Slavic community-eco-village. The fact that some Orthodox families decided to leave the city and move to the village Move to the village to the Orthodox
Archimandrite Gabriel (Urgebadze).
“The time will come, people will leave for the mountains. But don't go alone... Go to forests and mountains in small groups.
For Christians, the greatest torment will be that they themselves will go into the forests, and their loved ones will receive the seal of the Antichrist. Products that are stamped with the Antichrist cannot harm you. It's not a print yet. It is necessary to say the prayer “Our Father”, cross, sprinkle with holy water - and so any food will be sanctified.
And now important events begin. There has been no such danger on earth since the creation of the world. This last one... Imagine a mother of five children: how is she supposed to feed her children without accepting the seal of the Antichrist? See what traps the Antichrist sets for people. At first it will be optional. But when the Antichrist reigns and becomes the ruler of the world, he will force everyone to accept this seal. Those who do not accept will be declared traitors. Then it will be necessary to go into the forest: ten to fifteen people together. But don't go alone or together, you won't be saved... The Holy Spirit will protect you. Never lose hope. God will give you wisdom on what to do.
AT recent times supporters of the antichrist will go to church, will be baptized and will preach the gospel commandments. But do not believe those who will not have good works. Only by deeds can a true Christian be known.”
Schema-nun Nila.
“Famine is coming. Stocks will not save, because hunger will not begin immediately. Every year it will become more and more difficult, crops will fall, less and less land will be cultivated.
“Everyone should try to be closer to the ground. Life in big cities will be very difficult. There will be such a famine that people will climb into houses to find something to eat. They will break glass windows, break doors, kill people for food. Weapons will be in the hands of many, and human life will cost nothing. There will come a time when, as in the days after the October Revolution, Christians will be driven into prisons, reservations and drowned in the sea.”
“When the persecution of believers begins, hasten to leave with the first stream of those leaving for exile, cling to the wheels of the trains, but do not stay. Those who leave first will be saved.”
"You will see everything with your own eyes, your generation will meet the coming of the Antichrist."
Schema-Archimandrite Christopher.
“Lately, you won’t live alone... They will run away from the monasteries!
The devil will take possession of the monasteries ... and it's good if someone has a house left, his own corner where to run! And those who have nowhere to run will die under the fence.”
“Buy, he said, - a house with a land. Relatives do not disperse, but unite, buy together. Buy houses in the village, even a dugout. God's blessing is on it. Buy and immediately dig a well so that you have your own water, and immediately plant a willow (on the north side), because there is always water under the willow.
"Recently, buy houses, gather in communities so that you do not live in a house one by one, but 7-10 people and pray. Roll dried prosphora and baptismal water hermetically in jars. And when there is a mixing of faiths, then we will pray at home, eat prosphora and baptismal water. And then the Lord himself will give us communion. He blessed the communities so that the priest with the antimension would commune in them. Pray, read the Gospel, the Psalter, and pray to the Lord that you do not depart from the Orthodox faith."
"And when there is a mixture of faiths, then we will pray at home, eat prosphora and baptismal water. And then the Lord himself will give us communion. He blessed the communities so that a priest with an antimension would commune in them."
Schema-nun Macarius.
“There will be a big uprising. From the floors (from the cities) people will scatter, they will not sit in the rooms. You can’t sit in the rooms, nothing will become, not even bread. And if you pray to the Savior, the Mother of God and Elijah the Prophet, they will not let you die of hunger, they will save those who believed God and prayed sincerely.
The crop failure will begin when the monks will be exiled.
Whoever is God will not see the Antichrist. It will be open to many where to go, where to go. The Lord knows how to hide his own, no one will find.
Matuka Alipiya Kyiv
“The war will begin against the apostles Peter and Paul. You will lie: there is an arm, there is a leg. This will happen when the corpse is taken out.
States will differ in terms of money. This will not be a war, but the execution of peoples for their rotten state. Dead bodies will lie in mountains, no one will undertake to bury them. Mountains, hills will disintegrate, will be razed to the ground. People will run from place to place. There will be many bloodless martyrs who will suffer for the Orthodox Faith.”
Elder Evdokia from the village of Chudinovo.
“And you will live to the point that all of you believers will be sent to the North, you will pray and feed on fish, and whoever they don’t send, stock up on kerosene and lamps, for there will be no light.
Gather three or four families in one house and live together, it is impossible to survive alone. You get a piece of bread, climb into the cellar and eat. If you don’t climb in, they’ll take it away, otherwise they’ll kill you for this piece.”
Elder Anthony
“But God is stronger than the enemy and will never leave His servants. And true monasteries will remain until the end of time, only deserted and solitary places will be chosen for this.
“It is soul-saving for the laity, of course, to cling to an Orthodox community with a zealous pastor, but this is almost impossible. Although, at least, every effort must be made to find a serving shepherd who has not bowed in order to have the opportunity of Communion ... If the Lord deigns to live in such community, it is advisable to approach the Holy Gifts every day, as the first Christians did in the era of Roman persecution. This will strengthen and prepare for the possible acceptance of the martyr's crown. "
Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.
“Many of the saints that are found then, at the coming of the defiled, will shed tears in rivers to the Holy God in order to get rid of the serpent, will flee with great haste into the desert, and with fear will hide in mountains and caves, and will sprinkle earth and ashes on their heads, praying in great humility day and night, and this will be granted to them from the Holy God, His grace will lead them to the places determined for this, and they will be saved, hiding in the abysses and caves, not seeing the signs and fears of the Antichrist; the coming of the Antichrist will be made known without difficulty, but whoever has a mind for worldly affairs and loves earthly things will not be clear to him, for he who is always attached to worldly affairs, although he hears, will not believe and abhor those who speak. because they have abandoned all concern for this life."
Modern Prophecy of the King
"The Tsar showed that it is necessary to go to remote deserts, monasteries, hard-to-reach places, where to gather in communities and be saved together. This is the path of all Orthodox - like the Apostle Peter, without hesitation to follow the Savior, not being afraid of dangers. Everyone must walk on the water with his cross and help each other.
Forgive me Lord and enlighten me for the sake of salvation.
With GOD and with each other.
To the question: “So, where is it more convenient to save yourself?”, Fr. Anthony answered: "And where the Lord will show." (Father Anthony in the book: A. Krasnov / 2 /, p. 65).
“No one needs to move from their places: where you live, stay there (to the villagers).” (Elder Vladislav (Shumov) / 44 /)
Kids ClothesFrom the dream of nun Paraskeva (Kiselyova): “I am walking in the middle, accidentally turn back and see: a Woman is coming behind us, all dressed in blue, unusually beautiful ... This Woman is catching up with us, takes my hand and puts me from the middle on the right side, and She herself takes my place, follows us and asks:
Come on, come on, what are you talking about so loudly, tell me? I answer:
Forgive us, let's go and discuss what the priests told us: a terrible, difficult time is coming, confusion, persecution will begin, believers will be persecuted, and we will need to leave somewhere.
And she says:
No, you haven't been told everything yet. Listen to what I'm going to tell you. When all this happens - and this will all happen - then you will not go anywhere, but everyone will be in their places. There will be a time when only God will figure it out. It will be World War. Don’t go anywhere, be all in your places where you are caught, and stay there ...
And I say:
But what about, they said that we must leave with the first echelon ... When will it be?
No, - he answers, - listen to what I tell you. Then we will inform you.
It was in the spring of 1991 ... I told this dream to the priest / Schema-Archimandrite Christopher / and he confirmed that this dream was from God. He even said:
Zoya, it wasn't a dream. It was a vision. It was, of course, the Mother of God ”(Book: Schema-Archimandrite Christopher / 20 /, p. 355).
“But those, says the Evangelist John and the Holy Fathers, those who do not accept the seal, they will not be able to track down, they will not be able to find” (St. Paisius the Holy Mountaineer “On the Signs of the Times” / 18 /, p. 34-35).
“The Lord “and at the very time of the Antichrist will lead His servants and prepare for them places and means of salvation, as is testified in the Apocalypse ...” (St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov (+ 1867) in the book: A. Krasnov / 2 /, p. 271).
“Many came to mother / schema nun Nile / for the blessing to go to the monastery. It happened that she sent the young to different monasteries, and she usually said to middle-aged and elderly people:
Save yourself in the world.
Once mother was asked whether it is necessary to go to monasteries in our difficult time, is it not more reliable for salvation?
No no. The Lord said: "Be saved in the world!" Now the world is safer salvation. Matushka said that in monasteries people are saved mainly by prayer and deeds, in the world - mainly by almsgiving.
We have nothing of our own, only sins, - mother repeated, constantly reminding us that we are wanderers on earth, and we don’t need to save anything, but to save ourselves by distributing. (Scheme nun Nila / 23 /, Biography, p. 195).
« This is how Sodom and Gomorrah died for debauchery, this is how the Lord will burn us with fire, this world will burn. Such large cities as Moscow, St. Petersburg will perish, and he blessed everything to leave the cities for the countryside ”(Book: Schema-Archimandrite Christopher / 20 /, p. 327).
“It is the cities that will be under the special gaze of the dark forces, it is there that it is easier to bring people to their knees. Do not bring bread, in a day they will agree to put the number of the Antichrist anywhere. But even before him, before his coming, the inhabitants of the cities will most of all experience the hardships of the turmoil that must occur. And it will be much easier to read them than by villages, especially distant, lost ones. There will be demons flying and prompting - but there will not be enough time to gather everyone, and the Lord will give His help to those who are zealous for salvation ”(Fr. Anthony in the book: A. Krasnov / 2 /, pp. 171-172).
"Father / Schema-Archimandrite Christopher / very negative attitude towards apartments.
Buy, - he said, - a house with a land. Relatives, do not leave, but unite, buy together ”(Book: Schema-Archimandrite Christopher / 20 /, p. 371).
“Batiushka said that there would be famine, people would swell and fall, there would be no water and electricity, there would be no one to bury. He blessed to acquire houses with a land plot, dig wells and plant willow on the north side, because this tree will draw moisture from the ground and it will be possible to collect water drop by drop. These drops are the tears of the Mother of God. In those days, it will be possible to save oneself only in one’s own homes ”(Book: Schema-Archimandrite Christopher / 20 /, p. 483).
/Mother Alipia/:“And the hut, look, do not sell, it is not known what will happen to people.” She did not allow anyone to sell houses in the village (“In the pasture of the Mother of God” / 15 /, p. 78).
“The time will come, people will leave for the mountains. But don’t go alone… Go to the forests and mountains in small groups.” (/26/ “Orthodox Elders on the End Times. Archimandrite Gabriel (Urgebadze)” 3rm.info /49/). “For Christians, the greatest torment will be that they themselves will go into the forests, and their loved ones will receive the seal of the Antichrist.” (Archimandrite Gabriel (Urgebadze) /1/).
“Therefore, having accustomed yourself now to a simple, moderate life, it will be possible to survive those years / 3.5 years of the reign of the Antichrist - approx. comp./. Having a little land, cultivating a little wheat, potatoes, planting a few olive trees, and then, keeping some cattle, a goat, a few hens, [a Christian] will be able to feed his family. Because there is also little benefit from stocks: products do not lie for a long time, they quickly deteriorate. But, of course, these oppressions will not last long: three, three and a half years. For the sake of the chosen ones, the days will be shortened, they will not even notice how these years will pass. God will not leave a person without help (St. Paisius the Holy Mountaineer “On the Signs of the Times” / 18 /, p. 15).
“Yes, it will be easier to save yourself in villages. And this is simply explained - the haste of the devil will affect. The same can be said about our Polissya /Ukrainian/ yes Belarusian. But it is not the place that is important, it is important to renounce everything that connects a person with the satanic essence of our states, with the whole way of life of a person, which is aimed at dependence on a certain “center”. (Father Anthony in the book: A. Krasnov / 2 /, p. 140).
“A person will not be able to live in two places, for example, in a house and in an apartment, since all movement of people will be strictly limited, especially for people who have not accepted the mark of the Antichrist. ... in recent times it is better to live in a house, this is housing and food nearby. And turning off all the “amenities” is easier to endure in a house than in apartments ”(lad Vyacheslav in the book L. Emelyanova / 7 /, p. 265).
“Slavochka said that we need to go to the ground, because there will be heat, there will be no rain, there will be no water. But those people who will not betray God, the Lord will allow at least some of the vegetables to grow in the garden, on the ground.
Slavochka said: “God will save his own. They will live in small settlements. At first, they will endure hardships and hardships, and then they will live freely, because God will close them, and they will be invisible to these unclean forces. Because the zombified policemen, they will not see either this house, or the person, or where the person has taken refuge ”(Russian Angel. Otrok Vyacheslav. Film 2, part 3 / 24 /, 0:36:00).
Places of salvation: in Russia - the Tver region (the source of water not only for all of Russia, but also for many parts of Europe). In Ukraine - Polissya, closed to people by the poison of Chernobyl. It is also a source of water. “Punishing us for relying on a proud mind, our Heavenly Father, however, preserves for us the desert with springs of water, for the aridity of the last time, the thirst of people – it will not only be spiritual. There will also be ordinary carnal, human thirst” (Fr. Anthony in the book: A. Krasnov / 2 /, p. 144).
“... people will run, seeking not spiritual salvation, but a refuge for the flesh, but they will not find it” (Fr. Anthony in the book: A. Krasnov / 2 /, p. 146).
“Why does the earth begin to crack and tremble? From the terrible sins of man, she will shudder more than once. Therefore, you should yourself monitor the purity of life and choose a place of residence where there is less sin. Even if not because of the righteousness of the inhabitants, but because of their small number. Those. a village or a small town without a satanic invention - high-rise buildings, say, a remote one-story regional center. This is one. The second is the sources of water. It is best if the place of residence is located at the outflow of numerous waters ”(Fr. Anthony in the book: A. Krasnov / 2 /, p. 168).
“Change the high-rise building to a house in the suburbs with a good piece of land. Give up the pursuit of fashion for everything - for clothes, for the decoration of an apartment, for a car, for everything ”(Fr. Anthony in the book: A. Krasnov / 2 /, p. 173).
Acquire land, it will save you from hunger. It is better to live near the earth, i.e. in the village for everything. Independence from the authorities is very important. And in the city everyone will be accepted when they say: “Otherwise, we will turn off the heating, lighting, gas, sewerage, telephone” (Radiant Father (about Abbot Guria) / 8 /, p. 82-83).
“About the apartments, father / Schema-Archimandrite Christopher / he said that these were living coffins, that they would almost rot alive in them, and since the 70s he blessed to acquire houses with a land, because there would be hunger and the land would then feed ”(Book: Schema-Archimandrite Christopher / 20 /, p. 76 ).
“Schiarchimandrite Christopher said /:
You will return "braid to braid" - as the blessed Matronushka said.
How, father? - I did not understand.
But remember, - he explained, - plow on plow. Read Matronushka, to manual labor you will all return” (Book: Schema-archimandrite Christopher /20/, p. 288).
Recently, buy houses, gather in communities so that you do not live in a house by one person, but by 7-10 people and pray. Roll up dried prosphora and Epiphany water hermetically in jars. And when there is a mixture of faiths, then we will pray at home, eat prosphora and baptismal water. And then the Lord himself will commune us. He blessed the communities so that a priest with an antimension would commune in them. Pray, read the Gospel, the Psalter, and pray to the Lord not to depart from the Orthodox faith. (/12/ “Salt of the Earth” (Film 2), Schiarchim. Christopher, 2:14).
For a long time, the priest blessed to buy houses with a land, saying that the land would feed. There will be a terrible famine, in the cities people will die of hunger in their apartments, corpses will roll around the apartments. There will be no water, no electricity, no gas. But if there is a house with a land, then the Lord will feed them. Try to leave big cities. Buy, at least a dugout, and immediately dig a well so that you have some water. Plant willow. The time will come when there will be a terrible heat, everything will dry up: all rivers, lakes. And the ice in the north will melt. And the mountains will fall from their places. There will be no water. And whoever planted a willow, under it there will always be a wet earth. Then you will pray to the Lord, take a sliver of earth, roll it into a coil, cross yourself and swallow this piece of land. Here you will have bread and water. (/12/ "Salt of the Earth" (Film 2), Schiarchim. Christopher, 2:07).
“Father, many years before that, he blessed us all with a house with a land plot, for many years, probably from the late seventies or early eighties (years), so that they tried to leave big cities, and you need to try to live in communities, and it would be nice that with a priest. So he said:
Buy houses in the village, ... at least a dugout. God's blessing is on it. Buy and immediately dig a well so that you have your own water, and immediately plant a willow, because there is always water under the willow, the Lord will never remove water under the willow. If the sun bakes during the day, and we dig up roots under the willow at night, the earth will be damp there, and we will prayerfully take this land, roll it up and swallow it, we will eat roots, herbs, and we need to collect a leaf of linden. Here you will have bread and water. The Lord will feed by a miracle, by a miracle. Then the Lord will give crowns to the living, whoever does not betray God, whoever follows Him...
Even if it's overwhelmed! Hold the hut! The earth is the mother-nurse. There will be a terrible famine, the corpses will be lying around, and you will have your own land, it will feed you. And do not be lazy, do not be lazy, the Lord loves work ... And in the city ... what a passion there will be! The light will be turned off, the gas will be turned off, the water will be turned off ... there will be nothing, and people will almost rot alive in apartments ”(Book: Schema-Archimandrite Christopher / 20 /, p. 334-335).
“The European North is attractive, but without knowledge of it and the necessary skills, you will not survive. The Old Believers hid in the northern European thickets, as well as in the Siberian ones, but they fled there in hundreds. And together it is always easier to settle in a new place. In addition, people of that time were more natural, more able, less demanding of life, were stronger and healthier. Therefore, it’s better not to look in that direction, there are also enough deserted places to the south for convenient hiding from the servants of the Antichrist ”(Fr. Anthony in the book: A. Krasnov / 2 /, p. 191).
"In places of expiration clean waters there will be an opportunity to quench your thirst and grow some edible greens, and even the Lord will give bread, even if you indulge in a cracker on a holiday. With luck, a fish may end up in a stream, and berries and mushrooms in the forest. You can’t count on pickles, but you can somehow stretch it. And persecution in the wilds of the forest will be much weaker, the main thing is not to succumb to despondency and fear, cast by demons. Also now, preparing for everything with hope in the Lord, one cannot direct all thoughts to the horrors of the future, one must think about acquiring the grace of God ”(Fr. Anthony in the book: A. Krasnov / 2 /, p. 190).
"Elder / Schema-Archimandrite Isaiah / blessed everyone (worldly, of course, people) to have, if possible, a hut, a piece of land, a garden and, to the best of their ability, try to feed themselves, their families, loved ones with their labor and be independent from state power Antichrist, if such a thing happens. (Schiarchimandrite Isaiah (Korovai) /27/, p.165).
“But don’t leave Ukraine, my soul. Even for the last times, God gave here a reserved corner where you can hide. How blessed is her land of Polissya, than only the Lord did not fulfill it. What else do you want?” (Father Anthony in the book: A. Krasnov / 2 /, p. 305).
“It is soul-saving for the laity, of course, to cling to the Orthodox community with a zealous pastor, but this is almost impossible. Although, at least, it is necessary to make every effort to find a serving shepherd who has not bowed, in order to have the opportunity of Communion ... If the Lord deigns to live in such a community, then it is advisable to start the Holy Gifts every day, as the first Christians did in the era of Roman persecution . This will strengthen and prepare for the possible acceptance of a martyr’s crown” (Fr. Anthony in the book: A. Krasnov /2/, pp. 178-179).
From a conversation with an Orthodox priest Father V. (spring 2013 /37/):
- Now that the law "On the EGDR" has come into force, many Orthodox have begun to look for an opportunity to buy houses in the village. It turns out that it is no longer possible to buy a house?
It is not bad if you are in a village than in an apartment. On the ground it will be easier. Until the last minute it will be easier to fight. There you will buy a goat for yourself and then you will feed yourself on grass and goat's milk, and until the last minute, the Orthodox will live. So it's better - on the ground.
- Until when can you still buy a house? When is it no longer possible?
Let's look at the state administrations, how the state will behave. It will be noticeable.
- While you can still buy?
You can still.
- While the transaction is made through a notary and while the data on it is entered into the State Register of Property Rights to Real Estate?
Through a notary.
- The elders spoke about the need to be saved near the spiritual father. And, in fact, there are very few such priests who stand dead for Christ, as they say, when the shepherd explains to the flock that one cannot take these numbers - “the name of the beast” (TIN and UNZR).
And what should people do when it is impossible to find a spiritual father - just buy in any village where this house is possible?
Yes, because the Orthodox themselves will gather in communities. There will be fifty of them in that village, there will be a hundred.
- That is, the Lord himself ...
He will manage and lead.
- That is, there will be no random purchase, and a person will buy exactly there, if he is firmly for Christ, where will the Lord lead him and other people?
Where will the community be? True, yes.
-Father, how can the Orthodox who live in the city save themselves, who have no spiritual father, no house in the village, but who refuse to accept a “unique registry entry number” (UNZR)?
It's already a struggle of loneliness. Then the person himself needs to have willpower in order not to accept and be saved, any grandmother ... Do not accept, fight and that's it.
- According to your circumstances?
According to their own personal circumstances /37/.
___________________________________________________________________
tells us the following: after the death of Abel, who was killed by his elder brother Cain, Cain was cursed by God and expelled. His life was full of fear and wandering, and after Cain's son Enoch was born, he founded the first city. Probably, the first city was a kind of fortification in which his family was gathered, and to which others subsequently joined. That is, the first city, which at that time, probably, could be considered a metropolis, was founded by a fratricide. What prompted Cain to create the city? Fear. And fear is always born of distrust of God. Because of distrust, a person has a desire to fence himself off from problems on his own.
If we turn to the New Testament, then in the second epistle to the Corinthians (chapter 11, article 26) we can see that the apostle Paul, listing the dangers in which he has been, also names the dangers of the city. From this we can conclude that the city for him was not the place where you can quietly exist, but the place where he had to carry his cross.
We also see that the great ascetics of piety first flee from cities or large settlements, and then the settlements and cities flee to them. The clearest example of this is the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, around which the city of Sergiev Posad was formed. Another example is the monasteries created on the places of asceticism of the Egyptian hermits, or the Seraphim-Diveevsky monastery, once formed for girls and widowed women, which later became a city-forming place.
To the village, to the wilderness?
- If we are already talking about the flight of ascetics from the cities, then how justified are the expectations of ordinary Orthodox people who sometimes leave their city life and move, for example, near Optina, rent out their Moscow apartment and live near the monastery?
- AT this case the dispensation of a person, his spiritual life, is of great importance. It is necessary to consider how such a move will affect the spiritual growth of a person. If it's a strange flight, like running away from fear, then it's not right. Each such situation should be considered separately, but in general I can say that none of them is likely to lose. Of course, I do not mean material wealth. In this regard, there may be considerable losses, deprivation of work and a good salary, but they will gain something else.
Having traveled around Russia and observing life in destroyed villages that used to have collective farms or industrial enterprises, I noticed that a person who previously worked on a collective farm is very different from a person who worked, say, at a factory. Workers from disintegrated industrial enterprises are distinguished by internal anger, some kind of bad gleam in their eyes, and even the organization of their village.
Villages in which there were collective farms continue to live. People have the experience of life on earth, the experience of growing crops. For those who worked on the assembly line, where a person was not a person, but was like a robot, mechanically tightening the nuts or adding sand to the furnace, people drink stronger and the destruction of the village is faster for them.
But we must return to the metropolis and say that in the metropolis a person nevertheless dissolves, we really become disunited. We are oversaturated with communication to the point that we do not even want to know our neighbors in the stairwell. If a person does not have a skill in communication, it is difficult for him, it greatly depresses him. But even if a person has a communication skill, he also has a hard time. He lives in a crowded house in a cage apartment with a talking box, he rarely gets to be alone. Going out into the street, he mainly sees the creation of human hands, and to a lesser extent, the creation of God's hands, which also does not improve the quality of life.
We are not talking now about people who stand firmly on spiritual feet in the Orthodox faith. Even in the metropolis they find an application for their strength in works of mercy and other deeds of good deeds. The Orthodox in the city, especially in large cities, always have the opportunity to pray in numerous churches. Cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg are cities with many spiritual Orthodox traditions, a lot of caring priests with whom you can talk. But for those who, let's say, are far from the spiritual life, the metropolis is a corrupting beginning, the beginning that, in general, separates a person.
A city dweller sees many temptations around him: expensive cars, boutique windows, lights of restaurants and chic offices. A person sees that everyone in the metropolis seeks to saturate his ego as much as possible. By itself, the metropolis does not bring anything good to a person's life, on the contrary, it creates a beneficial environment for irritation, eternal dissatisfaction with other people.
We will not find in the countryside the rudeness that we encounter in the city. We must pay tribute to the fact that the city has the opportunity to receive good education, intellectual development, which is not in the village. But man does not live by this alone. Man lives by the Spirit of God, and the Spirit lives where he wants. He is in the village and in the forest and in the metropolis, but it seems to me that it is easier for a person to perceive Him where the struggle for his soul, wallet or just physical presence is not so acute, and where a person is more left to himself.
What should city dwellers do?
- I think that one should not always be satisfied with oneself and always look for something, always strive for something, always learn something. If a person is sincere in these quests, the Lord will always guide him along the right path.
Do's and don'ts for dealing with stress
- It is known that city life is a life in stress. Is it possible to avoid stress at all? Does the Church say anything about this?
- An interesting example is described by the psychologist Avdeev. An eight-year-old boy was brought to him with bruises under his eyes, who had not slept for several nights, was nervous, torn. During the conversation, it turned out that in addition to school classes, he attends two language clubs, three sports clubs, a photography and embroidery club. The boy never goes out just to take a walk on the street, and at home, aimless pastime is not considered acceptable. It would seem that he is busy with positive things, but he does not have a single moment in which he could just think, look into his heart, dream.
The stress of an adult develops in much the same way. There are many factors fighting for our soul that are trying to win you over to their side, and a rash reaction to this gives rise to nervous tension.
You say it's a rash reaction. Does this mean that we should put all the stressful phenomena on the shelves and think over how to relate to each of them?
- First of all, faced with something, you just need to pray. Naturally, your prayer will immediately be heard by God, and you will be answered. Perhaps it will simply become obvious what to do in this situation. Vanity does not give a person the opportunity to leave everything in the hands of God, he decides everything on his own, and on our own we can solve almost nothing. If we decide, then these decisions are, let's say, wrong. Remember how Seraphim of Sarov says: “When I speak the will of God from God, I am not mistaken; when I speak from myself, I am mistaken, and often I am mistaken.”
- Is TV acceptable to some extent as a remedy for stress?
For most people, television is an integral part of life. How to treat him? If you choose such, for example, wonderful channels as Soyuz or ZooTV, this is acceptable. If you're killing time with TV to fill the gap between dinner and bedtime, then that's grief for you. You're addicted to it like a drug.
There is a wonderful story that is now often told. During Great Lent, a grandmother comes to the priest and asks: “Father, I can’t fast, I’m weak, old, I definitely need milk and sausage. Bless." Father says: “Of course, mother, eat more, you need to maintain strength. Let’s just give up TV completely for the duration of Lent, you won’t watch your favorite TV shows.” With a blessing, the grandmother walked away, but soon came back and said: “No, I’d rather fast, but I won’t refuse TV shows and TV.”
Sometimes they say: “But you need to watch the news, otherwise we will fall behind life?” You will not lag behind life, nothing will happen to you. Rather, it will happen - you will be calmer, you will have less stress.
TV is not a salvation from stress, but its aggravation. When we turn on the TV, what do we see? The most primitive information in journalism. The correspondent stands against the background of a destroyed school, a fallen burning liner or a militant operation, grinds all sorts of nonsense and everyone is interested, because there is an adrenaline rush.
- Can you watch a movie: a melodrama or a detective story?
“We have an absolutely wonderful collection of cartoons that the whole family can watch. Some films can also be watched, there are films that are instructive for the younger generation, for example, about the war. In fact, “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial” (1 Cor. 6:12). And in order to figure out what is useful for me, I need to have a mind, a conscience, a heart that loves God and the fear of God.
- What else is acceptable to relieve stress for an Orthodox person?
- Reading soothes the soul very well Holy Scripture. The surrounding nature also relieves stress when you go out and admire the creation of God.
Once, one of the Optina elders, I don’t remember exactly who, it seems, Ambrose of Optina, blessed his spiritual child to go into the forest right before the start of Easter matins. The child, in confusion and stress, says that all his life he met Easter in the temple with the people. But nevertheless he trudged into the forest, from there he already heard how the bells rang and the brothers sang “Christ is Risen”, and he was all alone, when suddenly he began to hear: either there the bird would sing, glorifying God, then here, and acquired such a bright the grace-filled consolation that, having returned to his father, he fell at his feet, kissed him and thanked him for the joy that on this Paschal day he experienced for the first time since his birth.
Speaking about what can not relieve stress, it must be noted that stress cannot be relieved with a glass.
“Not even one glass or one can of beer?” After all, both Christ and the apostles drank wine.
“They didn’t relieve stress when they drank wine, because they were already in joy. The fact is that when a person drinks to relieve stress, he gets used to it. If wine is drunk in joy, for the sake of a festive event in the company, addiction does not occur. When there is a stressful situation, then a person knows that he will drink a glass and everything will calm down.
There is a wonderful story on this topic at. He writes that when his mother died, his grief knew no bounds, and in his grief he began to console himself with wine. He will come home after the service, pour himself a glass of wine, drink, it seems to be getting better, and so it went on increasing. And on the next parental Saturday, one of the parishioners had a dream that all the deceased relatives were leaving the church with shopping bags, carrying something to their homes. She sees that mother is also walking with a net, and there are empty bottles in her, she picks it up and says: “Look, mother, how my father remembers me, this is how he prays for me there,” and all in tears she left. The parishioner told this to the priest, the future Bishop Vasily Rodzianko, and this dream struck him so much that he stopped taking grief with a glass.
Thank God that his mother loved him so much that even after her death she took care of him and baked so much. The fact is that when you relieve stress with alcohol, you always have to increase the dose to achieve the effect. From a bottle to one and a half bottles, from one and a half to two, from two to three, and so on, then a beer belly is formed, and so on. Or from a glass to a bottle, and after a few years a person's face acquires the color of wine. Stress, irritation can be removed not with a “wedge”, that is, with a new sin, but only by returning to the bosom of the Father. For someone it will be a prayer, for someone it will be the reading of the Holy Scriptures, for someone it will be a good deed, for someone it will be contemplation of nature.
- And playing solitaire, is this also not our method?
“I don’t think that real peace can be achieved in this way, it’s just that the problems will move away for the duration of the solitaire, you will forget, but then they will return in full.
Also, in an attempt to relieve stress, you can not do anything out of spite. If your stress arose as a result of communicating with another person, you can’t do something to that person out of spite. If you find out that your husband is cheating on you, you can’t change him out of spite either. That is, the principle of "knocking out a wedge with a wedge" is valid only when chopping firewood.
Does the modern church take into account the presence of stress in the life of a city dweller, setting the measure of fasting, prayer, and other aspects of church discipline?
– The Church is inseparable from society, from the time in which She lives, but the Church does not change Herself to suit people, but tries to change people to suit Her. However, in the process of this change, the law of economy, that is, indulgence and indulgence, operates. The most striking example of economy is not excommunicating a penitent from communion for certain sins for many years, as established by church canons. modern church tries to console his child, to introduce him into the church community, if he imposes penance, then not so strict.
Nowadays, too, have been reduced. If we take the Typicon liturgical charter, according to which we live, we will see that a week of fasting has been established in preparation for communion. In fact, in our time, the Church allows a three-day fast.
However, there are unacceptable phenomena that cannot be justified by any stress: anger, anger, resentment, lies, violation of commandments. The church has always struggled with this in man, and will continue to struggle.
Saint in the metropolis
— Vanity is especially characteristic of city life, what should be done in order not to forget about God in this bustle?
“You have to be able to say no, no matter how painful it is for you and for those around you. We must count our strength. If one request is superimposed on another that you have already promised to fulfill, you must be able to say no, not promise, and then run around with your tongue hanging out in order to end up doing everything badly. It is better to refuse the person at once. Maybe come back to this request at another time. We need to be more precise about our strengths.
We can remember that the Lord chose only 12 disciples and taught the main teaching to 12. He did not take 120 people, He took only 12 and was able to give them as much time as was necessary for them to comprehend what the Lord asks of a person. Then these 12 people also chose a certain number of students for themselves and eventually taught many nations.
- What can you say about such an urban disease as in the crowd?
- - this is beautifully said, but it is really very a big problem. It arises from the fact that a person serves his ego. He forgets that the one who is standing next to him in the crowd is walking in the crowd or the poor is lying in the crowd - the image and likeness of God. No one cares about this image and likeness of God, who runs about his business. Everyone can bite another person if he shows weakness, and having bitten and received an answer, he will not even be offended very often, because this has already entered ordinary life. The product of the metropolis is the terrible disunity of people. We live with the feeling that if we step on a person's foot, we will never see him again.
- How do you imagine the lifestyle of an ideal, holy person in a metropolis? Or maybe even you have no idea, but actually met such people in your life?
“I grew up among the saints. I can tell they are my parents. Mom is already dead, father is alive. I consider my confessor, Vasily Vladyshevsky, who has already died, as well as Father Alexei Grachev, who has died, to be holy. I think these are the modern saints of the metropolis.
And a description of the way of life of a holy man in a metropolis is in his life. This equal-angelic person, in order to acquire even greater perfection, began to ask the Lord for admonition, and the Lord sent an angel to him, who said: “Great you are before God, but there are two sisters in Alexandria who have succeeded more than you in this field.”
Then Anthony goes to Alexandria and finds there two Christian sisters who live with pagan husbands. He falls at their feet and asks them to teach him the spiritual life. The women, naturally, were frightened and wondered what kind of spiritual life he was asking them about. However, they said that they wanted to go into the desert, but their husbands did not let them go, and that in all the years of their lives they never quarreled or quarreled, but always lived in peace.
- This is of course a wonderful story, but would you like to hear about, some of their special features or actions in the atmosphere of the hustle and bustle of a big city?
- The difference of a saint is love for God, which is expressed, as Anthony of Surozhsky said, on a person's face. Love is an inner feeling that expresses itself outwardly with joy and gratitude. And the second feature is the justification of all.
- Excuse everyone. Handsomely. Just everyone? But some will still go to hell. That is, even God cannot justify them.
“If I have hope for salvation, then I understand that if I enter the Kingdom of Heaven, then I will be the last one. If I think that there is someone worse than me, then this is pride, this is condemnation, and I no longer fall into the category that can come into contact with God.
Speaking about the example of holiness, I recall a fairly common case, which is even recorded in classical literature. During the war, two boys with pneumonia were admitted to a hospital. At the same time, only one dose of penicillin was brought, and the doctor decided to cure one child. He cured him, and the second child died, he was buried, and then it turned out that the second child was the child of this very doctor.
— Terrible case.
- Yes, a terrible case, but in our time, sometimes you have to make a choice.
Often they fall into the category of people who show holy patience and justification of others. I know about it from personal experience. Mother often has to stay alone, the father can leave at 6 o'clock in the morning for service, stay in the evening for confession, arrive at 12 at night, and all this is past the family, mother is one poor. Moreover, the families of priests are mostly large, and mother will not reproach or make a scandal for late parishes.
How can a Christian fulfill himself in big city, i.e. what charitable deeds are specific to the city?
- Anything specific to loving heart specific for the city: build hospitals, take care of the homeless, transfer old women across the road. The latter is a purely urban good deed.
- It's funny somehow to translate old women across the road.
Yes, this is a dangerous business. Either in one place a person will be shot down, then in another. In addition, in old age there is a heightened sense of self-preservation, fear. Why not help a person with this fear, especially since old people not only walk slowly, they also see poorly.
Feeding the dog is also a good thing.
- City life hides the opportunity to avoid unpleasant interpersonal contacts, can instead of the reconciliation that Christ requires of us, just not to intersect with this person, who is very “luckily” miles away from us? There is no such possibility in the village, because everyone is in sight of each other.
“Let not the sun go down in your anger,” says the psalmist David. That is, before the day ends, you must try to reconcile with everyone. Moreover, scientific and technological progress gives us all sorts of opportunities, be it phone, e-mail, skype or other means of communication. I think it is wrong not to take advantage of the possibility of reconciliation with your neighbor when you have been provided with all the means for this. Everything will work for you so that you reconcile, the Lord will push you nose to nose, just have courage. What difference does it make in the city or in the countryside, have courage. It is necessary to look for means to become a saint, and holiness without justification, without forgiveness is impossible.
I have a very good friend who has recently become interested in the idea of moving to the countryside. This is not my topic. I'm not going anywhere. But still, I think that many people have something to say on this topic. The girl is waiting for feedback on her thoughts ...Today I want to raise a popular topic, especially in the midst of a crisis. This topic includes the words: downshifting, escape from the city to the village, eco-settlements, family estates, autonomous economy.. Raise topics such as the extinction of Russian villages, the Russian people and traditions
When you live in Moscow, the idea of life is somewhat distorted. The fact is that the best minds and the richest people come to Moscow. Only from my graduation, from my rural school, 10 people entered Moscow, and a lot of them went to other cities. The same in others. Did it benefit everyone? Someone crashed in a car, someone became a fornicator, someone began to use alcohol and drugs ... Even my university, it seems, is well-known and respected. How common are drugs, promiscuity, dependence on "shooters", drinking! It is not uncommon for couples to have intercourse in front of their neighbors. When it happens in the same room, but at least at night - still nothing. Quite chaste - if a neighbor is asked to go for a walk for an hour. Every year there are suicides and murders. Homosexuality, abortion and civil marriages(cohabitation).
Would it be much worse if they did not go to be educated, but would be engaged in simple labor in front of their parents? From the point of view of Orthodoxy - I think not. Because they started doing all this right there, and not at home. At home, they were exemplary "nerds".
But until now, since Soviet times, there is a strong opinion that you need to run away from the village, take your feet to a better life, to major cities. And there - settle down tightly, cling to material wealth with all your might ..
The more people leave their cities, the worse the province lives, the less smart people there are who can change something and whose soul hurts for what is happening.
So the Russian villages would die out + Who wants to go back there? Only losers? But last years the flow of people from the city to the village is gaining momentum. This phenomenon was not covered in the church media, the issue was not raised. How will the Church react to it? Will he call them sectarians, or will he remember the biblical phrases about not serving the world and wealth and earning bread in the sweat of his face?
Here is one of the most famous "shelters" from the city:
http://www.survival-ru.org/node/88
unrelated to Anastasia. His doctrine is also very popular.
What unites us, Orthodox Christians, is faith in God and dogma Orthodox Church, attending the temple and striving for a moral evangelical lifestyle, participation in the sacraments. But in life we can be different: someone is a worker, someone is a scientist, someone is an artist. This is about standard professions. But there are not ordinary people(for example, bikers), whose lifestyle does not contradict Orthodoxy, but often causes a lot of criticism from "ordinary" people.
I also wanted to talk about the Anastasian subculture. Maybe you will say that this is a sect, but I understood the issue and I will say that everything is not so simple. In recent years, a layer of people has formed who do not want to live in the city, they are attracted to nature, to a simple way of life, freedom from the modern way of life. Agree that in itself this aspiration to Orthodoxy does not contradict, but even vice versa. This is labor, and the rejection of consumerism, and non-acquisitiveness. These people vaguely suspected their desire, but, as usual, could not articulate it. And then they come across Maigret's books. They read this idea there and felt its correctness. And at the same time they ate everything else. That is, as bait. But the bait is edible. In addition, together with like-minded people it is easier to implement your idea. This is how settlements appeared. Moreover, the majority of the population of Russia already believes in any kind of dregs such as energy and is prone to paganism. In this regard, there is nothing surprising that it was perceived
and Maigret's ideology.
But it's not really a sect. There are such positive points that make the mission among them possible:
- abstinence. Most of them are vegetarians, many eat only plant foods, mostly raw. and feel good.
- marriage. They live with the same woman, sex for fun is also considered not very good (i.e. for conceiving children)
- labor. They build a house with their own hands, grow food.
- Faith in God. Many of them believe in God, but like most Russians, they rarely visit the temple.
- it is not uncommon for them to settle in an abandoned village and restore the ruined temple (not for their services, no).
- they have no centralized control, no mentors - only books.
- they are not obliged to serve any deity, there are no magical rituals. In the charter of many settlements, a clause on freedom of belief is written. These are not religious settlements.
Minuses.
There are so-called "sub-sects" in this movement. These are Rodnovers and Ynglings. They are quite aggressive towards Christianity, openly practice paganism and usually settle in separate closed settlements, putting forward strict requirements for candidates for settlement.
There are a huge number of settlements and developed old villages. by and large, their way of life and way of life is similar to the life of Russians before baptism. There is nothing to prevent conversion.
What is seen as a sign of a sect is not essential to Orthodoxy. For example, we also accept much of what they are. They do nothing illegal, and every house is owned by a person, not by a leader.
Now stumbling blocks for Moscow missionaries.
- Rejection of conventional medicine. This is not entirely true, most of them allow access to the nearest hospital if necessary. Minor diseases are treated with herbs, quite a method. In addition, doctors are often present in the settlements. And refusal of vaccinations is allowed by law.
- dropping out of school. No, they assert the importance of education, but they want to make their own school. Everything is coordinated according to the rules, the children will have a secondary education, otherwise it cannot be. it is required by law.
- leaving the cities. There is absolutely nothing wrong here, because. any person has the right to this, and if not we will restore the village, then who will? Chinese?
So why are people so attracted to the idea of settlements? Because it is an opportunity to live with like-minded people. Many want to live in the countryside, but do not want to live among alcoholics. And here - such an exciting idea - to restore the village together, arrange joint holidays, have many friends. And the religious thoughts embodied in the book are not key here. People go there not because they were zombified, or because Anastasia, to whom they obey, or the leaders of the sect ordered so - no, they just want to live in nature in a circle of like-minded people.
I wanted to convey the idea that it is not necessary to put an end to these people, to accuse them of sectarianism. That's how the rock mission went, but after all, there were Satanists among them.
There is only one obstacle to the mission. A person who has left the city, choosing homeschooling for a child (all this is also permitted by law), refusing to be vaccinated for a city dweller (albeit Orthodox, or not) is already a sectarian. Although he may even be an atheist, even a Muslim. I want to suggest a more tolerant attitude towards everything that is not connected with faith and that does not contradict the commandments. Only then can we convey something to them. Now they will not find themselves in the Church because they will immediately be convicted for their way of life, all paths are closed to them. But we must become Hellenes for Hellenes.
The flow of people from cities to villages is growing, and the Church will lose a lot if it is left without attention, or, even worse, begins to denounce and invite back to the cities. The mission of the Church must also be in the countryside. Have you seen the state of people in the province? And no youth rallies and evangelical circles reach them. Or will we just decide to "let it die" and focus the mission only on major cities?
The fact is that they are very popular now. And what about the Church? They were simply identified as a sect and calmed down. And if someone begins to come forward with reproofs, what kind of reproofs will they be? Most likely, to the ideas of a way of life, culture, and not religion at all, because religion as such is difficult to isolate there. The sermon should be so competent that the very idea of life on the estate is praised, but scolded .. but here a person should be well acquainted with the topic. And then they will say - well, but what will Orthodoxy offer us? we have active work here, settlements for 200 families per hectare each, we are restoring the forest here, but you don’t need a village at all, you yourself ran away from it.
They are not inadequate people. They themselves complained about how reporters called in and asked them to "get out of the forest, holding hands and smiling", "to dance around the fire" - they did not like it all. Reporters "were looking for temples, tambourines, circles on the ground," and books on permaculture went like Megre's books. The media also distorts a lot.
Also look at the main page http://www.anastasia.ru/ - and you will see there, if you scroll a little lower, the Patriarch. Of course, this is done for their own purposes, but at least there is no hatred and accusations, as happens in sects.
http://forum.anastasia.ru/ here is an example forum. There is not a single topic about religion in it (worship of Anastasia, or gods or anyone else). The books do contain a lot of the occult, but the practical teachings did not work out - everyone lives as they want. There is no single religious system or practice, most of the "teachings" in life consist of purely economic things. But it's not that. We can agree that the teaching is occult and some people fell for it. Although there is more paganism. But my main idea is that people were so imbued with this movement, first of all, not for the sake of occultism, but for the sake of the idea of a family estate. This is the main thing that inspires them, everything else is secondary. http://forum.anastasia.ru/forum_10.html see how many there are in Russia. If you go to the main page of the mail ru, "On the way to the family estate" is one of the most popular mailing lists. Especially in a crisis, this movement can take a global turn, and all Orthodox will sit in cities, and in all villages
there are Anastasians (and also gypsies and Chinese). And the Orthodox will only have to denounce them. And those who decided to leave the city cannot be lured back with a roll, I speak for myself. Such preaching would be ineffective and unnecessary, since will lead not to Christ, but to the world.
http://www.anastasia.ru/download/rodvaya_zemlya_spec.pdf - for example, a newspaper. I really liked her. The only thing that is delusional in it is the performance of Maigret himself. The rest of the articles - normal people. The farming method they use - Sepp Holzer - we (our family) also use. Very effective and labor-intensive (no digging, no watering, no weeding, but mulching and loosening), based on experience, and not on any dogmas. In general, besides Megre, there are a dozen more books that are popular, completely non-religious and little known, and we can say that we (our family) have the same views with them in everything, except for the actual books of Megre and religion. Those. the culture is exactly the same. In the newspaper rise very hot topics: about soil fertility and a mini-ecosystem - so there are many books and scientific research that indeed modern agriculture is inefficient. They justifiably choose a different way of farming - and the Orthodox also stigmatize this as
kantism.
Compared to the modern urban lifestyle of pagans, it is much more moral: love for nature, work, a strong family, love for children, love for the Motherland, rejection of bad habits, moderation in food. They don't steal, they don't have abortions, they don't leave their country. These are not even those pagans who staged orgies and made sacrifices. Paganism? Well, what is better than ordinary people - faith in magic, astrology, in the "Higher Mind", UFOs and psychics. From this point of view, they are the most indifferent, not firmly rooted to the TV, who want to change their lives, make it cleaner, more moral.
Here is a quote from the Anastasian forum of a man who left Orthodoxy, but retained faith in God:
“How should I feel about the fact that my people are dying out? Yes, yes, these same drunks in the yard, this stupid youngster with headphones in their ears and rings in their navels, these young idiots, at 30 years old, still going to clubs and cheating beaten and drained by the violence of power, which began under Peter, continued with changes under the tsars, reached its apogee in Soviet times and continues now - sluggishly, without a twinkle, because the raped one almost no longer shows signs of life, but so but mercilessly, deprived of faith, traditions, culture, community, family, and, to top it all, thrown out of the Soviet spiritual prison, in which at least they were fed, into a liberal-market prison, where your death is only your problem.
And slapped on top of the head with a glossy magazine with the headings "Semenovich showed EVERYTHING."
Orthodoxy says nothing about this. To love the people - yes, love. worry. Pray. ON DISTANCE. My spiritual father once, in response to my torment, said fatal words about this: "What kind of Russia? Russia is here, behind the church fence. There, behind the fence - not Russia. Get it out of your head." In the end, I thought and threw it away myself.
The Orthodox may become indignant and begin to prove that this is an accidental mistake, a misunderstanding, but he was absolutely right, even though the rector of a respected Orthodox educational institution. He knew what he was talking about. This is the harsh truth. For Orthodoxy, only the Orthodox are alive. The fact that with such an attitude someday they will be trampled anyway is not a problem, for, it turns out, this is the Providence of God. Whatever happens - such is Providence. Guaranteed correct answer for all occasions."
The pagans have something to reproach us with: forgetting traditions, leaving villages, importing food (this is in such fields), weaning from work, lack of patriotism ... Our people, ordinary, provincial, our Russian land, traditions, are needed now, it turns out , only to pagans and occultists .. How are we better than them, if we want an easy, simple and comfortable life in the city, with everything ready?
I am horrified among the Orthodox by the opinion "why do we need a Motherland, we do not need Russia, it is better to go abroad." If not us, then who?
How to conduct a mission with them?
The difficult question is how specifically with them. Probably the same as with other subcultures. We ourselves have a lot to learn from them. They also have their own music - bard. And I see the following work in general in this direction (movement from the city to the countryside):
1) Articles on this topic (moving from the city to the countryside, a way to save the unemployed from the crisis, non-covetousness),
2) strengthening the sermon on the topic that cultural differences are not as important as life in conscience and with God is important.
3) Ideally, I like the idea of creating an Orthodox settlement as an alternative to the Anastasian movement. They are so popular only because this niche is not occupied, and not because all the followers are so deeply imbued with the occult. What I'm talking about. Those who have little church but do not trust the Anastasians would also go to Orthodox settlements, and this would be a good mission.
The restoration of abandoned villages is truly a Christian life. Not in words, but in deeds. Let's love our people and our Motherland not in words, but in deeds!
I propose to discuss the possibility of organizing an Orthodox movement to restore abandoned villages and parishes in them, Orthodox eco-villages. Maintaining your own garden and chickens is not as difficult as city dwellers think. Our family moved to the village, while we are only repairing the house, but the garden was a success, despite the small labor costs. Restoration of semi-abandoned villages is:
1) solving the housing issue for young families, poor people
2) salvation from hunger for the unemployed, especially during a crisis
3) low cash costs (a house in a semi-abandoned village can be obtained for nothing at all, or for an amount of less than 100 thousand rubles)
4) restoration of churches and parishes
5) Orthodox settlements - an alternative to the Anastasian movement, will allow people to live the way they want, in nature, but without absorbing pagan ideas
6) opposition to the extinction of villages, dying Agriculture, saving villages from alcoholism (it is necessary to simultaneously carry out anti-alcohol activities directly on the ground with the local population, work from afar is ineffective)
7) the opportunity to live a Christian life: in work, in the rejection of wealth, in the contemplation of the nature created by God, there are own products, and not imported from Africa or Spain
8) solving the problems of large families: if a new child in the city means new expenses, then in the village it is easier, because: if there is not enough space, you can make an extension to the house, there is not enough food - plant more vegetables, raise more chickens (it is not necessary to keep cows and pigs); a growing child - working hands; in the countryside you can wear cheaper clothes than in large cities, there are fewer temptations like new toys and mobile phones. The child grows up in labor (of course, feasible), there is no need to think about what to do with him. In order to live normally in the city with many children, you need a very large apartment, and it’s still difficult to keep track - the children are bored in the apartment. They have much more fun in their area.
All the usual arguments "against" in fact turn out to be stereotypes. In the end, we must decide what is more important for us - the good of the city or the Christian life. We have seen from our own experience that it is possible to live comfortably in the countryside, if there is a desire. We can overcome everything!
I also propose to jointly discuss and finalize this text, it is far from perfect .. A man could write better, more rationally, but for now, as it is.
According to statistics, today our country is experiencing a “wave of emigration” comparable in scale to emigration after 1917. According to sociological data, over the past ten years, about 1.25 million citizens have left Russia (that is, the entire population of one medium-sized regional center, for example). If this is true, and if this continues, then Russian Federation with a population of 142 million people, where the death rate exceeds the birth rate, there will be a suicidal demographic famine, because, as a rule, people who emigrate are young, educated, active, seeking, able to join the elites of countries that are more prosperous economically and politically ...
Of course, many are still thinking about whether to leave their native country in order to gain some benefits beyond the border posts. But more - those who have already left and are not going to return. Humanly, new citizens of other states can be understood, but the question still hangs in the air: is it right to leave Russia in moments of crisis, where he was born, grew up, studied, worked, lived? Isn't it a sin to leave the Fatherland?
Alexandra Nikiforova, philologist, journalist, Moscow:
If your conscience is clear and your work is honest, then there is no sin. And the apostles went out to preach in other countries, and the thirteen venerable Syrian fathers labored in Georgia, and the Mother of God, saving the Christ Child, fled from Jerusalem to Egypt.
For various reasons, our compatriots have left and are leaving Russia. Some for a while, some forever. Thousands of Russian people were thrown into a foreign land by the whirlwind of the 1917 revolution. Then there were dissidents, political and economic emigrants. Nowadays, some find an opportunity for professional realization abroad, others find their second half, and still others earn their daily bread. Many sow good for the benefit of their own native land, being a kind of apostles of their native culture abroad. How many people there have gained deep faith and awareness of what a great Motherland they have!
But there is one danger - the crying of the soul on the rivers of Babylon, which over the years becomes stronger for everyone. A person is shaped by the sky under which he grew up, the nature that he admired in childhood, the culture in which he was brought up, the people who surrounded him from infancy. This is very deep and inexplicable! I know those who, having been born in France, proudly called themselves Russians. And those who, having lived most life outside of Russia, bequeathed to bury himself at home. This is the longing of the soul for the Motherland, an indissoluble bond with the ancestors and their land. It is stronger than the attraction of the flesh to Western comfort or even to creative fulfillment. For the vast majority it is impossible to assimilate into a foreign culture (you can copy it more or less successfully). And the fullness of being, which implies the fullness of life of the spirit, soul and body, for a Russian person, I think, is possible only in Russia and in work for the good of Russia.
Only monastic service is not limited by the boundaries of the earthly homeland. In the monasteries on Mount Athos, in Essex, in Ormilya, monks of various nationalities pray for the whole world, but they serve the Heavenly Fatherland and are already in it.
Vladimir Kirillin, Head of the Department of Russian Literature, Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary, Moscow:
First of all, a folk saying comes to mind: "Where you were born, there you came in handy." But in general, you raise a question that cannot be answered unambiguously. Or is it easier to answer other questions.
So, in the general theological sense, sin is “a violation of the norms of the existence of the created world, established by God.” And then there is a huge variety of specific forms of realization of sin. True, all of them can be perceived as a sin by specific violators of the norms only if these violators have a clear understanding that something definite has been violated: he committed evil, injustice, stole, killed, betrayed, did not help, was cowardly, ate meat with fasting , cheated on his wife with another woman, etc., that is, he did what is well known as completely unacceptable or undesirable from the point of view of Christian morality. But if there is no understanding, for example, a person is weak-minded, can any sin be imputed to him?
Again, this is a general statement of the problem.
However, there are quite definite questions about your question.
Indeed, is it good to endure adversity, deprivation, inconvenience, lack and not wish yourself, your loved ones a better lot?
Is your decision to leave your homeland a loss of hope in God, or, on the contrary, when you leave, are you strengthened by the hope of God's help?
Will separation from the Fatherland hurt your faith, or, on the contrary, will you find it in a foreign land in a new capacity?
Where is it worse to be a sinner or better to seek Christ in yourself - at home or in distant lands?
Are faith in God and devotion to one's people and one's land the same thing?
Such questions can be multiplied, and each must answer them personally, in his own soul.
From the very creation of man, people have moved around the world. You can pray in any circumstances and wherever you are. And you can follow Christ everywhere.
Is it a sin to leave Russia forever? If you are a Christian, and went to a country of infidels, and forgot about your Christianity there, and began to live according to other laws and norms, then ...
If you are an atheist and left your country, but there, among strangers, you felt the call of God in your soul and went to meet Him, then...
If, if, if...
Elena Matusevich, writer, artist, USA:
No, there is no sin in this. The Sixth Ecumenical Council directly defines sin as a disease of the soul. Why is there a sin in moving, even permanently, from one country to another? Sin against whom? Sins traditionally accepted in Orthodoxy are divided into several categories: sins against God, sins against other people, sins against oneself. In this very lengthy list of sin, about which in question in question, no. The list of sins corresponds to violations of the commandments of Christianity. The commandment “love your country and the place where you were born” does not exist. And therefore, the very formulation of the question seems to me incorrect and, at this historical moment, at least, inappropriate, because it implies the elevation to the rank of a sacred political entity - the state of Russia. In other words, the creation for oneself from one of the states of the world of an idol, that is, an idol, expressed, in particular, in the euphemism “Holy Russia”. Russia, like any other state, is not a shrine in itself. Of course, throughout history, political regimes and governments have been extremely interested in making the state a shrine. Arnold Toynbee, the famous Christian historian, wrote that in the 20th century idolatry revived in a new guise of worship of collective power and strength, whether it be a totalitarian state, an army, a revolutionary mass, a people, a proletariat, a country or a nation. All these are substitutions for the idols of the living God. If for the Lord there is neither a Greek nor a Jew, then there can be no Russian for him either. In addition, the world, according to the Christian concept, lies in evil. And Russia is a “holy land” at the same time? How does it fit?! Of course, such an exclusive, sacred attitude towards oneself is well known to anthropologists and is quite organic for tribal thinking. After all, the primary self-name of almost all tribes means "people." Like, we are people, and these, around the corner, devils with horns. But it is indecent to clothe the tribal feeling, wounded by non-stop emigration for more than a hundred years, in sacred clothes. It's time to finally grow out of this. There is sin in emigration from Russia only when this decision entails one of the specific sins against God, others or oneself. If, for example, leaving leaves elderly parents or an animal to starve to death, if a person goes for his own interests to lie or deceive, etc. But even in these cases there is nothing specifically Russian in these sins. And it shouldn't be. These sins remain sins wherever they are committed, and geography has nothing to do with it. And so I will answer the question asked in the negative. The list of human sins is already long and heavy, and it is unnecessary and dangerous to add an impostor to it.
Pelageya Tyurenkova, editor-in-chief of the Internet publication "Tatyanin's Day", Moscow:
Akhmatova precedes her most powerful work, Requiem, with an epigraph: “No, not under an alien firmament, and not under the protection of alien wings. I was then with my people, where my people, unfortunately, were.”
Can we condemn those who, in the terrible years for Russia, decided to leave their homeland and miss the birch trees while sitting in Paris? No. Can we be proud of those who, having all the possibilities of a quiet life in emigration, remained at home - if prisons, camps or simply ruined family nests can be called home? Yes. And the last question: is it ethical to call emigration the treacherous, well-considered departure of our contemporaries, who fled not from crazed Bolsheviks, and to jeans and social package? No answer. The title of "emigrant" impresses the fugitives and weaklings, but recently there has been a clear trend when things began to be called by their proper names, and those who set off far from the "philosophical steamer" are simply called "departed".
The epithet is not the most pleasant, but it was deserved by our former compatriots for a decade of active “sitting on the Internet”.
We couldn't help but get bored with the fact that on the women's forums, the women who left use the set of clichés "drunk men" + "fat women" + "snotty children" = "unpromising". That in the intelligent segment of Facebook and LiveJournal, men who have left are teaching the rest to live, work and love with an eye to the correct standards of the West. This is the case if there is no way to leave. It is difficult for such people to believe that a person does not want to leave.
The last drop was spilled during the "white ribbons" flying across Bolotnaya Square. It suddenly turned out that all these people know for sure that we should hate our power for our terrible life and teach our children English for the sake of a better life. There is no third.
The portrait of a man who betrayed his homeland is strange. Often he is Orthodox and even churched. Sunday Liturgy- this is not only (and not so much?) prayer, but also communication, which is so lacking among those sober, fit and further down the list.
He often says "this country". Even more often - with the pretext "not": in this country it is impossible-impossible-not enough, etc. etc.
He really misses the birch trees, but when he arrives to visit relatives, he always reports on Twitter that “already at the airport it became clear that all the birch trees had long been cut down, everything was bought - everything was sold, thank God for my right choice!»
But, most importantly, one cannot judge a person by his actual stay ... Someone is brought by fate far beyond the borders of the former Union, where he raises several children who have birth certificates for foreign languages, but at the same time remains "his own".
And someone sits all his life where he was born, mother and bonfire fate for the impossibility of escaping. Not wanting to invest in the place that he wants to delete from his life.
It is unlikely that one can find the item “moved out” in the generally accepted “list of sins”, but no one will argue with the fact that leaving parents and the graves of their ancestors for the sake of a comfortable apartment and a golden credit card is the same as ... Although what am I talking about? Didn't the parents inspire their daughters how good it is to "marry a foreigner"? So only life will show which of the folk wisdoms will outweigh on the scales: “What you sow, you will reap” or “Where you were born, you fit in there.”
Prepared by Marina Biryukova and Natalia Volkova
Comment
What to put on the scales?
 |
It seems to me that something else is more significant: not sinfulness or sinlessness, but the moment of choice - to go or not to go. What lies on one scale and what to put on the other. On one, it is more or less clear what may turn out to be: the lack of the possibility of self-realization in the chosen profession in one’s own country for objective reasons and hopes for such in another country, the desire for stability, material well-being, some political motives, after all. For businessmen - the desire to live, calmly and without fear, spending on themselves earned at home. What could be on the other side?
Well, it’s partly clear that: uncertainty - suddenly it doesn’t work out there, suddenly everything is not as good as it seems from a distance. And they got used, in general, to their own, far from ideal, but quite understandable life. And the people there are strangers, and the language is different, and no one needs you there. Probably ... Such considerations, if not many, then at least some of those who hesitate, are stopped. But there are, after all, other motives, in addition to the above, which, with all the other pros and cons, can influence the choice in a decisive way. Or - should be. And the main of these motives is love for one's homeland.
It is at least unfashionable to talk about this today, it is believed that if anyone speaks of love for his native country, it is out of duty or position, mainly out of duty. Perhaps not fashionable. But for a believer - naturally. And to a greater extent even to think than to speak.
One very dear person to me, now, unfortunately, deceased, who devoted most of his life to serving the country in which he was born and which he selflessly loved, once said in our conversation:
A person who is not a patriot of his homeland, but scolds and vilifies it, is a subhuman, a bastard!
I was shocked then by the harshness of his assessment, it seemed to me excessive and simply incomprehensible. However, twenty years have passed since then, and today I completely agree with him, although I will never dare to say such words aloud - I just do not think that I have the right to make such a judgment about someone. I realized that this was not an accusation, but a statement: if a person completely lacks such a “basic” feeling as love for the motherland, then something is deeply wrong in him, something is damaged, and very thoroughly, and it is unknown - Is there anything sacred for him in principle? After all, love for the motherland is like love for a mother.
A person does not choose either his homeland or his parents, the Lord makes this choice “for him”. And if you do not see in this His Providence and His wisdom and love, then how can we talk about faith? No, there is Providence and wisdom. A person may have bad parents, good for nothing, but this will not abolish the fifth commandment, and filial (or daughter) love and respect for them will still remain his duty. Except for some completely out of the ordinary circumstances ... Duty, not because they deserve it, but because otherwise he himself degrades, destroying in himself, again, an extremely important "basic" quality - the ability to love those through whom The Lord brought you into this world.
Something akin to this should be in relation to a person to his homeland. Only here everything is more complicated and in its own way deeper. After all, the fatherland ... This cannot be expressed in many words ... This is your people, and your land, and your history, and to a very large extent - you yourself. You are flesh from flesh and blood from the blood of your homeland, how not to feel it, not to feel it? And when you are born, you need it. And she, like her parents, needs you. No, the homeland is not a government that can be liked, but can cause rejection, not someone who is sympathetic or unpleasant to you, not a place of work - wonderful or not very good. This is something immeasurably greater, which cannot be explained, which can only be felt. And it is necessary.
And so, when a person is about to leave, when he decides this question for himself: to go or not to go, then this is what needs to be put on the scales - that one, the other: “And how is my homeland without me?”. And really - how? After all, it always seems to us that it is she who is responsible for us, it is from her that we constantly expect something and, without waiting, we are offended and despair. But after all, we are responsible for her, and she expects a lot from us. Not power, I will say again, not public services, not the education system, not our boss at work, but precisely the homeland - and your land, and your history, and your people, and just people you know and don’t even know. You may seem like a grain of sand to yourself, but there are many grains of sand, and each of them has its own inexpressible value, and each of them puts something in the basis of its choice. And it is good if this basis is responsibility and love.
I'm not talking about some extraordinary periods in the life of the country, about some terrible, "apocalyptic" processes. How in general to discuss the "departure" from the country after the revolution of those who fled from certain death - the gallows, execution, torture in the dungeons of the Cheka? But these are not the times now in the yard, they don’t run from death if they run. And I’ll be honest: I understand what led those who returned no matter what, even if everyone and everything shouted: “No need, where are you!”. Even if they could spend time at home, getting off the steamer, as General Charnota predicted to Roman Valeryanovich Khludov, exactly as long as it would take to bring them to the nearest wall. Love for the motherland led them and the inability to live away from it, reaching the readiness to die on it. This is not an example to be followed. But how can one not respect him and not bow before him?
I repeat once again: I am sure that each person makes his own choice and no one has the right to judge him for this choice, this is not a subject at all and not a reason for any court - if only because no one except God can look into the human heart and tell what is in it. But still, it is so important to know: what to put on the scales ...
Hegumen Nektary (Morozov)
Newspaper "Orthodox Faith" No. 20 (472), 2012
