Приложение II-ое. Дни высокоторжественные (царские)

Why do the most pious sovereigns ascend to the throne? First of all, in order to be more visible from the height of the throne to everyone who requires help. Who does not know that in human societies, no matter how they are structured, there are always many people who demand autocratic protection, either from the violence of malice and guile, or from the vicissitudes of life and fate? And the best advantage of royal thrones has always been and will be that they serve as a natural refuge for all those who mourn and are burdened. But what kind of universal refuge is it if its height is invisible to everyone, and if it must be found with difficulty among buildings of equal or similar height? What kind of national canopy is it if it does not rise above all the heights of the earth and does not extend to all the ends of the kingdom? Thus, the very good of distressed humanity requires that the royal throne be as elevated as possible, so that none of those brought down by the vicissitudes of fate or violence can hide from the beneficial charity of the one sitting on the throne. In this regard, the same must be said about the king of the earth as the psalmist says about the King of heaven: high is the Lord above all tongues; For this reason, he looks down on the humble, raises poverty from the ground, brings barrenness into the house, and makes her mother rejoice over her children (Ps. 113:4-9). After this, diminish in your thoughts the height of the throne, and with it you will necessarily diminish the cover of distressed humanity. Why do the most pious sovereigns ascend to the throne? So that from the height of the throne it is more convenient to see all the needs of the kingdom, all the movements of social life. And prudent house builders arrange places from which they can view everything that happens in their property. All the more necessary is such a place of general guardianship for a kingdom in which great changes can suddenly occur at all ends of it, requiring all attention and activity. Therefore, all nations have thrones of kings, or something similar in height to them. The higher the throne, the more visible is the entire space of which it serves as the focus; the more noticeable is all the unevenness of the position of various classes, all the flow of events, all new phenomena, all deviations from laws and stops, everything right and wrong, joyful and sad. Therefore, the higher the throne, the sooner evil can be seen and prevented; the more accurately considerations can be made, the more reliably the means adopted, the more conveniently the goals can be achieved. After this, is not the height of the throne sacred, and is it not the duty of the son of the fatherland to consider it inviolable? Let other nations place their greatness in diminishing the height of their thrones: due to the smallness of the social building, many of them are not fit for a too lofty top. But Russia, the dear fatherland, the top of this universal edifice cannot but raise to heaven... For a Russian, the joy is that in his fatherland crime trembles at the mere name of a monarch, that a lawbreaker, when thinking about the autocracy of an earthly king, is forced to say to himself the same thing as when thinking about the greatness of the heavenly King: I will go from Thy Spirit, and from Thy face I will flee ( Ps.139:7)? In order to be freer at his height from the weaknesses and shortcomings of human society. Our poor land is so filled with untruth that the most material removal from it is already a kind of means to perfection. At great heights, breathing becomes freer, the very thoughts and feelings take on some sublime direction. All the more necessary is elevation above human society for those who want to be above the shortcomings of society: for, given the present sinful state of the human race, all social relations are such that they can conveniently bend a person to the ground, make a slave of prejudices, attachments, benefits, favors, passions. But in whom should there least of all be such weaknesses, if not in the representative and ruler of an entire people? Therefore, who should be more disconnected, so to speak, from the fallen earth, if not the sovereign? And for this necessary separation the height of the royal thrones serves. After this, is not this height sacred, and is it not necessary for the fatherland? If the King of heaven himself, according to the deep expression of the psalmist, is marvelous especially in the high places (Ps. 92:4), - he is stronger and more majestic at a height, at a distance from human gaze: then this removal, this height, is all the more necessary for the kings of the earth, who, by the extremeness of their destiny, should be in many respects wondrous in the eyes of all, and yet they are people servile to us. (From the Prop. of Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson). 2. Tsareva’s Day of Bright Joy The day of the Tsareva’s bright joy, the day of great national celebration is today for us, Orthodox sons of the great Russian land! Today is the day of the sacred anointing of our Divinely Crowned Autocrat Sovereign Emperor. In order to better appreciate and deeply feel in our hearts the great mercy of God shown to our Russian Orthodox people in the sacred chrismation of our most pious Kings, let us transport our thoughts three thousand years ago, to those long-gone Old Testament times, when young David was still tending his father’s flocks in the fields of his native Bethlehem. Now the prophet of God Samuel comes to this city. He stops at the house of David's father Jesse and expresses a desire to see all his sons. Jesse presents to him one by one his seven sons, but the seer of God is not satisfied with this: “Are all the children here?” he asks. - “There is an even smaller one,” the father answers: he tends sheep.” “Send for him,” says God’s prophet. And Jesse sent, and they brought David; and Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him among his brethren, and the Spirit of the Lord rested upon David from that day forward. This is how the sacred anointing of young David to the kingdom took place. Until now, he was the youngest in his father’s house, now he is God’s chosen one, until today he was a simple shepherd of sheep: now he is God’s Anointed, the king of God’s people, chosen according to God’s heart. Could David forget this sacred day for him? Could you not remember him every year with a prayer of gratitude to the Lord God?.. That was in Old Testament times. At that time there was not yet such an obvious, such an abundant outpouring of the gracious gifts of the Spirit of God on believers, which became possible only in New Testament times, when from the fulfillment of Christ we all received grace and grace (John 1:16), when the life-giving currents of God’s grace flow continuously in the sacraments of the Holy Church. And yet, behold, the Holy Scripture testifies that the Spirit of God rested on the God-chosen king of Israel: this means that He enlightened his mind with royal wisdom, inflamed his heart for royal service for the good of his people, strengthened his whole being with royal courage for the high feat of this great service ahead of him. If the Old Testament rite of anointing for the kingdom had such gracious power, then which believer would dare to doubt the purely gracious power of the New Testament sacrament of the sacred anointing of our God-crowned Kings? And if for the King of Israel the day of his anointing to the kingdom was a sacred and joyful day, then what day, if not the day of sacred anointing and God-blessed crowning, is the most joyful, the most solemn, the most sacred day in the entire life of our Orthodox Autocrat of All Russia? Until this day He reigned as a hereditary king, according to what was said: I will plant the fruit of your womb on your throne (Ps. 131:11); but this is how other kings of the earth reign, inheriting their thrones from their royal ancestors: from now on our King reigns as God’s Anointed One, not only chosen by God, but also exalted by God, according to the word of the Lord: I have exalted the chosen one from My people, I anointed him with My holy oil (Ps. 89:20-21). There are many kings on earth, but no people in the world have an Autocratic Tsar - God's Anointed One: this great happiness is the happiness of only our Russian people; this is a great gift from God - only to our Orthodox Rus'... Only over our most pious, truly Christ-loving and God-protected Sovereign, on the day of His sacred crowning of the kingdom, the Spirit of the Lord was carried, as He once was carried after the anointing to the kingdom over the God-chosen son of Jesse - David (1 Sam. 16:13). “Just as heaven,” says our great Moscow saint Philaret, “is undeniably better than earth, and heavenly things are better than earthly things: then, just as undeniably, the best on earth must be that which is built in the image of heaven. And God, in the image of His heavenly unity of command, created a King on earth; in the image of His omnipotence - the Autocratic Tsar; in the image of His imperishable, eternal Kingdom - the Hereditary King.” Oh, how happy are you, our Orthodox Rus', that you do not have a king like other peoples of the earth: your Tsar is one of all the kings of the earth - the Anointed of God, one of all the kings has entrance into the sanctuary of God, to the throne of the King of heaven, through the royal gates, one of all the rulers of the earth can partake of the body and blood of the Lord together with the clergy, at the very throne God, as one from the sacred persons!.. Truly, the word of God can be attributed to Him alone: ​​and I will set Him as the firstborn high above the kings of the earth (Ps. 89:28). What gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit are communicated to our beloved Monarch, our Tsar - the Father of the Russian land, in St. anointing at His crowning as king? - In essence, they are the same grace-filled gifts of the Spirit of God that are communicated to every believer in this sacrament, only to the highest degree, useful for such an exalted service as the royal service. Therefore, the sacred anointing of our Kings is not a repetition of this holy. sacrament, but only its highest degree, just as the sacrament of the priesthood is not repeated, but has different degrees. And in the time of the apostles, through the laying on of apostolic hands, which later replaced confirmation, not all believers were equally given the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit: others were given extraordinary gifts, for example: the gift of prophecy, the gift of tongues, and the like. Likewise, now the gifts of the Holy Spirit are poured out purely on the God-crowned head of our Autocrat, sanctifying and strengthening Him for the great feat of royal service ahead of Him. At the same time, the king solemnly, in front of the whole church, confesses St. the Orthodox faith, and the church prays for Him, may the King of Kings bless Him, may the Right Hand of the Most High strengthen His scepter, may He receive strength and wisdom for rule and justice, may the Lord give Him everything according to His heart and may He strengthen His weapon on the day of battle. A touching moment in this sacred rite, when the Emperor himself humbly kneels and reads the royal prayer, which is so reminiscent of the prayer of the wise King of Israel Solomon! sends down His almighty grace to our King. And this grace enlightens the mind of God’s Anointed One in the knowledge of what is true and pleasing to God, warms His heart, which is in the hand of God, to good intentions and saving deeds, and strengthens His will with the highest power to accomplish the great feats of His royal service. “This, beloved, is the guarantee of our national happiness, this is the foundation of our Russian Autocracy!” Let us, Orthodox children of the great Russian land, let us bless the Lord throughout all generations for such His heavenly gift - let us pray to His goodness, may He forever preserve our Orthodox Rus' under the powerful canopy of the Autocracy of our Most Pious Tsars! May that spirit of distrust of kings, which has already overthrown the thrones in some non-Orthodox kingdoms, never touch the Russian heart! May our King reign only with God's mercy and help, may His heart be taken out by the hand of God until the end of the age!.. (See Trinity, sheet No. 668. Word spoken in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, May 15, 1898). I pray, first of all, to say prayers of supplication, petition, and thanksgiving for all people, for the king, and for everyone who is in power (1 Tim. 2:1-2). What prayers does the church offer for the king on all days, especially on this day? Prayers of thanksgiving and petitions. Glory and thanksgiving are due to the Lord, first of all, for the fact that in the person of our king we have been given an autocratic king, who has the opportunity to use his power for the good of his subjects with complete freedom, without the slightest constraint from parties, independent of people, giving an account of his activities only to the Lord God and his conscience, freely, without outside coercion, limiting himself by laws. Being under the shadow of autocratic power, we do not know the troubles from which states that have at their head rulers whose power is limited by representatives of the people suffer. Inevitable in this case, the struggle of representatives of the people is accompanied by rebellions, the triumph of ill-intentioned people over well-intentioned people, and all kinds of intrigues; In order to attract the majority. Thank the Lord, in our fatherland such phenomena are not allowed, although, unfortunately, there are people among us who, contrary to the oath of allegiance to the autocratic Tsar, try secretly, and sometimes publicly, to shake respect for the autocracy, spread opinions about the superiority of democracy over it, praise foreign orders in the state structure and, with their freethinking, excite especially immature minds. God grant that such attempts, directed against autocratic power and not finding any basis in the history of our fatherland and in the majority of right-thinking people, do not have the slightest success. God grant that the autocracy of our kings, undoubtedly beneficial for the fatherland, remains unshakable and not only does not weaken, but becomes more and more strengthened, as a guarantee of our well-being, as the only means for saving us from disastrous upheavals in the life of the state. The Russian state includes many regions. Some of them are inhabited by a continuous Great Russian tribe, others by foreigners and together with people of other faiths, others by Russians speaking different dialects. But no matter how diverse the parts of the state are in terms of population, they all form a single whole, all their inhabitants are subjects of one Russian Tsar. Strong autocratic power extends to all parts of the state and does not give them the opportunity to isolate themselves. It shouldn't be any other way. Russia is strong only in integrity. Dismembering it or separating parts would be just as disastrous as it was in the days of appanages. Why was Russia conquered by the Tatars? Because the appanage princes disagreed with each other and did not want to submit to a single state authority. Only in alliance with her and among themselves could they repel the Tatar invasion. Fortunately, the lessons of history were not in vain. The estates were gradually destroyed, small estates gradually submitted to the Moscow princes. In their person a sovereign power appeared, which saved Russia not only from the Tatar yoke, but also from attempts on its integrity by other enemies. Russia became strong and invincible solely because it united into a single body. Let us pray to the Lord to help our king preserve the integrity of the state and destroy attempts at its dismemberment by external and internal enemies. The blessedly deceased parent of our safely reigning Tsar was truly the king of the world and bequeathed to him a love of peace. And who doesn’t know how sacredly this will is fulfilled by the son? He follows a peaceful policy in international relations, and not only does he himself not give reasons for violating the peace, but also tries to maintain the spirit of peace in other states. Let us pray to the Lord to deliver our peace-loving King from the grief caused to him by the enemies of the world and to bless with success his efforts to maintain peace everywhere - outside the state and within it. Let us finally thank the Lord for the fact that in Russia the union between the state and the church is inviolably preserved, that in the person of the sovereign we have the first son and patron of the Orthodox Church, and that the state owes much to the services of the church, for the true sons of the church are the best servants of the Sovereign and his most trustworthy loyal subjects. The enemies of public order do not like such relations between church and state. They would like the state to renounce its alliance with the church and its patronage, so that complete freedom is given to heresies, schisms and other false teachings hostile not only to the church, but also to the state. But if even now, with the existing religious tolerance and leniency of the government towards false teachings, the church experiences a lot of harm from them, enduring mockery and desecration from its enemies, who fight it not only with verbal and printed insults to it, but even with gross violent attacks on its shrines, then what would happen if complete freedom were granted to the enemies of the Orthodox Church? Then the Orthodox Russian people would not be able to live from them; Then it would be impossible for not only the church, but also the state to exist safely, for the enemies of the church secretly and openly preach anti-state teachings, rebel against public courts, military service, payment of taxes, oaths, legal marriage, and in general against the foundations of church, family, social and state life. Such phenomena will mark the times of the Antichrist. God forbid we live to see these times; Let us earnestly pray to Almighty God, that with His grace He will help our King to successfully counteract the efforts of the enemies of the Church, aimed at destroying not only her, but also the state. (See “Kostroma teachings.” for 1898, Bishop Vissarion, ed. 1900). We all know, of course, that we have an Autocratic Tsar, whom the Lord Himself appointed to reign over us. Our King is God's anointed, our common earthly father, our supreme superior, and we are all his children, his subordinates, his faithful servants. And how good, how joyful, peaceful and quiet we live under the protection and cover of this dear, loving father! Just as children live peacefully in their own home, under their own roof, where there is a gentle, affectionate father and mother, so we live peacefully in our native fatherland under the protection and care of our common earthly father - our king, Father. And what would we have without this dear father? Who then should we resort to in disasters and misfortunes, who should we seek help and protection from, who would then protect us from external and internal enemies? We would have a hard, gloomy, defenseless life without a king! Like a ship without a helmsman, like a flock without a shepherd, like an army without a commander, like bees without a queen, like children without a father, so is a state without a king. Happy is Russia, happy are we - her sons, and there is no measure to our happiness that we have dear to our Russian heart - the Tsar, this anointed of God, our father and Autocrat. Our King is God's anointed; The gifts of the Holy Spirit were poured out upon him in sacred anointing. Royal service is high and difficult; Human strength alone is not enough to complete this service, and so, Divine grace descends on the crowned head of the Sovereign in the fragrance of St. peace. Even in the Old Testament, the Lord commanded the prophet Samuel to pour oil on the head of Saul when he was elected king to the people of Israel, and this pouring of oil was a visible sign of the descent of the Spirit of God on the king. Immediately after anointing his head with oil, Saul was completely reborn, became a different person, so that those who knew him before asked each other; “What happened to the son of Kis? Has Saul really become a prophet? Such a visible, dramatic change was produced in him by the grace of the Holy Spirit. This grace of the Holy Spirit now descends on the heads of our kings in sacred anointing, makes them wise and instructs them to undergo high royal service. In this sense, our kings are called God's anointed. The grace of God remains with them relentlessly and helps them on all the paths of their lives, because they are servants of God, assigned to instruct and lead the people under them towards the Kingdom of Heaven, repel enemies and take care of the well-being and peace of their native people. They carry out the work of God, and therefore God is always with them and provides them with His all-powerful help, sometimes clearly and obviously for everyone. In our national history there have been many cases of miraculous assistance to our kings in the fight against enemies (See, for example, pp. 653–657, 663–664 of this book). The Lord, even now, always and in everything helps our King in the difficult task of royal service, as His anointed one, to whom He entrusted the management of His people. This is where the high dignity of the Tsar becomes clear. The king is appointed by God Himself, he is the head of the people; and we are all members of this large organism - the state; It is our duty, therefore, as parts of this huge body, to obey our head - the Tsar - in everything, to carry out his orders, to obey the superiors appointed by him - his direct assistants - and to serve and help each other. Christ Himself commanded to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” The Apostle Paul commanded Christians to pray first of all “for the king and for the authorities,” explaining that all “authority is from God,” and that this authority must be obeyed “not only out of fear of punishment, but also for conscience.” Our king, further, is our common earthly father, the father of an entire people, and we are all his children. The fifth commandment, commanding us to honor our parents, at the same time commands us to honor the king, this common tall, dear father. Peace, silence and tranquility reign in that happy home where children are submissive and obedient to their father. Shouldn't the same thing be said in relation to this huge house - the state? Peace, silence, tranquility and prosperity are possible here only under the condition of sincere childish devotion and childish submission to our common Sovereign. This is precisely our father, a meek, affectionate father who passionately loves his children. Our kings have long adopted the name “Father, Bright Sun.” “The sun of the Russian land has set,” said the contemporaries of Alexander Nevsky when the difficult news of his death spread. “The sun of the Russian land has set,” we repeated not so long ago, when we learned about the death of the Tsar the Peacemaker. But now a new sun has risen for us, our God-protected Sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich ascended to the royal throne. Yes, this is exactly it - the clear, warm Sun, which shines on us and warms us from the height of the royal throne, and this light and warmth are beneficial, life-giving. We walk in this light, we are warmed by this warmth. Who does not know, for example, the concerns of our Sovereigns about their beloved people in times of famine, epidemics and other national disasters. But this love of the Sovereign for us must be answered and matched by our love for him. How can we express our love for the Emperor? - Sincere devotion to him - to the point of being ready to lay down your soul for him - and fervent prayer for him to the King of kings. With a simple, sincere prayer, the seemingly most insignificant member of the state can help his father the king. If the quiet, fervent children’s prayer, rushing from earth to the Heavenly Throne, would not cool, if our hearts were not impoverished with firm hope for our Creator, if our love and devotion to the Tsar were not impoverished, then the life of the Orthodox Russian people would flow like a quiet, bright, abundant river under the wise rule of our Most Pious Sovereign. You might be interested in: