(1910–2006)
The section presents books by Archimandrite John Krestyankin - “The Experience of Constructing a Confession”, sermons, instructions, letters.
Archimandrite John Krestyankin is an experienced confessor. During his ministry, he accepted confession from hundreds of thousands, conducted extensive correspondence, and above all, he himself labored against sin. Knowing how difficult it is for a person to fight with himself, to notice and eradicate his vices, Fr. John has compiled a manual for those preparing for confession, which, undoubtedly, is one of the most effective means in this difficult struggle for each of us.
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Throughout his entire life, Archimandrite John Krestyankin, the most famous elder in Russia, who for about 40 years was a resident of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, preached about the urgent need for a Christian to be faithful to Christ and His commandments, despite the temptations of this world. After all, only then, according to Father John, is it possible for a person to achieve salvation and inherit the Kingdom of God. He not only gave advice, but he himself walked the path of following Christ. Therefore, his words about how to avoid the temptations of the world, how to bear your cross and where to seek consolation are especially valuable.
The future archimandrite was born in 1910 in Orel. In infancy, he lost his father, so the upbringing of the future ascetic fell entirely on the shoulders of his mother, a deeply religious woman. From the age of six Vanya Krestyankin served in the church. After school, he completed accounting courses and worked in many accounting institutions. In his free time, he attended services and tried to be faithful to Christ in everything.
In 1944, Ivan Krestyankin left his secular work and began serving as a psalm-reader in the Church of the Nativity in Izmailovo. He was soon ordained a deacon. And on October 25, 1945, Patriarch Alexy I ordained Deacon John Krestyankin to the priesthood.
Very soon, Father John Krestyankin showed himself to be a zealous preacher and attentive shepherd. He treated everyone who came with Christian love - this attracted the sincere love of parishioners and spiritual children to him.
Childhood, adolescence and young adulthood
John Krestyankin was born into a large family in the city of Orel.
He was the eighth and youngest child. John's father, Mikhail Dmitrievich Krestyankin, died early, and the burden of responsibility for supporting and raising children was taken on by his mother, Elizaveta Illarionovna. She was a deeply religious woman, and John owed his primary education in the field of Christian morality to her. They say that in infancy Vanya was not distinguished by enviable health, and his mother prayed a lot about this, and even made a vow to God to dedicate her son to Him.
By the providence of God, John joined church life in early childhood. At the age of six, he was noticed by a bishop, whose carriage John repeatedly ran after when he went to services in the cathedral. One day, having met the child’s gaze, the bishop ordered the coachman to stop, invited the boy to his place, asked his name and whether he wanted to help him at the altar. For Vanya, this proposal was above all expectations, and he, happy, of course gave a positive answer.
So, already at the age of six, he performed the duties of a sexton, and later - a subdeacon. As a child, his spiritual mentors were local archpriests: Nikolai Azbukin and Vsevolod Kovrigin. Of course, Archbishop Seraphim (Ostroumov) also had a significant influence on his fate.
At about the age of twelve, Ivan expressed a preliminary, but quite firm desire to devote his future life to monastic feat. When, on occasion, he reported this desire to Bishop Nikolai (Nikolsky), he, after thinking about it, said that it would certainly come true. And so it happened.
After school, which Ivan graduated from in 1929, he continued his studies in accounting courses, and then got a job in his specialty in his hometown. Due to frequent overtime assignments, he could not adequately devote his personal time to visiting the temple. This made him dissatisfied, but when he decided to confront his superiors with his disagreement, the superiors erupted in discontent and he was fired.
For some time he could not find a job and in 1932 he moved to Moscow, where he became the chief accountant in a small enterprise. Work did not prevent him from attending services. Soon Ivan entered the circle of Orthodox young people, discussed issues of spiritual life with them, and this friendship strengthened him even more in his intention to follow the spiritual path.
During the war, he was not called up to the front, as he was exempt from military service due to myopia. In 1944, he became a psalm-reader at the Moscow Church of the Nativity in Izmailovo, and in 1945 he was ordained a deacon at the same parish, and soon a priest.”
As if there was no war...
Text of the book “The Experience of Constructing a Confession”
Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) Experience of constructing a confession
Edition supplemented with excerpts from the sermons and letters of Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) “Publishing House of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery” 2019
Recommended for publication by the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church
ISR19-837-3683
© Foundation for Sociocultural Projects “Tradition”, 2019
To the reader
This book was compiled from many sources as I became accustomed to the prayer structure of the Church, to the experience of clergy and pastoral counseling.
The material for the collection was the conversations of Archimandrite John (Krestyankin), which were held in the seventies of the 20th century in the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery during the first week of Lent, after reading the penitential canon of Andrei of Crete. Many remember those evenings of reverent penitential standing before the living and close God and their own conscience; they remembered the convicting and healing word of pastoral edification.
When publishing conversations at the request of pilgrims and parishioners, we tried to maintain a conversational intonation. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). By publishing these conversations, we hope that they will help at least some to hear and fulfill this call of God.
Part one The experience of constructing a confession according to the Ten Commandments
introduction
We have gathered here to bring another repentance to the Lord. I would like to preface my confession with a few words. Each of us, to the best of our ability and ability, tries in everyday life to maintain cleanliness in our homes and neatness in our clothing.
And there are some especially clean people who zealously maintain cleanliness and order. And how concerned is such a person if, for some reason, this order and cleanliness is violated!
Likewise, a person who is accustomed to monitoring the purity of his heart and the neatness of his soul cannot live without repentance. Such a person waits and longs for another confession, just as parched earth awaits life-giving moisture. In the words of the psalmist David, “...my soul is like a dry land to You” (Ps. 143:6). Imagine for a moment a person who has not washed off bodily dirt all his life! So the soul requires washing, and what would happen if there were no Sacrament of repentance, this healing and cleansing “second Baptism”!
Everyone has probably seen it more than once, or maybe they remember from childhood what happens when it gets warmer in winter and children roll snow globes. They will take a tiny ball, the size of a fist, and roll it down the hill: in the blink of an eye, this ball turns into a huge, irresistible lump of wet, dirty snow. The same thing happens with the sinful state of our soul. Watch yourself! You sincerely repented with tears, took communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ - what peace and tranquility in your heart! But, on your way from the temple, you met someone and in a conversation you carelessly threw a small lump of condemnation into your heart... That's it! The avalanche has started! Now look at how lightning fast the sinful lump will reel in...
From the Word for the 4th Sunday of Lent
What does it mean to repent? This means changing sinful thoughts and feelings, correcting yourself, becoming different... Growth, spiritual ascent “from strength to strength” is necessary, as if along the steps of a ladder.
We also have home repentance: in the evening, during prayer, remember what you have done to annoy the Lord during the day, and repent. And experienced confessor-mentors generally advise not to put off repentance, but if you have bent your conscience or sinned, immediately reproach yourself and ask the Lord for forgiveness. And the Lord will forgive, for “... God will not despise a contrite and humble heart” (Ps. 50:19).
However, the weight of this lump of sin, which we manage to roll out in the soul, will press on until a prayer of absolution is read over the head of a sincerely repentant sinner during the Sacrament of Confession by a priest who, by the grace of the priesthood, has the power to resolve sins.
We, sinful people, feel and experience this. But this is what the holy people visibly saw. A spiritual daughter came to the last Optina elder Nektary before his death. When she approached him, the elder blessed her and said: “You need to confess, there is a cloud of demons over you!” This is who is attracted to us by spiritual dirt!
And I would also like to say: at the end of the Sacrament of Confession, before reading the prayer of permission, the priest reads a prayer for those who have brought repentance.
Pay attention to the words of this prayer: “... reconcile and unite him [that is, the repentant] of Your Holy Church, in Christ Jesus our Lord...”. How does it feel to be reconciled with the Church? We go to church, pray, sing akathists and prayers, perform choir obedience (this is who participates in the performance of worship). It turns out that by our sins we have long been separated from God, from grace-filled inner communion with the Church. They cut the spiritual connection, the umbilical cord through which our souls and spirit are fed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. So the priest performing the Sacrament of Confession prays for the joining of us, who have alienated ourselves from the Church through a sinful life.
In fact, we should come to confession having already thought through our actions, having already mourned our sinful life before the Lord. Everyone must bring their personal repentance before the cross and the Gospel.
Before we begin to repent, we must forgive everyone everything. Forgive without delay, now! Forgive for real, and not like this: “I forgave you, but I can’t see you and I don’t want to talk to you!” We must immediately forgive everyone and everything as if there were no offenses, grief or hostility. Only then can we hope to receive forgiveness from the Lord.
From a letter
God's mercy and condescension to human weaknesses are so great that for every sin, no matter how great and monstrous it may be, there is repentance. And for this we need to constantly thank God.
Help us, Lord, at this moment to forgive everyone everything!
Once during the earthly life of Jesus Christ, a certain lawyer approached Him and asked: Teacher! What must I do to inherit eternal life? And he received the answer: “... love the Lord your God with all your heart... and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:25 and 27). These are our main commandments: love for God and one’s neighbor.
But since our duties to God and our neighbor are varied, the commandments are divided by God into ten and presented in such a way that the first four are related to God, and the other six are related to our neighbor. So now let’s look at how we violated God’s Law.
Lord, accept our feasible repentance!
First Commandment of the Decalogue
I am the Lord your God, may you have no gods other than Me. | Ref. 20.1-2
In Russian translation it sounds like this: “I am the Lord your God, may you have no other gods besides Me.”
What duties should we have in relation to God according to this commandment?
First duty
. We must have true knowledge of God. Do we have this true knowledge of God? No, we do not have the correct concept of God, of the Orthodox teaching of our faith, of the Church of which we are members, of receiving Holy Baptism.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
And we still make excuses that we have nowhere to learn these correct concepts about God, that no one taught us or is teaching us this, but by this desire to justify ourselves we aggravate our guilt, for this is not true! We lead too inattentive, distracted lives and we ourselves do not want to draw the necessary knowledge from the sources that each of us has.
From a word to Cheesecake Week
Nothing can fill our life so that a complete person feels the unconditional fullness of real, and not illusory, happiness, for it, this fullness, is only in God.
1. Ask your conscience, do we value every service in church, do we listen to the prayers and chants that the Church prays? Here is a school for you, here is the most necessary, the most true theology, here is the most repentant prayer, the most inspired praises to God. Are we feeding our mind and soul with all this? No.
Lord, forgive us!
We don’t like to come to church at the beginning of the service; we squeeze through people during the service, crowd together and talk loudly near the candle box, and move from place to place. We ourselves do not hear what is read and sung, and we disturb others; we do not draw anything from this source of true theology.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
And some still consider themselves too well-read and omniscient, they still listen with irritation and condemnation: “What, they say, he started talking about the same thing again,” completely forgetting that the priest standing on the pulpit is standing, as it were, on a stone rolled away from the door of the Holy Sepulcher, and the word of the gospel from the holy place cannot be without benefit. Even the most wretched word from the pulpit always teaches the truths of Orthodoxy.
Lord, forgive us who reject Your words!
2. We don’t read soul-saving books, making the excuse that they don’t exist now, and again this is an evil excuse! Do we read the Book of all books, the Holy Gospel? Almost all of us have the Gospel, and if we still don’t, it’s due to the greatest negligence. Do we learn from this Book of Life? The Holy Church has established obligatory readings of the Gospel and the Apostolic Epistles every day. Let's say that not everyone can follow and do this, but who is stopping us from reading at least one chapter every day? How many of us who repent today have at least once carefully read the Gospel, the Apostolic Acts and Epistles?
Forgive us, Lord!
Not only do we not read the Gospel at home, but we also don’t listen to it in church! Reverent behavior in church is always obligatory, and during the reading of the Holy Gospel everyone should freeze and listen attentively with their heads bowed. And we are good if we don’t outwardly push ourselves at this moment (and this happens to us - Lord, forgive us
).
It’s good if we don’t pass the candles and thereby distract the attention of others (repent to the Lord who is to blame for this - Lord, forgive us
).
It’s also good if, taking advantage of the “empty” time, we don’t bother to adjust the candles or light the lamp (this also happens to us - Lord, forgive us
).
It’s good if we don’t distract others with empty talk, and in this we are sinners, Lord!
But if we do not even outwardly violate this moment of worship, how many of us can sincerely say that we listen with utmost attention to the words of the Holy Scripture? Don’t the words glide across the surface of the ear, not reaching not only the heart, but simply the mind, which is wandering at this moment who knows where!
Lord, forgive our inattention, our insolence, our frivolity and coldness that we show in listening to the reading that the Church offers us during worship.
From a letter
But know that God does not need a dead faith, but one that lives in the entire inner being of a person. When all our thoughts are directed to the Lord. When our heart longs to live with God, without being separated from Him. When our will wants to fulfill God’s commandments, to follow the Lord until the end of our days.
Having now repented to the Lord, let us suppose that from this day on (this does not require a great mind or extraordinary feat), as soon as the reading of the Gospel in church begins, stop all extraneous activities, all movement, bow your head and listen most attentively to the words of the Gospel.
Help us, Lord!
But if a person still squeezes past you, who has not heard the sermon today and does not know how to behave at this moment, do not angrily pull him back. And then, perhaps, having remembered it, after the service, explain with love and goodwill how to behave while reading the Gospel. This will be Christian!
We do not read books with religious and moral content. However, not everyone has them and they are difficult to get. But there are those among us who have them, but they stand on the shelves, and they are either too lazy or too lazy to read them: “I’d better sleep more.” And those who are more educated read the newspaper more readily than serious spiritual reading, while others do not read it themselves and do not give it to others: “What if they don’t give it to you, or you yourself want to read just at this time.” This is how greed overcomes!
Here it is also necessary to remember that there is nothing more unreasonable than appropriating other people’s books of spiritual content! What benefits can reading a stolen book have for the soul? If anyone is sinful and has such books, immediately, at the first opportunity, return them to those to whom they belong!
Lord, forgive us our foolishness and dishonesty!
3. Finally, one can also learn about God in conversations with well-read and pious people. What are we doing? We love to talk, we are tempted to go to our neighbor, friends and acquaintances, but not to talk about God, the soul and salvation. It’s shameful and scary to admit that we Christians often gather to judge our neighbors, indulge in card games, or even organize wine drinking. I went on a visit empty-handed and returned even more ruined.
From a letter
Go to the Church, and it will help you not to stray from the path of salvation. But the main thing now is to start constantly reading the Holy Scriptures - the New Testament and books written by Orthodox fathers.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
And this often happens to us after confession, on the day of communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
Second duty
, prescribed to us by the first commandment of the Law of God: to have true faith in God, hope in Him and love for Him.
From a letter
Beware of condemnation and soon scorching conclusions. If we know ourselves with difficulty, then what can we say about others? Let's keep quiet! Let us pray for those who in one way or another have brought confusion into our souls... After all, we all need mercy.
1. The most terrible sin against this duty of every person is atheism, that is, the very state in which a great many of our compatriots, our relatives, friends and acquaintances now find themselves. There is no need to even talk about how sad this is, especially for parents whose children are atheists! But we, who came here for confession, do we have a firm and undoubted faith in everything religious? Do we believe in immortality, that beyond the grave there is eternal life with retribution for earthly deeds? As scary as it is to admit, we don’t have a living faith that would permeate our entire consciousness, that would govern our actions.
Lord, have mercy on us who doubt Your existence, our immortality, and the coming Last Judgment!
From the word on the 7th Sunday after Easter
It is not easy to persuade people to complete atheism and blasphemy; his own demonic appearance is disgusting for a person...
The enemy takes a roundabout path, directing all his forces precisely towards the destruction of the true Church of God by separating Christians from the Church. He knows that without the Church people will still reach atheism, lose salvation, and earthly death will give birth to eternal torment.
2. Perhaps among those who repent now there are those who do not believe in the existence of the heavenly army of Angels and hordes of evil spirits. The latter is especially common among “educated” people. For some reason, it is a shame in our age to believe in the existence of real beings - evil spirits. And this is all that the enemy of our salvation needs! If there is no malicious influence, then why and from what should we protect ourselves with the Life-giving Cross, holy water, and the Jesus Prayer? Maybe someone doesn’t sufficiently reverence the Mother of God, the holy martyrs, the saints of God? Repent to the Lord!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
From the Word on All Saints Sunday
The saints of God, the Russian saints, revealed and unmanifested, but known to God, they are with us, they are always near, they call us: “Study, pray, ask” - and the Lord will accept us, and they will accept us as brothers, as friends in the granary Christ for eternal joy.
3. There is another type of terrible sin against the first commandment - this is apostasy. God! How close we are to this state! And sometimes, perhaps, they were real apostates and not because of fear of torment, as sometimes happened in the history of Christianity, during the persecution of the Church, but only because of the fear, often imaginary, of losing this or that earthly well-being.
It happens that we, believers, hope to receive some kind of help from the Lord, for example, to get a better apartment, a better job, and we ask everyone to pray, but at this time we ourselves hide the icons in the closet, fearing that they will see our faith in God and refuse us. This is how crazy we are getting.
Have mercy on us, Lord!
Out of cowardice, when we go to see a doctor, we take off the cross, fearing that the doctor won’t treat us or won’t give us sick leave!
Lord, forgive our apostasy and cowardice!
And if at work a conversation suddenly turns up about faith in God, then the unfortunate, cowardly person is ready to disappear into thin air. If only, even from the expression of his face, no one would guess that he was a Christian - and the words of renunciation of Christ were already hanging on the tip of his tongue... Repent to the Lord those who recognize themselves in the painted image of a cowardly Christian!
From a letter
According to the promise, people will be saved until the last days of the world. Some want to be saved, others want to die. And their main saving work is to preserve the faith.
It is about our faith and about the faith of those entrusted to our care that we would ache with our soul and heart. For all times it sounds: “your faith has saved you, go in peace,” “according to your faith, be it done to you.”
Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!
It's embarrassing to admit it, even to say it out loud. Not only young people, but also old people, who have already been freed from public duties, who have already earned both rest and pension, are also afraid to openly hang icons in their houses!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
Because of the fear of showing our religiosity, we now often commit the sin of spiritual murder of our dying relatives by not inviting a priest with the Holy Gifts to bid farewell to the dying, ashamed of our neighbors. And woe to us if, through our fault, one of our loved ones went into eternity without repentance and communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
Lord, forgive us these sins and do not be ashamed of us before Your Angels on the Day of the Last Judgment for our denial of You here on earth.
4. We have little true living faith, but we are extremely affected by superstitions. Superstition is a superstition, an empty, false belief. And what do we not replace true faith in the good Providence of God! We believe in some “happy” and “unhappy” days, in “hard” and “easy” days. We are afraid to start even a good deed on a “hard” day, without thinking at all that we may not live to see another day. We believe all sorts of dreams, interpreting them, guessing from them, being seduced by dreams, we begin to see some other “prophetic” dreams and through this we reach the point of darkness and illness...
Repent to the Lord!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
From the word on the 7th Sunday after Easter
The mind is bound by the bonds of ignorance, delusion, superstition, and perplexity. He struggles, but cannot escape from them. Cling to the Lord, and He will enlighten your darkness and break all the bonds in which your mind is languishing.
Be afraid to believe dreams, so as not to fall into delusion - a terrible spiritual disease!
And we bring these superstitions to the temple and hold on to them more tightly than to true piety. And with our ridiculous remarks we violate the prayers of those around us. Here they are passing candles - who came up with the idea that they should be passed over the right shoulder, and not vice versa? (I don’t even want to clutter my brain with the memory of this.) You just need to pass the candles in such a way as not to break them, so as not to push the person who raised his hand to make the sign of the cross, and not to shove candles into him at that moment. Or do not pass them on at important moments of the service, but hold them in your hand for a while, and then quietly pass them on without any prejudice.
These superstitions came to us from the distant ancestors of the pagans. This is the day of the Holy Trinity. What is going on in our cemeteries, on the graves where there are crosses! This is truly a dark day for our departed! Instead of prayer, instead of candles and incense, real pagan funeral feasts are celebrated at the graves on this day. And our deceased in the next world burn with the fire of grief and pity, like the evangelical rich man who asked the Lord to tell his brothers, still alive, what awaits them after death. If any of you celebrated these funeral feasts and collected a table at the grave, go to the cemetery and ask forgiveness from your deceased relatives for the terrible suffering that you brought to them with your foolishness, and never do this again on the holy day of the holiday, when the Church prays with a special kneeling by praying for the repose of our deceased loved ones, do not make this day the most painful for them.
Now ask the Lord for forgiveness for your foolishness.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
From the Word on the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
Sin is the only real fear and a terrible fear, for “... sin when committed gives birth to death,” destroying the body with disease, and binding the immortal soul with hellish bonds (James 1:15). This is the fear from which the Savior warns us.
We believe all sorts of signs and say that it is impossible not to believe, because they come true. But the Monk Seraphim answered in this case: “But you don’t believe, and they won’t be fulfilled!”
Lord, forgive us sinners!
5. Many sin against the first commandment of the Law of God by drawing some kind of omens from every case. Those who spread all sorts of rumors: about famine, flood, and some go so far as to indicate the exact date of the end of the world are grievously sinning before God. How can you guess something that even the Angels do not know, but only the Heavenly Father knows! We sin no less if we listen to and believe these impudent speeches and predictions.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
6. Wizards, sorcerers, sorcerers and fortune-tellers also sin against the first commandment - all these people who have abandoned faith in the power of God, and believe in the secret powers of creatures, especially evil spirits, and try to act in alliance with them to the detriment of others. If there are such sinners among you, you must repent personally, with the bitterest tears, before the Lord.
For participation in magic, the Church prohibits communication with her for twenty years, on a par with murderers. And those who are rigid and unrepentant are completely thrown out. Do not be consoled that now everyone can cross the church threshold and approach the Holy Chalice. People and a priest can be deceived, but who can deceive God and how? We talked at the beginning of confession about how you can internally excommunicate yourself from the Church, and then outwardly, even if you don’t leave the church, grace will recede! Well, the most bitter example of the communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ for condemnation is the communion of Judas.
From the Word on the Parable of the Good Samaritan
Only through mercy and love can one acquire the Holy Spirit of God, Samaritans, Who alone can resist the terrible spirits of evil that have taken possession of people and the world.
Repent while there is still time, before death has yet befallen you and you have not finally fallen into the society of evil demons, to whose help and fellowship you have resorted until now. How scary it is! Just think: a Christian who has renounced Satan and all his works during the Sacrament of Baptism turns to communion with them. And he still dares to fearlessly unite with Christ, approaching the Holy One without irrevocable repentance.
Communion! Don’t think, everyone else standing here, that there are sinners, but we, thank God, don’t do magic. If any of you told fortunes or turned to sorcerers for help, or were treated, or treated someone with conspiracies, perhaps advised someone to turn to “grandmother” for help, he is sinning no less than the sorcerers themselves, abandoning faith in the power of God and expecting help for themselves from these people.
You say: “Why, prayers are read and the sign of the cross is applied!” But listen to what St. John Chrysostom says: “If the name of the Holy Trinity is spoken to the Sisevs, if the saints are called upon, and if the sign of the cross is instilled, the Sisevs must flee.” The Holy Church excommunicates such people from Holy Communion for five to six years.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
From the Word on the 7th Sunday after Easter
A thoughtless passion for the occult, this voluntary, curious appeal to demons, first becomes a tragedy, and then ends in death for those who are seduced... And the demons, taking the form of Angels of Light, whisper with thoughts, speak from the stands, shout with all media: “Man is our god” , “Be like gods! Be higher than God."
We have such sacraments of the Church as the Blessing of Anointing (or Unction), established by the Church for the treatment of ailments, we have a great shrine - baptismal water, we have artos (Easter bread), and finally, in the Sacrament of Communion we unite with God Himself! And we have little faith in this, but running to the “grandmother” seems to us to be a real and sure remedy.
Lord, we are completely mad and confused in the concepts of where is the light, where is the darkness, where is the truth, where is the lie!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
7. Lord, we are so mad that we make fortunes from the Holy Gospel, the Bible, instead of learning the truths of faith from them. We tell fortunes with cards, and maybe some of you are also interested in spiritualism, spin saucers, call on some spirits (obviously not saints) and ask them about various destinies and events. Repent to the Lord!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
This is all disbelief in the good Providence of God, this daring curiosity, the lack of hope in God.
8. Many of us sin against the first commandment of the Law of God by loving one of the people more than God. It happens that we even say: “If he or she dies, I have nothing to live for.” Like, all life is in him, in this man, and not in the Lord, Who gave his life for us!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
And sometimes you can hear the following words: “I love animals more than people.” What madness! It is true that it is said: “Blessed is he who has mercy on cattle,” but giving all your affection to animals is a sin. Whoever is guilty of this, repent to the Lord!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
9. Sins against the first commandment of the Law of God include such sins as man-pleasing and human-reliance. Why is man-pleasing and flattery so terrible that the words of Holy Scripture say: ... the Lord abhors a man of blood and flattery (Ps. 5:7)? Yes, because “with our speeches we deceive those whom we flatter, and with our praises we bring curses on the lives of those praised and become the culprits of their eternal condemnation for the error into which we lead gullible people who believe our flattery,” says St. Basil the Great.
Perhaps one of you pleases a person so much that you make him, as it were, your god. Nowadays even a mother grovels before her children, often neglecting her duties towards God to please them. It is necessary to go to church on Sunday, but adult children have arrived from the city, and the mother, to please her drunken son or son-in-law, remains at home, although there would be no damage to family relations if she went to church for two hours.
Of course, if it were one day, one exceptional time, then in the name of love for them it would not be a sin to stay at home, but this is repeated every Sunday, and churches, especially in rural areas, in parishes, are empty, and not because There are atheists living all around us, and it is because of our inability to live like a Christian. Wouldn't the mother deserve more respect if the children knew that their mother would do everything for them, but on Sunday she has the right to go to church for two or three hours?
Lord, forgive us!
From a letter
Love for humanity - verbal fornication, love for a specific person, on our life path given by God - is a practical matter, requiring work, effort, struggle with oneself, one’s laziness.
The sin of relying on man lies in the fact that we very often rely on ourselves and our strengths, on our prayers, fasts, various deeds, on our often imaginary good deeds, completely forgetting that only with the assistance of God’s grace can we be saved. Or we rely on someone more than on God, and thereby push God into the background from our lives, resorting to His help when everything else has already been tried. We cannot even imagine how serious this sin is and how it angers God!
Cursed is man, says the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah, who trusts in man (17:5). Lord, forgive us, we did not even realize that we had brought upon ourselves Your curse! Repent to the Lord!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
Finally, our third duty, prescribed to us by the first commandment of the Law of God: to honor God, to serve Him, for example, through church and home prayer, to fulfill His commandments with care and diligence.
God! We are all sinners before You by abandoning household rules, and by neglect and inattention to our lives.
From the Word on the Day of Celebration of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow”
It is sorrowful, heavy and bewildering in the heart in sorrowful moments, and it is precisely at this time that we need to run to our hearts: isn’t this the reason for the pain - my heart, rebelling against God’s Providence, demanding from God an account of why this is happening this way and not otherwise? .
Let's look within ourselves. How many of you, having gotten up in the morning and carefully read your morning prayers, set yourself the goal of pleasing the Lord all day long by fulfilling His commandments? Where is it, Lord! Even if we read prayers, our thoughts are already far away, we are all already immersed in everyday worries. Few people will remember: after all, I am a Christian; Today there may be certain circumstances - how can I, with God’s help, live the day holy, peacefully and sinlessly!
Where are such pious thoughts?! Before we even have time to open our eyes, everything makes us angry, everything irritates us: we are rude to our mother, who got up almost an hour earlier than us to help us go to work, we walk around the apartment like an animal in a cage, we don’t look at our neighbors, we say hello through clenched teeth, we slam doors, yell at children who, perhaps, are capricious - after all, they were woken up and dragged to the nursery at dawn or pushed out to school.
Then, if we live in a big city, we find ourselves in transport crowded with people and completely lose our human appearance. At this point we get extremely irritated, push each other, swear, we say such barbs to each other, as if we were our mortal enemies all around. We don’t want to suffer any inconvenience or trouble. This is how, Lord, we begin almost every day.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
The beginning of the pastoral path
In 1944, John began to perform the duties of a psalm-reader in the Church of the Nativity of Christ, located in Izmailovo. In January 1945, Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) ordained him a deacon, and at the end of the year, Patriarch Alexy I ordained him a priest.
Carrying out his pastoral ministry zealously and responsibly, Father John combined it with his studies at the Moscow Theological Academy - he passed exams in the disciplines studied at the Theological Seminary as an external student.
The active preaching activity of the young priest, who was quickly gaining popularity among believers, his principled position, and his reluctance to make “impossible concessions” to the authorities irritated the latter.
In April 1950, Father John, without having had time to defend his Ph.D. thesis, was arrested on charges of anti-Sovietism. They say that the priest who informed “who should” about the content of Father John’s sermons was boycotted by the parishioners. Father John later forgave him for his weakness and asked the parishioners to follow the same.
At first, the arrested person was kept in Lubyanka and Lefortovo prison. And in August 1950 he was transferred to Butyrka prison, where he was held together with criminals. During interrogations, the investigator behaved rudely, threatened, and exerted pressure, which cannot be said about the priest, who reacted to all accusations with restraint and prudence, rejecting far-fetched slander.
They report that when a recruited clergyman was brought to him for a confrontation, Father John was so heartily delighted at his visit that he, broken by a wounded conscience, fainted and fell.
In October, Father John was sentenced to seven years in prison and was sent to Kargopollag (Arkhangelsk region). At first, the priest worked in a logging camp, but then, due to health reasons, he was transferred to another place.
After his early release in 1955, Father John was sent to the Pskov diocese, and after a short time (in 1957) to the Ryazan diocese. During this period he changed several parishes. This was caused by the inertia and hostile attitude towards him on the part of the local authorities.
Monastic feat
On June 10, 1966, Father John became a monk, and in 1967 he entered the brotherhood of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery. In 1970, he was elevated to the rank of abbot, and three years later, in 1973, to the rank of archimandrite.
In addition to the traditional duties associated with his rank and position, Father John devoted a lot of time to meetings and conversations with people who needed his instructions, prayers, and blessings. There were so many people who wanted to meet with the priest that the reception of visitors, which began after the Divine Liturgy, lasted until late in the evening, with short breaks for meals, and sometimes continued after midnight.
A significant part of the pilgrims who sought personal meetings with him revered him as a blessed, spirit-bearing elder. And this is not surprising, because in addition to numerous virtues, Father John possessed spiritual wisdom and, as noted, the gift of foresight. Meanwhile, Father John himself, out of humility of heart, was more than critical of himself.
Towards the end of his life, due to poor health, partly undermined during his imprisonment, Father John could no longer receive everyone who wanted to communicate with him as actively as before. But he was connected with many by correspondence.
On February 5, 2006, Father John, having received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, fell asleep in the Lord. He was 95 years old. When saying goodbye, the elder was given due honors. The funeral service was attended by bishops, dozens of priests and ordinary pilgrims, the spiritual children of the deceased. The body of the ascetic was buried in sacred caves.
To the reader
This book was compiled from many sources as I became accustomed to the prayer structure of the Church, to the experience of clergy and pastoral counseling.
The direct material for this collection was the conversations of Archimandrite John (Krestyankin), which were held in the seventies in the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery during the first week of Lent, after the reading of the Penitential Canon of Andrew of Crete. Many remember those evenings of reverent penitential standing before the living and close God and their own conscience; they remembered the convicting and healing word of pastoral edification.
The conversations were recorded. Naturally, during rewriting and reprinting, many errors appeared in them. By publishing conversations at the request of pilgrims and parishioners, we sought not only to eliminate errors, but also to preserve the conversational intonation to the greatest extent.
Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
(Matt. 3:2). By publishing these conversations, we hope that they will help at least some to hear and fulfill this call of God.
The creative activity of Father John Krestyankin as a writer
Among the literary monuments of the pastor’s spiritual heritage, a significant part belongs to published letters (see: Letters). As a rule, they are all full of love and care. In them he gives moral instructions and advice, sometimes denounces, and promises to pray.
In addition, many of the soul-helping instructions of Father John are known to us from such works as “The Experience of Constructing a Confession”, “Handbook for Monastics and Laity”, “Sermons”.
During the spread of unrest and panic among believers regarding the assignment of TINs to Russian citizens, the priest expressed a firm judgment that, first of all, a Christian is distinguished not by the presence or absence of an individual number assigned by the state, but by faith and virtue.
