About our habit of making excuses. About the habit of making excuses (schema-archimandrite Abraham Reidman) – Does a layman need a confessor in general?

We continue to publish conversations with Schema-Archimandrite Abraham, which he conducted with parishioners several years ago. Father Abraham is the confessor of the Holy Kosminsk Hermitage and the Novo-Tikhvin Convent, whose sisters transcribed these conversations and prepared them for publication. In this conversation we will talk about what harm the passion for self-justification brings to us and what correct self-reproach is.

We all love to make excuses. For example, people who are distinguished by an angry character are often rude to others; in response to a remark they may say: “I can’t help but be angry - my parents raised me poorly.” Or: “I have such a character, nothing can be done about it.” Or even: “Who is being rude? I?! This is not true, I always communicate with everyone very politely and civilly.” It seems to us that our excuses are absolutely correct: if we sin, it is not through our own fault, people, character, upbringing, health, weather, and so on just interfere with us.

What does “self-justification” mean? Already by its structure, this word means behavior in which a person ascribes truth to himself, in other words, considers himself righteous. Theoretically, we all consider ourselves sinners and repent in confession once a month or more often. But when it comes to specific cases, we justify ourselves: in this case I am not guilty, in this respect I behave correctly... If we add up all these countless cases, to our surprise and shame it turns out that we only call ourselves sinners, but in fact We consider ourselves righteous. Naturally, thinking about ourselves this way, we at the same time humiliate those around us, believing that they are to blame for everything, they seduce us, force us to sin.

But the path of self-justification is a vicious, disastrous path. What does it lead to? Either the person, refusing to see his sins, becomes spiritually stupid and does not try to live according to the commandments at all, or tries to change the circumstances that “prevent” him from fulfilling the Gospel. Then he develops an absurd, completely un-Christian activity, directing all his efforts not at himself, but at what surrounds him, most often at people. But every person is a completely free being, and at best we can only slightly influence him, and no one has the power to change him if he himself does not want it. Therefore, often those who make such attempts see their futility and fall into despair.

According to the teachings of the holy fathers, one of the most necessary virtues for salvation is self-reproach. I don’t mean that simple, even primitive manifestation of self-reproach, in which we insult, hurt, and humiliate ourselves in our souls with some words. By self-reproach we need to understand something deeper - a disposition of the soul in which a person sees his own fault in everything and does not blame external things. If a person always sees his guilt, if he does not blame anyone for having sinned, then, logically, he will begin to look for means to change himself. A person who has acquired the skill of self-reproach comes to terms with the fact that his neighbor is not what he would like him to be, and shows love to every person, regardless of whether he is good or evil, friend or enemy. He does not make excuses by saying that he was poorly raised, because he knows: he is free and, if he wanted, he would behave differently, choosing the good and rejecting what he was taught incorrectly in childhood, for example, at school. He will not refer to the fact that his friends are tempting him, but will either move away from them or, in spite of their seductive behavior, try to change himself on his own. And he will not pay attention to everything else that is external to a person’s free will, knowing that it is only his fault that he has deviated towards evil with his free will. Nothing can force a person to do evil if he does not want to, especially if we are talking about Christians - people whom the Lord Jesus Christ freed with His suffering on the cross and through the sacraments made immune from sin. Since the coming of Christ, man has sinned completely voluntarily, and not under the pressure of circumstances, as it was (and to some extent could be justified) before the coming of Christ.

Two modes of thought, two states of mind - self-justification and self-reproach - are depicted in the Gospel, although they are not called there with precisely these words - the terms of ascetic literature with which we are accustomed to operate.

Let's consider the well-known parable of the publican and the Pharisee, which is dedicated to one of the Sundays before Great Lent - the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee. Two people went into the church to pray: one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. But he became a Pharisee and prayed to himself: God, I give you praise, for I am not like other men, predators, unrighteous people, adulterers, or like this publican: I fast twice on Saturday, I give tithes as much as I can. This man justified himself and did not see his sins. Such self-justification (to use ascetic terms) removed him from God. Further in the Gospel it says: The publican stood from afar, not wanting to raise his eyes to heaven, but beating his heart, saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you that this one is justified in his house more than he was: for everyone who exalts himself will humble himself, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. It turns out that he who justifies himself exalts himself, and he who reproaches himself humbles himself.

What do the words of the publican mean: God, be merciful to me, a sinner? Or the words of the Jesus Prayer (essentially the same): “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”? A sinner is one who is morally guilty. Thus, when saying the Jesus Prayer, we constantly reproach ourselves before God: “Forgive me, guilty of violating moral commandments.” We say so, but do we feel it? Do we delve into the meaning of these words, does our heart participate in their pronunciation or does it remain cold? Or, perhaps, pronouncing the words of the tax collector: God, be merciful to me, a sinner, we are actually reasoning like the Pharisee: “I thank you, Lord, that I am not like other people, and lead a spiritual life, I confess, I pray in prayer.” Jesus"? We utter words of repentance and self-reproach, but our thoughts are pharisaical, interfering with real, attentive, sincere prayer. We justify ourselves both to ourselves and to other people, because such a mood cannot help but break out. Sometimes we humble ourselves for show because we know that in a certain society: in a monastery or in a Christian environment in general, humility is approved and considered something significant. But the publican said only one word about himself - “sinner,” and if a person says something like that sincerely, with all his heart, it means he has acquired the virtue of self-reproach.

When a person always and everywhere considers himself a sinner, this manifests itself in any everyday situation. In any conflict, we justify ourselves, but he says: “Yes, I am guilty, I have sinned.” Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk once, in a conversation with a certain free-thinking nobleman, began to prove that he was speaking incorrectly about God. And the nobleman, having lost his temper, gave Saint Tikhon a slap in the face. Then the saint bowed to the ground before him and said: “Forgive me for God’s sake that I seduced you.” This had such an effect on this indignant man that he himself fell at the feet of the saint and asked him for forgiveness, and subsequently became a good Christian. It would seem that Saint Tikhon in this case was not guilty of anything, but, as a humble man and a true Christian, he saw his guilt here too. If we sincerely considered ourselves sinners, if we sincerely said the words of the Jesus Prayer: “Have mercy on me, a sinner,” then in any situation we would find guilt in ourselves, and not in the people around us, things, circumstances, condition, etc.

Very often we justify ourselves by preferring the so-called demands of common sense to the commandments of the Gospel and the dictates of our conscience. But it must be said that “common sense” (not the true sense, of course, but the one that the world uses) changes over the years, and even more so with the change of eras. There was one “common sense” among the pagans of ancient times, another among lukewarm Christians during the reign of Christianity in the civilized world, a third among modern materialists and atheists, a fourth among Mohammedans, a fifth among Buddhists... But all these various “common senses” are unanimous rebel against Christian morality. Sometimes this can be seen very clearly - a struggle occurs between people: some defend the position of the Church and Church Tradition, others are hostile to it, for example, from the position of atheism or everyday materialism, which is expressed in the fact that a person does not particularly think about spiritual truths and cares only about your material well-being. In these cases the situation is simpler. But, unfortunately, it very often happens that we ourselves, Orthodox Christians, take into ourselves something from the world and adhere to this imaginary common sense, without noticing or understanding it ourselves. Then the struggle between worldly “common sense” and the truth of Christianity takes place within us. Unfortunately, it often ends in the victory of this “common sense”: we give in to it and trample on our Christian conscience.

When we follow supposed common sense, we are also self-justifying. Violating something from the Gospel teaching and Orthodox Tradition, we justify ourselves by the fact that common sense tells us to do just that: to show people-pleasing or cowardice, or some other passion, in order not to suffer harm or any sorrow. Justifying ourselves with “common sense,” we constantly and therefore brazenly, boldly, defiantly deviate from the gospel teaching. We must realize that we are acting sinfully, for example out of fear, and ask the Lord for forgiveness.

Within ourselves we have both the publican and the Pharisee. The publican reproaches himself, the Pharisee justifies. The same person repents in an instant and becomes a publican, and after a few minutes he justifies himself and turns into a Pharisee. If we are careless in this struggle, if we lean towards self-justification, then, like the Pharisees and lawyers, we will move away from Christ and lose Divine grace. We will not receive help in fulfilling the commandments and will remain fruitless.

Father, how can you reproach yourself when you have done something, done everything necessary, but it didn’t work out? And you wonder: why, since everything was done well?

Maybe God doesn’t want this thing to happen. Everything is God's will. Probably, in such a case, it is appropriate not to reproach yourself, but simply to humble yourself and surrender to the will of God. If I talked about reproach, this does not mean that you need to reproach yourself everywhere, where necessary and where not necessary. To have self-reproach means to see your guilt precisely in violating the commandments.

When I pray, my loved ones laugh and mock me. Because of this, I often leave the prayer so as not to irritate them. Is this self-justification or am I behaving correctly?

When we are surrounded by people who do not understand this, it is appropriate to remember the Gospel words of the Savior: Do not let the holy dog ​​cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and spinning you are torn apart. We should not behave in such a way as to cause blasphemy. It is better for us to pray in another place, to hide our prayer, not because we are ashamed, but in order not to give a reason for blasphemy.

Besides, if we pray and they laugh at us, then what kind of prayer is it? If it is not possible to pray openly, then it is better to pray in church or on the road. If it is not possible to read the prayer book because loved ones mock and blaspheme, then it is better to silently read the Jesus Prayer or some other prayer that we know by heart for a while. Some memorize morning and evening prayers.

In general, it is better to avoid such people if possible. If my friend constantly blasphemes my most sacred feelings, then why do I need such a friend? This means he doesn’t understand me, doesn’t appreciate me, despises me in my deepest manifestations.

Self-reproach is difficult to maintain. First of all, you need to pray. The Jesus Prayer itself, in a sense, is self-reproach and forcing oneself to humility. If we say constantly throughout the day: “Have mercy on me, a sinner,” or “a sinner,” then in this way we force ourselves to remember our sinfulness, we accustom ourselves to a humble opinion of ourselves. But most importantly, we need to remember that self-reproach and repentance are a spiritual fruit, this is an action of grace. If there is no grace, then no matter how hard we try, no matter what we tell ourselves, no matter how we persuade ourselves, there will be no sincere self-reproach. That is, most of all you need to hope in God and therefore pray unceasingly.

For one of my friends, everything in life somehow doesn’t go well, nothing works out, there are constant temptations and misfortunes. She believes that she was hexed. Could this really be happening?

Witchcraft, of course, exists, this cannot be denied. In our terrible times, the doctrine of black and white magic is spreading, books are sold completely freely - everyone can buy “Black Magic”.

To be honest, I have virtually no understanding of this. I cannot distinguish corruption from an ordinary illness, except for obvious cases of demonic possession. To do this, you need to go to the spiritual elders and ask them. But very often people talk about damage and want to blame everything on others. Get the blame off of your bad head and onto your healthy one. A person does not think that he has sins, that he prays poorly, confesses poorly, and receives communion unworthily. He doesn’t want to see his guilt in anything, but chalks everything up to damage. “Why are you bad at praying?” - “I was spoiled.” “Why don’t you fast?” - “I’m bewitched.” "Why do you smoke?" - “They jinxed me!” So you look - well, they have bewitched a person, he is not guilty of anything.

And in order to determine that this is damage, you must first show diligence yourself in a spiritual sense, and then it will be revealed whether an outside force is at work or whether it was just our negligence. In addition, corruption can be expelled through one’s own efforts, that is, through prayer, fasting or confession, and communion. We must resort to the most ordinary church means. First of all, to the sacraments and prayers. The Church gives us all the means, very powerful ones - as long as we use them ourselves.

“Orthodoxy and Peace” / Schema-Archimandrite Abraham (Reidman)

(Gospel of Luke, 66, chapter XII, verses 16-31)

“And he told them a parable: A certain rich man had a good harvest in his field; and he reasoned with himself: what should I do? I have nowhere to gather my fruits? And he said: This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and I will gather there all my bread and all my goods, and I will say to my soul: soul! You have plenty of goods laid up for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry” (vv. 16–19). It would seem that these words apply only to rich people, and if we understand them in a very narrow sense, then only to those who are engaged in agriculture, that is, to landowners who have reaped a bountiful harvest. But we must remember that this is a parable that actually has meaning not only for farmers and rich people in general, but also for every person who acquires something earthly.

Perhaps we do not have such a huge property that we can say that it will give us peace “for many years,” but each of us wants to have at least minimal comforts in life, everyone is looking for peace. Every person has some kind of dream: let’s say a person dreams of buying an apartment and furnishing it, receiving a satisfactory salary, and thinks that then everything will be fine for him, he will be able to live in peace. Perhaps everyone dreams of living carefree, not thinking about anything and never having any sorrows or difficulties. It turns out that even if we do not live as well as others compared to others, we are still no different from the rich man depicted in the parable.

“But God said to him: crazy! this night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared? This is what happens to those who store up treasures for themselves and are not rich toward God” (vv. 20–21). None of us, neither the rich nor the poor, nor the one who has great property, nor the one who seeks to find peace thanks to his modest income, no one knows when the day of his death will come. Death can overtake a person completely suddenly, not only old and not only sick, but also completely healthy and young. It happens that a person is terminally ill for a long time, but does not know about it, and only sudden death reveals his already long-standing illness. Often some terrible misfortunes occur: for example, a person dies during a catastrophe or, being absolutely healthy, a person suddenly falls ill and, as they say, burns out in a month... Even to people who have already reached a very old age, death comes unexpectedly if they They spent their lives ungodly, not caring either about eternal life or about the fate of their immortal soul, if they did not prevent death by good deeds, especially repentance. It would seem that a person has acquired everything in order to live carefree and calm - and suddenly all this is taken away from him either by death, or perhaps by some circumstances. Everything he hoped for, what he had already lived for, what calmed his spirit is taken away. A person may face new difficulties and worries, and he will have to start all over again. Such are the vicissitudes of the earthly life of a person who trusts not in God and not in his spiritual works, prayer and repentance, but in his earthly abilities. The wise Solomon spoke about this in ancient times in his book “Ecclesiastes”: a person works, acquires, accumulates wealth - and does not know who will get it. He works a lot, achieves some results, and maybe the one who continues his work will do everything differently or simply ruin it. It turns out that a person who seeks consolation in earthly labors always ends up deceived. Solomon calls all this great vanity and vexation of spirit (see Eccl. 1:14). Not only those who have wealth, but all people are subject to this endless vanity, everyone hopes for a ghost, because earthly well-being, in which we see a reliable, solid support that gives us peace, in reality turns out to be just a ghost. If anyone does not know this truth in youth or middle age, then at the hour of death everyone will certainly know it, when each of us will be forced to leave the earth, and the body itself, and everything that he has acquired and thanks to which, It would seem that he could already calmly enjoy life. Then we will know the truth of the Savior’s words: “You fool! this night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared? And “this is what happens to those who store up treasures for themselves and do not become rich in God. A person who thinks of acquiring something for his earthly existence undergoes the same thing that the rich man in the parable endured. Of course, we all desire good for ourselves, self-love is invested in us by God, it is even a criterion of love for our neighbor: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (see Luke 10:27), although at the Last Supper the Savior commanded the disciples to love our neighbor even more than ourselves (see John 15:12-13). When it is said that we must become rich not for ourselves, but for God, then our earthly body, earthly, so to speak, essence, and heavenly essence, that is, the immortal soul, are contrasted. The words “get rich for God” do not mean at all that we are saving for God, as if God needs our wealth. It would be more correct to say that you need to become rich in God, that is, acquire the grace of God, and not earthly property. In order for us not to become like the foolish rich man and sooner or later not to experience bitter disappointment in vain labors, because our efforts were not aimed at what was needed, while living on earth, we must use all our strength to acquire spiritual wealth. Just as other people work to ensure their earthly well-being, so we must work to ensure our spiritual well-being. If we compare how much effort and time we spend on providing ourselves with a well-fed and peaceful existence and how much on saturating our soul with spiritual benefits, then we will see that this is incomparable: we do almost nothing for the soul and when We work for our body from morning to evening. We work day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year - and suddenly it's all taken away from us. Why are we working? Why do we spend our whole lives on acquiring a ghost, and make almost no effort to satiate our soul in order to prepare eternal abodes for it?

The feeling of grace in the soul is the key to eternal bliss in heaven. There is no need to think that these are not connected with each other, because the soul feels what it acquires. We can say that if we do not feel anything in our soul now, it means that we have not acquired anything for the future life, therefore, while taking care of our body and food, we must always remember about our soul. I do not urge you to leave everyday affairs and live as monks live, but everyone must take care of the soul. The Monk John of Damascus says that in the Old Testament the Jews dedicated one day to God - Saturday, but during the New Testament Christians devote their entire lives to God. The commandment about the Sabbath has not been abolished, but applies to the entire life of a Christian who always keeps the Sabbath, that is, everything he does, he dedicates to God. A Christian should try to benefit from everything for his soul, to become a kind of spiritual covetous person who, in any small matter, gains something for his soul. Even among the most ordinary earthly activities, you need to think about spiritual gain. Let’s say you work in a factory or in some office and you are insulted and humiliated there, but humble yourself, think about your spiritual benefit, about eternal life. If someone does something mean to you, respond to it with a noble deed, or at least endure it, and now you have already gained something. They tempt you with some depraved speeches - go away, pray, do not be afraid of ridicule - and again you made an acquisition, because you retreated from sin, chose chastity, mental, spiritual and physical purity. And this must be done everywhere and everywhere where there is any opportunity to fulfill the commandments. A person’s entire life should be permeated with them: look for profit everywhere and anywhere, accumulate spiritual wealth, strive for enrichment in God, and not for the accumulation of earthly property. We must evaluate each of our actions: what do we gain? Are we fulfilling the commandment or breaking it? How do we execute? And so every day, hourly, like a man who counts every penny. If we acquire this spiritual greed, a kind of spiritual greed, then we will constantly enrich ourselves internally, even if outwardly our life will be no different from the lives of everyone around us. The means for this is, first of all, unceasing prayer, because without it it is impossible to acquire any virtues.

In this way, we will gradually accumulate spiritual wealth, which we will undoubtedly feel in our soul. If we sin in something, we will immediately see it, feeling a certain loss, and we will begin to find out why we suffered it, like business people who try to conduct their affairs in such a way as to have no losses at all or at least reduce them to a minimum , and profit from everything. We should do the same in relation to God’s grace, then we will become rich in God, rich spiritually. Day after day, year after year, this spiritual treasure will accumulate and we will arrive at the inevitable moment of death having already acquired a certain wealth, which, although we call it wealth in God, resides in our soul. Thus, a spiritual person finds God, the Creator of everything, inside his heart, while everything earthly, material, remains outside of it.

Therefore, let us all strive to acquire this inner wealth - the grace of God. Then we, becoming rich in God, acquiring God Himself in our hearts, will take this wealth with us when we transition to eternal life. Only it is actually ours, and everything else is alien, because even our body does not belong to us. Let us always, every moment of our life, force ourselves to take care of acquiring Divine grace, getting closer to God and instilling God in our hearts.

Schema-Archimandrite Abraham (Reidman): Confession should be brief and specific

Who is a confessor, and does a layman need one? How to confess correctly? What should a person do to get the right advice from a priest? Schema-Archimandrite Abraham (Reidman), the Confessor of the Novo-Tikhvin Convent and the Svyato-Kosminsk Hermitage, answers these and other questions. – Father Abraham, who is a confessor? How is he different from an ordinary parish priest to whom they go to confession? The confessor must have a special gift, which is considered the highest in the Orthodox ascetic tradition - reasoning. Any priest can perform the Sacraments, but not every priest, even a zealous one, has reasoning. In the Greek Church, for example, there is such a practice: confessors are appointed there, and only they can accept confession. The Russian Church has a different tradition. But in any case, the main thing that can be advised to those who want to find a confessor is that they look for a person who has life experience, is reasonable and sensible. And one must understand at the same time that the gift of reasoning can manifest itself in different degrees: the reasoning of a God-bearing elder, an ascetic is one thing, and the reasoning of a simple confessor, especially one who confesses to the laity, is another thing. – Does a layman actually need a confessor? – Of course, it is advisable for a layman to have a confessor. However, there is one important point to remember. People often turn to confessors, asking for advice on practical, everyday issues. But the confessor is not an adviser in this. For example, an engineer asks about something in connection with his professional activities. But the priest may be incompetent in this area, and therefore should not advise anything. Both the confessor himself and the spiritual child must understand this. A confessor is a specialist in the moral field. It is needed to help a Christian consider any life situation from a spiritual and moral point of view. – What should a priest rather teach his parishioner - obedience or independence and responsibility? - Both. Obedience is also necessary; advice is needed in everything. But it is necessary to teach a person independence, because a confessor cannot constantly, so to speak, be in touch with his spiritual child in order to give him the necessary advice at any time. In principle, obedience is a means to accustom a person to independence and responsibility. There is no need to contrast these two things. When a person, through obedience, acquires the skill to live a moral life, he can then independently make a moral choice in order to avoid sin and act virtuously. – Does a layman need the virtue of obedience, and what should it consist of? – Of course, a layman must obey the priest, but not for formality and not because it is simply necessary. Obedience is necessary in order to be told how to behave like a Christian in a given life situation, and suggested by a person who has more reasoning than you. This is the value of a confessor. Actually, we should not be talking about whether a layman needs the virtue of obedience. It would be more correct to ask: does a layman need to live like a Christian? If he is a Christian, then this naturally follows from his exalted title. But we cannot always figure it out on our own and correctly apply this or that commandment to certain life circumstances. And therefore we need an adviser in this regard, a more experienced person. It is desirable that this be a confessor, but sometimes, in exceptional cases, it can be some virtuous, sensible layman, our spiritual friend. There is such a proverb, very wise: “Whoever you mess with, you’ll gain from it.” According to the reasoning of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, if we are friends with pious people, this shows that we ourselves are pious. Actually, obedience is a zeal to live morally. And it is clear that this is necessary. And the confessor is our senior comrade, who is superior to us in reasoning, and therefore we resort to him for advice.

– Is the virtue of obedience even possible in our time? Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov wrote about the “impoverishment of living vessels of Divine grace,” which made obedience in the classical sense impossible. On the other hand, Elder Silouan of Athos said that obedience is a sacrament. Where is the truth? – Obedience is a thing without which one cannot exist. After all, we obey not only our confessor. We obey our bosses, our parents, our friends. And if we obey our boss, diligently and zealously, in order to make a career, but we don’t obey our confessor, then this means there is a clear imbalance in our lives. If we obey our friends in some everyday situations, but neglect the opinion of our confessor, then this is an even stronger imbalance. Therefore, it is impossible to do without the virtue of obedience. Another thing is how to understand it. If we remember what St. Ignatius says about obedience, we will see that he does not deny it, as some believe, but limits it, explaining that not in all cases one can unquestioningly obey one’s spiritual leader. At the same time, he talks about the benefits of revealing thoughts, about obedience to elders in the monastery. He also says that because of true obedience, the devil can even excite abuse. He writes: if it so happens that you have found a true leader, then this already serves as a reason for the devil to raise a fight. Therefore, we should not say that the virtue of obedience is impossible in our time. Unquestioning obedience is impossible in our time. And Saint Ignatius did not completely deny obedience, but spoke about the general order of things due to the fact that there were few true spiritual leaders. It is especially impossible for a layman to find such a person whom he could obey unquestioningly. Therefore, you need to perceive your confessor as an adviser, as a more experienced person. And not in such a way as to simply do everything he says, without explaining anything to him, without explaining your situation. This can be compared for metaphor with what happens in other areas of our lives. Does a person need medicine? Of course it is needed. But this does not mean that if we go to a doctor, he will immediately cure us. Doctors make mistakes, there are more experienced and less experienced doctors. But because of this, we do not cross out medicine. You need to look for a more experienced doctor, understand that the doctor cannot immediately prescribe the necessary medicine, he selects it gradually. In the sense in which we say that medicine is needed and a doctor is needed, in the same sense that obedience is needed and a confessor is needed. To count on the fact that an ordinary priest will have a prophetic gift would be presumptuous. Yes, we probably wouldn’t even listen to such a person and, quite possibly, we would be subjected to greater condemnation from God for the fact that, when faced with such a person, we showed self-will. And this way we get more leniency. – What is “revelation of thoughts”, who needs it and why? – This is a special type of obedience that befits monastics: when a person talks not only about his actions, but about his entire inner life, constantly paying attention to himself. This virtue is unusual for the laity, and is not needed. Even if they wanted to, they would not be able to do this, because, being in constant activity, or, as they say, in the bustle of the world, they cannot take such careful care of themselves. And they do not have the opportunity to constantly reveal their thoughts to their confessor. If they can see their confessor once a week, then this can be considered happiness. To tell him for a whole week everything that we experienced internally would be a burden for both him and us. – How to learn to keep track of small everyday sins and thoughts? How can one “not strain out a mosquito and not swallow a camel”? After all, we often notice little things, but we don’t notice hard-heartedness, pride, or indifference... - There must be a reasonable attitude here so as not to succumb to excessive attentiveness. This is not befitting people living in the world. It may indeed turn out that they will strain out a mosquito and sort out all sorts of their thoughts, will be immersed within themselves, and at the same time will not monitor their actions. We need to monitor not the little things, but what obsessively acts in our mind. If some thought is imposed, then it needs to be confessed. If we have committed some kind of misconduct, it means that we need to tell our confessor about it and be prepared to listen to a reprimand from him and, perhaps, even receive penance. That is, you need to take care of yourself, but not fall into excessive suspiciousness. Suspiciousness is such an apparent virtue when it seems to us that we are carefully watching ourselves, repenting, but in fact we are simply provoking excessive mental activity. – How should a proper confession take place? – Confession should be short and specific. It seems to me that these two words contain the answer to what correct confession is. If we talk in too much detail, we may pay attention to some minor thing and miss the most important thing. There is no need to talk about any accompanying circumstances if they are not directly related to what we profess. At the same time, we need to speak specifically, that is, talk precisely about this or that sin that we have committed, or about the issue that worries us. Because if we talk vaguely, then the confessor will not understand us. And then, through our own fault, precisely because we speak too broadly and inaccurately, it may turn out that the confessor gives us the wrong advice. And it will not be he who is to blame, but our overly suspicious attitude towards what is happening to us. – What to do if you know in your head that you are doing wrong, but you don’t feel it in your heart? – If a person knows that he is doing wrong, then, although his heart is silent, this is already some kind of step towards repentance. At the very least, let us repent of what we recognize as sin. And gradually sympathy for virtue will come, and aversion to sin will appear. If we immediately seek the highest degree, neglecting the one on which we stand, then we may not make any progress at all. We will stand still, and we will not have any movement in the sense of moral development. – What sins are the most dangerous and common today, in your opinion? – I believe that this is, firstly, a sin of arrogance, or, as we otherwise call it, pride, and, secondly, a sin of negligence, or, in other words, laziness. Laziness in spiritual and moral terms. From these two sins come all others. For pride, grace leaves us, and we are in danger of falling into prodigal sins, drunkenness and many other things, which we understand that this is bad, but we cannot resist, the whirlpool of passion carries us away. And all this is because pride has deprived us of the blessed cover. Negligence is also extremely dangerous, because we wait for everything to happen by itself, we do not show jealousy or self-force, and therefore we can also fall into the most terrible sins. Until then, this will all happen until we understand that we need, on the one hand, to humble ourselves and seek help from the one God, realizing our complete powerlessness, on the other hand, we need extreme compulsion of ourselves, because if we do nothing ourselves , then God will not help us. As St. Pimen the Great says: if we fight, then the Lord will fight for us, and if we are inactive, then the Lord will not help us.

Archpriest Valerian Krechetov: A confessor must be ready to go to hell for his children. Have pastors and flocks changed over twenty-five years of church freedom, is it possible to find a real confessor today, and what should a person do who is looking for spiritual guidance, but does not find an experienced priest? The answers to these and other questions about clergy are in an interview with Archpriest Valerian Krechetov, who served as the confessor of the Moscow diocese for a long time. Archpriest Valerian Krechetov: A confessor must be ready to go to hell for his children Maria Stroganova, Archpriest Valerian Krechetov | November 19, 2015 Have pastors and flocks changed over the twenty-five years of church freedom, is it possible to find a real confessor today, and what should a person do who is looking for spiritual guidance but does not find an experienced priest? The answers to these and other questions about clergy are in an interview with Archpriest Valerian Krechetov, who served as the confessor of the Moscow diocese for a long time. Photo: solovki-monastyr.ru Four Russian elders of the 20th century Archpriest Valerian Krechetov: “For what?!” And remember: there is something for it (+ Audio) Archpriest Valerian Krechetov: There are more good people Happiness is living with God Archpriest Valerian Krechetov: There are no trifles in spiritual life The formula for clergy What is clergy in general and what is the measure of responsibility for the one who takes upon himself responsibilities of a spiritual father? Archpriest Valerian Krechetov says: “Of course, spiritual guidance is important and necessary, but the requirements for a spiritual father are very high. One day I left the church, and some woman suddenly ran after me: “Father, what should I do? My confessor told me: “I don’t want to go to hell because of you!” I answered something, and soon I went to Mount Athos and ended up with an old man. A confessor came to him, who had been cared for by Elder Paisius for 20 years. And that elder told me the formula of a real spiritual father: “Only a priest who is ready to go to hell for his spiritual children can be a spiritual father.” The most amazing thing is that I didn’t tell him about the question that woman asked me, but he repeated her words word for word, only in the opposite direction.” Archpriest Valerian Krechetov was born in 1937 in the family of repressed accountant and later priest Mikhail Krechetov. He graduated from school in 1959 and at the same time was enrolled in the Moscow Forestry Engineering Institute, three years after graduation he entered the Moscow Seminary. He was ordained on January 12, 1969, and in 1973 he graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy. Over the many years of his ministry, he communicated with many outstanding pastors, including Father Nikolai Golubtsov, Father Ioann Krestyankin, Father Nikolai Guryanov. Today, Archpriest Valerian is the rector of the church in honor of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Akulovo, Odintsovo district.

The Militant Church and the Secret Church - Twenty-five years of church freedom is already a whole era. If we compare the 1990s and our days, how has church life changed over the years? How have the parishioners changed? – When they talk about Soviet times, I always remember the book of St. Nicholas of Serbia “The Tsar’s Testament.” Talking about what is happening on the Kosovo field in Serbia, he explains very well in a spiritual sense what is happening in the world. When King Lazarus prayed on the Kosovo field before the battle, he had to choose one of two kingdoms: earthly or heavenly. He chose the Kingdom of Heaven, and according to prophecy, both the army and the power, and he himself suffered death. But during the battle, an angel appeared before the king and said that his power must perish in order for the soul of the people to be saved: “The power is given to the people, so that there will be something to perish in his place, so that there will be something to give as ransom for the people’s soul. Such a deal is profitable when you buy a treasure for an inexpensive price [and you save the soul of the people and gain the Kingdom of Heaven!]. Worship the One who destroys what is cheap so that what is precious may be preserved; He who cuts the straw, let the grain be preserved.” There is a war of evil against good in the world, and our Church is militant, but it is not she who starts the war, but people who fight against her. And if everything around is dying here on earth, this does not mean that everything is bad. Every cloud has a silver lining. I once heard an interesting parable. One person comes to the elder and says: “Father, everything is going well for you, but nothing is going well for me, why?” The elder tells him: “Patience is needed.” - “What is patience? You endure and endure, what is the use of this? It’s like carrying water in a sieve!” And the elder replies: “Wait until winter.” This is exactly what was predicted in this parable and has now happened. After all, it would seem that everything had already been decided, the Church was finished, everyone was imprisoned and shot, but a host of holy martyrs appeared, and people became hardened in war. And while the Church was under persecution, it held firm. Outwardly there was persecution, outwardly there was nothing left, everything was over, but the believing people remained. The Monk Seraphim spoke about this beautifully, he cited as an example the times of the prophet Elijah, when “all the sons of Israel forsook Your covenant, destroyed Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, I was left alone, but they are also looking for my soul to take it away.” It was Ilya, the prophet, who, with his eagle’s eye on life, did not see anyone around who was faithful except himself. And the Lord told him that “there are still seven thousand men among the Israelites who did not bow their knees to Baal and whose lips did not kiss the idol.” Seven thousand! That is, there were so many faithful whom the prophet Elijah did not see. And the Monk Seraphim says: “How much will we have?” During the times of persecution, many believers occupied government positions, but almost no one knew that they were Orthodox. This was the same, as they now call it, secret Church, which was never separated from the official Church, but hidden from the world in order to preserve the faith. And now it turned out, as in the parable of the sieve - everything was spilled in the sieve, and now winter has come, that you won’t be able to carry this water. And I personally experience this myself, because now a priest, if he really works, does not have enough strength or time - the need for it is so great. And this is precisely the most difficult moment, because many have rushed into the priesthood, and this service is the highest, most complex and most responsible. Even if a young person studies in special educational institutions, science is only the tip of the iceberg. Spiritual life is so complex and diverse that there are only a few specialists in this area. As the elders say, the gift of the priesthood, clergy, is special. “The gift of reasoning is higher than the gift of humility,” that is, reasoning about how to act—where and when to remain silent, when to act—is very difficult to learn. As the Bible says: “A wise man remains silent for a time; but a madman speaks without time.” – So now, when there is no open persecution of the Church, the focus of the problem has shifted from the external world to the internal life of the Church itself? And here the role of the priest is great, is his spiritual experience important? – Yes, now there is an opportunity to say a lot, but it’s not so easy, and what to talk about? One man told me an interesting incident from his life. He was a philologist, studied at Moscow State University, and they had an Armenian teacher who said to the students: “Young people, you are studying different languages, but would you say what you will talk about in these languages?” And really – what is it about? And I always quote the words of Mayakovsky: They exhaust a single word for the sake of Thousands of tons of verbal ore. It happens that you read political articles, but if you take a closer look, it’s good if there is a single word of substance. Moreover, it is not easy to talk about spiritual topics. The spiritual word has no power if it is divorced from heart activity, from spiritual experience. Even the religious philosopher Ivan Kireevsky said: “Thinking, separated from the heart’s aspiration, is the same entertainment for the soul as unconscious gaiety. The deeper such thinking is, the more important it is, apparently, the more frivolous it actually makes a person. Therefore, serious and powerful study of science also belongs to the number of means of entertainment, a means of dispersing oneself, of getting rid of oneself. This imaginary seriousness, imaginary efficiency accelerates the true one. Secular pleasures do not work so successfully and not so quickly.” Involvement in discussions on spiritual topics, divorced from heart activity, from spiritual experience - entertainment is more harmful than secular. It’s just an appearance of the spiritual, but there is no essence.

Elder Nikolai Guryanov and Archpriest Valerian Krechetov. Rights without duties - In the Psalter there are such words: “We mock at Your justifications.” But with us, to mock is to mock, to blaspheme, but in fact, the first meaning of this word is to reflect. But reflections are then justified when they are connected with spiritual experience, with heart activity, and if they are separated from it, this is mockery. Now, for example, many have begun to speak and write on spiritual issues, but have no experience. It turned out that some people mock the true word. According to the logic of the world, people become smarter, smarter and smarter, but, unfortunately, this is not the case. Because intelligence is not the amount of knowledge. Aristotle said: “A lot of knowledge does not presuppose the presence of intelligence,” and passion for knowledge and neglect of morality is a movement not forward, but backward. One day, an atheist came to me who believed in the origin of man from apes. He wanted to baptize his daughter, but complained that he could not cope with her. And I told him that, according to his beliefs, he would never cope with her, because why should his daughter listen to him if he recently fell from the tree? In fact, man came out of the hands of the Creator perfect, but without experience. Of course, in order to become like the Creator, he also had to improve, “become perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” And Saint Nicholas of Serbia said that the first people did not know much, but they understood everything. Gradually they began to know more, but understand less. It turns out that you can know a lot, but understand nothing. As one servant of God noted, looking at modern man: The soul faded away, went out, grew old, got into a robe, but, as before, it is not clear to it what to do and who is to blame. What to do, who is to blame – these are the age-old questions that people usually ask. Due to the state in which the world has now plunged, many have rushed to the Church. And, unfortunately, few understand that everything that happens is the fruit of sin, and they try, without taking into account what is most important, to figure out what to do and who is to blame. Therefore, the questions that people ask in confession are no longer about how to save their soul, but how to create a happy life for themselves on earth. – What problems worry people most now? – Unfortunately, more often than not people only care about their own personality, “ego.” There has become a lot of egoism. People used to be more humble. Now everyone wants to live in their own way - without responsibilities, but with their own rights. For example, the so-called civil marriage - open fornication without responsibilities - has spread everywhere. But when a person is going to start a family, he must at least halve his desires and prepare to at least double his responsibilities. But with us they don’t want to give up their desires, but there are no responsibilities at all. When getting married, you need to ask: “What do you want: to have a wife, to have children, to have a household, or: to be a husband, to be a father, to be a master?” To be or to have? Being presupposes life. To be someone is to have responsibilities. If this is a husband, he has his own responsibilities, if a father, he has his own responsibilities, if a director, he has his own responsibilities. And we have? I ruined my family, and who is to blame? Usually both are to blame, and the one who is smarter is more to blame. Strictly speaking, what is a people? The people are many families. The family is a small Church, the family is the basis of the state. And therefore, the collapse of the state occurs due to the collapse of the family.

How to find a confessor and is it necessary to look for one? – How to find a confessor? What should you do if you can’t find spiritual guidance? – You definitely need to go to Church and receive communion, and then pray that the Lord will send a confessor. And if he sends it, so that the Lord will give him understanding. Because there is a saying that the holy fathers did not always have good novices. There are examples when novices were so humble and devoted that they themselves were saved, and the Lord saved their spiritual mentors, who were unworthy. And vice versa, next to the saints, not all were saints. Among the 12 apostles, one was Judas. Much depends on the person himself. Spiritual guidance is important and necessary, but the requirements for a spiritual father are very high. His ministry is based, first of all, on sacrificial love, which is the love of God. And therefore, if the Lord gives this holy feeling, then everything falls into place. There is a book about the priesthood of Bishop Arseny (Zhadanovsky), where he recalls that when the Lord restored the Apostle Peter to apostolic dignity, He did not demand anything from him, only love: if you love Me, feed my sheep. That is, if there is love, there is a shepherd and a confessor. And if there is no love, then there is no true shepherding. – What should a person do who is looking for spiritual guidance but cannot find an experienced priest? Should you humble yourself when communicating with an inexperienced confessor and do it your own way? – The most important thing is to remember that everything is controlled by God’s providence. The Lord can give understanding. And we need to pray to both the flock and the shepherds. Sometimes people ask me something, but I can’t answer. I'm not ashamed to say: I don't know. There is a saying: God is never in a hurry, but he is never late. In life, everything happens in due time. Rely on God, and He will work everything out for spiritual benefit. Remember the example given to us in the Gospel? The beaten and bound Savior stands before Pilate. And Pilate says: “Are you not answering me? Don’t you know that I have the power to crucify You and the power to release You?” The Lord calmly answers: “Do not place any power over me unless it is given from above.” And so it happened: he wanted to let Jesus go, but he signed the crucifix, did not show his power, he could not. So everything is controlled by the providence of God. But people often forget about this, especially in relationships with their confessor, becoming fixated on his personality. The personality itself is quite helpless. A person cannot even sin without God - for example, if He had not given us legs, we would not have gone to sin, we simply would not have gotten there. Therefore, a person simply cannot have originality as such. God alone is original. And according to His will, everything happens - He is the One “Who mows down the straw so that the grain may be preserved.” After all, we did not organize any demonstrations at the time, and the Church suddenly found itself free. All that's left of communism is a sign. And what is communism? An attempt to build the Kingdom of God on earth, a paradise without God. There was such a father, Misail, the cell attendant of Metropolitan Nestor of Kamchatka, he was in prison during Soviet times, and they told him: “Here we are building a paradise on earth.” He replies: “It’s a useless exercise.” - “Are you against the authorities?” - “No, all power comes from God. But building heaven on earth is a futile exercise.” - "How why?" - “It’s very simple. The first Christians already built such a society, everything was common, but nothing worked out.” Indeed, the first Christians are the society from which the idea of ​​communism was copied. But even with that spirit, they could not maintain complete dispassion. So all this has already happened. As Father John Krestyankin once said: they have nothing new, everything is stolen, only remade in their own way. – What should a person do in a situation where, during confession, a priest advises him on something that is impossible for him to do? For example, there are well-known examples when a priest does not bless a marriage and says: “It is not God’s will for you to be together,” what should you do? Argue? - Obedience is obedience. Love does not pass, falling in love does. Parents also forbid something, what should you do - obey or not obey? In general, you are still supposed to obey. Another thing is that sometimes the soul does not accept this decision. Then you need to pray and wait. I know an example where a young man and a girl fell in love with each other, but their parents were against it. And I told them: “You love each other, it’s impossible to forbid love? Please keep loving." They did just that. And then the mother couldn’t stand it - she allowed it. And they got married. If love is true, if there is no desire for possession, if you feel that this is your soul mate, your loved one - this may be enough. My mother had a friend whose fiancé courted her for forty years. He loved her and she loved him, but she couldn't leave her mother and start a family with him. They met, took care of each other, and became so close that when they became spouses at the age of 60, they no longer needed anything other than spiritual and emotional closeness. Actually, there is an example from Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - Tatyana Larina says: “I love you (why lie? ), but I was given to someone else, and I will be faithful to him forever.” You can love, but you don’t have to live together sooner, at least there’s no need to rush. In our country now they say: we need to live together as soon as possible, check our feelings. Unfortunately, this is not how true love is tested. According to Justin Popovich, love for a person without the love of God is self-love, and love for God without love for a person is self-deception. The most important thing is the will of God. If there really is a feeling, it will remain, it will live, and if due to difficulties it disappeared, then it may not have existed, or it was a passion, another feeling, not love. And love, as the Apostle Paul says, never disappears and cannot pass away, love remains love. – How can you distribute for yourself the strictness of fulfilling what your confessor says? A simple example: the confessor tells all his children to strictly observe fasting, but do you have gastritis? What to do here, obey or act according to your feelings? – Fasting is for man, not man for fasting; it is better to under-fast than to over-fast. And one more thing: fasting is not “impossible”, but “not allowed.” If it were not possible, then Saint Spyridon of Trimifunt would not have eaten meat during Great Lent - there is an example from his life when there was nothing to feed a guest from the road, and he ordered meat to be brought, and he himself ate with him, so as not to embarrass him. But fasting cleanses, fasting is a great power. The Lord Himself fasted. If He, the One Who, unlike us, did not need to fast, fasted, how can we sinners not fast? But there are different levels of fasting severity. There are many healthy foods that are lean: Brussels sprouts broth is healthier than chicken broth. In fact, when a person has some kind of grief or has a real feeling, he doesn’t even think about food. A certain young man was courting one girl and saying that he loved her. And she was very wise and told him that since you are ready for anything, let’s fast and pray for two or three weeks. And then, when the deadline was up, she set a luxurious table, brought a young man and said: “Well, at the table or down the aisle?” He rushed to the table. That's it, I made my choice. – That is, there is no such criterion in relations with a confessor: obedience or your own decision? – There is only one criterion – love. If there is anger, irritation, what is the use of it? What is this for? Only love can be above the law. – And if there is no confessor or he is far away, how to live, what to guide your actions? – If there is no confessor, or it is difficult to contact him, then you need to pray. You just need to remember that the Lord is near, and you should always turn to Him. Once, when I was young, I had a difficult situation at work, I was confused, not knowing what to do, and I began to read akathists to St. Nicholas and St. Seraphim in turn, and suddenly everything worked out. This was the first example in my life when I experienced for myself that if you don’t know what to do in the current circumstances, you need to immediately intensify your prayer, ask for God’s help. These are exactly the same questions: “what to do?” and “who is to blame?” It's his own fault, first of all. You have to start with yourself, because you can’t escape from yourself. But what to do? We need to pray for the Lord to indicate: “Tell me, Lord, the way, I’ll go the wrong way.” Archimandrite Innokenty Prosvirnin once told me this formula for approaching life: when Heaven is silent, there is no need to do anything. I later read that a similar rule was used by the holy martyr Seraphim Zvezdinsky. When he was asked in troubled times what to do if you don’t know what to do and have no one to consult with, he recommended praying for three days and asking for God’s will, and the Lord will show you what to do. If he doesn’t indicate, then you still have to pray and be patient. This is what they do on Athos. I myself often advise doing this, and this rule bears good fruit.

Archpriest Valerian Krechetov: A confessor must be ready to go to hell for his children Maria Stroganova, Archpriest Valerian Krechetov | November 19, 2015 Have pastors and flocks changed over the twenty-five years of church freedom, is it possible to find a real confessor today, and what should a person do who is looking for spiritual guidance but does not find an experienced priest? The answers to these and other questions about clergy are in an interview with Archpriest Valerian Krechetov, who served as the confessor of the Moscow diocese for a long time. Photo: solovki-monastyr.ru Four Russian elders of the 20th century Archpriest Valerian Krechetov: “For what?!” And remember: there is something for it (+ Audio) Archpriest Valerian Krechetov: There are more good people Happiness is living with God Archpriest Valerian Krechetov: There are no trifles in spiritual life The formula for clergy What is clergy in general and what is the measure of responsibility for the one who takes upon himself responsibilities of a spiritual father? Archpriest Valerian Krechetov says: “Of course, spiritual guidance is important and necessary, but the requirements for a spiritual father are very high. One day I left the church, and some woman suddenly ran after me: “Father, what should I do? My confessor told me: “I don’t want to go to hell because of you!” I answered something, and soon I went to Mount Athos and ended up with an old man. A confessor came to him, who had been cared for by Elder Paisius for 20 years. And that elder told me the formula of a real spiritual father: “Only a priest who is ready to go to hell for his spiritual children can be a spiritual father.” The most amazing thing is that I didn’t tell him about the question that woman asked me, but he repeated her words word for word, only in the opposite direction.” Archpriest Valerian Krechetov was born in 1937 in the family of repressed accountant and later priest Mikhail Krechetov. He graduated from school in 1959 and at the same time was enrolled in the Moscow Forestry Engineering Institute, three years after graduation he entered the Moscow Seminary. He was ordained on January 12, 1969, and in 1973 he graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy. Over the many years of his ministry, he communicated with many outstanding pastors, including Father Nikolai Golubtsov, Father Ioann Krestyankin, Father Nikolai Guryanov. Today, Archpriest Valerian is the rector of the church in honor of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Akulovo, Odintsovo district. Archpriest Valerian Krechetov Archpriest Valerian Krechetov. Photo: pravoslavie.ru The Militant Church and the Secret Church - Twenty-five years of church freedom is already a whole era. If we compare the 1990s and our days, how has church life changed over the years? How have the parishioners changed? – When they talk about Soviet times, I always remember the book of St. Nicholas of Serbia “The Tsar’s Testament.” Talking about what is happening on the Kosovo field in Serbia, he explains very well in a spiritual sense what is happening in the world. When King Lazarus prayed on the Kosovo field before the battle, he had to choose one of two kingdoms: earthly or heavenly. He chose the Kingdom of Heaven, and according to prophecy, both the army and the power, and he himself suffered death. But during the battle, an angel appeared before the king and said that his power must perish in order for the soul of the people to be saved: “The power is given to the people, so that there will be something to perish in his place, so that there will be something to give as ransom for the people’s soul. Such a deal is profitable when you buy a treasure for an inexpensive price [and you save the soul of the people and gain the Kingdom of Heaven!]. Worship the One who destroys what is cheap so that what is precious may be preserved; He who cuts the straw, let the grain be preserved.” There is a war of evil against good in the world, and our Church is militant, but it is not she who starts the war, but people who fight against her. And if everything around is dying here on earth, this does not mean that everything is bad. Every cloud has a silver lining. I once heard an interesting parable. One person comes to the elder and says: “Father, everything is going well for you, but nothing is going well for me, why?” The elder tells him: “Patience is needed.” - “What is patience? You endure and endure, what is the use of this? It’s like carrying water in a sieve!” And the elder replies: “Wait until winter.” This is exactly what was predicted in this parable and has now happened. After all, it would seem that everything had already been decided, the Church was finished, everyone was imprisoned and shot, but a host of holy martyrs appeared, and people became hardened in war. And while the Church was under persecution, it held firm. Outwardly there was persecution, outwardly there was nothing left, everything was over, but the believing people remained. The Monk Seraphim spoke about this beautifully, he cited as an example the times of the prophet Elijah, when “all the sons of Israel forsook Your covenant, destroyed Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, I was left alone, but they are also looking for my soul to take it away.” It was Ilya, the prophet, who, with his eagle’s eye on life, did not see anyone around who was faithful except himself. And the Lord told him that “there are still seven thousand men among the Israelites who did not bow their knees to Baal and whose lips did not kiss the idol.” Seven thousand! That is, there were so many faithful whom the prophet Elijah did not see. And the Monk Seraphim says: “How much will we have?” During the times of persecution, many believers occupied government positions, but almost no one knew that they were Orthodox. This was the same, as they now call it, secret Church, which was never separated from the official Church, but hidden from the world in order to preserve the faith. And now it turned out, as in the parable of the sieve - everything was spilled in the sieve, and now winter has come, that you won’t be able to carry this water. And I personally experience this myself, because now a priest, if he really works, does not have enough strength or time - the need for it is so great. And this is precisely the most difficult moment, because many have rushed into the priesthood, and this service is the highest, most complex and most responsible. Even if a young person studies in special educational institutions, science is only the tip of the iceberg. Spiritual life is so complex and diverse that there are only a few specialists in this area. As the elders say, the gift of the priesthood, clergy, is special. “The gift of reasoning is higher than the gift of humility,” that is, reasoning about how to act—where and when to remain silent, when to act—is very difficult to learn. As the Bible says: “A wise man remains silent for a time; but a madman speaks without time.” – So now, when there is no open persecution of the Church, the focus of the problem has shifted from the external world to the internal life of the Church itself? And here the role of the priest is great, is his spiritual experience important? – Yes, now there is an opportunity to say a lot, but it’s not so easy, and what to talk about? One man told me an interesting incident from his life. He was a philologist, studied at Moscow State University, and they had an Armenian teacher who said to the students: “Young people, you are studying different languages, but would you say what you will talk about in these languages?” And really – what is it about? And I always quote the words of Mayakovsky: They exhaust a single word for the sake of a thousand tons of verbal ore. It happens that you read political articles, but if you take a closer look, it’s good if there is a single word of substance. Moreover, it is not easy to talk about spiritual topics. The spiritual word has no power if it is divorced from heart activity, from spiritual experience. Even the religious philosopher Ivan Kireevsky said: “Thinking, separated from the heart’s aspiration, is the same entertainment for the soul as unconscious gaiety. The deeper such thinking is, the more important it is, apparently, the more frivolous it actually makes a person. Therefore, serious and powerful study of science also belongs to the number of means of entertainment, a means of dispersing oneself, of getting rid of oneself. This imaginary seriousness, imaginary efficiency accelerates the true one. Secular pleasures do not work so successfully and not so quickly.” Involvement in discussions on spiritual topics, divorced from heart activity, from spiritual experience - entertainment is more harmful than secular. It’s just an appearance of the spiritual, but there is no essence. Elder Nikolai Guryanov and Archpriest Valerian Krechetov Elder Nikolai Guryanov and Archpriest Valerian Krechetov Rights without responsibilities - In the Psalter there are such words: “they mocked at Your justifications.” But with us, to mock is to mock, to blaspheme, but in fact, the first meaning of this word is to reflect. But reflections are then justified when they are connected with spiritual experience, with heart activity, and if they are separated from it, this is mockery. Now, for example, many have begun to speak and write on spiritual issues, but have no experience. It turned out that some people mock the true word. According to the logic of the world, people become smarter, smarter and smarter, but, unfortunately, this is not the case. Because intelligence is not the amount of knowledge. Aristotle said: “A lot of knowledge does not presuppose the presence of intelligence,” and passion for knowledge and neglect of morality is a movement not forward, but backward. One day, an atheist came to me who believed in the origin of man from apes. He wanted to baptize his daughter, but complained that he could not cope with her. And I told him that, according to his beliefs, he would never cope with her, because why should his daughter listen to him if he recently fell from the tree? In fact, man came out of the hands of the Creator perfect, but without experience. Of course, in order to become like the Creator, he also had to improve, “become perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” And Saint Nicholas of Serbia said that the first people did not know much, but they understood everything. Gradually they began to know more, but understand less. It turns out that you can know a lot, but understand nothing. As one servant of God noted, looking at modern man: The soul faded away, went out, grew old, got into a robe, but, as before, it is not clear to it what to do and who is to blame. What to do, who is to blame – these are the age-old questions that people usually ask. Due to the state in which the world has now plunged, many have rushed to the Church. And, unfortunately, few understand that everything that happens is the fruit of sin, and they try, without taking into account what is most important, to figure out what to do and who is to blame. Therefore, the questions that people ask in confession are no longer about how to save their soul, but how to create a happy life for themselves on earth. – What problems worry people most now? – Unfortunately, more often than not people only care about their own personality, “ego.” There has become a lot of egoism. People used to be more humble. Now everyone wants to live in their own way - without responsibilities, but with their own rights. For example, the so-called civil marriage - open fornication without responsibilities - has spread everywhere. But when a person is going to start a family, he must at least halve his desires and prepare to at least double his responsibilities. But with us they don’t want to give up their desires, but there are no responsibilities at all. When getting married, you need to ask: “What do you want: to have a wife, to have children, to have a household, or: to be a husband, to be a father, to be a master?” To be or to have? Being presupposes life. To be someone is to have responsibilities. If this is a husband, he has his own responsibilities, if a father, he has his own responsibilities, if a director, he has his own responsibilities. And we have? I ruined my family, and who is to blame? Usually both are to blame, and the one who is smarter is more to blame. Strictly speaking, what is a people? The people are many families. The family is a small Church, the family is the basis of the state. And therefore, the collapse of the state occurs due to the collapse of the family. How to find a confessor and is it necessary to look for one? – How to find a confessor? What should you do if you can’t find spiritual guidance? – You definitely need to go to Church and receive communion, and then pray that the Lord will send a confessor. And if he sends it, so that the Lord will give him understanding. Because there is a saying that the holy fathers did not always have good novices. There are examples when novices were so humble and devoted that they themselves were saved, and the Lord saved their spiritual mentors, who were unworthy. And vice versa, next to the saints, not all were saints. Among the 12 apostles, one was Judas. Much depends on the person himself. Spiritual guidance is important and necessary, but the requirements for a spiritual father are very high. His ministry is based, first of all, on sacrificial love, which is the love of God. And therefore, if the Lord gives this holy feeling, then everything falls into place. There is a book about the priesthood of Bishop Arseny (Zhadanovsky), where he recalls that when the Lord restored the Apostle Peter to apostolic dignity, He did not demand anything from him, only love: if you love Me, feed my sheep. That is, if there is love, there is a shepherd and a confessor. And if there is no love, then there is no true shepherding. – What should a person do who is looking for spiritual guidance but cannot find an experienced priest? Should you humble yourself when communicating with an inexperienced confessor and do it your own way? – The most important thing is to remember that everything is controlled by God’s providence. The Lord can give understanding. And we need to pray to both the flock and the shepherds. Sometimes people ask me something, but I can’t answer. I'm not ashamed to say: I don't know. There is a saying: God is never in a hurry, but he is never late. In life, everything happens in due time. Rely on God, and He will work everything out for spiritual benefit. Remember the example given to us in the Gospel? The beaten and bound Savior stands before Pilate. And Pilate says: “Are you not answering me? Don’t you know that I have the power to crucify You and the power to release You?” The Lord calmly answers: “Do not place any power over me unless it is given from above.” And so it happened: he wanted to let Jesus go, but he signed the crucifix, did not show his power, he could not. So everything is controlled by the providence of God. But people often forget about this, especially in relationships with their confessor, becoming fixated on his personality. The personality itself is quite helpless. A person cannot even sin without God - for example, if He had not given us legs, we would not have gone to sin, we simply would not have gotten there. Therefore, a person simply cannot have originality as such. God alone is original. And according to His will, everything happens - He is the One “Who mows down the straw so that the grain may be preserved.” After all, we did not organize any demonstrations at the time, and the Church suddenly found itself free. All that's left of communism is a sign. And what is communism? An attempt to build the Kingdom of God on earth, a paradise without God. There was such a father, Misail, the cell attendant of Metropolitan Nestor of Kamchatka, he was in prison during Soviet times, and they told him: “Here we are building a paradise on earth.” He replies: “It’s a useless exercise.” - “Are you against the authorities?” - “No, all power comes from God. But building heaven on earth is a futile exercise.” - "How why?" - “It’s very simple. The first Christians already built such a society, everything was common, but nothing worked out.” Indeed, the first Christians are the society from which the idea of ​​communism was copied. But even with that spirit, they could not maintain complete dispassion. So all this has already happened. As Father John Krestyankin once said: they have nothing new, everything is stolen, only remade in their own way. – What should a person do in a situation where, during confession, a priest advises him on something that is impossible for him to do? For example, there are well-known examples when a priest does not bless a marriage and says: “It is not God’s will for you to be together,” what should you do? Argue? - Obedience is obedience. Love does not pass, falling in love does. Parents also forbid something, what should you do - obey or not obey? In general, you are still supposed to obey. Another thing is that sometimes the soul does not accept this decision. Then you need to pray and wait. I know an example where a young man and a girl fell in love with each other, but their parents were against it. And I told them: “You love each other, it’s impossible to forbid love? Please keep loving." They did just that. And then the mother couldn’t stand it - she allowed it. And they got married. If love is true, if there is no desire for possession, if you feel that this is your soul mate, your loved one - this may be enough. My mother had a friend whose fiancé courted her for forty years. He loved her and she loved him, but she couldn't leave her mother and start a family with him. They met, took care of each other, and became so close that when they became spouses at the age of 60, they no longer needed anything other than spiritual and emotional closeness. Actually, there is an example from Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - Tatyana Larina says: “I love you (why lie?), but I was given to another, and I will be faithful to him forever.” You can love, but you don’t have to live together sooner, at least there’s no need to rush. In our country now they say: we need to live together as soon as possible, check our feelings. Unfortunately, this is not how true love is tested. According to Justin Popovich, love for a person without the love of God is self-love, and love for God without love for a person is self-deception. The most important thing is the will of God. If there really is a feeling, it will remain, it will live, and if due to difficulties it disappeared, then it may not have existed, or it was a passion, another feeling, not love. And love, as the Apostle Paul says, never disappears and cannot pass away, love remains love. – How can you distribute for yourself the strictness of fulfilling what your confessor says? A simple example: the confessor tells all his children to strictly observe fasting, but do you have gastritis? What to do here, obey or act according to your feelings? – Fasting is for man, not man for fasting; it is better to under-fast than to over-fast. And one more thing: fasting is not “impossible”, but “not allowed.” If it were not possible, then Saint Spyridon of Trimifunt would not have eaten meat during Great Lent - there is an example from his life when there was nothing to feed a guest from the road, and he ordered meat to be brought, and he himself ate with him, so as not to embarrass him. But fasting cleanses, fasting is a great power. The Lord Himself fasted. If He, the One Who, unlike us, did not need to fast, fasted, how can we sinners not fast? But there are different levels of fasting severity. There are many healthy foods that are lean: Brussels sprouts broth is healthier than chicken broth. In fact, when a person has some kind of grief or has a real feeling, he doesn’t even think about food. A certain young man was courting one girl and saying that he loved her. And she was very wise and told him that since you are ready for anything, let’s fast and pray for two or three weeks. And then, when the deadline was up, she set a luxurious table, brought a young man and said: “Well, at the table or down the aisle?” He rushed to the table. That's it, I made my choice. – That is, there is no such criterion in relations with a confessor: obedience or your own decision? – There is only one criterion – love. If there is anger, irritation, what is the use of it? What is this for? Only love can be above the law. – And if there is no confessor or he is far away, how to live, what to guide your actions? – If there is no confessor, or it is difficult to contact him, then you need to pray. You just need to remember that the Lord is near, and you should always turn to Him. Once, when I was young, I had a difficult situation at work, I was confused, not knowing what to do, and I began to read akathists to St. Nicholas and St. Seraphim in turn, and suddenly everything worked out. This was the first example in my life when I experienced for myself that if you don’t know what to do in the current circumstances, you need to immediately intensify your prayer, ask for God’s help. These are exactly the same questions: “what to do?” and “who is to blame?” It's his own fault, first of all. You have to start with yourself, because you can’t escape from yourself. But what to do? We need to pray for the Lord to indicate: “Tell me, Lord, the way, I’ll go the wrong way.” Archimandrite Innokenty Prosvirnin once told me this formula for approaching life: when Heaven is silent, there is no need to do anything. I later read that a similar rule was used by the holy martyr Seraphim Zvezdinsky. When he was asked in troubled times what to do if you don’t know what to do and have no one to consult with, he recommended praying for three days and asking for God’s will, and the Lord will show you what to do. If he doesn’t indicate, then you still have to pray and be patient. This is what they do on Athos. I myself often advise doing this, and this rule bears good fruit. Photo: solovki-monastyr.ru Photo: solovki-monastyr.ru If you load a person with deeds at once, he will not be able to stand it. Is spiritual guidance different between beginners and, so to speak, already grown Christians? - Certainly. The difference is in the degree of severity. When I was just starting my ministry, there was such a confessor, Archimandrite Tikhon Agrikov, so he told me that you first need to attract a person, and when he gets used to it, you can be stricter. Because if you immediately load a person with various feats, he will not be able to stand it. At one time I was involved in sports, and here, as in spiritual life, first there are small loads, then more, otherwise the person will overstrain himself. And we must remember that to bear obedience is a cross. This is very difficult in monasteries, and even more so in the world. Archpriest Sergius Orlov taught me as a young priest, and usually did not say categorically: this is how it is and no other way. If I asked something, he said: “Yes, anything can happen.” And I thought: wow, a person with such and such spiritual experience, education, and didn’t seem to say anything in particular... But it’s not that simple. The rector of the Jerusalem metochion, Archpriest Vasily Serebrennikov, who came to Father Sergius to confess, once told me: “What I like most about spiritual matters is when you don’t understand anything.” There is no need to be shy if you do not understand something in spiritual matters. Where it is not clear, everything is simple: everything is unclear. But when everything seems clear, sometimes many difficulties can arise later. For example, the question about frequent communion, it would seem - is it good to take communion often? Very good. And my father said to me: “How can I say this? Who will react to this? And if there is such an attitude: Manka went - and I will go, what will everything turn into then? – Can a confessor give a person the freedom to decide for himself what to do? “A very experienced confessor, Holy Archpriest Alexy Mechev, when he was asked about something, first of all said: “What do you think?” Because real spiritual education must necessarily provide food for the mind so that a person learns to reason. It's not easy to lead a person by the hand. Complete obedience is, of course, good, but it is only possible in a monastery, and in the world it is more difficult. I have 59 years of driving experience. And when I got behind the wheel for the first time, I felt very uncomfortable. They told me, and I gradually got used to it, got used to it. In the same way, in spiritual life you need to acquire spiritual skills. I am an air force navigator in the military department, and we had Colonel Plesky, I still remember him, he said: “I will make you know aircraft navigation in verse, there is no time to reason in the air, you need to act there.” It’s the same in life – spiritual skills need to be acquired so that they become second nature. Knowledge is something that has been passed through one’s experience and has become a skill. – When a person first comes to church, they explain to him how to confess, take communion, and what rule to read. How can we continue to grow spiritually? What if a person has been in the Church for 10-20 years and nothing has changed, what is the problem? - Not in what, but in whom. The problem is in the person himself. Father John Krestyankin said that nothing can be done for a person. You can help, but if he doesn’t do it himself, nothing will work. God does not forcibly save without the desire and participation of the person himself. There are such eternal students - they go and go, and never finish their studies. Who is to blame – the one who teaches or the one who studies? – Who studies, that is, a person himself must begin to move from some external things to inner life? – External things are given in order to pave the way to the inner world. The skill of at least saying “sorry” is not given just like that. Gradually, everything begins to change inside a person. There is an expression: “If they call you a pig, you will grunt. And if you’re an angel, maybe you’ll become an angel and start singing.” – Often for those who have been in the Church for a long time, prayer turns into a formality, fasting is performed without zeal, why? - God will give prayer to the one who prays. If you still try to delve into the words of the prayer, it cannot be completely formal. Yes, you get tired, but do it anyway. What does "formally" mean? I was reading a prayer, and at that time what was happening in your soul? Still, it is better to pray at least somehow than to do nothing at all. – Is it possible to learn prayer? - You can learn - you need to pray. - Practice? - Yes. Also, prayer is often taught by some kind of sorrow or constraint. When my father was studying at the seminary, one of the old professors asked him the following question: “What does the Lord do with a person when he wants to attract him to Himself?” - my father answered something. “Okay, what’s the main thing?” the father is silent. - “Sends him spiritual distress.” – It’s probably difficult not to become despondent here if you’re always in grief? - Everything passes. I tell everyone, at least listen to Pushkin if you don’t want to listen to the Holy Scriptures. Do you know what he said? If life deceives you, don't be sad, don't be angry! On the day of despondency, reconcile yourself: Believe, the day of joy will come. (Here I would like to add: “And while you humble yourself, pray!”). The heart lives in the future; The present is sad: Everything is instant, everything will pass; Whatever happens will be nice. After all, it was from God, according to Elder Seraphim Vyritsky. And we must not forget to thank God even in the most difficult days of life - he is waiting for us and will send even greater blessings. A person with a grateful heart never lacks for anything.

Who is a confessor, and does a layman need one? How to confess correctly? What should a person do to get the right advice from a priest? The confessor of the Novo-Tikhvin Convent and the Svyato-Kosminsk Hermitage answers these and other questions.

- Father Abraham, who is he? How is he different from an ordinary parish priest to whom they go to confession?

– The confessor must have a special gift, which is considered the highest in the Orthodox ascetic tradition – reasoning. Any priest can perform the Sacraments, but not every priest, even a zealous one, has reasoning.

In the Greek Church, for example, there is such a practice: confessors are appointed there, and only they can accept confession. The Russian Church has a different tradition. But in any case, the main thing that can be advised to those who want to find a confessor is that they look for a person who has life experience, is reasonable and sensible.

And one must understand at the same time that the gift of reasoning can manifest itself in different degrees: the reasoning of a God-bearing elder, an ascetic is one thing, and the reasoning of a simple confessor, especially one who confesses to the laity, is another thing.

– Does a layman actually need a confessor?

– Of course, it is advisable for a layman to have a confessor. However, there is one important point to remember. People often turn to confessors, asking for advice on practical, everyday issues. But the confessor is not an adviser in this. For example, an engineer asks about something in connection with his professional activities. But the priest may be incompetent in this area, and therefore should not advise anything.

Both the confessor himself and the spiritual child must understand this. A confessor is a specialist in the moral field. It is needed to help a Christian consider any life situation from a spiritual and moral point of view.

– What should a priest rather teach his parishioner - obedience or independence and responsibility?

- Both. Obedience is also necessary; advice is needed in everything. But it is necessary to teach a person independence, because a confessor cannot constantly, so to speak, be in touch with his spiritual child in order to give him the necessary advice at any time.

In principle, obedience is a means to accustom a person to independence and responsibility. There is no need to contrast these two things. When a person, through obedience, acquires the skill to live a moral life, he can then independently make a moral choice in order to avoid sin and act virtuously.

– Does a layman need the virtue of obedience, and what should it consist of?

– Of course, a layman must obey the priest, but not for formality and not because it is simply necessary. Obedience is necessary in order to be told how to behave like a Christian in a given life situation, and suggested by a person who has more reasoning than you. This is the value of a confessor.

Actually, we should not be talking about whether a layman needs the virtue of obedience. It would be more correct to ask: does a layman need to live like a Christian? If he is a Christian, then this naturally follows from his exalted title. But we cannot always figure it out on our own and correctly apply this or that commandment to certain life circumstances. And therefore we need an adviser in this regard, a more experienced person.

It is desirable that this be a confessor, but sometimes, in exceptional cases, it can be some virtuous, sensible layman, our spiritual friend. There is such a proverb, very wise: “Whoever you mess with, you’ll gain from it.” According to reasoning, if we are friends with pious people, this shows that we ourselves are pious.

Actually, obedience is a zeal to live morally. And it is clear that this is necessary. And the confessor is our senior comrade, who is superior to us in reasoning, and therefore we resort to him for advice.

– Is the virtue of obedience even possible in our time? wrote about the “impoverishment of living vessels of Divine grace,” which made obedience in the classical sense impossible. On the other hand, he said that obedience is a sacrament. Where is the truth?

– Obedience is a thing without which one cannot exist. After all, we obey not only our confessor. We obey our bosses, our parents, our friends. And if we obey our boss, diligently and zealously, in order to make a career, but we don’t obey our confessor, then this means there is a clear imbalance in our lives. If we obey our friends in some everyday situations, but neglect the opinion of our confessor, then this is an even stronger imbalance. Therefore, it is impossible to do without the virtue of obedience.

Another thing is how to understand it. If we remember what St. Ignatius says about obedience, we will see that he does not deny it, as some believe, but limits it, explaining that not in all cases one can unquestioningly obey one’s spiritual leader. At the same time, he talks about the benefits of revealing thoughts, about obedience to elders in the monastery.

He also says that because of true obedience, the devil can even excite abuse. He writes: if it so happens that you have found a true leader, then this already serves as a reason for the devil to raise a fight. Therefore, we should not say that the virtue of obedience is impossible in our time. Unquestioning obedience is impossible in our time. And Saint Ignatius did not completely deny obedience, but spoke about the general order of things due to the fact that there were few true spiritual leaders.

It is especially impossible for a layman to find such a person whom he could obey unquestioningly. Therefore, you need to perceive your confessor as an adviser, as a more experienced person. And not in such a way as to simply do everything he says, without explaining anything to him, without explaining your situation.

This can be compared for metaphor with what happens in other areas of our lives. Does a person need medicine? Of course it is needed. But this does not mean that if we go to a doctor, he will immediately cure us. Doctors make mistakes, there are more experienced and less experienced doctors. But because of this, we do not cross out medicine. You need to look for a more experienced doctor, understand that the doctor cannot immediately prescribe the necessary medicine, he selects it gradually.

In the sense in which we say that medicine is needed and a doctor is needed, in the same sense that obedience is needed and a confessor is needed. To count on the fact that an ordinary priest will have a prophetic gift would be presumptuous. Yes, we probably wouldn’t even listen to such a person and, quite possibly, we would be subjected to greater condemnation from God for the fact that, when faced with such a person, we showed self-will. And this way we get more leniency.

– What is “revelation of thoughts”, who needs it and why?

– This is a special type of obedience that befits monastics: when a person talks not only about his actions, but about his entire inner life, constantly paying attention to himself. This virtue is unusual for the laity, and is not needed.

Even if they wanted to, they would not be able to do this, because, being in constant activity, or, as they say, in the bustle of the world, they cannot take such careful care of themselves. And they do not have the opportunity to constantly reveal their thoughts to their confessor. If they can see their confessor once a week, then this can be considered happiness. To tell him for a whole week everything that we experienced internally would be a burden for both him and us.

– How to learn to keep track of small everyday sins and thoughts? How can one “not strain out a mosquito and not swallow a camel”? After all, we often notice little things, but hard-heartedness, pride, and indifference do not...

– There must be a reasonable attitude here so as not to be overly attentive. This is not befitting people living in the world. It may indeed turn out that they will strain out a mosquito and sort out all sorts of their thoughts, will be immersed within themselves, and at the same time will not monitor their actions.

We need to monitor not the little things, but what obsessively acts in our mind. If some thought is imposed, then it needs to be confessed. If we have committed some kind of misconduct, it means that we need to tell our confessor about it and be prepared to listen to a reprimand from him and, perhaps, even receive penance. That is, you need to take care of yourself, but not fall into excessive suspiciousness.

Suspiciousness is such an apparent virtue when it seems to us that we are carefully watching ourselves, repenting, but in fact we are simply provoking excessive mental activity.

– How should a proper confession take place?

– Confession should be short and specific. It seems to me that these two words contain the answer to what correct confession is. If we talk in too much detail, we may pay attention to some minor thing and miss the most important thing. There is no need to talk about any accompanying circumstances if they are not directly related to what we profess.

At the same time, we need to speak specifically, that is, talk precisely about this or that sin that we have committed, or about the issue that worries us. Because if we talk vaguely, then the confessor will not understand us. And then, through our own fault, precisely because we speak too broadly and inaccurately, it may turn out that the confessor gives us the wrong advice. And it will not be he who is to blame, but our overly suspicious attitude towards what is happening to us.

– What to do if you know in your head that you are doing wrong, but you don’t feel it in your heart?

– If a person knows that he is doing wrong, then, although his heart is silent, this is already some kind of step towards repentance. At the very least, let us repent of what we recognize as sin. And gradually sympathy for virtue will come, and aversion to sin will appear. If we immediately seek the highest degree, neglecting the one on which we stand, then we may not make any progress at all. We will stand still, and we will not have any movement in the sense of moral development.

– What sins are the most dangerous and common today, in your opinion?

– I believe that this is, firstly, a sin of arrogance, or, as we otherwise call it, pride, and, secondly, a sin of negligence, or, in other words, laziness. Laziness in spiritual and moral terms. From these two sins come all others.

For pride, grace leaves us, and we are in danger of falling into prodigal sins, drunkenness and many other things, which we understand that this is bad, but we cannot resist, the whirlpool of passion carries us away. And all this is because pride has deprived us of the blessed cover.

Negligence is also extremely dangerous, because we wait for everything to happen by itself, we do not show jealousy or self-force, and therefore we can also fall into the most terrible sins.

Until then, this will all happen until we understand that we need, on the one hand, to humble ourselves and seek help from the one God, realizing our complete powerlessness, on the other hand, we need extreme compulsion of ourselves, because if we do nothing ourselves , then God will not help us. As St. Pimen the Great says: if we fight, then the Lord will fight for us, and if we are inactive, then the Lord will not help us.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

Several years ago, while conducting a conversation about such a problem as non-acceptance of TIN, I said that, most likely, two or three years would pass, all this would calm down, but some new problem would appear, for example, non-acceptance of new type passports. Unfortunately, my prediction was only partly true. They really don’t accept passports, but many people (usually poorly educated, but nevertheless making up a significant number of Orthodox Christians) continue to be sensitive and excited about the topic of Taxpayer Identification Number and the end of the world in general. It goes to extremes. Recently, in the Penza region, people who are called sectarians in the press (although they themselves consider themselves Orthodox: apparently, they went to church, prayed, and followed all church regulations), dug a dugout, locked themselves in it and are sitting there to this day. await the end of the world. If you look from the outside, this is, of course, funny, but there are children among them, and who knows what these people are capable of. They threaten to burn themselves or blow themselves up if they try to be removed by force. It may well be that they have containers of fuel, such as gasoline, and they can actually pull it off. It often happens that people who are apocalyptically minded, under the influence of certain false teachers, expecting the end of the world and seeing that it does not come, kill themselves, sometimes in a brutal way - by burning, for example, and thus bring about the expected end of the world, but only for themselves. Therefore, although it is funny to see the stupidity of these people, it is also scary at the same time, since this stupidity can lead to catastrophic consequences.

Well-known sectarian Alexander Leonidovich Dvorkin, expressing his opinion on what happened, said that now there is a certain sectarian movement within the Church, which has certain signs: non-acceptance of tax identification numbers, new passports, as well as the veneration of very dubious people as saints. Among them is Tsar Ivan the Terrible, who, although an outstanding historical figure, is better known for his vices and atrocities, for which he was nicknamed the Terrible. Among them is the so-called slandered elder Grigory Rasputin - also a very odious person: a libertine, seduced, or (which is not excluded) simply a charlatan. Some people manage to rank among these “saints” the tragically deceased singer Igor Talkov, who may have been a good person, but who cannot claim the title of saint. And even Stalin, such a bestial, terrible person, also wants to be considered a saint. But Alexander Leonidovich was probably embarrassed to talk about another important sign of the sectarian movement within the Church. This sign is a certain type of anti-Semitism (although some of the people belonging to this movement sincerely believe that they are not anti-Semites) - belief in the so-called Jewish-Masonic conspiracy. So, we have a certain picture emerging. People consider themselves zealots of Orthodoxy, but in fact they bear the obvious mark of sectarianism.

The emergence of a sect within the Church is not a new phenomenon. There are many known cases when people outwardly observed Orthodox rituals, but, in essence, were sectarians, forming a kind of closed group within the Church and being, so to speak, in an illegal position. One can cite the example of the so-called Johannites (more precisely, the Johannites, because in this sect there were mainly women), who revered St. John of Kronstadt as the Savior who descended to earth for the second time, and others even as the incarnation of the God of the Trinity. But, of course, Father John had nothing to do with the establishment of this sect. Coming to church, confessing, receiving communion, observing all the principles and norms of Orthodox life, the St. John’s women at the same time formed a kind of separate society. Father John even anathematized them, but this had no effect on them.

In view of what has been said, it will not be superfluous to once again touch upon the apocalyptic theme, once again confirming the need to follow Orthodox teaching.

State power, indeed, is often opposed to the Church, or at least is not Orthodox, but this does not mean that we should be hostile to it. Prejudice often becomes a prerequisite for the formation of sectarian consciousness. If we take the New Testament, we will see two striking examples of how submission to government authority, for example to the pagan Roman emperor, not only was not sinful, but, on the contrary, served to fulfill prophecies.

The first event of this kind, known to all of you, is the participation of Joseph the Betrothed in the census that took place under the Roman Caesar Augustus. Thus, Joseph the Betrothed submitted to Roman authority in this, despite the fact that Augustus, of course, could not be called an Orthodox Christian or a true believer in any sense. Moreover, under him, in addition to all sorts of pagan cults common in the Roman Empire, the cult of the emperor developed extremely. The personification of the state was the goddess Roma, the Romans worshiped her and at the same time the genius of Caesar, as the representative of this state. At the same time, thanks to the fact that Joseph the Betrothed obeyed the orders of Caesar (of course, not in relation to the observance of the cult, but in relation to a neutral one - the collection of taxes), the ancient prophecy that the Messiah should be born in Bethlehem came true. It turns out that submission to state power was in this case a matter pleasing to God, since thanks to it the prophecy about the Messiah was fulfilled.

Another case, not so often noticed by us, but, nevertheless, very similar. It was revealed to the Apostle Paul that he should preach in Rome. And how did this prophecy come true? The Jews slandered him before the Roman authorities, first in Jerusalem, then in Caesarea. Seeing that there would be no end to this and that there was only one way to get rid of their accusations, he, being a Jew, being a Christian, was not ashamed to publicly proclaim that he was a Roman citizen, and even to demand the court of Caesar, the court of the emperor. So he ended up in Rome, after some time he was released, and the revelation that came to him came true - that he was to perform apostolic preaching in this great city, at that time the capital of the civilized world (see: Acts 21 -28). This means that submission to government authority is not always sinful or even neutral. It can also be pleasing to God, which is completely clear from these two examples.

Other, less striking examples from Holy Scripture could be given to confirm the fact that prudent submission to authority is a virtue. But we will not dwell on this, but will move on to that moment, which, unfortunately, is the most relevant, painfully relevant today - to the reflections of modern false zealots of Orthodoxy about the seal of the Antichrist. To do this, let us compare two episodes from the New Testament. They are very well known, everyone talks about them, but for some reason they are not compared. The first episode tells how the Savior was brought a coin, a denarius, which was used to pay taxes to Caesar. This is how the evangelist Matthew talks about this: “Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how to catch Him in words. And they send their disciples to Him with the Herodians, saying: Teacher! we know that You are just, and You teach truly the way of God, and do not care about pleasing anyone, for You do not look at any person; So tell us: what do you think? Is it permissible to give tribute to Caesar or not? But Jesus, seeing their wickedness, said: Why are you tempting Me, you hypocrites? show Me the coin with which the tax is paid. They brought Him a denarius. And he says to them: whose image and inscription is this? They say to Him: Caesar's. Then he says to them, “Render therefore the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar, and the things that are God’s to God.” Hearing this, they were surprised and, leaving Him, went away” (Matthew 22:15-22).

Who knows, maybe even now there is some special deceit in setting Christians against state power - in this way they can be easily compromised in the eyes of society. Show the Orthodox as some kind of renegades or, as they say now, marginalized. Present them as strange people with ridiculous, crazy opinions and thus cause contempt for Christianity. We can only guess about this. The important thing is that the Savior had nothing against the image of Caesar, nor against the inscription of his name on the coin. And at that time, the denarius depicted Emperor Tiberius, who was not distinguished by either morality or religious piety in the true sense of the word. I don’t know if he was pious as a pagan, but, from a Christian point of view, he was distinguished by extraordinary debauchery, and even got sick from it. At the end of his life, having entrusted the management of the empire to his confidant, he indulged in unbridled debauchery on the island of Capri for several years. And yet the Savior said that Caesar - not because of any of his personal qualities, good or bad, but because he is the head of state - must be given what is due to him. At that time, as I have already said, there was a cult of the emperor, established by Julius Caesar and widespread under the second Roman emperor, his adopted son Augustus. And the Savior allows us to give taxes to Caesar and does not condemn the image of the emperor on coins, but if we were talking about worshiping this image, then, of course, this would be forbidden by Him.

Now let us turn to another episode from Scripture that false zealots love to talk about - the story of the seal of the Antichrist. Outwardly it is similar to the previous one. And there we are talking about the image, and here. There they talk about the inscription, here about the outline. To discuss this episode, I will use the translation of the New Testament by Bishop Cassian (Bezobrazov) as more accurate - in this case it is of fundamental importance. “And it was given to him (that is, the false prophet of the Antichrist. - Scheigum. A.) to put spirit into the image of the beast so that the image of the beast would speak and do so that all who would not worship the image of the beast would be killed" (Rev. 13:15 ). And the image is mentioned here and there. And the emperor could not be called a pious man, and the Antichrist is depicted as a beast, that is, as having nothing human in himself. But still there is a difference. It is one thing for a sinful person, who may have something naturally good in himself, and another for one whose nature is so perverted that the Holy Scriptures call him not a man, but a beast. What does the Apocalypse say next? “And he acts in such a way that everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, should be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead” (Rev. 13:16).

I note that the word “mark,” which is given in both the Slavic and Russian (Synodal) translations of the Apocalypse, in this case is more correctly understood as a mark, that is, as something integral to a person (as opposed to an “inscription”). Thus, we see that there is a difference between the inscription on the coin (which, in order to give to Caesar as a tax, a person, naturally, must first take in hand) and the mark of the Antichrist. I cannot, for example, in order to “not get dirty,” say: “Sister A., ​​pay for me, I don’t even want to touch this money.” And there are such people. They told me about one elder who did not want to touch the money, saying that it was a sin. On the one hand, this, of course, was absurd, but on the other, the parishioners respected him very much for this, they said: “Since he doesn’t want to touch the money, it means he won’t steal anything.” That's why they made him headman. But such behavior is not always appropriate. If we are forced to pay for something, say, pay taxes, then we must first take this money. And if we take into our hands the image of Caesar, his “inscription” - even if this Caesar were the very Antichrist - then there is nothing wrong with that, because we will simply use this “inscription”. It’s scary if this “inscription” becomes a “mark,” that is, something integral to ourselves, and makes some kind of change in us that will be irreversible or will have the danger of irreversibility. I don’t know whether it will be possible for a person who has deliberately taken upon himself the seal of the Antichrist to repent. It seems to me that any person can and should repent. But, in any case, accepting a seal is extremely dangerous; it entails a change in the person himself.

Let us return to the Revelation of the Evangelist John: “And he acts in such a way that everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, should be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and that no one can buy or sell , besides the one who has a mark: either the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13: 16-17). In order to understand that the seal of the Antichrist should not be taken literally as a brand, we must turn to history. In ancient times, slaves were branded. True, this was not always done and not everywhere; they mainly branded runaway slaves, but in some areas and at other times every slave was branded. Is it really possible that a person who had some kind of mark, a sign of his master, was burned onto his body, somehow changed because of this? After all, he did not accept it voluntarily—the man was forced to submit because he was forcibly deprived of his freedom. But even if he was deprived of his freedom of his own free will (sometimes there were cases when a person, due to extremely constrained circumstances, sold himself into slavery), this does not mean that he was internally subordinate to the one to whom he belonged. We, too, to some extent, are not free people and do not belong only to ourselves. We are forced to obey state laws, certain requirements of state administration bodies at various levels, but this does not mean that we obey them internally, that we accept their beliefs, which may be non-Christian or even atheistic.

And at a later time, it happened that people were forcibly deprived of their freedom (for example, imprisoned in camps) and assigned numbers. If in Stalin’s camps a number was sewn onto clothes and assigned to the prisoner’s personal file, then in Nazi camps, for example in Auschwitz, prisoners were often given numbers on their wrists. True, not to the right, but to the left, but I don’t think that this is of fundamental importance. It was a tattoo. And many prisoners, entering the camp, wanted to receive such a number, because if it was not assigned, it meant that the person would soon be destroyed, sent to the gas chamber, and therefore he was not subject to any accounting. And if you were given a number, it meant that for some time the camp authorities might need you as an employee. Naturally, in such conditions everyone wanted to survive, so they sought to be assigned a number. Can we really say about the prisoners of Stalin’s or Hitler’s camps that they thus submitted to the Antichrist? Weren't Stalin and Hitler the Antichrists? Of course, they were, because they acted completely inhumanly, contrary to all Christian morality, and even openly, each in their own way, rebelled against the New Testament Revelation.

Let us consider an even more striking example from ancient history, which shows that even in the most literal sense, a mark, that is, a mark placed on a person’s forehead, does not deprive him of his freedom, does not compromise him in any way, and, moreover, can serve as evidence of his zeal for God. The point, I repeat, is not that we have been labeled - anything can happen, but that we submit to someone voluntarily, and especially submit internally, spiritually. And if we remain free, if we follow the Christian revelation, the Church Tradition, then this stigma has no meaning and cannot remove us from God. Now I will read an excerpt from the story about two great ascetics of piety, Theodore and Theophan the Inscribed. The ascetics were so named for the reason that, having come with the blessing of the Patriarch of Jerusalem to expose the emperor of iconoclasm, they were subjected to terrible torture for this, about which we will read further:

“What they suffered at this time is clear from the letter they subsequently wrote to John, Bishop of Cyzicus. In this message they themselves tell the following about themselves: “...Then the king furiously turned to the ruler standing nearby and, burning with great anger and obscenely cursing, said:

“Take them from here and, having branded their faces, give them to two Saracens so that they can take them to their land.”

Not far away stood some poet, holding in his hands a charter with ready-made poems written regarding us. The king ordered him to read them and added:

- If the poems are bad, then don’t be embarrassed by it.

And he answered:

“Such verses are enough to desecrate them.”

Someone present also remarked:

“They, sir, are not even worthy of the best.”

Then the following verses were read:

(Since Theodore and Theophanes arrived in Constantinople from the Holy Land, they were slandered in the poem, as if they were expelled from the holy city of Jerusalem. - Schigum. A.)

Since everyone loves to visit the city,
Where the pure feet of God the Word stood
To restore the universe, -
Appeared in an all-honorable place
And these wicked and unclean vessels.
Having done a lot of shameful things there,
Out of unbelief and wickedness,
They were driven out of there as apostates;
But having run to the reigning city,
And here they did not stop their frantic violence.
Therefore branded as villains on their faces,
They are condemned and expelled again.

After listening to the reading of the poems, the king ordered us to be taken into custody (this is what the saints said about themselves). When we left, someone caught up with us and, ordering us to return, hastily brought us back to the king.

Seeing us, the king said:

“It seems to me that when you left, you said to yourself: we outraged the king.” But first I will abuse you myself and then I will let you go.

Having said this, he ordered us to undress. After we were both stripped, they began to beat me first (says Theodore), and the king himself helped the torturers and constantly shouted:

- Hit harder!

And they beat me on the shoulders and chest without any mercy or mercy. While they were beating me, I loudly exclaimed:

- We have not sinned against you in anything, king! (Since they did not submit to the iconoclastic heresy, and this heresy was implanted by the emperors, they were accused of treason and conspiracy. - Schigum. A.) And also:

- Lord have mercy! Most Holy Theotokos, come to our aid!

Then they began to beat my brother, who cried out in the same way:

- Most Holy Theotokos, who fled with Her Son to Egypt, look at my torment! Lord, Lord, who delivers the weak from the hands of the strong, do not take Your help from us!

Having abused us to his heart’s content, the king again ordered us to be taken into custody.”

The valiant sufferers themselves wrote all this about themselves to the Bishop of Cyzicus.

Four days later, they were again brought to the eparch, who kindly said to them:

“Just once, partake of the Holy Mysteries with us, and I will let you go wherever you want.”

Note that they said that they were not guilty of any treason, there was no conspiracy, but at the same time they stood firmly in their confession, following the Orthodox Tradition about the veneration of icons. They were ready to submit to the king as a sovereign, but not as a heretic, not as the instigator of the iconoclastic heresy.

“But blessed Theodore answered him:

“Your proposal, bishop, is as if someone had told me: I ask you one thing, let me just cut off your head, and then you can go wherever you want.” Know that turning us away from orthodoxy is as difficult as rearranging heaven and earth so that the earth is above and the sky below.”

“Then the bishop ordered their faces to be branded with the above verses inscribed on them. The wounds the sufferers had recently received had not yet healed and caused them terrible pain. Despite this, they stretched them out on boards with their faces up and began to stab them in the faces with specially prepared instruments, beating out the above verses on them. They were tormented with this mark all day, and only when the sun set and dusk came did the tormentors stop torturing them. Leaving the eparch, the depicted sufferers said:

“Know everyone here that the cherub standing guard over paradise will retreat upon our arrival, seeing these marks on our faces, and will lower his flaming weapon, giving us free access to paradise.” .

Theodore and Feofan said wonderful words that are very important to us. Due to the fact that they involuntarily received this seal - an inscription on their face, grace will not only not depart from them, but they will have free access to heaven. These words of theirs refute what the imaginary zealots of Orthodoxy say, who could be called funny if the absurdities expressed by them did not lead to terrible consequences, to human tragedies. Of course, for Theodore and Theophanes this was a reproach and humiliation, but even the Church itself gave them such an honorable nickname, which has been heard in the universe for more than a thousand years - “Inscribed.”

“...Know all those who are here that the cherub standing guard over paradise will retreat at our arrival, seeing these marks on our faces, and will lower his flaming weapon, giving us free access to paradise. For since time immemorial there has not been this new torment inflicted on us now. And in any case, these marks will be on the face of Christ, and the guilt for this will fall on you, for He says: “Because you have created one and the least of these brothers of mine, you have created for me” (Matthew 25:40).”

Please note that Theodore and Theophan interpret the Holy Scripture very correctly: whatever is done to one of these little ones, good or bad, is done to Christ. And if Christ was not ashamed to take this mark upon Himself (and we cannot help but believe these confessors and martyrs), then there is nothing shameful in it. From a human point of view, this is a shame, but before God it is glory. Therefore, those who say that we should not accept passports because they have a chip embedded in them, buy goods because they have a barcode on them, or accept an individual taxpayer number are contrary to Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. Their views are opposite to the behavior of God’s chosen ones - be it the Russian new martyrs who accepted numbers, or the confessors Theodore and Theophanes the Inscribed - or the innocent sufferers of the Nazi camps, even if they were not Christians. Who should we believe: the newly-minted “prophets” or the Holy Scriptures, Holy Tradition? Who is the greater authority for us?

The Lord Jesus Christ said that even if someone does signs, but at the same time does not follow the will of the Heavenly Father, he is a lawless person and He does not know this person. Let us turn again to the translation of Bishop Cassian. “Not everyone who says to Me: ‘Lord! God!" He who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to Me on that day: “Lord!” God! Have we not prophesied in Your name? And was it not in Your name that they cast out demons? And have they not performed many miracles in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them: ‘I never knew you: depart from Me, you who practice iniquity’” (Matthew 7:21-23). Perhaps, indeed, there will be people who will imagine that they prophesied in the name of God. However, even if they were sincerely convinced of this and even if they really prophesied, but at the same time committed lawlessness - and the law, that is, the will of God, is known to us from the Holy Scriptures and Tradition - then the Lord would say that He did not knows, and would drive him away. This means that even if some person were a prophet or a miracle worker, we must prefer the word of God to his prophecies and not succumb to any temptations, we must learn to look at things soberly, not listening to fears and rumors, measuring what we hear with Divine Revelation . It will never be damaged, can never be supplemented with anything, for it contains the fullness of truth, through it the Lord speaks to us. From it we must learn the will of God, follow it and strengthen ourselves in faith.

So, we see that appropriating to a person by force or without his knowledge any means of accounting, perhaps clearly disgusting, unpleasing things, even if it were really the seal of the Antichrist, does not have any significance. What matters is only voluntary, conscious submission, that is, a change of mind. What is a forehead seal? You don’t need to immediately imagine a seal or brand in the literal sense of the word. We do not know by what technical means this will actually be achieved and whether it will be something external at all. The important thing is that a person changes his way of thinking, this will be the seal of the Antichrist, the mark of the Antichrist on a person’s forehead. This same mark on the hand means a course of action: for example, a person thinks correctly, but because of fear or some other considerations he acts humanely and sins. Therefore, the Apostle John the Theologian depicts submission to the Antichrist as a seal on the forehead and on the right hand, implying a way of action and a way of thinking - this is what we should fear and beware of, and not something external.

What is happening now borders on the absurd. “All this would be funny,” as the poet said, “if it weren’t so sad.” How, for example, do you think it is possible to get rid of the seal of the Antichrist allegedly contained in a passport? You take a microwave, put your passport in it, it is “fried” - and that’s it, the seal of the Antichrist has disappeared, you can safely use your passport. Of course, the passport is not actually fried, but the chip with the information actually gets spoiled. But please note that in this case you need to resort to the achievements of modern civilization, use a microwave oven, which most likely has a barcode on it. How then can you buy it? An insoluble dilemma. Please note that people do not want to use an ordinary frying pan - it does not remove the seal of the Antichrist; they need a microwave. They appeared recently. When I was young, no one had heard of such devices. And now, it turns out, this is what needs to be done... This is how people turn themselves into a laughingstock.

Imagine that such an “Orthodox” will begin to preach stupid, distorted Orthodoxy to an unbeliever: he will tell him about the microwave, about passports, about how to destroy the seal of the Antichrist. How would a normal person react to this? People will turn away from the Church, they will say: “But there are crazy people there, how can you go there?” Thus, in addition to the fact that such “zealots of Orthodoxy” harm themselves, they also seduce others.

I’ll give you an example, maybe more terrible. When we were in the Holy Land, we met a security guard at a hotel. He comes from Russia, is a Jew, and is a member of the Messianic Jews sect. In dogmatics, it is similar to the Baptist sect, only with some national overtones, so they call themselves not Christians, but Messianic Jews - as if in the Jewish way: they replaced the word “Christ” with the word “Messiah”. How did he become a sectarian? He lived in Russia, somewhere in Siberia. I became interested in Christianity, naturally, first of all, in Orthodoxy. He had Orthodox friends, and he turned to them for help, so that they would give him some literature. And these kind, dear friends of his gave him “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” to read as apologetic literature. He read it, and the effect, naturally, was the opposite - he began to feel disgust for Orthodoxy. He had never heard anything about the “Jewish conspiracy”: Jews, as a rule, learn about it not from Jews. Constantly being among representatives of their nation, they do not know anything about this. And suddenly some Russian or Ukrainian gives a book and says: “This is what’s going on with you.” What reaction should a person have? What should he do? To say: “Yes, that’s right, this is happening here,” when he knows that there is nothing like that? Naturally, the person turned away from Orthodoxy. He was drawn to the Church, he was pushed away from it, and he ended up in a sect. This is the result of the preaching of the so-called zealots of Orthodoxy. But in essence this is not Orthodoxy, but sectarianism. And these sectarians, dressed in Orthodox clothes, are a temptation for many, many people - they themselves stray from the path of salvation, and they seduce others, presenting the Orthodox Church as a collection of, to put it mildly, drunken people.

Therefore, a drunken attitude towards tax identification numbers, passports, barcodes is not such a harmless and funny thing. This is a truly dangerous trend. As A.L. Dvorkin put it regarding the event in the Penza region, in the near future it may “explode” in other places - this absurdity has spread too much. We must strengthen ourselves in sober thinking and, in spite of everything and no one, follow exclusively the patristic Tradition. Establishing ourselves on it, we will be truly Orthodox, and not false zealots, who, instead of taking care of our souls and helping other people, on the contrary, confuse them, lead them away from contemplation and study of their souls, from the fight against sins - to ghosts, to the fight against windy mills, as the notorious Don Quixote did. Such people bring a lot of harm to themselves, their loved ones and compromise the Holy Orthodox Church. Amen.