Lecture “Orthodox traditions - the way of life of a Christian”
It is impossible to put and talk about Orthodox traditions in one lecture. This is huge, rich and interesting material. It includes all aspects of a Christian's life from the baptismal font to the Christian death. This includes elements of everyday, economic, family, and public church life.
The existence of a believer, a Christian, is determined by three main, central moments: home, social activities (work) and temple. These are the places where most of a person's life passes.
We will try to literally briefly, superficially mention and touch on those traditions, the observance of which makes a person a Christian.
To make the meaning and importance of everything we will talk about clear, let me remind you of the words of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov: “The time of our earthly life is priceless: at this time we decide our eternal fate.”
The life of a Christian is closely connected with the Orthodox church. Without a temple, life according to God’s commandments, and sometimes life in general according to universal, decent principles, is unthinkable.
Often you hear from many people “I believe in my soul,” or “you can believe in God at home.” And therein lies the mistake. A church is not just a place where worship is performed, a church is a temple of God, a place of God’s special presence. During worship, liturgy, and sacraments, parishioners become familiar with the faith. And the priest is the person who connects those praying with God: “Where two and three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20), says the Lord in the Gospel.
The Church is not a “pre-revolutionary heritage”, as they tried and are still trying to convince us. She has always lived, and even today lives her innermost life. And there were and are people who have genuine experience of spiritual life.
Saint Cyprian of Carthage, a teacher of the Church of the 3rd century, claims that outside the Church there is no life, which means there is no salvation.
Outside the Church and without the Church, Christian life is impossible. Without the Church there can be no true Christianity... He who moves away from the Church moves away from God, from Christ: ... go to the temple of the Lord, there you will hear Christ Himself.
There is a temple:
a) House of prayer;
b) school of piety;
c) a place of special presence of God;
d) quiet marina;
e) heaven on earth, etc.
All this encourages special reverence in the temple. When passing or driving past a temple, you should take off your headdress and cross yourself while praying.
The temple can rightly be called a school of faith and piety... the school cannot replace the temple of God...
Without the Church, a person is outside of saving grace. The holy righteous John of Kronstadt said: “Grace is the gift of God, given to a person for the sake of faith in Christ, for the salvation of a person - a Christian, grace is an intervening power, merciful, enlightening, saving, disposing to all virtue.”
This great gift of God's grace can be received by anyone who is aware of their sinfulness through heartfelt faith in God, through participation in the Sacraments of the Church.
...the devil is trying with all his might and cunning to lead us away from the Church. He has one goal - to separate man from God, i.e. to destroy him... we must hold tightly to the Orthodox Church as an anchor of salvation.
Grace is the all-strengthening power of God. This is the sanctification of soul and body by the Holy Spirit. This is why a person leaves the temple with a feeling of joy, relief and peace in his soul.
A person’s entry into the Church begins with the Sacrament of Baptism. Without baptism it is impossible to enter eternal life, the Kingdom of God. In the Gospel we read: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; and whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16) “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:5).
Baptism occurs once in a lifetime, just as once a person is born into the world from his mother. The importance of baptism is emphasized by the fact that in the absence of a priest, if the newborn is very weak, he can be baptized by an Orthodox Christian...
The Sacrament of Confirmation is connected with the Sacrament of Baptism. In the sacrament of Baptism, a person is born into a new spiritual life, and in the Sacrament of Confirmation he receives grace to pass through this life.
Baptism is the door to the Church of Christ, therefore an unbaptized person cannot receive Holy Communion and other Sacraments.
The beginning of the 90s was a turning point. The remaining churches began to open, the hammer of atheism stopped hitting people on their heads, many flocked to the open doors of the churches and began to be baptized.
The bulk of newly baptized adults, having received the sacrament of baptism and not having grasped the essence of Christian life, do not consider it their primary duty from now on to attend church and be living members of the Orthodox Church.
...communication with the Church sometimes comes down to lighting candles in front of an icon or, at best, to ordering prayers.
New converts need to understand that the Church is a living organism, the body of which is Christ Himself, the head and founder of this Church, and Christians who believe in Him are members of this Body.
And the one who does not live in the Church communicates little with her, loses life-giving power, is deprived of grace-filled help and, gradually getting bogged down, dies to spiritual life.
In the waters of St. Baptism washes away all a person’s sins... but... sins... pollute the soul... alienate him from God. The spiritual life of grace is supported by the Sacraments of Repentance and Communion.
The Sacrament of Repentance - confession before God's witness - the priest, ... restores purity ... the joy of the Sacrament of Communion - the mystery of God. When a communicant eats material bread and wine, he eats the Most Pure Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ... without Communion it is impossible to inherit eternal life.
The Lord said: “Whoever believes in Me has eternal life. I am the bread of life...truly, verily, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you; He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6.47–48; 53.54)
By receiving communion, a person becomes a partaker of eternal life. In the 19th century, many Russian Christians considered Communion a dying message. It is known that when Emperor Alexander the First was offered communion, he replied: “Am I really that bad.” This approach cannot be correct.
The Holy Fathers say: “true life is possible only under the condition of union with Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, communion of the holy Body and Blood of the Lord; only with such union with Christ is the unity of people with each other accomplished, i.e. a single body of the Church is created. From this it follows that Christian life is essentially churchly... a Christian is charged with the obligation to be in the temple of the Lord on all Sundays and holidays.
Saint John Chrysostom says that if a person receives communion worthily and dies on this day, then he does not go through terrible ordeals in the afterlife, and the angels directly carry his soul to the abode of heaven...
Everyone must improve spiritually: “Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), says the Lord in the Gospel. To improve you need to constantly improve yourself and work hard. In this work we are helped by the grace of the Holy Spirit, which we must acquire through repentance and Holy Communion, through the ability to forgive and love everyone with pure Christian love. A person who lives in this way creates an atmosphere of spirituality around himself, whether in the family, at work or with friends. Unfortunately, the concept of true spirituality is being replaced by conversations about morality and ethics, high culture and ethics, extensive education and notable achievements in the field of music, poetry and literature. All this in itself is truly sublime, beautiful and, to some extent, useful for a person, but it is far removed from spirituality.
The life together of spouses begins with the Sacrament of Marriage (Wedding).
The family is the basis of society and the state. The Christian family is a small Church. Good upbringing of children is the most valuable, greatest treasure that parents can and should give to their children.
Saint Clement of Alexandria, emphasizing the holiness of marriage, says: “God himself unites those sanctified by the Sacrament and is present among them... The grace and blessing of God descend not only on those entering into marriage, but also on the children born by them, and on the whole house.
We read wise words from Deacon Nikolai Uspensky in his spiritual and moral conversations about the prayers of parents for their children: “Do not send them either poverty or wealth, but do not deprive them of Your earthly blessings and make them worthy of Your Heavenly Kingdom.” What an abyss of meaning there is in these words!
Life is difficult: adversity, sorrow, illness... People are looking for help... from sorcerers, healers of various stripes, soothsayers and newly minted psychics...
A Christian, in the event of life's misfortunes... in illness, must in every possible way protect himself and his acquaintances from these new-found healers. A believer is saved only through Christ and His Church. There is a sacrament in the Church that heals physical and mental ulcers. This is the sacrament of the Blessing of Anointing.
The Sacrament of the Blessing of Anointing, Unction is the best medicine... a means for recovery... The Sacrament of the Blessing of Anointing is performed on a seriously ill person. In this sacrament, the grace of God is given, healing illnesses of body and soul. Among many uninformed people, there is a widespread belief that unction can only be performed on the hopelessly ill... that after unction, death will follow, or if a person recovers, he needs to lead a monastic lifestyle. This is a clear distortion of the essence of the sacrament. In the prayer of anointing we read: “Holy Father, physician of souls and bodies... heal also Thy servant (name of the rivers) from the bodily and spiritual infirmities that beset him...”
In Rus' there is a good tradition of administering unction to the people during Lent.
The main place in the life of a Christian should be occupied by prayer and reading the Word of God. Just as a traveler needs a guide, so those seeking salvation need a pointer, a landmark, also a kind of guide. This guide is the Holy Gospel. It must be read daily, “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4.4).
For a Christian, it is important before starting and at the end of any task to read the Holy Scriptures - the Gospels, Lives of the Saints and other spiritually useful literature, which is best purchased in an Orthodox church. A person also draws spiritual strength from reading the Word of God. When we pray, we talk with God, and when we read the Holy Scriptures, God talks with us, shows us how to live and how to be saved.
Prayer, as St. John Chrysostom says, is our conversation with God. Prayer can be called wings for the soul. It brings us closer to God, enlightens us. The more often we pray, the better.
You can pray everywhere and always, not only in Church, but also at home, in the field, on the road. Prayer in the Church is stronger than prayer done at home. She would rather pass through heaven than the lonely voice of a person praying in the house. Church prayer is superior to home prayer. “My house,” says the Lord, “will be called a house of prayer.” (Matt. 21:13). In the temple the Lord is closer to everyone who prays. One “Lord have mercy” pronounced in the temple cannot be equal to the “Ordinance of the Twelve Psalms” sung in the cell. The Apostle Paul sat chained in prison, and “the church at that time diligently prayed to God for him,” and through prayers he was miraculously released.
In the temple, it is customary for men to stand on the right, women on the left. Patients can sit. Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow said: “It is better to think about God while sitting than to think about your feet while standing.” Divine services in the church are performed in Church Slavonic. In modern language, only teachings and sermons are pronounced.
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov once said that we cannot find a more beautiful language than the Slavic language.
Family prayer is important (Matthew 18:20)… the family is the domestic church. It is very important that the entire way of life and the way of life of the family is built on prayer: that they pray together, work together, study together, go to church together. Only in such a family are the foundations of the spiritual life of growing children laid. Raised in the spirit of Christian love and obedience to parents and the church, children will stand on the solid foundation of the holy faith. What they receive in the family, they will carry throughout their entire lives. Then the notorious problem of fathers and sons will not arise.
There are many different prayers. From an early age, a Christian should know the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father”, “Virgin Mother of God”, and the Creed.
This is the rule of St. Seraphim of Sarov.
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The spiritual power of this short last prayer is great and powerful.
Every Christian should try to pray morning and evening (according to the prayer book), standing in front of St. an icon that should hang in the front corner, and not lie on the TV or in the sideboard. I need to train myself: if I don’t read my evening prayers, I won’t go to bed. I won’t read my morning prayers, I won’t eat. You need to pray before and after meals.
How to learn to pray? The most important thing is consistency.
The Monk Nektarios, the elder of Optina, said: “Pray, and prayer itself will teach you everything.”
The prayer is accompanied by the banner of the cross, bows and is performed in front of St. icons. The sign of the cross is the most important prayer action. It contains all Christian teaching... The cross is “the power of God for salvation” (1 Cor. 1:18). “Lord, Thy cross has given us a weapon against the devil; for we tremble and shake, unable to bear to look at its power.” The cross is the greatest Christian shrine. “The cross is the guardian of the entire universe, the beauty of the Church, the power of kings, the affirmation of the faithful, the glory of angels and the plague of demons.” The power of the enemy fears nothing more than the cross. For this reason, it is recommended that you never remove your cross, wearing it on your chest all your life.
Many saints performed miracles by the power of the sign of the cross. Carelessly applying the sign of the cross to oneself is considered blasphemy. The bows that we make during prayer are waist and ground. According to church regulations, prostrations are not made after communion, on all Sundays and holidays, during the periods from the Nativity of Christ to Epiphany (Yuletide) and from Easter to Pentecost (Trinity Day).
We pray in front of holy icons.
An icon is an integral part of an Orthodox church and the guardian of a home. Saint Basil the Great says: “The honor given to the image goes back to the prototype.” You can pray in front of an icon that is correctly painted and consecrated by a priest.
A Christian must show reverence towards the icon. If St. If the icon is in a house or apartment, then even your beloved dog can no longer be there - it is an unclean animal. Smoking cigarettes also expresses disrespect for the holy image and sinful disregard for the health of family and friends.
Prayer for the deceased is evidence of unceasing love for the deceased person beyond the grave. Unfortunately, the bad custom has taken root in us to remember the deceased with wine and vodka with a hearty snack on the 3rd, 9th, 40th day and every other year. Needless to say how sinful this is. Such commemoration brings unspeakable grief to the newly departed soul.
Believers celebrate church holidays and fasts in a special way.
All Christians are obliged to visit the temple of God on holidays, and spend the day at home sacredly, reading the word of God and soul-saving books, visiting the sick, the poor, those imprisoned in prison to provide all possible help. You are not allowed to work on holidays.
There are multi-day and one-day fasts. Multi-day fasts occur four times a year: Great Lent, Peter's Fast, Dormition Fast, Nativity Fast.
Fasting is abstinence from fast food: meat, milk, butter, eggs, as well as moderate consumption of any food and drink. A person’s inner life depends on fasting. “Fasting is food for the soul,” notes St. John Chrysostom, and St. Basil the Great says: “As much as you take away from the body, you will give strength to the soul.”
Misunderstanding of the main essence of fasting is what causes many people to worry about their health. The saints have proven the usefulness of fasting. The Venerable Mary of Egypt ate only grass roots for more than forty years. The Monk Simeon the Stylite did not eat anything during the entire Great Lent and lived to be 103 years old, and St. Alipium up to 118.
Physical fasting must necessarily be associated with spiritual fasting, which consists of fervent prayer and the fight against one’s sinful habits. The holy relics of the saints of God, miraculous icons, and the Holy Water of Epiphany greatly support and physically heal a believer.
A few words need to be said about holy water and its meaning for Christians. The beneficial effect of Epiphany water on Christian believers has been tested and verified for centuries. The miracle of long-term preservation of Holy water speaks for itself. Archpriest Vasily Izyumsky says: “As a minister of the Church, I personally confirm this miracle: 23 years ago I blessed the water, which to this day remains clean, having the taste of fresh spring water.” A person of little faith can set up two bottles of water today - plain from the tap and consecrated in the Church - for two or three months and see with his own eyes the miracle of God.
From time immemorial, Orthodox people have revered the water consecrated on the feast of the Epiphany as a great shrine. It has a special cleansing and saving power. In exceptional cases, this water with pieces of arthos is given to the dying person instead of Holy Communion. You need to sprinkle your home with it, and drink holy water in the morning on an empty stomach.
In conclusion, I would like to make the following considerations. Why are they afraid of true spirituality? Apparently because they understand that living according to the gospel law, i.e. to live spiritually is worth too much sacrifice, deprivation of earthly pleasures, and limitation of one’s will. That is why the modern world is trying to create a religion, a spirituality for itself that would not burden it, would not deprive it of comfort. But it is impossible to serve two masters. A choice needs to be made here.
“A sure sign of the death of the soul,” says the Monk Barsanuphius of Optina, is avoidance of church services. A person who grows cold toward God first of all begins to avoid going to church, first tries to come to the service later, and then completely stops visiting the temple of God.”
There are striking examples of faith in our times.
Abbot Sergius (Gavrilov), who knew him personally, told several stories about the famous surgeon and physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. Here are two of them.
Pavlov walked past the Znamensky Church in Leningrad (and this was his parish church), stopped, and earnestly crossed himself. A Red Army soldier saw this, stopped and mockingly said: “Eh, darkness, darkness!... No, to go to Academician Pavlov’s lecture!” “Go ahead,” Pavlov answers him. A Red Army soldier comes to a lecture, and it is given by that same believing old man.
Another case.
They assigned a new laboratory assistant to Pavlov, a Komsomol member, and maybe a party member. And then the next day the laboratory assistant comes to work. And the work week was then five days, and weekends were “sliding”. She approaches the door of the laboratory, and there is a notice on it: “The laboratory is closed on the occasion of the celebration of Holy Easter.”
She flushed, went and announced this “to the right place.” And what? They fired the poor thing. They only told her: “You can’t be counted so vigilant, but we have only one Academician Pavlov.”
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a deeply religious man, he sincerely loved the temple of God. While he was alive, the atheists did not dare touch the Church of the Sign. But after his death, the temple was destroyed, and then they began to write about him as an unbeliever, an atheist and a materialist.
God has given us the freedom to live the way we want. Each person goes through life on his own path, and it is good for him if sooner or later it leads him to the temple of God.
It's over, and thank God!
How does the concept of “spiritual tradition” differ from similar ones?
In science, there are different interpretations of the concepts of spiritual tradition, religious tradition, cultural tradition, folk tradition. So, following this differentiation, we will briefly present the differences and commonality of these concepts, which will help us understand the features of the Russian spiritual tradition. Thus, one must distinguish:
- Spiritual tradition
- Religious tradition
- Cultural tradition
- Folk tradition
Spiritual tradition is the preservation and production of experience that leads a person to the development of his incorporeal essence, the deepening of transcendental experience, to moral subtle development, the transmission of knowledge and practices that do not give an immediate materialized result. And therefore, spiritual traditions can be regarded as meaningless for people who do not live a spiritual life. Spiritual tradition is the core of religious tradition.
But the religious tradition is broader than the spiritual one, since it includes, in addition to spiritual practice, which has an internal expression (latent), also external, ritual practice, religious behavior, and institutions. The Russian religious tradition is an Orthodox tradition . Here these concepts can be considered as synonyms. Being a culture-forming religion, Orthodoxy is the basis of the Russian cultural tradition. But the concept of “cultural tradition” includes, in addition to religious, many other traditions.
Cultural tradition is the preservation and transmission of the entire wealth of cultural heritage, expressed, in addition to religion, in ideas, in philosophy, in scientific and professional knowledge, in art, in cultural monuments, in the peculiarities of the ethnographic existence of the people. We can say that cultural tradition has a projection in the consciousness of the people, this is its perceived wealth.
But we can also highlight a layer of folk tradition , in which, in addition to consciousness, the subconscious of the people is also accumulated. Folk tradition preserves archaic remnants, archetypes and cultural codes, the collective unconscious, which largely shapes the reality of folk life.
History of the celebration
The history of the holiday of the Circumcision of the Lord in Orthodoxy is quite interesting. The pagans said that the first day of the new year makes it clear what the next one will be like. Thus, it was customary to celebrate this date with festivities and fun. They dressed up for carnivals. Women were men and vice versa. What was happening on the streets did not receive the approval of the church. Therefore, in order to counteract this, it was decided to introduce fasting with the onset of the New Year, as well as the imposition of penances for the sins of the pagans.
Only after pagan rituals began to be forgotten did the celebration acquire a joyful character. Although he is one of the greats, he is not included in the list of the 12 largest. In the modern world, such rituals have been preserved among Muslims and Jews. For Orthodox Christians, this is a process that has medical indications.
Church schism
The unification of the rituals of the Russian Orthodox Church occurred after the split of the church. Why did it happen? Let's figure it out.
Until now, the Russian Orthodox Church has not been affected by reform. The last changes occurred in the seventeenth century, but whether there will be new ones is still unknown. Let's talk about previous experience.
As early as 1640, there was talk about the need for church reform. Representatives of the clergy even then wanted to unify the rules of worship and church texts. But they could not achieve unity in choosing a model to emulate. Someone wanted to use Greek church books as a model, while others wanted to use ancient Russian books.
As a result, those who wanted to bring church rituals and books in accordance with the Byzantine canons won. There are several explanations for this:
- The Russian state sought to stabilize its own position among other Orthodox countries. In government circles they often spoke of Moscow as the third Rome; this theory was put forward by Philotheus, a Pskov elder who lived in the fifteenth century. The church schism that occurred in 1054 led to the fact that Constantinople began to be considered the Orthodox center. Philotheus believed that after the fall of Byzantium, it was the capital of the Russian state that would become the stronghold of the true Orthodox faith. In order for Moscow to receive this status, the Russian Tsar needed to enlist the support of the Greek Church. And in order to receive it, it was necessary to conduct a divine service in accordance with local rules.
- In 1654, the Pereyaslav Rada decided that the territory of Polish Ukraine should join Russia. In the new territory, the Orthodox liturgy was conducted according to Greek rules, and therefore the unification of rituals and rules would contribute to the unification of Little Russia and Russia.
- Not so long ago, the Time of Troubles passed, and popular unrest was still taking place throughout the country. If uniform rules of church life had been established, the process of national unity would have been much faster and more fruitful.
- Russian worship did not correspond to Byzantine canons. Making changes to liturgical rules is considered secondary in carrying out church reform. By the way, the church schism was caused by these edits.
Under whom did the church split occur? It happened under Emperor Alexei Mikhailovich, who reigned from 1645 to 1676. He never ignored problems that concerned the Russian people. The tsar considered himself Orthodox, and therefore devoted a lot of attention and time to the affairs of the church.
The church schism in our country is firmly connected with the name of Patriarch Nikon. In the world his name was Nikita Minin, he became a clergyman at the request of his parents and was very successful. One day Nikon was introduced to young Alexei Mikhailovich, it was in 1646. Then Minin came to Moscow in order to settle monastic affairs. The seventeen-year-old sovereign appreciated Nikon's efforts and left him in Moscow. Nikon had a very strong influence on the sovereign and actively participated in resolving state issues. In 1652, Nikon became patriarch and began preparations for church reform, which had been brewing for a long time.
First of all, the patriarch began to edit all books of the Orthodox religion and rituals. This was done to ensure that they complied with Greek laws. Despite this, 1653 is considered the beginning of the church schism, because changes at that time affected liturgical rules, which led to Nikon’s confrontation with supporters and adherents of old rituals and rules.
So, what did Patriarch Nikon do?
- Replaced the two-finger sign with a three-finger one. It was precisely this innovation that caused the most unrest among the Old Believers. The new sign of the cross was considered disrespect for God, because three fingers made a fig.
- The Patriarch introduced a new spelling of the name of God. Now it was necessary to write “Jesus”, and not as before the reform - “Jesus”.
- The number of prosphoras for the liturgy was reduced.
- The changes also affected bows. Now there is no need to make prostrations; instead, bows from the waist have appeared.
- Since the reform, one should move against the sun during the procession.
- During church singing, “Hallelujah” is now said three times, instead of the previous two.
So, what are the reasons for the split? Before answering this question, it is necessary to understand what is called a church schism. So, they call the separation of a certain part of the believers from the Orthodox Church; the Old Believers opposed the transformations that Nikon wanted to introduce.
The reasons for the schism, of course, greatly influenced the further history of the Russian state and were caused by the short-sighted policies of the church and secular authorities.
A church schism can be defined as confrontation or cooling, which means that all this had a bad impact on the relationship between the church and the authorities. Patriarch Nikon is to blame for this, or rather, his harsh methods. This led to the fact that in 1660 the patriarch lost his rank. As time passed, he was completely deprived of his holy orders and exiled to the Belozersky Feropontov Monastery.
But this does not mean that reforms ended with the resignation of the patriarch. In 1666, new church books and rituals were approved, which had to be accepted by the entire Orthodox Church. The Church Council decided that those people who were supporters of the old faith were not only excommunicated from the church but were even equated with heretics.
The difference between sacraments and rituals
Let's start with the fact that Orthodox rites are fundamentally different from other forms of sacred rites. Sacraments and rituals are often confused.
The Almighty gave people seven sacraments, including baptism, confirmation, repentance, communion, marriage, priesthood and consecration of oil. During them, God's Grace is shed on believers.
The Orthodox rite includes actions that are aimed at elevating the human spirit to the sacrament and elevating consciousness to faith. It is important to understand that all church rituals are considered sacred only if they are accompanied by prayer. It is because of prayer that an ordinary action becomes a sacred act, and an external process becomes an Orthodox rite.
