Orthodox people in the modern world. As for the desk books…. Orthodox worship

Is it possible to live like a Christian today?

Our life takes place in the time that the Lord has appointed for her. This time is God's given, and we have no power to change it to something else. In it we must walk our path of salvation. How, with a goal life of the next century, can and should we use the time of the present century? Today we are talking about this with the governor of Danilov's stavropegic monastery in Moscow, Archimandrite Alexy (Polikarpov)

Difficulties or inconveniences for salvation can be found at all times. And it cannot be said about our time that it is especially difficult. When the Monk Seraphim of Sarov, and he lived almost two hundred years ago, was asked the question: "Why are so few people now being saved?", He replied: "Christ is one. He has always been, is and will be. " That is, our salvation is always accomplished when we are saved from sin, fulfill the Gospel commandments, cleanse ourselves from iniquity, and thus inherit eternal life. Christ is one and the same, but, according to the Monk Seraphim, we often do not have enough courage and strength to compel ourselves to salvation. It is said in the Gospel: The Kingdom of Heaven was guarded by power, and those who use effort delight it (Matt. 11, 1 2), that is, those who force themselves. The area of ​​compulsion, say the holy fathers, should extend to everything. Big and small.

If, when thinking about the path of salvation, about the Christian life, in our minds immediately appear the great and terrible feats that the saints performed, it seems to us, of course, that we cannot do it. But each of us has his own feat. And its essence is that we, motivated by love for Christ, motivated by the fear of God, motivate ourselves to live no -God. In everything: large and small. The Apostle tells us: Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). And if a person, completing all his work, will do it to the glory of God, and starting any undertaking, he begins to comprehend it: o -Whether it was conceived by God or not, then all his deeds will be Christian. And he will succeed in his salvation.

And yet, perhaps, there are some peculiarities of our time?

Today there is no such obvious dominance of atheism that we had quite recently. A person can confess his faith openly, he can say that he is a Christian. But then again, if he has enough courage. And it’s not that he will be terrorized, but that these words he will have to witness with life. Really live like a Christian. And if each of us asks himself the question: Am I a Christian? That's it, with a capital letter. Am I really a disciple of Chris-tov? Then, of course, many will have to confess that although they read the Gospel, they are far from it. Vladyka Anthony of Sourozh gave such an example in one of his conversations. Once, a man far from Christianity, from the Church, asked to give him the Holy Scriptures to read. And when he got acquainted with the Gospel, then, perhaps sharply, ardently, but so sincerely, he said: "But who are you after that, if you know this truth and do not live by it ?!"

The theory of Christianity is available to everyone today, there is an opportunity to put it into practice. However, practice is often sluggish. Our lack of will ...

I have heard the term “consumer Christianity”. So they say when people come to church just to light a candle, because they need something from God. They will come in some need, and then again "free". What can you say about this phenomenon?

It happens ... But I am not inclined to stigmatize it. People come to Church in different ways. Someone came at the behest of the heart. And someone - having gone through a life tragedy, having lost loved ones. If a person feels that loved ones need his prayers, and he himself needs consolation, he goes to church. Someone comes at the behest of the mind. The mind has asked for sublime truths, and a person, having understood himself, in his life, comes to church to find evidence for his thoughts.

People come to church in order to light a candle ... Well, there is such an image of piety: a person comes to a church at a certain time of his life, lights a candle, prays with some prayer of his own and leaves. Is it good or bad? Probably not bad at some stage. But this stage certainly needs to be expanded. In order to come to church consciously and communicate with Christ not only in a ceremonial way, but also in a different way: soul and heart. Such communication changes a person, and we can often see it. Yesterday he stopped by for a minute to light a candle, but today the whole service is standing and together with everyone he prays for "a sublime peace and the salvation of our souls", "for the welfare of God's holy churches", "for the goodness of the air and the abundance of the fruits of the earth."

People pray for different things. Why not be “consumer” prayers as well? They pray for health, for children, for a family. Someone came to pray for their kitty, for their dog, as we sometimes hear or read in notes. It amuses us a little and touches. But the Lord also responds to such a prayer. Vladyka Nestor, a Kamchatka missionary, recalled that once in his childhood he prayed that the Lord would have mercy on him, mom, dad and the dog Lily of the Valley. All prayer is accepted by the Lord. And this is good. In spiritual life, it is bad when we stand still. When we get addicted, our faith and churchness become a kind of ritual. Even if it is necessary, without which we cannot live, but, nevertheless, it is cold and callous. When faith turns into hypocrisy - a vicious state of the soul, in which a person has only the external, ordinary forms of the Orthodox. Those who have the pitchfork of piety, but denied its strength(2 Tim. 3, 5).

How to avoid this?

We must more often put ourselves before God: the Lord and me. How I live no -God or not? And if there are disagreements between our life and the Gospel commandments, then try to get rid of these disagreements. For this we have such help from God as the Sacrament of Confession, in which we open our souls to Him, and the Sacrament of Communion, in which we are united with Christ. In the sacraments of the Church, the Lord gives us strength and courage to resist sin, strengthens our faith.

Egoism has been actively developing in society lately. And it is no longer treated as something negative. On the contrary, television, the secular press, and, especially, advertising preach self-love as the most convenient and promising life position. Sometimes church people are also "infected" with such attitudes. What can you tell them?

Selfishness as a position in life cannot be promising. Maybe not for long. When worries about personal benefit, about their comforts become leading in our life, then love for loved ones and for all those around us will inevitably escape from it. And then Christ also leaves. What are the prospects here? "Without God, no horns," - they say among the people. And will the Lord come to help us in some of our affairs, if we are guided in everything not by love, which we should show to our neighbor, but only by our own selfish considerations?

Where people are busy only with themselves, think only of themselves, admire only themselves, indifference and callousness are certainly born. Society, one might say, "grows stale". The principle is legitimized: my hut is on the edge. And Christ tells us that we cannot be indifferent to our neighbor, and our hut cannot be on the edge.

In connection with this, the thoughts of Elder Paisius of Athos are interesting, who says that an indifferent person cannot become either a monk or a family man. In general, it turns out that it is difficult for an indifferent person to be a good Christian. Because Christianity is known by love. For the love of God, for the love of one's neighbor, and for rational love for oneself.

Elder Paisius said about himself that when he, living on Athos, left his cell, he always listened: if there was any disaster, and sniffed, and then there were frequent fires - if there was a smell of burning. He couldn’t help much, but he could pray. This is an example of how a person should relate to himself and the world around him. In the Christian life, it is important not only to exclude the leadership of the passions, but to “include” the leadership of love.

The Monk Abba Dorotheos in his teachings gives a remarkable diagram, which shows the relationship of people to God and to each other. The circle, in its center - God, people along the radii go to God and become closer to each other. That is, the closer to God - the closer to each other, the closer to each other - the closer to God.

Do you think there are any new sins in your life today?

There are more temptations. And the opportunity to follow them. Drug addiction, addiction to slot machines, computer addiction, when computers are not used for good. Sometimes the TV becomes the master of the human soul and body. And then here's another telephony. Especially in women. We can say that these are new sins. But they must be resisted in the same way as the old ones. And in order for the Lord to help us, to keep us from sin, it is necessary in every action to be aware of whether I am fasting correctly, is it time for me to confess.

Before, when there was at least a general relative pureness of morals, people looked differently at their relations with each other. They looked differently at matrimonial foundations, at building a family, at keeping faithfulness. Now both men and women take it too lightly. Blame them, stigmatize them, I think it's not worth it. Life gives its lessons, and not always the best. Now there is a lot of impure, sinful information. It comes not only from the media, but also from others. Previously, it was not customary to talk about their sins, they were hidden, now people are much less embarrassed.

Active citizenship. Is it appropriate for an Orthodox person?

It is necessary to actively respond to anti-Christian, anti-social phenomena. They say that God is betrayed by silence. But the response must be appropriate. If you deem it necessary to say something, and at the same time know that you will be heard, then it is necessary to say. If you want to testify in some other way to your position, and this testimony of yours can change the situation, then act as you see fit, according to your heart. But in the Holy Scripture there are these words: Do not expose the blasphemer, so that he does not hate you; convict the wise, and he will love you (Proverbs 9, 8). It is not superfluous to have them in mind. Sometimes the situation can be changed or, at least, tenuous, simplified by your words. And sometimes you know in advance that there will only be a surge of your emotions and nothing more, and the reaction to your actions will be negative, then it is better to hold back. In a word, it is also necessary to act according to reason.

But if in his inaction and silence a person is guided by fear, selfishness or laziness, then, of course, he will be wrong.

There is information that the prayer books will be translated into Russian. I would like to know your opinion on this issue.

It happens that a person prays in his own words, and the Lord hears him. Cell room, home prayer maybe in Russian. And as for the translation ... If someone finds it difficult to read in Church Slavonic, then you can first read the interpretation of the prayers. In order not to reduce the language to our level, but to catch up to the Church Slavonic language ourselves. Although somewhere there are clever translations so that a person can express himself in familiar words. But at home. The liturgical language is a treasure that we need to keep. Russification of the language may well lead to vulgarization, to coarsening, and this, in turn, can weaken the spiritual foundations.

I have heard from young people that Christianity is not vital now, because Christianity is when nothing is impossible. What is your answer to such a statement?

Why is this Christianity - when nothing is allowed? Such a great follower of Christ as the Apostle Paul said: Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is useful; everything is permissible for me, but nothing should possess me (1 Cor. 6, 12). If we are talking about the pleasures of life, then everything is possible, but in moderation. And if there is no measure, then this is already a passion.

Of course, in youth everything is interesting, you want to try everything, to be in time everywhere. But if you want to achieve something, you need to limit yourself. Now, if the river has a wide path, then it is shallow. Flows, flows, and is lost in the backwaters. And if the path is narrow, compressed by the banks, then the river is deeper. With difficulty, it will break through its own channel and flow somewhere.

Each person is guided in life by his own values. If the center of my values ​​is God, then I check everything in the world, whether it is God's, is it Christ's? And if so, then this is mine and can be. And if not - not mine. When in the center of values ​​there are only pleasures, then higher education will seem unviable. After all, when you study, too much is impossible. To some, the multiplication table may seem lifeless. Also, after all, it is impossible to make three times seven forty.

In the modern world, divorce has become a common solution to a failed family life. The church has always stood guard over the family, and has a negative attitude towards divorce. But is it worth continuing family life if both spouses, as they say, cannot stand each other?

Just because they hate each other does not mean that they are not suitable for each other. And only that they have no patience. And this is not motivation for a divorce. Well, let's say they got divorced. She did not tolerate Petya, and then she would marry Vanya - now he must be tolerated. Can she? Question. And the question is big. This is how it happens: several times the same rake is stepped on.

A Christian or a Christian woman, first of all, should turn her attention to herself. Fight with by their shortcomings, to get rid of their passions, to attend confession more often. Call for the help of God. And try, with God's help, to keep the family together. But this is work. And serious work.

Of course, if a person marries only to get pleasure, then when these pleasures, for one reason or another, end, he already sees his stay in the family meaningless. And the very existence of his family seems to him meaningless. But this is not Christian. The Christian knows that he does not marry only for joy. And not only will he have consolation in the family. Marriage is a cross. The cross of life together, the cross of humility in front of one's half, the cross of the patience of her shortcomings. Orthodox spouses together carry this cross and follow in the footsteps of Christ.

What do you see as the main problem of the modern family?

It is precisely in the lack of patience. The fact that there is no habit of succumbing, keeping silent. It is possible and necessary to teach and denounce your family members, but with love for them, with condescension to their weakness. And here the correct word is not so important as the well-chosen time for it.

In a proper Orthodox family, usually the husband is the head. But what if, due to life circumstances or by nature, the wife is a general, and the husband is a private?

If we use this comparison, then I note that there can be no general without an army consisting of privates. If the “general” is in command in the family, and the “army” obeys and everyone is happy with each other, then such a family lives and prosper. But a wife, with her “generalship,” should have condescension and love for her husband, and he, in turn, appreciate his wife for taking upon herself some of his hardships and problems. Although even in this situation, she must remember that the head of the family is still a husband. And in life there may be, even necessarily will be, situations when she will have to obey him.

And if in such a family the husband, without any talents, without firmness, and, above all, without Christian wisdom, will ask from time to time: “Who is the boss in the house?”, And even with his fist on the table. .. But at the same time, neither by his life, nor by his wise behavior, nor by his deeds, can he show that he is really the master. Then, well, only one thing remains for the spouses - to be patient with each other. And that's all.

Tell me, are there any features of the behavior of a woman in the temple?

In Russian Orthodox Church it is customary for girls and women to come to services in modest clothes, covering her entire body, with their heads covered and without makeup. In some temples, women stand to the left and men to the right. This custom is especially appropriate during bows. Of course, now in the West, and sometimes women come to church in trousers and without a headscarf ... But our tradition seems to me more chaste, purer. It can be said that it has been consecrated for ten centuries of Christianity in Russia. We base it on the words of the Apostle that the adornment of a woman not external braiding of hair, not gold headdresses or fancy dress, but the innermost of the heart is a person in the non-perishable beauty of a meek and silent spirit, which is precious to God(1 Pet. 3, 3-4).

And here there is a reason to say about another feature of the behavior of a Christian woman in the church - about silence. Sometimes to serve ata woman is not dressed appropriately. Out of ignorance, or because she has such a special view of herself and she cannot dress differently. And because of this, they shriek at her, roughly pull her back, it happens, and chase her away. Such an active "goodness-honor" of some church parishioners, of course, is inappropriate. Here you can just remember the apostolic commandment: your wives in churches, let them be silent(1 Cor. 14:34).

And what about women's trousers? Is it possible or not?

If you can or cannot answer, then you must indicate where it is said. And nowhere is it said about women's trousers. The Scriptures only mention that a woman cannot wear men's clothing. But at that time neither women nor men wore trousers. However, we will not find women's trousers anywhere in the folk costumes of Christian countries. The Russian tradition also represents a woman in a skirt or dress. Why break it?

But if some woman wants to defend her right to pants ... Well, please. And if he cannot go to church otherwise, let him come in his usual clothes. But let him come. And there, over time, her consciousness will change, and she will see what is good and what is inappropriate.

How much should children obey their parents, and up to what age?

Children should always obey their parents. And how much? .. Of course, no one asks the baby. They just peel it, pack it, unpack it. He can express his displeasure, but mom pays little attention to this. But gradually the child grows, and at the same time his obedience grows. Obedience should be based on love. And therefore it depends on both the children and the parents.

Sometimes, in large families, where there are already quite adult children and old parents, parents transfer all their worries and affairs to the children. And the children do everything and take care of everything. They feed, drink, groom and rest their parents. And if such adult children respect themselves, respect their parents, then they always listen to them. And the word of the parents for them can be meaningful, serious and important. Any age.

It happens, for example, a very old dad, perhaps already a little out of his mind, will say to his son: "You are already there slower." And the loving son will listen: “Why is it slower? Could it be so announced to him? Maybe slower and better? " And a hundred, no, slow down your business to do something. And there, you see - it came out well.

How to protect a child from negative information that he can receive at school from other children or even from a teacher?

It is good when a child is friends with his parents. Will come from school and tell them everything. Then they will be able to warn him.

When sending a child to school, the mother must always pray. For the Lord to keep her child. He sent an angel of peace to guard him. The mother must bless the child so that his head is a container of good knowledge, so that he is well-behaved. And not just say: you can't do this or that. He probably already knows this memo by heart. And so to pray ... Together with him, maybe. Read a short prayer from your heart so that the Lord would hear both mother and child. If two of you agree on earth to ask for any deed, then no matter what you ask for a bulett for them from My Heavenly Father(Matthew 18:19).

How to relate to the so-called civil, that is, unregistered marriage?

Negatively. We know that a young man and a girl must have physical intimacy before the church marriage. We can only marry after civil registration. So - first register, then get married, and it will be a family.

Frequent story. The girl fell in love with the young man. Good, but not a believer. She thinks that in marriage she will be able to lead him to faith. How realistic is this, in your opinion?

Everything must be decided before marriage. And when already in marriage there is a clarification of relations, especially on religious, spiritual grounds, on the basis of faith, then it is very difficult. Of course, it happens that a person in this sense grows, looking at his half. But it is better if this is done before marriage, when it seems that all the spears are broken, it seems that all the questions have been clarified, the characters of each other are recognized. Then: Lord bless!

If he is a good person, and she sees her happiness only with him, and does not see any obstacles for herself, then it’s good to ask advice. Only now they say: to get married is not to fall, if only married not to perish. I know one woman, now she is already elderly, and when she was younger, she said with bitterness: "My husband and I do not have a single shared sacrament, except for the Sacrament of Marriage." She is from a church family, a believer, and, apparently, at one time he went to meet her and they got married. But that's all. They did not have a spiritual community. And it was bitter to her.

There are also the words of the Apostle that husbands who do not obey the word can be won for the Church by obedience and the life of their wives ... when they see your pure, God-fearing life(1 Pet. 3, 1-2). You can base your hope on them. But then a believing wife needs to unswervingly show this in her family. godly living... To be obedient, not to ascend, not to constantly nag the husband for what he is wrong about. Pray for him, be an example of the Christian life in everything: faithfulness, love and harmony. Then, perhaps, the husband will follow her.

I spoke with Archimandrite Alexy

Archpriest sergiy Nikolaev

It is obvious that man and humanity change over time. Christianity is changing along with them. It should be said right away that we are not talking about any "qualitative differences", but about those "images" of Christianity that are formed in different eras. In addition, in today's world, Christianity is often passed off as something that has nothing to do with it. How to recognize a fake?

We asked to help us deal with this. Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov- the rector of the church in the name of St. Nicholas in Kuznets, the founder and rector of the Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities - the largest Orthodox university in Russia for the laity. Father Vladimir is a wonderful pastor and confessor, whose opinion is trusted by thousands of our contemporaries. In addition, he, better than anyone else, can analyze the changes that have occurred with the Church and Christianity in the twentieth century: Father Vladimir heads the department at PSTGU recent history Of the Russian Church, which collects and systematizes materials about the Russian new martyrs, about the persecution of the Church in the previous century.

- Is being a Christian today the same as being a Christian fifty, one hundred, a thousand years ago?

Yes and no. It is always difficult to be a Christian. The apostles tell us: The world lies in wickedness (1 John 5:19), and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12). Persecution is not necessarily the same as it was during Soviet power when they were imprisoned and shot for their faith. And in the sense that at all times this world will not accept Christians. He will treat them as an alien element, will constantly push them away from him, squeeze them out, drive them out, and this will make it very difficult for them. This is the first thing.

Secondly, it is always difficult to fight with your passions. It is difficult to embark on the path that alone can make a person a Christian. This path is the cross, because the Lord said directly: if anyone wants to follow Me, deny yourself, and take up your cross, and follow Me (Matthew 16:24). That is, you need to deny yourself in order to be with Christ, to crucify yourself with passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24). It is always difficult, and this difficulty does not really depend on time.

But there are also specific difficulties of a particular era. In the first centuries of Christianity - persecution from pagans, demands to offer sacrifices to idols. Then - heresies. It was necessary to preserve the Christian life under the conditions of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine state, which took church slowly, with great difficulty and retained many pagan features. It was also very difficult to be a Christian at that time, as evidenced by the writings of the ancient holy fathers.

In our time there are difficulties, because this time, of course, is special. Time that suggests some kind of qualitative changes in the whole world. Globalization is taking place, the world is uniting - but not in some kind of good effort. Everywhere they talk about prosperity, prosperity, but what is really happening? All are armed. Vices triumph, they are spreading catastrophically and ruining entire generations, both physically and morally.

We can say that culture is dying. Cultural monuments are preserved, but in the souls of people the seeds of culture are lost, the younger generation does not even want to know about it. It is completely satisfied with a subculture, a fake modern culture, which, of course, has nothing to do with a true culture.

A new language appears, a new attitude. And even, as the remarkable elder Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) once remarked, the very composition of a person is changing: in some mysterious way his mental structure is changing. Very often in young people we cannot find those basic properties that, it would seem, have always been inherent in humans. But today we do not find depth, we do not find in a person that instinct that should have brought him to himself, even if he fell. This instinct is conscience. We see that in the younger generation, many voices of conscience do not hear. Under these conditions, it is, of course, difficult to be a Christian.

We must also acknowledge that Christianity has been largely compromised throughout the world. First of all, by the Christians themselves, whose appearance most often does not correspond to the evangelical… And there are a lot of forgeries, when nobody knows what is passed off as Christianity. This is a misfortune not only for our Church and our people - no, this is the case all over the world.

For example, we know that in various Christian denominations vices are now legalized, which have always been recognized as incompatible with the title of a Christian and were called mortal sins. They now receive “citizenship rights” because human rights exist. And since society needs to respect human rights, then the Church also needs to resolve vices - because people "have the right" to vice. Thus, human rights, which would seem to be a universal human value, are increasingly used as a means to legalize vices - that is, for evil, not good.

Such an orientation of the modern world - always to make a substitution, a fake - naturally, turns our thought to the Antichrist. because the antichrist is after all the one who comes instead of Christ, posing as Christ, will be a false Christ. This spirit of antichrist is more and more clearly manifested in the modern world, and above all - in such a counterfeit Christianity. And therefore, it seems to me that the most important thing for a modern Christian is the ability to distinguish fake from truth, the desire to live a genuine life, to be a real Christian, and not a fake one.

- Unfortunately, very often counterfeits creep into the lives of people who sincerely consider themselves to be believers. What distortions, or substitutions, are common today in the church environment?

In the church environment, the same problems prevail that dominate in society: the same vices that surround us, as if under pressure from outside, penetrate the Church. After all, a lot of people are coming to the Church now, and they bring with them everything that is in the world.

What are these vices? A terrible phenomenon is the love of money, the thirst for money, the worship of money. Mammon worship is more active than ever. The thirst to settle in this luxurious world and, as it were, forever, unwillingness to endure hardships, difficulties, bear the cross ... As a result, “convenient Christianity”, “easy”, comfortable, prosperous Christianity appears - one of the fakes, of course. because Christianity is a feat of the Cross, a true Christian always comes with difficulties.

Then - today's problems of family life. Before the revolution, there were no such problems: what an Orthodox family was, everyone understood, and these Orthodox families held Russia, were the mainstay of Russia. Although the ideal of the family persists to some extent among church people, it too is under tremendous pressure from outside, and this pressure is aimed at destroying the family.

At the same time, completely new principles of family life arose: the desire to "plan" a family, to limit the birth of children, that is, again, to build a comfortable life. After all, when there are many children in a family, this is a feat for parents. It is necessary to give birth to them, and to feed them, and to learn, and to educate them, and it can be close, and difficult, and restless with them. This is a difficult feat. Modern people they do not want to be left alone, they want them to have families, but, if possible, without such work. So that, if there is already a child, then one or, at most, two. In most cases, this is a rejection of the feat of family life.

This spirit permeates everywhere, and so does the families of those who call themselves believers. This is also a fake, very dangerous, which will soon bear its terrible fruits. There will be no Orthodox families, which means there will be no Orthodoxy, there will be no Orthodox people. Because if there are no children, who will go to church?

A huge problem is, of course, the priestly, pastoral ministry today. In our time, the place of a priest in the world is not always clearly defined.

Abroad, Orthodox priests often have to work in secular jobs in order to survive, because the community does not support them. And this also appears in Russia. I hope that there are few such cases so far, but they still exist. A consumerist spirit is strengthening in our people, and the people do not take responsibility for the life of the Church. He does not think that he should support the Church, help her with something. Even in order to make repairs in the church, the priest has to look for sponsors. Earlier, before the revolution, of course, there were also rich people - merchants, nobles, who at their own expense could build a temple and build them, but all the people participated in this. There were many temples erected by the "world", there were "ordinary" temples: the whole village gathered and in one day they erected a frame for the temple. And there were a lot of such examples, but now they are not.

The place of a priest in this world becomes incomprehensible to many in various aspects. The clergy no longer exists, as it used to be, and in some respects this may be good. Before the revolution, there were also different priests - better and worse, but who a priest was, it was clear to everyone, and the path of priestly deed was very clearly outlined. Today all kinds of people come to the priestly ministry, and many of them do not quite understand what it means to be a priest. Here the priest served in the temple, then left the temple - and he wants to be like everyone else. It does not fit in his heart that if he has become a priest, then he can no longer be “like everyone else”, that he is taken from this world and should no longer strive for this world.

It seems to me that this problem is already standing in front of us, and this is also the problem of counterfeiting: both pastors and parishioners are becoming different.

- Apparently, the reason is that in the twentieth century the tradition of priestly service was forcibly interrupted. For example, in our Saratov diocese there are practically no older clergy left. How did you start your ministry, how did your idea of ​​what a priest should be like?

My grandfather was a priest and died in prison for his faith. I was born a year after his death, I was named after him, and from childhood I felt a connection with my grandfather. Everyone told me that I would be a priest, and I myself somehow felt that I should be. I grew up in an Orthodox environment, and this succession, perhaps, is already on the edge, at the limit - all the same, I think that I managed to accept it. I saw old priests, I knew many wonderful elders closely, and therefore I am acutely worried that now this succession is not noticeable among the young clergy, or it barely flickers.

Indeed, where there is no older generation of clergy left, it is very difficult to transfer and preserve this succession. New generations appear, and they may be of a different spirit. This is also continuity, but not with those with whom it is necessary. Under Soviet rule, there were Tikhonists and Renovationists, and with which of them is the succession? After the war, the Renovationists joined the clergy of the Russian Church, and there were a lot of them.

In order to maintain a spiritual continuity with a truly Christian life, you need to know our new martyrs. You need to feel a spiritual connection with them, a spiritual kinship. We at our university put a lot of effort into this: we try to preserve their memory, give as much information as possible to our contemporaries about the new martyrs. So that they are present in our life, so that the spirit of their feat is dear and dear to us ...

-… especially since many people today do not have spiritual mentors.

Yes, the absence of spiritual mentors is also a special feature of our time. Until recently, all of Russia knew the elders - father John (Krestyankin), father Nikolai Guryanov, father Kirill (Pavlov). Now Fr. John and Fr. Nikolai have already left, Fr. Kirill is on his deathbed, and there is no sign of a replacement for them. Even in the early days of Christianity, it was predicted that the saints would never become scarce with God, but in last times they will conveniently hide themselves from people. I do not want to say that now are the last times, it is only God knows, but that there are few mentors, that the impoverishment is great - this is a fact. And this, of course, is the other side of the same problem: when there is no continuity and there is no spiritual leadership, then the replacement of the true spiritual life with surrogates takes place.

- In your book “Repentance. Confession. Spiritual Guidance ”a very bitter thought was expressed: modern Christians do not commit mortal sins, but they do not grow spiritually either. There are also visual images of "spiritual tourism" and "spiritual mountaineering".

- “Tourism” I called just such a “comfortable Christianity”, when I climbed onto some beautiful path, walk along it and say: “No, I won't go further.” This happens when a person is satisfied with liberal values, which are quite compatible with many grave vices. And "mountaineering" is an upward movement, no matter how difficult it is. If a person does not want a heroic deed, then how can one say that he accepts his cross?

The acquisition of truth in this world is accomplished only through achievement. In general, a real Christian life should be a heroic deed.

- Overcoming yourself?

Yes, and this is already a feat. And since the fallen world surrounds us, being a real Christian in it is an undoubted feat. Striving for Christ, and therefore for the exploit of Christ - this is true Christianity.

- Today's life (especially in the capital) is such that well-meaning believers, having received an education, getting a good job, can live quite calmly and comfortably. To achieve such a financial situation, they do nothing wrong, they do not particularly strive for wealth - they just have the means, this world simply gives them. How can such people be? Can't they consider themselves Christians?

- Especially for our time, the Lord sent a very special saint - Father John of Kronstadt ... They say that he was rich: after him a million royal rubles remained, and that was a lot of money at that time; he had many mitres, silk robes, he had carriages, some kind of steamer was carrying him. In general, he lived in abundance. But if we read his diaries, we will see that not only did he never strive for comfort, he did not even feel it, did not feel burdened by it, because comfort in his life seemed not to be present.

Why? He just lived differently - a huge personal feat, every day he gave himself completely to God and people so that he had no time to eat, he slept no more than 2-3 hours. He did not know peace, did not live for himself at all, was all in compassion for people. And if he had any opportunity, then he did not go to rest - but to the slums, to the terrible basements to the poor, fallen, drunk, criminals ... If he was given money, he, apart from counting, distributed it to the poor right away. And all the comfort that, it would seem, could give him rest, something pleasant - all this passed by him, without affecting his soul.

Thank God, now there is no persecution of believers, no war, no famine. We, indeed, live happily so far. So, so that this prosperity and comfort does not ruin us, does not deprive us of a genuine Christian life, we need our personal feat - the feat of prayer, the feat of serving God and people. Then no comfort and no money will be terrible.

Interviewed by Natalia Gorenok

REFERENCE

Archpriest Vladimir Nikolaevich Vorobiev was born on March 28, 1941 in Moscow. In 1965 he graduated from the Physics Department of Moscow State University. He worked at Moscow State University, then from 1968 he studied in graduate school and from 1971 he worked at the Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1973 he defended his dissertation and received the degree of candidate of physical and mathematical sciences.

In 1978 he entered the Moscow Theological Seminary, after graduating from it - the Moscow Theological Academy.

In 1979 he was ordained a deacon and then a priest.

He served in churches in Moscow. In 1997 he was appointed rector of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Kuznetsy and the temple attached to him Life-giving Trinity in Veshnyaki, which was opened and restored under the leadership of Father Vladimir.

In October 1990, together with close friends, he created and then became the confessor of the Brotherhood in the name of the All-Merciful Savior, which eventually became one of the largest brotherhoods in Russia (in 1994, it took care of 14 churches, of which 13 were restored). Under the leadership of Fr. Vladimir, Orthodox general education and Sunday schools, children's camps, a canteen for the poor, and a bookstore "Orthodox Word" were created.

In 1990, he became one of the organizers of the Theological and Catechist courses, in May 1991 he was elected rector of the courses, then in 1992 - rector of the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Theological Institute, into which the courses were transformed. In May 2004, the institute received the status of a university and became known as the Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities. At the university he lectured on the subjects "Introduction to the liturgical tradition of the Orthodox Church" and "Pastoral theology".

Heads the Department of Contemporary History of the Russian Orthodox Church at PSTGU, which carries out extensive work on the collection of materials on the persecution of the Orthodox Church in Russia during the Soviet era and publishes the scientific series “Materials on the Contemporary History of the Russian Orthodox Church” (since 1994). Since 1998 - a member of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints, actively participated in the preparation of the large-scale canonization of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Bishops' Jubilee Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.

Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov is the Deputy Chairman of the Educational Committee at the Holy Synod for licensing, accreditation and standards (since 2002); a member of the Synodal Theological Commission, the Publishing Council of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Scientific and Editorial Council for the publication of the "Orthodox Encyclopedia", a member of the editorial board of the magazine "Orthodox conversation" and other church and secular scientific and educational associations and organizations. He is the Deputy Chairman of the Council for Theology at the Educational and Methodological Association for Classical University Education in Russia.

Christ said: "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword," and also - "As the world hated me, so it will hate you." The Christian is called to a certain extent to confront the world. How to combine this with the pursuit of a career and prosperity? How to prepare children for this without raising them into gloomy, all-judgmental fanatics, and not pushing them away from the Church? This is what the confessor of the St. Vladimir Orthodox Training Center, the host of the TV show "Orthodox Encyclopedia" Archpriest Alexy UMINSKY, discusses.

Purpose and integrity

What does “social hardship” mean? A person has a low pension, poor medical care, lack of social guarantees, that is, he is not free in society, right? Due to his religious position, in my opinion, in our society, he cannot experience this.

And the opportunity to work in some areas? Opportunity to get a better paying job?

Yes, a Christian cannot work in some areas - in the porn business, in the gambling business and other places where sin is promoted and where there is an industry associated with sin. Everyone knows that.

But in principle, is an Orthodox person obliged to be successful?

No, I don't have to. Just as he doesn't have to be unsuccessful. Apart from God, he owes nothing to anyone. That is, as a citizen, he is obliged to comply with the laws of his country, pay taxes and live without violating the civil and criminal codes. And everything else concerns his duty to God, which the Gospel gives us. Success or failure is a personal matter for everyone, at will.

But the question may sound differently: should a person set a goal for himself to be successful? Can an Orthodox person even afford to set such a goal? The answer is maybe, although it doesn't have to. I don't have to, but I have the right.

Now an opinion has emerged that a modern Orthodox person is obliged to set himself such tasks - a professional career, success, in order to have more weight in the eyes of non-church people, to create an image of the Church as a community of successful people.

You need to understand what kind of success we are talking about. If about the concepts of the modern world, then you don't need to strive for such success, because this is equal to the love of money and the desire to establish your life without God, relying only on yourself. If it is about being responsible for your life, then in this case, of course, a person must be successful.

Success is understood in the modern world quite definitely - as success in achieving external goals with the ensuing increase in well-being. If success does not generate income, then it is not perceived as such. In this sense, the world sets before everyone the following task - to be ahead of progress, to be in the first roles, and all the ways to achieve this goal are good.

What is it for a believer to be successful? Bring the matter to the end, to victory; be a professional in your business; to improve in the area in which you are called ... It is rather integrity. Such success does not set itself the goal of increasing well-being in any way, but often - in a natural way - it does. This is how it should be - a person who knows how to work gets paid for it. A professional should be in demand and get good money - but this is not an end in itself.

You can be a great musician - for the sake of music; or to be a good doctor and help people, but not strive for career achievements, pushing everyone away with your elbows ... In the Christian sense, one must be successful. A Christian should not be a C in life - in the family, at work, in the church. He must successfully fight sin and "To be victorious over sin"... Relationship between spouses, professional duty, and active church life are what measures this. This is a clear criterion of how right you are living, and how much your life is going according to the will of God. And if a person justifies his unwillingness to work, to be responsible for his life, for his family, including his church obedience, by the fact that “it is sinful to think about success at all” - then this is an obvious substitution and a lie.

Nowadays, family success and career success often clash. It turns out that you are either successful in one, or in another.

So you have to choose the right success for yourself.

The question of success must be correctly posed, otherwise it may be like this: "Oh, we are Christians, we are not successful and we will boast of this." Foolishness is.

Open the doors to the outside

When raising children, you face the same opposition of sociality and orthodoxy. How to avoid the appearance in the child of a feeling of superiority in relation to non-church people, the pathos of belonging to a narrow (or wide) circle of Orthodox Christians?

A sense of superiority towards non-church people is, of course, fostered. It can only be avoided if the parents themselves do not experience it. And they do not deliberately bring up this in a child - after all, the feeling of superiority, elitism, and being chosen is really capable of protecting a child from meetings, friendship, activities, and so on, unnecessary from the point of view of parents. There are parishes in which the opinion is cultivated that it is generally impossible to be friends with non-church children, that a child should not walk in the yard at all, that a child should only go where they go from their parish. For example, they suggest that all children who do not go to church are ... "contagious" ...

You can learn bad things from them. All the songs that are sung there are demonic. And so on, to varying degrees of intensity, from obscurantist to intellectual. But the bottom line is: we are not like everyone else, and if you get there, you can quickly die. As soon as a child begins to be friends with someone not from the church, not from the parish - that's all, he is under suspicion, they say, it can end badly. That is, this is an attempt to create a kind of Orthodox vacuum for the child, to place him under a hood. As a result, the child will either become a vile Pharisee with this sense of superiority, or the first thing he does is happily throw him out and go all out.

There is another feeling in relation to non-church peers: envy. When raising children, we often hear the word "no", and it becomes the prevailing word in upbringing. That is not allowed, that is not possible - but unbelievers can do anything. It seems to me that we need to go some middle way, fostering in the child the ability and desire to communicate with other children, invite these children to their territory, open the doors of their family for "friends from outside", communicate with them, and then everything will fall into place. places.

This applies to teenagers ...

This does not concern adolescents any more, by this moment they have already been formed by something, it's all about the younger ones.

Considering that in general all concepts and values ​​are blurred in society, the desire to isolate your child from the world is understandable. Even unbelieving parents, it seems to me, are looking for some corner, some kind of sphere, where you can feel at least some more or less solid ground under your feet, something to lean on ...

This is understandable, yes. And what - if people have found the Church, they have their own landmarks - should this world be fenced off and “the world of Tsarevich Gautama” should be made? In this case, the child, coming out of the "underground", will not bring either himself or the Gospel into the world - he will not be able to.

But how to explain to children that some of the actions of others are sinful, that the world lies in evil, while not condemning anyone? How, for example, without judging, explain why someone has two mothers, or two fathers?

When we talk with children, we need to understand that children do not know how to judge. And we are not talking about what a bad person is, but about what actions are bad. As for "two mothers or two dads" - there is no talk at all about who is bad, who is good, what kind of dad, why two mothers ... This remains outside the brackets, because the child himself understands some things, besides, the child You can always say, "Well, you know, there are different situations in life."

There is no need to explain everything in detail. It seems to me that it is not so difficult to deal with this, because when we explain that actions are bad, it does not so much concern others as the principles of what is good and what is bad. And if the child asks the question “Why he acts so badly? "... Then, perhaps, we can say that perhaps this boy did not have time to explain that this is bad, but you know that! They will tell him about it.

What if the child has a desire to say something to another in order to correct him?

Let him say. This will be his childish business.

That is, we delegate the child the opportunity to "fix" someone? We can't, but can he?

Why can't we? Let's not treat the words we read or hear as overarching and absolute rules. Quite right, there is an exact ascetic rule - not to speak badly of anyone, thinking that you are talking badly about him, to educate and educate someone. But still, the understanding of these words cannot be narrowly focused. It is not worth making a cliche out of patristic quotes and measuring the rest of your life with this cliche without thinking about anything. Life is always wider, deeper and more unexpected.

So speaking badly about someone is one thing, but explaining to a child what is good and what is bad is another. It is necessary to somehow raise the problem of evil and explain the attitude towards this evil. And when a child is faced with this, parents should give him ways to solve this problem, help him solve it, and if he himself tries to do it - well, that's okay. If he is wrong, then we can correct him, who is not wrong?

In this case, a parent can only correct his own children. He is not obliged and does not even have the right to correct strangers.

THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN

CHRISTIAN ETHICS

1 - The purpose of the Christian life.

The goal of the Christian life - union with God and with other people in the likeness of the Trinity, consubstantiation - is achievable through communion with the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must be grafted into Him as branches to the vine (John 15.4-9). This is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is why it can be said that the goal of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit or His grace-filled gifts. And the greatest of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the holy love that unites everyone, or the inspiration of love and holy life. The one who has acquired the gift of love no longer lives according to his desires and considerations, but according to the inspiration of God, being the temple of the Holy Spirit, and can repeat after the Apostle “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20) ... Such a person is adopted by God the Father, he is a saint, due to which they say that the goal of the Christian life is holiness.

2 - Divine Revelation. (Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition).

Through His Divine Revelation, God Himself shows us the goal of true life and how to achieve it. Divine Revelation was given to the Church, that is, to the union of people who have already wished for unity with God and with each other. The Church keeps Divine Revelation, or living experience of communion with God, and passes it on to its members. This is called Holy Tradition. In its composition, the most precious is Holy Scripture, that is, the Divine Revelation sealed in writing by people specially chosen by God for this purpose.

Assimilation of the Holy Scriptures is the first step on the path to God.

The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are a single whole, but for Christians - New Testament- lies at the basis of everything, and above all the Gospel, which captures the image of Jesus Christ Himself, manifested in the events of His life, in His deeds and words.

The Incarnation and the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Church took place only once, which determines the uniqueness of the Scriptures of the New Testament. Nothing can be added to them or subtracted from them.

Reverent reading of Holy Scripture not only gives us knowledge about God, but, in part, knowledge of God Himself, to some extent communicating us to Him, especially through the Gospel.

Sacred Tradition is not the result of abstract knowledge transmitted for memorization. Living truth is transmitted for assimilation by a living heart. This is possible with grace-filled help, in other words, with a new private revelation of God. Divine truth is always the same, but the form of its assimilation changes depending on the person who perceives it, as well as on the time and place (era, country) where the assimilation of the truth takes place. Hence - the difference between prayers, rituals, sermons, theological works, as well as the inevitable change in some of their forms.

3 - Composition of Sacred Tradition.

In addition to the Holy Scripture, any written and oral word offered by the Church for spiritual edification to believers, as well as some sacred rites, can be part of the Holy Tradition. After Holy Scripture greatest value have dogmatic decrees of the Ecumenical Councils and the sacraments of the Church, liturgical texts and rituals, as well as canonical decrees, the writings of the Holy Fathers, theological works and sermons, but not all of them are equal, and can, in accordance with the living experience of the Church, acquire something more or less meaning in the composition of the Holy Tradition.

The content of Divine Revelation can be divided into five parts. 1) Revelation about the Trinity God Himself and His Divine life. 2) Teaching about God - the Creator of the world, about the creation of the world and man, about their purpose and the fall. 3) About God incarnate and about the Holy Spirit working in the world, that is, the teaching about the salvation of mankind. 4) About the Church and the Holy Sacraments. This is already a transition to moral teaching. And, finally, 5) teaching about the spiritual or moral life of a person (ethics).

It is better, in turn, to divide this last part into three sections: 1st, about the images of the true, righteous life of a person; 2nd, about obstacles to a truly Christian life, that is, about passions and about sins; 3rd, on the means of overcoming evil and gaining a blessed life.

5 - Dogmatic and moral teaching of the Church.

From the Divine Revelation about God Himself, about the world and man, sealed in the dogmas of the Church, we learn that God is love (1 John 4:16), and this allows us to see all the perniciousness of evil and do right choice between light and darkness. But in addition to these truths, which are the subject of dogmatic theology, Divine revelation teaches us how exactly to go to the light, which is the subject of moral theology.

6 - The basic laws of the spiritual life of a person and their disclosure in Old Testament.

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Mark 12: 30-31). These two basic laws of human life “in spirit and in truth”, expressed in the form of advice or commandments, are already indicated in the Old Testament, where their meaning is revealed in the image of people who tried to live according to them. But in the Old Testament, only the sons of the chosen people were revered as neighbors. Such a limitation of the moral ideal is unacceptable for Christians who know about the universality of Divine love. But we must not forget that the Old Testament only prepared the New Testament, and Israel was not only one of the many nations, but was a school of faithfulness to God, the people of God, the Old Testament Church, that is, the embryo of the New Testament Church, universal.

The images of some of the Old Testament righteous are so beautiful that they are types of the Lord Himself. For example, the innocently suffering and meek Abel, Isaac, Joseph, Job, or Moses are the leader and teacher of his people, completely devoted to serving him, as a prototype of the salvation of all people in the ministry of Christ.

But in the Old Testament there are also examples of apostasy from God and images of evil people and deeds. Such, for example, is the story of Cain and Abel, in which it is branded with superhuman strength “the murder of man by man (which is not found in any ancient religion).

The divinely revealed teaching of the Old Testament about the spiritual life of man is revealed in many commandments, among which the ten commandments of Moses or the Decalogue retain their significance for Christians. The first four of them reveal the commandment about love for God, and the rest - about love for man. Most of them have a negative form of prohibitions, indicating the main obstacles to a godly life.

8 - First and second commandments.

The first commandment proclaims the main truth that God is one: "I am your God and may you have no other gods besides Me."

The second commandment clarifies the first: "do not make images of anything in heaven, on earth, or in the water, do not worship or serve them." This is a warning against pagan worship of false gods. Meanwhile, there are idolaters to this day, moreover, among those who do not consider themselves to be such, and even among Christians. These are all those who recognize some relative value as the highest, considering, for example, the most important triumph of their people, or their race, or their class (chauvinism, racism, communism). An idolater and one who sacrifices everything for money, for personal glory, for wine or other pleasures. All this is a betrayal of God, the substitution of a false goal for a true goal, the subordination of the whole to the particular and the higher to the lower. This is a perversion of life, illness, ugliness and sin, leading to the disintegration of the personality of the idolater himself, and often to the death of other people. In view of this, the second commandment can be understood as a warning against all sin in general.

9 - The third commandment.

The third commandment: “Do not utter the Name of the Lord your God in vain” protects the basis of our communication with God - prayer. With His Word, God created the world. The Word of God, having become incarnate, became our Savior. Therefore, our word (after all, we are the image of God) has great power. We must carefully pronounce every word, and especially the Name of God revealed to us by God Himself. It can only be used for prayer, for blessing, and for teaching the truth. By pronouncing the Name of God in vain, we unlearn to use it properly and weaken our ability to communicate with God. The Lord Jesus Christ also warns us against the oath (Matt. 5.34 37). Blasphemy, murmurings against God, blasphemy and godliness are especially harmful for a person. But any evil or false word has destructive power: it can destroy friendship, family and even entire states. The Apostle James writes about the need to curb the tongue with special power in the 3rd chapter of his epistle. If God and His Word are Truth and Life Itself, then the devil and his word are lies and the source of death. The Lord said that the devil is a murderer from the beginning, a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).

10 - The fourth commandment.

“Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Work six days, but give the seventh day to the Lord your God. " This is a reminder that our deeds are the path to God, outside of whom there is no rest. In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was the image of God's rest after the creation of the world, or otherwise. His inner divine life, and thus the image of the highest spiritual (contemplative) life of man, to which the Sabbath rest called and taught. For Christians, the day of the Lord is Sunday, the day of prayer, the day of assimilation of the Word of God and the Eucharist. The first Christians were excommunicated from the Church if they did not receive Communion on two Sundays in a row.

Christ supported his teaching on the inseparability of love for God and for man by the fact that he healed the sick on God's day, on Saturday. Now the sign of our indivisible love for God and for man is, first of all, participation in the Eucharist: it gives us the strength to do good. Therefore, on all Sundays and holidays we have a liturgy.

11 - The fifth commandment.

“Honor your father and your mother, and it will be good for you, and you will live a long time” - this is not only a call to love your parents, but also an indication of the basis of love for each person. To learn to love everyone, we must first love those who are closest to us (1 Tim. 5.8). Perfect love is typified by the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for His Heavenly Father. The unity of all, to which people are called, begins in the Christian family. Honoring parents and paying attention to their advice is the foundation of culture. Disrespect for them (which is personified by Noah's second son, Ham) is the beginning of the disintegration of every human society and falling away from the Church.

12 - The sixth commandment.

“Thou shalt not kill” is the main commandment, since murder is the ultimate opposite of love. To love means to wish the fullness of every good to the beloved and, above all, the fullness of life, and therefore eternal being. Murder is also suicide, since it destroys in the heart of the killer the basis of life - love.

But outright suicide is the gravest sin. It denies all trust in God and hope in Him, as well as the rejection of the possibility of repentance. This is practical atheism and the most unnatural thing that a person can do. The methods of murder and suicide are innumerable, especially when you consider indirect murder. You can kill not only with weapons and hands, but also by word and silence, and by glance and unwillingness to look. After all, every sin, as a violation of the laws of true life, is indirect murder. The unwillingness to protect or save another is also murder. Protection may require not only self-sacrifice, but also violence, sometimes murder. This justifies, to a large extent, a warrior who kills in war, but if he does not kill out of hatred, or out of thirst for blood. But this does not always justify war, which is evil in itself. The main responsibility for the war lies with the rulers and leaders of the peoples. Politics and methods of waging war are subject to moral assessment, which is more and more forgotten in our age.

13 - Seventh Commandment.

Any extramarital union of a man and a woman is a direct violation of the commandment “do not commit adultery,” but any sensual excess and any action that contributes to this is revered as a violation of it. In the Christian marriage union, where generic life is conditioned by personal relationships filled with deep love, it does not violate spiritual harmony. Outside of marriage, the manifestation of the generic instinct is easily isolated into an independent sphere, which destroys the integrity of the human personality. This is all the more dangerous because all the lofty creative impulses of a person are closely connected with his generic life. Temperance increases spiritual strength, and their licentiousness relaxes and, often, leads to various diseases, which are reflected in the descendants of the sinner. The promiscuity of sex life causes disorder in relationships with people, sometimes violent enmity. In the fight against sinful temptations, especially in the ancestral area, direct share efforts are not enough. It also requires the cultivation of other, higher interests in oneself, and, of course, prayer and participation in the blessed life of the Church, and, most importantly, a living love for God and for people.

14 - Eighth, ninth and tenth commandments.

The commandment “do not steal” warns against sin, which can greatly damage love between people. Property is often necessary condition a person's life, ensuring his future, and sometimes a connection with the past; often it is a condition for creativity, and sometimes its fruit. Like a name, property is a symbol of the person himself. Therefore, the thief can hurt the very deep sides of the personality of the robbed, inflict a real moral injury on him. However, one cannot attach absolute importance to certain types of property, private or public. According to the teachings of the Monk Cassian the Roman, property is neither good nor evil, but something in between, which can become good or evil.

Christ's teaching does not provide a basis for any specific economic system, but provides a criterion for how to judge property in different cases. And this criterion is the spiritual good of a person.

Ninth commandment: “Do not bear false witness against your friend”, except for the conviction of the sin of false testimony at the trial, is understood by church interpreters as a warning against every sin in word, that is, it is considered as an addition to the third commandment.

Tenth commandment warns against envy and the desire for someone else's good, in other words, against internal evil, which is the cause of external. In this respect, the tenth commandment is similar to the New Testament commandments.

15 - On the moral teaching of the New Testament in comparison with the teaching of the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament commandments about love for God and for one's neighbor, a revelation about the basis of true life has already been given, but its inner content is barely revealed. The Decalogue, for example, indicates only that which is contrary to love, and even then more at the fruits of evil. In the New Testament, true life is revealed in fullness as perfect Divine love. She appeared in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ - God Himself, who became a man, in His life and in His teaching, and then, after Pentecost, by the power of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of Christians.

16 - About the deeds of Christ, about His miracles.

The life of the Lord Jesus Christ, His redemptive feat and His triumph have been said above, but the teachings of Christ and His miracles, which He called His “works,” provide images of true life on the path of man. The miracles of Christ testify to the perfection and power of Divine love, which delivers a person from evil and bestows the fullness of all good. Thus, having transformed water into wine for marriage in Cana of Galilee, the Lord increased joy; By casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead, He delivered from the suffering and sorrowful consequences of sin.In miracles over nature: taming the storm, walking on water, multiplying bread, the Lord also manifested His love, restoring the power of man over the elements that was lost through the fall. But, in addition, the Lord resurrected souls killed by sin, and all other miracles served as a means of which, along with His word. Through them, the Lord strengthened in people love for Him and faith in Him, i.e. those forces without which the soul is dead. The Lord refused to work miracles that boggle the imagination and force one to believe, but he worked miracles, noticing the already incipient faith, thereby showing that He does not force, but calls for good. Performed by the power of the Holy Spirit, that is, by the power of Divine love, the miracles of Christ did not exceed the capabilities of human nature, and the Lord granted the power of miracles to His followers.

Finally, having established the holy ordinances, the Lord gave people the opportunity, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, to always be witnesses and participants in His miracles. The sacraments of the Church are Christ's continuing miracles. In the sacrament of the Eucharist, everything is found that the Lord during His earthly life bestowed upon people: the power of the spirit over matter, the expulsion of evil spirits, the healing of soul and body and the pledge of our resurrection in glory.

Thus, the miracles of Christ are for us God's call to mercy, hope, faith and love. No less than the words of the Lord, they teach us what we must do to become partakers of eternal life.

17 - Christ's call to love by examples of love.

Love is always a free act; therefore, love cannot be commanded. You can only call for love. You can also kindle love, but only with your love. Everything that we need to know about love, most often the Lord revealed in images, and images are not commands, by calls. The greatest image of love and the call to it is the Lord Himself. The miracles of Christ were images of perfect love, but His words are often figurative : The Lord Jesus Christ constantly speaks to us ”in parables.

18 - Parables about the Heavenly Father.

Calling us to be “perfect, as the Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5.48), who commands the sun to rise over the wicked and the good and sends rain on the just and the unrighteous (Matt. 5.45), the Lord in His parables first of all gives us an image of the Divine love of His Father. Such a revelation about the love of the Heavenly Father is, for example, the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15: 11-32); it reveals that God is ready, at the first repentant movement of the soul, to revive and fully grace it. This parable also shows us that love is not only compassion, but also joy.

The Lord also speaks of the Heavenly Father's mercy in the parable of the unrighteous judge (Luke 18: 1-8), of the son asking for bread and fish (Matt. 7: 9-11), of the Vineyard giving up His Son as a sacrifice (Matt. 21, 33-41; Mark 12: 1-12; Luke 20: 9-19). The Father's mercy is revealed even in the parable of workers hired at different times and receiving the same wages (Matt. 20: 1-16). All these parables are a call to cognize the perfect love of Heavenly Father and to partake of its power and bliss.

19 - Parables about the Savior Himself.

In other parables the Lord speaks of Himself. So in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (Matt. 25: 1-13) Christ reveals Himself to be the Bearer of the highest joy. Bridegroom of the Church and every soul. In the parable of the Good Shepherd (John 10: 1-16), the Lord speaks of His saving sacrifice for all, His concern for the unity of the Church, and of Himself as the only door through which it is possible to enter the area of ​​abundant life. In the parable of the lost sheep, the Lord teaches that one human soul has the same value for Him as all souls together. The meaning of this parable is especially important for the pastors of the Church, as they are called to be a living example of Christ's love.

Of particular importance is the parable of the Last Judgment (Matt. 25: 31-46). It contains the teaching of the Lord, as the Judge of all people, and that the world is judged by love. The main justification of a person is in the fruits of his mercy and in striving for it. The parable indicates the main signs of compassionate love: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick and the prisoner. The Lord, out of His immeasurable love, identified Himself with every person, therefore, while pleasing or, on the contrary, offending our neighbor, we please or offend Him Himself. He who loves his neighbor, whether he realizes it or not, loves God Himself, since to love means to see in a loved one the infinitely valuable, the image of God. But a moment will come when a person learns that having fallen in love, having pity on his neighbor, he met God, because God is love; and passing by the afflicted one, he rejected the Lord Himself. Each meeting of ours with a neighbor, especially one struck by failure and suffering, is for us the beginning of the Last Judgment, whoever understands this can hopefully await the final judgment.

The Lord Jesus Christ also teaches us that without Him we cannot do anything truly good, and that Christian life is not a simple chain of good deeds, not just philanthropy, but a constant ascent to God; and in this ascent He always goes with us and helps us.

20 - Parables about the Kingdom of God, about the Church and grace.

The Gospel is the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Lord taught about him more than anything, for He came to found this Kingdom and called to enter it. The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Christ, but it is also the Father's House, as well as the Kingdom of grace and the realm of the Holy Spirit.

The beginning of the Kingdom of God on earth is the Church of Christ. But the Lord dwells primarily in the hearts of people, therefore the Kingdom of God is not only the Church, which is among us, but also the Spirit of God, dwelling in a pure heart. In either sense, the Kingdom of God is the highest value. In His parables, the Lord calls him a treasure hidden in the field (Matt. 13:44), for the sake of which one cannot but give everything that one has; a precious pearl worth all other possessions (Matt. 13:45); a house built on stone and which nothing can crush (Matt. 7.24).

The saints who are worthy to ascend to the highest stages of spiritual life unanimously testify to the highest blessed gifts surpassing all other values. They argue that nothing in the world is worth the nearness of God. But sinful people sometimes experience, for example, after Communion or when meeting with a noble deed, an incomparable feeling of joy and tenderness. For many, the highest experience is liberation from sin and pacification of conscience.

In the parables about the mustard seed (Matt. 13.31; Mark 4.31), about the leaven (Matt. 13.33), or even about the seed thrown into the ground (Mark 4.26), the Lord in advance, to encourage people , indicates how imperceptibly the growth of the Church will take place, and in it - the spiritual growth of man.

21 - Parables about human behavior.

In some parables, finally, the Lord gives images of the right and wrong behavior of a person. In them, everything that is in agreement with the will of God shines with heavenly beauty, and the inappropriate repulses.

Such examples are given in the parables of the publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18.10), the prodigal son (Luke 15.11), the merciful Samaritan (Luke 10.30), the king and the wicked servant (Matthew 18:23 ), about the rich and poor Lazarus (Lk-16.19), about two debtors (Luke 7.40), about two sons (Matt. 21.28), about a bitch and a beam in the eye (Matt. 7.3; Luke 6.41) and some others.

22 - Teaching of the Lord about the causes of sin.

Apart from parables. The Lord taught by direct words both about Heavenly Father, about Himself and the Holy Spirit, and about the spiritual life of a person. For He did not come to break, but to fulfill the law (Matt. 5:17).

The Old Testament law mainly warned against external manifestations of evil and its fruits, while the Lord pointed to the very roots of sin. So, the sixth commandment of the decalogue says: “do not kill”, and the Lord Jesus Christ says: do not be angry, do not take revenge, goodbye, do not judge and do not even judge. The Seventh Commandment teaches ; “You shall not commit adultery,” and the Lord explains that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully is already committing adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5.28). Thus, the Lord revealed to us that sin originates in our hearts, and that is why we must begin the struggle with sin by cleansing the heart from bad desires to thoughts, since “evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury come from the heart , blasphemy. It defiles a person ”(Matt 15:19).

23 - About the origin of sin and about the fight against it.

Following the Lord's commandment about the need to cleanse your heart from bad dispositions and on the basis of their own experience of spiritual struggle, the holy Apostles, and after them the Holy Fathers, developed a detailed teaching on how sin arises and how to fight it.

First comes the sinful notion. This is not yet a sin, but a temptation. If a person begins to compassionately look at this idea - this is already the beginning of sin. From slowing down on a sinful representation comes a sinful feeling and delight in it. Finally, the will also inclines to sin, and man commits it by his very deed. Once committed, a sin is easily repeated, and repetition causes a sinful habit, and then a person is already at the mercy of this or that vice or passion.

The easiest way to defeat evil is to fight it at the very beginning, when it is just incipient, when a bad idea appears. The further, the more difficult the struggle becomes. Fighting a passion, vice, or bad habit is very difficult. But in order to drive away bad thoughts at the very beginning, you need to be able to understand them, learn to be attentive to yourself, to know yourself. Having recognized a bad thought, you should cut it off, that is, turn your attention to more tall item... It is not easy. It is best to immediately pray to God, asking Him to drive away temptation, when a bad thought appears (whether it be the thought of anger, resentment, envy, greed, or sensual lust).

More than other prayers, the Church Fathers advise to say the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The one who does this learns, little by little, to control himself, and then acquires a constantly peaceful and joyful state of mind. The Holy Fathers call the work on the construction of one's soul “the science of sciences” and “art of the arts,” and without it there is no real Christian life. Saint Isychius of Jerusalem says: “unless a person does the will of God within his heart, then he cannot do it outside” (2nd volume Good § 86).

24 - About love for enemies.

The Lord Jesus Christ not only called for the cleansing of the heart, but also taught something new external behavior... He taught not to take revenge on offenders and give in to harassers: “Do not resist the evil one. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also; and whoever wants to sue you and take your shirt, give him your outer garment as well; Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you (Matt. 5: 39-40.42).

Moreover, the Lord called to love your enemies: “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you” (Matt. 5.44). The Lord called people to perfection, knowing that love is not shared: whoever loves some, but harbors anger towards others, does not have true whole love, and love for friends may soon turn into enmity. It is not so with God: He is completely and always love, “He commands His sun to rise over the wicked and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5.45).

25 - About forgiveness and non-condemnation of neighbors.

An obstacle to perfect love is not only outright anger and inability to forgive offenses, not simple condemnation. "Judge not lest ye be judged. And why are you looking at the bitches in your brother's eye, but you don't feel the beam in your eye? First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see how to remove the twig from your brother's eye ”(Matt. 7: 1-5).

Judgment and especially condemnation is already that beam that prevents one from seeing the image of God in another person and from loving him. The Lord repeatedly pointed out that sin is nothing but sickness, and that He came to heal sinners: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick; I came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance ”(Matt. 9: 12-13). The Lord Himself showed the highest examples of forgiveness and refusal to judge and condemn: on the cross He prayed for those who crucified Him; and earlier - He did not condemn a woman taken in adultery; he did not condemn for an excess of love, but it is this love that shames, burns and cleans with its light.

"Who set Me to judge or divide you?" (Luke 12:14), said the Lord. And again: “God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17) and “I did not come to judge”. peace, but save the world ”(John 12:47).

Nevertheless, another time the Lord does not deny that it is to Him that the final judgment belongs - “The Father gave all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22), but explains that “the judgment consists in the fact that the light came into the world, but people loved darkness more than light ”(John 3:19), and the light is the Lord Himself:“ I am the light of the world, whoever follows Me ... will have the light of life ”(John 8,12; 9,5).

So we, following Christ, should shine with love, the light of forgiveness. Only this light can be our judgment. He who loses unclouded, all-forgiving love, loses the power that protects the world from decay. “You are the salt of the earth, - says Christ, if salt loses its strength (love), it is no longer good for anything” and, further, “you are the light of the world, so let your light shine before people so that they see your good deeds and glorify Your Father in Heaven ”(Matt. 5: 13-16).

26 - On the dangers of wealth.

The Lord warns not only against direct evil, but also against everything that can distract us from God - against unnecessary entertainment and worries. Thus, the Lord shows how a rich man who has given himself over to pleasures does not even notice the beggar Lazarus who is suffering next to him. “Do not be anxious for your soul, what you eat and what to drink, nor for your body, what to put on ... Your Heavenly Father knows that you have a need for all this. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you. So, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of its own: there is enough for each day of its own concern ”(Matt. 6: 25-34). This, of course, is not a call to indolence and carelessness, but a warning against excessive concern for the future, which, perhaps, will not exist. Only the present belongs to us, and, meanwhile, a person is often inclined to destroy it for the sake of dreaming about the wrong future. Such are, for example, all utopians who, now for the sake of a supposedly better social order for the future, now for the triumph of their race, without stopping before massacres and other violence, are destroying the present. Such utopianism often uses the formula “the end justifies the means”. But also in privacy people strive for the future, trampling on the present. It is especially dangerous if this pursuit is driven by self-interest. “Time is money” is another formula used by these lovers of the future. This formula in itself, to a sufficient extent, exposes the sinfulness of those who accept it. Money is always only a means, not a value and an end. The one who deifies money, that is, means, denies real goals and values. Each moment of time can become a real value if it does not serve only as a means to the next and if we are immediately ready to give it to something valuable. This is possible if we live not only in the future, but also in the present, and if we know how not only to act, but also to contemplate. Only through the present and through attention to it can the eternal be achieved. And God can be found only in the present moment, and not in dreams of the future. Meanwhile, the civilization of our era with its technology and accelerated pace of life almost deprives a person of the opportunity to live in the present, to contemplate, to pray, to meet with God. The Lord warns against this danger in the parable of the rich man who decided to break his grain storage facilities in order to build new ones, not knowing that he would die the next night (Luke 12: 16-21). Speaking about the danger of excessive concern, the Lord also warns against wealth in general: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:24), and it is even “more convenient for a camel to pass through the ears of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God” (Matt. 19 , 24). Confused by these words, the Apostles ask the Lord: "Who can be saved?" (Matthew 19:25)

27 - About the meaning and character of the Gospel commandments.

The question of Christ's disciples: "Who can be saved?" - this is the shudder of human weakness before the absoluteness of the Gospel call. A similar question can be raised by someone who hears the call: “Love your enemies” (Luke 6.27). How to love when there is no love? Who can be saved? The answer of the Lord removes all doubts and in it contains all the power and the whole meaning of the moral teaching of Christ: “For men this is impossible, but for God everything is possible” (Matt. 19:26). All the Gospel commandments, and especially the commandment of love, are not commands, but calls. In response to the call, a person can seek love, but God Himself gives love itself. Love is the highest gift of the Holy Spirit, but God does not refuse this gift; “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,” says the Lord, “how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:13). God Himself is love. From a person, however, it is required, first of all, to eliminate everything that interferes with love, and this is in the power of a person, as well as in the power of a person to ask God, to pray. It is in the power of man to do more: to try to act as if he already loves. This is what the Lord commanded: “As you want people to do to you, so do you to them; for in this is the law and the prophets ”(Matt. 7:12).

28 - About a blessed life.

Although the commandments of Christ, and among them the main ones about love for God and for people, are not decrees, but. appeals, nevertheless, they are the basic laws of the spiritual life of man, created in the image and likeness of God. Outside of love, there is no true life, but only death, hellish torment and emptiness. Therefore, the impracticability of the Gospel calls is only imaginary. The Lord Himself fulfills His commandments, for example, about love for enemies, for us by His grace-filled power, however, not without us, but expecting from us only what is in our power. Man's love for God is never unrequited. This is the law of human life - to live always with God.

The Christian life is by no means just a certain respectable behavior, corresponding to external rules, executed out of fear of punishments, especially cruel ones beyond the grave. This is a truly divine-human life, together with God, similar to a marriage union. The man is asking. God answers; the person is grieving. God comforts; man is delusional. God shows the way.

Christian life is a life of grace, and this is its fundamental difference from any life, even if it is highly moral, outside the Church. That is why the Lord says: “My yoke is good and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:30).

29 - The narrow path of the Christian. Carrying the cross. Dying and Resurrection with Christ.

The yoke of Christ is indeed good and His burden is truly light. In them is hidden the bliss of always free love, but due to the sinful corruption of man, a difficult, narrow path leads to the Kingdom of God. You need to renounce not only all evil, vain entertainment and worries, but sometimes all your property: “if you want to be perfect, go, sell your property and give it to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven ”(Matt. 19:21). The Lord also speaks of great sacrifices: “If someone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, and his wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and, moreover, his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14 , 26).

How to understand this when the Lord Himself calls for reverence for parents (Matt. 19.19)? These words mean that love for loved ones should not interfere with love for God, or otherwise, it should not be selfish. We must love people by themselves, and not for the benefit or pleasure that they bring to us, so that loved ones do not turn out to be just a means to self-indulgence. Such love is fragile and distant from God.

The Lord finally expects from a person a complete renunciation of everything and of himself; this is the co-crucifixion with Christ. “Every one of you who does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33), says Christ; and again: “If anyone wants to follow Me, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Me” (Luke 9.23; Mark 8.34).

But all these sacrifices in themselves have no value; they are only the path to the highest good - to love. The Apostle Paul writes: “If I distribute all my possessions and give my body to be burned, and not love. I have, it is of no benefit to me ”(1 Cor. 13: 3).

The need for complete self-denial stems from the fact that the sin that has removed us from God is an extreme self-affirmation, self-closure and selfishness. To re-accept God into yourself, you have to open the doors of your heart to the end.

30 - God accepts our sacrifices.

But God accepts all sincere and humble sacrifices offered for the sake of His Kingdom. “Truly I say to you: there is no one who would leave home, or parents, or brothers, or sisters, or wife, or children for the Kingdom of God, and would not receive much more in this time, and in the age future life everlasting ”(Luke 18: 29-30).

According to the explanation of the Holy Fathers, the words of the Lord “in this time” mean that already in this present life a Christian must clearly feel the joy of being blessed, otherwise he will not find it in the next century. Indeed, holy people in this life were not only freed from the violence of sin, but were filled with spiritual joy and light. For a pure eye, everything is pure, and the saints see all people and the whole world as beautiful, anticipating the bliss of paradise. Everything that they have deprived themselves for the sake of the Lord is returned to them in a transformed form. Saint Mark the Ascetic writes: “You will not lose anything from what you left for the Lord, for in due time it will come to you multiplied” (Good vol. 1, To those who think to be justified by works: §50).

31 - Beatitudes (Matt. 53-12).

In the Beatitudes, the Lord points out those spiritual properties that are needed to achieve the Kingdom of God. They are both fruits and signs of true life; in them and through them, already in earthly life, the bliss of the century to come is anticipated.

Growth in a truly Christian life requires, first of all, humility, that is, the consciousness of one's sins and one's own powerlessness in the struggle against them without the help of God. The constant penitential state of the soul arising from this consciousness is what is called spiritual poverty; Blessed are the Beggars IN THE SPIRIT, FOR THEIR KINGDOM IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

The image of the opposite state of complacency is captured in the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:10).

“He who senses his sins is better than the one who through prayer raises the dead,” and “whoever has been vouchsafed to see himself is better than those who saw the Angels,” says the Monk Isaac of Syria. Knowing oneself and one's sins leads to crying of repentance, which washes away sins and brings comfort. Some saints had the “gift of tears,” constantly mourning their sins. The more light in the soul, the clearer a person sees his spots, noticing the slightest oversights. The Lord said about such people: Blessed are those who weep, FOR THEY BE CONSOLIDATED. These include those who cry out of compassion and affection.

Blessed are the short, for they inherit the earth - The poor in spirit and mourning their unworthiness do not condemn others, forgive offenses, become meek. It is good for such patient, meek people everywhere; they are everywhere at home, as heirs. Getting along easily, they often outlive others, but their real legacy is the new land of the next century, where the warring ones will not enter.

Blessed are the hungry and thirsty for truths, for they will be satiated. - These are, firstly, all those who want their every action to be in accordance with the will of God, to have meaning and so that their whole life would be illuminated with a higher meaning. These are those who want justice to reign ... around them, so that the beauty of Christ's righteousness triumphs in family, social and state relations. For rare historical periods of moral clarity, both individual peoples and all of humanity are indebted to people who hunger and thirsted for the truth.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be merciful. - The Lord speaks of works of mercy - the fruits of compassionate love - in the parable of the Last Judgment (Matt. 25: 31-46), His miracles testify to the same. Mercy is useful, first of all, for the charitable themselves: it strengthens philanthropy in them. “The beggars are persecuting you, which means that the mercy of God is persecuting you,” said Father John of Kronstadt. But the one who knows how to forgive is also merciful. The vindictive and vindictive torments himself, he imprisons himself in the prison of his anger. Not being reconciled, he will not leave this prison until he gives the last half (of his love) (Luke 12.59; Matt. 18:34; 5.26).

Blessed are the pure in heart, FOR THEY WILL SEE GOD. - The heart, or spirit of a person is the very foundation and depth of his personality. In the heart, all basic assessments and all choices are made by a person; in his heart he makes life decisions. With regard to moral assessments, the heart is conscience, but the heart also cognizes truth and beauty. The words of the Lord should be referred to the heart: “The lamp for the body is an eye. So, if your eye is clean, then your whole body will be bright. So look: the light that is in you. is not there darkness? (Matt. 6.22; Luke 11: 34-35). The Apostle Paul wishes the Ephesians that God “enlighten the eyes of the heart” of them (Eph. 1:18). The depravity of man is so deep that it extends to the heart. One who constantly yields to sin ceases to clearly distinguish between good and evil. Purification of the heart is achieved by man's work on himself and ends with the action of Divine grace. The final loss of purity of the heart (or sight) is spiritual death, on the contrary, the salvation of a person is heart enlightenment. In his heart, man meets God, for in the heart of man God sends His Spirit (Gal. 4: 6), and Christ dwells in the hearts of people (Eph. 3:17), imparting His law into them (Heb. 10:16). God, the seer of the heart, judges people according to the quality of their hearts: “I am the one who searches the hearts and inwards,” says the Lord (Rev. 2:23).

Blessed are the peacekeepers, FOR THEY WILL BE CALLED SONS OF GOD. “It's good to be meek, but even better to sow peace around you. However, this is only possible for those who have surpassed the usual degree of meekness within themselves. The great Russian saint - Venerable Seraphim Sarovsky used to say: “Make peace with yourself, and thousands will be saved around you,” and another Russian righteous man, Father John of Kronstadt, wrote: “without peace and harmony with others, you cannot have peace and harmony in yourself”. But still, it is not given to everyone and everywhere to reconcile others; and the one who reconciles with pride and irritability will easily screw things up.

“God is not a God of disorder, but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33), “He is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14), and therefore only peacemakers can be called His sons. Appearing to the disciples, the resurrected Christ said to them: “Peace be with you”, and commanded the Apostles to address people with the same greeting (Matt. 10,12). The Apostles in the Epistles constantly turn to their disciples with the words: “grace to you and peace be multiplied” (1 Peter 1,2; 2 Peter 1,2; Jude 1,2), or simply “Peace be with you” (3 John 15), and again: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1,7; 1 Cor. 1,3; 2 Cor. 1,2; Gal. 1,3; Ephes. 1,2; etc.).

These apostolic greetings and the words of the Lord Himself, especially those spoken by Him during His farewell conversation, testify that the peace of Christ is the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Blessed are you, when they will carry you and persecute and it is absolutely wrong to abuse me. JOY AND HAPPY, FOR YOUR REWARD IS GREAT IN HEAVEN: SO THE PROPHETS WHO WERE BEFORE YOU HAVE BEEN PERISHED.

Suffering for Christ is the highest deed of man, and renunciation of Him is the deepest fall. “Whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny before My Father in Heaven” (Matt. 10:33). He who denies Christ renounces everything truly human, since the truly human is the image of God, shining in Christ in all its fullness and purity. This is also a renunciation of oneself, of the best in oneself, otherwise it is spiritual suicide.

Ultimate loyalty to the Lord is death for Him, and ultimate love for people is death for them. “There is no more love than that if a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

32 - Christian in the face of death.

Death is terrible, but it contains the measure of everything lofty, the measure of a person's dignity. Willingness to die measures courage, loyalty, hope, love, faith. A true Christian is ready to accept both violent and ordinary death from illness or old age. The acceptance of death measures his faith in the Resurrection and in the all-goodness of God. A Christian must have a “mortal memory,” that is, not forget his mortality, and the fact that the final triumph of light will appear only after the resurrection of the dead. But being ready for death does not mean that earthly life loses its value. On the contrary, it remains the greatest good, and the Christian is called to the fullness of this life, since he can fill every moment of it with the light of Christ's love. And only a true Christian can do this.

33 - The fullness of the Christian life. Multiplication of talents.

Only the flourishing of all the spiritual forces of a person in earthly life, otherwise - the full use of spiritual gifts or talents, gives hope for the participation and fullness of life in the century to come. The Lord teaches about this in the parable of the talents (Matt. 25: 14-30) and in the parable of the minas (Luke 19: 12-27). The easiest way for a person to fulfill his destiny is through vocation activities. There are different vocations and talents. These are, firstly, the direct gifts of the Holy Spirit, those charisms that were rich in early Christians (gifts of prophecy, tongues, healings, etc.). Secondly, these are personal abilities, for example, eloquence, organizational, pedagogical, artistic. These are also natural vocations, characteristic of age, gender, marital status (for example: marriage, virginity, fatherhood, motherhood). Creative activity by vocation best of all forms, shapes the personality of a person and helps to fulfill a vocation common to all Christians: building the Kingdom of God in oneself and in the world. All talents should serve this main goal, both individually and in their harmonious combination. Without this basic creativity, accomplished with Christ and in Christ, all human activity, even by calling, is distorted and withers away. Thus, art that is not nourished by a religious spirit withers, state building dies, and even military affairs, when Christ's righteousness is forgotten, prepares the death of both the vanquished and the victors.

But we must not forget that every vocation is a cross, that it requires effort and sacrifice, without which talents do not multiply. It must be remembered that the way of the cross is the final life calling of the Lord Himself, and that the final acceptance by the Lord of His cross is the highest tension of life, its ultimate outburst. “The cross is a will, ready for all sorrow,” says one of the ancient Fathers. But at the same time, the cross is also a blessing of every vocation, and it cannot be separated for the faithful followers of Christ from the disclosure of their gift and from the multiplication of their talents. But the cross of every person must be grafted onto the cross of Christ. This is best accomplished when the cross of any creative calling becomes a service to God and the Church. Then the talents given to a person multiply most of all.

34 - Doing the will of God

If in the life (ontological) relation the Christian life has the goal of deification, that is, union with God, and in Him - with other people, in which is the achievement of the Kingdom of God, then in the moral sense this goal is in fulfilling the will of God.

The Lord Himself gave us an example of this and bequeathed it to us. “I came down from heaven not to do My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 6:38), says the Lord about Himself, and warns us: “Not everyone who speaks to Me is Lord! God! will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven ”(Matt. 7:21).

In order to do the will of God, one must know it; and to cognize the Divine Revelation, in which this will is revealed, one must live in the Church, since the truth is given in its entirety not to an individual person, but to the Church. But for her members, the will of God is also revealed through the instructions personally received from above.

At the peak of spiritual life, a Christian already lives under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit, guided by His constant suggestions, clearly discerning in his heart what God wants from him. At lower levels, the guidance of God is less perceptible, but with spiritual growth it becomes more discernible; for example, listening to the word of God, a person more and more discerns what in him relates to the circumstances of his life, and when he meets people, he more and more often extracts from them indications of his spiritual benefit. Thus, meeting someone who is outrageously angry, he can find in this a warning against the resentment and discontent ripening in him. All the means offered by the Church are suitable for growth in spiritual life and for an ever clearer discernment of the will of God and its exact fulfillment: participation in the holy sacraments, reading the Word of God and spiritual books, public and private prayers, cleansing one's heart from thoughts, limiting one's own natural needs (fasting) and the desire to fulfill the commandments, even if there was not yet a real disposition for that. It is also necessary to have personal communication with people living in the church life and to ask them for spiritual advice, especially from your spiritual father. These advice should be followed, like everything in which a person sees an instruction from above. It is also necessary to develop all your talents, following your vocation and turning it to the service of God and people. Among all these means, prayer is of the utmost importance. It is the very core of spiritual life, which simply does not exist without prayer. Prayer can be private and public, but in content - supplicatory, thanksgiving and laudatory. Petitions are raised for themselves and for others, both for the granting of external and spiritual benefits, especially for the forgiveness of sins, for help in the struggle against temptations, and, finally, for instructions from above on how to act. Pagans pray most of all for their luck, and Christians for how to act according to the will of God. God answers such a prayer, especially when it concerns others. Prayer for others is the path to love and the fruit of love. Even higher is the joint prayer - “if two of you on earth agree to ask for any deed, then whatever they ask, it will be for them from My Heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them ”(Matthew 18: 19-20).

35 - The Lord's Prayer.

An example of proper prayer is the prayer of the Lord. The first word of her “Father” teaches us to pray with love and trust in God, the second “ours” indicating that we must pray for ourselves and for others, and better - together.

“OUR FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN” - pointing to heaven as the abode of God is a reminder of the one who surpasses everything earthly concepts God's perfection.

Because of this, one cannot but wish that the very name of God would be holy for everyone and that we ourselves, glorifying Him in word and deed, would be worthy children of Heavenly Father. “LET THERE SHALL BE HOLY” - these words contain all our groaning for holiness.

In the petition “LET YOUR KINGDOM COME” is a prayer that the holiness of God will shine everywhere, that the righteousness of God will triumph inside and outside us, and that the world will become the kingdom of love.

But in its entirety the Kingdom of God will open in the next century, upon the general resurrection from the dead, and access to it will be open only to those who do the will of God. And without the help of God, we cannot fulfill His will, from which it is necessary to constantly cry out: "LET YOUR WILL BE ON EARTH AS ON HEAVEN". The will of God should be done willingly, joyfully, as the angels and saints do it.

Saying “GIVE OUR BREAD TO US TODAY”, we ask, first of all, spiritual bread, that is, the Eucharistic bread, the most pure Body of the Lord, about which He Himself said: “He who eats this bread will live forever” (John 6.58). Daily bread is also the Word of God, about which it is said: man will not live by bread alone, but by every word of God ”(Luke 4: 4). Finally, by daily bread we must understand everything that is necessary for our earthly life. God, of course, knows our needs, but prayer from them is necessary for our benefit: it strengthens our faith and limits our desires; praying for the needs of others elevates us.

In the petition for the forgiveness of sins - “AND FORGIVE THEM OUR DEBTS, AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS” - spiritual poverty should be expressed, without which there is neither correction nor spiritual growth... Forgiveness of sins is cognized in the liberation from their power over us. And the mention that we also forgive is, first of all, a call to forgive. Explaining this petition. The Lord Himself said: "If you will not forgive people their sins, then your Father will not forgive you your sins" Matt. 6.15).

"DO NOT LEAD US INTO TEMPTATION." - The God of Hell did not create and cannot be the cause of evil, but He allows Satan to tempt us to strengthen our good will in the struggle for the good. The Apostle James writes: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation, because, having been tested, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him. In temptation, do not say: - God is tempting me; because God is not tempted by evil and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But everyone is tempted, being carried away and deceived by his own lust ”(James 1: 12-14).

Temptation, prompting us to fight against it, directs us to pray, and God listens to such a prayer. The Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Apostle, “being tempted, can help those who are tempted (Heb. 2:18). In addition, God knows the extent of our strength and does not allow anyone to be tempted beyond his ability. The Apostle Paul writes: “God is faithful, who did not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but in case of temptation he will also give relief, so that you can endure” (1 Cor. 10:13).

The word “temptation” in Holy Scripture and b spiritual literature denotes not only sinful temptation, but also the trial of suffering. Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God ”(Acts 14:22).

In the last petition: “BUT DELIVER US FROM Evil” we deny all evil and, thereby, from its bearer - Satan, and promise, praying for the help of the Almighty, to fight for good, as true soldiers of God's army.

The final doxology: “FOR YOURS IS THE KINGDOM AND POWER AND GLORY” testifies to our faith in God the Trinity in Persons and in His undoubted triumph over all evil.

36 - Public and private prayer.

In addition to the Lord's Prayer, the Church offers us many prayers that are part of various divine services. But the Church also seeks to streamline domestic and individual prayer, offering a prayer rule for this purpose. Although, when using this rule, the worshipers are given a certain freedom, nevertheless, this rule cannot be neglected, as well as the instructions of the Holy Fathers from the essence of the prayer work itself. You cannot think that you can pray without learning this business, relying only on your own mood. According to the Church Fathers, prayer is a science, or an art, it requires learning and skill. Prayer is the foundation and center of the Christian life.

37 - The Jesus Prayer.

The Church attaches exceptional importance to the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Monastics must repeat it constantly, and those living in the world are encouraged to use it to reflect every bad movement of the soul and when performing every responsible deed. This prayer can be said in abbreviated form, its shortest form: "Lord have mercy." There is an extensive spiritual literature about the essence of this prayer and its use, with which, in one way or another, every Orthodox Christian should familiarize himself.

38 - About spiritual reading.

Reading the Word of God is absolutely essential. Holy Scripture is an integral part of worship, and attention to this reading in the temple is of exceptional importance for spiritual life. But it is necessary to feed on the Word of God at home, especially when circumstances do not allow for frequent attendance at church services. A priest's sermon is a guide for perceiving the Word of God in church, and at home - reading the writings of the holy fathers and teachers of the Church.

Holy Scripture reveals to us the true Divine life, and the Holy Fathers teach us exactly how, under various circumstances, we can perceive this true life and live it. It is useful to combine religious reading with prayer, or to accompany prayer with such reading.

39 - Orthodox Divine Service.

Life in the Orthodox Church is one indivisible whole: it is divine-human life and the path leading to salvation, otherwise it is the deification of man. On this path, it is important not only to assimilate the Holy Scriptures, not only to participate in the sacraments and conduct in accordance with Christ's truth, but also to fully enter the liturgical life of the Church.

In the Orthodox divine service, both individual prayers and the very structure of it and the sacred rituals accompanying the prayer are salvific. Thanks to the festive services, we not only piously remember the celebrated event, but also spiritually become witnesses and accomplices of it, and it becomes, to the extent available to us, an event and our personal life. Thus, our life begins to transform: in its very fabric, like golden embroidery, the life of the Lord and His Church is revealed, and thus eternity is already showing through our temporary being.

All Orthodox divine services, like icon painting, are deeply symbolic. It figuratively conveys the meaning of the events of sacred history that is salutary for us. Iconography is sometimes called “theology in colors,” and worship can be called theology in actions and sounds. But, of course, it includes, first of all, direct verbal theology.

Thanks to the church and the services performed in it, the soul learns to respond to Divine truth and beauty with all its strings, and sacred symbols become for us a spiritual reality, mainly through our participation in the holy sacraments. It is thanks to them that the events of sacred and church history acquire the meaning of events in your personal life, and the latter, in turn, can be included in the chain of church events. Thus, through the sacrament of marriage, the natural love of a man and a woman and the new family being created acquire a meaning of no small importance for the life of the entire Church. Likewise, the illness of one member of the Church, through the sacrament of blessing of oil, becomes an event for the entire church community, prompting it to active, compassionate love for the sick person, and the latter, in a new way, includes it into church life. Even the most bitter and terrible thing in our life - sin, through the sacrament of repentance can become, as it were, the beginning of a deep rebirth of a sinner, joyful for the Church, since in her, as in heaven, there is greater joy about one sinner repenting than about ninety-nine righteous people. having no need of repentance (Luke 15.7). Finally, even the bitterness of death, to a large extent, is overcome in Orthodox worship. The power of the light of Christ's Resurrection, striking death, is transmitted through the sacrament of the Eucharist to the departed Christians, facilitating their responsibility for sins, since they themselves can no longer bring repentance, but church prayer for them is imputed to them instead of their own penitential effort. In addition to the liturgical commemoration of the dead, the Orthodox Church has special rites: funeral services, Matins for the dead, requiem and litia. All these services teach worshipers the proper attitude towards death.

The vital significance of Orthodox worship is enormous, but its full depth is comprehended only with active participation in it, although it can never be fully comprehended.

40 - Iconography.

A) Icon veneration and iconoclasm.

The veneration of holy icons occupies a significant place in Orthodox piety. Like Orthodox churches, Hak and Roma are decorated with them. In memory of the appearance of some icons, church holidays are established. The very same icon painting is a very special kind of art, not reducible to simple painting.

They pray in front of the holy icons, light candles and lamps, bless them, and through them they receive healings, and sometimes instructions.

In the 8th century, under the influence of the Mohammedans, who considered it impossible to depict an invisible God, the veneration of icons in the Byzantine Empire was banned, and those who worshiped icons were persecuted * and tortured. In 787, at the 7th Ecumenical Council, veneration of icons was restored and the beginning of its dogmatic foundation was laid.

B) The dogmatic meaning of the icon.

The image of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Most Pure Mother, the events of His life, as well as holy people, is, first of all, a special type of confession of faith in the truth of the Incarnation (this summit of the Revelation of God) and in the true presence of the image of God in man.

The Son of God, as the Divine Word, is the image of God the Father. But before the Incarnation, this image was invisible to man and appeared only as imprinted in the human word. Therefore, in the Old Testament, the verbal sealing of Divine revelation, that is, the book of Holy Scripture, was revered, and there could be no image of the face of God. But when the Word became flesh (John 1.14), when the Son of God became man Jesus Christ, people were able to contemplate God Himself in His face with their earthly eyes and even touch Him with their hands.

“Show us the Father, and it is enough for us,” says the Apostle Philip to the Lord at the Last Supper, and Jesus replies to him: “How long have I been with you, and you don’t know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say: show us the Father? " (John 14.8-9)

Seeing the Lord, touching Him, and in Him - God Himself, was a great happiness, which the Apostle John the Theologian testifies to in the first lines of his first Epistle (1 John 1: 1-4). The Holy Church gives us a particle of this happiness and this benefit, allowing and encouraging us to portray the Lord Jesus Christ.

C) Icon painting as art.

But do we not see the Lord depicted on the icons only bodily? And thus does not God remain invisible to us? And is this not why the icon is a belittling of the God-man?

This is not so, firstly, because the artist in any portrait captures and depicts, to one degree or another, the soul and spirit of a person; secondly, on the icons, under the visible image of the man Jesus Christ, His Divine Hypostasis is depicted. The latter is possible, because icon painting is a special art. Its peculiarity is that the icon depicts not an ordinary body and face, but a transformed, spiritualized one, capable of containing the Divine.

For such an image, special techniques have been developed that soften all the features that can expose sensual and earthly inclinations, and, on the contrary, reveal those human traits that reflect spirituality. However, these techniques leave room for the artist's personal creativity.

In icon painting, there are also special techniques for depicting objects and landscapes.

D) Iconography and Christian life.

The Son of God, having become a man, found in him something akin to Himself, since man from the beginning was created in the image and likeness of God. But in fallen man the image of God was darkened and required restoration. Therefore, before the Incarnation, the image of a man was not worthy of veneration, as a result of which the images of ancient gods could not but repel Christians.

These images reflected the fallen passionate nature of man, and the pagan gods themselves, to a certain extent, were the personification of human passions.

However, in images antique art undoubtedly, the high aspiration of man for harmony and perfection was also displayed, why a certain borrowing of forms and methods of this art is quite acceptable for an icon painter, as well as for Christian art in general.

Icon painting, in a sense, is an applied art: it serves the highest art - the art of Christian life, the art of transforming, with the help of Divine grace, man himself and his life.

E) Themes of icon painting. -

The main theme of icon painting is the Lord Jesus Christ, as the perfect image of God the Father.

The Mother of God is essentially inseparable from Christ: thanks to her, the Incarnation became possible and, thus, the image of God.

The saints are revered by us because Christ was “portrayed” in them. They themselves are living icons of the Lord, like this, and to the same extent, their images.

The icons also depict the events of the Sacred History. In them, icon painting strives to express the theological meaning of these events, which is salutary for us, and not their historical setting. That is why some people call icon painting “theology in paints”.

For the successful fulfillment of his work, the icon painter himself and his activities must meet certain conditions: he must be Orthodox and carry out his work with prayer and in the proper spiritual mood. Many of the best icon painters are canonized.

G) The sanctity of the icon. -

In addition to its pictorial meaning, the icon is the place of the blessed presence of the Depicted One. It becomes such a place by virtue of its consecration and the bestowal of its name on it. Not only man, but all nature, the entire material world, as created and contained by the Word of God, especially after the Incarnation, is capable of becoming a receiver and transmitter of Divine grace. Moreover, the mysterious line between the spiritual and the material is elusive.

The 7th Ecumenical Council approved the Orthodox attitude towards icons: in the icon, the Christ or the saint depicted on it is to be venerated, and not the material object on which the icon is depicted.

In the Orthodox Church, icons of the Mother of God have a special veneration and grace-filled power. And this is understandable, since the Blessed Virgin is that “bridge”, that “ladder” that connects the invisible sky and our visible, subal world.

41 - Veneration of holy relics.

In the Orthodox Church, there is also a special veneration of holy relics, that is, the remains of deceased holy people.

The bodies of some of the departed saints are preserved in comparative or even complete integrity. But they are revered by no means because of their incorruptibility, which is far from always existing, but because, because of the holiness of the departed, their bodies, even after death, are the keepers of Divine grace, by the power of which gifts of healings and other spiritual gifts are given to believers.

The blessed power inherent in the remains of holy people is evidence of the life-giving power of the Lord Himself, and a comforting omen of the general coming resurrection.

A) Fasting is an essential resource for a successful spiritual life. The example of fasting was given by the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 4: 2), and after Him “the hosts of the New Testament righteous, beginning with St. John the Baptist. But fasting was also known in the Old Testament, as well as in other religions.

Fasting is an exercise that contributes to the subordination of the soul and body to the spirit, and through this to God. At the same time, fasting is a powerful weapon in the fight against Satan (Matt. 17:21; Mark 9.29).

Fasts were established by the Church before the holidays of Easter, the Nativity of Christ, the Dormition of the Mother of God, the memory of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year and on some other days.

The proper qualities of fasting are mentioned in Holy Scripture, in liturgical texts (especially in the Lenten Triodion) and in the writings of the Holy Fathers. Fast. first of all, it should not be ostentatious, hypocritical. Christ Himself speaks of this (Matt. 6: 16-18). By its very nature, fasting deepens feelings of repentance in us. In general, a Christian must always cut off bad urges and impulses, be moderate in everything, but periodic oppression of natural needs helps to learn this.

Fasting is not only an exercise in abstinence, but also in the performance of good deeds. The Church insists on this meaning of fasting in Lenten hymns. For example, in the following stichera: “Fasting, brethren, bodily, fasting and spiritually, let us destroy every union of unrighteousness, give bread to the hungry, and bring the poor and homeless into their homes” (at Vespers Wednesday of the 1st week of Great Lent).

B) In addition to the posts, which are important means of improving the spiritual life. The Church established the fasting preceding the Eucharist.

This fast, which is expressed in complete abstinence from food, is a living reminder that our earthly, wounded life is a preparation for the future fullness of the life of the righteous in blissful eternity.

The Eucharist is already the beginning of this new being in union with God and with all brothers in Christ. Therefore, the sacrament of the Eucharist removes the burden of fasting, according to the word of the Lord Jesus Christ: "Can the sons of the bridegroom fast when the bridegroom is with them?" (Mark 2.19). But before accepting the Holy Mysteries, fasting is necessary for us, as those who are awaiting the arrival of the Bridegroom. Thus, the Church seeks to strengthen in us the expectation of the Coming One and the longing for a new meeting with Him, not only in the Eucharist, but also in His second coming. Freeing us from fasting after communion. The Church strengthens in us the consciousness that the Bridegroom is already coming to us and that the transformation of our temporary (everyday) life into a holiday of eternal existence has already begun.

On the one hand, expectation, on the other, the beginning of the fulfillment, are inherent in the divine-human nature of the Church, which finds expression in her liturgical life, in the constant change of fasting and festive joy after communion.

On holidays and Sundays, that is, on the days designated for the Eucharist, if they fall during the fasting period, although the restriction in food is not canceled, but it receives a relaxation.

When I say "normal", I do not mean - "average", I mean - one who lives according to Orthodox canons.

And this, of course, is not full list, and the items are not in order of priority.

So a normal Christian:

1. Attends services as often as possible

The required minimum is to go to the morning service every Sunday. But it often happens that this is not enough. And “going to the service” does not mean simply being present at it, but it means being mentally involved - whether silently listening, making the sign of the cross, singing along, and so on.

2. Praying at home every day

Ideally, you should read the morning and evening rule and prayer before and after eating. It is especially important that husbands and wives pray together and that parents pray with their children. Include daily Bible reading here, especially the Psalms.

3. Participates in the ordinances

This means not only to confess and receive communion, but also to take unction if you are sick. It means being baptized, married. It is even worth considering whether you or another man from your family should be ordained.

4. Avoids immorality in thought, word and deed

Everything we do with our body, soul, and words matters to our salvation. May your body, soul and words serve for the benefit of you and your loved ones. Look for someone to help, not to help you.

5. Observes fasts according to the church calendar

The priest to whom you are confessing will advise you on how to correlate fasting and ordinary life your family. Orthodox Christians observe fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays and, naturally, during Great, Petrov, Dormition and Nativity fasts.

6. Goes to confession

The sacrament of confession is extremely important for the soul. You need to go to confession at least once during each fast. But also - just when your soul needs it, when there is sin tormenting you.

And he often finds them during confession. But the priest (or confessor, if you have one) will listen to you at any time. This is the source that you need to use constantly.

8. Gives a tenth of the income to the Church

Giving a tenth of your income to the Lord (after all, your income is His gift to you) is the biblical norm that Orthodox Christians must adhere to. If you cannot give all 10 percent, choose a different amount, but give regularly, gradually moving towards giving 10 percent. And if you can give more than 10 percent, give it back. And do it not only when it is hard for you, when something bad happens in life - donate when everything is good. The Church Fathers have pointed out many times that giving a tenth of the income is precisely the Orthodox tradition.

9. Giving charity and doing charity work

That is, it helps those in need. This help can be monetary, but you can help by your own work, and by morally supporting, and even just being next to someone who is in difficulty, with someone who is sick, etc.

10. Constantly improves the level of his education

It is necessary all the time to look for an ever deeper comprehension of faith - and not only in the sense, in order to understand what, in fact, it means to be a believer, pious, pious. It also means that our mind must constantly be in the power of the Lord, so that He can heal and change it. All our thoughts should be related to God - whether we read spiritual literature, attend courses on religious education, etc. The goal of all our activities in the field of education is to learn and understand the Holy Scriptures as deeply as possible.

11. Shares faith with others

If you are grateful to the Lord for the Salvation given to us, you will want to share your faith with other people.

12. Attends religious processions, makes pilgrimage trips

That is, he travels to visit shrines. Usually these are monasteries, temples and other holy places.

Translated by Anna Barabash

- How can a Christian be saved in the modern world?

- Very simply: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13: 8). At every place, at all times, we must try to live according to His commandments. If you made a mistake, you need to immediately repent before God, not waiting for you to go to confession. Moreover, in confession you can forget that you have done wrong. One must repent right there and not think that this is nonsense or a trifle, do not postpone it for later. After all, people often die quickly and suddenly. One friend had an abscess, then blood poisoning, and he died. It seems that such nonsense is an abscess, but no, not like that.

And the worst sin is the one that we commit knowingly. Therefore, life in the modern world should proceed in the same way as always: at every moment of time we must live according to the Gospel, according to Christ, otherwise we should not be called a Christian, we should not deceive ourselves.

- Should we treat television as a satanic work?

- It's not about TV, but who watches TV. Anything can be broadcast on TV. If the Apostle Paul had now resurrected and he had been offered to appear on television, he would have agreed. And we would treat TV well. Television is only a natural link in the process of scientific and technological development. It is not necessary to talk about the TV, but about the person. Why watch rubbish? Even a cow, when she sees a cloud of dust flying towards her, closes her eyes. And a person, the more dirty things are shown on the screen, the wider they open them.

- I am a hieromonk, I serve in a parish church, would you like to go to a monastery again or because of difficulties stay in the world?

- This question is not for me. How can a man in a tie give advice to spiritual people? The matter is very individual and personal. I know that it is very difficult to find a good spiritual leader now. Earlier, monasteries arose around a person. Here, the Monk Sergius was, and they came to him, or went to others. To Nil Stolobensky, Nil Sorsky ... We came to a holy man, living next to whom meant being edified by his way of life, by his word and deed. Now the situation has changed, we are restoring monastery buildings, but monasteries are not walls, temples and cassocks. Monasteries are true spiritual life, separated from the bustle of the world. Athos is closed to women, because for male monasteries this is the first monastic rule. And find today at least one monastery in Russia where this rule is fulfilled?

The Council of Bishops in 2000 decreed that only married priests or elderly monks should be sent to convents. And yet monks who are under thirty are sent to take care of them. This destroys the Church. Church life is not measured by the number of monasteries and churches. Measured by quantity, so Catholics are a hundred times more spiritual than we are. It must be measured by the spiritual order of life. Where this is, I do not know. But if there is no monasticism, that is, a way of life that has protected itself from the world, then there will be no Church. Remember that the Roman Church was the foremost and most revered of the Orthodox Churches, but became Catholic. The name will not save, the right life will save, but conditions are needed for it; where they are - see for yourself.

- I read that the word "accursed" cannot be repeated often in prayer and thus slander your soul, if you do not feel the sin of vanity behind you, for "take care and love your soul." Explain.

- The word "accursed" is not often found in prayers, and even if it does occur, it is in the sense of realizing one's sinfulness, one's unworthiness, one's curse. There is nothing bad in this. This word precisely expresses what is in each of us. And God forbid that we feel it. Moreover, those who do not feel this in themselves cannot pray properly. If I am not accursed, if I am the best in the world, then what kind of supplication are we talking about? Then you can conduct a dialogue with the Lord called "prayer".

I observed this in a Protestant church, when a parishioner sits cross-legged, it seems that now he will light a cigarette, for him prayer is "a dialogue with God." And, unfortunately, this terrible idea sometimes slips into our "theological" writings.

You need to understand the meaning of the word and feel that you are really cursed before God. If I cannot spend a single day as a human being, then who am I? We have one sin, one curse. So there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of this word.

Now about the feeling of vanity and self-talk. Show me a man in whom there is no vanity, I would kiss his shoe. I am not vain as long as I sleep, and in my sleep I can still see something. And so for the slightest reason already nose up. It is not for nothing that John Climacus has magnificent words that only an equal angular one can endure human praise without harm to himself1. The extent to which we are conceited, the extent to which we are offended and irritated, and we suffer. Because it is one and the same property of our soul. Do not mix different things: one thing is the illness of my soul called "vanity" and, on the other hand, sin itself is an act of vanity. Right now, for example, I am not conceited, because I have no time, I am thinking about the question of vanity, but it sits in me! A minute later, they gave me praise and that's all - melted with delight. Sin and sickness are two different things: sin is a manifestation of sickness, and if in this moment I do not have this manifestation, it does not mean that there is no vanity in me. I must say, to my great regret, that all the passions in each of us are, all to one, even those about which we cannot even think about, which, if we are told about them, we will indignantly reject. Do not forget the example of the Apostle Peter, who was excited: "Lord, I will die with You!", But how he acted in life, from whom he denied! (Matthew 26, 33)

Maybe I don’t remember when I was vaulted, but I know perfectly well that I have vanity, and therefore I always have to repent while there is time.

- Say something about silence in the world.

- Yes, you already know. We need to talk less and pray more. And if a person feels even a little what prayer is, he will be drawn to it, and then he will even run away from empty conversations. But for this you have to feel, and in order to feel, you have to exercise. Silence has different levels: there is the silence of the tongue, and there is the silence of the mind. If we learn to be silent with our mind, then we will not talk with our tongue, that is, we will not allow our thoughts to roam all over the world and consider hippos, kangaroos and other all kinds of creatures. Then, you see, we will learn to remain silent.

- In the Russian Orthodox Church there is a tradition of obligatory confession before communion. There is no such tradition in the Greek Church. What is to be done in our practice, when we do not have confession, but "an account of sins", when the priest hurries the confessor, because the queue is long, but internal sins remain with you?

- The sacraments of communion and penance are two different sacraments. They are not directly related to each other. But it is a great blessing that this connection, the inseparability of these two sacraments, is still preserved in the Russian Church. If only to stop this in our people, then I do not know what will begin then. People will approach the sacrament forgetting what reverence is. In preparation for the sacrament, parishioners observe a one-day fast. Some impose a longer fast, but, by the way, I am against this for the laity: people work, and it is not easy for them to take down one day of preparation as it is for us the entire Great Lent. A person prepares for confession, repents and thinks: "I see that I will be given two minutes. But I do not repent to the priest, but to God. Lord, accept my repentance! I am sinful in this and that ..." repent before God internally as if He hears you, and say directly: "Lord, forgive me for this and that ..." it'll be enough. A priest is not a confessor. I have the opportunity to open my soul to the confessor, but it will take more time. Confession is something different, and therefore one must repent here. In the same line, while waiting, you need to repent before God with all your heart.

And, thank God, we still have the practice of the inseparability of confession and communion! I observed in the West, in Cyprus: Orthodox people meet - they have not seen each other for a long time, therefore they sit until one o'clock, until two in the morning, with wine and nuts, there is a completely worldly conversation. In the morning, you look at the liturgy - these people go to communion. Where there is no reverence, there is no faith, there will be no benefit, only the danger of communion to the detriment. Remember the words of the Apostle Paul: "He who eats or drinks unworthily, eats judgment on himself. That is why many of you are sick" (1 Cor. 11:29) 2 ... And what? Further, in Church Slavonic, "they sleep contentedly," that is, literally, "die."

That is, a dishonest approach to the sacrament can lead to death. Therefore, it is good that confession is obligatory for us before communion.

- Greek monks smoke and they do not consider it a sin, but for our monks it is a sin to drink tea. Why is this so?

- Let's turn to the concept of sin again. Anything that harms the body, soul or spirit of a person is considered a sin in Christianity. It is a sin to overeat, because it harms the body. It is a sin to be angry, even doctors will say that it is harmful. So the smoke does not bring any benefit to a person, it does harm, therefore, it is a sin. We can only regret that smoking is allowed in Greece - the process of secularization is underway. Soon the concept of sin will disappear, and anything will be considered a virtue.

- In the encyclopedic dictionary of modern Russian civilization about Vladyka John (Snychev) it is said that his activities contributed to the growth of the Orthodox movement. How do you assess the activities of Vladyka John? Who is the confessor and preacher of Russia now?

- We Russians do not know the measure of anything. Dostoevsky was right when he spoke about Russian: "The man is too broad, I would narrow him down." Well, if we undertake to praise - make way for the earth, we begin to scold - we will grind into powder. As for the Vladyka's admirers, well, you love him and respect him, but know when to stop, otherwise he has already become the confessor of Russia, is it really possible? I knew him, he was, indeed, a very pleasant person, a sincere Christian, but very low in his intellectual abilities. He wrote the book "The Autocracy of the Spirit", where he turned the whole story, where Ivan the Terrible with his oprichnina was placed among the saints, which is incomprehensible. A certain group of people use his name as a battering ram to oppose the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, publish a newspaper in huge print runs, send it out free of charge everywhere. And this despite the fact that there is an undeclared, but real war against Russia. They really need to split the Russian Church, they need Civil War, all forces are thrown into it.

There was a newspaper called "Russian Thought". In fact, there was nothing Russian there, the newspaper was Jewish. One correspondent named Shtarkman directly wrote that Russia poses the greatest threat to the security of the United States, therefore the main task is to introduce non-Russian philosophies and religions in Russia, including Catholicism as one of the powerful international forces.

Not everything is said here. Movements that hide behind the name of one metropolitan, then another confessor, must be judged by their fruits. They bring confusion and do not give anything good to the human soul. And I advise you not to succumb to their advertising: "Confessor of Russia", and even with a capital letter.

Let me give you an example. In the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where the relics of one of the greatest saints of the Russian Church are located - Saint Sergius, not a single icon has streamed myrrh or streamed myrrh, and somewhere in apartments and churches hundreds and thousands of icons streamed myrrh. Go there and you yourself will pacify. Why? I advise you to think about it.

- What is spiritual sensuality and how to distinguish between spiritual and emotional affection?

- Here the person is already full and still looking for something else to eat. At the feasts of Petronius4, for example, two nightingale tongues were served as a dessert on small golden plates. I don’t know what they felt, but gourmets were of the highest category then, they were looking for special pleasures. And what is looking for someone who has fallen into a whirlpool, into the abyss? He shouts: "Save!" Hieromartyr Peter Damascene remarked: "The first sign of the beginning health of the soul is the vision of one's sins, countless as the sand of the sea."

You have probably noticed that you cannot touch us from any side: you cannot scold us - we are offended; you cannot praise - we begin to pride ourselves; it is impossible for someone to feel good - we begin to envy; you can't sit down at the table with tasty food - we overeat. You cannot approach a person from either side, everywhere he is in boils, and nevertheless, he feels exactly according to Gorky: "A man - it sounds proudly."

Orthodoxy speaks of diseases that sit in a person from all sides. And the first sign of incipient health is the ability to see these abscesses. If I see it, I will begin to be treated, but until I see it, I will say to others: "You will be treated yourself." In illness, a person does not seek spiritual consolation, he seeks healing, and so it is happy when at least a sore on his nose has passed. Healing also brings him pleasure: everyone who was seriously ill understands this perfectly.

And it is quite another matter when a jaded one is looking for somewhere else to pick with a fork, when an unhealed one is looking for spiritual pleasures. He, the poor, does not see what state of illness he is in, his soul is already decomposing, and he also needs pleasure. This is called - spiritual voluptuousness: a person seeks "gracious experiences", "divine revelations" and "spiritual pleasures".

If Christ is the Savior, then I am the perishing one, but the perishing does he seek voluptuousness? The leper seeks not pleasure, but healing.

Therefore, the one who in the Christian life takes the path of seeking various spiritual gifts and experiences, delight in prayer, he has embarked on a vicious path. This path, by the way, was followed by the Catholic saints.

- What is the difference between spiritual joy and spiritual joy?

- When we talk about spiritual joy, we are talking about the neuropsychic aspect. And spiritual joy is grace-filled.

References

1. "Great people tend to endure grievances with courage and joy, while saints and saints tend to listen to praise without harm." [Ladder, 22:12]

2. (1 Cor. 11, 27-30) "Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty against the Body and Blood of the Lord. Let man test himself, and thus let him eat of this bread and drink from this cup. For whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks condemnation to himself, not considering the Body of the Lord. For this reason many of you are weak and sick, and many die. "

3. "... Someone, a person who is even higher in heart and with a lofty mind, begins with the ideal of the Madonna, and ends with the ideal of Sodom. It is even more terrible who, with the ideal of Sodom in his soul, does not deny the ideal of the Madonna, and his heart burns from him, and verily, verily it burns, as in the youthful blameless years. No, the man is wide, too wide, I would narrow it down. The devil knows what it is even, that's what! What the mind seems to be a shame, then the heart is entirely beauty. Is beauty in Sodom? Believe that she is in Sodom for the vast majority of people, did you know this secret or not? The terrible thing is that beauty is not only a terrible, but also a mysterious thing. Here the devil fights with God, and the battlefield is the hearts of people .. . ".

Dostoevsky F.M. Brothers Karamazov. PSS in thirty volumes, v. 14., - L .: Nauka, 1976, p. 100.

4. The book of Petronius the Arbiter "Satyricon" (1st-2nd centuries AD) Satiricon or satirarum is an ancient satirical novel. The main episode of the surviving part of the novel is a feast at Trimalchio, a rich tyrant from freedmen who does not know what new luxury and eccentricity to invent for his boundless arrogance and pleasure. Here we unfold before us pictures of washing in a bath, home and dining, vulgar amusements, recitation of poetic impromptu, stupidity and vulgarity of behavior of the owner, his wife covered with gold and jewelry, but stingy to the meanness of his wife, unusually rude marital bickering in the presence of guests.

5 Venerable Peter Damascene. Creations. Book one. A necessary and very useful indication of the seven bodily deeds.

Alexey Osipov, professor of the Moscow Theological Academy
Transcript of A.I. Osipov CC "Russian Week"
Russian Week online magazine - 15.11.2007.