Archpriest Andrei Tkachev, cleric of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University, answers questions from viewers. Transfer from Moscow. Aired July 12th.

Hello, on the air of the Soyuz TV channel, the program "Conversations with the Father". In the studio - Sergei Yurgin.

Today our guest is the priest of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University, Archpriest Andrey Tkachev.

Hello, father. Bless our viewers.

Hello. God's mercy be with every human soul.

The theme of our today's program is "Confession and Communion". In our last program, we have already begun to talk about the Sacrament of Confession, but there are still questions.

For those who did not watch our last program, I would like you to repeat what the Sacrament of Confession is.

In this sacrament is the unconditional action of the healing grace of God. I would say that this sacrament is multifunctional. For a serious sinner or a person who has been baptized but has lived out of fellowship in the Church for a long time, this is a way to return to the Church and unite his living unity with her. For a person who has not left the Church, but is fighting sin and feels the scars and dust of the struggle, this is a way to maintain spiritual hygiene. This is a constant spiritual stimulus and shake-up and a way to keep oneself in good shape, when a person does not seem to bring anything terrible to confession, but brings everyday traces of a struggle with sin, which is not going to go anywhere.

The monastic practice of the revelation of thoughts is superimposed on the Sacrament of Confession, when a person reveals not so much his deeds as the secret inner world with all the intricacies of desires, thoughts, mental battles and everything else. This is often found in our lives: both among the laity and among the monks.

Confession is a sacrament that heals the human soul. Depending on the degree of illness of the soul, it has different functions and effects on our internal ulcers.

Is it necessary to come to confession to one priest or is it allowed to go to different ones?

From my point of view personal experience, reading books and communicating with other people, it seems to me that it is good to have a confessor, but not everyone has one. If there is no confessor, then it is good to have a priest who has known you for a long time, and who does not need to retell his entire life. When you come to confession for the first time, the priest may ask how long you have been going to church, what is your marital status, where do you work, that is, it is important for him to know the person at least a little. It's good to have someone who won't be you every time who you are, and constantly carry your sores to him. It is good for him to confess the sins that most often disturb you and constitute your painful secret. If nothing terrible happens in your life, but everyday things happen that do not hurt you much, then you can safely go to any priest in any Orthodox church, being on a trip, on vacation, visiting a church that is closer to home.

I think that the practice is this: if nothing special has happened, you can go to any priest. If you want to take communion, then you go to the priest, say that I have such and such and that I would like to take communion. If there is something serious, you need to go to someone who knows you, if you have such a confessor. If not, then you have to be content with different priests, but this is fraught with different problems. One will be more strict, the other more soft. One will increase the requirements, the other will react lighter. People are different, one wants rigor, the other is afraid of it. Here we are dealing with a variety of human-to-human collisions, so here we need to stock up on a certain amount of patience and understanding. If you are burned somewhere about one confession, then do not be sad, do not be sad.

Maybe, of course. A parish priest is a high rank, and he can be a confessor, he can, as they say, carry human souls in his hands. If he does not grow up to an elder, he is still a great person, because he makes a bloodless sacrifice to God, performs other sacraments, commemorates the living and the dead in the service, delves into their destinies and needs through confession and conversations with people, preaches the Gospel. That is, the most "unsightly" priest is still a great figure in the invisible spiritual field. Therefore, of course, the parish clergy are called to be spiritual clergy.

For example, such an important fact is that our parish clergy, according to tradition, are mostly married. This is the greatest plus that distinguishes us, for example, from Catholics. What problems do people come to confession with? Take away family problems from a person and he will have nothing to come to confession with. Mother-in-law and son-in-law, mother and children, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, housing overcrowding with several generations in the same apartment, money problems, second wife, second husband, betrayal, drunkenness, beats, I have grown old - my husband looks at the young. With all this, people come to confession. Remove this and you will remove 98% of the need to confess or consult with a priest. Of course, this is well known to those who themselves live a family life.

Of course, it's good to come to confession to "grandfather" - a man who has a gray beard, already grown children, many grandchildren, he saw all this in his life. You can’t terrify him anymore, he already knows everything, you are his grandson or son, daughter or granddaughter by age, so a person internally gravitates towards such a family character of confession. When they understand you, they lift you from your knees, they help you unravel your worldly knot - this is the white clergy.

When monastic confessions, they, of course, can lead you higher, those who gravitate towards asceticism, for example, to unceasing prayer, reading spiritual literature. But a monastic confessor, if he does not have a sense of tact and measure, can impose a certain burden on a simple person that he will not bear. Here you need to have pedagogical sensitivity. Therefore, who, if not the white clergy, should be confessors.

The fact that people go to confession en masse in monasteries is a kind of challenge for the white clergy.

Brothers, why are you so bad at dealing with people that they run away from you to monasteries for confession?

Maybe many want to be stricter?

Maybe so, then - please. The white priest himself will say that he is not a monastic, and in fair fasts and nightly prayers the assistant is weak. It will be good and fair.

But there may be a bias in the other direction. In the life of the Optina elder Leo there is such a moment when he stood in a crowd of women who came on a pilgrimage - simple peasant women in bast shoes, simple clothes, with tear-stained faces - and he told them about spiritual and worldly things. On repentance in the monastery there was some mitred priest who said to him:

Hunt for you, father, for an hour with these women to stand and talk about something.

To which Elder Leo said to him:

And that's true. If you had dealt with them at the parish, they would not have been here with me.

The work of a monk is, indeed, a cell and prayer. But he was forced to deal with them because the white clergy do not fully take care of their spiritual children.

Spirituality is, in principle, the work of the white clergy. If the priest is very young, just got married, does not yet know how to live in his family, of course, it is difficult here with clergy, he is gaining difficult spiritual experience. But a person who has already passed his life, who has acquired some kind of skill both in worship and in communicating with people, can already grow up to a confessor of an average hand.

That is, confessors are needed everywhere, one "all-Russian elder" is not needed, so that people from Kamchatka, Sakhalin, the Baltic states and the Caucasus go to him. So, of course, it is also necessary, but it would be much better if each province, region had its own “burn and shine” lamp, to which their own people came. Further - more and more. So that there are many of them, of different sizes, as a star differs from a star in glory. Small, big stars, constellations - all this is needed.

A simple parish priest is a completely normal confessor. Not everyone is equal, they are all different. Maybe a priest with a higher education - students will be drawn to him, maybe intellectuals. Maybe a priest from a high military service, who, for example, rose to the rank of colonel, and then abruptly changed his life. There are a lot of them. People of a different category are drawn to them, feeling a military male vein in him. They are all different - and this is very good, and this is exactly what spirituality is. People will look for a confessor for themselves, in spirit, by scent, by intuition. One priest serves for a long time, reads everything, and someone likes it. And someone serves quickly, but stays after the service and talks with people. One found himself here, the other - there, and all is well.

There is such a practice when a person comes to confession to one priest, asks him for spiritual advice, then goes to another and asks for advice on the same issue, and everything adds up, sums up, divides, finding the most beneficial answer for himself and the most convenient blessing. Is it worth it to do so?

The arithmetic mean of the advice of different priests is a very vicious practice. If the advice is different, then embarrassment will begin, you will have to act slyly and choose what you like best. It is necessary to put aside far from the desire to gain advice from a variety of people, especially those who do not know you.

Advice should be taken from those who know you and are in relation to you in the "mode" of "disinterested compassion." For example, if a rich man helps the family of some priest simply to survive, if he takes advice, there is a serious fear that the priest will be afraid to be categorical with him. This is a purely human moment, and there is nothing surprising here. If some doctor pulled me out of the other world for an operation, then if I scold him at confession, then very gently, I will be grateful to him all my life and cover with love - this is a psychologically very understandable thing. Therefore, you must honestly know from whom you are asking for advice: from someone who loves and is indulgent towards you, or from someone who knows you well and can tell you the truth. There needs to be an element of honesty here. If it doesn't exist, everything else will be a mistake. If we add many vectors together, they will all collapse into one point and lead nowhere further. Therefore, it is not necessary to do so.

It is necessary to resolve your everyday issues on the basis of conscience, that is, you should not go to the confessor in a state of “I don’t know what to do”, but after doing the preliminary work. If there are serious questions, consult a husband with his wife, a wife with her husband, with children, elders, friends who love you. Listen to voices from outside, ask your conscience. Pray strongly to God, go to the temple of God for a day or two, try to pray attentively to God, read the Gospel, maybe the Word of God will reveal something to you. That is, come to the priest already prepared, for example, ready to do what you don't like, what you don't want to do. For example, you don’t want to leave, but you have to, or you don’t want to stay, but you have to, and so on.

Pray for the priest that God would reveal to him His holy will. It is very important, when going to the priest, to pray to God for the priest, saying:

Lord, I am going to you, and you bless your servant father Michael (or Matthew), so that through him I will hear from you, and give me the courage to accept as from you.

We need such serious things. And when he asked here and there, it turns out just a kind of tear.

Probably, it is also necessary to ask for blessings for some prayer deeds.

We are blessed for prayer from the moment of our baptism. What are some special blessings for, which, for example, ask for the reading of the Psalter. Communion, pray, fulfill the commandments, fight sin, read the Holy Scriptures, inside which is the Psalter - for all this we are blessed from the beginning, in fact of Christianity.

Special, requiring a blessing, when, for example, they want to enter the seminary. When a girl says that she does not want to get married, but wants to keep her virginity for the sake of Christ, this is very serious, it is impossible here without a blessing.

Question from a TV viewer from Yekaterinburg: How to prepare for Communion on a meat-paste three days in a row or only Wednesday and Friday, is it possible to eat fish if you take communion in a week?

Second question: How to prepare a child for Communion?

This issue is decided at a meeting of priests, and in pastoral practice it is accepted for discussion. Modern approach to this question, as far as I know, the following: if a person fasts on Wednesday and Friday all year and observes many days of the Christmas, Great, Petrovsky, Assumption fasts, then the three days of fasting immediately before Communion lose their relevance for him. Three days of need for those who rarely commune 1-3 times a year, no more than that, or are lame in church discipline.

If a person carries everything that the Church has blessed, then if you want to take communion on Sunday, and at the same time always fast on Wednesday, Friday, then on Saturday you can eat without meat, but with fish, and on Sunday nothing prevents you from taking Communion . Although, of course, all this needs to be blessed by the priest who gives you communion.

I don't think it's necessary to raise eyebrows too much here and multiply disciplinary requirements. I think any pastor, looking at such a practice of a Christian, will say that he, of course, can approach the Cup with the fear of God and faith.

As for the child, it seems to me that the most important issue for children is their desire to be in the temple and the joy of being in the temple. If a child wants to go to church, and he goes there with joy, then I think this is the most important preparation for Communion. Of course, sin can already manifest itself in them: they can be mischievous, lazy, cunning, and this must be monitored, and you can prompt them kindly:

You know, son or daughter, it seems to me that you need to say this in confession, you deceived me yesterday, said that you ate it, and you yourself threw dinner into the trash, this is already serious.

There is no need to tell children in confession that they do not listen to mom and dad. Because mom and dad are very selfish about the confession of their children, however, like grandparents. We sometimes load confession with the function of enslaving children with our authority, we turn the priest into our companion in turning a son or grandson into a novice. This is very harmful.

Today is information time, it is very important that the child does not stick around on TV from morning to evening and does not immerse himself in gadgets so that it is impossible to come off of them. This is also a clear sin, this is already captivity.

It is very important to maintain speech purity: so that a person does not get used to speaking stupid, dirty, nasty, rotten words. To not take someone else's, not to envy. Seven-year-olds already have enough of such possible sins. You should try to talk about this with them and ask the priest:

Father, my seven-year-old daughter Dashenka will come to you, she’s mischievous, she will resist, throw a tantrum, and you can’t do anything. Talk to her, please.

Or, for example, a fashionista girl, every day requires new clothes. We need to understand what the real problems are. It's not that they simply "do not obey" - this is too banal and selfish, but when there is a real spiritual problem that the priest should talk about with the child. Here the confession turns into a confidential conversation between the elder and the younger.

It is important that we do not drive the child away from the church, so that the child is happy in the church, this is the most important way to prepare for Communion.

Do you want to partake?

Do you like being in church?

Like.

Will you take communion today?

Well, with God.

Do you think it is necessary to thoughtlessly fulfill what the priest ordered at confession?

Such cases can be if a person has fallen under the weight of some strange word and does not know how to deal with it. For example, a penance that lasts for many, many years or something else. We need to deal with this issue. The complexity of the situation is that another priest does not have the right to remove from a person what another has imposed. You have to understand everything in order to understand what is behind it. And if this is a fact of excessive strictness or asceticism, when, for example, a person is excommunicated from Communion for ten years, then the person must figure it out, go to this priest himself without intermediaries and say that it’s hard, you can’t stand it, asking to relax.

But it also happens the other way around, when pilgrims come and ask for a blessing "for something." If I bless you for such that then you will run after me and ask to “bless” you. People, too, can provoke a priest into something extraordinary when they ask him some strange questions. That is why it is important to come to the priest with a ripened question, having done your "homework": think what you want, carry your problem in yourself, formulate it well, and it will be much easier for you to listen to the answer to it. Not everything here lies with the priest, but much is born of some kind of immaturity of the person himself.

What kind of questions should you ask a priest?

With questions worthy of the priesthood. You know, as some saints said, don't ask the king for dung. Come to God, ask for what is worthy of God. I came to the priest, ask for what is worthy of the priesthood: spiritual advice, prayer, an attempt to understand some complexity, worldly and spiritual at the same time. Ask for a relative. Came to the priest, talk about what concerns your spiritual life.

When a person comes to a priest, but he has no spiritual questions, there are worldly, material, psychological problems It's very hard for a priest. There are such cases, I think the priests will confirm this: when a person comes who does not know why he came, and you need to pull out a certain deep layer from him in order to understand what he does not know about himself - this is already some kind of senile level . You have to be more than just a priest when, while talking to a person, you are trying to pull him out on a problem that he does not yet know about himself. It happens, but it's very exhausting.

It happens that a person comes to confession and says that he took out a mortgage, and now he does not know how to pay off, and asks the priest for advice.

Such cases happen. It happens even more when a person begins to literally blackmail, says: what should I now take an ax and go to the bank, or should I now hang myself. And you see this person for the first time. Then you need to stay after the service and talk to this person. In fact, you will not help him return the mortgage, but the spoken problem is halved, this has been noticed a long time ago.

The trouble that is expressed and listened to tends to decrease. When a person told a trouble to a listener, he may have heard himself for the first time. Talking about yourself is the only way to understand yourself. Why is it important to keep a diary or write letters or have dialogues with someone wise and thoughtful. Otherwise, you will not understand yourself. I understand to understand myself as I begin to tell about myself to someone, and someone listens carefully to me, asking leading questions.

Therefore, the unfortunate "taker" of the mortgage will begin to tell you all his life. Each person has his own background, he is tormented by a mortgage, but it was born by something else. It turns out that he divorced, but divorced because he flew into fornication, and his wife did not tolerate him anymore. And he will begin to unroll his glomerulus until early childhood, and suddenly he will understand where it all began, and he will say: "Thank you, father, I have gone." The mortgage will somehow be resolved, and the person, perhaps for the first time, will touch his true problem as he talks about himself. This is very important, and here the priest performs the function of a psychologist. For what a psychologist is paid a lot of money, here the priest pays with his time and nerves, and glory to You, Lord, that this is so. This is an important spiritual function. After all, what are psychological sessions? This is confession without absolution. Why do people go to psychologists? Because they want to confess, not even hoping that their sins will be forgiven. The priest just combines both, he should try to listen and pull out some deeper layers of hidden problems from a person, this helps a lot. If this is also crowned with the words "And I, unworthy priest, I forgive and let go ...", then this is simply wonderful.

Viewer question: When you start trying to fulfill the commandments, to live in the bosom of the Church, you feel how difficult it is. Even the commandments of Moses fail to be fulfilled. I would like to hear from you advice-consolation, like, remember, in the finale of the film "The Island", when Father Anatoly asked a young priest "How should we live?" replies: "And live as we live."

I'll try. First of all, I want to say that what constitutes your inner cross is well known to me. When you try and nothing works. You try a hundred times and fail a hundred times. And do not despair of starting the 101st time, and the 101st still fails. It's clear.

As a consolation to myself and to you, I will say that labor to fulfill the commandments is the most necessary opportunity and way to reveal human weakness. What does a person learn by keeping the commandments? infirmities. This is such an interesting patristic voice: as you fulfill the commandments, you reveal your imperfection. A person will be saved not for exploits and not for labors, but for faith and humility. He learns humility as he becomes aware of his weakness, which, in turn, is revealed from an attempt to fulfill the commandments.

What is your rule? - asked a man who had lived for many years in serious labors.

What is my rule, - he answered. - I had different rules: both big and small. When I fulfilled the rule, I was proud. When I did not follow the rule, I became discouraged. My rule today is "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me."

Of all the prayers I know

I sing in my soul or read aloud,

Such wondrous power breathes

Prayer "Lord, have mercy!"

I'm close to the last edge

And yet with burning tears,

Although with withered body strength,

I say "Lord, have mercy!"

Soul, ending earthly life,

This prayer, no other

Firmly and there you are behind the grave

With the hope "Lord, have mercy!"

God does not want the death of man, He perfectly understands, knows and wears our imperfections. The contemplation of Christ crucified and the joy of the risen Christ sufficiently console the tormented soul. We are not saved by works, but by grace. This is very comforting for a person - Lord, have mercy.

Question from a TV viewer from Moscow: Spiritual father - who is he, and how to properly apply to a priest with a request for confession. I live in Moscow and for seven years I have been going to the priest in the Moscow region, I consider him my spiritual father, but I do not voice this. Is it correct?

I think that it is not necessary to voice and formalize everything. What you are already doing can put you in a spiritual father/daughter relationship without formalizing the process. Enough of what is. You are a happy person, you have a mentor who will accept your confession, take communion, tell you, and pray. What you have, we grab in abundance, so many people are deprived of it.

Spiritual fatherhood is more important than physical fatherhood. Physical fatherhood has become rare, meaning we live in a time of serious fatherlessness. Not every child lives in a family where a man is his biological father. The father may simply not exist, he has disappeared, maybe the father is social, that is, not the same person, there can be a lot of other situations. Many children grow up without a father.

And now I ask myself and you the question: if normal fatherhood has become a rarity, or at least not found at every turn, although every child should have both a father and a mother. If such simple things have become a rarity, then where can we find spiritual fathers for all spiritual children? After all, spiritual fatherhood is much stronger and more serious than physical fatherhood. Therefore, spiritual fatherlessness is also present. Everyone wants to have a spiritual father, but where can they be found?

What should be the spiritual father in your understanding?

As I already said, such a "grandfather". Not in the sense that he will forgive everything, put him on his knees and cut out the whistle: "If you have a pipe, there will be a whistle." No.

His experience must exceed the experience of a spiritual child by that colossal difference that exists between a real parent and a child. What is a parent - this is a person who is two to three times larger than the child born from him. A spiritual father must be such a large-scale personality, that is, he must live much longer than you, and his inner experience, both spiritual and human, worldly, must be a source of nourishment for those who do not have this experience.

He must be compassionate again from experience. Must be a penitent person, without guruistic inclinations, without faith in one's own infallibility. It is best to repent of sins in the presence of someone who himself repents of his sins. Because if a person is sure of his infallibility, it is very scary to repent before him, he will flatten you with the cold of his false holiness. If I'm a sinner and he's a saint, that's terrible. And if he says: I am such a sinner, don't be afraid, there is only one sinless one - Christ. On the knees of such a person, you can cry. Hearing the sins of other people, he must recognize himself in these sins, not because he must do all this, but because he recognizes human pain.

Indeed, in fact, we do not hear anything new, we hear modifications, variations of the same passions, and nothing new, therefore the requirements for a confessor are very high. Of course, he must be well-read in Holy Scripture, in patristic literature, spiritually experienced, condescending, strict in necessary cases, but severity must be diluted with condescension in a proportion, probably 5 to 95. That is, most cases require condescension, some rare cases require severity, you need to include different modes.

Question from a viewer from Cheboksary: ​​How can I pray if I cannot forgive some people with all my heart? How can I utter the words "and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," if I have not forgiven with all my heart? The same with the prayer "Lord, have mercy." Can I ask for mercy on me if I cannot have mercy on my neighbor in the same way?

Well, you've touched a real pain, a real ulcer. Where you are stuck with words that you cannot pronounce, you should not pronounce them until you pronounce them actually, from your heart and truly.

You have hit a sacred barrier. Wonderful. If you overcome this barrier, you will immediately rise to a very large step up, which I wish you.

Only now divide the problem into two parts. You may have personal enemies, for example, people who borrowed money and do not repay for a long time, or people who cut off a piece of your garden. These are your personal enemies, and maybe you cannot forgive them.

But often people say these words “I can’t forgive them” to people whom they don’t personally know, they don’t personally contact, but cheat themselves, for example: I won’t forgive Chubais for ruining half the country in such and such years and for rolling blackouts in the 90s. I won't forgive Obama for bombing and something else. If you are concerned about these problems, feel free to throw them in the trash, because the prayer "Our Father" tells us about those people who are specifically intertwined with you in life circumstances, and you have a specific offense against a particular person. For example, someone was rude to you in transport, and you hold a grudge for two days and cannot pray. And don't pray until you forgive. And when you overdo it, you will become stronger, and you will begin a new stage of life - spiritual freedom will begin.

To forgive, to overcome some internal difficult problem of relationships with relatives, with a boss at work, with a person who offended or deceived you - this is a great feat, this is a victory. If you have such cases, keep fighting.

The person insulted you with terrible words, scolded. But if you put this insult on one side of the scale, and on the other - all your sins, all, all that you know or do not know, and say: I will forgive him, and all THIS will be forgiven me. That is a very unequal exchange - speculate about it. EVERYTHING will be forgiven you, and you will forgive, albeit offensive, but nonsense. Everything will be forgiven you - you will receive great freedom, and then you will say to God with boldness:

Lord, for a long time I could not say these words to You, but now I can, and now forgive me my debts as I have forgiven my debtor. I forgave him this, I forgot, but You, Lord, forgive me ALL my sins.

This will be a great change, you will exchange a bag of garbage for a wagon of gold - this will be the exchange. So far you have run into a problem, but solve it, and by solving it, you will be terribly rich.

Such is the solution to life's problems that the prayer "Our Father" offers us.

Question from a viewer from the Moscow region: Does it make sense to confess a sin if I know that it will happen again? After all, this, perhaps, turns out to be slyness?

It makes sense to confess a sin even if you suspect it will happen again. There are sins that are bound to be repeated. For example, a person says that he is distracted by prayer or that he has no love, often no patience. I am quite sure that when you come back in a week, you will repeat the same thing. It would be strange if you said: “Last time I said that I don’t have love, but now I do. And now I don’t get distracted by prayer.” Such things can always be repeated or not repeated, but implied. Where does the dust come from? No one knows, but you will have to do wet cleaning, because the dust is taken by itself.

If we are talking about serious sins, if you, God forbid, are cheating on your wife, and are so connected with this sin that you know that you will not get rid of it in the near future, and come to cry about yourself. But move away from confession and know that you are not free again, that you are again under the threat of climbing into the same puddle. In this case, you cannot take communion, but you still need to confess. Confess once - and, unfortunately, you will return to the former. Second, third time. In the end, your conscience will torment you, and either you will kill your conscience and become an animal, or your conscience will kill your sin and force you to become a man. You will fight your conscience in mortal combat, to the point of hoarseness and blood, until one of you wins. Either you become an animal, or you become a man, and conscience will overcome you.

Therefore, you need to talk about your sins in confession anyway, especially if these are serious things that require an indispensable struggle with yourself. Like hygienic things, when, for example, you brush your teeth, you are sure that you will brush them again. You wash your clothes, but you are sure that you will have to do this more than once - this is normal.

In this sense, the discipline of confession is a hygienic discipline, it requires repetition, keeps you in good shape, and does not let you get lice. If you don't clean your room, if you don't shave or wash, you'll get lice. In this sense, these repetitions are the hygienic function of confession. Repeat, don't be afraid.

Question from a viewer from St. Petersburg: Father Anatoly Optinsky has the words: "beware of the sin of embarrassment." Can you please explain what the "sin of confusion" is?

Embarrassment is a broad concept. We get embarrassed whenever we encounter something we don't expect. For example, you expect holiness, but you meet not quite holiness. Say, for the first time a layman found himself at a feast at the table with the clergy. He is afraid to chew loudly, he thinks that one has to be slender here, but he hears that it is not, people eat tightly and with appetite and talk, not necessarily about biblical subjects. And he suddenly became confused. Whenever we expect something so big and meet something simple, we tend to get embarrassed. There is unnecessary embarrassment when you raise some degree of expectations in yourself. But life somehow humbles you: calm down, at the right time we will say spiritual words to you, and now relax, eat, drink, listen to simple speeches. Such is embarrassment.

There is confusion from demons. There are such scrupulous souls to whom various thoughts are brought, for example, he ran to confession, and the prayer before confession was already read, and now a person is embarrassed and suffers for half a service, whether to go to confession or not to go. It is a whole torment when there is no simplicity in a person. Any notch thrown into his mind unsettles him, and he no longer knows what to do. Such people would like to advise to be simpler. In a good way, it’s easier, not in the sense of being bolder and reckless, but simpler and calmer.

Because there are a million reasons for embarrassment, all the media work for the embarrassment industry. All the information being thrown tends to shake us, shake us, excite us, then lower us into despondency.

And in the spiritual life, a person is often afraid of something, then demonic fears, then despondency, then lack of faith, then he thinks that nothing is working out for him. This is where everything comes from. A person needs to have the same healthy soul as a healthy appetite has a healthy person. He eats, crunches with every cucumber that is on the table, and everything is fine for him. You need to have such a healthy mental organization. The question is where to get it?

People have become so nervous, so thin, so resentful. Almost all city dwellers are neurotic. And we need to have a normal, healthy, "rosy-cheeked" soul, which is looking for simple food and enjoys the simple sun. Ask God for mental health, and I must ask it:

Lord, You are my doctor, heal my soul from chronic diseases that You Yourself see and know.

For us to be simple, healthy people, having a simple, healthy faith, and, in the end, enter a real and beautiful paradise.

Question of a TV viewer: Is a confession written on paper and read by the priest himself, is it accepted by God, are sins forgiven? I am disabled and cannot do anything else.

Without a doubt. In fact, a paper charter is a charter of your heart. When you write your sins on paper, you are translating the invisible into the visible. This is the secret of the heart written on a piece of paper. The priest who reads these sins accepts them in the same way as if they had pronounced them with their own lips. He reads a prayer over you, breaks the list - it's like your sins are leaving you. Of course, this is accepted, and do not doubt it.

Viewer's question: I confessed and took communion, then sinned again, how to return to God? I visit the temple regularly, but I feel indifferent. I pray, I am anointed - I borrow the grace of the Holy Spirit. What should I do for God in return? How can I return to the bosom of the Church if I pronounce "I believe", but in fact I cannot fulfill it to the end?

A very important thing: the first schisms in the Church were those of the Donatists, which were characterized by so-called perfectionism - the desire that the Church should consist only of saints. We all must be heroes of the spirit, and there is no weakness in us. This gave rise to contempt for sinners, arrogance over those who sin a lot and often, a desire to cut off from oneself all the weak, unnecessary, and so on. Whole heresies grew out of this.

The desire for perfectionism, the desire for everything to be good, can be dangerous. The Church is holy, but not so much by our holiness as by the holiness of her Head - our Lord Jesus Christ. It communicates health to the body. The Church includes not only saints, but also sinners. This is very important to understand. Penitent sinners who have not overcome sin to the end, who suffer from sin and have not reached perfection - these are also people who belong to the Church.

In a large body, every eyelash, every nail is needed. In a large body there are various multifunctional organs, both large and small, both noticeable and inconspicuous. Therefore, do not doubt your belonging to the Church because you have not reached perfection, because you fall, sin, repent again, and fall again.

Penitent sinners belong to the Church just as much as the saints. And no true saint will neglect a sinner, because he knows that he and I are in the same Church. Only false holiness neglects sinners, it forgets that it has a source - Christ, who neglects no one. And the self-sanctified thinks that he is holy in himself, therefore he despises the penitent. A true saint does not despise sinners. Kuksha Odessa said: I myself am a sinner, and I love sinners. I would like at least from the edge, but in the ray.

Your struggle is a sign that you belong to the Church. It makes no sense for you to lose heart, it makes sense for you to cry that you are weak. But you are not outside the Church, but in It. People like you make up one of the cohorts of the Church - they are weeping and crouching, bearing their weakness and begging God to heal them. We all belong to them, from time to time each of us cries about his own wretchedness.

Question from a TV viewer from Astrakhan: I recently heard Professor A.I. Osipov, who said that the little children brought to the temple distract the parishioners from the service. Is it considered a sin, and at what time is it better to bring small children from a year to a year and a half?

Of course, this is not a sin in any way, it is an everyday disciplinary complexity that is superimposed on liturgical life. Since a small child cannot consciously participate in prayer, cannot sing “I Believe” with us, does not understand what happens during the Eucharistic Canon, we must come with him directly to Communion itself, to the prayer “Our Father”.

It is clear that this creates difficulties for parents, because mom or dad find themselves torn out of the Liturgy, which is an inevitable difficulty, you need to endure this while the child is small. There is no sin in this, it is just a difficulty associated with the unconscious, small age of our children. You need to bring them to the temple just before the removal of the Chalice.

Our program time has come to an end. Thank you for today's conversation. We never got to the Sacrament of Communion. I hope that next time we will discuss this topic. In conclusion, I ask you to bless our viewers.

Christ transfigured in glory before the disciples-apostles, who revealed His glory to Moses and Elijah, may it also shine on us with His Eternal Light through the prayers of the Mother of God, for He is the Giver of Light, and glory to Him.

Host: Sergey Yurgin
Transcription: Yulia Podzolova

In the Moscow studio of our TV channel, Archimandrite Alexy (Vylazhanin), dean of the Petropavlovsk District of the Moscow (city) diocese, rector of the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Lefortovo, member of the Canonical Commission at the Diocesan Council of Moscow, answers questions from viewers.

- Thank you for coming to our studio on these bright days of Holy Easter. How did you celebrate this holiday?

Labor and prayer. Thank God, the preparatory days passed in a spiritual upsurge, despite physical fatigue. The night service was absolutely wonderful, there were a huge number of people. I am glad that there are quite a lot of young people in churches on this day. And most importantly, this is no longer the same youth who, drunk, comes to ask out of curiosity.

- Has that happened?

It happened before, of course. And now these are still people who are already consciously going to the service. How was it before? When the night service began, the procession - a crowd of people, do not pass; there was no crowding either in the temple or on the street, and by about one o'clock in the morning the temple was already half empty. Now, however, the trend is different: those people who are in the church stay, and then almost the entire church partakes of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. This, of course, pleases. On the first day of Pascha, we had the opportunity and joy to congratulate His Holiness the Patriarch at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. On the second day of Pascha, they again served with His Holiness in the most ancient cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin - the Assumption. Well, today in my deanery there is a feast in the Nikolo-Perervinsky Monastery, the patronal feast of the Iberian Cathedral, so today Vladyka himself celebrated the Liturgy, we all prayed there together. And in the evening I am here with you.

Are there any special traditions in your deanery, in your parish, any special moments that you would celebrate?

I don't even know what special traditions. We try to live in common church traditions the city of Moscow, therefore, in the days of Easter itself, there is nothing so supernatural. But let's say we have a good tradition: before the Week of the Myrrh-bearing Women or right after it for Orthodox women we try every year to organize charity concerts in the garrison House of Officers of the Commandant's Regiment. And people come. We already have this tradition. Nikolo-Perervinsky Monastery holds an Easter festival; there is a seminary, and seminarians somehow take part in it. This too has been around for over a year. And there are no special traditions. We pray, like all Orthodox Christians, we serve, we go in religious processions, we rejoice at the feast of the Resurrection of Christ, which is very important.

Regarding communion, many say that if you have fasted worthily and your spiritual father blesses you, then on Bright Week you can take communion without confession. How to approach this issue in general, how to place accents? Because sometimes there is a frank bust.

It is very difficult to say here, after all, everyone should decide with their confessor. If the confessor considers it necessary to bless someone to receive communion, then this is good. Maybe for someone it makes sense to abstain. But too frequent communion, probably, is also useless. People took communion on Maundy Thursday, then communed on Great Saturday and at the night service. One can rejoice in church worship in some other ways. But if there is a spiritual need, a spiritual joy...

Why do they want to take communion? Because there is no need to read the canons these days, it is enough to sing Easter hours; there is no need to fast, that is, as if everything is simplified, there is no need to work for this. And here, often, not from some kind of inner spiritual zeal, a person comes to this in order to share the joy of the resurrected Lord, accepting the Saints. Mysteries of Christ, but cunning in front of him, trying to find some kind of easy way in order to take communion. This also happens. I'm not saying that everyone has it; God forbid there are exceptions. But this, unfortunately, happens.

- It's such a joy...

Therefore, let the confessor of each person or the priest to whom he confesses decide this. Without confession, I think it is still not necessary to receive communion, even these days. Still, you need to confess.

Now we all consecrated Easter cakes, Easter, eggs, but even I was faced with the fact that the eggs have deteriorated. And since they were consecrated in the temple, what is the right thing to do with them?

There is already a rather old tradition: consecrated eggs are buried somewhere in the garden, somehow burned.

- And what about in the center of Moscow? You can't bury it in a flower bed.

Hard to tell. Take it to the temple, in the end, explain that they are consecrated. There is always some kind of stove in every temple for burning such things...

- Or an impenetrable place.

Yes. But this, of course, will also be a tragedy for Moscow, there are not so many churches in Moscow if everyone bears the missing eggs ... On the other hand, you still need to understand that an egg is not an icon, not an image, it is a symbol, and we need to look for some reasonable approaches to this. No need to make a cult out of it.

- Or is it better not to wait until they deteriorate, but to distribute them.

You need to make these eggs as much as you can eat, and not so that everyone will be surprised by the number of colored eggs that you could make.

It's so true. A common question from a viewer: how to understand the service correctly? It happens that a person is simply not able to understand, or rather, it doesn’t even work. He is in the service, he wants to understand, but he cannot. What are the ways to learn?

Very simple. To begin with, buy the "Law of God" by Slobodsky, start with it, take it and read it, which explains both the meaning of the service and the meaning of everything. And then, perhaps, a person will begin to understand everything that is happening. He can't because he doesn't want to. This sometimes confuses me very much, when for thirty years we have been hiding behind the fact that we were not taught this, we did not know this, everything was different. But for thirty years there has been accessibility, more than one generation has grown. And there is literature. And even more so now there is the Internet, you can find the answer to any question, you just need to show a desire. And we hide our negligence or unwillingness under the fact that we do not want to work a little. You have to work in everything, it is impossible to know mathematics without studying it, it is impossible to know the language without studying it.

Of course, the Lord can perform a miracle, as it was on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and they spoke in different languages, but the Lord did not give this for the lazy, but so that they would go and preach. And when something comes from our laziness, then the Lord does not give us anything, for everything we need to work hard. To build a house - you also have to work ... Therefore, this is our human laziness.

Also, this talk about translating the service into Russian, which people don't understand; they say, they will walk more when it will be a little different. Yes, nothing will happen, everything will be the same. Because basically our intelligentsia, the so-called advanced people who know several foreign languages, are outraged, and it would probably not be so difficult for them to delve into their native Church Slavonic, into the origins of their native Russian language. But they want simplicity and hide their non-attendance in the temple behind a misunderstanding, behind the difficulties that the Church arranges. Grandmothers understand that everything is fine for them, everything is joyful. You always have to work hard. But for beginners, Slobodsky's "Law of God" is one of the most best books. There you can find answers to almost all your questions regarding history, the Old and New Testaments, the structure of the temple, and the meaning of worship, which is. That is, everything we need to know is there.

- Yes, they even entered the seminary, prepared for it. All questions are answered there.

Question from a TV viewer: “All prayers of repentance are read at the evening prayer. Why is it still necessary to come to confession and again commemorate these same sins before the priest? And my second question about the genealogy of the Antichrist: who will he be?”

In the evening rule, the daily confession of our sins before God is a reminder to us of our lived day, so that at the end of the day we would try to give an analysis of what happened in our life, what we sinned about, so as not to forget when we come to confession, to repent. We do not repent before the priest, he is only a witness to our repentance. It can be very easy to stand in front of an icon, cry, sob about your sins, and when we come to confession, we cannot connect two words, because there is me and God, and here there is also a witness to my repentance.

How hard it is to repent of your sins! It's easier, of course, to repent, cry, then sin again - no one knows about it. And here, when you once repented of your sins, and the second time you go to the priest again to repent of the same, then there is already a feeling of shame. And there is a desire to fight this sin, to correct it. This is very important to understand. Therefore, our daily confession of sins is not a confession, it is a reminder to us that What we have done in the past day, so as not to forget about it. And at confession in the church, when the priest testifies our repentance, then by the power given by God, he forgives and forgives your sins, that is, as if he takes responsibility for your sins upon himself, with his forgiveness he lays responsibility on himself.

And the genealogy of the Antichrist... Probably, the fallen daylighter is the first of the progenitors of the Antichrist, and, unfortunately, we do not know what kind he will come from.

- I don't think it is necessary to philosophize a lot on this subject.

We must think about personal salvation, and not about the coming of the Antichrist.

- Playing with these thoughts is sometimes not very useful, many priests talk about it.

This distracts a person from the main thing: from correcting his life, from arranging it in a Christian spirit. We are ready to think about anything, but not to think about our inner spiritual state.

There is a question from a viewer that when you come to confession and say all your sins, which, probably, are even very terrible, you are ashamed in front of a priest. A person wants to understand who he trusts at this moment: God or a priest. Because the priest is still human.

Once again I say: the priest is a witness of repentance before God. Therefore, of course, we trust God first of all. But insofar as we are people, we still try to go to the priest whom we know and to whom our heart is located, whom we trust. You studied at the seminary and you know: there are official confessors, like it or not, but you have to go…

- It's like an obligation.

Yes, as the norm, which should be. And there is that confessor whom you know, who guides you for, perhaps, many years; you trust him, listen to him; he knows and understands you. It is easier with him in terms of the fact that he can give you more opportunities to correct this or that sin. Therefore, we go to the priest we trust. But if someone does not have such a priest, always remember that the priest is first of all a witness before God, you stand before God. “If you hide something from me, it’s a sin for imashi” - this should be remembered.

It is also very important when certain prayers are read before confession, everything, in principle, is written there. That is, many answers to the questions that we have just voiced are indicated in these prayers: “Behold, Christ is invisibly standing before us.”

We just never listen. And sometimes there is such a confluence of people that you can’t even hear it. We do not like to come on a weekday when there are few people, because, unfortunately, this is objectively impossible if a person works and does not have such an opportunity. It is good to have a confessor, because you can always negotiate with him and find that convenient time to come and talk, talk, sincerely repent. And when the big holidays, of course, where is it in the crowd? .. And what kind of confession? Purely formal turns out. To cover and read the permissive prayer, if there are ten people standing there, it takes a lot of time. What if there are more?

- A question from a viewer: “What should I do with an egg with images of two icons?”

As I understand it, this is a testicle that is covered with a film?

- Yes, that's it. It's blasphemy to break.

Firstly, you need to carefully cut off the film, eat the egg, and burn the film. In general, try not to make such an egg yourself, and dissuade your friends.

I have one more question about John the Baptist. I heard on radio "Faith" that he was admitted by the Pharisees and the hierarchy of Jerusalem in general to baptism, because he was the son of Zechariah and the heir of Aaron, that is, a priest by birth. And how did they know this?

How from where? They lived together, they knew who he was and where he came from, they knew his parents.

- But he was, as it were, hidden, he lived somewhere. And the angels served him, and his mother.

Yes, but he never hid his origins when he entered the ministry. He never made a secret out of it.

- So he knew about his birth?

Certainly.

Did his mother tell him?

It's hard to say who told him about it. We, unfortunately, were not personal witnesses of this event, but we can proceed only from the words of the Holy Scripture, which we believe; it is for us the foundation of our faith.

- Yes, very interesting questions, people are interested and listen to our colleagues.

Listening is good; Questions arise - it pleases.

Sometimes very simple questions come up, but still you have no right not to voice or answer this question, because the person wants to know. Maybe even he is too lazy to look at something, google ...

Answering such questions is both more pleasant and more joyful. Because when there are very abstruse questions, it somehow comes from people's incomprehensible sophistication. And more often in simplicity it is necessary; “Where it is simple, there are a hundred angels, and where it is tricky, there is not a single one.” Therefore, people are looking for simplicity in faith, and not for a deep theological explanation. If we begin to explain in theological language, then the bulk of those people who come to the temple will not really understand what we are talking about.

At one time, when visiting Kyiv, in those days when it was still possible to do this without any complications, I was in the Florovsky Monastery. There was an absolutely amazing mother Zinaida. Then she became the schema nun Zosima. A disabled child, she had problems with her legs, they were absolutely undeveloped. Mother of extraordinary kindness. She once said: “A young priest was sent to our village from the academy, and every word in his sermon is “ideal”, “ideal”, and the grandmothers stand and do not understand what kind of “blanket” he needs” . Therefore, perhaps the people do not always understand us. You need to feel the flock that is given to you.

Yes, to understand with whom, how and in what language you can speak. Often we see priests (and even you now in your hands) with rosaries. For example, almost always with bishops (as one of the attributes that they always carry with them), with monastics, and so on. What is it, how to pray for them correctly? And is it possible for an ordinary person to perform some prayers on these rosaries?

Let's start with the fact that the rosary is not an attribute, it is not some kind of decoration or part of the vestment. This is an integral part of monastic work, it is a spiritual sword, which is awarded during monastic tonsure. Therefore, every monk, regardless of whether he is a priest, a deacon, a bishop, or even His Holiness the Patriarch, wears a rosary, because we are all monks first and foremost. They remind us that we must be in constant prayer work. Prayer is the sword that cuts both our sins and those enemies who tempt us in life. Therefore, now, wherever you look, everyone walks around with a rosary, I don’t know how much they pray for them.

- A good gift, if beautiful.

Now even rosaries with icons appear. But not just a parish priest should bless the rosary, but still a person who himself has the blessing to wear the rosary, that is, he must be a monastic. And they are for private use, not to be worn.

- That is, a layman, too, can?

Do not wear, use at home for prayer. And more often they are worn in order to show: what kind of Orthodox I am, they blessed me with a rosary! Therefore, this should not be done by the parish priest, since no one blessed the rosary to him. And if some monk blessed, then not for wearing, but for prayer, personal, private. And now you will see here: sometimes even married clergy also walk with a rosary. I saw a parishioner, I say: “Did you take monasticism in secret?” - "No, they blessed me there." - “Blessed there, wear it there. They blessed something for prayer at home, so pray at home. ”

Question from a TV viewer: “I was presented with three books by Alexander Aksenov: “I am not a sorcerer, I am a healer” and the like. Is it possible to keep such books in the house at all? I didn’t meet anything bad related to witchcraft in them, but who knows ... "

Unfortunately, I am not familiar with this author, it is very difficult for me to say what he means by the concept of "healer". There are herbalists who are also healers to some extent. In this regard, there is a wonderful Polish film "The Witch Doctor", which shows the fate of one professor. But there he is really a healer who heals with herbs, has some skills in treating a person. This is one thing. And if a person tries to add some kind of prayer work to this, and also receives money for this, then one should already think about how right this is. If you pray, confess, take communion, but still somehow use folk recipes to maintain your physical condition, namely herbal ones, then we know that different herbs have different properties. There is even homeopathy, and many believers turn to homeopathic doctors who treat with herbs. I think there is nothing in this, they do not use any supernatural powers in their treatment, but the main thing here is not to cross a certain spiritual line. Therefore, consult with your parish priest, show him this book, and he may give you an answer whether it is worth reading or not.

Indeed, there are such titles of books, and even Russian classics can be read about witchcraft and something else.

Well, with witchcraft, everything is clear. Or with soothsayers, when they can bewitch or something else. What is the decoction for? It's one thing when a person has a cold - make a decoction of raspberries. Or when the nerves are naughty - give valerian tincture. Or when the throat hurts - rinse with a decoction of chamomile. These are different things, there is no spiritual basis for this. And another thing is when people try to put some of their personal ambitions into all this, and also take money for it. After all, what is a gift of God is given free of charge. The apostles did not take money for their healings, Christ healed and did not take money from anyone for this. And now here is a huge number of Orthodox fortune tellers, sorcerers and others who will remove or cause damage, bewitch, help in business, heal from all diseases, but for a lot of money ... Such people should be treated with caution.

Share your joy - no hesitation. Whoever receives, rejoices; who does not accept and is angry - well, let him be angry. The Lord in the Gospel says: “When you come to a house, stay in this house until you are received. But they are not accepted in the house or in the city, go out, shake off the ashes, and your world will go with you. So share your joy. Let even one rejoice, and you will hear in response the confirmation of the Resurrection of Christ - already joy; others might think about it. Not everyone rejoices at the Resurrection of Christ, some do not know how, and some still gloat about this. However, this has been the case throughout Christian history, you can't get away from it. But you have to share your joy. Doubt nothing.

Maybe just in shock. For so many years it was impossible to speak, and then he came and said. Maybe they just didn't have the words. I would like to continue the theme of prayer. They say that there is an attentive, intelligent prayer. Does the rosary help somehow concentrate the prayer?

In general, when you read a prayer rule, thoughts, like most parishioners, dissipate. And at this moment, it may be better to put aside the rule a little and focus on the Jesus Prayer, it helps to concentrate at some moments. If we remember that we need to turn to it at this moment, it makes it possible to focus on prayer work. It is happiness when there is a prayer, you can delve into it, realize it. You just need to read it, think, let the prayer pass through you. We often simply read it without even thinking about the meaning, but we must not only understand the meaning, but let the prayer pass through ourselves. That's when it will be prayerful doing, after such a prayer you begin to feel yourself differently when you understand the meaning. When you start projecting this onto your life, you begin to empathize with it, you begin to sympathize with it. But sometimes they say: if such a prayer doesn’t work out, then maybe it’s better not to pray, not to read, not to technically study ...

- Throw away the white flag.

I think it still needs to be continued. You know, water wears away even pebbles... We have accustomed ourselves to the fact that prayer is an integral part of our Everyday life, even if you have to strum it first. So we muttered, and then we begin to think: what am I just tambourizing, you still need to understand what I am turning to God with. And notice, when we read morning and evening prayers, we do not ask them for health, well-being, or anything else. Most often, in every prayer, we ask the Lord to show us the path of spiritual inner perfection and salvation, deliverance from our sins that we have. We just need to read these prayers, then we will understand. But when we pray, we think that now we will pray - and all the blessings of the world will fall upon us. But prayer teaches something completely different, because when you begin to transform yourself spiritually, the world around you changes, and your needs become completely different, the Lord gives you everything you need in this life. It is another matter that sometimes all that the Lord gives us is not enough for us. On the other hand, it is often more than we deserve.

Yes, by the way, you can learn prayers by heart. I even notice by myself that you simply learn some prayers by heart. When you read prayers with concentration and often do it, then in some cases you can do without a prayer book. My mother recites prayers by heart.

Can. The main thing is to live this prayer. Knowing prayer is one thing. We know the gospel, but is our life in line with the gospel? Are we in line with what we know? That's the trouble. If a person corresponds to this, this is happiness. If we know the prayer by heart, the Lord gave us such a gift, then, firstly, we must thank God for it, but the prayer must be felt, and not just known by heart. For example, a priest during a service is forbidden to serve without a Missal, without a little book. We show our importance so much that we know, we are smart, we know everything, but it happens that you stumble in a place that seems to be completely familiar, and you start looking in the bustle for the Missal, which you have somewhere in pocket lies, you forgot to get it. And it is supposed to keep it in your hands just in such a case.

Although in Rus', when the priests were illiterate, they learned the service by heart. There was such a thing in our history, but now everything is available to us, everything we have.

But still, these were exceptions, our priests were literate.

- Okay, we'll leave this question for historians; maybe I'm wrong.

Question from a TV viewer: “How to properly prepare for Communion during Bright Week, when there is no fast on Wednesday and Friday and the canons are not read, but the hours of Easter are read?”

And what is the need for communion these days? Do you have an angel's day, a birthday, or some kind of infirmity that you need to take communion exactly on Bright Week?

No, but I didn't know, that's why I'm asking.

If you have any special desire, then there are Easter hours that you need to read. Come to the temple for confession, confess your sins. And if the priest deems it necessary to admit you to Communion, he will admit you. And if he deems it necessary to prevent you, then there is no need to be indignant: “How is it? I was getting ready." We must accept this with humility and think: perhaps the Lord shows that, probably, it was not necessary to take communion these days. In Bright Week, rejoice in the risen Lord, and the Lord gives many other days for communion. We have this: there is a desire to do it when it would be possible not to do it, but when it is necessary, we do not really do it.

But at the same time, it is blessed to often approach the sacrament at this time. The problem is that the rule is short, as we have already found out, you need to go to the confessor, but what about fasting? It's now a full week...

Well what post? This is a violation of the Charter, if the post. How can we violate the Church Charter? It shouldn't be, and the priest doesn't fast these days either, after all. But, probably, there are especially pious people who also observe Bright Week fasting. And how is a consecrated Easter cake or an egg? This is what we eat anyway. It's not fast food, it's still modest. Therefore, there is no fasting these days, but from next week it will begin on Wednesday and Friday.

I say again: it happens that a person has some memorable dates for these days, there is a logical explanation for this, a huge spiritual upsurge in order to take communion. Come, consult with that priest who knows you. Maybe he will bless you, but to put it this way: let's all now take communion every day on Easter?.. But are we worthy of this? Ask yourself the question: how well and strictly did you fast throughout Lent, how regularly did you take Communion during Great Lent in order to take Communion with such joy all the days of Bright Week? Therefore, I say again: in addition to joy, communion is also a great responsibility that we must be aware of; at this moment we do not just take something tasty into ourselves, but unite with Christ Himself, we take into ourselves the Body and Blood of Christ. So see for yourself how ready you are, how reasonable your fun has been these days. And then after Lent we rush into all serious troubles. Try to have on these days, if you want to take communion, some kind of inner spiritual abstinence.

(End of dialogue with the viewer.)

- But at the same time, one should not be afraid of the priests, one should ask them.

Priests should not be afraid at all, they are not animals, but people.

You probably don't always allow yourself to be wise. We talked today about the fact that a confessor is important in our spiritual life. Another question from a viewer: “Why does the Lord say that His yoke is light if the cross He gives is not at all light?”

You know, the Lord never gives a cross heavier than a person can bear. After all, every person needs to carry the cross that the Lord gave him, with humility, because he needs it for something. And for what? For his spiritual salvation. If he is aware e t, accepts and carries it, then it comes to the moment when the Lord will both facilitate, and help, and strengthen, and give an awareness of what and why it was. And if he only looks for why and for what it was given to him, and grumble that it is so hard and bad, then this will not lead to anything good.

- But all the same, we grumble, looking for answers to some questions.

We are not perfect, therefore we grumble. We must learn to accept the will of God.

That is, even some kind of attitude towards you, which you are aware of, perhaps, as undeserved (and everyone around will understand that this is undeservedly received by you), is this also the will of God?

Did the Lord deservedly endure beatings, spitting? What we read in the gospel Holy Week? For what? There was no sin in Him. Did he murmur? "Forgive them, Lord, they don't know what they're doing." It's worse when they start talking about what you really do. That's when you feel ashamed and uncomfortable, then you start making excuses. And when it’s innocent - “Blessed are you, when they reproach you, and they give you up, and they say all sorts of evil words against you lying, for My sake.” Only if it is done for the sake of God, and not for the sake of some of our ambitions.

One priest says to me: “When they ask me if I am a camel, I answer: yes, I am a two-humped one.” Because if a person is already convinced that you are a camel, what is he to prove that this is not so? Let him be sure. Or he will realize something someday. And if you don’t realize, you still can’t prove it with words, you yourself will get out of balance. Why is this needed?

Yes, there is something in that too. And on the other hand, as many confessors say, if something doesn’t work out for you, it didn’t work out, first of all find the answer, what did you do wrong before. Everything has a reason.

Everything has a reason. And you must have done something wrong. Maybe you just don't need it; maybe you need something else. So it didn't have to happen. In life, it often happens that we strive for something in some way, but the Lord does not give, does not allow. We even grumble somewhere. And then it turns out that you get everything the same, but where you did not expect, the Lord showed you another way. Or we want one thing, and the Lord gives something completely different. And you understand: this is much better than what you asked God for, what you aspired to and what you achieved. Therefore, in my practice I always ask: Lord, not mine, but Your will will be done. It's hard, of course, sometimes it happens to humble one's will, one's pride somewhere, but still, that's how it is. If I ask for something, I will say: “Lord, if it is Your will, let it be done. If it is not Your will, You will find ways to destroy it all, and give me the strength to accept it.

The viewer is worried about the fact that his father died, but does not know if he was buried according to the Orthodox rite. In this case, what is the church practice?

If he is baptized and they have documentary evidence of death, you can come to the temple and order an absentee funeral. But this is not a sacrament, but a rite. We need your home prayer, give a magpie, order a commemoration for a year to be prayed for. And most importantly, pray yourself. But if there is such anxiety, order, they will sing twice; even if he was reprimanded, no big deal.

- I would like you to address our viewers.

Dear viewers, I sincerely congratulate you on the feast of Easter. Christ is Risen! May this joy of the Resurrection last. I don’t know if it will last our whole life and whether every day, like St. Seraphim, we will empathize and rejoice at the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior. But at least in these bright days, may the Lord give us this joy of inner awareness of that great saving Resurrection, through which the Lord also opens the way for us from temporary life to eternal life. So that the Lord would give strength, strength of spiritual and bodily strength.

I want to make a request in these joyful days. Times are tough, times are tough, we're all going through pretty tough times. But there are TV channels like Soyuz that give us a spiritual outlet. And in order to go on the air, to be able to broadcast, to come to your house, you need financial support. Therefore, if any of you have the opportunity to help and contribute to the cause of spiritual enlightenment through the Soyuz TV channel, do not hesitate to do so. This will give you the opportunity to meet many people at the TV screens.

Host Sergey Platonov

Recorded by Elena Kuzoro

In transmission Conversations with Father on the Soyuz TV channel, Archpriest Pavel Velikanov, Vice-Rector for Scientific and Theological Work of the Moscow Orthodox Theological Academy, Candidate of Theology, answers questions from viewers, Chief Editor portal Bogoslov.ru.

Transfer of the Conversation with the priest on the Soyuz TV channel

Who is God? Why is there evil in the world? Why does it actively oppose itself to any attempts to affirm life, affirm holiness, goodness?

School of Faith

A. Sergienko: Hello dear viewers. In the studio Alexander Sergienko. Our guest today is Archpriest Pavel Velikanov, Protopriest Pavel Velikanov, Vice-Rector for Scientific and Theological Work of the Moscow Theological Academy, Candidate of Theology, Editor-in-Chief of the portal Bogoslov.ru. Hello, father.

arch. Pavel Velikanov: Good evening.

A. Sergienko: Bless our viewers.

arch. Pavel Velikanov: May the blessing of the Lord be with you.

A. Sergienko: The topic of our conversation today is the school of faith. And now, in general, almost everyone is familiar with the fact that the book of the same name was published.

arch. Pavel Velikanov: I don’t know how familiar everyone is, but the fact that the book was distributed among all the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, - it is a fact. And I would like to hope that the next edition of the book, which should be released soon, will allow it to be purchased.

It was a big surprise for me when Metropolitan Clement announced that this book had become the winner of the annual competition for an educational publication. And it is, of course, a great honor for me that such a large circulation - 100,000 copies.

On the other hand, I really want to hear some healthy, maybe criticism, because the book was created very difficult. At first, these were radio broadcasts, which were also not easy to appear, because Archbishop Mark Yegoryevsky, within the framework of the World, Man, Word project, set a new task for us: to try to tell our contemporary about what the Orthodox faith is, but I will not be afraid to tell this word , somehow non-trivial.

And to tell in such a way that, on the one hand, it retains the interest and attention of the listener, and on the other hand, so that it does not turn into an exclusively entertaining listening. To be honest, the first broadcasts that we prepared went into the trash, because it was very difficult to catch this format, in general.

But gradually, through a thorny path, through mistakes, conclusions, these radio broadcasts were born, which were subsequently partly transformed into new texts, were published in a book, and partly preserved. And that's how this book came about. Here's a short backstory.

The book, of course, does not pretend to be scientific completeness, to such, as they say now, the substantiation of the presentation of materials. But, in my opinion, it allows even a person who is not familiar with the Orthodox worldview to feel how an Orthodox believer sees the world around him.

He can feel this prism through which a believer perceives everything that happens both inside himself, in his soul, and what happens outside. You can agree with this, you can disagree with this.

When I was preparing these texts, it was very important for me to rely not so much on the holy fathers, philosophers, absolute authorities for educated, literate people, regardless of whether they were church or not, but on some very subtle intuitions that we, first of all, we meet in the field of culture - in various poems, literary works, even in cinema.

And try to give a certain key that would allow the listener, now the reader, to try to open seemingly even impregnable doors. Whether or not this succeeded, of course, is now for the reader to judge.

The scope of the topic is very wide. We start with the basic question for any believer: "Who is God?" And we end with the sharpest topic, which has always been relevant. A topic about which spears have always been broken between believers and non-believers is the problem of evil.

Why is there evil in the world? Why does evil reign in the world, actively opposing itself to any attempts to affirm life, affirm holiness, goodness?

But we do not dwell only on theological questions in this book. There are many topics that seem to have nothing to do with theology. For example, the theme of labor or the theme of beauty, happiness, the theme of death.

Maybe someone will find the book somewhat fragmentary, but this fragmentation, brevity is a big plus. I was recently visiting a bishop, and he shared his joke: “When I was publishing your book, I told reporters that this was an Orthodox “Twitter” of faith,” that is, very short messages that have their own message, but which can be quickly to read and endure some kind of feeling, some kind of intuition, religious intuition on this or that issue.

A. Sergienko: Today, the content of the book itself is important to us. I urge our viewers: today you have the opportunity to ask those questions that may not have received an answer yet. But just the same, these are the same questions that you usually ask during the broadcast or those that you ask in social network. One way or another, today we can raise these issues.

I propose to start from the end, the last chapter - "Where is God, when there is evil all around." You said that this is the most difficult topic, causing all kinds of debate. Still, what about evil? What is evil? Why does it exist?

Where is God when there is evil all around?

arch. Pavel Velikanov: Yes, indeed, you are right, the last block of texts is called: “Where is God when there is evil all around?” This includes various materials. This is the problem of defining evil, these are questions directly related to the problems of evil.

This is the problem of suffering, the question of fear, what death is, and then the topics that have become traditional: hell, the devil, Antichrist, paganism, magic, superstition, myth, theomachism.

In answer to your question, we can very briefly formulate what evil is. The answer is brilliantly given by St. Basil the Great. He writes that evil is the deprivation of good. And not the absence of goodness, not the lack of goodness, but precisely the deprivation of goodness. That is, as if there was once a sighted person, and someone blinded him.

In these seemingly extreme simple words reflects a deep theological intuition that evil appears where there is will. Moreover, the will is not natural, but a distorted will, distorted by human egoism, turning on oneself, an attempt to turn everything that happens, and everything that is done both by the person himself and outside him, to benefit only himself.

This is the very moment when there is a deep breakdown in being, because being is held together by love.

Father Pavel Florensky wrote in one of his works that the world was created by the cross. The cross is the foundation of all existence. This is the principle of sacrifice, the principle of readiness to give oneself everything without a trace - this is not just some kind of notion of Christians in order to attract as many followers as possible with such a moral high.

This is the deep essence and deep foundation of the existence of the whole world. The one who lives for himself, by himself, pulls himself out of the kingdom of harmony, from this kingdom of love.

When this breakdown occurs in being, no matter where this breakdown occurs - in the angelic world or in the human world - at that moment evil appears. Why is evil, or the devil, also called the "monkey of God"? Because a monkey can only imitate, can pervert, but it cannot create something new. Why? Because evil has no love, and without love, no creativity is possible.

If the Lord gives us the commandment to be similar to Him in everything, the Lord thereby calls us to use our freedom within the framework of the entire consonance, the entire symphony of being, including in creative understanding. We are called to do good, we are called to do it in a way that no one else has done.

I liked one thought of one famous Anglican theologian, apologist. I think the best theologian of the 20th century is Clive Staples Lewis. In one of his works or in one of his phantasmagories, he tells why God does not create all people the same.

Although, it would seem, what interest does God have that all people are different? This difference, diversity creates a lot of problems. It is impossible to say that people belong to the same category. This is the key to them, to gently open their heart. And everything will fall into place. Why does God create such a problem for himself in the first place?

And he answers this question in a very interesting way. He writes that each person is like a unique door in the whole world, and not only in the whole world, if taken horizontally in quantitative terms, but also in a certain diachrony, in a certain duration in time, globally, in all being.

This door can open God in a way that no other door next to it can open it. That is, God wants man to glorify God and reflect God in himself in a completely exceptional way.

Indeed, when we look at our saints - people who are role models for us, examples - we never cease to be surprised at how differently they implement the same commandments of God.

It would seem that the commandment: "love God and your neighbor" - that's all. But this is such a wide range of how it was all implemented, how it was all embodied.

We read the lives of the saints, we are constantly inspired by them, because somewhere we even intuitively try to find some closeness of our own being to someone who has already passed the path of earthly life and has been awarded the Kingdom of Heaven - not only awarded, but also witnessed by the Church as an example worthy of imitation. life.

Therefore, a very interesting point is hidden here in that each of us is constantly faced with a very difficult choice. Sometimes it seems to us that the whole point of freedom is to choose between bad and good, between evil and good.

In fact, even before a person who is not going to choose evil, in front of him is a huge field of his freedom, because the psalmist says: "Your commandment is wide."

And this choice between the good and the best - it is in it that the person is fully revealed. In it, a person grinds himself as a kind of unique crystal, a unique diamond. And as soon as he, on the contrary, moves away from this, when he begins to look inside himself and chooses the opposite, chooses the evil, we see how he turns into an ordinary, standard cobblestone.

Therefore, sin, despite the outward appearance of diversity, is always the same, always typological. And holiness is unique, it is of boundless variegation, boundless coloring, various shades.

Let's get back to the topic of evil. The root of all evil is the ability to choose between obeying God or obeying oneself. That's where the most basic nerve is. But without this opportunity, there would be no real opportunity for a person to live with God, to love God.

Often people ask why God does not stop this or that lawlessness, why God does not actively intervene in human life. But in fact, if you just think of this question logically and say: “Well, let God begin to actively intervene in our lives”?

You looked at someone else's wife, stared - God, once, and blinded you in one eye! You said a bad, bad word - half of your tongue was taken away from you. Can you imagine how great it would be? No one would look anywhere, no one would say anything, everyone would become silent.

But what would it be? What kind of life would it be? There would be a camp, a prison under the sign "Kingdom of Heaven".

This is the whole power of Christianity, that God pays an incredible price to teach a person to make the right choice. He pays with His life, His being. This is the whole paradox and uniqueness of Christianity.

The Apostle Paul beautifully describes in his epistles that the cross for some is madness, for others it is a stumbling block. And for us, this is the most important thing, this is strength and glory, this is what life rests on, the whole building of life and our whole life.

There is only one answer to the question that people ask: “Lord, what did You do so that there would be no evil in the world?” This answer is not spoken by God. He hangs on a cross. God, killed and crucified by human malice, human sin, who gave Himself that this world might be. This is His price for our right to commit sin and do evil.

Push the button and you're in hell

A. Sergienko: We have a call from Kazakhstan. We listen to you. Hello.

I have a question for you. How to help a teenage daughter who loses a lot of time on the Internet, television, chatting with friends? In my opinion, this communication is useless. She hardly hears me. On this basis, many quarrels arise.

arch. Pavel Velikanov: You see, the point is that the main mistake that we as parents make with our children is the mistake of possessiveness. We perceive our children as a kind of our thing. We gave birth to them, raised them, we feed them, we educate them, we help them - and they, so ungrateful, do what they want.

We talked about the price God pays for our right to walk between the path of life and the path of death - He pays with His life. This is the answer to your question.

When a young man or girl has formed some kind of their own worldview, the most wrong, the most stupid thing is to try to destroy this worldview and squeeze it into the ideas that you have about this worldview.

You should stand next to me and try to make sure that the people she communicates with, the films she watches, the websites she visits, do not carry something aggressively godless, aggressively negative.

Now, unfortunately, due to the easy accessibility of mass media, a person can be either in hell or heaven at the touch of a button, and this is really scary. These physical restraints that previously held back the spread of sin are now virtual.

If earlier a person, in order to commit a sin, had to go somewhere to a special place, a kind of den, roughly speaking, now this whole den can be in your apartment, in your house within seconds. It seems to me that the most correct thing is not the method of prohibition and not the method of forcibly ousting something, but the method of careful substitution.

I would advise you: work hard, rummage around the Internet, talk to the priests, with young people - with those who represent the field of modern cinema better than you. Find those films that carry the most powerful positive moral charge.

There are many such films. Most of the dramas, and not necessarily, may be related to Christianity, to faith, the Church. These may be secular works, but their main message will be correct.

Moreover, I believe that we are losing a lot in our pastoral, missionary, educational activities, because we do not develop in our wards a sense of good auteur cinema. A feeling that makes it possible to distinguish a cheap fake that young people will be happy to watch with their mouths open, from a deep thing that requires internal reflection on what is shown on the screen.

When a film is a kind of mystery for a person, the person watched and did not understand anything. I looked again and still didn't understand. And he thinks: “Maybe I don’t understand, and here everything is much deeper and more interesting than it can be grasped at once.”

I think that if you start watching films of this kind with your daughter, discussing them together, sharing impressions, arguing, this wall of alienation and opposition of your will and the will of your daughter will gradually begin to disappear.

The child must be left in more freedom than we are willing to do so. Because the more our external human limiters, limits, the more weak, powerless and dependent on moral choice and decision-making this person will grow.

When he was hit from one side, he swayed and stood, then from the other side, then the internal moral skeleton, muscles begin to form. And when he realizes that dad and mom have created an inner oasis, then - "I'm not in danger here." And this will be the biggest and most terrible mistake.

God forbid that this does not happen. I would like to wish you and your daughter God's help, courage and perseverance in the search for the truth.

How to love?

A. Sergienko: Next call, Naberezhnye Chelny is in touch. We listen.

Hello. I would like to ask this question. How to acquire love for one's neighbor and love for God? What is it? What is it - love for one's neighbor and love for God, Christian love? After twenty years of Christianity, I finally saw my sins, but I don’t know what love is and how to acquire it.

arch. Pavel Velikanov: Thanks for the question, very interesting and deep.

I recently visited Georgia. It was an official trip to the Tbilisi Theological Academy. On the first day of our visit, we entered the magnificent cathedral dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It was late enough. Hours at nine, at the beginning of the tenth evening. There was a shock from that beauty, splendor, wealth.

When we climbed one of the floors of the cathedral, we saw a very interesting picture. Forty people of different ages are sitting: twenty-year-old boys, girls, middle-aged, elderly people, and a priest is standing. And it is clear that they are arguing so tensely, with oriental fervor.

We approached. They greeted us. We ask the question, what is such a heated discussion about that you can feel the intensity of passions right in the air. “We have read the book by Eric Fromm “The Art of Love” and now we are arguing: love is a gift or love is something that needs to be taught?”

Do you understand what a subtle opposition is: is love like something that a person can do with his own effort, or is love like something that descends from above? And the answer is actually very interesting too.

When the Lord gives us a commandment, He requires something that we basically cannot do. We cannot create a feeling of love by willpower. But we can, by an effort of will, force ourselves to do what a person in my place would do, feeling love for this person.

Why does the apostle put forward the only criterion in the definition of sin: "Everything that is not out of love is sin"? Here, on the one hand, the desire and readiness of a person to do what God wants from him are combined. On the other hand, God, as far as a person tries to do deeds of love, sends him love, the gift of love.

Indeed, from pastoral practice, from my little experience, I can accurately testify that when very tense relations arise between people, a state of dislike (not necessarily hatred, alienation, namely dislike), as soon as people begin to pray for each other in the first place, if even before they ask God for their urgent needs, for a short time there is, in my opinion, a "miracle on schedule" - like everything that happens in the Church.

Suddenly, the person to whom hostility was felt finds himself in such a situation with the one who feels hostility towards him that he reveals himself from an incredible, unexpected side. He suddenly sees that this is absolutely not the kind of person who can be condemned. This is completely different than what he previously thought of him.

It seems to me that this example provides a certain paradigm, a certain image for us to act in relation to this commandment. We must do works of love regardless of what our heart tells us. Whether we want it or not, whether we feel an inner disposition, inner inspiration for these things, or, on the contrary, we have such a state that we are ready to do anything, but not this, but we still take it and do it.

It is wrong to hope that the Lord should give a feeling of grace, flight, inspiration. This is the best, most direct way to a state of charm, when a person is doing well, his soul is wide open, he has only high experiences. Everything is fine with him, and everything is arranged with God. And he's great with people.

Such a person dies, comes and it turns out that there is no place for him in the Kingdom of Heaven. Because all this was a sophisticated egocentrism twisted inside out, where a person put his idea of ​​God, his own myth created about God, in the place of God.

It may well be that the person was sincere in his delusion, but the real God does not disappear anywhere. He was, and still is. Why do we sometimes see how God not only harshly, but cruelly punishes those people who try to be faithful? Why does he send them the hardest trials, sorrows?

He thereby emphasizes that you can think your own, but I have my own logic. I have my own plans. I have my vision and you as well. Therefore, do what is required of you, do the law, fulfill the requirements of the commandment of love. And everything else is My providence, My actions.

Who needs natural disasters?

A. Sergienko: Next call, Saratov region is in touch. We listen to you. Speak up.

Please tell me, you said before that God does not interfere in the eradication of evil. Apparently, this should not be taken so literally. As if God had withdrawn himself, and what will be, will be. In the Old Testament there is repeatedly a direct indication of the destruction of evil by the Lord, the same Sodom and Gomorrah, and other things.

And now, through people: the criminal committed a crime, he was caught, the justice authorities convicted. This is the eradication of evil. God is not necessarily able to conditionally gouge out the eye of everyone with his intervention, and so on ...

arch. Pavel Velikanov: Thank you. You have a wonderful question, because your question contained the answer. Absolutely right. God in everything He does, acts, being driven solely by His love and the highest pedagogy.

If God sees that such a powerful intervention in the lives of people is necessary so that they feel fear, awe, horror, He does it. But He does this in one case: if He knows that some kind of good fruit will come out of it.

– Today we have a very interesting topic, which, I think, will be of interest to everyone: “Diseases and Healing”. Father Vladimir, the theme of illness and healing is indeed very multifaceted. It always seemed to me that in ordinary human thinking, illness is always perceived as a kind of punishment, punishment. In any case, this is something terrible that can only be, one of the most difficult things that happens in our lives. If you look at common...

10. 11. 2018

Dear brothers and sisters, for instructive viewing (and reading) we offer the next issue of the program “Conversations with the Father” of the Soyuz TV channel, the guest of which was the well-known preacher, cleric cleric of the church of St. Basil the Great at the Orthodox gymnasium of the same name in the village of Zaitsevo, Odintsovo district, Moscow region - Archpriest Andrei Tkachev. The topic of the program is Family: the relationship of husband and wife. Watch this video on...

24. 10. 2018

Hello, dear visitors of the Orthodox website “Family and Faith”! Before you is the release of the program “Conversations with the Father” of the Soyuz TV channel, dedicated to the topic of respect for old age. The guest of the TV show was the monk of the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra, hegumen Filaret (Pryashnikov). Watch this video on YouTube Orthodox site "Family and Faith" - Today we have an interesting topic in our show: honoring old age and eldership. Father, we are now...

18. 10. 2018

Dear brothers and sisters, for informative viewing (and reading) we offer the next issue of the program “Conversations with the Father” of the Soyuz TV channel, the guest of which was Abbot Flavian (Matveev), abbot of the Exaltation of the Cross Monastery in the city of Yekaterinburg. The topic of the TV show is very relevant, because it touches on the ever more developing parish life. Watch this video on YouTube Family and Faith Orthodox Website – There are...

13. 10. 2018

Hello, dear visitors of the Orthodox website “Family and Faith”! Before you is the release of the program “Conversations with the Father” of the Soyuz TV channel, dedicated to the family. The guest of the telecast was the priest rector of the St. John the Theologian Church in the village of Mogiltsy, Pushkinsky District, Moscow Region, Archpriest Ilya Zubry. Watch this video on YouTube Family and Faith Orthodox Site (Transcripted with minimal editing of oral...

11. 10. 2018

Hello, dear visitors of the Orthodox website “Family and Faith”! Before you is the release of the program “Conversations with the Father” of the Soyuz TV channel, which is dedicated to the beloved elder Paisius Svyatogorets! Hegumen Cyprian (Yashchenko) became the guest of the TV show. Watch this video on YouTube Orthodox site "Family and Faith" - Hello, dear viewers! Today we would like to introduce you to an amazing person, a saint of our time -...

05. 10. 2018

For informative viewing (and reading) we offer the next issue of the program “Conversations with the Father” of the Soyuz TV channel, the guest of which was the dean of the churches of Novosibirsk, rector of the cathedral in the name of St. Archpriest Alexander Novopashin. Theme of the telecast: Sermon by means of cinematography. Watch this video on...

02. 10. 2018

Peace be with you, dear visitors of the Orthodox website "Family and Faith"! For informative viewing (and reading) we offer the next issue of the program “Conversations with the Father” of the Soyuz TV channel, the guest is Archpriest Alexander Diaghilev, Chairman of the Commission on Family Affairs, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood of the St. Petersburg Diocese. The theme of our program is "Family and School". - It would seem that some kind of secular topic, but nevertheless, tomorrow is the Day ...

For informative viewing (and reading), we offer the next issue of the program “Conversations with the Father” of the Soyuz TV channel, whose guest was the rector of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy and Consolation” on the Khodynka Field of Moscow, Archpriest John Kudryavtsev. The theme of the TV show: how to become kind. - It would seem that such a simple question - what is good? Why does it require special attention? “It seems to me that everyone at first glance ...

10. 08. 2018

Archpriest Andrei Tkachev, cleric of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University, answers questions from viewers. Transfer from Moscow. Aired July 12th.

Hello, on the air of the Soyuz TV channel, the program "Conversations with the Father". In the studio - Sergei Yurgin.

Today our guest is the priest of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University, Archpriest Andrey Tkachev.

Hello, father. Bless our viewers.

Hello. God's mercy be with every human soul.

The theme of our today's program is "Confession and Communion". In our last program, we have already begun to talk about the Sacrament of Confession, but there are still questions.

For those who did not watch our last program, I would like you to repeat what the Sacrament of Confession is.

In this sacrament is the unconditional action of the healing grace of God. I would say that this sacrament is multifunctional. For a serious sinner or a person who has been baptized but has lived out of fellowship in the Church for a long time, this is a way to return to the Church and unite his living unity with her. For a person who has not left the Church, but is fighting sin and feels the scars and dust of the struggle, this is a way to maintain spiritual hygiene. This is a constant spiritual stimulus and shake-up and a way to keep oneself in good shape, when a person does not seem to bring anything terrible to confession, but brings everyday traces of a struggle with sin, which is not going to go anywhere.

The monastic practice of the revelation of thoughts is superimposed on the Sacrament of Confession, when a person reveals not so much his deeds as the secret inner world with all the intricacies of desires, thoughts, mental battles and everything else. This is often found in our lives: both among the laity and among the monks.

Confession is a sacrament that heals the human soul. Depending on the degree of illness of the soul, it has different functions and effects on our internal ulcers.

Is it necessary to come to confession to one priest or is it allowed to go to different ones?

From the point of view of my personal experience, books read and communication with other people, it seems to me that it is good to have a confessor, but not everyone has one. If there is no confessor, then it is good to have a priest who has known you for a long time, and who does not need to retell his entire life. When you come to confession for the first time, the priest may ask how long you have been going to church, what is your marital status, where do you work, that is, it is important for him to know the person at least a little. It's good to have someone who won't be you every time who you are, and constantly carry your sores to him. It is good for him to confess the sins that most often disturb you and constitute your painful secret. If nothing terrible happens in your life, but everyday things happen that do not hurt you much, then you can safely go to any priest in any Orthodox church, being on a trip, on vacation, visiting a church that is closer to home.

I think that the practice is this: if nothing special has happened, you can go to any priest. If you want to take communion, then you go to the priest, say that I have such and such and that I would like to take communion. If there is something serious, you need to go to someone who knows you, if you have such a confessor. If not, then you have to be content with different priests, but this is fraught with different problems. One will be more strict, the other more soft. One will increase the requirements, the other will react lighter. People are different, one wants rigor, the other is afraid of it. Here we are dealing with a variety of human-to-human collisions, so here we need to stock up on a certain amount of patience and understanding. If you are burned somewhere about one confession, then do not be sad, do not be sad.

Maybe, of course. A parish priest is a high rank, and he can be a confessor, he can, as they say, carry human souls in his hands. If he does not grow up to an elder, he is still a great person, because he makes a bloodless sacrifice to God, performs other sacraments, commemorates the living and the dead in the service, delves into their destinies and needs through confession and conversations with people, preaches the Gospel. That is, the most "unsightly" priest is still a great figure in the invisible spiritual field. Therefore, of course, the parish clergy are called to be spiritual clergy.

For example, such an important fact is that our parish clergy, according to tradition, are mostly married. This is the greatest plus that distinguishes us, for example, from Catholics. What problems do people come to confession with? Take away family problems from a person and he will have nothing to come to confession with. Mother-in-law and son-in-law, mother and children, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, housing overcrowding with several generations in the same apartment, money problems, second wife, second husband, betrayal, drunkenness, beats, I have grown old - my husband looks at the young. With all this, people come to confession. Remove this and you will remove 98% of the need to confess or consult with a priest. Of course, this is well known to those who themselves live a family life.

Of course, it's good to come to confession to "grandfather" - a man who has a gray beard, already grown children, many grandchildren, he saw all this in his life. You can’t terrify him anymore, he already knows everything, you are his grandson or son, daughter or granddaughter by age, so a person internally gravitates towards such a family character of confession. When they understand you, they lift you from your knees, they help you unravel your worldly knot - this is the white clergy.

When monastic confessions, they, of course, can lead you higher, those who gravitate towards asceticism, for example, to unceasing prayer, reading spiritual literature. But a monastic confessor, if he does not have a sense of tact and measure, can impose a certain burden on a simple person that he will not bear. Here you need to have pedagogical sensitivity. Therefore, who, if not the white clergy, should be confessors.

The fact that people go to confession en masse in monasteries is a kind of challenge for the white clergy.

Brothers, why are you so bad at dealing with people that they run away from you to monasteries for confession?

Maybe many want to be stricter?

Maybe so, then - please. The white priest himself will say that he is not a monastic, and in fair fasts and nightly prayers the assistant is weak. It will be good and fair.

But there may be a bias in the other direction. In the life of the Optina elder Leo there is such a moment when he stood in a crowd of women who came on a pilgrimage - simple peasant women in bast shoes, simple clothes, with tear-stained faces - and he told them about spiritual and worldly things. On repentance in the monastery there was some mitred priest who said to him:

Hunt for you, father, for an hour with these women to stand and talk about something.

To which Elder Leo said to him:

And that's true. If you had dealt with them at the parish, they would not have been here with me.

The work of a monk is, indeed, a cell and prayer. But he was forced to deal with them because the white clergy do not fully take care of their spiritual children.

Spirituality is, in principle, the work of the white clergy. If the priest is very young, just got married, does not yet know how to live in his family, of course, it is difficult here with clergy, he is gaining difficult spiritual experience. But a person who has already passed his life, who has acquired some kind of skill both in worship and in communicating with people, can already grow up to a confessor of an average hand.

That is, confessors are needed everywhere, one "all-Russian elder" is not needed, so that people from Kamchatka, Sakhalin, the Baltic states and the Caucasus go to him. So, of course, it is also necessary, but it would be much better if each province, region had its own “burn and shine” lamp, to which their own people came. Further - more and more. So that there are many of them, of different sizes, as a star differs from a star in glory. Small, big stars, constellations - all this is needed.

A simple parish priest is a completely normal confessor. Not everyone is equal, they are all different. Maybe a priest with a higher education - students will be drawn to him, maybe intellectuals. Maybe a priest from a high military service, who, for example, rose to the rank of colonel, and then abruptly changed his life. There are a lot of them. People of a different category are drawn to them, feeling a military male vein in him. They are all different - and this is very good, and this is exactly what spirituality is. People will look for a confessor for themselves, in spirit, by scent, by intuition. One priest serves for a long time, reads everything, and someone likes it. And someone serves quickly, but stays after the service and talks with people. One found himself here, the other - there, and all is well.

There is such a practice when a person comes to confession to one priest, asks him for spiritual advice, then goes to another and asks for advice on the same issue, and everything adds up, sums up, divides, finding the most beneficial answer for himself and the most convenient blessing. Is it worth it to do so?

The arithmetic mean of the advice of different priests is a very vicious practice. If the advice is different, then embarrassment will begin, you will have to act slyly and choose what you like best. It is necessary to put aside far from the desire to gain advice from a variety of people, especially those who do not know you.

Advice should be taken from those who know you and are in relation to you in the "mode" of "disinterested compassion." For example, if a rich man helps the family of some priest simply to survive, if he takes advice, there is a serious fear that the priest will be afraid to be categorical with him. This is a purely human moment, and there is nothing surprising here. If some doctor pulled me out of the other world for an operation, then if I scold him at confession, then very gently, I will be grateful to him all my life and cover with love - this is a psychologically very understandable thing. Therefore, you must honestly know from whom you are asking for advice: from someone who loves and is indulgent towards you, or from someone who knows you well and can tell you the truth. There needs to be an element of honesty here. If it doesn't exist, everything else will be a mistake. If we add many vectors together, they will all collapse into one point and lead nowhere further. Therefore, it is not necessary to do so.

It is necessary to resolve your everyday issues on the basis of conscience, that is, you should not go to the confessor in a state of “I don’t know what to do”, but after doing the preliminary work. If there are serious questions, consult a husband with his wife, a wife with her husband, with children, elders, friends who love you. Listen to voices from outside, ask your conscience. Pray strongly to God, go to the temple of God for a day or two, try to pray attentively to God, read the Gospel, maybe the Word of God will reveal something to you. That is, come to the priest already prepared, for example, ready to do what you don't like, what you don't want to do. For example, you don’t want to leave, but you have to, or you don’t want to stay, but you have to, and so on.

Pray for the priest that God would reveal to him His holy will. It is very important, when going to the priest, to pray to God for the priest, saying:

Lord, I am going to you, and you bless your servant father Michael (or Matthew), so that through him I will hear from you, and give me the courage to accept as from you.

We need such serious things. And when he asked here and there, it turns out just a kind of tear.

Probably, it is also necessary to ask for blessings for some prayer deeds.

We are blessed for prayer from the moment of our baptism. What are some special blessings for, which, for example, ask for the reading of the Psalter. Communion, pray, fulfill the commandments, fight sin, read the Holy Scriptures, inside which is the Psalter - for all this we are blessed from the beginning, in fact of Christianity.

Special, requiring a blessing, when, for example, they want to enter the seminary. When a girl says that she does not want to get married, but wants to keep her virginity for the sake of Christ, this is very serious, it is impossible here without a blessing.

Question from a TV viewer from Yekaterinburg: How to prepare for Communion on a meat-paste three days in a row or only Wednesday and Friday, is it possible to eat fish if you take communion in a week?

Second question: How to prepare a child for Communion?

This issue is decided at a meeting of priests, and in pastoral practice it is accepted for discussion. The modern approach to this issue, as far as I know, is as follows: if a person fasts on Wednesday and Friday all year and observes many days of the Christmas, Great, Petrovsky, Assumption fasts, then the three days of fasting immediately before Communion lose their relevance for him. Three days of need for those who rarely commune 1-3 times a year, no more than that, or are lame in church discipline.

If a person carries everything that the Church has blessed, then if you want to take communion on Sunday, and at the same time always fast on Wednesday, Friday, then on Saturday you can eat without meat, but with fish, and on Sunday nothing prevents you from taking Communion . Although, of course, all this needs to be blessed by the priest who gives you communion.

I don't think it's necessary to raise eyebrows too much here and multiply disciplinary requirements. I think any pastor, looking at such a practice of a Christian, will say that he, of course, can approach the Cup with the fear of God and faith.

As for the child, it seems to me that the most important issue for children is their desire to be in the temple and the joy of being in the temple. If a child wants to go to church, and he goes there with joy, then I think this is the most important preparation for Communion. Of course, sin can already manifest itself in them: they can be mischievous, lazy, cunning, and this must be monitored, and you can prompt them kindly:

You know, son or daughter, it seems to me that you need to say this in confession, you deceived me yesterday, said that you ate it, and you yourself threw dinner into the trash, this is already serious.

There is no need to tell children in confession that they do not listen to mom and dad. Because mom and dad are very selfish about the confession of their children, however, like grandparents. We sometimes load confession with the function of enslaving children with our authority, we turn the priest into our companion in turning a son or grandson into a novice. This is very harmful.

Today is information time, it is very important that the child does not stick around on TV from morning to evening and does not immerse himself in gadgets so that it is impossible to come off of them. This is also a clear sin, this is already captivity.

It is very important to maintain speech purity: so that a person does not get used to speaking stupid, dirty, nasty, rotten words. To not take someone else's, not to envy. Seven-year-olds already have enough of such possible sins. You should try to talk about this with them and ask the priest:

Father, my seven-year-old daughter Dashenka will come to you, she’s mischievous, she will resist, throw a tantrum, and you can’t do anything. Talk to her, please.

Or, for example, a fashionista girl, every day requires new clothes. We need to understand what the real problems are. It's not that they simply "do not obey" - this is too banal and selfish, but when there is a real spiritual problem that the priest should talk about with the child. Here the confession turns into a confidential conversation between the elder and the younger.

It is important that we do not drive the child away from the church, so that the child is happy in the church, this is the most important way to prepare for Communion.

Do you want to partake?

Do you like being in church?

Like.

Will you take communion today?

Well, with God.

Do you think it is necessary to thoughtlessly fulfill what the priest ordered at confession?

Such cases can be if a person has fallen under the weight of some strange word and does not know how to deal with it. For example, a penance that lasts for many, many years or something else. We need to deal with this issue. The complexity of the situation is that another priest does not have the right to remove from a person what another has imposed. You have to understand everything in order to understand what is behind it. And if this is a fact of excessive strictness or asceticism, when, for example, a person is excommunicated from Communion for ten years, then the person must figure it out, go to this priest himself without intermediaries and say that it’s hard, you can’t stand it, asking to relax.

But it also happens the other way around, when pilgrims come and ask for a blessing "for something." If I bless you for such that then you will run after me and ask to “bless” you. People, too, can provoke a priest into something extraordinary when they ask him some strange questions. That is why it is important to come to the priest with a ripened question, having done your "homework": think what you want, carry your problem in yourself, formulate it well, and it will be much easier for you to listen to the answer to it. Not everything here lies with the priest, but much is born of some kind of immaturity of the person himself.

What kind of questions should you ask a priest?

With questions worthy of the priesthood. You know, as some saints said, don't ask the king for dung. Come to God, ask for what is worthy of God. I came to the priest, ask for what is worthy of the priesthood: spiritual advice, prayer, an attempt to understand some complexity, worldly and spiritual at the same time. Ask for a relative. Came to the priest, talk about what concerns your spiritual life.

When a person comes to a priest, but he has no spiritual questions, there are everyday, material, psychological problems - this is very difficult for a priest. There are such cases, I think the priests will confirm this: when a person comes who does not know why he came, and you need to pull out a certain deep layer from him in order to understand what he does not know about himself - this is already some kind of senile level . You have to be more than just a priest when, while talking to a person, you are trying to pull him out on a problem that he does not yet know about himself. It happens, but it's very exhausting.

It happens that a person comes to confession and says that he took out a mortgage, and now he does not know how to pay off, and asks the priest for advice.

Such cases happen. It happens even more when a person begins to literally blackmail, says: what should I now take an ax and go to the bank, or should I now hang myself. And you see this person for the first time. Then you need to stay after the service and talk to this person. In fact, you will not help him return the mortgage, but the spoken problem is halved, this has been noticed a long time ago.

The trouble that is expressed and listened to tends to decrease. When a person told a trouble to a listener, he may have heard himself for the first time. Talking about yourself is the only way to understand yourself. Why is it important to keep a diary or write letters or have dialogues with someone wise and thoughtful. Otherwise, you will not understand yourself. I understand to understand myself as I begin to tell about myself to someone, and someone listens carefully to me, asking leading questions.

Therefore, the unfortunate "taker" of the mortgage will begin to tell you all his life. Each person has his own background, he is tormented by a mortgage, but it was born by something else. It turns out that he divorced, but divorced because he flew into fornication, and his wife did not tolerate him anymore. And he will begin to unroll his glomerulus until early childhood, and suddenly he will understand where it all began, and he will say: "Thank you, father, I have gone." The mortgage will somehow be resolved, and the person, perhaps for the first time, will touch his true problem as he talks about himself. This is very important, and here the priest performs the function of a psychologist. For what a psychologist is paid a lot of money, here the priest pays with his time and nerves, and glory to You, Lord, that this is so. This is an important spiritual function. After all, what are psychological sessions? This is confession without absolution. Why do people go to psychologists? Because they want to confess, not even hoping that their sins will be forgiven. The priest just combines both, he should try to listen and pull out some deeper layers of hidden problems from a person, this helps a lot. If this is also crowned with the words "And I, unworthy priest, I forgive and let go ...", then this is simply wonderful.

Viewer question: When you start trying to fulfill the commandments, to live in the bosom of the Church, you feel how difficult it is. Even the commandments of Moses fail to be fulfilled. I would like to hear from you advice-consolation, like, remember, in the finale of the film "The Island", when Father Anatoly asked a young priest "How should we live?" replies: "And live as we live."

I'll try. First of all, I want to say that what constitutes your inner cross is well known to me. When you try and nothing works. You try a hundred times and fail a hundred times. And do not despair of starting the 101st time, and the 101st still fails. It's clear.

As a consolation to myself and to you, I will say that labor to fulfill the commandments is the most necessary opportunity and way to reveal human weakness. What does a person learn by keeping the commandments? infirmities. This is such an interesting patristic voice: as you fulfill the commandments, you reveal your imperfection. A person will be saved not for exploits and not for labors, but for faith and humility. He learns humility as he becomes aware of his weakness, which, in turn, is revealed from an attempt to fulfill the commandments.

What is your rule? - asked a man who had lived for many years in serious labors.

What is my rule, - he answered. - I had different rules: both big and small. When I fulfilled the rule, I was proud. When I did not follow the rule, I became discouraged. My rule today is "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me."

Of all the prayers I know

I sing in my soul or read aloud,

Such wondrous power breathes

Prayer "Lord, have mercy!"

I'm close to the last edge

And yet with burning tears,

Although with withered body strength,

I say "Lord, have mercy!"

Soul, ending earthly life,

This prayer, no other

Firmly and there you are behind the grave

With the hope "Lord, have mercy!"

God does not want the death of man, He perfectly understands, knows and wears our imperfections. The contemplation of Christ crucified and the joy of the risen Christ sufficiently console the tormented soul. We are not saved by works, but by grace. This is very comforting for a person - Lord, have mercy.

Question from a TV viewer from Moscow: Spiritual father - who is he, and how to properly apply to a priest with a request for confession. I live in Moscow and for seven years I have been going to the priest in the Moscow region, I consider him my spiritual father, but I do not voice this. Is it correct?

I think that it is not necessary to voice and formalize everything. What you are already doing can put you in a spiritual father/daughter relationship without formalizing the process. Enough of what is. You are a happy person, you have a mentor who will accept your confession, take communion, tell you, and pray. What you have, we grab in abundance, so many people are deprived of it.

Spiritual fatherhood is more important than physical fatherhood. Physical fatherhood has become rare, meaning we live in a time of serious fatherlessness. Not every child lives in a family where a man is his biological father. The father may simply not exist, he has disappeared, maybe the father is social, that is, not the same person, there can be a lot of other situations. Many children grow up without a father.

And now I ask myself and you the question: if normal fatherhood has become a rarity, or at least not found at every turn, although every child should have both a father and a mother. If such simple things have become a rarity, then where can we find spiritual fathers for all spiritual children? After all, spiritual fatherhood is much stronger and more serious than physical fatherhood. Therefore, spiritual fatherlessness is also present. Everyone wants to have a spiritual father, but where can they be found?

What should be the spiritual father in your understanding?

As I already said, such a "grandfather". Not in the sense that he will forgive everything, put him on his knees and cut out the whistle: "If you have a pipe, there will be a whistle." No.

His experience must exceed the experience of a spiritual child by that colossal difference that exists between a real parent and a child. What is a parent - this is a person who is two to three times larger than the child born from him. A spiritual father must be such a large-scale personality, that is, he must live much longer than you, and his inner experience, both spiritual and human, worldly, must be a source of nourishment for those who do not have this experience.

He must be compassionate again from experience. Must be a penitent person, without guruistic inclinations, without faith in one's own infallibility. It is best to repent of sins in the presence of someone who himself repents of his sins. Because if a person is sure of his infallibility, it is very scary to repent before him, he will flatten you with the cold of his false holiness. If I'm a sinner and he's a saint, that's terrible. And if he says: I am such a sinner, don't be afraid, there is only one sinless one - Christ. On the knees of such a person, you can cry. Hearing the sins of other people, he must recognize himself in these sins, not because he must do all this, but because he recognizes human pain.

Indeed, in fact, we do not hear anything new, we hear modifications, variations of the same passions, and nothing new, therefore the requirements for a confessor are very high. Of course, he must be well-read in Holy Scripture, in patristic literature, spiritually experienced, condescending, strict in necessary cases, but severity must be diluted with condescension in a proportion, probably 5 to 95. That is, most cases require condescension, some rare cases require severity, you need to include different modes.

Question from a viewer from Cheboksary: ​​How can I pray if I cannot forgive some people with all my heart? How can I utter the words "and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," if I have not forgiven with all my heart? The same with the prayer "Lord, have mercy." Can I ask for mercy on me if I cannot have mercy on my neighbor in the same way?

Well, you've touched a real pain, a real ulcer. Where you are stuck with words that you cannot pronounce, you should not pronounce them until you pronounce them actually, from your heart and truly.

You have hit a sacred barrier. Wonderful. If you overcome this barrier, you will immediately rise to a very large step up, which I wish you.

Only now divide the problem into two parts. You may have personal enemies, for example, people who borrowed money and do not repay for a long time, or people who cut off a piece of your garden. These are your personal enemies, and maybe you cannot forgive them.

But often people say these words “I can’t forgive them” to people whom they don’t personally know, they don’t personally contact, but cheat themselves, for example: I won’t forgive Chubais for ruining half the country in such and such years and for rolling blackouts in the 90s. I won't forgive Obama for bombing and something else. If you are concerned about these problems, feel free to throw them in the trash, because the prayer "Our Father" tells us about those people who are specifically intertwined with you in life circumstances, and you have a specific offense against a particular person. For example, someone was rude to you in transport, and you hold a grudge for two days and cannot pray. And don't pray until you forgive. And when you overdo it, you will become stronger, and you will begin a new stage of life - spiritual freedom will begin.

To forgive, to overcome some internal difficult problem of relationships with relatives, with a boss at work, with a person who offended or deceived you - this is a great feat, this is a victory. If you have such cases, keep fighting.

The person insulted you with terrible words, scolded. But if you put this insult on one side of the scale, and on the other - all your sins, all, all that you know or do not know, and say: I will forgive him, and all THIS will be forgiven me. That is a very unequal exchange - speculate about it. EVERYTHING will be forgiven you, and you will forgive, albeit offensive, but nonsense. Everything will be forgiven you - you will receive great freedom, and then you will say to God with boldness:

Lord, for a long time I could not say these words to You, but now I can, and now forgive me my debts as I have forgiven my debtor. I forgave him this, I forgot, but You, Lord, forgive me ALL my sins.

This will be a great change, you will exchange a bag of garbage for a wagon of gold - this will be the exchange. So far you have run into a problem, but solve it, and by solving it, you will be terribly rich.

Such is the solution to life's problems that the prayer "Our Father" offers us.

Question from a viewer from the Moscow region: Does it make sense to confess a sin if I know that it will happen again? After all, this, perhaps, turns out to be slyness?

It makes sense to confess a sin even if you suspect it will happen again. There are sins that are bound to be repeated. For example, a person says that he is distracted by prayer or that he has no love, often no patience. I am quite sure that when you come back in a week, you will repeat the same thing. It would be strange if you said: “Last time I said that I don’t have love, but now I do. And now I don’t get distracted by prayer.” Such things can always be repeated or not repeated, but implied. Where does the dust come from? No one knows, but you will have to do wet cleaning, because the dust is taken by itself.

If we are talking about serious sins, if, God forbid, you are cheating on your wife, and you are so connected with this sin that you know that you will not get rid of it in the near future, and come to cry about yourself. But move away from confession and know that you are not free again, that you are again under the threat of climbing into the same puddle. In this case, you cannot take communion, but you still need to confess. Confess once - and, unfortunately, you will return to the former. Second, third time. In the end, your conscience will torment you, and either you will kill your conscience and become an animal, or your conscience will kill your sin and force you to become a man. You will fight your conscience in mortal combat, to the point of hoarseness and blood, until one of you wins. Either you become an animal, or you become a man, and conscience will overcome you.

Therefore, you need to talk about your sins in confession anyway, especially if these are serious things that require an indispensable struggle with yourself. Like hygienic things, when, for example, you brush your teeth, you are sure that you will brush them again. You wash your clothes, but you are sure that you will have to do this more than once - this is normal.

In this sense, the discipline of confession is a hygienic discipline, it requires repetition, keeps you in good shape, and does not let you get lice. If you don't clean your room, if you don't shave or wash, you'll get lice. In this sense, these repetitions are the hygienic function of confession. Repeat, don't be afraid.

Question from a viewer from St. Petersburg: Father Anatoly Optinsky has the words: "beware of the sin of embarrassment." Can you please explain what the "sin of confusion" is?

Embarrassment is a broad concept. We get embarrassed whenever we encounter something we don't expect. For example, you expect holiness, but you meet not quite holiness. Say, for the first time a layman found himself at a feast at the table with the clergy. He is afraid to chew loudly, he thinks that one has to be slender here, but he hears that it is not, people eat tightly and with appetite and talk, not necessarily about biblical subjects. And he suddenly became confused. Whenever we expect something so big and meet something simple, we tend to get embarrassed. There is unnecessary embarrassment when you raise some degree of expectations in yourself. But life somehow humbles you: calm down, at the right time we will say spiritual words to you, and now relax, eat, drink, listen to simple speeches. Such is embarrassment.

There is confusion from demons. There are such scrupulous souls to whom various thoughts are brought, for example, he ran to confession, and the prayer before confession was already read, and now a person is embarrassed and suffers for half a service, whether to go to confession or not to go. It is a whole torment when there is no simplicity in a person. Any notch thrown into his mind unsettles him, and he no longer knows what to do. Such people would like to advise to be simpler. In a good way, it’s easier, not in the sense of being bolder and reckless, but simpler and calmer.

Because there are a million reasons for embarrassment, all the media work for the embarrassment industry. All the information being thrown tends to shake us, shake us, excite us, then lower us into despondency.

And in the spiritual life, a person is often afraid of something, then demonic fears, then despondency, then lack of faith, then he thinks that nothing is working out for him. This is where everything comes from. A person needs to have the same healthy soul as a healthy appetite has a healthy person. He eats, crunches with every cucumber that is on the table, and everything is fine for him. You need to have such a healthy mental organization. The question is where to get it?

People have become so nervous, so thin, so resentful. Almost all city dwellers are neurotic. And we need to have a normal, healthy, "rosy-cheeked" soul, which is looking for simple food and enjoys the simple sun. Ask God for mental health, and I must ask it:

Lord, You are my doctor, heal my soul from chronic diseases that You Yourself see and know.

For us to be simple, healthy people, having a simple, healthy faith, and, in the end, enter a real and beautiful paradise.

Question of a TV viewer: Is a confession written on paper and read by the priest himself, is it accepted by God, are sins forgiven? I am disabled and cannot do anything else.

Without a doubt. In fact, a paper charter is a charter of your heart. When you write your sins on paper, you are translating the invisible into the visible. This is the secret of the heart written on a piece of paper. The priest who reads these sins accepts them in the same way as if they had pronounced them with their own lips. He reads a prayer over you, breaks the list - it's like your sins are leaving you. Of course, this is accepted, and do not doubt it.

Viewer's question: I confessed and took communion, then sinned again, how to return to God? I visit the temple regularly, but I feel indifferent. I pray, I am anointed - I borrow the grace of the Holy Spirit. What should I do for God in return? How can I return to the bosom of the Church if I pronounce "I believe", but in fact I cannot fulfill it to the end?

A very important thing: the first schisms in the Church were those of the Donatists, which were characterized by so-called perfectionism - the desire that the Church should consist only of saints. We all must be heroes of the spirit, and there is no weakness in us. This gave rise to contempt for sinners, arrogance over those who sin a lot and often, a desire to cut off from oneself all the weak, unnecessary, and so on. Whole heresies grew out of this.

The desire for perfectionism, the desire for everything to be good, can be dangerous. The Church is holy, but not so much by our holiness as by the holiness of her Head - our Lord Jesus Christ. It communicates health to the body. The Church includes not only saints, but also sinners. This is very important to understand. Penitent sinners who have not overcome sin to the end, who suffer from sin and have not reached perfection - these are also people who belong to the Church.

In a large body, every eyelash, every nail is needed. In a large body there are various multifunctional organs, both large and small, both noticeable and inconspicuous. Therefore, do not doubt your belonging to the Church because you have not reached perfection, because you fall, sin, repent again, and fall again.

Penitent sinners belong to the Church just as much as the saints. And no true saint will neglect a sinner, because he knows that he and I are in the same Church. Only false holiness neglects sinners, it forgets that it has a source - Christ, who neglects no one. And the self-sanctified thinks that he is holy in himself, therefore he despises the penitent. A true saint does not despise sinners. Kuksha Odessa said: I myself am a sinner, and I love sinners. I would like at least from the edge, but in the ray.

Your struggle is a sign that you belong to the Church. It makes no sense for you to lose heart, it makes sense for you to cry that you are weak. But you are not outside the Church, but in It. People like you make up one of the cohorts of the Church - they are weeping and crouching, bearing their weakness and begging God to heal them. We all belong to them, from time to time each of us cries about his own wretchedness.

Question from a TV viewer from Astrakhan: I recently heard Professor A.I. Osipov, who said that the little children brought to the temple distract the parishioners from the service. Is it considered a sin, and at what time is it better to bring small children from a year to a year and a half?

Of course, this is not a sin in any way, it is an everyday disciplinary complexity that is superimposed on liturgical life. Since a small child cannot consciously participate in prayer, cannot sing “I Believe” with us, does not understand what happens during the Eucharistic Canon, we must come with him directly to Communion itself, to the prayer “Our Father”.

It is clear that this creates difficulties for parents, because mom or dad find themselves torn out of the Liturgy, which is an inevitable difficulty, you need to endure this while the child is small. There is no sin in this, it is just a difficulty associated with the unconscious, small age of our children. You need to bring them to the temple just before the removal of the Chalice.

Our program time has come to an end. Thank you for today's conversation. We never got to the Sacrament of Communion. I hope that next time we will discuss this topic. In conclusion, I ask you to bless our viewers.

Christ transfigured in glory before the disciples-apostles, who revealed His glory to Moses and Elijah, may it also shine on us with His Eternal Light through the prayers of the Mother of God, for He is the Giver of Light, and glory to Him.

Host: Sergey Yurgin
Transcription: Yulia Podzolova