Sunday service at church time. What kind of a mess is this? What is "lithium"

You can pray to God in any place, because God is everywhere. But there are special places where it is more convenient to pray and where the Lord is in a special, gracious way.

Such places are called temples of God and are sometimes called churches. A temple is a consecrated building in which believers gather to praise God and pray to Him. Temples are called churches because Orthodox Christians gather in them to pray and sanctify themselves with the sacraments. Temples in which clergy from other nearby churches gather for solemn worship are called cathedral.

In their external structure, the temples of God differ from other ordinary buildings. The main entrance to the temple is always from the west, that is, from the side where the sun sets; and the most important part of the temple, the altar, always faces east, to the side where the sun is in the morning. This is how God’s churches are built for the purpose of reminding Orthodox Christians that from the east the Christian faith spread throughout the universe; to the east of us, in the land of Judea, the Lord Jesus Christ lived for our salvation.

Temples end with one or more domes crowned with crosses to remind us of the Lord Jesus Christ, who accomplished our salvation on the cross. One chapter on the Church of God preaches that God exists unit Three chapters mean we bow to God one in three persons. Five chapters depict the Savior and the four evangelists. Seven chapters are built on churches to signify, firstly, the seven saving sacraments by which Christians are sanctified to receive eternal life, and secondly, the seven ecumenical councils at which the rules of Christian doctrine and deanery were approved. There are temples with 13 chapters: in this case they depict the Savior and His 12 apostles. Christian churches have at their base (from the ground) either the image of a cross (for example, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow) or the image of a circle; the cross is to remind people of Him crucified on the cross, the circle is to indicate to people that whoever belongs to the Orthodox Church can hope to receive eternal life after death.

The Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon, according to the command of God, were divided inside into three parts. In accordance with this, our churches, for the most part, are divided inside into three sections. The first part from the entrance is called porch. In ancient times, here stood the catechumens, that is, those preparing to be baptized, and the penitents, who for grave sins were excommunicated from communion in the sacraments and prayer along with other Christians. The second part of the temple occupies the middle of it and is designated for the prayer of all Orthodox Christians, the third part of the temple - the most important thing - is altar.

Altar means heaven, the place of God's special dwelling. It also resembles paradise, in which the first people lived before sin. Only persons with holy orders can enter the altar, and then with great reverence. Others should not enter the altar unnecessarily; the female sex does not enter the altar at all to remind us that for the first sin of the first wife Eve, all people lost heavenly bliss.

altar throne- This is the main shrine of the temple. On it the sacrament of communion of the body and blood of Christ is performed; this is the place of the special presence of God and, as it were, the seat of God, the throne of the King of glory. Only deacons, priests and bishops can touch the throne and kiss it. A visible sign that on St. The Lord is invisibly present on the throne, the Gospel and the cross are served on it. Looking at these sacred objects, we remember the heavenly Teacher Christ, who came to save people from eternal death through His life, death and resurrection.

More on St. the throne is antimens. This word is Greek, which means in Russian: instead of the throne. The antimension is a sacred scarf depicting the burial of the Lord. He is always consecrated by the bishop and placed on the throne, as a sign of the bishop's blessing, to perform the sacrament of communion on the throne on which he is located. When it is consecrated by the bishop, particles of the relics of the holy martyrs are placed in the antimension in memory of the fact that ancient churches in the first centuries of Christianity were built over the relics of St. martyrs. The antimension is laid out only during mass, when the sacrament of consecration of St. gifts. At the end of the liturgy, it is folded and wrapped in another scarf called orton, reminiscent of the bandage that was on the head of the Savior when He lay in the tomb.

Visible on the throne tabernacle, usually built in the form of a small temple or in the form of a tomb. Its purpose is to keep St. Gifts, i.e. the Body and Blood of Christ, for the communion of the sick. It resembles the Holy Sepulcher.

On the left side of St. The throne is usually located in the altar of St. altar, less important than St. throne. It is intended for preparing bread and wine for the sacrament of communion and is reminiscent of the Bethlehem cave, the deposit of the Savior and the Holy Sepulcher.

For St. the throne, between it and the eastern wall of the altar, the place is called the mountain, or an exalted place, and means the seat of the Lord and His sitting at the right hand of God the Father. In the middle of it no one can sit or stand except the bishop, depicting Christ Himself. Between St. the throne and the royal doors can pass through, and then only for sacred rites, persons consecrated, such as deacons, priests, bishops. Clergymen, much less any of the laity, cannot walk there, as a sign of respect for the path along which His saints pass. gifts King of glory, Lord.

The altar is separated from the prayer temple by an iconostasis. It has three doors leading to the altar. The average ones are called - royal gates, because through them in St. the King of glory and the Lord of lords passes by in gifts. The middle gate is more worthy of reverence than the others, because through it St. gifts and through them ordinary people are not allowed to enter, but only the sanctified.

The Annunciation of the Archangel St. is depicted on the royal doors. Virgin Mary, because from the day of the Annunciation the entrance to paradise, lost by people for their sins, is open to us. St. is also depicted on the royal doors. evangelists, because only thanks to the evangelists, these witnesses of the Savior’s life, we know about the Lord Jesus Christ, about the salvation of His coming for us to inherit heavenly life. The Evangelist Matthew is depicted with an angelic man. This expresses the distinctive property of his Gospel, namely, that the Evangelist Matthew preaches in his Gospel primarily about the incarnation and humanity of Jesus Christ by descent from the line of David and Abraham. The Evangelist Mark is depicted with a lion as a sign that he began his Gospel with a narrative about the life of the Baptist John in the desert, where, as is known, lions live. The Evangelist Luke is written with a calf to also remind us of the beginning of his Gospel, which first of all tells about the priest Zechariah, the parent of St. Forerunners, and the duty of the Old Testament priests mainly consisted of sacrificing calves, sheep, etc. The Evangelist John is depicted with an eagle to mean that by the power of the Spirit of God, like an eagle soaring under heaven, he was exalted in his spirit to depict the Divinity of the Son of God, whose life on earth he described visually and in accordance with the truth.

The side door of the iconostasis on the left side of the royal gates is called the northern door, the door on the right side of the same gate is called the southern door. Sometimes the holy archdeacons are depicted on them with the instruments of their suffering: Stephen, Lawrence, because through these doors the deacons have entrance to the altar. And sometimes angels and other holy people are depicted on the northern and southern doors, of course, for the purpose of pointing us to the prayers of St. saints of God, through whom we will eventually be awarded entry into heavenly villages.

Above the royal doors, for the most part, there is an icon of the Last Supper to remind of that Zion upper room great And covered, where the Lord established the sacrament of communion, which continues to this day in St. altars of our churches.

The iconostasis separates the altar from the second part of the temple, where all worshipers take place. Iconostasis with St. icons should remind Christians of heavenly life, to which we must strive with all the strength of our souls in order to dwell in the heavenly Church together with the Lord, the Mother of God and all the saints. By the example of their lives, the saints of God, depicted in large numbers on the iconostasis, show us the way to the kingdom of God.

The holy icons to which we bow are of the most ancient origin in the Church. The first image of the Lord, according to legend, came from His own pure hands. The Prince of Edessa Avgar was ill. Hearing the miracles of the Savior and not being able to see Him personally, Abgar wished to have at least an image of Him; at the same time, the prince was sure that from just looking at the face of the Savior he would receive healing. The princely painter arrived in Judea and tried in every possible way to copy the divine face of the Savior, but due to the brilliant lightness of the face of Jesus he could not do this. Then the Lord called the painter, took the canvas from him, wiped His face, and the wonderful, miraculous face of the Lord was displayed on the canvas. The holiday for this icon is set on August 16.

On all icons of the Savior, three letters are written in His crowns: w, O, H. These letters are Greek, meaning that He- existing, eternal. Since the time the faith of Christ was brought from Greece to Russia, Christian antiquity has not changed these letters to Slavic ones, of course, out of respect and memory for the country from which we were enlightened by the faith of Christ. There is a legend that the icons of the Mother of God and the apostle. Peter and Paul were written by the evangelist Luke. When her first icon was brought to the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and Earth was pleased to say the following consoling words: with this image may the grace and power of My Son and Mine be. Several icons of the Mother of God are attributed to Evangelist Luke, of which the best known are: Smolenskaya, located in the Smolensk Cathedral, and Vladimirskaya, located in the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. On each icon of the Mother of God four letters are written under the titles: m r. Oh. These are again the Greek words in abbreviation: Mithir Feu, And they mean in Russian: Mother of God. We bow to icons not as God, but as St. images of Christ, Most Rev. Mother of God and St. pleasers. The honor of icons goes to the one whom it depicts; whoever worships an image worships what is depicted on it. As a sign of special reverence for God, the Mother of God and St. saints of God, depicted on St. icons, they are decorated with metal vestments, pure wax candles are placed in front of them, oil is burned and incense is burned. A burning candle and lighted oil in front of the icon mean our love for the Lord, Most Holy. Theotokos and St. saints of God depicted on icons. Venting before icons, in addition to reverence, serves as a sign of offering our prayers to God and St. His saints. May my prayer be corrected, like incense before You! This is how a Christian prays to God together with the entire Church.

The place elevated by several steps between the choirs is called salty. Pulpit on the solea it is arranged opposite the royal doors for the offering of litanies and the reading of St. gospel; This is also where teachings are given. The pulpit resembles the stone of the Holy Sepulcher and an angel sitting on the stone preaching about the resurrection of Christ. No one stands on the pulpit except those ordained to the priesthood.

Banners are erected near the choirs, which signify the victory of Christianity over idolatry. They have become part of every Orthodox church since the time of the Roman Tsar, Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine, when the Christian faith was declared free from persecution.

Of the sacred vessels, the following are of greater significance: chalice And paten. Both are used during the liturgy during the celebration of the sacrament of communion. From the chalice we are honored by means of a spoon to receive the body and blood of Christ under the guise of bread and wine. The chalice resembles that St. the cup from which the Lord communed with His disciples at the Last Supper.

The paten, usually visible to us on the head of the deacon during the liturgy, when the saints are transferred. gifts from the altar to St. throne. Since part of the prosphora, or a lamb, is placed on the paten, in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ, the paten depicts either the manger in which the born Savior was laid, or the Holy Sepulcher, in which the most pure body of our Lord lay after death.

The chalice and paten are at one time covered with covers made of brocade or silk. So that the cover, which during the liturgy relies on the paten, does not touch the lamb and other parts of the prosphora, is placed on the paten star, reminiscent of that wonderful star that was visible at the birth of the Savior.

For the communion of Christians with the body and blood of Christ it is used liar.

Copy, by which St. the lamb and parts are taken out from other prosphoras, resembles the spear with which the body of our Savior was pierced on the cross.

Sponge(walnut) is used for wiping the paten and chalice after consuming St. gifts. It resembles the sponge that Jesus Christ was given to drink on the cross.

Divine services of the Orthodox Church in ancient times were performed throughout the day nine times, that’s why there were all nine church services: ninth hour, vespers, compline, midnight office, matins, first hour, third and sixth hours, and mass. Currently, for the convenience of Orthodox Christians, who do not have the opportunity to visit the temples of God so often due to home activities, these nine services are combined into three church services: Vespers, Matins and Mass. Each individual service includes three church services: at vespers the ninth hour, vespers and compline entered; Matins consists of Midnight Office, Matins and the first hour; mass begins at the third and sixth hours and then the liturgy itself is celebrated. For hours These are short prayers, during which psalms and other prayers appropriate for these times of the day are read for mercy on us sinners.

The liturgical day begins in the evening on the basis that at the creation of the world there was first evening, and then morning. After vespers Usually the service in the church is dedicated to a holiday or saint, whose remembrance is performed on the next day according to the arrangement in the calendar. On every day of the year, either some event from the earthly life of the Savior and the Mother of God or one of the saints is remembered. saints of God. In addition, each day of the week is dedicated to a special memory. On Sunday a service is held in honor of the risen Savior; on Monday we pray to St. angels, on Tuesday is remembered in the prayers of St. John, the Forerunner of the Lord, on Wednesday and Friday a service is held in honor of the life-giving cross of the Lord, on Thursday - in honor of St. Apostles and St. Nicholas, on Saturday - in honor of all saints and in memory of all departed Orthodox Christians.

The evening service is held to thank God for the past day and to ask for God's blessing for the coming night. Vespers consists of three services. Read first ninth hour in memory of the death of Jesus Christ, which the Lord accepted according to our reckoning of time at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and according to the Jewish reckoning of time at 9 o’clock in the afternoon. Then the most evening service, and is accompanied by Compline, or a series of prayers that Christians read after the evening, at nightfall.

Matins begins midnight office which took place in ancient times at midnight. Ancient Christians came to the temple at midnight to pray, expressing their faith in the second coming of the Son of God, who, according to the belief of the Church, would come at night. After the Midnight Office, Matins itself is immediately performed, or a service during which Christians thank God for the gift of sleep to calm the body and ask the Lord to bless the affairs of every person and help people spend the coming day without sin. Joins Matins first hour. This service is so called because it departs after the morning, at the beginning of the day; behind it, Christians ask God to direct our lives to fulfill God’s commandments.

Mass begins with reading the 3rd and 6th hours. Service three o'clock reminds us how the Lord, at the third hour of the day, according to the Jewish account of time, and according to our account at the ninth hour of the morning, was led to trial before Pontius Pilate, and how the Holy Spirit at this time of the day, by His descent in the form of tongues of fire, enlightened the apostles and strengthened them for the feat of preaching about Christ. Service of the sixth The hour is so called because it reminds us of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ on Golgotha, which according to the Jewish reckoning was at 6 o'clock in the afternoon, and according to our reckoning at 12 o'clock in the afternoon. After hours, mass is celebrated, or liturgy.

In this order, divine services are performed on weekdays; but on some days of the year this order changes, for example: on the days of the Nativity of Christ, Epiphany, on Maundy Thursday, on Good Friday and Great Saturday and on Trinity Day. On Christmas and Epiphany Eve watch(1st, 3rd and 9th) are performed separately from mass and are called royal in memory of the fact that our pious kings are in the habit of coming to this service. On the eve of the holidays of the Nativity of Christ, the Epiphany of the Lord, on Maundy Thursday and on Holy Saturday, mass begins with Vespers and is therefore celebrated from 12 noon. Matins on the feasts of Christmas and Epiphany are preceded by Great Compline. This is evidence that the ancient Christians continued their prayers and singing throughout the night on these great holidays. On Trinity Day, after mass, Vespers is immediately celebrated, during which the priest reads touching prayers to the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Holy Trinity. And on Good Friday, according to the charter of the Orthodox Church, to strengthen the fast, there is no mass, but after hours, performed separately, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, vespers is served, after which the funeral service is carried out from the altar to the middle of the church shroud Christ, in remembrance of the taking down of the body of the Lord from the cross by the righteous Joseph and Nicodemus.

During Lent, on all days except Saturday and Sunday, the location of church services is different than on weekdays throughout the year. Departs in the evening Great Compline, on which in the first four days of the first week the touching canon of St. Andrei Kritsky (mephimons). Served in the morning Matins, according to its rules, similar to ordinary, everyday matins; in the middle of the day the 3rd, 6th and 9th are read watch, and joins them vespers. This service is usually called for hours.

Most often during worship we hear litanies pronounced by a deacon or priest. A litany is a drawn-out, fervent prayer to the Lord God for our needs. Litany four: great, small, severe and supplicant.

The litany is called great by the number of petitions with which we turn to the Lord God; Each petition ends with singing on the choir: Lord have mercy!

The Great Litany begins with the words: let us pray to the Lord in peace. With these words, the priest invites believers to pray to the Lord, making peace with everyone, as the Lord commands.

The following petitions of this litany read as follows: Let us pray to the Lord for peace from above and the salvation of our souls, i.e. about peace with God, which we have lost as a result of our grave sins, with which we offend Him, our Benefactor and Father.

Let us pray to the Lord for the peace of the whole world, for the welfare of God’s holy churches and the unity of all; With these words we ask God to send us harmony, friendship among ourselves, so that we avoid quarrels and enmities that are contrary to God, so that no one offends the churches of God, and so that all non-Orthodox Christians who have separated from the Orthodox Church unite with it.

About this holy temple, and those who enter it with faith, reverence and fear of God(in that) Let's pray to the Lord. Here we pray for the temple in which the service is performed; It must be remembered that the Holy Church deprives of its prayers those who immodestly and inattentively enter and stand in the temple of God.

About the Most Holy Governing Synod, and about His Eminence(Name), Let us pray to the Lord for honorable presbytery, deaconship in Christ, for all the clergy and people. The Holy Synod is a meeting of archpastors who are entrusted with the care of the Orthodox Greek-Russian Church. Presbytery is the name of the priesthood - priests; diaconate - deacons; The church clergy are the clergy who sing and read in the choir.

Then we pray for the Sovereign Emperor and His Consort, the Empress
Empress, and about to all the Royal House, that the Lord subdue all our enemies to our Sovereign, scold those who want.

Man's sin not only removed him from God, destroying all the faculties of his soul, but also left its dark traces in all surrounding nature. We pray in the Great Litany for the blessing of the air, for the abundance of the fruits of the earth, for times of peace, for those floating, traveling, sick, suffering, captives, for delivering us from anger and from all needs.

When listing our needs, we call on Our Lady and all the saints for help and express to God our devotion to Him in these words : our most holy, most pure, most blessed, glorious Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, with all the saints, remembering ourselves and each other, and our whole life ( life) Let us surrender to Christ God!

The litany ends with the exclamation of the priest: for all glory is due to You and so on.

The Small Litany begins with the words: packs(again) and let us pray to the Lord again in peace and consists of the first and last petition of the great litany.

The special litany begins with the words: everyone smiles, i.e. Let's say everything, with all our hearts and with all our thoughts. What we will say is complemented by the singers, namely: Lord have mercy!

The name “pure” was given to this litany because after the petition of the priest or deacon it is sung three times: Lord have mercy! Only after the first two requests Lord have mercy! sung once at a time. This litany begins once after Vespers and once after Matins with the third petition: have mercy on us, God! The last petition in the special litany reads like this: We also pray for those who are fruitful and virtuous in this holy and all-honorable temple, those who work, sing and stand before us, expecting great and rich mercy from You. In the first times of Christianity, pilgrims brought various aids to the Church of God for church services and divided them among the poor people; they also took care of the temple of God: these were fruit bearing And virtuous. Now zealous Christians can do no less good through brotherhoods, guardianships, and shelters, established in many places at the churches of God. The toiling, the singing…. These are people who care about the splendor of the church through their work, as well as through intelligible reading and singing.

There is also Litany of Petition, so called because most of the petitions in it end with the words: we ask the Lord. The chorus answers: give it, Lord! In this litany we ask: day of all things perfect, holy, peaceful and sinless - the angel is peaceful ( not formidable, giving peace to our souls), faithful mentor ( guiding us to salvation), guardian of our souls and bodies - forgiveness and forgiveness of sins and transgressions ( falls caused by our inattention and absent-mindedness) ours, - kind and useful to our souls and the world, - the rest of our life in peace and repentance, - Christian death(bring true repentance and receive Holy Communion ) painless ( without severe suffering, with preservation of a sense of self-awareness and memory), not shameful(not shameful) peaceful(characteristic of pious people who part with this life with a peaceful conscience and a calm spirit) and a good answer at the terrible judgment of Christ. After the exclamation, the priest, turning to the people with a blessing, says: peace to all! That is, let there be peace and harmony between all people. The choir responds with mutual goodwill, saying: and to your spirit, i.e. We wish the same for your soul.

Deacon's exclamation: bow your heads to the Lord reminds us that all believers are committed to bowing their heads in submission to God. At this time, the priest, through prayer read secretly, brings down the blessing of God from the throne of grace to those who are coming; therefore, whoever does not bow his head before God is deprived of His grace.

If the litany of petition is read at the end of Vespers, then it begins with the words: let us fulfill our evening prayer to the Lord, and if it is said at the end of Matins, then it begins with the words: Let us fulfill our morning prayer to the Lord.

At Vespers and Matins various sacred songs are sung, called stichera. Depending on the time of the service the stichera are sung, they are called stichera I cried to the Lord or stichera on a poem, sung at Vespers after the litany of petition, if there is no litia; also called stichera laudable; which are usually sung before great doxology.

Troparion there is a sacred song, in brief but powerful terms, reminding us of either the history of the holiday or the life and deeds of the saint; sung at vespers after Now you let go, after the morning after God the Lord and appear to us... and reads on the clock after the psalms.

Kontakion has the same content with the troparion; read after song 6 and on the clock after the Lord's Prayer: Our Father…

Prokeimenon. This is the name of a short verse from a psalm, which is sung in the choir several times alternately, for example: The Lord reigns, clothed in beauty(i.e. Dressed in splendor). Prokeimenon sung after The light is quiet and at Matins before the Gospel, and at Mass before readings from the books of the Apostles.

On Sundays and holidays, a special service to God is performed in the evening (and in other places in the morning), usually called the all-night vigil, or all-night vigil.

This service is called so because in ancient times it began in the evening and ended in the morning, therefore, the entire pre-holiday night was spent by believers in church in prayer. And nowadays there are such saints. monastery, where the all-night vigil continues for about six hours from its beginning.

The custom of Christians to spend the night in prayer is very ancient. The apostles, partly following the example of the Savior, Who more than once in His earthly life used the night time for prayer, partly out of fear of their enemies, had prayer meetings at night. The first Christians, fearing persecution by idolaters and Jews, prayed at night on holidays and days of remembrance of martyrs in country caves, or so-called catacombs.

The All-Night Vigil depicts the history of the salvation of the human race through the coming to earth of the Son of God and consists of three parts, or sections: Vespers, Matins and the first hour.

The beginning of the all-night vigil takes place like this: the royal doors are opened, the priest with a censer and the deacon with a candle cense the St. altar; then the deacon speaks from the pulpit: arise, God bless! The priest says: glory to the holy, consubstantial, life-giving and indivisible Trinity always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Then the priest calls on the faithful to worship Christ the King and our God; The singers sing selected passages from Psalm 103: Bless the Lord, my soul... Lord my God, you are greatly exalted ( i.e. Very) ... There will be waters on the mountains... Wonderful are Your works, O Lord! With wisdom you have created all things!...Glory to Thee, O Lord, who created all things. Meanwhile, the priest and the deacon, having censed the altar, go around the entire church with a censer and cense St. icons and worshipers; after this, towards the end of the singing of Psalm 103, they enter the altar, and the royal doors are closed.

This singing and the actions of the priest and the deacon before they enter the altar remind us of the creation of the world and the happy life of the first people in paradise. The closing of the royal doors depicts the expulsion of the first people from paradise for the sin of disobedience to God; The litany, which the deacon says after closing the royal doors, recalls the joyless life of our forefathers outside paradise and our constant need for God's help.

After the litany, we hear the singing of the first psalm of King David: Blessed is the man who does not follow the counsel of the wicked, and the way of the wicked will perish, work(serve) Fear the Lord and rejoice in Him with trembling; Blessed are all who hope nan ( on him) . Arise, Lord, save me, my God; Salvation is the Lord's, and Your blessing is upon Your people.. Selected passages from this psalm are sung in order to depict both the sorrowful thoughts of our forefather Adam on the occasion of his fall, and the advice and admonitions with which our forefather Adam addresses his descendants in the words of King David. Each verse from this psalm is separated by an angelic doxology hallelujah what does it mean from Hebrew praise God.

After the small litany, two touching prayers are sung to the Lord God: Lord, I called to You, hear me. Hear me, Lord, Lord, I have cried to You, hear me; Hear the voice of my prayer, always cry to You, hear me, Lord! ( Psalm. 140)

May my prayer be corrected as incense before You, the lifting of my hand as an evening sacrifice. Hear me, Lord!

May my prayer come like incense before You; the raising of my hands shall be the evening sacrifice. Hear me, Lord!

This singing reminds us that without God’s help it is difficult for a person to live on earth; he constantly needs God's help, which we remove from ourselves by our sins.

When those who follow the singing sing Lord I cried prayers called stichera, is accomplished evening entrance.

It is performed as follows: during the last stichera in honor of the Mother of God, the royal doors are opened, first the candle-bearer with a burning candle leaves the altar with a burning candle, then the deacon with a censer and the priest. The deacon censes St. icons of the iconostasis, and the priest stands on the pulpit. After singing the Theotokos hymn, the deacon stands at the royal doors and, depicting the cross as a censer, proclaims: wisdom, forgive me! The singers respond with the following touching song of the holy martyr Athenogenes, who lived in the 2nd century after Christ:

Quiet light of holy glory, Immortal Father in heaven, Holy, Blessed, Jesus Christ! Having come to the west of the sun, having seen the evening light, we sing of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit of God. Thou art worthy at all times to sing the voices of reverends, O Son of God, giving life: with the same the world glorifies Thee.

The quiet light of the holy glory, the Immortal Father in heaven, Jesus Christ! Having reached sunset, having seen the evening light, we sing praises to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit of God. You, Son of God, life giver, are worthy to be sung at all times by the voices of the saints. Therefore the world glorifies You.

What does the evening entrance signify? Taking out the candle means the appearance before the coming of Christ by St. John the Baptist, whom the Lord Himself called lamp. The priest, during the evening entrance, depicts the Savior who came into the world to atone for the guilt of man before the Lord. Deacon's words: wisdom forgive me! They instill in us that we must, with special attention, standing observe sacred actions, praying to the Lord to forgive us all our sins.

While singing The light is quiet the priest enters the altar, kisses St. throne and stands on a high place, turning his face to the people. With this action he depicts the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven and His enthronement in all glory over the world, therefore the singers follow the singing The light is quiet sing: The Lord reigned and clothed himself with beauty, i.e. That Jesus Christ, after His ascension, reigned over the world and was clothed in beauty. This verse is taken from the psalms of King David and is called the prokeemne; it is always sung on Sunday. On other days of the week, other prokeimnas are sung, also taken from the Psalms of David.

After the prokemna, on the twelfth and Mother of God holidays and on holidays in honor of the holy saints of God, especially those revered by us, we read proverbs, or small three readings from the books of the Old and New Testaments appropriate for the holidays. Before each proverb the exclamation of the deacon wisdom indicates the important content of what is being read, and with the deacon’s exclamation let's remember! It is suggested that we should be attentive while reading and not be mentally entertained by foreign objects.

Litiya and blessing of the loaves

Following the strict and petitionary litanies, sometimes on more solemn holidays a litany and blessing of the loaves are performed.

This part of the all-night service is performed as follows: the priest and deacon leave the altar to the western part of the church; in the choir the stichera of the holiday are sung, and after them the deacon prays for the Sovereign Emperor, the Sovereign Empress and for the entire Reigning House, for the diocesan bishop and all Orthodox Christians, that the Lord will preserve us all from troubles and misfortunes. The litia is celebrated on the western side of the temple in order to announce the holiday to the penitents and catechumens, who usually stand in the vestibule, about the holiday and to pray with them for them. Here is the reason to pray for the lithium about every Christian soul that is in sorrow and grief, in need of God's mercy and help. Litia also reminds us of the ancient religious processions that the leading Christians performed during public disasters at night for fear of being persecuted by the pagans.

After the lithium after the stichera sung on poetry, after the dying song of Simeon the God-Receiver, and when the troparion of the holiday is sung three times, the blessing of the loaves is performed. In the first times of Christianity, when the all-night vigil continued until dawn, to strengthen the strength of those praying, the priest blessed bread, wine and oil and distributed them to those present. As a reminder of this time and for the sanctification of the faithful, and at the present time the priest prays over the 5 loaves, wheat, wine and oil and asks God to multiply them and so that the Lord sanctifies the faithful who eat from these loaves and wine. Oil (oil), consecrated at this time, is used to anoint those praying during the all-night vigil, and wheat is used for food. The five loaves consecrated on this occasion are reminiscent of the miracle that the Lord performed during His life on earth, when He fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves.

The first part of the all-night vigil ends with the words of the priest: The blessing of the Lord be upon you, by grace and love for mankind always, now and ever and unto ages of ages, amen.

At this time there is a ringing sound, reminiscent of the end of Vespers and the beginning of the second part of the All-Night Vigil.

The second part of the All-Night Vigil is Matins, following Vespers. It begins with a joyful song of angels on the occasion of the Nativity of Christ: glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Behind it is read the Six Psalm, which contains six psalms of King David, in which this pious king prays to God to cleanse people from the sins with which we offend God every minute, despite His constant providence for us. During the reading of the Six Psalms, the priest, first in the altar and then on the pulpit, prays to God to send God’s mercy to people. The priest's humble exit from the altar to the pulpit indicates the quiet, solitary life of the Lord Jesus in Nazareth, from which He only occasionally came to Jerusalem to pray during the holidays. The Six Psalms ends with an exclamation in honor of the Triune God: Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, glory to You, O God!

After the great litany, pronounced during the Six Psalms, a verse from the psalms of King David is sung four times: God is the Lord and has appeared to us, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, indicating the appearance of the Savior to people as a Teacher and Wonderworker.

Then the troparion of the holiday is sung and two kathismas are read.

Kathismas- these are the sections of the psalms of the king and the prophet David, which are the sections in Psalm 20. These sections of the psalms are called kathisma, because while reading them, those praying in the church are allowed to sit. Word kathisma from Greek it means seat. Each day a different kathisma is read, so that over the course of a week the entire psalter is read.

After each kathisma, a small litany is pronounced by the clergyman. Then the most solemn part of the all-night vigil begins, called polyeleos much mercy, or a lot of oil. The royal doors open, large candles in front of St. The icons that were extinguished during the reading of the sixth psalm and kathisma are rekindled, and a song of praise to God from Psalms 134 and 135 is sung on the choir: Praise the name of the Lord, praise the servants of the Lord, hallelujah! Blessed be the Lord from Zion(where in ancient times there was a tabernacle and a temple) alive in Jerusalem, hallelujah! Confess to the Lord ( confess your sins) as good ( because He is good) for His mercy endures forever, hallelujah! Confess to the God of heaven that He is good, that His mercy endures forever, hallelujah! The priest and the deacon perform censing throughout the church. The opened royal gates signify to us that an angel has rolled away the stone from the Holy Sepulcher, from where a new eternal life has shone for us, full of spiritual joy and joy. The clergy walking around the church with a censer reminds us of St. the myrrh-bearers who went to the tomb of the Lord on the night of the resurrection of Christ to anoint the body of the Lord, but received joyful news from an angel about the resurrection of Christ.

On Sundays, after singing the laudatory verses of Psalms 134 and 135, in order to better impress upon those praying the thought of the resurrection of Christ, troparia are sung, in which the reason for our joy about the resurrection of Christ is expressed. Each troparion begins with words glorifying the Lord: blessed art thou, Lord, teach me by thy justification(i.e., Your Commandments). The Sunday polyeleos ends with the reading of St. Gospel about one of the appearances of the risen Savior. The Holy Gospel is carried into the middle of the church, and the believers kiss the Holy Gospel. the Gospel, having (at the same time) in mind all the benefits of the risen Lord. At this time, the choir sings a song of invitation to worship the resurrection of Christ:

Having seen the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the Holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless one. We worship Your Cross, O Christ, and we sing and glorify Your holy resurrection: for You are our God; isn't it(except) We don’t know anything else for You, we call Your name. Come, all the faithful, let us worship the Holy Resurrection of Christ. Xie(Here) For joy has come to the whole world through the cross, always blessing the Lord, we sing His resurrection: having endured crucifixion, destroy death through death.

The polyeleos on the twelfth feasts and feast days of the holy saints of God differs from the Sunday polyeleos in that after the laudatory verses of Psalms 134 and 135, the clergy go to the middle of the temple, where the icon of the holiday is placed on a lectern, and a magnification is sung, with verses in honor of St. the myrrh-bearing women are not sung. The Gospel is read, having application to the day of the holiday; worshipers in the temple kiss St. the icon on the analogue and are anointed with the oil consecrated during the litia, but not St. peace, as some in ignorance call this oil.

After reading the Gospel and a prayer to the Lord God for mercy on us sinners, usually read by a deacon before the icon of the Savior, we sing canon, or a rule for glorifying God and the saints and for asking for God’s mercy through the prayers of God’s holy saints. The canon consists of 9 sacred songs, modeled after those Old Testament songs that were sung by righteous people, starting with the prophet Moses and ending with the parent of the Baptist John, the priest Zechariah. Every song is sung at the beginning irmos(in Russian - connection), and at the end confusion(in Russian - convergence). Name of the song chaos accepted because, according to the regulations, both choirs come together to sing it. The content of irmos and katavasia is taken from those songs on the model of which the entire canon is compiled.

Song 1 is modeled after the song that the prophet Moses sang after the miraculous passage of the Jewish people through the Red Sea.

2 the song is modeled after the song that the prophet Moses sang before his death. With this song the prophet wanted to incite the Jewish people to repentance; like a song repentance, according to the charter of the Orthodox Church, is sung only during Great Lent. At other times, after the first song in the canon, the third song immediately follows.

3 song is modeled after the song sung by the righteous Anna after the birth of her son Samuel, a prophet and wise judge of the Jewish people.

Song 4 is modeled after the song of the prophet Habakkuk.

Song 5 of the canon contains thoughts taken from the song of the prophet Isaiah.

6 the song is reminiscent of the song of the prophet Jonah, which he sang when he was miraculously delivered from the belly of the whale.

The 7th and 8th songs are modeled after the song sung by the three Jewish youths after their miraculous deliverance from the kindled Babylonian furnace.

After the 8th song of the canon, the song of the Mother of God is sung, divided into several verses, after which the song is chanted: The most honorable cherub and the most glorious seraphim without comparison, without corruption(disease) Who gave birth to God the Word, the real Mother of God, we magnify You.

9. The song contains thoughts taken from the song of the priest Zechariah, which he sang after the birth of his son, the Forerunner of the Lord John.

In ancient times, Matins ended with the onset of day, and after the singing of the canon and the reading of Psalms 148, 149 and 150, in which St. King David enthusiastically invites all nature to glorify the Lord, the priest thanks God for the light that has appeared. Glory to You, who showed us the light, says the priest, turning to the throne of God. The choir sings great a praise to the Lord, beginning and ending with the song of St. angels.

Matins, the second part of the all-night vigil, ends with a deep and petitionary litany and dismissal, usually pronounced by the priest from the open royal doors.

Then the first hour is read - the third part of the all-night vigil; it ends with a song of thanksgiving in honor of the Mother of God, composed by the inhabitants of Constantinople for their deliverance through the intercession of the Mother of God from the Persians and Avars who attacked Greece in the seventh century.

To the chosen victorious Voivode, for having been delivered from the evil ones, let us sing thanksgiving to Thy servants, the Mother of God. But as you have an invincible power, free us from all troubles, and let us call to You: Rejoice, unmarried Bride.

To You, who prevails in battle (or war), we, Your servants, the Mother of God, offer songs of victory (solemnity), and as those delivered by You from evil, songs of gratitude. And you, as having invincible power, deliver us from all troubles, so that we cry to you: Rejoice, Bride, who has no groom among men.

Liturgy, or mass, is a divine service during which the sacrament of St. communion and a bloodless sacrifice is offered to the Lord God for living and dead people.

The sacrament of communion was established by the Lord Jesus Christ. On the eve of His suffering on the cross and death, the Lord was pleased to celebrate the Easter supper together with His 12 disciples in Jerusalem, in memory of the miraculous exit of the Jews from Egypt. When this Passover was celebrated, the Lord Jesus Christ took leavened wheat bread, blessed it and, distributing it to the disciples, said: Take, eat: this is My body, which was broken for you for the remission of sins. Then he took a cup of red wine and, giving it to the disciples, said: drink of it, all of you: this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins. After that the Lord added : Do this in My remembrance.

After the Lord’s ascension, His disciples and followers carried out His will exactly. They spent time in prayer, reading divine scriptures and receiving Holy Communion. the body and blood of the Lord, or something similar, performed the liturgy. The most ancient and original order of the liturgy is attributed to St. to the Apostle James, the first bishop of Jerusalem. Until the fourth century after the Nativity of Christ, the liturgy was performed without being written down by anyone, but the order of its celebration was passed on from bishop to bishop and from them to the presbyters, or priests. In the fourth century St. Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea of ​​Cappadocia for his spiritual wisdom and works for the benefit of St. Church of Christ nicknamed Great, wrote down the order of the liturgy as it came down from the apostles. Since the prayers in the Liturgy of Basil the Great, usually read secretly in the altar by the performer, are long, and as a result of this the singing was slow, then St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, called Chrysostom for his eloquence, noticing that many Christians did not stand through the entire liturgy, shortened these prayers, which made the liturgy shorter. But the liturgy of Basil the Great and the liturgy of John Chrysostom in their essence do not differ from one another. The Holy Church, condescending to the weaknesses of the believers, decided to celebrate the Liturgy of Chrysostom throughout the year, and the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is celebrated on those days when we need intense prayer on our part for mercy on us. So, this last liturgy is celebrated on 5 Sundays of Great Lent, except for Palm Sunday, on Thursday and Saturday of Holy Week, on Christmas Eve and Epiphany Eve and in memory of St. Basil the Great, January 1, upon entering the new year of life.

Chrysostom's Liturgy consists of three parts that have different names, although this division is during mass and is invisible to the person praying. 1) Proskomedia, 2) Liturgy of the Catechumens and 3) Liturgy of the Faithful - these are the parts of the mass. During the proskomedia, bread and wine are prepared for the sacrament. During the Liturgy of the Catechumens, the faithful, through their prayers and the clergy, prepare to participate in the sacrament of communion; During the Liturgy of the Faithful, the sacrament itself is celebrated.

Proskomedia is a Greek word, what does it mean? bringing. The first part of the liturgy is called so from the custom of ancient Christians to bring bread and wine to church to perform the sacrament. For the same reason this bread is called prosphora, which means from Greek offering. Five prosphoras are consumed at proskomedia in memory of the Lord’s miraculous feeding of 5,000 people with 5 loaves. Prosphoras are made in two parts in appearance in memory of the two natures in Jesus Christ, divine and human. At the top of the prosphora there is a depiction of St. a cross with the following words inscribed in its corners: Ic. Xp. neither. ka. These words mean Jesus Christ, the Conqueror of death and the devil; neither. ka. The word is Greek.

Proskomedia is performed as follows. The priest and the deacon, after praying in front of the royal doors for cleansing them from sins and for giving them strength for the upcoming service, enter the altar and put on all sacred clothes. The vesting ends with the washing of the hands as a sign of the spiritual and physical purity with which they begin to serve the liturgy.

Proskomedia is performed on the altar. The priest uses a copy of the prosphora to highlight the cubic portion required to perform the sacrament, with the recollection of prophecies relating to the Nativity of Christ and the suffering of Jesus Christ. This part of the prosphora is called the Lamb, because it represents the image of the suffering Jesus Christ, just as before the Nativity of Christ He was represented by the Passover lamb, which the Jews, by the command of God, slaughtered and ate in memory of deliverance from destruction in Egypt. The Holy Lamb is placed by the priest on the paten in memory of the saving death of Jesus Christ and is cut from below into four equal parts. Then the priest thrusts a spear into the right side of the Lamb and pours wine combined with water into the chalice in memory of the fact that when the Lord was on the cross, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and blood and water flowed out of the pierced side.

A Lamb is placed on the paten in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of heaven and earth. The church hymn sings: Where the King comes, there is His order. Therefore, the Lamb is surrounded by many particles taken from other prosphoras in honor and glory of the Most Holy Theotokos and the holy people of God, and in memory of all people, both living and dead.

The Queen of Heaven, the Most Holy Mother of God, is closest to the throne of God and constantly prays for us sinners; as a sign of this, from the second prosphora prepared for the proskomedia, the priest takes out a portion in memory of the Most Holy Theotokos and places it on the right side of the Lamb.

After this, on the left side of the Lamb are placed 9 parts taken from the 3rd prosphora in memory of 9 ranks of saints: a) John the Forerunner of the Lord, b) prophets, c) apostles, d) saints who served God in the rank of bishop, e) martyrs, f) saints who achieved holiness through life in St. monasteries and deserts, g) those without money who received from God the power to heal the illnesses of people, and for this they did not take a reward from anyone, h) the daily saints according to the calendar, and the saint whose liturgy is celebrated, Basil the Great or John Chrysostom. At the same time, the priest prays that the Lord, through the prayers of all the saints, will visit people.

From the fourth prosphora, parts are taken out for all Orthodox Christians, starting with the sovereign.

Parts are taken from the fifth prosphora and placed on the south side of the Lamb for all those who died in the faith of Christ and the hope of eternal life after death.

The prosphoras, from which parts were taken out to be placed on the paten, in memory of saints and Orthodox Christians, living and dead, are worthy of a reverent attitude on our part.

Church history presents us with many examples from which we see that Christians who reverently ate prosphora received sanctification and help from God in illnesses of soul and body. The Monk Sergius, being incomprehensible in the sciences as a child, through eating part of the prosphora given to him by one pious elder, became a very smart boy, so that he was ahead of all his comrades in the sciences. The history of the Solovetsky monks tells that when a dog wanted to swallow a prosphora lying accidentally on the road, fire came out of the ground and thereby saved the prosphora from the beast. This is how God protects His shrine and thereby shows that we should treat it with great reverence. You need to eat prosphora before other food.

It is very useful for them to remember the living and dead members of the Church of Christ during the proskomedia. The particles taken from the prosphora at the divine proskomedia for the commemorated souls are immersed in the life-giving blood of Christ, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all evil and is powerful to beg from God the Father for everything we need. Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, of blessed memory, once before he was preparing to serve the Liturgy, another time, just before the start of the Liturgy, they asked him to pray for some sick people. At the liturgy, he took out parts from the prosphora for these sick people, and they, despite the doctors’ sentence to death, recovered (“Soul Floor. Read.” 1869 Jan. Dept. 7, p. 90). St. Gregory the Dvoeslov tells how a deceased person appeared to a pious priest well-known in his time and asked to remember him at mass. To this request, the one who appeared added that if the sacred sacrifice alleviated his fate, then as a sign of this he would no longer appear to him. The priest fulfilled the demand, and no new appearance followed.

During the proskomedia, the 3rd and 6th hours are read to occupy the thoughts of those present in the church with prayer and remembrance of the saving power of the suffering and death of Christ.

When the commemoration is completed, the proskomedia ends with a star placed on the paten, and it and the chalice are covered with covers of a common veil, called air. At this time, the altar is censed and a prayer is read by the priest, so that the Lord will remember all those who brought their gifts of bread and wine to the proskomedia and those for whom they were offered.

Proskomedia reminds us of two main events in the life of the Savior: The Nativity of Christ and the Death of Christ.

Therefore, all the actions of the priest and the things used at the proskomedia recall both the Nativity of Christ and the death of Christ. The altar resembles both the Bethlehem cave and the Golgotha ​​burial cave. The paten marks both the manger of the born Savior and the Holy Sepulcher. The coverings and the air serve as a reminder of the swaddling clothes of both infants and those in which the deceased Savior was buried. The censing marks the incense brought by the Magi to the born Savior, and the aromas that were used were at the burial of the Lord by Joseph and Nicodemus. The star symbolizes the star that appeared at the birth of the Savior.

Believers prepare for the sacrament of communion during the second part of the liturgy, which is called Liturgy of the Catechumens. This part of the liturgy received this name because, in addition to those who are baptized and admitted to communion, catechumens are also allowed to listen to it, that is, those preparing for baptism and repentants who are not allowed to receive communion.

Immediately after the reading of the hours and the performance of the proskomedia, the liturgy of the catechumens begins with the glorification of the kingdom of the Most Holy Trinity. The priest in the altar to the words of the deacon: bless, lord, answers: blessed is the kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages, amen.

This is followed by the great litany. After it, on ordinary days, two pictorial psalms 142 and 145 are sung, separated by a small litany. These psalms are called figurative because they very clearly depict the mercies of God shown to us by the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. On the twelve feasts of the Lord, instead of pictorial psalms, they are sung antiphons. This is the name of those sacred songs from the psalms of King David that are sung alternately on both choirs. Antiphonal, i.e. countervoice, singing owes its origin to St. Ignatius the God-Bearer, who lived in the first century after the Nativity of Christ. This St. The apostolic husband in revelation heard how the angelic faces alternately sang in two choirs and, imitating the angels, established the same order in the Antiochian Church, and from there this custom spread throughout the entire Orthodox Church.

Antiphons - three in honor of St. Trinity. The first two antiphons are separated by small litanies.

On ordinary days after the second pictorial psalm, and on the twelve feasts of the Lord after the second antiphon, a touching song is sung to the Lord Jesus: The only begotten Son and Word of God, immortal, and willing for our salvation to be incarnate from the Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, immutably ( true ) become man, crucified, Christ God, trampling death by death, one of the Holy Trinity, glorified to the Father and the Holy Spirit, save us. This song was composed in the fifth century after the birth of Christ by the Greek emperor Justinian in refutation of the heresy of Nestorius, who wickedly taught that Jesus Christ was born an ordinary man, and the deity united with Him during baptism, and that therefore the Most Holy Mother of God is not, according to his false teaching, The Mother of God, but only the Mother of Christ.

When the 3rd antiphon is sung, and on ordinary days - when the Savior’s teaching on the beatitudes is read, or blessed, V. The royal doors open for the first time during the liturgy. Presenting a burning candle, the deacon carries through the northern door from the altar to the pulpit of St. Gospel and, asking the priest standing on the pulpit for a blessing to enter the altar, he says in the royal doors: wisdom, forgive me! This is how the small entrance is made. He reminds us of Jesus Christ, who appeared with the sermon of St. gospel. A candle carried before St. Gospel, marks St. John the Baptist, who prepared the people for the worthy acceptance of the God-man Christ, and whom the Lord Himself called: a lamp burning and shining. The open royal doors mean the gates of the heavenly kingdom, which opened before us along with the appearance of the Savior into the world. Deacon's words: wisdom, forgive me, mean to point us to the deep wisdom contained in St. Gospels. Word sorry invites believers to reverent standing and worship of the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, immediately after the deacon’s exclamation, the choir of singers convinces everyone to worship the Accomplisher of the salvation of the world. Come let's worship, the choir sings, and let us fall to Christ, save us, Son of God, singing Ti Alleluia. Anyone who responded to the call of St. would act frivolously. The Church would not respond with low worship of its great benefactor, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our pious ancestors, when singing this verse, all threw themselves to the ground, even our God-crowned All-Russian Sovereigns themselves.

After the troparion and kontakion for the holiday or holy day, the deacon at the local icon of the Savior prays: Lord save the pious and hear us. The pious are all Orthodox Christians, starting with the persons of the Royal House and the Holy Synod.

After this, the deacon stands at the royal doors and, turning to the people, says: and forever and ever. These words of the deacon complement the exclamation of the priest, who, blessing the deacon to give praise to God by singing the Trisagion, speaks before the words Lord save the pious exclamation: For Thou art holy, our God, and to Thee we send glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever. The deacon’s address to the people at this time indicates to all those praying for the time of singing the Trisagion hymn, which must be sung with silent lips and forever and ever!

The choir sings: Holy God, holy Mighty, holy Immortal, have mercy on us.

The origin of this sacred song is remarkable. There was a strong earthquake in the city of Constantinople; Believers performed prayer services in the open air. Suddenly one boy from the folk top was lifted into the sky by a storm, and there he heard the singing of St. angels who, glorifying the Holy Trinity, sang: Holy God, Holy Mighty(strong, omnipotent) holy immortal! Having descended unharmed, the boy announced his vision to the people, and the people began to repeat the angelic song and add have mercy on us, and the earthquake stopped. The described event happened in the fifth century under Patriarch Proclus, and from that time the Trisagion hymn was introduced into all services of the Orthodox Church.

On some days, such as Lazarus Saturday, Holy Saturday, Holy Week, Trinity Day, and the eves of Christmas and Epiphany, instead of the Trisagion, the words of the Apostle Paul are sung: Elites were baptized into Christ, put on Christ, hallelujah! This singing reminds us of the time of the primacy of the Church, when in these days the baptism of catechumens was performed, who converted from paganism and Judaism to the Orthodox faith of Christ. This was a long time ago, and this song is sung to this day, to remind us of the vows that we made to the Lord under St. baptism, do we fulfill them holyly and observe them. On the day of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord and during Great Lent on Sunday of the 4th week, the veneration of the cross, instead of the Trisagion, the following is sung: We bow to Your Cross, Master, and we glorify Your holy resurrection.

For the Trisagion Song; after the prokeme, there follows the reading of the apostolic epistles, with which they enlightened the world when they went around the entire universe to teach it the true faith in St. Trinity. Each of these shows that the apostolic preaching of the word of God filled the entire universe with the fragrance of Christ’s teaching and changed the air, infected and spoiled by idolatry. The priest sits at the high place, signifying Jesus Christ, who sent the apostles before Him to preach. Other people have no reason to sit at this time, except due to great weakness.

The reading of the divine works of Christ is offered to us from His gospel following the apostolic epistles, so that we learn to imitate Him and love our Savior for His ineffable love, like the children of our father. We must listen to the Holy Gospel with such great attention and reverence, as if we were seeing and listening to Jesus Christ Himself.

The royal doors, from which we heard the good news about our Lord Jesus Christ, are closed, and the deacon again invites us with a special litany to intense prayer to the God of our fathers.

The time is approaching for the celebration of the most holy sacrament of communion. The catechumens, as imperfect, cannot be present at this sacrament, and that is why they must soon leave the assembly of the faithful; but first the faithful pray for them, so that the Lord enlightened them with the word of truth and united them with His Church. When the deacon speaks about the catechumens during the litany: announcement, bow your heads to the Lord, then the faithful are not obliged to bow their heads. This address of the deacon directly applies to the catechumens, if they are standing in the church, as a sign that the Lord is blessing them. During the litany of the catechumens, it develops into St. on the throne there is an antimension necessary for the performance of the sacrament.

The command for the catechumens to leave the church ends the second part of the liturgy, or the liturgy of the catechumens.

The most important part of the mass begins - Liturgy of the Faithful when the King of kings and Lord of lords comes to sacrifice and eat food(food ) true. What a clear conscience everyone who prays needs to have at this time! Let all human flesh remain silent and stand with fear and trembling Such a great mood of prayer should be present in those praying.

After two short litanies, the royal doors open, the Church inspires us to become like St. angels in reverence for the shrine;

Even as the Cherubim secretly form, and the Life-giving Trinity sings the Trisagion, let us now put aside all worldly cares, so that we will raise up the King of all, invisibly delivered by the angels, alleluia!

Mysteriously depicting cherubim and chanting the Trisagion hymn to the Life-giving Trinity, let us put aside all concern for everyday things in order to raise the King of all, whom the angelic ranks invisibly carry, as if on spears (dori) with the song: Hallelujah!

This song is called the Cherubic song, both from its first initial words and because it ends with the song of the cherubim: allilia. Word Dorinoshima depicts a man who is guarded and accompanied by bodyguards-spearmen. Just as the kings of the earth are surrounded by warrior bodyguards in solemn processions, so the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Heaven, is served by ranks of angels, heavenly warriors.

In the midst of the Cherubic song, the so-called great entrance, or transferring those prepared at the proskomedia of St. gifts - bread and wine, from the altar to St. throne. The deacon carries the paten with St. on his head through the northern door. A lamb, and the priest a chalice of wine. At the same time, they remember in turn all Orthodox Christians, starting with the Sovereign Emperor. This commemoration is performed on the pulpit. Those standing in the temple, as a sign of respect to St. gifts that have been transformed into the true body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, bow their heads, praying to the Lord God that He will remember them and those close to them in His kingdom. This is done in imitation of the prudent thief, who, looking at the innocent suffering of Jesus Christ and, recognizing his sins before God, said: remember me, Lord, when you come into Your kingdom.

The Great Entrance reminds a Christian of the procession of Jesus Christ to free suffering and death for the sinful human race. When the liturgy is celebrated by several priests, during the great entrance they carry sacred objects that resemble the instruments of Christ’s suffering, for example: an altar cross, a spear, a sponge.

The Cherubic Hymn was introduced into the liturgy in 573 AD. Chr., under Emperor Justinian and Patriarch John Scholasticus. At the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great on Maundy Thursday, when the Church remembers the Last Supper of the Savior, instead of the Cherubic Song, a prayer is sung, usually read before the reception of St. Mysteries of Christ:

Your Last Supper is today(now) O Son of God, accept me as a partaker; for I will not tell the secret to Thy enemies.(I'll say) no kissing(kissing) I will give you, like Judas, like a thief, I will confess to you: remember me, Lord, in your kingdom. On Holy Saturday, instead of the Cherubim, a very touching and touching song is sung: Let all human flesh be silent, and let it stand with fear and trembling, and let nothing earthly in itself think: the King of kings and Lord of lords comes to sacrifice and be given as food (food) to the faithful; And before this came the faces of angels with all principality and power, many-eyed cherubs, and six-faced seraphim, covering their faces, and crying out the song: Alleluia. Angels by nature do not have either eyes or wings, but the name of some of the ranks of angels, many-eyed and six-winged, indicates that they can see far and have the ability to quickly move from one place to another. Beginnings and powers- these are angels appointed by God to protect those in authority - the leaders.

Holy gifts, after they are brought from the pulpit to the Holy. altar, supplied to St. throne. The royal doors are closed and covered with a curtain. These actions remind believers of the burial of the Lord in the garden handsome Joseph, closing the burial cave with a stone and placing guards at the tomb of the Lord. In accordance with this, the priest and deacon in this case depict the righteous Joseph and Nicodemus, who served the Lord at His burial.

After the litany of petition, the believers are invited by the deacon to unite in brotherly love: let us love one another, that we may be of one mind, i.e. Let us all express our faith with one thought. The choir, complementing what the deacon said, sings: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Trinity consubstantial and indivisible. In the ancient times of Christianity, when people really lived like brothers, when their thoughts were pure, and their feelings were holy and immaculate - in these good times, when the proclamation was pronounced let's love each other, the pilgrims standing in the temple kissed each other - men with men, and women with women. Then people lost their modesty, and St. The Church abolished this custom. Nowadays, if several priests serve mass, then in the altar at this time they kiss the chalice, paten and each other’s shoulder and hand, doing this as a sign of unanimity and love.

Then the priest takes away the curtain from the royal gates, and the deacon says: doors, doors, let us sing of wisdom! What do these words mean?

In the ancient Christian Church, during the divine liturgy, deacons and subdeacons (church ministers) stood at the doors of the Church of the Lord, who, upon hearing the words: doors, doors, let us sing of wisdom! No one should have been allowed into or out of the church, so that during these holy moments any of the infidels would not enter the church and so that there would be no noise or disorder from the entry and exit of worshipers in the temple of God. Recalling this wonderful custom, St. The Church teaches us that, hearing these words, we hold tightly the doors of our minds and hearts, so that nothing empty or sinful comes to mind, and something evil and unclean does not sink into our hearts. Let us reek of wisdom! these words are intended to arouse the attention of Christians to a meaningful reading of the creed, which is pronounced after this exclamation.

While singing the creed, the priest himself reads it quietly in the altar and, while reading, raises and lowers it (oscillates) air(veil) over St. cup and paten as a sign of the gracious presence of the Spirit of God over St. gifts.

When the creed is sung in the choir, the deacon addresses the praying people with the following words: Let us become kind, let us become fearful, let us bring holy offerings to the world, that is, we will stand decorously, we will stand with fear and we will be attentive, so that with a calm soul we offer the Lord a holy offering.

What an exaltation of St. Does the Church advise us to bring it with fear and reverence? The singers on the choir respond to this with the words: mercy of the world, sacrifice of praise. We must offer the Lord gifts of friendship and love and constant praise and glorification of His name.

Following this, the priest, being in the altar, addresses the people and gives them gifts from each person of the Holy Trinity: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, he says, and the love of God and the Father and the sacrament(presence) May the Holy Spirit be with you all! At this time, the priest blesses the believers with his hand, and they undertake to respond to this blessing with a bow and, together with the choir, say to the priest: and with your spirit. Those in the church seem to say this to the priest: and we wish your soul the same blessings from God!

The priest's exclamation: woe we have hearts, means that we all must direct our hearts from earth to God. Imams(we have) to the Lord our hearts, our feelings, - the praying people answer through the mouths of the singers.

In the words of the priest: thank the Lord, the sacrament of communion begins. The singers sing: it is worthy and righteous to worship the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, consubstantial and inseparable. The priest secretly reads a prayer and thanks the Lord for all His benefits to people. At this time, it is the duty of every Orthodox Christian to bow to the ground to express his gratitude to the Lord, since not only people praise the Lord, but angels glorify Him, the song of victory is singing, crying, calling and speaking.

At this time there is good news to the so-called worthy then, so that every Christian who for some reason cannot be in church, at the service of God, hearing the bell strikes, crosses himself and, if possible, makes several bows (whether at home, in the field, on the road - it doesn’t matter), remembering that in In the temple of God at these moments a great, holy action is taking place.

The song of the angels is called victorious as a sign of the Savior’s defeat of evil spirits, these ancient enemies of the human race. Angel song in heaven sung, chanted, invoked and spoken. These words denote the image of the singing of angels surrounding the throne of God, and indicate the vision of the prophet Ezekiel, described by him in the 1st chapter of his book. The Prophet saw the Lord sitting on a throne, which was supported by angels in the form of four animals: a lion, a calf, an eagle, a man. The one who sings here means the eagle, the one who cries - the calf, the one who calls - the lion, the one who speaks - the man.

To the exclamation of the priest: singing a song of victory, crying out, calling out and saying, the choir responds for all those praying by pointing to the words of the angels’ song itself: Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts, heaven and earth are filled with Your glory. The prophet Isaiah heard angels singing in this way when he saw the Lord on a throne high and exalted(6th chapter of the prophet Isa.). Pronouncing a word three times holy angels indicate the trinity of persons in God: Lord of Hosts- this is one of the names of God and means the Lord of the forces, or heavenly armies. Heaven and earth are filled with Your glory, that is heaven and earth are full of the glory of the Lord. The song of the angels, these heavenly singers of the glory of God, is joined by a human song of praise - the song with which the Jews met and accompanied the Lord when He had a solemn entry into Jerusalem: Hosanna in the highest(save us, you who live in heaven), blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest!

Following this, the priest pronounces the words of the Lord spoken to him at the Last Supper: take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you(suffering) for the remission of sins. Drink of it, all of you, this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.. By pronouncing the word twice by those praying Amen we express before the Lord that indeed at the Last Supper the bread and wine given by the Lord were the true body of Christ and the true blood of the Lord.

The most important action begins in the last (3) part of the liturgy. At the altar, the priest takes the paten in his right hand, the chalice in his left and, raising the holy gifts, proclaims: Yours from Yours offering to You for everyone and for everything. These words of the priest have the following meaning: To you, the Lord God, we offer Yours gifts, that is, bread and wine, given to us by You about all people living and dead and for all good deeds. In response to this proclamation, the choir sings to the Holy Trinity: We sing to You, we bless You, we thank You, O Lord, and we pray to You, our God. At this time, the priest, with the raising of his hands, prays that the Lord God the Father (the first person of the Holy Trinity) would send down the Holy Spirit (the third person of the Holy Trinity) on himself and on St. our gifts, bread and wine. Then, blessing St. bread, says to God the Father: and make therefore this bread the venerable body of Thy Christ; blessing St. cup, he says : And in this cup is the precious blood of Thy Christ: blessing the bread and wine together, he says: changed by Your Holy Spirit, Amen, three times. From this moment, bread and wine cease to be ordinary substances and, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, become the true body and true blood of the Savior; only types of bread and wine remain. Consecration of St. gifts are accompanied by a great miracle for a believer. At this time, according to St. Chrysostom, angels descend from heaven and serve God before St. His throne. If the angels, the purest spirits, reverently stand before the throne of God, then the people standing in the temple, every minute offending God with their sins, at these moments must intensify their prayers so that the Holy Spirit will dwell in them and cleanse them from all sinful filth.

After the consecration of the gifts, the priest secretly thanks God that He accepts for us the prayers of all the holy people, who constantly cry out to God about our needs.

At the end of this prayer, the touching song of the clergy I'll eat for you ends, the priest says out loud to all those praying: a lot about our Most Holy, Most Pure, Most Blessed, Most Glorious Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. With these words, the priest calls on those praying to glorify the ever-present prayer book for us before the throne of God - the Queen of Heaven, Most Holy. Mother of God. The choir sings: It is worthy that we truly bless Thee, the Mother of God, ever-blessed and most immaculate, and the Mother of our God, the most honorable cherub and the most glorious seraphim without comparison, who gave birth to God the Word without corruption, the real Mother of God, we magnify Thee. In this song the Queen of heaven and earth is called blessed, since She, having been honored to be the Mother of the Lord, became a constant subject of praise and glorification for Christians. We magnify the Mother of God immaculate for Her spiritual purity from all sinful defilement. Further in this song we call the Mother of God the most honest cherub and the most glorious without comparison seraphim, because She, in quality as the Mother of God, surpasses the highest angels - cherubim and seraphim - in closeness to God. The Holy Virgin Mary is glorified as having given birth to God the Word without decay in the sense that She, both before birth, during birth and after birth, remained forever virgin, which is why it is called Ever-Virgin.

During the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great instead worthy another song is sung in honor of the Mother of God: Every creature rejoices in You, O full of grace.(creation), angelic council, and the human race and so on. The creator of this song is St. John of Damascus, presbyter of the monastery of St. Savva the Sanctified, who lived in the 8th century. On the twelve feasts and on the days of Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday, to the exclamation of the priest: a lot about the Most Holy, Irmos 9 songs of the festive canon are sung.

While singing these songs in honor of the Mother of God, believers, together with the clergyman, remember deceased relatives and friends, so that the Lord may rest their souls and forgive them their voluntary and involuntary sins; and the living members of the Church are remembered by us when the priest exclaims: first remember, Lord, the Holy Governing Synod and so on, that is, the shepherds who govern the Orthodox Christian Church. The clergy responds to these words of the priest by singing: and everyone and everything, that is, remember, Lord, all Orthodox Christians, husbands and wives.

Our prayer for the living and the dead has the highest power and meaning during the liturgy at this time, because we ask the Lord to accept it for the sake of the bloodless sacrifice that has just been performed.

After the priest said aloud the prayer that the Lord would help us all glorify God with one mouth, and the good wishes of the priest, so that the mercy of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ has never ceased for us, - the deacon pronounces a litany of petition. We pray to God together with the priest, that the Lord would accept the offered and consecrated gifts, like the smell of incense on His heavenly altar, and send down to us His divine grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit. This prayer is joined by other petitions to God for the gift of everything necessary for our temporary and eternal life.

At the end of the litany, after a brief prayer from the priest for the granting of courage (boldness) to cry out to the heavenly God and Father without condemnation, the singers sing the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father and so on. As a sign of the importance of the petitions contained in the Lord’s Prayer, and to signify the awareness of their unworthiness, everyone present in the church at this moment bows to the ground, and the deacon girds himself with an orar for the convenience of communion, and also depicting with this action angels covering their faces with wings in reverence to St. secrets.

After the exclamation of the priest, there come minutes of remembrance of the Last Supper of the Savior with His disciples, suffering, death and burial. The royal doors are closed with a curtain. The deacon, awakening the worshipers to reverence, says: let's remember! And the priest in the altar, lifting St. The lamb over the paten says: holy of holies! These words inspire us that only those who have been cleansed of all sins are worthy of receiving the Holy Mysteries. But since none of the people can recognize themselves as pure from sin, the singers answer the priest’s exclamation: there is one holy, one Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father, amen. The Lord Jesus Christ alone is sinless; He, by His mercy, can make us worthy of receiving Holy Communion. Tain.

The singers sing either whole psalms or parts of them, and the clergy receive St. secrets, eating the body of Christ separately from the Divine blood, as was the case at the Last Supper. It must be said that the laity received communion in the same way until the end of the 4th century. But St. Chrysostom, when he noticed that one woman, having taken the body of Christ in her hands, took it to her house and there used it for sorcery, he commanded that the Holy Spirit be taught in all churches. the body and blood of Christ together from a spoon, or spoon, directly into the mouths of those receiving communion.

After the communion of the clergy, the deacon places into the chalice all the particles taken for health and repose, and at the same time says: wash away, Lord, the sins of those remembered here with Your honest blood, with the prayers of Your saints. Thus, all parts removed from the prosphora enter into the closest communion with the body and blood of Christ. Each particle, imbued with the blood of Christ the Savior, becomes, as it were, an Intercessor before the throne of God for the person for whom it was taken out.

This last action ends the communion of the clergy. By breaking the Lamb into parts for communion, by inserting part of the St. body into the blood of the Lord, the suffering on the cross and death of Jesus Christ are remembered. Communion of St. the blood from the chalice is the flow of the Lord's blood from His most pure ribs after His death. Closing the curtain at this time is like rolling a stone on the hump of the Lord.

But this very veil is taken away, the royal doors are opened. With a cup in his hands, the deacon shouts from the royal doors: approach with the fear of God and faith! This is the solemn appearance of St. gifts depicts the resurrection of the Lord.

Believers, aware of their unworthiness and in a feeling of gratitude to the Savior, approach St. the mysteries, kissing the edge of the chalice, as if the very rib of the Savior, which exuded His life-giving blood for our sanctification. And those who have not prepared to unite with the Lord in the sacrament of communion should at least bow before St. gifts, as if to the feet of our Savior, imitating in this case the myrrh-bearing Mary Magdalene, who bowed to the ground to the risen Savior.

The Savior did not live long on earth after His glorious resurrection. The Holy Gospel tells us that on the 40th day after the resurrection He ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father. These events from the life of the Savior, dear to us, are remembered during the liturgy, when the priest carries St. from the altar. cup into the royal doors and says, turning to the people: always, now and ever and unto ages of ages. This action shows us that the Lord always abides in His Church and is ready to help those who believe in Him, if only their petitions are pure and useful to their souls. After the small litany, the priest reads a prayer, named after the place where it was said behind the pulpit. After it there is a dismissal, pronounced by the priest always from the royal doors. The liturgy of Saints Basil the Great or John Chrysostom ends with the wish for long life to all Orthodox Christians.

The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, or simply the Presanctified Mass, is a divine service during which the sacrament of transmuting bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord is not performed, but the believers receive Holy Communion. gifts previously sanctified at the liturgy of Basil the Great or St. John Chrysostom.

This liturgy is celebrated during Lent on Wednesdays and Fridays, in the 5th week on Thursday and during Holy Week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. However, the liturgy of presanctified gifts on the occasion of temple holidays or holidays in honor of St. the saints of God can be performed on other days of Great Lent; only on Saturday and Sunday it is never performed on the occasion of the weakening of fasting on these days.

The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was established in the first times of Christianity and was celebrated by St. the apostles; but she received her real appearance from St. Gregory Dvoeslov, a Roman bishop who lived in the 6th century AD.

The need for its establishment by the apostles arose in order not to deprive Christians of St. The Mysteries of Christ and during the days of Great Lent, when, according to the requirements of fasting time, there is no liturgy celebrated in a solemn manner. The reverence and purity of life of the ancient Christians was so great that for them going to church for the liturgy certainly meant receiving St. secrets. Nowadays, piety among Christians has weakened so much that even during Great Lent, when there is a great opportunity for Christians to lead a good life, no one is visible who wants to begin the holy day. meal at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. There is even, especially among the common people, a strange opinion that the laity cannot partake of St. The Mysteries of Christ is an opinion not based on anything. True, infants do not receive Holy Communion. The mystery behind this liturgy is because St. the blood, which only infants partake of, is in connection with the body of Christ. But the laity, after proper preparation, after confession, are awarded St. The Mysteries of Christ and during the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.

The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts consists of Lenten 3, 6, and 9 hours, vespers and the liturgy itself. Lenten liturgical hours differ from ordinary ones in that, in addition to the prescribed three psalms, one kathisma is read at each hour; a distinctive troparion of each hour is read by the priest in front of the royal doors and sung three times in the choir with prostrations to the ground; At the end of each hour the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian: Lord and Master of my life! Do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, covetousness and idle talk; Grant me the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Your servant. O Lord, O King, grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother, for blessed art thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Before the presanctified liturgy itself, an ordinary vespers is celebrated, at which, after the stichera sung on Lord I cried, is being done entrance with censer, and on holidays with the Gospel, from the altar to the royal doors. At the end of the evening entrance, two proverbs are read: one from the book of Genesis, the other from the book of Proverbs. At the end of the first paremia, the priest turns to the people at the open gate, making a cross with a censer and a burning candle, and says: the light of Christ enlightens everyone! At the same time, believers fall on their faces, as if before the Lord Himself, praying to Him to enlighten them with the light of Christ’s teaching in order to fulfill the commandments of Christ. Singing may my prayer be corrected the second part of the presanctified liturgy ends, and the actual litany begins Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.

Instead of the usual cherubic song, the following touching song is sung: Now the powers of heaven serve with us invisibly: behold, the King of glory enters, behold, the secret sacrifice is completed. Let us approach by faith and love, so that we may be partakers of eternal life. Alleluia(3 times).

In the midst of this song takes place great entrance. Paten with St. Lamb from the altar, through the royal doors, to St. The throne is carried by a priest at his head, he is preceded by a deacon with a censer and a candle-bearer with a burning candle. Those present fall prostrate to the ground in reverence and holy fear of St. gifts, as before the Lord Himself. The Great Entrance at the Presanctified Liturgy is of particular importance and significance than at the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom. During the presanctified liturgy, at this time the already consecrated gifts, the body and blood of the Lord, the sacrifice perfect, Himself the King of glory, that is why the consecration of St. there are no gifts; and after the petitionary litany, pronounced by the deacon, it is sung Lord's prayer and communion with St. gifts to clergy and laity.

Beyond this, the liturgy of the presanctified gifts has similarities with the liturgy of Chrysostom; Only the prayer behind the pulpit is read in a special way, applied to the time of fasting and repentance.

In order to take part at the royal table, you need decent clothing for this; so in order to participate in the joys of the heavenly kingdom, sanctification is necessary for every Orthodox Christian, imparted, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, by Orthodox bishops and priests, as immediate successors to the ministry of the apostles.

Such sanctification of Orthodox Christians is communicated through sacred rites that were established by Jesus Christ Himself or His Saint. the apostles, and which are called sacraments. The name of these sacred rites as sacraments was adopted because through them, in a secret, incomprehensible way, the saving power of God acts on a person.

Without the sacraments, the sanctification of a person is impossible, just as the operation of a telegraph is impossible without a wire.

So, whoever wants to be in communion with the Lord in His eternal kingdom must be sanctified in the sacraments... There are seven sacraments accepted by the Orthodox Church: baptism, confirmation, communion, repentance, priesthood, marriage, consecration of oil.

Baptism is performed by a priest, in which the person being baptized is immersed three times in consecrated water, and the priest says at this time: a servant of God or a servant of God is baptized(name is said ), in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. An infant enlightened by baptism is cleansed of the sin communicated to him by his parents, and an adult who receives baptism, in addition to original sin, is also freed from his voluntary sins committed before baptism. Through this sacrament, a Christian is reconciled with God and from a child of wrath is made a son of God and receives the right to inherit the kingdom of God. From this baptism by the holy fathers of the Church is called door to the kingdom of God. Baptism, by the grace of God, is sometimes accompanied by healing from illnesses of the body: this is how St. Apostle Paul and Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir.

Those who are about to receive the sacrament of baptism are required to repentance for one's sins and faith in God. To do this, he solemnly, out loud to the whole people, refuses to serve Satan, blows and spits on him as a sign of contempt for the devil and disgust from him. After this, the person preparing for baptism makes a promise to live according to the law of God, as expressed in St. Gospel and other sacred Christian books, and pronounces a confession of faith, or, what is the same, symbol of faith.

Before immersion in water, the priest crosswise anoints the person being baptized with consecrated oil because in ancient times anointed with oil preparing to fight in spectacles. The person being baptized prepares to fight the devil throughout his entire life.

The white robe worn by the baptized person signifies the purity of his soul from sins received through holy baptism.

The cross placed by the priest on the baptized person indicates that he, as a follower of Christ, must patiently endure the sorrows that the Lord pleases to assign him to test faith, hope and love.

Circling the baptized person three times with lighted candles around the font is done as a sign of the spiritual joy he feels from being united with Christ for eternal life in the kingdom of heaven.

Cutting the hair of a newly baptized person means that from the time of baptism he has become a servant of Christ. This custom was taken from the custom in ancient times of cutting the hair of slaves as a sign of their slavery.

If baptism is performed on an infant, then the recipients are vouched for his faith; Instead, they pronounce the symbol of faith and subsequently undertake to take care of their godson so that he maintains the Orthodox faith and leads a pious life.

Baptism is performed on a person ( united, symbol. Faith) once and is not repeated even if it were committed by a non-Orthodox Christian. In this latter case, it is required from the performer of baptism that it be performed through threefold immersion with the exact pronunciation of the name God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The church historian Socrates tells about one extraordinary case, in which the Providence of God miraculously testified to the uniqueness of the sacrament of St. baptism. One of the Jews, having converted in appearance to the Christian faith, was granted the grace of St. baptism. Having later moved to another city, he completely abandoned Christianity and lived according to Jewish custom. But, wanting to laugh at the faith of Christ or, perhaps, seduced by the benefits that the Christian emperors acquired for the Jews who turned to Christ, he again dared to ask for baptism from a certain bishop. This latter, not knowing anything about the wickedness of the Jew, after instructing him in the dogmas of the Christian faith, began to perform the sacrament of St. on him. baptism and ordered the baptismal basin to be filled with water. But at the same time, as he, having performed preliminary prayers over the font, was ready to immerse the Jew in it, the water in the baptismal chamber instantly disappeared. Then the Jew, convicted by Heaven itself of his sacrilegious intention, prostrated himself in fear before the bishop and confessed before him and the whole Church of his wickedness and his guilt (Abbr. Histor., ch. XVIII; Resurrection. Thu. 1851, p. 440 ).

This sacrament is performed immediately after baptism. It consists of anointing the forehead (forehead), chest, eyes, ears, mouth, hands and feet with the consecrated myrrh. At the same time, the priest says the words: seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The grace of the Holy Spirit, imparted in the sacrament of anointing, gives a Christian strength to perform good deeds and Christian deeds.

Myrrh, a combination of several aromatic liquids mixed with fragrant substances, is consecrated exclusively by bishops during the liturgy on Thursday of Holy Week: In Russia, St. myrrh is prepared in Moscow and Kyiv. From these two places it is sent to all Russian Orthodox churches.

This sacrament is not repeated over Christians. During coronation, Russian kings and queens are anointed with St. world, not in the sense of repeating this sacrament, but in order to impart to them the deep grace of the Holy Spirit, necessary for the passage of the extremely important royal service to the fatherland and the Orthodox Church.

In the sacrament of communion, a Christian receives the true body of Christ under the guise of bread, and the true blood of Christ under the guise of wine and unites with the Lord for eternal life.

It certainly takes place in the church, on St. altar, at the liturgy, or mass: but the body and blood of Christ, in the form of spare saints. gifts can be brought into homes for the communion of the sick.

In view of the importance and saving power of this sacrament, St. The Church invites Christians to partake of the body and blood of Christ as often as possible. Every Christian, at least once a year, must sanctify himself with this most holy sacrament. Jesus Christ himself speaks about this: eat My flesh and drink My blood to have an eternal life, i.e. It has in itself eternal life or a guarantee of eternal bliss (Ev. John 6:54).

When the time comes for the reception of St. of the Mysteries of Christ, a Christian must approach the holy chalice decorously and bow one day to the ground Christ, who is truly present in the mysteries under the guise of bread and wine, fold his hands crosswise on his chest, open his mouth expansively so as to freely receive the gifts and so that a particle of the most holy body and a drop of the purest blood of the Lord does not fall. Upon acceptance of St. The Mystery Church commands the communicant to kiss the edge of the holy cup, like the very rib of Christ, from which blood and water leaked. After this, the communicants are not allowed to bow to the ground for the sake of protection and honor accepted by the saint. The Mystery will not be received by St. antidor, or part of the consecrated prosphora, and grateful prayers to the Lord are heard.

He who eats Me, and he will live for My sake, said our Lord Jesus Christ (John VI, 57). The truth of this saying was most strikingly justified in one case, which Evagrius narrates in his church history. According to him, in the Church of Constantinople it was the custom for the remaining communion of the clergy and people of St. gifts to teach children who were taught reading and writing in schools. For this purpose, they were called from schools to church, in which the clergyman taught them the remains of the body and blood of Christ. One day, among these youths, the son of a Jew who was engaged in making glass appeared, and, due to the unknown of his origin, St. Tain with other children. His father, noticing that he had delayed more than usual in school, asked him about the reason for this delay, and when the simple-minded youth revealed to him the whole truth, the wicked Jew became furious to the point that in the heat of rage he grabbed his son and threw him into a fiery furnace, which melted glass. The mother, not knowing this, waited for her son for a long time and in vain; Not finding him, she walked around crying through all the streets of Constantinople. Finally, after searching in vain on the third day, she sat at the door of her husband's workshop, sobbing loudly and calling on her son's name. Suddenly she hears his voice speaking to her from the hot stove. Delighted, she rushes to it, opens its mouth and sees her son standing on hot coals, but not at all damaged by the fire. Amazed, she asks him how he could remain unharmed in the midst of the scorching fire. Then the boy told his mother everything and added that a majestic wife, dressed in purple, had descended into the cave, breathed coolness on him and gave him water to put out the fire. When the news of this came to the attention of Emperor Justinian, he, at the request of mother and son, ordered St. to enlighten them. baptism, and the wicked father, as if fulfilling the words of the prophet about the bitterness of the Jews, became dumb in heart and did not want to imitate the example of his wife and son, which is why, by order of the emperor, he was executed as a son-killer (Evagr. Ist. Tser., book IV, ch. 36. Sunday Thu. 1841, p. 436).

In the sacrament of repentance, a Christian confesses his sins before a priest and receives invisible permission from Jesus Christ Himself.

The Lord Himself gave the apostles the power to forgive and not absolve the sins of people who sin after baptism. From the apostles this power, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, was granted to bishops, and from them to priests. To make it easier for someone who wants to repent during confession to remember his sins, the Church assigns him fasting, i.e. Fasting, prayer and solitude. These means help Christians come to their senses in order to sincerely repent of all voluntary and involuntary sins. Repentance is then especially useful to the penitent when it is accompanied by a change from a sinful life to a pious and holy life.

Confess before receiving St. The Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ are prescribed by the statutes of the Orthodox Church from the age of seven, when we develop consciousness and with it responsibility for our deeds before God. To help a Christian wean himself from a sinful life, sometimes, according to the reasoning of his spiritual father, penance, or such a feat, the fulfillment of which would remind one of his sin and contribute to the correction of life.

The cross and the Gospel during confession signify the invisible presence of the Savior Himself. The placing of the epitrachelion on the penitent by the priest is the return of God's mercy to the penitent. He is accepted under the grace-filled protection of the Church and joins the faithful children of Christ.

God will not allow a repentant sinner to perish

During the cruel Decian persecution of Christians in Alexandria, one Christian elder named Serapion could not resist the temptation of fear and the seduction of the persecutors: having renounced Jesus Christ, he sacrificed to idols. Before the persecution, he lived impeccably, and after his fall, he soon repented and asked to be forgiven his sin; but zealous Christians, out of contempt for Serapion’s act, turned away from him. The turmoil of persecution and schisms of the Novatians, who said that fallen Christians should not be accepted into the Church, prevented the shepherds of the Alexandrian Church from experiencing Serapion’s repentance in a timely manner and granting him forgiveness. Serapion became ill and for three days in a row had neither language nor feeling; Having recovered somewhat on the fourth day, he, turning to his grandson, said: “Child, how long will you keep me? Hurry, I ask you, give me permission, quickly call one of the elders to me.” Having said this, he again lost his tongue. The boy ran to the presbyter; but since it was night, and the presbyter himself was sick, he could not come to the sick man; Knowing that the penitent had long been asking for remission of sins, and wishing to release the dying man into eternity with good hope, he gave the child a particle of the Eucharist (as happened in the primal Church) and ordered it to be placed in the mouth of the dying elder. Before the returning boy entered the room, Serapion again became more lively and said: “Have you come, my child? The presbyter could not come himself, so quickly do what you were ordered and let me go.” The boy did as the presbyter ordered, and as soon as the elder swallowed a particle of the Eucharist (the body and blood of the Lord), he immediately gave up the ghost. “Isn’t it obvious,” St. Dionysius of Alexandria remarks in response to this in a reproach to the Novatians, “that the penitent was preserved and kept in life until the moment of resolution?” (Church. East. Eusebius, book 6, chapter 44, Resurrection Thurs. 1852, p. 87).

In this sacrament, the Holy Spirit, through the prayerful laying on of hands by the bishops, ordains the rightly chosen one to perform divine services and instruct people in faith and good deeds.

Persons performing divine services in the Orthodox Church are: bishops, or bishops, priests, or priests, and deacons.

Bishops are the successors of the holy apostles; they ordain priests and deacons by the laying on of hands. Only that bishopric and priesthood has grace and apostolic power, which, without the slightest interruption, originates from the apostles themselves. And that bishopric, which had a break in its succession, an interval, as if emptiness, is false, arbitrary, graceless. And this is the false bishopric of those who call themselves Old Believers.

The deacon does not perform the sacraments, but assists the priest in worship; the priest performs the sacraments (except for the sacrament of the priesthood) with the blessing of the bishop. The bishop not only performs all the sacraments, but also appoints priests and deacons.

The senior bishops are called archbishops and metropolitans; but the grace that they have due to the abundance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the same as that of bishops. The eldest of the bishops are the first among equals. The same concept of dignity applies to priests, some of whom are called archpriests, i.e., First Priests. Archdeacons and protodeacons, found in some monasteries and cathedrals, have the advantage of seniority among their equal deacons.

In monasteries, monastic priests are called archimandrites, abbots. But neither the archimandrite nor the abbot have the grace of a bishop; they are the eldest among the hieromonks, and the bishop entrusts them with the management of the monasteries.

Among other sacred rites of bishops and priests, their hand blessing. In this case, the bishop and priest fold their blessing hand so that the fingers depict the initial letters of the name of Jesus Christ: Ič. 35;č. This shows that our shepherds teach blessing in the name of Jesus Christ Himself. God's blessing is bestowed upon the one who reverently accepts the blessing of a bishop or priest. Since ancient times, people have irresistibly strived for sacred persons in order to be blessed with the sign of the cross at their hands. Kings and princes, St. testifies. Ambrose of Milan, bowed their necks before the priests and kissed their hands, in the hope of protecting themselves with their prayers (On the Dignity of the Priesthood, Chapter 2)

Sacred vestments of a deacon: a) surplice, b) orari, worn on the left shoulder, and c) instruct, or sleeves. Orarem deacon excites people to prayer.

Sacred Robes of a Priest: sacristan, stole(in Russian nashanik) and felonion. The epitrachelion for the priest serves as a sign of the grace he received from the Lord. Without the epitrachelion, no service is performed by the priest. The phelonion, or chasuble, is worn over all clothing. Honored priests receive the bishop's blessing to use during divine services legguard, hanging on a ribbon on the right side, under the felonion. As a difference, the priests wear the award on their heads skufji, kamilavki. Unlike deacons, priests use pectoral crosses, installed by the Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich in 1896, over their own clothes and church vestments.

Sacred vestments of a bishop or bishop: sakkos, similar to the deacon's surplice, and omophorion. Sakkos is the ancient clothing of kings. Bishops began to wear sakkos after the 4th century AD. Chr. The ancient Greek kings adopted this clothing for the archpastors out of respect for them. That is why all the saints who lived before the 4th century are depicted on icons wearing phelonions, which were decorated with many crosses. The omophorion is worn by bishops on their shoulders, on top of the sakkos. The omophorion is similar to the deacon's orarion, only wider, and means that Christ, having sacrificed Himself on the cross, presented people to God the Father pure and holy.

In addition to the clothes we have indicated, the bishop wears club, which is visible on the icons of saints on the right side in the form of a scarf, with a cross in the middle. The club is a spiritual sword, it depicts the power and duty of the bishop to act on people with the word of God, which is called in St. scripture with the sword of the Spirit. The club is given to archimandrites, abbots and some honored archpriests as a reward.

During divine services, the bishop wears a miter on his head, which is also assigned to archimandrites and some honored archpriests. Interpreters of church services assign the miter a reminder of the crown of thorns placed on the Savior during His suffering.

On his chest, over his cassock, the bishop wears panagia, i.e. an oval image of the Mother of God, and a cross on a chain. This is a sign of bishop's dignity.

During bishop's service it is used mantle, a long robe worn by a bishop over his cassock as a sign of his monasticism.

The accessories of the bishop's ministry include: rod(cane), as a sign of pastoral authority, dikiriy And trikirium, or two-candlestick and three-candlestick; The bishop overshadows the people with dikiriy and trikyriy, expressing the mystery of the Holy Trinity in one God and two natures in Jesus Christ, the source of spiritual light. Ripidy used during hierarchal service in the form of metal cherubs in circles on the handles in the image of concelebration with the people of the cherubs. Round carpets, called after the eagles embroidered on them eagles, depict in the bishop the power of the bishopric over the city and a sign of his pure and right teaching about God.

In the sacrament of marriage, the bride and groom, in the likeness of the spiritual union of Christ with the Church (the community of believers in Him), are blessed by the priest for mutual cohabitation, the birth and raising of children.

This sacrament is certainly performed in the temple of God. At the same time, the newlyweds are betrothed to each other three times with rings and are surrounded by the saints of the cross and the Gospel (based on analogies), as a sign of mutual, everlasting and inextricable love for each other.

Crowns are placed on the bride and groom both as a reward for their honest life before marriage, and as a sign that through marriage they become the ancestors of new offspring, according to the ancient name, princes of the future generation.

A common cup of red grape wine is served to the newlyweds as a sign that from the day of their blessing by St. They should have a common life as a church, the same desires, joys and sorrows.

Marriage should be entered into either by mutual consent of the bride and groom, or with the blessing of the parents, since the blessing of the father and mother, according to the teaching of the word of God, approves the foundation of houses.

This sacrament is not obligatory for everyone; It is much more salutary, according to the teachings of the word of God, to lead a celibate life, but a pure, immaculate life, following the example of John the Baptist, the Blessed Virgin Mary and other holy virgins. Those who cannot lead such a life have a blessed marriage established by God.

Divorce between husband and wife is condemned by the teachings of the Savior.

Christ the Savior, the physician of our souls, did not leave those obsessed with serious bodily illnesses without His gracious care.

His holy apostles taught their successors - bishops and presbyters - to pray over sick Christians, anointing them with blessed wood oil combined with red grape wine.

The sacred act performed in this case is called consecration of oil; it's called unction, because seven priests usually gather to perform it in order to strengthen the prayer for the granting of health to the sick. According to need, one priest also administers unction to the sick person. At the same time, there are seven readings from the Apostolic Epistles and the Holy Gospel, which remind the sick person of the mercy of the Lord God and His power to grant health and forgiveness of voluntary and involuntary sins.

Prayers read during the sevenfold anointing of oil instill in a person strength of spirit, courage against death and firm hope of eternal salvation. The very grains of wheat, usually supplied during the consecration of oil, inspire the patient with hope in God, who has the power and means to grant health, just as He, in His omnipotence, is able to grant life to a dry, apparently lifeless grain of wheat.

This sacrament can be repeated many times, but many modern Christians have the opinion that the consecration of oil is a farewell to the future afterlife, and that after performing this sacrament one cannot even get married, and therefore rarely does anyone use this holy, multi-useful sacrament. This is an extremely erroneous opinion. Our ancestors knew the power of this sacrament, and therefore resorted to it often, with every difficult illness. If, after the consecration of oil, not all the sick recover, then this happens either because of the sick person’s lack of faith, or because of the will of God, since even during the life of the Savior not all the sick were healed, and not all the dead were resurrected. Whoever of the special Christians dies, according to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, receives forgiveness for those sins for which the patient did not repent in confession to the priest due to oblivion and weakness of the body.

We should be grateful to the all-good and all-generous God, Who deigned to establish in His Church so many life-giving springs, abundantly pouring out His saving grace on us. Let us resort as often as possible to the saving sacraments, which provide us with the various kinds of Divine help we need. Without seven sacraments, committed over us in the Orthodox Church by the legitimate successors of St. apostles - bishops and elders, salvation is impossible, we cannot be children of God and heirs of the kingdom of heaven.

The Holy Orthodox Church, which cares for its living members, does not leave our departed fathers and brothers without its care. According to the teaching of the word of God, we believe that the souls of the dead will again be united with their bodies, which will be spiritual and immortal. Therefore, the bodies of the dead are under the special protection of the Orthodox Church. The deceased is covered cover meaning that he, as a Christian, is under the shadow of St. in the afterlife. angels and the protection of Christ. placed on his forehead crown with the image of the Savior, the Mother of God and John the Baptist and the signature: Holy God, holy Mighty, holy Immortal, have mercy on us. This shows that he who has completed his earthly career hopes to receive crown of truth by the mercy of the Triune God and by the intercession of the Mother of God and St. John the Baptist. A prayer of permission is placed in the hand of the deceased to commemorate the forgiveness of all his sins. Saint Alexander Nevsky, during his burial, accepted the prayer of permission as if alive, straightening his right hand, thereby showing that such prayer is also needed by righteous people. The deceased is covered earth. By this action of the clergyman, we surrender ourselves and our deceased brother into the hands of God’s providence, who pronounced the final verdict on the sinful forefather of all mankind, Adam: You are earth and you will go back to earth(Genesis 3:19).

The state of the souls of people who died before the general resurrection, not the same: the souls of the righteous are in union with Christ and in the foreshadowing of that bliss that they will fully receive after the general judgment, and the souls of unrepentant sinners are in a painful state.

The souls of those who died in faith, but did not bear fruits worthy of repentance, can be helped by prayers, alms, and especially by offering for them the bloodless sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ himself said: whatever you ask in prayer in faith, you will receive(Matt. 21, 22). St. Chrysostom writes: almost died through alms and good works, for alms serve to deliverance from eternal torment (42 demons. On the Gospel of John).

For the dead, memorial services and lithiums are held, in which we pray for the forgiveness of their sins.

The Holy Church decided to commemorate the deceased on the third, ninth and fortieth day after his death.

On the third day we pray that Christ, resurrected on the third day after His burial, will raise our deceased neighbor to a blessed life.

On the ninth day, we pray to God that He, through the prayers and intercession of the nine orders of angels (Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Powers, Authorities, Principalities, Archangels and Angels), would forgive the sins of the deceased and canonize him among the saints.

On the fortieth day, a prayer is made for the deceased, so that the Lord, who suffered temptation from the devil on the fortieth day of His fast, would help the deceased to shamelessly withstand the test at the private court of God, and so that He, who ascended to heaven on the fortieth day, would take the deceased to the heavenly abodes!

St. Macarius of Alexandria provides another explanation for why these particular days are designated by the Church for special commemoration of the dead. Within 40 days after death, he says, the soul of a person goes through ordeals, and on the third, ninth and fortieth day it is ascended by angels to worship the Heavenly Judge, who on the 40th day assigns it a certain degree of bliss or torment until the general final judgment; Therefore, the commemoration of the deceased these days is especially important for him. Word of St. Macarius was published in “Christian Reading” in 1830 for the month of August.

To commemorate the dead, everyone in general, the Orthodox Church has established special times - Saturday, known as the parent ones. There are three such Saturdays: Meat-eating in the meat-eating, otherwise motley week before Lent; since on the Sunday following this Saturday the Last Judgment is remembered, then on this Saturday, as if before the most terrible judgment, the church prays before the Judge - God, for pardon for her dead children. Trinity- before Trinity Day; after the triumph of the Savior’s victory over sin and death, it is fitting to pray for those who have fallen asleep in faith in Christ, but in sins, so that the dead may also be rewarded with resurrection for bliss with Christ in heaven. Dmitrovskaya- before St. Day Great Martyr Demetrius of Selun, i.e. Before October 26. The Moscow prince Dimitri Donskoy, having defeated the Tatars, this Saturday commemorated the soldiers who died in battle; Since that time, commemoration has been established on this Saturday. In addition to these Saturdays, we have other commemorations: on Saturdays of the second, third and fourth weeks of Lent. The reason for this is the following: since in ordinary times the commemoration of the dead is performed daily, but during Great Lent this does not happen, because the full liturgy, with which it is always connected, does not occur daily during Great Lent, then St. The Church, in order not to deprive the dead of their saving intercession, established, instead of daily commemorations, to perform three general commemorations on the indicated Saturdays, and precisely on these Saturdays because other Saturdays are dedicated to special celebrations: the Saturday of the first week - to Theodore Tyrone, the fifth - to the Mother of God, and the sixth is the resurrection of the righteous Lazarus.

On Monday or Tuesday of St. Thomas Week (2 weeks after the Bright Resurrection of Christ), the remembrance of the dead is performed with the pious intention of sharing the great joy of the Bright Resurrection of Christ with the dead in the hope of their blessed resurrection, the joy of which was announced to the dead by the Savior Himself when He descended to hell to preach victory over death and brought out the souls of the Old Testament righteous. From this joy - the name Radonitsa, which is given to this time of remembrance. On August 29, on the day of remembrance of the beheading of John the Baptist, the soldiers are commemorated as having laid down their lives for the faith and fatherland, like John the Baptist - for the truth.

It should be noted that the Orthodox Church does not offer prayers for unrepentant sinners and suicides, because, being in a state of despair, stubbornness and bitterness in evil, they find themselves guilty of sins against the Holy Spirit, which, according to the teachings of Christ, will not be forgiven neither in this century nor in the next(Matt. 12:31 - 32).

Not only the temple of God can be a place for our prayer, and it is not through the mediation of the priest alone that God’s blessing can be brought down on our deeds; every home, every family can still become home church, when the head of the family, by his example, guides his children and household members in prayer, when family members, all together, or each separately, offer their prayers of petition and gratitude to the Lord.

Not content with the general prayers offered for us in churches, and knowing that we will not all rush there, the Church offers each of us, like a mother to a child, special ready-made food home, - offers prayers designated for our home use.

Prayers read daily:

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayer of the publican mentioned in the Gospel parable of the Savior:

God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Prayer to the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, prayers for the sake of Your Most Pure Mother and all the saints, have mercy on us. Amen.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity:

Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

Heavenly King, Comforter, Soul of truth, who is everywhere and fulfills everything, treasure of good things, and giver of life, come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from all filth, and save, O blessed One, our souls.

Three prayers to the Holy Trinity:

1. Trisagion. Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us(three times).

2. Doxology. Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

3. Prayer. Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us; Lord, cleanse our sins; Master, forgive our iniquities; Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities, for Thy name's sake.

Lord have mercy(three times).

The prayer called the Lord's, because the Lord Himself pronounced it for our use.

Our Father, who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as it is in heaven and on earth. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors: and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

When you wake up from sleep in the morning, think that God is giving you a day that you could not give to yourself, and set aside the first hour, or at least the first quarter of an hour, of the day given to you, and sacrifice it to God in grateful and benevolent prayer. The more diligently you do this, the more firmly you will protect yourself from the temptations that you encounter every day (words of Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow).

A prayer read in the morning, after sleep.

To You, Master who loves mankind, having risen from sleep, I come running, and I strive for Your works with Your mercy, and I pray to You: help me at all times in every thing, and deliver me from all worldly evil things and the devil’s haste, and save me, and bring us into Your eternal kingdom. For you are my creator, and the provider and giver of every good thing, in You are all my hope, and I send glory to You now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Prayer to Our Lady.

1. Angelic greeting . Theotokos, Virgin, rejoice, gracious Mary, the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, for you have given birth to the Savior of our souls.

2. The glorification of the Mother of God. It is worthy to eat as you truly bless Thee, the ever-blessed and immaculate Mother of God and the Mother of our God. The most honorable cherub, and the most glorious seraphim without comparison, who gave birth to the word of God without corruption, the real Mother of God, we magnify Thee.

In addition to the Mother of God, the intercessor of Christians before the Lord, everyone has two intercessors for us before God, prayer books and guardians of our life. This is, firstly, angel ours from the realm of disembodied spirits, to whom the Lord entrusts us from the day of our baptism, and, secondly, the saint of God from among the holy men of God, also called angel, whose name we bear from the day of our birth. It is a sin to forget your heavenly benefactors and not offer prayers to them.

Prayer to the angel, the disembodied guardian of human life.

Angel of God, my holy guardian, given to me from God from heaven for my protection! I diligently pray to you: enlighten me today, save me from all evil, guide me to good deeds and direct me on the path of salvation. Amen.

Prayer to the holy saint of God, by whose name we are called from birth.

Pray to God for me, holy servant of God(say name) or holy saint of God(say name) as I diligently resort to you, a quick helper and a prayer book for my soul, or first aid and prayer book for my soul.

The Sovereign Emperor is the father of our fatherland; His service is the most difficult of all the services that people undergo, and therefore it is the duty of every loyal subject to pray for his Sovereign and for the fatherland, that is, the country in which our fathers were born and lived. The Apostle Paul speaks in his letter to Bishop Timothy, ch. 2, art. 1, 2, 3: I beg you, first of all, to make prayers, supplications, petitions, thanksgivings for all people, for the Tsar and for everyone who is in power... This is good and pleasant before our Savior God.

Prayer for the Emperor and the Fatherland.

Save, Lord, your people, and bless your inheritance: granting victories to our Blessed EMPEROR NIKOLAI ALEXANDROVICH against resistance, and preserving your residence through your cross.

Prayer for living relatives.

Save, Lord, and have mercy(therefore briefly offer a prayer for the health and salvation of the entire Royal House, the priesthood, your spiritual father, your parents, relatives, leaders, benefactors, all Christians and all servants of God, and then add): And remember, visit, strengthen, comfort, and with your power grant them health and salvation, for you are good and a lover of mankind. Amen.

Prayer for the dead.

Remember, Lord, the souls of your departed servants(their names), and all my relatives, and all my departed brethren, and forgive them all their sins, voluntary and involuntary, giving them the kingdom of heaven and the communion of your eternal good things and your endless and blissful life of pleasure, and create for them eternal memory.

A short prayer said before the honest and life-giving cross of the Lord:

Protect me, Lord, by the power of your honorable and life-giving cross, and save me from all evil.

Here are the prayers that every Orthodox Christian needs to know. It will take a little time to slowly read them, standing in front of the holy icon: May God’s blessing on all our good deeds be a reward for our zeal for God and our piety...

In the evening, when you go to sleep, think that God gives you rest from your labors, and take away the firstfruits from your time and peace and dedicate it to God with pure and humble prayer. Its fragrance will bring an angel closer to you to protect your peace. (Words by Philar. Metropolitan of Moscow).

During evening prayer the same thing is read, only instead of the morning prayer, St. The Church offers us the following prayer:

Lord our God, who have sinned in these days, in word, deed, and thought, as he is good and a lover of mankind, forgive me; grant me peaceful sleep and serenity; Send Your guardian angel, covering and keeping me from all evil; for You are the guardian of our souls and bodies, and to You we send glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and forever and ever, Amen.

Prayer before eating.

The eyes of all trust in You, Lord, and You give them writing in good time, You open Your generous hand, and fulfill every animal’s good will.

Prayer after eating.

We thank Thee, Christ our God, for Thou hast filled us with Thy earthly blessings: do not deprive us of Thy heavenly kingdom.

Prayer before teaching.

Most gracious Lord, bestow upon us the grace of Your Holy Spirit, bestowing and strengthening our spiritual strength, so that, by heeding the teaching taught to us, we may grow to You, our Creator, for glory, as our parent for consolation, for the benefit of the Church and the Fatherland.

After the lesson.

We thank You, Creator, for You have made us worthy of Your grace to listen to the teaching. Bless our leaders, parents and teachers, who lead us to the knowledge of good, and give us strength and strength to continue this teaching.

Students of the sciences and arts should turn to the Lord with special zeal, for He gives wisdom, and from His presence knowledge and understanding(proverbs 2, 6). Most of all, they must preserve the purity and integrity of their hearts, so that the light of God may enter the soul without being obscured: For wisdom does not enter into the soul of an evil artist; it dwells below in a body guilty of sin(Prem. 1, 4). Blessedness of purity of heart: like this not only the wisdom of God, but they will also see God Himself(Matt. 5:8).

When there is prayer, the believer bows his head as a sign of humility and respect, makes bows and prostrations to the ground, and can lie prostrate with his head bowed to the ground. The believer, knowing the rules of the church, does all these bows for a reason and not when he pleases. Everything in worship is endowed with meaning and has both external and internal sides. For example, prostrations with the head touching the ground and immediately following this rise have a deep symbolic meaning: because of sin we fell to the earth and thanks to the atonement of Christ we again have the opportunity to be taken to heaven. Among all the prayers and services, Sundays are special

The meaning of Sunday prayer service

It is important to know, for example, that in the church there are days when bowing to the ground is not done; moreover, they are prohibited by the charter. This is caused by the meaning of the event being celebrated. First of all, these are Sunday prayers, polyeleos days, from the feast of Christmas until Epiphany itself, the entire Pentecost from Easter to the day of the Holy Spirit and the days before which the polyeleos solemn all-night vigils take place. The prohibition of bowing on these days was already stipulated at the first Ecumenical Council, where it was clearly stated that this rule applies to the entire church, and prayers on these days should be performed while standing on your feet.

Resolutions of the councils

The Church places great importance on perfection in services and at home. This is evident from the fact that the decree on how to perform Sunday prayers, spend polyeleos days and Pentecost is repeated in a number of rules. VI also explains in Rule 90 about abstaining from prostrations from the Saturday evening entrance to the Sunday evening entrance. This symbolizes joy and reverence for the resurrection of Christ.

Basil the Great in his writings “On the Holy Spirit” (91 rules) says that at the beginning (1st day) of the week, Sunday prayers must be performed standing and upright, because of the risen Christ and our future resurrection with him, our duty to seek the highest. Therefore, on Sunday, standing directly before God during prayer is a reminder to us of the grace given. This day is called the single eighth day, symbolizing the time following the present - eternity, an endless century. The Church teaches its parishioners to perform Sunday prayers while standing, in order to often remind them of endless life, and not to be remiss in their repose into it.

Purpose of Church Prayer

Celebrating the victory of life over death, Christ over the devil, the church builds a service accordingly on Sunday. Therefore, praying on your knees at Sunday services on these days is unacceptable; it will contradict the whole meaning of the holiday.

It has an edifying purpose for believers when reading the psalms and singing songs. It is important to know about the true teaching of Christ, to become disposed to prayer and repentance. At the same time, it is important to evoke in those praying a feeling of gratitude to God for everything. It is important for the person praying to feel the need for intense prayer for further mercies to us and to receive peace of mind.

Sunday morning prayers in church differ from home prayer in that they are performed by clergy who are legally present in the church and ordained through the sacrament of the priesthood. Through prayer, a Christian enters into mysterious communion with God, and through the sacraments he receives from God grace-filled strength for a righteous life.

Church prayers are connected in a special way. They also include reading psalms and the Holy Gospel. Throughout the service, a certain thought consistently develops.

The essence of Sunday prayer

The article can describe only a few points that reveal the meaning of Sunday prayer. The text of the full liturgy should be looked for in special sources.

About Sunday stichera and troparion

The stichera of the resurrection speak of God bringing the soul out of prison. Turning to Christ, the prayer speaks of His great victory over hell, death on the cross, and the liberation of the dead. The soul of a repentant sinner prays to Christ, the source of life, to have mercy on it and grant the one praying to be with the righteous. From the depths of his heart he calls out to the Lord and asks to hear his voice, a sinner. The soul cries out to God and rejoices at the Resurrection of Christ!

Sunday's troparion speaks of angelic powers and Mary seeking Christ in the tomb. But He is not there - He has risen!

” M. Leontyeva

Orthodox worship is unusual! Some of its distinctive features are noticeable as soon as you cross the threshold of the temple, and can be confusing. Its other features become obvious over time. I will provide some background information that may help you feel more confident at an Orthodox service: twelve facts that you need to know when you find yourself in an Orthodox church for the first time.

1. What kind of mess is this?

At the very beginning of the service, you may get the impression that there is confusion in the church: people go to the front of the church, pray in front of the iconostasis (a row of icons standing in front of the altar), kiss various objects, light candles, despite the fact that the service is already in progress. In general, when you entered, the service was already in progress, although it was clearly written on the door: “The Divine Liturgy begins at 9:30.” You were clearly embarrassed that you were late, but these people arrived even later and are now moving around the temple. What's going on here?

On Sundays in the Orthodox Church there is one Eucharistic service * - it is preceded by Matins [in the Greek and Slavic Churches the liturgy is served after Matins - ed.]. There is no break between these services; as soon as one ends, another begins, so the start time of the service is indicated tentatively. In total, during a Sunday service, the clergyman spends more than three hours in the altar, “being in the light,” as one priest put it.

Because everyone is constantly on the move, there is never a moment when everyone is sitting in the pews, meekly waiting for the opening verse to begin and watching the hands of the clock approach 9:30. Orthodox believers can arrive at different times of Matins or the beginning of the Liturgy, that is, somewhere within the hour. Whenever they arrive, the service is probably already underway, but this does not prevent them from performing the personal prayers required upon arrival at the temple.

This is distracting for newcomers and can even be perceived as disrespectful, but you soon begin to understand that this is not just a formality, but a deeply personal expression of faith. Of course, this does not justify those who are late, but, unfortunately, punctuality is often absent from the list of virtues of many Orthodox believers.

2. Stand for Christ!

In the Orthodox tradition, believers stand for almost the entire service. Indeed. Some Orthodox churches don't even have chairs, except for a few around the edges of the room for those who need them.

In any case, if you find it too difficult to stand all the time, you can sit down. No one will object, and hardly anyone will pay attention to it. Over time, you will get used to standing for long periods of time.

3. Sim win

It is no exaggeration to say that we often... We make the sign of the cross at the mention of the Holy Trinity, when we venerate the cross or an icon, and many more times during the Divine Liturgy.

But this does not mean that everyone should behave the same.

Some cross themselves three times in a row, others, having crossed themselves, touch the ground with their right hand. Upon entering the temple, some believers can approach the icon and perform “throwing” - cross themselves, touch the floor with their right hand, and, having done this twice, kiss the icon, and then repeat “throwing” again.

Over time it won't be difficult, but at first it seems like it's only for the initiated and you're afraid of doing something wrong. Rest assured, you don't have to follow their lead immediately.

We cross ourselves with our right hand from right to left, unlike Catholics and Protestants - High Church Anglicans. We fold our fingers in a special way: the thumb and the next two are joined together, and the remaining two fingers are pressed against the palm.

As with all our actions, with this Orthodoxy encourages us to confess our faith. Try to guess what symbol is behind this? (Three fingers folded together symbolize the Trinity, two fingers lowered to the palm - the two natures of Christ, as well as His descent to earth).

This also requires training. But if at first you don’t put your fingers together accurately, no one will accuse you of doing it.

4. Kneeling

As a rule, we do not pray on our knees. Sometimes we fall on our faces. But not in the same way as Catholics fall prostrate on the floor. We kneel, rest our hands on the floor and touch it with our foreheads.

It looks like in photographs from some Central Asian worship service, and to representatives of Western culture it seems unprecedented. At first you feel awkward, falling on your face, but everyone else does it naturally and eventually the awkwardness goes away. Women notice that it is more convenient to bow to earth in wide skirts, and it is more comfortable to stand in shoes without heels.

Sometimes we bow to the ground and immediately rise, as during, which is often pronounced during. It happens that we worship and linger for a while, as they do in some communities in some places of the Eucharistic Prayer.

Not everyone prostrates. Some believers kneel, others stand with their heads bowed, and those seated may lean forward and sit hunched over. Standing timidly is also not forbidden. Nobody will pay attention if you don't fall on your face. For Orthodoxy, various forms of expressing personal religiosity are more characteristic than the feeling that you are being watched and may be offended if you do something wrong.

One of the former priests of the Anglican Church in America admitted that his decision to become Orthodox was most influenced by the sight of believers bowing to the ground. He thought then that this is how he should stand before God.

5. I love you and kiss you.

We kiss the shrines.

When we enter church, we kiss (it is customary for Jesus to kiss the feet, and for saints the right hand). You soon notice that some kiss the Holy Chalice, some kiss the hem of the priest's vestments when he comes by, the clerics kiss his hand when they hand him the censer, at the end of the service we all line up to kiss the cross.

When we say that we “kissed” something, it means that we made the sign of the cross and kissed this object.

Another reason why we protect the Eucharist from public access is that we take it more seriously than many other Christian denominations. We believe that this is truly the Body and Blood of Christ. We do not begin communion without confessing our sins to the priest and making peace with other members of the Church. We abstain from food and drink, even our morning cup of coffee, from midnight before communion.

So, we come to the topic. When newcomers learn about this Orthodox tradition, they usually have a hard time believing it. We abstain from meat, fish, dairy, wine and vegetable oil every Wednesday and Friday, as well as during four periods of the year, the longest during Lent before Easter. In total it takes about six months.

Here, as elsewhere, variations are possible. After consulting with the priest, people decide to what extent they can maintain these fasts, both from a physical and spiritual point of view - excessive strictness can soon lead to frustration and depression. Fasting is a personal matter for each person. As he said, this is a holiday for everyone who fasted and who did not fast: “abstinent and careless, honor this day equally; you who have fasted and those who have not fasted, rejoice now!”

It is important to note that fasting is not a strict rule, breaking which puts you in terrible danger, and it is not a punishment for sins. Fasting is an exercise for our growth and strengthening, a medicine for the soul.

After consulting with a priest, as a spiritual doctor, you can develop a measure of fasting that will keep you in good shape, but will not break you. Perhaps next year you will be able to handle more. Over time, after experiencing fraternal fasting with a loving community, many people find that they begin to enjoy fasting.

7. Why is there no general confession?

We believe that we do not have the same sins, they are all individual. There is no separate prayer of confession during the liturgy. Orthodox Christians must regularly visit the priest in person.

The role of the priest is more reminiscent of the role of a spiritual father than in other faiths. They do not simply address him by name, but pronounce him “father” before the name. His wife also has her own specific role as the mother of the parish, and she is also called by a special name, depending on the culture: in Arabic “Khouria”, in Greek “Presbytera”, both of which mean the priest’s wife, and in Russian “ matushka" which means "mother".

Another feature is the Creed, which is recited or sung, depending on the parish. If you say out of habit or intentionally, “And from the Son who proceedeth,” no one will support you. appeared in the Creed six centuries after its composition, and we adhere to the original version. Visitors from High Church communities note that we do not bow or kneel at the words “and he who became incarnate.”

We also do not stop exclaiming “Hallelujah” during Great Lent, as the nuns of the Anglican Communion do; moreover, Lenten Matins are especially replete with this exclamation.

8. Music.

About seventy-five percent of the service is occupied by parishioners singing. Orthodox Christians do not use musical instruments during services. The singing is usually led by a small a cappella choir, and the degree to which parishioners participate in the singing varies from parish to parish. The musical style also varies, ranging from single-voice singing in the eastern traditions of the Arab Church to the European sound of four-part harmony in the Russian Church, with many variations in between.

This continuous singing is overwhelming at first, it seems as if you are stepping onto a rapidly moving escalator, and you are carried for an hour and a half until you get off it. Someone rightly noted that the liturgy is one continuous song.

Almost the same thing is sung every week, and this prevents fatigue. Each subsequent Sunday the service changes very slightly, the main prayers and chants are in the same order, and soon you will already know them by heart. Then you will begin to feel the presence of God, which is almost impossible to do at the stage when you switch, now to reading the prayer book, now to the text of the liturgy, now to studying the parish leaflet.

9. Editors are powerless

Isn't it possible to say this more briefly? Why these extra epithets? Is it possible to once again condense this text, even if it is quite accurate and apt? But then it will no longer be an Orthodox service. Orthodox Christians will always try to express themselves as broadly as possible. In the Orthodox faith, there is never too much prayer, and this also applies to its other aspects. When a priest or deacon exclaims: “Let us fulfill our ** prayer to the Lord...”, be sure that you will have to stand for another fifteen minutes.

Initially, the liturgy lasted more than five hours, this shows that people in those days were on fire with their hearts for the Lord. in his edition of the liturgy, he reduced its duration to two and a half hours, and later (about 400) St. John Chrysostom further reduced this time to one and a half hours. Usually on Sundays the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, but on some days (Sundays of Great Lent, Epiphany Eve), we serve a longer liturgy of St. Basil the Great.

10. Chosen Voivode

An unchanging feature of Orthodox worship is the “Invincible Voivode” of all Christians. We also call her the Theotokos or Mother of God. She contributed to our salvation by making the incarnation of God into man physically possible. But, despite Her veneration, as it is said in the Gospel: “Behold, from now on all generations will bless Me” (Luke 1:48), this does not mean that we believe in the magical powers of Her or other saints or consider them demigods. When we sing “Most Holy Theotokos, save us,” we do not expect that She will grant us salvation in eternity, but we ask Her prayers for our intercession and growth in faith.

We ask for the prayers of the Virgin Mary and other saints just as we ask for the prayers of each other. They didn’t die, they simply went to another world. We surround ourselves with icons to remind us that all saints participate invisibly in our prayer.

11. Three gates.

In every Orthodox church there is a . Iconostasis means “stand for icons” and it can simply represent a large icon of Christ on the right and an icon of the Virgin and Child on the left. In a more well-equipped church, the altar may be a partition decorated with icons. Some types of iconostases block the altar from view, except for those moments when the central gate is open.

The simplest version of the iconostasis with two large icons has three entrances. The central one, directly in front of the altar, is called the Holy or Royal Doors, because during the Eucharist the King of Glory himself comes out to the worshipers through them. The Holy Gates are used only by a priest or deacon with the Chalice in his hands.

On both sides of the icons, if this is a simplified iconostasis, there are doors with angels depicted on them; they are called the Deacon's Gate. They are used by altar servers and other ministers, but it is not allowed to enter or leave the altar unless absolutely necessary. Altar servers - priests, deacons, altar servers - can only be male. Women can participate in all other areas of church life. Women's contributions have been valued on an equal basis with men's since the time of the first martyrs; looking towards the altar, you can always see the Mother of God and other holy women. In many Orthodox churches, women work equally with men: they direct the choir, paint icons, teach lessons, read the Apostle and participate in the parish council.

12. Where should an American go?

Flipping through the Yellow Pages of any metropolis, you can find a large number of Orthodox churches: Greek, Romanian, Russian, Antiochian, Serbian and many others. Is Orthodoxy really that nationally oriented? Are these divisions evidence of theological divisions and schisms? Not at all. All these Orthodox churches are one Church. Nationality indicates under whose jurisdiction the parish falls and to which bishop it reports.

With 6 million Orthodox Christians in North America and 250 million worldwide, the Orthodox community is the second largest of all Christians.

Despite such national diversity, it is striking that Orthodoxy is united on theological and moral issues. Orthodox Christians throughout the world unanimously adhere to the fundamental Christian principles preached by the apostles, which are passed down from generation to generation by bishops - the apostolic successors. In addition, they are faithful to the apostolic principles of morality: sexual relations outside the family are also considered a sin from an Orthodox point of view.

Some might explain this unity as a historical accident. However, we attribute this to the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Why then such a variety of national churches? This nationality clearly reflects geographical features. North America is also a geographical entity; someday we will also have one national church: the American Orthodox Church. This should have been the case initially, but due to complex historical background this did not happen. Instead, each Orthodox ethnic group that emigrated to the United States produced its own church structure. This diversity of Orthodox jurisdictions is nothing more than a temporary misunderstanding; intense prayers and a lot of work are being done to overcome these unnecessary barriers.

Currently, the largest jurisdictions in America are the Greek Orthodox Metropolis, the Orthodox Church in America (Russian origin) and the Antiochian Metropolis (Arab origin). The liturgies in all of them are basically the same, perhaps with some differences in language and music.

At first, Orthodoxy strikes you with its unusualness, but over time this feeling passes. More and more you begin to feel at home in it, and gradually it will lead you to your true home - to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Translation from English of the article First Visit to an Orthodox Church: Twelve Things I Wish I’d ​​Know especially for the portal “” by M. Leontyeva

* This applies to churches with one altar (Editor's note).

** “We will fulfill” means we will complete (Editor’s note).

Schedule of public services in churches.

What time does the early and late morning service in church begin and end?

Important: each temple creates its own schedule of public services! There is no general schedule for all temples!

Two liturgies, early and late, are served on major Christian holidays and Sundays in churches with large parishes.

The early service is held at 6-7 am, the late service at 9-10 am. In some churches, the time is shifted to 7-8 a.m. for early services and 10-11 a.m. for late ones.

The duration of public worship is 1.5-2 hours. In some cases, the duration of the morning liturgy can be 3 hours.

What time does the evening and night service in the church begin and end?

Evening public worship is served no earlier than 16:00 and no later than 18:00. Each temple has its own schedule.

The duration of the service is 2-4 hours and depends on the significance of the upcoming holiday. According to the Rule, Vespers can be daily, small and great.

Every day is performed on weekdays, unless a holiday with a polyeleos or vigil falls on them.

Malaya is part of the All-Night Vigil. The Great Service is served on major holidays and can be performed separately or combined with Matins.

The world is changing, and these changes affect, among other things, the Church Charter. Night or all-night vigils rarely last from three to six hours (for monasteries). In ordinary churches, the duration of the night service is 2-4 hours.

The night service begins at 17:00-18:00 depending on the parish Charter.

What time does church service begin and end today: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday?

Communion and end of the Liturgy

The daily cycle of church services consists of nine different services. This includes:

• Vespers - from 18:00 - the beginning of the circle,
• Compline,
• Midnight Office - from 00:00,
• Matins,
• 1st hour - from 7:00,
• 3rd hour - from 9:00,
• 6th hour - from 12:00,
• 9th hour - from 15:00,
• Divine Liturgy - from 6:00-9:00 until 12:00 - is not included in the daily cycle of services.

Ideally, in every functioning church these services should be held daily, however, in practice, the daily cycle is performed only in large churches, cathedrals or monasteries. In small parishes it is impossible to ensure constant worship in such a rhythm. Therefore, each parish determines its own pace, coordinating it with its real capabilities.

It follows from this that you need to find out the exact schedule of services in the temple you are going to visit.

Approximate times for morning and evening services are given at the beginning of the article.

What time does Saturday church service begin and end?

Having carefully read the previous part of the article, you most likely noticed the fact that the beginning of the liturgical day corresponds not to 00:00 (as is customary in secular life), but to 18:00 (the previous calendar day).

What does it mean?

This means that the first Saturday service begins on Friday after 18:00, and the last one ends on Saturday before 18:00. The most important Saturday service is the full Divine Liturgy.

As a rule, Saturday services are dedicated to the venerable fathers and mothers, as well as to all the saints, to whom they turn with appropriate prayers. On the same day, the commemoration of all the dead takes place.

What time does church service start and end on Sunday?

The first Sunday service begins on Saturday after 18:00, and the last service ends on Sunday before 18:00. Sunday services are filled with the theme of the Resurrection of the Lord. That is why Sunday services, especially the Divine Liturgy, are the most significant in the weekly cycle of services.

Check with the temple you are planning to visit for the exact schedule of services.

What time does the festive service in the church begin and end: schedule

You can find approximate times for morning and evening services at the beginning of the article.

Each temple draws up its own schedule of public services, including holiday ones. There is no general schedule for all temples!

As a rule, the Charter prescribes the so-called “all-night vigil” to be served on holidays - a particularly solemn service, which in modern interpretation has retained the division into Vespers and Matins.

In addition, on the days of the twelfths and other major holidays, the Liturgy necessarily takes place, during which believers receive communion.

At the same time, each holiday service has accompanying texts and rituals unique to it, which cannot but affect the duration of the service.

What time does the Christmas service in church begin and end?

Christmas service at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

• 1st hour service. Time - from 7:00. Stichera are read about the fulfillment of the prophecy about the birth of the Messiah.
• 3rd hour service. Time - from 9:00. The stichera about the Incarnation are read.
• 6th hour service. Time - from 12:00. The stichera with the call to meet Christ are read, and the Gospel is read.
• 9 o'clock service. Time - from 15:00. Stichera are read. At the end they read figuratively.

• Depending on the day on which Christmas Eve falls, one of the evening Liturgies is celebrated: St. Basil the Great or St. John Chrysostom. Time: depending on the temple from 17:00.
• Celebration of the Great Vespers of the Nativity of Christ.
• Celebration of the All-Night Vigil of the Nativity of Christ. Time: depending on the temple - from 17:00 to 23:00.

There is no strict sequence in conducting the festive service. In large churches and monasteries, Christmas services (evening, the most solemn part) last 6-8 hours, in small ones - 1.5-2 hours.

Find out about the exact time of the service at the temple you are going to visit.

You can read about the folk traditions of celebrating Christmas.

What time does the service in the church on Epiphany Eve begin and end?

Services on Epiphany Eve are very similar to Christmas services.

On this day, the hours are read in the morning, and in the evening the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is celebrated. After the Liturgy, as a rule, the first blessing of water occurs.

Depending on the day on which Epiphany falls, the order of services may differ.

On January 19, morning and evening services are held with the obligatory subsequent blessing of water.

The exact time of the services will be told to you directly in the temple.

What time does the festive service in the church for Candlemas begin and end?

Meeting completes the Christmas circle of Orthodox holidays. The date of celebration is February 15.

After the solemn morning liturgy, the rite of consecration of water and candles is performed.

Be sure to check the time of the liturgy in the church.

What time does the festive service in the church for the Annunciation begin and end?

Congratulations on the Annunciation

The Annunciation is celebrated on April 7. However, believers should attend the evening service on April 6. In some churches, all-night vigils are held from April 6 to 7.

On April 7, early and/or late liturgies are served with mandatory confession and communion for the laity.

What time does the festive service in church on Palm Sunday begin and end?

The date of Palm Sunday celebration depends on the date of Easter celebration and is determined according to the lunisolar calendar.

Festive services begin with the evening service and subsequent all-night vigils on Lazarus Saturday. Lazarus Saturday is the day before Palm Sunday. During the evening service, palm branches are necessarily blessed.

On Palm Sunday, early and/or late liturgies are performed, followed by the consecration of the willow tree.

The time of services depends on the internal regulations of the temple.

What time does the festive service in church on Easter begin and end?

Everything depends on the internal regulations of the temple. Be sure to check the time of services!

As a rule, holiday services begin on Saturday with an evening service (16:00-18:00). In some churches, after the evening service, a blessing of Easter cakes is held.

Then all-night vigils begin with a mandatory religious procession at 24:00.

After vigils and matins, the Divine Liturgy is served, followed by the blessing of Easter cakes. As a rule, the blessing occurs at the first rays of the sun.

In the evening of the Bright Resurrection of Christ, an evening service is celebrated. However, Easter cakes are no longer blessed.

Beautiful Easter greetings can be found.

What time does the festive service in the church on Radonitsa begin and end?

The meaning of the holiday Radonitsa

Radonitsa is a special holiday that connects the past and the future. On this day it is customary to remember deceased relatives and friends.

Radonitsa is celebrated on the ninth day after Easter Sunday.

The evening before, an evening service is held, and in the morning there is an early and/or late liturgy. A full memorial service is served either after the evening service or after the morning services - it all depends on the internal rules of the temple.

In addition, the charters of many churches require that Easter funeral services be held in city cemeteries.

More information about Radonitsa.

What time does the festive service in the church for Trinity begin and end?

The date of the celebration of Trinity or Pentecost depends on the date of Bright Resurrection.

Important: on the eve of the holiday of Trinity, Trinity Parents' Saturday is always held, the peculiarity of which is a special funeral service. This is a special Funeral Liturgy, after which you can and should visit the cemetery and remember the deceased.

The evening of Parents' Saturday is marked by a festive All-Night Vigil.

On Sunday, early and/or late holiday liturgies are celebrated. In many temples, bouquets of twigs and medicinal herbs are blessed.

Be sure to check the time of services directly with the temple you want to visit!

Tips on how to talk to children about the Trinity.

Goda will help you not to miss significant services.

Video: How to behave in the Temple?

Upon entering the temple, the priest in the stole in front of the royal doors begins: “Blessed is our God.” Reader: "Amen." “Glory to Thee, our God”, “Heavenly King”, Trisagion, “Holy Trinity”, “Our Father”, and at the cry of the priest “For Thine is the Kingdom” - “Come, let us worship” and reads the psalms of the 9th hour. According to the psalms - troparia, and according to the Trisagion - kontakion, the same ones that were read that day at the 3rd and 6th hours before the liturgy. With the prayer “Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ, long-suffering” and the exclamation “God, gracious to us,” there is no dismissal, but the priest, having put on a veil and opening the curtain of the royal doors, goes out in front of the royal doors and begins Vespers with the exclamation “Blessed is our God.” Reader: "Amen." “Come, let us worship” and the opening psalm “Bless the Lord, my soul.” The priest secretly reads the prayers of the lamp. Great Litany “Let us pray to the Lord in peace.” This litany is usually pronounced by the deacon, if there is one, on the pulpit in front of the royal doors, as well as by the priest, if he serves without a deacon. Then the entire ordinary kathisma will be sung into poetry. The kathisma is sung as follows: the reader reads the first psalm and others until “Glory” and at the end says: “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” and the choir sings: “And now and ever and unto ages of ages, amen,” “Alleluia, alleluia , alleluia, glory to You, O God" (three times), "Lord, have mercy" (three times), "Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit"; the reader: “And now and ever and unto ages of ages, Amen” and reads another “Glory” of kathisma; finishing the second “Glory,” he again says: “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” and the choir sings: “And now and ever and unto ages of ages, Amen,” “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, O God” ( three times), “Lord, have mercy” (three times), “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”; reader: “And now and ever and unto ages of ages, Amen” and reads the third, last “Glory” of the kathisma and ends it himself: “Glory, and now,” “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, O God” (three times) . In this way all kathismas will be versified. According to the verse, the small litany “Packs and Packs.”

If there was a vigil that day, then there is no kathisma poetry.

“Lord, I have cried” is sung in the voice of the stichera of Octoechos, and psalms 140, 141 and 129 are read up to the verse “If you see iniquity, O Lord” and then the stichera of Octoechos - 3 and to the saint - 3 with the verses of the psalm; “Glory” - to the saint, if there is a side, “And now” - the Theotokos Octoechos according to the voice of “Glory” and according to the day (at the end of the monthly Menaion); if there is no “Glory” to the saint, then “Glory, even now” is the Mother of God or the Mother of the Cross (on Wednesday and Friday) along with the Menaion.

During the singing of the stichera, the priest or deacon censes the altar, the iconostasis, the faces (choirs), the people and the temple, after which he returns to the royal doors, censes them and two local icons - the Savior and the Mother of God, enters the altar by the southern door and, touching the throne in front , gives away the censer; if a deacon burns incense, then he burns incense after everything and the priest. According to the last stichera - “Quiet Light” and the prokeimenon for the day. “Vouchsafe, O Lord, this evening.” Litany “Let us perform the evening prayer” before the royal doors.

On the stichera are the stichera of the Octoechos with the verses “I have ascended to You,” “Have mercy on us, Lord,” “Glory” to the saint, if there is one, “And now” – the Theotokos according to the voice of “Glory” and according to the day (at the end of the Menaion), and if there is no “Glory” to the saint, then “Glory, even now” is the Mother of God or the Mother of the Cross in the Menaion along with it. “Now you forgive”, the Trisagion, “Our Father” and according to the cry of the priest “For Thy is the Kingdom” - the troparion to the saint, “Glory, and now” - the Theotokos absolution in the voice of the troparion to the saint and according to the day (at the end of the Menaion). If there is no troparion for the saint, then a common troparion for the saint, or martyr, or venerable one. Litany “Have mercy on us, O God,” complete, before the royal doors. According to the litany, the priest or deacon, standing in the same place, exclaims: “Wisdom.” Face: “Bless.” Priest: “Blessed be he.” Face: “Amen. Establish, O God." Priest: “Most Holy Theotokos, save us.” Lik: “The most honest one.” Priest: “Glory to Thee, O Christ God.” Face: “Glory, even now,” “Lord, have mercy” (three times), “Bless.” The priest, turning to the people, gives a complete dismissal. Face - many years.

Then the priest enters the altar, closes the curtain of the royal doors, removes the phelonion and begins Small Compline with the exclamation “Blessed is our God.” Reader: “Amen. Come, let us worship” (three times), Psalm 50, etc. Compline is read among the church in front of the pulpit. According to “Glory in the highest” - the canon of the Theotokos in the Octoechos along. Irmos - once at a time, troparia - as many as there are. According to the canon “It is worthy to eat”, the Trisagion, “Our Father”. At the exclamation of the priest, the troparion to the temple, if the temple of Christ or the Theotokos, then to the day and the general rank and file: if the temple of Christ, then at Compline on Tuesday and Thursday the troparion to the temple is left throughout the year, and on these days they are read first to the day - “Save, Lord, people Yours,” then to the temple of the Mother of God or a saint, then the general rank and file, and the other readings of Compline follow; short leave before the royal doors. Compline ends with the litany “Let us pray for the Great Lord.”

Midnight Office every day. The priest in one stole before the throne proclaims: “Blessed is our God.” Reader. "Amen. Glory to Thee, our God,” “Heavenly King,” the Trisagion, “Our Father,” “Come, let us worship,” and Psalm 50, then kathisma 17, all without verse. “I believe in One God.” A short dismissal before the royal doors and the litany “Let us pray for the Great Lord.”

Matins every day. At the end of the Midnight Office, the priest enters the altar, puts on a phelonion, opens the curtain of the royal doors, accepts the censer and, censing, proclaims: “Blessed is our God.” Reader: “Amen. Come, let us worship” and reads the 19th and 20th Psalms; according to the psalms and Trisagion - troparia “Save, Lord.” While reading psalms and troparions, the priest censes the altar, the entire temple, the faces and the people. At the end of the reading of the troparions, the priest, standing before the throne with a censer, pronounces the litany “Have mercy on us, O God,” a short litany consisting of three petitions. Priest: “Have mercy on us, O God.” Face: “Lord, have mercy” (three times). Priest: “We still pray for the Great Lord.” Face: “Lord, have mercy” (three times). Priest: “We also pray for all the brethren and for all Christians.” Face: “Lord, have mercy” (three times). The priest exclaimed: “For he is merciful.” Lik: "Amen." “Bless you in the name of the Lord, father.” The priest, making the sign of the cross with a censer, proclaims: “Glory to the Saints,” and the reader reads the Six Psalms in the middle of the church in front of the pulpit. The priest, having given the censer, prays before the throne. After the first three psalms, the priest, leaving the altar, secretly reads morning prayers according to the Service Book in front of the royal doors. The Great Litany is pronounced before the royal doors.

“God is the Lord, and has appeared to us” is proclaimed with verses, just like the prokeimenon, and the clergy sings “God is the Lord” in the voice of the troparion to an ordinary saint. Troparion to the saint (twice), “Glory, and now” – Theotokos from the lesser (the Theotokos at the end of the Menaion). Two ordinary kathismas are sung, sometimes three, as directed by the Charter. There are no small litanies for kathismas, and after the verse, the sedals of the Octoechos with the Mother of God or the Mother of the Cross are read or sung. Then - Psalm 50.

There are three canons: Octoechos - two, the first - for 6 with an irmos, the irmos once, the second - for 4, and the saint in the Menaion - for 4 without irmos. There is no katavasia, but only instead of katavasia, the Irmos of Menaion is sung in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 9th cantos. According to the 3rd ode, the litany is small, sedal to the saint with the Theotokos in the Menaion. According to the 6th canto, the small litany, kontakion and ikos to the saint in the Menaion. According to the 8th song we sing “The Most Honest”, in which the priest or deacon censes the altar, the temple, the faces, the people. According to the 9th song “It is worthy to eat”, small litany. The Octoechos is luminous, “Glory” is the saint’s luminary, “And now” is the Theotokos; if there is no lamp for the saint, then “Glory, even now” is the Theotokos or the Theotokos of the Holy Cross. Then Psalms 148, 149 and 150 are read, and the first of them begins with the words “Praise the Lord from heaven” (and not “Every breath”), “Glory to Thee, who showed us the light.” "Gloria". Litany “Let us perform the morning prayer.” On the stichera are the stichera of Oktoechos with the verses “We will be fulfilled in the morning.” “Glory” - to the saint in the Menaion, “And now” - Theotokos according to the voice of “Glory” and according to the day (at the end of the Menaion); if there is no “Glory” for the saint, then “Glory, even now” is the Theotokos from Octoechos along. “There is good”, once; according to the “Our Father,” the troparion for an ordinary saint, “Glory, even now” is the Theotokos absolution from the lesser (at the end of the Menaion or Book of Hours). Litany “Have mercy on us, O God”, complete. Then the priest or deacon: “Wisdom.” Face: “Bless.” Priest: “Blessed be he.” The face: “Confirm, O God,” and immediately the reader reads the 1st hour, and the priest closes the curtain of the royal doors. At the 1st hour after the psalms on “Glory” - the troparion to the daily saint, “And now” - the Theotokos of the hour. According to the Trisagion Kontakion to the Saint. According to the prayer of the priest “Christ, the true Light,” the choir sings (according to the custom of the Russian Church, sanctified by antiquity) to the “Chosen Voivode,” and then the priest before the royal doors proclaims: “Glory to Thee, Christ God.” The face: “Glory, even now,” and the priest says complete dismissal. Face - many years.

At the 3rd and 6th hours the troparion and kontakion are the same as at the 1st hour.

At the Divine Liturgy, there are daily antiphons “There is Good” (in Irmologiya and in the Apostle at the end). If the saint is assigned the hymn of the canon on the Blessed, then the figurative “Bless the Lord, my soul,” and the Blessed Octoechos are read on 4 and the saint, hymn 3, on 4. Entrance with the Gospel.

During the entrance to the Divine Liturgy, the deacon or priest should not loudly proclaim: “Let us pray to the Lord,” so that the clergy would answer: “Lord, have mercy,” but the entrance should occur during the reading or singing of the 3rd antiphon or the Blessed, and “Let us pray to the Lord.” , like the prayer of entry, is said in a low voice. The same entrance occurs at vespers, at which the Gospel is read. This is how the entrance took place in the Great Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, and both the Missal and the Official clearly indicate to say “Let us pray to the Lord” barely audibly.

Entrance: “Come, let us worship... In the holy wonders of the saints singing Ti: alleluia” (once).

Upon entering the troparion to the temple of Christ or the Mother of God, the day and temple of the saint, the ordinary saint; then a kontakion to the temple of Christ, a day, a temple of a saint, an ordinary saint, “Glory” - “Rest with the saints”, “And now” - a kontakion to the temple of the Mother of God, and if it is not there, then “And now” - “Representation of Christians”. If Wednesday or Friday, then the troparia “Save, Lord,” then to the temple of the Mother of God and the temple of the saint and the ordinary saint; kontakion for the day “Ascended to the Cross”; to the temple of a saint, an ordinary saint, “Glory” - “Rest with the saints”, “And now” - to the temple of the Mother of God (the troparion and kontakion are not due to the temple of Christ these days). If the temple is only of Christ, then troparions to the temple, to the day, to an ordinary saint; kontakion for the day, for an ordinary saint, “Glory” - “Rest with the saints”, “And now” - for the temple of Christ. If the temple is only a saint, then at the entrance there are troparions to the day, to the temple of the saint, to an ordinary saint; kontakion on Wednesday and Friday afternoon, and on other days to the temple of the saint, to an ordinary saint, “Glory” - “Rest with the saints”, “And now” - “Representation of Christians”. Prokeimenon, Apostle, Gospel and involved in the day; if it is appropriate for a saint, then after the day it is read to the saint, Alleluia is read before the Gospel to the saint alone. The general order of daily service shown here is a model for all days of the week, except Sunday, unless on these days the feast of the Lord, the Mother of God, the great saint and the temple, having a vigil and polyeleos, occurs.