Disadvantages of modern church and religious education and the reasons that gave rise to them

Called upon by the flattering commission of the council of the Kyiv Society for the Propagation of Religious and Moral Education in the spirit of the Orthodox Church to occupy the attention of the enlightened assembly, we decide to choose as the subject of our present conversation a question that is closely related to the area of ​​our special scientific studies, approaches the program of those tasks pursued by the society of religious and moral education, and which should be important and dear to every true son of the Orthodox Church - the question of shortcomings in our modern society church and religious education and the reasons that gave rise to them. All of us, Orthodox Christians, consider ourselves members of one common family, one single union, headed by Christ our Savior - the Orthodox Church, which, as everyone knows, lives and is governed by the canons and statutes developed for it by the divinely inspired apostles and the wise fathers and teachers of the church. Knowledge of some and obedience to others constitute an indispensable duty and sacred responsibility of each member of this union. But this is only in theory, and in practice, as we will see now, our situation is somewhat different. If someone told us, for example, that among us there are individuals who are in the service of the state, public and private and at the same time do not know the laws and statutes of the collegial institutions in which they serve, then we would either refuse to believe these stories, or we would directly recognize such people as useless figures. But what in ordinary life seems unlikely and even simply impossible, in the members of that holy society, which is called the Orthodox Church, we, with deep regret, have to observe quite often, and what is especially sad is that the anomalous phenomenon excites very few of us and provokes serious reflection. How many people, in fact, in our modern society of the Orthodox faith, not only of the middle class, but even from the so-called intelligentsia (and to whom our present speech is mainly directed), are there people who can boast of knowing the canons and statutes of the church to which they belong? How many of us are there who can say about themselves that they have seen with their own eyes our “Οκο Church” 2 , “Canon” 3 of our church, “Typikon” or “Church Charter” 4 , which regulates to the smallest detail the entire life of a member of the Orthodox Church, and were seriously interested in its content? An attentive observer of the life of modern Russian society, familiar with the Charter of the Orthodox Church, has to state the sad fact that this society not only does not know the Church Charter and is not interested in its content, but sometimes lives and acts contrary to its instructions, guided by other charters and traditions that have nothing in common with the Church Charter. To illustrate our idea, let us point out an everyday phenomenon in the religious life of the entire southwestern region, which especially strikes a native of inner Russia. We are talking about the eves of the great holidays of the Nativity of Christ and the Epiphany, which are held by modern Orthodox Christians of this region not in accordance with the prescriptions of our Church Charter. Regarding food on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, our Charter gives the following instruction 5: “And we enter the meal and eat stew with oil, but we do not eat fish. We drink wine thanking God.” If the evening meal happens on Saturday or Sunday, then, according to the prescription of the Typikon, “we enter the meal and eat completely (i.e. a full Lenten meal), we don’t eat fish, but with wood oil, and it’s juicy boiled or kutya with honey: we also drink wine for the glory of God, and in poor countries we drink beer” (Typik. M. 1885 l. 171 vol., 172). The Church Charter expresses itself even more strictly regarding food when it speaks of the evening of fasting on the eve of Epiphany. “And we enter into the meal and eat with wood oil, and drink wine. Cheese and fish like it, the Charter notes, are not allowed to be eaten by anyone who dares to eat, for there are divine rules” (ibid., l. 191). But such demands are expressed by the Church Charter, but modern life gives us the same picture from year to year. Everywhere, in all families where to this day there is still a distinction between holidays and fasting days from weekdays and fasting days, on the days of the named eves, whether they fall in the middle of the week, or on Saturday and Sunday, fasting is observed indifferently, on Christmas Eve “until the star”, and on the eve of Epiphany “until holy water”, but then in all houses, from the hut of the poor to the chambers of the nobles and the rich, a candle is lit in front of the icon with ardent wax, and all family members, with all household members and cohabitants, sit down to a meal, abundant in a variety of fish dishes and all kinds of drinks, prohibited by the Charter. “Juicyly boiled” or “Kutya with honey” and the inevitable “infusion” of dried fruits are just accessories to a rich, truly festive meal, which in no way reminds the diners of fasting or of the fact that, according to the Charter, “we will not dare”, “forbidden because there are divine rules.” This dinner, called in the popular language “generous or well-fed kutya,” usually does not differ in any way from the dinner on the eve of Epiphany, for some reason colloquially called “hungry kutya.” It is not surprising, therefore, that the parish churches of our holy city on the eves of these greatest Christian holidays are doomed to an astonishing absence of worshipers, who, after the “generous” and especially after the “hungry” Kutya, under the impression of the merry days of Yuletide time, do not rush to the churches for evening services, but remain with the hospitable organizers of these meals and spend their time in a far from Christian way... In what a striking contradiction with the requirements of the Church Charter and the constant call of our mother the church - “to embrace the most sacred time of holy fasting with pure love” (the 9th hymn of the canon on Monday of cheese week), “cheerfully purifying ourselves with fasting and prayer” (the 5th hymn from the canon of Friday of cheese week) - we spend the real saving days of St. fasting - this is obvious to everyone, and here any illustrations, in the form of examples, are completely unnecessary. In public life, as is known, it is considered the first and most elementary requirement that those appearing at public meetings wear a decent suit, arrive at a more or less certain time, and most importantly, behave decorously and decently. Violation of the generally accepted rules regarding dress, behavior, silence, order, loud conversations, excessively playful laughter - all this is strictly condemned by accepted etiquette, and violators of all this are considered ill-mannered people, ignorant, and are sometimes removed by force from places of public gatherings. The Church of God - the place of daily public gathering of Christians for prayer - is for some reason an exception in this regard. Here, contrary to the requirement of the Church Charter to appear in clothes “simple”, “non-rebellious” (not affecting the effect and originality) and “undecorated” (i.e. without luxurious feathers and marvelous birds) (Typical Chapter 39), worshipers in our time allow themselves to appear in all kinds of costumes: here you can find the most amazing news of the season and the pitiful dirty rags that barely cover human nakedness. Despite the church-established bells for divine services, the trezvon and the good news for “It is Worthy,” those who pray in their visits to the church of God often do not comply with these calls to worship, but appear here whenever they please, losing sight of the fact that their untimely appearance in the church of God will not only not bring moral benefit to themselves, but will cause anxiety and even harm to other pilgrims who took their place in the church before them. and having time to concentrate on prayer... A belated pilgrim, ignoring Chapter 30 of the Church Charter, which prohibits “anyone below to come out, or to enter, until the reading will be given,” enters the church, crowded with pilgrims, whenever he pleases, and does not stop at the entrance to the church, but, relying on the privileges of his gender, muscle strength or external official distinctions, squeezes through in the most unceremonious way forward, crushing the legs of standing pilgrims, stepping on kneeling ones and pushing the backs and sides of pilgrims focused on prayer... Visitors to churches, without letting go of their “staffs”, in the words of the Church Charter, and in the language of our time - canes and umbrellas, at the appointed time, according to the Charter (Typic. Ch. 26), stand indecently, absent-mindedly, shifting from foot to foot, looking around, singing along in a false voice and sometimes with distortion of the text of church hymns, through which “eternal torment They are guilty because they do not obey the holy fathers’ tradition and rules,” which prohibit “the disorderly cry of those singing in the church.” “Also, adding to church singing is not pleasant to eat” (Typical chapter 28). Most often, visitors to churches spend time without any embarrassment in conversations and, moreover, about worldly and vain subjects, without being embarrassed by what is happening in the church before their eyes. Regarding, for example, the reading of the Six Psalms at Matins, the Church Charter gives the following instructions to those praying 6: “and no one has the power to create whispers, neither to spit or snore, but rather to listen to the words spoken by the psalmist, with the hands of the person bent towards the chest, the heads bowed, and the eyes of the person downcast (i.e. downcast), with the eyes of the heart looking towards the east, praying for our sins, remembering death, and future torment, and eternal life” (Typical chapter 9 and fol. 407). In order for those praying to have the opportunity to better concentrate on what they are reading, the Charter prescribes extinguishing the candles in the church and not even bowing when reading, after the first three psalms, “Alleluia” 7. In our churches, the behavior of those praying is exactly the opposite of the present prescription of the Church Charter: some move completely away from the church, many sit, and the majority, taking advantage of the twilight of the church, conduct the most lively conversations during the Six Psalms, often even with laughter... The exclamations of the deacon and priest, established by the church to maintain the attention of worshipers: “Let us attend,” “Wisdom,” i.e. “let us be attentive”, because the wisdom of God is offered, or – “Forgive wisdom, let us hear...”, i.e., we will, standing upright (ὀρθοί), listen to the wisdom of God, or – “Let us become kind, let us stand with fear, let us be attentive”, or – “We have hearts of woe”, etc. usually do not make the right impression on absent-minded pilgrims, and most of them remains deaf - continues to sit or carry on a playful conversation with his neighbor 8. The deacon’s invitation: “Let us bow our heads to the Lord” and the priest’s exclamation: “Peace to all from the few of the pilgrims are met with appropriate and completely natural responses - either bowing the head, or bowing. As is usually the case with those preparing to begin receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, the deacon’s exclamation: “Come with the fear of God and faith,” and then the appearance of the priest with St. cup - each of us knows this. The hustle and bustle with which the communicants approach St. more often in our time, they do not testify not only to their faith and fear of God, but even to the fact that they are in a holy place. But visitors to the churches of God in our time not only do not enter and leave the church in a timely manner, sit at the wrong time, according to the Rule, and talk during the service, but not in a timely manner, but most importantly, they kneel randomly 9 and do not know how to properly place the sign of the cross on themselves and make small and great bows. Quite often in our churches you can see people kneeling during the reading of the Gospel; many of the pilgrims do not bow to the ground while reading the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian: “Lord and Master of my life,” do not kneel during the presanctified liturgy, when singing: “May my prayer be corrected,” do not fall prostrate to the ground, when the priest pronounces the exclamation: “The Light of Christ enlightens everyone,” when transferring St. Lamb from the altar to the throne, while singing: “Now are the powers of heaven”, while reading the prayer: “The Lord is merciful” at the end of Compline, etc. Such a varied position of those praying in the church is extremely embarrassing: those following the instructions of the Church Charter for prostrations must make their way along the back of the one standing in front and not making prostrations, kneeling down - perform a prayer in the back of his neighbor standing in front, without seeing the icons in front of him and the clergy in the altar, etc. In these and similar cases, one involuntarily asks for comparison between the customs of a Jewish synagogue and a Muslim mosque and, unfortunately, not in favor of our Christian temple. About bows and prayer in the church in general and about great bows performed with the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, in particular, our Charter provides the most detailed instructions. Unfortunately, examples of indecent prayer books, described very graphically in the article: “Church law on bowing and prayer,” can still be found in very few cases during divine services. “Some, we read in this article, who do not submit to the tradition of the holy fathers, who are below the knowledge of the art of holy bows, mean to pray below the holy prayer, but having bowed with a single hunched position, bowing a little, crossing themselves, nods with their head, and with their disorder, like the rank, fills those who are devoted from the father of bows: below, with prayer, mentally and sincerely, they pray to God, but For a long time, he hunched over and makes his vain bows, and so does the prayer of St. Ephraim, as if in amazement, he hurries to speak. In the same way, he hurries to control all prayers with bows, and from those imaginary dishonest bows, and from his insane prayer, he rises up, like a holy fool, below himself knows what he did, below they look at the head of the church, but precedes someone else, they are restless, like a cane shaken by the wind, despite the best, they want to learn below: but as soon as anyone has formed his character, This is how it is affirmed to be” (Typik. l. 417). If we now turn from the indicated abnormal and sad phenomena in the social life of our time to the private family life of Orthodox Christians, then here we will see quite a few pictures and phenomena that most eloquently testify that discord and contradictions with the instructions and demands of the Orthodox Church have found a strong place here too, and the fight against them is not easy. In fact, how many of the modern, quite intelligent families that maintain a living connection with the Orthodox Church, are there those who, with the completely successful birth of God of a new family member, would hasten to invite into their home, to the bedside of the sick, the pastor of the church, so that he would read the “prayers established by the church on the first day, after the child’s wife gave birth” and pray that the Lord Almighty would “heal every ailment and every illness”, “he healed, raised the slave who gave birth from the bed, she lies on it”, “forgave her voluntary and involuntary sins and preserved her from all devilish torment”, bestowed “health and blessings on the soul and body” and “protected the angels with light and shining”, and “the baby born from her” preserved “from all poison, from all cruelty, from all storms” the opposite, from evil spirits, day and night." Quite a few of them postpone the call for a shepherd in the mother’s home until the time when the patient recovers physically and even gets out of bed, due to which the very prayer in the mouth of the church shepherd may no longer seem timely. Nowadays, the custom of naming a newborn baby, according to the custom coming from the Old Testament and following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, has become an everyday phenomenon in the life of modern society, not only on the eighth day after his birth, as St. church: “be aware that after Christmas, on the 8th day, a baby is brought from a woman to the church” (Trebn. M. 1886 l. 3), but before this day and far after the specified time, depending on the wishes of the child’s parents, and this custom is so rooted in the modern life of Christian society that it does not raise any doubts in anyone about the legality of its existence. But the most unpopular rite in modern Christian society, not only among the intelligent classes, but even among the middle classes, must be recognized as the rite of churching a child, performed, according to church regulations, on the fortieth day after the child’s birth, which has a very important educational significance in the religious life of members of the Orthodox Church. Our pastors notice with sadness and deep hearts that modern intelligent Christian mothers, on the fortieth day after the birth of a child, not only do not appear “at the gates of the church,” so that, following the example of Pr. The Virgin Mother of God, who “on the fortieth day” brought the Divine Infant Jesus to the “legitimate church,” received “by an honest presbytery the right to enter the church,” “to wash away bodily filth and spiritual filth,” and to be worthy of “communion of the Body and Blood” of the Lord, but they consider the performance of this rite unnecessary and even, as it were, humiliating for themselves. But, neglecting the ritual, which in its essence does not represent anything compromising for a woman, the Christian mother deprives her beloved child of one of the most solemn and significant acts in the life of every new member of the church, which “and we faithfully imitate grace” in memory of that event in the life of Christ the Savior, when He, the “true Lawgiver,” “for the sake of us men,” “according to the custom in the holy law,” “according to When the days of purification are fulfilled, you will come to the sanctuary and rush as you please in the arms of the righteous Simeon.” The act of the mother bringing the baby to the church on the fortieth day - “to go to church, to sit down, to be accepted, to be introduced into the church” - constitutes one of the solemn final acts in the rite of baptism and was established by St. church since ancient times with the goal of publicly, popularly introducing a new member into that Christian society that calls itself the church, declaring him a full citizen of this society, having the right to enter not only “the church” and even “the holy altar” if a male child, but also with all other members of the “flock of verbal sheep, called by the name of Christ,” to begin accepting the Body and Blood of Christ. A mother who loves her daughter will not refuse, of course, to solemnly celebrate her coming of age in the circle of her friends and relatives, and the son, who has taken the oath of allegiance and service to the Tsar and the Fatherland, will not give his parents the happiest and most pleasant moments in their lives now, at his first appearance, in all the splendor of his new external differences?! It is a great pity, therefore, that the honors of the highest rank, the rights and powers granted to each new member of the church, have so little value and meaning in the eyes of modern Orthodox parents and are often outright ignored by them. According to the custom accepted in our church, two recipients are allowed to the baptismal font - godfather and godfather, who, in most cases, not only do not realize the importance of their rights and duties before the church and those received from the baptismal font in the future, but also in the present, standing at the baptismal font, they do not know how to pronounce the formulas of negation from Satan and combination with Christ, they are embarrassed to read loudly the symbol required of recipients faith and cannot help the priest in any way when he performs the complex rites of the sacrament of baptism. The time of fasting and confession, in view of the frequent violations prescribed to the church by its members, calls for special and serious reflection. The Church Charter clearly and definitely speaks about the time of fasting: “whenever anyone wants to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, it is appropriate for him to preserve the entire week, from Monday to remain in fasting, and prayer, and perfect sobriety at all times, and then with fear and great reverence he will receive the most pure Mysteries” (Typic. Ch. 32, l. 39). In our time, and especially here in the south of Russia, condescension towards fasting people has been brought to the extreme and sometimes without any reason: here they begin the Holy Mysteries both on Wednesday and Friday at the presanctified liturgy, and on Saturday and Sunday at the ordinary liturgy, i.e. after two days and even one trip to the church. But these deviations from the Church Charter are still tolerable; much more, in the lives of Christians of our time, attention should be drawn to the sad fact that many of them, and often out of ignorance, when embarking on oral confession before a priest, do not consider it obligatory for themselves to first listen to the so-called “prayer before confession.” The prayers read by the priest before the start of confession aloud to all pilgrims, usually after the daytime service, constitute in the proper sense of the word “the rite of confession has been considered since ancient times the creation of the Patriarch of the Church of Constantinople, St. John the Baptist 10. Among these prayers is the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Shepherd and Lamb, take away the sin of the world,” which from deep, one might say, apostolic antiquity was considered a sacramental prayer of permission, because we see it at the beginning of the rite of the liturgy of St. the Apostle James, the brother of God, and this prayer has maintained such a character to this day throughout the entire Orthodox East 11, where it is read by the bishop or archimandrite before the liturgy, as a permit, for everyone preparing to begin receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. The pastors of our parish churches, due to the complexity of their duties, do not have the opportunity, as it should be, to read out the entire rite of confession to everyone confessor, and therefore, through church practice, the custom has developed of reading the entire rite of confession over everyone together, but leaving oral confession and then reading the permissive formula to the lot of each individual. Those who avoid listening to the “pre-confessional prayers” therefore deprive themselves of the most important sacramental part of the “following confession”... Everyone, in all likelihood, has had to observe how little our bride and groom are prepared to behave in the proper manner when performing the sacrament of marriage: in most cases, they do not know where to stand in the church, at what time of the wedding ceremony to cross themselves, and in general they cannot do without the instructions of the priest and “informed” people. The overly playful mood of “those who were carried away and gathered together in this joy” often makes one think that they completely forget about the holiness of the church and the importance of what is happening before their eyes. The modern “best man” usually does not resemble the “godfather”, on whom the canonical and liturgical monuments of ancient times impose the obligation to be the guardian of the holiness and purity of the marriage union, an experienced and wise leader of the newlyweds in their new life, and then to be the godfather or successor of those children who will be born from this marriage 12... Reality in this case often does not give us even a shadow of the semblance of the ideal that it outlines holy church. A modern member of the Church of Christ, not knowing the Church Charter, not knowing how to organize his life - public and home - in church-religious terms, in accordance with the requirements and instructions of the Orthodox Church and its statutes, does not know how, one must admit to deep regret this, and die in a Christian way, as befits a true son of the Orthodox Church, for whom “Christ is to live, and gain is to die.” eat "(Phil. 1:21). A strange and incomprehensible, from a truly Christian point of view, phenomenon can be observed in a Christian family when it surrounds the bed of its dear member, who is overcome by a serious illness. At this time, healthy family members exhaust (which is quite natural) all possible human means to either save the sick person from death, or alleviate his suffering in the last days of his life. Doctors are called to the bedside of the patient even at a time when they, realizing their powerlessness to help or alleviate the difficult situation of the patient, refuse visits. This is done, as they say, to calm the patient. During this mournful time, an extremely painful, strained relationship is established between the sick and healthy family members in the patient’s family: some, in order not to frighten the patient, try in every possible way to remove the thought of death from him, in turn, and the patient, well aware of his hopeless situation, makes every effort not to remind the dear people around him of the impending separation from them forever... Thanks to this extremely difficult, strained situation, the idea of ​​the need to invite the pastor of the church to the bed of the sick, so that the shepherd would perform the saving sacraments of anointing and repentance established by the church over the sick person and communicate the Holy Mysteries of Christ, “for the healing of soul and body and eternal life,” is suppressed, and its implementation is postponed until the last possible opportunity. From here comes the sad phenomenon that the pastor of the church with the Holy Mysteries and with a warm word of consolation and encouragement is often invited to the bedside of the sick already in the hours of his death agony. The people directly call this invitation of a priest to a sick person “parting words” for him, i.e. confession before moving from this life to a new life. As for the sacrament of the Blessing of Unction, which was established by the Church “for the healing of soul and body, for the purification and change of all passions and all illnesses and ides, and all defilements of the flesh and spirit” (3rd prayer in the rite of the Blessing of Unction), very many, in order not to tire the patient with the complexity of rituals that require the presence of many strangers, abundant lighting of lamps, etc., completely ignore it, and if and they perform it already at a time when the sick person is in a semi-conscious state, when, in other words, the need for this sacrament completely disappears. The words of the prayer in the rite of consecration of oil: “drive away from him all sickness and infirmity, so that he may rise with your strong hand and work for you with all thanksgiving” (ibid.), pronounced by the pastor of the church over a half-dead person, should strike those praying and those surrounding the dying man’s bed as, at the very least, an anachronism. In view of the untimely performance of the sacrament of anointing, many people are convinced that this sacrament is necessary for seriously ill people who show no hope of recovery, it is, as it were, the last sacrament that a recovered person, after this sacrament has been performed on him (as, for example, the common people think), cannot wash his body, eat meat food, get married, etc. In view of the above-mentioned, prejudiced and completely inconsistent with the goals of establishing the sacraments - consecration of oil, repentance and communion, the view that prevails among the majority of members of the Orthodox Church, extremely sad phenomena occur in the life of a modern Christian family and have a serious impact on the mental mood of both the patient preparing to leave this world, and on those around him, who in every possible way remove from themselves the thought of an imminent separation from a dear patient. A sick Christian is deprived of the opportunity, through the saving sacraments of unction and repentance, which contain many identical prayers and are performed inseparably throughout the Orthodox East, to calm his conscience and reconcile himself with the idea of ​​​​transition to another life. Only after performing these sacraments and after receiving the most holy Body and Blood of Christ, such a high rise in moral strength is noticed in the soul of a person that the patient has the courage not only to sum up the results of this life, prepare dear loved ones for the upcoming separation, give the most detailed instructions in case of death, send blessings and good wishes to each member individually, which are then not forgotten by them all their lives, but also, closing their eyes forever, say calmly: “Lord, in Your hands I commend my spirit.” With such a Christian death of a dear member, the family does not indulge in oppressive sorrow, like those without hope (1 Thessaloniki IY, 13); at the coffin of the deceased there will be no place for confusion and confusion, which we often observe when the thought of death is in vain removed by both the survivors and the deceased, because the dying testamentary dispositions of the dear deceased come into their own immediately as soon as his spirit leaves its mortal coil. We could point out many other phenomena in the life of modern Christian society that do not agree with the prescriptions of the Church Charter and the demands of our mother St. churches, but those noted are now considered quite sufficient for their purpose. It is now more important and interesting for all of us to understand the reasons for these anomalous phenomena and, at least in general terms, to indicate a possible way out of such an unnatural state of affairs. The modern Christian family, about which a lengthy and deeply edifying speech was offered in the last meeting by 13 men of wide life and teaching experience and strong in speech, bears the guilt of this grave sin above all. Parents who do not know the Church Charter and who violate the decrees of the Orthodox Church in their daily lives cannot be good educators in church-religious terms for their children. You cannot convey to others what you yourself do not possess. Fathers and mothers who do not consider it their indispensable duty to begin and end the day with prayer, to precede and conclude lunch and dinner with the reverent sign of the cross, who do not observe fasts established by the church, who do not attend churches on holidays, etc., will not give their children good examples and will not instill in them good Christian habits. In our time, among the so-called intelligentsia, there is a completely erroneous belief that the matter of religious education of children should begin not from the cradle, but only when the child is physically stronger and mentally matures so much that he begins to more or less consciously relate to all the requirements of moral duty. In many intelligent families, if children are entrusted at an early age not to a kind, pious old nanny, to whom both Russian literature and Russian society owe many outstanding figures, but to a Bonn or a German or French governess, the children go to bed and get up without prayer, and often do not know how, before entering school, to read accurately the most common Christian prayers, such as for example. “Our Father”, “Heavenly King”, “Rejoice to the Virgin Mary”, etc.; They do not consider it a duty of politeness, when meeting a priest, to approach him for a blessing, folding their hands in the proper manner. Out of fear on the part of tenderly loving parents that their children might catch a cold or, from contact with other children, bring into the house diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles and similar scourges of our modern children, they do not allow the latter to go to the church of God on holidays, consoling themselves with the thought that the children will not understand anything there. To accustom children to the soulless mechanical fulfillment of the demands of St. Church, in the opinion of many parents, is a terrible and at least premature thing. But, if we transfer all these arguments from the sphere of church and religion to the sphere of everyday ordinary life, then we will immediately notice their complete inconsistency. In fact, not a single mother of a modern intelligent family will refuse to instill in a child who is just beginning to walk and babble how he should greet dad and mom or a stranger, how to bow, what to say to them and what to keep silent about, etc. Ignorance of children of these first rules of politeness in everyday life makes a heavy impression on strangers and sometimes causes severe condemnation, which in applies equally to parents and children. Are all these curtsies or curtsies more accessible and understandable to the mind and heart of a child than primitive, uncomplicated forms of Christian worship: the sign of the cross, kneeling during prayer, kissing St. icons, lighting candles in front of them, etc.?! Parents of our time, who remove their children from the Orthodox church for fear of colds and infection, rarely, however, decide to deny their children the pleasure of attending children's theater performances, at Christmas trees, not only family ones, but even in public places, where gatherings of children of different sexes, ages and social status are several times more numerous, and the stuffiness is more unbearable than in our churches, and where, therefore, the possibility of colds and infection for children is not less likely... “Leave the children to come to Me and do not scold them,” we will say to our mothers and fathers in consolation and encouragement with the words of Our Lord, “for this is the kingdom of God.” Amen, I say to you, unless you receive the kingdom of God, as if you were a child, you cannot enter into it” (Mark X, 14). “I am indignant,” the Lord, in the words of the evangelist, when the disciples of the Savior “brought food to those who offer food” (v. 13). Our parents, in their excessive concern for the physical education of their children, pay little or no attention to the pure child’s soul, soft as wax, and capable of experiencing and feeling the strongest impressions from the contemplation of pictures and phenomena of the sublime and beautiful. Our Christian church, with all its brilliant furnishings, with harmonious, touching singing, orderly order and majestic sacred rites, should and does produce a deep, irresistible impression on the impressionable child's soul. A child, while in a church, follows the order of worship with captivating interest, catches and remembers simple church prayers and chants, learns the manners and gestures of the clergy of the church and, returning home from church, is for a long time under the impression of what he saw and heard and sometimes tries to reproduce all this at home in his innocent childhood pastime... A child, having once been in a church, with all his purity his soul yearns for him again and considers his visits to him a holiday for himself, even if they fall on weekdays. Which of us, having received a church-religious upbringing in the family, does not remember those high sacred delights and joyful expectations with which our souls were filled on the eve of the great Christian holidays of St. Easter, Christmas, etc., and associated visits to crowded churches. Deep impressions that sank into a pure child’s soul, then in adulthood, when people, in the midst of everyday prose, become less impressionable and receptive to everything beautiful and lofty, remain the most precious memories and bring joy and true consolation to many. The good seed of a truly Christian life, sown in a child’s soul, in the best early period of life, does not perish even under the influence of unfavorable conditions of unstable and distracted youth and the initial period of mature maturity, when both temperament and fellowship can lead away from the true path “to a distant country” (Luke 15:13), and often produces wonderful and amazing fruit. And in these days of coldness towards St. church and religious indifference in general, thank God, we are not deprived of the pleasure of hearing and even seeing such examples when people who came from among the most diverse classes of our society, not the clergy class, who completed an excellent education at universities or in special higher educational institutions, who have already created a brilliant career for themselves in the service, unexpectedly, and to the surprise of many, exchange their shiny uniform for the modest cassock of a monk and devote their entire strength and talent to difficult things. the holy work of serving the Orthodox Church. In these cases, we see the deep influence of the good Christian principles of family upbringing on their character and beliefs. From the family, the child enters school in order to prepare himself for special education at a higher educational institution for his future practical activities. Having not received good Christian skills in his own family, having only half-heartedly memorized the initial prayers required by the program, almost before the exam, the child enters school. Here, especially if the child enters a preparatory class, the teacher of the law has to take on the responsibilities of a mother or nanny in order to acquaint the child with the first requirements of church discipline, and then instill in him the meaning and significance of commonly used Christian prayers in Church Slavonic, a language hitherto completely unknown to many of our students. For the study of our Christian worship, its modern structure in the most important rites and prayers, for familiarization with the church and its accessories, with church discipline, for all this our modern secondary school, with the complexity of its programs, devotes in the third grade an amazingly insignificant number of lessons - only two per week. The most devoted teacher of the law, with all his ardent desire, can communicate little in such a short time to his students, many of whom do not even know church terminology, calling the priest’s phelonion and the deacon’s surplice simply vestments, the chalice as a vessel or cup, the paten as a dish, the spear as a knife, the spoon as a spoon, etc. A teacher of the law should therefore consider himself quite happy if, in this short time, he manages to acquaint his students with the extensive church-liturgical nomenclature, explain the order of the most important church rites, understand the meaning and significance of the most important rites of each of them, and reasonably memorize the most important church hymns and more common prayers, at least in the ranks of the liturgies of St. I. Chrysostom, Basil the Great and the Presanctified Gifts. To acquaint students with practically more or less detailed contents of the main church liturgical books: the Church Rules, the Octoechos, the Lenten and Colored Triodes, the Service Book, the Breviary and other books, to enter into detailed historical and church-archaeological explanations of our rites, individual exclamations and rituals, which would undoubtedly affect the liveliness and interest of the production of this very important education of our youth, a subject - the teacher of the law has no time. And over him, like over other teachers, the obligation to complete the accepted textbook within one year hangs in the form of a sword of Damocles. It is not surprising, therefore, at all that the pupils of the school, due to insufficient preparation at home and with poor knowledge of the Church Slavonic language, with considerable effort and without much interest, learn lessons about Orthodox worship, receive completely wrong ideas about this extremely lively and interesting subject, consider it dry and even unsuitable for life. Due to some misunderstanding that is incomprehensible to us, students not only of secondary school, but even of the highest secular school no longer return to this important subject, and with such an extremely poor baggage of knowledge regarding the church and church life in general, they act directly in life, as figures in society and fathers of new generations... The Church Slavonic language, in which our liturgical books are written and in which our services are performed in churches, as the name itself shows, could provide an invaluable service to the cause of the church-religious education of our people in general and to the study of the science of worship in school in particular, if again our school paid due serious attention to the study of this language. Two or three hours a week for fourth grade students, assigned to study the Church Slavonic language together with Russian, with poor home preparation in Church Slavonic literacy, is again too little time for the pupils of our secondary school to master the grammar of the language and at the same time learn to intelligently and intelligently read Church Slavonic monuments and understand, without the help of a lexicon, at least the text of the most important and commonly used books in our church - the Gospel and the Apostle. The commendable custom practiced by many teachers of the law - to precede each lesson of the Law of God in class with the reading of an ordinary Gospel and the Apostle with explanations of more difficult passages, and sometimes an entire chapter in the order of the Evangelists, undoubtedly is not devoid of educational value for students and will support in students the sense of duty not to forget this language, but it can hardly provide significant assistance to the study of the Church Slavonic language. Students usually read in the order of the class list (and it would be irrational to force the same student, who is more proficient in Church Slavonic literacy, to read), therefore, no more than two or three times a year, and therefore it is not difficult for them to prepare for the lesson. So, our students, it can be said without much error, leave school without sufficient knowledge of the Church Slavonic language. The higher university school for those entering the Faculty of History and Philology apparently gives a wide place in its studios to Slavic languages in general and our Church Slavonic in particular, but here they listen to either the historical grammar of languages, or the comparative grammar of Slavic languages, or Slavic dialectology, or Slavic etymology, or Slavic semasiology (the doctrine of the meaning of slavs and sentences), or Slavic lexicology 14, comparatively little attention is paid to the study of the very monuments of Slavic writing here: this is left to the chosen ones, who therefore entirely devote their energies to Slavic philology. Consequently, an educated philologist cannot always boast of a thorough knowledge of the Church Slavonic language, the language of our St. mother of the church. Our Russian theologians, students of our higher theological school, especially in recent times, are not without sin in the shortcomings of the church-religious education of our contemporary society. To our deep regret, justice demands that we admit that the area of ​​Christian worship, our Orthodox worship in its entirety, which constitutes the subject of special study in an independent department at a higher theological school, does not arouse in the pupils of this school the deep attention and exciting interest that is inherent in it, and few of them are disposed to a serious and scientific study of this important and vital subject. Due to this phenomenon, our secondary school does not yet have a more or less satisfactory textbook on the divine services of the Orthodox Church; The textbooks adopted at school suffer from scholasticism and vague mysticism, are full of dry formal definitions, often suffer from stylistic and even grammatical mistakes, are devoid of lively interest for those studying such an important subject, and therefore are studied by students with great effort and are easily forgotten by them. As for manuals and desktop guides that an intelligent person could use to make up for the defects of his school education in this area upon leaving school, we almost don’t have them. To become acquainted with our Orthodox worship in its modern form and to understand for ourselves its meaning and significance, we can recommend to those interested the venerable works of O.O. archpriests - G.S. Debolskago 15, K.T. Nikolskago 16, Nechaev (now Bishop of Kostroma Vissarion 17, Archpriest P. Smirnova 18 3), and from the beginning of the last century, the book “Tablet” by Bishop Benjamin of Novgorod, filled with the medieval erudition of the ever-memorable Catholic scientist Jacob Goar, and our namesake I. Dmitrevsky, a book entitled: “Historical, dogmatic and mysterious explanation of the liturgy,” written not without the significant influence of the mentioned Western liturgist - that's all. As for such works on the history of Christian Orthodox worship, which would, in view of the undoubted successes of the sciences of historical and church archeology, give intelligent readers answers to their inquiries about the reasons for the establishment of certain liturgical forms, about their modifications throughout the historical existence of the Orthodox Church and about their reasonable expediency in modern practice (which is especially valuable in such manuals), then we still have such works, to a great extent sorry, not available... After all that has been said, one can hardly be surprised that voices are heard from among our intelligentsia, “demanding the abolition of rituals and church services, speaking about the uselessness and embarrassment of fasts and holidays, wanting to throw off the bonds of any cult 19, voices, in the words of the venerable, highly enlightened Kharkov archpastor, “demanding reforms in the church that are consistent with the spirit of the times and in relation to the order of secular life.” 20 2). It is also not surprising for us that people who were not brought up in the Church Slavonic language and have not studied it thoroughly at school do not understand the beauty of our church poetry, become indifferent and cold to our divine services, boldly allow themselves to loudly declare demands for the ease of translating our church liturgical books into modern Russian, losing attention to all the difficult and, for this reason, of course, irreparable sad consequences of this utopia. Protests from the semi-intelligentsia of the rationalist trend, who have already broken ties with our church, expressed against the Church Slavonic language in the most shameless form: “we are Russians, and do not understand the Church Slavonic language” 21 3), are boldly and frivolously directed not only against the Church Slavonic language, but also against our entire church ritual, for which this language serves as an organ, and even against the church itself, which has accepted it under your patronage. Not having time to dwell in detail on all these sad phenomena and judgment at this time, at the end of our speech we find it quite appropriate to draw your enlightened attention to those phenomena in the church and religious life of modern Russian society that, as we think, mark a turn for the better in this direction. Called to life by the will of the unforgettable Tsar-Peacemaker, the parish school, placed under the special patronage of our Orthodox Church, with the goal of giving our Russian religious and hardworking people education in the spirit of faith and the Orthodox Church, has already done a lot in this direction for 16 years. The pupils of this school, being under the special care of the church, not only receive church-religious education, but also now study up to the Psalter, the Book of Hours and the Octoechos, that is, according to such manuals, which were long suppressed in the previous public school, which will undoubtedly familiarize them in the most thorough manner with the Church Slavonic language, the organ of our worship. The success of this school was beyond any doubt and loudly evidenced at the world competition of human thought and labor of the 19th century in Paris by awarding it the highest award (Grand Рріх) for the excellent organization of supplying schools with books. The cause of the church-religious education of the Russian people will, without any doubt, be greatly benefited by our religious and educational societies, opened not only in capital and provincial cities, but even in district and large settlements and towns. Our pastors, as members of these societies, with greater convenience than in church, now have the opportunity to offer to their more or less constant and monotonous audiences the opportunity to offer complete courses on the explanation of our Orthodox worship and the explanation of its most important rituals, the most used chants and prayers, such as, for example, “The Only Begotten Son and Word of God,” “Like the Cherubim,” “Now the powers of heaven”, “Let all human flesh be silent”, etc., and individual church proclamations, such as, for example, “Lord, save the pious and hear us”, “Come forth from the catechumens of the catechumens”, “Come forth from the streets to enlightenment”, “Doors, doors, let us hear wisdom”, “Let us love one another”, “Peace to all”, etc. All these liturgical chants, prayers and proclamations can provide very abundant material for folk readings and, with their exciting interest, captivate listeners no less than the lives of saints and stories from Russian history. We recommend these readings to the special attention of members of the Kyiv Religious and Educational Society, who labor with remarkable zeal in their holy work in as many as 25 points 22 of our holy city. Finally, from among the intelligentsia itself, which is especially important and significant, recently a voice has been heard against the abnormalities in the education of our young generation, with a call to direct it to the proper path - patriotism and nationalism. A new patriotic society called “Russian Assembly”, the founders of which were our leading fighters of the native word, well-known publicists in our fatherland, such as A. S. Suvorin, V. V. Komarov, Prince. Golitsyn (Muravlin), Siromyatnikov (Sigma), set as their task the education of Russian youth in the ancient Russian spirit, in the restoration of Russian antiquity, pure colloquial speech, Russian costumes, etc. 23 We enthusiastically welcome the newly born “Russian Assembly” and sincerely wish it success, for which the venerable names of the founders partly speak, because by “education in the ancient Russian spirit” of our youth we mean precisely church-religious education, since ancient Rus' did not know any other education and was even alienated. Our ancestors were born, lived and died in complete harmony and unity with the Orthodox Church. By their strict observance of the Church Charter and the requirements of the Orthodox Church in their daily life, their piety and religiosity amazed not only those of other faiths who visited us from the West, but even fellow believers of the Orthodox East, and thus the name “Holy Russia” was assigned to our fatherland. "Holy Rus'". This is the precious heritage we received from our ancestors! Let us try with all the ways and means in our power to preserve it as a precious shrine, and pass on this name unsullied by inheritance to our descendants, so as not to receive from them the reproach of frivolous wastefulness... Reading offered at the meeting of the Kyiv Religious and Educational Society, March 18, 1901, in the hall of the Fundukdeevskaya women's gymnasium. Anisim Mikhailov, son of Rodoshevsky, master of printing, the first printed Church Charter, published in Moscow in 1610 “by command of the great sovereign” and “with the blessing of the chief shepherd, the extreme saint, the father of the fathers, Cyrus Irmogen, Patriarch of Moscow,” called it: “The eye of the church and the leader of all books, even in the divine cathedral apostolic church Be well predetermined in everything.” The Church Charter of the Great Church of Constantinople, now known in the Patmos Library manuscript No. 266 of the 10th century, is inscribed as follows: “Κανὼν τῆς ἁθίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Μεγάλης Ἐκκλησίας ἀναγνέσεων Πράξεων? προφητικὼν καῖ ἑκάστης ἁκολουθίας" (A. Dmitrievsky. "Description of liturgical manuscripts stored in the libraries of the Orthodox East, vol. 1, part I. Τοπικά, p. 110, Kyiv 1895). The Rule Go, which is also the Canon, was called the Church Rule in our glorious Russian monuments. So, for example, in the “census book of the house treasury of Patriarch Nikon,” compiled on July 31, 1658 by the boyar prince A.N. Trubetskoy and others are listed among other books and objects: “the book was written in ten years, the Old Rule of Sophia, written on veal” (Times. Imperial Moscow. General history and Russian antiquities. M. 1852, book XV, department II, p. 14). Our modern Church Charter is called this: “Typikon (Τοπικόν), these are images of the church order, which is called the Charter.” Preface to Typik. M. 1885 The present instruction of the Church Charter regarding fasting on the eve of the feasts of the Nativity of Christ and the Epiphany applies to both monks and laity, because in the same Church Charter, when differences are made regarding food for monks and laity, there are detailed instructions on this matter. So, regarding food on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, if it falls on Wednesday or Friday, the Church Charter gives the following instruction: “we allow the laity to eat meat, the monks to eat cheese and eggs, and we eat from the Nativity of Christ on all days until the eternity of the Holy Epiphany” (Tipik. M. 1885, l. 174 vol. The same distinction is made in the Charter (chap. 32 and 33) and about Bright Week and other weeks of the church year. Chapter 9 of the Typikon says the following about reading the Six Psalms: “When the Six Psalms are spoken, then it is appropriate to listen with attention: for the psalms are filled with repentance and tenderness. The verb is these psalms with reverence and the fear of God, as if invisibly speaking to God himself and praying for our sins.” “When the primate once said three psalms, we read in the same 9th chapter of the Typikon, Glory and now; Alleluia three times, and Lord have mercy, three times, Glory even now, without bowing.” The 9th rule of St. is armed against this outrage in the church. Apostles. The Church Charter, for example, prohibits bowing from the feast of the Nativity of Christ until the Epiphany: “Be wise about this, it is said in the Charter, even from the Nativity of Christ until the Holy Epiphany, there is no fasting, no kneeling, lower in the church, lower in the cells” (Typ. l. 174 vol.). Church canons prohibit bowing during the entire Pentecost period from Easter to Trinity Day. A.S. Pavlov. Imaginary traces of Catholic influence in the most ancient monuments of South Slavic and Russian church law. M. 1892, pp. 34‑49. In the manual book “Ἱεροτελεστικὸν τεῦχος, ἡρμηνευμὲνον ὑπὀ Ἱερων. Βογιάτζη", approved in Greece by St. Synod and the Ministry of Church Affairs and Public Education “for the benefit of priests and every Christian,” Ἐν Πάτραις, 1881 ἐκδ. β σελ. 53, this prayer is inscribed: “Εὐχὴ ἐπὶ μετανοούντων” and stands before the prayers for those preparing to receive the Holy Mysteries. Slich. Ἐξομολογηητάριον, ἤται βιβλίον ψυχωφελἐστατον. Βενετ 1885 σελ. 91. This last book precisely defines the time for reading the prayer of permission, which is called ordinary (τὴν σονειθισμένην). For the best man and his duties, see Symeon Thessal. Mign. Patrol. Curs. complete, t. 155, pag. 509·, y Coar. Εὐχολογ Venet. 1730 an. pag. 324, no. 9; and y A. S. Pavlova. Nomokanoi at the Great Trebnik M. 1897, pp. 291–295. Speech by Prof. V.F. Pechnitsky “On Christian education in the family”, see Work. Kyiv. spirit. Academy 1901, No. 4. Prof. T. D. Florinsky. Lectures on Slavic linguistics. Kyiv, 1895, part 1, p. 35. G. S. Debolsky owns the following works: 1) The care of the Orthodox Church for the salvation of the world, expressed in its services, which embrace the entire life of a Christian from birth to death, or an explanation of the rituals, requirements, sacraments and services of the Orthodox Church. Ed. 4 SPB. 1894. 2) About fasting according to the Charter of the Orthodox Church. Ed. 3. St. Petersburg. 1892. 3) Week of fasting, confession and communion. Ed. 5. 1899. 4) The necessity and importance of Christian behavior and obedience to the Orthodox Church. The teaching about the duties of Christians to God regarding public worship, serving God at home, about duties to neighbors, to the fatherland, in marital states, kinship, to oneself. Ed. 3. St. Petersburg. 1898 and 5) Days of worship of the Orthodox Catholic Church in 6 parts, 2 vols., ed. 9. St. Petersburg. 1894. O. Archpriest gained great fame among students of the divine services of the Orthodox Church, as follows his works: 1) A manual for the study of the Charter of the divine services of the Orthodox Church. Ed. 6. St. Petersburg. 1900 2) A brief overview of the liturgical books of the Orthodox Church in relation to the Church Charter, with the appendix of tables depicting daily services, and a dictionary of the names of prayers and church hymns. 1892 ed. 6 SPB. 1895 and 3) Anathema (excommunication), carried out in the first week of Lent. Historical study of the rite of Orthodoxy. St. Petersburg. 1879. We consider the following works of Bishop Vissarion useful for the study of Orthodox worship: 1) Interpretation of the Divine Liturgy according to the rite of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil the Great. Ed. 4. St. Petersburg. 1895, 2) Interpretation on proverbs 2 t. SDB. 1874, ed. 2 (Old Testament and New) ed. 2, St. Petersburg. 1896, 3) Review the most common church prayers, M. 1892 and 4) About Vespers. Two public readings. M. 1891. We understand his teachings on the explanation of the divine services of the Orthodox Church, published in the supplement to the Missionary Review magazine for the current year. Sokolov. A. Cult as a necessary accessory to religion. Polemic-apologetic theological study. Kaz. 1900, p. 84. Faith and Reason. 1891 books IV, p. 228. This is how they spoke about themselves to St. Sergius, Bishop of Uman, vicar of the Kyiv diocese, a Stundist, during interviews with them on issues of Orthodox dogma and church ritual, when the gracious archpastor cited texts of the Holy Scriptures as proof of the positions he defended, in the Slavic language. From the published report of the Kyiv Society for the Propagation of Religious and Moral Education in the Spirit of the Orthodox Church, we, unfortunately, see that members of the society very rarely offer liturgical materials to their listeners at evening readings. Of the 25 points in which readings were conducted, only in three topics of a church-practical nature served as the subjects of readings: 1) in the lodging house on Bessarabka, evening prayers were explained by lecturers, since readings and conversations for the night shelters were conducted in the evenings before going to bed 2) in the lodging house on Podol on the topic: “how one should confess and receive Holy Communion.” Tain” and 3) in the barracks of the 1st Ural Cossack regiment on Delovaya Street “about the Christian celebration of holidays” (Report of 1900, Kiev. 1901, pp. 28–30). People of Kiev. 1901. No. 41·, New. Time 1901 III. 8964. You might be interested in: