Sermons of St. Theophan the Recluse, delivered impromptu

Sermons of st.Theophan the recluse, delivered impromptu Abstract. It is known that in the second half of the 19th century there was an order to preach sermons only after careful preparation. The phenomenon of impromptu was condemned by the church authorities. Sermons of St. Feofana are interesting in that, if there is preliminary preparation before pronouncing them, they contain some signs of impromptu. Abstract. It is known that in the second half of the xix century there was a direction to pronounce a homily only after the careful preparing. A phenomena of impromptu was blamed by church authority. Svt. Theophan’s homilies are notable for contenting some features of impromptu, with presence of previous preparing. Saint Theophan the Recluse left a rich homiletical heritage. These are both sermons and manuals with instructions on how to write sermons. The topics of his sermons included events from biblical history, church holidays, state events, exhortations to lead a spiritual life, and many others. However, it is known that with his outstanding literary talent, Bishop Theophan never dared to speak his teachings without a notebook. On the one hand, this reflected his humility and extreme modesty in his opinion of himself, as if he were afraid to overly trust and rely on his own strengths, and on the other hand, such a feature stemmed from a deep reverence for the word of God, from the fear of not saying by heart something inaccurate, unnecessary, and especially incorrect and false. According to the saint, whoever proclaims the word of God in a sacred place in the name of God is responsible for every word. About preachers who speak without proper preparation, frivolously and superficially, it must be said that they do not have sufficient respect either for believing souls or for God himself, who sent them to preach to souls. It would be unworthy and insulting to the divine truth to present it to the children of God in a shell that does not correspond to it, without the necessary accuracy and serious importance 1 . The saint himself says about the nature of composing a sermon that it is “written impromptu.” The author himself writes about the nature of their composition: “The peculiarity of my sermons is that they are not composed. It usually happened in the evening, after the all-night vigil, I’d drink a glass of tea, read tomorrow’s Gospel, then the Apostle... and whatever thought comes in and occupies my attention and heart, I take it into the topic and the sermon builds itself within itself. An hour and a half, maybe two... and the sermon is ready... read it in the morning, tweak it a little. Sometimes the theme is given by external circumstances, as happened when visiting monasteries, but the production is still the same. These are written improvisations; since they didn’t come from my head, they represent something sweetened” 2. It is known that in the Synodal era, a sermon was interpreted as a carefully prepared literary work in advance. Moreover, in 1794, Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod A.I. Musin-Pushkin proposed introducing mandatory preliminary censorship of sermons delivered during services. The reason for this was that political issues were often raised from the church pulpit. Developing this initiative, on March 22, 1800, the Holy Synod issued a decree ordering priests and deacons who preach sermons of their own composition to submit the texts of these sermons before delivering them for review by specially appointed censors. This norm was finally consolidated by the statute of ecclesiastical consistories, published in 1841. The statute stated that clergy who had received “proper education” should deliver sermons of their own composition during services. The texts of these sermons had to be submitted to the dean or a specially appointed censor before delivery. If for some reason the preacher did not present the text of his sermon before delivering it, he was required to do so after delivering it. For violation of this regulation, various penalties were imposed, including a fine. This norm was preserved in the new edition of the statute of spiritual consistories, published in 1883. Thus, Russian church legislation of the 19th century. did not actually involve delivering an extemporaneous sermon 3 . In the 19th century, it was extremely rare for anyone to preach sermons of their own composition. Moreover, cases of improvisation or extemporaneity on the pulpit were even more rare. For example, Saint Philaret (Drozdov), during his long preaching practice, almost never uttered improvisations and severely condemned those priests who tried to improvise. Such famous preachers as Archbishops Dimitry (Muretov) and Nikanor (Brovkovich) also never delivered teachings that were not thought out in advance and not written down. Therefore, it is not surprising that in Russian homiletical science in the 19th century. improvisation was seen as an exception 4 . One of the first who tried to use improvisation in church preaching was Archbishop Ambrose (Klyucharyov, 1820–1901). He advocated the need for a living preaching word and himself preached almost exclusively extemporaneous sermons. He systematized his preaching experience in the book “The Living Word,” which is devoted to the theory of preaching improvisation. Bishop Ambrose notes that we see the highest manifestation of the power and triumph of the living spoken word in the first times of Christian preaching. The beginning of this celebration was, of course, laid by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, from His most pure lips flowed the verbs of eternal life. Following this all-powerful sermon, the word of the apostles was heard aloud throughout the world; it was accepted and passed on everywhere by the closest disciples of the apostles and then by the ministers of the Church, who became, first of all, ministers of the word. The gospel is “my necessary duty,” says the Apostle Paul, and “woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16). At the same time, the word turned into deeds: churches were established, laws were established, sacred rites were established, devotees of virtue and martyrs for the truth appeared, and life embodied and consolidated the living word; and church tradition, begun by the living word, but written down, so to speak, by the deeds of Christians and entire churches, became the primary source of Christian truth 5 . However, this impulse of the living word, calling for the contemplation of higher truths, for the spiritual freedom of love and self-sacrifice, tenderness and joy, renunciation of carnal attachments, was eventually replaced by dry scholastic preaching. Mandatory censorship of preached sermons in the 19th century and fines for preaching uncensored sermons led to priests often choosing not to preach sermons at all or reading someone else's. All this led to the decline of preaching. The Reverend Ambrose writes that “in our fatherland, for example, there are more than thirty thousand churches, as ready-made public schools, and even more so teachers, vested with the authority of preachers of Christ’s truth and the trust of the people; they have at their disposal the days and hours of public assemblies; they can connect their church word with any personal conversation with the people - at home, in the field, and on the road; They can, according to the commandment of the Apostle, “reprove, rebuke, exhort in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2). And, they shake off this deathly sleep of indifference and carelessness that has now taken possession of the majority of them; if they were imbued with that pity for the people left without leadership, which breathes in the words of Christ the Savior (Matthew 9:36); may they understand the power and malignancy of modern delusions; leave outdated forms of speech that are not convenient for the needs of the moment; they speak with a living word of conviction and love; back up your word with an example of Christian virtues: what could they do for the people! One idea of ​​this meaning of the living church word, which our Savior gave to him in His Church, is capable of delighting a zealot for the truth and the good of mankind. All our efforts and concerns should be directed here, to the stimulation and proper direction of this activity of the ministers of the Church. We have few talents in the clergy - this is our misfortune; lack of zeal for work is our crime” 6. At the beginning of our work, we already mentioned that Saint Theophan delivered his sermons only after careful preparation. We asked ourselves, did St. Theophan deliver improvised sermons extemporaneously? Moreover, it is known that during the saint’s studies at the academy, the rector of the academy was Archimandrite Innokenty (Borisov), a famous church preacher who taught students to speak sermons impromptu and instilled in them a love for this great work 7 . When researching this issue, a number of difficulties arise. Firstly, if the sermon was delivered impromptu, then the draft of this sermon was not preserved and, once delivered, this sermon was preserved only in the hearts of the listeners and we do not have the opportunity to read it. Secondly, if an impromptu sermon was nevertheless recorded, by what criteria can we classify it as improvisation? Vladimir Viktorovich Burega, in a textbook on homiletics, highlights the following features of impromptu preaching: – lack of thorough preliminary preparation (impromptu from Latin exprom(p)tus (ready, quick); – relative brevity; - such a sermon is caused by some extraordinary event that prompted the preacher to address the listeners 8. Having carefully examined the homiletical heritage of the saint, we have identified three sermons that we considered to meet these criteria: 1. Speech to the soldiers who have just been trained and are leaving for their destination (We entrust you to the protection and intercession of the Lady Theotokos!). This short word is a blessing to the soldiers for their upcoming service and a call to Christian life. (The recruits had just been trained and were sent to the northwestern region. After mass there was a prayer service in the square, and they were blessed with the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God - St.). 2. To be tonsured as a monk by the father of the archpriest of the city of Shatsk, who was named Herman in monasticism and destined to be the archimandrite of the Cherniev Monastery (the essence of monasticism is to be one with the one God incessantly). This sermon is more extensive than the first, but also delivered on a specific occasion, dedicated to the edification of the newly tonsured monk in monastic life. 3. At the choice of members of the zemstvo, on the day of the meeting of the Bogolyubskaya icon (the order of the zemstvo should be established in the Christian spirit). This is a brief farewell message to the newly elected members of the zemstvo and an invocation of God's blessing on their labors. It is possible that in the process of further work we will highlight other sermons of the saint, which in style can be classified as impromptu. 1. Georgy (Tertyshnikov), archimandrite. Lamp of the Russian land. The life and work of St. Theophan the Recluse // Theological works. Sat. 30. M., 1990. pp. 152–175. 2. Homiletics: textbook for bachelor of theology / V.V. Burega, Simeon (Tomachinsky), archimandrite. M., 2018. 452 p. 3. Smirnov P.A. The life and teachings of the Right Reverend Theophan, the Vyshensky recluse: In memory of the tenth anniversary of the blessed day. death of the saint - Shatsk, 1905. 349 p. 4. Complete collection of sermons of His Eminence Archbishop Ambrose, formerly of Kharkov. T. 5. Kharkov. 1903. pp. 81–82. 5. Theophan the Recluse, St. Letters. Vol. 4. M., 2000. pp. 50–51. Smirnov P.A. The life and teachings of the Right Reverend Theophan, the Vyshensky recluse: In memory of the tenth anniversary of the blessed day. the death of the saint - Shatsk, 1905. P. 349. Theophan the Recluse, St. Letters. Vol. 4. M., 2000. pp. 50–51. Homiletics: textbook for bachelor of theology / V.V. Burega, Simeon (Tomachinsky), archimandrite. M., 2018. P. 257. Homiletics: textbook for bachelor of theology / V.V. Burega, Simeon (Tomachinsky), archimandrite. M., 2018. P. 259. Complete collection of sermons of His Eminence Archbishop Ambrose, formerly of Kharkov. T. 5. Kharkov. 1903. pp. 81–82. Complete collection of sermons of His Eminence Archbishop Ambrose, formerly of Kharkov. T. 5. Kharkov. 1903. pp. 84–85. Georgy (Tertyshnikov), archimandrite. Lamp of the Russian land. The life and work of St. Theophan the Recluse // Theological works. Sat. 30. M., 1990. P. 30. Homiletics: textbook for bachelor of theology / V.V. Burega, Simeon (Tomachinsky), archimandrite. M., 2018. P. 267.