Scripture Study
Holy Scripture is the source of Divine Revelation, from it we learn about God and His commandments. The basis of Christian doctrine is the Gospel, the name translates as “Good News.” It is given to all people, everyone can study the Gospel and comprehend the teaching of Christ that it contains. Christians do not have any secret knowledge about God; we draw knowledge from the pages of Holy Scripture. For both the priest and the laity, the Gospel is the same, and everyone is equally called to keep the commandments that the Lord gave. Therefore, it is important for a Christian to read and study the Holy Scriptures.
Reading should begin with the New Testament, with the Gospel, reading at least one, or better yet, several chapters every day, but we must remember that its thoughtful study does not imply haste. Therefore, it would not be superfluous to use, in parallel with reading, the interpretations of the holy fathers, in which the essence of the Gospel stories is deeply revealed.
It would be a good idea to join a Scripture study group. Such groups, full-time and remote, are located at churches and Orthodox educational institutions. When choosing a remote group on the Internet, you need to make sure that the group is Orthodox, otherwise you risk ending up with sectarians or heretics.
Personal prayer
It is very important for a Christian to learn to pray correctly, since prayer is the core of spiritual life, living communication with God. We need to start with the simplest thing - the “Our Father” prayer, which the Lord Jesus Christ gave us. Despite its apparent simplicity, this prayer is very deep in content and actually covers a person’s entire life. “Our Father” is a prayer that every Christian should know by heart.
Of course, you can pray in your own words, asking the Lord for what you need for your soul and body and thanking for your mercies. But it would be correct to resort to the centuries-old prayer experience of the Church, which is contained in various prayers written by the holy fathers. Special collections - prayer books - have been compiled from such prayers. They contain morning and evening prayers, prayers that are read before Holy Communion, and many others. Having started with regular reading of the “Our Father” in the morning and evening, and having consolidated this activity as an obligatory spiritual activity, you can begin reading morning and evening prayers from the prayer book. It may be difficult to read all the prayers at first, so you can add them a little at a time.
The prayers are written in Church Slavonic, which can create certain difficulties at first - the texts may not be entirely understandable, and in some places even completely incomprehensible. In this case, it is worth turning to explanatory prayer books and analyzing the prayers using a parallel translation. Mindlessly repeating incomprehensible words and expressions does not bring any spiritual benefit. Prayers are not conspiracies or incantations, but a reverent conversation with God. Obviously, you need to have a meaningful conversation, otherwise there is a chance of not being heard. It is also necessary to remember that the essence is not the mechanical reading of prayers, but the prayer itself, with attention, concentration and understanding of what is read.
Conversations with the priest. The responsibility of an Orthodox Christian in the modern world
Audio |
In the St. Petersburg studio of our TV channel, priest of the Vyborg diocese Igor Lysenko answers questions.
– Today is a very interesting topic for discussion. It concerns the life of probably every Orthodox person: “The responsibility of an Orthodox Christian in the modern world.” When we talk about responsibility, what immediately comes to mind is duty, conscription, responsibility for service. But the root of the word “responsibility” is “response.” The answer to questions that different people ask us: believers and non-believers, with an active civic position and people provocateurs. But the most important questions we must answer come from our Lord. What do you mean by the word “responsibility”?
– You started correctly, look at the root. When we do something in this world, we need to understand that we are giving an answer to the Heavenly Father, since He created this world, and created it very well, as we remember from the Bible. And what we do in this world changes it, and not always for the better. If we serve and are responsible for how we serve, then we are Orthodox.
Orthodoxy (or the correct glorification of our Lord) lies in our activity, in how ready we are to give an answer not at the last Last Judgment, but at the court with which our conscience judges us every minute of our life, when we do something wrong . And the apostles said: “The heart burned, it burned in us, we realized that we were doing something wrong, we would not recognize the One who was in front of us.” So it is here: we feel that the Lord is calling us to selfless love, not to judge, not to evaluate, but with responsibility, each time asking the Lord: “Are we doing the right thing?”
Since the modern world provides us with many reasons to be active, we need to take our time in each of these reasons. There should be no rush. Remember how in our prayers we ask to be delivered from vanity and demonic haste. When we are careful with ourselves, listen carefully to what the Lord answers us, then our activity and responsibility become natural. This strengthens us in Orthodoxy, makes us Orthodox. In fact, this is bearing a cross.
Tomorrow is the holiday: The Origin of the Honest Trees of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. It is symbolic that at the moment of the beginning of this holiday (the evening service has already passed) we are talking about responsibility, that is, about service. Responsibility always comes for some matter.
The Apostle James also said: Faith without works is dead. If we try to believe in God only for ourselves, to pray, to partake of His Body and Blood, then we act irresponsibly; we do not consider ourselves children of Heavenly Father. We were created for each other, to serve each other. And this ministry should be saving, healing, bringing back to the Lord those who have departed from Him. This does not depend on what we are doing: industrial matters, government service or home service.
– As soon as you turn on the TV (not the Orthodox TV channel “Soyuz”, but the news), you become scared by the flow of information that needs to be comprehended. Since we are Orthodox Christians, we need to comprehend it from this position. It is impossible every time, after hearing some paradoxical tempting news, to call the priest and say: “Father, how should I react?” There must be some kind of internal censor who helps to understand, including in the news world. A lot of people cannot cope with this, because it causes anger and aggression even within the family, in relationships with loved ones, and many disputes arise among parishioners.
- Let's remember the Gospel: the Lord said that it is not what enters a person that defiles him, but what comes out of him. In this sense, information coming from those people who are irresponsible about what they say and why they say it is desecrating. We feel this, but if we begin to take what they say too closely to our hearts, without thinking about how our heart reacts, then there must be an internal tuning fork, an internal feeling: is this what we hear?
When Adam and Eve listened to the serpent, they probably rang a bell that the serpent was saying something wrong. What he says is fascinating, tempting, but it does not give inner silence, a grace-filled feeling of security and correctness, that is, the state that we receive when we partake of the Body and Blood of God (if we partake for service). Here it is very important to receive communion not for yourself, not for the salvation of your soul, but in order to, armed with the power of the Lord, the fullness of the grace of His Body and Blood, serve your neighbors.
– Question from a TV viewer: “A person with a truly Orthodox worldview lives every part of his life as an Orthodox Christian. But now it is being imposed on society that a person should become simply a consumer unit. How to make young people think about the soul?
- Let's remember what kind of world the Savior came to. What country surrounded Him, what values were promoted in the country (if we consider as a country not only Galilee and the small state surrounding it, but the entire pagan Roman Empire, the principle of which was: “enjoy”). There was no spirit there. And in this situation, the Lord revealed Himself as serving others.
After He fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread, raised four-day-old Lazarus, healed lepers, they expected Him to use His miraculous abilities to subjugate this world to Himself and continue to rule in it (like Vovka in the distant kingdom, when there was nothing to do). you have to, they will eat and drink for you).
But instead, He, possessing such opportunities and abilities, while some of His disciples dreamed of seeing themselves as ministers of finance, says: “I came for crucifixion to give Myself to people, so that My Body and Blood would become your food and, perceiving Me in My Body and Blood, you could serve each other, not betray the Heavenly Father, not give yourself over to sin.” He showed an example of how in the surrounding pagan space (which we are still surrounded by), in the space of hedonism, false information, false calls, one can and should be with God, one can and should be Orthodox, correctly glorifying the Lord with one’s behavior, service, armament, love and truth.
After all, He very often left His disciples and companions at night and prayed. Even He needed to constantly arm himself with prayer. No wonder He said that the race that seduces us, distorts our service, introduces distorting elements into our responsibility, is driven out only by fasting and prayer.
Happy Assumption Lent to you, which begins tonight. You also called it “children’s” because it is combined with celebrations of the introduction of fruits (apples, grapes, nuts) and honey into circulation. This is all joyful, but we limit ourselves from excesses so that our service is more responsible, pure, without temptation to those for whom we serve. And then any political, state, or domestic issue will be easy for us to solve.
We will feel: how far we are tempted by thinking about this or that option, we are so far from the truth. In order to become purer, so that our conscience strengthens us in the fact that we are doing the right thing, we need to crucify ourselves, forget about our comfort, convenience, understood very narrowly. After all, if you think about pleasure, it will very quickly lead to an upset stomach, and then the whole body. Therefore, the responsibility is to see not the immediate result, but the future.
The Orthodox differ from everyone else in that for them the perspective is as extreme as possible, stretching into eternity, to the Lord. And this perspective cannot be assessed or maintained, much less achieved without the help of God, the communion of His Body and Blood. Those who talk about frequent communion, but do not add to this: “In order to serve your neighbor,” seem to halve the answer. And then one hears: “We take communion often, but we still feel bad.” This is because a person receives communion only for his own sake, the salvation of his soul (as he understands it), in order to separate himself from the sinful world, so that the world does not tempt, does not tempt: “I took communion, I am now a saint, separated, and the whole world lies in evil.” , let him be there somewhere.”
- This is pride.
- Without a doubt, this is pride. Dennitsa, who showed an example of pride, was surrounded by angels, was close to the Lord, but wanted to be the very best, separated, only for himself, and this destroyed him, made him nothing. We receive communion like Judas. What did Judas dream about? To be elevated by being close to such a great Teacher. And when he heard from this Teacher that in Jerusalem, which they were entering together, He would be crucified, all of Judas’s vain plans were destroyed. In retaliation for such a violation of his plans, he went and betrayed the Teacher, and then, realizing that he had done something wrong, he punished himself.
- You are your own executioner.
- Yes. Very often we do the same thing. We first do the wrong things, having listened to the wrong advice, dreaming too much about ourselves, and then, when we are convinced that what we have done is insignificant, we punish ourselves, condemn ourselves, and turn ourselves into nothing.
– Father, I really want to remember here the words of the prayer before communion: “I will not kiss You, like Judas.”
- And further: “But like a thief I confess Thee.”
– If we really understood everything we say...
– And this is very important, because everything we say bears fruit.
– We often do not know how to answer the tricky questions that people come to us with.
– Because we try to answer ourselves. We very often try to answer based on the wind in our own heads or the number of books we read. After all, people often turn to us in the hope that we are somehow different from them. They can read something in books or on the Internet themselves. Very often, priests forget that they are responsible not to those three percent of people (according to statistics) who call themselves churchgoers, come to churches quite regularly and participate in the sacraments, but to the 80% percent of those who are baptized (also according to statistics).
But if we look from this side, the responsibility of the priest becomes a little different. When I teach students (priests, bishops) during my course at the Theological Academy, that in order for the Church to be able to give an answer to its Creator, it must be authoritative for the state, for everyone around it. Just as at one time the Church had everything that was most advanced. For example, you know that all European universities were created on the basis of monasteries. Orthodoxy was associated with the highest level of education, a critical attitude towards the world, and conscientiousness. Any Orthodox person always got to the bottom of things; all the great scientists were believers.
– Question from a TV viewer: “Christ said: He who loves Me will keep My commandments. It’s not that we cannot keep His commandments, we don’t want to keep them. We do not keep not only the beatitudes, but even the Old Testament ones. We learned to observe the rituals: we came, confessed, talked about our sins, then thoughtlessly took communion, not understanding what communion was, and the job was done. And the most important thing is that no one does. How can I answer this?
– Communion comes out of this series. There is a common opinion that we are unworthy of Communion, which is why priests very often do not allow us to receive it. When I gave lectures at the Russian Academy of Public Administration (as it used to be called, now it has a more complex name), my audience were officers of the Federal Security Service. They said: “Father Igor, you can’t imagine how many Orthodox people, after they visited the church and were not allowed to take Communion, explaining that they were unworthy of meeting God, went either to ISIS, or to sects, or to those organizations that are destructive not only to the Church, but also to the state.”
This is the responsibility I am talking about. Three years ago I was asked to give lectures to priests of the St. Petersburg diocese at advanced training courses. They will soon be repeated by order of His Holiness the Patriarch. At these lectures we talked about the importance of the sacrament, that without the sacrament it is impossible to do good deeds in full and without distortion. I was later told that some priests, having heard this, returned to their parishes and acted as before.
I am talking about the responsibility of those who are most open to all winds, who are in the most advanced positions: monastics, priests. The same can be said about people who call themselves Orthodox. No wonder the Apostle Peter says: “You are a royal priesthood.” If we tell our friends that we are Orthodox and go to church, then we must behave differently, set a different example. Otherwise, it’s as if we are saying: “God, of course, exists. We probably believe in Him. We go to Him in some buildings that we call temples, but we behave the same way as you: in a pagan way, committing the same unsightly acts, where there is lies and cowardice.” This is also another side of responsibility, which Orthodox Christians very often forget about. When they come to church, they habitually put on a certain mask of piety, but are left without Communion.
In mathematics there is such a concept - “necessary and sufficient”. When you prove a theorem, you take a certain position, and then it is necessary and sufficient for something to happen, for this and that to happen. In order to be saved, to be different, to truly be responsible for oneself as an Orthodox Christian or as a priest, it is necessary not only to arm ourselves with the Lord, to be nourished by His Body and Blood, but also to be sure to use this power not for oneself, to give it away, by sharing it, by crucifying together with Christ, to whom you have communed. This is not always clear right away, it is clear only when you manage to do it for real at least once. Then the joy that illuminates you at this moment will show as an indicator that now you have done the right thing, try to continue to do the same. And then you will be in this joy, no matter what they do to you.
Why were the martyrs witnesses of Christ? Because they, tortured in order to renounce the Lord, not only did not renounce, they also blessed their tormentors, prayed for them, and helped them. And they shone with joy, demonstrating a completely different state, and not just physical, not just mental, but some other, spiritual state. Why are they depicted with halos on icons? Because this is different from portraits. There is no halo in the portraits, there is no glow of love, another world, uncreated light. And this is the responsibility for the fact that we are endowed with the Holy Spirit, that in our baptism we acquire this halo, this light. And then, unfortunately, in our ministry we very often part with this, we betray it, we trample on it. And this is what makes us unworthy.
That is, the unworthiness of communion is that after communion we behave in the old way, like those who did not partake, just as Judas behaved when he received communion. And then we understand how we must protect the power of the Sacrament, how we must use it correctly so that it truly becomes true love, which is long-suffering, merciful, covers everything, believes everything. This is unattainable without God’s help, without Him Himself, for He is Love.
Our responsibility is light when we are endowed with this love, filled with it, live and serve it, and then, as the Lord said, His yoke is good. And He Himself is Good. And then the cross of service that we bear becomes our natural talent, a natural response to the calls of the Lord. And His commandments then become very natural for us, not something complicated, imposed, which must be fulfilled in order to be rewarded with something according to the principle “you give me, I will give you,” but so that it is truly a cutting off of one’s will, cutting off temptations and temptations and illuminating yourself with the light of joy and love.
– Question from a TV viewer from the Leningrad region: “I’m 85 years old. When I was admitted to the hospital, I was walking to my floor and suddenly I saw that there was a church there, and I was very happy. On Sunday I went and took communion. Next week on Saturday there was supposed to be Candlemas, and I again went up to the priest on Friday to confess, and he said: “In my opinion, you took communion on Sunday. You can’t take communion so often, even John of Kronstadt said this (he named someone else).” I was upset. But I waited until everyone was confessing (there weren’t many people there), and again I went up to the priest (after all, I was in the hospital and I was 85 years old) and said: “Father, what if I die?” And he says to me: “Okay. Then take communion on Sunday.” In our church they allow you to take communion every week, the priests on the Soyuz TV channel also say that you can do it every week, but there the priest said that it’s impossible. So what is the right way? And why did this happen to me? I was just very upset then.”
- First of all, congratulations that you took communion by asking the most important question to the priest: “What if I die tomorrow?” But this applies not only to those who are 85 years old. Nobody knows whether he will die tomorrow or not. Therefore, in the prayer “Our Father,” the Lord said to us: “Give us our daily bread this day,” that is, daily. This is the norm for the communion of the early Christians, to know that at any moment you are ready to answer, firstly, before God, His call to you, are you with Him, and most importantly, that at any moment you are ready to serve your neighbor, but by the power of the Lord . So that you don’t have the situation that you take communion once a week and try to serve a single communion all week... And who said that this is enough for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday?
Why was John of Kronstadt mentioned, who himself took communion every day and wrote in his diary: “Thank God, the dream of my whole life has finally come true, that I began to take communion every day”? Naturally, when up to five thousand people came to him, he never asked which of them received communion when, but took up to twelve Cups (according to tradition, which is now known) and gave communion to those who came to him in order to equip them with ministry. And he spoke to them bold and very passionate words, which was called general confession, equipping them so that after communion they would go and fulfill their ministry.
Therefore, the houses that he built were not just charity houses, where you look after a person, give him food and forget about him... No, he set himself a much more difficult task. He created houses of industriousness, in which a person must first be taught some kind of work, which he had long since forgotten, having lost the image of God. And for this, teachers were hired, special equipment was purchased, so that a person could learn to work and see that his work was definitely useful for other people. Only then does this person become the image of God, he begins to respect himself, that he finally earns his own living, and not that he is like some kind of animal in an enclosure to which they threw a piece of some food, he ate it, went to a corner, lay down . Then how is he different from an animal?
John of Kronstadt was precisely different in that he understood: it is almost impossible to live without daily Communion. Therefore, those priests who do not allow you to receive Communion and say that it is too often are too daring in the sense that they then have to answer to the Lord. What if tomorrow the one you didn’t give communion to today actually dies? How will the Lord ask you? Why didn't you give him Communion? Why didn’t you allow him to do those good deeds that would bring him closer to God, would help him go through those ordeals or those tests, temptations that await each of us for what we do here?
– I also remember Blessed Xenia, who bore her foolishness for the sake of the Lord for a man who died without confessing or receiving communion.
- Yes, but not everyone has such a wife. And this must be understood when we explain, say and inspire that the Church cannot demand from the state a correct attitude towards man, towards nature, if it itself does not set an example through its children, through its members. When members of the Church behave correctly, in an environmental sense, for example, they do not litter, but help to remove garbage or create high-quality production facilities for recycling it, when members of the Church (if they are in politics or in public service) are responsible for every word they say, then they understand that this is a responsibility before God. That everything stolen is extortion, something that must be answered for. Because it was stolen from other children of God, and the Lord says that an angel stands behind each of them and watches.
- Absolutely amazing: “And let your word be: yes - yes, no - no.” It is difficult to imagine that people in our society, from the lowest member to officials, will always tell the truth.
– At the beginning of the program, you asked me not to talk about politics, but I would still like to say that we have responsibility for our state. The Lord gave us the largest country, the richest. And if we don’t feel it as our country, don’t feel like we are the owners of this country, and therefore responsible for it, then we will have to answer for this before God. Moreover, the more religious we consider ourselves, the more responsible we must behave towards the entire country and everything that happens in it.
And in this sense, although this stage has already passed, the Constitution that existed in 1993 (after all, I teach this subject, so I have to say a little about it) deprived us of the opportunity to be masters; it had a very interesting duality. On the one hand, it was said that we, a multinational people, are the masters of the source of power in the country, and on the other hand, that international laws are more important for us than those that we have adopted. Wow: we are the masters, and they decide for us.
And we finally corrected this flagrant violation, the flagrant impossibility of bringing order to our country on July 1 of this year. But we need to take advantage of this, we need to feel like the owner of the country, we need to feel responsible for this country from the smallest to the largest. If before this we didn’t do something because we could say that the international aunts and uncles are above us, let them decide, now excuse me: by voting, we took full responsibility upon ourselves. And then we must understand: something must be decided not through Maidans, not through speeches and shouts, not through listening to the voices that imposed that Constitution on us, but through understanding and responsibility that this is our country and every action we take in it, will bear fruit for children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and ourselves.
– In this case, I want to give one example. I have a very good friend, an Orthodox Christian, and his wife is an Orthodox Christian, and their daughter was baptized in the Orthodox Church. They have a very interesting position. When they are driving around the city and see some kind of pothole where the car can be damaged, they stop, call the services and ensure that it is all fixed in just two or three days. And this position of theirs concerns everything. That is, they are not doing this in the sense of snitching, this is a fight for their Motherland.
- This is not a fight, this is business. Fighting is when you are against something.
- Defending, let's say so.
- Yes, this is a master's attitude. After all, these are our roads, and we appointed officials there.
- These are our officials. (Laughs.)
“That means we have to force them, we have to punish them, only punish them according to the law, so that there is no lynching, sweeping condemnation. You understand, when a person does a great job, there will always be denunciations against him, there will always be slander. The person to whom no one says anything is a complete slacker. So first we need to figure it out. What do you want it to be? Not only in your family, in your house, but also around this house, in your yard, on your street, in your city, in your region and throughout the whole country? Therefore, I believe that this family is truly Orthodox; they understand that the Lord gave them this country and expects them to take a responsible attitude towards what they received.
And then we will change the country, then in our country it will be again like in Holy Rus', about which we all read and in which the princes, together with the peasants, went out into the field to make the first furrow and sow the first seeds. And the princes were the first to go into battle, covering the peasants with themselves (Dmitry Donskoy, in conventional weapons, stood in the ranks of a large regiment and took on the attack).
– We also have other examples of saints. The righteous saints Boris and Gleb - they did not stand up to fight, they did not pull out the sword. Could they defend their Orthodox views?
“They defended themselves, only in a paradoxical way: by not resisting, they went to the Lord in prayer, and they showed Svyatopolk’s damnation, condemning him for real, without a fight.” And thanks to this, firstly, the state did not collapse, no additional blood was shed, and the princes and peasants, those who lived in this state, felt great responsibility for the right choice and for the correct transfer of power. That is, this is passion-bearing. Nicholas II could also flood his empire with blood in order to sit on the throne. But in this case, he would have lost his country after some time, as it happened every time violence or coercion was used (because no one has canceled Newton’s third law: the more you press, the more it will come back later). Christ never called for revolutions, or for struggle, or for the overthrow of anyone...
- ... and went up to the cross.
– And thereby armed each of us with Himself.
“We carry a cross on ourselves, on which it is written: “save and preserve.” And on your cross there are also other words written. I want to ask one question that concerns all of us and the responsibility of an Orthodox Christian. We really love during a service when a person behaves, in our opinion, differently from how an Orthodox Christian should behave (a woman came in trousers or without a headscarf), making comments, feeling responsible for the Orthodox service. Does it have to do with liability or is it something else entirely?
– This is anti-responsibility, of course. When we pray, when we are in church, we have no right to look either forward or backward, we are with God. How can we be distracted by anyone coming in if God is in front of us? It’s like coming to the most important person of all times and peoples and at this time being distracted and making comments to the cleaning lady... That is, by being distracted by comments to this person, you show that you have not come to God, you don’t need God, you are a judge, Instead of God, you are the most important here. You came to show that you are the most important and save yourself. This is completely irresponsible behavior.
- Self-rescue.
- Yes, you save your soul yourself at the expense of others, due to the fact that, by judging another, you show that you are probably different. Like the Pharisee, who, using the example of the publican, tried to exalt himself before God. This is a completely irresponsible attitude towards your soul, towards the little time that you found to communicate with the Lord, to be cleansed thanks to Him and to receive communion. You wasted this blessed time on condemning others, and this is an even greater condemnation of you.
– It turns out that our responsibility before the Lord is in every word, in every action.
– When they try to confess many sins to me, I say: let’s realize that there is only one sin - not hearing God, not trusting Him. Once you don't trust Him, everything you do, you do it your own way; means it is wrong; it means you are sinning. But if you trust and confide in Him, it means that you hear Him and everything you do, you do with Him, with love, that is, without sin. Therefore, instead of fighting your sins, give yourself to God, open your heart to the Lord, fill your heart with Him in communion. And then you will take responsibility for yourself, your life, your soul and your salvation. And only then go and serve, and it doesn’t matter whether in state or home service.
Presenter Gleb Ilinsky
Recorded by Natalya Kultyaeva and Elena Kuzoro
Participation in worship services
Prayer is not only personal, but also public. The Church is not only the building of the temple, which we are accustomed to call that, but, first of all, it is a body of Christians led by Jesus Christ. We are taught by the Lord and the apostles to gather together to pray and give thanks to God. Therefore, one of the practical aspects of the spiritual life of Orthodox Christians is participation in joint worship. Orthodox worship is incredibly interesting and deep in its content. It is very symbolic, not a single action occurs “for beauty”, everything contains a deep meaning. As we study the composition and structure of the service, an understanding of the depth, meaning and greatness contained in the liturgical actions comes. There are many manuals available in different formats for studying church services.
You should not be embarrassed by the fact that at first the language of the service is incomprehensible, because it is performed in Church Slavonic. It, like any language, requires in-depth study to be fully understood, but at the first stage it will be quite sufficient to study the translations of liturgical texts with explanations for them.
The main Orthodox service is the Divine Liturgy. It is also called the Eucharist, which translated from Greek means “thanksgiving,” because thanking God is the main content of this service. During the liturgy, the true Body and true Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is given to believers under the guise of bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life (John 6:48–54). The Savior Himself set an example of the first Eucharist, celebrating the Last Supper with his disciples and giving them communion for the first time.
It is with the liturgy that you should begin your acquaintance with Orthodox worship. Participation in the Eucharist is a vital matter for an Orthodox Christian. Traditionally, Christians gather for joint prayer on Sunday, which is called Little Easter, and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ during the Divine Liturgy.
Orthodox Life
How not to turn laws and rules into a heavy and meaningless burden that pulls a person to the bottom, says Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich).
Photo: © Natalya Goroshkova/Orthodox Life
– Vladyka, what are the distinctive features of the ethics of humanism?
– Humanism is a broad concept. In the most general sense, humanism means a worldview system in which man is declared the most important value and measure of all things. The question arises: on what basis can one assert that a person is the highest value, what makes him the measure for everyone and for everything? For many centuries, different answers were given to this question, which determined the type and direction of the idea of humanism. Thus, classical humanism of the Renaissance type declares man to be the highest value, since he is the most perfect creation of nature. The Age of Enlightenment, which is a fragmentation of the Renaissance idea, gave birth to its own humanism, based on the exaltation of the human mind and the ability to think. Bourgeois humanism recognizes man as the highest value, since only man is endowed with the ability for entrepreneurship - to creatively transform the world. Socialist humanism extols the person participating in the revolutionary restructuring of existence. This concept contains recognition of the value of human labor and the individual fulfilling his social and civic duty. Anyone who cannot or does not want to participate in these processes is, according to this idea, an enemy by definition, and therefore subject to denial or even destruction.
Meanwhile, the question of the dominant origin of the anthropological factor in the world remains open. Moreover, according to Professor Mikhail Dunaev, “a fragmented consciousness can never give a complete answer to this question, because any particularity can be unconditionally refuted. Humanism, for all the reasons mentioned, is initially doomed to crisis.” The problem is that humanism uses a deliberately false coordinate system as the starting point of its philosophical searches, because a person struck by sin as a result of falling away from God needs to heal his nature. You must first correct the distortion, and then only measure everything else against it. As the Holy Fathers said, “a crooked rule makes a straight one crooked.”
– Does Christian humanism exist? What is his idea?
– Christian humanism is theocentric, in contrast to the humanistic ideas of all other directions, which are anthropocentric. From a Christian point of view, the height and dignity of the individual is determined by the fact that man is created in the image and likeness of God. According to the Creator's plan, Adam was placed at the center of created existence, being the focus and crown of all creation. There is a fundamental difference between humanism and Christianity. Humanistic ethics brought into the world the ideas of atheism and apostasy; it contrasted human reason with the Creator. While Christian ethics reminds us that the only event in world history that elevates human dignity is the Redemptive Sacrifice of the Savior, which returned to people the possibility of unity with God lost in original sin. As N. Berdyaev wrote: “It remains an eternal truth that a person only retains his highest value, his freedom and independence from the power of nature and society if there is God and God-manhood.”
– What is the essence of Christian ethics? What are its main postulates?
– If we do not resort to encyclopedic definitions, then the meaning of Christian ethics can be briefly outlined in the words of the apostle and evangelist John the Theologian: “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). A significant reason for all-conquering Christian optimism are also the words of the Apostle Paul: “God appeared in the flesh, justified Himself in the Spirit, showed Himself to the angels, preached among the nations, was accepted by faith in the world” (1 Tim. 3:16). That is, we are not alone, not forgotten and not left to some fate. The Lord did not abandon His creation. He revealed to us His will and Himself in the incarnation of the Son of God. He showed us such love, thanks to which only the Calvary Sacrifice, made for everyone and everything, became possible. The Lord Himself said about this love that “all the law and the prophets hang on it” (Matthew 22:40). This means that all kinds of institutions, commandments and postulates, prophecies with calls to a righteous life are valuable and important not in themselves, but solely as an expression of the main idea - a person is called only to reciprocate the One who has already loved him before (1 John 4 :19). Any laws, rules and regulations without love turn into a heavy and meaningless burden that pulls a person to the bottom. This is why the Lord came into the world, to save man from this burden and to replace what is secondary with the main thing.
If we talk about some basic principles that distinguish Christian ethics from other ethical systems, then we can name several of them. Firstly, Christian ethics is not so much a system of theoretical principles as a life teaching, a certain way of life befitting a “new creation.” As the apostle teaches, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; The old things have passed away, the new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17). Secondly, the basis of all moral requirements is the principle of house-building for the salvation of the human race. God not only informed people of their moral duties, but also Himself fulfilled the work of saving people in the Redemptive Sacrifice, thereby imparting to people the grace-filled power to fulfill these duties. Thirdly, the moral life of a Christian is in close connection with church piety and is expressed in the degree of a person’s church involvement. There is no salvation outside the Church. And if the main idea of Christian ethics is the process of personal transformation, deification and salvation in eternity, then it is quite obvious that all this is carried out exclusively within the boundaries of the Church, outside of which there is and cannot be any beneficial influence on the human personality. As another principle of Christian ethics, I would name its antinomy and paradox. The latter was successfully expressed by St. Athanasius of Alexandria: “God became Man so that man could become God.”
– If we talk about the external, behavioral side: how does this affect human behavior? Is there a special set of laws and rules of behavior for a Christian? What can a person do and what can’t he do?
– To be a Christian means to live according to the Gospel, keep the commandments, and through zealous fulfillment of the Law of God acquire the character of Christ. Internal transformation of personality will be impossible without the influence of the grace of God on a person, which is poured out in abundance into our souls when we participate in the Sacraments of the Church. To open access to grace into our hearts, it is necessary to bring repentance to God, which is the alpha and omega of a Christian’s spiritual life. Following Christ is lifelong repentance. Therefore, we need to learn to bear our cross, fight passions, and cleanse our inner man from spiritual illnesses and carnal attachments. All this is facilitated by the liturgical Charter and the very way of church life, by joining which a change of mind and a resurrection of personality occurs in a person.
At the same time, we must remember that there is a spiritual danger of a terrible substitution, when those means that are given for correction in the form of commandments, the Charter, and regulations become an end in themselves for a person. Then the main goal of Christian life is lost - the Meeting with Christ. If living communication with God is replaced by the external fulfillment of a certain set of rules, then Christian piety disappears and Pharisaism appears. This happens because sometimes looking into your heart and looking for God in it is difficult and boring; it requires self-denial and humility. It is easier to follow external rules and boast about your achievements. The Holy Fathers strictly warn Christians against such an attitude. For us, the guide to action is the living Word of God, revealed in the Gospel, which only acts in our lives when His every word is written on the pages of our soul.
God came to earth to free the Law from its connection with the legal order. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17), reminds the Apostle Paul. Christ removes the blinders of external regulations from man and turns his gaze to his own heart, which from now on becomes those new tablets on which the Law is written, instead of the old stone ones. God is looking on earth for living, burning hearts capable of recognizing their Creator, hearing His voice and responding in a living and sincere impulse. Therefore, the Lord says: “I no longer call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have told you everything that I have heard from My Father” (John 15:15). God does not need obedient adepts who scrupulously fulfill the instructions of some external rules and regulations. All this has already happened in history, and it was the “excellent in behavior” who crucified the Lord.
– What is the basic attitude of inner life, according to Christian ethics?
- Rev. Ambrose of Optina, to the question “How to live in order to be saved?” I liked to answer: “To live is not to bother, not to judge anyone, not to annoy anyone, and my respect to everyone.” He also advised: “We need to live unhypocritically and behave exemplarily, then our cause will be true, otherwise it will be bad.” A person is saved in simplicity of heart. We must remember that God “hid His secrets from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes” (Matthew 11:25). Many of the noble and literate representatives of God's chosen people rightfully considered themselves worthy bearers of God's Truth. They were educated and pious, fulfilling the Law and quoting the prophets. But God decided otherwise and chose simple, illiterate fishermen from among the people. As the Apostle Paul says, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the strong things” (1 Cor. 1:27). Because God expects from us not our imaginary achievements, but sincerity of hearts and openness of souls. Just as a child’s soul is open to everything new and beautiful, so we must humbly and joyfully seek a Meeting with Christ, in Whom alone it is possible for a person to find himself.
Interviewed by Natalya Goroshkova
Studying the foundations of the Orthodox faith
The spiritual heritage of the Church is incredibly extensive - dogma, canons, works of the holy fathers and much more. In-depth study of theological disciplines is a task for clergy and theologians, but it is also quite accessible to everyone. A new Christian risks getting lost in the abundance of information if he begins to grasp at everything at once. No matter how interesting and attractive to read the information offered in various sources may be, you need to start small. You can’t immediately feed your baby solid food; he first grows on his mother’s milk.
An independent study of the foundations of Orthodoxy should begin with the “Creed” and its explanations. The “Creed” is a brief and precise statement of the fundamentals of Christian doctrine. It consists of twelve members (sentences), and each of them contains a special truth, or, as they also call it, the dogma of our Orthodox faith.
Next, it is worth delving into the study of information about the Sacraments of the Orthodox Church. It has already been said above about the Eucharist - this is one of the seven Sacraments. It will also be useful to become familiar with the Orthodox calendar - holidays, fasts, lives of saints.
The most reliable education is systemic, the most valuable is full-time, which includes catechetical conversations and Sunday school classes for adults. In addition to knowledge, they introduce a person to the community of believers. There are also distance courses, among which are the Educational courses at the Sretensky Theological Seminary.
Manuals for beginners can be found in the Catechesis section of our portal.
We also recommend using the ABCs of Faith library. It contains thousands of works, so it’s worth starting with the section “What to Read for a Christian.”
Repentance as rethinking and changing life
When starting a Christian life, a person should think about how he lived up to this point, and how he should live further. The criterion for such comprehension of one’s own life is the Gospel, the teaching of Christ. By accepting Christ as Savior, a person also accepts the conditions of salvation. God saves us, but not without our participation. The conditions of salvation are repentance of sins, correction and life according to the commandments of God. You cannot persist in sin while calling yourself a Christian. Sins should be confessed and try not to return to them again.
The Sacrament of Repentance (Confession) makes it possible for a Christian to receive forgiveness of sins from God for subsequent correction. Confession is accepted by a priest who is a witness of a person’s repentance before God. After hearing the confession, he makes a visible sign of absolution - he reads a prayer of absolution.
Introspection
A Christian must be attentive to himself, to his actions and relationships with other people. What seemed simple and familiar before converting to faith may become unacceptable for a Christian. Such “everyday” sins as judgment, idle talk, irritation, anger, foul language and many others are what you have to fight with every day. And here you can’t do without introspection. You will have to beat yourself on the wrist and bite your tongue, trying to eliminate these sins from your daily life. Here, fervent prayer and regular confession can help. The more zeal in virtue, the more help from the Lord.
Good deeds
Studying the Gospel, we encounter the words of Christ: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, let you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). The teaching of Christ is primarily about love. “Love is the fulfilling of the law,” writes the Apostle Paul (Rom. 13:10).
Love without good deeds is unthinkable. The Christian is called by the Savior to love his neighbor: “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). A neighbor is not only a relative or friend, but every person you meet along the path of life. Love for your neighbor is not just words, but, first of all, deeds. Works to which faith pushes, for “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).
Good can be done always and everywhere, so there is no need to carry out a special classification of good deeds. Whenever there is an opportunity to do good, you should try to do it for the glory of the Lord.
What an Orthodox Christian should never do
— Andrey, the editorial office of Orthodox Life regularly receives various questions from readers. We have selected the most frequently repeated ones and would like to discuss them with you. Let's start with this question: is it possible for Orthodox Christians to enter Catholic churches and mosques? How to behave there?
— In one of his Epistles, the Holy Apostle Paul says: “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is profitable” (1 Cor. 6:12). Consequently, in order to more correctly answer this question, it is first worth determining the very purpose of visiting a heterodox or heterodox religious building. If we go to a church or mosque to look, so to speak, to expand our cultural horizons, then, in principle, there is nothing reprehensible in this. If we visit non-Orthodox churches in order to pray, we should remember the 65th Apostolic Canon: “If anyone from the clergy or layman enters into a Jewish or heretical congregation to pray: let him be expelled from the sacred rank and excommunicated from church communion.” . But there are exceptions: in many Roman Catholic churches, as well as in churches belonging to the jurisdiction of the so-called Kyiv Patriarchate, there are shrines that are also revered by the Orthodox. The Apostolic Canon cited above refers to the prohibition of participating in PUBLIC worship together with non-Orthodox people. Therefore, there is nothing reprehensible if an Orthodox Christian prayerfully honors this or that shrine located in a non-confessional church.
Regarding how one should behave in non-Orthodox churches, the rule for leadership can be only one factor: good manners. An Orthodox Christian, wherever he is, must behave in a civilized and restrained manner. Despite our personal beliefs, we in no way have the right to offend the religious feelings of other people, because the main criterion that distinguishes a Christian is, first of all, love. And this criterion was determined by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself: “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
— Is it possible to turn to alternative medicine, for example Chinese?
— The Orthodox Church has never considered achievements in the field of medicine to be a spiritual obstacle. But before resorting to the help of one or another “alternative doctor”, a person must understand for himself: what sources he uses, otherwise he can cause considerable harm to both his body and his soul.
One of the researchers of alternative methods of treatment once remarked: the Chinese, for example, treat their medicine as a religion. Such an attitude towards medicine should alert an Orthodox person, because nothing can be higher and more sacred than religion. In addition, German scientists, studying the practice of acupuncture, conducted the following experiment: some patients were given needles, so to speak, according to all the “canons” of Chinese medicine, while others, roughly speaking, were given at random, just so as not to touch important organs and cause harm. As a result, the effectiveness of the first acupuncture was 52%, and the second - 49%! That is, there was practically no difference between “smart” and “free” acupuncture.
However, a more pressing issue is the use of some kind of spiritual practice in medicine. So, for example, some “healers”, in order to cure this or that ailment, suggest that their patients try to leave the physical world into the supersensible, extrasensory world. But we must remember that our physical body is a kind of barrier that separates us from direct direct communication with the spiritual world and, in particular, the world of fallen spirits. Some Eastern cults use a whole set of exercises that promote such an exit into the “spiritual world,” and this practice weakens our protection from demons. Saint Ignatius of Caucasus warns: “If we were in sensual communication with demons, then in the shortest possible time they would completely corrupt people, constantly instilling evil in them, clearly and incessantly promoting evil, infecting them with examples of their constant criminal and hostile activities to God.”
That is why any “alternative medicine”, practicing some kind of communication with the spiritual world, even if it promises its patients physical recovery, ultimately becomes dangerous for their spiritual health.
-What does it mean not to go to the council of the wicked?
— The meaning of this verse, which is the first verse of the first psalm of the Book of Psalms, is very deep and multifaceted. Thus, St. Athanasius the Great says: “the council of the wicked” is a meeting of evil people who seek to divert the righteous from following the path of God. And St. Basil the Great clarifies: “the advice of the wicked” is all sorts of wicked thoughts that, like invisible enemies, overcome a person.
In addition, it is very interesting that in the above psalm about the opposition of the righteous to the “council of the wicked” it is said “in three dimensions” - walking, standing and sitting: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the advice of the wicked, and does not stand in the path of sinners, and the seats of the destroyers are not seated.” According to St. Theophan the Recluse, the purpose of such a threefold indication is to warn against the three main degrees of deviation into evil: in the form of an internal attraction to evil (march towards sin), in the form of confirmation in evil (standing in sin) and in the form of a fight against good and propaganda evil (collaboration with the destroyer, that is, the devil).
Thus, going to the council of the wicked is all kinds of participation in evil, be it in thought, word or deed. According to the Monk John Cassian the Roman, in order to be saved, a person must constantly control himself, practicing spiritual activity: without this there will be no spiritual life.
— Is it possible to go on vacation, for example, to a ski resort during the Nativity Fast?
— According to the Venerable Ephraim the Syrian, the purpose of fasting is so that a person can overcome lusts, vices and sins. If fasting does not help us overcome sin, we must think: how are we fasting, what are we doing wrong?
Unfortunately, historically it has happened that in the life of a modern person, most of the vacations occur during the Nativity Fast - during the New Year holidays. The purpose of the Nativity Fast is to prepare a person to accept the Divine Infant Christ, who comes into this world and becomes a man with the goal of saving each of us from the power of sin and death. And therefore, the main thing that an Orthodox Christian should think about on the eve of Christmas is how best, most correctly, to prepare himself to meet the Savior.
Active recreation, such as skiing, is very beneficial for health if it is combined with a person’s spiritual growth. Otherwise, there will be no benefit from such “recovery”. Therefore, if our rest does not allow us to make our heart a worthy receptacle for the Living God, it is better to refuse such rest.
— Is it possible to give a tattoo to a woman, for example, for cosmetic purposes?
- In order to answer this question, you need to decide: why is such a tattoo needed at all, what are the reasons that motivate a person to make certain images on his body?
Even in the Old Testament it was said: “For the sake of the dead, do not make any cuts in your flesh or write on yourselves” (Lev. 19:28). This prohibition in the Pentateuch of Moses is repeated twice more: in the same Book of Leviticus (21:5), as well as in the Book of Deuteronomy (14:1). Moses forbids disfiguring the human body, since such an action is an insult to the Creator, who gave man beautiful flesh. Historically, a tattoo is a sign of belonging to a pagan cult: people, with the help of tattoos, hoped to gain special favor from one or another deity. That is why, since ancient times, tattoos have been “an abomination to the Lord.”
According to Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, the body is the visible part of the soul, therefore any external change is, first of all, a sign of internal, spiritual changes occurring in a person. The main signs of a Christian are modesty, meekness and humility. A tattoo, according to one modern author, is an escape from modesty, an attempt to present oneself more elegantly and, perhaps, with the aim of somehow seducing others. Based on this, we can confidently conclude: even the most seemingly harmless tattoos can cause irreparable spiritual harm to a person.
— Is it possible to listen to the prayer rule on headphones on the way to work or using a CD in the car?
— Prayer is, first of all, a conversation with God. And therefore, the assertion that you can pray while listening to an audio recording seems very doubtful.
Unfortunately, modern man, who has simplified his life so much with the help of certain technologies, is ready to devote less and less time to God and communication with Him. That’s why we try to pray with audio recordings, listening to evening and morning prayers in the car or on the way home. But if you think about it: how carefully can we listen to such recordings? How focused can we pray to them?
The Holy Fathers always said: it is better to sincerely say a few words to God than to say long prayers without thinking about Him. The Lord does not need our words, but our heart. And He sees its contents: the desire for one’s Creator and Savior, or an attempt to brush aside Him, hiding behind a half-hour audio recording.
—What should an Orthodox Christian never do?
— An Orthodox Christian must first of all be afraid of sinning, but not out of fear of God’s punishment. The Monk Abba Dorotheos says: the fear of God is not at all the fear of God as some kind of avenger of sins; the fear of God is the fear of offending the love of God revealed in Christ. Therefore, every Orthodox Christian should try to control himself, suppressing even the very thoughts of committing a sin, because with our sins, according to the word of the holy Apostle Paul, we again crucify our Lord Jesus Christ. By sins we destroy everything that God has done for our own salvation. And this is exactly what we should fear and avoid in our lives.
Interviewed by Natalya Goroshkova
https://pravlife.org/content/chego-nikogda-ne-dolzhen-delat-pravoslavnyy-hristianin
Finding a confessor
It can be quite difficult for a new Christian to deal with spiritual matters. Spiritual life is full of pitfalls and difficulties. The more a person strives to be closer to God, the stronger the evil one takes up arms against him. Demonic machinations can be sophisticated and cunning, invisible at first glance. With experience comes spiritual attention and vision. The Christian is a warrior who gains experience in battles against an invisible enemy. But just as a warrior needs an experienced commander, so a Christian needs a mentor - a confessor. This is a priest who will help you grow spiritually, instruct in faith and piety, and accept confessions.
How to find a confessor? We need to pray earnestly for the Lord to help in this matter. It is important not to be shy about asking spiritual questions to the priests in the temple. There is no need to be afraid of distracting the priest from potential “more important issues.” Answering the spiritual questions of parishioners is the direct responsibility of the parish priest. If communication with a priest works out, and his advice helps spiritual growth, then perhaps this is the very spiritual father you are looking for.
It is not always possible to ask all the questions, of which there are sometimes many, to the confessor personally, then you can get the answer on our website in the “Questions and Answers” section.
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Questions and answers frequently asked by new Christians.35 short frequently asked questions for new Christians about the temple, candles, notes, etc.
1. How should a person prepare to visit the temple?
You need to prepare for the morning visit in the following way: Getting out of bed, thank the Lord, who has given you the opportunity to spend the night in peace and has extended your days for repentance. Wash your face, stand in front of the icon, light a lamp (from a candle) so that it evokes a spirit of prayer in you, put your thoughts in order, forgive everyone, and only then begin to read the prayer rule (morning prayers from the Prayer Book). Then subtract one chapter from the Gospel, one from the Apostle and one kathisma from the Psalter, or one psalm if you are short on time. At the same time, we must remember that it is better to read one prayer with sincere contrition of heart than the whole rule with the thought of how to finish it all as quickly as possible. Beginners can use an abbreviated prayer book, gradually adding one prayer at a time. Before leaving, say: I deny you, Satan, your pride and your service, and I unite with you, Christ Jesus our God, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Cross yourself and calmly go to the temple, without fear of what the person will do to you. Walking down the street, cross the road in front of you, saying to yourself: Lord, bless my ways and save me from all evil. On the way to the temple, read a prayer to yourself: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
2. How should a person who decides to go to church be dressed?
Women should not come to church in trousers, short skirts, with bright makeup on their faces, and lipstick is unacceptable. The head should be covered with a headscarf or scarf. Men must remove their hats before entering the church.
3. Is it possible to eat before visiting the temple in the morning?
According to the regulations, this is not possible; this is done on an empty stomach. Departures are possible due to weakness, with self-reproach.
4. Is it possible to enter the temple with bags?
If there is a need, it is possible. Only when the believer approaches Communion should the bag be put aside, since during Communion the hands are folded crosswise on the chest.
5. How many bows should one make before entering the temple and how to behave in the temple?
Before entering the temple, having previously crossed yourself, bow three times, looking at the image of the Savior, and pray for the first bow: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. To the second bow: God, cleanse my sins and have mercy on me. To the third: Without number of sinners, Lord, forgive me. Then do the same, entering the doors of the temple, bow to both sides, saying to yourself: Forgive me, brothers and sisters, stand reverently in one place, without pushing anyone, and listen to the words of the prayer. If a person comes to church for the first time, then he needs to look around, notice what more experienced believers are doing, where their gaze is directed, in what places of worship and how they make the sign of the cross and bow. During a service, it is unacceptable to behave as if in a theater or museum, that is, with your head raised, looking at icons and clergy. During prayer, you must stand reverently, with a feeling of repentance, slightly lowering your shoulders and head, as those who have done wrong stand before the king. If you do not understand the words of the prayer, then say to yourself with contrition of heart the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Try to make the sign of the cross and bows with everyone at the same time. Remember that the Church is the earthly Heaven. When praying to your Creator, do not think of anything earthly, but only sigh and pray for your sins.
6. How long do you need to be on duty?
The service must be defended from beginning to end. Service is not a duty, but a sacrifice to God. Would it be pleasant for the owner of the house to whom the guests came if they left before the end of the holiday?
7. Is it possible to sit at the service if you don’t have the strength to stand?
To this question, Saint Philaret of Moscow answered: “It is better to think about God while sitting than about your feet while standing.” However, you must stand while reading the Gospel.
8. What is important in bowing and praying?
Remember that it is not a matter of words and bows, but of raising your mind and heart to God. You can say all the prayers and make all the indicated bows, but not remember God at all. And, therefore, without praying, fulfill the prayer rule. Such prayer is a sin before God.
9. How to kiss icons correctly?
Lobyzaya St. the icon of the Savior, one should kiss the feet, the Mother of God and the saints - the hand, and the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands and the head of John the Baptist - on the hairline.
10. What does the candle placed in front of the image symbolize?
A candle, like prosphora, is a bloodless sacrifice. The candle fire symbolizes eternity. In ancient times, in the Old Testament Church, a person coming to God offered him the internal fat and wool of a slaughtered (killed) animal, which were placed on the altar of burnt offering. Now, when we come to the temple, we sacrifice not an animal, but a symbolically replacing it with a candle (preferably a wax one).
11. Does it matter what size candles you place in front of the image?
Everything depends not on the size of the candle, but on the sincerity of your heart and your capabilities. Of course, if a wealthy person puts out cheap candles, then this indicates his stinginess. But if a person is poor, and his heart burns with love for God and compassion for his neighbor, then his reverent standing and fervent prayer are more pleasing to God than the most expensive candle, lit with a cold heart.
12. Who should light candles and how many?
First of all, a candle is lit for a holiday or a revered temple icon, then for the relics of a saint, if there are any in the temple, and only then for health or repose. For the dead, candles are placed on the eve of the Crucifixion, mentally saying: Remember, Lord, your departed servant (name) and forgive his sins, voluntary and involuntary, and grant him the Kingdom of Heaven. For health or any need, candles are usually lit for the Savior, the Mother of God, the holy great martyr and healer Panteleimon, as well as those saints to whom the Lord has given special grace to heal illnesses and provide help in various needs. Having placed a candle in front of the saint of God you have chosen, mentally say: Holy Servant of God (name), pray to God for me, a sinner (oh) (or the name for whom you are asking). Then you need to come up and venerate the icon. We must remember: in order for prayers to achieve success, one must pray to the holy saints of God with faith in the power of their intercession before God, with words coming from the heart. If you light a candle to the image of All Saints, turn your mind to the entire host of saints and the entire host of Heaven and pray: All saints, pray to God for us. All the saints always pray to God for us. He alone has mercy on everyone, and is always lenient towards the requests of His saints.
13. What prayers should be said before the images of the Savior, the Mother of God and the Life-Giving Cross?
Before the image of the Savior, pray to yourself: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner, or Without number of sinners, Lord, have mercy on me. Before the icon of the Mother of God, say briefly: Most Holy Theotokos, save us. Before the image of the Life-giving Cross of Christ, say the following prayer: We worship Your Cross, O Lord, and we glorify Your Holy Resurrection. And after that, bow to the Honorable Cross. And if you stand before the image of Christ our Savior or the Mother of God, or the saints of God with humility and warm faith, then you will receive what you ask for. For where the image is, there is the original grace.
14. Why is it customary to light candles for the repose at the Crucifixion?
The cross with the Crucifixion stands on the eve, that is, on the table for remembering the dead. Christ took upon Himself the sins of the whole world, original sin - Adam's sin - and through His death, through the Blood that was shed innocently on the cross (since Christ had no sin), reconciled the world with God the Father. Besides this, Christ is the bridge between being and non-being. On the eve, in addition to burning candles, you can also see food. This is a very long Christian tradition. In ancient times there were so-called agapies - meals of love, when Christians who came to the service, after its end, all together consumed what they brought with them.
15. For what purpose and what products can you put on the eve?
Usually on the eve they put bread, cookies, sugar, everything that does not contradict fasting (since it can also be a fast day). You can also donate lamp oil and Cahors on the eve, which will then be used for the communion of believers. All this is brought and left for the same purpose for which a candle is placed on the eve - to remember one’s deceased relatives, acquaintances, friends, and not yet glorified ascetics of piety. A note of remembrance is also submitted for the same purpose. It should be firmly remembered that the offering must come from a pure heart and a sincere desire to make a sacrifice to God for the repose of the soul of the person being remembered and must be obtained from one’s labor, and not stolen or acquired by deception or other deceit.
16. What is the most important memorial for the dead?
The most important thing is the commemoration of the dead at the proskomedia, for the particles taken from the prosphora are immersed in the Blood of Christ and cleansed by this great sacrifice.
17. How to submit a note of remembrance at the Proskomedia? Is it possible to remember the sick at the proskomedia?
Before the start of the service, you need to go to the candle counter, take a sheet of paper and write as follows: On the repose of Andrei Maria Nikolai Zakaznaya. The note written in this way will be submitted to the proskomedia. About health b. Andrey Jr. Nikolai Nina Zakaznaya In the same way, a note about health is submitted, including for those who are sick. The note can be submitted in the evening, indicating the date on which the commemoration is expected. Don’t forget to draw an eight-pointed cross at the top of the note, and at the bottom it is advisable to write: “and all Orthodox Christians.” If you want to remember a clergyman, then his name is put first.
18. What should I do if, while standing at a prayer service or other service, I did not hear the name that was submitted for commemoration?
It happens that clergy are reproached: they say that not all the notes were read or not all the candles were lit. And they don’t know that they can’t do this. Judge not lest ye be judged. You came, you brought it - that’s it, your duty is done. And what the priest does is what will be asked of him!
19. Why is the commemoration of the dead performed?
The whole point is that the dead cannot pray for themselves. Someone else living today must do this for them. Thus, the souls of people who repented before death, but did not have time to bear the fruits of repentance, can receive liberation only through intercession for them before the Lord from living relatives or friends and through the prayers of the Church. The Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church agree to recognize the possibility for sinners of liberation from torment and the beneficial significance in this regard of prayers and alms, especially church prayers, and predominantly bloodless sacrifice, that is, commemoration at the Liturgy (proskomedia). “When all the people and the Holy Council,” asks St. John Chrysostom, - they stand with their hands stretched out to heaven and when a terrible sacrifice is presented, how can we not appease God by praying for them (the dead)? But this is only about those who died in the faith” (St. John Chrysostom. Conversation on the last to Phil. 3, 4).
20. Is it possible to include the name of a suicide or an unbaptized person in a memorial note?
It is impossible, since persons deprived of a Christian burial are usually deprived of church prayers.
21. How should you behave when censing?
When censing, you need to bow your head, as if you were receiving the Spirit of Life, and say the Jesus Prayer. At the same time, you should not turn your back to the altar - this is the mistake of many parishioners. You just need to turn around a little.
22. What moment is considered the end of the morning service?
The end, or completion, of the morning service is the exit of the priest with the Cross. This moment is called release. During the holiday, believers approach the Cross, kiss it and the priestly hand holding the Cross as its foot. Having walked away, you need to bow to the priest. Let us pray to the Cross: I believe, O Lord, and I worship Your Honest and Life-Giving Cross, for on It you brought salvation in the midst of the Earth.
23. What do you need to know about the use of prosphora and holy water?
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, when you come home, prepare a meal of prosphora and holy water on a clean tablecloth. Before eating the meal, say the prayer: Lord my God, may Your holy gift and Your holy water be for the remission of my sins, for the enlightenment of my mind, for the strengthening of my mental and physical strength, for the health of my soul and body, for the subjugation of my passions and infirmities according to Thy infinite mercy through the prayers of Thy Most Pure Mother and all Thy saints. Amen. The prosphora is taken over a plate or a clean sheet of paper so that the holy crumbs do not fall on the floor and are not trampled on, for the prosphora is the holy bread of Heaven. And we must accept it with the fear of God and humility.
24. How are the feasts of the Lord and His saints celebrated?
The feasts of the Lord and His saints are celebrated spiritually, with a pure soul and undefiled conscience, and by obligatory attendance at church. If desired, believers order thanksgiving prayers in honor of the Holiday, bring flowers to the icon of the Holiday, distribute alms, confess and receive communion.
25. How to order a memorial and thanksgiving prayer service?
A prayer service is ordered by submitting a note formatted accordingly. The rules for registering a custom prayer service are posted at the candle counter. In different churches there are certain days when prayer services are held, including holy water services. At a water blessing service you can bless a cross, an icon, and candles. At the end of the water-blessing prayer service, believers with reverence and prayer take holy water and take it daily on an empty stomach.
26. What is the sacrament of repentance and how to prepare for confession?
The Lord Jesus Christ said, addressing His disciples: Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matthew 18:18). And in another place the Savior, blowing, said to the apostles: Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven; those whose sins you retain, they will remain (John 20:22-23). The apostles, fulfilling the will of the Lord, transferred this power to their successors - the shepherds of the Church of Christ, and to this day everyone who believes Orthodoxy and confesses their sins sincerely before an Orthodox priest can receive permission, forgiveness, and complete remission of them through his prayer. This is the essence of the sacrament of repentance. A person who is accustomed to maintaining the purity of his heart and the neatness of his soul cannot live without repentance. He waits and longs for another confession, just as a parched earth awaits life-giving moisture. Imagine for a moment a person who has been washing 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”. Accumulated sins and transgressions that have not been removed from the conscience (not only large ones, but also many small ones) weigh on it so much that a person begins to feel some kind of unusual fear, it begins to seem to him that something bad is about to happen to him; then suddenly he falls into some kind of nervous breakdown, irritation, feels general anxiety, has no inner firmness, and ceases to control himself. Often he himself does not understand the reason for everything that happens, but it is that a person has unconfessed sins on his conscience. By the grace of God, these sorrowful sensations remind us of them, so that we, puzzled by such a plight of our souls, come to the consciousness of the need to purge all the poison from it, that is, turn to St. the sacrament of repentance and thereby get rid of all those torments that await after the Last Judgment of God for every sinner who has not cleansed himself here in this life. It is very useful to read the detailed life of the Venerable Theodora of Constantinople (December 30, Old Art.) before confession. She accepted monasticism and underwent her feat under the guidance of St. Vasily the New (March 26). She died in 940. Disciple of St. Vasily, Gregory, after the death of Theodora, begged the elder to reveal to him the afterlife fate of the old woman. And so, through the holy prayers of the holy father, his disciple had a wonderful vision: he talked with the Monk Theodora, and she told Gregory about what happened to her at the moment of death and after, when her soul went through terrible trials. (For the story of the ordeal of St. Theodora, see section IV of this book.) Almost the entire sacrament of repentance is performed like this: first, the priest prays with everyone who wants to confess. Then he makes a brief reminder about the most common sins, talks about the meaning of confession, the responsibility of the confessor and the fact that he stands before the Lord Himself, and the priest is only a witness to his mysterious conversation with God, and that the deliberate concealment of any sins aggravates the guilt penitent. Then those who are confessing, one by one, approach the lectern on which the Holy Gospel and the Cross lie, bow to the Cross and the Gospel, stand in front of the lectern, bowing their heads or on their knees (the latter is not necessary), and begin to confess. It is useful to draw up a rough plan for yourself - what sins to confess, so as not to forget later in confession; but you will have to not just read from a piece of paper about your ulcers, but with a feeling of guilt and repentance, open them before God, take them out of your soul, like some nasty snakes, and get rid of them with a feeling of disgust. (Compare this list of sins with those lists that evil spirits will keep during ordeals, and note: the more thoroughly you expose yourself, the fewer pages will be found in those demonic writings.) At the same time, of course, each extraction of such abomination and bringing it to light the light will be accompanied by some feeling of shame, but you know firmly: the Lord Himself and His servant - the priest who confesses you, no matter how disgusting your inner sinful world is, only rejoice when you decisively renounce it; There is only joy in the priest’s soul for the one who has repented. Any priest, after a sincere confession, becomes even more disposed towards the person confessing, and begins to treat him much closer and more caringly.
27. Does repentance erase the memory of previously committed sins?
The answer to this question is given in the essay on the Gospel theme - “The Prodigal Son”. “...He got up and went to his father. And while he was still far away, his father saw him and took pity; and, running, fell on his neck and kissed him. The son said to him: “Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you and am no longer worthy to be called your son.” And the father said to his servants: “Bring the best robe and dress him, and put a ring on his hand, and sandals on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and slaughter it: let us eat and be merry!” (Luke 15:20-23.) The feast ends in the house of the good, merciful father. The sounds of rejoicing fade away and the invited guests disperse. Yesterday's prodigal son leaves the hall of the banquet, still full of the sweet feeling of his father's love and forgiveness. Behind the doors he meets his older brother standing outside. In his gaze there is condemnation, almost indignation. The younger brother's heart sank; the joy disappeared, the sounds of the feast died down, the recent, difficult past arose before his eyes... What can he say to his brother in justification? Isn't his indignation justified? Did he deserve this feast, these new clothes, this golden ring, these kisses and his father’s forgiveness? After all, just recently, quite recently... And the head of the younger brother bows low before the stern, condemning gaze of the elder: the still very fresh wounds of the soul ached, ached... With a look asking for mercy, the prodigal son throws himself on his knees in front of the older brother. “Brother... Forgive me... I didn’t organize this feast... And I didn’t ask my father for these new clothes, and shoes, and this ring... I didn’t even call myself a son anymore, I only asked to accept me as a mercenary... Your condemnation of me is fair, and I have no excuse. But listen to me and maybe you will understand the mercy of our father... What does this new clothing cover now? Look, here are the traces of these terrible (mental) wounds. You see: there was no healthy place on my body; there were continuous ulcers, spots, festering wounds (Is. 1:6). They are now closed and “softened by the oil” of my father’s mercy, but they still painfully hurt when touched and, it seems to me, will always hurt... They will constantly remind me of that fateful day when I, with a callous soul, full of conceit and proud self-confidence, broke up with his father, demanding his part of the estate, and went to that terrible country of unbelief and sin... How happy you are, brother, that you have no memories of her, that you do not know the stench and corruption, the evil and sin that reign there. You have not experienced spiritual hunger and have not known the taste of those horns that in that country must be stolen from pigs. Here you have retained your strength and health. But I no longer have them... I only brought the remains of them back to my father’s house. And this is breaking my heart now. Who did I work for? Who did I serve? But all my strength could be devoted to serving my father... You see this precious ring on my sinful, already weak hand. But what I wouldn’t give for these hands to have no traces of the dirty work they did in the land of sin, for the knowledge that they always worked only for their father... Ah, brother! You always live in the light and will never know the bitterness of darkness. You don't know the things that are happening there. You have not met closely with those with whom you have to deal there; you have not touched the dirt that those living there cannot avoid. You don’t know, brother, the bitterness of regrets: what was the strength of my youth spent on? What are the days of my youth dedicated to? Who will return them to me? Oh, if life could start over again! Don’t envy, brother, this new clothing of your father’s mercy, without it the torment of memories and fruitless regrets would be unbearable... And should you envy me? After all, you are rich in wealth, which you may not notice, and happy with happiness, which you may not feel. You don’t know what irretrievable loss is, the consciousness of wasted wealth and ruined talents. Oh, if only it were possible to return all this and bring it back to my father! But property and talents are given only once in a lifetime, and you can’t regain your strength, and time is gone irrevocably... Don’t be surprised, brother, at your father’s mercy, his condescension towards the prodigal son, his desire to cover the pitiful rags of a sinful soul with new clothes, his embrace and kisses that revive a soul devastated by sin. Now the feast is over. Tomorrow I will start work again and will work in my father’s house next to you. You, as the eldest and blameless, will dominate and guide me. Subordinate work befits me. That's what I need. These disgraced hands deserve no other. These new clothes, these shoes and this ring will also be removed before the time: it will be indecent for me to do menial work in them. During the day we will work together, then you can relax and have fun with your friends with a calm heart and a clear conscience. And me?.. Where will I go from my memories, from regrets about wasted wealth, ruined youth, lost strength, scattered talents, soiled clothes, about yesterday’s insult and rejection of my father, from thoughts about opportunities that have gone into eternity and forever lost?.. »
28. What does Communion of the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ mean?
If you do not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you (John 6:53). He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him (John 6:56). With these words, the Lord pointed out the absolute necessity for all Christians to participate in the sacrament of the Eucharist. The sacrament itself was established by the Lord at the Last Supper. “...Jesus took the bread and, blessing it, broke it and, giving it to the disciples, said: Take, eat, this is My Body. And he took the cup and, giving thanks, gave it to them and said: Drink from it, all of you, for this is My Blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). As the Holy Church teaches, a Christian, receiving St. Communion is mysteriously united with Christ, for in every particle of the fragmented Lamb the Whole Christ is contained. The significance of the sacrament of the Eucharist is immeasurable, the comprehension of which surpasses our minds. It ignites Christ's love in us, lifts the heart to God, gives rise to virtues in it, restrains the attack of dark forces on us, gives strength against temptations, revives the soul and body, heals them, gives them strength, returns virtues - restores that purity of the soul in us , which the first-born Adam had before the Fall. In his reflections on the Divine Liturgy, Bishop. Seraphim Zvezdinsky there is a description of the vision of one ascetic elder, which clearly characterizes the meaning for a Christian of the Communion of the Holy Mysteries. The ascetic saw “...a fiery sea, the waves of which rose and seethed, presenting a terrible sight. On the opposite bank there was a beautiful garden. From there the singing of birds could be heard, the fragrance of flowers spread. The ascetic hears a voice: “Cross this sea.” But there was no way to go. He stood for a long time wondering how to cross, and again he heard a voice: “Take the two wings that the Divine Eucharist has given: one wing is the Divine Flesh of Christ, the second wing is His Life-giving Blood. Without them, no matter how great the feat, it is impossible to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven.” As Fr. writes. Valentin Sventsitsky: “The Eucharist is the basis of that real unity that is expected in the general Resurrection, for both in the transubstantiation of the Gifts and in our Communion is the guarantee of our salvation and Resurrection, not only spiritual, but also physical.” Elder Parthenius of Kiev once, in a reverent feeling of fiery love for the Lord, repeated the prayer within himself for a long time: “Lord Jesus, live in me and let me live in You,” and heard a quiet, sweet voice: He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me and Az in it. So, if repentance cleanses us from the defilement of our soul, then the Communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord will fill us with grace and block the return into our soul of the evil spirit expelled by repentance. But we should firmly remember that, no matter how necessary the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is for us, we should not approach it without first purifying ourselves through confession. The Apostle Paul writes: “Whoever eats this Bread or drinks this Cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Let man test himself and thus let him eat from this Bread and drink from this Cup. For whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks condemnation for himself, without considering the Body of the Lord. That is why many of you are weak and sick, and many are dying” (1 Cor. 11:27-30).
29. How many times a year should you take communion?
The Monk Seraphim of Sarov commanded the Diveyevo sisters: “It is unacceptable to confess and partake of all fasts and, in addition, the twelfth and major holidays: the more often, the better - without tormenting yourself with the thought that you are unworthy, and you should not miss the opportunity to use grace as often as possible, granted by communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. The grace bestowed by communion is so great that no matter how unworthy and no matter how sinful a person may be, but only in the humble consciousness of his great sinfulness will he approach the Lord, who redeems us all, even if covered from head to toe with the sores of sins, then he will be cleansed by the grace of Christ, become more and more bright, will be completely enlightened and saved.” It is very good to take communion on your name day and birthday, and for spouses on their wedding day.
30. What is unction?
No matter how carefully we try to remember and write down our sins, it may happen that a significant part of them will not be told in confession, some will be forgotten, and some will simply not be realized and not noticed due to our spiritual blindness. In this case, the Church comes to the aid of the penitent with the sacrament of the Blessing of Unction, or, as it is often called, “unction.” This sacrament is based on the instructions of the Apostle James, the head of the first Jerusalem Church: “If any of you is sick, let him call the elders of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him” (James 5:14-15). Thus, in the sacrament of the Blessing of Anointing, we are forgiven of sins that were not said in confession due to ignorance or forgetfulness. And since illness is a consequence of our sinful state, liberation from sin often leads to healing of the body. Currently, during Great Lent, all Christians who are zealous for salvation take part in three sacraments at once: confession, Blessing of Anointing and Communion of the Holy Mysteries. To those Christians who, for whatever reason, could not take part in the sacrament of the Blessing of Anointing, the Optina elders Barsanuphius and John gave the following advice: “What kind of lender can you find more faithful than God, who knows even what did not happen? So, place on Him the account of the sins you have forgotten and tell Him: “Master, since forgetting one’s sins is a sin, then I have sinned in everything against You, the One Knower of the Heart. You forgive me for everything according to Your love for mankind, for it is there that the splendor of Your glory is manifested, when You do not repay sinners for their sins, for You are glorified forever. Amen".
31. How often should you visit the temple?
The duties of a Christian include visiting church on Saturdays and Sundays and always on holidays. The establishment and observance of holidays is necessary for our salvation; they teach us the true Christian faith, arouse and nourish in us, in our hearts, love, reverence and obedience to God. But they also go to church to perform religious services, rituals, and simply to pray, when time and opportunity permit.
32. What does visiting a temple mean for a believer?
Every visit to church is a holiday for a Christian, if the person is truly a believer. According to the teachings of the Church, when visiting the temple of God, a special blessing and success occurs in all the good endeavors of a Christian. Therefore, you should make sure that at this moment there is peace in your soul and order in your clothes. After all, we don't just go to church. Having humbled ourselves, our soul and heart, we come to Christ. It is to Christ, who gives us the benefit that we must earn by our behavior and inner disposition.
33. What services are performed daily in the Church?
In the name of the Most Holy Trinity - the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - the Holy Orthodox Christian Church daily performs evening, morning and afternoon services in the churches of God, following the example of the holy Psalmist, who testifies of himself: “Evening and morning and at noon I will beg and cry, and He (the Lord) will hear my voice” (Ps. 54:17-18). Each of these three services is composed, in turn, of three parts: evening service - it consists of the Ninth Hour, Vespers and Compline; morning - from the Midnight Office, Matins and the First Hour; daytime - from the Third Hour, the Sixth Hour and the Divine Liturgy. Thus, from the evening, morning and daytime services of the Church, nine services are formed: the Ninth Hour, Vespers, Compline, Midnight Office, Matins, the First Hour, the Third Hour, the Sixth Hour and the Divine Liturgy, just as, according to the teachings of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, from three ranks of Angels form nine faces, praising the Lord day and night.
34. What is fasting?
Fasting is not only some changes in the composition of food, that is, refusal of fast food, but, mainly, repentance, bodily and spiritual abstinence, purification of the heart through intense prayer. The Monk Barsanuphius the Great says: “Physical fasting means nothing without the spiritual fasting of the inner man, which consists of protecting oneself from passions. This fast is pleasing to God and will compensate for your lack of physical fasting (if you are weak in body).” St. says the same thing. John Chrysostom: “Whoever limits fasting to one abstinence from food greatly dishonors him. It’s not just the mouth that should fast—no, let the eye, and hearing, and hands, and feet, and our whole body fast.” As Fr. writes. Alexander Elchaninov: “In the dormitories there is a fundamental misunderstanding of fasting. What is important is not fasting in itself as not eating this and that or as depriving oneself of something in the form of punishment - fasting is only a proven way to achieve the desired results - through exhaustion of the body to reach the refinement of spiritual mystical abilities, darkened by the flesh, and thus facilitate your approach to God. Fasting is not hunger. A diabetic, a fakir, a yogi, a prisoner, and just a beggar are starving. Nowhere in the services of Great Lent is there any talk about fasting in isolation in our usual sense, that is, as not eating meat, etc. Everywhere there is one call: “We fast, brothers, physically, we fast and spiritually.” Consequently, fasting only has a religious meaning when it is combined with spiritual exercises. Fasting is equal to refinement. A normal zoologically prosperous person is inaccessible to the influence of external forces. Fasting undermines a person’s physical well-being, and then he becomes more accessible to the influences of another world, and his spiritual filling begins.” According to Bishop Herman, “fasting is pure abstinence in order to restore the lost balance between body and spirit, in order to return to our spirit its supremacy over the body and its passions.”
35. What prayers are performed before and after eating food?
Prayers before eating food: Our Father, who is in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as it is in heaven and on earth. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors; and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Virgin Mary, Rejoice, O Blessed Mary, the Lord is with You; Blessed are You among women and blessed is the fruit of Your womb, for She gave birth to the Savior of our souls. Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Bless. Through the prayers of the saints, our fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen. Prayers after eating food: We thank You, Christ our God, for filling us with Your earthly blessings; do not deprive us of Your Heavenly Kingdom, but as in the midst of Your disciples you came, Savior, give them peace, come to us and save us. It is worthy to eat as truly to bless Thee, Theotokos, Ever-Blessed and Most Immaculate and Mother of our God. We magnify You, the most honorable Cherub and the most glorious without comparison Seraphim, who gave birth to God the Word without corruption. Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Through the prayers of the saints, our fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.
36. Why is the death of the body necessary?
As Metropolitan Anthony Blum writes: “In a world that human sin has made monstrous, death is the only way out. If our world of sin were fixed as unchanging and eternal, it would be hell. Death is the only thing that allows the earth, along with suffering, to escape from this hell.” Bishop Arkady Lubyansky says: “For many, death is a means of salvation from spiritual death. For example, children who die at an early age do not know sin. Death reduces the amount of total evil on earth. What would life be like if there were always murderers - Cains, traitors to the Lord - Judas, human beasts - Nero and others? Therefore, the death of the body is not “ridiculous,” as people of the world say about it, but is necessary and expedient.
See the section for beginning Christians where you will find answers to many questions.
Deacon Alexy (Shchurov), Sanin Evgeny. From the gates to the royal doors (advice to those going to church).
