А. Понятие о богослужении вообще

1. A conversation in which the concept of worship of the Orthodox Church in general is explained Now, Christian brothers, we will talk about the worship of the Orthodox Church, and first of all, we will talk about worship in general, regardless of private services. What is called the divine service of the Orthodox Church? The divine service of the Orthodox Church is reverence for God or pleasing God, which we express according to the rules of the Orthodox Church in prayers, chants, readings, teachings in the word of God, rituals and sacred rites, connected with each other in a certain order. The purpose of Orthodox worship is very high and varied. Christian public worship, as an external expression of Christian dogmas, thoughts and dispositions of the believing mind and heart, facilitates for us, through common prayers and chants, sacred actions and rituals, the feat of our striving for God, makes us capable of accepting the grace of the Holy Spirit, teaches this grace, turning it for the good of our soul, and most closely unites us with God. These various goals of Orthodox Christian worship are concentrated in one main thing - our salvation through the Son of God who suffered for us. Public Christian worship is very beneficial. Acting on human feelings through symbols or special church rituals, it serves as the most powerful means for the closest mutual union of members of a single church. It, gathering them into one sanctuary of God or church, instills in them feelings of mutual brotherly love and maintains harmony and order between them. In patriarchal times, worship strengthened the bonds of domestic society, and in the times of Moses, the times of law united the whole people into one body, into one church. According to the intention of Jesus Christ, our Savior, through worship, all the tribes of the earth should be merged into one kingdom of God 1, or, what is the same, one mystical body should be formed from all people, as the Apostle said: we are many in one body: for we all partake of one bread 2. Then every divine service, no matter how believers are present, tells them that the king and the least of his subjects, the rich, the poor, the healthy, the wretched, the adult and the smallest child, in a word, all people equally need the mercy and goodness of God and are equally powerless and helpless before the greatness of God. Is not this instilling in all of us the spirit of mutual love and the duty of mutual service to each other? Everyone will agree that the more often and more strongly people perceive and experience the same moral lessons, states and feelings, the closer they become closer and closer to each other. Thus, outward reverence for God is, first of all, one of the best means for maintaining and strengthening spiritual brotherhood and unity between followers of the same religion. (See “Required external worship” by Prof. A. Gusev). Orthodox public worship, by its most natural necessity, has an open, outward side. This side of it consists of rituals, to which, in the broadest sense, belongs everything visible, material that a person uses to express holy faith or pious feelings. Therefore, public worship in general should have a symbolic character, i.e. all things and actions related to worship must have a special meaning or depict heavenly, mysterious objects of the invisible world and serve as monuments of the events of the kingdom of God on earth! That is why all sacred rites and rituals used during the worship of the Orthodox Church are magnificent, edifying and instructive. The divine service of the Orthodox Church does not have anything superfluous or too sensual in its ritual that could suppress the spirit of faith; Moreover, there is nothing idle and vain in it, serving only to amuse the eye, or to delight the ear, or to excite the imagination, which, for example, the Catholic Church allows in its worship. Its magnificent setting focuses the attention of the visitor to the service too much on itself, and through this itself does not satisfy its main purpose, does not awaken the thoughts of the believer, stopping his attention for too long on itself, does not elevate the thoughts of the worshiper through its mediation to the heavenly world. This is because in Catholic worship there is a great preponderance of the human side over the divine, the sensual over the spiritual. This is not what we see in Orthodox worship. In it, every sacred act, every ritual, every sacred thing has its own spiritual significance and the purpose of spiritual edification, everything here is imbued with the spirit of the Christian faith, without any calculations for material gain, without any excess in sensual invention. On the other hand, Orthodox worship has no shortage of sacred rites and actions, which is predominantly poor in Protestant worship. In it, the spirit of the Christian faith is clothed in the divine form of sacred rites to such a degree and to such an extent as is required to edify the pious feeling of those present and those praying. Everything in it is arranged and performed so well and in order (1 Cor. 14:40) that the pious feeling of a believer will always find in it food, joy and peace for his spirit. Observation and experience convince us that external reverence for God, as an expression of internal religious feeling, is inherent in man and is found in the history of religions of all peoples. The need for the external side in religion is primarily visible from the fact that man is a spiritual - sensual being, i.e. consists of spirit and body. The spiritual and physical nature are united in us so closely that every mental movement that occurs in us, whether it be a thought, or a feeling, or a desire, is certainly accompanied by corresponding bodily activities. The more vividly and powerfully the spiritual movements occur within us, the more clearly they are expressed to an outsider’s eye in external changes and movements of the body. Isn’t it strange after this to think that only the religious area of ​​our life should serve as an exception to this general law? Religion necessarily presupposes faith in a living personal God, our Creator and Provider, who is in communication with man, i.e. revealing His will to people, heeding their prayers, forgiving their sins and generally arranging for our temporary and eternal well-being. This faith in God, our Provider, turns our thoughts, our feelings, and our desires to Him, forming in us what is called a religious disposition. The religious mood, which embraces the whole person - his thought and his feeling, and his will - cannot, like any other mood, not be expressed, first of all, in the corresponding body movements, signs, words and similar external forms. After all, even in the religious area of ​​his life a person remains a person, i.e. a spiritual-physical being, and therefore the body should be a kind of organ of religious life. Can a person, without using, for example, words, pray to God’s providence for the granting of certain blessings, give thanks for the gifts of life, praise His goodness and greatness? How can a person express his spiritual longings, sorrows, joys, hopes and hopes before his heavenly Father without words? Without such spiritual appeals to God, religious disposition is unthinkable. And if this is beyond doubt, then prayer, expressed in certain words and actions, is a matter of necessity in the life of a religiously minded person. In word and deed itself, further, Jesus Christ commanded and sanctified external worship of God. Prayer was the most common occurrence in the earthly life of our Savior. He often spent a very long time in prayer, retiring to special places full of silence and peace (Luke 5:16). The prayers of Jesus Christ addressed to His heavenly Father were not just an internal appeal of the soul to God, but were also accompanied by corresponding movements and positions of the body. So St. Evangelist Matthew tells the following about the prayer of our Savior before His suffering on the cross: going a little away from the disciples, he fell on His face, prayed and said: My Father! if possible, let this cup pass from Me, however, not as I will, but as You will (Matthew 26:39). Jesus Christ also prayed together with His disciples, and the prayerful mood of the divine Teacher and His apostles was expressed in the singing of sacred hymns and psalms (Matthew 26:30). Our Savior visited the church during public worship, especially on the days of Jewish holidays (John 2:13, etc.) and saw in the church nothing less than the house of God (John 2:16). He encouraged His disciples to pray as often as possible (Luke 18:1). Moreover, the Lord Jesus Christ directly pointed out the advantage of public prayer over individual prayer. Thus, He says to each of us in the person of His disciples: if two of you agree on earth to ask for anything, then whatever they ask will be done for them by My Father in heaven, for where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them (Matthew 18:19–20). As for fasting, the Savior not only Himself fasted for a long time (Luke 4:2, etc.), but also commanded us in the person of His disciples to fast (Matthew 9:15). In general, the Savior Himself carried out and inspired His disciples to carry out what was required by the Old Testament religious reverence for God (Matthew 23:3). (See the brochure of Prof. Kaz. D. Ak. A. Gusev: “The need for external worship of God. Against Count L. Tolstoy”). Orthodox worship is divided into public and private, depending on where, by whom, when and how it is performed. A divine service is called public when it is performed at a general meeting of believers, in a church, at a legal time, by sacred persons and according to a well-known rite. Private worship is a service that is performed by a member of the church in his family or alone, outside the general meeting of believers, at the believer’s own discretion. It may include various pious exercises and actions, such as, for example, home prayer in the morning, evening 3, before and after meals, and, if possible, before the start and at the end of each task 4; reading the word of God and other pious and instructive books; repeating what was heard in church; reverent expression of religious feelings before God in spiritual chants 5; pious conversations and discussions about the truths of faith and salvation; turning every circumstance of life into an object of reverent reflection for the education of the mind and heart, and finally, home worship performed at the invitation of the altar server, and an account of one’s behavior before the court of one’s conscience and God. Worship, brothers, is very ancient: it is contemporary with the human race. The first man after his creation could feel his need. As soon as his soul became full of pious thoughts, feelings and aspirations, verbal sounds, movements and actions in accordance with his spiritual dispositions should have immediately formed in his bodily composition: he thanked God for His countless benefits and glorified Him for ineffable perfections. After the Fall, fallen man little by little, as he fell greatly and moved away from God, lost both sight and feeling for divine things; It was then that symbols and rituals became necessary for him that would arouse, support and preserve in his heart a feeling of faith and piety towards the highest Being and devotion to His will. These symbols and rites, from the very beginning of the history of the human race, have often been instituted and approved by the divine authority itself. Thus, God Himself blessed and sanctified the seventh day of peacemaking 6 and instituted sacrifices so that people would please Him with them. When making a sacrifice to God, a person imagined his own sinfulness and at the same time supported the consciousness that the death of the victim was actually a well-deserved punishment for himself, and thus made sure that he was in communion with God, and that this communion was a work of God’s ineffable mercy. In addition to the sacrifice, God Himself accepted with favor from the holy patriarchs the well-known consecrated prayers, ablutions, vows, oaths, etc. From that time on, in all Old Testament times, man sought reconciliation with God through worship, expressed in sacrifices, which foreshadowed the actual redemption of man from punishment - sin, curse and death, which would one day take place - and prepared the Old Testament church for it. The rite of Old Testament worship among the people of God was determined with all the details by God Himself in the ritual law given by Him through the leader of the Israeli people - Moses at Sinai. Through this worship, God entered into communication with man to impart to him the gifts determined by the promise and the law, and the man, keeping the promise and observing the precepts of the law, betrayed to God in praise and gratitude faith in the coming Redeemer. And if the divine service had a propitiatory power for Israel, it was not in itself, but because it was a prototype of the great sacrifice that the God-Man, Jesus Christ, crucified on the cross for the sins of the whole world, once had to offer to God the Father. Therefore, with the completion of this sacrifice, the ritual Old Testament service lost all meaning and gave rise to another service - the New Testament, established by Jesus Christ Himself in the sacrament of the Eucharist or holy communion, which He bequeathed to be performed in His remembrance 7, and in the establishment of other sacraments. The holy apostles, and then the apostolic men and subsequently the wise fathers of the church, in strict accordance with the spirit of the teachings of Jesus Christ, developed Christian worship into the harmonious rite in which it is still performed. This, brethren, is the briefest concept of the worship of the Orthodox Church. In our next conversations, with God’s help, we will develop it and make it clear through separate brief conversations about all types of worship of the Orthodox Church. (Compiled with additional information according to the source. Priest G. Dyachenko). 2. Conversation about church services Today I intend to talk with you, brethren, about how many church services there are, what they are exactly, at what time they depart, and why they depart at such a time. The ancient pioneer Christians very often gathered in church for public prayer. They spent almost all their time in prayer. They gathered for prayer at midnight, they prayed early in the morning, at the onset of day, at the first hour they prayed, at the third, sixth and ninth hour they prayed, before noon, receiving the body and blood of Christ, they prayed again, in the evening they prayed, after dinner they prayed. From this came nine special church services: midnight office, matins with the first hour, third hour, sixth hour, liturgy, ninth hour, vespers and compline. Thus, the leading Christians gathered in church for public prayer nine times a day. Over time, the church fathers saw that it was difficult and inconvenient to gather for public prayer nine times a day, especially difficult for family and official people, and therefore they decided to gather three times a day. Thus, now, according to the charter of the church, nine church services are celebrated three times: in the morning - Midnight Office, Matins and the first hour are performed; before noon – the third and sixth hours and liturgy; in the evening - the ninth hour, vespers and compline; and before the great holidays, Vespers, Matins and the first hour are performed together and form a special service, which is usually called the all-night vigil and serves as spiritual preparation for the upcoming holiday. Instead of Vespers, in this case, a small or shortened Vespers with Compline is served. Pious listeners! You can and should pray at any time, especially when you are in the mood for prayer. Why did the church fathers set known and specific times for prayer? They did this for very important reasons. So the church fathers appointed midnight for prayer, and is it possible not to pray with reverence at midnight, when the second, terrible coming of Christ is revealed at this hour? Is it possible not to stay awake in those moments when the dead rise from their graves? They appointed a time for prayer in the morning: and when is it more decent to pray, if not in the morning? And what better way to start the day than with prayer? Morning prayer is for humans what morning dew is for plants. He is happier and more at peace throughout the day who prays with proper attention in the morning. They appointed the third, sixth and ninth hours of the day for prayer: and when is it more appropriate to invoke the grace of the Holy Spirit, if not at the third hour, at which the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles? When is it more appropriate to cry out to God for salvation and mercy, if not at the sixth and ninth hours of the day, in which Jesus Christ was crucified for our salvation and died for our justification? They appointed an evening for prayer: and is it possible, when going to bed, not to pray that God would grant a peaceful, sinless, unblemished night? And when is it more appropriate to thank God for the past day, if not in the evening? Thus, the church fathers wisely did that they appointed certain hours for public services - hours that can conveniently dispose a person to pray. Let us, the listeners, spend the designated hours in prayer; and at least we will pray during the indicated services; These services are composed of such prayers that involuntarily encourage everyone to pray. There will be enough time for everything: we will have time to pray in church and mind our own business. Things will go even more successfully for us if we go to God’s church more often. In the Church of God, blessings flow like a river from the Holy Altar, and with God’s blessing everything always goes well. Amen. (Compiled from “Complete collection of scholars” by Archpriest R. Putyatin, 22nd edition). Appendix to conversation No. 1. Review of a Protestant about the worship of the Orthodox Church “Foreigners say that our church is lifeless. They told a lie, because our church is life.” So said our famous writer N.V. Gogol told the deep truth - both about our church and about the opinion of foreigners. These latter confess their lies and begin to see the superiority of our church over theirs. This consciousness is heard from the lips of representatives of Western theological science. Let us listen to what the most learned Protestant theologian Hengstenberg says about the worship of the Orthodox Church 8. Here is how he reasons: “The Eastern Orthodox Church in its worship seeks to understand to believers all the greatness of Divine revelation, in order through this to confirm them in the faith. Therefore, the Orthodox Church does not limit itself to the remembrance of the sufferings of the Redeemer, but by adding Matins and Vespers to the liturgy, as preparatory services, it combines with the remembrance of the sufferings of the Lord the remembrance of His entire life; it is transferred even to the Old Testament and goes back to the original revelation. Thus, the church service of the Orthodox Church embraces the entire area of ​​​​Divine revelation - from the creation of the world and the Fall of people to the appearance of the Redeemer and from the Nativity of Jesus Christ to the last moments of His earthly life - to His glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven. The Orthodox Church is not satisfied with one divine service, during which the word of grace would be proclaimed and its gifts would be offered; she also wants to convey the concept of this grace in a living and tangible form. Therefore, she accompanies the reading of the Holy Scriptures with praises and sacred exclamations; her prayers have a conversational appearance; the actions of the priest and the deacon are in constant close relationship with each other and follow one another in turn; finally, the choir also participates in these actions with its songs - sometimes long, sometimes short, sometimes simple, sometimes antiphonal. “Imagery constitutes the most distinctive property of Orthodox worship. The liturgical actions of the Orthodox Church are imbued with this imagery. How much these sacred vestments say to the imagination and feeling, these entrances and exits from this or that door of the altar, this opening and closing of the royal doors, the opening and closing of their curtain, these bows, kneeling, kissing sacred objects, lighting candles, censing, etc.! These sacred rites sometimes turn into whole pictures and depict entire sacred historical events, for example, the entry of Jesus Christ into public activity, the procession to his free death, the most atoning death of our Savior. The people contemplate these actions, sometimes standing, sometimes on their knees, sometimes with their heads bowed and their hands folded crosswise. The shrine of Christ either remains inaccessible to the eyes of the lay people present, then, with the opening of the royal doors, it appears in front of the people, then, finally, it is carried out into the very midst of pilgrims in a solemn procession with candles, incense and sacred songs. “Thus, the divine service of the Orthodox Church is an extremely rich in content and deeply touches the imagination and feeling of a sacred symbolic-liturgical picture.” “Moving now to assessing the worship of the Orthodox Church from the point of view of its Christian truth and edification, we must give it due justice. The beautiful thing about Orthodox worship is that here the truths of the Gospel are not only proclaimed in words, but are also clothed in various symbols and pictures and thus become accessible not only to reason, but also to imagination and feeling. We Protestants could take an example from the Orthodox Church and moderate our persecution of all symbolism, which sometimes reaches such pettiness that we are afraid to bow in church. Further: the wonderful thing about Orthodox worship is that here the saving revelation is not only preached, but communicated in the form of symbolic pictures that are closely related to the events of sacred history. Again an example worthy of imitation for Protestants; we consider the church service as an ordinary meeting for the purpose of edification - and at the same time we consider the great actions of the liturgy as an unnecessary and burdensome addition, which it is better not to see or hear. Finally, what is beautiful about Orthodox worship is that it represents a sacrifice of praise and gratitude from believers to God for His great benefits. And in this case, it would not hurt us to learn from the Orthodox, because we have completely lost the habit of praising and thanking God and have forgotten that we must not only accept the gifts of God’s grace with faith, but also constantly thank and glorify God for everything that we have and use.” What is Protestant worship? Protestants reject liturgical forms. The circle of daily worship, i.e. Protestants do not have vespers, compline, midnight office, matins, hours, except for the Anglicans and Irvingians, who keep vespers and matins; of the seven sacraments, Protestants recognize only two - baptism and communion, but reject the meaning of the Eucharist as a sacrifice and therefore, when celebrating the Eucharist, they do not remember either the living or the dead; prayers and memorial services were abolished. Protestants consider the essence and focus of public worship not to be the bloodless sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, as the Orthodox Church is, but to preach, prefacing it with the reading of the Holy Scriptures. the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, preceding and accompanying it with spiritual chants and prayers; As a result, the most important and important place in Protestant churches is not St. a throne, as in Orthodox churches, and a preaching pulpit. Thus, all Protestant worship has turned into one sermon, often routine, boring - it is dead, lifeless; everything is directed only towards teaching the understanding alone: ​​no food for feeling and imagination, which, like reason, require the highest satisfaction in religion. Protestants tried as much as possible to simplify every appearance - ritualism in worship and went to such an extreme in this regard that today's Protestants themselves often express dissatisfaction and complaints about the dryness and vacuity of the ritual side of their religion and try to improve the liturgical forms. This is what the same scientist Gengstenberg says about Protestant worship: “we must not forget that our worship is far from perfect. We must try by all means to ensure that our worship comes closer and closer to the prototype of the ancient Christian church, more and more freed from a one-sided, exclusively instructive direction; so that it becomes richer and richer in external forms, livelier and more alive with the participation of society, more fascinating and captivating with the aid of sacred art, more edifying and edifying through its action on all aspects of the spirit. Oh, God forbid! So, by Protestants' own admission, their worship is imperfect. This imperfection consists in a one-sided, exclusively instructive direction of worship, in poverty in external forms, in the indifferent attitude of believers, in lack of edification, in short - in the absence of those properties that, according to the same Protestant, are inherent in the worship of the Orthodox Church. And again I recall the words of the unforgettable Gogol: “our church, with its deep dogmas and the slightest external rituals, seems to have been blown straight from heaven for the Russian people... We own a treasure that has no price, and we do not care about feeling it”... (“Riga. Bishop Vedas.”). Ps. 91:1–2; 54, 18; Acts 10:2–4, 9. Gengstenberg's review, translated from German, was published in Voskr. reading."