by force...” (Matthew 17:12). The life of a Christian is a constant spiritual battle (battle, war, battle in the literal sense of the word) with his sinful passions, which are the demons that enslave him. But you will say: here we are talking about spiritual warfare with the enemy of the human race, and not between people. But spiritual content and external form in this case, unfortunately, are often inseparable. The Lord indeed gave the commandment “thou shalt not kill,” but at the same time in particular cases he commanded that a person be put to death: “Whoever kills an animal must pay for it; and whoever kills a person must be put to death.” (Lev. 24, 21), “For God commanded: Honor your father and mother; and: He who curses his father or mother shall die by death.” (Matthew 15:4), etc. These commandments literally refer to the Old Testament, but in the prophet Jeremiah one can find a general interpretation of the commandment “thou shalt not kill.” “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Correct your ways and your doings, and I will let you live in this place. Do not rely on deceptive words: “here is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” But if you completely correct your ways and your deeds, if you faithfully carry out justice between a man and his rival, you will not oppress the foreigner, the orphan and the widow, and you will not shed innocent blood in this place, and you will not follow other gods to your own misfortune, - then I will leave you to live in this place, in this land, which I gave to your fathers throughout all generations.” (Jer. 7, 3-7), i.e. Christianity considers the shedding of innocent blood to be a mortal sin. Killing a person is always evil. Only the devil rejoices at this, but often an even greater evil is allowing a person to endlessly do evil deeds. In this case, stopping a person with violence, or in extreme cases, death, is a lesser evil, but, in a sense, a great good for an unrepentant villain. This power - to stop evildoers - is given from God to our rulers: “Therefore be submissive to every human authority for the Lord: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to the rulers, as those sent by him to punish criminals and to encourage those who do good - for such is It is the will of God that by doing good we should stop the ignorance of foolish men..." (1 Pet. 2, 13-15). And again: “... for the ruler is God’s servant, for your good. If you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain: he is God’s servant, an avenger to punish those who do evil. And therefore one must obey not only out of fear of punishment, but also out of conscience.” (Rom. 13:4-5). Unfortunately, our rulers do not always act according to God’s commandments, but for this they will bear a special answer before the Lord. Premature death for a person who violates the commandments of God and is not capable of repentance is good for him, because, firstly, it reduces his suffering in hell (sinned less, suffered less). Secondly, it is God’s retribution here, today, in this life for the sin committed, and God does not punish twice for the same thing, which also reduces human suffering. Thirdly, the fear of death first stops other villains from mortal sins. Fourthly, it ensures a peaceful life for their potential future victims. When a person has allowed his body, mind and heart to be enslaved by the spirits of evil in heaven, then the abuse of these spirits of evil can only be stopped by committing violence against the person, because he cannot stop himself. Killing a person is always evil. It is no coincidence that the Lord did not accept the construction of the temple from the hands of King David for the reason that he shed a lot of human blood, but at the same time he is revered as great righteous man because he did the will of God. But an even greater evil is allowing the forces of evil to reign in this world. And violence is permissible, from the point of view of Christianity, only over a person who has enslaved himself to sinful passions in order to correct him. And death, as an extreme form of violence, over a person who has gravely sinned and is incapable of correction (not repentant). Therefore, the clergy really bless the soldiers for military actions and violence to defend the faith of the fatherland and their neighbors. And Saint John the Baptist did not forbid the soldiers who asked him to continue serving: “The soldiers also asked him: what should we do? And he said to them: do not offend anyone, do not slander, and be content with your salary.” (Luke 3:14). Military rank did not prevent the centurion from receiving praise for his faith from the Lord Jesus Christ: “When Jesus heard this, he was surprised and said to those following Him: Truly I say to you, I have not found such faith in Israel.” (Matt. 8:10).

The military commander Cornelius, despite his military rank, was directly called pious and was honored with the revelation of God: “In Caesarea there was a certain man named Cornelius, a centurion from a regiment called Italian, pious and fearing God with all his household, who did much alms to the people and always prayed God. In a vision, he clearly saw at about the ninth hour of the day an Angel of God who came to him and said to him: Cornelius! He looked at him and was frightened and said: What, Lord? The angel answered him: “Your prayers and your alms have come as a memorial before God.” (Acts 10: 1-4).

Here is the answer to your fourth question (why did the Lord send the Israelis to destroy neighboring nations). In order to stop the immeasurable sins reigning among these peoples and thereby remind the Israelis themselves what awaits them for their sinful life. Christianity teaches not to be afraid of the first death and to fear only the second death. The first death was chosen by man himself through the transgression of God’s commandment, and it is not for us to decide in what form death will come to us.

You may be surprised to learn that Holy Scripture commands violence even against children when they are not admonished and corrected. “Whoever spares his rod hates his son; and whoever loves punishes him from childhood.” (Proverbs 13:25). As you can see, Love and violence are two compatible concepts, but, of course, it is impossible to force love, but it is possible to stop a person from sin by violence, which brings him closer to Love.

Answering the second question, I completely agree with you that faith should not and cannot be instilled by force. God is Love, and it is impossible to force love, but if we look at the history of Russia (of course, there are different books that present its history in different ways), we will see that the Orthodox faith was consciously chosen by the overwhelming majority of its population. There were, of course, cases when princes forcibly suppressed pagan rituals and forced their subjects to accept Holy Baptism. But, it seems to me, a smaller part of Rus' was baptized in this way. From ancient times to this day, Christianity has been preached and those who receive the Good News receive Holy Baptism. Evidence of this is the coexistence with Christianity on the territory of Russia for many centuries of Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and pagan beliefs of small northern peoples to this day. Unlike the democratic USA, where the Indian population was almost completely destroyed (no one even tried to evangelize them in the days of the conquest of America, they were simply exterminated), small northern peoples in Russia exist to this day and many of them consciously adopted Christianity. Evidence of the gospel is the lives of such saints of God as St. Apostle Andrew, St. Kuksha, St. Innocent of Irkutsk, St. Herman of Alaska and others.

In the third question, you were confused by the fact that the Bible does not reflect the construction of the Egyptian pyramids and, judging by the question, through this you question the reliability of the Bible. Without a doubt, as you write, “the building of the pyramids is a fairly large and significant part of human history,” but the Bible is not a book about human history. This is a book that brings to us the history of communication between God and man from the moment of the creation of Adam and his fall, through the election of righteous Abraham, through the law of Moses, through the redemption of the human race from sin through the Incarnation, free suffering and death on the cross and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ until the Last Judgment, which will take place after the second coming of the Lord. Those. The Bible gives us complete information about how we can live here, today, now in order to return to the Lord God and become heirs of the Kingdom of God. And there is nothing superfluous. As a consequence, from a spiritual point of view, geographical location has no meaning Egyptian pyramids how they are built, oriented, what complex system they make up. This knowledge may enrich our culture, but will in no way help our salvation.

In the fifth question, you write that you cannot understand where other peoples came from, except the Jews, if all humanity came from them. And you won’t understand until you carefully read the first books Old Testament(Genesis, Exodus). All humanity, after the great flood, descended from Noah and his family - his wife, three sons and their wives. Noah's sons were named Shem, Ham and Japheth. The races of which they are the ancestors are called by their names: Semites, Hamites and Japhethites, or Aryans. The people of Israel in much later times descended from the Semites from Abraham and his wife Sarah, when the earth was inhabited by many other nations. Further you write: why did the true God appear only to the Jews, why are they God’s chosen people? Jews are God's chosen people because God chose them. He chose Abraham by faith. He chose the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from the root of Abraham, Judah, and David. Savior of the whole world and all nations. The Apostle Luke conveys to us the words of the Apostle Paul: “...behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord commanded us: I have made you (that is, the Lord Jesus Christ - approx.) a light to the Gentiles, so that you may be a source of salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 13:46-47). And the Lord foreshadowed this through the prophets to the Jews since Old Testament times. And to the question why the Savior comes from the Jewish people, why the Lord chose this particular people, one can only answer that it is not for us to experience the judgments of God, “And who are you, man, that you argue with God? Will the product say to the one who made it: “Why did you make me?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, so that from the same mixture he can make one vessel for honorable use, and another for low?” (Rom. 9:20-21).

Igor, I hope that at least in a small way I have resolved some contradictions in your mind (and not in Christianity) and I want to support you in the fact that any temptations and questions that come to our mind must be immediately clarified with a spiritual father or any priest at spiritual conversations. Do not keep them to yourself, because they undermine faith, and through this they deprive us of salvation. Such questions can be answered much easier and with a large number of examples in personal communication, so I advise you to definitely find your parish and your confessor.

Priest Sergius Demyanov.