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I. About evening worship 1. Discussion on the service of the ninth hour The evening service consists of the ninth hour, Vespers and Compline. Now we will give an explanation of the service of the ninth hour, since it actually precedes Vespers and is combined with it into one service. The ninth hour, as well as any church service, except the liturgy, usually begins with the exclamation of the priest: “Blessed is our God always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.” And on behalf of the entire church, the reader, confirming this doxology with the word amen, begins to glorify the Lord himself - with the words: glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee! After this he reads the prayer: To the Heavenly King. Why is this prayer read before other prayers? Remember, brethren, what the Holy Apostle Paul says about prayer? For what let us pray, as we should, we do not know, he says in his letter to the Romans: but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered (Rom. VIII, 26), that is, without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we do not even know how and what to pray. That is why the first prayer turns to the Holy Spirit, so that He would dwell in us, cleanse us from all filth and strengthen us for the feat of prayer. That is why you, brethren, when you think of praying, do not forget to first of all read the prayer: To the Heavenly King. Next, the reader, on behalf of all those present, asks for mercy from the Holy Trinity, saying: “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.” Then he glorifies the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit: glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and, finally, again asks for mercy from the Most Holy Trinity: Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us, he cries. Heeding such prayerful appeals, let us, brethren, pray to the Lord that He will cleanse our sins and heal our infirmities. After this, the most important of all prayers is said – the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father”. The Lord's Prayer is said after the others, because the preceding prayers serve as a preparation for the Lord's Prayer. This prayer depicts everything that we can and should pray for, and at the same time it instills those feelings of love for God and perfect devotion to Him with which we, according to the commandment and example of the Lord, must pray. At the end of the Lord’s Prayer, it is repeated twelve times: Lord, have mercy, by which we ask God for a blessing for every hour of the day and night, because, according to church calculation, there are twelve hours in the night, from evening to morning, and also twelve hours in the days, from morning to evening. Next we hear: “Come, let us worship our King God.” Come, let us bow and fall down to Christ, our King God. Come, let us worship and fall down before Christ Himself, our King and our God. We should not abandon this prayer even when we pray in private; for each of those praying must mentally arouse all the powers of his soul, as well as others, to the worthy worship of Christ our God. For this reason, brethren, we hear prayers in which we remember the circumstances of the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. We hear how in the first of the psalms read then, namely in the 83rd, the psalmist strives in spirit into the courts of the Lord and pleases the one who sets his ascent in his heart. - Let the Christian think about this, what is the best spiritual ascent for him, if not the ascent to Golgotha, where such a wondrous event took place? Here, in this place where the feet of God our Savior were established, we will most of all be present than living in the villages of sinners. After this, the Christian, with a feeling of love and gratitude to the Redeemer, cries out: “Thou hast pleased Thy land, O Lord, Thou hast forsaken the iniquity of Thy people, and Thou hast covered all their sins...” Hearing this, cry out to the Lord together with the psalmist and you, your praying brother: “Incline, O Lord, Thy ear, and hear me: as I am poor and needy I am... Let me confess to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forever. For Your mercy is great upon me, and You have delivered my soul from the lowest hell.” Then the following prayer is offered to the Lord: “For our sakes, the Good One was born of the Virgin and endured crucifixion... do not despise what You created with Your hand and show Your love for mankind, O Most Merciful One.” According to this, we, brethren, will then pray to the Lord, may He not destroy His covenant with us for our sins and may He not forsake His mercy from us... Finally, the prayer of the ninth hour consists of a prayer suitable for any time - “For every time and for every hour” - and another prayer of St. Basil the Great, which, one might say, is composed and pronounced, as if at the foot of the Cross of the Lord. “Master, Lord!” we pray then, “thou hast brought us to this hour, hanging on the life-giving tree, to the prudent thief who made the entrance to paradise, cleanse us sinners and spare us according to the abundance of Thy mercy!” You see for yourself, brethren, how proper it is for a Christian to say all this before his Savior and Lord when remembering his death on the cross for us. With the help of God, we have finished, brethren, the explanation of the service of the ninth hour, and next time we will deal with the actual explanation of the evening service. Amen. (Compiled from “Teachings on Divine Services” by Priest K. Stratilatov, published in 1872). Historical Notes on the Ninth Hour Service. The ninth hour according to the ancient calculation of hours, from morning to evening, corresponds to the third hour of the afternoon, and therefore, the time of the evening worship of the Orthodox Church. He is the ancient sacred hour in which the Old Testament divine service was performed, which was a dawn and an indication of the future, the prayer of the cross and the sacrifice of the Son of God were offered (Matt. 27:46. Luke 23:46), and the Chief Apostolic service was performed (Acts 3:1), and in general Orthodox Christian worship, as evidenced by the apostolic decrees, Tertullian, St. Athanasius the Great 36, St. Basil the Great 37. The apostolic decrees say: “perform prayers at the 9th hour, at which, when Christ was crucified, all nature trembled, crushing the stiff-necked wicked Jews and could not bear the humiliation of the Lord” 38. In these decrees about the evening service, it is prescribed to recite Psalm 113: praise, O youths, the Lord, praise the name of the Lord, 39 now set by the Orthodox Church at the hour between the 9th hour. Tertullian writes that public prayers of Christians in his time were at 3, 6 and 9 o'clock in the afternoon, and that the fast was kept until 9 o'clock in memory of the death of Jesus Christ, and until the evening - in memory of His burial 40. St. Basil the Great says: “The ninth hour was established by the apostles themselves in Acts for prayer” (Acts 3:1) 41. According to scripture and tradition, the ninth hour is dedicated to the remembrance of the death on the cross of Jesus Christ, about which the church at the ninth hour pronounces: “Who at the 9th hour tasted death for our flesh, put to death the wisdom of our flesh, O Christ our God, and save us.” Nothing could be more natural for us in the evening than to thank God for His beneficent Providence, which preserved us throughout the past day, to ask Him for forgiveness of the sins with which we offended His goodness from morning to evening, to glorify primarily those works of God that the coming church day reminds us of, and finally, to ask God for a holy passing of the evening and to bring to mind the evening of our life. The service of Vespers, which, according to the church's calculation of time, should end one day and begin the next, everything is adapted to this purpose, and therefore in it we either thank the Author and Provider of our life, then we pour out feelings of repentance for our constant sins, then we pray for a holy time, and in addition we glorify those saints of whom the next day reminds us. Vespers, like other services, begins with a blessing, i.e. glorifying the Lord God: “Blessed is our God always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen". Then to the King of Heaven, the Trisagion, the Lord’s Prayer and the reading of Psalm 103, beginning with the words: “Bless the Lord, my soul; Lord my God, you are greatly exalted.” The content of this psalm: praise to the Lord for the creation of the world and for His wonderful providence for all created things. Providence means that God, having created the world, did not leave it to himself, but incessantly, vigilantly, so to speak, takes care of it. He takes care that everything in the world - from the sun and stars, and to the last blade of grass, to the last worm - that everything goes in a strict, unchanging order - in the order in which He created in the beginning; because if this order were disrupted for one minute, then everything would perish and disappear; makes sure that everything living has something to live on without interruption and continues its existence. This does not mean that I, you, or any creation taken separately existed forever on earth - no, each separately must die and give way to another, but so that genera on earth do not disappear, for example, the human race, this or that kind of animal, etc.; cares, in addition, that the very evil (diseases, for example, various disasters, etc.), which sin gave birth to and spread on earth, leads to good consequences. This is how the psalmist praises this wonderful providence: “Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord, my God, You are wonderfully great. You are clothed with majesty and splendor. You have clothed yourself with light like a robe, you have stretched out the heavens like a tent” (vv. 1, 2). “You brought springs through the valleys; water flows between the mountains, watering all the animals of the field; wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the air live with them, and their voices are heard through the branches. You water the mountains from Your heights; the earth is satisfied with the fruits of Your deeds. You cause grass to grow for livestock and herbs for the benefit of man, to bring forth bread from the ground (vv. 10–14). Birds nest on them; The stork's home is in the fir trees. High mountains are sernams, stone cliffs are a refuge for rabbits. You created the moon to indicate the time, the sun knows its west. You spread out the darkness and it becomes night, during which all the forest animals roam. Lions roar, looking for prey and demanding food from God for themselves. The sun will rise - and they hide and lie down in their lairs. Here a man goes out to his work and to his work until evening” (vv. 16-23). “Behold the great and vast sea, there are reptiles of which there is no number, animals small and large... They all expect You to give them food in due time. You give it to them, they accept it; You open Your hand and are filled with good. If you hide your face, they will be embarrassed; If you take the spirit from them, they die and return to their dust. You send forth Your spirit, and You will create and renew the face of the earth” (vv. 25–30). “How numerous are Your works, O Lord! Thou hast done all things wisely: the earth is full of Thy riches” (v. 25). “Let the Lord be the glory forever” (v. 31). And what better way to end the day than with this glorification of God’s providence? So, brethren, at the end of each day, thank and glorify the Lord God for His wonderful providence for you. Everything that helped you get through the day - air, food, bodily strength, health, etc., etc. - all this is the action of providence on you. For a minute, for the blink of an eye, Providence will leave us - it’s over, everything is lost, - “to our dust we will return.” At the same time, no matter what happens to you - grief, failure, illness, loss, poverty, etc., do not lose heart and do not be discouraged: there is a providence above you that will not leave you under any adversity. The Lord God cares about every blade of grass in the field, about every reptile - will He leave you and forget you? Never! Just don’t lose your trust in Him. This is what the Savior Himself said: look at the birds of the air: they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you much better than them? (Matthew 6:26). Are not five sparrows sold for two assariyas (the smallest coin) - and not one of them is forgotten by God. And even the hairs on your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6–7). Why then despondency and cowardice? It’s hard to endure everyday hardships and especially human anger - I know, I know from bitter experience that it’s hard. What? One way or another, in grief or joy, under the influence of love and friendship or under the yoke of enmity and persecution - and our days flash by without us noticing - our whole life will flash by; so why dwell on its dark sides? They too will flash by, unless they are remembered there - at the judgment of the Omniscient, for reward to each according to his deeds. Moreover, God's providence will never allow us to suffer adversity beyond our strength. If trouble appears, the Lord has a remedy ready for it. There will be evil, bitter enemies - such enemies that “they would have devoured us alive, and then their fury would become angry with us, and the Lord would not let us be caught by their teeth.” Unexpectedly for us, He will send friends completely unknown to us; secretly from us he will send help, unexpected by us, and “our soul, like a bird, will be delivered from the snare of those who catch it; the net will be broken, and we will be delivered” (Ps. 123). So, in sorrows and in joys, we will place all our hopes, all our trust in God’s providence - and He will never leave us. While reading this psalm, the priest reads the so-called prayers of light. They are called lamps because at this time the evening twilight sets in and the lamps are already lit for worship. The general content of these prayers is as follows: “Merciful Lord! Accept our prayer and do not punish us in Your anger, but act mercifully with us; Enlighten the eyes of our hearts into the knowledge of Your truth, help us end the day, like our whole life, peacefully and sinlessly, and there, in another life, give us an inheritance with all those who have pleased You. You, God, are the Creator of day and night! Accept our evening prayer and preserve us in the coming night, give us the sleep so necessary to restore our strength, so that after it we will rise with spiritual joy to praise Your mercy.” There are seven prayers of all lamps. The psalm “Bless the Lord, my soul,” etc., is followed by a great litany, an ordinary (regular) kathisma, a small litany and the singing of psalms: Lord, I have cried to You, hear me, etc. Here the psalms are supposed to be sung: CXL, CXLI, CXXIX and CXVI. Their general content is the prayer of the suffering person for help from the Lord and the hope that this help will not be delayed. “Lord, I appeal to You, hasten to me, listen to the voice of my prayer when I cry to You. Let my prayer come as incense before Thy face, the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering” (Ps. 140:12). “My eyes are towards You, O Lord; I trust in You; do not cast away my soul. Keep me from the snare that they have set for me, from the devices of the workers of iniquity” (vv. 8, 9). “With my voice I cry to the Lord, with my voice I will pray to the Lord. I pour out my prayer before His face, I express my sorrow before His face, when my spirit faints within me” (Ps. 142:1-3). “I cry to You, O Lord; I say: You are my refuge, You are my portion in the land of the living. Hear my cry; for I am very weary. Deliver me from my persecutors; for they prevailed against me” (vv. 6, 7). “If you look at iniquity, O Lord, – Lord, who can stand? But with You is forgiveness, so that they may reverence You. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, I trust in His word. Let Israel wait for the Lord; For with the Lord is mercy, and great is his redemption (Ps. 129:3-5, 7). “Praise the Lord, all nations, praise Him, all nations; for his mercy is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever” (Ps. 116:1, 2). With the last verses of these psalms, stichera are sung - six in number: three from Octoechos and three to the saint celebrated the next day. The general content of these stichera in the Octoechos, as has already been said, is the arousal in sinners of feelings of repentance and prayer to the Savior for forgiveness and mercy. Here, for example, “on Monday evening, tone 2, I cried stichera to the Lord”: “Christ, there is only one sinless, one without malice, the only source of mercy! Behold my groaning, behold my sorrow, and cleanse all the wounds of my scabs. Save Thy servant by Thy mercy, so that, having dispelled the darkness of laziness, I may glorify Thee, my most gracious Savior.” “My poor soul! Look closely and consider your deeds - how bad are they?! Look at your nail. And what a terrible loneliness! You will be separated from God and the angels and plunged into endless torment. Wake up, get up, hurry up, exclaim: My Savior! I have sinned, forgive me and save me.” “I have desecrated my body terribly: I have corrupted my soul and heart with criminal thoughts; I distorted all my feelings: I desecrated my eyes, I drowned my hearing, I disgraced my tongue with obscene speeches; and everything in me became shameful. That is why, Christ is my Savior, falling before You, I cry: I have sinned before You, I have sinned: forgive and save me.” This is the general structure of these stichera. Reading them, you involuntarily become imbued with the horror of your situation; the cold penetrates through and chills the soul, as you think about it and find out in yourself the consciousness: “after all, it’s me!” Yes, you have to reach the point of petrified insensibility so as not to shudder with your whole being at these bright, sharp images of our inner life and this inexpressibly terrible future that lies ahead of us beyond the grave. And one could reach despair if all these stichera were not for the thought of the Savior, of the possibility of forgiveness and pardon while we are here on earth, while we can still resort to the Savior with prayer. Oh, if these stichera were read with thought and consciousness by those for whom this present life is everything, and about the afterlife - no thought or thought, for whom their own inner life is an unknown country, into which they have never looked, if only they read and thought about what they read!.. With what deep disgust, all-crushing horror, with what insurmountable sorrow they would look at themselves!.. At Vespers on Wednesday and Friday, these touching and penitential stichera are replaced by crosses of the cross. They recall the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, remind us of what was acquired through these sufferings, and indicate the means to appropriate for ourselves the fruits of the sacrifice of the cross. Here is one example: Tuesday evening, tone 3: “Word! At Your crucifixion, everything created trembled and changed: the sun hid its rays out of fear and was clothed in darkness; the veil of the church was torn, but everyone who believed was saved. That is why we praise Your immeasurable mercy.” Stichera in honor of saints contain the main features of their ascetic life or martyrdom, if celebrated in honor of holy martyrs. All these stichera are actually called that way: stichera “I cried out to the Lord.” They end with the Mother of God - a short prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos asking for forgiveness and mercy for us, and on Wednesday and Friday - the Mother of the Cross - a prayerful remembrance of the suffering that the Most Holy Mother and Virgin endured at the cross of Her Son. After the stichera, one of the most touching church songs is sung or read: “Quiet Light of Saints of Glory,” etc. - a song that cannot be heard without deep emotional tenderness. “My Savior, Christ, You, who revealed to us the glory of the Heavenly Father! The quiet light of the saints of glory (which is as pleasing to our spiritual eyes to look at as it is to our bodily eyes to look at the quiet evening light)! To save the world, You once came to the dark west - our nature. Therefore, every time we reach the sunny west, every day when we see the light of evening, we sing to Your Father, we sing to You - the Son - and the Holy Spirit, we sing praises to the triune God. Son of God, who gives life to us and to all things! We must sing to You with holy voices, we must prostrate ourselves before You not only at sunset, not only at the sight of the evening light, but at every time of the day and year. You are the life of the entire universe; and therefore the whole universe glorifies you.” This song was written by Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem. This is what legend says about how this song poured out of the soul of the godly elder. Towards the end of his life, he loved to retire to one of the mountains surrounding Jerusalem at sunset. From here he fixed his thoughtful gaze on the setting Palestinian sun, transferred them to Jerusalem - and deep sadness penetrated his soul. There, in the west, darkness is already spreading; here in front of him - everything is dull and gloomy, nothing of ancient greatness: no strong walls, no high towers of Zion - everything is in ruins. But then one day the evening light, quietly falling on the ruins of the City of God, turned the elder’s thoughts to objects more important than this sad desolation. The material sun, inclined to the west, inclined the old man’s mind to the idea of ​​the immaterial sun - and the image of the Holy Trinity appeared in his mind’s eye. The west of the sun brought to mind the dark west of fallen human nature. The quiet light of the setting sun, bathing the tired nature of the evening, vividly depicted to him the descent of the Son of God to dark humanity in order to enlighten and restore it, and with it all nature. In the cool breath of the evening air, he felt the image of that grace with which the Holy Spirit, as a result of redemption, spiritualizes man and the universe. The soul of the godly elder was filled with grateful tenderness, and he sang the evening song to the Creator of the universe: “Quiet Light,” etc. This song is followed by: the prokeimenon, a short prayer that the Lord will help us spend the coming evening without sin (“Grant, O Lord, that we may be preserved on this evening without sin,” etc.), a petitionary litany and verses. There are three verse stichera. The first two, like the stichera on “I cried to the Lord,” are touching or repentant, the third is in honor of the martyrs. Here, for example, are the poems on Monday evenings, voice two. “Christ the Savior! I have sinned before You like the prodigal son. Father! Receive me, a repentant one, and have mercy on me, O God.” “Christ the Savior! I appeal to You with the voice of a tax collector: cleanse me like him, and have mercy on me, O God.” “When the holy martyrs pray for us and glorify Christ, all temptation ceases, and the human race is saved by faith.” The last two stichera are preceded by the verses of Psalm CXXII: “I lift up my eyes to Thee, O Thou who dwellest in heaven. As the eyes of servants are fixed on the hand of their masters, and the eyes of a servant on the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are fixed on the Lord our God, until He has mercy on us” (v. 12). “Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us; for we are quite filled with contempt. Our soul is sufficiently filled with reproach from the proud, with contempt from the proud” (v. 24). The poems conclude with the Mother of God or the Mother of the Cross, just like in “I cried to the Lord.” Then it follows: now let go of the Trisagion. Now you let go - this is the prayer of Simeon the God-Receiver, - the dying prayer of a pious husband, the outpouring of the joyful feelings of an old man, burdened with the burden of years, for whom mortal peace is more valuable than a life full of storms and anxieties; This is the voice of a soul that has long ago renounced everything earthly, long since instilled mentally in the heavenly abodes, for which only one invaluable good remains on earth - to see the salvation prepared for people, and then one and last desire - to quickly be freed from the bonds of the flesh. Blessed death, blessed old man! “And he (Elder Simeon) came, as it is told in the Gospel, by inspiration to the church: and when the parents brought the baby Jesus to perform on Him, he took Him in his arms, blessed God and said: “Today you are letting Your servant go, O Master, according to Your word in peace, for mine eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all nations, a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people - Israel." After the Trisagion - the troparion to the saint celebrated the next day, the Theotokos, a special litany and dismissal, which is usually performed like this: the priest says: “wisdom”, the clergy (instead of the people) answers: “bless”. Priest: “Blessed be Christ our God always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.” Clergy: “Confirm, O God, the most pious..., the holy Orthodox faith, Orthodox Christians forever and ever.” Priest: “Most Holy Theotokos, save us.” Clergy: “The most honorable cherub and the most glorious seraphim without comparison, who gave birth to God the Word without corruption, we magnify the real Mother of God.” Priest: “Glory to Thee, Christ God, our hope, glory to Thee.” Clergy: “Glory and now, Lord have mercy and bless.” The priest, turning to the people: “Christ, our true God, through the prayers of His Most Pure Mother and Saint... (celebrated the next day) and all the saints, will have mercy and save us, for He is good and a lover of mankind (save us because He is good and a lover of mankind). The clergy ends by singing many years to the Most Pious Sovereign Emperor and the entire reigning house. (See “About the Church. divine service" by I. Bellustin). This is the general content of Vespers. In it, as you see, brethren, we are reminded in the most caring way of the urgent need to break out of sinful darkness and, with repentance and tears, turn to the Savior with a prayer for forgiveness and mercy. Yes, every Vespers reminds us that there is not yet a day in our life, and for another day we have become closer to the grave and the terrible judgment - that our whole life will flash by as quickly and imperceptibly as days, weeks, and months flash by. But we have no thought about it, no care, no thought! It’s as if we were to live forever on earth—we are so attached to it, so all our thoughts are directed toward concerns, toward earthly labors and goals. How bitterly and terribly we deceive ourselves! Hasten, my brothers and friends, to use the time to worthily meet eternal life and become participants in the blessed life. (Compiled with additional information according to source). Historical information about the service of Vespers in ancient times. The composition of Vespers in ancient times seems very close to the present day and was determined not only in its main features, but also in many details. The starting point for the formation of Vespers was the Evening Psalm (140): Lord, I have cried to Thee, around which a greater or lesser number of others were grouped, according to local customs. According to the statute of Rev. Pachomius, at Vespers they read six psalms and the same number of prayers; According to Cassian, the Egyptian monks sang twelve psalms (L. II, p. 4 Cf. p. 6), in between which eleven prayers were read, and the last psalm ended with an alleluia. The “Apostolic Constitutions” also mentions the evening psalm, and the canon of Anthimus mentions the 140th and 85th. Benedict of Nursia performed four psalms with antiphonal refrains at vespers (p. xvii). These psalms were either recited, verse by verse, or a chorus was added to each verse. Such a chorus to the evening psalm, as can be seen from the canon of Anthimus, was the words “είσάκουσον μὲ κύριε” (hear me, Lord), which perfectly coincides with its current performance at Vespers, where the antiphonal addition “hear me, Lord” is repeated twice in the continuation of two verses and closes the beginning of the next psalm - “Let my prayer be corrected.” In ancient times, when the entire evening psalm was sung, the above chorus was repeated at each verse, and thus the singing alternated between the two singing parties. Subsequently, when the order of the evening psalms was established more strictly, the psalm “I cried to the Lord” came last and was followed by the entrance; therefore, the present prayer of entry at Vespers is called in Barberine’s Euchology “εὐχὴ ἑσπερινὴ ἧ εὶς τὸ κύριε ἐκέκραξα”, i.e. Eighth evening prayer: I cried to the Lord. As for the stichera on “The Lord cried out” and others, we do not find this name in the news about Vespers in ancient times (I–VII centuries), although it remains undoubted that they existed at that time and appeared in use almost simultaneously with the refrains of the psalms. The stichera constitute their further development, in the form of more complete and rounded stanzas, which were performed in the interval between the verses of the psalms and served as antiphonal refrains for them. In the news of the Sinai service we have positive indications that at that time stichera were part of the evening psalmody and had wide liturgical use. The listeners of the Sinai Vespers were surprised that in the monastery of Abba Nilos “I cried to the Lord” was sung without troparions (this is how stichera, along with other types of church hymnography, were called due to their singing performance). The peculiarity of the ancient Vespers, compared with the later ones, was that the prayers of light and other prayers, now read by the priest secretly and at a time, were previously pronounced aloud and related to the well-known psalms, closing their reading, and therefore in the euchologies of Barberin and Porfiriev they were recorded under the name of the first, second, third, etc. antiphons. What kind of prayers were that, according to Cassian, were said during the evening meetings of the Egyptian monks remains unknown. In addition to the current prayers of the lamp, which were included in the now named euchologies, at that time special prayers of the three-antiphonal order were used at Vespers, and in addition, three prayers of the same purpose are known from the “Apostolic Constitutions.” The first of them, in the form of a litany, contains petitions for the angel of peace, for the Christian death and for a peaceful, sinless evening and night. The second, pronounced by the bishop, is remarkable for some of the expressions included in the prayers of Pentecost. The third - over those who bowed, when the bishop’s hand was laid on them, can serve as a model of the current evening prayer of adoration (Constt. App. L VIII, pp. 36-37). The psalms were followed by readings, according to Cassian, on weekdays two: one from the old, the other from the new testament, and on holidays and during Pentecost - both from the new testament (De coenob.11. p. 6). The readings after the psalms are mentioned in the Rule of Benedict (p. 17). In addition to the named parts, the ancient vespers included hymns or spiritual songs. This department of the evening service has survived to us in several representatives, of which the earliest should be called the “evening hymn,” composed in imitation of the morning one, but in content not directly related to the evening service (Constt. L. VII, p. 48, Cf. Bunsen, Hippol. und I. Zeit. 11, 88–99). (See Church Charter (typical), Prof. M. D. Ak. I. Mansvetova, pp. 35–37). 3. Conversation about Little Compline Vespers on weekdays is usually followed by Little Compline. The service of Small Compline actually means preparing those praying for bed. All the prayers and chants included in its composition are applied and adapted to this purpose. In particular, the purpose for which the service of Compline was established, as can be seen from the content of the psalms and prayers included in its composition, is to bless and sanctify the believers, who go to bed after the evening meal. Blessing and sanctifying those who go to sleep, the church in the prayers of Compline asks God and His saints to preserve their faithful children from nocturnal sin and sudden death on the coming night, since the sleeping person, therefore, who does not have the opportunity to protect himself from disasters, especially needs divine help, protection and intercession of the saints. “The unseen enemy of mine is vigilant,” the church prays on behalf of the believers; “And the infirmity of my damned flesh weighs: I commend my spirit into Thy hand, cover me with the wings of Thy goodness, lest I sleep in death”... The same thought is instilled in believers by the 90th Psalm. On the other hand, the prayers of Compline dispose us to repentance, which is especially necessary for us when night falls, as an account to God of our behavior of the past day. The darkness of the night, hiding from us visible objects that tempt us, focusing our thoughts on the sunset of our days and arousing in us the thought of eternal peace, especially disposes us to deepen ourselves and repent of the iniquities we have committed during the day. This thought is perfectly expressed by Saint Basil the Great, speaking about the purpose of evening worship in general: “at the end of the day, he says, we must bring repentance, and we must also thank God for the blessings given to us during the past day, and for the good deeds we have accomplished with God’s help on this day; and to repent of that which we have not fulfilled, willingly or unwillingly, or secretly, or in word, or in deed, or in the heart, and for all this, through prayer, to propitiate God; because checking what we have done brings us great benefit in order not to fall into sins again” 42. In order to awaken repentance in the hearts of believers, the reading of repentant psalms (50, 101, 14, etc.) and the prayers of the Jewish king Manasseh, who by his example teaches us to repentance, is prescribed at Compline. For the same purpose, the reading of the symbol of faith is also prescribed at Compline: by offering the reading of the symbol of faith at Compline, as at the Midnight Office and the visual services - three services performed at different times of the day - the church wants to inspire believers that, getting up from sleep, during the day and going to bed, they should confess their faith in God, as the basis of all Christian life and activity. Witnessing his faith in God before going to sleep, the believing sinner must at the same time place his trust in the Almighty, Who loves the righteous and has mercy on sinners (prayer: “For all time”...). To reinforce our hope in God, wondrous in His saints, in the service of Compline we offer a prayerful appeal to the Mother of God and the saints, as our representatives and intercessors before God, and, finally, verbal reconciliation with the living and prayerful reconciliation with the dead. (See Alkhimovich Liturgics. Part 1. pp. 147–148). In particular, the composition of Compline is as follows: After the usual short prayers: “Heavenly King”, “Thrice Holy” and “Our Father”, psalms are read in which we ask God for forgiveness of our sins, sending mercies and preserving us from the dangers that threaten us. The 50th psalm, known to you, is read first of all: Have mercy on me, O God... This psalm was written several hundred years before the birth of Christ, but the Christian church introduced this prayer of repentance into constant use both during divine services and in our daily prayers. The content of the psalm is as follows: in the first half, the repentant King David confesses his sins to God and asks for their forgiveness (3–14); in the second he describes how he will thank God when his prayers are fulfilled (14–21). In the evening, when we go to bed, it is especially fitting to pray to God with such a contrite heart, as the repentant holy prophet-king David prayed. After such a contrite confession of our sins and a humble consciousness of our unworthiness, in the next two psalms: 69 and 142, we ask God for merciful mercy. In the first of them, we ask that God will intercede and protect us, the weak and infirm, from the strong enemies around us. In it we say this: God, save me, Lord, hasten to help me! Let those who seek my soul be ashamed and disgraced! Let those who wish me harm retreat back and be mocked (vv. 2, 3)... I am poor and needy; God, hurry to me! You are my help and Deliverer; Lord, do not be slow (v. 6). In the second, we pray that God will hear us, regardless of our unworthiness: Lord, hear my prayer, accept my prayer, according to Your truth, give ear to me, according to Your righteousness (v. 1)... We vividly depict in it the pitiful situation in which we find ourselves: the enemy persecutes my soul, tramples my life into the dust, places me in darkness, like those long dead. My spirit languishes within me, my heart faints within me (v. 4). And as a result of this, we again turn to Him with a sincere and fervent prayer: hasten, hear me, Lord, my spirit is disappearing, do not hide Your face from me; otherwise I will be equal to those who go to the grave... (7–12). With such psalms the church considered it necessary to admonish us as we went to sleep. At all times we must be so deeply aware of our weakness and sinfulness, at all times we must feel the need for God’s all-powerful help; but especially these feelings should penetrate our soul at the time when we go to sleep, when our weakened bodily strength can no longer serve the aspirations of our spirit. That is why the church also adds prayers and chants to these psalms, asking for God’s mercy for us, the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos and the intercessions of all the saints. First of all, she turns our eyes to our Savior Jesus Christ. During the psalms we listen to the reading of the so-called “great doxology.” Glory to God in the highest... This is one of the most ancient sacred songs. It forms the main feature of our morning services; When explaining the morning service, I will introduce you in more detail to its content. Now note that our holy church also uses this sacred song in such cases when we turn to God not only with prayer, but with thanksgiving for His mercies and glorification of His goodness. This is the place of this prayer in the so-called thanksgiving prayers. Here, in Little Compline, by reading this sacred song, the church encourages us to thank the Lord for the mercies shown to us during the day, and to ask for the continuation of these mercies during sleep. Grant us, Lord, to remain without sin in the coming night... To strengthen our prayer to the Lord, we add a confession of our faith: I believe in one God... Reading this confession of faith, we seem to say: such, Lord, is our faith; Hear, O Lord, our prayer. After prayers to the Lord, we pray to the Most Holy Theotokos. We express our prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos in the so-called canons. A canon in church language is a series of chants imbued with the same general spirit of prayer, the same general glorification of well-known church events. Every important church event has its own canon. I will talk to you in more detail about the content of the canons when explaining the morning service; Now notice that in each voice, according to which our weekly church services are arranged, a special canon is assigned for Compline for each day. The content of these canons is the same - our contrite prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos for Her intercession and intercession before the Lord God. Here is one of these canons, known in our prayer books under the name paraklisis. The name means: intercession, help, and then consolation. This canon of the eighth tone, laid down on Tuesday at Compline. Its content is extremely prayerful. This is how it begins: obsessed with misfortunes by many. It is supposed to be sung “in every spiritual sorrow and situation.” All the other canons read during Little Compline have such a deeply prayerful spirit. Here are the verses of some of them: Most Pure One! Save me, who reverently confesses You with my soul and lips, in truth, Mother of God, from terrible troubles and illnesses and sins. Holy Virgin! Hear the words of my prayer that I offer to You, O Glorious One, from the depths of my heart, and save me from passions and misfortunes 43. Following such contrite prayers to the Most Holy Theotokos, we pray to the holy saints of God in the troparia and kontakion, which follow the short prayers: “trisagion”, “Our Father”, read immediately after the canon. Asking for God's intercession during sleep, we remember those of our brothers who fell asleep soundly, and we pray: rest with the saints... This series of prayers to the Lord God, the Most Holy Theotokos and the holy saints of God ends with the prayer: And for all time... After these prayers, we listen to only two more prayers - a prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos and a prayer to the Lord Jesus. In both of them we exclusively pray for the peaceful and grace-filled passage of the night time, the prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos reads like this: undefiled, unblasphemous... In it we, remembering the great mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, whom the Most Holy Theotokos served, those glorious deeds of intercession and intercession that She showed to the entire human race, we ask Her and for ourselves the merciful intercession of every enemy and adversary. In prayer to the Lord Jesus we pray like this: and grant us, Lord, as we go to sleep, peace of body and soul, save us from the dark sleep of sin, and from every dark night temptation... With a short prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos: Glorious Ever-Virgin... and a complete proclamation of hope in the Most Holy Trinity: my hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my protection is the Holy Spirit... we end the service of Small Compline. The priest, having bowed his head and asked everyone present for forgiveness for everything that he was guilty of against someone, guides us with his blessing. (See “Sunday reading” for 1866–67, book II). This is the content of Little Compline, and in it the Holy Church combined many touching and touching prayers. And how good it would be if you never ignored this small service! (Compiled with additional information according to the indicated source). Appendix to conversation No. 3. Historical background on the service of Compline The antiquity of the service of Compline is proven by the fact that it is celebrated not only in the Orthodox Church, but also in all societies of Eastern Christians, and in the Western Church. This commonality of the service of Compline among various Christians both in the East and in the West gives us the right to conclude that it appeared in the early days of Christianity. In addition, we have positive evidence of the antiquity of this service. So Saint Basil the Great says: “one must pray even at nightfall, asking for restful sleep, and read the 90th Psalm.” This psalm is still read at Great Compline. “At the end of the day one must bring repentance,” says the same father 44. For this purpose, penitential psalms 45 are now read at Compline. The antiquity of Compline is also evidenced by the prayers included in this service. Among the prayers of Compline we find the following: a) the prayer of Manasseh, the king of the Jews, which is mentioned in the Apostolic Constitutions as part of the evening service (Book 2, chapter 22); b) prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian (IV century): “undefiled, unblasphemous” 46 and so on; c) prayer: “And grant us, Master, when we go to sleep, peace of body and soul,” sent to the monk of the monastery of Sava the consecrated Antiochus, called pandekt 47 (VII century); d) prayer: “glorious Ever-Virgin, Mother of Christ our God,” attributed to John of Damascus 48 (VIII century), and e) prayer: “my hope is the Father,” attributed to the monk Joannikius (IX and 10 centuries). In order of origin, the Lesser Compline is older than the Great Compline. This is evident from the fact that in its composition, Little Compline is similar to the service of the hours, which in its present composition was celebrated already under the Emperor Justinian (VI century), and only over time in the monasteries, the monks, intensifying the prayers at Lent, began to add other psalms and prayers to the psalms of Little Compline, from which Great Compline was formed. In the 6th century, the Monk Benedict of Nursia introduced compline in the west in his monastery. 4. Discourse on Great Compline Zealots of prayer, desert fathers, remembering the testament of the Apostle: pray unceasingly (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and imitating the example of David, who washed his bed with tears every night (Ps. 6:7), at the end of the evening service in the church, they went to bed only after completing their home, post-evening prayer. The Monk Cassian, who traveled to the monasteries of Palestine, Mesopotamia and Egypt, says, among other things, that ascetics in these countries ate food only after sunset! (Cass. book 2, chapter 2), and that each of them then read a certain number of psalms in the cell: others 50, others 12, 6 and 3 (ibid., chapters 4–6). It is in this custom of the desert fathers that we must look for the beginning of church compline. (This beginning of Complines is partly indicated by the custom according to which they in some monasteries (for example, in the Lavra of St. Sava) were performed by each monk separately in the cell. (See the Charter of the Church. Sedition 40, p. 389). From cells and monasteries, this pious custom soon passed into the general use of the church and, having been sealed by its authority, was introduced into the charter of the church and now constitutes one of its daily services. The general idea and purpose of church compline can be expressed in the following words: man, throughout the day, received many different benefits from the Heavenly Father; on the other hand, willingly or unwillingly he fell into some sins, his heart feels both: it is filled with good dispositions, but also yearns for its sinfulness; the earth, after the day's monotonous labors, seems boring to him, life, not free from falls, is painful; he sighs for the blood of the heavenly God, but the time of his wandering, calculated in days and nights, has not yet ended; the day has passed, but the temptations that beset him have not passed; The night is still ahead, fraught with temptations in its darkness. Like a warrior, tired of a whole day's struggle, a man would like to rest and rest, but he knows that his enemy never sleeps and that he walks like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). What can he do in such a dubious position and with such a state of mind? Who should I resort to? “My son, as if the church were telling him this: surrender yourself into the hands of the Heavenly Father, be sober and watchful; pray to your guardian angel and your holy brothers in heaven to patronize and protect you during the night, and most of all pray to the Most Holy Virgin to watch over your bed, as a mother watches over the cradle of a sleeping child. Under their heavenly cover and protection, sleep and rest in peace, and the enemy will not dare to harm you!” And so, for awakening, for reviving and strengthening these good feelings, the holy church offers her children the prayer of Compline. In the Orthodox Church there are two types of them: Great Compline and Small Compline. The first is used throughout the Holy Pentecost, with the exception of Saturdays and Sundays, and also on the eve of the great holidays: the Nativity of Christ and the Epiphany. Only in this last case are the prayers appropriate for those going to bed omitted at Great Compline, for the reason that the ancient Christians did not want to sleep on these holidays and after Compline directly moved on to the all-night vigil, in the proper sense. In addition, the charter commands that Great Compline be celebrated on two other fasts: before the Nativity of Christ and the feast of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, on those days when instead of: God the Lord, alleluia is sung (Charter on November 14, p. 122). Little Compline, which we have already discussed, is celebrated on all other days of the year, with the exception of the week of Easter, when it is celebrated according to a special charter. At both Compline, decent canons are always read, and by the way, during the first week of Great Lent, the so-called great canon of repentance of St. Andrew of Crete. The composition of Great Compline contains quite noticeable traces of three, as if separate, prayers, brought together “in the image of the Most Holy Trinity,” according to the remark of one pious interpreter of church services (new Skr. Part 2, Chapter 2, §2). Each of the three parts equally consists of a greater or lesser number of psalms, followed by the Lord's Prayer and several troparia, and each ends with a concluding prayer. The first of these parts consists of 6 psalms, selected and adapted to the state of a Christian who goes to sleep not without embarrassment and fear, due to the consciousness of his sinfulness before God. The image of death floats before his eyes in the state of his impending sleep, which, according to the mania of the Lord of the belly and death, can easily turn into a mortal sleep for him. On the other hand, he cannot help but be frightened by the machinations of the enemy, who chooses the night time for temptation, in order to frighten the soul with night dreams and thereby bring it into fear and despondency. In this state, the Christian turns to the only Helper of the weak and tenderly prays to Him to grant him a peaceful and serene sleep, to protect him from the slander of the enemy, to enlighten his eyes with the light of day and to show him help in temptations: God, attend to my help, Lord, strive for my help (Psalm. have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are crumpled and my soul is greatly troubled (Ps. 2 Great. ), look, hear me, O Lord my God, enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep into death, lest I fall asleep into death, lest my enemy say: I will strengthen myself against him (Ps. 3rd paragraph). In Thee, O Lord, have I trusted, that I may never be ashamed; by Thy righteousness deliver me and redeem me... May I be a protector God and a house of refuge to save me, for Thou art my power and my refuge, and for Thy name’s sake instruct me and nourish me, leading me out of this snare, Having hidden from me, for You are my protector, O Lord, I will offer my spirit in Your hands (Ps. 5). Inspired by prayer and reassured by strong hope in the mercy of God, the soul of a Christian then confesses with trembling joy how safe and blessed are those who are at home in the blood of the heavenly God, for He will deliver from the snare of traps and from rebellious words, the blanket of His blanket will cover and under His wing you hope: His truth will prevail with weapons, not fearing from fear. from the night, from the arrow flying into the days, from the thing that passes in darkness, from the fire and the demon of the midday; thousands will fall from your country and darkness will fall at your right hand, but it will not come near you. (Ps. 6). This feeling of one’s own security in the bosom of the heavenly God, flaring up in the soul, pours out in a victory song in which a Christian expresses his joy in Christ the Savior, to whom was given all power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18): “God is with us, understand the Gentiles and submit, as God is with us!” Submit, you who are mighty, for God is with us!” Then, he gives thanks to God for the past day; but knowing that he has not yet completely passed, and that there is still a night ahead, concealing temptation and danger in its darkness, he three times prays to the Most Holy Trinity to grant him the coming “evening with the night sinless, without temptation and hateful,” and, to strengthen his prayer, he turns to the intercession of the blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, adding to this the confession of faith for the reason “as it is fitting for faith to proclaim the evening and the morning, if death finds us, will find us in confession” (New Skr. Part 2, §4). After reading the troparions, which have the same content as the previous psalms and express the helpless state of the soul amidst “the vigilance of invisible enemies,” the picture of God’s terrible judgment for sinners, the repentant cry of the soul to God for the granting of tears, “like sometimes a sinner’s wife,” this part of Compline ends with the tenderly grateful prayer of Basil the Great: “Lord, Lord, deliver us from every arrow flying in the days, deliver us from every thing that passes in darkness, accept the evening sacrifice, the offering of our hands, and grant us the privilege to pass through the night race without blemish, not being tempted by the evil ones.” The second part of Great Compline is adapted to the state of a Christian who, through repentance, wants to be reconciled with God and his conscience before he lies down on his bed. All of it is filled with repentant prayers and sighs. The first is the psalm of David, who has sinned and repents before God; followed by another, equally deeply touched psalm, or “the prayer of a beggar when he is depressed”: Lord! Hear my prayer and let my cry come to You, do not turn Your face away from Me, on this day I mourn, incline Your ear to me; and, finally, the repentant prayer of Manasseh, who bitterly mourned his sins before God in prison. The stichera and the final prayer, the readings that follow them, are imbued with the same feeling of repentance and contrition for sins: “Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us, we are perplexed by any answer, we offer this prayer to You, as the Lady, for our sins: have mercy on us.” In the readings of the last part of Compline, the church, intensifying the prayer, again prays for the granting of help and intercession to the faithful against enemies who seek to capture our souls - enemies who, without the special protection of God, are most dangerous when we indulge in sleep; then, the church glorifies God “great for the sake of His glory” and tenderly prays to Him, as the Lord of hosts, to remain inseparably with us in the coming hours of the night: “otherwise - for are not the imams His helper in sorrow.” She proclaims this prayer song several times, like a choir of angels, successively praising the Lord, and for this purpose she intersperses it with verses of the psalm of David’s praise. The touching prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ for the protection of us by His holy angels, which follows this, is preceded, as in the other two parts of Compline, by a fourty-fold repetition of the short prayer: Lord, have mercy. Blessed Simeon of Thessalonica explains the reason and purpose of such intense prayer as follows: “Lord, have mercy on fourty words, for the sanctification of the entire time of our life... and as a sacrifice for the tenth of our days and hours we offer to God. We do this in all our prayers, calling on the mercy that is from God for everyone, for He alone can save us, as we require mercy because of our sins and as we are dissatisfied from other means, to be saved only by the mercy of God alone” (New Skr. Part 2, § 5). Compline consists of two prayers, of which in the first we turn to the prayerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and ask Her, as the main Intercessor of Christians, to protect us all the days of our lives and at the very hour of our death, and in the last we tenderly appeal to the Lord Jesus Christ to grant us, “as we go to sleep, peace of body and soul, to preserve us from all temptation and to raise up those who are awake for the all-night praise.” The touching rite ends the rite of Compline: the whole church kneels, and the priest, on her behalf, loudly prays to the Mediator of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, for the sake of the merits and prayers of His saints, “to accept favorably the prayer of His servants, to keep them under the shelter of His wings, to pacify their lives and have mercy on them according to His great mercy.” Having completed the prayer, the priest bows to the ground before the brethren and humbly asks them to forgive him for his sins; in turn, the brothers also ask him for forgiveness and blessing in the same way. This rite, by its very action instilling in each of us the apostolic commandment: let not the sun go down on your anger (Eph. 4:26), thereby contributes to the eradication from our hearts of the very first germs of displeasure and hostility towards our neighbors and to the establishment of the peace of God (Phil. 4:7) in our hearts. The church primarily instills this in us as the main condition for God’s favoring of our prayers and peace of conscience, so necessary for peaceful sleep. That is why she commands us to sanctify the very exit from the church with prayer for “those who hate and offend us.” (Compiled from “Sunday Thursday”, 1860, No. 47). II. About morning worship The morning service, which we will now talk about, is composed, brethren, of the Midnight Office, Matins and the first hour. Our morning services usually begin with the Midnight Office, prayerful reading and singing, which the ancients performed (as some monasteries still do) at midnight. The church teaches us to dedicate this earliest and most distant time from worldly noise to the Lord and then offers such prayers and memories that can most affirm the life of a Christian in God and the hope of eternal life. At the Midnight Office, after the usual initial prayers, we first of all cleanse ourselves with feelings of repentance and therefore read the penitential psalm - the 50th. Then, by reading the great Psalm 118 (kathisma 17th), we confirm our will in the law of God; for we confess with the psalmist how blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord, how he is more good than thousands of gold and silver, how sweet he is than honey and honeycomb, how he makes his zealots wiser than an old man, how he enlightens and admonishes even infants, how he bestows much peace and other precious blessings on those who love him. This psalm is one of the most instructive in the entire psalter: it is sung by the church when remembering the burial of the Savior on Great Saturday, it is repeated at the tomb of each of our brothers who have departed to another world; She also decided to repeat it daily, so that in the heart of every Christian, as on the doors of a hermit, the important and ever-memorable truth would be vividly inscribed: “remember death” 49. Having thus confirmed his will in the will of God, the Christian, rising from sleep, tries to confirm his heart in the true faith, for which he reads the creed. Then we hear the song: “Behold the bridegroom comes at midnight,” and other songs that remind us of the second coming of the Lord, so that it does not come upon us like a thief in the night (2 Peter 3:10), unprepared. But bringing to mind the terrible day of judgment, which has to decide the fate of everyone for all eternity, how can we not remember our fathers and brothers, who have already passed the limit of death and, where there is no place for repentance, thirsty for the prayers of the Holy Church? Therefore, at the end of the Midnight Office, the church offers prayer for the departed. She begins this prayer with two psalms: lifting up my eyes to the mountains (126) and Behold, now bless the Lord, all the servants of the Lord (133), calling out our spirit to the One who constantly guards the new Israel and is especially present with His grace in the sanctuaries; and then - in songs and prayer: “Remember, Lord, in the hope of resurrection, eternal life, the departed”... encourages us to ask the departed for forgiveness of sins and rest in a bright place, where the light of God’s face is present. The entire Midnight Office ends with a litany in which, praying for all those who live, not only those who love us, but also those who hate us, we also pray for our departed fathers and brothers. In addition to the daily midnight office, we also know Saturday and Sunday... The first differs from the everyday one almost by one kathisma; for instead of the 17th, as set for reading at Matins itself on Saturday, the 9th is then set. The latter is remarkable because, instead of reading kathisma and singing well-known touching songs, it occupies us with glorification of the Most Holy Trinity - in the canon and the following high songs of St. Gregory of Sinaite: “It is worthy, as truly, to glorify Thee God the Word”... In this last case, i.e. At the beginning of the day, which revealed to us the glory of the Divine Resurrection, the church places its children as if among the angels, silently singing the glory of the Trinitarian God. While performing the Midnight Office, reflect diligently on how our Lord at midnight, going into free passion, prayed so diligently in the garden that His sweat was like drops of blood dripping onto the ground, and how, taken there by the soldiers, like a villain, bound, he was first led to Anna (the high priest) and what blasphemous humiliations, spitting, beatings and other countless sufferings he suffered here - and all this in order to free us from the bonds of sin and from the languor and torment of the devil (Teaching Iz.). If you never have to read or listen to the Midnight Office, then, remembering the bloody suffering of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane and in the bishop’s courtyard, say 100 Jesus prayers and make 25 bows. (Extracted in an abbreviation from Volume V of the Works of Justin, Bishop of Ufa and Orenburg). The beginning of our Matins deserves special note. The Church, remembering the apostolic commandment: I beg you to pray first of all - for all people, for the Tsar, and for everyone who is in power (1 Tim. 2:1-2), - at the beginning of its matins presents a short prayer service for the Tsar and the Fatherland and performs it as follows. While the priest burns incense throughout the entire church, stimulating with the incense of the censer not so much our external as our internal feelings, so that we may dispose ourselves to offer our prayers, like a censer, before God, the reader quickly recites Psalms 19 and 20: “The Lord will hear you in the day of sorrow... Lord, in your power the king will rejoice,” in which prayerful wishes are expressed for the king and the kingdom; then a prayer song: “Save, O Lord, Thy people,” and others, also related to the Tsar and the Fatherland; at the end, the priest himself prays for the same thing in a short litany: “Have mercy on us, O God,” drawing a cross with a censer in front of the holy throne, proclaiming: “Glory to the holy and consubstantial and life-giving and indivisible Trinity, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.” Thus, the Orthodox Church fulfills its sacred duty to its earthly protector and patron - the sovereign, and thus teaches each of us, first of all, to pray for him with the confidence that in his peace there will be peace for us and in his prosperity there will be our common happiness. The exclamation of the priest glorifying the Most Holy Trinity reminds us that all of us, enlightened by the purest knowledge of God and life-giving by the grace of the Trinitarian God, must bring honor and glory to Him. Therefore, the choir or reader responds to this exclamation with the New Testament angelic doxology: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace!” After this follow: the reading of selected 6 psalms, the great litany, kathismas, church songs appropriate for the day, litanies and dismissal. In particular, the composition of Matins is as follows: the whole of it can be divided into three main parts: the first part contains the Six Psalms, the second canon, the third begins with a doxology. In the first part of Matins, the most important reading is the Six Psalms, or the reading of six selected psalms. The Church commands that we speak them with all attention and fear of God, as if we were talking to Christ our God Himself invisibly and praying for our sins. And indeed, they are so touching, comforting and instructive that they are capable of arousing in the greatest sinner feelings of repentance and hope for God’s mercy. At this time, a mysterious twilight reigns in the church for the most convenient awakening in the souls of the upcoming repentant feeling, aroused by the entire first half of Matins: “Yes, yes,” says the Most Reverend. Benjamin, Archbishop Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, standing in the dark, could sigh and shed a tear” (“New Table of Contents,” part 2, p. 44). To the exclamation of the priest: “glory to the holy, consubstantial, life-giving and indivisible Trinity...” the reader or choir, in the midst of general silence and darkness, on behalf of all those present in the church, responds with an angelic doxology, which was sung by the choir of celestials at the birth of Christ the Savior, in the darkness of the night, in sight of the Bethlehem shepherds: “glory to God in the highest...”. The chosen reader, with great reverence 50, begins the sixth psalm, or the reading of the six morning psalms (3, 37, 62, 87, 102 and 142), expressing the internal conversation of a Christian with Christ. In them, the sinner, in the words of King David, with a contrite heart and a tender feeling, confesses his sins before God and places all his hope, all his hope solely on the unconditional mercy of God. Combining his prayers with ours, the priest, while reading the second half of the Six Psalms, secretly reads morning prayers (numbering 12), in which on behalf of all the faithful, as our intercessor before God, he thanks Him for raising us from our beds, asks Him to drive away all darkness from our hearts, to show us as sons of light and heirs of eternal blessings, - prays for all the brethren on earth, on the sea and in every place and asks to grant peace to the world and to all to people. To calm and encourage the soul of the repentant sinner, who expresses his prayerful sighs in the sixth psalm and the great litany that follows, both faces, coming together, loudly and joyfully sing the verse: “God is the Lord and has appeared to us,” indicating the appearance in the world of Christ the Savior, who came to earth to save sinners, and, as if preparing to meet Him, they exclaim: “Blessed is he who comes.” in the name of the Lord! Asking in the troparion the prayerful intercession of the daily saint before God. Then, to maintain a prayerful disposition in the souls of those present, three, and sometimes two kathismas are read, guiding prayer and doxology, each of which is divided into three glories, i.e. doxology in honor of the Most Holy Trinity 51. After each kathisma, in honor of a holiday or in honor of a saint remembered on a certain day by the church, a hymn called sedalny is read, since during the reading of it and the teachings that follow it, one is allowed by statute to sit and listen to them while sitting. In the second part of Matins, the most important thing is the canon. Let’s formulate a concept about church song canons. The word canon - rule - means that these chants are composed according to special rules. They usually consist of 8 songs, of which each contains several small songs - irmos, or the initial, exemplary song, and 3 or 4 troparions - songs that have an appeal in accordance with the irmos, and are equal to it in space. (Irmos comes from the Greek word meaning to bind, and troparion comes from the word meaning to turn). The last troparion in each of the 8 cantos refers to the Mother of God, to whom the church most often turns, as the highest of all saints and our strongest Intercessor before the Savior. The canons have their basis in sacred songs, mostly Old Testament songs, from which they borrow expressions, and thus lead us from ancient prototypes and prophecies to New Testament events, from the ancient miracles of God to new wondrous acts of grace. The first song is related to the song of thanksgiving to Moses, sung during the passage through the Red Sea: “Let us drink to the Lord, gloriously we will be glorified” (Ex. 15:1), and glorifies the right hand of the Lord, glorified in the fortress, thereby elevating our spirit to the Divine Conqueror of evil and death, who delivered us from eternal captivity 52. The third hymn has its basis in the prayer of St. Anna, the mother of Samuel, thanking God for the permission of her barrenness: “let my heart be established in the Lord...” (1 Samuel 2:1), and depicts the prayerful feelings of either the entire church, formerly barren, but now rejoicing over many of its holy children, or every Christian soul asking for confirmation in the Lord. The fourth song, imitating the song of the prophet Habakkuk: “Lord, I heard Your ear, and was afraid...” (Hab. 3:2), contemplating with reverent awe the glory of the coming of God, glorifies the mystery of the coming to us of the Son of God. The fifth song borrows an expression from the prophet Isaiah: “from the morning my spirit runs to You, O God...” (Is. 26:9), praising the deliverance of the church from enemies and triumph over death itself, and prays either for grace-filled enlightenment, or for heavenly peace, or for other fruits of Divine redemption. The sixth song, like Jonah praying in the whale: “I cried out in my sorrow to the Lord God” (Jonah 2:3), turns to the One whose three-day resurrection was prefigured by Jonah, and asks Him to deliver us from the waves of life and from all dangers for our salvation. The seventh song, following the example of the three youths in the cave of Babylon, who sang: “Blessed art thou, O Lord, God of our Fathers...” (Dan. 3:26), glorifies the Holy Trinity, the blessed God of our fathers. The eighth song is borrowed from the song of the same Holy Youths (Dan. 3:52–60) and, like it, calls on all the works of the Lord to sing and exalt the Lord of all forever. The ninth song refers to the New Testament song of Zechariah, the father of the holy Forerunner: “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and brought deliverance to His people...” (Luke 1:68-69), and is usually preceded by the song of the Mother of God Herself: “My soul magnifies the Lord...” (Luke 1:46-55). This song is dedicated primarily to the praise of the Mother of God. The entire composition of the canon in honor of the Holy Trinity is divided into three parts, which are separated from one another by small litanies and concluded by reading or singing special songs. Thus, from the 1st canto we hear the sedalene, a song so named because the ancients, after the 3rd canto, usually rested, sitting and listening to the reading of teachings or holy stories. Sedals are also placed after each kathisma - for the same reason. According to the 6th song, there is the singing of kontakion and ikos, and sometimes the reading of the synaxarion, or a brief description of what is remembered by the church that day. The 9th canticle consists of a luminary song, a song in which we pray for the sending down to us of ordinary and especially gracious light. The last song is, as it were, a transition to the next doxology, contained in Psalms 148, 149 and 150 and in the lengthy song: “Glory to God in the highest!” In the last part of Matins, singing and prayers are adapted primarily to the morning, or the beginning of the day. “Glory to You, who showed us the light!” exclaims the priest, thanking God both for the light that has shone for us in days, and for the light of faith that has enlightened us like the sun and made us sons of light and day (1 Thessalonians 5:5). The Face responds to this with the song: “Glory to God in the highest,” in which we thank the Holy Trinity, and especially the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, and ask that He grant us the opportunity to spend all the time of the day without sin. This song is the most ancient, for it is mentioned by the fathers of the 4th century, for example, St. Athanasius in his book on virginity, perhaps it is the same one with which Christians in the 2nd century, in early meetings, glorified Christ as God, according to the testimony of Pliny in his report to Emperor Trajan. After the doxology, we pray in the same way as in the last part of Vespers, applying the prayer to the time of the morning. Matins consists of the first hour. While performing or listening to Matins, reflect on how the Lord was led with great humiliation from Annas to Caiaphas and what trials, fierce torment, strangling, spitting, mocking and merciless blows he suffered there from midnight until morning, for the sake of our sins. (Compiled with additional from the Resurrection readings for 1885, 5 volumes of the Works of Justin, Bishop of Ufa and Orenburg). A. Explanation of the Morning Psalms Psalm 19. “The Lord will hear you in the day of sorrow.” So the people, who love their king with all their hearts, greet him with their good wishes. May the Lord hear you always, whenever you cry to Him, especially on the day of sorrow, when you especially need His all-powerful help and encouragement. You have many enemies, both secret and open, - may the name of the God of Jacob, terrible for all unrighteousness, protect you from them! You bear a difficult burden, our God-beloved king; You alone stand guard over the kingdom entrusted to you, you alone think for everyone, you alone care about everyone: may the King of Kings send help to you from His holy dwelling and from the heavenly Zion, may He intercede for you! You do not spare anything, O Christ-loving one, for the glory of the name of God: you commit yourself and your entire kingdom to Him, the One Lord, as a pure burnt offering: may He remember and accept from you all your sacrifices, and may your burnt offering - your complete devotion to His will - be acceptable to Him, like a fat, fragrant sacrifice! Many, oh how many thoughts and worries you carry in your loving heart! May the Lord give you according to your heart, and may He fulfill all your good advice and all your good intentions! And when the Lord blesses your endeavors with success, when he preserves you in all dangers, then together with you we will rejoice in your salvation and in the name of the Lord our God we will be magnified. We believe and hope that this will happen: the Lord will fulfill all your requests! And before we knew from experience, and now we know, that the Lord, having saved His anointed (Christ), will not leave His chosen one without the help: in a moment of danger, He will hear his prayer from the heavens of His saint, in the power, in the actions of omnipotence, in miraculous help, the salvation of the king from all his enemies will be accomplished - by the power of the right hand of God. Let our enemies boast of their military skill, their intelligence and courage: these on chariots, and these on horses, but we do not rely on ourselves - we will call in the name of the Lord our God. Let us call on this terrible and omnipotent name, and no enemies will be able to stand against it: these fell and fell, they retreated and fell, defeated, but we rose up, stood strong against them, and corrected ourselves - and did not waver! Lord, save our king and hear us at all times, on the day we will call on You. Oh, how timely, how beneficial it is to repeat this prayer for the king every day and hour!.. Lord! Save our king and hear our unworthy prayers for him! Psalm 20 is a song of thanksgiving to God, lifted up on behalf of all the people rejoicing in their king. The Tsar is the father of the people - their joy, their consolation, their earthly guardian angel. God saves the king - and the people glorify the Lord the Savior for this. Lord, by Your power, by Your almighty help against enemies, our beloved king will rejoice, and he will rejoice greatly in Your salvation, in Your wondrous intercession, in Your victory over the enemy. And how can he, and with him, us, not rejoice when we see with our own eyes that you gave him all the good desires of his heart, and the desires of his mouth in everything that he asked of You in his prayer - bear with him - you did not refuse him. Even more than that: before he decided to ask You for mercy, You Yourself preceded him with Your blessed blessing - sooner than he could have expected, You greeted him with the blessing of happiness. He did not seek royal honors: You Yourself placed a crown of honor on his head, You asked for life from You, and You gave him the length of days, and added days upon days to him and keep him forever and ever, for many years! You have wondrously glorified him with victory and salvation from the troubles that threatened him: great is his glory through Your salvation, but also more glory and splendor - place honor and greatness on him - add to him! Make him glad with Thy face, let his face shine with unspeakable joy from Thy face and from Thy bright gaze, mercifully turned upon him! He is worthy of such mercy, for he, our king, firmly trusts in the Lord, and this hope will not deceive him: by the mercy of the Most High he will not be moved, will not be embarrassed, will not be shaken. May your hand be revealed, may your hand be formidable to all your enemies, our sovereign, protected by God! May your right hand find, may it find, may it catch all those who hate you! Lay them like a fiery furnace - let them burn like wood in a furnace, let all the troubles and misfortunes fall on them like a stream of fire, while you turn your angry face on them! And the Lord is your helper in this: He will crush me with His anger, bring them into confusion, and destroy them with fire - they will be prey to the flame! You will destroy their fruit - all their deeds - from the earth, and their seed - all their evil plans and undertakings - you will destroy and blot out from the memory of the sons of men. As if they had turned against you evilly, they had planned evil against you; having thought of advice, they had started criminal plans; but God is merciful - they will not be able to draw up these councils: God will not allow them to carry them out. The Lord is your helper, our beloved king! We are confident that if I lay down the backbone, you will force them to flee - in your abundance - in the face of the rest of your subjects, and through this you will prepare the face of these faithful servants of yours for joy and joy... Ascend, O Lord, by Your power, demonstrate again and again, show everyone Your wondrous power - and we will sing and praise Your strength, we will always sing and glorify Your glorious power!.. (Compiled from “Trinity leaf.” No. 168). B. Historical information about the Matins of ancient Christians, which served as the beginning of the current Matins The main sources for getting to know the composition of the ancient Matins are: a) the news of Cassian and Benedict, b) the story of the Sinai Matins of Abba Sophronius and John, c) the “Apostolic Constitutions” and d) the letter of St. Basil the Great to the Neo-Caesareans. According to these sources, the composition of Matins consists of psalms, prayers, readings and chants; but the number, order, sequence and normal completeness of these acts have not yet been determined and have not received stability. The seed from which this service developed was the morning psalm, which came from Jewish church worship and is mentioned in the Apostolic Constitutions, in Athanasius the Great and in the canon of Anthimus. This psalm is surrounded by more or less others, and in this regard the customs of different localities were different. According to Cassian, there were as many of them as there were individual monastic communities: some read 18, 20, 30 psalms and even more - 50, 60, others adhered to the number 12, which was considered more accepted and enjoyed special authority, since it originated from the Evangelist Mark and was confirmed in the rule given to Pachomius the Great by the angel (L. II. pp. 5-6). What particular psalms were included in these twelve, Cassian does not say, but mentions only the psalm: “O God, my God, to You in the morning,” which, according to him, was said in the morning every day (quotidie); but there was also an order in which at each service no more and no less than six psalms were read. These 12 psalms served as the starting point for processing Matins in its current composition. The first six psalms were separated and formed a special part, which became known as the sixth psalm. The Six Psalms at Matins are clearly mentioned in the news of the Sinai All-Night Vigil, and the Six Psalms at Vespers are spoken of by Pachomius the Great, who mentions the six evening prayers several times; but prayers, as is known, alternated with psalms and corresponded to the number of the latter. According to Benedict's charter, the night service has two groups of psalms, six in each; of these, the first went to the first part of the service and constituted the so-called “primum nocturnum”, and the last six - to the second “secundum nocturnum”. And it is remarkable that this number, despite fluctuations in the composition of the service in summer and winter (which depended on the unequal length of the night), serves as a kind of normal limit for psalmody and is no longer reduced. Whether the night service began directly with these psalms, as one might think from the description of the Sinai Matins, or whether they were preceded by other parts like the opening psalm, Greek sources leave it unknown. In the West, this situation had already developed in the 6th century, and in the Rule of Benedict, the night service, just like all others, opens with a preliminary verse: “God, come to my help,” after which the abbot says three times: “Lord, open my lips,” and crossed the mouth three times, and transferred the continuation of the service to the next persons. Then the 3rd and 94th psalms were read, of which the last is called the invitation (invitatorius), and with it the service actually begins, since by this time the monks had to gather and take their places. According to the general order of psalmody, the sixth psalm was not read, but sung antiphonally, accompanying each psalm with a prayer. Benedict has six psalms sung with antiphons and alleluia. According to Basil the Great, those present at the matins were divided into two choirs and alternately sang psalms, then a representative of the choir said a psalm, and the others sang along. In Cassian, the way of performing psalms during the night service is indicated by the expression “cantare, psallere”, i.e. separate, distinct, performed with intonation, pronunciation of psalms in two choirs or alternately. (De inst. coenob.L. II, pp. 11–12). During the morning rule, one monk sang five psalms, reciting six verses at a time, and each such section was accompanied by an alleluia. (Patr. p. compl. T. 65, col 277). The life of Savva the Sanctified tells that one night, before the call to prayer with the sound of a beating, he heard in a neighboring cell the singing of psalms as if by a whole large assembly and with a sweet-voiced performance of one verse from a psalm. Thinking that the service has already begun, the monk wakes up the canonarch and, taking a censer with candles, goes to the elder’s cell, from where singing was heard. (Cotel. Monum. eccl. gr. IV, p.287). From the above story it is clear that the canonarch struck the beater, that during the night service candles and incense were used, that psalmody was performed by the whole congregation together, and the psalms were sung verse by verse in a mellifluous manner. In addition, it is known that psalms alternated with prayers, and the number of the former corresponded to the number of the latter. This is where the prayers now read by the priest at Vespers and Matins originate. Rev. definitely speaks about this alternation. Cassian and Pachomius the Great. (De coenob. instit. L. II, p. 5, 12). Having in mind the same practice, Abba Barsanuphius says about the skits that “at the end of each psalm, instead of doxology, they say alleluia and say a prayer” (Nik. Chernog. Pand. ff. 29). After the Six Psalms they sang “God is the Lord”; This is what happened at Sinai Matins. From the story about it in the pandects it is clear that this verse was sung on holidays by voice, and thus its performance very early became a feature of festive matins. Nothing is known from the sources we quote about the division of the psalter into kathismas, as part of the current twenty parts, and this very word (kathisma) was not used in relation to psalmody, because during the reading of the psalms they stood and did not sit. However, to develop this system, we have the following data from the era we are considering: a) the psalms were not read in a row, but at certain intervals and were closed by readings (Laod. sob. rights. 17); b) the reading of individual psalms and their entire sections ended with prayers, saying: glory and alleluia; c) during the readings following the psalms, they sat, and this was called κάθισμα. This is how well-known sections of psalms were formed, which at first, of course, were not stable groups, but in relation to the current kathismas, they are important as the first experiments in dividing the psalter into parts, in relation to the conditions of service, and as the basis of the later established system with its glories, alleluias and prayers. In contrast to the current name κάθισμα (seating), these sections of the psalter were called στάσεις (standings) and were sometimes so large that they embraced the entire psalter in three steps (Sinai Matins). In the Rule of Benedict, the second six psalms, accompanied by alleluia or antiphonal refrains, most naturally fall into the category of kathismas. This group of psalms was part of the content of the second part of Matins, which was called secundum nocturnum. More detailed information about the division of the psalter into readings and the number of psalms for each service is set out in the 18th chapter of the Benedict Rule. The basic rule is that the entire psalter should be read once a week, starting with the all-night vigil on Sunday; At each matins, 12 psalms are necessarily read, the rest are distributed among the daily services during the week, and what remains unread goes to matins and is added to the twelve normal psalms. From this it is clear that in the Monte Cassin monastery, in comparison with the Greek charter, the psalter was read a little and that the sixth psalm did not include the same psalms, but different ones for each day; in any case, one of our psalms, namely the third, was not in this number: it was pronounced at the very beginning of Matins after the “versus apertionis” and was separated from the six following psalms per psalmum invitatorium. In the intervals between psalms there were readings; they were selected from the Old and New Testaments, they were supplemented with interpretations of the Holy Scriptures, teachings and stories about the saints. It is hardly possible to determine with accuracy their position in the composition of Matins due to the lack of positive data and due to the different customs that were followed in this regard in different places. Further details can be traced from the description of all-night vigils or vigils. Vigils were celebrated on Sundays, major holidays, and on the days of remembrance of martyrs and lasted the whole night until the morning. As an exceptional and solitary fact, it should be noted the vigils of the Sabbath, which, according to Cassian, were celebrated by Egyptian monks in memory of the vigil of the apostles on the night of the crucifixion of Christ. According to the custom maintained in the monastery of St. Savva the Sanctified, vigils were scheduled immediately on Sundays and the Lord's holidays. Euthymius the Great, shortly before his death, decided to hold a vigil on the day of memory of Anthony the Great, and this service is called in the same place ἀγρυπνία and παvvυχίς. Vigils were also held on the eve of the consecration of churches and were accompanied by brilliant lighting of the church. There is even more news about vigils on the eve of Epiphany, the Nativity of Christ and other holidays; Basil the Great mentions a vigil in memory of the martyr Eupsychius, who was considered the patron of Caesarea and was annually honored on the day of his death. In Benedict's chapter XIV. it talks about how the Vigils cope in natalitiis sanctorum. The vigils included evening, night and morning services, between which a more or less short break was allowed. Thus, in Sinai, Vespers was followed by dinner; for Cassian and Benedict, after Nocturnum, there was a rest before Matins and the first hour. The composition of the vigil did not differ significantly from the ordinary services that included it, but in quantitative terms it stood out from them by the addition of psalms, readings and a more drawn-out performance of psalms and chants. In order to extend the service over the whole night, it was necessary to introduce such an overwhelming number of kathismas as took place in the Sinai Matins; in other cases they added a fourth to the three daily readings (reg. Bened., p. xi) and increased the number of biblical songs. These latter, at the Sinai service, followed the kathismas and readings from the New Testament, occupying approximately the same place as now. How many there were is not directly stated, but the third, sixth, eighth and ninth are mentioned; after the first two, there were some additional, intermediate songs called μεσώδια, after the eighth - troparia, and after the ninth - every breath. Instead, the Abba of Sinai ended the songs of the canon by saying “Our Father” and “Lord, have mercy.” This is the original basis of the current canon, which Western liturgists call tertium nocturnum, the third department of the night service. Now the full canon consists of nine songs, but it is difficult to say positively whether all of them were performed at every morning in ancient times. We think that not all of them, and this abbreviated use of them is not hampered by the fact that biblical songs in the most ancient books of hours and codices of the Bible are written down in full. Nothing stood in the way of making a choice from them. Our three songs constitute an echo of this incomplete use of biblical songs and partly explain the very order of their selection. According to the Rule of Benedict, at festive vigils there are three songs assigned by the abbot, and each of them is accompanied by the chorus: alleluia. Thus, the troparia of the canon are not yet visible. Benedict’s charter does not say how many and what songs were performed at the everyday service; His information on this matter becomes more definite in his presentation of Matins. For Saturday Matins, the second hymn is taken, and for other weekdays, one of the following, according to the custom of the Roman Church. To this was added the song from the Gospel and the song of the three youths, which Benedict calls “benedictiones”, and its use in the East as a daily morning song is confirmed by a number of evidence; they talk about it as being used everywhere: Athanasius the Great, Chrysostom, Rufinus, Patriarch Proclus, biography of St. Auxentius, Caesarius of Arles and describers of the Sinai Matins. What did Matins consist of? The most complete information about it is given by the statute of Benedict; here even daily matins differ from Sunday or holiday matins. In the Sinai Vigil, it was not separated as a special part, but constituted its end. In Benedict's Rule, the "matutinum" begins with the 66th Psalm for the gathering of the monks, since after the "nocturnum" there was an interval, and they left the church; then followed three psalms, of which the 50th was constant; and the other two varied according to the days of the week. Cassian also mentions the 50th psalm, which was said after the praises. Basil the Great mentions the singing at dawn, at the end of the vigil, of a penitential psalm, which was, without a doubt, Psalm 50. The psalms were followed on holidays by the 8th canticle (benedictiones), and on weekdays by one of the ordinary biblical songs, then by psalms of praise or Laudes, according to Cassian and the news of the Sinai Matins. At this time, the priest read prayers ad laudes, which we know about from Barberinov’s euchology. The further order of Matins is determined in the Rule of Benedict and consists of the following parts: readings from the Apostle or Apocalypse on Sunday, the 9th song of the canon, the Ambrosian hymn, litany and vacation. In the East at this time they sang a great doxology with a special song to the glory of the risen Christ, the symbol of faith was recited, Lord, have mercy, and the entire service ended with a short prayer of the abbot, replacing the dismissal: “Son and Word of God, Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and help and save our souls.” At the end of Matins, the abbot delivered a sermon to the brethren, and discussions took place about the objects of faith between the monks; From these conversations originate teachings or announcements, dated in the later charter to the first hour, and chapters or special meetings for this purpose at matins in Western monasteries. The rector ended Matins with dismissal. Before the start of the canon or service, the monks asked the abbot for blessings with the words: “command and bless” (Patr.T.87, col, 2988). It was called a blessing. As for the prayers of the priest now read at matins, they undoubtedly existed during the period under consideration and were recorded in the euchologies of Barberin and Rev. Porphyria. (See Church Charter (type) by Prof. M. D. Ak. I. Mansvetov, pp. 25–32). Q. What do the troparia and irmos of the canon mean? What does canon itself mean? John Zonara, in his explanations of the Sunday canons of St. Damascus, answered the proposed questions as follows: “the canon received its name from the fact that it contains a known and definite number of songs, i.e. nine. Song (ωδη) is called here not what is sung on instruments, but what is expressed in a living and harmonious voice before God. This is singing praise and gratitude to God. There are nine songs in the canon because they serve as an image of the heavenly hierarchy and its song. Otherwise, nine songs contain the image of the Holy One. Trinity, in whose honor they have long been appointed by the fathers. For three times three makes nine - the number of songs, which therefore concludes the threefold trinity. What is Irmos? Irmos got its name from the fact that it imparts order to the troparia and the tone of their singing. For the troparia are measured according to the melody of the irmos, taking on the same harmony that the irmos have. Otherwise, the irmos gives the tone and melody to the troparia, or forms the troparia according to its own pattern.” In the Jerusalem typology it is clearer: “irmos is the first verse in a song, with which the following ones are consistent in the number of feet and lines, so that in this way they can be sung harmoniously.” What is a troparion? “The troparia,” Zonora continues, received their name from the fact that they are composed or rotated (τρεπουται) according to the measure of the Irmos, being directed along them in a change of voice; or from the fact that the singers are mindful of their singing with the rhythm and tone of the irmos. For if the voice of the singers is not in proportion to them, then there will be no agreement either in singing or in melody, but only an incoherent, rude cry will be heard" 53 . (See Historical overview of the hymns and hymns of the Greek Church, Philaret, Archbishop of Chernigov and Nizhyn). 3. Conversation about the service of the first hour The first hour, corresponding to our seventh morning, is marked by the transfer of the judged and tortured Savior from Caiaphas to Pilate at the very beginning of the day. In the three psalms of the first hour (5, 89 and 100) we hear the most ancient morning prayers. In the first of them, Saint David expresses his zeal for piety and turns away from the wicked, praying that they may fall away from their thoughts and that all who trust in the Lord will rejoice. In the second, even the most ancient prophet of David, Moses, confesses the eternity and greatness of the Creator and the insignificance of man, who, like grass, will flourish in the morning, but in the evening will fall away, become hard and wither, and prays that He who fills us in the morning with His mercy will always look upon His servants. In the third we again hear Saint David: he sings of mercy and judgment, expresses his vow before God - to remove and punish the slanderers and the proud, and to bring only the faithful and blameless closer to himself, and thereby teaches us to withdraw from the society of the corrupt and unite with the pious. Then the prayer is heard: “in the morning, hear my voice, my King and my God!” The sun rose like a bridegroom coming out from his palace; a person must go out to his work and work until evening. How many networks of lawlessness, slander, and misunderstandings can he encounter throughout the day! Therefore, we say prayers from Psalm 119: “direct my steps according to Your word, and let not all iniquity possess me! Deliver me from human slander, and I will keep Your commandments! Make Thy face shine upon Thy servant, and teach me Thy justification! May my lips be filled with Your praise, O Lord, for I will sing Your glory, Your splendor all day long!” And after other well-known prayers, we conclude the first hour with a prayer to the Savior, “may the light of His countenance shine upon us, and may our steps be corrected to do the Divine commandments!” In conclusion, we must say that in the first hour there are important reminders of the suffering Savior. Just as the Midnight Office is reminiscent of the prayer of the Lord in Vertograd and the bringing of Anna to the high priest, Matins is the bringing from Anna to Caiaphas and the torment endured by the Savior from midnight until the morning, so the first hour wants to bring before our eyes the Redeemer, led from Caiaphas to Pilate to the praetorship, accompanied by slander and hatred of the elders and bishops of the Jews. “During the first hour, let us reverently reflect: how our Savior, at the 1st hour of the day, was quickly led to the praetor from Caiaphas to Pilate, and how the whole world was slandered by the lawless bishops and condemned by an unjust judge” (Teaching Izvest.) monastery 1887). About the all-night vigil. 1. A conversation in which the all-night vigil is explained in general On holidays and Sundays, the evening and morning services with the first hour are combined into one composition. Since such a service can continue throughout the night, it received the name all-night vigil. At the beginning of the service, the priest in vestments, with a censer, stands in front of the throne; the deacon, having accepted the blessing from the priest, opens the royal doors, comes out and stands in front of them, holding a lamp in his left hand, and raising his right hand with an orarion in front of the church assembly, in which others - who can and where they can - were sitting in anticipation of the service, proclaims “stand up”; then, turning to the priest, he says: “Lord, bless”; the priest, responding to this, makes the sign of the cross with a censer in front of the altar and proclaims from the altar: “Glory to the holy, consubstantial, life-giving and indivisible Trinity always, now and unceasingly, and forever!” Those praying respond with a short unanimous confirmation: Amen, i.e. “truly so.” The open royal doors, through which the throne and the altar, filled with the fragrance of incense and illuminated, visible to those praying, mean, of course, the open sky - the place of the special revelation of the glory of the Trinitarian God; the servant of God, standing before the throne of God with a censer, points as if to an angel of God, inviting the singers of God’s glory on earth, as in heaven, to praise and reverent prayer. But on earth, God reveals himself and draws closer to people in Christ the Savior - the God-man, the King of the grace-filled kingdom; the throne visible to those praying is the throne of Christ, and Christian praises, thanksgivings and petitions are performed only in the name of Christ - the Intercessor of God and men; direct and immediate worship on earth is service to Christ God, who appeared in the flesh. Therefore, the head of the church meeting, standing at the throne of Christ, invites the meeting with him to draw closer in souls and hearts to Christ - the King and God, who is mysteriously present here, to bow, to fall in reverence. This is the meaning of the threefold invitation heard from the altar: “Come, let us worship our King God; come, let us worship and fall down to Christ, our King and God; come, let us worship and fall down to Christ Himself, our King and God; come, let us worship and fall down before Him.” Then the priest, preceded by a deacon with a lamp, walks around the entire shrine of the altar and censes, leaves the altar, censes in front of the holy icons of the pre-altar iconostasis and the entire church, censes the clergy and people. Meanwhile, the initial evening psalm is sung in the choir. At the beginning of the all-night service, Psalm 103 was chosen by the Orthodox Church to be sung. It glorifies the glory of God - the Creator and Provider of the universe, reveals the infinite greatness of God's omnipotence, wisdom, goodness in the structure of the world, in establishing the order and harmony of life of the countless - diverse living creatures filling the world - from the grass of the field to man - the representative of God's power on earth, to the world of angels fulfilling the will of the Creator in heaven and serving Him - in the unfading gifts of endless love and goodness to all living things creatures, with the aspiration of life and enjoyment of life, turned to the source of life and good - God. In the greatness of the works of creation and industry, the believer is shown a reflection of the infinite greatness, the infinite - unapproachable glory of God. “Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord, my God! You are wonderfully great! You are clothed with greatness and splendor! Your robe is made of light; the tent above You is the boundless vault of heaven. With the speed of wind and fiery flame, the angels fulfill Your will. In the formidable phenomena of nature, You make us feel Your terrible power, capable of shaking and incinerating the entire earth in an instant. It is incomprehensibly established on its foundations, which are not at all visible. The abysses, apparently ready to swallow her, envelop her like clothing. And on the highest mountains there is water, and from there it waters the whole earth, descending into the valleys - it does not flood them, but remains within its limits, carried out by Your almighty will; and rivers, and lakes, and seas do not dare to cross these limits. And how much life, how much benefit for living beings! And what an unimaginable variety of living creatures - from small to great, from an imperceptible insect, from a rabbit that nests in a stone hole, to a whale - a leviathan - that in its enormity finds the same enormous, vast space to play in the middle of the ocean! And all of this turns to You with its living aspirations for life, and it depends on Your beck whether it will live and enjoy life, or disappear without a trace. Oh, bless the Lord, my soul!” The singing of this psalm before the altar and the throne of God, open to the gaze of those praising God the Creator, accompanied by the censing of the priest, preceded by a lamp, transfers the thoughts of reverently praying to those initial moments for all creatures, when the creative power of God called countless creatures from non-existence into being, when the life-giving Spirit of God (formed here by clouds of incense smoke), all embracing Himself, awakened life, when, according to the word of God, the light (the visible image of which is represented in the lamps illuminating the altar and the church, and in the lamp preceding the priest everywhere) illuminated and decorated the newly created being, when in heaven the angels with numerous voices called out to God the Life-Giver a song of glory (the echo of which is heard in the psalm), when man on earth set out for his great work in paradise God at the head of earthly creatures. The entire universe, filled with the gifts of God’s grace, obedient to the beck of God’s will, turned with all living aspirations to God, adorned with the reflection of God’s greatness, God’s glory, represented God’s paradise, filled with singers of God’s glory, power, and goodness. At the end of the psalm of praise, the priest enters the altar and closes the royal doors. Those praying, standing in front of them, as if in front of a mysterious curtain that hid the glory of God from them, represent the position of primitive people, expelled from paradise for their transgression of God’s commandments and asking God for mercy. But since in the Christian consciousness the memory and thought of the creation and improvement of the world by the Creator and Provider, of the perfections of newly created creatures, is combined with the thought of disorder, imperfections, and needs brought into the realm of God-created life by the sin of man, then, naturally, the reverent presentation of the revelation of the glory of God in creation and providence is replaced in Christian worship by prayer for real needs. These needs are stated in the great litany. All the most important church services begin with it. In its composition, it is the expression of prayer petitions by believers at the direction of the clergyman, so that the latter names the objects of petitions in a series, and the worshipers express their prayer for each - with one common one: “Lord, have mercy.” In conclusion of our petitions, having called upon the Mother of God with all the saints into prayerful communion and cooperation, we commit ourselves and each other, our entire being and life unconditionally to the will of Christ God the Savior, and thereby declare our living confidence that, according to or not according to our desires and thoughts, our prayers will be fulfilled - everything will be to our salvation and to the glory of the Trinitarian God, Whom we must serve with our words, both in business and throughout life. After the great litany there follows singing from the first three psalms of David. The content of these verses expresses the idea of ​​human moral perfection and religious service to God for the assimilation of a blessed life in God. “Blessed is a man if he clings with all the strength of his soul to the law of the Lord and thinks about it day and night; because the favor of the Lord rests on such a person in all the ways of his life. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice before Him with reverent awe. Blessed are all who trust in the Lord. He is powerful to save and from Him there is only salvation. But His favor and blessing rests only on those who themselves want to be God’s, to belong entirely to God.” In connection with the content of the opening psalm, which turns our reverent thought to the beginning of being, to the revelation of God in the affairs of creation, this singing of the church meeting from the first psalms of David before the closed royal doors reminds us of the state of our first parents in a blessed home, when they, having received from God the revelation of the law, determining the path of their life before God and stipulating an eternally blessed life, were left for a while to themselves in order to recognize and freely choose one day and forever unconditional faith in God and loyalty to God’s will as the God-indicated path of life. This recollection of the primitive blissful state of man in paradise and his soon subsequent expulsion from paradise, due to the transgression of God’s commandments, ends with a small litany calling the faithful to prayer for mercy, intercession, preservation, salvation by God’s grace, to devotion to the will of God with all the saints who have received salvation in God, and following their example. Then follows the singing of verses: “Lord, I have called to You, hear me,” and so on. The new section of Old Testament chants as part of the all-night vigil after “Blessed is the man” and the small litany differs from the previous ones both in tone and in content very sharply - to the point of being the opposite. Verses are selected from the psalms (140, 141, 129) that express the idea of ​​distance and, as it were, hiding God from man to an inaccessible height; It turns out that it is necessary to cry out, with all the strength of the soul, to cry out for attention that is averted, for the hearing of a tearful prayer that is not worthy of the benevolent attention of love. Man, at a distance from the mercy and love of the Heavenly Father, is deprived of the Divine light, imprisoned, from where the voice of prayer does not reach; he does not dare to appear before God, because he knows that he cannot resist; he trembles at the mere thought that the Lord will turn His searching, judging gaze on his iniquities. There is one hope, one basis for prayer - infinite mercy, which will find in itself a means of purification, deliverance from iniquities 54. In this prayer one hears the painful voice of the first man, expelled from paradise for sin, excommunicated from the face of God, recognizing his sin, feeling the loss of the fatherly love of God, trembling before the threatening prison of death, but not falling into despair, awaiting salvation with all his might, realizing the sad state of the criminal soul, because there was a word of promise of salvation. On great holidays and Sundays, which preach to us the salvation that is already ready, completed for us, between these cries of the repentant prayer of a sinner for salvation, Christian songs (stichera) are heard, in content and tone joyful, solemn, constituting the complete opposite of these Old Testament expressions of complaint about destruction and pleas for salvation. Such a mixture, such a change in the expressions of the most opposite mental states, was allowed by the Orthodox Church not without a special God-wise intention. The New Testament joy and triumph about the salvation given in Christ becomes brighter, more joyful, more solemn through comparison with the Old Testament prayer, which so vividly depicts the feeling of a perishable state in sin and distance from God, a living thirst for salvation from sin, curse and death in God the Savior. All stichera on the Lord I cried are concluded by the so-called dogmatist, i.e. a song to the glory of the Mother of God, where the dogma (i.e., teaching) about the incarnation of the Lord is revealed. When the dogmatist sings, the evening entrance is made. As if in response to these prayerful cries of the soul, longing for salvation, the royal doors open; The clergy, preceded by a lamp with a censer, proceed from the altar by the northern door and, at the end of the singing of the stichera of the Theotokos or the holiday, stand in front of the open royal doors. The special significance of this entrance (evening) is expressed by the exclamation of the clergyman: “wisdom! I'm sorry!" Intense reverent attention is required to this opening of the royal gates, through which the throne of grace is revealed to those who pray, and the priest boldly enters through the straight, open path with prayer for everyone. One can see in this action a figurative representation of the abundance of prophetic confirmations of the promise of salvation - a reminder of the revelations of God the Savior to the Old Testament people through a whole, almost continuous series of prophets. Delighted by the gospel of the salvation promised in Christ, enlivened by hope, they express their joy with a song in honor and glory of Christ - the God-Man, in whose meek, humble image - the reflection of the Divine glory, like the evening light, becomes accessible to the weak human gaze. “The gentle radiance of the holy glory of the Heavenly, Holy, Blessed Father - Christ, the Son of God, restoring life to us! The whole world, saved by You, glorifies You. And we, sinners, now - while contemplating the evening light, reminding us of the light of the Divine in You, shining meekly and beneficially for us, we dare to join our voices to the choir of holy singers and with them we sing the tri-radiant, unapproachable light of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - God. After entering there is a prokeimenon. Following the voice from the altar, again demanding reverent attention to divine wisdom, and the blessing of the world, a prophetic word is heard, calling for praise to God, affirming the hope of God's mercy, help, intercession, salvation, announcing the revelation of God's glory, God's kingdom on earth. These comforting thoughts are expressed in the ancient prokeimenons (there are seven of them). These are short but significant sentences from the psalms. On holiday days, the prokeimenon precedes readings from the Old Testament scriptures, more or less extensive and in its content containing a prototype or direct prophecy about the fulfillment of which the Christian church celebrates in this case. We call these readings proverbs. Proverb means a parable - a figurative or only with special skill composed expression of the lessons of practical wisdom, an edifying, moralizing, accusatory saying, sometimes - just a riddle. This word is used to describe one of the books of the Old Testament, written by Solomon and representing a collection of short sayings of practical wisdom. Readings at the all-night vigil, called paremias, are selected in relation to the content of the holiday from various books of the Old Testament - from the Pentateuch of Moses, from historical, prophetic, and teaching books; but one reading, mostly the latter, is almost always taken from the book of proverbs or the wisdom of Solomon. The name of the book most often read (proverbs - parables) became in the church language the general name for readings taken from other Old Testament books. The reading of proverbs in its content is a divinely revealed sermon about the expected salvation, trace. - preparing people to accept the Savior. That is why the exclamations of the priest preceding each reading call on listeners to special reverent attention: “wisdom! Let's get loud!" The prophetic sermon about salvation, which has the main goal of awakening the need for salvation for Christians, is replaced by an intense prayer for pardon, to which they are invited in the so-called special litany, which begins like this: “let us say (pray) with all our hearts and with all our thoughts let us say: “Lord, have mercy.” The litany is called an august - doubled, intensified prayer. This intensification is noticeable at the very beginning of the litany - in the first three petitions for mercy: “with all my heart I sing with all my heart... Lord, have mercy. Lord Almighty... we pray to You: hear and have mercy. Have mercy on us. .. we pray: hear and have mercy!” In addition, the prayer exclamation “Lord, have mercy,” after the deacon indicates the subject of the petition, is pronounced three times each time. The content of the Litany of the Pure has already been explained by us earlier. After a short prayer for a sinless, God-pleasing evening, it is followed by a litany of petition. It is called so because the six petitions that make up its peculiarity end with the clergyman’s instruction: “We ask the Lord,” to which the worshipers cry out each time: “Give, Lord.” By the end of the evening and with it - the day's activities, by the beginning of the night, a Christian should naturally have in his soul a concern for the Christian - a worthy Christian end of his waking activity, for preparation for the night, which involuntarily brings to mind the darkness of death, judgment, eternity. Accordingly, the church, guiding a Christian in prayer, instructs him at the end of the evening prayer to ask God for strength to spend the rest of the evening holy, peacefully, sinlessly, to ask for assistance, protection, guidance for a guardian angel - forgiveness of sins from which he could not protect himself during the day, everything useful and saving for his soul and the world for the whole world, to be worthy of spending the rest of his life peacefully and especially in repentance; the most important thing is to make a Christian death worthy, painless, shameless, peaceful and justified at the terrible judgment of Christ. The priest, at the conclusion of this litany, in a secret prayer of adoration, asks the Savior to save all those praying from every enemy, especially from the main enemy - the devil, from their own vain and vicious thoughts. All the more urgent is the need for prayer about this at night, when the human soul does not control itself in a state of sleep and is open to the harmful influences of the spirit of malice and involuntarily becomes the toy of its own passionate, predominant thoughts and desires - it remains unarmed. The composition of the all-night service includes, as something intermediate, lithium, which means prayer, petition. The order in which it is performed is as follows: the clergy, preceded by the lamp, go into the vestibule, closer to the western doors of the church, and stop in the middle of the vestibule. The deacon, having accepted the blessing of the censer, censes the iconostasis, the priest, the clergy, and the people. Meanwhile, festive poems are sung on the choir (at the Sunday all-night vigil - the stichera of the church holiday). At the end of them, the deacon reads prayers, similar in form and content to the Great and Sublime Litany, in five sections. After the first prayer they sing “Lord, have mercy” 40 times, after the second - 30, after the third - 50, after the rest - three times. At the end, the priest reads the final prayer and adoration. This department of service is actually called lithium 55. The blessing of the loaves is added to it. But it takes place at the very end of the evening service, after the verses (called stichera on the poem). While singing, their priests move to the middle part of the church and stop below the pulpit, in front of a table on which there are vessels with bread, wheat grains, wine and oil. After the Trisagion and the Lord’s Prayer, the festive (or, on Sundays, the Theotokos) troparion is sung, the deacon censes around the table with the loaves and other things three times, proclaims the beginning of the prayer for the blessing of the loaves (“Let us pray to the Lord”), the priest in prayer asks for God’s blessing on the loaves, wheat, wine and oil, multiplying them everywhere and for everyone, and sanctifying those who partake of them. In ancient times, the evening pre-festive meal, consecrated with prayer and blessing, was prepared in this way for those gathered for all-night prayer in the church, to strengthen their strength, which is why the service was interrupted for a while; At the end of the short meal, which was celebrated right there, in the vestibule or in the refectory part of the church, the grateful Psalm 33 was read - “I will bless the Lord at all times” or they sang one verse that goes closer to the grateful enjoyment of earthly blessings given from God: “Those who seek the Lord will not be deprived of any good.” The priest gave a blessing to those who had finished the meal and thereby called for the continuation of the interrupted service. All this is happening now in the same order. Only now the all-night vigil does not continue throughout the night and is not accompanied by such exhaustion that in the middle it requires rest and reinforcement of strength with food for the upcoming feat of prayer. And the ritual of blessing the loaves remains as a reminder of the feat of prayer, in the proper sense of the all-night vigil in the ancient church. Now the all-night vigil is celebrated without interruption, and sacred food is not offered in the church; Only the worshipers are anointed with oil when they kiss the church icon. With the sixth psalm, the other half of the all-night vigil begins - Matins. The morning service in its basic, unchanging composition represents, just like Vespers, a complete circle in which the same thought as in the evening service develops again and in the same gradual order, but develops with greater completeness and variety and is presented in a more definite form, namely, the thought of the gradual preparation of the human race for salvation and the gradual revelation of the mystery of salvation in the history of mankind. The six psalms that make up the beginning of the morning service are called the six psalms. (3, 37, 62, 87, 102, 142). Following the blessing of the priest, after the consecrated meal at the end of the evening service, and as if on behalf of the entire church meeting, the reader proclaims the doxology three times - “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.” With this song the angels greeted the birth of Christ the Savior on earth. Here the Church of Christ in its worship repeats the angelic doxology, prefacing them only with the depiction in the Old Testament revelation of the expectation of this joyful event for heaven and earth. Based on the content of the psalms, one can judge that the doxology that precedes them does not directly relate to them, but to the content of the morning service in its entirety and serves as a preliminary expression of the main idea of ​​this service, which, according to the order of historical development, appears at the end of it, in the great doxology, as the gospel of the fulfillment of the promise. The Six Psalms is divided into two halves; Each of them ends with a declaration of glory to God: “Alleluia, glory to Thee, O God.” The Orthodox Church chose psalms of this nature for the Six Psalms with the obvious purpose of allowing those praying to feel as fully and vividly as possible the fallen state of man, to awaken in them a sense of sinfulness and irresponsibility before the judgment of the holiness and truth of God, a feeling of the wrath of God, the fear of eternal destruction in alienation from the love of God, a living desire and hope of salvation in God, in God's infinite mercy, all-forgiving, cleansing from sins, restoring to life from the realm of death, reviving, blissing with its endless fatherly love. During the reading of the second half of the Six Psalms, the priest comes from the altar, stands in front of the royal doors and secretly reads prayers. In connection with the content of the sixth psalm, this humble position of the head of the church (especially when the clergyman - a monk, having put aside the priestly phelonion, reads these prayers in the clothes of repentance - in the mantle) in front of the closed royal doors, in the twilight, is strikingly reminiscent of Adam’s cry before the gates of heaven. But the prayers that he reads, in their content, do not have a direct connection with the content of the Six Psalms. These are common Christian morning prayers and mostly joyful, grateful - the priest prays for everyone, thanks God for rising from sleep to prayer and praise, for godly deeds in the daylight, reminiscent of spiritual light, joyful, life-giving, for restorative safe sleep, asks for God's blessing, indications of the path for a godly saving life, grace-filled assistance and protection on this path from visible enemies and invisible, and the like. At the end of the Six Psalms, the Great Litany is read, just as at the beginning of Vespers. Then the solemn gospel of the Old Testament prophet is heard about the expected appearance of the Savior God among people. The expression of prophetic speech is completely similar to how a prophet would be an eyewitness to the appearance of God on earth and meet Him: “God is the Lord and has appeared to us, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! He is good! His mercy is eternal! Now I will not die, I will be alive, I will glorify the cause of salvation. He is the cornerstone from the Lord (the foundation of God’s universal building - the church), although the earthly builders did not recognize Him and disdainfully cast Him away” (to destruction and self-denial). This Old Testament solemn song at the meeting of the coming Christ is accompanied on Sundays and others, especially the so-called Lord's holidays of the Church of Christ, with a Christian song (troparion), proclaiming the fulfillment of prophecy. Then follows the reading of kathismas, i.e. sedal from the psalter. The Psalter is divided into 20 sections; of these, each in turn is divided into three readings. These 20 departments are called kathismas. Their reading is listened to during worship, where it is possible, according to the arrangement of churches, while sitting; hence the name kathisma (from Greek - sitting). Each of the three readings in kathisma ends with a doxology: (glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever..., alleluia, glory to Thee, O God). When the praise is sung, those present stand and pray. At the all-night vigil, after “God is the Lord and appears,” two ordinary kathismas are read and after each - a small litany and verses called sedal, i.e. timed to coincide with the reading of kathismas. Then, after reading the kathismas, the polyeleos follows. Polyeles actually means an abundance of oil; This name refers to the special solemnity of the distinguished part of the all-night vigil, which constitutes one of its differences. Polyeleos begins with the singing of verses of praise from Psalms 134 and 135 and ends with the reading of the Gospel. This name was given to this part of the service because before it began, all the oil lamps were lit, and now, after reading the gospel, those who kiss the festive icon and the gospel are anointed with consecrated oil. Polyeleos is performed in this order: after reading the kathismas, the royal doors are opened. The priests walk around the entire church with a censer and a lamp, and on a holiday they first go to the middle of the church and stand in front of a festive icon decorated with lamps. In the choir they sing verses from the psalms: “Praise the name of the Lord, alleluia. Blessed be the Lord... Confess to the Lord... God of heaven."... During the Sunday service, Sunday verses are sung with the refrains: “Blessed art thou, Lord, teach me Thy justifications.” On holidays, the clergy begin in front of the icon, and on the choirs they continue the magnification 56 1. In continuation of the singing of the stichera or magnification, the clergy burn incense to the altar, the church and those who stand before them. At the end of the censing, there is a small litany, antiphons (short verses that are sung alternately in both choirs). The gospel is brought out from the altar, preceded by the lamp, the prokeimenon is sung; the priest reads the gospel; at the end of it, short verses expressing the joy of the holiday or prayer verses are sung; the 50th Psalm is read or the first verses from it are sung; The deacon says the prayer “Save, O God, Thy people,” ending with the singing of “Lord, have mercy” 12 times in the choir. This entire section of the all-night vigil with its singing, reading, and rituals is intended to bring those praying into a living participation in the joy preached by the celebrated New Testament saving event. After the magnification, the gospel is read. The Gospel readings at the all-night vigil are chosen those whose content is directly related to the subject of the holiday. On Sundays they read the Gospel story about the appearances to the disciples and conversations with them of the risen Christ (11 such readings). On the Lord's holidays we also hear gospel stories, which serve as both the basis and the main content of festive liturgical songs. On the days dedicated to the glorification of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Gospel story about the meeting of the Mother of God with Elizabeth is read, and both in the speeches of Elizabeth and the Mother of God Herself the universal glory and greatness of the Mother of God is expressed. On days dedicated to the memory of saints glorified by the church, we hear conversations of Christ the Savior about Christian perfections, exploits, merits, the implementation of which the Church of Christ sees and shows us in the saints glorified by it. With the idea that the Gospel word of Christ or the self-witnesses and servants of Christ about Him for believers replaces the personal living word and appearance of Christ, the Gospel readings on the feast of Christ or Christ’s saints introduce us into living, as if personal communication with Christ, placing us as direct witnesses of His saving deeds for us, His Divine glory, His wondrous glorification in His saints. That is why, after reading the Gospel, worshiping before the Gospel or a holiday icon and reverently kissing them on our part is worship in the face of Christ God Himself, a gracious approach to Him in spirit. This conviction is expressed by the Church of Christ when, after reading the Sunday Gospel, it sings: “having seen the resurrection of Christ, let us worship the Lord Jesus... come, all you faithful, let us worship the resurrection of Christ.” When kissing the gospel and the holiday icon, we usually anoint them with blessed oil. Oil, according to the biblical model of expression, is a symbol of God's mercy, the blessing of grace-filled gifts, life and joy. And the anointing of those participating in the holiday with blessed oil serves for them as an external sign of their participation in the grace and spiritual joy of the holiday. Kissing the gospel, the holiday icon and anointing with oil is performed during the singing of the canon. The canon, as part of the church service, has a number of verses intended for singing. The poems are divided into sections called songs, arranged in a certain uniform order, and composed in each section according to one pattern. There are nine songs in the full canon (but the second is sung only during Lent). Each song contains several short poems: the first verse is called irmos (a chant that serves as a model of structure and tone for others), the rest are called troparia (poetic periods, turns). The singing of these verses ends with the singing of the same or another irmos; This last irmos is called katavasia (convergence), because the singers left the choir to sing it and stood below the pulpit. After the third, sixth and ninth cantos, the small litany is read. The content of the songs of the canon are persons, events, thoughts, feelings, prayer appeals concerning the content and religious significance of the holiday. But the first verses - irmos - are either directly taken from the songs of the Old Testament, or, in most cases, their New Testament content by Christian hymnals is expressed according to the model of Old Testament songs and their words, so that the content of the Old Testament song, as a type or prophecy, is combined with the New Testament fulfillment. Church liturgical canons, compiled by Christian hymnals (for example, John of Damascus, Joseph the Songwriter and others), appeared quite late - no earlier than the 8th–9th centuries. Until that time, in the morning worship, Christians sang Old Testament songs that had a particularly close relationship to the content of the Christian faith. The liturgical canon, which is preceded after the reading of the Gospel by the 50th repentant psalm, expressing the consciousness of sinfulness, the thirst for grace-filled justification and rebirth, contains a number of prophecies about Christ over the space of one and a half thousand years - from Moses to Zechariah, which nourished the faith and hope of the Old Testament church and prepared it for the worthy meeting of Christ the Savior. In it, a number of Old Testament prophecies end with the New Testament gospel of the fulfillment of all prophecies, because the ninth hymn is taken from the Gospel story about the appearance of God the Word in the flesh for the salvation of the world. In addition, in the canons compiled by Christian hymnals on the basis of prophetic songs about Christ, these prophecies are combined with an indication of the fulfillment of the New Testament events celebrated by the canons. In the last song of the canon, precisely in the songs of Zechariah, the father of the Forerunner, and the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God, we already hear the gospel of the revelation on earth of the salvation promised to the forefathers and the salvation foretold by the prophets in Him who will be born of the Virgin. That is why the last part of the morning service consists entirely of a whole series of solemn songs of praise to God the Savior, so-called psalms of praise or praise (148, 149, 150), admittedly, Old Testament in origin, but in strength and solemnity completely befitting the language of the New Testament church, which does not expect, but triumphant salvation. Those who pray are invited to meet God the Savior with glory, the whole world is invited - heaven and earth, angels and men, all rational and irrational creatures - to participate in this hymn of praise. The Savior must, according to the promise, appear on earth as the Divine light, enlightening those sitting in mortal darkness and illuminating with Divine glory. And the servant of Christ, standing as if on guard waiting before the throne of Christ, opens the royal doors and proclaims to meet Christ: “Glory to Thee, who showed us the light!” At this sign from the clergyman, the whole church, joining the choir of the celestials on earth, who heralded the Nativity of Christ with a song of glory, sings a great doxology, beginning with the same angelic song: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to men!” We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we bow to Thee, we glorify Thee, we thank Thee great for the sake of Thy glory.” Ending the all-night vigil with this doxology, the earthly church, inseparably from the heavenly, stands, as it were, in reverent contemplation before the glory of the Trinitarian God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But since the Triune God, who dwells in unapproachable light for men, approaches us and reveals the glory of his Divinity in the Son who became man, the church turns with words of prayer and praise directly to the Son of God who became man, who accepted the sins of the world, who became for us sinners a refuge, an Intercessor to generation and generation, a source of life and light. The conclusion of the doxology is an appeal to the Trisagion for mercy - “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.” This plea for mercy, which in itself separately expresses self-condemning repentance, the deepest humility, the fear of destruction and the very feeling of a perishable state, here, in connection with the angelic praise of God the Savior of the perishing, in contemplation of the salvation that is already ready and offered to all who want to be saved, the same plea for mercy receives a different meaning and tone, namely, it expresses the joy of revealed salvation, the heartfelt thirst for the gracious pardon, reverent readiness to serve the merciful God with all the strength of the soul, to belong to Him entirely. (See “The Doctrine of the Divine Services of the Christian Right Church,” ed. of the Kiev People’s Calendar, 1872). The last prayer is stated at greater length in a prayerful and petitionary litany, after which a dismissal blessing is given to the people by the clergyman. The end of the all-night vigil is the reading of the first hour. (See according to source.) 2. A conversation about the origin of all-night vigils All-night vigils, although not in the same composition as they are now, began in the very first times of Christianity. Persecuted by Jews and pagans, Christians could only, without hindrance or anxiety, offer their prayers and perform a bloodless sacrifice in the most secluded places and at night. At night they could remove and escort the bodies of the holy martyrs to eternal rest. This was done like this: they took the tortured, disfigured body of some sufferer for Christ somewhere to a distant cave or the most secluded, safe house; here they sang psalms over him throughout the whole night, then gave him a reverent kiss and buried him in the morning. Subsequently, in the same way, those who, although they did not suffer for Christ, devoted their whole lives to serving Him, were escorted to eternal rest, as, for example, Saint Gregory of Nyssa escorted his sister Macrina to eternal rest (her memory is June 19). Such all-night psalmody over the deceased was called pan-nikhis, which actually means a holiday that lasts all night; from pan-nihis - pan-nihides - all-night vigil. Hence prayers and psalmody over the deceased or in his memory received the name pannikhida. When the peace of the church came, prayer vigils throughout the night not only did not stop, but, through the care of the shepherds of the church, they spread and came into general use. Their special zealot was Saint Chrysostom, who was the first to spread and multiply songs and prayers at all-night vigils and so attracted the people of Constantinople to them that they flocked to all-night vigils in large numbers every time. No less than St. Chrysostom, Blessed Jerome tried to support and especially protect the all-night vigils from the slander of the heretic Vigilantius and his followers, who rebelled against the veneration of the martyrs and the all-night hymns at their tombs. From his Bethlehem solitude, the blessed elder raised his eloquent voice against the new heresy and justified the all-night prayers of Christians by the example of the prophet David, who glorified the Lord at midnight and in the earliest morning, by the example of Jesus Christ, who spent whole nights in prayer, by the example of the apostles Paul and Silas, who prayed before God at midnight (Acts. 16:25), and the entire apostolic church (Acts 12:12). Before his strong word, the slander of false teachers fell silent. It is clear that Christian gatherings for all-night prayers and chants were mainly on the eve of great holidays. This is how, from the very first times, the Church of Christ celebrated the greatest and brightest of holidays - Easter. The evening and entire night of Great Saturday, Christians, so to speak, stood on sacred guard and spent them reading holy scripture, singing psalms and listening to edifying teachings, and in these holy activities they greeted the morning of the resurrection of Christ. Little by little, this order of worship was attributed by the church to other great holidays, and from here the custom of starting the church day the day before, in the evening, and continuing it until the evening of the next day was finally established. When church services were brought into a real, definite composition, then all-night vigils were ordered to be held on all the twelve feasts, on the days of especially glorious saints of God (for example, St. Peter and Paul, John the Baptist, the three saints on January 30, etc.) and on Sundays. However, it should be noted that on Sundays there may or may not be all-night vigils. Over time, the zeal of Christians for all-night prayers and chants weakened. Therefore, the Church, always merciful and condescending to the infirmities of its children, significantly shortened the all-night vigil, but left its ancient composition intact. Its main parts remain the same to this day, namely: Great Vespers, lithium with the blessing of the loaves, Matins and the first hour. (From the book: “On church services, letters to the Orthodox” by I. I. Bellustin). 3. A conversation in which the initial exclamations, chants and sacred rites of the all-night vigil are explained From now on, brethren, we will begin to explain in more detail the “All-Night Vigil.” It begins like this: the royal doors open, if there is a deacon, he comes out, once in the altar, through the royal doors to the pulpit and, holding a candle in his hands, proclaims: Arise! God bless! This proclamation of the deacon refers to the assembled brethren and other believers, who hurried to the church before the start of the service and, while waiting for it, sometimes sat down wherever they could. After this proclamation by the deacon, the priest, standing before the altar, pronounces the following exclamation: “Glory to the holy, and consubstantial, and life-giving, and indivisible Trinity, always and now and ever, and unto ages of ages.” The singers sing: “Amen.” After this, the priest turns with a diligent prayer to Jesus Christ (the second person of the Holy Trinity): “Come, let us worship...” This prayer is pronounced by the priest not once, but three times - in honor of the Most Holy Trinity, because all the deeds that are described in the psalms following this prayer were accomplished by Christ for our salvation by the good will of God the Father, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Confirm this prayer, brothers. It reads completely like this: “Come, let us worship our King God! Come, let us bow and fall down to Christ, our King God! Come, let us bow and fall down to Christ Himself, our King and our God!” And at the end there is another addition: “Come, let us worship and fall down before Him!” At this prayer, the singers sing selected verses from Psalm 103, which begins: “Bless the Lord, my soul.” This psalm depicts the creation of the world. While singing this psalm, the priest censes throughout the entire church, and if there is a deacon, he walks ahead with a lit candle. The burning of incense here represents the Holy Spirit, who participated in the creation of the world (Gen. 1:2). The opening of the royal doors shows that the doors of the primeval paradise, after the creation of our first parents, were open for them - that Adam and Eve lived in paradise and enjoyed complete bliss. The priest’s walking and walking throughout the entire church also reminds us that God Himself went to the primeval paradise to our forefathers and talked with them, like a father with children, and that our forefathers themselves could walk freely and unhindered in paradise. The lighted candle offered to the censer by the deacon expresses that light which, according to the voice of the Creator: let there be light, appeared after the first evening: “and there was evening and there was morning, the first day,” as it is said in Holy Scripture. At the end of the singing of the psalm and after the entire church has been closed, the royal doors are immediately closed. This means that the blissful state of our first parents did not last long: as soon as they sinned, they were immediately expelled from paradise, deprived of bliss, and through their crime the doors of paradise were completely closed; It was no longer possible for our forefathers to enter heaven and talk with God, because He placed one of the cherubim with a flaming sword at the door of heaven. Expelled from paradise, Adam and Eve probably approached the doors of paradise several times and begged the Lord to forgive them for their sin; in this they could be encouraged by the promise of a Savior. That is (note this, brethren): after the fall, but before expulsion from paradise, Adam was promised the Intercessor and Redeemer of the entire human race, Christ the Son of God (the second Person of the Holy Trinity), as it is said in the scripture: He (Christ) will erase your head (i.e. the seducing serpent) (Gen. 3:15). Therefore, at the end of the incense and the closing of the royal doors, the priest, portraying this Intercessor, goes out in front of the royal doors, and in front of them, as before a closed paradise, he brings a prayer to God for all people, secretly reading the prayers of the lamp. In these prayers, the priest prays to the Lord, so that He, generous and merciful, would heed our prayer, not denounce us with His wrath, nor punish us with anger, but would do with us according to His mercy, and so on. These prayers are called “lamp prayers” because, firstly, in ancient times, when reading these prayers, lamps were lit because the sun had set and night fell, and secondly, because in these prayers the priest also begs the Lord for our spiritual enlightenment, so that we would know the truth, so that the Lord would guide us on the right path that is revealed to us in the word of God, i.e. in scripture. After reading the prayers of the lamp, the great litany begins: let us pray to the Lord in peace! Here we will end our interview with a fervent prayer to your love, my spiritual children, that it is unacceptable to go to all church services, especially on Sundays and holidays! (Compiled from “Sunday Reading.”). Appendix to conversation No. 3. A note on the historical origin of the initial exclamations of the Sunday all-night vigil The all-night vigil in the Greek charters of the Jerusalem branch began with the exclamation of the kandil-burner or paraecclesiarch: “κελεὐσατε” (command). “Κελεὐσατε” is a common appeal to a senior person for permission to begin service or open any official act. The stewards addressed the consul with the word “jubete” before the opening of the folk games. “Κελεὐσατε” was the usual address of the preposite to the emperor before the start of any court or church ceremony. In our liturgical language it is applied indifferently to the bishop and priest. In the current Slavic charter, instead of “command,” it reads “arise.” This reading was allowed in the earliest Slavic lists and is based on a monastic custom, according to which the monks gathered for the all-night vigil, awaiting the start of the service and the gathering of all the brethren, sat in their places and before the start of the service received an invitation to rise from their seats. But since the Slavic translation did not correspond to the Greek original, in more accurate lists the following clause is found: “arise according to speech and command art.” Appeal: “Lord, bless” is said by the serving priest, stopping at the royal gates (ἔσωθεν τῶν βασιλικῶν πυλῶν), after finishing the censing of the church and the vestibule, on the way back to the church. The royal doors here mean the main doors from the vestibule to the church. “Καὶ ποιήσας σταυρους τρεῖς μετὰ του θυμιάματος” - having created three crosses with a censer. The ancient method of censing, described in detail in the article of the charter “about how censer should be,” consisted of making a cross with the movement of the censer, which was especially convenient in the case when censing was carried out with a hand censer or censer. (See Church Charter (Typik), I. Mansvetova, pp. 197–198). 3. Conversation about the prayers of the lamp at the all-night vigil During the litany, the priest reads prayers of lamp 57 in front of the royal doors. God's judgment over fallen man was dissolved by the mercy of God. Having punished the criminal, the Heavenly Father at the same time gave him the promise of a Savior, who would once free man from all the disasters brought on by sin. “I will put enmity between you,” He said to the serpent, in whom the devil secretly acted, “and between the woman, and between your seed and that seed: He will erase your head” (Gen. 3:15) 58. In his prayers, the priest asks from Him the spiritual and physical, eternal and temporal blessings necessary for our life, namely, that the Heavenly Father would guide us on His path so that we would walk in His truth, and would gladden our hearts to fear His holy name. Here are the original words of the first prayer: “Lord, generous and merciful, long-suffering and abundantly merciful! Inspire our prayer and listen to the voice of our prayer, create a sign for good with us. Guide us on Your path, so that we may walk in Your truth. Make our hearts glad to fear Your holy name: because You are great and work wonders: You are one God and there is no one like You in God, Lord: You are strong in mercy and good in strength, to help, and to comfort, and to save all who trust in Your Holy Name.” This is the voice of an intercessor to God for all humanity, which has deviated from the path of God and no longer walks in the truth of God, which is despondent in spirit and trembles before God, as before a formidable and just Judge. The intercessor turns to the greatness of God, to the mercy and goodness of God, in order to ask for the blessings necessary for people who trust in the holy name of God. Then the priest, portraying himself as our Intercessor, prays in the second prayer to the Heavenly Father for everyone, so that He “does not expose us in His wrath and does not punish us in His anger; but so that He would deal with us according to His mercy, direct us to the refuge of His will and enlighten our hearts with the truth.” Listening to these words, it is as if you yourself become witnesses of God’s judgment over our ancestors; you see how our Divine Intercessor begs in the moments of pronouncing the terrible sentence of the Heavenly Father, so that He dissolves His righteous anger with mercy and goodness. Then the priest prays to the Heavenly Father to grant us the rest of the day and the rest of our lives to spend in peace. These last prayers actually refer to the evening time, in which the all-night vigil is celebrated, and involuntarily remind us of the last days of our earthly life. Here are the real words of the prayer: “Lord, do not reprove us in Your wrath, and do not punish us in Your anger: but deal with us according to Your mercy, Physician and Healer of our souls; guide us to the haven of Thy will, enlighten the eyes of our hearts with the knowledge of Thy truth: and grant us the rest of the day, and the rest of the time of our lives, to spend in peace - without sin, through the prayers of the Mother of God and all the saints.” This prayer embraces the needs not only of our fallen ancestors, but also of all of us, all Christians; that is why we resort in it to the intercession of the Mother of God and all the saints. Why this is the content of the prayer is not difficult to understand. The All-Night Vigil not only historically depicts to us the past fate of all humanity, but at the same time it is part of our divine service, in which we pray to God for our needs, for our wants. And Jesus Christ is not only the Intercessor for the people of the Old Testament, but also for the New Testament, not only for the people who lived before us, but also now living with us and having to live until His second coming. He is the only Intercessor of God and men. Third prayer: “Lord our God, remember us, Thy sinful and unworthy servants, when we call upon Thy holy name, and do not disgrace us in our hope for Thy mercy; but fulfill, Lord, all our petitions, in which we pray to You for what is necessary for our salvation, and grant us to love and fear You with all our hearts and to do Your will in everything.” Fourth prayer: “O You, Whom the holy powers sing with ceaseless songs and unceasing praises! Fill our lips with Thy praise, so that we too may magnify Thy holy name, and make us participants and heirs with all those who fear Thee in truth, and who keep Thy commandments, with the prayers of the Holy Mother of God and all Thy saints.” Fifth prayer: “Lord, Lord, You, Who hold everything in Your most pure hand, Who have long endured with all of us and repented of our evils! Remember Your mercies and Your mercy, visit us with Your goodness and grant us the rest of this day, with the help of Your grace, to avoid the various snares of the evil one, and keep our life free from condemnation from him, through the grace of Your all-holy Spirit.” Sixth prayer: “Great and wondrous God, who governs everything according to His inscrutable goodness and wise providence, who has given us the blessings of the present world and promised us the kingdom of heaven, who has arranged for us, by the power of the promised blessings, so that we have avoided all evil during the past part of the day! Grant us the rest of the day to finish blamelessly in the face of Your holy glory, and to sing praises to You, our only good and humane God.” Last prayer: “Great and Most High God, the only one who has immortality, who lives in the unapproachable light, who created all creatures with wisdom, who divided the light from the darkness, who assigned the sun dominion during the day, and the moon and stars at night; Who has made us sinners worthy at this present hour to precede Your face with confession and to bring You evening praise! The Lover of Mankind Himself, correct our prayer like an incense before You, and accept it like a fragrant fragrance; and grant us the privilege of spending both this evening and the coming night in peace; clothe us with weapons of light; deliver us from every fear of the night, and from everything that happens in the darkness; and grant us the sleep that You have given for the repose of our weakness, alien to any dream of the devil. To her, Master, giver of all blessings! Make it so that, while we are touched on our beds, we remember Thy name with reverence even at night, and, enlightened by the teaching of Thy holy commandments, in spiritual joy we rise to the praise of Thy goodness, and begin to offer prayers and prayers to Thy compassion for our sins and the sins of all Thy people. Visit them with Your mercy, with the prayers of the Holy Mother of God.” These are the true words of the prayers read secretly by the priest in front of the royal doors. You see for yourself, my brothers, that the priest, portraying the Intercessor promised by God to our fallen ancestors, prays for all of us and asks us from the Heavenly Father for temporal and eternal blessings that are beneficial for our salvation. (Compiled from the Explanation of the All-Night Vigil by Archpriest V. Vladislavlev). 5. Conversation about antiphons at the all-night vigil The great litany is followed by the verse of the first kathisma, divided into three antiphons. If the day is Sunday, then all three antiphons are sung, after each a small litany is pronounced, consisting of the first and last petitions of the great litany and beginning with the words: again and again in peace let us pray to the Lord. On the days of other holidays, one first antiphon is sung, followed by a small litany, except for the holidays called the Lord's, when the antiphons are completely abandoned. The word antiphon means anti-voice, or anti-singing. Psalms or verses, partly taken from the Old Testament, and partly reminiscent of New Testament events, are called antiphons because they are sung by both faces alternately one after the other. Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer, disciple of John the Theologian, Bishop of Antioch, was the first to establish antiphonal singing, in imitation of the angelic doxology in heaven of the Most Holy Trinity, revealed to him in a vision. From Antioch, this sacred custom spread first to the eastern and then to the western churches, so that in the 4th century it became universal in the Christian church. One cannot remain indifferent when listening to the angelic singing of the antiphons: it produces an inexpressibly pleasant sensation in the souls of those praying, enlivens the feeling and inspires one to pray. Here are the verses of the first antiphon, selected from the first three psalms: Blessed is the man who does not follow the counsel of the wicked. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! For the Lord knows that the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked will perish. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Work for the Lord with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Blessed are all who hope in New. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Arise, Lord, save me, my God. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Salvation is the Lord's, and Your blessing is upon Your people. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! The content of the psalms from which these verses are borrowed refers to the glorification of the Redeemer promised to Adam, and with the angelic refrain, repeated three times, the church expresses praise to the Triune God for His gracious providence for the salvation of the world, which our Lord Jesus Christ was pleased to accomplish. (See Explanation of the all-night vigil of Archpriest Gumilevsky). Now, brethren, let us explain these verses: “Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the wicked.” How happy Adam would have been if he had not listened to the advice of his wife, who was seduced by the devil! How blessed Eve would have been if she had not accepted the advice of the devil and violated the commandments of God! “If they clung to the law of God and meditated on His law day and night, they would be like a tree planted by streams of water, which brings forth its fruit in its season and whose leaf does not wither; and in everything they do they would prosper” (Ps. 1:3). Now what? “And the way of the wicked shall perish.” As soon as the sin was committed, everything went wrong: “It is not so with the wicked, but they are like dust blown away by the wind. They will not be able to stand in judgment before the just God; there is nothing to justify themselves before Him and the righteous punishment of God will befall them and the way of the wicked will perish” (Ps. 1:4-6). Next you hear the verse: “work for the Lord with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling.” This verse is taken from the second Psalm, which contains one of the clearest prophetic predictions about the promised Savior of the world. God the Father speaks in His anger to the nations who rebelled against His Anointed: “I have anointed My king over Zion, My holy mountain”; and then to this anointed one, to His Only Begotten Son: “You are My Son. Today I have given birth to You. Ask of Me, and I will give the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession; You will strike them with a rod of iron, you will crush them like a potter’s vessel.” Then the prophet, turning to the indignant peoples, convinces them: “Understand, learn! Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice before Him with trembling.” The connection of the second verse with the previous verses is as follows: after the Fall, the judgment of the first parents followed, and the Savior was promised. Adam accepted the promise and believed in the promised Savior. And equally, the best of his descendants believed that the reign of sin and disorder would not last forever, that people would not always be under the power of the devil. They have a King, installed by God Himself over Zion, the holy mountain of God, i.e. over all pious people, that this King is the Only Begotten Son of God, whom God the Father begot before all ages, who will one day reign over the entire human race and completely destroy the kingdom of sin and death. As a result of this faith in the promised Savior, as in the Only Begotten Son of God, this warning verse is heard, as if from the lips of Adam, for all his descendants: “Work for the Lord with fear; serve Him as your God with reverence and fear; Be afraid lest by your sins you break His commandments, just as I broke the commandment; and rejoice in Him with trembling. Believe in Him, love Him, trust in Him: He is your Savior. But at the same time, tremble at Him, because He is the Only Begotten Son of God, He does not tolerate sin and iniquity.” “Blessed are all who hope in New.” Our only hope now is in this promised Savior. We have nothing to rely on our own righteousness, on our own works; in them no one can find justification for themselves; only the promised Savior of the world can destroy the kingdom of sin and death and give us bliss: “blessed are all those who hope in Newness.” “Rise up, Lord, save me, my God.” This verse is taken from the third psalm. The psalmist at the beginning of the psalm depicts that he has a lot of enemies, but that these enemies cannot do anything to him, because the Lord is the shield protecting him; He is his glory, He protects Him. With His help he fears no one. “I lie down, sleep and get up, says the psalmist; for the Lord protects me. I am not afraid of the people who have taken up arms against me from all sides.” The security and childlike devotion of a man who fully trusts in the Lord cannot be better expressed! Then follow the words according to the Slavic translation: “Rise up, Lord, save me, my God” 59. The connection between this verse and the previous one is as follows: in the former verse it was said that blessed are all those who hope in the promised Savior; in this psalm the blessed state of those who trust in the Lord is depicted in the clearest terms. And here is the basis of this hope: the Lord only needs to arise, He needs to be resurrected - and He will defeat all our enemies: “Rise up, Lord, save me, my God.” These words, by the way, indicate the future resurrection of the promised Savior. After His resurrection He will save people from all their enemies. “Salvation is the Lord’s, and Your blessing is upon Your people.” This is, as it were, a conclusion from all the verses of the psalter that you have heard so far, pious listeners. We will not be saved by our own strength, not by our own deeds, but solely by the grace of the Heavenly Father and the merits of the promised Savior: “Salvation is the Lord’s.” And as a result of this salvation, the blessing of God will always rest over the people of God, instead of the curse brought on by sin. (See Explanation of the divine service by Archpriest Vladislavlev). Here, my brothers, is the explanation of the verses of the psalter, full of deep meaning, which you hear after the great litany. (Compiled according to source). 6. Conversation about psalm verses (Ps. 140, 141, 129, 116) at the all-night vigil Each of us, approaching the time of night, must naturally take care that nothing disturbs his nightly peace, and if the spark of piety does not go out in his soul, it is natural for him to pour out before the Lord his sorrows about sins, about the troubles and misfortunes he has endured, to tell Him his sorrow and together, in the hope of His mercy, to resort to Him with a prayer for the forgiveness of sins, for the granting of grace-filled help to us for the fight against sinful temptations, for the complacent enduring of troubles and misfortunes, for deliverance from them in the future. And so the holy church, in its evening worship, meets this need: the voice of sorrow for sins and external disasters and, at the same time, hope in God’s mercy is heard in the evening singing: Lord, I have cried to You, hear me, i.e. in Psalms 140, 141, 129 and 116. Psalm 140 has been part of Vespers since ancient times. It was written by David during his wanderings in the desert, where he was hiding from the persecution of Saul. This is evident from the words of verse 6: “Their leaders were scattered among the rocks, and they heard my words, how meek they were” (1 Sam. 24:15), which hints that David did not take the opportunity to kill his enemy Saul in one cave, where Saul once avoided, not suspecting David’s presence in it. David did not touch God’s anointed and, as a sign that Saul was in his hands, he cut off a piece of his cloak and then left the cave after Saul and showed him and his companions the cut piece, saying that in vain Saul was angry with him and suspected him of hostile intentions against him. These meek words that his enemies heard from the lips of David, chasing him like game along the cliffs of the desert, are understood in the above verse of the psalm. The occasion for writing the psalm must be kept in mind to explain, as we will see, some of its expressions. Art. 1. “Lord, I called to You, hear me, listen to the voice of my prayer, sometimes I will cry to You.” The situation in which David was, pursued by enemies who were looking for his soul, was so difficult, so hopeless that he, like a drowning man, did not quietly and calmly beg the Lord for intercession and help, but with all his might he cried out to Him for it, teaching us with similar persistence and zeal to seek God’s help in sinful temptations and misfortunes. Art. 2. “Let my prayer be corrected as the censer before You, the lifting of my hand as an evening sacrifice.” David asks the Lord that his prayer, raised to Him from the desert, far from the place of public worship, be corrected before the Lord, i.e. she ascended directly to His throne and was received by Him with the same favor with which He would have accepted from him in the tabernacle the bloodless sacrifice of incense, or incense; He asks the Lord that the lifting of his hands to Him in prayer would be as pleasing to Him as the evening sacrifice of a one-year-old blameless lamb would be pleasing if he could bring it (Ex. 29:38, 39, 30:7, 8). You see, Lord, says David, that I cannot take part in public worship, although with all my soul I strive for Your holy church; You see that I cannot bring You either a bloodless gift or a bloody evening sacrifice. But you see together how ardent my prayer is to You, how firmly I trust in You, raising my hands to You, how a child stretches out his hands to his mother, seeking refuge in her embrace. Consider this prayer as incense, this hope as the sacrifice of a lamb offered in the evening. To both verses for church singing the words are added: “hear me, Lord,” although this addition is not in the text of the psalm itself. Art. 3. “Set, O Lord, a guard over my mouth and a guard over my mouth.” People who find themselves in such cramped circumstances as I am tend to indulge in cowardice and grumble at people and at You, Lord. Protect me, Lord, from this temptation, keep my tongue from words of cowardice and murmuring. Art. 4. “Do not turn my heart into words of deceit, and do not bear the guilt of sins.” The companions of the persecuted David urged him to take advantage of the opportunity that presented itself in the cave to kill Saul, as if there was no sin in this, arguing that the Lord Himself was delivering his enemy into the hands of David (1 Sam. 24:5). David did not listen to these suggestions. He did not allow himself to be carried away by those considerations for justifying sin that seemed respectful to his companions. But David does not guarantee that in the future he will not be susceptible to such temptation. Therefore, he begs the Lord to strengthen his heart, so that it never bows to the words of wicked people, so that he is far from trying, like them, to come up with excuses (not to excuse guilt) for sin - so that he always looks strictly at sin, never enters into a deal with his conscience, and is a merciless judge of his sinful deeds, not only but also of his thoughts. In the remaining verses of the psalm, David asks the Lord for safety from his enemies and expresses the hope that they themselves will fall into the trap laid out for him. In the next evening psalm 141: I cried out to the Lord with my voice, written on the same occasion, David, describing his cramped situation, confesses that the Lord is his only refuge. Let us dwell on those verses that serve as refrains to the stichera on the Lord I cried. Art. 8. “Bring my soul out of prison to confess to Your name.” By prison, David means those gloomy refuges in the desert rocks in which he hid from the persecutions of Saul. In these refuges he experienced the position of being imprisoned and therefore asks the Lord to free him from this prison, promising to gratefully confess this mercy before His Majesty (name). Art. 9. “The righteous women are waiting for me until you reward me.” I am not alone, says David, waiting for the time when You, Lord, will be pleased to reward me with truth and mercy for my innocent suffering. No, and your other admirers (righteous women) are watching my fate with intense attention and expecting the same. They take my business to heart, as if it were their own business. In the happy outcome of the difficult trials that I am experiencing, they will see the guarantee of their trust in Your justice and goodness, if, like me, they are destined to suffer from human untruth. The next Psalm, Psalm 129, contains the penitent’s prayer for forgiveness of sins, with the hope of receiving deliverance from troubles from the Lord with the forgiveness of sins: Art. 1. “Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice.” The psalmist calls on the Lord from the depths of troubles and misfortunes and, most importantly, from the depths of sins, feeling that both of them covered him, like waters in which a drowning person disappears, but at the same time - that there is no depth, no abyss, from where the Lord would not hear the one calling to Him. Art. 2, 3. “Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my prayer. If you see iniquity, Lord, Lord, who will stand? For You have purification.” The psalmist begs the Lord to hear his cry and not to punish him for his iniquities, because no one can stand before His justice - not only the wicked, but also the righteous - for there is no sinless righteous. The psalmist hopes that the ears of the Lord will be attentive to his prayer, because the merciful Lord has ready cleansing or forgiveness for a sinner who truly repents. Art. 4. “For Thy name’s sake I have endured Thee, O Lord; my soul has endured in Thy word; my soul trusteth in the Lord.” What kind of word of the Lord is this, for the sake of which the soul of the psalmist, embarrassed by the consciousness of its guilt before God, patiently awaited mercy from Him, especially forgiveness of sins? This is the very word that the Lord solemnly spoke to Moses when Moses asked Him to show him His glory. The Lord, showing him His glory, aloud called Himself humane and merciful, slow to anger, great in mercy and truth, forgiving iniquities and sins (Ex. 34:6–7). The praying psalmist bases his trust in the Lord on the immutability of this testimony of the Lord about Himself - he is confident that the Lord, for the sake of the glory of His name, will not deprive him of the mercy that He Himself promised to repentant sinners. Art. 5. “From the morning watch until the night, from the morning watch let Israel trust in the Lord.” The psalmist not only himself trusts in the mercy of the Lord, but encourages all the sons of Israel to do the same: those who trust in the Lord, under His merciful protection all day and all night, from one morning shift of sentries to the night ending with another morning shift, can be calm for their well-being, for their safety. Art. 6. “For with the Lord is mercy, and with him is great deliverance: and he will deliver Israel from all their iniquities.” The Lord, in Whom the psalmist encourages the Israelites to trust, is so merciful that he is ready to relieve from all responsibility for iniquity all who, trusting in His mercy, ask Him for forgiveness. In Psalm 116, the psalmist calls all nations to praise the Lord: Art. 1. “Praise the Lord, all nations, praise Him, all people.” The predestination of the pagans to salvation in Christ is the good deed for which they are invited to glorify the Lord. The Apostle Paul refers these words of the psalm specifically to the conversion of the pagans (Rom. 15:11). Art. 2. “For His mercy is established upon us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever.” The mercy predestined for the pagans, who are called to praise the Lord for it, was established on us, i.e. must certainly be revealed over us in due time - this is what the pagans should say, glorifying the Lord, in response to their call to this. Abraham was also given a promise about Christ: through Your Seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12:3; 22:18). The truth of this promise endures forever, is unchangeable and everlasting. The Lord, faithful in His promises, will certainly, sooner or later, fulfill them. How wisely the Church guides us to express the prayerful feelings characteristic of the evening through the psalms it has chosen for this purpose! First, the voice of sorrow is heard in them under the influence of a living memory of the troubles experienced during the day, especially sins; then this sorrow is dissolved by trust in God, finally resolved by praise to the Lord, who saves everyone by His grace in Christ Jesus. (Extracted from “Soulful Reading”, 1875, January, pp. 93–98). 7. Conversation about evening entrance It was said before that the law given by God through Moses in the liturgical rites prefigured the events of the New Testament. And now, when in the opening verses of the Old Testament on “I cried to the Lord,” we heard, as it were, the voice of the Old Testament mankind under the law, with its sufferings and hopes, now the holy church, with its significant actions, reminds us of the Old Testament rites that prefigured Christ the Savior. While the choir is singing: “Glory and now” and “Theotokos,” the priest and deacon make the entrance. The royal doors open; the priest and deacon from the throne make a procession through the northern doors to the royal ones; priest in vestments; in front of him is a deacon with a censer; ahead of the clergy is the cleric with a lit candle. They stop in front of the royal doors, and the deacon, bending over and holding the orarion with the three fingers of his right hand, says quietly to the priest: “Let us pray to the Lord.” The priest answers with a secret prayer, in which, bringing evening praise, thanksgiving and worship to the Lord God, he asks Him to correct our prayer, like the fragrant incense that was once offered by the Old Testament priests during the evening service, and not to turn our hearts into words or thoughts of evil; but he delivered us from all enemies who snare the destruction of our souls. “To You, Lord, Lord, our eyes are; and we trust in Thee, “do not disgrace us, O our God,” so the priest cries in prayer on behalf of all of us. Then the deacon, pointing his oracle at the open royal doors, says to the priest: “Bless, lord, the holy entrance”; the priest blesses the entrance, saying: “Blessed is the entrance of Your saints, O Lord,” and thereby inspires us that initially the one, holy and blameless Lord Jesus Christ must pass through this holy entrance, and after Him all who believe in Him. At the end of the Theotokos, the deacon, standing in the middle of the royal doors and drawing a cross in the air with a censer, exclaims: “wisdom, forgive.” On the choir they sing the song “Quiet Light”; and the deacon and priest enter the holy altar, worship before the holy throne and, having venerated it, go to a high place and stop here, in vain to the people. When the singing of the verse “Quiet Light” ends, the deacon says: “let us remember”; priest: “peace to all”; the deacon again: “wisdom, let us listen,” and then (at the Sunday all-night vigil) the prokeimenon: “The Lord reigns, clothed with beauty,” and other verses; on the choir they repeatedly repeat: “The Lord reigns, clothed in beauty.” At the end of the prokeimne, the royal doors are closed. These are the significant actions performed at this time in the church. What do these actions mean? I told you, my brothers, that in the Old Testament ritual actions the mystery of the redemption of the human race through the incarnation and death on the cross of the Only Begotten Son of God was foreshadowed. Such significant actions included the entrance, which was performed by the Old Testament priest during the evening service; through this entrance, the descent of the Son of God to earth for our sake to suffer and die for us sinners, His resurrection, ascension into heaven and sitting at the right hand of the Father was foreshadowed. In remembrance of the Old Testament ritual actions, the New Testament church, with the saints and the entrance during the all-night vigil, significantly depicts the mystery of the redemption of the human race through the incarnation and death on the cross, the resurrection and ascension to heaven of the Only Begotten Son of God - and all this is presented as if in the vestibule and fortune-telling, transporting us to the times under the law and clarifying the meaning of the actions performed with its chants. The priest, dressed in a robe, walks from the altar from the holy throne through the northern doors to the pulpit: this depicts the mysterious and incomprehensible for us abandonment of the throne of God by the Son of God, inseparable in His essence with God the Father, His descent to earth and His appearance in the flesh. The deacon preceding the priest with a censer and the cleric with a candle signify: the appearance of the Forerunner of the Lord, preparing the way for the Lord, the inner glory of the Lord and the light proclaimed by Him to people, the northern doors - the Holy Virgin Mary. When the priest stops in front of the royal doors, this marks the presence of the Lord Jesus on earth, the cross drawn by the censer means the sacrifice on the cross made by the Only Begotten Son of God for us; entrance to the royal gates - His resurrection and ascension to heaven; the touch of the priest to the holy throne - the appearance of the Son of God in heaven before the throne of God; the priest’s ascent to a mountainous place and stay there, as well as the words of the prokeme—the reign of the incarnate Son of God over the whole world, His sitting at the right hand of God the Father and His Divine greatness; the words of the deacon: “wisdom, forgive” and “wisdom, let us listen” - arouse our attention to what is happening in the church at this time. You see, bl. my listeners, how significant are the church ceremonies at this time, and how well our Orthodox Church expressed in them the greatest dogma of our faith; it seems to take us back to the times of the Old Testament, places us among the children of the Old Testament church, and teaches us its divine wisdom. It’s not for nothing that the deacon cries out: “wisdom, forgive me!” Precisely, all the significant events included in the great plan for the salvation of the human race and testifying to the ineffable wisdom of God flash before our eyes in one cumulative sacred rite! (Compiled according to the Explanation of the divine service, Archpriest V. Vladislavlev). 8. Conversation about Evensong: Quiet Light After entering, the choir begins to glorify the Divine Savior with the evening song: “Quiet light, holy saints of the glory of the immortal Heavenly Father, holy and blessed Jesus Christ! Having come to the west of the sun, having seen the evening light, we sing of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, God. Thou art worthy at all times to sing with reverent voices, O Son of God, giving life: with the same the world glorifies Thee!” This touching song was transmitted to the church, as some think, in the 2nd century by the holy martyr Athenogenes, and in the 7th century it was spread by Saint Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem. It expresses that at the end of the primeval light given to the world, i.e. the human mind, darkened by unbelief in the true God and delusions, and already in the dark evening of humanity, corrupted by the Fall, a new quiet light shone for him in the meek face of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the weakness of mortals, who tempered in Himself the immortal glory of the Heavenly Father; for through the incarnation of the Savior the light of the glory of God became a source of bliss for us, but without it it would have been a consuming fire for sinners (Heb. 12:29); that the Only Begotten Son of God, who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18), taught us to know and glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, God; which gives us true life and is worthy of holy and eternal praises; and therefore, every time we reach the sunny west and see the light of the evening, we must offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to Him Whom the whole universe glorifies. We lost everything in Adam, but gained everything in Jesus Christ: how can we not glorify and thank Him? The gates of Eden, closed by the first man, are again opened for us by the second man - the Lord from heaven. The Son of God from heaven brought us good news of grace, forgiveness and mercy; He called us from the land of exile to our true fatherland and gave us medicine that heals all the wounds of sins: His cross is for us a tree of life; His blood cleanses us from all sin; His death reconciled us with the justice of the Heavenly Father; Through His intercession, the grace-filled union that united man with God before the Fall was restored. The Son of God acquired us for Himself and gives us, instead of the transitory joys of earthly Eden, the eternal joys of heavenly Eden; He opened for us the gates of the city - the new Jerusalem. Let us follow in the footsteps of our divine Guide and Lord to our true fatherland! Let us, beloved brethren, always be attentive to His voice of love and mercy, calling to us: I am the way and the truth and the life: no one will come to the Father except by Me. And even though I am walking, I know, and I know the way. (John 14:4,6). (Compiled from the Exposition of the All-Night Vigil, Archpriest Gumilevsky). Appendix to conversation No. 8. Historical information about the origin of the song “Quiet Light” In one of the oldest Alexandrian manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures, this doxology is written after the psalms and songs of the Holy Scriptures 60. Saint Basil the Great mentions the song “Quiet Light” as a very ancient song already in his time 61 . Composing the song “Quiet Light” in the first century was very natural. The pagan Greeks had the custom at sunset to exclaim to the hidden luminary: φῶς ἁγαθὸν 62. Is it surprising if the first Christians, in contrast to the pagans, sang their φῶς ὶλαρὸν (Quiet Light) to the Lord Jesus Christ, the unquenchable Hypostatic Radiance of the glory of God the Father and the true Light of the whole world 63, which shone to us in the flesh and our darkness - ignorance of God and the mysteries of providence Enlightened him? (See “History of the liturgical hymns of the Orthodox Catholic Church,” op. Π. Η. F., pp. 15–16). The song “Quiet Light” in some lists is called the work of the martyr Athenogenes, and in others it is appropriated to Patriarch Sophronius. But neither one nor the other inscription can be considered historically correct. As for the assimilation of it to the martyr Athenogenes, it came from the misunderstood words of Basil the Great, where this song is discussed. “Our fathers,” says Basil the Great, did not want to accept the grace of the evening light in silence, but as soon as it came they brought thanksgiving. Although we cannot say for sure who was the creator of these sayings (ρημὰτων - can be translated: prayers, hymns, exclamations) of luminary thanksgiving, however, the people repeat the ancient voice when they say: we sing of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Perhaps these words were taken from some other song unknown to us, but their literal coincidence with the words from the hymn “Quiet Light” forces us to attribute them to the latter. Then Basil the Great speaks of the hymn of Athenogenes, which contains the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and thus highlights the latter from what he was told about the doxology of the Most Holy Trinity during the evening service. Here are his own words: “if anyone knows the song (ὕμνον) that he (the martyr Athenogenes) left as a dying testament to those present, going to his fiery death, it will be clear to him what thought the martyrs also had about the Holy Spirit.” It is impossible without a stretch to identify these two places and attribute the latter to the song “Quiet Light.” It is even more difficult to decide on what the opinion about the origin of this song from St. Sophronius is based: in any case, it is earlier than this name, because it is written down in the Alexandrian Codex of the Bible and is mentioned in the description of the vespers that Sophronius and his companion listened to at Sinai. Probably this news was the reason for the incorrect inscription, in which the narrator, through a misunderstanding, was mistaken for the compiler. In the West, the hymns of Ambrose of Milan, Hilary of Poitiers, Prudentius and others were used during vespers; in the Rule of Benedict, canticum ex evangelio is mentioned at vespers. Under this name, three songs are known in ancient books of hours and psalms: Zechariah, the father of the Baptist, the Mother of God and Simeon the God-Receiver. In the given place, most likely, of course, the last hymn, since it was especially appropriate for the service held at the end of the day, and in fact is read between the vespers in the apostolic decrees and is mentioned in the story of the Sinai vespers. (See Church Charter (Typic) by Prof. M.D. Ak. I. Mansvetov, pp. 37–38). After the song “Quiet Light” comes the singing of the so-called prokeemna. A prokeemne is any short verse selected from the psalms of the king and prophet David, in relation to a holiday or some day. During the prokemne, verses are recited that explain and confirm the content and meaning of the holiday or day. The word “prokeimenon” is not our Russian word, but a Greek one; in Russian it means present or presupposed, i.e. “Prokeimenon” is a verse placed in front of all other verses. So, for example, at the Sunday all-night vigil, at vespers, after “Quiet Light”, the following verse, taken from the 9th lsalm, is prescribed as a prokeme: “The Lord reigns, clothed in beauty” (Ps. 92:1). This verse is sung several times. Meanwhile, before each time the chanting of this verse, called the prokeimne, the priest says the following verses, which explain the content of the first verse, i.e. prokimna. The Sunday prokeme is followed and proclaimed by these very verses: “The Lord clothed himself with strength and girded himself: for he established the world, which cannot be moved (Ps. 92:1): holiness befits your house, O Lord, for the length of the days” (Ps. 92:5). Before the “prokeme” there is the following exclamation: “Let us embrace, peace to all, let us embrace wisdom.” Here we will remember the first thing, i.e. in other words, “let us delve into” is proclaimed so that we listen more attentively to the following words: “peace to all,” and the second - “Let us delve into wisdom” - means that we listen carefully to the prokeimenon itself. Let's dwell more on prokinnas. The name prokeemna (προκείμενον), which means a preceding verse, is explained by the fact that the verse bearing this name is usually followed by another verse, which is usually taken from the same psalm and corresponds to it in content. There are prokeimnas that are selected from the psalter in relation to the nature of the daily or holiday service. These are the prokemenas at the liturgy before the reading of the Apostle. So, for example, on Monday the prokeimenon is sung before the apostle: “make your angels your spirits and your servants a fiery flame” (Ps. 103:4). This is because on Monday the service is performed in honor of the angels. The application of the holiday to the service is contained in the so-called great prokeimnas at Vespers on the day of the Nativity of Christ, Epiphany and other holidays, as well as festive prokeimnas at the liturgy. As for the prokeimens of daily Vespers, although each day of the week has a special prokeimenon, its choice is difficult to explain from the peculiarities of the daily service. For example, on Wednesday evening, which marks the service of the cross and the Mother of God, the prokeimenon is laid out: “Your mercy, O Lord, will marry me all the days of my life” (Ps. 22:6). On Sunday, before Monday, dedicated to the disembodied forces, the prokeimenon is used: “Behold, now bless the Lord, all servants of the Lord” (Ps. 133:1). The thoughts contained in both prokeimnas are such that they are suitable for each day of the week, and it is not clear why the first of them is not dedicated to Monday, and the latter not to Wednesday, although there are attempts to explain (unfortunately, not without stretching) the choice of daily evening prokeimnas in relation to the peculiarities of one or another daily service 64. The exception is the prokeimenon of Sunday Vespers: “The Lord reigns, He is clothed with beauty,” and the verses that follow: “The Lord is clothed with strength and girded. For establish the universe, even if it does not move. Holiness befits Thy house, O Lord, for the length of the days" (Ps. 92:1,5). In this prokeme and the verses accompanying it, the Lord is glorified as the King of the world and the church. He is glorious in the beauty of His royal robe (for example, the light is His robe) and formidable in His girdle, in His readiness to draw His sword with which He is girded on His enemies. Under His sovereign hand, not only the universe, created by Him, stands unshakably, does not move from its place, but also His house, i.e. His church, in which He dwells together with the believers as in His house, preserves its inviolable holiness, i.e. the dignity due to it, as a shrine, remains throughout the length of days, until the end of time. What, one might ask, does the prokeimenon in question with its verses have to do with the Sunday service? The closest. As a result of His resurrection from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ, by His very humanity, assumed all power in heaven and on earth, as He Himself said in one of His appearances after the resurrection from the dead (Matthew 28:18), and with this omnipotent power preserves the church that He founded, so that the gates of hell cannot overcome it, and for the sake of the church preserves the whole world. (See the book “Soulful Reading” 1875, February, pp. 202–204). In view of the importance of the content of the prokeme, let us, brethren, listen with special attention to its content, to which the Holy Church calls us with the words: “let us listen, peace to all, wisdom.” (Compiled according to source) After the rite of entry, at the festive vespers, the proverbs are read, i.e. sections from the Old Testament, sometimes (on apostolic feasts) from the New Testament books. Proverb means a parable, i.e. such a teaching in which the truth is contained under the cover of allegory or under the guise of a compressed, multi-meaning saying. A collection of such parables is presented in the famous book of Solomon - Proverbs. The name proverbs was given to readings from holy scripture at Vespers (as well as during Lenten and Royal Hours) because many of them, with their content, prophetic or representative, covertly point, like parables, to persons or events sung in the church service of which they are a part, and all generally teach lessons of wisdom that everyone can apply to themselves, seeing in them a covert relationship to themselves personally, no matter how general their content may be. We indicate the meaning of proverbs in this latter sense, meaning ordinary proverbs, which for everyday evening services during the fast of Pentecost are taken in a row from the books of Genesis and Proverbs. Hearing such proverbs in church and not seeing their application to this or that day of Pentecost to which they are dated, each of us should apply them only to ourselves, for example, the narrative from the book of Genesis about the fall of Adam should be applied to ourselves in the sense that we, in Adam’s place, would, perhaps, also sin and that the history of Adam’s fall is repeated with each of us more or less. As for the evening proverbs on holidays, also on the days of Holy Week, such proverbs always have a relation to these holidays or days, sometimes close, sometimes distant, indirect. Thus, some of them symbolically point to the remembered event: for example, the proverbs about the sacrifice of Isaac and the three-day stay of Jonah in the belly of the whale are read on the eve of Easter because these events foreshadowed the death and resurrection of the Savior. Other proverbs have a prophetic relationship to the holiday. So, on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, paremias are read from the prophecies of Isaiah about Emmanuel and Micah about his birth in Bethlehem. There are proverbs that contain a narrative about the person in whose honor the holiday was established; for example, on the day of the prophet Elijah, a narrative from the book of Kings is read about the deeds of this prophet. There are proverbs that indirectly remind us of the holiday. For example, on the feasts of the Mother of God, a section from the book of parables is read about wisdom, the builder of the kingdom of God on earth (Proverbs 9). Here we are talking about hypostatic wisdom, the Son of God, the seven-pillared house built by Him, i.e. about the church, and about the abundance of spiritual benefits offered to believers in it - and not about the Mother of God. But the thought of the Mother of God easily comes to the reader or listener of this paremia, for in it hypostatic wisdom is depicted not in its eternal existence, but in a state of incarnation: she, calling people to the house she has built, says to them: “Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine that I have dissolved for you” (Proverbs 9:5). Of course, the body and blood of the God-Man offered to believers under the guise of bread and wine in the sacrament of the Eucharist. But the God-Man borrowed the body and blood from the Virgin Mary. Thus, if the proverb does not name the Mother of God, it at least indirectly reminds the believer of Her. Proverbs that are distantly related to the holiday should also include reading, on the holiday of the Archangel Michael and other ethereal forces - from the prophecy of Isaiah about the king of Babylon, whom the prophet depicts as a star who fell from heaven (Is. 14:12). Apparently there is no connection to the holiday. But if we take into account that, depicting the famous earthly king, who surpassed other kings in his power, as the morning star surpasses other stars in the brightness of his light and was overly proud of this superiority, the prophet has in mind the prototype of this king - the spirit of darkness, cast down from heaven for his pride - then the relation of the proverb to the holiday in honor of the angels will be clear. The very opposite of their spirits of malice reminds us of them; the fate of the latter arouses the thought of the merit before God of the former, who were not carried away by their example and remained in obedience to God. There are proverbs that offer teachings of faith and morals that correspond to the holiday. Such, for example, are the proverbs from the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, read at Vespers on holidays dedicated to the memory of prophets, martyrs, saints, and saints. One of them (Wis. 3:1–9) speaks of the bliss of the righteous in the future life and shows the bright side of their sorrows and suffering in the present. In another (Wis. 4:7-15) the idea is conveyed that the early death of a pious person is not an evil, but a great benefit for him. The third (Wis. 5, 6) depicts the future bliss of the righteous and the terrible judgment of God on the wicked. (See About Vespers, Archpriest V. Nechaev, now Vissarion, Bishop of Kostroma, pp. 54–57). This, brethren, is the varied and at the same time highly edifying meaning of church proverbs, to the content of which we must pay special attention. (Compiled according to source). 11. Conversation about Evensong: “Vouchsafe, O Lord” After the paremias at the all-night vigil, there follows a special litany (Rtsem vsi...), in which the believers, with special warmth of soul and with special boldness, strenuously ask the Lord that He, in His great mercy, have mercy on them and all Christians. This litany, which we have already explained earlier, is followed by the reading: “Lord vouchsafe.” (See A manual for studying the Charter of Divine Services, Archpriest Nikolsky). We will convey this song in Russian translation, although in Church Slavonic it is quite intelligible. “Grant us, Lord, this evening to be protected from sin. Blessed are You, O Lord, God of our fathers. Your name is worthy of praise and glorification forever. Amen. May Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we trust in You. Blessed are You, O Lord, teach me Your laws (by Your justification). Blessed are You, Master, make Your laws intelligible to me. Blessed are You, Holy One, enlighten me with Your laws. Lord, Thy mercy is eternal, do not despise the creations of Thy hands. Praise befits you, song befits you, glory befits you, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen". This song, as you know, is part of the morning doxology: Glory to God in the highest, in which the word evening is replaced by the word day (Lord vouchsafe this day); but in terms of its content it is also appropriate for evening time. The evening light, according to the law of the contact of ideas, naturally arouses the thought of the law of the Lord, which, according to its educational meaning, the psalmist calls a lamp to his feet and a light to his paths (Ps. 119:105), and at the same time naturally arouses in a pious soul a desire for illumination by this spiritual light, based on the consideration that no one can be satisfied with the abundance of material light when the darkness of ignorance and misconceptions. The laws that the psalmist asks for teaching, and after him the church, guides us to beg the Lord, are called in the Church Slavonic text of the psalm (Ps. 119:12) and the church song in question justifications - in the sense that they serve as an expression of the right will of God and guide us to righteousness. But if these divine laws are already known from Holy Scripture, then why else is it necessary to beg the Lord to teach us them and enlighten us with them? Is reading or listening to holy scripture not enough for this? Apparently, it is not enough without the assistance of the enlightening and admonishing grace of God. Until it touches the minds and hearts of those reading or listening to the word of God, they can remain in that state of spiritual blindness and deafness, in which, seeing, having before their eyes the clear truth proclaimed in the word of God, they do not see, while hearing, they do not hear and do not understand. Therefore, we must pray to the Lord that He Himself, by His grace, would not only protect us from this danger, but also open our mental eyes to understand the miracles of His law (Ps. 119:18). (See About Vespers. Archpriest V. Nechaev. pp. 28–29). No matter how short this song is, it is very instructive: it teaches us to avoid sin, as the most terrible evil for man; it encourages man to ask for God’s all-powerful help in this matter and glorify the Lord as his Creator, Provider, Founder and Savior. (Compiled according to source). 12. Conversation about verse stichera at Sunday all-night vigil The prayer “grant, O Lord,” is followed by the litany: “let us fulfill our evening prayer to the Lord,” and then the stichera litia (verses) 65. They consist of the resurrection stichera, the prokemenon verses, and New Testament hymns depicting the royal dignity of the risen Christ and the saving fruits of His resurrection. What is the meaning of these stichera in the All-Night Vigil? The meaning is this: they remind us of the times of the leaders and rulers of the people of God after the captivity of Babylon until the birth of Christ. Here too, the Heavenly Father showed His special care for the salvation of fallen man. The best of the leaders of the people of God, such as Zerubbabel and Judah Maccabee, portrayed themselves as the one King and Ruler of the entire universe, our Lord Jesus Christ, and His blessed kingdom. And in the books of the prophets, which were read every Saturday in those days, the promised Savior of the world is very often depicted as the king and ruler of the whole world. The establishment of the universe, His house, i.e., is attributed to Him. His holy church is assigned a shrine for the length of days, for ever and ever. Thus, in the course of historical events, we are now transported to the time after the captivity of Babylon and remember those prophetic broadcasts in which the promised Savior of the world was depicted, on the one hand, as the King and Ruler of the whole world, on the other, as a great sufferer and sacrifice for our sins. Transporting ourselves to these times and remembering these broadcasts, we contemplate our Lord Jesus Christ, how He, through His resurrection and sitting at the right hand of God the Father, became the King of heaven and earth, how He triumphed over the age-old enemies of the human race - over sin, the devil and death; we contemplate His holy church, which, according to His promise, is so indestructible that the very gates of hell will not prevail against it, and we believe that He, as the true God, is and will be exalted with honor and glory forever and ever. It is this royal dignity of Jesus Christ the God-Man that is revealed in the verse stichera. Old Testament verses serve as evidence of the faith of the Old Testament righteous in the promised Savior, as the King and Lord of all creatures; New Testament stichera express our faith in the Lord Jesus as the King of heaven and earth, who by His resurrection destroyed the power of death of hell. “Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Saviour, the angels sing in heaven, and grant us on earth to glorify Thee with a pure heart” (chapter 6); this is like an introduction to verse chants, from which it is already clear that the risen Christ is the King not only of men, but also of angels. “The Lord reigns and is clothed with beauty,” a prophetic Old Testament voice is heard. The New Testament face answers: “let the creation rejoice, let the heavens rejoice, let the nations clasp their hands with joy: Christ has saved us, having nailed our sins and put to death on the cross, giving us life, having raised the fallen Adam of all people, as a Lover of mankind” (chapter 1). Or again: “with the tree, O Savior, you abolished the oath from the tree (from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), you put to death the power of death by Your burial, and you enlightened our race with Your rise: with the same cry we cry to You, O Life-Giver, Christ our God: glory to You!” (chapter 2). “For establish the world, which cannot move,” you again hear the Old Testament prophetic voice. The face of the New Testament answers: “This King of heaven and earth, incomprehensibly, you were crucified by will for your love of mankind: but hell shits upon Him; Adam, having seen You the Creator in the underworld, was resurrected” (chapter 1 on art. verse 3). Or again: “O Christ, you descended into hell, you captured death, and you rose again for three days, you raised us with us, glorifying Your great rise, O Lord, Lover of Mankind!” (chapter 7). “To Thy house shall holiness befit, O Lord, for the length of the days,” hear again the voice of the Old Testament. The face of the New Testament answers: “Life-giving Christ, who willingly endured the passion of mortals for the sake of mortals, but descended into hell, as if He were strong, having snatched away those awaiting Your coming, as if from a mighty beast, You have granted heaven instead of hell to live. Grant also to us, who glorify Your three-day rising, the cleansing of sins and great mercy” (chapter 2). In the last stichera of verse, the Mother of God is praised - as the Mother of the King of heaven and earth: “Thou art the church and the door, the chamber and throne of kings, the all-honorable Virgin, through whom is my deliverer, Christ the Lord, appearing in darkness to those sleeping, the sun of righteousness, to enlighten even though He created in His image with His own hand, the same, all-sung, like a mother Having acquired boldness towards Him, pray unceasingly for our souls to be saved” (chapter 5). Behind the verse stichera you hear the prayer of Simeon the God-Receiver: “Now dost thou let Thy servant go in peace, according to Thy word,” and other New Testament prayers: “Holy God, Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us” and “Our Father.” You are leaving Old Testament times and entering New Testament times. The last prayer song of the Old Testament elder, Simeon the God-Receiver, sounds as if the voice of all the Old Testament righteous men greeting the Lord, who by faith saw the promised Savior and cried out in their souls to the Heavenly Father during separation from earthly life: “My eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people - a light for the revelation of tongues and the glory of Your people. Israel" and at the same time brings to mind our own death, makes us think about the last minutes of our earthly life and lift our eyes to the Lord Jesus with prayer and tenderness, as to our Savior, as to the light shining in the shadow of death, as to our glory in heaven. Here, bl. listeners, a presentation of the Old Testament events in which the plan of divine economy for the salvation of the human race was revealed and implemented; and how vividly, how clearly, how amazingly faithfully they are presented to our attention at the All-Night Vigil! You yourself seem to be transported to Old Testament times, as if you were living with the Old Testament righteous people and together with them praising the promised Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. May He hear our praises and accept them like a fragrant incense, like an acceptable sacrifice! Amen. (Compiled according to the Explanation of the Divine Service, Archpriest V. Vladislavlev). 13. Conversation about lithium at the all-night vigil Today we will talk with you, brothers, about the litany and blessing of the loaves, performed at the all-night vigil on the eve of the church and twelve feasts after the litany of petition and the secret prayer read after it. Litia is a Greek word and translated into Russian means public prayer. It is established to perform litias, on the one hand, in memory of public prayers or religious processions, which took place in ancient times both on the occasion of national disasters, and sometimes simply according to established custom. “It is known, for example, that in Constantinople there was a square to which the patriarchs and emperors every year, on certain days established for this day, came out with a procession of the cross and offered prayers for the salvation of the entire city. Thus, the historian of the sixth century Kedrin writes that in memory of the earthquake, public prayer was performed annually on a stone, i.e. on a field or square." They think that according to this accepted custom among ancient Christians and our church charters, litias were determined to be celebrated partly in churches, partly also in other public places. But the litias, performed in the church itself or in the vestibule of the church, were established not only in memory of the public prayers of ancient Christians, but also in order to share the joy of the upcoming holiday with the catechumens and penitents, who did not have the right to stand in the church with the believers. And some believe 66 that the church in the first centuries of Christianity established litias precisely out of Christian love for these catechumens and penitents, who were allowed to stand during services only in the vestibule of the church. One might also think that by celebrating the litia in the narthex, the church had the goal of teaching the believers themselves humility, repentance and turning to God with a prayer for mercy. So about this in the book “The New Tablet” we read: “the church, as if in the image of the repentant, humbling itself before God and asking for His mercy, performs a lithium at Vespers together with the catechumens and the repentant” 67 . Thus, as we have now seen, litias were established, firstly, in memory of public prayers performed in ancient times, secondly, out of love for the catechumens and penitents, and thirdly, in order to induce all believers in general to humility and repentance. The procedure for performing litiya is as follows: The priest and deacon, when singing the festive stichera, leave the altar into the vestibule; and here the deacon proclaims a prayer that the Lord will save, bless the whole world, grant it His mercy and bounty, so that He will exalt Christian strength and send us His rich mercies. Then follows a prayer for the sovereign and the entire reigning house, for the Holy Synod, the local bishop, for every Christian soul in need of God's mercy and help, for every city and country and for everyone living in them with faith, for the fathers and brothers of the deceased, for deliverance from famine, infection, earthquakes, floods, invasions of enemies and internecine warfare. These prayers, accompanied by repeated singing: “Lord, have mercy,” the priest concludes with a prayer that the Lord will grant us all forgiveness of sins, deliver us from every enemy, pacify our lives and have mercy and save us all. We should note that at lithium prayers “Lord, have mercy” is sung first 40 times, then 30, then 50 and, finally, at the last prayer - three times. Let us remember that “Lord, have mercy” is sung many times to express our constant need for mercy. We sin every minute and every minute, therefore, with repentance we must ask the Lord for mercy. On the other hand, repeated, separate, intelligible pronunciation of the words: “Lord, have mercy,” involuntarily captivates and motivates many to pray and calls them to repentance of sins. In addition, “Lord, have mercy” is sung many times in memory of the fact that the poor Orthodox Christians, during religious processions, constantly prayed with thousands of lips to the Lord for mercy and deliverance from social disasters 68 . Finally, singing “Lord, have mercy” three times is for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and to express that the prayer being performed is raised to all three persons of the Most Holy Trinity 69 . After the priest’s prayer, the singers sing Amen, and everyone goes from the vestibule to the church, to the table, where five loaves of bread, wheat, wine and oil are placed on a special vessel for blessing. Here, at the end of the singing of the festive stichera and the song of the God-Receiver Simeon: now you dismiss, with the threefold singing of the festive troparion, three times incense is performed over the loaves prepared for blessing, and then the priest reads a prayer of blessing, in which, remembering the Savior’s miraculous feeding of five thousand people with five loaves, he invokes God’s blessing on the five loaves, wheat, wine and oil and prays to God that He He multiplied these gifts in His holy church and throughout the world, and so that He might sanctify His faithful who partake of them. The blessing of the loaves is a beautiful and instructive rite that has been performed since the first times of Christianity, when Christians gathered in church for an all-night vigil, prayed, sang, cried for their dead brothers and martyrs, and then, tired themselves, sat down at the table at which everyone was equal - rich and poor, princes and beggars. Then the priest blessed the bread, oil and wine, and everyone ate from them, edifying themselves with soul-saving fraternal conversations. Having told you, brothers, in this conversation about the lithium at the all-night vigil, we must, we think, give you a lesson and a lesson at the end of the conversation. What kind of teaching will we give you? Let us give the lesson of humility and repentance. Standing at the Litiya in the vestibule of the church, where the place is for catechumens and penitents, and begging the Lord for mercy, shouldn’t we at the same time fully recognize our unworthiness before God, our sins, and our weakness? Yes, they should, for both the very place of the porch and the very service of the lithium lead us to this. We recognize our unworthiness, our sins, and our weakness. Like a publican, let us mentally cry out: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Like the harlot we will fall at the feet of Jesus, and like the Apostle Peter we will weep bitterly. And we will be blessed if we do this, for the word of the Savior is not false: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Amen. (Compiled with additional information from the magazine “Helmsman”, 1892, No. 45). Appendix to conversation No. 13. Contents of prayers at the lithium The Litiya of the festive all-night vigil is that part of Vespers when the clergy and singers go out into the church vestibule. In ancient times, the catechumens (preparing for holy baptism) and the penitents (those who bore penance for their sins) stood in the vestibule; in a feeling of deep humility, believers leave the church into the vestibule and here, in the place of the repentant, offer their prayers to the Lord. After the festive stichera (songs), the deacon, and if there is no deacon, then the priest himself, proclaims intense prayers to the Lord, so that the Lord God will save and bless the whole world, grant it His mercy and bounty, so that He will exalt Christian power and send us His rich mercies - not for any of our merits, because we - sinful people - do not deserve any of God's mercies, but through prayers The Most Holy Theotokos, by the power of the honest and life-giving cross, by the intercession of the honest heavenly forces of the disembodied and all the saints, starting from the holy prophet and forerunner of the Lord John, above whom there was no one born, according to the word of the Savior Himself, and ending with that saint of God, to whose name the church is dedicated. To these petitions, proclaimed by a deacon or priest, the singers respond with a particularly touching, repeated: “Lord, have mercy.” Having remembered the saints of God, we pray to the most merciful Lord to hear our sinful prayer and to have mercy on us unworthy... Then we pray for our most pious Sovereign, so that the Lord will give him victory over every enemy and adversary (enemy), we pray for the entire royal house, as the closest collaborators of the Sovereign in the great matter of governing the kingdom, we pray for our highest spiritual authority - the most holy governing synod, for our archpastor, our spiritual fathers, for every Christian soul, grieving and embittered and therefore most in need of God's mercy and help; We pray for our holy church, our city or village and for everyone living in it, that the Lord God will pacify and arrange the whole world, that there will be peace and order everywhere, that God’s holy Christian churches (societies) will stand firmly in the Orthodox faith; we pray for salvation and help for those who, with zeal and fear of God, work to spread the Christian faith and God's word; we pray for those who were sent to other places, to foreign countries, and who are now with us, in the house of God; we pray for the healing of those who are infirm, for the repose and blessed memory and forgiveness of the sins of all our deceased fathers and brothers - Orthodox Christians who rest in the sleep of death near our holy church, and everywhere, all over the world - we pray for the deliverance of those captives who are in captivity (for example, in captivity among the Turks), for our brothers who are at services, who serve and served here, in our native holy church; Let’s say everything about everyone: “Lord, have mercy!” And this is a short prayer appeal to the Lord - “Lord, have mercy”! - repeated first forty times, then thirty, then fifty and finally twice three times. Isn’t it true, brothers, what a wonderful prayer this is! She embraces all our neighbors - the rich and the poor, the distressed and the grieving, the sick and the poor, those serving and working, and, finally, those who have fallen into captivity, for whom there is no other salvation except from the one God... How, with these touching words, the heart of every Christian will not be warmed by love for all his neighbors!.. “Hear us, O God, our Savior,” the priest continues to pray, “the hope of all the ends of the earth and those who are in the seas far away, and be merciful, be merciful, O Master, for our sins and have mercy on us.” - In You, God, we all people hope - both those who live in all corners of the whole world, and those who sail the distant seas!.. Oh, this is the true truth! He who is not accustomed to bowing his knees and heads before God, let him go across the sea, let the wind blow there, let the storm rumble and rustle, let the sea boil with waves; let the one who does not know God see how the largest ship or steamer rocks on the waves of the sea like a nutshell, and each wave threatens to sink him with everything that is on the ship: then this man of little faith will humble himself before God, and he will fall to his knees, raise his eyes and hands to the sky - he, who has never prayed, will now pray with tears, will pray, because he will see death face to face, will be convinced that there is no His wisdom, his strength will help him, and only one almighty, merciful God can help... Here is the last great prayer, before which the priest proclaims to those present: “Peace to all, bow your heads before the Lord!” “Much-merciful Lord, Lord Jesus Christ our God, through the prayers of our All-pure Lady Theotokos... and all the saints, make our prayer favorable, grant us forgiveness of our sins, cover us with Your wing, drive away from us every enemy and adversary, pacify our lives, Lord, have mercy on us and Your world, and save our souls, for He is good and lover of humanity." How wonderful this prayer is! God, cover us with the shelter of Your wings, as a bird covers its chicks, remove from us every enemy and adversary, make our life peaceful and tranquil, O Lord, and have mercy on us and Your whole world, and save our souls. After this prayer, the singers sing: Amen, and everyone goes from the vestibule to the church, to the table where five loaves of bread, wheat, wine and oil are prepared for blessing. (Compiled from “Trinity leaf” No. 439). 14. Conversation about the blessing of the loaves Last time I told you, dammit. listen., about lithium and its significance; Now I will explain why the blessing of the loaves, which was only slightly mentioned in the previous conversation, was performed and is performed at the all-night vigil. The all-night vigil lasted from evening to morning (Cass. Book III, chapters 8 and 9) and therefore, to strengthen the believers who intended to stay all night in the church, after singing vespers, blessed bread was usually broken and wine and oil were distributed, as happens at the evening meal in monasteries. This custom is very ancient. Gregory the Theologian says about his mother Nonna: “she saw in a dream that I, as dear to her, fed her with clean bread, blessed as usual by the sign of the cross, and from this she recovered” (a word in praise of her father). In ancient times, after blessing the loaves, the priest stood in front of the royal doors, looking to the west, and after reading the psalm: “I will bless the Lord” before the words: “they will not be deprived of any good” - he blessed those present in the church, saying: “The blessing of the Lord is upon you” and so on. The reader answered: “Amen,” then the priest said again: “Through the prayers of the saints, our fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us,” and with little illumination of the church, reading began from the Acts of the Apostles, or from the Council Epistles, or from the epistles of the Apostle Paul 70. Meanwhile, the priest and deacon, having undressed, left the altar and sat down with everyone present in the church. The reading continued until they tasted the blessed bread and wine. Nowadays this custom is partially preserved in some monasteries, for example, on Athos. And in our Lavra of St. Sergius, on some solemn holidays, during the all-night vigil, blessed bread is broken up and distributed to all believers. In other churches, the loaves are usually distributed to some of the parishioners or eaten by the clergy. We only read from the Acts of the Apostles on Easter Day. After this meal was completed and at the end of the reading, the paraecclesiarch rang the great and other campaigns: this is the origin of our second ringing at the all-night vigil. It serves as a sign that Vespers is over and a new part of the All-Night Vigil begins - Matins. This is what happened in ancient times in the church; and we have all this, but somewhat abbreviated, because even our most all-night vigil lasts not the whole night, but several hours. On ordinary Sundays, after the sacred song of the last Old Testament righteous man, i.e. according to “now you forgive”, you hear the threefold invocation of the Holy Trinity: “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”... “Holy Trinity”... “Our Father”... New Testament times are opening before you - times in which the seraphim’s praises of the Most Holy Trinity will be silently sent out, both on earth and in heaven - in which people they will have boldness to call God their Father. Then, at the exclamation of the priest, they sing three times: “Virgin Mother of God! Hail, blessed Mary! The Lord is with you! Blessed are You among women” and so on. We are transported mentally to Nazareth, to that church in which the most pure Virgin Mary heard the gospel from the archangel. Repeating the Archangel's greeting, we cry out to the Most Holy Virgin: “Hail, full of grace Mary! The Lord is with You, blessed are You among women and blessed is the fruit of Your womb!” and we bow down reverently before Her. Finally, the reading of the psalm follows: “I will bless the Lord at all times” and after the blessing from the priest, the reading of the sixth psalm begins. You have seen, my brethren, that the holy church remembered with us and, as it were, experienced all the most important Old Testament events that served as the basis for our salvation, introduced us to the closest contemplation of them and gradually brought us to the times of the New Testament. In ancient Christian times, when church services were not as hasty as ours, this recollection of Old Testament events ended late at night. Such a deep night of ignorance, sinful darkness and blindness was spread over most of the human race when our Lord Jesus Christ came to earth, and only in the chosen people of God did the light of the knowledge of God flicker, just as in the church of God, during the eating of the blessed bread, a few lamps burned, and outside the walls of the church there was impenetrable darkness. Oh, that we would cling tightly to the true light, Christ, with all our hearts, and run away as much as possible from the darkness of sin and lawlessness! Amen. (See Explanation of the service by Archpriest V. Vladislavlev, pp. 76–78). 15. Conversation on the prayer of the holy righteous Simeon the God-Receiver Behind the verse stichera, we hear at the all-night vigil the prayer of Simeon the God-Receiver: now, O Master, you are releasing Your servant, according to Your word, in peace: for my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people: a light revealed by the tongue, and the glory of Your people Israel (Luke 2:29–32). We often hear this song of the righteous Simeon. It is sung in church during services throughout the year. But the church repeats her words to us; It remains for us to explain its meaning. What is righteous Simeon talking about in this song? Righteous Simeon in this song expresses his feeling of joy. He rejoices 1) for himself, 2) for the entire human race, 3) in particular for the people of Israel. He rejoices for himself, because God allows him to die in peace, making him worthy to see the Infant Christ in life. He rejoices for the human race, because God has given in this Child the Savior to the entire human race. He rejoices for the people of Israel, because God sent the Savior to the world from among His people and thereby glorified His people. Simeon was a truly righteous man, fulfilling all the rituals of the Mosaic Law, and pious, while performing such rituals, he sincerely believed in God and loved God. He expected the joy of Israel, i.e. The Messiah - Christ, about whom everyone was thinking and talking then. Simeon was promised by the Holy Spirit that until then he would not see death, to put it simply, he would not die until he saw with his own eyes the Christ of the Lord, who had already come to earth. An ancient legend explains the reason for this promise as follows: Simeon was one of the LXXII translators who, 270 years before the birth of Christ, translated the books of Moses and the prophets from Hebrew into Greek. Translating the book of the prophet Isaiah and reaching the verse: “Behold, the Virgin will receive with child,” Simeon wanted to correct what seemed to him a mistake and instead of the word: “virgin” put the words: “young woman.” “No,” it was revealed to him here, “this is not a mistake, but a secret that will come true before you die”... Christ was born from the Virgin Mary and on the 40th day after His birth was brought to the Jerusalem temple to perform a legal rite over Him in the so-called court of the wives, where they made sacrifices; probably, the dedication of the firstborn to God took place - their placement before the Lord. Simeon came there at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. There, let us repeat the words of Patriarch Photius, he “sees many mothers entering for purification, and he also sees one bearing an immaculate fruit. Looking around, he notices that the other mothers were ordinary wives, but only the Virgin is clothed with a special light. Simeon hurriedly walks among the other mothers and says: “Let me embrace my desire.” The Most Holy Virgin gave Her divine Child to the righteous, and Simeon, inspired by the Holy Spirit, blessed and glorified God with a song of thanksgiving. He said: “Now you are releasing Your servant, O Master, according to Your word, in peace.” Now, Lord of life and death, according to Your word, You release Your servant from this life in peace - with spiritual calm and consolation. “As my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people.” With my own eyes I saw the Savior Whom You sent for all people living on earth. “Light by revelation, and the glory of Your people Israel,” - Who with His teaching will enlighten the pagans, darkened by the sin of idolatry, and glorify Your people of Israel by His appearance among them. It was the last, solemn farewell song of the long-lived old man. He died soon, and tradition still indicates his grave in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, on the eastern side of Jerusalem. His song has become the evening song of the Orthodox Church since ancient times: it is already included in the Apostolic Decrees. It is read in all Greek and Eastern psalters. The Venerable Mary of Egypt sang it when, before her death, she received the Mysteries of Christ. And for us, Christian brothers, will the Lord deign to sing or recite the song of Simeon the God-Receiver before our death? Only the Lord knows. At the very least, in accordance with the church charter, let us begin to repeat this song from our hearts every day during evening services, or even at home, when going to bed. Then we will not be afraid of the sleep of death. (See Sunday Afternoon, 1892, no. 4). The Song of Righteous Simeon is the last sounds from the Old Testament world about salvation and the Savior; This is where the Old Testament ideas about the coming Messiah end. With the words: Our Father, Mother of God, Virgin, rejoice, New Testament events are already indicated. Here Vespers ends at the All-Night Vigil and Matins begins. (Compiled according to source). 16. Conversation on the words: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men These words begin the Six Psalms at the All-Night Vigil, which follows the blessing of the loaves at the litia and with which Matins proper begins. We often hear these words in church services. Let's try to understand their meaning. If we listen to them with due understanding, they will arouse feelings of tenderness and joy in our hearts and serve for our edification. From whom did the church accept these words for its use? This is an angelic song: angels taught it to people. Let us remember that great, mysterious night when the wondrous work of God’s love for the human race took place - when the Son of God was born on earth. Under the cover of squalor and humiliation, His Divine glory was hidden: no one except His Mother and His imaginary father knew about His birth. And who could recognize in this Baby, wrapped in poor swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, the Creator and Ruler of the world? But that same night the glory of the Lord illuminates the humble shepherds of Bethlehem; heavenly messengers appear to them - angels with the news of the birth of the Savior and, glorifying the boundless love of the Lord for the human race, proclaim peace to the earth and God's good will to people: glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men. “On earth there is peace, good will to men.” What could be more necessary, more joyful, more beneficial for a person than this gift brought to earth by the Son of God born on it? Man was created by God for peace and bliss: his heavenly life was peaceful and blissful. With a pure mind and heart, he ascended to God and contemplated His glory - and God graciously approached man. There was no sin and tears on earth, there was no sorrow and repentance. But soon man deprived himself of this blissful state. Having heeded the flattering suggestion of the enemy of the world and the enemy of God - the devil, he rebelled against his Creator, violated His will and turned God's love for him into anger, the former blessings into punishment; The very earth, defiled by sin, was struck by God's curse. This war, begun by our forefather against God, brought us – the descendants of Adam – bitter fruits. Being born in sin and with an inclination towards sin, people continued their enmity against God and were all subject to the wrath of God. And having moved away from God - the source of peace and bliss - man sought in vain for his soul peace and tranquility. Conscience proclaimed to him the law of God and, with its reproofs, punished him for violating it, and the flesh, with its passions and lusts, drew him to sin. Constantly tormented by this internal struggle, he did not find the strength to overcome sin, to correct his damage, and trembled at the righteous judgment of God. Finally, inevitable death, without hope for a better life beyond the grave, with a premonition of judgment and retribution for sins, constantly frightened a person and deprived him of the last joy in a disastrous life. And man, a sinner, would never be able to get out of this disastrous state if the Lord, inexhaustible in His goodness, did not want to approach him and raise him to Himself again. When a person experienced the full depth of evil into which his sin led him, felt his moral powerlessness and the need for Divine help, God sends to earth the Savior - His Only Begotten Son, Who took on our flesh and, taking upon Himself our guilt before God, returned to people the blessing of the Heavenly Father, freed the earth from the curse that weighed on it and again gave us peace and bliss. He came to bring peace to everyone, far and near (Eph. 2:17). The angelic song heard by the Bethlehem shepherds announces the fulfillment of the sacrament of our salvation - the appearance on earth of God in the flesh, the reconciliation of heaven with earth. And the church, proclaiming it during its services, awakens in us the joyful thought that we, Christians, are delivered from the wrath of God, from the fear of condemnation and eternal death, that we are in the kingdom of peace and love of God. So, let none of us who believe in Christ the Savior complain about the fate of earthly life. But whoever feels the lack of peace in his soul and sincerely desires it, let him resort with his sorrows to the Divine Peace-Giver, and ask for His all-powerful help, and he will find from Him a cure for all his sorrows, true spiritual peace and joy. Is anyone burdened by the consciousness of their sinfulness, guilt before God and the fear of God’s righteous judgment? Let us remember that our Savior is the Lamb of God, who appeared on earth to take away our sins (1 John 5), and who became a cleansing and reconciling sacrifice to God for us. He is our Intercessor before God the Father, who announced to people His boundless love for them, forgiving their sins for the sake of the merits of His Son. Through faith in Him, we, former criminal slaves and enemies of God, are made beloved children of God, we receive boldness to cry out to the heavenly Father: “Abba Father” (Gal. 4:6) and hope not only for deliverance from all punishment, but also for an inheritance with Christ, the heavenly blissful kingdom. Already carry a slave, but a son; Or else the son and heir of God is Jesus Christ (v. 7). Does anyone grieve over their spiritual weakness, their weakness of strength in the fight against sin, against the temptations and seductions of the world? - Let him not be discouraged, but let him tell his sorrow to His Savior and ask Him for gracious reinforcement. This is why He took on our weak flesh, so that by the action of His Divinity he could cleanse and renew our nature, corrupted by sin, and grant spiritual help in victory over sin and in fulfilling the holy will of God. And all Divine powers have been given to us, including life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Finally, no external sorrows that befall us in our earthly life will shake the inner peace of our soul if it flows from the consciousness of our peace with God. If our conscience bears witness to us that we are children of God, as we keep His commandments and do those things that are right before Him (1 John 2:22). Confident in God’s love for us, in His fatherly providence for us, we will accept these sorrows as a sign of the same love of the Heavenly Father for us, trusting that all things will work out for good to those who love God (Rom. 8:28) - and this confidence will make it easier and sweeter for us to endure sorrows, and nothing will separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:39), in which is all our joy and bliss. Christian! When you hear an angelic song in church, proclaiming peace and favor from the Lord to you, thank Him for His endless love for you, revealed in sending us the Divine Peace-Giver, and take care to take advantage of the gift of His mercy: try to acquire and preserve spiritual peace. What is most destroying this world? Our sins, which disturb and darken the soul, remove it from God - the source of peace and spiritual joy. There is no peace in my bones because of my sins (Psalm 37:4). Let us resist sin with all our might, let us fulfill the commandments of our Savior, let us place all our trust in Him, surrender ourselves to His will - and the peace of God will establish itself in our hearts. (Compiled from “Soulful Reading”, 1860, vol. I). 17. Conversation about six psalms After the words: “Glory to God in the highest,” the reading of the Six Psalms follows. The Six Psalms is the reading of the six psalms of David: the 3rd, 37th, 62nd, 87th, 102nd and 142nd, preceded by the angelic doxology: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” which obviously indicates that the second part of Matins is connected primarily with the remembrance of the Nativity of Christ Savior. The time of reading the Six Psalms is a very important time at the all-night vigil; for, firstly, the charter says: “with the verb six psalms with all attention and fear of God, as He Himself converses with Christ our God invisibly, and praying for our sins”; secondly, during the reading of the Six Psalms it is necessary to extinguish the candles; For what? On the one hand, in order to depict the darkness of the night of the birth of Christ, which is remembered at this time at the all-night vigil, on the other, so that we, less seeing with our eyes, listen to the Six Psalms with attention and fear, and so that everyone, standing in the dark, can sigh with tenderness and shed tears” (New Tablet. 126). Yes, it should be so, for the psalms read are very touching, comforting and instructive. They can arouse in a great sinner feelings of tenderness and contrition of heart and console the most sorrowful soul with the hope of God’s mercy. Let's say something special about each psalm. Psalm 3 was written by David at the time when his own son Absalom went against him and when, it is said, “he ran away from before him.” In this psalm, David complains about his many enemies, but at the same time he calms himself with the hope of God’s help and, confident in it, is no longer afraid of those attacking him. He believes that salvation and blessing from the Lord will appear to him and his people. Psalm 37 has the following inscription: a psalm to David, in remembrance of the Sabbath. Some of the church fathers give this inscription the following meaning: David, bringing to mind the misfortune that weighs on him, asks God to grant him Sabbath, i.e. repose from misfortunes (Dushep. Thu. 1890, December, p. 572). In this psalm, David confesses his guilt before God, saying that iniquities have surpassed his head and are weighing him down like a heavy burden; that the disasters that befell him are fully deserved by him, and that they are the bitter fruit of his iniquities. But at the same time, he does not lose hope that the Lord will forgive him and rush to his aid. “In You, O Lord, have I trusted,” he cries, “Hear me, O Lord my God” (v. 16). “Do not forsake me, O Lord my God, do not depart from me, attend to my help, O Lord of my salvation” (vv. 22, 23). Psalm 62 is thought to have been written by David while he was hiding in the desert from the persecution of Saul. “A Psalm to David, it is written, that he was never to be in the wilderness of Judea.” In it, David indulges in the contemplation of God, strives for Him with his soul, desires to see His glory in the sanctuary, remembers Him on his bed and in the morning hours, in the shadow of His wings, rejoices and here feels safe from the enemies seeking his soul. After the 62nd psalm, the doxology and praise of the Most Holy Trinity is pronounced (“halleluia” three times) and then the priest, who has hitherto read special morning prayers in the altar, comes out to finish them in front of the royal doors, and here in him we should see at this time the image of our Intercessor and Savior, Who, talking with us during our prayers, at the same time intercedes for us before God the Father. The priest reads 12 prayers during the sixth psalm. In them, he prays for everyone who stands before the face of the glory of the Lord, prays to Him to save us by His power, to remove darkness from our hearts, to remember everyone on earth and at sea who requires His help, and in the end he glorifies and thanks the Lord for giving us the light of day and asks for spiritual and gracious light. At the end of the short doxology, the reading of psalms continues - the 87th, 102nd and 142nd. Psalm 87 is a mournful psalm. Like a heavy burden, misfortunes weighed down on the psalmist, his soul was filled with evil, his life was headed for hell, i.e. closer to death. People, even those close to him, abandoned him and considered him an abomination to themselves, and the Lord Himself, apparently, turned His face away from him and the arrows of His wrath struck him. But even in such sorrow, he does not lose faith in God and trust in Him and calls out to his Lord: “let my prayer come before You, incline Your ear to my prayer!” Psalm 102, apparently, was written by David when his soul was imbued with a feeling of deepest gratitude to God for His great benefits both for him personally and for the entire people of Israel. In this psalm, David glorifies the goodness of God in general. “The Lord,” he says, cleanses our iniquities, heals ailments, delivers our life from corruption; He knows all our weaknesses and His mercy from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.” David then invites the angels to glorify the Lord, addresses the same appeal to all creation, and finally addresses the same appeal to his soul: “Bless,” he exclaims, “my soul, the Lord.” Finally, the last psalm of the sixth psalm (142nd) was written, like the first six psalm psalm, at the time when his son Absalom rebelled against David. “A Psalm to David,” the inscription says, “when Absalom his son persecuted him.” In this psalm, David portrays himself as a man pursued by enemies (vv. 3, 9), in a very dangerous and difficult situation (3, 7, 11) and therefore experiencing extreme fear and despondency, but at the same time as a man who recognizes that he was subjected to such a disaster not innocently, but as a punishment for his sin and crime, and asks God for deliverance from his enemies, not as a just man and innocently persecuted, but as conscious of his guilt and repentant of his sin (Soul. Thur. 1892, August, pp. 625–626). “Lord,” he cries, “hear my prayer, do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for no one living will be justified before You.” At the conclusion of the Six Psalms, praise and glorification of the Most Holy Trinity is again pronounced, i.e.: “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, O God,” three times. (See “The Helmsman”, 1889, No. 46). How to end our present conversation with you, brothers? Let us finish by turning your thoughts to the beginning of the Six Psalms. You know that it begins with the song of the angels, which they sang on the night of the Nativity of Christ, and that therefore the Six Psalms itself involuntarily forces us all to turn to this great and saving night. And so, when, for the future, you hear the angelic doxology before the start of the Six Psalms, then your thoughts are transported to this night, in which a new light was revealed to people, more beneficial than the light of the sun - to the night that revealed heaven on earth and gave us the very source of true life, to the night when the King of heaven and earth himself appeared among us in the form of a slave. Thinking about this, glorify the love and goodness of God; give thanks to God, who loved us so much that he gave us his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but obtain eternal life; finally, in a feeling of boundless gratitude, prostrate yourself before our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, who offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. Amen. (Compiled according to source). Appendix to conversation No. 17. A note on the historical origin of the six psalms In the ancient Christian church we do not see a definite indication of the use of six psalms, perhaps because it was then replaced among Christians by constant psalmody; however, we find indications of some of the psalms now included in the Six Psalms. In the “Apostolic Constitutions” the 62nd psalm (now read at the sixth psalm) is called the morning psalm (Constit. lib. II, p. 59. lib. VIII, p. 36). Basil the Great, Saint Chrysostom and Saint Athanasius also speak about the use of this psalm during morning services. According to Cassian, another 50, 89 and other psalms were used at the morning service (Cass. lib. III, p. 3). The fiftieth psalm, according to the testimony of Saint Basil, ended the night prayers (Rev. book 3, chapters 3 and 4). In the fourth century, in the monasteries of Egypt and Thebaid, the custom spread during daily prayer meetings, both day and night, to sing a certain number of psalms with alleluia. According to Cassian, the number of psalms varied in different monasteries; By the way, some of the hermits limited themselves to six psalms. (Cas. lib. II, p. 2). Perhaps in this custom of the desert fathers we should look for the beginning of the morning six psalms. Be that as it may, in the 5th century we find it as part of the morning service at the monastery of St. Sava. From this monastery, together with the monk’s charter, it spread throughout the entire church. Having established the reading of the Six Psalms, the holy church conveyed its high significance to it. According to its intention, a Christian at this time must prepare himself for an interview with God, who appeared on earth, which is why the Six Psalms is preceded by angelic praise to the born Lord: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace...” And since approaching God and talking with Him requires the cleansing of the soul and heart from all filth, the Holy Church offers for this six psalms, filled with deep feeling repentant. That is why she commands us to listen to the Six Psalms with attention: “for the psalms are filled with repentance and tenderness; We speak these psalms with reverence and fear of God, as if we are invisibly speaking and praying to God Himself about our sins” (see the Charter on the Six Psalms). The most external actions of the church during the reading of the Six Psalms are aimed at inducing the soul to tenderness and contrition: at this time the candles are extinguished, so that through the darkness, without giving the eyes any entertainment, to induce us to reverently listen to the reading and, placing the faithful as if in solitude and intimacy, to arouse tenderness, sighs and tears of repentance. (New Skr. Part II, Ch. 4). The very content of the Six Psalms is fully consistent with this intention of the Holy Church: it expresses the cry of a soul grieving for God, with quiet hope for God’s help. (“Sunday Thursday” 1854, No. 17). 18. Conversation about the song: God is the Lord and appears to us The solitary life of the Lord, before His solemn entry into the service of the human race, lasted about thirty years (Luke 3:23) - quite a long time. After this time, the Lord appeared to the world with His preaching, miracles and His willingness to lay down His soul for us. Three years and a half passed from the time of the solemn appearance of the Lord to the world until His ascension into heaven. The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John determines the time of the Lord's service to the human race with four Jewish Passovers; For this holiday, our Lord appeared in Jerusalem four times and marked His stay with special divine actions. On the first Passover, He expelled the merchants from the Temple of Jerusalem (John 2:13–16); in the second, he healed a paralytic who had suffered for thirty-eight years (John 5:1–9); before the third, he fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish (John 6:4–13); on the fourth, he was injured. These are the historical events from the earthly life of the Lord, which, during the all-night vigil, should now be depicted before us. And look, damn. My listeners, like the holy church, wisely and clearly, although briefly, presents these events to us. At the very beginning of the Six Psalms, it was announced to us that Christ the Savior was born. But we have not yet seen Him; halfway through the sixth psalm we could no longer doubt that Christ had definitely been born; We have already seen Him in the person of a priest, unveiled and secretly reading prayers before the royal doors, but we have seen Him not yet accepting solemn service to the human race; however, we could already clearly know that this is our intercessor, our Savior. Now, when after the Six Psalms the deacon begins the great litany, he thereby, firstly, indicates to us the length of time that has elapsed from the birth of Christ until the solemn entry of the Lord into the work of our salvation; secondly, he expresses on behalf of all of us, or better yet, repeats prayers for those needs that befell fallen man. The first time these needs were expressed was at the very beginning of the all-night vigil, when the promise of the Savior of the world had just been given to fallen man; now that this promised Savior of the world has been born into the world, it is most fitting for us to appear before Him with our prayers for all our spiritual and physical needs; our doctor and Savior appeared, and we again remembered our needs; finally, through them the deacon reminds us of the sermon of John the Baptist about repentance and contrition of heart, the sermon just before the baptism of the Lord. Now I won’t repeat it in front of you, dammit. listeners, the content of the great litany; you probably remember all the petitions contained in it, because it is impossible not to remember them: they directly flow from the depths of our soul, aware of our bodily and spiritual weaknesses. At the end of the great litany, the deacon, in vain inside the altar and as if contemplating the Lord, who has already solemnly appeared to the world, exclaims: “God is the Lord and has appeared to us; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” On the choir they repeat this exclamation and greeting to the Lord four times, in commemoration, as I told you before, of the fourfold appearance of the Lord in Jerusalem during His solemn service to the human race. Meanwhile, the deacon, before each time they sing in the choir: “God is the Lord,” says the following four Old Testament verses: a) “confess to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever”; b) “they used Me, and in the name of the Lord they resisted them”; c) “I will not die, but I will live, and I will tell the works of the Lord”; d) “the stone that was built carelessly, this was at the head of the corner, this was from the Lord, and is marvelous in our own hands.” The first of these four verses indicates with what disposition of soul the Jewish people were supposed to meet the promised Savior of the world: “confess the Lord”; Praise, rejoice, glorify, glorify the Heavenly Father for the fact that He, in His ineffable goodness and mercy, gave you the promised Savior: this is, as it were, the voice of the forerunner of the Lord, preparing people to receive the Savior. And this is exactly how people should have accepted the Lord, their Savior. They should have, but what actually happened? Listen to the second verse, which is heard from the deacon’s lips: “having used Me, you resisted them in the name of the Lord.” This is the answer and complaint of the promised Savior to the ingratitude, malice and wickedness of the Jews, especially the scribes and Pharisees. And exactly how much anger they exhausted in order to destroy the Lord! How much blasphemy has been fabricated against Him! Anyone who listens attentively to the Gospel readings during the liturgy knows that, from the day the Lord appeared to the world, the scribes and Pharisees did only that, they thought only about how to disgrace, catch, kill the Lord: “having done Me wrong.” What did the Lord do for the Jews? The Lord revealed His Divine teaching to them; explained the meaning and force of the law; provided them with countless benefits; He healed the sick and lepers, raised the dead, performed countless miracles, and all in the name and glory of God - for the glorification of His heavenly Father: “in the name of the Lord he resisted them.” The anger of the Pharisees and scribes finally reached the point that they betrayed the Lord to death, thinking that with His death they would get rid of their terrible accuser and judge. But death could not triumph over Him Who is the source of life. He Himself, by His death, will crush the gates of death and give eternal life to all who believe in Him, and the glory of His heavenly Father will not only not be darkened by His death, but will shine even more and be exalted. “I will not die, but I will live, and I will tell the works of the Lord.” This is what the promised Savior of the world cried out in the depths of His soul in the very shadow of death. The last verse you hear is Bl. listeners, from the lips of the deacon while singing “God is the Lord” there is the following: “the stone, which was built carelessly, this quickly became the cornerstone; This came from the Lord, and is marvelous in our own hands.” This is, as it were, a conclusion about all the lawless activities of the Jews against our Lord Jesus Christ and a testimony to His Divine greatness; This is an inscription for that cave in the garden of Joseph where the body of the Lord Jesus was laid. He Who was neglected, Whom they condemned to death, Whom the Jews crucified, became the head of His grace-filled kingdom, He is God, who became man for the sake of our salvation; We, Christians, serve and worship Him as the true God, despite the fact that He was crucified and buried. Here, bl. my listeners, the meaning of the church song “God is the Lord and appears to us” and the content of those verses that the deacon reads before the start of the choir singing. Before the beginning of the singing of “God is the Lord,” candles are lit, according to the charter, to commemorate the fact that with the solemn appearance of the Lord to people “who sit in the darkness of the shadow of death, a great light has arisen,” according to the prophet Isaiah. (Compiled according to the Explanation of the All-Night Vigil, Archpriest V. Vladislavlev). 19. Discourse on troparia after “God is the Lord” When the deacon finishes the verses and in the choir they sing four times “God is the Lord and appeared to us,” you hear, my brothers, at the all-night Sunday vigil the Sunday troparion 71. There are eight of these troparions, according to the number of eight voices in which “God is the Lord” is sung. The content of these troparions is the glorification of the risen Lord, the depiction of the events of the resurrection and the calculation of the benefits bestowed on the human race through the resurrection of Christ; the troparion usually expresses the essence of the holiday. During the all-night troparion on Sunday is the answer of us, Christians, to the calling voice of the deacon: “confess to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever.” While the deacon appends the words of scripture to the scribes and Pharisees: “I have been bypassed” and “the stone that was built with carelessness” - we, the children of the New Testament, lovingly confess and glorify the Lord who appeared for our salvation and heartily glorify His resurrection. The ingratitude and malice of the unbelieving Jews is, as it were, rewarded and replaced by our faith, love and gratitude to the Lord. There are eight troparions, as I said; I will read them to you: Troparion of the 1st tone: “I am sealed with stone from the Jews, and by the warriors who care for your most pure body, you are resurrected as a three-day Savior, granting life to the world. For this reason, the powers of heaven cry out to You, O Life-Giver: glory to Your resurrection, O Christ; glory to Thy kingdom; “Glory to Thy vision, the only one who loves mankind” - this is how we sing, contemplating before us the Lord risen and sung by the angels. Troparion of Chapter 2: “When you descended to death, Immortal Life, then you killed hell with the brilliance of the Divine; When you also raised those who had died from the underworld, all the powers of heaven cried out: O Life-Giver Christ our God, glory to Thee!” Troparion of Chapter 3: “Let them rejoice in heaven, let them rejoice on earth, for the Lord has created a power with His arm, trampling down death by death, He was the firstborn of the dead; Deliver us from the belly of hell, and bestow the world’s great mercy.” Troparion of the 4th chapter: “The disciples of the Lord heard the bright resurrection sermon from the angel, and rejected the ancestral condemnation, the apostle boasting with the verb: death has been cast away, Christ God has risen, granting great mercy to the world.” Troparion of the 5th chapter: “The co-original Word of the Father and the Spirit, born of the Virgin for our salvation, let us sing faithfully and worship; for it was good for the flesh to ascend to the cross, and to endure death, and to raise the dead by His glorious resurrection.” Troparion Chapter 6: “The angelic powers are upon Thy tomb, and the guards are dead, and Mary stands in the tomb, seeking Thy most pure body; You captured hell without being tempted by it; Thou hast met the Virgin, granting life: risen from the dead, Lord, glory to Thee!” Troparion of the 7th chapter: “Thou hast destroyed death by Thy cross, Thou hast opened paradise to the thief, Thou hast offered mourning to the myrrh-bearers, and Thou hast commanded the Apostle to preach: for Thou art risen, O Christ God, granting great mercy to the world.” Troparion of the 8th chapter: “Thou didst descend from on high, O most gracious one, Thou didst accept a three-day burial, so that Thou freed us from passions, life and our resurrection, Lord, glory to Thee!” Here are all eight Sunday troparia. You see, bl. listeners that in all of them our risen Lord Jesus Christ is glorified; in some, the benefits given to the human race through the resurrection of Christ are calculated; in others the circumstances of the resurrection are indicated. On the day of the resurrection of Christ, it is as if we cannot distract our eyes from the risen Lord, we cannot remove from our memory and heart the memories of the events of the resurrection. And even when we follow the life of our Lord, He appears to us as nothing other than the risen Lord and through His resurrection He has given us countless benefits. That is why, before the very remembrance of the resurrection of the Lord, during the all-night vigil, in response to the deacon’s invocatory voice: “God is the Lord and has appeared to us,” we imagine the risen Lord and glorify His resurrection. On those days when the feast of the Mother of God or the feast of a great saint is connected with the resurrection, after the Sunday troparion a troparion is sung in honor of the Mother of God or the saint. This is because with the solemn appearance of the Lord the kingdom of God was opened into the world, and everyone who truly believes in the Lord and who heartily loves the Lord becomes a participant in this kingdom and in glorification with the Lord. On the days of the Lord's holidays, instead of the Sunday troparion, the troparion of the holiday is sung, for example, on the day of the Nativity of Christ: “Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, arise, the worldly light of reason,” and so on; on the day of Baptism: “I am baptized in the Jordan, O Lord,” and so on. These troparia express the essence of the holiday, as do the Sunday ones. My brothers! In the Sunday troparion, the holy church, on our behalf, expresses before the risen Lord our faith in Him, our love for Him, our hope in Him. This is the answer of our heart to the calling voice of the deacon: “confess to the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.” Oh, may this answer be our sincere, unhypocritical answer! Let us not be like the Jews, to whom the Lord showed so much goodness and mercy, and who denied the Lord and put Him to death! Let our life and deeds be proof that we confess the Lord with faith and love and glorify His resurrection. Amen. (Compiled on the Explanation of the All-Night Vigil by Archpriest V. Vladislavlev, pp. 100–103). 20. Conversation about reading kathismas, accompanied by small litanies The singing of the troparion, appropriate for the day, is followed by the reading of two kathismas prescribed by church rules, with a small litany at the end of each, to excite those about to pray. The Psalter contains 150 psalms, divided into 20 kathismas, and is read throughout the week and twice a week during Lent. This reading of the kathismas is interrupted three times by the proclamation of glory to the Trinitarian God and the song: Alleluia. The Greek word kathisma, i.e. sitting, shows that in ancient times, when reading them and the following songs, called sedal, believers were allowed to sit in the church to rest, due to the length of the service. The Psalter, primarily, can be called our common prayer book, according to which both the church itself and each believer in particular can express all their reverent feelings towards God. According to St. Basil the Great, “the psalter prophesies about the future, remembers the past... It is a kind of universal treasury of good instructions; she heals old mental ulcers, and gives quick healing to those who have received a fresh wound; it strengthens the weak, protects the healthy, and destroys passions. The psalm brings calm to the soul, produces peace, and tames stormy and rebellious thoughts. He softens an angry soul, brings chastity to a lustful soul... What does the psalter not teach you? You will learn from Her excellent courage, and strict justice, and constant abstinence, and perfect generosity, and the manner of repentance, and complete patience; in a word, you will learn from Her everything good. There is perfect theology there; there is a prophecy about the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; there is a threat of God's judgment. There the hope of resurrection and the fear of torment are instilled. There glory is promised, secrets are revealed - everything is in the book of psalms, as in a great and universal treasury" 72 . Shouldn’t each of us value and love so highly the sacred book of David’s psalms, as all the holy and God-bearing fathers of the church valued and loved it? There are twenty kathismas in all. At the Sunday all-night vigil the 2nd and 3rd kathismas are read. Why exactly at this time, i.e. after the solemn and joyful singing of “God is the Lord” and the troparion, is the reading of the psalter established? The psalter also contains psalms that are completely applicable to any state of mind, whether joyful or sad. In addition, it contains psalms and prophetic ones. It, for example, describes, among other things, the suffering of a righteous person from evil people who are ready to kill a person they dislike with their lives and the word of their iniquity. And it is known that our Lord Jesus Christ, about whom many psalms prophetically proclaim, in the fourth year of his public grace-filled ministry, on the fourth Easter, was betrayed by his chosen disciple to the villains and crucified by them after numerous sufferings and buried. It is this attitude of people towards Christ that is depicted in the psalms read at the Sunday all-night vigil. Psalms are read from 9 to 23. They represent all the ingratitude and anger of people, all the insults, suffering and death inflicted on an innocent soul (Ps. 21). But the malice of enemies is put to shame by the triumph of innocence over it. This triumph was revealed in the resurrection of the Innocent Sufferer - the Lord. This is what is said in the last (23rd) psalm of the 3rd kathisma, read at the all-night vigil. It has already been prophetically predicted that the One Who was condemned and handed over to death was resurrected and ascended to heaven. Singing verses from Psalms 134 and 135 is reminiscent of the time when people had just learned about the resurrection of Christ. Angels knew about the resurrection of the Lord our Savior before people did; but on earth this event soon became known. In remembrance of this, soon after the reading of the last words of Psalm 23, the royal doors are opened and the joyful news of the resurrection of the Lord who suffered for us is announced to people on earth. The Holy Church calls on people to praise the name of the Lord for the ineffable and endless mercies of God towards us: “Praise the name of the Lord; Praise the servants of the Lord. Hallelujah." The polyeleos begins - the most solemn part of the extra-night vigil (See “Explanation of the All-Night Vigil” by Archpriest Gumilevsky). Thus wisely the holy church educates its children with psalms and hymns. It is our duty to pay full attention to what we see and hear. Meanwhile, what do we see most often? Not only do many not listen to the wondrous psalms and chants that touch the hardest heart, soften the hardest soul, if only a person has opened access to their sinful heart, but they even allow themselves to talk in church while reading and singing, and some even leave, especially when reading the Six Psalms. How many tears are needed, brothers, to mourn our laziness, our insensitivity! (Compiled with additional information according to the indicated source). 21. Discourse on the polyeleos of the all-night vigil The reading of kathismas at the all-night vigil is followed by the polyeleos - the most solemn part of the all-night vigil. It consists of singing “Praise the name of the Lord” and the so-called “immaculates”, reading the gospel and kissing it in the middle of the church. At the entrance of the All-Night Vigil we are now actually reminded of the time of the resurrection of Christ, His appearance to the myrrh-bearers and the apostles, His stay on earth for forty days after the resurrection and His comforting promise to remain with us all the days until the end of the age. This is the essence of the Sunday Vigil. After the litany, which ends the second verse of the Psalter, and behind the sedals, which mention the suffering, death and burial of the Lord, about the zeal of the myrrh-bearing women, who came with fragrances to the tomb of the Lord, suddenly an unexpected change in the service occurs before the eyes of Christians: the royal doors are opened; the holy altar shines with light and smells of incense; the clergy silently, but nevertheless very clearly express their deepest reverence for the throne of God and the entire altar; on the choir they solemnly sing “praise the name of the Lord, praise the servants of the Lord, alleluia.” Blessed be the Lord of Zion, who liveth in Jerusalem, alleluia. Confess to the Lord that His mercy endures forever, alleluia. Confess to the God of heaven, for His mercy endures forever, alleluia.” During this singing, the soul involuntarily feels inexpressible joy; it is as if she flies away, along with the sounds and voices of the choir, into heaven to the throne of the Lord and there, among the holy angels, she prostrates herself before the risen Lord in a feeling of tenderness, reverence and delight. The whole church is changed, all full of light, bliss, sacred joy and heavenly delights. What does such a change mean? Why such joy, such triumph? Here's why: the open royal doors mean the open doors of the Lord's tomb, from where He rose; the throne means the very tomb of the Lord, where the Risen One crushed the power of death and from where the kingdom of eternal life arose; the priests in this case resemble the myrrh-bearers who came to the tomb with the aromas prepared for the anointing of the deceased Lord (the censer is especially reminiscent of this); At the same time, they mean the bright angels who appeared in the tomb in white robes, in light, and announced the joy of the resurrection to the myrrh-bearers; singing in the choir signifies the praise that both angels and men send to the risen Lord. That is why the words of the psalm are mixed with words with “alleluia,” which means “praise the Lord.” In heaven, angels eternally sing “Alleluia” to God - this is their incessant voice. But we also unite our voice with this voice of the celestials, or better yet, we precede the glorification of the celestials with our glorification. “Praise the name of the Lord!” we call to each other in a feeling of indescribable joy and calling on the inhabitants of heaven to this praise; "halleluia!" - they answer us from the sky and in the sky. “Praise the servants of the Lord!” - we continue; “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!” - the celestials continue. And in wondrous harmony, heaven and earth praise the Lord: “Blessed is the Lord from Zion, who lives in Jerusalem! Confess to the Lord that His mercy endures forever! Confess to the God of heaven that He is good, for His mercy endures forever!” the rejoicing earth sings. And the sky, rejoicing with the earth, at the same time sings in chorus: “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!” Heaven and earth form, as it were, two choirs and vied with each other to praise the Lord. After this solemn, universal praise to the Lord sent from heaven and earth, we hear an explanation of the reason why this is such a triumph, for which heaven and earth rejoice so wonderfully. The Holy Church eloquently and touchingly expresses the reason for her joy: “Blessed art thou, Lord, teach me by Thy justification (destinies or commandments!” This is how the holy church addresses itself prayerfully, wanting to deepen our attention to what is remembered during this event and to reveal in its entirety the reason for such joy. “The council of angels (the whole host of angels) were surprised, in vain they were imputed to You as the dead, but the mortal fortress, O Savior, was destroyed, and raised Adam with them; and all are free from hell.” So, this is the reason why the inhabitants of heaven sing praises to the Lord, and the earth rejoices: they are struck with joyful amazement at the sight of how their Lord died, how He destroyed the strongholds of death with His death, how He rose from the grave, resurrected and raised the forefather Adam into union with God, and freed humanity captive to hell. How did all this happen? The Holy Church answers: “Why do you interfere with the myrrh with tears of tenderness, disciples? - the angel shining in the tomb said to the myrrh-bearers: “you see an empty tomb, without a dead person, understand that the Savior has risen from the tomb.” “Very early the myrrh-bearing women flowed in tears to Your tomb, but suddenly an angel appeared to them and said: the time of weeping is over (has ceased); don’t cry, but go and tell the apostles about the resurrection.” “The myrrh-bearing women, having come with spices to Thy tomb, O Savior, wept; but suddenly the angel says to them: why do you consider this living thing to be dead? He, like God, rose from the grave.” Thus, the holy church, by pointing to the very walk to the tomb of the holy myrrh-bearing women and the appearance of the angel of good news to them, expresses the reason for its triumph and rejoicing. In these very verses, just quoted, one can hear the voice of a rejoicing soul, which seems to still be unsure whether it has fully expressed its joy, although it has already repeated this many times to everyone and everyone, calling everyone to the same heavenly joy. What are the clergy doing at this time? They first surround, as usual, the holy altar and iconostasis, then the entire church and everyone present. When you see how a priest with a censer and a deacon with candles go around the entire church while singing those wondrous church songs, you involuntarily imagine how the myrrh-bearing women no longer flow to the tomb, but from the tomb of the Life-Giver - to the apostles, with the greatest news of the resurrection, you imagine how the light and splendor of the angels is reflected on their faces; they themselves shine with joy, their hearts are fragrant with that heavenly grace of which they became partakers, having beheld the heavenly, luminous angels. When the clergy return to the altar after censing the entire church, at this time a call is heard on the choir to everyone: “Let us worship the Father and His Sons, and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity in one being, with the seraphim calling: holy, holy, holy art thou, Lord!” And indeed, if ever, then it is now that we can boldly join the seraphim glorifying the Lord: heaven is open for us by the Risen One, entry there is accessible to prayer and our glorification, “holy, holy, holy art thou, Lord!” each of us can now cry out as a beloved child of the heavenly Father in Christ Jesus; everyone cries out, mentally prostrating himself before the very heavenly throne of God the Father and thanking Him for all the good deeds shown to the human race; especially for the death on the cross and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. After this prayerful appeal to the Holy Trinity, we praise the most blessed Virgin Mary, who gave birth to us the Giver of Life. The Most Holy Virgin once, in divine inspiration, prophesied that She would be blessed and praised by all generations (Luke 1:49), and the Holy Church always remembers Her with special love for the Mother of God, as now: “Having given birth to the Giver of Life, You, the Virgin, delivered Adam from sin, and gave joy instead of sorrow to Eve; because from You the God-man became incarnate and sent to life those who had fallen from life.” After these immaculate ones, the incessant angelic praise is heard again: “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, God.” So high and significant is the church service during the singing of “praise the name of the Lord.” But this is still, so to speak, the first stage of triumph. We only contemplated how the holy myrrh-bearing wives, who went with perfume to the tomb of the Lord, saw angels in the tomb, heard from them that Christ had risen and received the command to go and tell the apostles about this. But we would like to know in even more detail the history of the resurrection of Christ and the appearance of the risen Lord to the apostles; we would like to see the Risen One ourselves and worship Him. And now the Holy Church offers us the story of the evangelists themselves about how the Lord rose from the dead and, after His resurrection, appeared to the disciples during his forty-day stay on earth before His glorious ascension into heaven. Eleven alternate gospel stories read at the all-night vigil every Saturday will present to us in all detail those memorable minutes that the Lord spent with His disciples, appearing to them after His resurrection. The words of the self-witnesses will vividly transfer our thoughts and attention to the very time in which the Risen Lord appeared, to the very places where He appeared, to the environment of the very people to whom He appeared. In order for us to be completely imbued with these Gospel narratives, in order to prepare our soul for this and so that we ourselves, at least in part, behold the glory and feel the closeness of the Risen One to you, for this purpose the Holy Church does not immediately after the singing of the troparions: “The Council of Angels was amazed” offers Gospel readings about the appearances of the Risen One, but first lays down several hymns that prepare our souls for worthy and living contemplation Gentlemen. By this, at the same time, the Holy Church partly expresses the gradualism in the presentation of the very history of these phenomena; after all, the risen Lord did not immediately after His resurrection and did not suddenly begin to appear to His disciples. And so, after the small litany, which consists of the singing of the troparions, and at the exclamation of the priest, who blesses the name and glorifies the kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, “ipaka” (obedience) is read - this is the name of the verse in which the obedience of the holy myrrh-bearers to the command of the angel is depicted. The angel said to them: “Go, tell His disciples that He has risen,” and now the holy myrrh-bearers obediently fulfill the command: “I proclaimed the joy of the annunciation from the angel to those who received the apostle, that Christ God has risen, granting great mercy to the world” (epakoy of the 8th tone, similar content and other chapters). After the ipakaya, “antiphons” 73 are sung in the choir. They are arranged according to the number of eight voices used in church singing, and contain a prayerful appeal to each person of the Most Holy Trinity for the sending down to us of grace-filled gifts necessary for spiritual life and especially for spiritual contemplation of the resurrection of Christ; at the same time, they also contain, as it were, the initial glorification of the Holy Trinity in the world, to which the world is called by the resurrection of Christ. Of these antiphons, we most often hear the first section of the antiphon of the 4th tone: “from my youth many passions have fought me,” one choir cries out to God on behalf of each of us, “but intercede and save me, my Savior.” Another choir replies: “You who hate Zion, be put to shame by the Lord, for you will be cut up by fire.” “By the Holy Spirit,” the first choir again cries, “every soul is alive and in purity (in purity) is elevated, illuminated (enlightened) by the triple unity of the sacred mystery.” Antiphons prepare Christians for listening to the Holy Gospel, the reading of which then follows, although not directly, not directly. The reading of the Sunday, as well as any other, Gospel at Matins is preceded by a proknmen, to whose hearing the faithful are invited with the words: “Let us attend! wisdom; Let's get loud!" The prokeimenon is always taken from the psalms and for the most part contains a prophetic indication of the New Testament gospel reading - at least these are the Sunday prokeimenons; they all contain Old Testament prophecies about the resurrection. Through the prokeimenon, the Old Testament church draws closer to the New Testament; the Old Testament righteous, as if standing at the holy tomb, say: we knew this, that He, our Lord and Master, would rise from the dead; We have repeatedly heard this from Holy Scripture: “Today I will rise, says the Lord, I will rely on salvation, I will not complain about it” (proc. 1st chapter). “Arise, O Lord my God, may Thy hand be exalted, do not forget Thy poor ones to the end” (chap. 7) and others. And for us, this testimony of the Old Testament righteous serves as evidence of the event of the resurrection and an indication of its importance, as an event predicted from ancient times and therefore predetermined from eternity. The prokemenon is followed by the small litany with its significant exclamation: “For you are holy, our God, and rest among the saints,” etc. - which indicates that the kingdom of God, revealed on earth by the resurrection of the Lord, is now manifested in all its power and glory in heaven, where the Triune God rests in the hosts of holy angels and holy men of God. After the exclamation there follows the singing of the verse “let every breath praise the Lord” - a call to all creation to praise the Lord; The Holy Church desires that all creation, all God’s creatures, take part in the praise of His glory, which, however, the entire created world cannot fully explain. Then, after an invitation to attention and to the simplicity of faith (wisdom, forgiveness, etc.), after an invitation to external and internal silence (peace to all), there follows the reading of the holy gospel, telling about the resurrection of the Lord and the appearances to His disciples. After reading the Gospel, it is placed in the middle of the church for worship and kissing by Christians. In him we see the Risen One Himself. He is now with us: come, worship Him, touch Him, kiss His divine wounds. “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ,” we say to each other in trembling joy, “let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless one,” etc. After this stichera, we turn with prayer to the risen Lord, so that He will mercifully cleanse our sins, and as intercessors for us we present before Him the apostles themselves, to whose ranks we now dare to count ourselves, contemplating the holy resurrection; then we present our Intercessor to the Mother of God and the saints of God and again fall with a touching prayer to the Lord: “Save, O God, Thy people,” etc. After which the singing of the canon begins in honor and glory of the risen Lord: we express our joy in glorifying Him. Meanwhile, at this time, obedient to the call of the Holy Church, we, imitating Mary Magdalene and other myrrh-bearers, reverently throw ourselves into the dust before the risen Lord, Whom the Holy Gospel depicts to us, kissing the Holy Gospel, we mentally touch the Giver of Life Himself, just as the myrrh-bearing wives touched His feet, or as the Apostle Thomas once touched the wounds resurrected and exclaimed in delight: “My Lord and God.” And you, Christian, reverently kissing the Holy Gospel, touch mentally the most pure body of your Redeemer, who rose from the dead and resurrected you, and from the depths of your soul reverently cry out to Him: “My Lord and my God!” (Compiled from “Sunday Thursday” for 1889). Why did the Orthodox Church establish at the all-night vigil to place a festive icon in the middle of the Church of God on a lectern? The Orthodox Church is the pillar and foundation of the truth; in it everything happens in good order and in order. Therefore, placing a festive icon in the middle of the church should have an edifying and beneficial meaning for us. To explain this wonderful and edifying institution, let us turn to another equally beautiful and beneficial institution of the Holy Church, the meaning and significance of which is explained by the Holy Church itself in its hymns. At Sunday all-night vigils, the holy gospel is read on the throne of God, as at the site of the resurrection of Christ, and preaches to us about one of the appearances of the risen Lord or to the myrrh-bearing women, or to the holy apostles in one place or another, for example, in Jerusalem or on the Sea of ​​Tiberias, or on Mount Galilee. Then, after reading, the holy gospel is carried into the middle of the church for worship and kissing by the believers and remains in the middle of the church until all the believers venerate it. When the holy gospel is carried out from the altar, believers, looking at it as at the risen Lord Himself, worship it and cry out with tenderness of heart: “having seen the resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless one.” Thus, the carrying of the Holy Gospel from the altar to the middle of the church during Sunday all-night vigils signifies that the risen Lord is also unworthy of us, just as He appeared after His resurrection to the myrrh-bearing women and the holy apostles - He appears according to His false promise: Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20 ). When we approach the Holy Gospel and venerate it, the risen Lord says to each of us, as He once spoke to His disciples: “Handle Me: it is I Myself; not a ghost, not a spirit"; or as Thomas certified: “Put your finger here; look at My hands; give me your hand and place it in my side”; Likewise, he secretly speaks to each of us: “It is I, your Lord, who suffered and died for you, and rose again for you; come, revive your faith and love by touching Me and know that I am definitely with you all the days until the end of the age.” If this is the meaning of carrying the holy gospel from the altar into the middle of the church during Sunday all-night vigils, then we can now easily understand what it means to place the holy icon in the middle of the church, among the believers, at all-night vigils. The Holy Church seems to be telling us this: “I am doing this for your admonition, consolation, edification, in a word - for your salvation. The holy icon of the Mother of God is located in the middle of the church among you so that you can clearly see that the Lady of the world Herself appears among you, like a compassionate mother among her children, like a godly, all-powerful queen among her loyal subjects. According to Her inexpressible love for mankind, according to Her ineffable goodness and love, She approaches you and brings you all closer to Her.” This is the purpose of that wonderful and beneficial institution, according to which our Orthodox Church, on holidays in honor of the Mother of God, has the habit of placing the holy icon of the Mother of God in the middle of the church, in the midst of us. This is exactly the purpose of placing icons of the holy saints of God at the festive all-night vigils in honor of the holy saints. The Holy Church points out to us the spiritual connection that exists between the inhabitants of heaven and us living on earth - indicates that the saint of God, glorified by us in festive hymns, appears among us, listens to our praises, accepts our worship of him, does not turn away from our touch to him, and pours out his mercy on us. He is with us as our brother, a prayer partner, as our intercessor before God, a healer of our infirmities, as a patron among sorrows, as an intercessor among misfortunes. “I’m with you,” he seems to be telling you. - Come, come closer to me; touch me; touch me; strengthen your faith and love.” (See "Sunday Day" 1894 No. 47). So, according to the inspiration of our mother - the Orthodox Church and according to the ineffable mercy towards us of the Queen of Heaven, who deigns to dwell among us, let us hasten to Her, as to our own mother, with our prayers and well-wishes, with our faith and love, with our weaknesses and sorrows, with our repentance and contrition for sins. (Compiled by indicated source) The Holy Church introduces us to the celebrated event in more and more detail in the so-called canon, which is sung immediately after the prayer “God save Thy people.” Here we hear more detailed descriptions of the events being celebrated, more detailed depictions of their importance and significance for our spiritual lives. Mention is often made here of those sacred events from the history of the Old Testament church that foreshadowed and prepared the events we celebrate, or those prophecies that long foretold their occurrence on earth. So, for example, I present to you some songs from the canon that are sung on the feast of the Nativity of Christ: “Christ is born; praise! Christ from heaven; fuck off! Christ on earth; ascend! Sing to the Lord, all the earth, and sing to the people with joy: for He is glorified.” This is how the first song of the canon is sung; Following it, we hear the reading of the following stichera: “the wise Creator again restores (man), who, having been created in the image of God, was corrupted by crime, was completely damaged and lost the highest divine life.” The Creator, seeing the death of man whom He created with His own hands, descends, bowing the heavens, and accepts his entire being, truly incarnate from the divine pure Virgin. Such a detailed description and glorification of the celebrated event continues in the following songs and stichera of the canon. The sixth song of this canon is sung as follows: “The Sea Beast vomited Jonah, (like) a baby from the womb, as he received it, and the Word, having entered into the Virgin and taking flesh, passed on, keeping (Her) incorruptible; for without being subjected to corruption, it preserved the Mother unharmed.” This wonderful event from Old Testament history is mentioned here as prefiguring the wonderful and incomprehensible birth of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. This is how every celebrated event is glorified and described in the canon. What is the canon, what is its composition? A canon is a series of songs dedicated to a celebrated event. These songs are called canon because they are compiled according to samples, according to rules. Canon is a Greek word; in our language it means: rule, pattern. All the songs of the canon, as we will see below, are modeled on the songs contained in the books of holy scripture. There are nine, eight, four, three and even two such songs in the canon. A canon that has nine or eight cantos is usually called a complete canon, and one that contains four, three, and two cantos is called a four-canon, a three-canon, and a two-canon. On holidays, we usually sing the full canons, and the three-canon and two-canon are used only during Lent. Each song of the canon, as we saw in the above example, has several stichera; she serves as a model for them; they set out the same thoughts as in the songs, and therefore each song of the canon is also called irmos, i.e. a song that unites into one whole all the other stichera that follow it. The stichera following the song are called troparia, i.e. such songs that are essentially of the same content as the song at the head of them. They are composed according to her example and sung according to her tune. Glorifying festive events, the songs of the canon mean to turn our spiritual gaze to reverent contemplation of the glorified events. They aim to divert our attention from the earthly and lead us to the above, the heavenly. Therefore, for their composition, they mostly borrow not only thoughts, but also words from the books of holy scripture. Moreover, all the songs of the canons are modeled on the songs contained in the books of holy scripture. Thus, for the first song, the song of the ancient prophet and seer of God Moses served as a model. After the miraculous passage of the Jews through the Red Sea, Moses, together with all the sons of Israel, sang the following song to the Lord: “Let us sing to the Lord, for we will be glorified.” This is how the children of Israel sang after the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea and after they were saved from the pursuing Egyptians; we, contemplating the greatness and holiness of the celebrated event, glorify the Lord with a similar song, so that almost every first song we conclude with these words: “gloriously is he glorified.” The second song is modeled after another song of the same prophet Moses, which he composed at the command of God to denounce the ungrateful people of Israel, who often deviated towards idolatry, and to arouse in them a feeling of repentance. This song begins like this: “look up to the sky and I will say”... This song encourages repentance; it does not correspond to that spiritual joy and that sacred joy with which we remember festive events; therefore, in the holiday canons it is omitted, and is used only in the songs of the canon of Great Lent. Following the first song in the holiday canons, a third song is sung, modeled on the song of thanksgiving to St. Anna, the mother of the prophet Samuel. Having no children for a long time and then, through prayer, having received a son from God, she poured out her feelings of gratitude in a song that begins with these words: “my heart be established in the Lord, my horn is exalted in my God... there is nothing holy like the Lord, and nothing is righteous like our God” (1 Samuel 2:1-10). Like Saint Anne, for a long time we were fruitless for good deeds, until the light of Christ illuminated us; magnifying the manifestation of the light and goodness of Christ in the celebrated event, we glorify and thank the Lord like Saint Anne. For the fourth song, a prophetic song, combined with the prayer of the prophet Habakkuk, who lived long before the birth of Christ, served as a model. Contemplating the future coming of the Lord, the prophet said: “Lord, I heard Your hearing, and I was afraid, Lord, I understood Your works and was horrified. God will come from the south and the Holy One from the shaded mountains; the heavens have covered His virtue, and the earth is full of His praises” (Hab. 3:2–3). Thus the prophet prayed to the Lord and glorified Him, contemplating His coming from afar; We, who have seen the coming of the Lord and now contemplate His glory in the celebrated event, glorify the Lord with a song composed in the likeness of the song of the prophet Habakkuk. The fifth song is composed following the example of the song of another prophet, Isaiah, who foresaw the coming of the Lord and prayed to Him thus: “From the morning my spirit is drawn to You, O God, for the light of Your commandment is upon the earth... Lord God, peace be upon us” (Is. 26:9-12). Like him, in the sixth song we pray to the Lord to send us those blessings that were revealed on earth with the coming of the Lord and which we contemplate in the celebrated event. In almost every fifth song of the canons, with the morning praise of the Lord, we combine a petition for peace to be sent to us. The sixth song is based on the example of the prayer of the prophet Jonah, which he sang in gratitude to God for delivering him from the death that threatened him in the belly of the whale. He prayed like this: “I cried out in my sorrow to the Lord my God and heard me: from the belly of hell, you heard my voice” (Jon. 2:3). The history of this event is known to you. This was long before the birth of Christ. God commanded the prophet Jonah to go preaching about repentance to the pagan city of Nineveh; the prophet did not listen to the command of God and went to another place. While he was sailing on the ship, a terrible storm arose and threatened to sink the ship. Frightened people did not know what to do - they turned to God in prayer; but the danger did not pass. Then they began to guess that there must be a sinful man among them, the culprit of this misfortune. They decided to draw lots to reveal the culprit - and the lot fell on the prophet Jonah. Jonah confessed his sin to them and said: “Take me and throw me into the sea.” They threw Jonah into the sea, and the sea became calm. God commanded a large fish - a whale - to swallow Jonah. Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. At this time he prayed to God as you heard above. The songwriters took this prayer as a model for the sixth song of the canons. In it we thank God that He did not despise us, mired in the abyss of sin, but He Himself came, saved and made us worthy to glorify His greatness in the celebrated event. For the seventh and eighth songs, the song of thanksgiving of three Jewish youths, miraculously saved in a fiery furnace, served as a model. This event also happened long before the Nativity of Christ, when the Jews, who professed the true God, fell under the rule of the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar, who did not know the true God. Several young men were taken from among them to serve him, among whom were Ananias, Azariah, Mishael and Daniel. Gifted with wisdom from God, these young men were soon distinguished from others and took high places in the administration of the kingdom. The pagan king, having conquered many nations, became proud of his power and decided to honor himself with divine honor. One day he gathered representatives from all the conquered peoples on the field of Deir, poured out a huge golden idol and ordered everyone to bow to him as to God, declaring in advance that whoever did not bow would be thrown into a fiery furnace. Three Jewish youths: Ananias, Azariah and Misail did not want to fulfill the will of the king, which was contrary to the will of God. The irritated king ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more hot than it usually was, and to throw them into it. Bound Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael in their lower and upper clothes were thrown into a red-hot furnace. The furnace was so hot that even the people who abandoned these three young men were burned by the flames. Meanwhile, Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael were not only saved, but a hair on their heads was not singed, and their dress did not change, and even the smell of smoke was not on them. Moreover, a fourth young man appeared among them in a red-hot furnace, looking like an angel. Surprised by this, the pagan king glorified the God of Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael, “Who sent His angel and delivered His servants.” The saved youths sang: “Blessed are you, O Lord God of our fathers, praised and glorified is Your name forever” (Dan. 3:52)... “Bless all the works of the Lord the Lord, sing and exalt Him forever” (Dan. 3:52–56). In the first of these songs they remember the wonderful events that happened in the lives of their fathers and praise God; in the second they call upon all creation to praise the Lord. Following the example of these songs, our church in the seventh canto, remembering the miraculous salvation of the youths along with the celebrated event, glorifies God as almighty and all-powerful, in the eighth it calls on all creation to glorify the Lord. In the first of these songs you often hear the following expressions: “I serve the golden image on the field of Deira”... “the furnace was sometimes kindled by the sevenfold”... “I did not serve the creature (idol) of God’s wisdom more than the Creator, but the fiery rebuke was bravely corrected”; in the second: “keep the dewy spirit unharmed”, “the dew-giving cave, the dew-spreading cave”, i.e. that oven, which was red-hot with fire for the young men, by the power of God became as cool as if from dew that had fallen from the sky. For the ninth song, which usually magnifies the Holy Virgin Mary and the wonderful birth of the Savior from Her, the following served as a model: 1) the Mother of God’s own doxology, uttered by Her during her meeting with Saint Elizabeth: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and My spirit rejoices”; 2) Zechariah’s prayer when his son, John the Baptist, was born, and he, struck dumb for his unbelief, suddenly began to speak. This prayer, praising the greatness of God, begins with these words: “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel” (Luke 1:46–55, 68–80); These events are known to you from the sacred New Testament history. The Holy Virgin pronounced Her doxology after the Archangel Gabriel preached to Her the birth of the Savior from Her, and She went to greet Her relative Elizabeth, who by her glorification of Her confirmed the Archangel’s gospel; Zechariah said his prayer at the time when his son was born, and he, fulfilling the command of the angel, named him John. Our hymns have not found better examples for glorifying the Mother of God. In the ninth song they included their own song of the Mother of God: “My soul magnifies...” and a doxology compiled according to the example of Zechariah’s doxology. This is the origin of the songs of the canon. Inspired singers, beginning to glorify the memorable events of our church and the exploits of the holy saints of God, took as a model the sublime examples of the word of God. That is why the songs of the canons are filled with such high reverence and imbued with such deep tenderness. Our enthusiastic feeling, filled with joy and spiritual joy, when glorifying the events being celebrated can find its full expression in the songs of the canon. Delve, brothers, into the songs of the canons, delve into their meaning, listen to the content of those stichera that are read after the songs! Each festive event has two, and sometimes more, canons; and these canons have a special name: “Resurrection canons”, “Canons of the Theotokos”, “canons of the life-giving cross of the Lord”, etc. In accordance with this purpose, special refrains are used before the troparions of the canons; with a Sunday canon, for example: - “Glory, Lord, to Your holy resurrection”; at the canon of the Theotokos: - “Most Holy Theotokos, save us,” etc. These choruses separate one stichera from another; They also enhance the glorification of the holiday. In addition, the singing of the canons is interrupted by small litanies. Every three hymns we hear, after the exclamation of the priest or deacon: “Lord, have mercy,” and the reading of special stichera, called sedal after the third hymn, after the sixth kontakion and ikos, after the ninth chantry. The meaning of these litanies and the stichera that follow them is the same as the meaning of the prayers of repentance heard during polyeleos. Among the festive praises, we remember our weaknesses and in litanies we ask the Lord for help and intercession for ourselves; in the stichera that follow the litanies, we either continue asking for our spiritual needs, or return to the festive doxology. We do the first in sedals and lamps, the second in kontakia and ikos. The stichera heard after the ninth ode are called luminaries because in them we ask for spiritual light for ourselves; Kontakion and Ikos mean a small stichera in which the celebrated event is remembered and glorified. This is the entire composition of the festive and ordinary canons used in our church. As you can see, these are songs composed following the example of the divinely inspired songs of the Holy Scriptures and exclusively dedicated to the remembered festive event. (Extracted in abbreviation from “Sunday Thursday” 1867–68, No. 31). Appendix to conversation No. 22. Historical note on the origin of the song “The Most Honest Cherub” Nicephorus Theotokius writes that Saint Cosmas, bishop of Mayuma (who lived in the 8th century), composed the hymn to the Mother of God “The Most Honest Cherub”; this is also clear from the fact that Cosmas composed the Four Songs for Great Saturday, where these words constitute the 9th song of the Iirmos. Callistus also adds news that reached him through others about the song of the Most Honest Cherub; he writes: 1) that this song was composed on High Heel, on a day of sorrow, especially for the Mother of the Lord Jesus; 2) that this song was very pleasing to the Most Pure One, and She, appearing to the monk, said with a cheerful face: “Your songs are pleasant to Me, but this one is more pleasant than all the others; I like those who sing spiritual songs, but I am never so close to them as when they sing this new song of yours.” The same Callistus further notes that those capable of contemplating spiritual objects later repeatedly saw the Most Pure One, blessing those who sang this song 74 . This tradition is also justified by the daily use prescribed in the regulations regarding this song. However, Saint Cosmas, humble and prudent, followed the words of Saint Ephraim the Syrian when singing his song, who wrote at the beginning of the praise of his Mother of God: “More honorable than the cherubim, incomparably before all the heavenly armies” 75. (See Historical review of hymns and hymns of the Greek Church, Philaret, Archbishop of Chernigov and Nizhyn, p. 227). 23. Conversation about the great doxology At the end of the entire canon and the last small litany, singing and prayers are adapted for the morning or the beginning of the day. Then the church glorifies the Lord: 1) by the light, i.e. a song in which he prays for the sending of light to us; 2) stichera of praise (based on Psalms 148, 149 and 150), which guide us to praise the Lord, the Giver of Light, and the saints illuminated by His light. In the psalms of praise, all creation - heaven and earth - is called upon to sing praises to their Creator: “Praise the Lord from heaven, praise Him in the highest. Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His might. Praise His sun and moon, praise His stars and light. Praise Him, the heavens of the heavens and the waters that are above the heavens... Praise God in His saints... Let every breath praise the Lord!” Finally, the church glorifies the Lord with great praise 76 . At the beginning of this doxology, the royal gates are opened, and the priest, giving praise and thanksgiving to God both for the light that has shone for us in the days, and for the light of faith, which has enlightened us like the sun and made us sons of light and day 77, exclaims: “Glory to Thee, who showed us the light!” The choir responds to this proclamation with a solemn song: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we bow down, we praise Thee, we thank Thee, great for the sake of Thy glory. Lord, Heavenly King, God, Father, Almighty. Lord, Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and Holy Soul. Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us: take away the sins of the world, accept our prayer. Sit at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For You are the only holy One, You are the only Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father, Amen! I will bless You every day, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Grant, O Lord, that on this day we may be preserved without sin; blessed art thou, O Lord, God of our fathers, and praised and glorified is thy name forever, amen. May Thy mercy be upon us, O Lord, as we trust in Thee! Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me by thy justification! Lord, you have been a refuge for us throughout all generations, and I said: Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for those who have sinned against You. Lord, I have come to You, teach me to do Your will, for You are my God: for You are the source of life, in Your light we will see light. Show Your mercy to those who lead You. Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.” (See Explanation of the all-night vigil, Archpriest Gumilevsky). Now let's delve into its content in more detail. The Great Doxology is one of the most important and solemn songs during the All-Night Vigil; the whole world, the entire human race is now solemnly responding to the calling sermon of the apostles to glorify the risen Lord. The whole universe, proclaimed by their gospel and believing in the Lord Jesus, forms one great choir and sends out one great praise to the Lord. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Thus did the angels sing at the birth of the Lord Jesus on earth; We repeat this doxology of the angels after the stichera of praise and thereby show that in response to the call of the apostles to praise the risen Lord, it was as if heaven and earth merged in one doxology, that on earth, illuminated by the preaching of the Gospel, the song of the angels is and will be heard incessantly in the glory of the Lord. “We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we bow down, we praise Thee, we thank Thee, great for the sake of Thy glory!” What a wonderful picture! The entire human race, redeemed by the death on the cross of the only begotten Son of God, who became incarnate for us, suffered for us and rose again for us, the entire human race, like the inhabitants of heaven, constantly praising the Lord, does not know how to express the fullness of its feelings before the Lord: no matter how much it uses its words, it is as if these words are not enough to express before the Lord everything that it feels, contemplating His greatness. How good, my brethren, is the man redeemed by the Lord! “We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we bow down, we praise Thee, we thank Thee, great for the sake of Thy glory. Lord, Heavenly King, God, Father, Almighty! Lord, only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and Holy Soul!” What depth of knowledge of God! How clearly a Christian man contemplates the holy and consubstantial Trinity! Who teaches us such knowledge of God and reverence for God? Our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we immediately glorify our Lord Jesus Christ in particular. In the most touching terms we implore His mercy and glorify His holiness. Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us; take away the sins of the world, accept our prayer: sit at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us! What a touching plea from a sinner to his Savior. “For You are the only Holy One, You are the only Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father, amen.” What a deep and at the same time sincere confession of the holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ! Next, our prayer song again addresses all three persons of the Holy Trinity. I will bless You every day, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. What a bold promise! “Grant, O Lord, that we may be preserved without sin on this day.” So that no one would think that the promise to bless the Lord every day and praise the name of the Lord forever and ever can be fulfilled by our own strength alone, without special help from God; For this purpose, we immediately humbly pray to the Lord that He, by His omnipotent grace, will keep us without sin throughout the day. Strengthened by our hope in the Lord, we immediately begin to fulfill our promise: “Blessed art thou, O Lord, God of our fathers: and praised and glorified is thy name forever, amen.” If a Christian person did not feel his weaknesses and sins, his praise would be invariably solemn and majestic; but the lightest glance cast at oneself immediately makes one change the tone of praise to a prayer to the Lord for mercy. “O Lord, Thy mercy be upon us.” The only way we can attract Your mercy to us is our unchanging trust in You, Lord, our sincere and firm desire to do Your will. “Be, O Lord, Thy mercy upon us, even as we trust in Thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me by thy justification.” This last verse is repeated three times as if to mark the fact that we address our praise and prayer to all three persons of the Holy Trinity and that our praise and prayers are sincere and decisive. The following verses express the reason why it is we who turn to the Lord and resort to our prayer and praise. The reason for this is that the Lord has always been and is our refuge, that we have no one else to turn to in prayer; that if we sin, we sin before Him; that He is our God, that He alone is the source of eternal life, the source of light and bliss. Lord, we say in our prayer, Lord, “thou hast been our refuge throughout all generations. Az said: Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul for those who have sinned against You. Lord, I have come to You; - teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; For with You is the source of life, in Your light we will see light. Show Thy mercy to those who lead You!” And all this solemnly prayerful and laudatory song, wonderfully and superbly composed of expressions of the Old and New Testaments, decently selected, as Blessed Mark of Ephesus puts it, ends with the Seraphim’s doxology: “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us!” Having begun with the angelic song sung at the birth of the Lord, our doxology ends with the seraphic song, sung incessantly, as Isaiah heard, at the throne of God. After repeated singing of the Trisagion, the doxology ends: all heaven and earth and all creatures formed one great choir in honor and glory of the risen Lord; Eternal life with its bliss, with its incessant praise to the risen Lord, is, as it were, already predestined for us. Very touching, dammit. my listeners, gaze as if at the words of a priest: “Glory to Thee, who showed us the light!” everyone present in the church is thrown into the dust before the Lord and then quietly repeats their praise to the Lord after the clergy. (See Explanation of the divine service of the right church, Archpriest Vladislavlev). So, brethren, the great doxology consists of three types of prayer: 1) glorification, 2) thanksgiving and 3) petition. We glorify the Triune God for His highest perfections. And how can we not give praise to the Creator, Provider and Sanctifier? The heavens will tell the glory of God, but the firmament will proclaim His handiwork (Ps. 18:2); the sun, like a giant, marching from the edge of the sky to its edges, reveals God's power (Ps. 18:6,7); the moon, stars, light, fire - in a word: all visible and invisible nature reveals within itself the greatness, wisdom and power of the Lord Almighty. For everything is established by His word, everything is quickened by His Spirit, everything is supported by His power. With reverent contemplation of the world, so wisely, magnificently and beautifully structured, we cannot help but be amazed and sing songs of praise to the Almighty. If all inanimate and dumb creatures glorify their Creator, then how can man - this most beautiful creation of Him - not glorify Him who is the source of all good, by whose command we live, move and exist (Acts 17:28)? How can a person not praise Him to whom praise is due (Ps. CXLVI, 1)? How can a person not magnify the One whom every creature magnifies, in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, which is, and that which exists in them (Apoc. V, 13)? And who among us has not felt in our souls the inexplicably sweet bliss from the glorification of the King of heaven and earth? Let praise be sweet to our God (Ps. CXLVI, 1). Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; forever and ever they will praise Thee (Ps. LXXXIII, 5)! Praising the Lord Almighty, we together thank Him. And how can we not thank Him from the depths of our hearts for all the blessings shown to us in creation, redemption and providence? He gives us the spiritual blessings necessary for our salvation; He sends down physical gifts to us for our temporary life. How can we not thank Him for the very illnesses and sorrows sent to us for our spiritual benefit - to cleanse us and prepare us for a better and more perfect world? In particular, how can we not thank the Lamb of God, who takes away sins - Christ the Savior, who through His suffering and death on the cross redeemed us from damnation and eternal death, adopted us as sons to His Father and purchased for us the kingdom of heaven at the price of His blood? Deeply feeling our unworthiness to glorify and thank the Lord, we express (in great doxology) contrition of spirit and tenderly ask for forgiveness of sins and all mercies. Among all the temptations and vicissitudes inseparable from real life, to whom should we turn with a prayer for mercy, if not to the Lord of love and mercy? Christian! Remember, always remember that pure and fervent prayer unites you with God; in your prayerful striving for Him, you will forget all the storms and disturbances of the sea of ​​life that so often shake our lives. Whether you look at the splendor of the sacred service, listen to the harmonious singing of the church, or consider the wondrous beauties of nature and the inscrutable destinies of God in the history of the human race, lift up your thoughts and hearts to God, immerse yourself in the contemplation of His boundless greatness and inexhaustible goodness. In prayerful delight you will anticipate the bliss of heavenly life! After bringing great praise to the Lord, a special litany is pronounced: “Have mercy on us, O God, according to Your great mercy,” and another one begins with the words: “Let us fulfill our morning prayer to the Lord” 78 ; then, after the priest has expressed peace and blessing to those present, and after reading a secret prayer over them, with bowing of the head, the all-night vigil ends with the dismissal that “Christ, our true God, through the prayers of His Most Pure Mother and all the saints, will have mercy and save us, for He is good and a Lover of mankind.” The choir, on behalf of the entire people, sings many years to the most pious Sovereign, the entire Highest Family, the government church and all Orthodox Christians. This many years begins with the words: “establish, O God,” after which there is a prayer of dismissal, ending the all-night vigil. (Compiled according to source). 24. Conversation on the words: Establish, O God, the Most Pious Autocratic Great Sovereign of our Emperor, the holy Orthodox faith, Orthodox Christians forever and ever This, brethren, is the prayer that the Orthodox, One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church prays daily, at the end of the All-Night Vigil and many other church services. Apparently, brethren, this prayer is important when the Orthodox, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church prays it daily. Meanwhile, among the children of the Orthodox Church there are those who do not even know this prayer, because at the time when the Orthodox Church prays this prayer, they either indulge in the morning peace - sleep, or spend time inattentive to the holy work of the church, or simply leave the church before the end of the service. And what day is not a day of reflection on this daily prayer of the church? “Confirm, God, the Most Pious Autocratic Sovereign of our Emperor.” This is how the daily prayer of the church begins, this is how this important prayer begins. And is it decent to wake up this prayer, is it excusable not to know this prayer, this important prayer! Human society cannot consist otherwise than of the weak and the strong. Given the depravity of human nature, how can one not be evil in it! How are these opposing sides kept in a beneficial balance? How do the strong keep themselves from oppressing the weak? Whom does the evildoer fear, and does not strike the good whom he hates? Who is this wall between the strong and the weak, who is this fence of the good, who is this servant of God (Rom. 14:4), who curbs the evil and foolish people's ignorance (1 Peter 2:15), - who is this patron of the mother of all good things - the church? The Most Autocratic Sovereign. How can we not pray, that the Lord may confirm him in all these holy ways? Oh, God, confirm our Most Pious, Autocratic Great Sovereign in the holy paths indicated to Him by the Lord! The Holy Church, praying daily, may the Lord confirm her protector and patron, at the same time extends her prayerful voice to the Leader of the faith, may he strengthen the holy Orthodox faith with His power. Oh, how strongly we, brethren, should pray with the church and this prayer - how strongly we should pray, that the Lord may confirm the holy Orthodox faith! Through her alone we are saved. Without Her it is impossible to please God and be saved. And how many, brothers, are there enemies of the Holy Orthodox Church! Of these, after the devil, this father of lies, the first is our false mind. He inspires some that the true church is internal, spiritual, and despite the fact that the true, that is, the Orthodox Church has always been and until the end of time will remain a visible human society, having its own visible ranks, laws and institutions, it distracts many from the church and the unity of faith (Jude 1:19); He slanders others that there is no longer a true church, and therefore no Orthodox faith on earth, that the church has been ruined, faith has been abolished, and those who listen to this evil, according to the word of the Apostle (1 Tim. 6:20), idle talk causes one to deviate from the path of truth (James 5:19) and from the Orthodox faith (1 Tim. 6:10), and thereby reduces the area of ​​the Orthodox faith. Oh, God, confirm the holy Orthodox faith, may the earth not be deprived of the blessings of heaven! Our mother, who in her holy sacraments reborn us into children of God, our mother church concludes her daily prayer with her maternal caring prayer for us to the heavenly Father, that He may establish Orthodox Christians forever and ever. This, Orthodox Christian brothers, is what the Orthodox Church is praying for us. What are we?! Do we correspond to the mother's care for us and the prayers of the church? Do we submit ourselves to the saving action of the grace of God that descends on us in the church? Do we stand with the assistance of God’s grace in the Orthodox faith, do we take courage in the deeds of piety that our Orthodox faith shows us? When, according to the instructions of the Orthodox faith, the time of fasting comes, do we keep the fast and do we keep and understand it as our Orthodox faith tells us to keep and understand it? When, according to the instructions of the Orthodox faith, the time of repentance comes, do we use this time for sorrow, which is according to God, unrepentant repentance leading to salvation (2 Cor. 7:10)? Or are we only postponing the feats of fasting and repentance until the future, without leaving the obedience of the Orthodox Church? But who among us knows what the future will bring us, even tomorrow? Perhaps tomorrow will be our last day on earth, when it will be too late for us to establish ourselves in the Orthodox faith and the piety it inspires. (See Instruction of Theodotius, Archbishop of Simbir.). Let us, brothers, be attentive to the prayers of the church. They all ascend about us, about our happiness and salvation. Amen. (Compiled according to source). At the end of the all-night vigil, the first hour follows. The general composition of both the first hour and all hours is the same. After the threefold: “Come, let us worship our King God,” there are three psalms, special for each hour; with the end of them - “glory and now, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, O God” (three times), Lord, have mercy (three times), troparion, “glory”, another troparion, “and now”, theotokos and then one or more verses from the psalms and the trisagion. At the exclamation of the priest - kontakion, Lord have mercy (forty) and the prayer “And for all time.” At the exclamation of the priest - a prayer, special for each hour. With the service of this hour, believers greeted the coming day. Accordingly, the following psalms were chosen: the fifth, the eighty-ninth and the hundredth. In the first - a prayer appeal to the Lord in the very early morning, so that He “guides everyone with His righteousness and protects those who walk the path of righteousness from those who walk the path of lies.” “Hear the voice of my cry, my King and my God. For to You, Lord, I pray. God! Early You heard my voice: Early I stand before You and wait (vv. 2, 4). According to Your great mercy, I enter Your house, I worship in Your holy church with reverence for You (v. 8). God! guide me in Thy righteousness; in spite of my enemies, make your path equal before me: for there is no truth in their mouth,” etc. (vv. 9, 10). In the second, everyone is reminded that our lives are rushing quickly, elusively, imperceptibly and every day brings us closer to the common end of all - the grave, and that therefore we need to use time with extreme prudence and caution. "God! You return man to corruption and say: Return, sons of men! For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night. You carry them away like a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that fades early. In the morning it blooms and turns green, in the evening it is cut and dries up (vv. 3-6). The days of our years are only up to seventy years, and with greater strength - up to eighty years; and their very color is exhaustion and sorrow; for they pass quickly, and we fly away (v. 10). Teach us to number our days in this way, that we may acquire a wise heart” (v. 12). The third psalm reminds us of the life path of righteousness that David followed and that everyone should follow. “I am thinking about the path of integrity; Thus did David sing; Whenever you come to me, I walk in integrity of my heart in the midst of my house. I do not place my words of obscenity before my eyes; I hate criminal cases and do not cleave to them. A corrupt heart is removed from me; I don’t know any evil ones,” etc. (vv. 2–4). The Theotokos after the troparia are not those that are sung at Matins, but special ones and always the same. So in the first hour - “What shall we call Thee, O blessed one” and so on. “Grateful! what shall we call You? You are heaven, because from You the sun of righteousness has risen; You are paradise, because you brought forth the flower of incorruption; You are a Virgin because you remained incorruptible; You are a pure Mother, because in Your holy arms you carried the Son, the God of all. Pray to Him that our souls may be saved.” Then: “direct my steps according to Thy word,” etc. “Firm my steps in Your word and do not let any iniquity take hold of me. Deliver me from human oppression and I will keep Your commandments. Shine upon Thy servant with the light of Thy countenance, and teach me Thy statutes” (Ps. 119:133–135). My lips are full of Your praise, and I sing Your glory, Your greatness every day.” Prayer at the end of the first hour: “Christ, the true light”... “Jesus Christ, the true light, enlightening and illuminating every person who enters the world! Show us Thy bright face, so that we may see in it the unapproachable light, guide our feet to the fulfillment of Thy commandments, through the prayers of Thy Most Pure Mother and all Thy saints. Amen". This prayer is usually read by a priest. From this alone we can conclude that it is given special significance. But, unfortunately, it is extremely rare to find that it is read exactly the way a prayer with a special meaning should be read. Usually, the priest does not have time to say: “Christ, the true light,” when they immediately begin to sing “To the Chosen Voivode” and many leave the church. This should not happen, brothers. (See the book on church services by I.I. Bellustin). Let us, brethren, endure church services to the end, according to the rules of the church, and, taking part in reading and singing, we will perform this holy work with reverence and fear of God, remembering the formidable words: “Cursed is everyone, do the work of the Lord with negligence” (Compiled with additional information according to the indicated source) Appendix to conversation No. 25. Historical information about why “The Chosen Voivode” is sung at the first hour It is worthy of note that in the first hour a song is usually sung in praise of the Mother of God - the Chosen Victorious Voivode. Why exactly is it sung in the first hour? It is known that when, during the invasion of Constantinople by the Russian knights Askold and Dir, in 866, its inhabitants held an all-night vigil with special zeal, and Patriarch Photius, having taken the robe of the Mother of God from the church, with a prayer to the Lady, plunged it into the waves of the bay, the storm-boiling sea broke the ships of the Russians, and the defeated Askold and Dir, overwhelmed with fear, they believed in the Lord punishing them and soon after that they were baptized 79. Since this marked the beginning of the introduction of Christianity in Rus', in memory of such an event this song: “To the chosen Voivode the victorious,” once sung by the inhabitants of Constantinople, in praise of the Mother of God for her miraculous intercession, is sung here at the first hour, added to Matins, as a reminder that the conversion to the Christian faith of Askold and Dir was, as it were, the first hour of the spiritual, grace-filled enlightenment of the earth Russian. Questions and Answers, XXXVII. Lib. YII, sar. 49; VIII, 35, 37. In a book about fasting. About prayer XIX. Creation St. father 1843: Question and Answer 37. See About the Church. divine service Bellustina, letter five, ed. 2nd, 1864 Creation St. father 1843, issue. and resp. You. Vel. 37. There are 7 penitential psalms at Compline. St. mentions them. Gregory Vel. (VI century), speaking about Vespers. worship. In both Greek and Slavic liturgical books, this prayer is inscribed with the name of the monk Paul, the founder of the Everhemide monastery in Constantinople. The ancient monuments of Christian writing, according to the testimony of learned researchers of Christian worship (Gerard Fos and Assemani), assimilate Saint Ephraim the Syrian. It must be assumed that Paul only owns a free translation of this prayer into Greek from Syriac in the form in which it is read in our Slavic translation; the original belongs to Saint Ephraim the Syrian (Filaret: “Review of the hymns and hymns of the Greek Church,” part I, p. 73 and note 227). Paul, a monk of the said monastery, owns a collection in which, among other paternal works, some works of St. Ephraim the Syrian are also placed. It is very likely that this collection also included the said prayer of Ephraim, somewhat modified by Paul during translation, and this, presumably, gave some reason to attribute its origin to Paul. Paul lived no earlier than the 10th century. One can think so on the basis that in his collection he cites three passages from the life of Ephraim, compiled by Simeon Metaphrastes, who lived in the 10th century. Antiochus is called a pandect because he owns a collection of texts of holy scripture of a moralizing nature, called a pandect. In the monastery of Saint Sava there was indeed a monk Antiochus, who wrote a pandect, i.e. a collection of moralizing sayings from holy scripture. They think that this is Antiochus Pandect, who lived in the 7th century. and who wrote the prayer “and give to us, Master”... The prayers are also attributed to John of Damascus: “My many, O Mother of God, sins are many”... and “I place all my hope in Thee”... (Historical review of hymns and hymns of the Greek Church, part 2, pp. 193–194). On Psalm 118 there is an excellent interpretation by Bishop Theophan. The whole book. In the church charter (chapter 9) we read: “When the Six Psalms are spoken, then it is appropriate to listen diligently, for the psalms are filled with repentance and tenderness. The verb of these psalms is with reverence and fear, as if invisibly speaking and praying to God Himself about our sins.” The reading of kathisma in ancient times constituted the essence of the entire morning service and passed on to all the churches of the East from the monastic brethren of Egypt. There the hermits, gathering on Saturday from distant deserts in one place after a five-day solitude, spent the entire night of Sunday in the verse of the Psalter, interrupted from time to time by the inspired prayers of the holy abbots, such as Macarius, Anthony, Pachomius and others, shining with the desert glory of their virtues and wondrous miracles. Canto 2 is used only during Lent. It is borrowed from the accusatory song of Moses: Look up the heavens, and I will say... (Deuteronomy 32). Goar. Evchcl. r.434, 435. Here is an almost literal translation of most of these verses: “...Lord, I appeal to You, hear me, accept my prayer, like a fragrant censer, with favor. From the depths I cry to You: bring my soul out of prison to glorify Your name. If you look at iniquity, who will stand (before Your judgment)?! But, Lord, You have endless mercy, You have great deliverance from all iniquities, You have forgiveness. And I wait for You - my soul waits for the Savior with such tension with which the night watchman does not wait for the dawn of the morning, I wait patiently - I do not lose hope, because I believe Your word - Your promise of salvation.” Of course, in ancient times this interpolated prayer had some special meaning as part of the festive divine service, for example, for the catechumens and penitents who occupied this part of the church, in order, for the sake of the holiday, to bring them into closer prayerful communication with the faithful. Nowadays, the lithium does not have any other special meaning, except for the general one - prayerful, giving, perhaps, a special solemnity to the festive service, as its difference. Glorification is a short song in honor of a celebrated event or person. The priests in the middle of the church, in front of a festive icon decorated with lamps, accompany the singing with incense. The same song is repeated many times in the choir. The singing of magnification is each time preceded by a verse from a psalm. For this purpose, verses are selected from the psalms, the content of which has some relevance to the holiday. This song is called “magnification” after its very initial expression, which is most often used: “we magnify.” Luminary prayers are those prayers that are read secretly by the priest at the beginning of Vespers or All-Night Vigil. They are called lamps from the time when the darkness of the evening requires that the lamps be illuminated. By the seed of the woman we mean the promised Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is depicted mysteriously in the church by the priest, when, standing in front of the royal doors, he brings prayers to God for all people. In Russian translation: Arise, Lord! Kaveh testifies to this in his “Discourse on the Greek Liturgical Books.” In the book about the Holy Spirit. He says here: “our fathers decided not to enjoy the pleasantness of the evening light in silence, but to immediately thank God when evening came. I cannot say who was the author of the words that are said in the evening thanksgiving; but from ancient times the people lifted up a voice: “We sing of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Book 5, chapter 29). Thus, in explaining why the song “Quiet Light” is signed in our books of hours: Creation of Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, we must assume that this holy father introduced it into general use in the Palestinian churches, or also that its composer was really Sophronius, but Sophronius of ancient centuries, and not of the 7th century. As the scientist Varro testifies to this in his work: De lingua latina, book 5. Mark of Ephesus attributes the composition of this song to the Hieromartyr Athenogenes, but in Saint Basil the Great it differs from the song of Saint Athenogenes and it is directly stated that the author of the song Sveta the Quiet is unknown. See the book: On the ministry and orders of the Orthodox Greek-Russian Church, T.12. Sl. Scriptures of St. fathers and teachers of the church related to the interpretation of Orthodoxy. worship services. T.2. 457, ed. 1856 In the book. “New Tablet”, volume 3, chapter 1, the song “Quiet Light” is called a “high” and “holy” song. And further it is said about it: this song, after it has been accepted (from its creator) by the church, is always sung at evening singing with “reverence” and “special attention.” And therefore, to listen to this song, the deacon exclaims: “Wisdom, forgive!” Wisdom here means Christ, as “Wisdom to us from God” (1 Cor. 1:1), or some kind of sermon that speaks about Him and His hidden deeds. “Forgive me,” Saint Herman explains: let us lift our thoughts away from earthly affairs and let us understand the good indications. And these words: “wisdom, forgive” are the essence of pre-reminders and encouragement to pay attention to the song: “Quiet Light.” For example, according to the interpretation of Simeon of Thessalonica, the prokeimenon: “Now bless the Lord, all servants of the Lord,” is sung on Monday for the sake of the angels who constantly bless the Lord; prokeimenon: “Thy mercy, O Lord, will marry me” - for the sake of help from saving suffering and mercy shown through the cross. The verse stichera at the Sunday all-night vigil are those stichera that are sung or read at the end of Vespers and at the beginning of which the verses of the Sunday prokeimna are placed. See Explanation. all-night vigil Romanovsky's vigil, p. 18. See Charter. Church, l.6, ch.2. Sn. l.472, ch.50. A troparion, in fact, is such a selected holy song, in which the essence of the holiday is briefly expressed. Conversation on Psalm 1. Volume I, pp. 90 and 91. Sunday antiphons are otherwise called “serene.” They are borrowed from psalms that are called “song of the steppes.” (Ps. 119–132). See Callistus's interpretation of the song: The Most Honorable Cherub, in the Nikon Tablet. In Greek in the RCC of the Vienna Library. (code 249). Boissonadi Analecta Vol.4. p.45. not.2. ed. Paris 1831. This “doxology” is called “great” in contrast to the “small” pronounced before the “six psalms.” The “small doxology” recalls the joyful gospel of the angel to the shepherds of Bethlehem about the birth of the Redeemer; and the “great doxology” shows that the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God was announced throughout the world, to all peoples (New Tablet of Matins § 23). Both of these litanies are read with some variation at Vespers. History of the Russian Church., op. Philaret, Bishop of Kharkov, vzd. 1848, period 1, pp. 7 and 8.