On the components of Christian worship

Contents A. About Church singing Conversation No. 1. About how the ancient Christians sang Appendix to Conversation No. 1. About the name of church liturgical chants Conversation No. 2. About the fact that earthly singers should imitate heavenly Appendix to Conversation No. 2 A. The opinion of St. Fathers of the Church about common church singing B. Thoughts on the need to introduce common church singing into the life of the Russian people Conversation No. 3. About rewards for those who sing in church Conversation No. 4. About spiritual singing Appendix to Conversation No. 4 A. Church singers B. Wives who compose church hymns B. About prayer Conversation No. 1. About the conditions of prayer favorable to God Conversation No. 2. About how to arouse in oneself spirit of prayer Conversation No. 3. About how to pray in church Appendix to conversations No. 1–3 A. Examples of the miraculous effect of prayers B. Examples of diligent prayer books Conversation No. 4. About the advantages of church prayer over home prayer Conversation No. 5. About the need for prayerful appeal to the Mother of God Appendix to conversation No. 5. Stories about the miraculous help of the Mother of God Conversation No. 6. About the fact that the saints of God see us and hear our prayers Appendix to conversations No. 1–6 The most famous compilers of church prayers V. About reading the Holy Scriptures Conversation No. 1. About reading the Holy Scriptures Conversation No. 2. About the way of reading the Holy Scriptures during worship Conversation No. 3. About how one should read or listen to the Holy Scriptures Conversation No. 4. About how to use the word of God Appendix to conversations No. 1–4 A story about the three sacred books G. About church teachings Conversation No. 1. About the teachings of the shepherds of the Church Appendix to conversation No. 1. Persons who had the right and duty of preaching in the ancient Church Conversation No. 2. About why many do not like to listen to sermons explaining the word of God. Appendix to conversation No. 2. Is it permissible to leave the church without preaching? D. About the sacraments of the Church Conversation No. 1. About the seven sacraments of the Church Conversation No. 2. About worthy participation in the sacraments Appendix to Conversation No. 2 Superstitions of our common people with a demonstration of their absurdity regarding St. sacraments of the Church Conversation No. 1. About how the ancient Christians sang I. Christian worship, brothers, consists, in addition to sacred rites, of singing sacred hymns, prayers, reading the Holy Scriptures, performing holy sacraments and preaching the word of God. Let's first talk about church singing and first of all turn to the question: how did the ancient Christians sing? II. a) The ancient Christians had different types of singing: Sometimes only the singer sang, and all the other believers listened in silence. This is how they sang, for example, among the Egyptian hermits: during their services, one sang psalms measuredly and euphoniously, while the others listened in silence. (Eusebius “Church History”, book 2, chapter 14). Sometimes everyone gathered for prayer, men and women and even children, sang. St. Chrysostom said: “wives and men, elders and youths are different in gender and age, but they are not different in their singing, because the Holy Spirit, uniting the voices of each, creates one melody from all of them” (“Orthodox Review”, 1873). This type of singing was used in many places; but in the 4th century the Council of Laodicea (364) decreed (right 15) that instead of the entire assembly of the people, only selected, capable singers should sing. Such a decree was made, probably, because the singing of the entire assembly of the people turned out to be discordant and discordant, since at this time the number of sacred songs increased significantly, and people, meanwhile, no longer visited the church of God with such zeal as they had visited before, and therefore many could not be completely familiar with singing and sacred songs, and their participation in singing only prevented those who knew from singing properly. Sometimes two choirs sang alternately. This kind of singing, called antiphonal, was introduced into church use by St. Ignatius the God-Bearer, Bishop of Antioch, following the example of the singing of angels he heard. (“Church History”, Abbr. book 6, chapter 8). And according to others (Theod. “Church History”, book 2, chapter 24), it was introduced into use by the Antiochian monks Flavian and Diodorus. In the 4th century it was used in many churches and was considered the most solemn, and in the west it was introduced by St. Ambrose of Milan. (“Spiritual Conversations”, 1872, No. 36). Finally, sometimes one singer sang, and the others sang along with him, either the end of a psalm, or some verse from the middle, or the ends of different sections of the psalm. (“Spiritual Conversations”, 1872, No. 31, p. 3; Chrysostom, conversations on Ps. 117; “Apostolic Decrees”, book 2, chapter 67). And such singing was sometimes used in the same church along with antiphonal singing. (St. Basil the Great “Epistle to the Neo-Caesarians”; Chrysostom, conversations on Psalms 41, 137, 145). Something similar continues in churches today. So, very often one psalm-reader sings, and the others in the church just listen; sometimes the singers sing in two choirs; and in monasteries it happens that the canonarch recites a well-known verse of a song, and the chanting monks repeat the same verse in singing. Only now everyone who is present in the church no longer sings, but only the singers or psalm-readers. b) It goes without saying that there cannot be singing without a tune: every simple worldly song has its own tune. And since you know that the ancient Christians entered the Christian Church either from Judaism or from paganism, then, obviously, their tunes were initially similar to the tunes used by Jews or pagans. But over time, little by little, such melodies that were heard in theaters and at shows began to be included in church services, as can be seen from the complaints of Clement of Alexandria and John Chrysostom. On the other hand, heretics of the 3rd and 4th centuries began to use melodies known to the people as a means of spreading non-Orthodox teachings: they composed their songs, which contained their false teachings, set the songs to notes and sang them both in churches and on the streets, so that the Orthodox, who generally loved singing, listened to harmonious sounds, at the same time assimilated the thoughts that were expressed by the sounds. The teachers who used this method were the followers of Bardesan and Arius, of whom the first taught that Jesus Christ did not have actual human flesh, and the latter - that Jesus Christ was created and not consubstantial with the Father, although he is the first and most perfect creation of God. It was these circumstances that prompted St. Fathers of the Church to pay serious attention to improving singing in Orthodox churches, so that the Orthodox could satisfy their taste here, and not in theaters or in the hymns of heretics. For this purpose, many of them composed stichera, troparia, kontakia and other sacred songs with a singing melody. Thus, in Constantinople, St. Chrysostom contrasted the Arians with singers from his flock, who in a short time improved their singing so much that they far surpassed the Arians. St. did the same in Syria. Ephraim the Syrian († 372) against the followers of Bardesan and his disciple Armonius. And in Alexandria, the local archbishop, St. Athanasius the Great († 373). How great his successes were can be judged from the following circumstance. One day the Arians, enemies of St. Athanasius, they sent soldiers to Alexandria to seize him and bring him to them for trial. For this purpose, the soldiers entered the church, where St. Afanasy. A divine service was being held there at that time. Listening to the harmonious singing in the Alexandria church, the soldiers were so carried away by it that they did not dare to interrupt the reverence of those praying and themselves listened to the church service until the end of it and with such, moreover, deep attention that St. Athanasius could leave the church without them noticing. What kind of singing was it in Alexandria that could have such a strong effect on the listeners? Of course, it was not ornate and did not have our trills, roulades and similar decorations, but was recitative, but with measured tact, from the soul, from the heart. Blessed Augustine wrote: “For me, the best thing is what they told me about the Alexandrian bishop Athanasius, who set the reader up to sing the psalms in such a way that it was as if he was not so much singing as reading.” And with all this, this singing was so delightful that the same Augustine cried while listening to the service in the Alexandrian church, and spoke of it this way: “The touching sounds struck my ears, and the truth contained in them penetrated my heart and aroused reverence.” However, in some churches, mainly Western, more or less artificial, florid singing was used. But in general the fathers of the church, especially St. Chrysostom and Blessed Jerome strongly rebelled against such church singing, in which any character of theatrical music was heard. III. We, fellow Christians, will try to ensure that in our churches there is harmonious, strictly church singing, alien to the loudness, trills, roulades, and other properties of theatrical music. And for this purpose, we will lovingly encourage good church singing and will willingly donate to the establishment of church choirs. Appendix to conversation No. 1. On the naming of church liturgical chants Church and liturgical songs have very diverse names; but no matter how diverse these names are, they can be subsumed under the following classes: some indicate those passages of Holy Scripture with which the singing of Christian songs is connected; others - for the content of church liturgical songs; third - on their volume; fourth - on the composition, poetic meter and image of singing; fifth - on the position of those singing and listening; sixth - for the time of their singing during worship. The names of church liturgical songs, pointing to well-known passages of Holy Scripture, are clear in themselves. Thus: blessed are the troparia, before which the 12th verse from Psalm 118 is sung: “Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me by thy justification”; blessed are the troparia, before which the verses about the beatitudes from Chapter 5 are sung. Matthew; blameless - these are all the verses from Psalm 118, which are sung on Holy Saturday; praiseworthy - verses from Psalms 148, 149 and 150. Equally clear are the names of church liturgical songs that indicate their content, such as: trinitarian - songs containing the glorification of the Most Holy Trinity and the teaching about Her; resurrected - songs in praise of the resurrection of Christ; cross-resurrection - in which the suffering of the cross and together the resurrection of the Lord are sung; Theotokos - in honor of the Mother of God; Theotokos - they depict the grief of the Mother of God over the death of her Son on the cross; dogmatists - Theotokos songs, so named by St. Damascus because they combine with the praise of the Mother of God the dogmatic teaching about the face of Jesus Christ; repentant and touching - containing confession of sins before God and heartfelt contrition for them; Mortal - containing prayers for the repose of the dead; luminary - songs so named because they contain prayers for the illumination of the soul with light from above, etc. The other names of church liturgical songs are far from clear - names that indicate their volume, composition, poetic meter and manner of singing, the position of those singing and listening, and the time of their singing during the service. Why do we consider it not superfluous to say a few words in explanation of the obscure names of church liturgical songs, accompanying our explanations, where necessary, with historical remarks. The names of church liturgical songs, indicating their volume, include the following: kontakia and ikos. The first creator of kontakions is St. Roman the Sweet Singer, who lived in the second half of the 5th century. His kontakia of St. The novel was compiled on the basis of the biographies of saints and other monuments. Lives of saints and acts of martyrdom were read during services on the days of remembrance of the holy martyrs (46 Ave. of the Cathedral of Carthage). But after St. Roman compiled his kontakia based on the lives of the saints; the latter began to be gradually replaced by the former, as being more concise. Since the kontakion of St. The novela briefly conveyed what was contained in the lives of the saints, which is where they got their name. Kontakion, based on word production from κοντός? - small, short and οίκος house - means such songs in which the life of one or another saint is briefly glorified or some event is remembered. However, songs in honor of saints or in remembrance of sacred events, composed by St. Roman Sladkopevets, could get their name from the material on which they were originally written. According to Mark of Ephesus, the famous champion of Orthodoxy at the Council of Florence, St. Roman received the gift of chant from the Mother of God, who appeared to him in a dream and presented him with a scroll (τόμον), with the command to take it down. Having done this, he immediately stood up - it was on the day of the Nativity of Christ - climbed onto the pulpit and began to sing: “Virgin today...”. After that scroll (τόμος), Mark of Ephesus concludes, the songs of St. Romana and are called kontakia. Τόμος means kontakion indeed, ancient manuscripts have proven that the word κοντάκια was the name for bundles of parchment written on both sides, or what was called the word τόμος, chartia, in particular the word κοντάκια was the name for a bundle with church songs and services. The latter kind of κοντάκια are preserved in the Roman Basilian library. In the Moscow Synodal Library there is a Greek manuscript with the title κοντακάριον, written in the 12th century. This manuscript contains kontakia for the entire year, of which up to 500 belong to St. Roman Sladkopevets. From the pen of St. Roman and the Ikos appeared for the first time. According to the testimony of the same Mark of Ephesus, St. Roman sang his ikos together with kontakia in those beautiful chambers (οἶ κος), where he used to spend the night in vigil. This is where, according to Mark of Ephesus, the ikos got their name. This opinion of Mark of Ephesus does not exclude the assumption that ikoses could get their name from their very volume. The content of ikos is usually similar to the content of kontakia: what is stated more briefly in kontakia is more extensive in ikos. Both are written in the same meter, sung in the same voice, and mostly end with the same words. Kontakion is, as it were, the main idea (theme) of the entire sequence to which it relates, and ikos is the development of the theme. If so, then it is likely that one can think that those church liturgical songs in which the life of one or another saint is glorified in detail or some sacred event is remembered in detail, and the name ikos was adopted, deriving ikos from the word ο ἶ κος - house, full house. The names of church liturgical songs, indicating their poetic size and composition, should include: stichera, canons, songs, troparia and irmos in the canons. Church songs with the name stichera owe their origin to Anatoly, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who lived in the 5th century. Anatoly wrote his songs based on the Old Testament songs. The Old Testament psalms and hymns were written in poetic meter, which is why in the Greek Book of Hours they are still called stichera, such as, for example, the song of the prophet. Habakkuk, the song of Anna - the mother of Samuel, the song of Moses. It is clear that the songs of St. Anatolia, written on the model of the Old Testament, could receive the name stichera from their very poetic size. True, not all stichera are written in verse - some of them are written in verse, some of them are written in prose. But even in stichera written in prose, one cannot help but notice a greater or lesser similarity with the poetic meter. All members that make up one or another stichera are equal to each other; the very brevity, abruptness and intermittency bring them closer to the poetic syllable. The poetic presentation of the stichera was required by their very purpose for singing with a living voice. It is known that stichera are sung in connection with verses borrowed from the psalms. For example, the stichera on “I cried to the Lord” are sung in connection with verses taken from Ps. 139, 116. etc. Therefore, one cannot reject the opinion according to which the name of the stichera is derived from the words στοῖχος and αἱρίω - I choose verse. According to this opinion, stichera are songs composed in honor and glorification of a holiday or a celebrated saint. Based on the model of lyrical works written in poetic meter, St. began to compose his canons. John of Damascus, and then his friend Cosmas, bishop. Mayumsky and others. In a poetic work, a certain number of verses are separated from others by stanzas. At St. The Damascene stanzas correspond to a song - ῷδή, which combines several verses. Ὠ ίδή, which combines several verses, is called the song of the canon; There are 9 such songs in the full canon. The very rhythmic cadence in singing is usually consistent with the rhythm of the poems or words. This is how the Jews sang: they changed their voice according to the accents of their Hebrew text; This is how the ancient Greeks sang: long syllables continued twice as short. Since the rhythm in the singing was consistent with the rhythm of the poetry, it naturally followed that songs similar in size had to be sung in the same way. And indeed, it was customary to memorize commonly used songs and sing others based on them, similar in the number of syllables and the spirit of thoughts - to sing by hearsay, to sing some poems following the example of others. The matter of singing songs in the canon is posed in exactly the same way by St. John of Damascus and other creators of the canons. All the verses of one or another song in the canon, being identical in size, had to be sung in the same way. Why is the first verse of each song in the canon given the name irmos, while others are given the name troparia? “Irmos,” says John Zonara, “got its name from the fact that it imparts order to the troparions and the tone of their singing. For the troparia are measured according to the melody of the irmos, taking on the same melody that the irmos have. Otherwise, the irmos gives the tone and melody to the troparia, or forms the troparia according to its own pattern.” In the Jerusalem typikon it is clearer: “irmos is the first verse in a song, with which the following in the number of feet and lines are consistent, so that in this way they can be sung harmoniously. The troparia received their name from the fact that they are composed and rotated according to the irmos, being guided along them in a change in voice, or from the fact that the singers are chanting them according to the rhythm and tone of the irmos. For if the singer’s voice is not in proportion to them, then there will be no agreement either in singing or in melody, but only an incoherent rude cry will be heard.” It’s simpler and shorter to say: the first verse of each song of the canon is called irmos (from ἔρω - I connect or ἁ ρμόζω - I agree), because for other verses of the same song it serves as a model in size and singing, and the remaining verses in the song are called troparia, because they approach (from τρέπω - twirl, turn, turn, direct) to irmos in its size and singing. Thus, all the songs in the canon represent one harmonious and coherent combination of songs, both in composition and melody, and therefore are called a canon (from κανών - measure, rule). Of the names of church liturgical songs, indicating the manner of their singing, as well as the position of those singing and listening, the following need explanation: ipakoi, exapostilaria and sedalna. In order for the singing to be performed gracefully and in order, the Church has always prescribed a certain way of singing. One of the oldest images of singing was that believers sang in a common choir or, dividing into two choirs, sang alternately, which is where the name of some church songs came from - antiphons. Another type of singing, no less ancient, consisted of one chosen singer singing, and the people singing along the last words of the song, or the reader first proclaimed the words of the church song, and then the believers repeated the same words in chorus. The last type of singing is indicated by St. Basil the Great in his letter to the neo-Caesarians; in this letter, speaking about icons, he notes: “After the Six Psalms, allowing one to read poetry, the others chant.” And St. Chrysostom writes: “One voice should always be heard in the church, since it is one body. Why is there only one reader who reads, and one singer who sings, although everyone repeats after him, as if the voice comes out of the same mouth” (conversation 36 on the Epistle to the Corinthians). This type of singing has survived in the Orthodox Church to this day - at least it can be heard in our monasteries. But in order to sing from the words of another, you need to listen carefully to the spoken words. This is where some church liturgical songs got their name ipakoi (from ὑπακούω - to eavesdrop, to listen carefully.) The name of church songs exapostilaria also indicates an ancient type of singing. The exapostilaria began to be compiled by Constantine the Porphyrogenitus, emperor and son of Emperor Leo the Philosopher. These songs sometimes recall the sending of the apostles to preach before the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. That is why some believe that the exapostilaria are so named because of their content. But it should be noted that the sending of the apostles for preaching is spoken of only in the Sunday exapostilaria, while in others there is not a word about the sending of the apostles for preaching. It is obvious that some spiritual songs received the name exapostilaria not from their content, but from the position of the singers. To sing some church songs in the ancient Church, the reader was sent to the middle of the church. From this kind of singing, some songs were called exapostilaria (ἐξαποστέλλω - I am sending). When singing sacred songs, as well as psalms, believers usually stood. And at present, the charter sometimes requires the singing of entire kathismas. At the service of Matins, for example, Great Friday and during the burial, the 17th Kathisma is supposed to be sung, and not read; for which purpose the voice of the singing is indicated before each article. Parts of kathismas are called articles (στάσις, statio – standing), for example, in the 17th kathisma. It is clear that they are called articles because they had to stand while singing them (see “Interpretation of the Psalms,” ed. of the Holy Synod). But singing psalms continuously and for a long time could be burdensome for weak Christians. Therefore, singing was replaced by reading, during which it was allowed to sit and rest. The Fathers of the Council of Laodicea already established such an order for worship: “In church meetings,” they say in the 17th canon, “the psalms should not be combined continuously one after another, but in the intervals there should be a “reading” for each psalm. By reading here we mean the reading of teachings and interpretations, which were given after the psalms so that believers could rest while listening to them. Theodore Balsamon understands this rule this way: “Since the psalms are read according to ancient custom one after another, so that the people gathered are not burdened by the length of reading and, bored, do not leave the church, St. The fathers legitimized not to read the psalms together, but to have a “reading” between them, so that the people would have some rest and then sing again. Why is the Psalter divided by kathisma-sedals? According to the strength of the conciliar definition, the Psalter was divided into 20 sections and after the well-known sections there were “readings”, during which the believers would sit and rest. From the sections into which the Psalter was divided, it seems, they received the name kathisma, precisely because they were followed by a “reading,” during which they sat. Not in opposition, but in agreement with the definition of the Council of Laodicea, it was subsequently decided that the singing of songs other than psalms should be interrupted by reading, during which the believers would rest. That is why those songs or poems that preceded the reading also received the name sedalnov, because during the singing of them the believers began to sit down in order to listen to the reading that followed. So, after the poetry of kathisma, according to the rules, troparia are sung, during which the worshipers sit down in order to listen to the “reading” or “teaching” after singing. These troparia are called sedalna. Sedals are not allowed after such kathismas that are not followed by reading (for example, at vespers, Typikon, chapters 3, 4), and therefore, when it is not prescribed to sit. On the contrary, the sedals are placed not after the kathismas, but before the reading, as, for example, after the 3rd song of the canon at Matins before the “reading.” That it is allowed to sit down during the singing or reading of the sedals is evident from the fact that there are sedals about which it is said that one should not sit during them, for example, the 8th voice of the Theotokos of the Octoechos: ““He rejoices in You” not sitting down, it is said, but standing with fear and reverence.” And in the continuation of the Typikon on the Great Heel it is said: “We do not sit on calico saddles, for which the priest should incense the Holy Spirit.” altar, but we will sing while standing.” And that during the so-called “readings” they sit down, this is clear from the regulations. In the 9th chapter. The Typikon in the sequence of Matins says: “At the end of the 2nd kathisma, we sing the 2nd sedalene in the private octoechus. Also reading, and standing up we say: “Lord, have mercy.” So, if they get up after reading, then they sit while reading. And if during reading the charter commands to stand and not sit, then it directly says so. For example, in the observance of Easter in the Typikon it is said: “The catechetical word of Chrysostom is read. We don’t just sit and read, but listen to everything while standing.” In following the Saturday Akathist it is said: “We are standing while reading it (the Akathist). Thus, sedalna are those church liturgical songs, during the singing of which the believers of the ancient Church began to sit down to listen to the following “reading,” during which those present in the church were allowed to sit and rest. A special group includes names of church liturgical songs that indicate the time of their singing during the service. These are: morning, evening, communion, prokeimna. Of all these names, the name of some songs is not entirely clear. By prokeimnas we mean selected verses from the Psalms of David - verses that are mostly sung before the reading of the Apostle, the Gospel and proverbs. Since the prokemenes are sung for the most part before the reading of the Gospel, the Apostle and the proverbs, they are called verses previously proposed, preliminary (προκε ί μενα), preceding, i.e., the reading. Taking into account that some prokemenyas are sung not before the reading of the Gospel, the Apostle or the proverb, like the prokemenyas of Vespers after “Quiet Light” on ordinary days, their name can be derived from the very image of their singing. The verse that is sung is always followed by other verses that are read or spoken, for example, in the so-called great prokeimnas. So the verse “Who is the great God...” is followed by: 1) “You have demonstrated Your power among the nations; with your arm you have protected your people”; 2) “And I said: such a change in the right hand of the Most High is unfortunate for me. I remember the works of the Lord, I remember Your ancient miracle.” Therefore, it is likely that one can think that since the first verse that is sung is always followed by others in the form of an addition to it, then it is called prokeimnami - placed before, preceding, publicly displayed (from πρόκαμοα - I present). Now, the names of many church hymns that you did not clearly understand before will become clearer to you. (Extracted from the magazine "Guide for Rural Shepherds", 1876, December 12th day, No. 50, pp. 479-489). Conversation No. 2. That earthly singers should imitate heavenly ones I. The prophet Isaiah, in a state of spiritual admiration, saw the Lord in the spiritual heavenly church, sitting on a high and exalted throne. Around the throne were the highest ranks of angels - seraphim. Each of them had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their legs, and with two they flew. And they called out to each other (that is, alternately, in two faces): “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts! The whole earth is full of His glory." The tops of the gates shook from their exclamation, and incense rang throughout the church (Isa. ch. 6). The vision described by the prophet shows some similarities to what is happening here. So we are present in the church and see in it the throne of the Lord of glory. And this throne is surrounded not only by earthly clergy, but together with them the heavenly powers invisibly serve the King of glory. Like the seraphim and other angels, in our earthly churches we sing the same praises and glorifications to the Lord of Hosts, for the expressions: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, fill the whole earth with Thy glory” and “Hallelujah” are angelic praises, and we sing, moreover, like the seraphim, in two faces. True, our singing does not shake the walls of the church, as parts of the church seen by Isaiah shook from the thunderous exclamations of the seraphim; but if the singing in earthly churches shakes the hearts of those praying, then we should thank the Lord for this too. The difference is that the seraphim sing only praises and glorifications to the Lord, for, not knowing our sorrows and sinful temptations, they have no reason to turn to the Lord with a prayer for their needs and only out of love for us allow themselves to beg the Lord to help us. II. But in any case, the feelings that animate the heavenly singers must also be inherent in the church singers. a) In this regard, the very name of the seraphim is significant. Seraphim means flaming. Seraphim are so called because they are flaming with love for the Lord. The heart of every lover of church singing should burn with such love. Church singing should be the object of their love, not because it gives them the opportunity to demonstrate their art, the strength and tenderness of their voice, to make a pleasant impression on listeners, to arouse surprise and praise from them, but mainly because church singing is one of the most convenient means of expressing the feeling of love for the Lord. Let their lips praise the Lord from the abundance of a heart full of love for Him. Without this love, their singing, no matter how skillful and pleasing to the ear, will not be pleasing to the Lord; their voice will be only ringing brass or a clanging cymbal (1 Cor. 13:1), that is, as soulless as brass and a cymbal. b) With love for God, reverence for Him must be combined in performers of church singing. In the heavenly singers - the seraphim, it was expressed by the fact that they covered their faces and legs with their wings. This, according to the expression of church prayer (in the rite of the great consecration of water at Epiphany and in the rite of the sacrament of Baptism), meant that they were “covered with the fear of the unapproachable glory of God.” But what did they have to fear? They are sinless beings and close to God, constantly surrounding His throne. Yes, but still they feel that before the majesty of the Lord they are insignificant and that their very holiness before His all-perfect holiness is extremely imperfect, for, according to the word of Scripture, “the Lord sees something meek in His angels.” What can we say now about us, unworthy and sinful? The fear of God must constantly dominate us when we think about the majesty of the Lord and about His holiness and justice. Before His majesty, as the highest Being and Ruler of the universe, we must tremble, as created beings who depend on Him in everything. We must tremble before His holiness and justice, as those who anger Him with our sins. The thought of our unworthiness and sinfulness should not leave us, especially at a time when with our unclean and sinful lips we dare to sing to the Lord together with the pure and sinless singers of heaven - and if they are overwhelmed with fear of Him Whom they sing, shouldn’t this fear be especially inherent in us, who sing Him? c) Finally, for lovers of church singing, what is instructive about the six-winged seraphim is that they flew on two wings, that is, they stayed in space like birds. With the help of their wings, birds rise high above the ground and soar in the air as easily and freely as we walk on the ground. This ability of birds to renounce the earth is an expressive image of the relationship of the seraphim and angels in general to the earth. Seraphim and angels in general, although they are also on earth, sent to everyone who wants to inherit salvation, remain above everything earthly: they are not worried about our earthly joys, sorrows, temptations. They sympathize with us in our joys and sorrows and in the struggle against sinful temptations, but they themselves do not experience any of this. Their whole being, their whole life is immersed in the joy of communication with God, in serving Him, in glorifying Him. Mostly everything earthly, everything worldly is alien to them when, far from the earth, they stand in heaven before the throne of God Almighty and sing to Him Hallelujah and the Trisagion. We must always take the angels as an example of detachment from earthly attachments, especially when together with them we lift up songs of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, when we confess our sorrows and needs to Him and cry out for help. At these moments we must put aside all worldly cares. This, however, does not mean that we do not dare to pray for our everyday needs. You need to pray, but how? With the hope that “if God the Father did not spare His Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also freely give us all things” (Rom. 8:32), not only what is needed for eternal life, but also temporary life! Such a prayer is not only not contrary to the duty to put aside all worldly cares, on the contrary, it is the postponement of all worldly cares, for he who prays to God with hope casts all his sorrow on the Lord, and does not torment himself with fears for the future, characteristic of people who dream of arranging their well-being only by their own efforts. Like the seraphim, he renounces earthly things, although he prays for earthly things. III. So, love for God, reverence for Him and renunciation of everything earthly - these are the spiritual dispositions that lovers of church singing should imbue with and through this imitate the seraphim. But this imitation should not be artificial, there should be nothing in it that would resemble the actors. It is known that actors enter into their roles in such a way that, reproducing the speeches and actions of villains, virtuous people, kings, heroes, they resemble those whom they represent. In their souls they may have nothing in common with villains, virtuous people, etc., but by the power of their imagination they artificially put themselves in the position of these persons, adopt their spiritual mood and reproduce them so vividly, so naturally, as if they themselves were villains, virtuous, etc. There should be nothing of the kind in lovers of church singing, when they sing the praises of the Lord like seraphim. For actors, everything is made up - made up feelings, made up passions, no matter how vividly and naturally they portray them. In church singers imitating the seraphim, nothing should be done - not with the imagination, but with their hearts they should assimilate seraphim love, reverence, detachment from earthly things - not only with their lips, but with all the strength of their souls they should glorify the Lord, from the abundance of their hearts their singing lips should speak. In actors, the ability to pretend, to appear identical with the persons they represent, is perfection, but in church singers, the mere outward imitation of seraphic singing is the sin of hypocrisy. Let them not forget for one minute that they sing not only in front of people who may not notice this hypocrisy in them and remain completely satisfied with their art, but in the face of the Lord, Who sees the heart and therefore He is pleased to sing to His glory, sung by the voices of the saints, not only correct, but also heartfelt. But what to do if, with all their desire, lovers of church singing lack this cordiality, if in their hearts they do not feel that love, reverence and complete devotion to the Lord, which is imbued with the singing of the seraphim? Let us remember what Isaiah said when he saw the Lord in a vision and heard the seraphim singing. The praise of pure spirits produced sorrow in the soul of the prophet. He himself would have liked to take part in their praise, but, comparing himself with them, he could only say: “Woe is me! I'm dead! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people also of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King of the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). He humbly thought that before the throne of the Lord, sung by the seraphim, his unclean lips were unworthy to sing the praises of God along with the sinless singers. And so one of the seraphim, at the command of God, cleansed the lips of the humble prophet by touching them with a burning coal, and from then on he began to serve the Lord with cleansed lips. In view of this example, let lovers of church singing, every time they begin this holy work, humbly confess their unworthiness, the poverty of seraphim feelings in themselves, the uncleanness of their hearts and lips, and turn to the Lord of hosts with a prayer, may he grant them the honor to sing Him with pure lips and hearts and may he not enter into judgment with them for their unworthiness, and the Lord, who looks upon humble ones, does not disdain their singing. Amen. (Abridged from Soulful Reading, 1887, February, pp. 185-189). A. The opinion of St. Fathers of the Church on common church singing The Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church highly praise common church singing. St. Ignatius the God-Bearer († 107), disciple of St. Apostle John the Theologian, says: “In a general meeting you should have one common prayer; in your harmonious and harmonious love, sing the praises of Christ Jesus and all form one choir, so that, being filled with like-mindedness with the joy of God, you can sing like-minded things with one voice. I convince you, try to do everything in the same mind of God. Do not think that anything commendable will come of you if you do it on your own; but in the general meeting let you have one prayer, one petition, one mind, one hope in love and immaculate joy. There is only Jesus Christ - and there is nothing better than Him. Therefore, all of you make up as if one church of God, as if one altar, as if one Jesus Christ. Let no one be deceived: whoever is not inside the altar deprives himself of the bread of God. If the prayer of two (Matthew 18:19) has great power, then how much more powerful is the prayer of an entire church? Therefore, whoever does not go to the general meeting has already become proud and has condemned himself, for it is written: “God resists the proud” (Prov. 3:34; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). Make up a choir of yourselves, every one of you, so that, having agreed in one mind, having started a song to God in unison, you unanimously sang it to the Father through Jesus Christ, so that He would hear you and, based on your good deeds, recognize you as members of His Son. For if you are together, then the forces of Satan are overthrown and by the unanimity of your faith his disastrous deeds are destroyed” (St. Ignatius the God-Bearer. “Epistle to the Magnesians,” chapters III, VI and VII; “To the Romans,” chapter II; “To the Smyrnans,” chapter VIII; “To the Ephesians,” chapters IV, V and XII). St. Justin the Philosopher († 166), speaking in his apologies, or defensive speeches, about Christians, expresses himself this way about the prayer of the Church of Christ: “We lead the enlightened (by baptism) to the so-called brothers in the general assembly, in order to perform common prayers with all zeal for everyone, so that we, having learned the truth, may appear as fulfillers of the commandment to receive eternal salvation. Here we greet each other with the kiss of love. Here Christians sing their songs in the triumph of the soul and have no need to increase this triumph with the sound of the weapons of the dead; their tongue is a mellow harp, and their sacrifice is the sacrifice of a spirit that sings and praises the Lord and prays to Him with the mere feelings of the heart.” (Justin the Philosopher, “First Apology,” Chapter LXVII, and “Second Apology”). St. Athanasius the Great († 373), a zealot for general unanimous singing in the church, to the question: “Why are the psalms sung in church in measured rhythm and in a chant?” - answers: “The Lord, wanting the melody of the words to be a symbol of the spiritual harmony of the souls (of those praying), ordered the psalms to be sung measuredly and read in a chant; accompanying the psalms with singing does not mean concern for euphony, but a sign of the harmonious state (of those praying).” (See Filaret Chernigovsky “Historical review of chants”, Chernigov, 1864, part I.). B. Thoughts on the need to introduce common church singing into the life of the Russian people In view of the highly beneficial influence of general church singing on the minds and hearts of those praying, it would be highly desirable for holy songs to be sung here too, everywhere and as often as possible; how we would like them to be sung in our holy churches not only by the voices of humble clergy, but also by the general choirs of all those present, so that the numerous host of believers with one mouth and one heart would glorify and glorify the Lord, wondrous in His saints, wondrous in His infinite love for the human race. How we would like our sacred songs to be heard not only in our churches, but also in our homes and outside them - in the fields, meadows, in workshops, and in general at work, and during our leisure time. Unfortunately, we hear songs everywhere, but not the right ones... Let us still sing songs about our holy homeland, about our native land, about its glory and past grief; let the everyday aspects of our life be sung in them; let love be sung in them, but pure, holy love, family love, conjugal love, brotherly love and the like. But are all our so-called folk songs like this? Here, near a house where intoxicating drinks are sold, wild, ugly voices of drunken or half-drunk people are heard; and how much shamelessness, foul language, and disgrace there are in these songs! There, in the distance, the voices of youth are heard... and in these songs will you always hear something serious, sincere, highly moral? And in our so-called riotous dance songs, don’t look for anything worthwhile. And why shouldn’t our sublime, highly moral sacred songs find a place among our singing youth and among our people in general instead of various sinful, blasphemous songs? This is not the case in this regard among other, heterodox Christian peoples. A common, unanimous religious song is very often heard in their churches; It is often heard in their families, and in workers’ associations, in workshops. In what way can we initiate and spread common religious singing both in churches and outside churches - from home to home? The answer to this question, in our opinion, is simple: we need to teach children church songs from an early age. Let children at school become accustomed to singing church songs, and little by little these sacred songs will become ingrained in them, become a habit and subsequently become a necessity for them. This is a reliable way to introduce common choral singing of sacred songs into common use and spread throughout homes and churches. Thank God, now our parish school is taking care of this. And all we can do is help the school in this matter with some material donations, and most importantly, by ensuring that we send our children both to school and to church. Conversation No. 3. About the reward for those who sing in church I. Some Christians love to pour out their prayerful feelings in church singing and willingly participate in it. Not to mention the fact that singing in general should be a pleasant thing for singers, at the same time it is also a useful thing for them. For, firstly, the Church of God especially remembers them in one of her petitions to the Lord and thereby asks for His special mercy for them, and secondly, it is useful because from the lives of the saints we learn that both the Most Holy Theotokos and the holy inhabitants of heaven love those who sing in the church, and show them His special favor. II. a) So, regarding the fact that the inhabitants of heaven love those who sing in churches, we will give several stories. In the life of the Monk Athanasius of Athos, the following is written: “One of Athanasius’ disciples, Matthew, once during Matins saw a certain Woman enter the church, clothed with heavenly glory and honor, with two young men in clothes as white as snow, one of whom held a burning candle and illuminated Her path, walking before Her as a slave, and the other followed Her, and both treated Her with great reverence. When these extraordinary visitors began to examine everyone present in the church, that wonderful Woman divided gifts among all the brethren: to those who were in the choir, She gave each a gold coin, and to those in the vestibule, 6 pieces of silver to each; She even gave some of the brothers 6 gold coins. The reverent Matthew himself received only 6 silver coins, for he stood in the vestibule. As soon as this vision ended, he immediately went to the choir, announced it to his spiritual father and asked him for permission to be included in the choir of those singing.” (“Athos Patericon”, part 1, p. 98). We find a miracle similar to this in the life of St. John Kukuzel (mem. Oct. 1). Once, having chanted the akathist on Saturday, after the vigil, John sat down in the uniform (as the fraternal seats are called) - opposite the icon of the Mother of God, in front of which the akathist was read, and a subtle sleep calmed his tired feelings. "Rejoice, John!" – suddenly said a meek voice. John looks: the Mother of God stood before him in the radiance of heavenly light. “Sing and don’t stop singing,” She continued, “I won’t leave you for this.” At these words, the Mother of God placed a ducat in John’s hand and became invisible. John woke up and saw that indeed in his right hand lay a chervonets (zlatnitsa). Tears of sincere gratitude flowed from the singer’s eyes: he cried and blessed the ineffable mercy and favor of the Queen of Heaven towards him. The chervonets was hung to the Mother of God icon, in front of which John sang and was rewarded with a heavenly appearance, and amazing miracles were performed from the icon. From then on, John began to undergo his choir obedience more diligently than before (“Athos Patericon,” part 1, p. 186). Some of the former fathers of the saints, quite reliable, testified that those who stand with zeal at the vigils of the week, taking part in the singing, ascend into great prosperity. One of the fathers left us a wonderful testimony of this: “It happened to me,” he said, “(since, as usual, I was always with the fathers on Sunday), it happened one day before singing songs in preparation for St. Gospel, I was in a frenzy: I see two angels dressed in white clothes; They left the sanctuary and began to go around the fathers, greeting each in order and sharing their blessings.” Further St. Abba tells the vision of another, hitherto negligent in the service of God: “When,” he said, “the hour passed, which is so difficult to stand, when the hymns preceding St. Gospel and what follows - I fell into a sweet sleep and saw two certain people coming out of the sanctuary, dressed in white robes; one carried a towel as white as snow, the other carried silver dust, shining with lightning-like rays. They approached each of the standing fathers in turn, forcing them to wash; one gave them dust, the other clean water, and then a towel for drying. They came up to me and said in a sad, quiet voice: wash yourself too. I stretched out unclean hands to clean water and washed away so much dirt and so much stench that I could hardly bear it myself.”1 b) Now let's say that at every service of St. The church prays for those who sing. This is the second award for singers. Quite a few St. The Church also has deliberate prayers for those who sing. Let’s just say about one thing: you can often hear it during the All-Night Vigil. This prayer-song reads like this: “Your hymns, Mother of God, living and unenvious Source, establish your spiritually united face in your divine glory, grant crowns of glory” (3rd song of the Irmos of the Resurrection of Katav, and canon of the Theotokos). With these words St. The Church prays to the Mother of God that She would confirm those who sing in Her divine glory and grant them crowns of glory in their future life. You, my beloved, sing praises to the Mother of God, the Mother of God intercedes for you before Her Son the Lord; When you sing praises to the saint of God, he intercedes for you before the Lord, so that you may be a participant in divine glory and receive the crown of this glory in the future life. And this is such an invaluable reward from the Lord, for the sake of which we should give up our entire earthly life with its benefits, with all its joys. Participation in the divine glory of the Mother of God, the highest of heaven and the purest lordship of the sun, adorned with divine glory, rewarded with a crown of glory, this is the complete, perfect kingdom of heaven. III. Let us, brothers, take part in church hymns with zeal and love. Conversation No. 4. About spiritual singing “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord” (Eph. 5:18-19). I. Now, beloved brethren, I will talk with you about spiritual singing. Each of us knows that singing is an essential part of Christian worship. Singing constantly alternates in worship with reading and prayers. And the more solemn the service, the more noticeably singing, very varied and solemn, predominates in it over reading. It is clear why not only in Christian and Jewish worship, but also in pagan worship - at all times and among all peoples, both among barbarians and among the Greeks and Romans - singing was a necessary component, and a beloved component. Like everyday life, a song imparts vitality and variety, freeing life from monotony and monotony, and makes life more or less pleasant, delighting its bitterness; Likewise, singing imparts vitality and variety to divine services and helps the service to have a stronger effect on the soul of a person when it alternates in good time with prayers and reading. And St. The Apostle Paul assigns even higher meaning to spiritual singing. He not only ascribes to spiritual singing the power and ability to edify believers and educate them morally, but also assigns to it a very high beneficial and educational significance. The Apostle points out to believers in spiritual singing one of the means to kindle in themselves the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit. “Be filled with the Spirit,” says St. apostle, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord” (Eph. 5:18-19). II. And indeed spiritual singing, having a beneficial effect on all the powers of the human spirit, promotes each of these powers in the best, fullest assimilation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit inherent in it and thus helps our spirit to be filled with the Holy Spirit. a) Singing and songs are one of the best conductors into the minds of people of certain thoughts, views, principles, goals. The song is mostly laconic and short. It does not present this or that subject in all its particulars and details, in its entirety. But this in no way prevents the song from acting irresistibly on the minds of people, captivating them in favor of certain principles and goals, firmly imprinting these principles and goals in the minds of people. By its very brevity, the song makes it easier to assimilate its main idea, which is usually stated with force and clarity, making it easier for everyone to assimilate, even for people who do not easily assimilate what is conveyed by others. Moreover, acting simultaneously on both the mind and the feeling, the song helps a person to more vividly, more heartily perceive the thought conveyed by it; and thoughts help to take deep roots not only in the mind, but also in a person’s heart, and thus grow deeper, with many roots, into the person’s soul. That is why in the Church of Christ, which cares about the lasting edification of believers, from the time of the apostles singing was considered one of the most effective means for the edification of Christians, for instructing them in the truth of Christ. “Speak to yourselves with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19), commands St. Apostle Paul to the Ephesians. Church believers from the times of the apostles came to meetings, each having a psalm for the edification of himself and others. (1 Cor. 14:26). Expressing to the Colossians the desire that the word of God should dwell in them richly, with all wisdom, St. The apostle Paul inspired them: “Teach and admonish one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16). After the times of the Apostles, both Orthodox and heretics looked at spiritual singing and church songs as one of the best guides into the minds of people, as one of the valid means of spreading their teachings among them. Therefore, in songs - in short but powerful words - they expressed the essence of their teaching, and through singing, the Orthodox spread the truth of Christ among people, and the heretics - their errors. Some dogmatists of the Orthodox Church how wonderfully expound its most important dogmas and how strongly they denounce heretical false teachings! Let’s not even talk about the power, depth, comprehensiveness and persuasiveness with which the teaching of Christ is presented and revealed through other, numerous and varied hymns of the Orthodox Church... Truly psalms, doxologies and spiritual songs, if only sung with reverence, attention and understanding, can and do serve us as the best conductors of the truth of Christ into our minds and hearts. Thus, singing is the best conductor into the minds of people of known knowledge, principles, goals and one of the most effective means for kindling the spirit of truth in a person. b) At the same time, singing is a powerful stimulator of the will to activity. Of course, the living word has an irresistible effect on people. Imbued with deep conviction, strong in its content, the living word moves entire masses of people and forces them to act in the direction that it points to them. People make all kinds of sacrifices when doing what the living word calls them to do. But song has an incomparably stronger, more irresistible effect on the will than a living word. She is often extremely exciting; strains a person’s strength to incredible limits, even when exhausted. This truth is known and confirmed by people who have endured the unbearable hardships of war... Hunger, cold, or unbearable heat, extreme fatigue, after incredible, almost inhuman efforts and labors, often completely weakened valiant warriors, brought them closer to death and made them incapable of further movement, of further work. But the seemingly dead ears of the sufferers were touched by their favorite song and - awakened them to life, resurrected them and gave them strength to endure new labors and hardships... How often did the song inspire warriors in the fight against enemies, giving them courage and fearlessness! A close enemy threatens the warrior with great dangers - severe wounds and cruel suffering, threatens him with death itself. It is difficult not to be embarrassed, not to tremble despite all the fearlessness... But your favorite song is heard, and all dangers are forgotten. The warriors unitedly, boldly, courageously go to the enemy and defeat him. So in worldly life, song excites and strengthens a person’s strength. This is how it makes a person capable of enduring the greatest hardships and performing the greatest feats. The same must be said about spiritual singing in relation to the spiritual life of a Christian. It has a powerful effect on the will of a Christian. It maintains patience in him in sorrows, Christian labors and deeds. It excites the Christian to new and great achievements. It kindles in a Christian the Spirit of advice and strength, and by kindling this gift of God, and filling the Spirit of man with the Spirit of God, it helps a person with Christian prudence, indestructible firmness and strength to accomplish his salvation... That is why singing is so common in the Christian world. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, on the night on which He was betrayed, sings and prepares Himself for the great feat of the Gethsemane struggle and the grave suffering of the cross (Matthew 26:30). Saints Paul and Silas in prison, in Philippi, sing praises to God (Acts 16:25), strengthening their spirit, and their singing attracts the miraculous power of God into the prison, which makes the earth shake, opens the prison, loosens the bonds of the prisoners and finally turns the prison guard with the whole house to Christ (Acts vv. 26-36). This is a living image of the grace-filled power awakened in a person by spiritual singing and drawing him out of sinful prison into the wonderful light of God - the light of a godly life. Holy martyrs with the singing of St. they went to their sufferings in song, and, like good soldiers of Christ, they found the strength to endure the most terrible suffering for Christ - with their faith and their patience they defeated the tormentors, they conquered the world. The holy ascetics performed amazing feats of fasting and prayer vigil - they spent days and nights in prayerful labors, almost without sleep. Where did they get the strength to endure incredible labors and hardships, to accomplish the greatest feats? In the grace-filled spirit of strength, which they kindled in themselves through psalmody, and which made them capable of tireless, continuous labor and deeds!... What kind of spiritual and moral strength could we all acquire for ourselves if we tried to kindle in ourselves through singing the Spirit of advice and strength given to us in the sacrament of Confirmation. Then there would be no grumbling among us about the severity and impossibility of God’s commandments, about the tediousness of church services, about the severity and impracticability of the requirements of church statutes. Then we would learn by experience that the yoke of Christ is good and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30), that the commandments of Christ are not heavy (1 John 5:3). Then the labors and exploits of Christian life would not burden us, but would delight us, attract us, and we would joyfully ascend from exploit to exploit... II Ι. Love, brothers and sisters, spiritual singing, so saving and beneficial for Christian souls... Visit the churches of God without laziness, so that here your ears can be spiritually delighted by spiritual singing and so that, together with spiritual singing, the truth of Christ will penetrate your mind, the will of St. desire, in your heart St. feeling... Not only do not shun spiritual singing, but exercise diligently in it and in your homes... Fathers and mothers! Make spiritual singing part of your morning and evening prayers with your children, and you will see the good fruits of this good practice. Your children will love prayer combined with singing from childhood, and you will not have to grieve, as many parents now grieve, about the lack of love for God and faith in children, about outright unbelief. The love of faith and prayer through singing will be deeply rooted in them and will forever remain the property of their souls. Be edified, all of you, by sacred singing, and when it is impossible to sing with your bodily lips, sing to the Lord in your hearts, and please Him. Amen. (Compiled from “Words and Speeches”, Paul, Archbishop of Chisinau, vol. III). St. Athanasius the Great, founder of the Church of Alexandria, was born around 296, archdeacon - defender of the faith at the First Ecumenical Council, after the death of Bishop Alexander, bishop, and soon archbishop of Alexandria, throughout his life a champion of Orthodoxy, who suffered a lot from the Arians, who spent 46 years in exile, died 374 years ago. St.'s concerns Afanasy's thoughts about his flock were expressed in the improvement of church singing. This is what the blessed one writes about him. Augustine: “For me,” says Augustine, “the best thing is what they told me about the Alexandrian bishop Athanasius, who set the reader up to sing the psalms in such a way that he seemed to be reading rather than singing” 2 (Conf. Lib. X p. 34). According to Athanasius: “The Lord, wanting the melody of the words to be a symbol of the spiritual harmony of the soul, ordered the psalms to be sung measuredly... read in a chant... Accompanying the psalms with singing does not mean concern for euphony, but a sign of the harmonious state of spiritual thoughts. Having tuned in to the melody of the words, the soul forgets about passions, joyfully looks at the mind of Christ and thinks only about all the best.” Concerned about the harmony and decency of church singing, Athanasius waged a constant struggle with the Meletians, who “sang holy songs with applause, with the ringing of bells and even dancing.” How beautiful and disarming of the enemy the singing established by Athanasius was can be judged by one incident reported by historians: the soldiers sent by the Arians to seize Athanasius in the church and bring him to court were so amazed by the singing of psalms with singing along (Athanasius sang the psalm, and the people sang along the verse “For His mercy endures forever”), that they did not dare to interrupt the sacred reverence aroused in them and among the people, and thereby saved Athanasius from his enemies. The essential features of Afanasiev's singing were simplicity and grandeur; It was precisely by this greatness of the church melody, in its very simplicity, that the people’s ears were restrained and diverted from heretical singing, which was mostly adapted to the melodies of the common people. Athanasius the Great is credited with participating in the ceremony of the Liturgy of the “Presanctified Gifts”; according to its establishment, Alexandrian Christians spent Lent and Easter singing psalms and songs (See “Historical review of hymns,” Philaret, Archbishop of Chernigov). II. St. Basil the Great, (334–379) - an ascetic of piety, a tireless mentor of his flock, archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia and ecumenical teacher. His rite of the Divine Liturgy with very lengthy prayers is known. St. Basil, even before his episcopate in the rank of presbyter, composed many different songs: “I constantly tried,” he writes to one flock, “to pacify the rebellion of passions in you with thousands of different sweet songs... bring to mind the euphonious psalmody.” Having become an archpastor, he introduced his own rite of Liturgy and organized a magnificent antiphonal, hypophonic and choral singing, that is, singing by the whole congregation. Some of the Caesarea residents opposed antiphonal alternating choir singing, but Basil the Great brought them to their senses, explaining that antiphonal singing already existed in many churches 3 . “Look,” he says, “are you not straining out a mosquito, engaging in subtle studies of the sounds of voice used in psalmody, and at the same time violating the most important thing?”... (“Works of the Holy Fathers,” VII, pp. 76–79). This is what St. says. Vasily about the types of singing he himself established: “Rising from prayer, the people stand (kneeling) for psalmody. Dividing into two sides, they sing alternately...” Or “one begins to sing, and the others sing along” - hypophonic singing; or “with one mouth and one heart they sing”... (“63rd Epistle to the Caesareas,” vol. 3, p. 36) - this is symphonic singing. The Arian emperor Valens, the enemy of Vasily, heard this singing. Interesting opinion of St. Vasily about why a melody is attached to the chant: “The Holy Spirit knew,” he says, “that it is difficult to lead the human race to virtue, and that due to our inclinations towards pleasure we are careless about the right path, and so what to do? The pleasantness of sweet singing is mixed with the teachings, so that along with what is sweet and pleasing to the ear, we inconspicuously accept what is useful in the word.” From the works of Basil the Great, songs of the Lenten Triodion about the qualities of a saving fast are borrowed: “We fast with a pleasant fast,” etc. They also ascribe to him: “Thy secret suppers...”, “Let him be silent...”, “Blessed is he who comes...”, “We have seen the light...”, “Let the lips be filled...”. (“Historical review of chants”, Filaret, Archbishop of Chernigov, pp. 105–125). III. St. John Chrysostom was born around 347, in Antioch of Syria; received a broad education along with Christian piety. For the latter, Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, especially loved John, and in 369 he made him a reader; after 12 years he was ordained a deacon, after 5 years he was ordained a presbyter, and in 398 he was ordained archbishop of Constantinople. The son of noble parents with an excellent education for that time, St. John Chrysostom was not ashamed to accept the minor title of church reader, “singer of the glory of God.” Sad about his unworthiness, John even withdrew into the desert, where he would spend 4 years with strict hermits: “at the first crowing of the roosters they rose there to pray, sang sacred songs and read the Scriptures”... It is not surprising, therefore, if John appeared as “Chrysostom,” precious in his exploits of preaching the word of God. The pampered Byzantines left the circus and theater to listen to the sweet speeches of John. The learned archpastor, defender of Orthodoxy, could not, of course, help but pay attention to church services: well-organized, they were also important for him, next to the sermon, a teaching tool. We know the rite of the Liturgy of Chrysostom; and in his conversations, words and interpretations there are many different liturgical and statutory instructions. The great lamp of the Church died in 407. The Rite of the Liturgy is the most important liturgical work of Chrysostom. Already under John, antiphons were sung (for example, Ps. 145 and at Easter “This day, make it”), at the entrance: “Come, let us worship,” before and according to the Gospel: “Glory to Thee, Lord,” “Mercy of the world,” “We sing to Thee,” “Our Father,” “One is holy,” during Communion: “Taste and see.” Under Chrysostom (at first) the people also participated in the singing of liturgical songs 4. There were often disturbances in singing; Consequently, the need was felt for another better rite of singing, for a special clergy to perform all-night vigils and prayer services, especially for the most sacred service of the Liturgy. The clergy singers under Chrysostom were isolated. Even earlier, abuses often occurred among singers (Council of Laodicea, pr. 15, 23–25): elements of theatrical singing were introduced into church singing 5 ; the same thing happened under John. In denunciation of obscene singing, Chrysostom addresses his words to the singers: “Unhappy poor man! (immodest singer) you should repeat the angelic praises with trepidation and reverence, but you introduce into the church the customs of dancers, waving your arms, stamping your feet, moving your whole body.” To suppress this, the Empress gave the singers a special teacher, a funeral director, who, of course, not without the guidance of Chrysostom, prepared hymns for singing and taught singing. The singing, it must be assumed, turned out to be very good: “the singers worked hard, but the people were still vigorous, the singers worked hard, but the people were still strong” (Works of John Chrysostom, vol. 2, pp. 718–720). Under Chrysostom, harmonious and orderly singing also defeated the heretics. When the Arians began to confuse the people with antiphonal singing with heretical refrains, John arranged alternating choir singing, indicating the ancient doxology “Glory to the Father and the Son” as a chorus for the Orthodox: the Orthodox surpassed the Arians in singing and the harmonious order of worship, and no one thought about the multi-attractive singing of the heretics. One cannot resist citing a few of Chrysostom’s instructions on singing: “The psalms are clothed with melodies... so that everyone, carried away by the smooth flow of the verses, will proclaim the sacred chants with perfect zeal. Nothing excites, inspires the spirit so much, nothing detaches one from the earth so much as harmonious singing, like a sacred song according to the rules of rhythm... We by nature love singing and poetry; the child calms down listening to them, and the journey is easier and faster when singing, and the work for the worker is easier when singing. The Lord established the singing of psalms, so that the devil would not corrupt people with voluptuous songs" (Phil., pp. 140–184). St. John often advises and exhorts in homes, privately, to sing sacred hymns instead of worldly songs, which are inappropriate for the chastity of a Christian: "Those who sing (the divine) are filled with the Holy Spirit, just as worldly songs inspire the spirit satanic." St. John Chrysostom is credited with preliminary work on the development of a system of church osmoglas. (See “Review of Russian Songs”, Philaret, Archbishop of Chernigov). IV. Ephraim the Syrian. "St. Ephraim worked hard to organize the rite of church singing” - this is how one biographer defines the hymnist Ephraim, a Syrian ascetic, a man of deep humility and piety, who, out of humility, barely accepted the rank of Odessa deacon and died in 378. In the 3rd-4th century, the heretic Vardesan and his disciple Armonius appeared, who clothed the false teachings of his teacher in chants and “put them on sweet-voiced music: with the harmony of verse Armony captivated the listeners.” Ephraim, knowing well how the Edessians loved music and singing, and wanting to distract them from unknown songs 6, gathered the votive virgins and taught them songs “composed of high spiritual verbs” (“History of the Church”, Florin, 1881, pp. 47–83), taught them to sing alternately in the choirs 7. “He, like a father, stood among the choir and, like an inspired singer, gave them musical melodies and taught them the laws of singing...” (Eastern Bible, vol. I, p. 47). St. Ephrem defeated Armonius: he, borrowing heretical harmony, clothed with it (of course, borrowing only its structure) the true teaching of the faith” (Theodoret, book IV, chapter 29). This is how Ephraim organized the liturgical Syrian singing. The information about Syrian melodies is very interesting. According to Benedict, publisher of the works of St. Ephraim the Syrian, the number of voices (isn’t it melodies? or melodic lines?...) among the Syrians goes up to 257, as their church books show, where voices are placed above the hymns (Phil., p. 100). In our worship, some hymns: “Rest with the saints,” the content of the stichera for the burial of priests, “Higher than the heavens...” are borrowed from Ephraim’s creations. His prayer “Lord and Master of my life...” is well known. V. St. Roman the Sweet Singer, originally from Emeth, in Syria, lived at the end of the 5th and beginning of the 6th centuries. He was distinguished from his youth by his piety and diligence in church service; served as a "sacristan" in the church of St. Sofia in Constantinople. Being illiterate and awarded the title of cleric solely for his piety, Roman received great grief from his fellow literates. Once, on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, they even lured him to the pulpit and told him: “You have been honored with an equal share with us... sing like we did.”... Roman could not. Ashamed at the meeting of the people and the king, Roman cried and after the service, when everyone left the church, he fell before the image of the Mother of God and prayed fervently... Miraculously wise by the Mother of God, who in a dream put a written scroll into Roman’s mouth (Roman ate it), at the All-Night Vigil, when the time came for singing the kontakion, Roman ascended to the pulpit and sang the kontakion he had composed: “Virgin today.” gives birth to the all-important...” Everyone marveled, tasting the sweetness of the singing of the wise simpleton. The offending brothers asked him for forgiveness and they themselves learned singing from him... St. Roman wrote up to a thousand kontakia and ikos of the Mother of God, the Lord, and special saints. “From his mouth flows like a river of wisdom...” we read in the life of Roman (“Cheti-Minei”, October 1); “The sweet-voiced zither... sings sonorously and teaches the ends to glorify (his) single light of the Divine with incessant songs,” St. sings about Roman. Church (Phil., pp. 197–205). (See “Calendar and reference book” by N. Vseslavinsky). VI. St. Andrew of Crete. St. Andrew was born at the beginning of the 7th century in Damascus. Until he was seven years old, he was mute, and when his dumbness was miraculously resolved by communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, his parents sent him to study the Holy Scriptures and various sciences. In the 14th year of his life, he came to Jerusalem and here devoted himself to monastic life. Then the great Sophronius, an example of pastoral wisdom and virtue, occupied the holy throne. He fell in love with the young man for his bright mind, meek character and pure heart and made him a notary, or church scribe. When St. Sophrony described the life of the Venerable Mary of Egypt, Andrei composed his great canon. Perhaps St. the men, with mutual consent, occupied themselves - one with a repentant narrative, the other with a repentant song, in order to arouse a repentant spirit in the Palestinian Christians. Already the Muslim yoke was gradually encroaching on the surrounding areas and threatening St. earth. It was necessary to attune the souls of the faithful and open their lips to repentant prayer. At the same time, the Monk Andrew probably composed his other penitential hymns. It is also likely that some of the solemn hymns of St. Andrew were composed by him at the same time to console the believers. When the holy city was taken by the Arabs, the holy Patriarch Sophronius died from the sorrowful thought of the abomination of desolation in the holy place (in 644). After his death, Saint Andrew remained in the holy city inseparably until he was sent by Patriarch Theodore to the 6th Ecumenical Council, convened against the Monothelites (in 680). Having only the rank of deacon, St. the husband, in the words of his life writer, “in that cathedral he became the holy father and the king himself, with grace for the sake of the Holy Spirit, and he was filled with it: for they saw in him not only book wisdom and art in the Orthodox Church, but also a holy life pleasing to God, and the father helped the cathedral of saints a lot, strongly fighting according to piety" 9. To Constantinople he brought with him the Life of Sophronius of the Venerable Mary of Egypt and his Great Canon of Repentance. Both of these creations were then included in the Lenten service 10 and since then have been inseparably offered to the attention of the faithful on the fourth of the fifth week of Great Lent at Matins. The glory of the exploits of St. Andrew in his fight against heretics and his touching eloquence gained him fame throughout the Church and prompted Emperor Justinian II to summon him to the capital from Jerusalem, where he retired at the end of the council, wanting St. Holy Sepulcher to finish his monastic exploits. By election of the Church, he was installed as Archbishop of the island of Crete. But also at the bishop’s pulpit, until the end of his life, St. the archpastor retained the modest title of “Jerusalemite” or “Jerusalem monk.” Died in 712. His memory is celebrated by the Church on July 4th. St. Andrew of Crete owns the following penitential hymns: the great canon, the canon of cheese Wednesday, the five three songs sung at Compline in the first five days of Holy Week, and many stichera of penance. In addition to penitential songs, he composed many songs for the holidays; but even in these chants of his one can often hear deep sighs of a repentant and contrite spirit. The following celebratory chants belong to him: for the resurrection of rights. Lazarus, on the week of St. the myrrh-bearers, at the end of Pentecost, at the conception of St. Anna, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Nativity of John the Baptist, Apostles Peter and Paul, Ignatius the God-Bearer, Martyrs Theophilus and Trophimus, on the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. He also composed very many stichera for the days of the Lord and the Mother of God feasts and for the days of saints 11. The most remarkable of the creations of this holy hymnist is the Great Canon, otherwise called the repentant or touching canon. According to the Church, he is filled with innumerable tenderness and has such a sweet voice that he is able to soften and arouse the most cruel soul to goodness 12 . And indeed, this song is great both in the height of its thoughts and the power of expression, and in its vastness, and is extremely capable of awakening in a person a deep consciousness of his sinfulness and true, deep contrition, because it is a bitter, reaching to the depths of the spirit and shaking the heart, lamentation for human sins, but a lamentation accompanied by a warm prayer of Christian hope in God’s mercy. “Where should I begin to mourn the deeds of my miserable life? What beginning, O Christ, will I make for this present mourning? But, as you are merciful, grant me forgiveness of sins.” This first troparion of the canon is the main idea, revealed in all its fullness in its 250 troparions. The singer’s cry is the most sorrowful sob of a person who sees with all clarity and detail the abyss into which the fallen human Spirit has fallen; but the fiery prayer of this clairvoyant and singer of sorrow: this is the prayer of a soul close to God, who in Christ reconciled the world to Himself, and leading the inexhaustible wealth of the bounties of Christ the Savior to repentant sinners. (See “History of Liturgical Hymns of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Church,” pp. 140–143). VII. St. John of Damascus. St. John was born in Damascus 13 at the end of the 7th or beginning of the 8th century 14 from Christian and noble parents. His father, Sergius, served at the court of the Damascus caliph Abdal-Malek and, despite the hatred and cruel enmity of the savage followers of Mohammed against Christians, was loved and respected by his sovereign. In this state, he served as a reliable refuge and protection for his fellow believers who suffered under the Muslim yoke, interceded for the oppressed, ransomed captives, freed prisoners and generally tried to give help to all those in need whom he could, according to his condition and influence on public affairs (“Cheti-Minei”, December 4; Vies des peres Martyres par Godescard. Volume V, pag. 116). John was the only son of Sergius; but out of compassion, Sergius took in one orphan, adopted him and raised him together with his own son; it was Cosmas, later Bishop of Maium. The mentor of John and his betrothed brother was one highly educated monk, also named Cosmas, originally from Calabria, taken prisoner by the Arabs and ransomed from captivity by Sergius 15. Under the leadership of this learned and pious man, Sergius’s children received the most complete education at that time. Having completed his work, Cosmas presented his pupils to their guardian father and said: “Behold, your desire is fulfilled, your children have completed the entire course of study and surpass me in their knowledge; they no longer need a mentor: they themselves can be mentors to others, so I ask you, let me go to a monastery, so that I myself can learn the highest wisdom from men experienced in spiritual life.” Then, encouraged by peace and gifts of zeal and gratitude, he retired to the monastery of St. Savva, and his pupils soon entered the service of the Church of God. When Sergius died, St. John was honored even more than his father and, like him, tried to take advantage of all the benefits of his position for the benefit of Christians. But God's Providence prepared him for even higher service, for much more important exploits. In 730, the Greek emperor Leo the Isaurian issued an edict that prohibited the veneration of icons. The Greek clergy, scientists and people, who did not want to change Orthodoxy, openly opposed the emperor’s demand; but Patriarch of Constantinople St. Herman was expelled, schools were destroyed, the richest library of Constantinople, together with the most learned men in charge of it, was burned, the people were subjected to torture and death for their firmness in Orthodoxy, in a word, a cruel persecution of the Church of God began, reminiscent of all the horrors of the ancient pagan persecutions of Christians (Hist ecclesiast. Heurian. Tom. VII, lib. XLII, § 5). At this time, when the mouths of the Orthodox subjects of the iconoclast emperor were blocked by torture and death, St. John of Damascus for the first time raised his voice in defense of Orthodoxy. Going out to his wonderful feat, he expresses at the same time both the deepest humility and fiery zeal for faith. His first word in defense of icon veneration begins like this: “Given my weakness, of course, it would be better for me to remain silent and confess my sins before God, but, seeing the strong indignation of the Church, I decided that now is not the time to remain silent, for I fear God more than the emperor.” Although this was the first experience of the theology of St. John, however, it perfectly reveals the dogma of icon veneration on the basis of Holy Scripture, Holy Tradition and in accordance with the principles of sound reason, so that there is almost nothing better left to wish for in this regard. All the objections of the iconoclasts themselves fell and dissipated when the case was clearly presented; and the power of speech, imbued with a living and holy love for Orthodoxy, made an extraordinary impression on the minds and hearts of those who did not deliberately rebel against the truth, which is why everyone’s eyes turned to the most zealous and skillful champion of Orthodoxy. But while for some his words served as consolation, encouragement or admonition, for others they were arrows striking at the very heart, filled with vanity and malice. The inventors of the new heresy, stubborn like all heretics in their error, sought, of course, not admonition, but triumph over the children of the Church who disobeyed them, and therefore became most bitter against those who best repelled their attack and revealed the falsity of their heresy. After this, it is clear what their malice was against St. John. Not content with censure and ridicule, with which they wanted to humiliate the great teacher of the Church in the eyes of the people, they sought a means to completely block the mouth of the eloquent preacher of truth and, it seemed, found him in slander, this ordinary weapon of malice and hatred. Leo the Isaurian wrote a friendly letter to the Damascus caliph and, as if to confirm his sincerity, pointed to St. John as a dangerous traitor to him, presenting imaginary evidence of this in supposedly handwritten letters to St. himself. John 16. The caliph believed the slander of his enemies, which is why he immediately ordered the right hand of his imaginary traitor to be cut off and put it on display in fear of others. But God Himself miraculously justified and glorified His confessor: St. John, having asked for his truncated hand, fell in front of the icon of the Mother of God, who was holding the Eternal Child in her arms, praying to Her to heal his right hand, that she might inscribe praises to the Lord and His Most Pure Mother for the confirmation of the Orthodox Faith - and his prayer was heard: the hand, applied to the place from which it had been cut off, united with the body and was healed (“Chets-Minea”, 4 December). Since then St. John, wanting to be faithful to his vow in the face of the Mother of God, decided to devote himself entirely to the service of the Orthodox Church. Having long thought about the monastic life, he now immediately renounced the world and, despite the requests of the caliph, who wanted to make up for his injustice with new mercies, he left his court and his very homeland. Having distributed all his property to the churches, relatives and the poor, freeing his slaves and servants, he went first of all to Jerusalem, wanting to venerate the holy places, and then came to the Lavra of St. Savva remained there forever to practice monastic deeds. Despite neither his learning nor his sufficient experience in the Christian life, he began with obedience. His mentor was a simple old man, not versed in worldly sciences, but deeply comprehending the science of spiritual perfection. Fearing that the very education and celebrity of his student would not serve him to his detriment, giving rise to conceit and secret pride in him, he commanded him not to do anything of his own free will, not to write anything, and not even to teach anyone any teaching orally, but to observe silence with reasoning. St. John obeyed his leader in everything, and his obedience extended to complete selflessness. In only one case, he seemed to unwittingly violate the elder’s commandment. One of the monks of the same monastery, after the death of his own brother, resorted to Saint John with a request to write him a spiritual song as a consolation. The brother’s prayers, tears and spells persuaded St. John to the fulfillment of his desire: he composed touching funeral songs, which are still sung by the Church at the tombs of the departed: “What worldly sweetness of sorrow is not part of - people who are troubled in vain,” and so on, and he himself, in inspiration, began to sing them in his cell. But this act, which apparently exposed the imperfection in John as a student of the ascetic life, actually served as an opportunity to discover in him perfections that were sufficient for a teacher of ascetics. The strict mentor expelled him from his cell for disobedience and, despite anyone’s petitions, did not want to accept him again. No matter how cruel and undeserved such punishment seemed, John himself did not consider himself unworthy of it and was ready to endure everything to atone for his offense. Imagining himself as a new Adam, expelled from the paradise of sweets, he prostrated himself with tears at the door of the imprisoned cell and asked for mercy for himself, as a criminal. This very thing already revealed in him an excess of that very virtue for the imaginary lack of which he was punished. But when the elder assigned him a painful penance (to cleanse all the stench of the monastery) and his humble disciple immediately began to carry out the orders of his elder mentor, then it was fully revealed that Saint John had reached the highest degree of self-sacrifice and humility, which is why the elder himself hastened to free him from penance and, rejoicing in spirit that the Lord had granted him to raise such a great ascetic, with love and respect introduced him back to his cell. Thus purified from earthly and passionate thoughts and feelings, St. John prepared himself as an instrument of the Spirit to sing praises to God our Savior, to confess the mysteries of His economy and to repel the machinations of the lying spirit from the sons of the Orthodox Church. The Mother of God herself finally commanded the elder to release John’s lips from silence and not to block them any longer for the glory of God. From that time on, various creations of St. began to appear one after another. John, many of whom were included in church services. According to legend, he began his solemnly touching chants by composing the famous irmos (1st tone): “Your victorious right hand was gloriously glorified in the fortress,” in memory of the miraculous healing of his own right hand. Patriarch John of Jerusalem ordained St. John as presbyter of the Church of Jerusalem and commissioned him to preach the word of God in this Church; but he, having learned to fear worldly glory as the most dangerous enemy, soon left this ministry and returned to his solitude, where he freely began to compile various works for the benefit of the Church. Not content, however, with the writings alone, St. John, with apostolic zeal, went around the cities and towns of Palestine, exhorting Christians to firmly and immutably keep their fatherly traditions and not to be carried away by the flattery of ancient and modern heretics. The last days of the life of his St. John spent peacefully at the monastery of St. Savva, without ceasing to study until his very blessed death the soul-helping works with which he so enriched the Orthodox Church. His death dates back to 780; but with undoubted certainty the year of his death is as unknown as the year of his birth. His memory in the Greek-Russian Church is celebrated on December 4, in the Western Church on May 6 (“Sunday Reading”, 1854, No. 35). Damascene, according to Constantine Akropolitus, “decorated the Resurrection of Christ with his melodic songs...” His Sunday canons, Chapter 8, are known. and service of St. Easter. What the Great Canon of Andrew is in the field of songs of repentance, the Easter canon is in the kind of highly solemn church hymns: it is “the most solemn and sweetest song of joy about the Conqueror of death and hell.” For the holidays (Dec. 25, 17, Jan. 6, Pentecost, Ascension, Aug. 6 and 15, Sept. 8, etc.), John composed many songs - he honored the memory of the saints (M. 6, 8, 9; John 29; Jan. 1, 10, etc.). In total, he compiled about 60 canons and other songs (“Glorious Ever-Virgin...”, “All my hope...”, “Have mercy on us, Lord...”, “To Your Most Pure Image...”, etc.). But the main merits of Damascene, by which he can be called the “most important” of the songwriters, are his singing and musical works. Even before John, some songwriters turned to Greek musical theory to apply it to liturgical singing. Ambrose in the West establishes quadruple harmony, Pope Gregory complements it; in the East, Ephraim the Syrian, John Chrysostom, and Athanasius the Great were already engaged in the preliminary development of church singing according to the types of voices (see "Church Bulletin", No. 13, 1890). Damascene appears, who systematically sets out the theory of church singing, dividing it into eight voices based on Greek musical modes. The work of Damascene “Octoechus” is known as a practical application of the theory of church osmoglasiya. This was the first Christian book of music that brought about a change in the entire composition of the church service. The current content of it (music) is known; Damascene owns: stichera on “I cried to the Lord,” Sunday stichera with the Theotokos dogmatism, sedalny, antiphons, irmos and praise stichera. For some songs, Octoechos had a melody written on top of the text in hook signs; others sang songs following the example of the iotized songs, stichera with notes were called “self-concordant”, and exemplary chants in the canon were called “irmos”. The chants, sung according to the model of “self-concordant” stichera, were inscribed with “likenesses” (such and such stichera). In the canon, the main role was played by the Irmos. “Irmos imparts order to the troparions and the tone of their singing... the troparia are measured according to the melody of the irmos, taking on the same harmony that the irmos have” (Zonara). “Singers in singing troparions conform to the rhythm and tone of the irmos...” (Greek “Typikon”). According to the tradition of the Greek Church, Damascus belongs to the melody “Taste and see”, chapter 1, of the Cherubim song, chapter. 6, “Now are the powers...” and “Representation of Christians...” 18. The singing laid down by Damascene is unison, that is, in one voice, with a rhythm consistent with the text of the chant. Great was the merit of Damascene for his contemporaries: his “Octoechos” was accepted throughout the East during his lifetime. The spirit of the times attracted imaginary experts in singing and the ignorant to the distortion of the decorous and decorous singing of the Orthodox. Octoechos performed a tremendous service in this case; with osmonic singing, the worshipers were no longer entertained by the variety of melodies, but a certain number of tunes more clearly expressed the spirit and content of the chant; it also protected liturgical singing from the inventions of irreverent art. The singing, composed by John mainly from such melodies that are capable of expressing feelings suitable for a Christian, was simple, understandable to the soul of a Christian and disposed him to prayer... VIII. St. Cosmas of Maium. Saint Cosmas, having lost his parents in infancy, was taken from Jerusalem, where he was born, to Damascus by the pious parents of St. John of Damascus and was raised by them together with John, not as someone else’s child, but on an equal basis with their own son. When these God-fearing people wanted to begin the education of their children, the Lord Himself sent them a mentor, enriched with all useful information. It was the elderly monk Cosmas the Italian, who was ransomed from captivity from the Saracens by the parents of Damascus and settled by them in their home as a home teacher for the children. The education of the young men went well: soon both of them completed it together. The mentor said that he was no longer able to satisfy the curiosity of his students and retired to the nearest monastery to seek from the monks the highest, as he said, wisdom, to which earthly science only leads us. Soon after the departure of the elder mentor, the parents of the saint departed to the Lord. John of Damascus; then John took the place of his father under the caliph of Damascus. It is not known whether St. followed his friend into his new, difficult life. Cosma. Perhaps he, earlier than John, comprehended the value and dignity of wisdom, which the teacher told them about, and after the mentor he himself, leaving everything, entered the monastery. But the fraternal relations of St. friends did not end with their separation; St. Cosmas, it is written in his life, stirred up his friend, the zealous John, to refute the iconoclastic heresy that had arisen, and he himself labored a lot in word and writing against it. In the monastery he began to compose his chants; but he composed most of his delightful songs already on the episcopal throne of the Palestinian city of Maium near Gaza, to which the Patriarch of Jerusalem elevated him in 735 for his wisdom and virtues. Few of his creations are inscribed with the name of Cosmas the monk; in most of his hymns “Cyrus” (lord) is added to his name, meaning the archpastoral rank. St. Cosmas died in 777; His memory is celebrated on October 12th. “The songs of Cosmas,” says one of our spiritual writers, “are filled with extraordinary pleasantness and spiritual sweetness. Simplicity, picturesqueness and delineation, abundance and anointing are their distinctive properties. Therefore, they have a special ability to excite and develop a sense of piety, delighting it with divine things” 19. And everyone who is familiar with these priceless creations will fully agree with the judgment of the pious critic about them. Even unjustified Christians are surprised at the canons of Saint Cosmas and call them more pleasant than the canons of Damascus himself. In them, the holy singer sings sacred events with such holy art that for the listener these events are revealed in a kind of living picture and seem to take place before his eyes. Thus, in the canon at the Nativity of Christ, the mystery of the birth of God the Word and His glorification on earth is gradually depicted. The singer sings that the wise Creator, seeing the death of man created by His hands, bows to the heavens and, hidden from the powers of heaven, incarnates and becomes human. Mortal Adam, who underwent corruption, seeing Him incarnate from the Virgin, exclaims: “He who became like me for my sake is holy, O Lord!” Then, after confessing the benefits of the incarnation of God, the singer sings that He who rules over the most pure powers reclines in a wordless manger and the young Child is wrapped in swaddling clothes, but together the Father and Ruler of the future age, the Angel of the Great Council and the mighty God, containing His entire creation in His power. Having depicted the worship of the shepherds and wise men in two beautiful songs, he fixes his gaze on the one Infant God and cries out in spiritual delight: “I see an extraordinary and wonderful sacrament: the den is the sky; Virgo is the throne of the Cherubim; a manger is a container in which the incontainable Christ God reclines: Him we, chanting, magnify.” The canon ends with a song about the secret return of the Magi and their desecration of the fierce child killer Herod. Solemn and filled with sweet feelings of Christian tenderness is the canon of St. Cosmas for the Presentation of the Lord. After the most solemn troparion. “Let the clouds drop water, for the sun - Christ, - enveloped in a light cloud, with imperishable arms, appeared in the church like a baby...” - the singer turns to Simeon the God-Receiver with a touching appeal: “Strengthen, Simeon’s hands, weakened by old age, and the decrepit feet of the elder, move quickly to meet Christ...”, and again turns to nature, may she triumph, for the Firstborn of The Father before all ages and the first-born Child of the Virgin, incorruptible, extends the hand of salvation to Adam and reveals human nature, which came from the earth and departs again into it, to be consistent with the Divinity. Then, after the praises to the One who appeared, one hears the joyful conversation of the Mother of God to Elder Simeon and his response to the words of the Imperishable: “Receive with joy, Simeon, the infant Christ,” the Mother of God cries. The Divine Elder, seeing the Word held in the hands of the Mother, understood the glory revealed in ancient times to the prophet, and exclaimed: “Rejoice, Most Honest One! You, like a throne, hold God, who rules over the unstoppable light and peace, but I am afraid to accept the Infant God into my arms.” From the blessed Mother, the elder turns to Her Son, and, confessing Him as his God, asks Him for permission to go to hell, in order to “notify Adam and preach to Eve that God will soon descend to hell and give freedom to the captives.” Turning again to the Mother of God, he predicts Her suffering. At the conclusion of the canon, having called upon the faithful to magnify the First-Born Word of the Beginningless Father, the Son of the First-born Mother, the singer sings to Christ the joyful voice of Simeon and the sacred confession of the chaste and venerable old woman Anna the Prophetess; touching prayers and magnifications precede the irmos and troparia of the last song. These are the most touching appeals of the songwriter to the Mother of God, to Saints Simeon and Anna, to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Most Holy Trinity and again to the Ever-Virgin: “Virgin Mother of God, cover, protect and save the hope of Christians who trust in You.” “Virgin Mother of God, good Helper of the world, cover and protect from all need and sorrow.” “God-bearing Simeon, come and raise up Christ, Whom the pure Virgin Mary gave birth to.” “Elder Simeon embraces the Maker of the Law and the Lord of all with his arms.” “It is not the elder who holds Me, but I who hold him: he is asking for forgiveness from Me.” “Mysterious tick 20, how do you carry coal, how do you feed the one who feeds everything?” “O daughter of Fanuilev! Come and stand with us and thank Christ the Savior, the Son of God.” “Chaste Anna proclaims the terrible, confessing Christ, Creator of heaven and earth.” “What has been done for You is incomprehensible to angels and men, O pure Mother of God!” “The pure Dove, the undefiled Lamb brings the Lamb and the Shepherd to the church.” “Oh Christ the King of all! Grant victories against your enemies to your faithful servant our Emperor.” “Oh Christ the King of all! Give me warm tears, so that I may cry my soul, even though I have perished in evil.” “Let us piously praise the Triple and Trinitarian Deity.” “Oh Virgin Mary! Enlighten the whole soul, darkened by the cruelty of worldly pleasures” (see “History of liturgical hymns of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Church”), IX. St. Theophan the Inscribed. St. Theophan the Inscribed was born at the beginning of the 9th century in Jerusalem from St. parents. His father, St. Jonah was a presbyter. When the elder brother, St. Theodore the Inscribed was coming of age; their parents sent both sons to the Lavra of Saint Sava to one enlightened and virtuous presbyter, so that the children would learn from him the word of God and the fear of the Lord. This was during the reign of Leo the Armenian. Having soon appeared to the iconoclast king as envoys of his accusers on behalf of the Jerusalem Patriarch Thomas, the holy brothers were sent to prison by him. Freed from their bonds by Michael Travlius, they went to Constantinople and here they converted many to the Orthodox faith, for which, through the machinations of the iconoclast John (later Patriarch of Constantinople), they were put in prison, and from there they were taken to imprisonment in Sosphenium. From here, under Michael’s son Theophilus, by his command, they were moved to Afusia and, after suffering here, they were summoned by the emperor, who, when the holy brothers appeared before him, poured out all his rage on these most zealous champions of Orthodoxy. To intimidate all icon-worshipers, Theophilus ordered an inscription to be written on the faces of the confessors and sent them to Palestine. They tormented St. for a whole day. the sufferers painted their faces, blood flowed in streams, and finally the inscription was finished. It consisted of the following verses: “To all who wish to see the city where the purest feet of God the Word stood in establishing the truth! These, who were in that sacred place, like dishonest vessels of superstition, through treachery and error, defiled by many vile deeds, not tolerated anywhere, like apostates, accidentally appeared in the reigning city; but for not abandoning obscene madness they are again condemned and expelled, with signs burned on their foreheads, in the likeness of those executed.” Departing, St. the sufferers spoke to the tormentors: “Know, all who hear, that the Cherubim, the guardian of paradise, when he sees this mark on our faces, will retreat before us, and the flaming weapon will give way, giving us free entry into paradise. For since ages there has not been such a new torment. And these inscriptions will be found on our faces even on the day of judgment, and you will be commanded to read them, according to what has been said: since you have created one of these least of my brothers, you have created for me.” In Apamia of Bithynia, where they were imprisoned by order of John, St. Theodore died. Saint Theophan, who mourned him with a beautiful song 21, lived to see those days when the light of Orthodoxy shone and the darkness of the iconoclastic heresy, which had troubled the Church of Christ for 120 years, was completely driven away. Summoned with other St. fathers from imprisonment after the death of Theophilus by his pious wife Theodora, he appeared in Constantinople, wearing on his face a clear sign of a brilliant victory over evil and, according to the biography, was among the fathers like a Cherub among the angels. Having decorated the celebration of the restoration of St. with a solemn song. icons, St. Theophan was ordained by the holy Patriarch of Constantinople Methodius the Confessor as Metropolitan of the famous Nicaea after twenty-five years (from 817 to 842) of suffering for Orthodoxy 22 . The following hymns belong to St. Theophan the Inscribed: 1) in the Octoechos canons: for angels, apostles and about the dead; 2) in the Lenten Triodion - canons: in the week of Orthodoxy two, matins and compline, in the middle of the 4th week of fasting and four initial songs of the first canon on Saturday Vaiy; 3) in the Colored Triodion - canons: to the Most Holy Theotokos on the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearers, at Mid-Pentecost and to the Holy Spirit at Compline of Pentecost; 4) in the Menaions - the fourth stichera for the litia on September 14, stichera for the Epiphany for praise on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th of January, the fifth stichera for praise and the canon of the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In addition to these, the following canons are found in the monthly Menaions: Patriarch Sophronius, Theophylact, Bishop of Nicomedia, Cyril of Alexandria, Martyr Savin, Martyrs Chrysanthus and Darius, Stephen the Wonderworker, George the Victorious and Theodore the Inscribed 23. All the hymns of St. are filled with spiritual joy and beauty. Feofan, especially beautiful are his canon for the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos and verse songs for St. lights of the Lord's appearances. The canon for the Annunciation is compiled in colloquial form in alphabetical order up to the 8th song, which, together with the 9th, belongs to St. John of Damascus and also written in the form of a conversation between the Mother of God and the archangel of the gospel. St. Theophan in his songs spread the beautiful song of St. John: “David, your forefather, O Lady, sing to You, moving the spiritual lyre: listen, daughter, to the joyful voice of the angel; for he proclaims to You joy unspeakable.” After this solemn appeal of the singer to the Most Rev. The Mother of God begins a conversation between the angel and the Mother of God. Angel: “In joy I cry to You: incline Your ear and listen now to Him who proclaims the seedless conception of God: for You, the All-Pure One, have found such grace before the Lord as no other woman has ever found.” Theotokos: “I would like to know the power of your words, angel: tell me more clearly: how will what you say come true? How will I, the young Virgin, conceive? and how can I become the matter of my Creator? Angel: “It seems that You think that my words are insidious: I rejoice, seeing Your caution: but take heart, Lady, for whenever God pleases, then the extraordinary is conveniently accomplished.” Theotokos: “The prince of Judas is gone, and the time has already come in which the aspiration of the peoples, Christ, is to appear; but will you explain to Me how I can give birth to Him, being a Virgin?” The angel responds to this that the image of conception is indescribable and it will be accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit. Rev. The Virgin expresses fear of being seduced, like her foremother. The angel responds that he is God’s representative and that he will tell Her divine advice. To Her further questions, how She can give birth to God, give birth and remain incorruptible, he points to the prototypes of the miraculous birth and the Old Testament prophecies about it. Then the God-wise Virgin, convinced of the truth of his words, answers: “Having received your joyful voice, Gabriel, I am filled with divine joy, for you proclaim joy, and endless joy.” Angel: “Divine joy has been given to you, Mother of God! To you, Bride of God, all creation exclaims: Rejoice, for You alone, the Most Pure One, are predestined to be the matter of the Son of God!” The songs of Epiphany also, after the solemn praises of the singer, contain conversations between the Lord, asking for baptism from John, and the Baptist, refusing to fulfill this terrible task for him. To the Lord’s invitation to the Forerunner to baptize Him, this one responds: “I have not traced the heights of heaven, the number of stars, the lower earth I have measured, and which of Your heights will I touch with my hand? How can I baptize You, who carries a handful of creatures? In the same way I call to You: Blessed is our God, glory to You.” “I am co-throne with the Father and the Spirit, supported by angelic armies,” the Lord answers, “but wandering in a small den, I was born in Bethlehem for goodness sake. Therefore, now lend your right hand to Me, so that I may wash away the sins of the world in Me.” “You sometimes drowned sin under Noah, in a word you opened up the abysses of heaven; and how will Jordan endure seeing You? Turn away the stream already. All creation knows You, and I call to You: Blessed is Our God, glory to You!” “May the Father's favor be fulfilled, and he came to earth, clothed in poverty; heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool; I bow my neck to you, for this I came, to baptize Me, in Me you cleanse the sins of men.” “You are a pillar and a cloud before Israel, a light guide and waterer in the desert; You, who rule over all, unspeakable by nature, have you dressed yourself in the form of a slave? I will not touch You with this fire; Baptize me myself, because I demand that You accept cleansing.” “Why don’t you imagine, O Baptist, that I will bring about salvation for everyone? Leave the ancient things behind now and think useful thoughts: believe in God who came down and come and serve Me; God came, for mercy, to cleanse Adam from the fall.” “Take our sins upon your shoulders; you have come, O Jesus, to the streams of the Jordan; I was horrified by Your terrible coming. Why on earth did You order to baptize You? You yourself came to cleanse me, and how did you ask for baptism from Me, cleansing everyone?” “Come, do not be afraid, draw close to Me. Placing My right hand on top, I cried: Blessed is our God, glory to You!” “O Thy immeasurable poverty, O Word of God, above the mind! For the sake of the fallen, I knew You for your mercy, having clothed yourself with Adam, and renewing those who are from Adam, and obey Your command, I faithfully call You: Blessed are you, our God, glory to You.” In addition to the creations we have counted, St. Theophan also owns a canon on the exodus of the soul, which is also a wonderful creation. Western scientists also praise him 24 . X. St. Joseph the Songwriter. St. Joseph the Songwriter was born at the beginning of the 9th century in Sicily from pious parents Plotinus and Agathia, who gave their son a good education. Retiring from his homeland with his parents on the occasion of the invasion of Sicily by the Mohammedan Arabs, St. Joseph parted with them in the Peloponnese and retired to Thessalonica, where he entered a monastery and took monastic vows. For his strict asceticism and holy life, and at the request of the abbot of the monastery, the Bishop of Thessalonica ordained him a presbyter. Soon St. arrived here. Gregory Dekapolit. He became a friend of Joseph and took him with him to Byzantium, which was then troubled by the heresy of iconoclasm. The holy men, having settled in Byzantium, at the church of St. martyrs Sergius and Bacchus, from here they walked around the streets and squares of the city, and also visited houses, everywhere begging the faithful not to be seduced by heresy. From Byzantium St. Gregory sent his friend to Pope Leo 3rd to announce the disasters of the Greek Church; but the sea robbers, bribed by the iconoclasts to capture all the fugitives and present them into their hands, seized Joseph and brought him to Crete. Here he was put in prison, where he spent six years, and was a guardian angel for the other prisoners in it. In the year of the death of Leo the Armenian (820), Saint Nicholas appeared to Joseph and, informing him of the death of his persecutor, miraculously freed him from his shackles, after which St. The prisoner was even more miraculously transported to Constantinople. St. was no longer alive. Gregory, and St. Joseph settled at his tomb together with Gregory's disciple, Blessed John, and after his death he moved to a secluded place outside the city, near the church of St. John Chrysostom. Having built a church here in the name of St. Nicholas, St. Joseph transferred the relics of St. Gregory and Blessed John and soon built a monastery and gathered the brethren. Having received part of the relics of St. Apostle Bartholomew, St. Joseph created a church in his monastery in the name of this apostle and placed his incorruptible remains in it. He wished to decorate the memory of St. Bartholomew with chants, but wondering whether St. will please. The apostle did not dare to fulfill this desire. Meanwhile, flaming with this desire, St. husband forty days before the upcoming feast of St. Bartholomew, intensified his prayers to the Lord, asking him to reveal whether the Divine pleases his desire, and if it pleases, to bestow wisdom from above, so that he can worthily praise St. Apostle of Christ. On the eve of the feast of St. The apostle himself appears to Bartholomew at the altar to Joseph, dressed in white vestments, and calls Joseph from the church where he was praying to come to him. When this one approached the royal doors with trepidation, St. Apostle Bartholomew took the Gospel from the throne and, placing it on his chest, said: “May the right hand of Almighty God bless you, and may the waters of heavenly wisdom flow onto your tongue! May your heart be the throne of the Holy Spirit, and may your songs delight the universe!” Having said this, the apostle became invisible, and St. Joseph, filled with unspeakable joy, prostrated himself all to thanksgiving 25 . From then on he began to compose his sweet chants. Theophilus the iconoclast drove him into captivity, from where, returned with other fathers by Queen Theodora, Joseph was made from St. Ignatius as the guardian of the Great Church. He again suffered imprisonment from Varda for his denunciations. Returned under Basil the Macedonian, he received from St. Photius is in charge of the entire church building. Both Ignatius and Photius loved and deeply revered St. Joseph, already an old man at that time. Photius called him a man of God, father of fathers, angel in the flesh and, having chosen him as his confessor, ordered the entire clergy to come to him for confession. St. died at a very old age. Joseph, exhausted in body from the many labors in which he labored in his youth, from the fasting life, as well as from the bonds and sufferings that he repeatedly endured for the sake of the Lord. On the night from Wednesday to Thursday of Bright Week, he died the death of a righteous man, having been previously notified by God of his approaching death. This was in the year 883 on the 4th day of April, when it is celebrated by the Church of St. and the all-praised memory of this St. songwriter (“Cheti-Minei”). The following hymns belong to St. Joseph: 1) in the Octoechos canons: repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ, St. John the Baptist, St. Cross, St. Nicholas and all the saints; 2) in the Colored Triodion, the canon for the week of the Samaritan, the eighth and ninth songs of the second canon for the Ascension and the three songs for every weekday from the week of St. Thomas to the week of All Saints, placed at the end of our Triodion; in the Menaions of the month there are one hundred and eighty canons for the Lord's feasts and saints' days 26. One of the best works of St. Joseph must be recognized by his three-songs and four-songs of penticostarion. In them, bright, full of lively joy, victorious songs about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, His victory over hell and death, about His glorification in heaven and the sending down from the Father of the Spirit equal to Himself to the disciples are dissolved with touching prayers to the Lord Jesus and to His Most Pure Mother. The singer combined in these hymns the pomp of the Sunday canons of Damascus with the quiet solemnity of the hymns of Anatoly and Andrew. Either he preaches the sublime mystery of our salvation, then he confesses to God the Savior, then he tenderly prays to Him; and his song turns from a solemn gospel into an expression of joy, then becomes a prayer and again turns into a gospel. By the picturesqueness of the images in which St. singer of the most sacred events, both these and other hymns have many similarities with the hymns of St. Cosmas of Maium, whom St. imitated above all other songwriters. Joseph in his works 27. The tripongs are particularly beautiful, in which St. Joseph sings of the ascension of the Lord and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. Let us cite a few of these sweet songs: “Rising from earth to heaven, you were not separated from the Father and neighbor, the Master, and the Spirit, whose disciple you sent from heaven the Comforter.” “We carry it on the frame of the cherub, You are exalted in glory, Your disciple beholding You, O Lord, and crying out unceasingly: Sing all the works of the Lord to the Lord and exalt Him forever!” “You first descended without flesh, but you ascended wearing flesh, even as you received it, the gates of heaven were opened to You with fear, and the heavenly minds saw, marveled, saying: glory to us for your sake, O Master, at your descent!” “Beholding the terrible dawn of the Word, the disciples cried out: eat us of the Most Holy Spirit, and do not forsake Thy servants, who know Thee to be true God and sinless man.” “Clap your hands, O Gentiles, shout to God in joy; Christ has ascended and sits in glory at the right hand, as he is co-throned with the Father forever.” “Take up the gates of thought, the heavenly powers, our King has come, received the dead creature, and this God and man will go in to His Father, having done a terrible and glorious thing.” “Sing all wisely, shout to God, who has done glorious deeds and ascended to the heavenly ones and sent down the Holy Spirit as an apostle, enlightening us who glorify His Divinity.” “Take the gates, understand the glorious one, the mental powers cry out to the highest: the King of all, bearing his body on earth, has come to us in His rest, having deified people for His mercy and immeasurable mercy.” “Now ascend in glory upon the clouds, who then is? The highest ranks reproached those crying out to them: take away the intelligent gates, the only God who has united the heavens on earth, to this greatness and glory we will bring with fear.” “The fallen nature of Adam is seen in the highest, gloriously enthroned on the throne of the Father, and is always worshiped by angels and archangels, from the throne, the powers and the principalities: glory to him who has so willed our only God.” “Thou hast brought our firstfruits to Thy Father, O Saviour, and having given us the nature of divine riches, Thou hast sent the good and life-creating Holy Spirit, co-original with Thee, O Master.” “Thou didst show the heavens, O Savior, Thy divine disciples speaking tongues of fire, Thy terrible descent to us, now sending a light-giving effect upon them, from the heavens of the Comforter” 28. (See “History of Liturgical Hymns of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Church,” pp. 187–197). B. Wives of the composer of church hymns I. First of all, let us name the sister of Moses and Aaron Miriam, who miraculously glorified God the Leader after Israel crossed the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21–23): “Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted” (Exodus 15:21). The Song of Mariam in some of its parts served as the content for the first irmos of the great canon of the first week of St. Pentecostals: “Helper and Patron be my salvation...” II. Devorah, a judge of Israel and a prophetess (Judg. 4:4), after the ruler of Israel, Barak, defeated Sisera, the general of the Canaanite king Jabin (Judg. 4:10–24), sang to Jehovah the Patron, who united the tribes of Israel under the rule of Barak and her, Devorah, and who showed His power in the victory of the chosen people (Judg. ch. 5). III. When mentioning the compilers of church hymns, one cannot remain silent about the songs of Anna the prophetess, the mother of Samuel the prophet. True, this is not a song in the strict sense, but a prayer of a grateful soul (1 Samuel 2:1-10); but it poured out from the soul in measured Jewish speech and was sung during divine services in the Old Testament Church. From Jewish worship it moved into the worship of the Christian Church, in which all the Old Testament songs about St. Anna. Chrysostom says: “If you go to Scythia, to Egypt, to India, and even to the end of the universe, you will hear how everyone glorifies the virtues of that wife. Anna’s glory embraces the whole earth, wherever the sun shines.” There is no doubt that this universal fame of Anna the prophetess should be attributed to the general use of her song-prayer throughout the entire Church. IV. The Most Honest Cherub and the most glorious without comparison Seraphim herself left us an example of a song of praise to the Creator (Luke 1:46-55). Who does not know this wonderful hymn and who does not listen to it with deep tenderness at every Matins before the 9th ode of the canon? Glorifying the Lord, the Mother of God borrows Her expressions from the biblical history of women who before Her were filled with joy under the influence of maternal feelings, such as: Leah (Gen. 30:13) and Anna, the mother of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:1-10), but gives them greater breadth and imagery. “The expressions of the folk hymns,” says one writer, “in which the glory of Her countrymen is sung, the mercy, power, wisdom and faithfulness of God are repeated in the hymn of the Blessed Virgin.” V. During the period of the struggle of still young Christianity with outdated paganism, she became famous for composing and performing hymns of St. on the instrument. Cicilia, a beautiful image of which was immortalized by Raphael in one of his paintings in Bologna. Raphael depicted St. Kikilia at that moment when she is stopped in her singing by the sounds of another - angelic music, which she hears above her. VI. During the triumph of Christianity over paganism, the name of the 9th century nun Icasia (or Cassia), also known as Cassian, shines in the matter of composing “divine prayers.” The biography of this woman is interesting. One historian, from the words of one Byzantine chronicle, reports that when Emperor Theophilus (829-844) wished to enter into a second marriage, his stepmother Euphrosyne, having sent to all regions, collected beautiful girls for marriage selection for her stepson. She placed them all in a chamber called the “pearl triclinium” and handed Theophilus a gold ring with the words: “Give it to the one you like.” Among the brides there was one noble maiden named Ikasia, extremely beautiful. Emperor Theophilus, seeing her and admiring her beauty, said: “Didn’t evil flow through the woman?” Ikasia modestly objected: “But the best begins through the wife.” Offended by the objection, the emperor rejected Icasia and gave the ring to Theodora, a Paphlagonian by birth. It is further narrated about Icasia that soon after that she retired to a monastery, where she spent her life, probably reaching the rank of abbess. Confined to a monastery, Ikasia was busy composing pious works in poetry and prose. Thus, according to the Lenten Triodion, she owns the irmos from the first to the sixth canon of the canon for Holy Saturday, the first canto, “By the wave of the sea...”, the third canto, “To you, who hung the whole earth on the waters...”, the fourth canto, “On the cross, Thy divine providence...” and the fifth canto, “Thy Epiphany, O Christ, which mercifully came to us, Isaiah saw the eternal light.” Then the famous troparion of the Lenten Triodion is attributed to Icasia: “Lord, even the wife has fallen into many sins...”, sung on Holy Wednesday and supposedly composed regarding Theophilus’s rejected desire to see Icasia. Finally, scientists consider the stichera on November 13 and 25, December 24 and June 29 to belong to Icasia (in Greek texts). (See "The Helmsman", 1895, No. 15). Conversation No. 1. About the conditions of prayer favorable to God I. If you want, beloved brother, for your prayer to be pleasing to God, then first learn how to perform it. II. a) The Wise One says: “Before you begin to pray, prepare yourself, and do not be like a man who tempts the Lord” (Sir.18:23). This means: first put aside all worldly cares, cut off all vain thoughts, then turn your whole mind to God, stand before Him with fear, reverently, as you stand before an earthly king, then pray with attention, as David teaches: “Sing to our God, sing wisely” (Ps. 46:7-8), that is, listen and understand what you read and sing in prayer. What is the use of prayer that is done without attention and without meaning? There is prayer on the lips, but sinful thoughts on the mind, the tongue prays, but the heart insults the One to whom it is praying; The mouth honors God, but the heart is far from Him. Could such a prayer be pleasing to God? Will the Lord hear her? “How do you want the Lord to hear you when you can’t hear yourself?” - says St. Cyprian. - “You want God to remember you when you pray, but yet you yourself don’t remember what you’re doing!” Prayer without attention is like a censer without fire and incense, like a lamp without oil, like a body without a soul. This is an insult, displeasure to Christ our God, for it is not the words emanating from the mouth that implore Him, but the mind directed towards Him - not the voice of your larynx enters the mouth of the Lord, but the sighing of a contrite heart. b) Then, if you want to send up a prayer pleasing to God, then send it with faith and hope, undoubtedly, as St. ap. Jacob: “Let him ask in faith, without doubting in the least, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, tossed and tossed by the wind. Let such a person not think that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6–7). And St. Theophylact says: “If a person does not believe that he will receive what he asks from God for good, then he prays in vain.” And Climacus says that without faith, prayer cannot fly to heaven. c) Kindness and mercy, forgiveness for a brother who has sinned and alms to the one who asks - these are the two wings of prayer. If you want to ask God for something, then first do not refuse the one who asks you. If you seek the forgiveness of Christ, then first forgive the brother who grieved you. And the Gospel commands first to be reconciled with your brother, and then to offer a gift to God with prayer. d) When praying, you also need fasting, you need patience, work, and the mortification of sinful desires. But what is needed most is a clear conscience. “If our heart (that is, conscience) does not blind us,” says the beloved disciple of Christ, “then we have boldness towards God, and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:21-22). A pure heart, a clear conscience - this is a sign of godly prayer; Let us clear our conscience with true repentance, we will fulfill the commandments of the Lord - and the Lord will hear our prayers. Why sometimes does He not listen to the prayers of sinful people? Yes, because these people themselves do not listen to His commands. So the wise Solomon says: “Whoever turns away his ear from hearing the law (of the Lord), his prayer is an abomination” (Proverbs 28:9). III. These, brethren, are the most important conditions for prayer favorable to God. Let us always observe them, approaching God in prayer. (Compiled from the book “Lessons and Examples of Christian Hope” by Priest G. Dyachenko). Conversation No. 2. About how to arouse the spirit of prayer in yourself I. The work of prayer is the first task in Christian life. Prayer is the breath of the spirit. There is prayer - the spirit lives; no prayer - no life in the spirit. Standing in front of an icon and bowing down is not yet prayer, but only an accessory to prayer; reading prayers - from memory or from a book, or listening to them - is not yet prayer, but only an instrument of prayer, or a way of discovering and inciting it. Prayer itself is the emergence in our hearts of one after another reverent feelings towards God: feelings of self-abasement, devotion, thanksgiving, glorification, petition, contrition, submission to the will of God, diligent prostration, etc. All our concern here should be that during our prayer these and similar feelings fill our soul - so that our heart is not empty. When he has all these feelings or any one of them directed towards God, then our prayer is prayer, and when not, it is not yet prayer. II. Prayer, or the aspiration of the heart to God, needs to be aroused and the excited one strengthened, or - which is the same thing - you need to cultivate a prayerful spirit in yourself. a) The first way to do this is through our nourishing or listening prayer. Read or listen to the prayer book properly - and you will certainly arouse and strengthen the ascent in your heart to God, that is, you will enter the spirit of prayer. In the prayers of St. Fathers are moved by great prayer power, and whoever penetrates them with all attention and zeal will, by virtue of the law of interaction, certainly taste the power of prayer as his mood approaches the content of prayer. In order to make our prayer book a real means of cultivating prayer, it is necessary to perform it in such a way that both the thought and the heart perceive the content of the prayers that make up the prayer book. Here are the three simplest techniques for this: do not start praying without proper preparation, do it not haphazardly, but with attention and feeling, and do not immediately after finishing your prayers proceed to ordinary activities. aa) Preparation for prayer. Whenever you begin to pray, wait a little, or sit, or walk, and at this time try to sober your thoughts, distracting them from all earthly affairs and objects. Then think about who is the One to whom you turn in prayer, and who you are who now has to begin this prayerful appeal to Him - and arouse in your soul the corresponding mood of self-abasement and reverent fear of standing before God in your heart. This is all a small, but significant, preparation - to stand reverently before God in the heart. Here is the beginning of prayer, and a good beginning is half the battle. bb) The very performance of prayer. Having established yourself in this way internally, stand in front of the icons, cross yourself, bow and begin the usual prayer. Read slowly, delve into every word, bring the thought of every word to your heart, accompanying this with bows - with a cross. This is the whole point of pleasing to God and fruitful reading of prayer. Delve into every word and bring the thought of the word to your heart, otherwise: understand what you read, and feel what you understand. You read: “Cleanse me from all filth,” feel your filth, desire purity and with full hope ask the Lord for it. You are reading. “Thy will be done,” and in your heart completely commit your fate to the Lord, with full readiness to graciously meet everything that the Lord sends to you. You read: “And forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors,” and in your soul forgive everyone everything and thus ask yourself for forgiveness from the Lord. If you act this way with every verse of your prayer, then you will have proper prayer. And in order for you to perform it more successfully in this way, here’s what you need to do: 1) have a well-known prayer rule - a small one, so that during your ordinary affairs you can fulfill it slowly; 2) in your free time, read the prayers of your rule, understand every word of the prayer and feel it, so that you know in advance what should be in your soul and heart at what word, so that during prayer it will be easy for you to understand and feel; 3) if your flying thought during prayer runs off to other objects, strain to maintain attention and return your thought to the subject of prayer; runs away again - return again: repeat the reading until you read every word of the prayer with understanding and feeling. By this you will wean your thoughts from distraction in prayer; 4) if any word of prayer has a strong effect on the soul, stop on it and do not read further - stand in this place with attention and feeling, saturate your soul with it or with the thoughts that it will produce - do not ruin this state until it passes by itself: this is a sign that the spirit of prayer is beginning to take root in you, and this state is the most reliable means for nurturing and strengthening the spirit of prayer in us. cc) What to do after prayer? When you finish your prayer, do not immediately move on to any activities, but also at least wait a little and think about what you have done and what it obliges you to, keeping after prayer especially what has had a strong effect on you. The very property of prayer is such that if you pray well, as you should, you will not want to quickly worry about business: whoever tastes sweet will not want bitter; and tasting this sweetness of prayer is the goal of prayer, and through this tasting the sweetness of prayer, the prayerful Spirit is cultivated in prayer. By following these few rules, you will soon see the fruits of your prayer work. Any prayer will leave a trace of prayer in the soul, its continuous continuation in the same order will root it, and patience in this work will instill the Spirit of prayer. Here is the first - the initial way to cultivate the spirit of prayer in us! This is the performance of our prayers in accordance with their purpose. But that's not all; Here lies only the beginning of the science of prayer. We need to go further. b) Having become accustomed with your mind and heart to turn to God with outside help - according to prayer books, you must then make experiments and your own ascension to God - to reach the point where the soul itself, so to speak, with its own speech, enters into a prayerful conversation with God, itself ascends to Him and reveals itself to Him and confesses what is in it and what it desires. And the soul must be taught this. What should one do to succeed in this science? And the skill of praying according to prayer books with reverence, attention and feeling leads to the same thing; for from the heart, through prayers, fulfilled by St. feelings, your own prayer to God will begin to flow out on its own. But there are also special rules for this that lead to proper success in prayer. aa) The first way to train the soul to frequently turn to God is contemplation of God, or reverent reflection on the Divine properties and actions - reflection on the goodness of God, justice, wisdom, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, on creation and providence, on the arrangement of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ - on the grace and word of God, on St. sacraments, about the Kingdom of Heaven. Whichever of these objects you begin to reflect on, this reflection will certainly fill the soul with a reverent feeling for God: it directly directs the whole being of a person to God and therefore is the most direct means of accustoming the soul to ascend to God. Having finished your prayer, especially in the morning, sit down and begin to think - now about one thing, tomorrow about another of God's properties and actions, and create a disposition in your soul corresponding to this. Talk to St. Demetrius of Rostov: “Go, St. thoughts of God, and let us immerse ourselves in meditation on the great deeds of God,” - thereby touch your heart and begin to pour out your soul in prayer. There is little labor, but much fruit. All you need is desire and determination. For example, begin to reflect on the goodness of God - you will see that you are surrounded by God’s mercies, both physically and spiritually - and you will fall before God in an outpouring of feelings of gratitude; begin to reflect on the omnipresence of God - you will understand that you are everywhere before God and God is before you - and you cannot help but be filled with reverent fear; - begin to reason about the truth of God - you will be sure that not a single bad deed will go unpunished - and you will certainly try to cleanse all your sins by heartfelt contrition before God and repentance; begin to reflect on the omniscience of God - you will realize that nothing in you is hidden from the eye of God - and you will certainly decide to be strict with yourself and attentive in everything, so as not to somehow offend the all-seeing God. bb) The second way to train the soul to frequently turn to God is to turn every deed - big and small - to the glory of God. For if we make it a rule, according to the commandment of the Apostle (1 Cor. 10:31), to do everything, even eat and drink, for the glory of God, then we will certainly remember God in every action - and we will remember not simply, but with fear, no matter how we act wrongly and offend God in some way. This will force you to turn to God with fear and prayerfully ask for help and admonition. And since we are almost constantly doing something, we will almost constantly turn to God in prayer and, therefore, we will almost constantly go through the science of lifting up to God in prayer in our souls. In this way we will teach the soul to turn to God as often as possible throughout the day. cc) The third way of training the soul to turn to God frequently is to frequently, throughout the day, cry out from the heart to God in short words, judging by the needs of the soul and current affairs. When you start, say: Lord, bless! When you finish the job, say not only with your tongue, but also with the feeling of your heart: glory to You, Lord! What passion will rise - say: save me, Lord, I am perishing! The darkness of confusing thoughts finds itself - cry out: bring my soul out of prison! Wrong deeds are coming, and sin leads to them - pray: guide me, Lord, on the path, or: do not let my feet become confused. Sins suppress and lead to despair - cry out in the publican’s voice: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. So anyway. Or just say more often: Lord, have mercy! Lady Theotokos, save me! Angel of God, my holy guardian, protect me! Or in some other word, cry out. Just make these appeals as often as possible, trying in every possible way so that they come out of the heart, as if squeezed out of it. When we do this, we will experience frequent, intelligent ascents from the heart to God, frequent appeals to God, frequent prayer; and this practice will impart the skill of intelligent conversation with God. Sh. So, in addition to the prayer rule - to teach the soul to ascend to God in prayer, there are three more ways that introduce the Spirit to prayer. This means devoting some time in the morning to contemplation of God, turning every matter to the glory of God, and often turning to God with short appeals. When the thought of God is well accomplished in the morning, it will leave a deep mood for thinking about God; thinking about God will force the soul to carefully perform every action - both internal and external - and turn it to the glory of God; and both will put the soul in such a position that short prayerful appeals to God will often come out of it. These three: thinking about God, creating everything for the glory of God, and frequent appeals are the most effective tools of mental and heartfelt prayer. Each of them lifts the soul to God. Whoever sets out to practice them will soon acquire the skill of establishing ascension in his heart to God. Having been torn away from the earth, the soul will enter its own region and will sweetly dwell in grief - here heartily and mentally, and there - and will essentially be honored to dwell in the face of God. (Compiled from the “Works” of the reclusive bishop Theophan). Conversation No. 3. How to pray in church I. I don’t think there is any need to explain to any of you the high importance of prayer. Who does not know that it is an echo of all religious feelings moving in the heart, just as it itself, having come into force, acts back on the heart and revives religious feelings in it? That is why in all paths of pious life we ​​encounter prayer as an expression of piety. Where there is no prayer, there is no piety. The field where the Spirit of prayer primarily reveals itself and comes into force is the church. Understand the meaning of prayer in church and take care to perform it here as it should. Not just going to church is the whole work of prayer, but also staying in it worthy and praying piously. I’ll tell you briefly how going to church and staying in it can be a fulfillment of our prayer duty. Here's what you need for this. II. a) When entering the church, remember that you are entering the house of God; Therefore, enter quietly, modestly, without disturbing anyone’s prayerful peace, go to your place and settle in it in a reverent position, turning your eyes either only to the shrines, or to the valley and mountain, and make bows large and small, according to the movement of your heart, not paying attention to how and what others around you are doing. This is an external order, however, without observing which it is difficult to believe that anyone would establish himself in prayer as he should. But even correctness in this does not cover the whole matter of prayer. b) We must apply spiritual work to this, namely, concentrate within ourselves. Leave all worries and all worldly thoughts behind the threshold of the church and enter it with a free soul. Then gather your attention around your heart, turn the eye of your mind to the one Lord, Who is everywhere and sees your heart, and then begin to contritely cry out to Him with inner self-abasement, falling at His invisible feet. From the first minute of entering the church, hurry to arrange yourself like this. To help yourself with this, to detached attention from everything to the Lord and to the work of prayer, add bows - large and small, teaching them and kneading your soul with them until it warms up, until the prayer candle begins to glow in your heart. Note that warmth is the foundation (i.e., the foundation) of prayer. Try to put it in your soul at the very beginning of your entry into the church. This is the most necessary link in the chain of prayer actions. c) Having established yourself this way at the very beginning, externally and internally, then continue to maintain the same mood throughout the entire service. Know that the external comes from the internal. Therefore, turn all your attention to this last point. The mind is not willing to stand on one thing for a long time and constantly strives for different thoughts and entertainment. Just as a caught bird is torn from one’s hands, so is a thought torn from the embrace of attention to soar in reverie. How can this be? Everyone knows from experience that when there is warmth in the heart, although slight, attention always hovers around the heart and the mind remains uncleared. The whole point, then, is to maintain the warmth of the heart. And for this, do this: having warmed up, as it is said, warmth in your heart from coming to church, then listen further to what is read, sung and acted in the church; understand the meaning of this and apply it to your heart - and this from the beginning of the service to the end. Just as the power of fire is hidden in flint, so in everything done in the church the power of spiritual fire is hidden. Strike it with the flint of the mind - and a spiritual spark will be emitted, which, falling on the heart, will impart warmth to it and keep it burning. Just as in a furnace the fire that is first kindled is supported by the addition of new wood, so by putting into our hearts one after another divine stimulating thoughts in accordance with the course of the service, we will maintain a warmth within us that is not only unquenchable, but also constantly rising. d) The consequence of this will be that during our entire stay in the church we will be like in a paradise of sweets, moving from one sweet sensation to another. Those who stay in church like this never have long services. For him they pass very quickly, no matter how long they last. His concern is not how to wait for the end, but that the end will not happen soon, because it is good for him to be as he is. Blessed souls! Having stocked up with such a prayerful spirit in the church, they carry it with them into their homes, bring it into all their relationships - family, everyday, work, into all orders of life and sanctify everything with prayer. Judge: if we all stayed in churches like this and left churches like this, then our entire city would be filled with a prayerful, pleasing and protective spirit. And if, like us, all other cities and towns acted in the same way, then our entire fatherland would be filled with the same spirit and would be like the camps of the Israelites, overshadowed by the pillar of cloud, which guarded them and guided them on their journey to a safe and contented Canaan. III. See what a blessing! But how much work is required to get it? Slowly enter the church and stand calmly in your place, then gather your attention and warm up the warmth of your heart, then listen to everything read, sung and acted in the church and thereby maintain the burning of your spirit - it’s so simple, uncomplicated and not difficult! No one would have thought: it was worth talking about it! Exactly! It would not be worth talking about if everyone remembered these simple rules. But since not everyone remembers, it is impossible not to remind. For no matter how simple they are, without them prayer is not prayer, and without prayer, like without breathing, there is death. When someone is brought into the church like a whirlwind, noisily passes to the place, disturbing everyone, and spins around on the spot or moves back and forth, crosses himself we don’t know how, and starts conversations to the temptation and embarrassment of everyone, how can we not remind such a person: brother, you are in a church of prayer, where they pray, you can’t behave like that there. Suspecting then, in those humbly praying, theft of the mind and empty dreams of what was and what will be, instead of paying attention to the place where they stand, and to what is happening in it, how not to remind them: return your mind to your bosom and pay attention. These rules are the same as the basics. And the basics are simple, but without knowing them, you cannot add, and without additions you cannot read. Prayer has many degrees. I showed you the first one. Enter it first, so that later you can move to the second, from the second to the third, and so on. Know that it is not otherwise than if someone begins prayerful work according to the indicated rules, his prayer will begin to grow and, passing from strength to strength, will reach the highest degrees. Grant you, Lord, this grace. Amen. (Compiled from the “Works” of Theophanes, Bishop of Tambov). Appendix to conversations No. 1–3 A. Examples of the miraculous effects of prayers 29 I. In 1619, in one of the villages of the Kyiv province, Osovets, there lived a Cossack constable named Gregory, who caused a lot of harm to his fellow villagers by stealing various livestock. All attempts by the residents of Osovets to discover the thief remained in vain for a long time. But one day, when at a general meeting, at which the secret thief Gregory was present, the offended peasants were reasoning together, coming up with ways to discover the thief, one of them, named Theodore, a pious and God-fearing man, addressed the meeting with these words: “Listen to me, brothers, a sinner. We have already gathered many times and thought and talked a lot about finding our enemy and destroyer; but all the measures we took were in vain; and therefore I propose: let us sincerely pray to God, the Knower of the Heart, and I firmly believe that He, the omniscient, will hear our prayer and show us our destroyer.” When everyone expressed their consent to Theodore’s proposal, then he, raising his hands to the sky, began to pray: “Lord our God! hear our prayer and expose him who embitters us,” and then began to read the Lord’s prayer: “Our Father...”, which those present loudly and unanimously repeated after him. But as soon as they had time to finish the words of the prayer, a great miracle happened: the constable Gregory, who was immediately present, was suddenly struck by a terrible disease in the shoulders, from which, after seven days, he died in terrible agony. The residents of Osovets clearly saw the punishing finger of God in the illness of their fellow villager Gregory and understood the miraculous power of sincere prayer. II. Another similar incident took place in 1614. The Kiev zemstvo clerk Vasily Voronich, prompted by greed, decided to take over the fishing grounds in the lake that belonged to the Mezhigorsky monastery. In vain did Abbot Gideon and the brethren of the said monastery beg Voronin not to lay claim to this lake, which had long belonged to the monastery and fed the monastery brethren with its fish: Voronich not only did not heed the requests of the abbot and brethren, but also threatened to hang anyone who dared to fish in this lake, except only his servants. Then the abbot, seeing the futility of his petition to the greedy scribe, appointed all the brethren of his monastery to fast with prayers and bows: one hundred in the morning, the same amount at noon and evening, saying: “Since our prayers could not bend our greedy enemy to the mercy, let us earnestly pray to the One who leads our grief and is able to deliver us from our enemy. And so, when the monks began to sing prayers in the church with tears and sighs, a servant came from Voronin and begged the abbot and the brethren to pray for the recovery of his master, who was suddenly struck by a terrible illness. Following this, another messenger came, asking the abbot and the brethren to come to his sick master and consecrate the oil over him. The meek abbot, having forgotten the insult, went to the sick man, who confessed his unfair claims to the monastic property and soon died. This is how God takes vengeance on those who embitter His monastic servants, who cry out to Him day and night with tears and prayers. III. But a particularly striking example of the miraculous effect of prayer took place in 1626 in the city of Chernogorodka, where at that time the Catholic bishop (i.e., bishop) Boguslav Radoshevsky lived. One day this bishop went out to look at the work of the diggers who were building an earthen rampart around the city. Suddenly he saw that a huge block of earth, breaking away from the mountain, flew into the ditch in which the diggers were working. Many of them managed to escape, but one was covered with a mass of earth more than five cubits thick. The bishop was greatly shocked by this spectacle, began to cry and grieve over the fate of the unfortunate man, considering his sins to be the cause of his misfortune. Having ordered the workers to dig up the corpse covered with earth, he himself went home. On the way to his house, the thought of working miracles in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra came to his mind, and he immediately fell prostrate to the ground and with tears began to pray to the Most Holy Theotokos of the Pechersk, saying: “O Most Holy Virgin, who chose for Herself in these countries the Pechersk Church in the village and glorified it with miracles to the glory of Your most pure name! Show now, as you always show, mercy and goodness to everyone who comes with faith to Your Pechersk Church and calls on You from the heart - show me, now falling to You, and keep this man alive and unharmed, covered with earth, and I too will go and worship You in the Pechersk Church and give thanks for this good deed; for there is no longer any hope except Your goodness, O Queen of Heaven!” Meanwhile, two hours passed after the misfortune happened to the navvy, and the bishop remained in the dark about his fate. At this time, one of the workers comes and declares to the bishop that the workers have already managed to get to the bottom of the head of their comrade, who was covered with earth, and think that he is alive. After this, the bishop began to pray even more fervently to the Most Holy Theotokos, when another messenger came, who reassured the bishop, saying that the one covered with earth was half dug up and alive. The bishop himself went to the scene of the accident and soon became convinced that the worker, who had indeed lain under a huge mass of earth for several hours, remained alive and completely unharmed, so that he could immediately begin work again together with his comrades. Having given praise to God, the bishop did not hesitate to fulfill his vow - to visit the Pechersk Church and pray before the icon of the Pechersk Mother of God. (From the handwritten notes of Metropolitan Peter Mogila, printed in the 1st part of the VII volume of the “Archive of South-Western Russia”; see “Sunday Reading”, 1888, No. 18). B. Examples of Diligent Prayerists I. The prophet David prayed at the beginning of the night, got up to pray at midnight, before dawn, prayed in the morning, in the evening and at noon. Therefore he said: “Seven times a day I glorify You for the judgments of Your righteousness” (Ps. 119:164). II. Avva Dula, student of Rev. Vissarion, said: “I entered my elder’s cell and found him standing in prayer; his hands were stretched out to the sky, and he remained in this feat for fourteen days.” (From the “Skete Patericon”). III. St. Anthony the Great often spent nights without sleep, so that the sun, which witnessed his prayerful feat when it set, found him in the same position when it appeared again on the horizon. But sometimes troubled by a spirit of despondency, he sighed before the Lord that such embarrassment was hindering him in the work of salvation, leading him out of the state of inner bliss that he had gained in prayerful communication with the Lord, and prayed for admonition. After prayer, he one day left his cell and saw a certain stranger who, looking like himself, was sitting and working, then got up from work and prayed; then he sat down again and twisted the rope; Then he got up again to pray. It was the angel of the Lord sent to instruct and strengthen Anthony. And the angel said aloud to him: “Do this and you will be saved.” Hearing this, Anthony was very happy and observed this rule throughout his life, moving from work to prayer and from prayer to work. But it can hardly be said that he ever stopped praying, because even while working, his thoughts constantly rose to God. In the subsequent period of his life, prayer for him was no longer a rule, but a pleasure. Turning to the east in the evening, he stood in prayer, and when, after the night had passed, daylight came, he exclaimed: “O sun, why do you entertain me with your rays and obscure the true Light of my soul!” Lecturer Cassian, who conveys this trait from the life of the saint, adds that Anthony, discussing prayer, said: “Prayer is sometimes imperfect if he himself notices and remembers that he is praying.” This shows what strength of spirit was given to him over feelings. (Extracted from the brochure “The Life of Our Venerable Father Anthony the Great and His Oral and Written Spiritual Ascetic Instructions”, St. Petersburg, 1865, pp. 12–14). IV. Palladius tells about one Ethiopian monk Moses, who before his conversion was formerly the chieftain of robbers, that he prayed 50 times a day. V. The same Palladius says about the deacon Evagrius that he prayed 100 times daily; and about the hermit Apollonius, he says that he prayed both day and night, also praying 100 times. VI. Abba Paul, who lived in the hermitage desert, performed 300 prayers daily, and in order not to make a mistake in counting, he put 300 stones in his bosom and threw out a stone during each prayer. However, the same Paul, to his embarrassment and shame, learned that in his neighborhood there lived a pious virgin who fasted 5 days a week and who performed 700 prayers daily. VII. According to Macarius of Alexandria’s own testimony, when he indulged in prayerful contemplation for 4 days, he infuriated the devil with the most terrible rage. VIII. The hermit Theodore in the east prayed for 7 days, not leaving this work for a minute. (Extracted from the book “Stories from the history of Christian ascetic life” by A. Lebedev, M., 1884). IX. Lecturer Eusevia - Xenia (her memory is January 24) was not content with the prayers of the church; she stood praying all night in her cell, with her hands raised to the sky. She hid this, but her friends, jealous of imitating her exploits, saw it with their own eyes. (See the book “Lives of the Saints”, Archbishop Philaret Gumilevsky, Jan. 26, p. 240). X. The Holy Martyr Anastasius of Persia, seeing the miracles performed from the honest and life-giving Cross of the Lord, believed with all his heart in the Lord crucified on him and, having become a monk, completely changed the way of his life. He was a virtuous, meek and hardworking monk; For the sake of daily work, he never abandoned prayer. His day was spent in constant labor: either he worked in a cookery or a bakery, then he worked in the monastery garden, or he performed other monastic obediences. Despite all this and the fatigue from constant work, the holy martyr Anastasius never abandoned public prayer in church, and it never happened that he abandoned the established cell rule. In addition, he found time to read the Divine Scriptures, read legends about St. martyrs and at the same time poured tears into the book, expressing with them compassion for the patience of the passion-bearers and burning with heart to imitate their lives and deeds. The Lord heard his prayer and honored the Monk Anastasius with the crown of martyrdom and numbered him among the elect (“Cheti-Minea”, Jan. 22 days). No matter how great and tedious your labors and activities may be, Christian, do not abandon either morning or evening prayer - and the Lord will give you strength and bless your labors with success. (“Sunday Reading”, 1883, No. 34). XI. Rev. Vissarion (comm. June 6), barely covered with shabby clothes, not paying attention to either the heat or the cold, spending days and nights in prayer, among which he often forgot even about food for a long time, in the silent lifting of his mind and heart to God, he seemed to separate himself from everything earthly and was rewarded from God with the gift of great miracles. Once, for forty whole days, he stood in prayer in the midst of thorns without sleep or food, forgetting everything earthly, praying with his hands raised to heaven, without moving from his place. Through prayer he brought down rain during drought, crossed rivers as if on earth, and healed the sick. (See the book “Lives of the Saints”, Archbishop Philaret Gumilevsky, June 6, p. 52). XII. When one pious monk was praying, a viper crawled up and touched his foot; but he did not lower his hands before he had completed the usual prayer. And this one who loved God more than himself did not suffer any harm. XIII. To another still God-loving monk, when he was performing a mental prayer while walking in the desert, two angels appeared and went with him, having him in the middle; but he did not turn his attention to them for a minute, so as not to suffer damage to the best, for he remembered the saying of the Apostle, who says: “For I am confident that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers...” will be able to “separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39). (Teacher Nile the Ascetic of Sinai “On Prayer”, ch. 153, pp. 109, 112; See “Patristic instructions on prayer and sobriety” by Bishop Theophan, p. 179). XIV. The Monk John Kolov was so immersed in prayer that he forgot everything. One day his brother came to him to take baskets. He came out to him and said: “Brother! What do you want? The brother answered: “I need baskets, Abba.” The elder entered the cell to take out the baskets, but immediately forgot. The brother knocked again, and when the elder came out, he reminded him about the baskets. The elder entered the cell and, continuing his prayer, forgot again. The brother knocked a third time. The elder came out to him and said: “What do you want, brother?” The brother answered: “Korzin, Abba!” The elder took him by the hand, led him into his cell and said: “If you need baskets, take them and go!” I have no time for it." Another time, the owner of the camels came to the same monk to take the baskets and take them where they should be for sale. Abba entered the cell and, taking one basket, forgot himself, because his mind was occupied with prayer. The camel owner again disturbed him by knocking on the door. Abba went out to him, but returning to his cell, he forgot again. The camel owner knocked a third time. Abba went out to him and, returning to his cell, repeated: baskets - camel, baskets - camel. He repeated this so as not to forget himself again (See “Fatherland,” Bishop Ignatius, pp. 290–291). XV. About 420, Abba Daniel, visiting the deserts of Thebaid, came to Hermopolis, to a nunnery, where he was met by the abbess and all the sisters and nuns. One of the nuns lay in the monastery with her clothes torn. The elder asked the abbess: “Who is this lying?” The abbess answered. “This is one of the sisters, not sober; I don't know what to do with her. I'm afraid to be kicked out of the monastery - I wouldn't sin; holding it is an embarrassment for others.” The elder said to the disciple: “Take the washbasin and pour water on it.” When he did this, she stood up as if drunk. “She is always like this,” said the abbess... When everyone had gone to bed, the elder ordered the disciple to go and see where she would sleep. He looked and said: “In the latrine.” The elder said: “Let’s beat this night.” When the nuns fell asleep, the elder and the disciple came to the place where the supposed drunken woman was, and they saw: she was standing with her hands raised to the sky, tears flowing down her cheeks - she bowed earnestly. When my sister went out to relieve herself, she lay down as if drunk and snored. “Call the abbess and her second in command to me,” the elder said to the disciple. They arrived and watched all night. The abbess said with tears: “How much trouble I caused her!” When the beater was struck, the abbess told all the fasting women about the feat of the imaginary drunkard. But when she saw that they recognized her, she secretly came to where the elder was sleeping, took away his staff with the mantle, opened the gate and wrote on the gate: “Sisters, forgive me for what I have sinned, and pray for me.” Then she disappeared. The sisters searched for her all day, and not finding her, they saw her farewell words on the gate. The sisters cried for her. The elder told them: “These are the kind of drunkards God loves.” (“Egyptian Patericon”, ch. 54; see “Lives of the Saints” by Archbishop Philaret Gumilevsky, Jan. 5, pp. 68–70). XVI. The Holy Martyr Onuphrius, a Bulgarian by birth, hieroschemamonk of the Hilandar monastery on Mount Athos, locked in his cell, made up to 3,500 prostrations a day, and tears constantly flowed from his eyes. (See the book “Lives of the Saints” by Archbishop Philaret Gumilevsky, Jan. 4). XVII. Rev. Nil Sorsky, a descendant of the princes of Smolensk, when he lived in the Joseph Monastery, “worked for two in a bakery and, moreover, sang 77 psalms and performed 3,000 bows every day.” (See the book “Lives of the Saints” by Archbishop Philaret Gumilevsky, April 7, p. 75). XVIII. The nights were spent by the Rev. Theodosius of Pechersk in the monastery without sleep, in prayer for himself and for the monastery, which was noticed many times by church alarm clocks, although the ascetic of God tried to hide his feat from people. More than once, when it was time to wake him up for the morning singing, the minister quietly approached the monk’s door and heard him praying, crying a lot and often hitting his head on the ground. When the minister approached in the usual way, the blessed one, hearing his arrival, not only stopped praying, but remained silent until he prayed loudly up to three times. (See the book “Lives of the Saints”, Archbishop Philaret Gumilevsky, May 3, p. 96). XIX. Rev. Spiridon entered the Kiev-Pechersk monastery completely illiterate - he came “not from the city, but an ignorant peasant.” But he realized that God’s law is the light of our paths. And therefore, although he was no longer young, he began to learn to read and write and then studied the Psalter. He so internalized this holy book in his soul that he knew it all by heart. After that, whether he was chopping wood, kneading dough, heating the oven, or preparing prosphora, he constantly read the psalms. This is how the servant of God labored. XX. Friend and collaborator Rev. Spiridon was Rev. Nicodemus, just like him, a simpleton, but wise for the Lord. He shared with Spiridon the labors of baking prosphoras, carried firewood and water, kneaded dough, and at the same time remained in prayer and sang psalms. Thus they spent thirty years and the servants pleasing to the Lord died peacefully. (See the book “Russian saints, revered by the whole church or locally” by Philaret, Archbishop of Chernigov, part III, 1882, pp. 297–298). XXI. St. Righteous Juliana of Lazarevskaya (whose memory is January 2) morning and evening constantly prayed on her knees, making a hundred or more bows. In addition, she also taught her husband. At night she usually prayed to God. Her zeal was especially great for Saint Nicholas. One night, during prayer, she was struck by such fear that, leaving prayer, she hurried to hide in bed, but even then terrible dreams haunted her; her dreams threatened to destroy her if she did not stop praying; Finally, she mentally turned to God and called on St. Nicholas for help. Suddenly the saint appeared with a book in his hands and said: “Be strong, my daughter, do not be afraid of these threats: Christ commanded me to keep you.” Waking up, she already saw in reality her magnificent husband leaving her room. From then on, she began to pray and fast even more. She spent every Friday in a solitary cell in prayer, eating nothing; on Monday and Wednesday I ate dry bread once; on Saturday and Sunday she established meals for the spiritual and the poor. At night she slept no more than two hours, in the evening, and then with a log under her head and her keys under her side. When others fell fast asleep, she got up for prayer and prayed until matins, then went to church. Although she did not know how to read and write, but, loving to listen to books read, she learned so much that she explained to others how to live in order to please the Lord. Pious feelings and life experiences led her to an understanding of the highest Christian truths. One day the winter was very severe; The blessed one, having neither clothes nor warm shoes to distribute to the poor, did not go to church for some time; she was already 60 years old. Priest of the Church of St. Lazarus, having come to the church for Matins, suddenly heard a voice from the icon of the Mother of God: “Go, tell the merciful widow Juliana that it is in vain that she does not go to church: home prayer is pleasing to God, but not as much as church prayer; and you respect her: the Spirit of God rests on her.” The priest, frightened, ran to Juliana and told everyone out loud what he had heard. The humble servant of God was upset by such a story from the priest. “You are delusional,” she said, “who am I, a sinner, to be worthy of such an invitation?” She begged the priest and everyone who heard not to say a word about it, either during her life or after her death. Then I went to the church and served a prayer service to the Mother of God. From that time on, no matter the weather, she went to church whenever there was a service. In the house, no matter what she did, whether she ate or drank, she constantly said the Jesus Prayer. When the time of her death approached, on the very day of the Nativity of Christ she fell ill and was sick for six days. But even in these days, she herself got up at night to pray, so that the servants laughed and said: “What kind of sick woman is this?” On the very day of her death (Jan. 2, 1604), early in the morning, she called her confessor, confessed and received the Holy Mysteries, then blessed the children and commanded them to live in the fear of God and with the words: “Glory to God for everything,” she peacefully surrendered her spirit to God. (See the book “Lives of the Saints” by Archbishop Philaret Gumilevsky, Jan. 2, pp. 31–36). XXII. St. Tikhon, Bishop of Voronezh, went to church almost every day for Liturgy and Vespers and sang himself in the choir. He spent nights without sleep and went to bed at dawn. His exercise at night was prayers with bows, and not cold ones, but the hottest ones; sometimes he shouted out loud: “Lord have mercy! Lord, have mercy!” and added: “Breadwinner, have mercy!” The head itself hit the floor. At midnight he went out into the front cell and sang the holy psalms quietly and touchingly. When I was in dark thoughts, I sang: “It is good for me that I suffered, that I might learn Your statutes” (Ps. 119:71). In joyful thoughts he sang: “Praise the Lord from heaven” (Ps. 148) and other comforting psalms, but always with tears and heartfelt sighing. (See the book “Lives of the Saints” by Archbishop Philaret Gumilevsky, Aug. 13, p. 98; see the book of priest Grigory Dyachenko “Lessons and examples of Christian hope”, 3rd ed.). Conversation No. 4. About the advantages of church prayer over home prayer I.St. John Chrysostom († 1470), the most zealous organizer of church services, compiler of the Liturgy, says: “They think you can pray at home. You are deceiving yourself, man! Of course, you can pray at home, but it is impossible to pray as in a church, where there are so many fathers, where the song is unanimously sent to God. You will not be heard so much by praying to the Master at home as by praying with your brothers, for here there is something more, such as unanimity, agreement, the union of love and the prayers of the priests. This is why the priests stand, so that the prayers of the people, being weaker, are united with their strongest prayers and ascend to heaven with them.” (St. John Chrysostom “Conversations on various occasions”, St. Petersburg, 1874, vol. I, p. 407). “You can pray at home, but this prayer does not have as great power as that which is performed together with fellow members, when the whole body of the church unanimously and unanimously sends out a petition, in the presence of priests offering the prayers of the whole people.” (St. John Chrysostom, ibid., p. 41). II. a) “We can pray at home,” say many of those who rarely go to church as an excuse for their laziness. But then, why were churches established? Why did the ancient Christians gather together for public prayer with such zeal, despite great dangers? Why did the Lord Jesus Christ command that in all cases of our life at least two or three take counsel to ask the Heavenly Father for every thing (Matthew 18:19–20)? Once upon a time, the enemies of Christ’s teaching concluded the apostle. Peter was sent to prison and they wanted to kill him; the entire community of believers diligently prayed to God for him - and then an angel of the Lord was sent from God to free Peter and return him to the believers (Acts 12:6 et seq.). The Apostle Paul, the most perfect teacher and ascetic of prayer, the chosen vessel of God's grace, realizing the importance of common church prayer, asked his disciples to pray for him (Eph. 6:18,19). If for such men as the supreme apostles Peter and Paul, church prayer was useful and necessary, then can we not have an extreme need for the common prayer of the brethren and be content with our solitary prayer at home? b) There are many examples of how the Lord calls to prayer in St. church, indicating that home prayer is lower than church prayer. So, once righteous Juliana (her memorial is January 2), during a harsh winter, having neither clothes nor shoes, did not go to church for some time. Priest of the Church of St. Lazarus, having come to the church one day for Matins, suddenly heard a voice from the icon of the Mother of God: “Go, tell the merciful widow Juliana that it is in vain that she does not go to church; home prayer is pleasing to God, but not as much as church prayer; and you respect her: the Spirit of God rests on her.” The priest, frightened, ran to Juliana and told everyone out loud what he had heard in the church from the icon of the Mother of God. From that time on, no matter the weather, righteous Juliana went to church whenever there was a service. In the house, no matter what she did, ate or drank, sewed or spun, she constantly said the Jesus Prayer (“Cheti-Minea”, January 2). c) Here is a wonderful church-historical example of love for church prayer: when the Roman emperor Valens, a follower of the Arians, took away many churches from the Orthodox, the inhabitants of the city of Edessa, deprived of their churches, out of love for public worship, began to gather in a field outside the city to serve God. The enemy of Orthodoxy could not have been pleased with such a triumph of piety. He banned Orthodox prayer meetings under the threat of death penalty for anyone caught at the site of these meetings. The prefect, who was strictly ordered to monitor the execution of the royal decree, secretly informed the inhabitants of Edessa that they should beware of gathering on the next day in a place forbidden to them for public prayer. What then? The Orthodox, despising the threat of their persecutor, flocked the next day in even greater numbers than before. When this was reported to the prefect, he hurried to the field to the meeting place. At this time, one Christian woman was hastily pulling her child by the hand. The prefect, seeing this, asked her: why is she in such a hurry? The wife replied that it would be desirable for her to quickly come to the place where Orthodox Christians gather. “You were probably the only one who didn’t know,” said the prefect, unrecognized by his wife, “that the king’s servant would come here and take everyone he found here?” “No, I heard that,” the wife answered again, “but that’s why I have to hurry, so as not to be left behind others and not lose the crown of martyrdom.” “Why are you bringing the child with you?” – asked the prefect. “Then so that it too may have a share in the common suffering and receive equal rewards.” (“Ecclesiastical History” Soz., book VI, chapter 18). III. In conclusion, brethren, we will present some advice from holy and pious men on the benefits of church prayer. “About church prayer, know that it is higher than your home prayer, for it ascends from a whole council of people, among whom, perhaps, there are many of the purest prayers, from humble hearts offered to God, which He accepts, like a fragrant censer, with which yours, although weak and insignificant, are accepted.” (Hieroschemamonk Macarius). “What is colder than stone? But if we hit stone against stone, sparks will fly. Moreover, when our souls unite in prayer, it will be strong and fiery.” (St. Joseph of Volokolamsk). “If Daniel, “who has the Holy Spirit of God within himself” (Dan. 4:5), is not content to seek the gracious presence of God only in his own interior, but seeks it in a certain place, in which by a special secret action God established and established it for His church, then for us, who perhaps do not yet have the firstfruits of the Spirit, how much more necessary is it to seek God primarily in the church in which He, as in His treasury, placed His presence, His grace, His sacraments, His power, His gifts!” (Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow). Conversation No. 5. About the need to pray to the Mother of God I. And our sins, in which we are born, and our sins, which we constantly commit, and those disasters with which the world threatens us from all sides, or which we ourselves attract by our sins - all this - both sins and disasters - forces us to seek salvation, to seek for God to forgive us our sins and remove from us the disasters that threaten us. But the more vividly we feel our sins and our guilt before God, the less courage we have to call God our Father, and the more we need others to intercede on our behalf. Therefore, the Orthodox Church has always called upon the saints of God as our intercessors before our heavenly Father, offended by our sins and offended by our transgressions. To them, existing before the throne of God, the Orthodox children of the Church come running with prayer and for their deliverance from the troubles of the world and from those evils to which we are subjected through our foolishness, through our disordered life, the reason, therefore, which is our sins, offending the One who created us upright and wants those created in His image and likeness not to waste this wealth, but to be enriched by it for salvation. II. In both cases, the Orthodox Church resorts, as if to an unbreakable wall and intercession, to the Most Holy Theotokos. a) And in whom, first of all, should we seek intercession before God, if not in the One who has the most maternal boldness towards Him? If we need intercession before God, whom we, sinners, transgressors of His law, dare to call our Father, only because His only begotten Son returned this boldness to us through His suffering and death, then in whom should we first of all seek intercession for us before our Savior God, if not in She who served the sacrament of our salvation? b) And experience teaches us that successfully, and therefore also pleasing to God, we resort to the Most Holy Theotokos for all our needs. We do not point out these experiences here: there are so many of them that few Orthodox Christians have not experienced them on themselves, or they have experienced them, but did not notice, or they noticed them, but for various reasons they do not talk about it. III. So, let us, Orthodox, under the protection of the Mother of God, may He deliver us from our many different troubles and sorrows. Let us diligently flow to the Mother of God and Her intercession for us, whether She listens to our prayers or, apparently, does not listen. Let us remember what Her Divine Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, once said in response to Her intercession: “My hour has not come” (John 2:4). If sometimes our prayers are not fulfilled, it means that the hour has not come for the Lord to fulfill our prayers. “Ask,” it is said, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7), - at one time or another, but it will be given. (Compiled from “Sunday Reading”, 1888, No. 41). Appendix to conversation No. 5. Stories about the miraculous help of the Mother of God I. St. John of Damascus, having strongly attacked – both in writing and orally – the iconoclastic heresy, was slandered for his zeal in this holy cause by the Greek emperor Leo the Isaurian (in the 8th century) before the emir of Damascus, where St. John held an important position. The emir, without examining the matter and believing the slander, ordered his hand to be cut off, allegedly writing treasonous letters to Leo. The severed hand, to the fear of everyone, was hung in the marketplace. In the evening, when the anger of the Prince of Damascus subsided, St. John interceded with him through his friends so that he would be allowed to take the hand of his truncated hand, which was hung in shame. The prince bowed to the petition of his courtiers, the friends of John, and the hand was returned to the sufferer. When night fell, St. John shut himself up in the upper room designated for prayer, and, placing his dead hand on its composition, fell before the icon of the Mother of God, wept bitterly and with all the strength of his heart’s faith and love asked Her to heal his hand, in defense of Orthodoxy and to defeat the growing iconoclast heresy. After a long prayer, St. John dozed off and in a subtle dream he saw the Mother of God looking at him with bright and merciful eyes. “Behold, your hand is now healthy,” the Mother of God said to John, “do not grieve anymore” - and John woke up, felt his hand and could hardly believe his own feelings: the hand, as before, was intact; not a trace of illness, and only as if in evidence of the event, where it was cut off, like a thread, a sign of bloody truncation remained. Touched by a feeling of inexpressible gratitude to the Mother of God for Her mercy, in memory of the wondrous event of St. John minted a hand from silver and attached it to the icon, which is why it later received the name “Three-Handed”. Soon after this, John entered the monastery of St. Savva, near Jerusalem. The strict elder, to whom he was given for spiritual guidance, forbade him to compose his spiritual songs. And the Mother of God soon appeared to the elder in a dream and inspired him not to forbid John from writing church songs, and at the same time called John Her source: “Do not block My source.” (From the book “Tales of the Earthly Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” ed. 5, p. 229). II. With the cessation of the cruel persecution of pagans against Christians, Christianity faced no less danger from the apostate Julian, who dreamed of restoring declining paganism. The believers suffered a lot from the apostate, and finally, before his campaign in Persia, he threatened St. Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea of ​​Cappadocia, destroyed Caesarea to the ground for the zeal of its inhabitants for the true faith and in Persia itself, making sacrifices to idols, swore publicly that he would destroy all Christians if he happily ended his war. Hearing about this, St. Basil the Great, once left alone in the church, stood in front of the icon of the Mother of God, on which the face of St. Martyr Mercury, and prayed for the overthrow of the apostate and godless tormentor - and here from this very icon he received a revelation about the death of the persecutor. Everyone knows that the apostate was struck by an arrow fired by someone unknown and died from bleeding. (See the continuation of the 3rd word of John of Damascus about icons in “Christian Reading”, 1828, part XXX, p. 10; see Abbr. “Church History”, book 3, chapter 21, and Theodoret book 3, chapter 25; see Gregory the Theologian, 2nd word on Julian, vol. 1, pp. 186, 214, 189–190; Sozom. “Church History”, book 6, ch. 2). III. In 1395, Tamerlane entered Russia, threw everything into confusion and spread terror everywhere. Directing his way to Moscow, he entered the principality of Ryazan and approached the banks of the Don. With the general despondency of the Russians, who were awaiting the return of the times of Batu, Grand Duke Vasily Dimitrievich led his troops to repel a strong enemy and stopped behind Kolomna, on the banks of the Oka. Meanwhile, the Muscovites, frightened by hearing about the countless forces and ferocity of Tamerlane, prayed earnestly for deliverance from the invasion of foreigners, shed tears in front of the altars and fasted. Prayers for the prince and the army were constantly performed in the churches; The Metropolitan almost never left the church: he either taught those who remained in Moscow, or prayed for those going to shed their blood for the faith and the fatherland. And the Grand Duke, not relying on his own strength, resorted to the all-powerful help of the Most Holy Theotokos and wrote from Kolomna to Metropolitan Cyprian, asking him to send to Vladimir for the icon of the Mother of God, brought there from Kyiv by Andrei Bogolyubsky. The clergy sent by the Metropolitan to Vladimir on August 15 took into their hands the precious shrine. The transfer of this miraculous icon from Vladimir to Moscow was a touching spectacle. Countless people on both sides of the road, bending their knees, cried out with screams and tears: “Mother of God! Save the Russian land!” In this countless multitude of people it was impossible to see a person, says the chronicler, who would not cry and send out prayers with hope to the Most Holy Lady. The Metropolitan, bishops and all the clergy in vestments, with crosses and censers, accompanied by the Grand Duke's family and boyars, solemnly greeted the shrine outside the city and, placing the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the cathedral church, in joyful anticipation they thanked God, who had given them a pledge of peace and affirmation in the holy icon. And the Mother of God saved the Russian land: contemporaries say that on that very day and hour when the inhabitants of Moscow met the icon of the Mother of God, Tamerlane abandoned his intention to go to Moscow: he saw in a dream - the chroniclers write - a great mountain and from the top of it many saints with golden staffs coming, and above them in the air a majestic and magnificent Woman, with tens of lightning-shaped warriors who all rushed towards Tamerlane. The conqueror trembled, woke up and, calling the nobles, asked them about the meaning of his dream. “The Majestic Woman,” answered the wisest of them, “is the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Intercessor of Christians.” “So, we will not defeat them,” said the Mongol Khan, and ordered his regiments to go from the borders of Russia. The news of Tamerlane's removal was received with inexpressible joy in Moscow. Confessing the mercy of God, everyone exclaimed: “It was not our commanders who drove him away, it was not our armies that frightened him; but an invisible force sent fear and trembling upon him. Driven by the wrath of God, he withdrew from the Russian land.” In memory of the miraculous intercession of the Mother of God, a stone church was built in Her honor and the Sretensky Monastery, and a festival was established on August 26, with a procession of the cross from the Assumption Cathedral, through the Spassky Gate, to the Sretensky Monastery. IV. In Rus' in the 17th century, troubled times of turmoil and imposture came. Moscow was in the hands of the Poles; the Swedes dominated in the northern regions. Muscovites loyal to their fatherland invited the Russians with letters to liberate Moscow. “Here,” they wrote, “is the root of the kingdom, here is the banner of the fatherland, here is the Mother of God, depicted by the Evangelist Luke.” The first militia to liberate Moscow was unsuccessful. But in Nizhny Novgorod a new militia was formed. “Let us stand for Holy Rus', for the house of the Most Pure Mother of God; Let’s sell our wives and children, but liberate the fatherland!” - exclaimed Kosma Minin, the true son of the fatherland. The image of the Kazan Mother of God was taken by the leader Pozharsky into the midst of the new sacred army. But this last effort to liberate the fatherland, it seemed, should have remained in vain: the army had no means of maintenance, not even weapons; There was no unanimity among the warriors and leaders. But the prayers of the faithful were raised to the throne of God by the Most Blessed Virgin herself. And when all earthly hopes had fallen, heavenly help was revealed in its indisputable evidence. In the midst of besieged Moscow, between enemies, in grave captivity and an even graver illness, one of the venerable high priests, Arseny, languished. And he was the messenger of heavenly mercy to Russia: in the midst of midnight silence, suddenly his cell was filled with extraordinary light, and he saw St. Sergius of Radonezh in front of him. “Arseny,” the monk said to the sick man, “your and our prayers have been heard; Through the intercession of the Mother of God, the judgment of the fatherland has been transferred to mercy: tomorrow Moscow will be in the hands of the besiegers, and Russia will be saved.” As if to confirm the prophecy, the sick old man suddenly regains his strength. The joyful news, passing from mouth to mouth, immediately penetrates beyond the walls of the city to the Orthodox army and inflames it with irresistible courage. Daring in the name of the Mother of God, the Christ-loving army rushes to liberate the Kremlin; the enemies, despite their bitterness, can no longer resist - and the Kremlin is in the hands of the Russians. In awe of heavenly help, the grateful army on the next Sunday makes a solemn prayer procession to the returned capital; the same saint who was honored to receive the news of help from above comes out to meet him. The sacred icon of the Mother of God that he carried seemed to all who looked at it as a living image of the “Charred Voivode”, in whose name the victory was won. Falling to the ground and shedding tears, everyone sought to sanctify themselves by touching the miraculous face. In memory of this liberation of Moscow from the Poles, it was decided to celebrate October 22nd in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. (See the book “Tales of the Earthly Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” ed. V, pp. 246 and 255). V. Chosen Voivode. No. 46 of the “Church Gazette” of 1892 contains the following remarkable extract from the letter of His Grace Isidore, Exarch of Georgia, later Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, dated December 24, 1853, to Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow: “Major General, Prince Bagration of Mukhrani, who distinguished himself in the last battle against the Turks, told me very interesting information, which I am happy to report to your Eminence. The captured Turks openly told us that when the battle near Alexandropol heated up and the entire Russian detachment was brought into action, the Turks saw a bright Woman descending from the sky, holding a banner in her hand and accompanied by two warriors. The light from Her was so bright that it was like the radiance of the sun, and no eye could withstand it. This phenomenon brought terror to the ranks of the combatants and was the reason that the Turks, seeing God’s obvious intercession for Rus', all fled and lost the battle. The Russians have not seen this phenomenon. By God's Providence our foreign enemies testified to this. The Turks claim that in the army they saw all this with horror and everyone knows about it, but their superiors, under fear of the death penalty, forbade talking about it and tried to overshadow this event. The Russian military commanders, congratulating their chief commander on such a brilliant victory, gave glory to God, who alone could give us victory over the enemy, fierce Muslim fanaticism, with forces much superior to ours, so that for human reasons it was difficult to expect such a brilliant success. From some private letters from the army, we learned a joyful event for Christians, that many Turks thereafter loudly confessed Christ, asked for baptism and sealed with martyr’s blood the recognition of the all-enlightening light - Christ. It would be regrettable if we, the Orthodox, kept silent about such a wondrous event of fear for the sake of European fear. One must wish that all the leaflets, all the bulletins in Russia would spread the joyful news to the Orthodox people about the great intercession of the Queen of Heaven at the beginning of the war waged for the Christian faith. Let everyone see that even if God is for us, no one is against us! But whoever is ashamed to confess before men, God will put him to shame before His angels.” (“Church Gazette”, published by the Holy Synod, 1892, No. 46). Conversation No. 6. About the fact that the saints of God see us and hear our prayers I. Many Christians believe that in some cases only a famous saint can ask God for special help. So, for example, in order to save livestock from death, they seek help from the martyrs Florus and Laurus, the Great Martyr George and the Hieromartyr Blasius; in order to receive help in the disasters and difficulties of life that have occurred, they ask for intercession from St. Martyr Tryphon; to find stolen things they resort to the martyr John the Warrior. Among such saints is the Hieromartyr Antipas (his memory is celebrated on April 11), to whom people resort to prayer for healing from dental disease. II a) And how can the saints not see and hear us when they are in heaven, in the land of light, with God? So we see little or nothing at night, but during the day, in the sunlight, we see not only all the objects close to us, but also many things that are far from us. Is it any wonder that the saints of God see many things and even everything on earth when they live in the land of light and are constantly shone by the Sun of Truth - Jesus Christ? The saints of God, even while living in this mortal flesh, saw the distant and invisible and often knew not only the deeds, but also the thoughts and intentions of men. So, for example, in 1390, the enlightener of Perm, Bishop Stefan, passed ten miles from the Sergius monastery on his way to Moscow. Stefan really wanted to see her holy abbot, but he could not, as he was in a hurry to Moscow. Having reached the monastery, Stefan read: “It is worthy to eat, as truly”... and from afar he bowed towards the monastery, saying: “Peace be with you, my spiritual brother!” At this time the Monk Sergius was sitting at a meal with the brethren. Suddenly, to the great amazement of the brethren, he stood up from the table and, after a short prayer, bowing towards the west, quietly said: “Rejoice, you too, shepherd of Christ’s flock, and may the peace of God be with you!” At the end of the meal, the brethren asked the monk about what had happened. “At this very hour,” the monk answered them, “Bishop Stefan, on the way to Moscow, stopped opposite our monastery and bowed to the Holy Trinity, and blessed us, the humble ones.” The Monk Sergius even named the place where this happened, and some of the brethren immediately hurried there and managed to find the people accompanying Stephen there, who confirmed to them what the Monk Sergius had said. Thus, if the saints of God had the gift from God to see and know much of what is invisible and unknown to us sinners even when they were in temporary life on earth, then what cannot they see and know now, being in spirit in heaven, with God? b) The same must be said about the gift of healing, which many saints of God possess. Many saints who now help us in illness had this gift during their lives on earth. So, in the life of St. Hieromartyr Blasius, whose memory is St. The church celebrates on February 11, the following is told. A certain woman had an only son. One day, when he was eating fish, a fish bone stopped in his throat, and since, despite all his efforts, it turned out to be impossible to remove it, the boy began to suffer unspeakably, lost his voice and was close to death. His mother took him, half dead, and took him to St. She laid Blasiya at his feet and, having told him what had happened to him, with tears began to beg for help: “Have mercy on my son,” she cried, “servant of our Savior Jesus Christ, for this is my only son!” Vlasiy heeded her pleas, put his hand on the youth’s lips and, raising his eyes to heaven, began to pray like this: “Oh, Lord, who helps all those who diligently run to You! Hear my prayer: By Your invisible power, pluck the bone from the throat of this youth and heal him. And also make it so that if something similar happens to people or livestock, then to those of the people who say: God, help with the prayers of Your servant Blasius, to those You, Lord, hasten to help and grant healing to the glory and honor of Your Holy Name!” After the saint’s prayer, the youth, freed from the bone, became completely healthy and began to loudly praise the Lord, and Saint Blaise gave him to his mother. If, therefore, during their lifetime, some saints had from God the gift of healing from illnesses when they were in mortal and temporary flesh, then what can they not do now, when they live a perfect, spiritual life, live in communion with the almighty Lord and His angels?! (See Sunday Afternoon, 1892). III. Pray, Christian, always to the saints of God, and especially during illness, run to them with warm prayer and believe that your fervent prayer can be heard by the saint to whom you pray, and he, with his strong intercession from the throne of the Most High, can ask you for every gift you need. “The fervent prayer of the righteous can accomplish much” (James 5:16), teaches St. apostle. Appendix to conversations No. 1–6 The most famous compilers of church prayers The apostles, according to the commandment of the Savior, establishing in Christian worship everything basic and essentially necessary, left the development of the liturgical order to subsequent times. The Holy Spirit, who, according to the Savior's promise, will remain in the Church until the end of time, helped the primates of the Churches to freely pour out the religious feelings that animated them and express them in prayers and chants, without a written order for a specific rite. The further the Church lived, the more freedom in the development of divine services contributed to the increase in the composition of services with prayers and chants of its own composition. The greatness of the Christian faith, the need to express all the blessings of God and one’s own needs, the freshness and fullness of religious feeling, and special inspiration contributed to the increase in the composition of services, especially the Liturgy, with their own prayers and chants. The compilers of church prayers were saints and God-bearing men who were under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and therefore their prayers are the gift of the Holy Spirit, His words of sighing. If the prayers of holy men are not only their own works, but also a gift of the Holy Spirit, then their prayers are examples of the most perfect prayers: they are sublime, comprehensive in richness and variety of content, they are brief, but strong and expressive in presentation. Certain prayers, used by the Church as a gift from God, constitute the best means for the person praying to communicate with God, promoting unity with our departed brethren, with the entire ancient Church and with all Orthodox Christians living on earth. The prayers of these great ascetics, ascending in spirit to the throne of the Most High, were so holy, strong and pure that they penetrated the heavens and had miraculous, all-conquering power. And therefore St. The Church, following the example of the Savior, who taught the apostles to pray, offers these sublime, holy and beneficial prayers as a model and guidance to believers. Among the compilers of prayers, the following saints and great prayer books are especially famous: St. Basil the Great († 379) wrote the rite of the Liturgy, shortening for this purpose the Liturgy of the Apostle James and introduced some of his prayers; The morning prayers read by the priest secretly during the reading of the Six Psalms are also attributed to him, and one of them, “Shine in the hearts,” undoubtedly belongs to him. The evening prayers now read by the priest also belong to St. Basil, as he owns the prayers read at Vespers on the day of Pentecost. In addition, he owns two of the morning prayers read during the winter period (from September 22 to the week of Vai) at the Midnight Office: “Lord, Almighty, God of hosts,” and the other is “We bless You, Most High God”; two prayers between the hours of the first hour, prayers at the end of the 6th and 9th hours. With the name of Basil the Great, there are also prayers for various occasions: 2 - before Communion, 1 - after Communion, one at the Blessing of Anointing, etc. St. John Chrysostom († 407), in addition to the rite of the Liturgy, composed prayers for various occasions: before Communion there are several prayers: one at the Blessing of Unction: “Lord our God...”, at burial the prayer “God of spirits...” and so on. St. Ephraim the Syrian († 378) composed the Lenten prayer: “Lord and Master of my life,” etc. St. Macarius the Great († 1390) composed several morning prayers (from 1st to 5th) and for bedtime (from 1st to 4th). St. John of Damascus († 776) wrote the prayers: “Have mercy on us, O Lord...”. “Lord, have mercy on us...”, “The doors of mercy...”, “Many are my multitudes. Mother of God, sins...", "I place all my hope in You...". “Glorious Ever-Virgin...” and two prayers before Communion (5th and 11th). St. Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople († 846), composed five prayers for those turning to the Orthodox Church who have departed from it. Philotheus, Patriarch of Constantinople († 1376), composed a prayer to the Sweetest Lord Jesus, read after the akathist: “We have sinned, we have sinned,” also a prayer for deliverance from the pestilence, etc. He also composed the order of the evening and morning services. This rite was translated into Slavic by Metropolitan Cyprian. Among the compilers of prayers, there are others who wrote fewer prayers. These are: St. Mardarius - prayer at the 3rd hour: “Sovereign God, Father Almighty”; Mark the monk (10th century), then bishop, at the Sunday Midnight Office, at the end of it, the prayer “Almighty and Life-Giving Holy Trinity”; St. Eustratius, who suffered under Diocletian, prayed at the Saturday Midnight Office: “Glorified I magnify Thee”; Nikephoros Callistus († 1350) composed several prayers during periods of rainlessness (from 1st to 7th), during destruction and hail (2nd), in times of misfortune (from 3rd to 6th), etc. (See “Canon”). B. About reading the Holy Scriptures Conversation No. 1. About reading the Holy Scriptures I. For the edification and consolation of the faithful, St. The Church introduced the reading of Holy Scripture into the worship service. II. a) The custom of reading the Holy Scriptures during worship was borrowed by the Christian Church from the Jewish Church, in which it was observed from ancient generations (Acts 15:21), especially from the time after the captivity of Babylon (Neh.chap. 8). During the time of the Savior, the Jews read passages from the Pentateuch of Moses, from the prophetic and historical books, every Saturday in the Jerusalem Temple and in synagogues. For this purpose, the books of Moses were divided into 53 sections for the Sabbaths of a common year, and for the Sabbaths of a leap year - into 54 sections. These departments were called paraskhas. The prophetic books were also divided into sections called haftars. Jesus Christ, who came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, sanctified this custom by His Divine example, as the evangelist tells about the Savior’s sermon in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke 4:16). Following the example of the Savior, the apostles gave this custom sacred importance with their approval (1 Tim. 4:13; cf. Eph. 5:19; Acts 2, etc.). When there were no New Testament books yet, the Old Testament books were read, but as the New Testament writings appeared and spread, they were read during Christian worship along with the Old Testament books. That, indeed, the New Testament writings have been read in church meetings since the appearance of these writings, proof of this can be served by the clear commands of the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Thessalonians, the first Epistle written by him, and in the Epistle to the Colossians. In the Epistle to Thessalonians, the apostle writes: “I adjure you by the Lord to read this epistle to all the holy brethren” (1 Thessalonians 5:27), that is, in the full assembly of believers, but for the general reading of the Epistle it was most likely and more convenient for them to choose a liturgical assembly. In the Epistle to the Colossians, the apostle commands that his epistle, after being read by them, should also be read in the Laodicean church (Col. 4:16). If such was the will of the apostles that their writings should be read before all the holy brethren, then there is no doubt that the reading of their writings in church assemblies became more and more common, correct, when extraordinary means of edification and consolation of the faith were exceptional phenomena. Oh St. Apostle Peter Clement of Alexandria reports that the apostle himself ordered the Gospel of Mark to be read in the church. St. testify to the reading of Holy Scripture during divine services. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, “Apostolic Constitutions” and so on. b) The purpose of reading the Holy Scriptures during worship is to teach believers the truths of faith and the rules of Christian life contained in the word of God. This goal is revealed from the words of the Apostle Paul, who inspired Christians to let the word of Christ dwell in them richly (Col. 3:16), and already in the worship of the apostolic times this goal was achieved through the oral preaching of the apostles and the reading of their Epistles. Establishing the reading of the Gospel and the Apostolic Epistles during divine services, St. The Church had the goal of constantly reminding believers of the teachings of Jesus Christ Himself and His St. the apostles, and, moreover, in the words of the divine Teacher Himself and His disciples. Therefore, reading the Holy Scriptures is an essential part of Christian worship. The very service itself, from the reading of the word of God there, is sanctified by it and receives the importance of divine teaching, and not a human institution, since this reading serves as a substitute for personal presence, the personal instructions of the apostles. Tertullian, speaking about the reading of the Holy Scriptures in church meetings of his time, indicates the purpose of such a custom: “With these holy words we nourish our faith, support hope and, better than any suggestions, establish decency.” With this main purpose of reading the Holy Scriptures during worship, others are also important, namely: to show that Christian worship is based on the Holy Scriptures and reveals the economy of salvation of the human race, which is depicted in the Holy Scriptures: to clearly imagine that in worship believers enter into communion with Christ, Who appears among them as Teacher and Redeemer; finally, to express a feeling of reverence for the Holy Scripture itself as the immutable word of God. St. Gregory of Neocaesarea says: “When the Gospel or the Apostolic Epistles are read, listen not to the book or the reader, but to God Himself speaking from heaven.” (See “Liturgics” by Nesterovsky). III. So, Christian brothers, bearing in mind that the custom of reading the Holy Scriptures in the Church of God is sanctified by its use both in the Old Testament Church and in the New Testament and approved by the Divine Founder of the Christian faith and His Apostles - that the purpose of reading the word of God in Christian churches is to cultivate faith in those praying, to support hope and to affirm piety, let us listen with love to the reading of the word of God and, according to the instructions of St. Gregory Neo-Caesarean, when the Gospel or the Apostle is read, let us listen not to the reader, but as if speaking from heaven to God Himself. Conversation No. 2. On the manner of reading the Holy Scriptures during worship I. In order to distinguish the reading of the Holy Scriptures from any other ordinary reading during divine services, for example, prayers, the Holy Church even in ancient times allowed for some peculiarities and thereby wanted to express special respect for the word of God. To do this, she allowed reading in a chant, loud, drawn-out - recitative, or in a sublime and slow (inert) voice 30. The primates of the Church borrowed this way of reading certain passages of Holy Scripture during worship from the Jewish Church. And in order for the reading to be intelligible, solemn and sublime, like singing, back in the 5th century, the Alexandrian deacon Euthymius divided the text of the Apostle into short verses and indicated punctuation marks, guided by the works of Lucian of Antioch, Origen and the Caesarea presbyter Pamphilus 31 . For a more solemn and intelligible reading, in ancient times the Church allowed notes, and manuscripts from the 13th century have come down to us, in which the text of the Apostle and the Gospel is set to notes of a certain kind, indicating the raising and lowering of the voice. II. The definition of the way of reading the Holy Scripture also includes the custom of the Church, according to which the reading of the Holy Scripture was accompanied by greetings that prepared listeners for it and aroused in them reverent attention to the word of God, exclamations and rituals that taught this or that truth. a) The greeting that accompanied the reading from the Holy Scriptures were most often the words (Cyprian, epistle 34; Council of Carthage, which was in 397, chapter 4) “peace to all,” which, according to Chrysostom, the readers were forbidden to say at the Council of Carthage. The words “peace to all” were pronounced by a bishop or presbyter (Chrysostom, conversation 19 on the Acts of the Apostles; Ambrose, preface to the psalms), and the people answered: “And your spirit.” In Spanish churches the greeting used was: “The Lord be with you.” In addition, the deacon excited the people to reverently listen to the Holy Scriptures with the word: “Let us listen.” “The deacon stands - this common servant,” says Chrysostom, “and in a loud voice says “let’s hear” many times; then the reader begins the prophecy of Isaiah or some other book” (Conversation 19 on the Acts of the Apostles; Ambrose’s preface to the psalms). After the word “let us remember,” the reader indicated the book from which he wanted to read, which is still done today, with the words: “Thus says the Lord.” With these words, the reader pointed to the Old Testament; and when he read the conception from the books of the New Testament, then he uttered the words: “In those days, brethren,” and so on. After reading one or another passage from the Holy Scriptures, especially from the Gospel, all the people exclaimed: “Glory to Thee, Lord,” and after reading from the Apostle: “Alleluia.” “When the deacon begins reading the Gospel,” says Chrysostom (Conversations on the Gospel of Matthew), “we all immediately stand up and exclaim: “Glory to Thee, Lord.” Then these proclamations on the part of the people due to abuses (St. Ambrose, Blessed Augustine and John Chrysostom complained about this) were pronounced only by clergy. The antiquity of singing “Alleluia” after reading from the Apostle can be judged from the custom of the Western Church, which borrowed this custom from the Church of Jerusalem during the time of Pope Damasus, 4th century. (Conversation 52 about the Church). b) As for the rituals that were and are still accompanied by the reading of the Holy Scriptures to express special reverence and respect, they were the following: a) standing and b) presenting lamps. Isidore Pelusiot (d. after 434) says that with the revelation of the venerable Gospel, when the true Shepherd himself comes, even the bishop stood up, showing through this the presence of the Lord Himself. (Book 1, 136; “Apostolic Constitutions,” Book 2, Chapter 57). According to the testimony of St. Cyprian, bishop Carthage, in the African Church both the reader and the listeners stood during the reading of the Holy Scriptures. In the Eastern Churches, before reading the Gospel, they presented lamps (Ex. 27:20–21) as a sign of joy and gladness about new grace-filled blessings, or they wanted to depict with sensual light that spiritual light about which the psalmist said: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105). The blessed one speaks about the antiquity of this custom and its significance. Jerome thus: “In all Eastern churches, before the reading of the Gospel, even when the sun is shining clearly, lamps are lit, not to forgive the darkness, but as a sign of joy and triumph.” (Bl. Jerome, “Against Vigil.”, pp. 3–4). The Eastern Churches, in turn, borrowed this custom from the Old Testament Church, where lamps shone before the law. (See “guide to liturgics” by Archimandrite Gabriel.) III. All these greetings, exclamations and rituals, fellow Christians, show how important what you hear from the Holy Scriptures is, and how, therefore, it is necessary for us to listen to the word of God with faith, reverence and fear of God Conversation No. 3. About how one should read or listen to the Holy Scriptures I. In church, brothers, you always listen to the word of God. Therefore, it is very important to know how to listen or read it. II. a) Just as in the visible world we cannot see and cognize external objects if the light of the sun does not shine and show us these objects: so in spiritual life we ​​can understand and comprehend spiritual objects only in the light of the Spirit of God. Only then can our mind understand divine teaching when it is enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when we begin to read or listen to the Holy Scriptures, we must reverently pray to God that He, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, will enlighten our minds and grant us to understand the teaching of the word of God for our edification. b) In order for our reverence for God to be true and our prayer to be fervent, we must nurture sincere humility in our souls, and read or listen to Holy Scripture with a sincere desire to receive from it instruction in faith and encouragement to a pious and virtuous life. God did not give us His word so that we would learn the divine teaching only out of curiosity, and not so that, having acquired knowledge of the lofty truths of this teaching, we would be proud of it as if it were our own treasure; this is an abuse of the divine gift and a sin that offends God. God gave us the Holy Scriptures so that we could use them for the salvation of our souls, for the glory of His name. God only reveals the knowledge of saving truths to the humble, but hides them from the proud, just as the Savior, glorifying the Heavenly Father, says: “I glorify You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes” (Matthew 11:25), that is, to those who listen and accept the word of God with childlike humility and simplicity. The Apostle teaches: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). c) Holy Scripture must be understood as the Holy Church explains it or as the holy fathers and teachers of the Church understood it. If you carefully and reverently read the word of God, much in it will be clear and understandable to you, but you will also find much incomprehensible. What is unclear and incomprehensible to you, ask the pastors and teachers of the Church, and do not attempt to interpret it as you think. The Lord Savior taught His chosen disciples, whom He appointed as apostles, primarily before others, to teach spiritual knowledge and explained to them the mysteries of the kingdom of God, and overshadowed them from above with the grace of His Spirit, so that they would then teach others: so now in the Orthodox Church, pastors primarily study the Holy Scriptures and the mysteries of the kingdom of God and accept the special grace of the priesthood in order to guide others to the knowledge of the mysteries of salvation. Therefore, if you are at a loss, turn to the shepherd and believe what the shepherd tells you. d) When reading or listening to the Holy Scripture, one should not want to understand everything that it says; and we must, with reverence and gratitude to the all-good Heavenly Father, accept for our edification that which is accessible to our understanding, under the guidance of the Holy Church. There are many mysteries in the word of God that are incomprehensible to the human mind. The Word of God, like spiritual light, reveals to us the invisible spiritual world. As in this world open before us, we see and understand only a little, only in part; we see what is around us, and then only the external side of things; but what is in the distance we do not see; We see the sun, moon, and stars in the sky, but what are these luminaries? What's on them? What's next behind them? We don’t see this; so in the word of God spiritual things are partially revealed to us; partly we understand them; and then the vast space of the hidden appears, and you do not be embarrassed by the thought of the incomprehensible, but thank God for what is revealed to you. A thirsty person, when standing by the river, does not need to drink the entire river, but rather drink as much water as is needed to quench his thirst, and you do not need to know everything or know a lot, but you need to know what is necessary for your salvation. (See “Conversations” of Eusebius, Archbishop of Mogilev). III. Here, brothers, are the basic rules that we must strictly adhere to as obedient children of the Church of Christ when we listen to the word of God or read it ourselves. Conversation No. 4. How to use the word of God I. The Word of God, my brothers, is, in the words of the prophet, a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths, i.e. the only true guide on the path of our pilgrim life in this world, which alone leads and brings us to our heavenly fatherland, to the house of our Father in heaven. Without it, we would wander as if in darkness, among a gloomy desert. Caught in the darkness of the night, the traveler himself does not know where and how he is going, loses his way, wanders and stumbles, does not see any obstacles blocking his path, or abysses into which he can fall and die. This happens to a person in his moral life and activity when this life and activity are not illuminated by the light of the word of God. Like dumb animals, he is led only by external feelings and the inclinations of his sinful heart, follows blindly the attraction of his passions, acts on the impulse of temporary benefits and to satisfy his carnal lusts and desires. II. How exactly to use this light? Because great and holy men glorified by God used it and taught it to use. It is necessary, following their example, listening to the word of God, to test your own life by it - your thoughts and feelings, your desires and intentions, your words and actions. a) We hear, for example, how the Lord Jesus Christ pleases the poor in spirit and pure in heart, the meek and humble, peace-loving and gentle, merciful and compassionate towards their neighbors, hungry and thirsty for righteousness; Let us ask ourselves: are we jealous to acquire these godlike virtues in order to become sons of the Most High? b) We hear how the Lord announces one woe and woe to proud and pious people, hypocrites and deceivers, covetous and hard-hearted, luxurious sensualists and carnivores, libertines and seducers, blasphemers and blasphemers: do we try to keep ourselves clean from all filth that kills the soul? c) We hear how we are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our strength and with all our thoughts: do we love Him more than anything in the world? Does our heart cleave to the one Lord, without being divided between Him and the world? Are we ready to renounce everything, and our very life, for the sake of the Lord? d) We hear how the Lord commands to love your neighbor as yourself, to help him in need in word and deed, not to upset him with your inattention and contempt, not to offend his honor with your idle talk and condemnation, not to humiliate him with your pride and vanity, not to offend him with violence or deception, not to corrupt his soul with temptation, do we actually do this in all circumstances of life, in all our relations with our neighbors? d) We hear how St. The apostles urge us to flee from worldly lusts, to flee from intemperance and drunkenness, malice and wickedness, uncleanness and adultery, stinginess and covetousness, idleness and luxury, envy and enmity, condemnation and slander, idle talk and shaming and similar vices: do we protect ourselves, at least, do we try to cleanse our hearts with repentance from these scabs of the old man, smoldering in delightful lusts, and are we renewed by the spirit of our mind into a new man, created by God in righteousness and the honor of truth? f) We hear how the Lord calls everyone to repentance, threatening the unrepentant with eternal destruction: do we repent of our sins? Does our heart break when we feel guilty before God? Do we bring to the Lord a tearful and contrite confession of sins, with the indispensable intention of correcting our lives, beginning to live pleasing to God in the fear of God, and not returning to previous iniquities? Are we preparing to meet the Judge of the world - with a reverent, pious, God-fearing life or with sincere, whole-hearted repentance? III. So it is necessary, my brothers, to use the gracious light of the word of God, turning to it, like a mirror, with all, so to speak, aspects of your life, in order to see whether there are any stains on it that need to be washed and cleansed by repentance. In this only case, the word of God truly becomes a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths, enlightens and illuminates the mind, cleanses and revives the conscience, confirms and strengthens the will to do good deeds, so that we may walk in them. (Compiled from the “Complete Works” of Demetrius, Archbishop of Kherson and Odessa, vol. II). Appendix to conversations No. 1–4 The story of the three sacred books In the old days, both in Rus' and in other lands, there were fewer learned and literate people than there are now, but despite this, in the old days, learned and unlearned people had more attention, respect, love and reverence for the word of God. Then they began to learn to read and write from the sacred books; those who learned to read loved to read again more sacred books than others; then a learned person was not considered a scholar if he did not know the Holy Scriptures or read the Bible. And now a literate person often undertakes to read some kind of fairy tale rather than a sacred book; and there will now be thousands of learned people who have never even picked up the Bible. At that time, both literate and learned people certainly tried to have a Bible in their home. When printing had not yet been invented, or when printing appeared, but according to the news of this art, printed books were very expensive, then people even tried to copy the Bible for themselves. The purchased Bible was treasured as a shrine, and the rich put it in expensive bindings and frames. To prove this, we will tell you from ancient times the story of three Bibles. Our first story will be about one Gospel, which, as far as we know, is the largest in size in the whole world. It is located in Moscow in the cathedral and was presented there by the mother of Peter the Great; it weighs more than two pounds, and if you need to carry it out, then two people carry it. It is richly decorated with gold and precious stones. One binding of it with such a frame costs about a million rubles. What did the mother of Peter the Great think when she gave this Gospel to the cathedral? I suppose she thought among other things that the value of this book surpasses gold and all the jewels that are on earth. And whoever thinks so is not mistaken, because it is written about the word of God that it is “more desirable than gold and even much fine gold, sweeter than honey and drops of the honeycomb” (Ps. 19:11). There is also the New Testament, which also has great dignity, but not because of its expensive setting, but for another reason. This New Testament is in the possession of the London Bible Society, and is not printed, but written. Here is the story of its origin. Even at a time when printing was not widespread, there lived in Ireland a peasant who absolutely wanted to have the New Testament; So he comes to his master and asks him for the New Testament as a gift. The landowner refused the good peasant's request. But the peasant comes again with a new request - at least to allow him to rewrite the New Testament. The landowner allowed him to do this, but on the condition that he copy in his house in a special room. The landowner was afraid that the peasant would spoil the books of the New Testament in his home. From then on, every evening, after finishing his day's work, the peasant came to his master, sat down in a special room and, with the meager lighting that he brought with him, spent whole nights copying verse after verse with his calloused hands. Having finished his work, with great joy and gratitude he gave the master the printed book of the New Testament. Then, in turn, the gentleman began to ask his peasant to give him the copy he had just completed, promising in return to give him a large printed and well-bound New Testament. The peasant agreed and finally received the long-desired beautiful New Testament. The New Testament, rewritten by a peasant, is still kept in the London Bible Society as an expensive monument to the pious zeal and labor of a peasant. Here's another story about the third Bible. Where it is now and in whose possession we do not know, but its history is edifying and instructive for us. One poor woman lay sick, and her death was not far off. This woman was a widow and spent the entire time of her widowhood in labor, prayer and tears. Now the hour has come for her to be separated from the world. Her grown children stood around her bed and looked at their dying mother with eyes full of love. Gathering her last strength, she stood up once again and, looking at the children with a radiant gaze of joy, said: “Children, I leave you a huge treasure.” The children looked at their mother in surprise and said: “Dear mother, how can this be? Has there ever been a widow poorer than you?” “Yes, my children,” answered the mother, “but I still leave you a great treasure that will bring you a blessing: look!” With these words, she handed them her Bible, which lay under her pillow, and said: “Know, children, that there is not a single leaf in this book that is not watered with my tears; this is the treasure that I leave with you; do everything that is written in it, and you will be happy.” The children reverently accepted their mother's last gift. Her words lay deep in the hearts of the children. They tried to fulfill what the word of God requires of us, and they were pious, kind and happy people; and they repeated to everyone that the Bible is a treasure that has no price on earth. Now you don’t need any labor for correspondence or a lot of money to purchase a Bible: for 20 kopecks. ser. you can have the entire New Testament in Slavic or Russian. It would be both a shame and a sin if someone did not take the trouble to acquire the Gospel for themselves in order to read and study it. (“Sunday Reading”, vol. XXXI. I. p. 221). Conversation No. 1. About the teachings of the pastors of the Church I. Pastoral teachings are necessary during worship. For the Church of God spreads and is established on earth mainly through the preaching of the word of God (Heb. 1:1). II. a) God is the truth and “wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). Preaching the Gospel was the first and main work of Jesus Christ - God the Word, Whom in the days of His earthly life even non-believers most often called Teacher. During the days of His earthly life, He preached the Gospel in the temple in Jerusalem and everywhere. Establishing public worship in the New Testament by establishing the sacrament of Communion, He combined the Last Supper with the instruction of His disciples (John 13 et seq.). b) Likewise, for the apostles, preaching the Gospel was the main thing. The Lord sent them to preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15), and they preferred preaching the word of God to their other duties (Acts 6:2; 1 Cor. 1:17). They preached the word of God in the public church of prayer (Acts ch. 3), in synagogues (Acts 13:15) and in other places. Ap. Paul talked with his disciples on Sunday and “conversed with them and continued speaking until midnight” (Acts 20:7). And just as the apostle himself preached, even while in prison, since “for the word of God there is no bond” (2 Tim. 2:9), so he gave his successors the commandment to preach “the word in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2) and says that “ruling elders should be given utmost honor, especially to those who labor in the word and teaching” ( 1 Timothy 5:17). Therefore, the first Christians constantly remained in the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42). c) Since the time of the apostles, following their example, pastoral teachings, both ancient ones, which constitute for us a rich treasury of spiritual edification, and real ones, called words, sermons (1 Cor. 2:4), conversations (Luke 24:14-15), are never interrupted in the Church of God. According to the rule of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, “pastors must on all days, especially Sundays, teach the clergy and people about piety, choosing from the Divine Scripture truths for reasoning and without transgressing the established limits of the tradition of the God-bearing fathers, and, examining the word of Scripture, explain it no differently than the luminaries and teachers of the Church set forth in their writings, and with these they should be more satisfied than by composing their own words” and etc. The Charter of the Church also indicates many teachings of the holy fathers during divine services. Thus, the need for edification by the word of God is indicated to us not only in general, but also during church services. III. If preaching the word of God in a timely and untimely manner is an indispensable duty of shepherds, then attention to their teachings is an indispensable duty of the flock. Teachings are necessary for instruction in faith, which is implanted by hearing (Rom. 10:14,17), for encouragement to good deeds (2 Tim. 3:16–17) and for the glorification of events remembered by the Church. Teachings are necessary and important in general for all believers, scientists and ordinary people. a) Scientists need teachings to purify, elevate and sanctify their minds and hearts. For in the sermon the word of God is proclaimed, by which everything is sanctified, and instruction is offered to the conscience, which, with natural knowledge, often wanders in darkness, and does not have the subtle sense indicated by revelation for distinguishing between good and evil. Yes, app. Paul denounces and instructs the wise of this age: “Whoever thinks that he knows anything, still knows nothing as he ought to know” (1 Cor. 8:2), and calls perfect “whose senses are trained by skill to distinguish between good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). b) Sermon has a beneficial effect on ordinary Christians, impressing in their souls the seeds of right faith and godly life. If they do not understand everything in the sermon, then they feel that the sermon they hear is a divine and saving teaching, they are moved, and with tears and sighs testify to the beneficial effect of the word of God on their hearts. However, as St. Chrysostom: “Springs flow, even if no one draws from them, and springs give out water, even if no one takes it, and rivers flow, even if no one drinks from them: so the preacher, even if no one listens to him, must do everything that depends on him. For we who have accepted the ministry of the word have been given a law by God to never abandon our duty and never remain silent, whether they listen to us or run away.” (See “The care of the Orthodox Church for the salvation of the world” by Archpriest Debolsky). Brothers Christians! Let us listen with zeal and love to the word of God offered to us in church teachings, which is necessary for our temporal and eternal life. Let us remember that “not knowing the divine law is the greatest betrayal of salvation: it gave rise to schisms, introduced vicious life, and led everything into the greatest disorder.” (See St. John Chrysostom. Homil. de Lasaro t. 1, pag. 740). Let us not imitate those foolish and careless Christians who, having heard a sermon, dare to disdain the church meeting and leave the church, thereby causing temptation and disorder. “Therefore, putting aside all uncleanness and the remnant of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). Amen. Appendix to conversation No. 1. Persons who had the right and duty of preaching in the ancient Church The right and duty to preach the word of God in the ancient Church, as at the present time, belonged mainly to bishops as successors to the apostolic ministry, to whom the Lord gave the commandment: “Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” The Apostle Paul, in his letters to Timothy and Titus, reminds the bishops appointed by him of the duty of teaching. The same is confirmed by the Apostolic Canon (58th). The presbyters, as having received the power of teaching from the bishop through ordination, helped the bishops in the work of preaching, and in small churches where the bishop could not be, they preached in his place. Yes, St. John Chrysostom, being a presbyter in the Church of Antioch, preached under Bishop Flavian; Blessed Augustine, while still a presbyter, preached under Bishop Valery of Ipponia. In the Eastern Churches, when presbyters preached in the presence of a bishop, the presbyter had to preach first, and then the bishop. Apart from bishops and elders, other members of the clergy, even deacons, could not preach publicly. So, for example, John Chrysostom, despite his high education and oratorical talent, when he was a deacon in Antioch for more than five years, was never admitted to the Church department until he received the presbytery. Deacons were only allowed to read the conversations of bishops or former fathers in the event that bishops and presbyters for some reason could not preach themselves. So, in the VI century. Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, who had a weak voice and was often ill, when he could not preach himself, he instructed the deacons to pronounce his teachings dictated to them. There were, however, exceptions when deacons preached their own sermons. Such an exception is St. Ephraim the Syrian, deacon of the Odessa church. But Ephraim the Syrian enjoyed special respect throughout the East, his wise instructions were revered by modern bishops, and Basil the Great even wanted to elevate him to the rank of bishop. If in other places there were such deacons who were given the right to preach, then this, in any case, was a rare exception to the usual order. If deacons did not have the right to preach, except in special cases, then even more so did the laity not have this right. The councils (Carthage, canon 28; Trullo, canon 64) prohibit a layman from teaching publicly. If there were cases when bishops allowed the laity to preach the word of God, then very few such cases can be pointed out. Thus, Origen, while still a layman, taught catechumens in Alexandria and preached on behalf of the Bishop of Alexandria, Alexander. Women, based on the words of the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 14:34–35; 1 Tim. 2:11–12), were never allowed to preach in public; they could teach only privately, preparing catechumens for Baptism (Council of Carthage, canon 12). At the present time, in addition to bishops and priests, persons who have received a theological education can preach in our country, but not otherwise than with the permission and blessing of the bishop. (See “Liturgics” by Nesterovsky). Conversation No. 2. About why many do not like to listen to sermons explaining the word of God I. One day Jesus Christ came to His hometown of Nazareth and taught in the synagogue. Those listening were amazed and said: where did He get such wisdom and power? But the height of Christ’s teaching did not produce the desired effect in them. They were offended about Jesus, saying to themselves, “Is this not the son of carpenters?” Don't we know His family? And they did not accept the teachings of the Lord. Let us turn to ourselves from the inhabitants of Nazareth, brothers! The Word of God is preached even today, in some churches less often, in others more often, in some constantly. But how coldly many treat him! The preacher comes out - and some of those present begin to venerate the icons, others sit down and start conversations, others stand at a distance, and others, dissatisfied with the established order, completely leave the church without waiting for the end of the service. A sad phenomenon! Why is this! We, who preach the word of God, will not justify ourselves; perhaps we are also the culprits of such a cold attitude towards the word of God; we speak ugly, unclearly, abstractly present our thoughts, often repeat the same thing, and talk about well-known truths. But this is not the main reason. He who loves the word of God, reverently bows before it, will listen to a simple, not eloquent preacher, knowing that the main thing here is not in the expression, but in the thought itself, in the teaching itself, and the teaching, of course, is based on the word of God. He will not complain if he hears something that is often repeated, because it is often repeated sometimes in order to better and more firmly impress this or that truth on the listeners, just as Christ often did, precisely in order to show the importance and necessity for a Christian of carrying out this or that truth in life. So, apparently, the main reason for the coldness towards the word of God is not in the preachers of the word of God. II. What and in whom is it? Of course, in those who do not want to listen to him. a) Most of all, this dislike for the word of God comes from pride. Such pride is especially noticeable in the falsely learned and half-educated. Considering themselves omniscient, they do not want to listen to any reminders or instructions. “We have known this for a long time,” they say. “You will find this in any spiritual book,” although they never read these spiritual books for the same reason. Driven by such pride, the Pharisees and scribes did not even want to listen to Christ Himself. They wanted to teach others themselves, and not learn from anyone else. There have always been people like them, and there are now. But what is especially painful is that our youth, who are studying and studying somewhere, have become imbued with such pride. Outside the church, it does not want to bow to the priest or ask for his blessing, and in the church it especially dislikes pastoral preaching. Often it is the first thing that runs away. This is a disappointing sign! Parents must by all means instill in their children love and respect for everything sacred even at a young age, otherwise pride will destroy them and they will not see God’s blessing and God’s mercies over them. b) Other reasons for avoiding listening to the word of God include ignorance and attachment to worldly things. Divine truth is precious. This is the bead with which Jesus Christ called His teaching. This is the pearl of great price, for the acquisition of which the one who found it sold everything he had. But not everyone gives value to the teaching of Christ. There are people who have lived, and who are always ready to live, in ignorance of this teaching. It doesn't occupy them. What it says about salvation, what means to use to put yourself on the right path to salvation, what is most important in the matter of salvation, they have no concern about this. How to better understand the spirit of Christ’s teaching, what constitutes its essence, how to become imbued with it - they also do not think about this. They limit all service to God to short prayer at home and rare visits to the church of God on well-known holidays. They don’t read the Gospels or spiritual books, many don’t even have one, and if they do, it’s somewhere neglected. They are much more interested in what is written in this or that newspaper, what is happening in this or that country. Bodily needs are closer and more akin to them; they think more about them, or, better to say, they live to satisfy, first of all, these needs. They live well here, everything is fine with them, they have a lot of everything, they don’t want a bigger or better condition. It’s clear whether such people are pleased with the pastoral teachings offered in church? They are as disgusted by them as forcefully offered food is disgusted by a sick person. Oh, how similar such people are to those Gergesians mentioned in the Gospel, to whom Christ came with the word of good news, and they came out to Him and began to beg him to quickly leave them. All those who turn away from listening to the word of God act like them. Christ, through the shepherds of the Church, proclaims His word to them, wants to awaken spiritual needs in them, arouse a thirst for the eternal, heavenly, wants to feed the earthly, and yet thirsty souls with incorruptible food, but they run away from all this, not feeling the slightest need for it. Oh, how unhappy, how pathetic are such Christians! (See “Collection of generally understandable teachings” by Priest P. Shumov). III. Brothers Christians! Let's drive out ungodly pride from ourselves, don't let our soul get bogged down in the vanity of the world, let's think about its high purpose, about what it needs, without which it cannot live. Just as we think daily about bodily food, so let us think about spiritual food. And the food of the soul is the word of God. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). We Christians live on earth for heaven; here, as in a school, we are educated and prepared for eternal life. Let's think about all this, let's bring our highest purpose to mind more often. Then a disposition towards the word of God will appear in us. Desiring, seeking salvation, we will lovingly listen to the word about salvation preached in the church, we will listen, and not run from it. Amen. Appendix to conversation No. 2. Is it permissible to leave the church without preaching? In our city churches, the Orthodox priest, leaving St. the altar to the lectern to deliver a sermon, almost always witnesses a strange phenomenon: the common people move towards the lectern, and many of the so-called educated people (at least judging by their clothes) from all parts of the church rush to the doors, making noise, shuffling their feet and slamming doors. We know that Christians of other confessions, Roman Catholics, Protestants, and, if you like, even Jews and Mohammedans, have nothing like this. Anyone who bears the name of a Christian and goes to a Christian church for divine services must know how to behave in church. The church is a place of constant, special, mysterious presence of God. The throne of grace has been erected in the church. Those seeking enlightenment, purification, sanctification from her turn to the altar with reverence, approach it with fear and love and look at it. A good Christian, having crossed the church threshold, is imbued with a feeling of this reverent fear and not only during the service, but also before and after it, even in a completely empty church, he will not allow himself too loud conversation and noise, indecent movement, and will not allow himself to slam the door when entering and leaving. If this is how a Christian behaves and should behave in an empty church, is he not obliged to behave with greater attention and caution at a gathering of believers? We know for what pious exercises Christians gather in churches: for prayer, for taking heartfelt participation - with faith and love in the offering of a bloodless sacrifice by the priest, or for communion, and finally, for listening to readings from the word of God, from the works of St. fathers and pastoral teachings. We know how important these exercises are and the concentrated attention they require from those present in the church. What reproach and condemnation does he deserve who disturbs others during these sacred exercises? The Holy Fathers of the Church call church preaching “the sacred act of the word.” This means that a church sermon is not at all like the exposition or teaching of any human teaching. And in human science, it is unforgivable for listeners to treat the teacher and teaching with disdain, much less to show such disdain for the Church teacher. The church preacher proclaims not his thoughts, not his teaching, but the words of God Himself. He composes a sermon calling for the help and blessing of God, he pronounces it in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. He recognizes himself as the instrument that God was pleased to choose to proclaim His eternal truth to people, and prays to God to honor him and give him the strength and ability to sow the Holy Spirit in His children. The church is the seed of faith and virtue. He comes to preach for the most part after communion of the Holy Mysteries, from St. the throne, kissing it, for his own sanctification and enlightenment. Do not neglect those weapons that the Lord chose to serve Himself. “He who listens to you hears Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me” (Luke 10:16), the Lord said to the apostles and through their successors in their service to the word of the Gospel. According to the meaning of these words of the Savior, those who insult the preacher by disdain for his word insult Christ Himself. Don't say that not all preachers are worthy of attention, not all preach well. Why do you know when and through whom the Lord wants to enlighten you and instruct you? “God has chosen the foolish things of the world,” says the apostle, “to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the strong things; “God has chosen the base things of the world and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh should boast in the sight of God” (Cor. 1:27-29). Do not boast, do not be proud before God. Let’s assume that you are more gifted and educated than the priest who wants to preach a sermon in church in your presence. But he does not argue with you about this, he does not leave the altar for this purpose, to compete and compete with you in talents and education - he fulfills his duty. Do yours too: do not proudly display in your mind your advantages in the face of God, Whom he serves and in whose name he preaches; this is indecent for a Christian. Believe me, when you flee from church, embarrassed by pride, incited by laziness and a secret desire to quickly indulge in the affairs of life, and even more pleasures and idleness, what follows you, accompanies you, is not human reproach, but a sentence of condemnation from God and the Church. The blessing of the Lord is upon you... the priest says only to those who, fulfilling the commandments of the Church, stand in the church decorously and reverently until the end of the Liturgy. By running away from the church prematurely, you are leaving without God's blessing. And in one of the apostolic canons this is what it says: “All the faithful who enter the church and listen to the Scriptures, but do not remain in prayer and holy communion to the end, as if they are causing disorder in the church, should be excommunicated from church communion” (pr.9). By the severity of this sentence you can judge the severity of the sin against which it was pronounced. When such pathetic self-confidence, placing itself above church preaching, turns into insolence, violating church decorum, offending the moral sense of good Christians, forgetting the significance of the time, the holiness of the place, it must be called to order. How and with what? A loud word of indignation from the entire community of the faithful, that is, all those who take for themselves the name of an Orthodox Christian, who feel in their hearts the fear of God, reverence for the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, zeal for the house of God, for the good and salvation of the brethren in Christ, for the honor and inviolability of the statutes of the holy Orthodox Church. (Extracted from an abbreviation from “Soulful Reading,” for 1863). Conversation No. 1. About the seven sacraments of the church I. Saving sacraments are such sacred actions in which, under visible images, grace invisibly acts on a person, i.e. the saving power of the Spirit of God. Thus, in every saving sacrament there is an external or natural action, for example: in Baptism - immersion in water, in Confirmation - anointing with consecrated chrism, in the Eucharist - the offering of bread and wine. Moreover, in all the sacraments certain perfect words are pronounced; Thus, in Baptism, the celebrant, immersing the baptized person in water, says: “The servant of God is baptized - in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”; in Confirmation, anointing the most important parts of the body, he repeats: “the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit,” etc. These words also belong to the external side of the sacraments and are natural actions. But with a visible natural action, in each sacrament an invisible, or supernatural, grace-filled action is also performed, which is the main thing in the sacrament. Thus, in Baptism, at the very time when the performer of the sacrament, immersing the baptized person in water, pronounces the words: “The servant of God is baptized - in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” the Savior Himself invisibly, by the power of the Holy Spirit, absolves him from all previous sins, that is, from sin inherited from his forefathers and from sins freely committed, and revives him into spiritual life. Likewise, in all other sacraments, under the guise of natural actions, special grace-filled actions are performed. II. a) The Orthodox Church of Christ, as through the Apostles, received from its Founder and Head, Jesus Christ, so faithfully and invariably to this day contains seven saving sacraments, namely: Baptism, Confirmation, Communion, Repentance, Priesthood, Marriage and Blessing of Anointing. In each of these sacraments, under the visible natural action performed by a servant of God, a bishop or priest, an invisible, supernatural saving action is performed by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Baptism, a person is freed from all sins, which, before receiving this sacrament, kept him in the area of ​​spiritual death, i.e. removed from God and from communion in the grace-filled gifts of God, and is reborn into a spiritual, grace-filled life. In Confirmation, the baptized person receives grace, which increases and strengthens him in spiritual life. In Communion, a Christian eats wondrous, gracious food - the true body and true blood of Christ the Savior in order to preserve spiritual life and to advance in spiritual perfection. In Repentance, a Christian is healed of spiritual illnesses, i.e. from the sins to which he is exposed after Baptism. In the Priesthood, the chosen one among the believers receives the grace to spiritually revive and educate others in a life of grace through the word of God and the saving sacraments. In the sacrament of Marriage, grace is given from above, sanctifying marriage and facilitating the blessed birth and upbringing of children. In the Blessing of Unction, a Christian suffering from bodily ailments is healed of spiritual and physical illnesses, or, if the Lord does not deign to restore his health, being healed of sins (and in particular the sins of oblivion), the power of grace is strengthened to overcome the temptations encountered during the transition from this life to eternal life. b) Thus, all sacraments have the goal of arranging the salvation of believers in Christ. Not every sacrament is directly necessary for every member of the Church in order to receive salvation, but in the whole Church of Christ, as a single body, all sacraments are necessary. Thus, not every believer directly needs the sacrament of the Priesthood, but it is necessary for everyone on the path to salvation in order to have dispensers of the gifts of grace imparted through the sacraments; and these dispensers, according to the will of the Author of our salvation, Jesus Christ, are prepared through the sacrament of the Priesthood. Not everyone commits to entering into a marital state; but it pleases the Lord that in His Church all marriages are sanctified by the special sacrament of Marriage, and that in this way the Church multiplies in its members from blessed marriages. You see, brethren, how wise and good the Lord is our Savior! He opened special sources of saving grace for all the most important needs in spiritual life, according to the most important circumstances of our natural life, by the power of the Holy Spirit working in the sacraments. He spiritually revives the believer, grows and strengthens, nourishes and heals; through the sacrament of Marriage prepares parents for birth into natural life, and through the sacrament of Priesthood bestows parents for birth into grace-filled, Spiritual life. c) At the same time, it should be noted that some of the sacraments put an indelible stamp on the soul of the person who receives them, that is, they produce an unchangeable effect on the person, and therefore these sacraments are not repeated. These are the sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation and Priesthood. This property belongs to these sacraments because in them there is predominantly the action of God, defining and sanctifying a person to a certain state in the kingdom of grace. Thus, through Baptism a person becomes a child of God, through Confirmation - an ascetic or warrior of Christ, through the Priesthood - a servant of God and a performer of divine mysteries. d) But someone will ask: why did the Lord want to combine the saving actions of grace in the sacraments with visible actions? And in this the Savior showed us His great love for mankind and condescension towards our weakness. If we were disembodied spirits, capable of directly contemplating the secret actions of the Holy Spirit, then, without a doubt, the Lord would communicate His grace-filled gifts to us without external images. But just as we now, being covered with coarse flesh, cannot directly contemplate the spiritual actions of grace and have a need for healing and sanctification not only of the soul, but also of the body, the Lord deigned to combine these invisible grace-filled actions with visible actions, in order through the visible and tangible to bring the invisible and intangible closer to the eyes of our faith and to heal and sanctify with the power of grace not only the invisible soul of man, but also his visible body. In addition, through the visible actions of the holy sacraments, according to the wise dispensation of the Lord Savior, other important goals are achieved in the Church, namely: Through the visible effects of the sacraments, believers are visibly sanctified as members of Christ's Church and separated from unbelievers. The visible effects of the sacraments tangibly remind Christians of the saving truths of faith and of the sacred duties of members of Christ's Church. The visible actions of the sacraments serve to closely unite the members of the Church as a single body both among themselves and with their Head - Jesus Christ. Thus, the visible actions of the sacraments protect believers from sins and help to arouse repentance in them and to correct them. In general, with their visible side, the saving sacraments more conveniently elevate the thoughts and feelings of Christians, as if on a ladder, to the invisible and heavenly, and through this greatly contribute to their growth in spiritual perfections. Not all believers in Christ have the right to perform the sacraments, but only those called from them. The Lord first taught this right to His chosen disciples, St. to the apostles, and then through the apostles to their successors - the bishops, and through the bishops - to their collaborators, the presbyters. III. So, in all this, brethren, God’s great mercy towards us is revealed. We must keep all this in memory and thank the Lord our Savior for everything, who so lovingly cares for us and so wisely arranges our salvation. Amen. (Compiled from the “Sermons” of Eusebius, Archbishop of Mogilev). Conversation No. 2. About worthy participation in the sacraments I. For worthy participation in the sacraments and in worship in general, faith, humility and attention are especially necessary, according to the inspiration of the word of God and the Church. “Without faith it is impossible to please God; For he who comes to God must believe that He exists and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6); “A doubter is like a wave of the sea, lifted and tossed by the wind. Let such a person not think that he will receive anything from the Lord" (James 1:6–7). II. a) The very name of the sacraments already sufficiently shows that they are not subject to the study of reason and therefore are worthily accepted only by believers. Therefore, the Church has decreed that the Creed be pronounced before baptism, confirmation, confession and communion. Before communion, in addition, it is always instilled: approach with the fear of God and faith. Before being ordained to the priesthood, the chosen one testifies to his faith to his spiritual father in confession; and the one elected to the episcopacy testifies to his right faith before the whole Church with a nationwide and extensive confession of the Orthodox faith. The Church encourages those entering into marriage to first fulfill the duty of the Christian faith - through confession and communion. During the blessing of oil, the sick person is reminded that God preserves the faithful with oil 32 and that “the prayer of faith will heal the sick” (James 5:15). Thus, only by faith can one enter into St. sacraments and to assimilate their gracious and saving power. b) Faith must be inseparable from reverent humility as the fruit and expression of living and true faith in the Savior, who humbled Himself out of love for us to death on the cross, reconciled heavenly justice with sinful humanity and gave us the ministry of reconciliation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:18). If the Son of God, in order to reconcile and unite us with God and among ourselves, humbled Himself to death on the cross, then we, in order to assimilate for ourselves the ministry of reconciliation with God and our neighbors and the gifts of God's grace as the fruits of this reconciliation, must acquire and have deep humility, as is always appropriate for a Christian, especially during the sacraments - the means of God's grace. Humility is a necessary condition for our reconciliation and unity with God, in whose gifts we become participants through the sacraments, and with our neighbors, with whom reconciliation and sanctification are impossible without humility. “We must therefore, with a humble and pure body structure,” the Church teaches us, “begin to approach the divine mysteries. During communion, let them approach honestly, in deep humility” 33. c) Faith and humility during the sacraments and in general during divine services must be accompanied by unflagging attention - complete and perfect focus on the sacred rites of the eyes and thoughts. “The priest has strong intention and will to perform the mystery,” the Church teaches. “An obstacle to worthy communion is excessive distraction of thoughts. Pray with all reverence, piety and great attention, diligently and completely, yes.” One of the patriarchs of the Orthodox Church says about the worthy reception of the sacraments: “The Lord gives us his shrine for free, we do not bring anything on our part to receive it: it is simply grace for us; and therefore He necessarily requires that we become at least capable of accepting and preserving it. Only then, He reports, is sanctification when we are properly disposed. This is how he baptizes, this is how he anoints, this is how he receives and communes at the secret meal. He explains this with the parable of the sower: “The sower went out,” he says, “but not in order to prepare more land, but in order to sow.” The proper preparation of the earth must be done by us.’” (See “Response of the Patriarch of Constantinople Jeremiah on the use of the sacraments”), (See the book “Care of the Orthodox Church for the Salvation of the World” by Archpriest Debolsky). III. So, brother Christians, sincere, deep and living faith, undivided, without a doubt, and with holy love for God and neighbors, reverent humility and unflagging attention - these are the feelings and dispositions that should fill the soul of a Christian when he begins to accept the grace of God through the holy sacraments of the Church. Appendix to conversation No. 2 Superstitions of our common people with a demonstration of their absurdity regarding St. sacraments of the Church 1. At St. sacrament of Baptism. According to church rites, almost immediately after the baptism of an infant, there is a ceremony of cutting hair. It is known that in this case wax is given to the recipient for rolling up the hair remaining from the rite of tonsure of the newly baptized person; The receiver must throw this wax into a font of water. As soon as the priest performs baptism and all the rituals with it, the recipient immediately looks into the font with intense attention, impatiently wanting to find out whether the wax he threw has sunk to the bottom of the font. Here it should be noted that although wax, according to physical laws, is lighter than water and can never sink in it, recipients can be misled by the first moment of the fall of wax, sometimes thrown with force and from a fairly considerable height. It’s bad if this very moment is noticed by the receivers. They tell the baby’s parents about this, and since this predicts, in their opinion, the child’s fragility, from that time on the parents begin to take special care of him, cherish him, look at him, and can’t get enough of him: “I’ll just look at our darling,” says the saddened mother, “maybe he will soon die with us!” Such an unpleasant impression can hardly be erased by parents, unless the child reaches the age of ten. (See “Home Conversation”, 1859). II. At the sacrament of Repentance and Communion. The common people believe that the beneficial effect of these sacraments is not lost until the end of six weeks and therefore they think that before this period there is no need to resort to the said sacraments, even if a person becomes dangerously ill or has sinned gravely. But it is a sin for him not to know the immutable truth that a person, not only in forty days, but also in one day, can sin a lot: “Who is clean from filth even if he lived only one day on earth?” says the Holy Scripture. There are also those of little faith who are afraid to receive St. Communion for the reason that they cannot “take down” this sacrament. In their opinion, such a person should live as a real recluse for up to six weeks, avoiding almost all contact with the family. “I have dogs, father,” says the man infected with prejudice, “I have cattle in the yard, you can’t bear it, you’ll shout at them, and therefore, I ask you, confess only to me, and excuse me from Communion, I won’t bear it!” “Why,” you tell him, “the ancient Christians were ready to receive the Holy One every Sunday. Tain? To this you will hear from them the usual and usual answer: “Yes, perhaps they were better than us, but we are dark and sinful people.” III. Regarding the priesthood. Here we intend to touch upon that rude and ignorant side of the Russian common people, which sharply indicates their lack of understanding of the importance of the holy order and lack of respect for the persons bearing it. For example, a priest goes to the house of his parishioner to give instructions to the sick, and he encounters a crowd of common people driving or walking along the street somewhere and with some kind of enterprise. “Well, brothers,” one of them says to the other, his face noticeably changing with fear, “the priest is coming to meet us halfway, there will be failure”; or in the same way: “Father crossed our path, there will be no use in our business.” Guided by such a superstitious thought, some of the common people, to their shame, without a twinge of conscience, without making a polite bow to the priest out of politeness, and as if with their hearts, tell him when he intends to cross their path: “Wait, father, I will pass, and then you will pass!” A priest who knows popular superstition, of course, understands the purpose of such a warning. Sometimes, seeing a priest coming towards them from a distance, they return home indignantly. Such is the spiritual blindness of the people! Why, when passing by a priest, especially one walking with the Holy Gifts to admonish the sick, reverently taking off his hat and making a polite bow to him, at least before the Holy Mysteries hidden on his chest, accept a blessing from him - then the Lord would bless their enterprise through him and crown it with success, but they, to the insult of the honor of their spiritual father, are trying to completely avoid meeting him!.. It is interesting to trace the history of this absurd and pitiful superstition in all respects. History testifies that Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, having himself accepted the Christian faith, ordered first of all to baptize his children, and then all the people of Kiev. The people, mired for so long in paganism, which, sanctifying the most vile vices, gave full rein to all human passions, of course, did not easily agree to accept the new faith, the rules of which prescribed moral purity and strict abstinence. The clergy brought to the attention of Vladimir that his princely will was not carried out by everyone, and many continued to remain in the same delusion. Such stubbornness of the people, of course, could not be pleasant to the enlightener of the Russian land, and it is very natural that Vladimir gave a strict order so that the clergy should use all their efforts to convert the lost, without neglecting, in case of need, measures of severity consistent with the spirit of that time. The consequence of such a princely order could be that those who were not enlightened by baptism tried in every possible way to avoid meeting with the priest as a person who, with his influence, could dispose the person he met to accept the Christian faith, and this was considered a great misfortune at that time. In all likelihood, this is where the original germ of our (Russian) superstition regarding meeting with a priest lies. Subsequently, this superstition found support in the schism. It is known that no one hates Orthodox priests more than those who are at war with St. schismatics of the Orthodox Church. By circulating among the common people, they naturally further strengthened their prejudice against the Orthodox clergy and thus supported the superstition regarding meeting with a priest and a monk - a superstition so fatal in its harmful influence on true morality, based on faith and heartfelt devotion to the Church and her servants. Meanwhile, many, perhaps, did not even suspect that by adhering to such a prejudice, they were imitating gloomy paganism, which had much more rights to an apology than modern, educated people who have had the good fortune to belong to the followers of the Christian faith for a long time. These people not only did not abandon such a crude prejudice of pagan antiquity, but also added to it pins and other things thrown after the priest. When pathetic superstitions meet a priest, there is no discrimination: one spits, another showers the oncoming priest with curses, and the third throws pins, with which our superstitions generally associate a dark thought of misfortune. We ourselves happened to see how some superstitious women refused to give a man a pin as a souvenir, “because,” as they said, “they could quarrel and that whoever takes the pin as a souvenir would suffer misfortune.” The thought of turning a supposed misfortune onto the head of a priest we meet is what prompts our superstitions to throw pins. And why, in this case, preference is given to pins and why, in general, our superstitions associate pins with the dark thought of quarrel and misfortune, some reasons can be found for this in the pagan beliefs of our ancestors. From our oldest historical records it is clear that our pagan ancestors had some kind of special respect for gold and when they swore on something, they laid the gold at the feet of the idols of Perun and Volos with a spell that if they broke the oath, then they would be yellow as gold. Thus, the Grand Duke Svyatoslav, concluding an agreement with Tzimiskes on behalf of all Russians in 971, says in this agreement, among other things, the following: “If I or those under me do not maintain these legal conditions, let us have an oath from God in whom we believe, from Perun and Volos, the god of cattle - let us be gold like this gold and be cut off with our own weapons.” Karamzin, our famous historian, explaining these words, says: “In our language, gold got its name from the color yellow (the Illyric Slavs call bile - slatcnica, and the Bohemians - slatenice). And in the translation of our Bible, the word zlatenitsa is used in the sense of bile: “I strike you with rust” (yellow disease) (Amos.4:9). Let us be yellow - “the same thing as let us be dead.” (“History of the Russian State” by Karamzin, T. 1, pr. 413). These extracts show what a terrible significance gold had in its yellow color in the life and beliefs of our pagan ancestors. It reminded them of the terrible misfortunes that awaited them if they broke or failed to keep their vows. IV. At the Sacrament of Marriage. With this sacrament, great care is required on the part of the priest so that, when betrothing the couple, he does not drop the ring of any of them, since, according to popular belief, this will mean that the person to whom the dropped ring belongs will die soon after the marriage. If one of the newlyweds himself drops his ring, then the priest can get rid of sidelong glances, unkind receptions and often caustic reproaches from the parents and relatives of the newlyweds as a necessary consequence of the said carelessness. In this case, the circumstance of the loss of the ring is attributed directly to the action of God’s providence, and those entering into marriage can only wait with submission to the will of God for the bitter consequences of such an unexpected incident, invented by themselves. Our common people attribute exactly the same meaning to the circumstance if one of the spouses’ candle, which they hold at the wedding, burns out more than the other. In their opinion, the person whose candle burned out more will die sooner than the one whose candle burned out less. In the month of May, marriages are avoided, since those married in this month will supposedly suffer all their lives, that is, live badly - an absurd and ridiculous belief that arose as a result of a simple, completely random coincidence of the word to toil (i.e., to exhaust, become exhausted from intense movement, since the root of this word ma is the Sanskrit ma-miv-minuti - to move) from Lat. in a word - (Majus) May, which comes from the name of the goddess May (the fifth month of the year), and has nothing in common with the first. (See “The experience of a dictionary of the Russian language in comparison with the Indo-European languages” by Izyumov). V. At the Sacrament of Anointing. To perform this sacrament, according to the popular “unction with oil” of the sick, many consider it completely unnecessary to resort to, or resort to it only when there is no longer any hope for the patient’s recovery, and even often when he is unconscious. The reason for this lies in the superstitious opinion that one who is unctioned with oil must certainly die soon after. If the sick person who has been unctioned recovers, then everyone who meets him must make a low bow to him, as if he were half-dead or almost as if he had come from the other world. Others, on the contrary, suffer from a different kind of prejudice. These believe that everyone must certainly undergo unction: but at the same time they also believe that leaving a censer or any other church thing in the house of a sick person after the end of unction out of oblivion will mean that the sick person will not get up. Also, smoke from extinguished candles, directed towards the doors, will mean that the sick person will be carried out dead through those doors; if, on the contrary, the smoke goes up or towards the windows, then the patient will recover. With little confidence they listen to the priest's suggestions that the sacrament of the Blessing of Anointing is one of the most beneficial sacraments of St. Church, which she, as a child-loving mother, established to perform on the sick with the aim of their recovery from illnesses, not only physical, but also mental, i.e. from sins, and that all the prayers of this sacrament have as their content a prayer for the health of the sick person and for the forgiveness of his sins. Acta Sanct. ad. 13. Julius p. 601, 602. A very useful and important note for composers of psalm concertos. In Antioch of Syria, Flavian, later Bishop of Antioch and Diodorus of Tarsus, established the singing of antiphons c. 350 g. In the Barberine list of the Liturgy we read that the singers sang “The mercy of the world...”, the people sang “Holy, holy... We sing to you...” About singing at burial. "A Discourse on the Epistle to the Hebrews," vol. 12, p. 28. Heretical and liturgical singing with theatrical gestures and antics was the same worldly singing... at least not better. The songs intended by Ephraim for antiphonal singing sometimes have the character of hypophonic singing: the lyric sings a line, and then all of a chorus From the theory of harmony, Sirin borrowed “musical rhythm,” which he introduced into the liturgical singing of the Syrian Church. “Cheti-Minei”, on the 4th of July. "Sunday Reading", Year IX, No. 50, p. 453. Bibl. Fabr. T. X, pag. 126, 127 et 138. See the inscriptions in our liturgical books. See the Synaxarion on Thursday of the 5th week of Great Lent in the Lenten Triodion. From the birthplace of his St. John received the name of Damascus. For his eloquence he was called Chryzoroe. (Chrvsoroas - golden stream). In addition, he also had names, probably family ones: Mansur and Arkliysky (preface to the works of St. John of Damascus - Leo Allatius). Some place his birth in 676. (See Synax. Basil the Emperor). A more detailed account of this is as follows. Cosmas, along with other captives, was sold into captivity in the marketplace of Damascus. Out of respect for his rank, captive Christians, doomed to death, fell at his feet, asking him for prayers to God for their souls. Seeing this, the Saracens asked him what rank he had in his fatherland. “None,” answered Cosmas, “I am a simple monk.” Having said this, he began to cry bitterly. At this time, John’s parent was standing not far away. Noticing the monk's tears and crying, he approached him, wanting to console him. But Cosmas answered: “I am not crying about the deprivation of the world, for which I have long since died; no, I am sad that I am leaving the world childless...”, then he explained to Sergius, surprised by such an answer, what he meant by his childlessness: “With the help of God,” he said, “I studied all the sciences, but I did not have time to convey my knowledge to anyone and I appear before God like a barren tree.” Delighted by such an unexpected discovery, Sergius hastened to plead for the life and freedom of Cosmas and brought him into his house. “Cheti-Minei”, December 4. Under the hand of St. John was forged by the scribes, who had previously obtained one of his handwritten letters to the Orthodox (“Cheti-Minea”). Damascene is a singer of the glory of God, considering God to be the only assistant in the singing business: “Look at the singing of the slaves, the Benefactor...”, i.e. pay attention and help...; “People are raised to singing by the grace of God” (see the canon of the Nativity of Christ). These melodies are carefully preserved by Greek singers, but are not yet known in the Russian Church. By the way, the written Octoechos is still kept in the Greek church, but the key to understanding the notes of Damascus has not yet been found. See "Sunday Reading", for 1841–42, No. 29. See the book of the holy prophet Isaiah, chapter 6. Find in the Priestly Missal the words spoken during the kissing of the edge of St. rubbing. Here is the beginning of this canon, according to the Irmos: “Over the seas of the dark abyss...” Troparion 1: “Having seen the title of Your honorable face, the Cherubim retreat from the tree of life: the flaming weapon all reverently gives you arms, O all-wise Theodora.” Troparion 2: “The title above the head of the King of Christ is written on the tree with the cross: your title, of all wisdom, is inscribed on your face, written more beautifully.” The acrostic of this canon: “Your, brother, neighbor’s weave of praise.” See the monthly Menaion for December, 3rd canon on the 27th. From the “Cheti-Menaia” and “Ecclesiastical History”, Bishop Innocent. Memory of St. Theophan the Inscribed is celebrated by the Church on October 11th, the memory of his brother Theodore the Confessor is celebrated on December 27th, and the memory of their parent St. Jonah the Presbyter - September 22. See the month books of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and the monthly menaions in the indicated months and dates. See the inscriptions in the liturgical books, as well as the “Historical Review of the Liturgical Books,” p. 82, and Cave Hist. Litter. T. II. Saeculum, pag. 16. For example, Augustine in his Denkwürdigkeiten Th. V S. 348 and Rambach in his Anthologie, p. I, p. 186,187. The canon, compiled by him in honor of the holy Apostle Bartholomew, is decorated with the following acrostic: “With songs I honor my good representative,” - from which borderline one can see that there really was some special manifestation of the goodwill and mercy of the holy Apostle Bartholomew towards St. Joseph. See the inscriptions in the liturgical books. On many of his songs one name is inscribed, in others the hymnographer is added. But the hymns inscribed with the name of Joseph belong to him, and not to Joseph of Stud. For the name of the latter is always added kir, signifying his archpastoral dignity, which serves to distinguish his song from the songs of Joseph the Songwriter, as it is said about this in the life of the latter. Special love of St. Joseph to the chants of Cosmas is primarily noticeable in the pre-festive canons of his Nativity and Epiphany; these songs are the closest imitation of the canons of Cosmas. See the three songs: the heel of the 6th week of Easter, Saturday of the same week, Tuesday of the 7th week and the heel of Pentecost. Borrowed from the handwritten notes of St. Peter Mogila, published in the 1st part of the VII volume of the “Archive of South-Western Russia”. At present, the ancient way of reading among Moldovans and others has been preserved. Slavs The division into chapters occurred already in later times. Here in Russia it did not exist for a long time; the division into verses that exists today appeared for the books of V. 3. in 1450, and for the books of N. 3. in 1551. See Verkhovsky’s dictionary, the word: “Bible.” Irmos at the blessing of oil, hymn 1. In the Teacher's Newsletter under the Service Book.