Great woman name
The significance of the feminine principle in creation is great. This manifests itself at all levels of human existence, both personal and social. A woman acts in a very special way: she, like a kind of filter, cleanses from evil. Feminine nature is a creation of God.
Studying the world of God, you see how God wisely arranged everything. The same applies to an even greater extent to the person himself: biologically, mentally, and spiritually, and from any point of view. Both to a man and to a woman.
A great thing is to learn to understand your wife: to know how to please her, how to act so that she is satisfied and happy. After all, women have their own, special language, and you need to learn this: listen and understand your wife. This is not about words, but about understanding more than words can say - many inconspicuous but important little things.
You need to know very well the mental makeup of your wife - not just this woman, but female nature in general, just as a wife needs to understand the peculiarities of the male structure of the soul. The husband often has no idea that the female soul is as complex as a labyrinth, and that is why it is not easy for him. It's not easy to find the right path in the maze! It is not easy in what you see or hear, to grasp the invisible and unspoken, to understand what is only implied.
Women always act differently than men. This is how God Himself arranged it, because a woman is a mother. She is distinguished by subtlety, her mental structure is infinitely complex, because such a task is assigned to her by nature. The feminine presence is another note in nature itself. When getting married, you need to understand very well that you are not getting married to have children. A woman is not a device for childbirth, which is then put away on a shelf, admiring the children she has brought into the world. This is a mistake that destroys the human relationship between spouses.
When the New Testament says that a wife should submit to her husband, the meaning is not that the wife should become a slave to her husband. This means that a wife must treat her husband with love and must accept her husband with all her soul. The Apostle Paul teaches that the wife should submit to her husband, and the husband should love his wife, as Christ loved the Church; He who loves his wife loves himself. The Apostle Paul is referring to the characteristics of each gender. The husband needs, in accordance with his masculine nature and disposition, for his wife to love him, not push him away, and not doubt him. Not because he is sinless, but because he needs to hear a kind word, hear something that will give him strength to live on. And if he is wrong, you need to tell him about it with great kindness and gentleness. In the same way, a woman, by her nature and structure, needs the love of her husband, to feel affection and tenderness on his part: this is how she was created by her feminine nature. The husband must love his wife and treat her with tenderness, and the wife must accept him with all her soul and obey him - not out of slavery, but out of devotion.
Submission in marriage means that you go beyond yourself. Always act out of love for Christ
Submission in marriage means that you go beyond your self: you improve by cutting off your own will. You always act out of love for Christ. There is no need to see a person as a tyrant, a master, or a ruler; it is necessary to see God in everyone: “Blessed is the man who regards every man as a god, after God.”
I submit to my spouse out of love for him, just as I submit to Christ because I love Him. My obedience is the thread that connects me to Christ and eternal life. By obeying your spouse, you find your freedom, your identity, your fulfillment.
The husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the Head of the Church and the Savior of the body of the Church. This does not mean that the husband is higher than the wife or that the wife is worse than the husband, but, as it is said in the book of Genesis: and the Lord God made a wife from a rib taken from a man (Genesis 2:22). He did this precisely so that the wife would feel: she and her husband are one whole. And God also did this so that the husband would not say to himself: “She is a stranger to me, I have nothing to do with her: she is one thing, I am another.”
God took the rib from the husband, and Adam, seeing Eve, said: “This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she will be called a woman.” That is, not someone else’s, but mine, she is me! This is where this attraction to each other comes from: after all, two became from one.
“He recreated a wife from his rib, and conjugated a helper for him.” Pairing - one harness. That is, God took the wife and husband and put them in one harness - the marriage harness, so that these people together would bear the cross and the burden of their marriage. This is not a punishment, but a path; By walking on it, it is necessary to achieve a connection with God. Christ is the Head of the Church, and the Head’s business was to serve His Church, to save it, and not to oppress it. And He saves her by sacrificing Himself, “crucified and risen” for her. So the husband is made the head of his wife in order to protect her, serve her, take care of her, sacrificing himself, and, if necessary, die for her and his family. The Apostle Paul says that the husband is the head of the wife (Eph. 5:23). And one wise old man adds: “Yes, but the wife is the heart of the husband.” And just as a body without a head is not a body, so without a heart it is dead, frozen, cold. If the husband is the head of the wife, then the wife is the heart of the husband. That is why the Lord did not make them the same: precisely so that they complement each other. Not man and woman, but two together.
Thus, a wife's submission to her husband means that she accepts his sacrifice, protection and service, his desire to protect her and, if necessary, die for her.
And husbands need to love their wives as Christ loves His Church. He did not love her so that she would serve him, but in order to sanctify and purify her - to bring us to Himself glorified by His glory, without sin, vice and uncleanness; that we may be holy and blameless before Him. Therefore, husbands should love their wives as if they were their own bodies: he who loves his wife loves himself.
There is nothing strange in loving and honoring and not suppressing your wife, because your wife is you. Do you love your body, take care of it, give it rest, monitor and care for it? In the same way, says the Apostle Paul, you must love and protect your wife, take care of her and serve her, for she is not someone else’s, but your own body, you yourself.
In marriage, husband and wife grow spiritually together, and in this unity there is not and cannot be any separation
In marriage, husband and wife grow spiritually together, and in this unity there is not and cannot be any separation. You cannot separate the soul from the body. Likewise, spouses, like soul and body, should be in such communication so as not to be separated in anything.
When the Church says that a wife should obey her husband in everything and that the husband is the head of the wife, the point here is not that the wife is a senseless and weak-willed slave of her husband, but, on the contrary, about the consent of the spouses. For in obedience a person finds his greatest freedom. By subordinating yourself to another voluntarily, consciously, you will become omnipotent and truly free. A great thing is obedience! Whoever subjugates himself out of love for God will understand what life is, what freedom is , what joy is!
So, the two unite and learn this great secret: for the wife to support her husband, and the husband to support his wife. The husband needs to know that at home, close to his wife, he will find peace. He needs this by nature. And the wife must learn to be a joy and consolation to her husband.
The wife should feel that the head, that is, her husband, is sensitive and attentive to her, that he cares about her, respects and honors her. Just as the brain takes care of the body, so a husband should take care of his wife so that she is not alone.
All this does not fit into everyday human ideas, because it has a different dimension: that of Christ and the Church. When Christ and the Church are placed at the basis of the marital relationship, these relationships deepen and are sanctified, and an unearthly perspective opens up in them, extending into eternity. Their goal is to bring a husband and wife to Christ, to union with Him.
To the temple - only in a skirt and scarf
The ban on women entering the temple in men's clothing - trousers and their varieties, as well as the obligatory covering of the head with a headscarf, in principle, can be explained simply by a long-standing tradition. However, there are more understandable reasons for this.
Firstly, trousers became part of a woman’s wardrobe with the help of Yves Saint Laurent only in the second half of the 20th century. Therefore, the first explanation for this aspect is quite simple: people’s rejection of new fashion. Secondly, in ancient times, men's and women's clothing were not so different; their main concept was a long shirt. Therefore, the “ban” most likely contains a metaphor: a woman should not be like a man, taking on heavy work, and a man should not behave like a woman, showing weakness and inadequacy.
The tradition concerning clothing for a woman’s visit to the temple - covering her head with a scarf - is truly a tradition, not a norm. In ancient times, and in many religions and cultures, a covered head was an identifier of a woman’s status, which said that she was married. A married woman with her head uncovered was considered to dishonor her family. This is where the word “goofy” comes from.
“Let your wives be silent in the churches, for they are not allowed to speak, but to be in subjection, as the law says. If they want to learn something, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is indecent for a woman to speak in church,” the words of the Apostle Paul. If we take this prohibition literally, then during worship, in principle, it is not allowed to speak, if only because during prayer there should be no time or attention left for this - all thoughts are turned to God. With the standards of decency, everything is also very clear: a faithful wife will not start a conversation with an unfamiliar man, and this position has been repeated more than once in books on etiquette for young girls.
The role of women in early Christianity
Indeed, women appear to have played a more significant role in the early Christian church than in society at large. As we have already seen, Jesus himself interacted a lot with women. There were women, including Mary Magdalene, who sponsored his travels as part of his pastoral work. Jesus publicly engaged in conversations and arguments with women. He publicly healed women. He had followers, and some of them accompanied him and his disciples on the journey from Gqlilea to Jerusalem in the last week of his life. Women were present at his crucifixion when his male disciples fled and then they were present at his burial. And according to all the earliest sources, it was the women who discovered on the third day that his tomb was empty and who were the first to announce that he had risen. That is, women clearly played a significant role during the life and after the death of Jesus.
What can we say about the churches that appeared after his death and were named after him? In truth, just as men played the most important roles during Jesus' life, they continued to play them after his death. The leaders of the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem were primarily its apostles—especially the apostle Peter, as well as one of Jesus' brothers, James, who converted to Jesus shortly after his crucifixion (1 Cor 15:7). Men led the actual planting of churches (Acts 6). Most of the early Christian missionaries known to us from sources such as the Acts of the Apostles were men—Barnabas (Josiah, called Barnabas), Philip, and the recently converted Saul of Tarsus (Acts 8-9). The greatest emphasis is placed on converting men, such as the Roman centurion Cornelius (Acts 10-11). And at a meeting called to decide the key issue facing the new church—whether non-Jews must keep Jewish law to be considered followers of Jesus—the main speakers were men (Acts 15). There are many such examples.
Could this emphasis on the masculine principle have been falsified by the biases of the author of Acts rather than reflecting historical realities? Most likely not: this author, who also wrote the Gospel of Luke, on the contrary, constantly emphasizes the role of women in the life of Jesus himself, to a greater extent than the authors of the other Gospels. Therefore, it appears that the picture he created in Acts is accurate (or at least not deliberate propaganda for patriarchy). However, there are also indications that women did play an important role in the emerging Christian communities of the first century. We find these instructions in the apostle Paul, the earliest Christian author, who wrote a series of letters to churches discussing various problems and their solutions. It is clear from Paul's letters that women, although not as important in communities as men, did occasionally occupy high positions and wield power.
In the temple, a woman must stand “on the side of the devil”
Starting from the previous situation, one cannot help but remember that the area for parishioners in an Orthodox church is divided into two parts: male and female. Traditionally it is believed that the left side is the “side of the devil” and the left side of the temple is reserved for women. In fact, like a good part of the norms and conventions in Orthodoxy, this provision is advisory in nature. There is logic in this. Firstly, in this way it is possible to prevent conversations and thoughts related to the assessment of a woman’s beauty and the desire to get to know each other better, that is, to stop attempts to distract from the main task in the temple - prayer. Secondly, on the left side of the gate leading to the altar hangs an icon of the Mother of God, the Mother of God, to whom, for obvious reasons, it is easier for a woman to turn for protection and requests; the right side of the iconostasis is occupied by Jesus Christ - the masculine principle.
It is likely that the conventional division of the temple into female and male sides gave rise to another “rule”, which states that children are the first among the laity to go to the sacrament of communion, then men and only then women. The explanation is actually simple: the Chalice is approached from the right, so to avoid confusion, men go first. However, this is not at all canonical.
