So, children, the Holy Spirit, although it is everywhere and fills everything, may not be with us, may not help us? Yes. And this happens when we do not call on Him in fervent prayer and when we do bad things. It wouldn’t be so scary if only we didn’t have the Holy Spirit; but when the Holy Spirit does not exist in a person, then an unclean spirit of malice settles in him, which tempts the person to do evil deeds. Oh, how terrible is this spirit of malice, which defiles a person with all sorts of unclean thoughts, sinful desires and criminal deeds. We need to earnestly ask the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in us and cleanse us from all sinful impurity. Sins, children, always make us unclean before God; in a person’s soul they are like a dirty spot on a white garment. But since we on our own, with our own strength, cannot cleanse ourselves from the filth of sin, then what can we do but ask the Comforter Spirit to dwell in us and cleanse us from all uncleanness.
We end our prayer to the Holy Spirit with the following words: Save our souls, O Blessed One! Who do we call better? - Blazhe means Good, Kind; that's what we call the Holy Spirit, because no one is as good as the Holy Spirit. “We ask Him for a lot; we ask for what we don’t deserve at all; meanwhile, due to the infinite kindness and love of the Holy Spirit for us, we hope to receive from Him everything we ask.
What do we express to the Holy Spirit with the words of the prayer: Save our souls? - let's analyze these words.
Who is saved and when? - When a person is burning, drowning, or when he is robbed; in a word, when he dies, strangers save him from inevitable death. And we, children, when we sin, we are in danger of perishing forever, so we must pray to the Holy Spirit something like this: Holy soul, we do not have the strength and means to become good and pious on our own; We are aware of the danger, but we cannot help ourselves; have mercy on us, save us, good Comforter, soul of truth.
Tell me, children, what do we ask of the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit always with us and helping us? What happens to a person without the Holy Spirit? What uncleanness do we ask the Holy Spirit to cleanse us from? Why do we say Better to the Holy Spirit? Why do we ask Him to save us? Who is being saved? Repeat the entire prayer to the Holy Spirit.
Is this prayer read and sung in church the way we said it? - No, in church this prayer is read differently. Why, children, do they read and sing in church differently from what we say? This is what I want to tell you about. - Previously, Russian people also spoke in the church language, but over time, colloquial speech began to change little by little and finally changed so much that only in church can one now hear the dialect that our ancestors, the Slavs, spoke. That is why the church language is called Slavic. Our spoken language differs in many ways from Church Slavonic, and you should always try to notice every incomprehensible word in prayers and find out what it means and what colloquial Russian word can be replaced, otherwise we will not understand the prayers read in church.
You already know the prayer to the Holy Spirit in simple colloquial dialect, you still need to find out how it sounds in Church Slavonic. The Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth in the church says this: the Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Soul of truth. Notice the incomprehensible words, and even those that I said with a slight difference from colloquial speech. Tsar, what did I say in church? To the Tsar. Heavenly and ecclesiastical in the same way. Comforter. I said: Comforter. Spirit of truth, or in church terms: Soul of truth. Now repeat the entire beginning of the prayer in the church way. - King of Heaven...
The prayer is repeated with all the children separately, and when everyone consciously learns the meaning of the words of the Church Slavonic language, then the translation of the prayer can continue.
Next, children, what do you say in prayer to the Holy Spirit? - Who is everywhere and fills everything, the Treasure of the good and the Giver of life. In church terms, these words read like this: Who is everywhere and fulfills everything, Treasure of good things and life to the Giver. - Word: Which I said in the church way: Izhe; is everywhere - in church terms: everywhere; fulfills everything in the church way: fulfill everything; Treasure of the good and in the church way; Giver of life, or in church terms: life to the Giver. Repeat in church: life to the Giver. Repeat in church style: Like everywhere, etc. Repeat the prayer from the beginning and say incomprehensible words: Like, like, fulfill - what do they mean? Izhe - Which, etc. Say words that are the same at the beginning, but different at the end: King - to the King, Comforter - to the Comforter, Spirit - to the Soul. Say the words that were spoken the same way in prayer: truth, life, Treasure of good things. So, children, we still say some words now in the same way as our Slavic ancestors spoke and how we hear them in church? “Yes, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to understand the church service at all.”
(Ask all the children separately.)
Let's continue, children. What do we ask of the Holy Spirit? Speak as you please. Come and settle and so on. Listen to me say this in the church way: come and dwell in us and cleanse us from all filth and save, O Blessed One, our souls. Notice again the difference in the words: the word come in the church way, I said: come; settled said: settled; in us said: in us; cleanse and I said the same; from all uncleanness in church terms: from all filthiness; and save, O Good One, souls, and I said the same; ours, and I said ours. Tell me, what incomprehensible words did you notice? There are two of them: filth, in us. What do they mean? Defilement - uncleanness, muck; in us - in us. Which words have a small difference and are quite clear? Come, come in church style; settled down, moved in like a church; from everyone, according to the church from everyone; ours, in church terms ours. What words are without any change? Save, O Lord, souls.