Archpriest Sergius Vasin: Saints are our intercessors before God
Archpriest Sergius Vasin, rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village. Bobyakovo, Novousmansky district, Voronezh region
Christians are not fatalists, so we do not believe in the inevitability of fate. If everything was already predetermined, there would be no point in living a spiritual life: keeping the commandments, praying. But the fact of the matter is that we are trying to lead a spiritual life. It is important for us so that, in collaboration with God, we can build our lives (change our destiny?) in such a way as to unite with Him and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, to carry on the work of saving our own soul.
– How can we change our fate in eternity, our fate after death?
Only by turning to the Lord. Only He can change all circumstances if there is our good will. That is, neither He can save us without our participation, nor can we change our destiny without His help.
– How should you pray to change your destiny?
We pray and ask for mercy on us, because we know about our sins that it is they that lead to the death of the soul.
It happens that in this matter we take someone as our prayer partner, because the Lord said: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.” To this end, we ask our close believers to pray for us and about our fate. And we can turn to the saints with the same request.
And there is nothing unusual about this. As if at our work (firm or company, ministry or store - it doesn’t matter) we wanted an increase in wages, for this we would need to write an appeal addressed to the manager. But so that this document does not get lost and “works,” it would be good to have an intercessor close to the boss, whom he trusts and whose opinion he values. Then the likelihood of our case being considered increases greatly. It is precisely such intercessors for us that are the saints who, with their lives, pleased God and received the special grace of the Holy Spirit. So any saint can be our guarantor, the main thing is that we have trust in this saint of God, that our hearts are disposed towards him, that we know as much as possible about him and get used to turning to him with such requests.
And St. Nicholas is no exception. He is one of the most beloved saints in the entire Christian Church, and even more so in Russia. Many people turn to him asking him to pray to the Lord for us. That is, it is not Saint Nicholas himself who changes human destiny, but he can, if God pleases, intercede for us before God and life will begin to change. At the same time, it is worth understanding that the spiritual benefit of the latter is very important for the fulfillment of what is asked! Unfortunately, we often ask for things that are not really useful to us, but the Lord knows about this and is in no hurry to “grant our desire.”
– Is there a special prayer to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker that can change fate?
Any prayer to St. Nicholas can be a request for us. This can be any prayer from those that have already been “tested” in the Church, written many years ago by people who have the Spirit of God. And after reading such a prayer from the prayer book, we can, in our own words, from the bottom of our hearts, with sighing, ask St. Nicholas about our specific situation. It is important to understand that we do not turn to any saint with the request “save us,” because in this way we turn only to the Lord and Mother of God. We ask the saints differently - “pray to God for us.”
– Nevertheless, people often turn to St. Nicholas with a request to change their fate...
Perhaps we are talking about a situation of mortal danger - a person is drowning or is on fire. Then he calls on St. Nicholas as an assistant, and he saves him from mortal danger. In this way we can talk about a change in fate: we should have died, but God prolongs our life. Everything is in the hands of God and everything is done by the Lord, even through the prayers of saints.
You can ask St. Nicholas for deliverance from sin, to take the spiritual path - then our destiny also changes. We were then unrepentant sinners going to hell during our lifetime, and now we are trying to take the spiritual path in the hope of eternal life.
– Why do people turn to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with such hope? Where does this faith in his “special prayer” and indispensable help come from?
I’m afraid there is also a pagan, non-Christian attitude, a certain “magism” here. But nevertheless, when a person, having special trust in Saint Nicholas, reads a prayer from the prayer book (particularly zealous ones can read the canon and/or akathist), and at the end formulates a personal request in his own words, this will be his spiritual effort in the right direction. You can also ask someone to pray together or at the same time (such a prayer is called a prayer by agreement), and even order a prayer service in the temple and pray together with the priest and other parishioners.
But the most important thing is to understand that Saint Nicholas is a saint of our Orthodox Church, and it is more convenient (more logical, more correct) for him to pray as a member of this Church. The mere fact of baptism is not enough for this; it is important to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ.
Father Frost
I have a very warm attitude towards St. Nicholas, he is one of those saints who helped me endlessly in life - I can’t remember everything. Just last year there was an incident. I have a Moldavian neighbor, she has two children, the eldest goes to school, and the youngest goes to home; they don’t take her to kindergarten without registration. The girl dreamed so much of seeing Santa Claus, she was waiting for him so much! Their family is not rich; they could not order an artist dressed as a fairy-tale character. And then I decided to help them. I had some amount, but not all of it; a thousand rubles were missing. Knowing that before the holidays, artists would be in great demand, I made an order in advance, hoping that before the New Year I would be able to find the amount that was missing—at the very least, I would borrow.
On the morning of December 19, I took my daughter to kindergarten. It was still dark, but passing by a lantern, in its light on the snow I saw a banknote - a thousand rubles. And there was no one around. She looked around, stood for a while - maybe the lost one would return. Nobody came, and I decided to take the money. It occurred to me then that the saint himself had taken care of a gift for the girl on his day.
Olga
Priest Nikolai Petrov: Only love changes fate
Priest Nikolai Petrov, cleric of the Church of the Holy Blessed Tsarevich Demetrius at the First City Hospital of Moscow, teacher of the St. Dimitrievsky School of Sisters of Mercy and the St. Dimitrievsky Secondary School of Moscow
What changes a person’s destiny for the better? There is only one answer - love. Our love shown to another. God's love for us.
So, of course, Saint Nicholas can change our destiny if we love him. And his love for people and God is evidenced by thousands of cases. The service even says to him that he “lend by the grace of God,” that is, he made God his “debtor” for all the deeds of mercy that the saint performed on earth.
Therefore, the best and most effective prayer to St. Nicholas will be the one that expresses our love for him, trust, knowledge of his way of life and mercy. I would pray briefly: “Father Nicholas, help” or “Father Nicholas, protect.” We can add at the beginning what we already know about him: “Saint Nicholas, you saved the girls from sin, and save me from...” or “Nicholas the Pleasant, you delivered the soldiers from death, and save me from...”.
I, bearing the name of this great saint, often turn to him, for example, leaving my home and my family, with the following prayer: “Father Nicholas, stay here instead of me,” that is, I entrust my relatives to his protection, and so far, by the grace of God, my faith was not put to shame.
You can, of course, address a specific need in your own words. Like, for example, nun Tikhona from the Orenburg monastery, who, while still an unbaptized Jew, once began to drown while swimming and shouted: “Russian God, Nicholas, save me and I will become a Christian” (she even thought that the saint was God, seeing his veneration among the Russians). And another time, when she lost her father’s important bill of exchange, and the whole family had to suffer, she decided to go and drown herself, and even prayed like this: “Oh, Nikolai, saint, you could have written the bill of exchange, and I would certainly have been baptized! But where can you write a bill of exchange? This is impossible, and I must die." And suddenly a new bill appeared in her hand...
For those who want to pray in church words, I would advise reading the troparion to the saint “Rule of Faith...”.
The main thing is not to forget that we must honor the saint not only in words, but also in our lives to be like him, since we love him: to be more often in the church where he came first, and where he “scents the faces of the faithful,” as it is said in service, that is, our faces and in general makes all of us joyful, spiritually fragrant, happy.
White dress
Despite my love for Nikola (I think this is a common feeling among Russians - we love this saint), I never expected miracles from him. Although, like many, I ask for his help before traveling, I don’t pester him with requests every day. This makes this story all the more surprising to me. Since last winter I have been raving about a white dress for my daughter. I really wanted to go to the temple with a little girl in a white dress. And that's bad luck! I haven't seen anything suitable in stores. Or some really lavish holiday ones, or something ugly, but for some reason expensive. And now May 22 is the day of the transfer of the relics of St. Nicholas. My daughter and I took communion in the morning and came home. Suddenly a friend, a professional photographer, calls. He invites us to take a photo with our daughter and son today. I thought for a while. I picked up my eldest from kindergarten and we went. Among other props, a friend brought a dress for her daughter, who is one year older than me. At the end of the shoot, I asked if I needed to return the dress. And I heard that I could keep it for myself, since my friend’s daughter had already grown out of it. Only at home I realized that this dress was exactly what I wanted. White, strict, nothing superfluous. This is a gift from Nikola.
Irina
Hieromonk Dimitry Pershin: from magism to monotheism
Hieromonk Dimitri (Pershin). Photo by Sergei Milov/Foma magazine
We do not always recognize the Author of those events that bring us peace, joy and resolution of problems. Very often, behind miracles, we do not notice God, who calls us to move further towards Him, growing in love. But you can create an idol out of anything, including St. Nicholas the Pleasant. Therefore, the Seventh Ecumenical Council gave a hammered formula: we worship only God, and we honor His saints, for they glorified God in their earthly life and abide with Him in eternal life. By themselves they cannot help us. But they intercede for us to the Creator. How a mother prays for her children, so that they are not given bad marks. How children ask for her prayers before a difficult exam. And, of course, maternal love does not fade away after death. And the mother also asks God for her children and beyond the line of time. And children also remember this love and trust in it. So are our saints: they take care of us here and keep us there. Not on their own, but turning to God.
Why is Saint Nicholas called the Pleasant and the Wonderworker?
Because in his earthly life he went through torment - and did not become embittered. During the era of persecution, he had to spend many years in prison for his faith in Christ. He did not betray like Judas, did not deny like Peter, did not lose faith like someone else, but went through all these sorrows, praying for the executioners and helping his neighbors. He became a bishop and continued to take care of people. He rescued those sentenced to death from trouble, helped out the poor, got the emperor to reduce taxes, in general, did everything that a Christian is called to do. But following Christ, bearing his cross, a person receives help from the Lord. And not only by his own strength, but inspired by grace, he fulfills the work of his life.
Having crossed the line of time, Saint Nicholas acquired this supreme boldness to intercede before God for the needs of people. And indeed, how necessary it is to love the most ordinary, far from perfect people during life, in order to become Santa Claus after death, played not only by children, which is natural, but, what is much more important, by adults who love their children.
How to pray to St. Nicholas?
Firstly, at every liturgy in all Orthodox churches of all Orthodox local Churches, during the proskomedia, we commemorate St. Nicholas in the ranks of the holy bishops. These are just a few selected names. And St. Nicholas is among them.
Secondly, we can order a prayer service to St. Nicholas for our needs or for our joy when our request was heard and everything was arranged. In the latter case, this prayer service will be called a thanksgiving service.
Thirdly, we can sing the troparion to St. Nicholas in the morning and evening, completing the prayer rule. Fourthly, read the akathist to him. There is no digital magic in the veneration of saints. Some special magpies or year-round commemorations, which in themselves are like Dunno’s magic wand, will work wonders for us.
Our own deeds, repentance, prayer, deeds of love, Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, even just the memory of Christ and the desire to live according to the truth of the Gospel are a necessary condition for grace-filled changes.
***
It only remains to add that neither God nor His holy saints should become for us a “window for issuing services,” because any miracles are not an end in themselves - it is the Lord’s call to respond to His love, to understand what is wrong in your life, and to begin the path to change, begin the path to Him.
If you also have something to share, write to us at the editorial office’s email address with the subject “Help from St. Nicholas.”
Newspaper “Orthodox Faith” No. 23 (547)
and "Saratov Regional Newspaper" No. 231
Archpriest Alexy Spassky: I believe, Lord, help my unbelief
Archpriest Alexy Spassky, rector of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Merciful” at the Morozov Children’s Hospital in Moscow
The concept of “fate” somehow does not fit with the Orthodox faith, so talking about changing fate through prayer is wrong. How is fate understood today? Like an inevitable fate, like a future independent of a person’s actions, predetermined for him and his loved ones.
We, Orthodox Christians, believe that man himself, through his actions, influences the future, that his own future and his loved ones jointly depend on him and God. Man is free - God gave him this gift of freedom. Therefore, there can be no predestination or hard “fate”, because this is unfreedom.
St. Nicholas, like any other saint, helps us if we sincerely ask him with prayer and faith, so that he supports us with his prayer to God for us. If a person thinks that much depends on the specific text of the prayer, he is mistaken. Any prayer that is in the prayer book or any other liturgical books about St. Nicholas may be suitable for reading. You can also pray in your own words. Faith is important.
Prayer with faith is when you ask and at the same time believe that what you ask will come true. And if you no longer have the strength to believe, then you say as in the Gospel the father of a sick boy asked: “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.” And you continue to pray. Another parable - about an unrighteous judge - teaches us constancy in prayer: a woman asked every day about her case for a long time, and the judge finally agreed to help her not for the sake of mercy, but so that she would stop bothering him. If a person understands that he does not have the kind of faith that is described in the Gospel, in these parables, but has great trust in St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of Myra, then even such a small faith can be considered the beginning of the path. She will also be heard.
My other half
I believe that the Lord and His holy saints always hear us, we just have to turn. Several years ago, on December 18, I was at an all-night vigil - just on the eve of the day of memory of St. Nicholas. For some reason, it seemed then that I was already many years old (as much as 23!), and I still had not met a guy. I didn’t even communicate with anyone, didn’t correspond, and I didn’t really like anyone. So at this evening service I asked the saint... not necessarily for the groom, but simply to save me from unnecessary worries. After all, everything will work out as and when necessary - according to the will of God. After praying, I calmed down, my soul became very light. Less than a day passes from that evening service, and a call comes from a young man. Apart from our names, we didn’t know anything else about each other; our mutual friend gave him my phone number. It was not clear to me why he called, why he invited me for a walk, why he walked me home, invited me to a movie, gave me flowers... Why did he start courting me?.. And two weeks later he proposed to me, and another six months later we got married. We are very happy in our marriage, we have never even fought. We just joke with each other and confess our love. But how worried I was that we had met so little before the wedding that we hardly knew each other. Now I think that more is not necessary if the love is real, if the person is good and it is God’s will for this marriage. And there is nothing to ask for now, just thank you...
Natalia
Archpriest Roman Batsman: Change your destiny in eternity
Archpriest Roman Batsman, rector of the Churches of the Life-Giving Trinity and the Resurrection of Christ at the Research Institute named after. Sklifosovsky, the house church of St. Luke Voino-Yasenetsky Scientific Center for Cardiovascular Surgery named after. A. N. Bakuleva. Photo by Deacon Andrey Radkevich
Fate is a polysemantic term that denotes a person’s destiny in the heavenly and earthly aspects, and the life path as the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of this ideal destiny, and God’s providence, and fate as inevitability or predestination. According to Orthodox teaching, a person is free from this, and in general there is no fate or predestination.
Saint John Chrysostom says that the doctrine of fate (about fate) was sown by the devil (complete works, volume 2, book 2, “6 words about fate and providence”). The devil, as an opponent of all the best, especially love, if he cannot turn people away from prayers, then he tries to redirect this energy of people to himself, to distort the meaning of prayer. And this is easy to do if the attitude towards prayer is magical, like a spell.
This view is formed due to an incorrect approach to life as predetermined: and it is this “predestination” or destiny that a person tries to change with something more powerful, for example, spells or prayers in the form of spells or prayers that a person treats as spells, and not as a living communication, where the communication of love itself may be even more important than the result - the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of what was asked.
People often forget that saints are alive and expect a living attitude towards them.
God wants us all to be saved. And in this sense, all people have one destiny - to end up in the Kingdom of Heaven. In addition to this common fate of all people, personal fate can be diverse. The saints help us on this path - they are God's friends. And of course, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, who during his life helped so many people and arranged his path in such a way that he received from God the gift of helping other people even after his repose. But without our participation - spiritual struggle, repentance - St. Nicholas will not be able to help us. Through fulfilling the commandments of God, through prayer and participation in the sacraments and the humility that is born from them, we can receive healing in earthly life and, most importantly, change our destiny in eternity.
Prayers to Nicholas the Wonderworker
It is important to remember that there is no magic set of words that changes fate. The Lord can change our lives if we pray about it. Our assistant in prayer is St. Nicholas the Wonderworker; we turn to him for prayerful support and intercession.
We can pray to Saint Nicholas in our own words; however, there are many prayers composed by people of holy life; we have collected these prayers for you here.
Troparion to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker
The rule of faith and the image of meekness, self-control are revealed to the teacher and you to your flock, I am the truth of things. For this reason, I have acquired high humility, rich in poverty: O Father Hierarch , pray to Christ God that our souls
First prayer to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
Oh, all-holy Nicholas, exceedingly saintly saint of the Lord, our warm intercessor, and everywhere in sorrow a quick helper! Help me, a sinner and sad person in this present life, beg the Lord God to grant me forgiveness of all my sins, which I have sinned greatly from my youth, throughout my life , deed, word, thought and all my feelings; and at the end of my soul, help me the accursed, beg the Lord God, the Creator of all creation, to deliver me from airy ordeals and eternal torment: may I always glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and your merciful intercession, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Second prayer to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
O all-validated, great wonderworker, Saint of Christ, Father Nicholas! We pray to you, awaken the hope of all Christians, protector of the faithful, feeder of the hungry, joy of the crying, doctor of the sick, steward of those floating on the sea, feeder of the poor and orphans, and quick helper and patron of all, and peaceful Let us live our lives here and may we be worthy to see the glory of God’s elect in heaven, and with them to unceasingly sing the praises of the one God worshiped in the Trinity forever and ever. Amen.
