Questions and answers. Orthodoxy in detail
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HOW TO GREET EACH OTHER. Orthodox etiquette
When entering the house, you must say: “Peace to your home!” - to which the owners respond: “We accept you in peace!” Having caught your neighbors at a meal, it is customary to wish them: “An angel at the meal!” It is customary to warmly and sincerely thank our neighbors for everything: “God save us!”, “Christ save us!” or “God bless you!” - to which the answer is supposed to be: “For the glory of God.” If you think that they won’t understand you, you don’t have to thank non-church people in this way. It’s better to say: “Thank you!” or “I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
How to greet each other. Each locality, each age has its own customs and characteristics of greetings. But if we want to live in love and peace with our neighbors, it is unlikely that short words like “hello”, “ciao” or “bye” will express the depth of our feelings and establish harmony in relationships. Over the centuries, Christians have developed special forms of greeting. In ancient times they greeted each other with the exclamation: “Christ is in our midst!” - hearing in response: “And it is, and it will be.” This is how the priests greet each other, shaking hands, kissing each other on the cheek three times and kissing each other’s right hand. However, priests can greet each other like this: “Bless.” Venerable Seraphim of Sarov addressed everyone with the words: “Christ is risen, my joy!” Modern Christians greet each other this way on Easter days - before the Ascension of the Lord (i.e. for forty days): “Christ is risen!” - and they hear in response: “Truly he is risen!”
On Sundays and holidays, it is customary for Orthodox Christians to greet each other with mutual congratulations: “Happy holiday!”
When meeting, lay men usually kiss each other on the cheek at the same time as shaking hands. It is a Moscow custom to kiss three times on the cheeks when meeting—women with women, men with men. Some pious parishioners introduce into this custom a feature borrowed from monasteries: mutual kissing on the shoulders three times, monastic-style.
From the monasteries, the custom came into the life of some Orthodox Christians to ask permission to enter a room with the following words: “Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.” At the same time, the person in the room, if allowed to enter, must answer: “Amen.” Of course, such a rule can only be applied among Orthodox Christians; it is hardly applicable to secular people... Another form of greeting also has monastic roots: “Bless!” - and not only the priest. And if the priest answers: “God bless!”, then the layman to whom the greeting is addressed also says in response: “Bless!”
Children leaving home to study can be greeted with the words: “Your Guardian Angel!”, crossing them. You can also wish a Guardian Angel to someone heading on the road or say: “God bless you!” Orthodox Christians say the same words to each other when saying goodbye, or: “With God!”, “God’s help,” “I ask for your holy prayers,” and the like.
How to address each other. The ability to turn to an unfamiliar neighbor expresses either our love, or our selfishness, disdain for the person. The debates of the 1970s about which words were preferable for address - “comrade”, “sir” and “madam” or “citizen” and “citizen” - hardly made us any friendlier to each other. The point is not which word to choose for conversion, but whether we see in another person the same image of God as in ourselves. Of course, the primitive address “woman!”, “man!” speaks of our lack of culture. Even worse is the defiantly dismissive “hey you!” or “hey!”
But warmed by Christian friendliness and goodwill, any kind address can sparkle with the depth of feelings. You can also use the traditional pre-revolutionary Russia address “madam” and “master” - it is especially respectful and reminds us all that every person must be revered, since everyone bears the image of the Lord. But one cannot help but take into account that these days this address is of a more official nature and sometimes, due to a lack of understanding of its essence, it is negatively perceived when addressed in everyday life, which can be sincerely regretted.
It is more appropriate to address yourself as “citizen” and “citizen” for employees of official institutions. In the Orthodox community, the cordial addresses “sister”, “sister”, “sister” are accepted - to a girl, to a woman. You can address married women as “mother” - by the way, with this word we express special respect for a woman as a mother. How much warmth and love there is in him: “mother!” Remember the lines of Nikolai Rubtsov: “Mother will take a bucket and silently bring water...” The wives of priests are also called mothers, but they add the name: “Mother Natalya”, “Mother Lydia”. The same address is also accepted for the abbess of the monastery: “Mother Joanna”, “Mother Elizabeth”.
You can address a young man or a man: “brother”, “little brother”, “little brother”, “friend”; to those older in age - “father”, this is a sign of special respect. But the familiar “daddy” is unlikely to be correct. Let us remember that “father” is a great and holy word; we turn to God “Our Father.” And we can call the priest “father.” Monks often call each other “father.”
Source
Which is correct?
The writing of lowercase and uppercase letters in publications on church topics in Russian, as well as in Church Slavonic liturgical texts published in Russian transliteration, is not a new problem. Until recently, almost every Orthodox publishing house had dictionaries for internal use, however, as you might guess, different dictionaries implemented different principles for solving this problem.
Each publisher approached this issue, at best, relying on the spelling and syntactic rules of the Russian language, using manuals for proofreaders and editors. But, taking into account the specifics of the published texts, literary workers made amendments and additions, which sometimes did not correspond to generally accepted norms of the Russian language. During the Soviet period, church vocabulary, as a rule, almost never found its way into dictionaries, much less was mentioned in editing and stylistics manuals. Therefore, editors, at their own peril and risk, turned for samples to publications published before the revolution in Russia or abroad in the 20th century. But in all these books there were also no uniform rules for publishing such texts.
An important step in this direction is these rules. The basic principles according to which “church orthography” was developed boil down to the following:
– Spelling in texts on church topics, in general, should not contradict the currently generally accepted spelling norms of the Russian literary language
.
– Deviations in texts on church topics from generally accepted norms should be few, clearly motivated and, if possible, systematic
– to avoid erosion of time-tested rules. In addition, it should be taken into account that these rules will be applied not only in publishing practice, but also in the process of training in secondary and higher church educational institutions - and this training, of course, should not involve memorizing dozens of illogically formulated rules and hundreds of exceptions .
– In Russian, all words found in the middle or at the end of a sentence (with the exception of proper names) are written by default with a lowercase letter. Writing a capital letter is a special case that always requires a special description
and strong justification.
– The text should not be overloaded with capital letters
, otherwise problems arise with its visual perception, and the capital letters themselves are rapidly devalued in the reader’s mind. The above applies to both secular and ecclesiastical texts.
– Realizing that no guides and reference books can accommodate all the variety of real cases of word usage, it should be recognized as acceptable and normal that there are variations in the spelling of various words, phrases and terms
depending on the genre of the text, the intended audience, and individual author preferences. At the same time, it is necessary to refrain from any strict regulation of the writing of lowercase and capital letters in literary texts: in works of this kind, language is not only a means, but also a goal. The freedom of the author's ideas should not be limited.
Source: Editorial and publishing design of church printed publications: a directory of the author and publisher. M: Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchate, 2015.
Orthodox Life
To pray unceasingly does not mean to stand before St. icons and pray all day, although you need to pray at a certain time. You can and should pray for every task, as St. John Chrysostom: “You can pray while sitting at a spinning wheel and raise your mind to the God of minds, who looks at our mind and heart.”
So, while doing everyday things (which no one can do without), one can and should pray, and from the visible, tangible objective world, transfer one’s thoughts to the invisible name of God.
For example: looking at the fire, either in a stove, or in a primus stove, or in a lamp, or anywhere, say to yourself mentally: Lord, deliver me from eternal fire! And in this way you will humble your thoughts and a sigh will imperceptibly appear in your chest and by this you will attract the grace of the Holy Spirit, which at the moment of sigh in your soul in an imperceptible way creates your salvation.
For the Holy Scripture says: “Whenever you sigh, then you will be saved” (Is. 30:15). And also: “St. By the Spirit every soul is alive and exalted by purity,” i.e. purity of heart, and this purity comes from purity of mind.
This is how important it is for us to pay attention to our thoughts and imagination, from this “the origin of the belly and death!” those. Either eternal life or eternal torment.
We must move from a visible object to the invisible name of God in all our cases and activities without exception: whether you are washing clothes, or anything else, or cleaning any object - say to yourself (mentally): Lord, cleanse the filth of my soul! Also, when you begin to drink or eat after the usual prayer, think about how the Lord our God tasted our bile and ocet for the sake of salvation, and offers us all good things! In this way, you will humble your proud thoughts and sigh and thank the Lord who suffered for us!
When you go to bed, say to yourself mentally: Our Lord and God did not have anywhere to lay our heads, but He granted us every comfort.
When you wake up, cross yourself, and when you get up from sleep, say to yourself: Glory to You, who showed us the light!
As you begin to put on your shoes, say mentally: Lord bless, Lord help!
When you get dressed, say to yourself (mentally): Lord, enlighten the robe of my soul and save me!
When you begin to wash yourself, be sure to cross yourself to drive away the enemy’s action coming through the watery nature.
As you begin to comb your hair, remember how the Roman soldiers tormented our Savior for His pure hair when they led Him to the crucifixion, and then say: “Glory to Your Passion, Lord!”
If you see a beautiful object worthy of our Creator and Provider of His creation - glorify the Creator of all!
Before leaving your room, read in your mind: “It is worthy to eat. "to the end, and also when you come back, read the same prayer.
When you leave a room (or cell) you grab the door handle, mentally read the prayer: “Doors of mercy. " to end.
So, always, with every visible object, switch (mentally) to the invisible name of God.
By acting in this way, a person will be in a state of unceasing prayer, according to the word of St. Apostle Paul, and, therefore, in unity with God, Who said: “Whoever is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30).
Therefore, always, in all deeds and undertakings without exception, accustom yourself to the memory of God; and in order to get used to it, we must ask the Lord for gracious help and blessings to strengthen our will, in order to move mentally from a visible object to the invisible name of God, which brings down gracious help to us in the matter of saving the soul and for all our deeds and undertakings.
By acting in this way, you will do everything for the glory of God according to the teachings of St. Apostle, and at the same time you will have a godly and saving prayer, which, so to speak, is prompted by every object that exists before our eyes.
And when despondency or hardness of heart attacks us, preventing us from praying, then, in order to drive away such demonic temptation, we must say to ourselves: “Lord, I have neither tenderness, nor zeal, nor contrition to pray to You properly!”
After such heartfelt contrition, God will give a godly and saving prayer, since God will not despise a contrite and humble heart, i.e. will not leave you without help.
The Kingdom of God does not open to those in whom Christ has not yet entered here on earth (according to his faith); and where Christ is, there is unstoppable light and there is no darkness; and you will have peace and joy in your soul because of the presence in your heart of the grace of the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our salvation and eternal joy in heaven.
Source
PORTAL CONTACTS
One day I heard a parable about three temple builders. When each of them was asked: “What do you do?”, the first answered: “I carry bricks.” Second: “I earn bread to feed my children.” And only the third said: “I’m building a temple.” A slave, a mercenary and a son - they have a common cause, but their motivation is different. The slave is indifferent to what is happening, he simply does what needs to be done. The mercenary expects to receive a reward for this. The Son creates in the name of love. Works for the glory of his Heavenly Father.
"For the glory of God."
The first time I heard these words in response to “thank you” was when I came to work at the Church. And at first I even thought that the Orthodox had this kind of “password-review” to check whether they were one of their own or a stranger. And to the wish “save me, Lord,” she clumsily answered “you’re welcome.” And what could I do to further increase the glory of the Lord? It’s one thing to write articles, subjective reflections of a person who has been in the Church for a week, and even receive a salary for it, and quite another thing to do something important, for example, to go somewhere far away to work for the good of the Church, without expecting reward. Therefore, all the stories about how someone worked in a monastery in the summer or helped restore a temple seemed to me like something real, something that an Orthodox Christian should definitely do instead of tapping on a keyboard and spending the whole day in front of a monitor.
A successful manager came to the monastery on an excursion and stayed there for the entire vacation. Accustomed to moving millions, he happily picked out bricks from manure and did other equally hard work, and then wrote in his blog that these days he was happier than ever in his life.
Another pilgrim shared her impressions no less enthusiastically... about washing dishes. Many people come to monasteries and need to be fed, so obedience in the refectory is considered one of the most difficult. But this girl, who stood over the sink with a mountain of plates without straightening her back for three days, seemed to be no less happy. Although, in fact, she almost never had a chance to see the monastery itself and attend services.
And I came to the Church... to work. I was lucky - I found myself in a team of like-minded people, many of whom became my true friends - the kind that would help me out of any trouble. In our offices, lamps are lit in front of the icons, while others do not even have the opportunity to cross themselves before eating, and during the Nativity Fast they are forced to go to “New Year’s corporate parties,” “otherwise the bosses won’t understand.” My friend, also a journalist, once asked: “Not only do you write about what you like, but you also get paid for it?”
Of course they pay. Any work must be paid. In addition to work “for the glory of God.” This is where I hit a dead end. On the one hand, I wanted a “feat” - to go somewhere to work “just like that.” On the other hand, any “overtime” work, not for a fee, but for “God save me,” began to cause internal protest. As it turned out, it’s a feeling familiar to my other colleagues, when you start to think: “What, how and why am I doing in my life? And what is more important for me: material or moral incentive?
Are market relations to blame, in which a clear gradation is built: seller - buyer, or is it simply the time that calls for consuming and getting everything from life, or do I simply belong to the pragmatic generation of “new believers”, since among my acquaintances there were those who wanted to work for the glory of God? not so much. At least, according to those who came to the Church a decade before me, everything was completely different for them.
When churches first began to open, a stream of spiritually hungry people rushed there, capable of moving mountains. They themselves carried bricks, sewed vestments for priests, and washed floors. This is how the parish was created. But now the external splendor has been restored, church life has entered a certain direction - staff units have appeared: a security guard, a cleaning lady, a salesman behind a candle box. And often, in response to a call to stay after the service to help in the church, the rector sees not a forest of hands, but a forest of legs, hastily hurrying about their business.
It happens differently. They come and ask: “I want to work in the temple. How much will you pay me for this? Hieromonk Nikon (Polyakov), rector of the St. Nicholas Monastery, believes that in this case it’s not even a matter of a person’s faith, it’s just that life and economic difficulties dictate their own. Therefore, people are sometimes forced to ask how much they will receive for this or that business. And yet enthusiasts remain - there have been cases when people came and offered free help. People even came from Moscow to work on the restoration of a small monastery in Saratov:
“There are people who feel the need for this. Not to earn money, not to solve some problem, but to work for the glory of God. At the same time, they realize that they are gaining much more. Although they are more willing to go to large monasteries,” says Father Nikon. “To St. Sergius, to Optina Hermitage.” I personally know people who can come there for a month or two and work for the glory of God. But in monasteries like ours - small and unknown - there are few people willing to work. Again, this comes from lack of faith. People don’t understand that it’s the same: God doesn’t care where you work - in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra or in the Optina Hermitage or in the St. Nicholas Monastery, which no one knows. And that, perhaps, on the contrary, here, having given your labor, you will please God more than in Optina, where there are already a lot of people. God accepts all work.
But sometimes it happens that it is better for a person to pay. Because when someone works for the glory of God, there is nothing to ask of him: “Did you do it? Save me, God". It’s good if this is a job where no special skills are required - digging up something or removing garbage. What if, for example, we lay tiles? Therefore, for more qualified work, Father Nikon is still looking for specialists who are responsible for their work and can guarantee quality. Amateurs in the Church are dangerous, and there are few professionals, real specialists in their field. It happens, unfortunately, that people don’t want to work for money, they just want to earn money at any cost. You have to part with these quickly.
“In general, for me it’s not a question whether to pay or not to pay money,” admits Father Nikon. “If the person worked normally.” But today the situation with specialists is simply catastrophic. They are not there - they simply are not. You can count it on your fingers. Just as it is with the holy fathers: “For the venerable one has become impoverished...”, so it is with us. Experts have become scarce. There are no specialists, no reverends...
The rector of the Holy Trinity Church in the city of Saratov, Hegumen Pachomius (Bruskov), believes that today, by restoring churches and restoring church life, we are trying to board the last carriage of the departing train:
— The most fertile time, so to speak, has been missed. Just a few years ago it was possible to calmly, without rushing, make repairs to the temple; there were the funds necessary for this, and people willing to work hard. Now the situation is somewhat different. Today we have to accomplish in one day what previously took at least three.
And yet people offering their help still come to churches. Basically, these are those for whom the Church is their home, and Orthodoxy is not just a way of behavior, but real life.
“Such people exist and, God willing, there will always be.” They can never be the majority, but they can do a lot in the Church,” Father Pachomius is sure. “You go into a church and see that people have gathered there, doing something together, and this touches the soul. And you know what is very important? It is imperative that people who want to do something for the temple work hard so that there is no division between “ours and others,” so that they know that the temple is their home too. If the temple is dirty and a mess, then something needs to be done. Much depends, of course, on the priest, and almost everything depends on him. The realities of today's life are such that the priest is the head of the parish, and he determines his life. But if you see that something is wrong in the church, come up and say: “Father, I want to do something, bless me.” For example, a person knows how to lay stone, or can wash floors, or in the refectory assistants need to feed the workers. Otherwise, you know, most people think: “Oh, how good it is, the renovation, yes, yes... God help me.” But if you have the opportunity, do the work yourself. You will then tell your grandchildren: “I took part in the restoration of such and such a temple.” Do not answer requests: “God will help.” He will, of course, help, but only you will remain on the sidelines.
By the way, one day I still managed to work in a destroyed church and wash a mountain of dishes for pilgrims. The joy you experience while working is amazing. Almost like when you write an article about a temple or its parishioners. Because, it seems to me, I understood the main thing - any business in your life must be dedicated to God.
Also, working for the glory of God does not always mean working for free. The main thing is to do your job conscientiously. Do it well. So as not to be ashamed. This is probably what distinguishes a slave and a mercenary from a son. A slave fears punishment, a mercenary fears that he will not be paid for his work. The Son is afraid of only one thing - to upset His Father. And it’s not difficult for him to work.
Olga Novikova Journal “Orthodoxy and Modernity” No. 9 (25) for 2008
“For the glory of God” and a little speech therapy
Svetlana rightly considered humility to be the main virtue and took a very responsible approach to its formation and education. More often than not, others do. She saw herself as a humbling instrument, suppressing all passions and eliminating the shortcomings of her neighbors - especially anger, pride, theological ignorance and indiscipline.
Her character was rather complex. To begin with, she was no Svetlana: whoever dared to call her that received (for free) a small Greek lesson and - even more free - an exercise in angerlessness, which lasted a little longer.
Photinia taught everyone, crushing the idols of spiritual illiteracy with the hammer of humility
Photinia taught everyone, crushing the idols of spiritual illiteracy with the hammer of humility and desire for good to one's neighbor. Only the abbot was exempt from lessons, to whom she awarded the rank of “my father.” He rejoiced at the opportunity to skip classes: the tests from the dean and the tests from the metropolitan were quite enough for the constant cultivation of the seeds of the most important virtue. But, once faced with the tearful murmur of young parishioners, whom, together with the kids, Photinia considered the main object of her mission, he could not restrain himself and called her “The Hammer of the Witches.” Although he embarrassedly asked, firstly, not to talk too much about it, and secondly, to still have indulgence and bear Fotinya’s burdens: “Well, I have no one else to put behind the box and in the refectory too! She works for almost nothing!” Young parishioners and their children even wiped away their tears and smiled on this occasion. But not for long, of course: they had to take a course in correct vocabulary and hand-folding.
Worldly nasty words and phrases: “thank you”, “please”, “bon appetit”, “permit me”, “be kind”, etc. were completely banned throughout the entire territory of the seditious parish. Photinia very carefully monitored the removal of them from her charges and simply did not respond to requests, wishes, neutral informative messages expressed using incorrect, or even downright heretical, vocabulary. That is, neither buy a candle nor drink tea: speak correctly, for the glory of God, then God (and Photinia) will give, which is what you will receive.
The parish was humbled with all its might. How sincere is unknown
Hand folding is also important. So simply, without the correct angle at which you need to fold your palms, you cannot take a blessing from Father Fotiny. The degree of folding of the hands was determined by the Hammer himself, leading the parishioners and their children to the priest. Here everything was at her discretion: some people got a palm angle of 90 degrees, some 45 degrees, and some even got a “bucket” angle. True Orthodoxy, my brother, is a cunning science! The parish was humbled with all its might. How sincere is unknown.
The end of Photinia’s teaching activity was put by a five-year-old child who, despite the admonitions and even the prohibition of an uninvited teacher, stubbornly wanted to go to confession after the all-night vigil. She used, it seems, her entire forbidden arsenal: with her breasts she stood in the way of the child’s confession, who until the age of seven seems to be sinless and therefore does not need confession, and in a whisper capable of bringing back to consciousness a company of fainting deaf-mutes, she appealed to the conscience of her ignorant parents, In general, it was a big nuisance. While the adults were struggling with passions, the sinless child, with a force that came from nowhere, pushed Fotinia’s body away from the path to confession, where the sad abbot stood, and, looking into her eyes, smiling, lisped: “Aunt Fotya! Shut up for the glory of God, will you?” While Svetlana was gasping for air, the child walked to the priest, who was considerably cheerful. What they talked about there is none of our business, but the child’s confession, in addition to the remission of sins, greatly contributed to the establishment of silence at the services and the complete cessation of pacifying impulses not addressed to oneself. And Sveta somehow became kinder after this incident: she gives out candy to children, sometimes. And from the Witches Hammer she became the Candy Light. Which I seem to be very happy about. And we are so glad – we can’t describe it enough.
Source
What does “to the glory of God” mean?
I admit, I was taken aback: they told me a story that made my hair stand on end. It is as terrible as it is simple, although there is a place for sad humor in it.
On the eve of the bishop's visit, the young archpriest responsible for its organization came to the parish. I went straight to the altar to talk privately with the rector about the intricacies of the bishop’s presence in the delighted parish.
It didn’t work out completely tete-a-tete: after the liturgy, the altar servers remained here, but judging by the confident behavior of the archpriest, known only from publications about appointments on the decisively and irrevocably updated diocesan website, the presence of this little thing did not bother him at all. But the abbot was embarrassed. Especially when I saw how the newcomer sat down in a chair and crossed his legs. “It’s interesting what a meeting room we have!” - the abbot said to the uninvited guest, having come to his senses, and suggested moving from the altar to at least the refectory. He was not at all embarrassed: “Nothing, I’ll be quick. So, father, the day after tomorrow the bishop is serving with you - please, prepare envelopes of gratitude: to himself, to the choir, to the concelebrating guests, to the deacons. In general, you know it yourself. Plus lunch, this and that, the total is not much: forty thousand. We must honor our father."
It was not so much the mentioned amount that outraged the priest, it was the mention of some envelopes that aroused his anger. I remembered the hard years when he had his own business, how they tried to survive, and from time to time they had to “resolve issues” with the mafia, the “roof” and the police (not with Gleb Zheglov, of course). They behaved in exactly the same way: calmly, openly, insolently - “you need this for your own safety.” "We work together". Sometimes we managed to fight back, sometimes not. But the Father Superior had to stop the business in the end.
And now this “envelope archpriest” sitting in the altar, demanding “just a forty-year anniversary,” oh, how he refreshed that vile past in the rector’s memory. It never happened that bribes were collected. And here it’s so simple: “The father must be honored. Forty years old."
“Do you know it yourself?” No, I do not know. “That’s not our custom,” the abbot said sharply. – Who do you pretend the bishop is? We have a large family with many children, and if I come home and demand money from the children, to put it mildly, neither my spouse nor my children will understand me. They'll throw me out. Or they'll send you to a mental hospital. And they will do the right thing. It’s me who should give money to the family, and not her who should please me, don’t you think? The same applies to the church community. And besides, our parish is in debt for electricity and repairs - there is simply no money. By the way, would you like to help pay?”
The alien nervously asked: “What about your sponsors? Do you work with them? Don't they help you? He definitely didn’t like the priest’s answer: “Sorry, but the church doesn’t have “sponsors” - we have benefactors. And we don’t “work” with them, but serve God together. Yes, people help the temple, and thanks to their help we live. In difficult conditions, by the way.”
The reaction of the young interlocutor stretched out in a chair made, according to the rector, remember that same gospel whip and regret its absence. "Here! So you tell these sponsors that you need money to pay bills and repairs, and send this money in an envelope - what’s the problem?”
“The problem, you know, is that lying is an unworthy thing. The parish carefully pays diocesan dues; we understand perfectly well that there are other churches and communities that need our common help. But to lie to philanthropists, they say, they need to pay for “utilities”, and to put the money themselves in an incomprehensible envelope - excuse me, this is a very strange phenomenon. We are used to trusting each other and respecting the bishop. We will see the Bishop with joy, we will arrange a meal to the best of our ability, black caviar, however, we cannot promise. But the kind of behavior you propose is unlikely to promote love and respect, don’t you think?”
Here the person sitting at the altar switched to a semi-confidential “you”: “You are forgetting yourself, father. So you can lose your place. We'll take note of you." I thought it would scare me. Yeah, not in our area. Scared. I received a calm answer: “Yes, please.” This confused him, apparently, so much that he looked around restlessly. And he even stood up. I understand that threats will not help. Not the case.
And here he uttered a phrase that, in my opinion, is worthy of being included in the chronicle of the revival of spiritual life in Rus'. This chronicle is not always joyful. Either making excuses, or defending his uninvited presence, he said: “Well, sometimes we served in our south “for the glory of God.” And left.
After the bishop's visit to the parish, the priest was removed from his position as rector. But he wasn't upset at all. And he says “for the glory of God” without quotation marks. So you can still call Holy Rus'. His parishioners love him very much.
Petr Davydov, publicist
ABC of the Church: does “confess” always mean “repent”? Difficult moments of worship
“Glory to You, who showed us the light!” - these words from the Great Doxology in the ancient Divine Service sounded at the moment when the edge of the sun appeared. At the heart of Matins, the second part of the All-Night Vigil, is the service that prayerfully accompanies the onset of the day. Only day here means not just part of the day, and light - not just the morning dawn.
What will save someone surrounded on all sides?
The coming of the day here is associated with the theme of Salvation. Matins is the most intense part of the All-Night Vigil in terms of content. Here is Polyeleos with the reading of the Gospel, and the canon, in the 8 cantos of which the Charter provides for a total of 120 troparions.
After the Six Psalms and the Great Litany, a short joyful song is sung about the appearance of Jesus Christ into the world. In essence, this is a great, i.e. large, prokeimenon. The deacon recites selected verses of the 117th Psalm of praise; the choir answers him by repeating the main verse:
God is the Lord, and appear to us (Ps. 117:27). Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! (26). That is: “God is Lord, and He has revealed Himself to us [as such]. Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!”
This exclamation is memorable for the event of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. This is how people greeted the One who, according to their centuries-old aspirations, would become their King. None of them had any idea that the worldwide Kingdom of Christ would begin only after the Calvary victory. Only after the Crucifixion and Resurrection did God, who became Man, “reveal Himself to us” as the Lord of the entire universe...
“Confess to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever” (Ps. 117:1), the deacon loudly pronounces the first verse of the psalm.
The Slavic word to confess is connected here not with sins, but, on the contrary, with the goodness of God, which must be publicly announced before the Lord Himself. In Russian it is translated like this: “Glorify the Lord, for He is Good, for His mercy endures forever.”
But the victory coming from the Lord reminds us of the recent threat emanating from the enemies: They took advantage of me, and in the Name of the Lord I resisted them (Ps. 117:11).
The expression obyshedshe obydosha, i.e. “surrounded, surrounded,” in modern language sounds unliterary and is called a tautology. But in ancient Eastern languages, such a speech device enhances the meaning of the word: “[Enemies] surrounded me on all sides, but I resisted them in the Name of the Lord.”
The last verse: The stone, His careless builders, This was at the head of the corner: This was from the Lord, and is marvelous in our hands (Ps. 117: 22-23) - was included in this prokeimenon for a reason. Jesus Christ spoke these words about Himself (see Luke 20:17), giving this metaphor the meaning of a prophetic parable: The Stone - Christ, Whom the builders of the Old Testament Church (Jewish scribes and Pharisees) rejected, became at the head of the corner (i.e. became the bottom stone of the corner of two stone walls) - formed the foundation of the building of the New Testament Church.
The Exhausted Rich as a Social Ideal
The canon of Matins is based on the so-called Biblical songs - in the Bible these passages were initially distinguished by their hymnical, i.e., conducive to singing, character. In modern worship, as a rule, only the song of the Most Holy Theotokos is performed (see Luke 1:46-55), which poured out from Her heart in response to the greeting of St. right Elizabeth, mother of the Baptist John (see Luke 1:42-45). This song is one of the few, but even more precious, testimonies about the inner world of She who agreed to become the Mother of the Savior. In what images did She clothe Her feelings before the sacrament taking place in Her Herself?
The first words of the song: My soul magnifies (i.e., “exalts, glorifies”) the Lord, and my spirit rejoices (i.e., “rejoices”) in God My Savior - are supplemented by a list of reasons prompting the Mother of God to this glorification. First, the Mother of God speaks about Her personal experiences, already here showing an example of humility and reverent fear of God:
As if he looked (“For [God] looked, he paid attention”) to the humility of His servant...
For the Mighty One has done Me greatness (“For the Mighty One has magnified Me”), and holy is His Name; and His mercy endures throughout all generations of those who fear Him.
Then the Mother of God, remembering Her origin from the family of King David and realizing that She carries in her womb the promised Anointed One (in Hebrew - “Messiah”, in Greek - “Christ”), points out the futility of human calculations, which seemingly abolished power Davidic dynasty, next to the power of God's providence:
Create power with Your arm, scatter the proud thoughts of their hearts. Destroy the mighty from their thrones and lift up the humble; Fill those who hunger with good things, and those who are rich let go of their vanity. That is: “[God] showed the power of His hand: He scattered those who were proud in their thoughts; He deposed the rulers from their thrones and exalted the humble; He gave all kinds of goods to the hungry, but left the rich with nothing” (Slavic tschi means “lean, emaciated, empty”).
The ideal social order, in which power is not connected with ambition and wealth, but has its source in God, is depicted here as an accomplished fact and is thereby a “program of action” for every Christian community.
Finally, the Mother of God defines the universal nature of what is happening, speaking about the special place of the Israeli people in the matter of salvation:
Israel will receive His servant, remember the mercy - like the verb to our fathers - Abraham and his seed, even to eternity. “[God] interceded for his servant Israel, remembering the gracious [promise] to Abraham and all his descendants, as was spoken to our ancestors.”
What is played for the glory of God?
In the last part of the festive matins, a group of the last three psalms of praise from the Psalter (148–150) is sung. That's what they're called - praiseworthy. Many verses of these psalms directly begin with the word Praise God (in Hebrew - “Alleluia”) or Praise Him, and then indicate who or what should praise Him: here the sun and the moon, the serpent and all the deeps, fire and hail, mountains and all the hills, kings and people, and much more that is included in the concept of His work, that is, “all creations,” both animate and inanimate. But most often the last verses are heard. Two of them indicate what we should praise God for:
Praise God in His saints (“for His holiness”), praise Him in the strengthening of His power (“for the strength of His power”).
Praise Him according to His strength (“for the various manifestations of His dominion”), praise Him according to the multitude of His majesty (“according to the greatness of His greatness”).
The other three list the musical instruments used in the Old Testament Divine service (the preposition in means the method of performance): in the voice of the trumpet (on wind instruments), praise Him in the psaltery and gusle (on plucked strings), in the tympanum (accompanied by percussion) and the face (in choir ), in the strings (on bowed strings) and organ (on keyboards and winds). Good cymbals and exclamation cymbals are the same instrument, copper cymbals: the two epithets only complement each other, characterizing loudness.
Appeal to all living things: Let every breath (“everything that breathes”) praise the Lord! not only do these three psalms end, but also a mood of praise is set for the last hymn of Matins - the Great Doxology. The entire All-Night Vigil ends with this same feeling, preparing us for the Divine Liturgy, which fully reveals the coming of the Kingdom of Christ.
Source
The glory of God is the beauty of His spirit. It is not aesthetic or material beauty, but beauty that comes from His character, from all that He is. James 1:10 encourages the rich man to be proud “when God humbles him,” pointing to glory that has nothing to do with wealth, power, or physical attractiveness. This glory can crown a man or fill the earth. It can be seen in man and in the earth, but it does not belong to them - it is from God. The glory of a man is the beauty of his spirit, which is fallible and eventually dies, and is therefore fleeting, as this verse tells us. But the glory of God, manifested in all His attributes, never disappears. She is eternal.
Isaiah 43:7 says that God created us for His glory. In context with other verses, man can be said to “glorify” God because through man the glory of God can be seen in such things as love, music, heroism, and so on—things that belong to God that we carry “in earthen vessels.” "(2 Corinthians 4:7). We are the vessels that “contain” His glory. Everything we can do and are comes from Him. God interacts with nature in the same way. Nature demonstrates His glory. His glory manifests itself in human consciousness through the material world in different ways, and often in different ways for different people. One person may be pleasantly surprised to see the mountains, while another person may love the beauty of the sea. But it is what lies behind them both (the glory of God) that delights people and connects them with God. In this way, God can reveal Himself to all people, regardless of their race, heritage or location. As Psalm 19:2–5 says, “The heavens speak of God’s glory, the firmament tells of His deeds. Day conveys word to day, night proclaims knowledge to night. No sound is heard, no words are heard, their voice does not sound, but their speech spreads throughout the entire earth, and their message reaches all the ends of the world.”
Psalm 72:24 speaks of glory in heaven. Sometimes you hear Christians say, “God will receive the dead in glory,” a phrase borrowed from this psalm. When a Christian dies, God receives him into His presence, and there he will be naturally surrounded by the glory of God. We will be taken to a place where the beauty of God literally dwells—the beauty of His Spirit will be there because He is there. Again, the beauty of His Spirit (or His essence) is His “glory.” In that place, His glory will not need to pass through man or nature but will be seen “with the naked eye,” as 1 Corinthians 13:12 says: “Now we see only a dim reflection in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now my knowledge is partial, and then I will know as completely as God knows me.”
In human/earthly understanding, glory is beauty that comes from earthly matter (Psalm 36:20; 48:17), and in this sense it fades. But the reason for its withering is that material things are short-lived. Everything on earth withers and dies, but their glory belongs to God, and it returns to Him when death or decay of the material occurs. Think about the rich man mentioned earlier. That verse says, “The rich man is proud when God humbles him, because his wealth is as fleeting as a wildflower.” What does it mean? This text reassures the rich man that his wealth, strength, and beauty come from God, and encourages modesty based on the knowledge that it is God who gives him all that he is and has. And the knowledge that he is as fleeting as grass will lead him to understand that it is from God that all glory comes. The glory of God is a source, a spring from which little streams of glory flow.
Since glory comes from God, He does not accept claims that glory comes from man or from man-made idols or nature. In Isaiah 42:8 we see an example of God's zeal for His glory. This zeal for His own glory is a theme discussed by Paul in Romans 1:21–25, where he talks about people worshiping the creation instead of the Creator. In other words, they looked at an object through which the glory of God was passing, and, instead of giving God the glory for it, they began to worship an animal or a tree or a person as if the beauty they possessed belonged to them. This is idolatry, and it is extremely common. Every person has made this mistake at one time or another. We have all “traded” the glory of God for the “glory of man.”
This is a mistake that many people continue to make: believing in earthly things, earthly relationships, their own strength or talent, beauty, or the goodness they see in other people. But when these things wither and disappear - as they inevitably do - they find themselves in despair. We must understand that the glory of God is constant, and as we journey through life we will see it manifested here and there, in man or in the forests, in a story of love or heroism, in fiction or non-fiction, or in our own lives. But it all ultimately comes back to God. And the only way to God is through His Son, Jesus Christ. We will find the source of beauty in Him, in heaven, if we abide in Christ. Nothing will be lost to us. All those things that have faded away in life we will find again in Him.
Be in the glory of God.
To be in the glory of God is to be in the finished result of God's works.
Let's talk about Christ, in purely human terms. Have something to say about Christ? How can we talk about Christ in this situation?
We can talk about Christ only in the case when Christ personally performed some specific action in our lives. And this action performed glorifies Him—this is our testimony.
For example. “Christ healed me of cancer yesterday,” he says about Christ. “Christ entered into the affairs of my business and blessed my business,” this is what he says about Christ.
Our life is passing, and we cannot exclude our life in any way. They say: “give your whole life to Christ.” Okay, how will I live? How to give your life to Christ, how to make sure that Christ is the only one? Because we can't do that. We are trying to tune ourselves, we are trying to tune the crowd to these things. We try, but we see that a person lives HIS LIFE. And he will always live his life. And there is nothing bad or bad about this. It’s just that Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven can be involved in this life, which a person will share. And he will say: these and these things are happening in my life. Because a person in his life has his secret room. In other words, he has the Day of the Lord, where he dwells in certain streams of God space. This is his life, he moves in it, he experiences it. And we can observe his life, in which Christ is present. And your life, in which Christ is present, glorifies Christ. Therefore, our task is our life—whether Christ is present in it or not. I mean, do our daily activities and worries glorify Christ?
And so back, we can pick up such correct religious slogans and throw them around. Seek first of all the Kingdom of Heaven! How to look for Him? Seek Christ! How to look for Him? And much more that comes down to the question of our ignorance. And we need the Holy Spirit to lead us along this path. But we cannot hear Him. If we talk about Christ, then only the Holy Spirit can show and direct us to Christ. But since we do not hear the Holy Spirit, we need a person who will come and tell us how, what, and where. And that's not bad either. But as I said, you have already grown enough in Christ to move and hear the Holy Spirit. Because when Christ begins to act in your life, joy comes to you, sadness and unnecessary moments of worry go away.
But the fact is that we have become futile, and we cannot see either Christ, who has now come, or the glory that is knocking for us to enter into our affairs. We don't see this because we are fussy. Therefore, not to fuss is our task. We must leave vanity, we must free our consciousness. Therefore we have the Lord's day where we can be in the Spirit to see it, hear it and receive it. And ultimately share the glory of the Lord that has come into our lives to a certain area or element of our lives.
Christ is in your heart right now, He is in you. But because you are fussing, you cannot see Him in yourself. Therefore, your task is not to fuss to see it in yourself. The rest for me is religious slogans.
Can you go through atmospheres, through space and galaxies in order to see Him sitting on the throne? This is what you need to learn.
But if our eyes are averted and directed at a person, at his actions, at his deeds, or at our own truth, then we will not be able to see these things. We don't see them. We live purely by ideas, by some kind of philosophy, like Christianity, from the point of view of how it should be. The Bible doesn't show HOW it should be. It shows WHO you should become. And who you must become—all spheres of the Kingdom of Heaven are involved in this. And if you develop in the territory of the Kingdom of Heaven, then you will look accordingly. Therefore, your life and the Kingdom of Heaven in your life is a testimony.
A man has risen—behold, the glory of God is in his life. The man went and gained something—the glory of God in his life. We want to have success, to have blessings - this is an understandable thing. And someone said: no, I don’t want this, this is all earthly, it takes my gaze away from Christ. But when Christ was on earth, they ran up to Him and said: Lazarus is sick. You run to Christ when you feel bad, when you need something, so that He will answer your need—“the servant is sick”; “I’m sick, Lord, help me.” You could say you are looking to Christ to answer your need. He himself said: “Come to Me, all you who are in need and burdened, and I will give you rest.” He didn't say anything about coming to Me so that I can answer your needs. There is no such. Christ actually said something cool: “Now I open the door for you, and you can communicate directly with your Father. The whole purpose of My presence is for you to be reconciled with your Father. Now whatever you ask Him, He will give you.”
Or will we play the part of those who glorify Him? Then we will not be able to glorify Him as a King, as God, we will not have enough strength. So we come to Him and He answers our needs. And this is His glory. And we become witnesses of His glory in our lives. And I am looking for Christ to become a participant in my life. Because I cannot yet be a participant in His life, since I did not die on the cross.
So our life and Christ in our life, and His glory in our life, and our testimony glorifies Him when you walk and say, “This is what Christ has done in my life, showing His glory in these things, aspects of my life.” Therefore, this is called the development of our relationship with Christ, we get to know Him closer, closer and closer. Ultimately, we become One with Him because we are already constantly witnessing His glory in our lives.
-Lord, who sinned: he or His parents?
-Neither he nor his parents, but this was done so that God would reveal his glory.
God is interested in displaying His glory in people's lives by responding to their needs. Paul writes that I prefer to know nothing except Christ. He said a great thing. At the same time, he writes about his shortcoming that I prayed to God three times to deliver me from it. But God said: My grace is enough for you. Paul also sought God for someone to answer his needs, asking three times. This is Paul’s relationship with God, this is their separate conversation. And each of us will have a separate conversation with God in the process. Took from someone, gave to someone; He pardoned someone undeservedly, blessed someone undeservedly - this is God, and there is our life and the actions taking place in our lives.
Therefore seek His glory. Where will you become acquainted with His glory, if not in your personal life. Where will you see her, if not in your personal life?
And when at church events people say: “such the glory of God has come down.” OK! It is not enough for me that God's glory has come down. Show the result of this glory. What has fame done? Because when God's glory fell on Lazarus, Lazarus was resurrected. When the glory of God descended, people were healed, set free, etc.
What is your reserve or concept of the glory of God? The revealed glory of God is, in fact, the answer to your personal need. It’s not like you’re standing there at the conference, “rolling around in the glory of God,” no. What has fame done in your life? We say that we don't know what God is doing with us. If He does something to us, we see it.
It is written that you be renewed in your mind. We cannot hang some things on God and say: You do these things. No. There are things that depend on us. WE NEED TO KNOW HOW TO DO THIS. We must know how to heal, how to liberate. Because when Christ was on earth, He said to the disciples: “Go and say that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near to you. Heal the sick, free them from demons, raise the dead. Who will do it? What am I? No. You do it." That's why they called Him teacher. Because He taught them how to do it. In other words: “you love, I cannot love for you.”
One thing I realized was that a picture of the glory of God was being forced upon me. And if I read the scriptures, the glory of God always came with the manifestation of certain things—the dead were raised, the sick were healed, demons were taken out. Now, this is what the scriptures call the work of the glory of God.
When I've seen at conferences, some are covered and others are not, and some things we can see at a rock concert where people go into a trance. And the actions that take place there are similar. People simply experience a certain trance, they enter a trance state. It's normal, but it's trans. I love going into trances, but this is a trance. I want to make a difference in some things. It's not fame, it's the trance you've entered.
The glory of God, if you look at the scriptures, it always comes with answers to human needs. He was blind from birth—the glory of God appeared and he now sees. He died - the manifestation of the glory of God occurred, and he was resurrected. Being in a trance and the action of the glory of God are two different things. Trance is something that depends on you, you can go into a trance. You can pay attention to some fanatical rock concert, and people go into a trance, where they submit to this state and a set of everything else. If people are in a trance at a rock concert and are told to “set yourself on fire,” they may do it. This is a trance state. They are disconnected from their sanity, and are subject to the atmosphere or the action of those waves that are now operating over them.
In our churches we can also have a trance state, and these are normal things. Our trance looks completely different, we too may look crazy for Christ's sake. We switch off, in fact, in a trance you don’t hear external sources, and basically other sources open up: the sources of Heaven, the Kingdom, that is, you begin to hear and see a completely different world. This is a trance state. But calling trance glory is a little misleading.
Fame always has a result that responds to your part of your life. You have seen the glory of the Lord. How did you see her? It was this glory that came down to produce certain actions. In other words, the revealed glory of the Lord is the actions of God in your life. Some say, look, Moses was in the tabernacle, and there was a cloud of the glory of God. But he didn’t just lie there in glory—he performed certain actions, accepted certain formulations, instructions.
Faith without works is dead. If you believe, but there is no action of God in your life, how can you see the glory of God?
Therefore, I broke these stereotypes in myself, which is called the glory of God. I said, “here, this is my life, this is me, and God is in my life. And I want to see His glory in my life and the lives of others.”
People, confusing trance with the glory of God, say, “we are looking for the glory of God,” in fact, they are looking for a trance state. The shaman, before performing actions, enters a trance to communicate with the spirits. We go into trance, also for certain things, to communicate with God on His territory. This is our trance. But this does not mean that trance is a manifestation of the glory of God. When Peter went into a trance on the roof, he saw certain visions, that is, in a trance, some things become obvious to you. And in this trance, not glory came to Peter, but a vision came to him of what he must do. And when Peter did this, the glory of the Lord could be seen. But the glory of the Lord was not visible on the roof, because the glory was not revealed. A vision was revealed and what to do.
And if in this situation we saw Peter on the roof of the house, we would say: “quiet, quiet, the man is in the glory of the Lord,” and he is in a trance.
Glory is the specific revealed actions of God in a given situation.
For example, you are an inventor, and you are working on some project, inventing a helicopter that does not exist yet. You work day and night. When will glory come? When will the result be? This is what you do, and then you see your glory. There, bonuses are given, fees, invitations to work - you see your glory in this action. God's glory is God doing the action, and the end result is glory. Therefore, God says: “I will not give my glory to anyone.” Why? It’s just that when He performs an action and the result is visible, then a person cannot attribute this result to himself, that “I did it.” Because if he says so, in other words, the glory automatically goes to him. The fact is that everything happens in public, before people's eyes. Therefore, when people see the result, a person comes out and says: “God did this, giving glory to God.”
To be in the glory of God is to be in the finished result of God's works. Glory comes from completed actions. God will not give His glory to anyone. Having our glory, we can glorify Christ. Christ says: “If you glorify Me before men, then I will glorify you before the Father.” It's very unique. For example, when I worked and achieved a result - this is my glory, then I say, “With this I glorify Christ. Christ is a participant in this project.” I glorified Him before people. But when I come to the Father, Christ is standing, and the Father says to Him: “You did these things.” He replies: “No, not I. He did it.” Therefore you will have a reward before God because Christ can glorify you before the Father. Therefore, when I work here on earth, and get a certain result, and have glory, I say: “This belongs to Christ, I glorify Him with this.” And Christ can glorify me before the Father.
Don't let someone paint a picture for you, otherwise, trying to live according to this picture, you will not see any result. You have the Holy Spirit, consult Him - we need to know, because My people are perishing due to lack of knowledge. There must be guidance, otherwise you will not know how to act in certain things.
The spirit always knows everything. The spirit breathes where it wants, and goes where it wants and to God himself. The problem is that we cannot realize what He knows; our consciousness is closed to what the Spirit knows. It is very good to be led correctly by the Spirit and not be afraid of being lost. Don't be afraid to get lost. You must know what position you occupy. You must know who you are, be aware of who you are. If you realize that you are the son of the Father, why are you afraid of getting lost? We are afraid of getting lost because our actions sometimes do not coincide with the general concept of Christian society. We think that we are doing wrong, because the idea imposed something wrong on us, we automatically think that we are lost.
And the internal testimony that we can have is not from the Holy Spirit, but from the information of public opinion that sits in our head. Growing in God is not growing in the public opinion of some society.
If the Spirit breathes where it wants and is where it wants, and no one judges Him for this, if the position of the Spirit is that He goes where it wants and no one can put obstacles in front of Him, then why should those led by the Spirit be afraid of this.
We are saints regardless of our sin. We are only growing in our God, regardless of our sins. The fact that we are saints is not that you do not sin, but it is who you are. Saint—you don’t deserve a rank, it’s something God gave you regardless of who you are. You were already a sinner, and God gave you this condition of yours, your position. In Him we are saints.
Some try to gain some kind of holiness through self-righteousness, just because they don’t know who they are. You are the son of God, not because you do or don’t do something, but because you were born by Him. And you know your status, WHO YOU ARE, and only on the basis of this status do you live here on earth from the position of the Kingdom of Heaven.
If we realize who we are, then things will go differently for us. Because you will say: “Who is He? He speaks as one in authority." “Who are you, Lord?” - “I am the son of God.” He knew who He was. And He came to tell us so that we would know who we are.
“An heir, as long as he is a child, is in no way distinguished from a slave, although he is master of all: he is subject to trustees and stewards until the time appointed by his father,” Galatians 4:1. “For everything that God has created eagerly awaits the time when it will be revealed who God’s children are,” Romans 8:19. Believe me, when your time comes, you will know that the “inauguration” will not be in a secret room. And now you know who you are before you come into power and fullness and perform certain actions. Now you are developing as a son of God, because He has only one son with God our Father. It is the same as if Fire will be scattered all over the globe like small lights. But one essence remains, Fire. That's why I say, we are his son. They don’t rush into the Holy of Holies in a crowd—there is only One, and that is His son. A son is not a gender, a son is an essence. Just like the Bride is an entity.
One Son—One Bridegroom. One Church—One Bride. Who are they? I don't know. But you will know whether you are the Son or you are the Bride, whether you are the Groom or the Bride. If God is preparing a Bride for his Son, are you the Son or the Bride? All this will be revealed in due time. And now I have a completely different thing - God in my life, Christ in my life. But husband and wife are one. So it's a double-edged sword. But only God won. And the devil lost.
Dmitry Kari.
