Our main ascent is from earth to heaven

print version September 11, 2017 17:42 On September 12, Metropolitan Daniel of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory , who had been tonsured into monasticism with the name Daniel in honor of the Monk Daniel of Moscow, celebrated the day of the names in 1985 at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra . A man called by God to monasticism should strive to imitate his heavenly protector, and in this case it is possible to draw such a parallel: having received a small insignificant Moscow principality in the reign, the holy pious Prince Daniel of Moscow was pleased with this and directed all his energies to give a powerful an impulse to the spiritual and material development of the "poor village". He, the fourth son of the holy Prince Alexander Nevsky, laid the foundation for the elevation of the Moscow principality and founded one of the first monasteries in Moscow, later called the Moscow Danilov Monastery. Our contemporary, Bishop Daniel headed at the beginning one distant faculty of the Russian Orthodox Church - Yuzhno-Sakhalin , then became the head of a distant, marginal metropolia - Archangel . But, according to the ardent conviction of the archpastor, Russia begins from the outskirts. And Metropolitan Daniel tries to develop and strengthen the parish and monastic life in the Russian North under his spiritual leadership, which in one of his interviews he called the place of attraction of human hearts, where the islets of the true Spirit of God remained. The correspondent of the portal "Monastic Herald" had a talk with Vladyka on the eve of his name day. The path to the "property of the repentant" - Vladyka, in his previous interview to "The Monastic Herald" - "Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) opened the way to monastic life for me" - You told what kind of revolution took place in your soul after getting acquainted with the creations of the "teacher of repentance", as they call an outstanding theologian, spiritual writer, preacher, ascetic XIX century. And we want to start our next conversation with the thought of St. Ignatius, who wrote that "every sin runs away from the face of repentance" and it is this that distinguishes "the chosen of God from the sons of the world." Tell me, did people on your way meet with unceasing repentance? - There was such a remarkable hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archbishop of Brussels and Belgium Vasily (Krivoshein) . A man with a bright biography is the son of the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Empire, a member of the White Movement, a student of the Sorbonne University in Paris, who took monastic vows after the pilgrimage to Mount Athos in the Russian Panteleimon Monastery , a well-known patrologist and theologian - he dreamed of visiting his native St. Petersburg, at that time - Leningrad. Becoming a bishop, he was able to come to the Soviet Union. But he had another dream - it seemed unrealizable. To be buried where his loved ones lie. At the Seraphim Cemetery in the city on the Neva. He prayed about it. But God has nothing impossible! In his last visit to his homeland in 1985, Vladyka, the coeval of the century, passed away. They wanted a coffin with the body of the deceased to be transported to Belgium, where he headed the department of our Church for a quarter of a century - it turned out that it was very expensive. And the "unfulfilled" dream of the Bishop was realized: Archbishop Basil was resting next to his deceased relatives. I often remember it, I tell others about it, and that's why. One day the lord was asked to tell about St. Silouan Athos, as they lived for a time in a monastery on the Holy Mountain. To which Vladyka replied: "I can not say anything, I have not seen it. He was not then a confessor, he was a simple monk - meek, modest, humble - and hid the grace of God. " Here it is, most importantly - a spiritual person does not display gifts received from God! Do not shout about them everywhere, do not brag. I will give for example this example: imagine that you were given a large sum of money in Sberbank. But you do not put them in a string bag - the bag, the contents of which are open for public viewing! You will not go with this string, full of bills, around the city. So with spiritual gifts from God ... And yet, by His great mercy, the Lord gave me the opportunity to see the degree of spiritual maturation of different people. At our Trinity-Sergius Lavra was Archimandrite Sergius (Petin), a sacristan, a wonderful priest. There is a conciliar service, Archimandrite Cyril (Pavlov) leads it, we will help him, and Father Sergius also serves and is crying, crying, trying to hide his tears from prying eyes! Before, he did not have such a gift of tears, and when there were several years before the transition to eternity, a profound repentance appeared ... As Archimandrite Cyprian (Kern) wrote, whose fundamental works on patristic, liturgical and pastoral theology entered the treasury of theological science, at first we have jealousy, then some cooling may come, and to old age often the premonition of death, the approach to eternity is more sharply perceived by man, and he again becomes more zealous. I have noticed this many times. Answering your question about repentance, let's remember the one whom Father Seraphim of Sarov pointed out when he was asked who in the monastery above all stands before the face of God? - Ironically, the cooks from the former soldiers in the kitchen ... - It turned out that there was nothing strange about it. Pointing to the cook, the monk explained this as follows: "The nature of the cook is naturally fire. He is ready to kill a man in passion, but his incessant struggle within the soul attracts to him the great favor of God. For such a struggle, the blessed power of the Holy Spirit is supplied to him, because God's word is unchallenged, which says: "To him that overcomes I will give to sit with Me in My throne, as I also conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Rev 3:21) ". That is, this angry person was constantly repenting, not stopping for an instant, which was the key to his salvation for eternal life. Inspired by the words of St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov): "It is obvious that the Kingdom of Heaven becomes the inalienable property of the repentant"! What separates us from Christ - Vladyka, more than once had to meet the opinion that it is bitter to mourn over one's sins, those people who have stolen something, or even killed someone, must repent in them for the rest of their lives. In a word, they violated some of the evangelical commandments. And who, for example, likes to "wash the bones" of his neighbors or just condemns them, so this is not considered a sin. Say, we are all amateurs crock! What can you say about this? - On this occasion the holy Apostle Paul clearly expressed himself in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, written in 54 or 55 of the Nativity of Christ: "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God?" Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor malachins, nor adulterers, nor thieves, nor covetous people, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor predators, inherit the kingdom of God "(1 Corinthians 6: 9-10). For me, these words once became a real shock. Let's pay attention that the evildoers are put on the same level as fornicators, thieves, drunkards and so on. And what does the evildoer mean? Expressing something bad in someone's address. In the early 90's I came to Germany, and during the Petrovsky post we decided to drink a cup of coffee with one of the clergymen. I watch, he adds cream to the cup. After intercepting my look, he says: "My stomach is weak, and what are these creamies? Just a little bit. " Here we have many and believe: how dairy cream in coffee is a violation of fasting are not, and to mess about someone - too, nothing terrible. They gossip, then they will take and deliver their "evil language" on the Internet. They do not want to understand that, without entering into a decisive battle with this sin, ever deeper rooted in their heart, they frivolously block their way to the Kingdom of Heaven. However, not only laity, but clergymen and monastics do not always keep their language and mind from condemnation. Some sisters of the Ust-Medveditsa Savior-Transfiguration Monastery showed discontent with their abbess, Abbess Arsenii (Serebryakova), who headed the monastery in the second half of the XIX century. They said: Well, why does Mother care about us? We are virgins. We have renounced our will. We walk in obedience. We rule out the rule. Is not that enough ?! And my mother, who loved to collect sisters for her spiritual conversations, pointed to them as a great sin, their hostility towards each other, jealousy, gossip, etc., flashed from them. That, by someone's understanding (more precisely - misunderstanding), "petty" and "insignificant", which in fact separates us from Christ, no matter what other virtues a person has ... In the written heritage of the Monk Arsenii, who in the past year was ranked among the local saints of the Volgograd Metropolia , we can read the following lines about repentance: "Repentance, as well as prayer, should not be dreamy. True repentance is a gift from God, it is full of contrition. And our repentance should only be consciousness, confidence in our sinfulness, self-restraint. This is what leads to faith. " Feels a spiritual crossing with the saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), whose works were especially close and dear to the mother. The Holy Fathers write that true repentance does not happen without the weeping of the spirit. Crying is evidence of true repentance. But tears may appear, and may not appear! We must ask the Lord for a gift of tears. I often ask the believers the question: "Tell me, do you ask God for a gift of tears?" - "No", - many answer. - "Do you read evening prayers?" - "We read." - "Then why are you deceiving the bishop? There in fact there are words of prelate John Zlatoust: "Lord, give tears to me, and memory mortal, and emotion". Some people resent God. Yes, yes, they are offended! And they call the reason for their offense: He does not give the requested on their prayers. Imagine a person who comes into the office to ask for something to employees, but indistinctly utters words, absent-mindedly looks out the window. Will they respond to his request? Perhaps those who mechanically utter the words of prayer about tears and mortal memory, just ask God and everything else? With regard to tears, Saint Theophan the Recluse observed that their price is not water, the current from the eyes is determined, but by what happens to them in their souls and after them. - So how much of these sins are washed away from the heart by these tears? - Yes. Saying that there are tears from the weakness of the heart, from the great softness of character, from illness, the Svyatitel points to tears from grace. It is the gift of blessed tears for one's sins that follows the believer to ask God. "We have amazing saints in the North, and we are friends with them" - Vladyka, if we return to the issue of spiritual maturation, to different stages of this process, then it strikes: one of the six monasteries of the Archangelsk metropolia, which is in the most that is a "bear corner", among the forests and marshes, is named after the righteous youth Artemia , Verkolsky miracle worker. The Boy! It turns out that the saint has already matured in the early years for the Kingdom of God? - And not just ripe. He not only saved, but also helps others to escape. After all, the saved and the saving are different things. In general, the life of this saint of the Lord is an example of that "another court of God, and another human." A pious boy, who died of a lightning strike at the age of 12, was convicted by superstitious fellow villagers, and his body, as died from sudden death, was left without burial service. They put it in the forest, covered with brushwood and birch bark ... It could not be the human consciousness to come to the fact that at the age of 12 you can fully ripen for the Kingdom of Heaven, bring fruit of holiness, meekness, humility and purity. People thought that he had some secret sin, or, perhaps, his parents, since the boy died suddenly. His body lay for all forgotten more than three decades. In 1577, the relics were found incorruptible and famous for many miracles and healings of diseases. On the site of their acquisition, a monastery was founded. Now in the Vercol monastery only a small part of the relics of the holy wonderworker is kept. After all, what happened in 1918? The imperishable relics of the saint were a denunciation of that godless power and all of its projects that she was trying to realize. It was intolerable for the Bolsheviks to hear from the believers: the righteous child of Artemy is with us, he is helping us. The God-fighters decided to burn this doll. However, there was a "leakage of information", and the warned monks sheltered the shrine from mockery. When the detachment of the Cheka arrived here, the monks were built on the banks of the Pinega River and began to be interrogated. Without an answer, without knowing anything, some of them were shot right there on the river bank. And at the end of the bloody 20th century a new page of the monastery's history opened. The native of the village of Verkola was the famous Soviet writer Fyodor Abramov, and his widow Lyudmila Vladimirovna made great efforts not to turn the monastery into a tourist center, as they were going to do in the early 90s, but for her to start a monastic life. It's good to see today that the monastery is reborn. The brothers are trying, working. And where there is a monastery, there is also an enlightenment of the people of God. Both Artemievo-Vercolsky and Holy Trinity Antonievo-Sii male monasteries nurture nearby villages-perform church services in the churches, spiritually enlighten the northerners. They also conduct active social activities. Accept people who have left prison in a colony and do not have work and residence. (Naturally, these are Orthodox people who agree to live according to the monastic charter). Rehabilitate drug addicts. Not only medical help is raised by them - spiritually, by prayers, which helps the faster to get out of the quagmire, to restore one's personality. There are concrete evidence of getting rid of drug addiction. So, for example, one boy, a schoolboy from Petersburg, firmly sat down on this muck, and his parents brought him to the Antonievo-Siysk monastery. Here he lived for a time, thank God, departed from his destructive "attachment" and returned home. Of course, it is difficult for monastics to be with former prisoners, drug addicts and those who, because of all sorts of troubles in the world, lose "the ground under their feet". But the brethren bear their infirmities. And yet the most important thing in the monastery is not social work. Bes - he is trying to do absolutely everything, if only you did not pray! Be engaged in children, be engaged in homeless, alcoholics, drug addicts - everything and anyone, if only you had not enough time for a prayer. But in our monasteries we remember the main purpose - internal prayer work, penitential crying for our sins, conciliar prayers for the human race, our native Fatherland and our people ... One of the features of the north is long distances. In earlier times, monks in the north moved away from worldly temptations into deserted places. Continuation of this tradition can be seen on the example of one of the most inaccessible monasteries in Russia - Bogoyavlensky Kozheozersky, where hieromonk Mihei (Razinkov) serves, today his abbot and the only inhabitant. There is no electricity in the monastery. There is no road there. On foot, along the forest trail, one must go to the monastery thirty kilometers away. - You were there? "No, not yet." I know that my father is helped by his sisters, and he is more like a confessor of a small sister monastic community. His way to prayer solitude is interesting: the son of a priest, conductor and musician in the secular profession, he carried the obedience of the regent of the brotherly choir first in Optina desert, then at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Then he went to the North, where he took monastic vows in the Antonievo-Siysky monastery and has been practicing monasticism for nearly two decades in a desert monastery so remote from civilization that even words from the famous song "only by plane can be reached" do not reflect the fact that there is in fact. Why did he get into such a wilderness? For the sake of the opportunity in silence to offer the Lord unremitting prayers, as did the founders of the Kozheozersky Monastery, the Monks Nifont and Serapion, around which the brethren gradually began to gather, which in the second half of the 16th century led to the beginning of the monastery of the Epiphany. And the Monk Serapion was not a northerner, he was not even Russian! He was the son of the Kazan Tatar tsar. After the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, the boy was taken prisoner, brought up in a pious family, received Holy Baptism with the name of Sergius and so fell in love with the Orthodox faith that he was not enough to be a Christian monk of some Moscow monastery (he lived in Moscow). Slave of God Sergius went to wander through the monasteries. I went and walked until I found this place. And he stayed forever here, and after a while, took from the Monk Nifont tonsure with the name of Serapion. From the history of this deserted monastery, I was struck by another fact: a saint who lived after Serapion and who did many miracles during his earthly life and created them after his reign, struggled in a very small cell. He built it on the river Khozyuge. True, she was already falling apart. The people who worshiped the old man-prayer book built a new cell for him-a little higher up the river. Have asked to move. The hermit's request was to fossilize a deep pit near his new refuge. When the pit was ready, the Monk Nicodemus often descended into it - went for prayer to the bolt. Once he stayed in that pit for 40 days and 40 nights without food and drink, day and night praying to the Savior and fed only by God's grace. We have amazing saints in the North, and we are friends with them. We have a close friendship with them. - Your Eminence, what do you mean by "close friendship with saints"? - On the ground, friendship with a person consists in the fact that you call him, communicate warmly, remember his birthday, choose love for the name-day with love. So it is here: we know the birthdays in the eternity of the saints who have become native to us, and we also try to make gifts for them. We constantly "call" them. Prayer is like a phone call. We are constantly in touch with those who will wait for us and really help us behind the coffin. Prelate Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) indicates that our main ascent is from the earth to Heaven. On this path each of us will be met by spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places, who will begin to make imaginary and unimaginable sins (which we, perhaps, did not even do). But they are slanderers, they will talk us in every possible way! And our hope, our hope - on close friends of the saints, whom we, living on earth, should acquire "a wealth of unrighteousness." ("And I say unto you, Acquire your friends with riches unrighteous" (Luke 16: 9)). Often people ask, genuinely wonder: why is it unrighteous? Because we did not earn it. Neither for our health, nor for our abilities or talents, etc., we paid nothing. They have received this wealth from God and should use them well: to acquire with his help wonderful friends, holy saints of God, that not only will help us, but they will never turn away from us during the earthly life, no matter how low we fall that would be with us they will always love us, pray for us. We in the region know the feat of many new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church. Not all names are revealed, but God has all the martyrs holy, the Church knows about the unknown saints. The last elder of Optina desert, the Monk Nektarius Optina wrote: "As you say:" All the saints, pray to God for me! "- so all the saints will exclaim in heaven:" Lord, have mercy! "- and you will have an acquisition." Imagine, all the sky at this moment begins to pray for us!

His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev Onufry: It will not be easy on this path

The information and educational department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church publishes an interview with His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onuphriy to the magazine "The Boy" . - Your Bliss! Going to seminary, you as a priest's son knew about persecution of the Church, the clergy and believers. Have you no doubt about whether to put your future at risk? - The days of my youth, youth - it was a cruel atheistic time. Fought with God, with faith, with everything spiritual. Priests, their children, and those who went to the temple were considered second or third grade; They laughed at them, laughed, despised them, insulted them at all levels - beginning with any official events (meetings of young people, workers at the factory or collective farmers) and ending with the school and the street. This was considered the norm, and we are used to it. Of course, in the depths of my soul it was a shame, but regrets or desires to change myself just to stop being mocked did not arise. You could refuse God, stop going to church - insults would stop. But such thoughts were never. And before I entered the seminary, I thought about it a lot, prepared myself internally. I was drawn to this path, and I realized that it would not be easy on this path, that shame and reproaches would await me purely humanly. But that was not what I was afraid of. It was terrible that I would not do it. That I will come home, and they will laugh at me, they say, I wanted to become a priest, but I did not have enough brains. So for myself, I decided that if I did not do it, I did not go back. I will stay in the monastery, I will obey, prepare and act for the next year. These were my rear plans for the last resort. - Have you met with any of the confessors of the faith, now glorified in the face of saints or not yet canonized? - I met him, and many! Who in those days went to church, all were entirely examples. All are people of dignified life, such approved Christians. Really bright, exceptional personalities, an indisputable example of Christian perfection. Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov), under the spiritual leadership of which we lived in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra . Holy during life: everyone thought so. Of course, he was not told about this, because to say this is to harm a person. But his life was in full view, transparent. He did nothing behind closed doors. Kelia never closed it, and only when he went to rest, he locked the door to the castle - otherwise he simply could not regain strength, because people were coming to him incessantly. His life for all was like in the palm of your hand, and yet we did not see a single wrong action, weak behavior on his part. Everything was dissolved by love for God, for people, and this he lived: he served God and others. A very vivid example of a living saint, whom I personally saw, and whose words I heard with my ears. I remember one family ... Lay people, also holy, special saints! They lived in Pervouralsk, in the Sverdlovsk region. Two sisters are both virgins, they did not marry. One was called Evlalia, the other was Paraskeva. By the surname Sirotkin. They came to us in the Lavra on a pilgrimage, where I met them. Evlalia was weak from birth, did not work. And Paraskeva worked at a large enterprise. As a believer, she was probably oppressed, but she behaved in such a way that in the depths of her soul everyone respected her. She was filled with love, helped everyone, everyone was sorry - at least a believer in front of her, though not. Once upon a time such a story happened. One woman from the factory where Paraskeva worked went home after the second shift, at twelve o'clock in the morning. I went into a dark alley, when suddenly I saw: a man began to pursue her. She accelerated the pace, and he accelerated, she ran, and he - for her. She realized that he wants to abuse her, and began to shout: "God Sirotkin, help me!". And the man disappeared. - Just like the biblical "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" ... "I knew such people." - Your Beatitude, it is known that the whole department in the state security agencies was engaged in cases against clergymen. What could a simple man oppose to this honed repressive apparatus? "Only personal courage." After all, it was a huge machine, well-adjusted, well-funded, and it was impossible and useless to resist it even at the legal, though at the economic level. It was possible to resist it only with courage. - Have you experienced harassment on yourself? How did you manage to overcome this? - To tell the truth, with exhortations to refuse belief to me did not come. I remember only one case. When I entered the seminary, it was necessary to pass a medical examination - very strict, as in a military school. And I suffered a lung disease in my childhood. For a long time already it was cured, all was normal, but on a roentgen have found any traces of this illness or disease and have sent me on inspection in city hospital. I have come, the doctor-pulmonologist, the woman, doing inspection, has started to persuade. "Now, you are such a young man, you would have to work in an enterprise - you would be happy. We would help you enter the university, you would study and become even happier ... "I'm silent, I do not answer, but I'm thinking to myself:" My God, I came only from the enterprise, but I did not find happiness there. And in high school I studied for three years and also did not feel happy there myself. " It's good that I did not say anything, because you could find fault with any word, and silence - no. And she talked and talked and stopped. "You did not only intersect with the living saints." In 1992, you happened to have the relics of the Holy Martyr Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra . The first New Martyr of the Church of Christ, and the time of finding his relics, was also at the apogee of state pressure ... Can you tell us what you felt when you started this shrine? What were you thinking about then? "I remember when they opened the crypt at the Holy Cross Exaltation Church, they went downstairs and, by the light of candles and lanterns in the twilight, began to search for what was there and where. And suddenly I grope on the lid of the Holy Martyr's coffin with four balls. I think, what is this ?! What kind of balls are these - maybe, then there were special coffins, which were decorated with balls from above? The lid was removed, and under it some shavings. Then they only found the relics. And they realized that the coffin ... is turned upside down. Somewhere we read that when the martyr was buried, so in a hurry that the coffin was somehow inadvertently dropped, he fell and rolled over. So they did not even raise it: everyone closed and left - they were so afraid. And the cross, which was in the hands of Metropolitan Volodymyr, was at the very bottom ... Of course, there was a feeling of reverence for the saint. He so courageously confessed his faith - and not before the words of reproof, but before the barrel of the rifles proved to be a Christian and a priest. And this is much more complicated. - I remember very much what was inspiration when the power got ... In Ukrainian Orthodoxy there is a split, there is tension in the society, but now there is such consolation: once the martyr is now with us with his relics, everything will be fine. But why do you think that the primate of the Church, right before the eyes of the faithful, was taken straight away during the service outside the Lavra gate to be shot and no one interceded? - You know, nothing in life happens without the will of God or without God's admission. What happened to the priest-martyr Vladimir, and was God's voyage. So, it was necessary to suffer. Suffer, but your faith to profess. If God will let us go through similar experiences, I think He will give strength for this, both courage and reason. - Contemporary church history contains many sad episodes: divisions, interconfessional clashes, mutual hatred ... What can you say to a person who is confused by the fact that believers sometimes do not represent the image of meek disciples of Christ? - When a person comes to the Church, this does not mean that he automatically becomes a perfect Christian. And in regard to monasteries as: putting on black clothes, people do not immediately become perfect monks. We only ascend the way of struggle with oneself, with sin. And this struggle is very difficult. There are falls and failures in it, but there are victories as well. It happens, when the fight raises dust, splinters fly to the sides, noise, crack ... People see this and are surprised: "How is this possible ?! After all, it is ecclesiastical, and therefore must be perfect. " It turns out, to a person, the church demands are very high, and to themselves are very understated: "I am a layman, I can. But he can not, because he is a monk or has been going to the temple for a long time. " Nothing like this! The Gospel is written for everyone. And we must remember that the life of a Christian is different in that he struggles with himself, humbleth himself, restrains himself from sin; sometimes it does not stand up, but also in the fall receives precious lessons of humility. Such lessons, which then will help him to win great victories. In addition to the initial, in monasteries, and in the world, there are people who have already reached a certain measure of perfection. They have - love, patience, humility. Only you need to see these people. After all, those who have the good in themselves, always hide, being careful of pride, which can destroy everything: and what a person has acquired, and what he wanted to acquire. Man then ceases to notice the shortcomings of others, when he will begin to fight with himself. Then he will learn to be meek, gracious and condescending to the infirmities of his neighbors. And if he sees the falling one, he will say: "Lord, I myself have fallen so many times. Help, O Lord, that he stand up, and for his prayers have mercy on me and help me to go the way of salvation. " Therefore, in order to see worthy people in the Church who truly bear the grace of God, one must begin to struggle with oneself, with their sin and go to God.