At the end of 2014, the Missionary Institute of the Yekaterinburg Diocese took first place in the church-wide competition “Best Missionary Project of the Year.” The Missionary Institute is the only university in our country that trains Orthodox missionaries. And, which is important for many, it gives everyone the opportunity to receive a higher theological education completely free of charge.
Today we are talking with the rector of the Missionary Institute, Dr. philological sciences Natalia Alexandrovna Dyachkova is a wonderful leader who united the golden Teaching Staff, as well as the host of radio programs “Don’t rush with your tongue,” dedicated to the Russian language.
Natalia Alexandrovna, at what age and in what ways did you come to faith?
Yaroslav Soviet time, was an October child, a pioneer, a Komsomol member, and, of course, there was no question of any Church. I was baptized at a conscious age, already being a university teacher and the mother of two children. Unfortunately, I did not become a church member right away: several years passed between baptism and church membership.
One day - I think it was in 2000 - I was invited to teach at the Novo-Tikhvin Convent, where the sisters have the obedience to translate and edit texts. Anyone who has seen books from the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery Publishing House knows that they are always well-edited, beautiful publications. The sisters needed a teacher of stylistics, speech culture, fundamentals literary editing. At the Department of Modern Russian Language at USU, they began looking for people willing to teach at the monastery, but everyone refused. I have long been attracted to monastic, religious people, and I willingly agreed. Communication with the sisters was joyful, fruitful and interesting. These are very grateful, capable and diligent students. It was the sisters who got me into church, for which I am very, very grateful to them. We have very warm, friendly relations, which still persist today.
Then it happened spiritual communication with Father Peter (Mazhetov), which largely determined later life mine and my family. Meeting my sisters and Father Peter, one might say, changed my whole life.
How did your friendship with believers complement yours? personal work in the church?
It so happened that a little later I was invited to teach rhetoric at the Missionary courses, which operated first at the monastery in the name of the All-Merciful Savior, and then at Novo-Tikhvin Monastery. I taught courses for several years, I liked it, but I had no intention of working in the Church. During this time, I defended my doctoral dissertation and became a professor. Teaching courses and teaching for the sisters was just a part-time job, but a part-time job that brought spiritual joy. I liked working with believers and churchgoers more and more. In 2008, Schema-Archimandrite Abraham (Reidman), spiritual father of the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery and the Holy Kosminsk Hermitage, invited me to his place and said that he was blessing me to head the Higher Missionary Courses. At first I refused, but a blessing is a blessing, and I became the director of these courses.
I always tried to avoid management work; I didn’t like this job. Teaching - yes, doing science - yes, but leading - no. In the first two or three years, I combined work at the university with the work of the director of the Higher Missionary Courses. But the moment came when I had to choose, and I chose the courses. We have a very strong team of teachers, we decided to transform the courses into an institute, and began to prepare for obtaining a license. I left the university and became the rector of the Missionary Institute, which I do not regret at all. Now I want to work only for the Church. In 2011, we received a license and carried out the first enrollment of students at the Missionary Institute. In 2014, we ceased to be an institute at the monastery, and with the blessing of our bishop, we became a diocesan university. And in 2016 we will have our first release. Our first students will receive bachelor's degrees in theology.
Who studies at the Missionary Institute and why?
If we briefly express the essence of our educational institution, it will sound like this: “ Orthodox Institute for Orthodox students." Why is it called missionary? Missionary in modern world- a necessary thing. At the V All-Church Congress of Diocesan Missionaries, which took place in November 2014, His Holiness the Patriarch said that missionary work today is the forefront of the work of the Church, and that the fate of the country largely depends on Orthodox missionaries. And even earlier, when several years ago, when His Holiness was in the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery and visited our Missionary courses, he blessed us to create an institute and said that the task of missionaries (I remember verbatim) is “to church our unchurched compatriots.”
Each of our graduates will occupy their own niche in accordance with their vocation and their abilities: some will teach catechetical or catechetical courses, and some will enlighten their friends, colleagues, acquaintances, or lead their children, grandchildren, nephews to the faith and churching. parents.
Graduates of the Missionary Institute will be able to work as teachers of the subject “Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and secular ethics» in secondary schools, teachers of the Law of God in parochial schools, in Orthodox publishing houses, on Orthodox radio and television, to be methodologists in theological and religious studies departments in universities, experts on religious issues in government institutions and cultural institutions.
Many of our students are already working in the Church today. Here on my desk are lists of students who are already announcing and enlightening people, organizing catechetical courses and Sunday schools. I will name just a few names:
Vera Petrovna Ulyanova - teaches at Sunday school at the church in honor of Rev. Seraphim of Sarov;
- Konstantin Alekseevich Falkov - conducts catechetical courses at the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Uktus;
- Tatyana Medvedeva - assistant to the dean for religious education and catechesis, Mr. Berezovsky; catechist at the church, Rev. Seraphim of Sarov, Yekaterinburg;
- Olga Sivkova - organizer of missionary trips to remote villages of the Verkhoturye region;
- Igor Galabuda - conducts public conversations in the village. Kedrovka, Berezovsky district;
- Elena Vandysheva - conducts public talks at the Church of the Nativity of Christ in the city of Kyshtym, Chelyabinsk region;
- Natalya Nazarova - assistant to the dean at the Church of St. Apostles Peter and Paul, Talitsa; the head of the Sunday school, conducts public conversations.
I could go on and on. And, please note, not only parishioners of Ekaterinburg churches and temples study with us Sverdlovsk region, but also Orthodox Christians from Chelyabinsk, Perm, Ufa. You know how joyful it can be when you go on a religious procession - and you meet so many acquaintances! Say hello, and you’ll think to yourself: this one studied with us, and this one studied with us, and this one too!
We prepare students in the field of “theology,” but not just Orthodox theologians (that is, theologians), but missionary theologians. Suppose a person is called to preach Orthodoxy, but how will he do this if he himself does not know Orthodox dogmas, is not firm in his knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and has not read the Holy Fathers? Students are called to missionary service, therefore we accept church-going Orthodox Christians and do not take random people from the street. After all, churchliness is a guarantee that a person will not harm those to whom he will missionary, and will not harm himself.
Studying at our institute, although difficult, is very interesting. Students study biblical studies, Church history, liturgics, patristics, missionary history, sect studies, schism studies, Church Slavonic language, ancient Greek and Latin languages. In their curriculum a whole cycle of theological, historical, social and humanitarian disciplines.
For many of our students, the institute is not only a place where they can gain knowledge, but also a kind of club of interests. After all, in addition to studying, we have a lot of exciting things: evenings, meetings with interesting people, a film club, a club for poetry lovers, pilgrimage trips, excursions. You can sing in the institute choir “Gorlitsa”, which is led by a specialist with a conservatory education. We constantly invite leading theologians from Moscow to give lectures.
Typically, students undergo internship several times during their studies. Historians go to excavations, future teachers teach lessons. What do your students practice?
Our institute has two practices: pedagogical and missionary. Students undergo teaching practice in schools. As for missionary practice, we have it continuously. Throughout school year Once a month, students travel to remote villages of Verkhoturye. There they meet the villagers, hold public conversations with them, prepare people for Baptism, and then the rector of the church in the village of Merkushino, priest John Lila, baptizes these people.
On Sundays, our missionaries travel by bus to villages where there are no churches, gather everyone who wants to attend the service and take them to the Divine Liturgy in Merkushino. Each time it is at least 50 people! Thanks to our students, many villager Confessed and received communion for the first time.
Students conduct master classes on handicrafts for rural children, show concerts in clubs, and distribute items to people. Orthodox books, give children sweets, toys, bring clothes and medicines to those in need - that is, they carry out social missionary and missionary-pedagogical activities. Many of our missionaries have their own “sponsored” families. Someone was arranged for treatment in Yekaterinburg, someone was brought expensive medicine, someone was baptized, unctioned and sent on their last journey... A lot of work is being done.
Please tell us about the teachers of the Missionary Institute.
We have wonderful teachers. All of them are Orthodox believers, most of them are scientists. Of course, I can’t tell you about each one, because we have 28 people working in three departments - theology, history and social and humanitarian disciplines. And each of them is a kind of gem. For example, the department of theology is headed by Konstantin Vladilenovich Korepanov. I think there is no need to introduce him to the Orthodox public: everyone listens to the radio “Resurrection”, watches the TV channel “Soyuz”, reads “ Orthodox newspaper", where Konstantin Vladilenovich is a regular guest and author. At our institute, PSTGU graduate and Master of Pedagogy K. V. Korepanov reads biblical studies, basic theology, and apologetics.
I will also say a few words about our doctor-theologian. Andrey Anatolyevich Zainurov, senior teacher of the department of theology, graduated from Sverdlovsk medical school, but having come to faith, he decided to receive a theological education. He entered the Belgorod Theological Seminary and graduated from it. And now he is both a practicing dentist and a teacher of sect studies and history. Western Christianity, Church history.
The Department of History is headed by Alexey Gennadievich Mosin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, specialist in national history, historical anthroponymy. Alexey Gennadievich is a graduate of USU; one can say that his whole life is connected with this university. He still teaches at the history department of UrFU, but is a full-time professor with us. At the Missionary Institute, Alexey Gennadievich teaches the history of Russia, the history of the Urals, the history of the Old Believers, Russian genealogy, and historical anthroponymy. Experience in research and pedagogical work He's 30 years old!
Alexey Gennadievich - author of monographs, scientific articles. For the book “The Demidov Family” in 2012 he received literary prize them. P. P. Bazhov, and most recently, in April 2015, the Akinfiy Demidov Medal for his great contribution to Demidov studies.
Alexey Gennadievich is not only a great scientist, but also extremely interesting person. Did you know, for example, that Mosin has been collecting ancient coins since childhood? He already has either 5 or 6 thousand of them! Alexey Gennadievich can talk about each coin for hours. Who is depicted, under which Roman emperor was it minted, what witnesses historical events was... In his collection there are coins from the time of the earthly life of Jesus Christ and the apostles, and there are also even more ancient coins. IN student years and in his youth, Alexey Gennadievich was a constant participant in archaeographic expeditions. When he brings from the laboratory some old book, for example, a handwritten Gospel of the 16th century with the autograph of Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow and All Rus', dated 1540, or the book “Apostle” by Ivan Fedorov, which was printed even before the reform of Patriarch Nikon, more than 400 years ago, we all - both students and teachers - came running to look at these monuments and listen to Alexei Gennadievich.
Interesting scientists also teach at the department of social and humanitarian disciplines. For example, Oleg Vasilievich Zyryanov is a professor, Doctor of Philology, head of the Department of Russian Literature at UrFU. A well-known literary critic, specialist in Russian literature, Oleg Vasilyevich at our institute teaches the course “Domestic Literature classical period" Students admit that they have never heard such interesting and inspiring lectures in their lives!
All our teachers are worth their weight in gold. Everyone is a unique personality! Theologians, historians, cultural experts, art historians, philologists. It's a pity that I can't tell you about everyone!
Sergey Alexandrovich Azarenko - doctor philosophical sciences; professor of the department social philosophy UrFU, a famous scientist, teaches Russian religious philosophy and history of philosophy. Anyone who thought that philosophy was a boring science changes his mind after Sergei Alexandrovich’s lectures.
Natalia Alexandrovna, let's talk about you. What is your personal calling?
I don’t know about my vocation... Since childhood I have loved the Russian language and literature. I didn’t want to be anyone else - just a philologist. Maybe this is it? But now I work here and I love it. We as a team dream that in addition to the bachelor’s degree we will also have a master’s degree, we dream that we will publish our own magazine, that someday we will have, in addition to theology, other faculties - for example, the faculty of journalism, where we will train Orthodox journalists. But even now there is a lot to do. We need to prepare for accreditation of the institute.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like to walk in the forest, plant flowers in the country, knit, watch good movies and, of course, I like to read.
If you had the opportunity to change one thing in the world, what would you change?
I would like it as possible more people turned to the Church, to Christ. We see that the secular world is suffering, and people do not even understand the cause of many troubles and misfortunes. If I could influence this, I would tell everyone that our salvation is only in Christ, only in the Church.
Today I really envy young church-going parents. How much easier it is for them to raise children: the doors of churches are open, they can bring their children to church and receive communion every Sunday. They can raise children in Orthodox faith. When I catch myself thinking, “Oh, this didn’t happen in our time,” I immediately pull myself back. Orthodox Christians should not look back, but should live for today. Now the Lord has given us the opportunity to go to church, begin the sacraments - and this is a great happiness, thank God for everything!
The well-known missionary and MDA professor, Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev, and the head of the Synodal Information Department, Vladimir Legoida, denied rumors about a financial crisis at the Academy.
At a meeting of the Academic Council, the MDA teaching corporation condemned the statements of Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev. The famous missionary considers his reaction correct, and even admits that he offered the hooligans “shelter” when things took a dangerous turn for the girls.
A church-wide standard for Sunday schools is being developed in Synodal Department religious education and catechesis. Why such a standard was needed and how it threatens already established parish practice, Priest Alexy Alekseev, an employee of the department, talks about this.
There is a Sunday school at almost every church. But you can never know in advance what, how they will teach there and what will come of it. It all depends on the parish, and all parishes are different. Today the sector Orthodox education develops a standard for educational activities of Sunday schools of the Russian Orthodox Church. Is such a standard possible and what should it be? Natalya AGAPOVA, director of the Sunday school at the Church of the Archangel Michael in Zhukovsky, shares her thoughts
The failed scandal with the bankruptcy of the MDA (the Church officially denied problems with financing the academy) nevertheless raised interest Ask: How should church churches be financed? educational establishments? We talked about this with the rector of the Russian Orthodox University Abbot Peter (Eremeev)
PSTGU will release full meeting works of St. Ambrose of Milan in Russian in a new translation with parallel Latin text. Behind Lately There were no examples of such a large-scale publication of patristic literature. It is expected that the collection will consist of 15-18 volumes. The first and second volumes were presented on November 14
Greetings from two Patriarchs and the President of Russia, more than 1000 guests and a surprisingly welcoming atmosphere of a meeting of old friends - November 18 Orthodox St. Tikhon's Humanities University celebrated twenty years since its founding. PHOTO GALLERY
What are the possibilities for interaction? secular universities and theological schools in teaching theology, whether it is advisable to open departments of theology at universities will be discussed by the participants of the meeting, which will be held on November 28-29 under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and will bring together more than 200 participants: hierarchs, government officials, rectors of leading theological schools and secular universities, experts. On the integration of two systems of theological education: church and secular magazine " Boring Garden» said the vice-rector of the All-Church Postgraduate and Doctoral Studies, Archpriest Vladimir SHMALIY
OPK teachers are trained by tutors who themselves have attended a 72-hour advanced training course. It devotes 2 hours to Orthodoxy. The state is forgetting about the opportunity to involve the department of theology in training specialists in the defense industry,” notes PSTGU rector Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov.
The dictionary “Theological Anthropology” has been published, from which you can find out how Orthodox and Catholics understand the concepts of “family”, “society”, “power”, “work”, “personality”. The concept of the project and its implementation are commented on by Archpriest MAXIM KOZLOV, professor of the Moscow Theological Academy, teacher of comparative theology.
Theology is perceived as a discipline that requires traditional approach to study. But with development computer technology There was an opportunity to receive a theological education without leaving home, via the Internet. How to do this and why a layman needs theology, NS correspondent Ekaterina STEPANOVA found out from the dean of the faculty additional education PSTGU priest Gennady EGOROV and students of the online learning department.
What from the experience of the Russian theological school is especially relevant today, what names and works are unknown to us today - theologians, philosophers, historians from the Academy of Sciences, PSTGU, Moscow State University will discuss on September 13-14, High school savings at the conference "Russian church science before 1917 and its legacy in our days."
The St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris is now experiencing financial difficulties and is asking for help. How did you find funds for its creation? How did the institute survive in different years?
The website of the Paris St. Sergius Institute posted an appeal: “The Theological Institute is experiencing, for reasons beyond its control, an unprecedented financial crisis that threatens the closure of this unique theological school.” Everyone is asked to contribute. Will the Russian Orthodox Church intervene?
The Holy Synod made several decisions in the field of spiritual education. Practice will expand distance learning, professors from Moscow or St. Petersburg will participate in thesis defenses and exams in the regions. In three years we will not have a single theological school for future pastors. The deputy chairman talks about why and who will introduce all these innovations Educational Committee Archpriest Maxim KOZLOV.
Archpriest Artemy Vladimirov - a wonderful preacher, talented missionary, author teaching aid in rhetoric “The Art of Speech” and simply “our dear father” met with students of the Missionary Institute. The discussion at the meeting was about a professional problem for missionaries: how to communicate with people on spiritual topics? And especially with those whom we call alien to us in spirit? We bring to the attention of readers a brief recording of the lecture by Fr. Artemia.
We have chosen a difficult topic for discussion: we'll talk about how to communicate with people of a spirit alien to us, how to build a dialogue with people of beliefs and moods alien to us. First of all, we need to distinguish different formats communication: conversation face to face, from mouth to mouth and addressing a large audience. We will reflect on both formats of communication, because anything falls to the lot of an Orthodox person. When we communicate with like-minded audience, then the walls help. Because God's grace mysteriously dwells with each of us, gathers our thoughts and feelings together, helps our hearts beat in unison. And we enter a state of resonance, so that “sympathy is given to us, just as grace is given to us.” Audience sympathy is given to us for free! And where there is a mystical unity of this kind, spiritual and spiritual unity, God Himself acts there. And an experienced or willing to become experienced preacher, missionary, converter living word to the audience, you only need one thing: to listen to what is happening at the level of the hearts.
This ability distinguishes, for example, people of a poetic nature. In the article “Art in the Light of Conscience,” Marina Tsvetaeva reflects on Pushkin’s talent and says that, unlike rhymers, real poets who live by creativity and, as it seems to them, in the course of creative process They touch other worlds, they always listen to their own hearts. And, if they already have experience, then, like switchmen who sit at a railway station and watch which train to run on which track, they consider this or that word, born or being born in the depths of the heart, and say: “This is not this, and this not that either, but this is that.”
« And the thoughts in the head are agitated in courage, / And light rhymes run towards them, / And the fingers ask for the pen, the pen for the paper. / A minute - and the poems will flow freely...". When the poet sees his work completed, he does not say: “I wrote it,” but says: “This was born to me.” According to the poetess, this work is a gift that would not have come into the light of God without the poet, but at the same time does not entirely belong to him.
So: the word is really born. However, a word spoken before a like-minded audience is the fruit of a conciliar aspiration towards God. Harmony reigns here, and if the speaker is not a clumsy bear, which, as you remember, broke into the mansion, crushing all its other inhabitants under him, so that they fell out of there like peas, then some kind of conversation takes place. The word answers not yet questions asked. The listener is convinced, and he is not mistaken, believing that it was addressed specifically to him.
- Father, I got the impression that you know everything about me. And I just want to ask you, who gave you the right to talk about my shortcomings like this, publicly? And he, with his eyes wide open, will say: “You will forgive me, but I told you about my sins.”
- No, no, don’t lie, father. You even glanced at me out of the corner of your eye.
“Yes, I assure you that out of fear I could not see beyond my own nose.”
- But in fact: you laid out all my innermost feelings, thoughts and desires before the noble public.
And it turns out that both interlocutors are right, because a word spoken among its own has the property of self-tuning. That is, as the sympathy and trust of the listeners grows, some kind of grace-filled birth of thought occurs, and the preacher, perhaps without knowing it, guesses in which direction his word needs to move. The route outlines itself. But this does not mean, of course, that you can come to people without knowing what you will talk about. The composition of the speech must be known to the speaker in advance; there must be some plan according to which the conversation will develop. However, what happens in the living tissue of communication is often not what you intended. The speaker comes to mind with some verbal images, shades of thought, new topic becomes the subject of his reflection, and this is how a word is born, and there is a certain mystery in this, which is hardly subject to the study of a cold analyst.
It often happens that the speaker finds no sympathy. Father John of Kronstadt, who had an energetic word, just as he himself was a spiritually very dynamic person, writes, among other things, in one of his diaries that he has to purely physically make some kind of gap in the audience, he feels a wall in front of him. I guess, that we're talking about about an inert audience, well, let’s say, about secular listeners who, although anointed with myrrh, do not have a movement of the spirit in them. Father John is all fire, all is prayer, he talks with the Heavenly Father like a child, and turns to people, whose chest may be hung with government orders, to people of the propertied classes, who are only at first glance alive, but in many of them, life in Christ died out a long time ago...
So, the speaker is faced with the task of not just “reprimanding” something, not just calling for repentance, but certainly touching hearts. And this means waking up those who are sleeping, arousing in them trust, contrition for their constant sins, and a desire to change something. But human energy alone is not enough - we are not able to implement this maximum program. Only God can do this. Only if God cooperates with us, only if our word is anointed with His blessing, will our word receive power.
Protestants and sectarians of all stripes act with human energy. The grace of God does not breathe where they reign false concepts about God and about the Church. But there may be psychological pressure, there may be some secret technologies, like neurolinguistic programming. These could be some kind of tricks taken from Kashpirovsky’s repertoire: either hypnosis, or disgusting sorcery, or the training of a person who knows how to suppress the listener, how to turn on certain centers of his attention.
Father John of Kronstadt talks about how he has to strenuously - and this is not physical effort, this is not psychological pressure - to break through some mediastinum before he finally God's help goes out “to the expanse of the river wave.” He manages to achieve this supernatural goal, that is, to touch, captivate people, help them open their own hearts, so that they no longer recognize Yu t themselves and themselves rush to the source of spiritual light. In Father John of Kronstadt, by the way, you will find quite interesting psychological point from the point of view of things: he talks about how the evil one stops his lips, how it is difficult for him to pronounce this or that word in prayer, how he crumples something, omits something... Father John of Kronstadt was a man of fine spiritual organization: he is very lively, reacted reactively to the most various phenomena life, he could get into an excited, even irritated state of mind. If someone made him angry, he then tearfully repented of the fact that he was unable to control his emotion. (Those who read the diaries of Father John were probably even surprised when getting acquainted with the appearance of the saint. But now we will not focus on Father John of Kronstadt and his wonderful gifts, we will only note for ourselves once again that he sometimes physically felt the barrier that separates him from the hearts of his listeners).
“And you, father, have you ever felt this way, have you encountered such a wall in the audience that would separate you from their souls?”
“It happened, and it is always painful for the speaker, because the great temptation is to doomfully give up on these people, saying: “I came to the wrong people, and they are not able to listen to anything at all, there is no point in trying to throw pearls in front of them.” As Father Andrei Kuraev says, an experienced missionary is tempted to assert himself at the expense of an audience in which he failed. But self-affirmation is a small consolation, because the task is Orthodox missionary completely different, he needs to get in touch with the audience.
Once I was traveling in the Russian province, and ended up in a sanatorium where an audience gathered, either government or consisting of high-flying Methodists. It was impromptu. Just in case, we decided to catapult the priest to this gathering of middle-aged and elderly people who were discussing their professional problems. The retreat was interrupted, and those gathered were told: “Now we will rest and such and such a priest will talk with you for the benefit of your souls.” I go out. They sit in groups at tables. It was still turning point from Soviet to post-Soviet, and I encountered people who didn’t even know how to behave well. A range of feelings was written on the faces of the listeners: from surprise (“And this, excuse me, who eats it and with what?!”) to indignation (“No, well, look what it is!”). And so I call fire on myself, go into battle, talk about what I owe them O be interesting. And I see that people are so blinkered that it is incredibly difficult for them when it comes to any high subject. And I talked about how scary it is to lose the language of communication with a child, about how it is impossible to follow the beaten path here and therefore no methodological lessons, no schemes can arm us against this main drama our life. In such “battles” “blood flows like a river.” You give it your all, because you can’t just give up and walk away. And you can't get irritated! There is nothing more ungrateful than pitting yourself against the collective—those who listen to you. It is necessary to find some “islands” in this “swamp”, and not indulge in confusion and panic. If you admit to your own weakness, you will get nothing but hooting in the back. You cannot blame these ladies who have never seen the light of God and, like some forest animals, having heard the words of truth, closed their eyes as if from a harsh light and ran to their den.
But I continue to talk about motherhood, I remember Yesenin. No matter how alienated the son is from his mother, I say, no matter how much arrogance and rudeness there is in him, the day will still come, the hour will come when he will remember the words: “Are you still alive, my old lady? I'm alive too. Hello, hello!” And with a peripheral vision I look at these women: it cannot be that their hearts were not touched by this most profound and sublime lyricism of the 20th century. I see that the listeners are already divided into two unequal parts. Most continue to hide... But I see: my eyes have opened. Words A Some turn out to be understandable and close. I left this battlefield riddled with bullets, but several allies were found in the enemy camp who never seemed to have heard a living heartfelt word. This is the drama about which the Apostle Paul spoke this way: he must preach to everyone “in order to save at least some.”
However, we should not attribute to ourselves such of great importance: Whoever, they say, does not listen to me, whoever does not hear me, will not be saved. God will lead them, but, of course, God touches the soul through a person’s word, but we still don’t know when and how our word will respond.
It can be very unpleasant to talk about morality with a person defending an immoral position. There are young creatures for whom the seventh commandment is do not commit adultery- does not exist. Their way of life is not such as to humble themselves before this fiery word. And, you know, the lips are constrained. Well, what can you say to this soul? She already knows everything and has heard everything. So many mothers today are in extreme predicament, when their girls, who graduated from Sunday school in due time, come of age, find their “soul mate” and, for fear of being left alone, doom themselves to misalliance, without listening to any advice. “Is this why I gave birth to you, my dear, and raised you?” - the mother laments.
They may start talking to you in the compartment, and you will not be able to escape from this compartment. For example, I, being a person who is not very brave, do not like to talk with those who insists on his sinful lifestyle. It is extremely difficult to pronounce words in the face of dissent, but if you pronounce the words with sympathy, compassion and love, then they will still bear fruit in due time. Now the person does not accept your words, but the time will come, and these words, like a seed, will sprout. If you speak not out of duty, but out of inner sympathy, then the word will find a hole for itself and there will remain in a latent state until the soul turns to the light. We receive confirmation of this years later. Recently such a case happened to me. An elderly woman approaches me.
- Father, first of all I want to ask for your forgiveness.
In such cases, I always say: “Let me also ask you for forgiveness: for something, perhaps, I should also ask you for forgiveness?”
“You don’t remember me, of course.”
— We met somewhere, but where?
— Do you remember when you were just graduating from university?
- Finished.
- And remember, you lived there and there, and you had an elderly neighbor. We met, and you recommended me to this neighbor so that I could live with her. And my neighbor caught me: she saw the syringe in my hands and told your mother about it. And then you asked me to leave. And I was also at your house, and while you and your mother were talking, I stole from your medicine cabinet... (She stole something for her drug needs).
And then I remember this face, I remember the girl - a young, beautiful person. (Drug addicts age very quickly; in just five years they turn into dust). I probably met her somewhere in a temple, and it occurred to me to save this soul and bring her to our home, where she stole something from the medicine cabinet. And today she repents of it. We haven't seen her for probably 31 years. And so I, already a priest, confessed to her and hastened to assure her that God had forgiven everything, and I had nothing to forgive her.
Some completely inept, timid attempts by a boy whose milk had not dried on his lips... And just imagine: 31 years later this meeting. The woman has completely changed, she already goes to church, and all these 30 years her heart hurts because she once did this while in darkness. It turns out that God, through incomprehensible ways, found a path to her heart. Marvelous! A little good, which seems to have no chance of winning, is still significant. And only God knows how your word will resonate several decades later in the life of a completely deaf, insensitive and darkened person.
“Sow the wheat of the word of God,” said St. Seraphim to his spiritual son, “and God knows when the seed will be accepted and germinate.” Our job is to speak words of truth and love, supporting them by example. own life. Perhaps God sometimes allows priests to see how this word grows.
Now I will describe several different audiences and talk about how you should tune your soul when there is an audience in front of you that is not friendly to you. Most often, if we communicate with young people, we have to meet with cynicism, vulgarity and the dirt of vicious ideas and the deeds corresponding to them. The word about the beautiful, the good, the true, the true, the ideal sounds in such an audience like thunder from not a clear, but a dark sky, like lightning in the night. Today, coming to a youth secular audience is a chance to meet self-sufficient, self-affirming young people, to whom life seems simple, like a cucumber, and who have the psychology of the Snowstorm from the novel “Destruction”: life is a penny. What can you do in 45 minutes in this audience of young people who are prematurely tired of life and do not believe in the ideal? What can we do, say, so that our word, like a seed, germinates? You need to be daring, and experience tells you that in such an audience you can go for broke: you need to tell a story Great love. Tell when the audience clearly does not sympathize with the beginning of your story. Well, for example, about Elizaveta Feodorovna - the white angel of Moscow. Or about the history of the Royal Martyrs. Or about chaste Susanna, surrounded by lustful Israeli elders who said: “Either you sleep with us, or we will put you to death.” She, like a doe caught in the coils of a python (there is such a medieval painting as “Chaste Susanna”), with eyes filled with suffering, prays to the Almighty, saying: “Lord! Better death than to retreat from You with these, who have human face and cattle hooves."
You shouldn’t read morals, but you should paint words so that, say, a fidgety girl, already battered by life, suddenly sees wonderful moment, saw beauty, harmony of soul and body, saw the image of Elizabeth Feodorovna, to whom Konstantin Romanov (poet K.R. - ed.) dedicated his wonderful poems. He spoke about her like this: only God can create such beauty! And experience shows that on a cracked, parched earth our word pours down like rain, it awakens an ideal in the hearts, because a person is given the idea of truth by God from birth, and a person who chooses the wrong path suffers - he suffers the more, the more he goes into darkness.
Now let's look at a different audience. Let's meet with sectarians of various stripes. This is also a difficult case, because sometimes you physically feel the presence of an ancient serpent, the devil, cast down from heaven to earth. Sectarians, people who are outside the saving ark of the Mother Church, have some psychological similarities. Psychology, inner world Baptist, Adventist, Jehovah's Witness, Pentecostal are similar. This is always a restless, turbulent state. The sectarian knows no peace in God. Why? Because peace comes from grace, and it is not there. Orthodox Christians must be strong in the spirit of calm, balance, and the love of Christ, expressed in our attitude towards people. Not only should we not allow ourselves to lose our temper, but, on the contrary, when we meet with such an audience, with such interlocutors, we should feel like doctors. How does a doctor position himself? How is he feeling? First of all, he is calm - in front of him is a patient who needs therapy. A state of absolute peace, balance, and a friendly disposition towards a person is a condition without which it is impossible to communicate with such people. A sectarian is always very dynamic: “traversing the seas and lands,” he must acquire new and new members, followers of his church, no matter what he calls it - “Dew”, “Path of Salvation” or something else. A sectarian always has a short set of quotes - they do not know the Holy Scriptures in spirit. Venerable Seraphim said that our mind should be dissolved in Holy Scripture, but sectarians distort Scripture to suit their own delusion, thinking to find confirmation of their teaching in certain quotes that they were taught. Their consciousness is schematized, they are typical scriveners - these kind of brave tailors who sew a suit without enough material, and therefore one sleeve turns out to be longer, one trouser leg is shorter, and the whole coat sits awry. And there are sometimes too many buttons, sometimes too few. Fighting them is always something unpleasant for me personally, because they are under direct impact a dark spirit that strengthens their words and fills them with its demonic energy.
The sectarian's thinking is spasmodic. Excitedly, he puts forward one, second, third, fourth argument; like a kangaroo, he jumps from place to place, dragging you further and further into this pursuit. In order to talk with a sectarian, you need to take a spear and press his next question, like a snake, to the ground.
- No, wait, let me, we won’t jump with you now, let’s discuss the topic of idolatry and icon veneration. And let's figure out what O V Old Testament was allowed, but O prohibited. And was every image subject to destruction? What can you say about the image of cast gold cherubs that overshadow the Ark of the Covenant? And were they images of a created being? However, no one thought to deify this image, since it speaks of the power and glory of the deity. It, this image, glorifies the name of the Lord. Moses, who said, “You shall not make for yourself an idol,” commands that these golden cherubim be cast and woven onto the skins and fabrics that cover the tabernacle.
You have nailed down the question with a spear and begin to explore it in its entirety and in essence.
As a rule, the unclean spirit immediately begins to act in these people. They lose their temper because they are actually completely unprepared for the interview and are unable to have a peaceful conversation. However, let us not delude ourselves: not all sectarians are so simple and helpless. There are people who are absolutely calm, very well-read, and whom nothing can shake. In this sense, we can talk not only about sectarians, but also about people of other faiths in general - people of very different non-Christian spirituality. I remember a duel on TV that took place several years ago. On our side the editor-in-chief of one Orthodox magazine, and on the other hand, a Buddhist boy, 23-25 years old, charming in appearance, calm and well-read. The discussion was about whether or not to build a Buddhist temple on the Khodynskoye field. The Orthodox interlocutor, of course, stood behind the truth of his word, but he did not win the argument with the refined, charming Buddhist. In a conversation with such a person, victory is not easy, and before going into a verbal duel, of course, you need to be well prepared.
Or Posner. This is a gentleman of a very special weight category, but he is not so invulnerable. I recently thought about what I would say to Posner in response to his question “Dear Artemy Vladimirovich, what will you say to God when you appear before Him?” And I have already figured out how I will answer this question: “Vladimir Vladimirovich, I will not ask you a counter question - the time will come and you will hear it. I'll tell you a little story, because I treat you especially reverently. Imagine, there, beyond the boundaries of earthly existence, the Angel of God (and you also have a Guardian Angel!) asks the Lord God: “Lord! There, in the lower sections, a huge number of atheists have gathered, and they drum their fists, stomp their feet and They demand an audience with You. What should I tell them?" And in the midst of this Divine Light, the Angel hears the answer: “Tell them that I am not.”
Psychologically, I would not like to meet such people, because there is no sincerity, there is no desire to learn something - the person is biased, he is pre-determined for a certain result. Yes, I don’t want to meet every public. Here Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, every time he came after forced communication with Tuchkov, the head of the OGPU on affairs with the Church, walked away for a long time from three-hour conversations and said to his cell attendant Jacob: “I talked with Satan himself.” So complete can be the fusion of the mind and body of another medium with the spirit that initiates it, inspires it, and acts through it.
How to behave in hostile audience? Of course, if you see that the person in front of you is in a state of passion, that is, does not control himself, then (God forbid we ourselves fall into such a state) the theological dialogue ends here. If in front of you is a person captured by passion, for example, hostility, hatred towards you, then you will need more A I have a share of good nature, and at the same time wit and humor to communicate with such a person. Our main task is to keep our distance and under no circumstances succumb to provocations, not to resonate with this turbulent heart. There is no greater mistake than getting involved in a fight in such cases. Priests often have to communicate with people who are in inadequate condition.
Questions and answers
Question: What, father, are you looking at? high task you bet?
Answer: The problem was formulated by A. S. Pushkin:
And for a long time I will be so kind to the people,
That I awakened good feelings with my lyre,
That in my cruel age I glorified freedom
And he called for mercy for the fallen.
The task is to help the human soul to open up before God, to soften the heart, to help the soul to truly feel the closeness of the Creator to it. After all, faith arises in a person when he realizes that God sees, hears and loves him and leads him to himself, calls him to himself. This is certainly high. For a start, it’s good if a person begins to at least distinguish between good and evil. We need to touch the human heart, bring it out of the state of apathy, indifference, “frozen state” and put it at least before a choice between good and evil. Put in front of a person eternal question being: who are you with? Are you facing the light or the darkness?
Our guest is Deacon Georgy Maksimov
Deacon Georgy Maximov(Yuri Valerievich Maksimov) - a famous theologian, religious scholar, writer, publicist, missionary, candidate of theology, employee of the Synodal Missionary Department was a guest of the Missionary Institute. For two evenings in a row, Father George met with theology students and teachers of the institute. On the first evening, Father Georgy spoke about the foreign mission of the Russian Orthodox Church Nowadays. Students learned about the activities of modern preachers and missionaries in Pakistan, China, Thailand, Oceania, Mongolia and many others exotic countries. The lecture was accompanied by an interesting presentation. It turns out that there are Orthodox parishes everywhere, in which “apostles of the 21st century” work. This is the name of the exhibition that Father Georgy Maximov brought from Moscow to Yekaterinburg and which runs from February 3 to 16, 2014 at the spiritual and educational center "Patriarchal Compound". The exhibition tells about the missionary feat of Orthodox believers in our days, who, like the first apostles, bring the Word of God to the world.
Father George is a specialist in Islamic studies, he is the author of such popular books as "Holy Fathers on Islam"(M., 2003); "The Religion of the Cross and the Religion of the Crescent" ( M., 2004); "Orthodox Religious Studies: Islam, Buddhism, Judaism"(M., 2005), therefore, on the second evening of the meeting, Father George, at the request of the teachers of the theology department, gave a lecture on Islam. The emphasis in the lecture was on the features missionary activity among Muslims. The lecturer talked about how to communicate with Muslims who show interest in Orthodoxy, how to answer questions that representatives of this religion ask Christians. Father George shared his rich experience of communicating with representatives of Islam. “We should not impose our faith, but we must be able to tactfully, competently and reasonably answer Muslims’ questions about the essence of Orthodoxy,” said Father George. How to do this? This was discussed at the lecture.
Missionary dialogue does not have to be passionate; We should not, first of all, talk about the errors of this or that religious doctrine (by denouncing, we will only push people away from us), but we should preach Christ, and, moreover, only to those who want to hear about it. How to interest your interlocutor? This was discussed in detail at a lecture by an experienced missionary. Father Georgy brought many books, which the students took apart instantly. These small brochures contain in a concentrated form valuable information on religious studies, sect studies, and missiology.
Father George teaches at the Sretensky Theological Seminary, he is the head of the Orthodox Missionary School he created at the Synodal Missionary Department of the Russian Orthodox Church. Deacon Georgy Maksimov is a regular contributor to the Pravoslavie.ru portal; there are a lot of videos and articles by Father George on the Internet, which are wonderful educational material for future theologians and missionaries.
07.02.2014.
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