How do adults become believers? – stories of Butusov, Germanika, Vyazemsky and others

Who is a believer?

A believer is a person who believes in the existence of some spiritual (immaterial) root cause of all things.

But people who hold this view are far from alike.

Believers can be divided into two groups:

The first group: these are believers who believe in the existence of non-material (spiritual) types of energy and life. But they do not comply with certain rules and restrictions of spiritual life, they are not interested in and do not receive new knowledge in the spiritual field. In other words, they are not progressing in their spiritual development.

The first group includes two types of believers:

— AGNOSTICS;

- FORMAL BELIEVERS.

The second group: these are believers who observe certain rules and restrictions of spiritual life, are interested in and do not receive new knowledge in the spiritual field. Thanks to this, they move further in their spiritual development, gradually moving to new levels of self-awareness.

The second group includes three types of believers:

— NEOPHYTES, BELIEVERS of the first type, believers who have just begun their path in spiritual development;

— BELIEVERS of the second type, who have established themselves in their movement along the path of spiritual self-awareness;

— Believers of the third type, who have established themselves in their movement along the path of spiritual self-awareness, have studied and know quite a lot of sacred scriptures. As a rule, qualified gurus, or spiritual mentors (teachers), fall into this category.

Let's look at this in more detail.

The first group of believers includes many more people than the second.

Examples of Faith

A person is designed in such a way that he needs to believe in something, it doesn’t even matter what. Faith is a very powerful feeling, a strong belief that does not imply other points of view than the one in which the believer believes. Examples:

1. I believe in God.
2. I believe that everything will be fine.
3. I believe that I can earn enough money.

A person who believes in something, as a result of mental assessment, forms a self-identification, which determines actions, judgments, as well as norms of behavior in society and attitude to events.

Faith - etymology

There are words in which their component “Belief” is the root, for example, superstition, true. The word faith is believed to have several origins. In Old Church Slavonic faith; in Polish wiara, in Czech víra, in the Orthodox worldview věra - all this is a designation of the same concept; believe and experience the corresponding emotion.

People have always believed in the supernatural, so at all times faith has been the subject of heated philosophical debate. In Christianity, faith is considered one of the main virtues, achieved through prayer. According to Christian teaching, in order to reunite with God, it is necessary to believe in Him and lead the appropriate lifestyle of a believer.

Believers of type I

Neophytes, believers who have just begun their journey in spiritual development.

These are, as a rule, young people (in the majority) who are sincerely interested in the practice of spiritual development. This category of believers is usually characterized by the fact that they take an active position in defending their views. They are ready to defend their beliefs in disputes with atheists. Thus, they want to become increasingly confident in the correctness of their choice. Believers of this type have some likelihood of straying from the path of spiritual development. This occurs due to strong attachment to material things and desires.

The second type of the second group.

Refuse your passport and identification code for the sake of faith

A believer has the right to refuse any documents so as not to have them with him. At the same time, this decision, based on deep religious beliefs, complicates the hiring of such an employee due to the complexity of official registration and employment. However, this issue is still somehow regulated by law. But believers believe that this is not for long, and is one of the stages in the formation of the Devil’s system.

Atheists classify this category of believers as religious fanatics, whose eyes, in their opinion, are closed. The goal of the formation of the digital world, according to deeply religious people, is the enslavement of humanity under the pretext of the common good. And also control not only people’s income, but also expenses, controlling bank accounts and the movement of each individual person across the geographical territory.

Some believe that the next stage is the complete destruction of the faith and the church. To the point that the servants of the Devil will control the ability to be baptized. This control will be implemented by introducing special chips under human skin. These chips, believers believe, are designed to take away the opportunity to be baptized. They will be implanted in the right arm and forehead. And as soon as a person raises his right hand to his forehead to cross himself, a signal will immediately be sent to the agents of Satan that this has happened.

Persecution of believers is coming, especially the Orthodox as the only guardians of the true teaching of the beliefs of Jesus Christ. However, atheists believe that such a position is nothing more than a way to preserve the influence of the church on people, which is especially important in modern conditions, when there are fewer and fewer believers with each generation. If you look, young people in Russia and neighboring countries no longer believe in anything, not even in God.

AGNOSTICS

(first group).

This is a person who believes in the existence of a higher power (God, Absolute Truth, Supreme Intelligence), but claims that it cannot be known or its existence cannot be proven. An agnostic also denies knowledge of the Higher Mind with the help of any spiritual practices, believing that it is impossible to understand the incomprehensible.

If you look at the meaning of the word “agnostic”, it comes from the Greek “gnosis” - knowledge. The prefix “a” gives meaning to the word “agnostic” - not believing in knowledge. In this context - the knowledge of the divine principle, in which an agnostic (unlike an atheist) undoubtedly believes!

At its core, an agnostic is a skeptic who, having not tried to start moving along the path of spiritual development (cognition, self-awareness), initially rejects it. This is not an objective approach to the issue. This approach is quite suitable for a person who does not want (or cannot) waste his time trying to comprehend intangible types of energy.

Let's look at this more objectively. There are not so few believers who have been making efforts on the path of spiritual development for a long time (II - I category). If they did not receive some kind of return or satisfaction, then none of them would devote so much time to this activity. But some of them almost completely moved away from material life and devoted themselves to the movement in the knowledge of spiritual types of energy. And they pay the highest price for this advancement - their lives! If they did not receive complete satisfaction from their activity, they would not be confident in their activity. Nothing could attract them to the movement of spiritual self-development. Try to force a person who is not interested in football to play it every day, or at least talk about football. This is impossible without his desire. And believers who follow the path of spiritual development devote most of their lives to the process of knowledge and awareness (the next stage of spiritual development)!

To summarize, we can say that the position of the agnostic in the awareness of the intangible is unchanged. It consists in “not denying” the existence of divine types of energy, but an agnostic, for one reason or another, is not ready to embark on the path of spiritual self-awareness and development.

According to various statistics, the number of agnostics is constantly growing, and amounts to from 25% to 30% of the total population of the Earth. This happens because modern science is making more and more discoveries that fully confirm information from various sacred scriptures (for more details, see the article “SCIENCE AND RELIGION, SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES” ).

The number of agnostics who believe that religion as such is not needed at all is very large. They cannot answer the question “Why is religion needed?” And yet, there is a reasonable answer. This is written in detail in the article “WHY AND WHAT IS RELIGION NEEDED FOR”. (All links used in the article will also be presented at the end of the text)

The Origin of Faith in the Hearts of People

It often happens that an atheist becomes a believer. Why is this happening, let's figure it out. For example, an individual can believe in God due to illness or if he is in a dying state. There is such a thing that when you die, all non-believers will unanimously believe in anything. Whether it is good or bad is up to everyone to decide, but the church says it is good. Since the disease in this case, according to representatives of religion, is sent by God himself so that a person gains firm Faith in His existence.

There are also situations in which the feeling that one must believe in God is inherited from parents to children. And not surprisingly, being in the same family, children simply absorb the entire worldview of their parents, including religious ones. Faith cannot be instilled by force, it comes from the heart; it either exists or it doesn’t. If there is pressure on a child to force him to believe in God, nothing good will come of it.

It happens that a person himself comes to faith. Born into a family of atheists, a child can grow up the same or completely different from his parents. The idea of ​​faith is very contagious, like in the movie Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio. And this idea is very powerful, since if you believe the holy sources, it has been spreading around the world for 2000 years. One day our faith in the Slavic gods was replaced by Christian doctrine.

What is a believer - Meaning of the word believer

Morphological and syntactic properties

believer

Active participle, present tense, type of declension according to A. Zaliznyak’s classification - 4a.

Root: -ver-

;
interfix: -у-
;
suffix: -yushch
;
ending: -й
[Tikhonov, 1996].

Pronunciation

• IPA: [ˈvʲerʊjʉɕːɪɪ̯]
  

  (file)

Semantic properties

Meaning

1. valid
   prib. present vr. from believe;
   believing in God ◆ A firmly believing Russian soldier eliminates all everyday thoughts at such a moment, considering it dangerous for the soul and body to carry money with you during battle, which so often entangles a person with grave sin. )
2. substantivir. one who recognizes the existence of God, a religious person ◆ A huge number of believers gathered for this big holiday, and many honored guests came. )

Synonyms

1. partial: believer

Antonyms

1. unbeliever
2. atheist, atheist

Hypernyms

1. —
2. Human

Hyponyms

1. —
2. Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, Hindu

Related words

Etymology

Comes from ch. to believe, further from n. faith, from praslav. . Data used.

Phraseologisms and stable combinations

Translation

Bibliography

Esoteric understanding of faith

In esotericism it is believed that to believe means to do one of the things that is necessary to make desires come true. Faith, according to esotericists, is one of the most important factors shaping events in a person’s life, that is, it is directly related; Let's see exactly how. In order for events to materialize, a number of rules must be followed. If everything is done correctly, then the energy will be directed where it is needed and will bring a certain conscious life situation into the life of the practitioner.

The flow of energy begins from the physical plane of existence. For events to be realized, it is necessary that the physical body is healthy and there is no mania. A person’s mania can be considered everything that “ticks”, these are drugs, mania for sexual satisfaction instead of fruitful Love, and more. So, when the physical body is in order, it is necessary to pump up the spirit and willpower. More than one religious doctrine, including the Orthodox one, speaks about the importance of working on the spiritual aspects of existence.

The next plane of existence is the emotions of people. For events to work out in your favor, you need to feel people correctly and sense this world. At the same time, the expression of emotions should be deep. The more strongly the strength of spirit is developed, the more strongly the emotion will be expressed. The next plane is human thoughts, mentality. Put your own thoughts in order so that, together with your body, strength of mind and emotions, you can influence events.

And this is where faith has a place in this esoteric chain - after events begin to unfold as needed, a person begins to plan. And already plans are based on the belief that they can be implemented. Let's list all 7 stages:

1. Body.
2. Spirit.
3. Emotions.
4. Thoughts.
5. Events.
6. Plans.
7. Faith.

That is, for faith, as a lever to the formation of material life, to work correctly, it is necessary to pump up all 7 aspects of human existence. And when there is no energy leakage at one of the stages, then faith becomes full-fledged and can direct creative energy in the opposite direction - down this esoteric ladder.

That is, when a person has gone through all the stages correctly, this is what happens:

• faith adjusts plans;
• this in turn provokes more events;
• what makes one make certain mental conclusions;
• at the same time, mental reflections are reinforced by even greater emotional coloring;
• which gives the spirit even more strength;
• and everything together makes the body even healthier.

To improve your health in this way, it is necessary that all 7 aspects of being work, and in none of them there are holes through which energy leaks are possible. Find out more about the above, read the esotericist’s article.

Vera - what does a girl's name mean?

Along with other names such as Hope and Love, Faith is a very common name. This is a Russian personal name that comes from the Old Church Slavonic language. Let's look at the character of women bearing this name. Women named Vera are very reserved, self-absorbed to the maximum, but smart and reasonable with a difficult character. Reliability, thoroughness and stability - this is how you can characterize the bearers of this name.

Vera in her old age is a very caring grandmother, and in her youth she is calm and unperturbed. It is believed that such women are not interested in anything seriously and for a long time. Their hobbies are fleeting, fleeting, but there are a lot of them. Vera is a name that develops a predominantly phlegmatic nature in its owners throughout life. This in turn imposes some restrictions on achieving goals in relation to the effort expended. Women named Vera are very smart, but have ambivalent morals.

Actions in the name of faith

Often, under the guise of such a wonderful concept as faith, terrible deeds are masked. There is an opinion that the high priests do not believe in God, but know and apply the concept of controlling people through beliefs and other psychological manipulations. Faith has always been a subject of debate between philosophers and ordinary people. In the name of faith, crusades were carried out, the Inquisition and other historical phenomena took place. And at this time they tried to justify these atrocities by faith.

Many discoveries were never conveyed to people en masse due to the actions of such believers. However, there is another category of people, the latter can even sacrifice themselves. This is what you would do if you were told: either renounce your faith, or we will kill you. And there have been many such situations throughout human history. And those who did not betray their faith and were killed were posthumously considered martyrs of God, and they were given the rank of holy people - those whose example of actions should be followed by other believers.

Faith relates more to the superconscious (there is also consciousness and subconsciousness), this is the feeling that makes people cover grenades with themselves and stand under bullets. In the Russian Empire, the motto was widespread: “For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland.” A Russian officer who died in the war was considered one who gave his soul to God, his heart to his beloved woman, but honor to no one! As we see, Faith in the Russian Empire stood alongside such important concepts as the Tsar and the Fatherland. The term Fatherland means the place where our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers lived. And the Tsar was separately revered and valued, since without the Tsar there is neither the Fatherland nor the Faith. The king was the guardian of the well-being of the entire people, which is why he was so valued.

Believe it or not?

Each person must decide for himself about his own belief system, what to believe in and what to be skeptical about. Universal processes and phenomena will always be the subject of disputes between believers and atheists. That which cannot be confirmed or refuted is where faith begins. A good example is space - whether it exists or not, do you believe in it? Or the shape of the Earth - is it round or flat? You can now find a lot of flat Earth supporters on the Internet, and they believe in this theory as if it were true. Try to convince them of this - nothing will work, this is faith!

So it is with respect to God - he either exists or does not exist for each individual person. Moreover, God himself can be perceived in different ways. For example, there are those who do not believe in the Orthodox God, who is similar in image and likeness to man; but simply believes in God, as some kind of energetic substance, which he cannot understand, just as an ant cannot understand the social mechanics of human existence. From this point of view, God is on a different scale, sometimes in order to notice something big, you need to step away. But in the case of God, no one can check anything, and it is not possible to fly away from this planet.

Vyacheslav Butusov, rock musician, composer, writer

One of the “patriarchs” of Russian rock, Vyacheslav Butusov, was baptized at the age of 30, before his wedding - at the insistence of his wife. But the musician’s real churching began later. “Then I was in a completely unjustified idle state,” Butusov said in an interview with Foma. - Some kind of continuous drunkenness, irresponsibility... And then it became scary. There was a feeling of impending disaster, horror. A disgust for life appeared, and... It was such a sin on me - I killed myself three times. My head was a mess, it was simply bursting. And my conscience tormented me. I stopped sleeping. Incredible health problems have appeared.”

And then he saw what changes were happening to Konstantin Kinchev, the leader of the Alisa group, who had already come to God, and realized that it was impossible to live without faith.

At first it seemed that it was extremely difficult to follow the rules and find time for prayer. Then, like many neophytes, Butusov went to extremes: “I became so strict in this regard that I decided that everything was bothering me, I needed to go somewhere into a cave, become a monk... Then one of the priests I knew told me: “Well.” , you’re the one who decided to get off easy.” And then I began to notice how the world around me was changing, turning upside down. “I had to give up many bad habits before I began to have insights that make a person happy. I learned about my weakness and infirmity. I learned about why you don’t need to lead a harmful lifestyle, but strive for the right one... I learned how and why you need to be cheerful and viable.”

What was the faith before Christianity in Rus'?

Unfortunately, not everyone knows what happened before Christianity. But what exactly you are trying to find out, what kind of faith there was in Rus' before Christianity, is extremely good for you personally. The faith that existed in Rus' before Christianity was called Slavic Paganism. It is known that the essence of paganism was mythology and magic; the term paganism characterizes the pre-Christian system of pagan ideas about the world order and man.

An interesting fact is that the period and atmosphere of paganism, the cultural and moral views of those who preached the idea of ​​multi-Gods, is reconstructable, that is, scraps of information about the language, folklore, belief system and traditional customs of the ancient Slavs were used to recreate it. The names of the gods were identified with natural forces and Universal processes. And the same semantics of words was inserted into word-forming verbal constructions.

The ancient Slavs packaged their vision of beliefs into an initial letter - in our language, the alphabet. This initial letter was 7 by 7 in size and had 49 ancient figurative symbols that were taught to children from birth. In terms of the degree of interconnection between drop cap algorithms, it is many times superior to other symbol notation systems, such as the alphabet. The alphabet gives an idea of ​​everything if it is used as a system for deciphering words.

Words are deciphered according to consonant letters. For example, in the word “Vedas”, identified with faith, there are two consonant letters V and D, and this word, according to the initial letter, can be deciphered as Vedas and Good - to know good. Thanks to correct, and not false, images, a correct system of assessing values ​​was formed in the minds of the ancient Slavs. And this influenced their actions, causing a general sense of justice and conscience - a common message.

BELIEVERS PEOPLE II – type

These are believers who have been engaged in spiritual practice for a sufficient time. The main and main difference between them and believers of the first type is that certain spiritual postulates are perceived by them at the level of full awareness. That is, a person “passes” all his thoughts and actions through the logical mental contours of spiritual postulates. Accordingly, he thinks and acts in accordance with these postulates. This is the level of awareness. Believers of this type are not inclined to return to material interests. From spiritual practice they receive absolute satisfaction, which is called differently: “God’s grace” in Christianity; transcendental bliss, etc. The level and subtle (immaterial) nature of these feelings and sensations acts directly on the immaterial consciousness of a person. Therefore, it is not comparable to any sensual pleasure that is of a material nature.

The third type of the second group.

What are people called who don't believe in God?

Atheism is the denial of the idea of ​​God. In simple words, atheism is complete atheism, rejection of faith up to its categorical rejection; This means faith not only in one God, but also in the plural: Gods. If we say atheists, these will be people who deny the existence of God in the view in which modern religious sources mean Him.

The connection between atheism and religion is obvious - the first denies the second, the atheistic worldview denies religion as a way of human belief in the supernatural nature of something. It is interesting to know that atheism is contrasted with the term theism - recognition and belief in at least one of the Gods. Atheism can be represented as a lack of faith in God and the supernatural, but not in the very ability of a person to believe in anything else that can fit into the assessment of the atheist’s values.

Faith, supreme, supremacy

Faith can be described as that which is above, above. Faith must be firm; is very identified with such a word as firmament. Supreme - this does not necessarily mean the one who believes the most, but the one who stands at the basics and origins of understanding. Can be a high priest: A worshiper who knows how things work in the church at all levels of its hierarchy. There may also be a Supreme Court, the highest court that has greater power. Supremacy is determined by the degree of power.

Any person can consider himself a supreme being, but not everyone does this. Understanding the breadth of consciousness, a certain degree of manifestation of this breadth, determines the scale of faith, its vastness. Often atheists are quite mature minds that far exceed the level of development of those believers who go to church and pray to God. It is the understanding that not everything in this world is so simple that pushes atheists to draw appropriate logical conclusions about the existence of otherworldly forces.

Let's consider another important term for understanding faith, this is supremacy. If they talk about supremacy, they mean command and dominance. There is such an expression as the Rule of Law, which denotes the legal doctrine of law and punishment. According to the rule of law, no one is above the law. From the point of view of supremacy, all people are equal before the law, and can only be punished in accordance with the procedure established by law. Legislative procedures concern everyone without exception, that’s the idea.

However, there have always been and will be people who consider themselves above the law, who say that the law is not written to them and that legitimate state power does not concern them. This psychotype of people thinks that laws are created for those who comply with them. And if there is no one to obey, then the law is not needed, and such a person is inclined to believe in this system of values, where there is no place for the usual laws. Indeed, social obligations associated with government procedures as a result of such faith almost and sometimes completely disappear from a person’s life.

Yuri Vyazemsky, candidate of historical sciences, teacher, writer, philosopher, TV presenter

Yuri Vyazemsky came to God as an adult: “My movement towards faith began through literature and art. I was impressed when I first watched the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” in a recording that my father brought from America. I thought about a lot after reading the novel “The Master and Margarita.”

Yuri Vyazemsky, as he says, became a believer “out of joy” - there was no misfortune or illness, but dangerous situations typical of youth did occur. “For me, my whole life is an absolute miracle, because, in principle, I should have died a hundred times already or something should have happened to me, but God constantly saved me. In fact, I began to believe seriously at one moment, when suddenly a series of terrible events appeared in front of me that could take me away from this world, and I realized that throughout my life Someone had helped me... And thank you I’ve never told him yet,” Yuri Pavlovich shared in an interview with Foma.

Yuri Vyazemsky writes novels on evangelical themes, talks a lot about religion with his students at MGIMO, regardless of their worldview and religion. He is convinced that “one of the goals of religious knowledge is to comprehend the connection of times... For a bright and searching person, the idea that he will never exist again is, in principle, abnormal, painful and unnatural. Why did you work all your life then, set goals, make efforts? And in the same way, a person really doesn’t want his loved one to die... A person internally wants to prolong the life of his loved one... Religious knowledge of the world - in one form or another - is inherent in every person.”

The most famous superstitions and signs

So we get to the context of all beliefs - let's look at popular superstitions. These little “believe it or not believe it”, called superstitions, are firmly rooted in the life of the average person, and often guide his actions during life situations. List of the most famous superstitions:

1. Sprinkle salt . It is very sad to spill salt anywhere. After all, since ancient times, salt has been valued for its taste. According to Mikhail Zadornov, the Varangians believed that salt had healing properties. That's why they are Varangians, because they cooked salt. There are many signs associated with spilling salt, but many of them make you believe that everything will not be as good as we would like after the incident.
2. Newbies are lucky . You can often hear this expression, which explains the phenomenon that when a new person comes into business, he shows incredible amazing results. Perhaps the beginner believes that he can do it and achieves his goal because he has no prejudices or preconceptions about this.
3. A black cat crossed the road . It's very scary when a black cat runs across the road right in front of you. You stand in a daze and don’t understand what to do: go or not go. Many people stop and wait, because they have faith that a passerby will pass by and take the black energy of this powerful cat upon himself. In fact, there would be no roads, there would be nothing to cross, and the cats would simply run next to us along the narrow paths. And wherever cats go, there are roads everywhere, and therefore there is nothing else left to do but run across them; It's the same problem with people.
4. Misfortune never comes alone . A terrible truth showing that the wheel of fortune has a downside. On the crest of a wave it can bring both good luck and joy, and a series of troubles. Therefore, if something negative suddenly happened to you, believe me, it means you have entered a negative flow. Get out of there as quickly as possible, because after the first trouble, a second one may immediately follow. Quickly bring yourself closer to an environment of happiness and joy to increase the favor of the Universe towards you. Chat with children, pet animals, fry pancakes - do what brings harmony and peace, believe that everything will be fine.
5. Sign 666 . Horror and misunderstanding can be seen in the eyes of a person who sees three sixes “666” - the Devil’s favorite number. It is believed that dark forces are lucky if they signify under the ominous number 666. But in reality, this number is one of a number of others; sixes repeated three times are identified with dark deeds, but are not such. Just know that if you see the number 666 in front of you, then the signs say that soon the next combination of repeating numbers will appear in your life - 777; and this is a completely different superstition.
6. Looking into a broken mirror . It is believed that one should not look into a broken mirror, since at this moment reality becomes stratified and overlapping events are possible. The formula is that as soon as you look into a broken mirror, the speed of return to the negative event flow increases. Therefore, if you see any broken mirror, large or small, under no circumstances should you look into it, much less peer into it.
7. Friday the 13th . Very scary! Sometimes it happens that the day of the week is Friday, and the number thirteen appears on the calendar. People believe that everything that happens on this day, good and bad, will be repeated seven times in the cycles of the karmic circle of events. Try on Friday the 13th to do everything so that good events happen to you, and you use the energy of this date for yourself to create a happy future for your family and friends.
8. Cross your fingers for luck . A very common superstition is that if a person crosses his fingers, he thereby protects himself from all sorts of potential failures. And the side effect is that it attracts good luck to you. Crossed fingers symbolize the cross, and the sign of the cross definitely has power (thanks to the church egregor).
9. Knock on wood . If you don’t want what you just said or thought to happen to you, knock on wood and negative karma will bypass you. If you believe that knocking on a wooden surface will help cancel the materialization of a thought, then it will be so, because in this case one thought will block another. Knocking allows you to enhance the cancellation effect, as if the spell is strengthened. It looks like shamanic rituals, but they definitely have meaning.

Joyful and sad

Here is another common explanation for self-dislike: the holy fathers humiliated themselves, scolded themselves with the last words, accused themselves of the most terrible sins, which means we should do the same too. Everything seems to be so; in the prayers of repentance composed by saints, one can indeed find very strict definitions of them in relation to themselves. But there is one important point, without which it is impossible to correctly understand the spiritual experience from which such prayers were born. The saints loved God and communication with Him very much. Their whole life was essentially such communication, prayer accompanied them in all their affairs, and they often knew the Holy Scriptures by heart and nevertheless read it daily, enjoying the Word of God, which fed their soul. For the sake of communion with God, they even left the world and went into the desert, so that nothing from earthly concerns would distract them from this constant turning to the Lord. And, of course, such love of the saints for God did not remain unrequited. The Holy Spirit shone within them, illuminating their minds, feelings, and even their bodies. In His radiance, the saints saw themselves as sinful, unworthy of this Divine purity, which can highlight shortcomings even in angels. The joy from this divine consolation was so great that the holy fathers seemed to balance it with repentant crying for the sins that they saw in their souls, enlightened by grace. And they even came up with a special name for this paradoxical combination of crying and joy - joyful sadness. Thus, the Monk Gregory of Sinaite writes: “...The greatest weapon is to keep yourself in prayer and crying, so that from the joy of prayer you do not fall into conceit, but keep yourself unharmed, choosing joyful sadness.” Thus, the sadness and self-abasement of the saints were inextricably linked with the greatest joy and were nothing more than one of the manifestations of the action of God in them.

In one of his early songs, Boris Grebenshchikov very accurately managed to express the very essence of Christian joyful sadness:

But we're walking blind in strange places

And all we have is joy and fear:

Fear that we are worse than we can

And the joy that everything is in Safe Hands.

The saints scolded themselves not at all from a sad state of abandonment by God, but from such a depth of approach to God that it is impossible for us to even imagine. The sadness about their sins was dissolved in them by the joy of Christ, who heals these sins, gives them heavenly consolations, and reveals to them the secrets of the Kingdom.

But now let's think - can a person in such a state not love himself? Even at the level of human relationships - can a bride not love herself, next to whom is her beloved and loving groom? The answer, I think, is obvious.

This joyless self-abasement is another failure of our spiritual life, another “systemic” mistake of our Christianity. The Monk Simeon the New Theologian teaches: “Everyone should consider himself and listen to himself wisely, so as not to rely on hope alone without crying for God and humility, nor again to rely on humility and tears without following them with hope and spiritual joy.” Both sadness and joy, one without the other and in their extreme manifestations, are dangerous. There is neither joy without sorrow, nor sorrow without joy, for the source of both of them is God. The normal internal state of a believer is a combination of joy and sadness, located in an elusive dynamic balance. But what remains of joyful sadness when joy leaves it? It is with this that remains that we live, doing good that makes us feel bad. Why be surprised that in such a deplorable state we don’t love ourselves...

Prayer symbol of faith in Russian

If you are looking for a prayer about faith, this is a very good option. Prayer symbol of faith - text in Russian:

I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only Begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages: Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not created, one being with the Father, by Him all things were created.

For the sake of us people and for the sake of our salvation, He came down from heaven, and took flesh from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human.

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried.

And rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures.

And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.

And He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; His Kingdom will have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son, who spoke through the prophets.

Into one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

I recognize one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

I'm waiting for the resurrection of the dead

And the life of the next century. Amen (truly so).

The symbol of faith prayer is also in the Old Church language, written in Russian for ease of reading and understanding. If you just need the Old Church version, here it is:

I believe in one God the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, who was born of the Father before all ages; Light from Light, true God from true God, born, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, to Whom all things were.

For our sake, man and our salvation came down from heaven and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human.

Crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried

And he rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures.

And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.

And again the coming one will be judged with glory by the living and the dead, His Kingdom will have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-Giving One, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who spoke the prophets.

Into one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.

I drink the resurrection of the dead,

And the life of the next century. Amen.

It is necessary to read these prayers to strengthen faith twice a day, morning and evening, either audibly or mentally. The main thing is to think through the words completely and figuratively so that the prayer has an effect.

At the end it says

The article examined what faith is, explained the etymology of the term, and cited the 5 most famous generally accepted definitions. It is impossible to understand what faith in God is, it can only be felt. It’s almost impossible to convey what it means to believe; you’ll end up with a lot of words and little sense. Each person must decide for himself what place to give to faith in his life. We recommend not to mock the feelings and beliefs of other people, so as not to provoke conflicts. Faith is called to do good and is one of the main virtues of people. Faith, Hope and Love to YOU, dear readers! Thank you for the time you spent with us.

Ask your question to granddaughter Anna here

Vladimir Khotinenko, film director, screenwriter, teacher

Vladimir Khotinenko considers his path to faith both difficult and easy at the same time. For him, turning to God happened completely suddenly, against the backdrop of an outwardly stable and prosperous life. There was no grief, no illness, no one campaigned to go “for the company.” It was 1980, Vladimir was studying at the highest directing courses, and, as he himself told the editor-in-chief of “Foma” Vladimir Legoyda in his “Parsuna” program, led a rather wild life. “And suddenly there’s almost a voice in my head that if I don’t get baptized, then I’ll be lost.” At the course there was a woman who had already become a church member (and later became a monk), to whom Khotinenko turned for help. Soon he was baptized in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign” on Rizhskaya.

Faith influenced not only the life, but also the work of the director - this theme underlies the films “Muslim”, “Pop”, “Pilgrimage to the Eternal City”... He reads a lot of spiritual literature, he is convinced that faith gives a person ideals, a vector of existence: “A person cannot live meaninglessly - just drink, eat, reproduce... We will still sooner or later ask ourselves the question: what is the meaning of life? <...> Let's try for at least a day not to say or think anything bad about each other. Nowadays everyone is ready to train the body - run to the gym, work out the belly. Abs, muscles, makeup... What's inside?! How to train your soul? The only way! Only by faith and the search for the true meaning of life.”