ORTHODOX HOUSE
Orthodox HousePrayer Book

Азы церковнославянского языка

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Everything or almost everything in any Orthodox prayer book is in Church Slavonic (with the exception of very few prayers, for example, the prayer of the Optina elders, the prayers of the holy righteous John of Kronstadt). Until now, none of the translations of existing Church Slavonic prayers and chants into Russian could compare with the Church Slavonic text in depth, power, accuracy and poetry. All Orthodox Christians who live a life of prayer know from their own spiritual experience how much this language gives to prayer, how akin it is to it. But for those who are just beginning to master prayers, their unusual language often seems like a difficult obstacle and even frightening.

How to overcome this barrier? Let's start with the fact that the language of our prayers - Church Slavonic - is not foreign and not alien to us. Almost all the words of this language are familiar to us or echo words familiar to us; woven into our consciousness. For a huge number of believers who have never taken any courses in the Church Slavonic language, it has become native, alive, and understandable.

Unfamiliar letters (Church Slavonic graphics), unfamiliar words and unfamiliar grammatical forms scare people away. Each of these imaginary obstacles is worth talking about separately.

✒ Orthodox House translation — being checked against the traditional text.
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