No. 15 (912) / April 11 '17
Conversations with the priest
In this topic:
Conversations with the priest
Hegumen Damian (Zaletov): A holiday that is 2000 years old
Conversations with the priest
Hieromonk Anthony (Prostikhin): Easter - hurry to do good deeds!
Hello, dear brothers and sisters! Christ is Risen! Today we continue to talk about the Crucified and Risen One, about faith in Him and salvation through Him. Father, the first question is: what is faith? My question is not abstract: quite recently I came across the results of sociological research that say that in Europe half of Christian believers do not believe in the Resurrection of Christ. The question arises: what do they, including us, believe in if there is no Resurrection?
– The classic definition of faith, which is closest to me: faith is confidence in invisible things. That is, when a person’s faith has a specific form of trust in a specific religious denomination, a specific religion to which he identifies himself and with the requirements of which he relates his daily life. You can, of course, expand this concept, making it the principle of relationships built on trust with anyone, from the president to your own wife. But I am still closer to the more specific and more important for us Christians definition of faith - as trust in God.
In our case, it is absolutely clear that trust implies obedience, patience, and the ability to do not what is easier or what you want, but what is right, or, in Slavic, what is righteous before God. This is probably why we observed the end of Lent, honoring this time as a holiday. And for every Christian (and those who lost weight during Lent, and who, like me, were not granted this due to the presence of carbohydrates in many foods), it is obvious that the time of fasting is a time of spiritual joy. But at the same time, Orthodox people must learn not only to rejoice spiritually, but also to meaningfully think about what our faith is and what it obliges us to.
Your question reveals approximately the same statistics as, judging by Interfax-Religion, in Russia. That is, in Europe, in Russia, in other Christian countries, we see a completely obvious majority of people who, according to the church canons of both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, cannot be called Christians at all if they do not believe in the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and in the subsequent resurrection of the souls of the departed, which means the transition to eternal life. Without this faith, as the Apostle Paul said, without faith that Christ is Risen in the body, of course, calling oneself a Christian is at most the ethnocultural context in which a person grew up, but not Christianity in itself. Now is a time when many have lost their Christian roots.
Why then are these people not burned by Divine Fire at the moment of Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ?
– I cannot speak about the percentage of people who were caught, or, as you say, not burned by the Divine Fire. I only know, as a Christian, that the ineffable mystery is the mercy and long-suffering of God. And I know the Gospel parable, when both the weeds and the wheat remain together until the harvest. And in this sense, it seems to me, there are no borders: Spain, Italy, Russia, Ukraine. Absolutely everyone is in the same boat here. The same temptations of this century, the same, unfortunately, parishioners who have been scattered for several generations, who gather themselves with great difficulty and still, for the most part, do not know how to gather their own children, much less grandchildren.
Father Michael, how can I practically feel the presence of God in my personal, personal life, His participation in it, the fact that He hears me, my prayer?
– Firstly, you can feel your pulse and understand that you are alive. If you are alive, it means that the Lord still tolerates you, has not turned his back on you, and moreover, he hopes for you very much. If you notice that your physical appearance is somewhat transformed, and you see yourself in photographs smaller, younger, and now older, then this means that a certain process is underway - a process of approaching that Judgment, which only for a sinner is called the Terrible. At this Judgment, the Lord God will really ask us for all the actions that we have committed. If you see the process and realize where everything is heading, then you need to get off the couch, turn off the TV and work hard so that you don’t feel sad at that Court. And the gnashing of sinners’ teeth in hell - from powerlessness, from the inability to change anything or blame anyone - is, first of all, the aimless time of earthly life. I say again, without apocalyptic sentiments, my dears, we are now celebrating Easter. Ask more positive questions.
Question from a TV viewer from Sergiev Posad: “Christ is Risen!” How to properly prepare for Holy Communion on Bright Week?
– Mother, modern practice recommends that we do it this way. During Bright Week, the Penitential Canon, the canons to the Guardian Angel, the Most Holy Theotokos, which we read before Communion, are not read. The canon for Communion, the Easter Hours, which replace the morning and evening prayers on Bright Week, and the prayers themselves for Holy Communion are read. The discipline of fasting in modern Moscow practice and in many cities and villages of our country is such that people maintain marital abstinence on the eve of Communion, if they are married, and do not eat meat products the day before. Everything else is not forbidden. I think it would not be a sin to consume the same blessed Easter eggs during Holy Week. God bless you!
There is an opinion that religion is a kind of system of restrictions that influence or even take away the joys of earthly life.
– The root “religare” is, rather, not a restriction, but a “separation” or “selection.” This is a person’s conscious choice between what will help him get closer to eternity and what prevents him from making eternity blissful. Therefore, a person separates, cuts off everything that we call sin, if he is a Christian, and consciously cleaves to the virtues, strives to communicate with those in whom these virtues are already visible and significant. “Whoever you get along with, it serves you right,” as we know. If you want, by the grace of God, to have a movement not “from”, but “towards”, in this case you must definitely remember the words of King David: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor in the ways of sinners.” I am not a hundred, and I am not sitting on the seats of the destroyers.” Therefore, it doesn’t matter with whom you break your fast on Holy Easter, drink the cup of wine allowed according to the Charter, and discuss accordingly after that. There is no need to reduce everything these Easter days to theological discussions in the kitchen, but we should try to do more good deeds: take and take your Easter cake to a neighbor who could not go to church, or take an egg and give it to a soldier or a Kyrgyz janitor in the yard and say to him: “Christ is Risen!” Imagine if this same Kyrgyz who sweeps your yard answers you: “Truly He is Risen!” or: “Same to you.” In both cases, I think there will be benefits.
Question from a TV viewer from Mytishchi: – Christ is Risen! I have a question: how did they know that Jesus Christ was really Risen? And how is this reflected in the Bible?
– Start with the simplest thing - read the Gospel. Take the simplest of the Gospel texts - the Gospel of Mark, it was written at one time for Roman teenagers and many will understand it without references to the Old Testament texts. In more detail, it is worth reading some of the relatively modern church popularizers. You can read the wonderful works of Vladyka Anthony, Metropolitan of Sourozh, touch the wonderful works of Father Alexander Schmemann, it is described there in great detail. You just take the trouble to come to a large church store in Moscow or go to the website www.pravoslavie.ru on the Internet, type “Resurrection of Christ” into the search engine and see what comes up there. Choose and read - it won’t take much time and won’t eat up a lot of your money.
TV viewer: – Father, but still – in a nutshell. Nobody saw the Resurrection...
– The fact is that we can talk about physical evidence of the Resurrection, which is known and preserved in the Church. For example, the Shroud of Turin is, first of all, not a funeral shroud, but a fabric that witnessed the Resurrection, which was not unrolled from the Most Pure Body of the Savior, but through which He emerged, Having Resurrected, and this physically changed the structure of the fabric itself. We can talk about evidence that was completely obvious to the Roman guards and legionnaires. As you know, for falling asleep on duty, according to Roman disciplinary regulations, the entire guard, consisting of 12–16 people, was subject to the death penalty. And if one fell asleep at the post, then the death penalty with confiscation of property (I emphasize), according to Roman law, was in relation to the entire guard. Naturally, each one watched the other so that they would not fall asleep. Those four warriors who fell asleep certainly doomed everyone to death. And if this were really so, then the punishment would be the most serious.
We can talk about many witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ the Savior who were revealed - the holy apostles, Equal to the Apostles Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleopas, the myrrh-bearing women. Obviously, for them this issue was undeniable. But I will say again that faith implies the degree of our personal trust. If you do not have this degree, then you can boldly turn to God, ask the Lord to reveal Himself to you: “Lord, help my unbelief! Help me heal this wound in my soul. Lord, show yourself to me, help me to truly meaningfully, consciously believe in you.” And then - wait, the Lord will not leave you.
TV viewer: – That is, in the words of a modern person: “Lord, if You exist”...
– Not “if You exist” - this is implied. We are talking about patristic texts. Lack of faith is a sin that we encounter ourselves, as weak people, and in our parishioners who come to the sacrament of Repentance regularly. This is a common temptation. It happens that a person feels sad, sometimes it becomes cheerful, sometimes a person begins to doubt even that he loves his wife or husband, and sometimes when it is completely obvious to him that this is the closest person on earth. It’s the same in relationships with God: there is no evenness, unfortunately, there is always some kind of sinusoid. And in this sense, we just need to be aware that we are not biorobots, we are people who have freedom of choice between good and evil, free will, and if we give up this, we will gain constancy, but we will lose Divine freedom, and then we will not be able to gain love. And only in this spiritual “cocktail” can one find that evenness that characterizes an Orthodox person in contrast to the exalted sects; this is what qualitatively distinguishes us from false faiths, from other faiths. And that is why we should value it as the greatest value.
Question from a TV viewer from the Yaroslavl region: - Christ is Risen! In the early periods of Christianity, through the prayers of the saints, the Lord revealed all sorts of miraculous phenomena to confirm faith. And now the time seems to be so difficult and there is a lot of lack of faith, why don’t we see such miraculous phenomena to confirm our faith?
– Your question, in my opinion, will probably make any person who goes to the temple of God smile. We encounter miracles every day. This morning, I and seven other of my colleagues, military priests, were honored to see a miracle: two airborne regiments confessed and received Holy Communion, 80% of them, probably, for the first time in their lives. Your respected host Michael was a witness and participant in this Divine Liturgy. Isn't this a miracle? We have almost nothing, and hundreds, thousands of Orthodox people in military uniform, many of whom have passed through “hot spots,” regularly get out of a normally operating airplane with a parachute on their backs, risk their lives, without receiving any significant financial benefits for it. funds, for the glory of God and the glory of our Fatherland, they are now preparing for the Victory Parade in order to show our, unfortunately, already few veterans, the glory that our modern soldiers and officers wear on their shoulder straps, which is known all over the world, since we have an army that really always went to war not to kill, but to die. We practically did not wage wars of conquest, and most peoples became part of our Fatherland voluntarily, like the same Georgians or Ukrainians. And that is why Ermak and 300 Cossacks could capture (conditionally) the huge Siberian Khanate, where there were hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. And that is why many peoples voluntarily became part of Russia: the Kalmyks, who came from Inner Mongolia on foot and on horseback, or the Koreans, hundreds of thousands of whom fled from the Japanese occupiers to Russia, to the Russian Empire, and here they found their second homeland. And there are a great many such examples.
So, miracles happen all the time. But these miracles, I repeat once again, are always morally oriented not at television extras, but personally at that person (they are very targeted) who, precisely by this miracle, will strengthen in faith, get rid of despondency, and find hope. And the Lord performs these miracles. And we, the witnesses, generally prefer to remain silent about this, so as not to be tempted ourselves or to seduce anyone else.
The very fact that our Church over the past 20 years has been revived from a very insignificant community of elderly people into a full-fledged, very significant in our Fatherland, perhaps the most respected and revered spiritual force! We see that this is happening despite the fact that the Church has the same problems as society. Many priests, unfortunately, like officials, like businessmen, are for money, and not for the Motherland. The problem is the same, since priests are taken from society, not from Mars in a hermetically sealed package. Despite all these infirmities, there are enough people to revive the destroyed monasteries, taking on the monastic image of equal angels. Or, for example, create a completely non-commercial, essentially Orthodox television (there are already several such channels). It seems to me that this is actually a miracle, since this happened in just 20 years.
Here I am, without any funds, reviving a large temple in Moscow on Matrosskaya Tishina Street, building 9, in Sokolniki. We have no money, but we are reviving it, and the Lord is sending good people. Literally on the feast of the Annunciation, the new recreated 32-meter bell tower of our Annunciation Church was consecrated. Moreover, if you look at it rationally, it would take us 50 years to restore it. And the Lord controls and arranges. Come, look, touch the bricks - everything is real and beautiful. Save Christ!
Question from a TV viewer from the Chelyabinsk region: - Christ is Risen! I watched the American film “The Gospel of John”. I don’t understand, Christ is too cheerful there, they show some miracles. And the Mother of God is so happy... Maybe it seemed so to me? I don't know how to feel about this. Maybe we have a different relationship with the Americans?
– You are partly right. There is no doubt that spiritual culture in our Fatherland implies a much more serious, even, if you like, intimate attitude to the inner world of a person, in particular to faith. And many of our churches are older than the American state itself. Even the barracks at the Airborne Forces headquarters are older than the American state. And nothing, our military personnel serve there. Therefore, in this sense, focusing on consumer goods is about the same as eating Doshirak noodles every day - this will definitely cause some kind of intestinal volvulus, God forbid. And in this sense, a spiritual turn of the brain will occur if you watch the low-grade products of American filmmakers who have “nothing personal”: they simply make money on popular topics. Therefore, to treat the acting as Holy Scripture would, in my opinion, be at least stupid.
As for work in this field, I am not involved in advertising, but, working with unchurched categories, primarily with military personnel, with soldiers, I will say that Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ” certainly arouses a lot of attention, it is very unusual itself form of material delivery. It seems to me that a person who does not go to the temple of God should definitely see it. If you go to the temple of God and have already believed, then there is no point in watching it: there will be some cliches, some images, which will then simply interfere with prayer.
Father, how can you develop a religious feeling in yourself? Love for God?
– You don’t need to develop it in yourself. You need to develop your biceps and abdominal muscles. And religious feeling, like love for another person, develops not through some mechanical tricks, but through conscious work on correcting one’s own heart, one’s own life. Do more good deeds, treat people kinder - as you know, kindness also pleases a cat. And the Lord, seeing your good deeds, will certainly look upon your labors and will help you in establishing righteousness in your life. And, I am sure, no good deed goes without reward. Many people, seeing the kind heart of a person living nearby, are drawn to him, in turn, respond to him with mutual kindness and respect, and a special, very touching relationship develops between a believer in a church and, for example, all the people of the entrance where he lives. Many people ask him something, congratulate him on the holidays, although they themselves do not go to church.
We are constantly faced with the fact that people we barely know or are completely unfamiliar with are trying to do something, help, serve. In almost every church before major holidays, including ours, parishioners or simply “parishioners” come and say: “You know, we brought you a package of toilet paper and Pemolux cleaning product from our hardware store...” - this is how they show love for the Risen Savior. These little things testify to inner piety, to the fact that, as Tertullian said, the soul of every person is by nature a Christian. It's really very visible.
Many Muslims, my wonderful friends from the North Caucasus, Yunus-Bek Evkurov - a wonderful, truly Russian officer, paratrooper, now a general, Hero of Russia, a courageous and brave man whom I have the honor of knowing for many years, also congratulates me on the holidays, as well as honored and not yet very honored officers, real Russians, guys from Dagestan. There are wonderful representatives of the Islamic clergy who congratulate me on all holidays, and I am very grateful to them for this. I myself am a sinner, I don’t congratulate, I don’t keep track of religious Islamic holidays. And they congratulate you on the holidays and show respect for our culture, traditions, they constantly ask very smart and subtle questions, and I am very pleased to drink coffee with them sometimes.
So, you can be a moral person, but not a believer?
– Of course, Christianity does not usurp morality as such. Another question is that morality itself is not sufficient for a person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This is an important, necessary, but not the only component of the concept of “Christian.” But an immoral person cannot be called a Christian. On the other hand, I repeat once again, we live in a post-Soviet society, which, despite the emasculated idea of God, nevertheless, over the course of several generations, cultivated decency in people, based, in general, on the Gospel principles and virtues. Look, the most Christian films in the world are Soviet films (not all, of course, but in a very significant majority): self-sacrifice, public in the first place, personal in second, education of the good and eternal in almost every film or cartoon.
Father Mikhail, I thank you for the kind, educational conversation. Bless our viewers.
– God bless you, my dears! Christ is Risen!
Recorded by: Nina Kirsanova
You can view or listen to the full version of the program on the website of the Soyuz TV channel.
In other rooms:
How to become regimental priests
I became a military priest, as it should be in the army - by order. My confessor, Father Dimitry Smirnov, asked: “Are you from a military family? So, you will look after the soldiers and officers!” At that time I was already a church member, I even served as an altar boy in my free time. And he already understood that priestly service is difficult to combine with the life of an ordinary person: a priest, if he serves zealously, does not have enough time for his family. My youngest son asked me: “Dad, why are you at home only when it’s dark?”
But this is normal for those types of human activity that are service (after all, not only priests serve, but also doctors, teachers, and the military). It's not at all the same as work.
I was ordained as a priest in the military town of Vlasikha, where the headquarters of the Strategic Missile Forces is located, in the Church of St. Venerable. Elijah Muromets. And then Russian paratroopers were sent to Kosovo, and the Department for Work with Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Institutions from the General Staff received a request to send a priest to the Russian peacekeeping contingent. They suggested that I go, and I, knowing a little French, said: “Wouldn’t Pourquois pas?” And, with the blessing of His Holiness, I went.
The West, by the way, first saw Russian army priests in Kosovo. They wrote “good” about us in the foreign press - that we are all FSB agents, that we have money like candy wrappers for a fool... Their words would be in the ears of the authorities...
It is impossible to become a military chaplain “theoretically,” even after reading a mountain of specialized literature. And the priest who participates exclusively in “events” - laying flowers, wreaths, and sometimes comes to the barracks with lectures, is not a military priest. He “touches” the army only with the edge of his cassock. And if he also begins to conspire with the commander of the unit to use soldiers as free labor for parish needs, he actually commits a crime and helps ensure that both the soldiers and officers of this unit are completely closed to the Church.
It’s another matter when you see iron flying over your head, which can easily leave you without this very head. And at the same time you know for sure that neither the state nor the Patriarchate will pay your family a pension. Several shepherds died in Chechnya - three monastics, one married priest, priest Anatoly Chistousov. His mother now lives very poorly. This is also a normal Christian situation, when a person is needed only as long as he can serve.
So now I, like other military priests, actually don’t exist, I’m a phantom. This is easy to check if you open the law on the status of military personnel in the Russian Federation. It clearly states that the creation of religious associations in military units is prohibited, as is the creation of branches of political parties. The law states that military personnel can engage in politics and religion only in their free time.
Pastoral "kitchen"
Do you know how I made my first parachute jump? The commander of the airborne reconnaissance battalion calls me and asks me to come to the airfield, they have an emergency there. It turns out that the young soldier’s main parachute did not open on his first jump, but, thank God, the spare one opened, and the guy landed safely. Usually, by the way, they don’t open the reserve - they get confused after they discover that the main parachute has not opened, and they fly down and die. But, despite the successful ending, the witnesses to this incident, other fighters, became terribly nervous and simply refused to go to the next jumps. And the commander called me: “What should I do?” I said a prayer, sprinkled the guys and parachutes with holy water, and let the soldiers venerate the icon of the Mother of God “Blessed Sky.” And to help them overcome their fear, he also put on a parachute and jumped out of the plane second, after the commander. And all the guys jumped after us.
In order for a sacrament that is not described in any theology textbooks, but a really existing one, to occur - when a person from an unbeliever becomes a believer - it is necessary that the priest be a role model, preach Orthodoxy, without becoming intrusive and boring. It is necessary to make sure that senior officers and generals, yesterday’s Marxists-Leninists, believe in God and accept the dogma of the Holy Trinity and, no less important, want to confess to you, the boy who is old enough to be their son, but whom they call father.
The most difficult thing is to change the atmosphere in an already established team, especially in the army, which is a rigid system. But there are missionary ways with which we even manage to reduce the amount of swearing significantly. For example, I explain to officers and soldiers that swearing is a consequence of being possessed by lustful passion. And I announce that on such and such a date I will read a special prayer for deliverance from fornication for those who swear. The next day there is much less swearing...
And sometimes we are forced to resolve issues that are completely outside our competence, for example, issues of material support for military units. Let's say I once came to one regiment, which was then stationed in Chechnya, and the boots of the privates and sergeants fell apart. That is, formally the shelf life of the boots had not yet expired (that’s why new ones were not issued), but in fact these shoes had already turned into tatters. And in Khankala I had to “knock out” new boots for the guys - a thousand pairs - taking advantage of the fact that it was somehow inconvenient for the priest to refuse. And another time, presumptuous rear supply officers supplied the soldiers and sergeants with rice, buckwheat, potatoes and millet not according to the norms, but only as a makeweight (the officers were supplied as expected). I had to get food for the guys from the headquarters of the United Group of Forces and ask the command to sort out the situation. In general, it was possible to bring a variety of things to military units (these purchases were organized or allocated money, naturally, by sponsors) - from laptops to chainsaws.
After all, sometimes a soldier first just needs to be helped with food or with rest, so that he comes to his senses and is able to perceive your sermon. Otherwise he sleeps during your lecture, and not because he despises you, but because he stood guard all night and is, as they say, “squashed.” And one more thing: you need to understand that many guys don’t know the simplest things. For example, what is the grace of God? How to explain this? Believe me, it’s much easier to do this when the priest either gives him chocolate, or when he goes to the mountains, to Chechnya, brings a satellite phone and the soldier can call his girlfriend. Here it is, grace! Do you understand? Not in the phone or in the chocolate bar, but in the fact that in this blood and dirt he, this guy, is not forgotten and not abandoned, that a Christian came to him and helped him - in a Christian way, with love.
And, of course, in order to provide all this to our soldiers, you need to find people with money, prove to them that you will not spend anything on your own needs, and really not take a penny for yourself.
Fast. Time to eat priests.
Decree No. U-02/37 of March 12, 2022 // to Archpriest Sergius Privalov 03.13.2019 17:23 Archpriest Sergius Privalov, cleric of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Petrovsky Park in Moscow, is exempt from obedience and appointed rector of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary — Patriarchal Metochion in Sokolniki, Moscow. +KIRILL, PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL Rus'
Decree No. U-02/36 dated March 12, 2022 // to Archpriest Mikhail Vasiliev 03.13.2019 17:22 Archpriest Mikhail Vasiliev, rector of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Patriarchal Metochion in Sokolniki, Moscow, rector of the Church of the VMC. Barbarians, etc. Ilya of Muromets - Patriarchal metochion in the village of Vlasikha, Moscow region, is relieved of his post as rector of the Annunciation Church in Sokolniki and the temple of the Great Martyr attached to it. St. George the Victorious in the village of Medvezhye Lakes, Moscow Region, while remaining in the position of rector of the church of the VMC. Barbarians, etc. Elijah - Patriarchal metochion in the village of Vlasikha in the Moscow region. +KIRILL, PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL Rus' Fr. Michael is another showcase face of our church, capriciously broken by Patriarch Kirill. I mean, he is one of the few people who was not ashamed to be brought out into public and left in any audience. Behind him is Moscow State University, a throw to Pristina on the armor of a Russian armored personnel carrier, a jump with a parachute that did not open and a broken spine, walks through minefields, a fall in a downed helicopter in Chechnya, a graduated (already in a priestly state) Academy of the General Staff, the Order of Courage. Six children. And several built temples - including the one that was taken away from him yesterday. Fr. made one mistake. Mikhail - allowed himself to be used in a promotional film for the 10th anniversary of the enthronement of the patriarch. *** and about another high-profile resignation: Decree No. U-01/60 of March 7, 2022 // to Archbishop Feognost of Kashira 03/12/2019 14:20 His Eminence Theognost, Archbishop of Kashira, Vicar of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', Chairman of the Synodal Department for monasteries and monasticism, he is appointed rector of the Moscow Trinity Metochion of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra. +KIRILL, PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL Rus'
