"Our Father, Who art in heaven"

Truly, my brothers, how great is the mercy of our Lord and how indescribable is the love for mankind that He has shown and continues to show to us, ungrateful and insensitive towards Him, our Benefactor. For He not only raised us up, having fallen into sin, but also, out of His infinite Goodness, He also gave us a model of prayer, raising our minds to the highest theological spheres and preventing us from falling again, through our frivolity and feeble-mindedness, into the same sins. And therefore, as befits, from the very beginning of prayer, He lifts our mind to the highest spheres of theology. He introduces us to His Father by right of nature and to the Creator of all visible and invisible creation and reminds us that all of us, Christians, are worthy to be adopted by the Lord, and therefore we can call Him by Grace “Father.”

For when our Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate, He gave the right to all who believe in Him to become children and sons of God through the sacrament of Holy Baptism, according to the words of the Evangelist John the Theologian: “And to those who received Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the power to be children of God." And in another place: “And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: “Abba, Father!” This means that all believers and Orthodox Christians are children of God by their faith, by the Grace of God. In other words, since you are all children of God, the Lord and by Grace your Father sent the Holy Spirit of His Son into your hearts, mysteriously crying out from their depths: “Father, Our Father.”

And therefore the Lord showed us how to pray to our Father according to Grace, in order to remain forever and until our very end in the Grace of His Sonship. So that we remain children of God not only at the moment of our rebirth in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, but also in the future, throughout our entire lives and deeds. For the one who does not live a spiritual life and does not perform spiritual deeds worthy of the above-mentioned rebirth, but does the works of Satan, is not worthy to call God Father. Let him call the devil his father, according to the words of the Lord, Who said: “Your father is the devil; and you want to do the lusts of your father.” That is, you were born into evil by your father, that is, the devil, and you want to fulfill the evil and vicious lusts of your father.

He commands us to call God Father, firstly, to tell us that we have truly become children of God after our rebirth in Holy Baptism, and secondly, to indicate that we must preserve the traits, that is, the virtues of our Father, feeling some embarrassment for the relationship that we have with Him, for He Himself says: “Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” That is: be merciful to everyone, just as your Father is merciful to everyone.

And the Apostle Paul says: “Therefore, having girded up the loins of your mind, being watchful, have complete hope in the grace that is given to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not conform to your former lusts that were in your ignorance, but, following the example of the Holy One who called you, be holy in all your actions. For it is written: Be holy, for I am holy. And if you call Father the One who impartially judges everyone according to their deeds, then spend the time of your pilgrimage with fear,
lest we be condemned by Him.”

And Basil the Great also says that “it is inherent in the One who was born of the Holy Spirit to be, as much as possible, similar to the Spirit from Whom he was born, for it is written: he who is born of a carnal father is himself flesh, that is, carnal. But that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, that is, it abides in spirit.”

Thirdly, we call him “Father,” because we believe in Him, in the Only Begotten Son of God, who reconciled us with God, with our heavenly Father, us who were previously His enemies and children of wrath.

And when the Lord commands us to cry out to Him “Our Father,” He indicates to us that those who were reborn in Holy Baptism are all truly brothers and children of one Father, that is, God, in other words, children of the Holy Eastern Apostolic and Catholic Church. And therefore we must love each other, like true brothers, as the Lord bequeathed to us, saying: “This is My commandment, that you love one another.”

And in relation to all “being”, that is, to all creation and the creation around us, God appears and is called the Father of all people, both believers and non-believers. And therefore we must love all people, for the Lord honored them and created them with His Hands, and hate only malice and wickedness, and not the creation of God itself. In relation to “well-being,” that is, to our renewal, God again appears and is called the Father of all people. And therefore we Orthodox Christians must love each other, for we are doubly one both in nature and in Grace.

For all people are divided into three groups: true servants, unfaithful servants and wicked servants, the enemies of God.

True slaves are those who believe correctly, and therefore they are called Orthodox and fulfill the will of God with fear and joy.

Unfaithful slaves are those who, although they believe in Christ and accepted Holy Baptism, do not fulfill His commandments.

Others, although they are also His servants, that is, His creations, are evil creatures, enemies and adversaries of God, even though they are weak and insignificant, and are not capable of bringing Him any harm. And they used to believe in Christ, but then fell into various heresies.

In their number we include both the unbelievers and the wicked.

We, who have been worthy to become servants of God by Grace, having been reborn in Holy Baptism, may we not again become slaves of our enemy the devil, satisfying his evil lusts according to our will, and may we not become like those who, in the words of the Apostle, fell “in the snare of the devil, who captured them into his will.”

Since our Father is in heaven, we must also turn our minds to Heaven, to where our homeland is, the Heavenly Jerusalem, and not fix our eyes down on the earth, like pigs. We must look up at Him, our sweetest Savior and Master, and at the heavenly paradise beauty. And this should be done not only during prayer, but at all times and in any place, one must turn the mind to Heaven, so that it does not dissipate here below into corruptible and transitory things.

And therefore, if we force ourselves daily, according to the words of the Lord, that “the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, and those who use force take it,” with God’s help it will be preserved in us “in the image,” unshakable and pure. And so little by little we will ascend from “in the image” to “in the likeness”, sanctified by God and ourselves sanctifying His Name on earth, jointly calling upon Him with the words of the main prayer “Hallowed be Thy Name.”

"Hallowed be Thy Name"

Is it really true that the Name of God is not already holy from the very beginning, and therefore we must pray for it to be holy? Is it possible to allow this to happen? Is He not the Source of all holiness? Is it not from Him that everything that is on earth and in heaven is sanctified? Why then does He command us to sanctify His Name?

The name of God in itself is holy and most holy and the source of holiness. The mere mention of Him sanctifies everything about which we pronounce Him. Therefore, it is impossible to increase or decrease His holiness. However, God desires and loves when all His creation glorifies His Name, as the prophet and psalmist David testifies: “Bless the Lord, all His works,” that is, “Glorify God, all His creatures.” And this is exactly what He wants from us. And not so much for Himself, but so that all His creation would be sanctified and glorified by Him. And therefore, whatever we do, we must do it for the glory of God, according to the words of the Apostle: “So whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God, so that the Name of God may be hallowed through us.”

The name of God is hallowed when we do good and holy deeds, as holy as our faith. And then people, seeing our good deeds, if they are already believing Christians, will glorify God, who makes us wise and strengthens us to work for good, but if they are unbelievers, they will come to the knowledge of the truth, seeing how our deeds confirm our faith. And the Lord calls us to do this, saying: “So let your light shine before people, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

However, the opposite also happens when, through our fault, the Name of God is blasphemed from the mouths of pagans and unbelievers, according to the apostolic words: “For for your sake, as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the pagans.” And this, undoubtedly, creates great confusion and terrible danger, because people, and especially non-believers, believe that God commands us to behave in this way.

And therefore, in order not to expose God to blasphemy and dishonor, and in order not to subject ourselves to eternal hellish torment, we must try to have not only right faith and piety, but also a virtuous life and deeds.

By a virtuous life we ​​mean fulfilling the commandments of Christ, as He Himself called upon us, saying: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” And we will keep His commandments, in order to demonstrate in this the love that we have for Him. For our faith in Him is confirmed by keeping His commandments.

Saint John Chrysostom says: “If even the Name of the Lord Jesus cannot be mentioned without the Grace of the Holy Spirit, how much more impossible is it to keep our faith unshakable and steadfast without the help of the Holy Spirit? How can we gain the Grace of the Holy Spirit, how can we be worthy of preserving it forever in our lives? Good deeds and a virtuous life. For, just as the light of a lamp is ignited by oil, and as soon as it burns out, the light immediately goes out, so the Grace of the Holy Spirit pours out on us and illuminates us when we do good deeds and fill our soul with mercy and love for the brethren ours. If the soul has not accepted all this, Grace leaves it and moves away from us.”

So let us keep within ourselves the light of the Holy Spirit with our inexhaustible love for mankind and inexhaustible mercy for all those who need it. Otherwise, our faith will be destroyed. For faith, first of all, needs the help and presence of the Holy Spirit in order to remain indestructible. The grace of the Holy Spirit is usually preserved and abides in us in the presence of a pure and virtuous life. And therefore, if we want our faith to remain strong in us, we must strive for a holy and bright life, so that we can convince the Holy Spirit with its help to abide in us and protect our faith. For it is impossible to have an unclean and dissolute life and keep your faith pure.

And in order to prove to you the truth of my words that evil deeds destroy the strength of faith, listen to what the Apostle Paul writes in his Epistle to Timothy: “In order to advance in life and fight, you must have this weapon in your good fight, that is, have faith and good conscience (which is born from right life and good deeds). Having rejected this conscience, some subsequently suffered shipwreck in their faith.”

And in another place John Chrysostom says again: “The root of all evil is the love of money, to which, having given in, some have deviated from the faith and subjected themselves to many sorrows.” Do you see now that those who did not have a righteous conscience and gave in to the love of money have lost their faith? Thinking carefully about all this, my brothers, let us strive to lead a good life in order to receive a double reward - one prepared as a reward for our good and godly deeds, and the other as a reward for firmness in faith. What food is to the body, so is life to faith; and just as our flesh cannot by nature be sustained without food, so faith is dead without good works.”

Truly, many had faith and were Christians, but without doing righteous deeds they were not saved. Let us take care of both: faith and good deeds so that we can continue to read without fear main prayer.

"Thy Kingdom Come"

Since human nature of its own free will fell into slavery to the murderer devil, our Lord commands us to pray to God and our Father to free us from the bitter captivity of the devil. This, however, can only happen if we create the Kingdom of God within us. And this will happen if the Holy Spirit comes to us and drives out the tyrant and enemy of the human race from our souls, and He Himself rules in us, for only the perfect can ask for the Kingdom of God and the Father, since it is they who have achieved perfection in the maturity of spiritual age.

Those who, like me, are still tormented by remorse, do not even have the right to open their lips to ask for this, but must ask God to send us His Holy Spirit in order to illuminate us and strengthen us in fulfilling His holy will and in works of repentance. For the honest John the Baptist calls out: “Repent, for fear bring the Kingdom of Heaven closer.”

That is, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” As if to say: people, repent of the evil you are committing and get ready to meet the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, the Only Begotten Son and the Word of God, who came to rule over the whole world and save it.

And therefore we must also speak the words bequeathed to us by Saint Maximus the Confessor: “Let the Holy Spirit come and cleanse us all: both soul and body, so that we may become an abode worthy of receiving the Holy Trinity, so that God may henceforth reign in us, that is, in our hearts, for it is written: “The Kingdom of God is within us, in our hearts.” And in another place: “I and My Father will come and make our abode in him who loves My commandments.” And let sin no longer dwell in our hearts, for the apostle also says: “Let sin therefore not reign in your mortal body, so that you should obey it in its lusts.”

And therefore, drawing strength from the presence of the Holy Spirit, may we fulfill the will of God and our Heavenly Father and may we say without shame the words of our prayer: “Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth.”

“Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth”

There is nothing more blessed and more peaceful, either on earth or in heaven, than to do the will of God. Lucifer lived in heaven, but, not wanting to do the will of God, he was cast into hell. Adam lived in paradise, and all creation worshiped him as a king. Without keeping, however, God's commandments, he was plunged into the most severe torment. So, someone who does not want to do the will of God is completely overwhelmed by pride. And therefore the prophet David is right in his own way when he curses such people, saying: “You have tamed, Lord, the proud who refuse to obey Your law. Cursed are those who turn away from Your commandments." In another place he says: “The proud commit many iniquities and crimes.”

With all these words, the prophet indicates that the cause of lawlessness is pride. And on the contrary, the cause of pride is lawlessness. And therefore it is impossible to find a humble person among the lawless, and a person keeping the law of God among the proud, for pride is the beginning and end of all evil.

The will of God is that we get rid of evil and do good, according to the words of the prophet: “Avoid evil and do good,” that is, “avoid evil and do good.” Good is what the Holy Scripture says about and what the Holy Fathers of the Church conveyed to us, and not what each of us unreasonably proclaims on our own and which is often harmful to souls and leads people to destruction.

If we follow what is accepted in the world, or if each of us acts in accordance with our desires, then we Christians will not differ in any way from the infidels who do not believe in the Scripture and do not live according to it. We will also not be different from those people who lived in times of anarchy and who are described in the Book of Judges. It says, “Everyone did what seemed right to him in his own eyes and in his own understanding, for in those days Israel had no king.”

And therefore the Jews wanted to put our Lord to death out of envy, while Pilate wanted to let Him go, for he did not find guilt on Him for execution. They, asking for a word, said: “We have a law, and according to our law He must die, for he called himself the Son of God.” All this, however, was a lie. For there is no such thing in the law that the one who calls himself the son of God must die, for the Holy Scripture itself calls people gods and sons of God. “I said that you are gods and sons of the Most High - all of you.” And therefore the Jews, when they said that they “have a law,” lied, for such a law does not exist.

Do you see, my beloved, that they have turned their envy and malice into law? The wise Solomon speaks about these people in these words: “Let us make our strength a law and secretly establish forges of righteousness.” Both the law, of course, and the prophets wrote that Christ would come and be incarnate and die for the sake of the salvation of the world, and not for the sake of the goal set by them, the lawless.

So, let us try to avoid what the Jews fell into. Let us strive to keep the commandments of our Lord and not deviate from what is written in the Holy Scriptures. For, as the Evangelist John says: “His commandments are not grievous.” And since our Lord completely fulfilled the will of His Father on earth, we must also ask Him to give us strength and enlighten us, so that we too would fulfill His holy will on earth, as the holy angels do it in heaven. For “without His help we can do nothing.” And just as the angels unquestioningly obey all His Divine commands, so we, all people, must submit to His Divine will, contained in the Holy Scriptures, so that there may be peace on earth between people, as well as in heaven between the angels, and so that we can call boldly to To God our Father: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

“Give us this day our daily bread”

Bread is called daily bread in three senses. And in order to know when we pray what kind of bread we ask from God and our Father, let us consider the meaning of each of these meanings.

Firstly, we call daily bread ordinary bread, bodily food mixed with the bodily essence, so that our body grows and strengthens, and so that it does not die of hunger.

Consequently, meaning bread in this sense, we should not look for those dishes that will give our body nourishment and sensuality, about which the Apostle James says: “You ask the Lord and do not receive, for you do not ask the Lord what is necessary, but what use it for your lusts." And in another place: “You lived luxuriously on earth and enjoyed; feed your hearts as for the day of slaughter.”

But our Lord says: “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be burdened with overeating, drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and lest that day come upon you suddenly.”

And therefore, we should ask only the necessary food, for the Lord condescends to our human weakness and commands us to ask only for our daily bread, but not for excesses. If it were different, He would not have included the words “give us this day” in the main prayer. And St. John Chrysostom interprets this “today” as “always.” And therefore these words have a synoptic (overview) character.

Saint Maximus the Confessor calls the body a friend of the soul. The inflower instructs the soul so that it does not care about the body “with both feet.” That is, so that she would not care about him unnecessarily, but would only care with “one leg.” But this should happen rarely, so that, according to him, the body does not become satiated and rise up over the soul, and so that it does the same evil that demons, our enemies, do to us.

Let us listen to the Apostle Paul, who says: “Having food and clothing, let us be content with this. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and into the devil’s snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts that plunge people and lead them into disaster and destruction.”

Perhaps, however, some people think this way: since the Lord commands us to ask Him for the necessary food, I will sit idle and carefree, waiting for God to send me food.

We will answer in the same way that care and care are one thing, and work is another. Care is a distraction and agitation of the mind about many and excessive problems, while to work means to work, that is, to sow or labor in other human labors.

So, a person should not be overwhelmed by worries and cares and should not worry and darken his mind, but place all his hopes on God and entrust all his worries to Him, as the prophet David says: “Cast your sorrow on the Lord, and He will nourish you.” ”, that is, “Cast the care of your food on the Lord, and He will feed you.”

And he who places his hope most in the works of his own hands, or in the labors of himself and his neighbors, let him hear what the prophet Moses says in the Book of Deuteronomy: “He who walks on his hands and trusts and trusts in the works of his hands is unclean, and he He who falls into many worries and sorrows is also unclean. And the one who always walks on four is also unclean.”

And he walks both on his hands and on his feet, who places all his hopes on his hands, that is, on those deeds that his hands do, and on his skill, according to the words of St. Nilus of Sinai: “He walks on four who, having given himself up to matters of the senses, the dominant mind is constantly occupied with them. A multi-legged man is one who is surrounded by the body from everywhere and is based in everything on it and embraces it with both hands and with all his strength.”

The prophet Jeremiah says: “Cursed be the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his support, and whose heart withdraws from the Lord. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.”

People, why are we worrying in vain? The path of life is short, as both the prophet and king David say to the Lord: “Behold, Lord, You have made the days of my life so short that they are numbered on the fingers of one hand. And the composition of my nature is nothing before Your eternity. But not only me, but everything is in vain. Every person living in this world is vain. For a restless person does not live his life in reality, but life resembles his painted picture. And therefore he worries in vain and collects wealth. For he does not really know for whom he is collecting this wealth.”

Man, come to your senses. Don’t rush like crazy all day long with a thousand things to do. And at night again, do not sit down to calculate the devil’s interest and the like, for your whole life, in the end, passes through the accounts of Mammon, that is, in wealth that comes from injustice. And therefore you do not find even a little time to remember your sins and cry about them. Do you not hear the Lord telling us: “No one can serve two Lords.” “You cannot,” he says, “serve both God and Mammon.” For He wants to say that a person cannot serve two masters, and have a heart in God, and wealth in unrighteousness.

Have you not heard about the seed that fell among the thorns, that the thorns choked it, and that it did not bear any fruit? This means that the word of God fell on a man who was mired in worries and worries about his wealth, and this man did not bear any fruit of salvation. Don’t you see here and there rich people who have done something similar to you, that is, who have collected great wealth, but then the Lord breathed on their hands, and the wealth left their hands, and they lost everything, and with it their minds and Now they wander around the earth, overwhelmed by anger and demons. They received what they deserved, for they made wealth their God and applied their minds to it.

Hear, O man, what the Lord says to us: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.” And you should not collect treasures here on earth, lest you hear from the Lord the same terrible words that He said to one rich man: “You fool, this night they will take your soul from you, and to whom will you leave everything that you have collected?” .

Let us come to our God and Father and cast all the worries about our lives on Him, and He will take care of us. As the Apostle Peter says: let us come to God, as the prophet calls us, saying: “Come to Him and be enlightened, and your faces will not be ashamed that you were left without help.”

This is how, with God’s help, we interpreted the first meaning for you daily bread.

The second meaning: our daily bread is the Word of God, as Holy Scripture testifies: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

The Word of God is the teaching of the Holy Spirit, in other words, all of Holy Scripture. Both the Old Testament and the New. From this Holy Scripture, as from a source, the Holy Fathers and teachers of our Church drew, watering us with the pure spring waters of their God-inspired teaching. And therefore we must accept the books and teachings of the Holy Fathers as our daily bread, so that our soul does not die from hunger for the Word of life even before the body dies, as happened with Adam, who violated the commandment of God.

Those who do not want to listen to the Word of God and do not allow others to listen to it, either in their own words or bad example which they give to others, and in like manner those who not only do not promote the establishment of schools or other similar endeavors for the benefit of Christian children, but also obstruct those who wish to help, will inherit the words “Alas!” and “Woe to you!” addressed to the Pharisees. And also those priests who, through negligence, do not teach their parishioners everything that they need to know for salvation, and those bishops who not only do not teach their flock the commandments of God and everything necessary for their salvation, but through their unrighteous lives become a hindrance and a cause departure from the faith among ordinary Christians - and they will inherit “Alas!” and “Woe to you!”, addressed to the Pharisees and scribes, for they close the Kingdom of Heaven to people, and neither themselves enter into it, nor others - those who wish to enter - are allowed in. And therefore these people, as bad stewards, will lose the protection and love of the people.

In addition, teachers who teach Christian children must also instruct them and lead them to good morals, that is, to good morals. For what is the benefit if you teach a child to read and write and other philosophical sciences, but leave him with a corrupt disposition? How can all this benefit him? And what kind of success can this person achieve, either in spiritual matters or in worldly ones? Of course, none.

I say this so that God would not tell us those words that He spoke to the Jews through the mouth of the prophet Amos: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the earth - not a famine of bread, not a thirst for water, but a thirst for hearing the words of the Lord." This punishment befell the Jews for their cruel and unyielding intentions. And therefore, so that the Lord does not say such words to us, and so that this terrible grief does not befall us, let us all awaken from the heavy sleep of negligence and be saturated with the words and teachings of God, each according to our own abilities, so that bitterness does not overtake our soul. and eternal death.

This is the second meaning of daily bread, just as superior in importance to the first meaning as it is more important and life is more necessary souls life body.

The third meaning: daily bread is the Body and Blood of the Lord, as different from the Word of God as the sun is from its rays. In the Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist, the entire God-man, like the sun, enters, unites and becomes one with the whole person. It illuminates, enlightens and sanctifies all mental and physical powers and feelings of a person and leads him from corruption to incorruption. And that is precisely why, mainly, we call our daily bread Holy Communion The Most Pure Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it supports and restrains the essence of the soul and strengthens it to fulfill the commandments of the Lord Christ and to any other virtue. And this is true food for both soul and body, for our Lord also says: “For My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink.”

If anyone doubts that the Body of our Lord is called our daily bread, let him listen to what the holy teachers of our Church say about this. And first of all, the luminary of Nyssa, the Divine Gregory, saying: “If a sinner comes to himself, like the prodigal son from the parable, if he desires the Divine food of his Father, if he returns to His rich meal, then he will enjoy this meal, where there is plenty the daily bread that feeds the Lord's workers. The workers are those who work and toil in His vineyard, in the hope of receiving wages in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Saint Isidore of Pelusiot says: “The prayer that the Lord taught us does not contain anything earthly, but its entire content is heavenly and is aimed at spiritual benefit, even that which seems small and insignificant in the soul. Many wise people believe that the Lord wants to teach us with this prayer the meaning of the Divine Word and bread, which feeds the incorporeal soul, and in an incomprehensible way comes and unites with its essence. And that is why bread was called daily bread, because the very idea of ​​essence is more suitable for the soul than for the body.”

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem also says: “Ordinary bread is not daily bread, but this holy bread (the Body and Blood of the Lord) is daily bread. And it is called essential, because it is communicated to your entire composition of soul and body.”

Saint Maximus the Confessor says: “If we adhere in life to the words of the Lord’s Prayer, then let us accept, as our daily bread, as vital food for our souls, but also for the preservation of everything that has been given to us by the Lord, the Son and the Word of God, for He said: “I am the bread that came down from heaven” and gives life to the world. And this happens in the soul of everyone who receives Communion, according to the righteousness and knowledge and wisdom that he possesses.”

Saint John of Damascus says: “This bread is the firstfruits of the bread to come, which is our daily bread. For the word daily means either the bread of the future, that is, the next century, or the bread eaten to preserve our being. Consequently, in both senses, the Body of the Lord will be equally appropriately called our daily bread.”

In addition, Saint Theophylact adds that “The Body of Christ is our daily bread, for whose uncondemned Communion we must pray.”

However, this does not mean that since the Holy Fathers consider the Body of Christ to be our daily bread, they do not consider ordinary bread necessary to support our body to be daily. For he too is the gift of God, and no food is considered contemptible and reprehensible, according to the Apostle, if it is accepted and eaten with thanksgiving: “Nothing is reprehensible if it is received with thanksgiving.”

Ordinary bread is incorrectly called daily bread, not according to its basic meaning, because it strengthens only the body, not the soul. Basically, however, and according to generally accepted opinion, we call the Body of the Lord and the Word of God our daily bread, for they strengthen both body and soul. Many holy men testify to this with their lives: for example, Moses, who fasted for forty days and nights without eating bodily food. The prophet Elijah also fasted for forty days. And later, after the incarnation of our Lord, many saints lived for a long time only on the Word of God and Holy Communion, without eating other food.

And therefore, we, who have been worthy of being reborn spiritually in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, must continually receive this spiritual food with ardent love and a contrite heart, in order to live a spiritual life and remain invulnerable to the poison of the spiritual serpent - the devil. For even Adam, if he had eaten this food, would not have experienced the double death of both soul and body.

It is necessary to partake of this spiritual bread with due preparation, for our God is also called a burning fire. And therefore, only those who eat the Body of Christ and drink His Most Pure Blood with a clear conscience, having first sincerely confessed their sins, are cleansed, enlightened and sanctified by this bread. Woe, however, to those who receive communion unworthily, without first confessing their sins to the priest. For the Divine Eucharist burns them and completely corrupts their souls and bodies, as happened to the one who came to the wedding feast without a wedding garment, as the Gospel says, that is, without having done good deeds and not having fruits worthy of repentance.

People who listen to satanic songs, stupid conversations and useless chatter and other similar meaningless things become unworthy of listening to the word of God. The same applies to those who live in sin, for they cannot partake and partake of the immortal life to which the Divine Eucharist leads, for their spiritual powers are killed by the sting of sin. For it is obvious that both the members of our body and the containers of vital forces receive life from the soul, but if any of the members of the body begins to decompose or dry up, then life will no longer be able to flow into it, for the vital force does not flow into dead members. Likewise, the soul is alive as long as life force from God enters it. Having sinned and stopped accepting vital forces, she dies in agony. And after some time the body dies. And so the whole person perishes in eternal hell.

So, we talked about the third and final meaning of our daily bread, which is just as necessary and beneficial for us as Holy Baptism. And therefore it is necessary to regularly partake of the Divine Sacraments and accept with fear and love the daily bread that we ask in the Lord’s Prayer from our heavenly Father, as long as “this day” lasts.

This “today” has three meanings:

firstly, it can mean “every day”;

secondly, the entire life of each person;

and thirdly, the present life of the “seventh day”, which we are completing.

In the next century there will be neither “today” nor “tomorrow”, but this entire century will be one eternal day

“And forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors.”

Our Lord, knowing that there is no repentance in hell and that it is impossible for a person not to sin after Holy Baptism, teaches us to say to God and our Father: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

Since before this, in the Lord's Prayer, God spoke about the holy bread of the Divine Eucharist and called on everyone not to dare to partake of it without proper preparation, therefore now he tells us that this preparation consists in asking forgiveness from God and from our brothers and only then proceed to the Divine Mysteries, as it is said in another place of Holy Scripture: “So, man, if you bring your gift to the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and bring your gift.”

In addition to all this, our Lord touches on three other issues in the words of this prayer:

firstly, he calls on the righteous to humble themselves, which He says in another place: “So you too, when you have done everything commanded you, say: we are slaves, worthless, because we did what we had to do”;

secondly, He advises those who sin after Baptism not to fall into despair;

and thirdly, he reveals with these words that the Lord desires and loves when we have compassion and mercy for each other, for nothing makes a person more like God than mercy.

And therefore, let us treat our brothers the way we want the Lord to treat us. And let us not say about anyone that he grieves us so much with his sins that we cannot forgive him. For if we think how much we grieve God with our sins every day, every hour and every second, and He forgives us for this, then we will immediately forgive our brothers.

And if we think how numerous and incomparably greater our sins are in comparison with the sins of our brothers, that even the Lord Himself, Who is truth in His very essence, likened them to ten thousand talents, while He likened the sins of our brothers to a hundred denarii, then we will be convinced we are aware of how truly insignificant the sins of our brothers are in comparison with our sins. And therefore, if we forgive our brothers their small guilt before us, not only with our lips, as many do, but with all our hearts, God will forgive us our great and countless sins, of which we are guilty before Him. If we happen to fail to forgive the sins of our brothers, all our other virtues, which, as it seems to us, we have acquired, will be in vain.

Why do I say that our virtues will be in vain? For our sins cannot be forgiven, according to the decision of the Lord, who said: “If you do not forgive your neighbors their sins, then your Heavenly Father will not forgive you your sins.” In another place, he says about a man who has not forgiven his brother: “Evil servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me; Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your companion, just as I had mercy on you?” And then, as it is said further, the Lord became angry and handed him over to the torturers until he repaid the entire debt to Him. And then: “So will My Heavenly Father do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother his sins from his heart.”

Many say that sins are forgiven in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Others claim the opposite: that they are forgiven only if they confess to a priest. We tell you that both preparation and confession are obligatory for the remission of sins, and the Divine Eucharist, for neither one gives everything, nor the other. But what happens here is similar to how, after washing a dirty dress, it must be dried in the sun to remove dampness and moisture, otherwise it will remain wet and rot, and a person will not be able to wear it. And just as a wound, having been cleansed of worms and removed the decomposed tissue, cannot be left without being lubricated, so having washed away the sin, and cleansed it with confession, and removed its decomposed remains, it is necessary to receive the Divine Eucharist, which completely dries up the wound and heals it, like some kind of healing ointment. Otherwise, in the words of the Lord, “a person again falls into the first state, and the last is worse for them than the first.”

And therefore it is necessary to first cleanse yourself of any filth by confession. And, first of all, cleanse yourself of rancor and only then approach the Divine Mysteries. For we need to know that just as love is the fulfillment and end of all law, so rancor and hatred are the abolition and violation of all law and any virtue. The inflower, wanting to show us all the malice of the vindictive, says: “The path of the vindictive is to death.” And in another place: “He who holds vindictiveness is a transgressor.”

It was precisely this bitter leaven of rancor that the accursed Judas carried within himself, and therefore, as soon as he took the bread into his hands, Satan entered into him.

Let us fear, brothers, condemnation and the hellish torments of rancor and forgive our brothers for everything they have done wrong to us. And we will do this, not only when we gather for Communion, but always, as the Apostle calls us to do with these words: “If you are angry, do not sin: let not the sun set on your anger and malice on your brother.” And in another place: “And do not give place to the devil.” That is, do not let the devil take up residence in you, so that you can cry out with boldness to God and the remaining words of the Lord’s Prayer.

"And do not lead us into temptation"

The Lord calls us to ask God and our Father not to allow us to fall into temptation. And the prophet Isaiah on behalf of God says: “I form light and create darkness, I create peace and allow disasters to happen.” The prophet Amos says in a similar way: “Is there any disaster in a city that the Lord would not allow?”

From these words, many of the ignorant and unprepared fall into various thoughts about God. It is as if God Himself throws us into temptation. All doubts on this issue are dispelled by the Apostle James with these words: “When tempted, no one should say: God is tempting me; because God is not tempted by evil and does not tempt anyone Himself, but everyone is tempted by being carried away and deceived by his own lust; lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin that is committed gives birth to death.”

Temptations that come to people are of two types. One type of temptation comes from lust and happens according to our will, but also at the instigation of demons. Another type of temptation comes from sadness, suffering and misfortune in life, and therefore these temptations seem more bitter and sad to us. Our will does not participate in these temptations, but only the devil assists.

The Jews experienced these two types of temptations. However, they chose of their own free will the temptations that come from lust, and strived for wealth, for glory, for freedom in evil and for idolatry, and therefore God allowed them to experience everything the opposite, that is, poverty, dishonor, captivity, and so on. And God again frightened them with all these troubles, so that they would return to life in God through repentance.

These various guilts of God's punishments are called "disaster" and "evil" by the prophets. As we said earlier, this happens because everything that causes pain and grief in people, people are accustomed to calling evil. But this is not true. That's just how people perceive it. These troubles occur not according to the “initial” will of God, but according to his “subsequent” will, for the admonition and benefit of people.

Our Lord, combining the first cause of temptation with the second, that is, combining temptations that come from lust with temptations that come from grief and suffering, gives them a single name, calling them “temptations,” because they tempt and test a person’s intentions. However, in order to better understand all this, you must know that everything that happens to us comes in three types: good, evil and mean. Good includes prudence, mercy, justice and everything similar to them, that is, qualities that can never turn into evil. The evil ones include fornication, inhumanity, injustice and everything similar to them, which can never turn into good. The averages are wealth and poverty, health and illness, life and death, fame and infamy, pleasure and pain, freedom and slavery, and others similar to them, in some cases called good, and in others evil, according to how they governed by human intention.

So, people divide these average qualities into two types, and one of these parts is called good, because this is what they love, for example, wealth, fame, pleasure and others. Others of them they call evil, because they have an aversion to it, for example, poverty, pain, dishonor, and so on. And therefore, if we do not want what we ourselves consider evil to befall us, we will not do real evil, as the prophet advises us: “Man, do not enter of your own free will into any evil and into any sin, and then the Angel who guards you will not allow you to experience any evil.”

And the prophet Isaiah says: “If you are willing and obedient, and keep all My commandments, you will eat the good things of the land; But if you deny and persist, the sword of your enemies will devour you.” And still the same prophet says to those who do not fulfill His commandments: “Go into the flame of your fire, into the flame that you kindle with your sins.”

Of course, the devil first tries to fight us with voluptuous temptations, for he knows how prone we are to lust. If he understands that our will in this is subordinate to his will, he distances us from the grace of God that protects us. Then he asks God for permission to build on us and bitter temptation, that is, grief and disasters, in order to completely destroy us, due to their great hatred of us, forcing us to fall into despair from many griefs. If in the first case our will does not follow his will, that is, we do not fall into voluptuous temptation, he again raises the second temptation of grief upon us, in order to force us, now out of grief, to fall into voluptuous temptation.

And therefore the Apostle Paul calls to us, saying: “Be sober, my brethren, watch and be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” God allows us to fall into temptations, either according to His economy in order to test us, like the righteous Job and other saints, according to the words of the Lord to His disciples: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to sow you like wheat, that is, to shake you temptations." And God allows us to fall into temptation by His permission, just as He allowed David to fall into sin, and the Apostle Paul to renounce Him, in order to save us from complacency. However, there are also temptations that come from being abandoned by God, that is, from the loss of Divine grace, as was the case with Judas and the Jews.

And the temptations that come to the saints according to God’s economy come to the envy of the devil, in order to demonstrate to everyone the righteousness and perfection of the saints, and in order to shine even brighter for them after their victory over their adversary the devil. Temptations that occur with permission are sent in order to become an obstacle to the path of sin that has happened, is happening, or is yet to happen. The same temptations that are sent due to abandonment by God have their cause in a person’s sinful life and his bad intentions, and are allowed for him complete destruction and destruction.

And therefore, we must not only flee from temptations that come from lust, as from the poison of an evil serpent, but also if such a temptation comes to us against our will, we must not fall into it in any way.

And in everything that concerns the temptations in which our body is tested, let us not expose ourselves to danger through our pride and insolence, but let us ask God to protect us from them, if such is His will. And may we bring Him joy without falling into these temptations. If these temptations come, let us accept them with great joy and pleasure, as great gifts. We will only ask Him for this, so that He might strengthen us to victory to the very end over our tempter, for this is exactly what He tells us with the words “and do not lead us into temptation.” That is, we ask not to leave us, so as not to fall into the maw of the mental dragon, as the Lord tells us in another place: “Watch and pray, so as not to fall into temptation.” That is, so as not to be overcome by temptation, for the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.

However, no one, hearing that one must avoid temptations, should justify himself by “excusing sinful deeds,” referring to his weakness and the like when temptations come. For in difficult times, when temptations come, the one who is afraid of them and does not resist them will thereby renounce the truth. For example: if a person happens to be subjected to threats and violence for his faith, or in order to renounce the truth, or to trample on justice, or to renounce mercy towards others or any other commandment of Christ, if in all these cases he retreats out of fear for his flesh and cannot bravely resist these temptations, then let this person know that he will not be a partaker of Christ and in vain he is called a Christian. Unless he later repents of this and sheds bitter tears. And he must repent, for he did not imitate the true Christians, the martyrs, who suffered so much for their faith. He did not imitate Saint John Chrysostom, who went through so much torment for justice, the Monk Zosima, who endured hardships for his mercy towards his brethren, and many others whom we cannot even list now and who endured many torments and temptations in order to fulfill the law and commandments of Christ . We must also keep these commandments, so that they free us not only from temptations and sins, but also from the evil one, according to the words of the Lord’s Prayer.

"But deliver us from evil"

The devil himself is called the evil one, brethren, mainly, for he is the beginning of all sin and the creator of all temptation. It is from the actions and instigations of the evil one that we learn to ask God to free us and believe that He will not allow us to be tempted beyond our strength, in the words of the Apostle, that God “will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but with temptation He will also give relief, so so that you can bear it." It is, however, necessary and obligatory not to forget to ask Him and pray to Him about this in humility.

“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen"

Our Lord, knowing that human nature always falls into doubt due to its lack of faith, consoles us by saying: since you have such a powerful and glorious Father and King, do not hesitate to turn to Him with requests from time to time. Only, when bothering Him, do not forget to do it the way the widow bothered her master and the heartless judge, saying to Him: “Lord, free us from our adversary, for yours is the everlasting Kingdom, invincible power and incomprehensible glory. For You are a mighty King, and You command and punish our enemies, and You are the glorious God, and You glorify and exalt those who glorify You, and You are a loving and humane Father, and You care and love those who through Holy Baptism have been deemed worthy to become Your sons, and they loved You with all their hearts, now and ever, and to the ages of ages.” Amen.

Holy Bible, given to a person divine revelation, shows him the universal goal - the path of unity with God. This unity received in the understanding of the Holy Fathers the name “deification” (θέωσις) - divine greatest gift man and the purpose of human life. And although we will not find this expression in the Bible, the God-enlightened writers of the Word carried this thought like a “red thread” throughout Scripture.

The idea of ​​deification began its development from the first centuries of Christianity, but for the first time it was clearly formulated in the form of a brief and clear theological formula by Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century): “For for this purpose the Word of God became man, and the Son of God the Son of Man, so that ( Man), having united with the Son of God and received adoption, became the Son of God.” Or briefly: the Son of God became the Son of Man, so that the son of man could become the son of God.

These theological formulas became fundamental for subsequent Church Fathers, who developed the doctrine of deification, revealing the economy Holy Trinity. With their thoughts, the Holy Fathers wanted to show that the goal and limit of our salvation is not only moral purification and not only an eschatological act, but an unlimited, continuous deepening into God, possible only in the greatest possible approach to Him. Holy Fathers, seeing this truth in Holy Scripture, embodied it with their lives and revealed it in their creations.

One of the most prominent Russian ascetics of word and spirit is St. Theophan the Recluse. He left us classic example patristic interpretation of the epistles of the holy Apostle Paul. Based on this interpretation, the author of the report will try to show how Saint Theophan understood the teaching of the Holy Apostle Paul on the adoption and glorification of man, on which patristic thought developed the idea of ​​deification.

The Apostle Paul, being one of the evangelists of divine teaching to people, described in his letters the understanding and purpose of this new communication. According to one of the Apostle’s thoughts, the communion of the faithful with Jesus Christ begins with their adoption (υἱοθεσία) to God through Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:5), as a result of which the adopted children can become glorified (δόξα) with God and glorify God Himself. This anthropological thought of the Apostle is revealed in the most voluminous and dogmatically most important of his messages - in the Epistle to the Romans (see: Rom. 8:15-23), as well as in his other messages.

The very term “υἱοθεσία - adoption” is found five times in the New Testament and exclusively in the letters of the Apostle Paul (Rom 8:5, 23; 9:4; Gal 4:5-7; Eph. 1:5). Meaning this term can also be transmitted by the Apostle as such phrases as “sons of God - υἱοὶ θεο̑υ” (Rom. 8:14) and “children of God - τέκνα θεο̑υ” (Rom. 8:16).

So, let's look at some examples of interpretation of this teaching by Saint Theophan the Recluse. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Because you did not receive the spirit of slavery in order to live in fear again, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry: “Abba, Father! “This very Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Rom. 8:14-17; see also Gal. 4:5-7). In these words of the Apostle, Saint Theophan sees a deep thought: “having said: sons,” verse 14, (chap. 8) – the Apostle could directly conclude: if (sons - Priest A.M.), then heirs - verse 17. But The Apostle, - St. Theophan draws attention, - considered it necessary to reinforce the conviction of sonship, in addition to indicating the mysterious birth from God and the reception of the Spirit in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, also with evidence of our inner feeling, certifying that we are children of God (v. 16) " Saint Theophan wants to show here main idea Apostle, which indicates that the true sons of God are those who are led by the Spirit of God. That is, they not only received the Holy Spirit in the sacraments, but also are flaming with inner love for God as the Father. They desire an eternal inheritance and walk earnestly in the Spirit.

As you know, the Jews also adopted the adoption of God (see Isa. 1:2: “I have raised and raised up sons” and also: Exodus 4:22: “Israel is my son, my firstborn”). Saint Theophan, pointing to the content of this adoption, shows what difference exists between our sonship and the sonship of the Jews. There, says the Saint, they did not accept any spirit, but such was the spirit of the law that it kept slaves and captives in obedience through fear, so it was the spirit of working out of fear. But “the spirit of the gospel life is not like this: here they serve God in spirit not as slaves, but as sons in the house, understanding all the plans of the master of the house - their Father, entering into them, sympathizing with them, desiring them and loving them.” And the gospel spirit of sonship, according to St. Theophan, is not inspired by the content of the Gospel alone, like the spirit of Old Testament slavery by the content of the law, but is created in the depths of our spirit, by the Holy Spirit, accepted by us in Christ Jesus. “Carrying this Spirit,” says St. Theophan, - we dare to cry out to God: Abba Father! Our Father! - as the Only Begotten Son of God and God taught us all this.”

The saint develops a similar thought when interpreting the Epistle to the Galatians: “And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son...(Gal. 4:6-7). Here the Saint points out the fundamental aspect by which both Jews and pagans are introduced into the freedom of the sons of God - this is faith. The Spirit of God does not regenerate everyone, but only those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, make it a rule to follow Him in everything, and for the sake of these dispositions are accepted into God’s favor. The Spirit of God, coming through the sacraments, makes them essentially sons and abides in them and teaches them to ascend to God as to the Father. For such people, according to the Saint, everything internal is adjusted in such a way that they deeply feel themselves to be sons of God and recognize God as their Father. Those who have lost the grace of baptism must, through repentance, the feat of self-sacrifice, asceticism and good deeds, allow grace to prevail over them. Then their sense of sonship will also be revived.

From the above thoughts of Saint Theophan it is clear that in this case the Saint understands the teaching of the Apostle Paul on adoption not only ecclesiologically. For example, in his work “The Path to Salvation,” he says that the acquisition of grace and the sanctification of our nature by it is accomplished in the Sacraments and calls those baptized children of God, as the Lord himself gave them the name and being of the region. But here, the Saint specifically points to the key point - sincere faith and life by faith, through which a Christian becomes a child of God and is led by the Spirit of God. Only he can be a son of God who loves God with sincere filial love. This love is love not out of fear, not for the sake of self-interest, but for the sake of love itself. This thought of the Saint is fundamental, just as the Apostle’s theological thought about adoption to God is fundamental, on which he builds the “paradigm” of human salvation.

In the 16th verse of the 8th chapter, the Apostle tells us that we are children of God, and in the 17th he shows what awaits the children of God: “And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if only with Him we suffer so that we may also be glorified with Him (συνδοξασθ͡ωμεν)” (Rom. 8:17). The Apostle Paul in his letters reveals to us the divine plan for our glorification as a possible consequence of adoption. Possible because glorification is not an automatic consequence of adoption, which a person may lose, but is a continuous dynamic process of a person’s spiritual life, aimed at maximum unity with God. Moreover, the Apostle divides glorification both into the real action that begins in the earthly life of a Christian, and into its eschatological completion, which will come with the second coming of Christ the Savior. In the patristic tradition, the Apostle Paul’s teaching on glorification received the name “deification.”

It is important to find out how Saint Theophan understands the words of the Apostle Paul about inheritance and glorification. In the Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle writes: “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of righteous judgment from God, who will reward everyone according to his deeds: to those who seek glory by persistence in good deeds (δόξαν ), honor and immortality, - eternal life; and to those who persist and do not submit to the truth, but indulge in unrighteousness - rage and anger. Sorrow and distress to every soul of a person who does evil, first the Jew, [then] the Greek! On the contrary, glory (δόξα) and honor and peace to everyone who does good, first to the Jew, [then] to the Greek!” (Rom. 2:5-10). The apostolic words, says Saint Theophan, show us that to those who decide to live godly, patiently and unswervingly to follow this good path, inspired by the hope of a future blessed state, God will reward them with eternal life - He will give them eternally to taste the ineffable blessings of heaven. But this path, according to the Apostle himself, is associated with our short-term light suffering and produces eternal glory in immeasurable abundance (αἰώνιον δόξης)” (2 Cor. 4:17). Short-term and easy, explains Saint Theophan, because all these sufferings will pass, but eternal glory will never pass. And these sufferings are nothing compared to eternal glory. The Apostle Paul also pursues this thought in his Epistle to the Romans: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth anything in comparison with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). It is very important to understand that this suffering renews inner man, since by faith and grace they place the sufferer in close communion with the suffering and death of the already glorified Christ and, accordingly, serve as the basis for the glorification of those who suffer for His sake. Thus, according to the Saint, suffering is the guarantee of eternal salvation. However, having said that the glory of the future, notes Saint Theophan, the Apostle proves that it has already begun: “For he did not say: in comparison with that which will be, but: which will be revealed.” Consequently, the Saint concludes, and now it exists , but hidden, which the Apostle expressed more clearly in another verse, saying: “your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). People do not see it, since it is accomplished in the spirit and heart. It is hidden for the time being for others, and often even for those who are involved in it, and even for angels, who can only know general state souls, and not the very essence of life according to God. “Hope,” the saint urges, following the thought of Paul, “to receive this glory, it is already ready and awaits your labors.” To receive this glory, a person must, firstly: “put off the old man (ὁ παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος) with his deeds” (Col. 3:9). That is, explains Saint Theophan, to reject self-indulgence, from which passions arise, securing this with the sacraments. Apparently, following from the above thoughts of the saint, for those who are not baptized - to be baptized, for those who have lost grace - to repent and take on the image of the “heavenly man” (ὁ ἐπουράνιος ἄνθρωπος) (Cor. 15:49). Although it is here that the saint only says that we are spiritually clothed in the image of the Heavenly One in the font of baptism, and we will fully appear as such after the resurrection in the next century, becoming “conformed to the image of the Son” of God (Rom. 8:29). The saint says that there is no need to seek special meaning here about such an image of the Son, seeing in it only the strengthening of the transformation of believers into Christ, or their complete conformity with Him, which the Apostle stated more clearly in the Epistle to the Philippians: “But our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body (μετασχηματίσει) so that it will be conformed to His glorious body, by the power [by which] He works and subdues all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:20-21) .

It now remains to understand how Saint Theophan understood the Apostle Paul’s thought about “inheritance”: “And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Rom. 8: 17), as well as in the Epistle to the Galatians: “and if a son, then an heir of God through Jesus Christ” (Gal. 4:7). One thing is clear, notes Saint Theophan, that this inheritance will not be like that of people, after the death of the father , but on the contrary, children become heirs of God after their death, according to their rank - a son. The saint connects this heritage with the above thought about suffering. “How Christ suffered, but now in glory. Just as He entered into glory after suffering, so we too will enter. Then we suffer in order to be glorified with Him. We get nothing here in order to get everything there.” And what this heritage is, even the Apostle himself could not describe, saying: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). According to the thoughts of St. Theophan, these words of the Apostle can be understood as an ineffable act of building salvation, performed by God in order to adopt people, spiritualize them, deify them, and reveal them not only as light, but also luminous, in order to lead the earthly and heavenly within themselves.

So we see that in his interpretations of the teaching of the Apostle Paul on adoption and glorification, Saint Theophan the Recluse is not only patristicly traditional, but also fundamentally spiritual. In his interpretations, he seems to introduce exegetical thought into the soul, into the very recesses of the heart, and from there he raises it up to God. In other words, it looks at the root, revealing the essence of what is happening. And it seems that without such a revealed essence it would be difficult to understand the theological thought of the Apostle about our adoption and glorification.

Irenaeus of Lyons, Holy Martyr. Christ was not just a man, born of Joseph, but true God, begotten of the Father, and true man, born of a Virgo. Creations. Book III, ch. 19, St. Petersburg, 1900. // Pilgrim. Library of the Fathers and Teachers of the Church. 1996. pp. 292-293.

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretations of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans. Chapter 8. M. 2006. P.645.

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretations of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans. Chapter 8. P. 648.

Right there. P. 648.

Right there. P. 648.

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretations of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Galatians. Chapter 4. Creations. Spiritual heritage. Series III. M. 1996. pp. 294-295.

Right there. P. 296.

Theophan the Recluse, St. The path to salvation. M. 2000. P. 31.

Right there. P. 35.

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans. P. 189.

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the second letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. M. 1894. P. 63.

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans. P. 663.

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Colossians. Creations. Spiritual heritage. Series III. M. 1998. pp. 163-165.

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans. P. 663

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Colossians. Decree. Op. P. 181.

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the first letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. M. 1893. P. 596.

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans. P. 704.

Right there. P. 659.

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans. 660.

Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the first letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. P. 105.

Bibliography

1. Irenaeus of Lyons, holy martyr. Christ was not just a man born of Joseph, but true God, born of the Father, and true Man, born of the Virgin. Creations. Book III, ch. 19, St. Petersburg, 1900. // Pilgrim. Library of the Fathers and Teachers of the Church. 1996.

2. Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretations of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans. Chapter 8. M. 2006.

3. Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretations of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Galatians. Creations. Spiritual heritage. Series III. M. 1996.

4. Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the second letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. M. 1894. P. 163.

5. Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Colossians. Creations. Spiritual heritage. Series III. M. 1998.

6. Theophan the Recluse, St. Interpretation of the first letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. M. 1893.

7. Theophan the Recluse, St. The path to salvation. M. 2000

Continuing the theme of prayer, we invite visitors to our site to carefully consider the teachings on prayer left by St. Theophan the Recluse of Vyshensky. His instructions about prayer, about its meaning in the life of an Orthodox Christian, about what our prayer should be, how and what we can and should turn to the Lord about, like “good beads,” are scattered in numerous letters to monastics and laity. These teachings of the saint are directed to specific individuals, provide answers to personal questions or clarify special situations. It is these excerpts from letters that are usually published in the form of separate book-brochures, like the words of St. Feofan on prayer. Today we offer readers interpretations of the Recluse Vyshensky on small passages and individual verses of the Holy Gospel, where prayer is discussed specifically.

OK. 11:2-4

“He said to them: when you pray, say: Our Father who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; Give us our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every debtor to us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

The Lord gave a common prayer for everyone, combining in it all our needs, spiritual and physical, internal and external, eternal and temporary. But since in one prayer it is impossible to combine everything that you have to pray to God for in life, then, after the general prayer, a rule is given for the case of private requests for something: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.” This is how it is done in the Church of God: Christians all pray in common for common needs, but each individual privately sets out his own needs and wants before the Lord. We pray in general in churches according to the established rites, which are all nothing more than explained and in different types the Lord's Prayer stated, and privately, at home, everyone asks the Lord for his own things as best he can. And in church you can pray about your own, and at home you can pray about your own, and at home you can pray with common prayer. We only need to take care of one thing, so that when we stand in prayer, whether at home or in church, we have real prayer in our souls, a real turning and ascension of our mind and heart to God. If anyone can do it, let him do it. Don't stand like a statue and don't mutter prayers like a wound up machine playing songs. No matter how much you stand there and no matter how much you mutter, you have no prayer when your mind wanders and your heart is full of vain feelings. If you are standing in prayer and have become accustomed to it, what does it cost you to bring both your mind and heart here? And draw them in, even if they become stubborn. Then a real prayer will be composed and will attract the mercy of God and God’s promise to prayer: ask and it will be given, it will be fulfilled. It is often not given because there is no petition, but only a pleading position.

OK. 19:46.

“My house is a house of prayer.”

And sure enough, just enter the temple, and it already calls you to prayer. Everything here is arranged in such a way and is done in such a way as to dispose and facilitate prayer. Therefore, if you want to kindle prayer in your heart, go to the temple of God more often. You can’t pray at home like you can in church. There are those who pray warmly at home, but if this is the case at home, then how much more so in church? ? But when you are in church, be in it not only with your body, but more with your spirit. Stand where it is quieter, and in vain, with the mind of the Lord before you, pour out your soul before Him. Dispel your dreams, do not allow worries, and pay attention to one thing - the matter of prayer. Lift up your heavy soul and break its fatness by contemplating Divine things. If there is anything behind you, remove yourself with repentance and a vow of correction. If your conscience is not full, add more acts of selflessness and love. While standing in the temple, prepare yourself and for the entire time you are outside the temple, do not retreat from the Lord in thought, but always see Him in front of you, so that your feet do not move from the right path to the wrong one. This will make it easier for you to behave as you should when you come to church. And by staying properly in the temple, it will again be easier for you to maintain your attention before the Lord when you are outside the temple. . . And so your abiding in the Lord will continue to grow higher and higher, and what more could you wish for?

Matt. 21:13.

“My house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.”

Everyone knows that the temple requires reverence, concentration of thoughts, deep contemplation of God and standing in the presence of God, and yet who does this? They go to the temple with the desire to pray, to stand in it for a while with warm zeal, and then thoughts begin to wander, and a bargaining takes place in the head even noisier than the one that the Lord met in the temple of Jerusalem. Why is this so? Because being in church is a reflection of your whole life. The way they live is how they behave in the temple. The temple influences and somewhat supports spiritual movements, but then the usual course of the spiritual order takes its toll. Therefore, if you want your stay in the temple to be a worthy standing before the face of the Lord, prepare for this by living an ordinary life; walk as much as you can in a prayerful mood. This work will bring you to the point where you will stand in reverence all the time in church. This same reverence will inspire you to reverence in ordinary life. So you will go higher and higher. God help me, start!

OK. 8:41-56.

Jairus publicly, in front of everyone, falling at the feet of the Savior, prayed to the Lord for the healing of his daughter, and was heard. The Lord, without saying anything, immediately stood up and went to him. On the way to Jairus, the bleeding wife was healed, of course, also not without prayer on her part, although she did not cry out in word and did not fall prostrate at the feet of the Lord: she had a heartfelt prayer of faith. The Lord heard her and gave her healing. Here everything was done in secret. The bleeding heart turned to the Lord; The Lord heard this cry of the heart and granted the request. This wife and Jairus have essentially the same prayer, although some degrees can be distinguished in them. Such prayers, full of faith, hope and devotion, never go unheard. Sometimes they say: “I pray and pray, but my prayer is still not heard.” But try to rise to the level of prayer that cannot be refused, and you will see why it is not heard. If you are in a position of prayer, like Jairus, or in a simple ordinary position, like everyone around you, like the bleeding woman, when real prayer stirs in your heart, it will undoubtedly come to the Lord and bend Him to mercy. The whole point is how to get to such prayer. Work hard and you will get there. All orders of prayer have the goal of raising prayer books to such a measure of prayer, and everyone who intelligently follows this prayer course achieves their goal.

In. 14:14

“And if you ask the Father anything in My name, I will do it.”

What a comforting promise! But how few use it! Rarely does anyone keep it in mind. There are those who do not understand it at all and do not accept it. Why is this so? Because they do not love the Lord and do not fulfill His commandments. This unfaithfulness of the heart to the Lord cuts off any boldness to turn to God with a request, just as in everyday life, a faulty servant does not dare to ask his masters for anything, knowing that he has not earned any mercy. The established prayers are read in their own order, and they contain very great petitions, but they are only read, and this, as you know, is far from being a prayer or a petition. It is impossible to stand before the Lord with true prayer and extend a petition to Him except by correcting your conscientious relationship towards Him.

OK. 6:46

“Why do you call Me: Lord! God! and do you not do what I say?”

Why do they call Him Lord, but do not do the will of the Lord, why, that is, by deeds, do they not recognize His rule? Because they call it only with the tongue, and not with the heart. When the heart would say: “Lord, You are my Lord,” then there would be complete readiness to obey the one whom they confess as their Lord. And since this is not the case, then things go against the tongue, and things are always what the heart is. So, there is no point in crying out: “Lord, Lord”? No, that's not it. But it is necessary to add an internal word to the external word - the feeling and disposition of the heart. Sit down and think about the Lord and about yourself: what the Lord is and what you are; what the Lord has done and is doing for you, why you live and what you will live to see. . . You will immediately come to the conviction that there is no other way but to fulfill the will of the Lord unswervingly; There is no other way for us. This conviction will give birth to a readiness to fulfill in deed what is said in the word: Lord. With such readiness, the need for help from above will be aroused, and from it the prayer: “Lord, Lord! help and grant strength to walk in Your will.” And crying to the Lord will be pleasing to the Lord.

Mk. 1:35

“In the morning, getting up very early, he went out and retired to a deserted place, and there he prayed.”

Here is a lesson to get up early and devote the first hours of the day to prayer, in solitude. The soul renewed by sleep is fresh, light and penetrable, like the fresh morning air; therefore, she naturally asks to be allowed into the place where all her joy is, before the face of the Heavenly Father, into the community of angels and saints. It is more convenient for her to do this at this time than later, when the worries of the day are upon her. The Lord arranges everything. We must accept from Him a blessing for our deeds, necessary admonition and necessary reinforcement. And hurry early, while nothing interferes, to ascend in private to the Lord with your mind and heart and confess to Him your needs, your intentions, and ask for His help. Having tuned in to prayer and contemplation of God from the first minutes of the day, you will then spend the whole day in reverence and fear of God, with your thoughts collected. Hence - prudence, sedateness and harmony in affairs and mutual relations. This is a reward for the work you force yourself to do in the morning solitude. This is also for everyday people, therefore, a measure of prudence, and not something alien to their goals.

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St. Cyprian. Calling God Father, we must remember and know, beloved brethren, that we must also act as sons of God, so that just as we ourselves rejoice in God the Father, so He rejoices in us. Let us live as temples of God, so that it can be seen that God dwells in us, so that our actions will not be unworthy of the spirit: having begun to be heavenly and spiritual, let us think and do only spiritual and heavenly things, bearing in mind what God has said: Those who glorify Me will glorify, and those who disparage Me will be dishonest(1 Sam. 2:30), and written by the blessed Apostle in his message: Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you, and you have it from God, and you carry it as your own? Purchased at a price, of course. Glorify God in all your bodies, and in your souls, which are the essence of God.(1 Cor. 6:19-20).

St. Gregory of Nyssa. To the speaker - Father- what kind of soul do you need to have? How much boldness does it take? What kind of conscience should one have, so that, having known God as much as possible and having understood that the nature of God is goodness, holiness, joy, power, glory, purity and everything that is similar to this is represented by the thought of God’s nature, then one dares to pronounce this word and such a Being call him your Father? It is obvious that if anyone has any intelligence, then, not seeing in himself the same as in God, he will not dare to utter these words to Him and say: Father. For it is unnatural for someone who is essentially good to become the father of someone who is evil in deeds, for a saint to become the father of someone defiled in life, for a father of life to become the father of someone killed by sin, for a pure person to become the father of someone who has disgraced themselves through passions. dishonor. If someone, seeing himself still in need of cleansing and recognizing his evil conscience as full of filth, before being cleansed from such evil properties, includes himself in kinship with God, and the unrighteous to the Righteous, the unclean to the Clean will say: Father, then such a word will directly be an insult and slander. Therefore, when the Lord teaches us to call God Father in prayer, it seems to me that he is doing nothing more than elevating an exalted and lofty way of life into law, because the truth teaches us not to lie, not to say about ourselves what is not in us , not to call ourselves what we were not, but, calling our Father the Righteous and Good, justifying this kinship with life. Therefore, do you see what kind of life we ​​need in order to have the boldness to say to God: Father? For if you love money, are preoccupied with worldly charms, seek human glory, serve the most passionate desires - and yet you accept such a prayer in your mouth, then what do you think the One who sees your life and hears your prayer will say? These are the words I seem to hear from God Himself speaking to such a person: “And you, who have been corrupted in life, call the Father of incorruption your father? Why do you desecrate the pure Name with unclean lips? Why do you use this word falsely? If you are My child, then your life should bear the features of My properties. I do not recognize the image of My nature in you: your features are opposite. Another is the father of the evil qualities in you. My offspring are adorned with good fatherly qualities, the son of the merciful is merciful, the son of the pure is pure, the incorruptible is free from corruption, the good is good, the righteous is just. But I don’t know you, where you’re from.” Therefore, having prescribed to say in prayer that God is our Father, he commands nothing less than to become like the Heavenly Father through a splendid life, just as in another place he more clearly commands the same thing, saying: be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect(Matt. 5:48). Just as the signs of likeness to God are obvious, so the evil disposition has its own special signs - and whoever has them, it is impossible for him to be the son of God. This is envy, hatred, slander, arrogance, covetousness, passionate desire, the disease of verbiage - these and similar traits distinguish the image of the enemy. Therefore, if someone who has denigrated his soul with such defilements calls on his father, what kind of father will hear him? May such impurity be removed from your image. The Divine is not involved in envy and any other defilement, and let such passions not leave traces on you, neither envy, nor arrogance, nor anything else that defiles God-like beauty. If you become like this, then boldly call upon God and the Master of all, calling him your Father. He will look at you with fatherly eyes and, having clothed you in divine clothing, adorning you with a ring and equipping your feet with gospel boots for the procession, he will return you to the Heavenly Fatherland.

St. Chrysostom. It’s not in vain that you were taught to pronounce this word (Our Father), and in order that, reverently before the name of the Father, pronounced by your own tongue, you imitate His goodness, as in another place He says: be like your Father, As there is in heaven, as the sun shines on the evil and on the good, and rains on the righteous and the unjust.(Matt. 5:45). Therefore, one who has a brutal and inhuman mood of the soul cannot call the man-loving God his Father, because he does not have the properties of goodness that the Heavenly Father has, but has changed into a brutal appearance and has lost his divine dignity. The one who is meek and philanthropic towards his neighbors and does not take revenge on those who sin against him, but repays offenses with good deeds, can irreproachably call God Father. And delve into the precision of the expression, how He commands us mutual love and unites everyone with a friendly disposition. He did not command to say: My Father, who art in heaven, But: Our Father, who art in heaven- so that, having learned to name the common Father, we show brotherly affection towards each other.

Saint Tikhon. With this appeal: Our Father- we learn: 1) that all Christians have one Father - God; therefore, they are brethren among themselves, having one Father, why 2) Christians, as spiritual brethren, should have love among themselves, pray to God for each other and unanimously cry out to their Heavenly Father: Our Father.“This teaches,” says St. Chrysostom responded to this word - say a common prayer for the brethren. Bo doesn't say: my father, But Our Father, - to send up prayers for the common body, and not only for your own benefit, but also for your neighbor’s sake everywhere.” 3) When Christians are brethren in God, then all have the same honor and glory in this - all, I say, masters and slaves, glorious and ignorant, rich and poor, high-ranking and simple, like brethren; and for this reason they should not despise each other, because all are one in Christ Jesus(Gal. 3:28). “Taco,” says St. Chrysostom to this place - brings inequality away from us and shows the great equality of the king with the beggar.” 4) If God is the Father of Christians, then how dangerous it is for them to consider themselves sinless; moreover, with good morals they should be like God, like sons to their father, when without a twinge of conscience they want to call on Him and call Him Father. 5) It is clear from this that a Christian is faulty until he corrects and purifies himself true repentance, cannot call on God with benefit for himself, much more call him Father and say this prayer. It is necessary to forever leave sins and carnal desires, and repent, and retreat from unrighteousness, according to the teaching of the Apostle: let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness(2 Tim. 2:19). How can he say to Him: Our Father, and he himself is likened to cattle or the devil in his morals? For those who call God Father and pray like this: Our Father- must be sons of God, and sons must have properties similar to the Father. We must, without delay, in the likeness of the prodigal son, come to our senses, turn and return to the Father and before Him with humility admit our sin: Father, I have sinned in heaven and before You, and your son is no longer worthy to be called(Luke 15:18-19) - and henceforth not to separate from the Heavenly Father, but to work with a pure heart and with His household, that is, true Christians, to take part and so cry out to Him together with them: Our Father!

Collector. Our Father! What a sweet proclamation! The father's name is both warm and sobering. Whoever has a father feels himself standing under a powerful wing, completely safe and protected, and also feels that he does not need to worry or bother about anything; everything will be there - food, clothing, and shelter, and that he only has to turn to his father when he wants what, and he will get everything.

Those who are able to recognize and feel God as their Father have the same feelings. As soon as the confidence that God is his Father is revived in someone, those feelings that children usually have for their father will immediately settle in the heart, and he will feel himself in a safe shelter, and in carefree contentment, and in the firm hope that everything is for him. whatever the worthy man asks will be done.

So that's where all the power lies! Ascend to the feeling that God is our Father. How is this possible? By clarifying the relationship in which it pleased God to place Himself with us. Think about what God is for us, and you will get there.

First. God our Father also exists in the natural order. For, creating man, He breathed into his face the breath of His life. This breath, not carnal, but spiritual, never ceases to revive all people, and the traces of what is divine in it are indelible. Thus, we are related to God by nature. Although this thought is abstract, it is not far from general feeling. And St. Paul did not hesitate to use it to admonish the Athenians, without only bringing to their memory the words of one of their scribes: That's why we are the same kind, but also drawing from this a very impressive conclusion: God's generation is...(Acts 17, 28 and 29). Anyone can reach such a conviction, or, rather, restore it in himself and then say in his heart: the race is of God, you can and should feel related to God and have Him as the Ancestor and common Father of all.

Second. God is our Father through providential care for us. For, having created, he preserves, holds in His right hand, leads to the end and surrounds with all care more than one’s own father. So, come to the point of seeing and feeling God’s care not only for everyone, but also for yourself, then you will involuntarily cry out: Our Father!

How to get to this point? - By reflection. Please consider and trace everything that God has done for the human race: how he placed us in paradise for bliss, how he did not leave us in the fall, but provided for the way of returning to us what was lost, how he later led to the acceptance of our Restorer, first all equally, then separately - especially the Jews, and especially other languages ​​- how this Restorer finally came and accomplished the work of restoration, how then the work of assimilation of this restoration by our family began, how with this God converted entire nations and attracted countless individuals, how he converted our people and watches over it has restorative powers. If you want to see more private actions of God's care, trace the history of Abraham, Joseph, Job, David, Hezekiah and other men; look at our national history and her glorious husbands. In all this you cannot help but see that God thinks a lot and cares a lot about us. Isn’t He the Father of our race?

Then turn your thoughts to yourself and trace everything that happened to you. You will see God’s repeated deliverances from troubles and downfalls, and in all life a special beneficial direction by the right hand of God. There are much more hidden blessings of God than obvious ones. They are hidden because they are invisible at the time when they are given, and are seen after - and this is until tactile evidence. Such understanding and perception of God's care, not seen at one time and seen later, gives the conviction that even now God carefully arranges our life and well-being, although we cannot definitely indicate this. From here one cannot help but be convinced that the eye of God is kindly turned towards us and His right hand holds, covers and leads us and directs the course of our life along a good path. When this is felt, then the heart itself will uncontrollably say: Our Father!

Third. God our Father exists by virtue of spiritual rebirth. In this regard, one must marvel at how we Christians have little or no feeling that God is our Father. For Christians, this feeling should be born naturally in the heart, without much effort. For they are born of God. St. Evangelist John writes: and the elders received Him, The Word of God, who came into his own through the incarnation, - that they may become children of God, who believe in His name, who were born neither of blood, nor of carnal lust, nor of manly lust, but of God.(John 1:12-13). When were you born? When, according to belief, they were baptized. For in Baptism one is born of water and spirit. And whoever is not born in this way cannot enter the realm of sonship with God, opened by the incarnate Son of God. Being thus a creation of God in the spirit, we should both feel this in the spirit, and in the spirit have God as our Father - not reaching this point by thinking, but directly feeling it.

Why is this feeling weak or not there at all? Therefore, it must be assumed that the state in which birth from God puts us has either completely evaporated and passed, or has weakened. Doesn't this state exist? There is no sense of sonship to God or patronymic of God.

Therefore, what is the matter? The state of rebirth must be restored to strength; then the feeling of God’s patronymic will be restored. How is this possible?

Here reflection alone is not enough. Thinking about what we should be as a result of being born from God, and about how all this happened, can only be an introduction to this. Start to figure out what you should be by spiritual birth, and compare it with what you actually are. You will see a great disagreement between one and the other, which falls upon you as a great reproach before your Christian conscience, before God and His angels. Reproach entails condemnation; punishment follows conviction. Deepen these thoughts - showing the true, immutable thing - and you will perk up. Having perked up, you become preoccupied with how to avoid the expected penalty. From here will come repentance and the decision to hold oneself worthy of being born from God. In the Sacrament of Repentance, the grace of rebirth returns or its effect on the heart is purified. The feeling of the fatherhood of God should immediately be born here. This happens to all truly repentant people. Having received or felt the pardon, they cannot help but feel the fatherly embrace, as in the parable of the prodigal son. But then this feeling passes. There is work ahead in the father's house, sometimes as a slave, sometimes as a mercenary. Whoever passes through these degrees through constant work will finally enter the rank of son. Then the feeling of God’s fatherhood settles in the depths of his heart and already abides in him relentlessly.

Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer in the words of the Holy Fathers

St. Feofan the Recluse

2) Separation

Long Christian Catechism. To more conveniently consider the Lord's Prayer, we can divide it into: invocation, seven petitions and doxology.

A) Summoning

"Our Father, who art in heaven"

St. Gregory of Nyssa. Who will give me wings like a dove?(Ps. 54:7) the great David speaks in one place of psalmody. I dare to say the same word: who will give me these wings, so that I can soar with my mind to the height of the greatness of these sayings - and leaving the earth, cross all the air spilled in the middle, touch the ethereal beauty, reach the stars, see all their decoration, and not to stop at them, but to pass by this too, to stand outside of this movable and changeable, to embrace a constant nature, an immovable force, installed in itself and directing and supporting everything that has being, everything that depends on the ineffable will of God's wisdom, so that, Having become a thought far from everything changeable and perverse, in an immutable and unwavering state of soul, I could first become akin in thought to the Immutable and Unchangeable, then call on the most related name and say: “Father!”

St. Cyprian. Oh, what condescension towards us, what an abundance of favor and goodness of the Lord, when He allowed us, when praying before the face of God, to call God Father, and to call ourselves sons of God, just as Christ is the Son of God! None of us would have dared to use this name in prayer if He Himself had not allowed us to pray so.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. In the prayer that the Savior gave to His disciples, we, with a clear conscience, calling God Father, say: “Our Father!” What great love of God for mankind! Those who have fallen away from Him and reached the extreme of evil are given such oblivion of all evil, and such a communion of grace, that they call Him Father: “Our Father!”

St. Zlatoust. "Our Father!" Oh, what extraordinary philanthropy! Oh, what a wonderful honor! What word will be able to render gratitude to the One who gives us such blessings? Look, beloved, at the humiliation of your and my nature, delve into its affinity - into this earth, dust, dirt, clay, ashes; because we were created from the earth, and again finally decompose into the earth. Having imagined this, marvel at the unsearchable wealth of God’s great goodness to us; according to which you are commanded to call Him “Father,” - the earthly - the heavenly, the mortal - the immortal, the corruptible - the incorruptible, the temporary - the eternal, who was yesterday and before dirt - the God who existed before the age.

blzh. Augustine. In every petition, they first try to gain the favor of the person to whom the petition is addressed, and then they present the petition itself. Favor is usually gained by praise to the one whom you intend to ask, and it is always supplied at the beginning of the request. In this sense, of course, the Lord commanded us to cry out at the beginning of our prayer: “Our Father!”

There are many sayings in Scripture that express praise to God; but you will not find that Israel was ordered to cry out: “Our Father!” The prophets, however, called God the father of the Israelites, even on behalf of God himself as: they gave birth to sons and raised them up, but they rejected Me(Isa. 1:2), - and: If I am the Father, then where is My glory?(Mal. 1:6), but they called it so obviously in order to expose them that they did not want to be sons of God, working in sins. They themselves did not dare to turn to God as to their father; for they were still in the state of slaves, although they were destined for sonship, as the Apostle says: At any time there is little heir, there is no one better than a slave(Gal. 4:1). This advantage was granted to the new Israel, the Christians; them given the region to be children of God(John 1:12) and they received the spirit of sonhood, about it They cry out: “Abba father!” (Rom. 8:15).

Tertullian. When we say: “Our Father”, we are praying to God and together expressing faith, the fruit of which is such a name. For it is written: the little ones received Him, and gave them the realm of being children of God who believe in His name(John 1:12). The Lord often called God our Father; He even commanded us not to call anyone on earth father except Him whom we have in heaven (Matt. 23:9). Thus, by crying out like this in prayer, we fulfill the commandment. Blessed are those who recognize God the Father. - The name of God the Father has not been announced to anyone before; and even Moses, who asked about him, heard another certain name; it is revealed to us in the Son. For the Son is already giving a new name to God - the name of the Father. But He says directly: I came in the name of the Father(John 5:43) - and again: Father, glorify Your name(John 12:28) - and more clearly: reveal the name Yours as a person (John 17:6).

St. Cyprian. The new man, reborn and restored by his God, by His grace, first of all says: “Father,” because he has already become His son. On my own, - it is said, - He came and did not receive His own. The little ones received Him, and gave them the realm to become children of God, believing in His name(John 1:11-12). So, whoever believed in His name and became the son of God must begin by offering thanksgiving and confessing himself to be the son of God, calling God Father; must, from the very beginning of his rebirth, testify in words that he renounced his earthly and carnal father and began to know and have one Father, Who is in heaven... And the Lord in His Gospel commands us not to name a father on earth, because we have one Father in heaven (Matt. 23:9).

blzh. Augustine. Calling at the beginning of the prayer: “Our Father!” By this name we testify to love: for what is sweeter for children than the name of the Father? and we express confidence in receiving what we ask when, before any request, we imagine ourselves having already received that great mercy to call God our Father. For what kind of request will God refuse to His sons, having first granted them the region to be His children?

He's the same. Say “Our Father” if you have begun to have God as your father. They begin to have God as their father when they are born again from Him. You were born of Him in the womb of the Church. Remember that you have a Father in heaven. Remember that in Adam you were born into death, but from God the Father you were reborn into life. And what you say, feel, is in your hearts. What is in the heart of the one who prays, according to the strength of it, the One who hears his prayer accepts it.

St. Zlatoust. Sitsa, you pray- continued the Savior: Our Father, who art in heaven. See how He immediately encouraged the listener, and at the very beginning remembered all the good deeds of God. In fact, the one who calls God Father, by this one name already confesses forgiveness of sins, and liberation from punishment, and justification, and sanctification, and redemption, and sonship, and inheritance, and brotherhood with the Only Begotten, and the gift of the Spirit, so just as someone who has not received all these benefits cannot call God Father. So, Christ inspires His listeners in two ways - both by the dignity of what is called, and by the greatness of the benefits that they received.

St. Cassian. The Lord's Prayer presupposes in the person praying the most sublime and perfect state, which consists in the contemplation of the one God and in fiery love for Him, and in which our mind, embraced and imbued with this love, converses with God in the closest way and with special sincerity, as with its father. That we must carefully try to achieve this state is what the words of this prayer inspire us with. We say: “Our Father!” If in this way we confess God, the Lord of the universe, with our own lips as our Father, then at the same time we confess that we have been completely transferred from a state of slavery to the state of adopted children of God.

St. Maxim the Confessor. (The first word of the prayer leads to the confession of the Holy Trinity). The Father does not possess this Name as a newly acquired one... If He is the Ever-Bearing One and is always the Father, then this means that both the Son and the Holy Spirit always essentially coexist with the Father. They naturally exist from Him and in Him in such a way that they transcend (all) reason and (all) reason. Therefore, by starting this prayer, we learn to honor the Consubstantial and Pre-Existent Trinity as the creative Cause of our existence. At the same time, we learn to proclaim the grace of adoption in us, being worthy to call our Creator by nature Father by grace. And this is so that, experiencing reverent fear of the name of (our) Parent by grace, we would try to imprint in (our) life the features of the One who gave birth to us, sanctifying His name on earth, becoming like Him, revealing ourselves through the deeds of our children (His) and glorifying with our thoughts and deeds the Self-performer of adoption (ours) - by nature the Son of the Father.

blzh. Theophylact. The disciples of Christ compete with the disciples of John and want to learn how to pray. The Savior does not reject the desires of the disciples, and teaches them prayer. Our Father, - he says, - like you and in heaven. Notice the power of prayer. She immediately leads you to what is above, and, since you call God Father, she convinces you in every possible way not to lose your likeness to the Father, but to try to become like Him.

He's the same. The word “Father” shows you what blessings you have received by becoming the son of God.

Simeon of Thessalonica. "Our Father!" - And because He is our Creator, who brought us into being from things that are not, and because by grace He is our Father, through the Son by nature, made like us.

Saint Tikhon. From the words: “Our Father!” we learn that God is the true Father of Christians, and they are sons God's faith about Christ Jesus(Gal. 3:26). Consequently, as a Father, they should call upon Him with hope, just as the children of the flesh call upon their parents and stretch out their hands to them in all their needs.

"Our"

St. Cyprian. The Teacher of the world and the Teacher of unity, first of all, did not want prayer to be performed separately and privately, so that the one praying only for himself. In fact, we do not say: “My Father, who art in heaven, give me my bread this day”; each of us does not ask for the abandonment of only his debt, does not pray for himself alone, so as not to be led into temptation and to get rid of the evil one. We have a nationwide and common prayer, and when we pray, we pray not for one person, but for the whole people, because we - the whole people - are one. God, the Teacher of peace and harmony, who taught unity, wanted one to pray for everyone, just as He alone carried us all. This law of prayer was also observed by the three youths thrown into the fiery furnace: they agreed in prayer and were unanimous in the spirit of agreement. This is confirmed by Divine Scripture, which, showing how they prayed, gives us an example to follow, so that we too can become like them. Said: Then these three, as if with one mouth, I will bow and bless God(Dan. 3:51). They spoke as if with only their lips, although it was not Christ who taught them to pray like that. And that is why the speech of them - those praying - was convincing and valid: peaceful, simple and spiritual prayer was pleasing to the Lord. After the Ascension of the Lord, we find the apostles and disciples praying in a similar way. These are all, - it is said, - I prayed and endured with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and with His brethren(Acts 1:14). They remained in prayer with one accord, showing both the urgency of their prayer and mutual agreement, because God, bringing like-minded people into the house(Ps. 67:7), accepts into His divine and eternal home only those whose prayer is unanimous. Oh, what, beloved brothers, are the secrets of the Lord’s Prayer! How much and how great is contained in in short words, but prayer abundant in spiritual power!

…We say together: “Our Father,” that is, believers, those who, having been sanctified and restored by a grace-filled spiritual birth, have become sons of God.

St. Zlatoust. He teaches us to pray for all the brothers. He does not say: My Father, who art in heaven, but - “Our Father,” and thereby commands us to offer prayers for the entire human race, and never have in mind our own benefits, but always try for the benefits of our neighbor. And in this way he destroys enmity, and overthrows pride, and destroys envy, and introduces love - the mother of all good things; destroys the inequality of human affairs and shows complete equality between the king and the poor, since we all have equal participation in the highest and most necessary matters. Indeed, what harm comes from low kinship, when by heavenly kinship we are all united, and no one has anything more than another: neither the rich more than the poor, nor the master more than the slave, nor the boss more than the subordinate, nor the king more than the warrior, nor the philosopher more than the barbarian, nor the wise more than the ignorant? God, who honored everyone equally to call Himself Father, through this gave everyone the same nobility.

blzh. Augustine. It is suggested by this - “our” - that the rich and noble in this world, having become Christians, should not be proud before the poor and ignorant, since they also cry out to God in the same word as they do: “Our Father!” What they cannot say sincerely from the heart if they do not recognize themselves as their brothers.

blzh. Theophylact. You do not say: My Father, but “Our Father,” because you must look at everyone as brothers, children of one Father.

He's the same. (The Lord in prayer) did not say my father, but “Our Father,” inciting you to brotherly love, and compelling you to love everyone as brothers in general.

"Who art in heaven"

St. Chrysostom When the Lord says in prayer: “who art in heaven,” then with this word he does not imprison God in heaven, but distracts the one praying from the earth and places him in high places and mountain dwellings.

He's the same. Wanting to teach us to leave the earth and earthly things and not bow down, but take the wings of faith and, soaring above the air and rising above the ether, strive for the so-called Father, He commanded to say: “Our Father who art in heaven,” - not because , so that God is only in heaven, but so that we, reptiles on the earth, are disposed to strive for heaven and, illuminated by the beauty of heavenly blessings, turn all our desires there.

blzh. Theophylact. Having said “in heaven,” the Lord does not limit God to them, but raises the listener to heaven and takes him away from earthly things.

He's the same. In a word - “in heaven” the Lord pointed you to your fatherland and to your father’s house: therefore, if you want to have God as your Father, look at heaven, and not at earth, like dumb people.

Saint Tikhon. It is said: “in heaven,” - not as if God is in heaven, but he takes the one who prays from the earth and raises him to the heavenly abodes, says St. Chrysostom; in the same way (and therefore this word is said), because there is a fatherland of the elect, and God in His glory shows Himself there, and delights the souls of His saints. Otherwise, God is essentially in every place, both in heaven and on earth, as the Psalmist sings: Our God is in heaven and on earth(Ps. 113:11).

St. Cassian. We add in prayer: “those who are in heaven,” so that, avoiding in every possible way caring thoughts about this earthly life, as it is a wandering one and takes us very far from our Father, we rush with extreme desire to the region in which, as we confess, our Father dwells, and they did not allow anything that, making us unworthy of such our rank and the nobility of such sonship, would deprive us, as degenerates, of our fatherly heritage and subject us to the full severity of God’s righteous judgment.

St. Gregory of Nyssa. With the words: “who art in heaven,” we are reminded from what fatherland we have fallen and what nobility we have lost. With the story of a young man who left his father's house and indulged in a pig-like life, Scripture, historically describing his departure and dissolute life, shows the disastrous state of humanity, and not before returning this young man to his original state, as after he sensed a real disaster, when he came to his senses and brought thoughts of words of repentance. And they somewhat agree with the words of the prayer. For there the young man said: Father, I have sinned in heaven and before you(Luke 15:21); but He would not have mentioned in the confession about sin “to heaven” if he had not been sure that heaven was his fatherland, leaving which he fell into sin. Therefore, the thought of such a confession makes the father accessible to him, who rushes to his son, greeting him with a kiss on his neck. So, how the reason for the love shown to the young man by his father was his return to his father’s house (and this is “heaven”, the sin he admits to his father); So, it seems to me, here too the Lord, teaching you to call on your father “who is in heaven,” reminds you of the good fatherland, so that by arousing the strongest desire for the beautiful, he will put you on the path that again leads to the fatherland. The path that elevates human nature to heaven is nothing other than retreat and flight from earthly evils; and the means to escape from these evils is nothing else, I think, than becoming like God; to become like God means to become righteous, holy, good, and all the like. If someone, as much as possible, clearly imprints in himself the features of these perfections, then, as if by natural order, without labor, he will move from earthly life to the heavenly land; because it is not local what kind of distance the Divinity has with humanity, so that we would need some kind of tool or device to introduce this heavy, burdensome and earthly flesh into a non-physical and spiritual way of life. But according to the reasonable separation of virtue from vice, it depends on human will alone to be where a person is inclined to desire. Therefore, since there is no difficulty in choosing what is good, and election is followed by the acquisition of what is chosen by someone, then it is possible for you to immediately be in heaven, having declared God in your mind. If, as Ecclesiastes says: God in the mountain skye (5:1), and you, according to the word of the Prophet, cleave to “God” (Ps. 72:28): then, by all necessity, one who is in unity with God must be where God is.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Heaven can be those who carry within themselves image of heaven(1 Cor. 15:49), to whom God promised: I will inhabit you and look like you(2 Cor. 6:16).

Simeon of Thessalonica. “Like you in heaven.” For God, as it is written, being holy, rests in the saints. The angels who live in heaven are holier than us, just as heaven is purer than earth. This is why it is thought that God is in heaven.

blzh. Augustine. So let the new New Testament people, called to an eternal inheritance, cry: “Our Father who art in heaven,” that is, among the saints and the righteous. God is not limited to any local space. No matter how bright the sky may appear, it is all a material terrain, limited. If God lived only in the higher parts of the world, then the birds would be happier than us, because they hover closer to God. But it is not written: The Lord is near to those who have climbed high, high, or to those who live on the mountains, but: The Lord is near with a broken heart(Ps. 33:19), which is the belonging of the humble and humiliated. How a sinner is called earth when it is said to him: you are the earth and to the earth you will go(Gen. 3:19), so by contrast the righteous may be called heaven. The righteous are told: the temple of God is holy, just as you are(1 Cor. 3:17). Therefore, if God dwells in His temple, and the saints are His temple; then it would be fair to understand the words: “like you are in heaven” as follows: “like you are” in the saints. This application is all the more convenient because in spiritual terms the righteous are separated from the sinners, like heaven from earth. So we turn to the east, where the sun rises, when we stand in prayer, not because God dwells there, leaving other parts of the world: for He is always everywhere, and in all His greatness; but in order to thereby dispose his spirit to turn to the highest being, that is, God, when his body - earthly - turns to the body that is higher than it - heavenly. And with the degrees of spiritual age, this (the word: “in heaven”) is more consistent, so that in prayer the hearts of everyone, according to their strength, are filled with feelings worthy of God. For those who are captivated by still visible beauties and cannot think detachedly about the incorporeal, since they necessarily prefer heaven to earth, the thought is more powerful, according to which God is believed to be more in heaven than on earth, because they still know God bodily. But when they understand that the soul surpasses in dignity even any celestial body, then they will begin to place it in the soul more than in any body, even a celestial one. Having realized how far the souls of sinners are from the souls of the righteous, they, as before, when they carnally philosophized, did not dare to posit God on earth, but posited him in heaven, so now, having been enlightened with better knowledge and higher faith, they will begin to posit him and look for him in the souls of the righteous , not sinners. And so it is fair to understand the words: “who art in heaven” as if it were said: “who are in the hearts of the righteous, as in their temple.” The one who utters these words in this sense should desire that He Whom he so calls to abide in himself, desiring this, to maintain a righteous life: for only in this way is God drawn to dwell in the soul.

Lessons from this invocation.

St. Cyprian. Calling God Father, we must remember and know, beloved brothers, that we must also act as sons of God, so that just as we ourselves rejoice in God the Father, so He rejoices in us. Let us remain as temples of God, so that it can be seen that God dwells in us. May our actions not be unworthy of the spirit: having begun to be heavenly and spiritual, let us think and do only spiritual and heavenly things, bearing in mind what God has said: He who glorifies Me will glorify, and he who disparages Me will be dishonest(1 Sam. 1:30) - and written by the blessed Apostle in his Epistle: carry yours, you were bought at a price; glorify the scourge(and wear) God in all your bodies(1 Cor. 6:19-20).

St. Gregory of Nyssa. What kind of soul does the one who says “Father” need? How much boldness does it take? What kind of conscience should one have, so that having known God as much as possible and having understood that the nature of God is goodness, holiness, joy, power, glory, purity, and everything that is similar to this is represented by the thought of God’s nature, then one dares to pronounce this word and name some creature your Father? It is obvious that if someone has any intelligence, then, not seeing in himself the same as in God, he will not dare to utter these words to him and say: “Father!” For it is unnatural for someone who is essentially good to become the father of someone who is evil in deeds, for a saint to become the father of someone defiled in life, for a father of life to become the father of someone killed by sin, for a pure person to become the father of those who have disgraced themselves through the passions of dishonor. If someone, seeing himself still in need of cleansing and recognizing his evil conscience as full of filth, before being cleansed from such evil properties, includes himself in kinship with God, and the unrighteous to the Righteous, the unclean to the Pure, says: “Father,” then this saying will directly be an insult and slander. Therefore, when the Lord teaches us in prayer to call God Father, it seems to me that he does nothing more than legitimize an exalted and lofty way of life; because the truth teaches us not to lie, not to say about ourselves what is not in us, not to call ourselves what we were not, but, calling our Father the Righteous and Good, justify this kinship with life. Therefore, do you see what kind of life we ​​need in order to have the boldness to say to God: Father? For if you love money, are preoccupied with worldly charms, seek human glory, serve the most passionate desires, yet you accept such a prayer in your mouth: what do you think the One who sees your life and hears your prayer will say? These are the words I seem to hear from God himself speaking to such a person: “And you, who have been corrupted in life, call the Father of incorruption your father? Why do you desecrate a pure name with unclean lips? Why are you using this saying falsely? If you are My child, then your life should bear the features of My properties. I do not recognize in you the image of My nature; your features are opposite. Another is the father of the evil qualities in you. My offspring are adorned with good fatherly qualities, the son of the merciful is merciful, the son of the pure is pure, the incorruptible is free from corruption, the good is good, the righteous is just. But I don’t know you, where you’re from.” Therefore, having prescribed to say in prayer that God is our Father, he commands nothing more than to become like the Heavenly Father through a splendid life; as in another place he commands the same thing more clearly, saying: Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect(Matt. 5:48). Just as the signs of likeness to God are obvious, so the evil disposition has its own special signs - and whoever has them, it is impossible for him to be the son of God. This is envy, hatred, slander, arrogance, covetousness, passionate desire, the disease of glory - these and similar traits distinguish the image of the opponent. Therefore, if someone who has denigrated his soul with such filth calls to his father, will such a father hear him? May such impurity be removed from your image. The Divine is not involved in envy and any other defilement, and let such passions not stain you, neither envy, nor arrogance, nor anything else that defiles the godlike beauty. If you become like this, then boldly call upon God and the Master of all, calling him your Father. He will look at you with fatherly eyes and, having clothed you in divine clothing, adorned you with a ring, and equipped your feet for the procession with gospel boots, he will return you to your heavenly fatherland.

St. Zlatoust. It is not in vain that you were taught to pronounce this word (“Our Father!”), but in order to reverence the name of the Father, pronounced by your own tongue, you imitate His goodness, as in another place He says: be like To your Father who is in heaven, as his sun shines on the evil and on the good, and rains on the righteous and the unjust.(Matt. 5:45). Therefore, one who has a brutal and inhumane mood of the soul cannot call the man-loving God his Father; because he does not have the properties of goodness that the heavenly Father has, but has changed into a brutal form and has lost his divine dignity. The one who is meek and philanthropic towards his neighbors and does not take revenge on those who sin against him, but repays offenses with good deeds, can irreproachably call God Father. And delve into the precision of the expression, how He commands us mutual love and unites everyone with a friendly disposition. He did not command to say: “My Father who is in heaven,” but “Our Father who is in heaven,” so that, having learned to name the common Father, we would show brotherly affection towards each other.

Saint Tikhon. With this invocation: “Our Father!” we learn: 1) that for all Christians “there is one Father” - God; therefore, they are brothers with each other, as having one Father. 2) Christians, as spiritual brothers, must have love among themselves, pray for each other to God, and, as it were, emit one voice from the heart to their Heavenly Father: “Our Father!” This is what He teaches, - says Saint John Chrysostom in a conversation on this word, - perform a common prayer for the brethren. For he does not say: “My Father,” but says: “Our Father,” to send up prayers for the common body, and everywhere to see not only one’s own benefit, but also that of one’s neighbor.. 3) When Christians are brothers in God, then they all have the same honor and glory. All, I say: masters and slaves, famous and unknown, rich and poor, high-ranking and simple, like brothers. And therefore we should not despise each other, since they are all one in Christ Jesus(Gal. 3:28). So, - says Saint John Chrysostom, - He brings out inequality from us, and shows the great equality of the king with the beggar. 4) How diligently we must guard ourselves from sins, and with more good morals we must become like God, like sons to their father, if without a twinge of conscience they want to call upon Him and call Him Father. 5) It is clear from this that a faulty Christian, until he corrects and cleanses himself with true repentance, cannot usefully call upon God, much less call him Father and pronounce this prayer. It is absolutely necessary to leave sins and carnal desires, repent, and retreat from unrighteousness, according to the teaching of the Apostle: let everyone who confesses the name of the Lord turn away from unrighteousness(2 Tim. 2:19). For how can he say to Him: “Our Father,” but with his morals he himself is likened to cattle or the devil? For those who call God Father and pray: “Our Father” must be the sons of God, and the sons must have properties similar to the father. So, we must certainly, like the prodigal son, come to our senses, turn and return to the Father and before Him with humility admit our sin: Father! I have sinned against heaven and before You and am no longer worthy to be called Your son(Luke 15:17-21) - and henceforth not to separate from the Heavenly Father, but to serve Him with a pure heart, and with His household, that is, with true Christians, to have a part, and so with them together to emit a common voice to Him : "Our Father!".

Collector. "Our Father!". What a sweet proclamation! The Father's Name is both warm and sobering. Whoever has a father feels himself under a powerful wing, completely safe and protected: he also feels that he does not need to worry or bother about anything; everything will be there - food, clothing, and shelter, and all he has to do is turn to his father when he wants what he wants and gets everything.

Those who are able to recognize and feel God as their Father have the same feelings. As soon as the confirmation that God is his Father is reborn in someone, those feelings that children usually have for their father will immediately be established in their hearts, and he will feel himself in a safe shelter, and in carefree contentment, and in the firm hope that everything is for him. whatever the worthy man asks will be done.

So that's where all the power lies! Ascend to the feeling that God our Father exists. How is this possible? By clarifying the relationship in whatever it pleased God to place himself with us. Think about what God is for us, and you will get there.

First. God our Father also exists in the natural order. For, creating man, He breathed into his face the breath of his life. This breath - not carnal, but spiritual - never ceases to revive all people, and the traces of what is divine in it are indelible. Thus we are related to God by nature. Although this thought is abstract, it is not far from the general feeling. And St. Paul did not hesitate to use it to admonish the Athenians, without only bringing to their memory the words of one of their scribes: That's why we are the same kind, but drawing from this a very impressive conclusion: the generation of God is… (Acts 17:28,29). Anyone can reach such a conviction, or rather, restore it in himself, and then say in his heart: the race is of God, you can and should feel related to God and have Him as your ancestor and common Father to all.

Second. God is our Father, in providential care for us. For He created, preserves, holds in His right hands, leads to the end, and surrounds with all kinds of care, more than one’s own father. So, come to the point of seeing and feeling God’s care not only for everyone, but also for yourself; then you will involuntarily cry out: “Our Father!”

How to get to this point? - By thinking. Please consider and trace everything that God has done for the human race; how he placed us in paradise for bliss, how he did not leave us in the fall, but provided for the image of returning to us what was lost, how he later led us to the acceptance of our Restorer, first all equally, then separately - especially the Jews, and especially other languages ​​- how this finally came The restorer accomplished the work of restoration, how then the matter of assimilation of this restoration by our family began, how in this God converted entire nations and attracted countless individuals, how he converted our people and watches over the restorative forces in them. If you want to see more private actions of God's care, trace the history of Abraham, Joseph, Job, David, Hezekiah and other men; look at our national history and its glorious men. In all this you cannot help but see that God thinks a lot and cares a lot about us. Isn’t He the Father of our race?

Then turn your thoughts to yourself and trace everything that happened to you. You will see God’s repeated deliverances from troubles and downfalls, and in all life a special beneficial direction by the right hand of God. There are much more hidden blessings of God than obvious ones. They are hidden because they are invisible at the time when they are given and seen later - and this is until tactile evidence. Such understanding and perception of God's care, not seen at one time and seen later, gives the conviction that even now God carefully arranges our existence and well-being, although we cannot definitely indicate this. From here it is impossible not to bear the conviction that the eye of God is favorably turned towards us, and His right hand holds, covers and guides us, and directs the course of our life along a good path. When this is felt, then the heart itself will uncontrollably say: “Our Father!”

Third. God our Father exists by virtue of spiritual rebirth. In this regard, one must marvel at how little or no feeling among us Christians that God is our Father. Christians should have this feeling naturally in their hearts, without much effort to produce it. For they are born of God. St. Evangelist John writes: the elders received Him, - God’s Word, who came into his own through the incarnation, - Gave them the realm to be children of God who believe in His name, who were born neither of blood, nor of carnal lust, nor of the flesh of man, but of God(John 1:12-13). When were you born? When, according to belief, they were baptized. For in baptism one is born of water and spirit. And whoever is not born in this way cannot enter the realm of being a child of God, opened by the incarnate Son of God. Being thus a creation of God in the spirit, we should both feel this in the spirit, and in the spirit have God as our Father, not by thinking about it, but by directly feeling it.

Why is this feeling weak, or is it not there at all? Therefore, we must assume that the state into which birth from God puts us has either completely evaporated and passed, or has weakened. Doesn't this state exist? There is no feeling of being a child of God or patronymic of God.

Therefore, what is the matter? The state of rebirth must be restored to strength; then the feeling of God’s patronymic will be restored. How is this possible?

Here reflection alone is not enough. Thinking about what we should be as a result of being born from God, and about how all this was accomplished, can only be an introduction to this. Start to figure out what you should be by spiritual birth, and compare it with what you actually are. You will see a great disagreement between one and the other, which falls upon you with great humility before your Christian conscience, before God and His Angels. Submission entails condemnation; punishment follows conviction. Deepen these thoughts - showing the true, immutable thing - and you will perk up. Having perked up, you become preoccupied with how to avoid the expected penalty. From here will come repentance and the decision to keep the rest of yourself worthy of being born from God. In the sacrament of repentance, the grace of rebirth returns, or its effect on the heart is purified. The feeling of the patronymic of God should immediately be born here. This happens to all truly repentant people. Having received or felt pardon, they cannot help but feel the father’s embrace, as in the parable of the prodigal. But then this feeling passes. Labor is required in the father's house, sometimes as a slave, sometimes as a mercenary. Whoever passes through these degrees through constant work will finally enter the rank of son. Then the feeling of the patronymic of God settles in the depths of his heart, and remains in him forever.

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St. Theophan the Recluse. Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer in the words of the Holy Fathers. M., 1908