Педагогический потенциал святоотеческого наследия

k. ped. Sc., associate professor of the department theology and religious studies Kursk State University Saint Theophan noted: “Each of us has a task that we must fulfill with our lives; families and clans have their own tasks; societies and states are their own. And no one will argue that the happiness and well-being of the people, as a family and as an individual, depend on the fulfillment of their task. Prosperity can be achieved after this very simply: find out your task and complete it” 842. But it is necessary to note that the Lord, assigning and defining goals, “does not bind anyone to achieve them, but expects people themselves to recognize these goals and freely determine themselves to achieve them” 843 and move along the path of “God’s providence.” Therefore, it is important that in this process a person does not turn to himself, but turns to God. There is a wonderful parable about this. One woman had a dream that she came to a store, and instead of the seller, the Lord met her there. Lord, what can you buy in this store? “You can buy anything here,” God answered her. Then please give me happiness, health, success, love and wealth. God went to get the order and after some time returned with a small box in his hands. What is this? What did I order?! – the woman was surprised. Yes, everything is correct,” came the answer. – Didn’t you know that I only sell seeds?! We see that every person contains a certain potential, and our task (parents, teachers) is to help him open up, create the necessary conditions for these “seeds to germinate and bear good fruit,” since “we can develop and improve only what is in us, as in a seed” 844. Such activity begins in the process of education, but does not exclude the most active activity on the part of the person himself, because his formation does not end with the end of the educational institution. In the course of my professional activities, I often meet and work with modern teachers who teach the fundamentals of Orthodox culture. When a teacher begins to get acquainted with the vast world of Orthodox culture, he often comes to our department for educational and methodological materials. But after a while these materials become insufficient. And here it is very important that the teacher turns to the primary sources and begins to work with them, namely, the texts of the Holy Scriptures and the patristic heritage. Turning to the works of the Holy Fathers helps us: correctly understand the text of Holy Scripture, revealing its meaning. Since Holy Scripture is an inspired text, it must be interpreted by people led by the Holy Spirit. to embody it in your life, which is no less important, since, according to the thought of St. Isaac the Syrian, “wisdom, not justified by activity, is a guarantee of shame” 845. Therefore, when reading the works of saints, it is important “to receive not pleasure, but benefit, which is possible only when you understand what is said in the book, test yourself and force yourself to apply what you read to yourself” 846. The works of the Holy Fathers are especially valuable because they are the fruit not only of theoretical reflections, but are also rooted in their personal experience. When a person has a problem, he turns to specialists, and such specialists in the spiritual sphere are the Holy Fathers. Therefore, turning to their works helps us overcome difficulties and correct mistakes not only in professional teaching activities, but also in personal development and improvement. Therefore, today I would like, first of all, to invite respected colleagues and participants of our conference to get acquainted with the Holy Fathers, turn to their heritage, and work with texts. And secondly, so that they introduce their children and students to the reading of the patristic heritage, naturally, taking into account individual age and spiritual characteristics (“From what a person reads, one can recognize his spiritual state” 847. Next I would like to turn to practice. How can this study be organized? And, of course, it is necessary to turn to the experience and heritage of St. Theophan, whose legacy is striking in its depth and scope, since it contains works in almost all genres of patristic writing. Lives of the Saints. Our acquaintance with the saint begins and, unfortunately, is often limited only to the study of his life. But how important it is that already at this stage of acquaintance we can read at least a few lines from the works of the saint (of course, if there are any). After all, by reading the author’s texts, we enter into dialogue with the saints, hear their speech, and discover it for ourselves. So, reading the letters of St. Theophan, you are amazed how such an energetic person could remain in seclusion?! And this charge of energy was in him since childhood, but the saint managed to direct it in the right direction. In what other cases can a person come into contact with the works of the Holy Fathers? Or what might motivate him to turn to their texts? For example, reading the Holy Scriptures. We know well that a fairly large part of the time is devoted to the study of the Holy Scriptures, for example, in Sunday school or in a course on the fundamentals of Orthodox culture. And here it is very important that, first of all, the teacher himself and parents have a good knowledge of not only the text, but also an understanding of its meaning. From work experience and meetings with modern teachers, I know about the problems that arise when reading the Bible and especially when interpreting it. Saint Philaret (Drozdov) gives an important recommendation when turning to the Bible, which must be “read with reverence as the Word of God and prayer for its understanding” 848. Therefore, we need to turn to the works of the Holy Fathers, who left us precisely the interpretation of Holy Scripture. For example, Psalm 118 takes up several pages - a fairly large and difficult text to understand. And its interpretation, compiled by Saint Theophan, occupies several hundred pages, revealing the deep meaning of each line. For example, “I will learn from Your justifications; I will not forget Your words” (Ps. 119:16). Saint Theophan writes: “Yes, in many ways we have fallen behind the ancient saving customs! But this does not detract from the value of the work indicated in this verse. It means this: memorize verses from Scripture, and repeat those you have memorized as soon as your mind and speech are free. The Hebrew word for “learn” means to roll sweetly in the mind and on the tongue, as, for example, swirling candy in the mouth. Such an activity can be offered to everyone..." 849. How often do we consume such sweets? Or when we read and study the books of the New Testament. After all, it is important that children not only know the sequence of narratives and the course of historical events (although here too we have, for example, the “Gospel History” compiled by St. Theophan), but comprehend the deep meaning of these texts. And without resorting to interpretation it is impossible to do this. And here we see that the saint’s legacy contains a whole layer of exegetical works devoted to the apostolic letters. Thirdly, a separate group of writings consists of the so-called ascetic works written by hermit monks of the 4th-7th centuries. At first glance, a modern teacher or child can say why we should read these books, because: b) we do not live in the desert of ancient times. But it is surprising that even from the moment of their creation, these books, although they were addressed to hermit monks, had already gained popularity among the laity. Why? Let's think about it. And again we turn to our dear saint, because it was thanks to him that these texts became not only accessible, but also understandable to us (we are talking about the translation of the Philokalia and other monuments of ascetic thought). Saint Theophan asks: “By what right do we consider all the instructions about attention, sobriety and spiritual wakefulness - the primary subject of ascetic writings - to apply only to monks, and not to the laity?” And he answers: “after all, most often monks have a part that does not go to the laity, but it concerns the external order of life and relationships, and not the internal dispositions of the spirit” 850. Indeed, it turns out that in these ascetic works the foundations of human coexistence, the rules and norms of communication between people, building relationships between elders and juniors, between peers, superiors and subordinates are revealed, the deep issues of the inner world of man, his communication with God are revealed. For example, one of the ancient ascetics says: “If the job is done, but the peace is broken, then you have done only 1/3 of the job, and if the job has suffered, but the peace is preserved, then you have done 3/4 of the job.” Repeatedly in my teaching career I have encountered the “effect” of reading these books by modern people. Thus, a modern teacher, a young woman, having become acquainted with the work of Abba Dorotheus “Soulful Teachings,” expressed words of gratitude: “I found ways to resolve the conflict in my teaching team, options for communicating with colleagues.” The young man, having read some fragments of the “Ladder” by John Climacus, said that he found in it the answers to the questions that he had been looking for all his life. So everyone, turning to these works, can conduct a small test of their relevance for themselves. For example, word 14 of the Ladder “About the womb dear to all and the evil ruler.” Many may say: this is not about me. But listen to John Climacus: “A glutton rejoices over Sunday, during Lent he counts how much is left until Easter, and prepares food many days in advance. The servant of the belly is calculating what foods to use to honor the holiday, and the servant of God is thinking about what gifts he can be enriched with” 851. And one more example. Once, at one of the meetings with teachers, I was asked: “How to teach a child to hear the voice of conscience?” But you can only teach what you can do yourself. How often do we hear the voice of our conscience, and if we hear it, do we always act in accordance with it? Abba Dorotheos writes: “Know that from neglecting the small and, in essence, insignificant, we move on to neglecting the great. For if someone begins to say: “What is the importance if I say this word? What does it matter if I eat this trifle? What is the importance if I look at this or that other thing?” - from this “what is this importance” he falls into bad habits and begins to neglect the great and important and trample on his conscience.” 852 Why is this so important? A person's conscience is a kind of catalyst. Saint Theophan notes that “a person’s conscience is what he is in relation to God.” And the preservation of conscience is diverse, since a person must preserve it “in relation to God, to one’s neighbor and to things” 853. Of course, when turning to the diverse patristic heritage, one should read books that correspond to a person’s spiritual structure and way of life: “Everyone choose for yourself the reading of the fathers that corresponds to your way of life... so as not to become a fruitless dreamer and receive harm instead of benefit” 854. Since the works of the Holy Fathers, in particular St. Theophan, are very important for self-education (“constancy and continuity of work on oneself is an urgent condition for success in spiritual life” 855), it is advised to read books that are “active” and not “speculative.” Of course, “nowadays there is a certain complexity that needs to be taken into account. Our life is very far from the Christian life that our ancestors lived. Many concepts and phenomena spoken of in the patristic texts are not familiar to us and we do not know their meaning, and if we do know, we do not understand how to apply them in modern life” 856. Or the meaning of these categories is distorted beyond recognition. For example, such metamorphoses occurred with the understanding of key Christian virtues: humility, meekness, non-covetousness, etc. And their opposites - passions, vices - became the norm (for example, pride, stinginess, etc.). Therefore, it is very difficult for parents, teachers, and even more so for children. In this regard, we should especially pay attention to those saints and their works that will be understandable and close to modern people. And here representatives of Russian patristics occupy a special place. Here we are already turning directly to the word, the teachings of St. Theophan himself, his epistolary heritage, wonderful sermons, since this is a living word addressed to the minds and hearts of each of us (“Words to the Tambov flock”, “Words to the Vladimir flock”). And, of course, his scientific and theological works (this is already a topic for separate meetings). For a better understanding of the personality of Saint Theophan and the problems he talks about, it is important to turn to the works of his contemporaries. For example, we know about his special veneration of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, so why don’t we turn to his book “Spiritual Treasure Collected from the World.” An amazing work that teaches us to see analogies to spiritual processes in our everyday life and the world around us (“Fathers and Sons”, “Shepherd and Flock”, “Bride and Groom”, etc.). Or the works of his contemporaries - Ignatius Brianchaninov, Philaret (Drozdov), John of Kronstadt and others, many of whom were addressees of the saint. Of course, knowing about the colossal busyness and workload of modern man, we can say that he simply does not have enough time to read all the works. Secondly, we experience problems in explaining any phenomena from the spiritual world and life. And here we often lack not only knowledge, but also the spiritual experience that the saints had. Therefore, parents and teachers have such difficulties: how to explain to a child what heaven is? What is love? What is the power of humility? Etc. In this case, I would like to draw your attention to working with symphonies - these are books with sayings of the Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church on the most important issues of existence: God, life, death, good, evil, sin, love, virtue, heaven, hell, etc. It's like a dictionary for any branch of scientific knowledge: philosophy, psychology, etc. Most often they are published in the form of collections of quotes from one or another Father of the Church. For example, a symphony based on the works of St. Theophanes, composed by Archimandrite Georgy (Tertyshnikov), or a symphony based on the works of Tikhon of Zadonsk, Isaac the Syrian and others. Of course, when working with patristic texts, certain problems arise: difficulty of perception, stylistic language, irrelevance of problems, etc. But I also know that in this case people often return to a book that was abandoned and once misunderstood. That is, the book is waiting in the wings, and then it reveals its treasures to the reader. Today I would like to attract the attention of teachers and parents, to interest them and invite them to study the works of the Holy Fathers, to turn to their texts, both within the framework of pedagogical detail and personal growth and improvement. Of course, within the framework of our meeting it will not be possible to talk about all the saints who contributed to the treasury of patristic thought, but I hope that we have made a good start, and for some, the continuation of studying the works of the Holy Fathers together with children and families (“Read the Fathers, at least one or two lines a day. These are very strengthening vitamins” 857). Theophan the Recluse. Word on the accession to the throne of His Majesty the Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich (February 19, 1894) // Edifying with love. Words and sermons. M., 2008. P. 125. Quote by: Paisiy Svyatogorets, Rev. Words. Spiritual awakening. T.2. M., 2010. P. 106. Philaret (Drozdov), St. Orthodox Catechism. M., 2004. P. 24. Theophan the Recluse. A guide to spiritual life, compiled according to the interpretation of Psalm 119. M., 2005. P. 115. Georgy (Tertyshnikov), archimandrite. Symphony based on the works of St. Theophan, the Recluse of Vyshensky: in 2 volumes. Ryazan, 2003. T. 2. P. 158. John of Sinai, Rev. Ladder. St. Petersburg, 1996. P. 115. Avva Dorotheus. Soulful teachings. Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, 2009. P. 64. Avva Dorotheus. Soulful teachings. pp. 65–66. Ignatius Brianchaninov. Ascetic experiences // Collection. op. : in 7 volumes. M., 2006. T. 1. P. 128. Theophan the Recluse. What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it. M., 2005. P. 184. Peter (Pigol), ig. Introductory speech // Patristic heritage and education of youth. M., 2005. P. 5. Paisiy Svyatogorets, Rev. Words. Spiritual awakening. T. 2. M., 2010. P. 109.