To help a suffering soul. medical counseling experience. “Smoking is censing for demons.” Did the Church Fathers say anything about the dangers of smoking?

Orthodox layman Alexey Kulaev shares with us his personal experience of getting rid of tobacco smoking. His brochure describes every step of this difficult struggle. Here are collected excerpts from the Fathers of the Church and devotees of piety about smoking.

How I quit smoking (an Orthodox layman’s experience of dealing with the sins of smoking)

Moscow 2004
Blessing of the Soul Care Center in the name of the holy righteous John of Kronstadt
The confessor and head of the Center is Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov), Doctor of Medical Sciences,
professor

Text, compilation - Alexey Kulaev, all rights reserved, 2004

Preface

The reason for the appearance of this small book was that sometimes you have to tell people who want to quit smoking the same thing. And this is a rather boring task. Besides, you can’t remember everything in a conversation and you might miss something important. Therefore, if this work helps someone get rid of this slavery (which oppresses more and more over the years) and the forgotten joy of being in the “non-smoking era” returns to the person, then it will become clear why I shared my experience. You still have to quit smoking, not in “this” world, but in “that”, and a person must choose what is better: either do it voluntarily here (breaking this stupid habit forever) or suffer forever from the inability to quench his passion “there”

So let's begin.

Behind you are several attempts to quit smoking “immediately”, there may be some other “coding”, different nicotine patches, etc. Therefore, it is time to stop and seriously think about the fact that the war ahead is difficult and long. But for this the reward is also great, i.e. the return of physical and spiritual health, a feeling of freshness, an increase in, as they say, “general tone,” efficiency, creative powers and much more. In my case, this also means the disappearance of headaches and heart pain. And my friends told me that I became more friendly. In my opinion, when someone quits smoking, their lost qualities simply return.
It's worth fighting for.
Waking up in the morning, without bad breath, with strength completely restored during the night, with gratitude in the heart the thought appears: “Glory to Thee, Lord!”

STEP No. 1 How to “firmly” decide to quit smoking.

Once, in 1991, a pious woman who published Orthodox literature surprised me during a conversation by telling me that she had once smoked, and for a long time, about twenty years. (I smoked “seriously” for the same amount of time, from 15 to 35 years old). And, in the end, she decided to quit. Coming to church services, she prayed something like this: “Lord, I don’t want and can’t quit smoking, but I will still come to You and ask you to make this happen. You, Lord, please deal with this situation yourself.” By sharing such a unique prayer, she planted a seed of faith in me that the same thing could happen to me. But it took me another four whole years to become a church member to such an extent that I could begin to fight seriously.

STEP No. 2 Where should a poor smoker go?

In 1995, in mid-April, my friend Anton and I got together and early in the morning we went to the glorious city of Serpukhov, to the Vysotsky Monastery, where the miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “The Inexhaustible Chalice” is located. By that time, Anton (smoker for 6 years) had already quit smoking. This was the fifth time he had gone to this monastery, and this was my first time. And, in general, for the first time I went to the miraculous icon. A bright morning with a bright sun, forgotten during the winter, the breath of antiquity and the reverence that you experience already on the approach to this monastery, at the sight of only its walls, everything was conducive to prayer. That indefinable feeling of holiness that overwhelms a person when he is near miraculous icon The Most Holy Theotokos, the wondrous monastic service, the inexplicable, genuine confidence that there, in the altar, the Lord Himself was truly present, then instilled in me the expectation of future changes. This expectation seemed to be secured by the promise of the Most Pure One herself, born in my heart, that I would definitely receive not only what I asked for, but also many more wonderful gifts of God, which a person cannot even suspect.

After the Liturgy, on Sundays, a prayer for health is served in front of the icon and then holy water is distributed to everyone. Having stocked up on a large number of containers, all Orthodox Christians are simultaneously eager to fill them, and therefore it is prudent to wait a little on the sidelines. Since water is constantly supplied to the vats through a hose, there will still be enough water for everyone. There you can also order a commemoration of health at liturgy and prayer services, even for a whole year, for yourself and for relatives and friends who suffer from addictions to alcohol, drug addiction and smoking.

Even then, the monastery had collected two bags with letters from thousands of grateful pilgrims who received healing from these, alas, the most common ailments, after fervent prayers at the holy image. There are cases where long-term commemorations of health brought amazing results. Those of little faith and atheists, detractors and scolders of Christianity, became believers and forever parted with destructive passions through the prayers of their loved ones and the monks of the monastery.

I tried to drink the holy water brought from Serpukhov every morning throughout the entire time I quit smoking. The instant miracle I expected did not happen and I couldn’t quit smoking right away. But soon a hostility towards strong drinks, with which I sometimes had problems, and since then I have not used anything stronger than Cahors.

On Sunday, at about 7 o'clock, by train from the Kursk station to the Serpukhov station (travel time 1 hour 50 minutes). Immediately behind the station building on the square there is a stop for bus No. 5 (10-15 min).

STEP No. 3 First norm. The speed of running towards death decreases.

After a trip to Serpukhov, I had another conversation with my confessor about smoking, and, quite unexpectedly for me, the priest gave me obedience - to smoke no more than 10 cigarettes a day. Having a habit of smoking at least a pack, and sometimes one and a half, 10 cigarettes a day seemed like an unrealistic number. But there was nothing to do, and to begin with I gave up the first cigarette. It was a ritual morning cigarette on the way to work from the entrance to the bus stop. After some time, I managed to eliminate the second morning cigarette on the way from the metro to my place of work. But then problems began: sometimes I managed not to exceed the norm, but more often it turned out the other way around. Only three months later it was possible to record success at this figure of 10 cigarettes per day.

STEP #4 It turns out there is such a prayer

At the very beginning of “giving up” I was very lucky. On Radio Radonezh, one well-respected priest read a prayer to St. Ambrose of Optina “for deliverance from the passion of smoking,” and I was just recording this program on a tape recorder. I present it in full at the end of my story.
Every day I began to read it several times a day, especially when I really wanted to smoke, and it was still early according to the schedule.
Now about the schedule. I am convinced that it is better and easier to quit smoking with it than without it. You make a certain interval between cigarettes and strictly adhere to it. I also advise you to include a prayer to St. Ambrose of Optina in your morning and evening rules, asking for a blessing from your confessor.

STEP No. 5 “Health Day”

Having read in one Orthodox book, that on the day of Holy Communion you cannot smoke at all for the reason that particles of Communion may remain on a discarded cigarette butt, I thought hard and decided to try to organize a “Health Day” on the Sunday after Communion. Naturally, he asked for his father’s blessing. After the service (if, of course, you don’t just stand, but try to pray), you actually don’t really want to smoke, but when you get home and have lunch, then it starts to feel “crazy.” Here is the time to resort to prayer to St. Ambrose of Optina, to reading the Gospel and then engage in some all-consuming activities or active recreation, creativity, reading, etc. At the same time, you can nibble on all sorts of crackers or seeds (pumpkin seeds, in my opinion, are better) .
When the first “Health Day” was a success and I went to bed without smoking from sunrise to sunset, the first experience of a new (long forgotten old) life, a long forgotten feeling of purity appeared. Although I was drawn to a cigarette, what I purchased was more expensive.

STEP #6 Schedule (on the wall or on a cabinet)

When I stopped going beyond the “hot ten”, the next obedience from my father was to switch to the norm of 5 cigarettes a day. But since I knew that I had no strength for such a feat, I asked for a blessing for at least 7 cigarettes. And after that he continued to fight. It took another 2 months to get used to this norm. Gradually increasing the intervals between cigarettes, I came to the conclusion that it is best to maintain the norm of 7, and then 5 cigarettes, if the first cigarette is smoked as late as possible.

Fathers of the Church and devotees of piety on smoking

Saint Theophan the Recluse

SMOKING
1. How to look at it
Smoking is a stupid thing; there is as much moral here as there is empty bias and perceived harm. The last two features are difficult for smokers to recognize and difficult to explain to non-smokers.
It is strongly indecent, but decency and indecency, the same as people, change.
Tolerate a bad habit, but don’t turn it into a sin.
Praying for your daughter to lose the habit is a good thing. But there is no need to clothe this in special form. Whenever you pray, cry out to God. And He will arrange it as His holy will pleases. (Issue 8, letter 1230, p. 12)
2. Harm from it
It's good to quit smoking. It is not only empty, but little by little it undermines your health, spoiling your blood and clogging your lungs. This is a gradual poisoning of oneself.

But there is no advice for this and there is no advice, other than to make a stronger decision. There is no other way.
To smoke or not to smoke is an indifferent matter, at least our and common conscience considers it so.

But when non-smoking is bound by a promise, then it enters into the moral order and becomes a matter of conscience, the failure of which cannot but trouble it. So the enemy has spoiled you. That's right, you had a good talk. The enemy advised you to make a decision, and then led you to break your word. That's the whole story! Please learn and continue to keep your eyes open. Why commit yourself to a vow? You have to say: wait, let me try to quit. God willing, I will do it. Have you ever heard advice from the holy elders: not to bind yourself to a vow? This is exactly the kind of thing it concerns. (Issue 2, letter 369, p. 240)

Venerable Ambrose of Optina

“You write that you cannot stop smoking tobacco. What is impossible with man is possible with the help of God: you just have to firmly decide to leave, recognizing the harm it causes to soul and body; since tobacco weakens the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys bodily health with a slow death. Irritability and melancholy are a consequence of the pain of the soul from smoking. I advise you to use spiritual healing against this passion: confess in detail all your sins from the age of seven and throughout your entire life, and partake of the Holy Mysteries, and read the Gospel daily, standing, chapter by chapter, or more, and when melancholy sets in, then read again until the melancholy will not pass; will attack again - and read the Gospel again. “Or instead, make 33 large bows in private, in memory of the earthly life of the Savior and in honor of the Holy Trinity.”

Tobacco weakens the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys health with a slow death. Irritability and melancholy are a consequence of the pain of the soul from smoking.

Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets

One day, a father whose daughter was very sick visited the Elder and asked for his prayers. Father Paisiy said: “Okay, I’ll pray, but you also do something for the child’s health, if you can’t pray as you should. At least stop smoking, at least force yourself to do this.” And he readily left his cigarettes and lighter right on the stasidia in the Elder’s church.

Saint Nicodemus the Holy Mountain

“If some consider smoking tobacco not to violate the norms of decency and good manners, then let them at least listen to modern ethical philosophers, who very strongly condemn such opinions, rightly asking, in what way is politeness and good manners manifested here? Has anyone ever seen an intelligent living creature that smokes a pipe filled with smoking and foul-smelling grass, and emits clouds of foul-smelling tobacco smoke, as if it were a burning stove? In this form, a person is likened to a dragon, and this mythical beast allegorically depicts the devil” (...).

Smoking is a spiritual passion: by nature, smoking is unusual for a person in the same way as, say, eating, drinking, or having a family. We can probably say that smoking is a kind of antipode to prayer. The Holy Fathers call prayer the breath of the soul. Concentrating a person’s mind in himself and in God, it gives him true peace, purification of the mind and heart, a feeling of spiritual strength and vigor. Smoking, associated with the body's breathing, causes surrogates of these feelings. And the very symbol of prayer—smoking fragrant incense—very clearly expresses the opposite of the fragrance of incense—the use of a foul-smelling devil’s potion.”
“During God’s services they burn incense, how could the slaves of sin not invent some kind of incense? The first is pleasing to God, but the second should be pleasing to God’s enemy—the devil.”

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

“Instead of the fragrance of incense in churches, the world has invented its own fragrance of tobacco, and diligently fumigates itself with it greedily, almost eats and swallows it, and breathes it, and smokes its entrails and its dwellings with it, produces an aversion to goods

Man has perverted the very pleasures of the senses. For the sense of smell and taste, and partly for the breath itself, he invented and burns almost constantly a pungent and odorous smoke, bringing this, as it were, a constant censer to the demon living in the flesh, infects the air of his home and the outside air with this smoke, and first of all is saturated with this stench yourself - and here you are, the constant coarsening of your feelings and your heart, constantly absorbed by smoke, cannot but affect the subtlety of heartfelt feeling, it gives it fleshiness, coarseness, sensuality.

Oh, how carefully the devil and the world sow with their tares the field of Christ, which is the Church of God. Instead of the Word of God, the word of the world is diligently sown, instead of incense - tobacco. Poor Christians! They completely fell away from Christ.

Venerable Leo of Optina

…Once among those present there was a man who admitted that he had not fulfilled his elder’s orders. He did not quit smoking, as the Elder ordered him. Father Lev threateningly ordered to take this man out of his cell.

Venerable Silouan of Athos

In 1905, the Athonite elder Silouan spent several months in Russia, often visiting monasteries. On one of these train journeys, he took a seat opposite a merchant, who, with a friendly gesture, opened his silver cigarette case in front of him and offered him a cigarette.
Father Silouan thanked for the offer, refusing to take a cigarette. Then the merchant began to say: “Isn’t it because, father, you refuse because you consider it a sin? But smoking often helps in an active life; It’s good to take a break from the stress of work and rest for a few minutes. It’s convenient to have a business or friendly conversation while smoking and, in general, in the course of life...” And then, trying to convince Father Silouan to take a cigarette, he continued to speak in favor of smoking.

Then, after all, Father Silouan decided to say: “Sir, before you light a cigarette, pray, say one “Our Father.” To this the merchant replied: “Praying before smoking somehow doesn’t work.” Father Silouan responded: “So, any task that is not preceded by unabashed prayer is better not to do.”

Saint Philaret of Moscow (Drozdov)

“Quit your smoky habit! It won’t be easy for you, but don’t rely on yourself: call on God for help and for God at once - certainly right away - cut off the evil!”

“Did A. give up his smoky habit? And if he follows it even secretly, it will not be good. I wish him to win victory over the worthless grass and smoke."

“Is it permissible for the minister of the Christian altar to bring stench to it at the unnatural whim of the consumed poisonous herb, and should not the one preparing for this service first beware so as not to leave in himself a habit incompatible with the dignity of the service?”

Priest Alexander Elchaninov

From letters to youth
The baseness and vulgarity of the motives of those who start smoking are to be like everyone else, the fear of ridicule, the desire to give themselves weight. At the same time - the psychology of a coward and a swindler. Hence the alienation from family and friends. Aesthetically, this is vulgarity, especially unbearable for girls. Psychologically, smoking opens the door to everything prohibited and vicious.

Smoking and any kind of anesthesia overshadow our sense of purity and chastity. The first cigarette is the first fall, the loss of purity. It is not false puritanism, but a direct feeling and deep conviction of this that prompts me to tell you this. Ask anyone who smokes - undoubtedly, the beginning of smoking was in some sense a downfall for him.”

Metropolitan of Moscow Macarius (Nevsky)

“An addiction to one will entail an addiction to another: from smoking tobacco a young man turns to wine; from one glass of wine - to drunkenness; from wine to cards and other passionate games; from here - to idleness, to theft, to robbery; and from here the road to the prison.

Are we, approaching the new century, already standing on an inclined plane, about to roll down it irrevocably? Have we, the children of the nineteenth century, really gone so far in disdain for the good old and holy customs that the twentieth century will not give us or our descendants a return to these good customs? Is it possible that the zealots of piety have lost hope of ever seeing the leading people of our Christian society living the same life with the simple, but kind and, for the most part, pious people, with their churches, with their posts, with their holy antiquity?

***
The Patristic tradition tells of an ascetic of piety who labored during the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. This schema-monk somehow had a vision of an unclean spirit, who said that soon people would burn incense with their mouths to him (the unclean one). The ascetic wrote: “Will people put coals in their mouths?” The demons testify to the same thing now: “Smokers have not only my smoke, but also fire” - From the notes of Hieromonk Panteleimon.

Archbishop John (Shakhovskoy)

Apocalypse of petty sin

But I have this against you, that you left your first love. (.)

A petty sin, like tobacco, has become such a habit of human society that society provides it with all sorts of conveniences. Where can you find cigarettes! Everywhere you can find an ashtray, everywhere there are special rooms, carriages, compartments - “for smokers”. It would not even be an exaggeration to say that the whole world is one huge room, or rather one huge carriage in the interstellar spheres: “for smokers.” “They smoke” - everyone sins petty and calmly: old and young, sick and healthy, scientists and simple... Before execution, the criminal is allowed to smoke a cigarette. As if there is not enough air in the earth’s atmosphere, or it is too fresh, you need to create some kind of smoky, poisonous air for yourself and breathe, breathe this poison, revel in this smoke. And so everyone gets drunk. So much so that a “non-smoker” is almost as rare as “never lies”, or “doesn’t rise above anyone”... The tobacco market is one of the most significant in world trade, and every year millions of people work to provide opportunity for other millions and millions - to inhale acrid smoke, to anaesthetize their heads and entire bodies.

Is it in human nature to commit the petty, narcotic sin of “smoking”? The question itself seems strange. Is it human nature to go against nature? Is it natural to drug yourself? Governments prohibit the enjoyment of cocaine, but encourage it with tobacco. Minor sins are permitted by human law; they do not lead to prison. Everyone is guilty of them, and no one wants to throw stones at them. Tobacco, like “little cocaine,” is permitted, like little lies, like unnoticeable untruths, like killing a person in the heart or in the womb. But that is not what the Revelation of God says—the will of the Living God. The Lord does not tolerate a little lie, not a single murderous word, not a single adulterous look. The small grass of iniquity is as accursed before the Lord as the great tree of crime. Many small falls into sin are undoubtedly heavier for a person’s soul than several great ones, which are always remembered and can always be removed in repentance. And a saint, of course, is not one who does great deeds, but who refrains from even the smallest crimes.

It is easier to start a fight against great sin, it is easier to hate its approach. There is a well-known case with the righteous Anthony of Murom. Two women came to him: one lamented her one great sin, the other smugly testified to her innocence in any great sins[1]. Having met the women on the road, the elder ordered the first to go and bring him a large stone, and the other to pick up some smaller stones. A few minutes later the women returned. Then the elder said to them: “Now take and put these stones exactly in the places where you took them from.” The woman with the large stone easily found the place; where she took the stone, the other circled in vain, looking for nests of her small stones, and returned to the old man with all the stones. The perspicacious Anthony explained to them that these stones express... For the second woman, they expressed numerous sins to which she was accustomed, considered them for nothing and never repented of them. She did not remember her petty sins and outbursts of passion, and they expressed the joyless state of her soul, incapable of even repentance. And the first woman, who remembered her sin, was sick of these sins and removed it from her soul.

Many small, unworthy habits are mud for a person’s soul if he affirms them in himself or recognizes them as an “inevitable” evil, against which it is “not worth” and “impossible” to fight. This is where the soul falls into the trap of the enemy of God. “I am not a saint”, “I live in the world”, “I must live like other people”... - the aching conscience of a believer calms himself. Man, man, of course, you are not a saint, of course, you “live in the world” and “must live like all people”, and therefore - be born like all people; die like them, look, listen, speak like them, but why would you break the Law of God - “like them”? Why would you morally not smell so fragrant “like them”? Think about it, man.
How difficult it is for the soul to move from a false but habitual thought. The psychology of this atheistic world has become so deeply ingrained in the mental world of modern man that in relation to sin and crimes against God’s Laws, almost all people act in the same way - “according to the cliché.” The saddest thing is that evil has inspired people to call the demands of sin “the demands of nature.”

The requirement of nature is to breathe, eat in moderation, keep warm, devote part of the day to sleep, but do not narcotize your body in any way, it is pointless to become attached to a mirage, to smoke.
After all, one has only to think honestly about this question, and evil itself floats to the surface of conscience. But the fact of the matter is that modern man has no time to think about the only important question concerning not this small 60-70 year life, but the eternity of its immortal existence in new, great conditions. Absorbed in a completely misunderstood “practice,” modern man, immersed in his practical, earthly life, thinks that he is really “practical.” A sad delusion! At the moment of his inevitable (always very close to him) so-called death, he will see with his own eyes how little practical he was, reducing the matter of practice to the needs of his stomach and completely forgetting his spirit.

In the meantime, a person really “has no time” to think about the elementary moral laws of his life. And, poor man, he himself suffers unspeakably from this. Like a child who constantly touches the fire and cries, humanity incessantly touches the fire of sin and lust, and cries and suffers, but again and again touches... not understanding its state of spiritual childhood, which in the Gospel is called “blindness”, and there is real blindness of the heart in the presence of physical eyes.

Humanity kills itself through sin, and every person does the same. Overwhelmed, agitated by evil, unbridled by lower instincts, humanity is preparing a terrible fate for itself, like every person who follows this path. Those who sow the wind will reap the storm. And over this, over the only important thing - “there is no time” to think... “Live for the moment”, “what will be, will be” - the soul brushes aside the truth itself, inside it telling it that it needs to enter into itself, concentrate, examine the attachments of its heart and think about your eternal fate. The Creator of the world ordered man to take care only of the day; the world tells us to care only “about the moment,” plunging a person into a sea of worries about his whole life!

The topic of the morally small is not small at all. Here is a reflection of God's apocalyptic reproach to the Christian world that it has “forgotten its first love.” How much purer and morally superior to man is now even the shaken nature from which his body was created. How pure is a stone, ready to cry out against people who do not give glory to God, how pure are flowers and trees in their wonderful circle of life, how magnificently submissive are the animals to the Law of the Creator in their purity. God's nature does not smoke, does not take drugs, does not debauch, does not poison the God-given fruit. Wordless nature teaches a person how to bear the Cross of obedience to God amid all the storms and sufferings of this life. A person needs to think about this.
Some people think that everything that happens here on earth will have no consequences. For a person with a guilty conscience, of course, it’s more pleasant to think this way. But why deceive yourself? Sooner or later you will have to see the dazzling mystery of the purity of the universe.

We experience ourselves as “life”. Do we really regard ourselves so petty and understand so shallowly the One who created the worlds in order to think of this earthly bustle of life as human existence? We are much more and higher than what we are accustomed to consider here, on the naked earth, not only as our lives, but even as our ideals. But we are: a grain placed in the ground. And therefore, we are now unable to see the surface of the universe, that true picture of nature that will open to Our eyes at the moment of so-called death, i.e. very soon for everyone.

What is death? Death is not a coffin at all, not a canopy, not a black bandage on an arm, not a clay grave. Death is when the sprout of our life crawls out to the surface of the earth and stands under the direct rays of God's sun. The grain of life must die and germinate here, in the earth. This is the so-called “birth in the spirit” in the Gospel, the “second birth” of a person. The death of the body is the leaving of a sprout of the earth, an exit from the earth. For every person who has received even the smallest spiritual leaven, even the most insignificant gospel pearl “inside himself,” what awaits him is not death at all, and even far from death. For the dead in spirit, of course, coffins, graves, black bands are all realities. And their spirit will not be able to come to the surface of true life, for they did not die on earth for themselves, for their sins.

Like an egg, we are closed from the other world by a thin shell of the body. And our shells break one after another... Blessed is the man who turns out to be alive, formed for future life body. The state of someone who turns out to be a formless liquid is worthy of crying... and may even be disgusting in its moral smell!

Here on earth, we are truly in the darkness of the spirit, in its “womb”. And is it really not criminal, being in such a state, not to prepare for your real birth, but to consider your darkness as either an ideal, extremely joyful place of life (as optimistic atheism believes), or an incomprehensible place of meaningless suffering (as pessimistic atheism believes)?
The meaning, of course, is not visible to physical eyes, but it is very easy, more than easy to believe in it, after thinking about yourself and the Gospel. All nature screams about this meaning; Every awakened human soul begins to scream about him.

How carefully all of us, “non-sprouted” people, must treat each other... How we must protect this germination in each other, this exit into the free air, under God’s sun!
Man is terribly responsible for everything, and it is difficult to theoretically imagine the misfortune of that person who, having lived atheistically on earth “as if nothing existed,” suddenly finds himself face to face with a reality not only brighter than this earth of ours, but even superior all our concepts of reality... Didn’t the Lord suffer for these souls in the Garden of Gethsemane? In any case, he accepted the suffering of the Cross for them too.

If the visible heaven did not separate us from the invisible heaven, we would shudder at those inconsistencies of spirit that exist between the angelic triumphant church and our earthly church, almost non-militant, flabby human souls. We would be horrified and would clearly understand the truth that is incomprehensible to us now: what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us and what He does for each of us. We imagine his salvation almost theoretically, abstractly. But when would we see, on the one hand, the snow-white hosts of lightning-ray pure spirits, fiery, fiery, burning with unimaginable love for God and striving for the salvation of all creation, and, on the other hand, would we see the earth with its hundreds of millions of half-people, half- insects, with hearts directed only to the earth, people devouring each other, proud, voluptuous, money-loving, intractable, possessed by dark forces clinging to them, we would be horrified and trembled. And we would be presented with a clear picture of the absolute impossibility of salvation by “natural” means.

The reasoning of occultists about the evolutionary movement of reincarnating humanity would seem upward to us, in best case scenario, crazy. We would see that the darkness over humanity is not thinning, but is thickening... And we would understand what the Creator incarnate on their earth did for people. We would see how ears of corn, even with one grain, are taken to heaven by the heavenly reapers, that the slightest spark of Christ already saves this person. They would cover up everything dark with unimaginable love for God and strive for the salvation of all creation, and, on the other hand, they would see the earth with its hundreds of millions of half-people, half-insects, with hearts directed only to the earth, people devouring each other, selfish, voluptuous, money-loving, intractable, possessed by dark forces clinging to them, we would be horrified and trembled. And we would be presented with a clear picture of the absolute impossibility of salvation by “natural” means.

The reasoning of occultists about the evolutionary movement of reincarnating humanity in man is like a single grain in a spikelet nods, is cut off, only one spark is taken, and it becomes the eternal life of a person. Glory to the salvation of Christ! Truly, we have nothing in ourselves except our human dignity lying in the dust. And from this dust we arise by the grace of Christ and are carried into heaven as a spark. But we are carried away if this spark of love for God has been lit in us, if we are able to push our soul away from everything mortal in the world, are able to notice this mortal in the slightest, and also push it away from ourselves. Sensitivity to the smallest things in ourselves will be an indicator of the health of our soul. If atoms really contain precise solar systems, then they are the source of every sin: small and large.
The conversation about the need to reject even the smallest sin leads us to the most important issue of human life: the question of life after death.

The revelation of the Church asserts that a soul that has not been freed from one passion or another will transfer this passion to the other world, where, due to the absence of a body (before the resurrection), it will be impossible to satisfy this passion, which is why the soul will remain in the constant languor of self-combustion, the constant thirst for sin and lust without opportunities to satisfy her.
The gastronome, who in his earthly life only thought about food, will undoubtedly suffer after his death, deprived of carnal food, but not deprived of his spiritual thirst to strive for it. The drunkard will be incredibly tormented, not having a body that can be satisfied by pouring alcohol, and thus a little calm the tormented soul for a while. The fornicator will experience the same feeling. A money lover too... A smoker too.

Easy to do experience. Let the smoker not smoke for two or three days. What will he experience? A certain torment, softened by all the relationships and entertainments of life. But take away life with its entertainments... Suffering will worsen. It is not the body that suffers, but the soul living in the body, accustomed to satisfying its lust, its passion through the body. Deprived of satisfaction, the soul suffers. This is how, of course, the soul of a rich sinner suffers, suddenly deprived of wealth, a lover of peace, deprived of peace, the soul of a proud person, who received a blow to his pride... How many suicides have occurred on this basis! All this is experience, the bare experience of our earthly life. Already here on earth, we can perform experiments on our soul. Every person should be far-sighted. You need to protect your home from undermining ().

Feeling this, is it really possible to calmly indulge in passions or even divide them into serious and “innocent”? After all, fire is still fire - both a blast furnace and a burning match. Both are painful for the person touching them and can be fatal. We need to understand this undoubted truth that every passion, every malice, every lust is fire.

God's Law has placed the instincts of the human body within a framework, and gives true direction to the strong-willed and irritable energies of the soul, so that a person can comfortably and easily move toward spiritualization. What to call that person who, understanding all this, treats his passions calmly and frivolously, excuses them, lulling all signs of saving sensitivity in his soul.
We must, first of all, stop justifying our lust - even the slightest, we must condemn it before God and ourselves. We must pray for deliverance, for salvation. Savior The Lord is called a savior not in the abstract, but in reality. The Savior saves from all weaknesses and passions. He delivers. He heals. Absolutely visible, tangible. Heals, forgives. Forgiveness is the healing of what needs to be forgiven. It is given only to those who hunger and thirst for this truth. Those who simply want, smoldering in their desire, are not given healing. It is given to those who have a burning, flaming, beseeching, striving heart. For only such people are able to appreciate the gift of God’s healing, not trample it and give thanks for it, and sensitively protect in the Name of the Savior from new temptations of evil.

Of course, smoking is a very small lust, just as a match is a small fire. But this lust is also repugnant to the spirit, and it is impossible to even imagine any of the Lord’s closest disciples smoking cigarettes.

“Destroy small lusts,” say the saints. There is no acorn that does not contain an oak tree. So it is with sins. The small plant is easily weeded out. The big one requires special tools to eradicate it.

The spiritual meaning of smoking and all the small “justifiable” illegalities of the spirit is licentiousness. Not only the body, but also the soul. This is a false reassurance of oneself (one’s “nerves,” as they sometimes say, not fully realizing that nerves are a carnal mirror of the soul). This “calming” leads to an ever greater distance from true peace, from the true consolation of the Spirit. This reassurance is a mirage. Now - while there is a body - it must be constantly renewed. Afterwards, this narcotic calm will be a source of painful captivity of the soul.

You need to understand that someone who “takes out” his anger, for example, also “calms down.” But, of course, only until a new attack of anger. You cannot calm yourself down by satisfying your passion. You can calm yourself down only by resisting passion, by refraining from it. You can calm yourself down only by carrying the Cross of struggle against every passion, even the smallest, the Cross of its rejection into your heart. This is the path of true, solid, faithful and - most importantly - eternal happiness. Rising above the fog, he sees the sun and an eternal blue sky. He who has risen above the passions enters the sphere of the world of Christ, an indescribable bliss that begins here on earth and is available to every person.

Mirage happiness is a cigarette. The same as getting angry at someone, being proud of someone, painting your cheeks or your lips for people, stealing a small piece of sweets - a small penny from the church dish of God's nature. There is no need to look for such happiness. Their direct, logical continuation: cocaine, hitting a person in the face or shooting him, counterfeiting value. Blessed is the man who, having found such happiness, pushes it away with righteous and holy anger. This demonic happiness reigning in the world is a harlot who has invaded the marriage of the human soul with Christ, the God of Truth and pure blissful joy.
Any consolation outside the Spirit of the Holy Comforter is that insane temptation on which the organizers of human paradise build their dreams. The Comforter is the Creative Spirit of the Truth of Christ alone.

It is impossible to pray in spirit while smoking a cigarette. It is impossible to preach while smoking a cigarette. Before entering the temple of God, a cigarette is thrown away... but the temple of God is us.
Whoever wants to be a temple of God every minute will throw away the cigarette, like any false thought, any unclean feeling. The attitude towards a small spiritual movement in oneself is a thermometer of the fervor of a person’s faith and his love for God.

One can imagine such a life example: tobacco, as a plant, has no evil in it (like gold dust, like cotton from which banknotes are made). Apricot is God's plant. Alcohol can be very useful for the human body at certain moments and in certain doses, without at all contradicting the spirit, like moderate tea or coffee. Wood, the material from which furniture is made, everything is God's... But now let's take these terms in the following combination: a man is lounging in an easy chair and smoking a Havana cigar, every minute sipping from a glass of apricotine standing next to him... Can this person in such a state carry on a conversation? about the Living God - say a prayer to the Living God? Physically - yes, spiritually - no. Why? Yes, because this man is now dissolute, his soul has drowned in an armchair, and in a Havana cigar, and in a glass of apricotine. At this moment he has almost no soul. He, like the prodigal son of the Gospel, wanders “in distant lands.” This is how a person can lose his soul. People lose it all the time. And it’s good if he finds it again all the time, fights so as not to lose it, trembles over his soul, as over his beloved baby. The soul is the baby of immortality, defenseless and pitiful in the conditions of the world around us. How you need to press your soul to your chest, to your heart, how you need to love it, destined for eternal life. Oh, how you need to clean even the slightest stain from it!

Now an example was presented of the impossibility of preserving one’s soul by voluptuously distributing it among surrounding objects: armchairs, cigars, liquor. The example taken is especially colorful, although there are even more colorful ones in life. But if you take not a colorful one, but a gray one, but of the same licentious spirit, everything will remain the same atmosphere, in which it would be a lesser sin to remain silent about Christ than to speak about Him. This is the answer to why the world is silent about Christ, why neither on the streets, nor in salons, nor in friendly conversations do people talk about the Savior of the Universe, about the One Father of the world, despite the many people who believe in Him.

It is not always a shame to talk about God in front of people; Sometimes before God it is a shame to talk about Him to people. The world instinctively understands that in the environment in which it finds itself all the time, it is less of a sin to remain silent about Christ than to speak about him. And so people are silent about God. A terrible symptom. The world is flooded with legions of words, the human language is obsessed with these empty legions, and - not a word, almost not a word about God, about the Beginning, the End and the Center of everything.

For to speak about God is to immediately expose oneself and the whole world. And if the word about God is nevertheless spoken, it is difficult to finish it - both in front of oneself and in front of the world.

If a person does not have disgust for his small sins, he is spiritually unhealthy. If there is disgust, but “there is no strength” to overcome the weakness, it means that it is left until the person shows his faith in the fight against something more dangerous for him than this weakness, and it is left to him for humility. For there are many people, seemingly blameless, who do not drink or smoke, but who are like, in the words of Climacus, “a rotten apple,” that is, filled with obvious or secret pride. And there is no way to humble their pride except by some kind of fall. But those who, for one reason or another, “allow” themselves minor sins will remain outside the Kingdom of God and its laws. Such a person, “putting his conscience to sleep,” becomes unable to cross the line of the true life of the spirit. He always remains like a young man approaching Christ and immediately leaving him with sadness, or even sometimes without sadness, but just to... “smoke”!

Rigorism and puritanism are alien to the evangelical spirit. Pharisee righteousness without love is darker in the eyes of God than any sin. But the lukewarmness of Christians in fulfilling the commandments is just as dark. Both those who practice Pharisees and those who trade and smoke in the temple of God are equally expelled from the temple.
For the will of God is “our sanctification” (1. Thess. 4, 3). A sensitive conscience itself will sharpen its vision to detect that alien dust that lies on the wounds of the soul.
The Son of God and the Son of Man gave us one commandment for thirst: “Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” In it, the Lord seems to say: People, I do not give you a measure - determine it yourself. Determine for yourself the measure of your love for My purity and your obedience to this love.

Prayer Venerable Ambrose of Optina

About getting rid of the passion of smoking

Reverend Father Ambrose, you, having boldness before the Lord, beg the Greatly Gifted Master to give me ambulance in the fight against impure passion.
God! Through the prayers of Your saint, Venerable Ambrose, cleanse my lips, discipline my heart and fill it with the fragrance of Your Holy Spirit, so that the evil tobacco passion will run far away from me, back to where it came from, into the belly of hell.

Troparion, tone 5

Like a healing source, we flow to you, Ambrose, our father, for you faithfully instruct us on the path of salvation, protect us from troubles and misfortunes with prayers, comfort us in bodily and mental sorrows, and, moreover, teach us humility, patience and love, pray to Christ the Lover of Mankind and Intercessor Eager to save our souls.

Kontakion, tone 2

Having fulfilled the covenant of the Chief Shepherd, you inherited the grace of the elders, your heart aching for all those who flow to you with faith. Likewise, we, your children, cry out to you with love: Holy Father Ambrose, pray to Christ God to save our souls.

About the spiritual and physical harm of smoking...

Articles under the heading “Spiritual Space of Siberia” often receive responses from readers. Some of these responses are published in the “Feedback” section, others often become the basis for subsequent articles. Moreover, sometimes articles on topics that journalists had never even thought about...

Sacrifice. You could be the next victim!

Dear editors! I have heard the words “the sin of smoking” several times. I agree that smoking in itself is not a good thing. But why is this a sin?

Smoking does not violate any commandments of God. Nothing is said about the sinfulness of smoking in the Holy Scriptures or in the writings of the Church Fathers. Smoking does not harm another person (subject to basic politeness). I repeat: of course, smoking is a very bad habit, but it’s probably still wrong to call it a “sin.” When I shared these thoughts with my friend, he said that in the Bible there are actually words: “smoking makes the heart glad.” I checked this with a special computer program "Bible Quote", and was convinced that this phrase is indeed present in the book of Proverbs (27:9)!

A. Yu. Vorontsov, Biysk.

Here's a letter. We can safely assume that in a society where the vast majority of men and about half of women smoke, many will agree with the point of view of the author of the letter. Moreover, these same “many” (according to sociological surveys) consider themselves Orthodox Christians. And who wants to count an “extra” sin? Moreover, in some ways the reader seems to be right.

The Holy Scriptures really say nothing about the dangers of smoking. Tobacco appeared in our world many centuries after the creation of the Bible. The date of the “discovery” of smoking is known very precisely. “On October 12, 1492, the expedition of Christopher Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador,” wrote Bishop Barnabas (Belyaev). “The sailors were amazed by an unprecedented sight: the red-skinned inhabitants of the island were releasing clouds of smoke from their mouths and noses! The Indians celebrated their sacred holiday, where they smoked a special herb. Its dried and rolled leaf, like today’s cigar, was called “tobacco”, which is where the current name for tobacco comes from.

The natives smoked "tobacco" until they were completely stupefied. In this state, they entered into communication with certain “demons”, and then told about what the “Great Spirit” had told them. Smoking was part of worship rituals pagan gods the Aztecs, to whom, among others, human sacrifices were made.

Columbus's sailors took the mysterious herb with them to Europe. And very quickly the new “pleasure” became widespread. As Bishop Barnabas wrote: “And so, with the favorable participation and secret encouragement from demons, a literally rampant smoking fever began throughout Europe and even Asia. Whatever the government and clergy did to stop this evil, nothing helped!”

Not only Christians, but also Muslims tried to actively fight smoking. In 1625, in Turkey, Amurat IV executed smokers and displayed severed heads with pipes in their mouths. In Persia, Shah Abbas the Great ordered that lips and noses be cut off as punishment for smoking, and that tobacco dealers be burned along with their goods. Even in the always free Switzerland in 1661, the Appenzell magistrate considered the tobacco trade as a sin tantamount to murder!

In our Rus', smoking has become a custom since Peter I, who himself smoked and even dared to fold smoking pipes in the manner of the bishop’s dikiriy (two-candlestick) and trikyriy (three-candlestick) and “blessed” the people with them during his drunken “assemblies.” But this is Peter, and before him, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich in 1634 ordered “smokers to be executed by death.” In 1649, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ordered smokers to “smash their nostrils and cut their noses,” and then “exile them to distant cities.”

We will talk about the assessment of the patristic spiritual thought of the sin of smoking later, but for now we note that in fact the Holy Scripture does speak indirectly about the sin of smoking. God created the first people healthy and took care of their physical and mental perfection. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” says one of Christ’s commandments. It follows from this that before loving your neighbor, you should “love yourself.” To love and take care of the gift of life that is given to all of us from God. And what kind of “careful attitude” does a smoker have to his health if everyone knows that tobacco contains more than 30 harmful substances. The most dangerous of them is considered to be nicotine alkaloid. Among smokers, there are especially many patients with bronchopulmonary diseases. And the most dangerous consequence of smoking is cancer of the larynx and lungs. The fact is that tobacco smoke contains carcinogens that cause cancer. These are benzopyrene and its derivatives.

...It is no coincidence, as experts have calculated, that every minute in Russia three (!) people die from diseases caused by smoking...

Everything that is given to man by God must be used for good. Bodily health is a priceless gift, and every action we take that causes harm to health is a real sin before the Creator. Many holy teachers of the Church point to this. Here are the words of Saint Nektarios of Aegina: “In order for a person to be blessed and worthy of his calling, it is necessary that he be healthy in both body and soul, because without the well-being of both, neither blessedness nor capacity to fulfill his calling can be acquired. A person must take care of strengthening both body and soul so that they are strong and strong."

***

“Don’t you know that you are the temple of God,” said the Apostle Paul, “and the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will punish him: for the temple of God is holy; and this temple is you.” For a smoker, this temple is smoky and grimy, and Christ cannot move into this temple. It is not human nature to smoke. Breathe air, eat, drink, sleep - yes. But smoking, poisoning your body with poison, breathing stinking smoke is a requirement of sin, and not a requirement of nature.

Medicine says a lot about the dangers of smoking for physical health. But nothing mentions that the foul smell of tobacco covers the smell of spiritual decay. It has been established that negative states of mind lead to change hormonal levels person. Formed during stress and other internal conflicts chemicals excreted from the body, and these secretions have a very strong odor. Tobacco use makes it impossible to recognize the spiritual state of others at the deepest level. biological level. Smoking is promiscuity not only of the body, but also of the soul. This is a false reassurance of your nerves. Many smokers refer to the calming of the nerves after smoking a cigarette, not realizing that the nerves are the carnal mirror of the soul. Such reassurance is self-deception, a mirage. This narcotic sedation will be a source of torment for the soul. Now, as long as there is a body, this “calm” must be regularly renewed. And then it will become a source of hellish torment. It must be remembered that after death, after the separation of the soul from the body, the passions that manifested themselves in bodily life do not leave the human soul. Without freeing itself from this or that passion, the soul will transfer it to another world, where, in the absence of a body, it will be impossible to satisfy this passion. The soul will languish and burn with an incessant thirst for sin and lust. One who is insatiable in food will suffer after his death from the inability to fill his belly. A drunkard will be incredibly tormented, not having a body that can only be calmed by alcohol. The fornicator will experience the same feeling. Self-interested too, and smoker too. If a smoker does not smoke for several days during his lifetime, what will he experience? Terrible torment, but torment softened by other aspects of life. But that’s two days, and the deceased has an eternity ahead of him. And eternal torment...

Meanwhile, the army of smokers is rapidly getting younger. The age of initiation of smoking in Russia has dropped to 10 years for boys and 12 for girls. On children's body smoking has a particularly harmful effect. Among other things, adolescents who smoke develop a complex of neuropsychic disorders. As a result, attention, memory, sleep suffer, and mood “jumps.” Smoking among teenagers has an extremely destructive effect on reproductive function. It is no coincidence that today more than 70 percent of boys and girls already have serious problems in this “part” by the age of 15.

If we return to the “spiritual component” of the harm from smoking, then we should dwell on the lack of freedom of the smoker. Many smokers (especially in adulthood) would like to quit smoking. According to sociologists, 100 (!) percent of smokers after 30 years would like to give up their harmful and sinful habit. Alas... Smokers develop nicotine syndrome. This is the same addiction as alcohol and drugs, only less destructive to health. Although, how to say: lung cancer, laryngeal cancer - this is not an argument in favor of the harmlessness of such a harmful addiction as smoking.

It would be worth mentioning that in the new classification of diseases, which came into force in 1999, tobacco addiction is officially recognized as an illness. And we will add - a sinful illness. Smoking is self-indulgence, a type of self-pleasure. It is no coincidence that in Rus' there has long been a saying: “Smoking is censing for demons.”

When a person smokes, Orthodox priests say, his soul is captured by demonic forces. And he adds another heavy link to the chain of slavish affections; his will is weakened, and behind all the excuses for smoking, the voice of a weak-willed person is heard. Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote in “The Brothers Karamazov”: “I ask you: is such a person free? I knew one “fighter for the idea” who himself told me that when he was deprived of tobacco in prison, he was so exhausted by deprivation of strength , that he almost went and betrayed his “idea” just to give him tobacco. But this guy says: “I’m going to fight for humanity.” Well, where will he go and what is he capable of?

Do you smoke? Realize your sin

Medical statistics have calculated that each cigarette smoked shortens a person’s life by at least seven minutes. In general, smokers in Russia live five years less than non-smokers. Most smokers know this. And yet, he cannot give up the sinful habit. This is what the famous Orthodox writer S. A. Nilus wrote about the condition of a smoker in the first part of the book “On the Bank of God’s River.”

"...July 7, 1909. Tonight I had a severe attack of choking cough. Serves me right! - it’s all from smoking, which I can’t quit, and I’ve been smoking since the third grade of the gymnasium and now I’m so thoroughly saturated with nicotine that it’s already become, likely, integral part my blood. It takes a miracle to snatch me from the clutches of this vice, but I don’t have enough willpower to do it. I tried to quit smoking, didn’t smoke for two days at a time, but the result was that I was overcome with such melancholy and embitterment that this new sin became more bitter than the old one. Father Barsanuphius forbade me to even make such attempts, limiting my daily portion of smoking to fifteen cigarettes. Before I smoked endlessly..."

“Your time will come,” said Father Barsanuphius, “and the smoking will come to an end.” “Hope, don’t despair: in due time, God willing, you’ll quit,” Father Joseph told me about the same smoking, which I couldn’t get behind. And a miracle, according to the word of both elders, happened to me. And it was like that.

My friend and I, my God-given wife, live, as they say, soul to soul, in the full sense of the Gospel word, so that we are not two, but one flesh. This great mercy of God, given to us from above, according to our deep and convinced faith in the Sacrament of Marriage, which we both at one time approached with fear and trembling. And so, in June 1910, my wife fell ill with some strange illness, which neither the Optina paramedic nor the invited doctor could identify: in the morning she was almost healthy, but in the evening her temperature reached 40. And so the week, and the second, and the third! I see that my joy is melting before my eyes, like a wax candle, and is about to flare up for the last time and go out. And then my orphaned heart was filled with great, immeasurable longing and sorrow, and I fell prostrate before the icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria of Smolensk, which stood in the corner of my office, and I cried before Her, and was horrified, and grieved, and spoke to Her as if alive : “My Mother Queen, Most Blessed Mother of God! You, I believe, gave the wife of my angel, and you will preserve her for me, and for this I make a vow to You never to smoke again. I make a vow, but I know that I cannot fulfill it on my own, and not to fulfill it is a great sin, so help me Yourself!” So it was around ten o'clock in the evening. Having prayed and calmed down somewhat, he went to his wife’s bed. He sleeps, his breathing is quiet and even. I touched my forehead: my forehead was wet, but not hot - my tender darling was fast asleep. Glory to God, glory to the Most Pure One! The next morning the temperature was 36.5, in the evening - 36.4 and the next day I woke up as if I had not been sick. And I forgot that I smoked, as I had never smoked, and I smoked for exactly thirty years and three years, and my whole body was so saturated with damned tobacco that I could not live without it not only for a day, but even for a minute.”

In this whole story, I would like to focus not so much on the miracle that occurred, but on the hero’s awareness of sin itself. Without such awareness, a miracle would be impossible. And from here follows the first rule for those who want to quit a bad habit: you must realize the sinfulness of smoking. Actually, overcoming any sin begins with such a step...

"Before you smoke, say a prayer"

Now let's stop at the place in the reader's letter where he says that the church fathers did not say anything about the dangers of smoking. This is not true at all. Another thing you should know is that in the Russian Orthodox Church there are no boundaries to patristic instructions. They say, until some relatively long time ago, these were patristic instructions, and the instructions of those who, say, were numbered among the host of saints in recent years, is something insufficiently authoritative. There are no such boundaries in the Russian Orthodox Church. Today's ascetics often absorb and develop the instructions of their predecessors, and every word of every holy ascetic is valuable in itself. Here are just some of the sayings of the holy fathers about the sin of smoking.

“Man has perverted the very pleasures of the senses. For the sense of smell and taste, and partly for breathing itself, he invented and almost constantly burns sharp and odorous smoke, bringing this, as it were, a constant censer to the demon living in the flesh, and with this smoke he infects the air of his home and the external air , and first of all, he himself is saturated with this stench - and here you have the constant coarsening of your feelings and your heart, which is constantly absorbed by the smoke, cannot but affect the subtlety of the heartfelt feeling, it imparts to it fleshiness, coarseness, insensibility.”

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt: “Tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys health with a slow death. Irritability and melancholy are a consequence of the morbidity of the soul from smoking.”

Rev. Ambrose of Optina: “In 1905, the Athonite elder Silouan spent several months in Russia, often visiting monasteries. On one of these trips on the train, he took a seat opposite a merchant, who, with a friendly gesture, opened his silver cigarette case in front of him and offered him a cigarette.

Father Silouan thanked for the offer, refusing to take a cigarette. Then the merchant began to say: “Isn’t it because, father, you refuse because you consider it a sin? But smoking often helps in active life; it’s good to take a break from the stress of work and rest for a few minutes. It’s convenient to have a business or friendly conversation while smoking, and in general during life..." And further, trying to convince Father Silouan to take a cigarette, he continued to speak in favor of smoking.

Then, after all, Father Silouan decided to say: “Sir, before you light a cigarette, pray, say one thing: “Our Father.” To this the merchant replied: “Praying before lighting a cigarette somehow doesn’t work.” Father Silouan in the answer noted: “So, any task that is not preceded by unconcerned prayer is better not to do.”

Now about the Bible quote from the book of Proverbs of Solomon, “smoking makes the heart glad.” Of course we're talking about It’s not about smoking tobacco at all. In ancient times, smoking was the name given to burning aromatic substances and fragrant oil. People in all centuries loved incense, and already in ancient times incense was added to sacrifices. Fragrant plants and exotic incense were highly valued in religious rites. They were worth their weight in gold and silver. Thus, the Queen of Sheba brought aromatic substances as a gift to Solomon. The incense was kept in the royal treasury. This is exactly the kind of “smoking” that the Bible talks about. Smoking makes the heart glad, and the heartfelt advice of a friend is sweet, that's what this quote from the book of Proverbs is all about. Today, “smoking” in the temple can be called incense - when the priest walks through the temple with a censer, from which the incense is burned. “At Divine services they burn incense, how can the slaves of sin not invent some kind of incense?” said Saint Nicodemus the Holy Mountain. “The first is pleasing to God, the second should be pleasing to the enemy of God - the devil.”

Church warns: smoking harms your soul

Today, many experts say that in lately The global center of cigarette sales is increasingly shifting to Russia. In the USA and Western Europe, thanks to the measures taken, the number of smokers is reduced by tens of millions of people every year.

What are these measures? Bans on smoking in public places - in restaurants, airplanes, on the street, in clubs, offices, etc. Promoting the dangers of smoking has no less effect. Posters about the dangers of tobacco are placed literally everywhere. Plus, tobacco companies are literally inundated with lawsuits against people who become ill as a result of smoking. The amounts of claims amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, and the courts very often satisfy such claims. Perhaps even more important in the West is the high price of cigarettes. A pack of cigarettes in Europe costs at least five euros, that is, 160 - 180 rubles translated into Russian rubles. If such a pricing policy existed in Russia, many would think about whether it’s worth wasting that kind of money.

In Russia it is a completely different matter. Due to extremely low excise taxes, cigarettes are quite inexpensive in our country. They are available to everyone and, unfortunately, even children. In Russia, global tobacco companies feel like bosses. Having skillfully taken control of almost all the country's tobacco factories (there are now only two (!) domestic tobacco companies operating in Russia), foreign companies threw huge amounts of money into advertising smoking. While cigarette advertising is strictly prohibited almost everywhere in the world, here we have hundreds of billboards for tobacco products “decorating” the streets of almost all cities in the country. At the same time, Russian advertising legislation is grossly and everywhere (including in Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Kemerovo, Barnaul). Using simple tricks, the inscription that smoking is harmful to health takes up a much smaller portion of billboards than the law provides. This is done very simply. The percentage of area is calculated based on the strip allocated for such an inscription, while the warning inscription itself is much smaller.

At the same time, foreign tobacco companies are trying in every possible way to create for themselves in Russia the image of companies that are extremely concerned about the negative impact of smoking on health. This is not possible by law abroad. There, tobacco companies are legally prohibited from participating in charity events, sponsoring sports and all other events.

...In Los Angeles, on Santa Monica Boulevard, there is a board counting the number of deaths from cigarette addiction. In Russia, there is no such board yet in any city...

It is not surprising that this situation caused serious criticism from Russian public organizations, and government officials. In particular, they propose to bring the inscriptions on cigarette packs, warning about the dangers of smoking. First of all, it is proposed to make this inscription (like abroad!) not some inconspicuous size, but half the size of a tobacco pack. And here it makes sense to return to where we started, to the fact that smoking is not just harmful to health, but is a serious sin.

Warning notices on cigarette packages can vary widely. Abroad, such inscriptions warn potential buyers that smoking is fraught with cancer. That smoking is extremely harmful for pregnant women. The fact that for young people smoking often results in impotence. I think it's Russian Orthodox Church will strongly support the proposal of the newspaper "Honest Word" that one of the inscriptions should read: "The Russian Orthodox Church warns: smoking is a sin." The wording of such a warning can be clarified, but there is no doubt that it is appropriate (and necessary!).

On the one hand, the voice of the Church today is very significant for many, on the other hand, very few (especially among young people) are aware of how (and why) the Orthodox Church relates to smoking tobacco. And such a warning, without a doubt, will bring positive results.

Alexander Okonishnikov

Honestly - 11/01/2006.

Prayer for the passion of smoking to St. Ambrose of Optina

Reverend Father Ambrose, you, having boldness before the Lord, beg the Greatly Gifted Master to give me quick help in the fight against unclean passion.

God! Through the prayers of Your saint, the Venerable Ambrose, cleanse my lips, purify my heart and fill it with the fragrance of Your Holy Spirit, so that the evil tobacco passion will run far away from me, back to where it came from, into the belly of hell.

ABOUT THE POST.

The head of virtues is prayer; their basis is post.

Fasting is constant moderation in food with prudent pickiness in it.

Proud man! You dream so much and so highly about your mind, but it is in complete and continuous dependence on your stomach.

The law of fasting, while outwardly a law for the belly, is in essence a law for the mind.

The mind, this king in man, if it wants to enter into the rights of its autocracy and preserve them, must first of all submit to the law of fasting. Only then will he be constantly cheerful and bright; only then can he rule over the desires of the heart and body; only with constant sobriety can he study the commandments of the Gospel and follow them. The basis of virtues is fasting.

The newly created man, introduced into paradise, was given a single commandment, the commandment of fasting. Of course, one commandment was given because it was sufficient to preserve the primordial man in his integrity.

The commandment did not speak about the quantity of food, but only forbade the quality. Let those who recognize fasting only in the quantity of food, and not in quality, remain silent. By delving deeper into the experiential study of fasting, they will see the importance of food quality.

The commandment of fasting, announced by God to man in paradise, is so important that, along with the commandment, a threat of execution was pronounced for violating the commandment. The execution consisted of defeating people with eternal death.

And now sinful death continues to strike violators of the holy commandment of fasting. He who does not observe moderation and proper discernment in food cannot preserve either virginity or chastity, cannot curb anger, indulges in laziness, despondency and sadness, becomes a slave of vanity, the home of pride, which

This is what is introduced into a person by his carnal state, which comes most from a luxurious and well-fed meal.

The commandment of fasting is renewed or confirmed by the Gospel. Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness. 1), the Lord commanded. Overeating and drunkenness impart fatness not only to the body, but to the mind and heart, that is, they bring a person’s soul and body into a carnal state.

On the contrary, fasting puts a Christian into a spiritual state. Purified by fasting, he is humble in spirit, chaste, modest, silent, subtle in his heartfelt feelings and thoughts, light in body, capable of spiritual achievements and speculation, capable of receiving Divine grace.

The carnal man is completely immersed in sinful pleasures. He is voluptuous both in body and in heart and mind; he is incapable not only of spiritual pleasure and the acceptance of Divine grace, but also of repentance. He is generally incapable of spiritual pursuits: he is nailed to the ground, drowned in materiality, alive and dead in soul.

Woe to you now that you are full: for you will hunger!2). This is the saying of the Word of God to those who violate the commandment of holy fasting. What will you eat in eternity, when here you have learned only to be satiated with material indulgences and material pleasures that are not in heaven? What will you eat in eternity, when you have not tasted a single heavenly good? How can you enjoy and nourish yourself with heavenly blessings when you have not acquired any sympathy for them, and have acquired disgust?

The daily bread of Christians is Christ. Insatiable satiation with this bread is satiety and saving pleasure, to which all Christians are invited.

Feast insatiably on the Word of God; be insatiably satisfied with the fulfillment of the commandments of Christ; be insatiably satisfied with the meal, asking those who are cold about you about what has been prepared, and revel in cup of sovereignty 3).

"Where should we start?says Saint Macarius the Great 4), “who have never examined our hearts? standing

1) Bow. XXI, 34. 2) Luke. VI, 26. 3) Psalm. XXII, 5. 4) Word 1, ch. 4.

outside, let us knock by prayer and fasting, as I the Lord commanded: Push and it will be opened to you" 1).

This feat, which one of the greatest teachers of monasticism offers us, was the feat of the holy apostles. From among him they were privileged to hear the broadcasts of the Spirit. To those who serve the Lord, says the writer of their deeds, and to those fasting, the Holy Spirit said: Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for work, on their tender calls. Then he fasted and prayed, and lay your hands on nya, let them go 3). From the midst of the feat, which included fasting and prayer, we heard the command of the Spirit to call the pagans to Christianity.

A wonderful combination of fasting and prayer! Prayer is powerless if it is not based on fasting, and fasting is fruitless if prayer is not created on it 3).

Fasting removes a person from carnal passions, and prayer fights spiritual passions, and, having defeated them, penetrates the entire makeup of a person and cleanses him; She introduces God into the purified verbal temple.

Whoever sows the land without cultivating it destroys the grain and reaps thorns instead of wheat. So we too, if we sow the seeds of prayer without thinning our flesh, then instead of truth we will bear fruit in sin. Prayer will be destroyed and plundered by various vain and vicious thoughts and dreams, desecrated by voluptuous sensations. Our flesh came from the earth, and unless it is cultivated like the earth, it can never bear the fruit of righteousness 4).

On the contrary, if someone cultivates the land with great care and expense, but leaves it unsown, then it will be thickly covered with tares. So, when the body is weakened by fasting, and the soul is not nourished by prayer, reading, and humility: then fasting becomes the parent of numerous tares - spiritual passions: arrogance, vanity, contempt 5).

What is the passion of gluttony and drunkenness? Lost right

1) Matt. VII, 7. 2) Acts. XIII, 2, 3. 3) 4) and 5) Rev. Mark the Ascetic. Word 8, about fasting and humility.

strength, natural chewing of food and drink, requiring much more and their varied quality, rather than how much is needed to maintain life and bodily strength, on which excessive nutrition acts opposite to its natural purpose, acts harmfully, weakening and destroying them.

The desire for food is corrected by a simple meal and abstinence from satiety and enjoyment of food. First, satiety and pleasure must leave: through this the desire for food is refined and it receives correctness. When the desire becomes correct: then it is satisfied with simple food.

On the contrary, the desire for food, satisfied by satiety and pleasure, is dulled. To excite him, we resort to a variety of tasty foods and drinks. The desire at first appears to be satisfied; then it becomes more whimsical, and finally turns into a painful passion, seeking constant pleasure and satiety, constantly remaining unsatisfied.

Intending to devote ourselves to serving God, let us make fasting the basis of our endeavor. The essential quality of any foundation must be unshakable firmness: otherwise it is impossible for a building to stand on it, no matter how strong the building itself is. And we will never, never, under any pretext, allow ourselves to break our fast through satiety, especially drunkenness.

The Holy Fathers recognize that the best fasting is eating food once a day without being full. Such fasting does not weaken the body through prolonged abstinence and does not burden it with excess food, and moreover keeps it capable of soul-saving activities. Such fasting does not represent any striking feature, and therefore the fasting person has no reason to extol himself, to which a person is so inclined regarding virtue itself, especially when it is displayed playfully.

Whoever is busy with bodily labor or is so weak in body that he cannot be content with eating food once a day: he must eat twice. Fasting is for man, not man for fasting.

But with any consumption of food, both rare and frequent, satiety is strictly prohibited: it makes a person unable to

to spiritual achievements, and opens the door to other carnal passions.

Immoderate fasting, that is, prolonged excessive abstinence from food, is not approved by the Holy Fathers: from immeasurable abstinence and the exhaustion that results from it, a person becomes incapable of spiritual achievements, often turns to gluttony, and often falls into the passion of exaltation and pride.

The quality of food is very important: the forbidden fruit of paradise, although it was beautiful in appearance and tasty, it had a detrimental effect on the soul: it imparted to it the knowledge of good and evil, and thereby destroyed the integrity in which our forefathers were created.

And now food continues to have a strong effect on the soul, which is especially noticeable when drinking wine. This effect of food is based on its varied effect on flesh and blood, and on the fact that its vapors and gases from the stomach rise to the brain and have an effect on the mind.

For this reason, all intoxicating drinks, especially bread drinks, are forbidden to the ascetic, as they deprive the mind of sobriety, and thus victory in mental warfare. A defeated mind, especially by voluptuous thoughts, having delighted in them, is deprived of spiritual grace; what has been acquired through many long labors is lost in a few hours, in a few minutes.

A monk should not drink wine at all, said the Monk Pimen the Great 1). This rule should be followed by every pious Christian who wants to preserve his virginity and chastity. The Holy Fathers followed this rule, and if they drank wine, it was very rarely and with the greatest moderation.

Hot food should be excluded from the abstinent meal, as it excites bodily passions. These are pepper, ginger and other spices.

The most natural food is that which was assigned to man by the Creator immediately upon creation—food from the plant kingdom: God said to our forefathers: Behold, I have given you all seed-bearing herbs, sowing seed, which is on the top of all the earth:

1) Alphabetical Patericon.

and every tree , hedgehog to have in itself the fruit of the seed of the seed , you will have enough food 1). After the flood, the use of us was allowed 2).

Plant food is the best for an ascetic. It warms the blood the least, fattens the flesh the least; vapors and gases that separate from it and ascend to the brain; have the least effect on him; finally, it is the healthiest, as it produces the least mucus in the stomach. For these reasons, when using it, purity and vigor of the mind are especially conveniently preserved, and with them its power over the whole person; when using it, passions are less active, and a person is more capable of engaging in deeds of piety.

Fish dishes, especially prepared from large sea fish, have a completely different property: they have a more noticeable effect on the brain, fatten the body, heat the blood, fill the stomach with harmful mucus, especially with frequent and constant use.

These effects are incomparably stronger from eating meat food: it extremely fattens the flesh, giving it a special plumpness, and heats the blood; the bunks and gases greatly burden the brain. For this reason it is not used at all by monks; it belongs to people living in the middle of the world, always engaged in intense bodily labor. But for them, constant use of it is harmful.

How! the imaginary wise men will exclaim here: meat food is permitted to man by God, and do you forbid its consumption?—To this we answer with the words of the Apostle: All the years are the essence(i.e. everything is allowed to me), but not all of them are for good: all of us are good, but not all of them are edifying 3). We shy away from eating meats not because we consider them unclean, but because they produce special fatness in our entire composition and interfere with spiritual success.

The Holy Church, by its wise institutions and decrees, having allowed Christians living in the middle of the world to eat meat, did not allow their constant consumption, but separated

1) Life I, 29. 2) Gen. IX, 3. 3) 1 Cor. X, 23.

times of meat-eating, times of abstinence from meat, times in which a Christian sobers up from his meat-eating. Anyone who observes them can experience this fruit of fasting.

For monastics, the consumption of meat is prohibited; the consumption of dairy foods and eggs is allowed during times of meat-eating. At certain times and days they are allowed to eat fish. But most of the time they can eat only one plant food.

Plant food is almost exclusively consumed by the most zealous ascetics of piety, who have especially felt the walking of the Spirit of God within themselves 1), due to the above-mentioned convenience of this food and its cheapness. For drinking they use only water, avoiding not only hot and intoxicating drinks, but also nutritious drinks, which are all bread drinks 2).

The rules of fasting were established by the Church with the aim of helping her children, as a guide for the entire Christian society. At the same time, everyone is instructed to consider himself with the help of an experienced and prudent spiritual father, and not to impose on himself a fast that exceeds his strength: because, we repeat, fasting is for man, and not man for fasting, food given to support the body should not destroy it .

“If you hold your belly,” said Saint Basil the Great, “you will ascend to heaven; if you do not restrain, you will be a victim of death” 3). The name of paradise here should mean a grace-filled prayerful state, and the name of death a passionate state. A person’s state of grace during his stay on earth serves as a guarantee of his eternal bliss in heavenly Eden; you will fall into the power of sin and into a state of spiritual deadness, which serves as a guarantee of falling into the hellish abyss for eternal torment. Amen.

1) 2 Cor. VI, 17. 2) Ladder. Word 14, ch. XII. 3) Venerable Nil of Sorsky. Word 5. Thought of gluttony.

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Holy Fathers on smoking

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

Venerable Ambrose of Optina

Father Silouan thanked for the offer, refusing to take a cigarette. Then the merchant began to say: “Isn’t it because, father, you refuse because you consider it a sin? But smoking often helps in an active life; It’s good to take a break from the stress of work and rest for a few minutes. It’s convenient to have a business or friendly conversation while smoking, and in general in the course of life...” And then, trying to convince Father Silouan to take a cigarette, he continued to speak in favor of smoking.

Then, after all, Father Silouan decided to say: “Sir, before you light a cigarette, pray, say one thing: “Our Father.” To this the merchant replied: “Praying before smoking somehow doesn’t work.” Father Silouan responded: “So, any task that is not preceded by unabashed prayer is better not to do.”

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Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov

Eight major passions with their divisions and industries

1. Gluttony

Binge eating, drunkenness, non-keeping and allowing fasting, secret eating, delicacy, and generally violation of abstinence. Incorrect and excessive love of the flesh, its belly and rest, which constitutes self-love, which leads to failure to maintain fidelity to God, the Church, virtue and people.

2. Fornication

Prodigal lust, prodigal sensations and attitudes of the soul and heart. Acceptance of unclean thoughts, conversation with them, delight in them, permission for them, slowness in them. Prodigal dreams and captivities. Failure to preserve the senses, especially the sense of touch, is insolence that destroys all virtues. Foul language and reading voluptuous books. Natural prodigal sins: fornication and adultery. Prodigal sins are unnatural.

3. Love of money

The love of money, in general the love of property, movable and immovable. The desire to get rich. Reflection on means of enrichment. Dreaming of wealth. Fears of old age, unexpected poverty, illness, exile. Stinginess. Selfishness. Disbelief in God, lack of trust in his providence. Addictions or painful excessive love for various perishable objects, depriving the soul of freedom. Passion for vain concerns. Loving gifts. Appropriation of someone else's. Likhva. Cruelty towards the poor brethren and all those in need. Theft. Robbery.

4. Anger

Hot temper, acceptance of angry thoughts: dreams of anger and revenge, indignation of the heart with rage, darkening of the mind with it: obscene shouting, argument, swearing, cruel and caustic words, stress, pushing, murder. Malice, hatred, enmity, revenge, slander, condemnation, indignation and insult to one’s neighbor.

5. Sadness

Sadness, melancholy, cutting off hope in God, doubt in God’s promises, ingratitude to God for everything that happens, cowardice, impatience, lack of self-reproach, grief towards one’s neighbor, grumbling, renunciation of the cross, attempt to descend from it.

6.Despondency

Laziness towards any good deed, especially prayer. Abandonment of church and cell rules. Abandonment of unceasing prayer and soulful reading. Inattention and haste in prayer. Neglect. Irreverence. Idleness. Excessive calming by sleeping, lying down and all kinds of restlessness. Moving from place to place. Frequent exits from cells, walks and visits with friends. Celebration. Jokes. Blasphemers. Abandonment of bows and other physical feats. Forgetting your sins. Forgetting the commandments of Christ. Negligence. Captivity. Deprivation of the fear of God. Bitterness. Insensibility. Despair.

7. Vanity

The search for human glory. Boasting. Desire and search for earthly and vain honors. Love of beautiful clothes, carriages, servants and cell things. Attention to the beauty of your face, the pleasantness of your voice and other qualities of your body. A disposition towards the dying sciences and arts of this age, a desire to succeed in them in order to acquire temporary, earthly glory. Shame to confess your sins. Hiding them before people and the spiritual father. Craftiness. Self-justification. Disclaimer. Making up your mind. Hypocrisy. Lie. Flattery. People-pleasing. Envy. Humiliation of one's neighbor. Changeability of character. Indulgence. Unconscionability. The character and life are demonic.

8. Pride

Contempt for one's neighbor. Preferring yourself to everyone. Insolence. Darkness, dullness of the mind and heart. Nailing them to the earthly. Hula. Disbelief. False mind. Disobedience to the Law of God and the Church. Following your carnal will. Reading books that are heretical, depraved and vain. Disobedience to authorities. Caustic ridicule. Abandonment of Christ-like humility and silence. Loss of simplicity. Loss of love for God and neighbor. False philosophy. Heresy. Godlessness. Ignorance. Death of the soul.

Such are the ailments, such are the ulcers that constitute the great ulcer of the old Adam, which was formed from his fall. The saint speaks about this great plague prophet Isaiah: from the feet even to the head there is no integrity in it: neither a scab, nor an ulcer, nor a burning wound, do not apply a plaster, below the oil, below the bandage (Is. 1:6). This means, according to the explanation of the Fathers, that the ulcer - sin - is not private, and not on just one member, but on the entire being: it has embraced the body, embraced the soul, taken possession of all the properties, all the powers of a person. God called this great plague death when, forbidding Adam and Eve from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he said: “If you take away one day from it, you will die.” (Genesis 2:17). Immediately after eating the forbidden fruit, the forefathers felt eternal death; a carnal feeling appeared in their gaze; they saw that they were naked. The knowledge of the nakedness of the body reflected the nakedness of the soul, which had lost the beauty of innocence on which the Holy Spirit rested. There is a carnal sensation in the eyes, and in the soul there is shame, in which is the accumulation of all sinful and shameful sensations: pride, impurity, sadness, despondency, and despair. The Great Plague is spiritual death; the decay that occurred after the loss of the Divine likeness is incorrigible! The Apostle calls the great plague the law of sin, the body of death (Rom. 5:23-24), because the mortified mind and heart have completely turned to the earth, slavishly serve the corruptible desires of the flesh, have become darkened, burdened, and become flesh themselves. This flesh is no longer capable of communicating with God! (Genesis 6:3). This flesh is not capable of inheriting eternal, heavenly bliss! (1 Cor. 4:50). The great plague spread over the entire human race and became the unfortunate property of every person.

Considering my great ulcer, looking at my mortification, I am filled with bitter sadness! I'm perplexed, what should I do? Will I follow the example of the old Adam, who, seeing his nakedness, hastens to hide from God? Will I, like him, justify myself by placing the blame on the guilt of sin? It is in vain to hide from the All-Seeing One! It is in vain to justify yourself before the One who always wins, to always judge Him (Ps. 30:6).

Instead of fig leaves, I will clothe myself with tears of repentance; Instead of justification, I will bring sincere consciousness. Clothed in repentance and tears, will I appear before the face of my God? Is it in heaven? I have been expelled from there, and the cherub standing at the entrance will not let me in! By the very burden of my flesh I am nailed to the ground, my prison!

Sinful descendant of Adam, take heart! A light has shone in your prison: God has descended into the low country of your exile to lead you to your lost highland fatherland. You wanted to know good and evil: He leaves you this knowledge. You wanted to become like God, and from this you became like the devil in your soul, like cattle and beasts in your body; God, uniting you with Himself, makes you God by grace. He forgives your sins. This is not enough! He will remove the root of evil from your soul, the very infection of sin, hell, cast into your soul by the devil, and will give you medicine for the entire path of your earthly life for healing from sin, no matter how many times you become infected with it, due to your weakness. This healing is the confession of sins. Do you want to put off the old Adam, you, who through holy baptism have already been clothed in the New Adam, but through your own iniquities managed to revive old age and death in yourself, to choke life, to make it half-dead? Do you want, enslaved to sin, drawn to it by the violence of habit, to regain your freedom and righteousness? Immerse yourself in humility! Conquer vain shame, which teaches you to hypocritically and craftily pretend to be righteous and thereby preserve and strengthen spiritual death within yourself. Cast out sin, enter into hostility with sin by sincere confession of sin. This healing must precede all others; without it, healing through prayer, tears, fasting and all other means will be insufficient, unsatisfactory, fragile. Go, proud one, to your spiritual father, at his feet find the mercy of the Heavenly Father! One, one sincere and frequent confession can free one from sinful habits, make repentance fruitful, and correction lasting and true.

In a brief moment of tenderness, in which the eyes of the mind are opened for self-knowledge, which comes so rarely, I wrote this as an accusation to myself, as an admonition, reminder, instruction. And you, who with faith and love for Christ read these lines and, perhaps, find in them something useful for yourself, bring a heartfelt sigh and prayer for the soul that has suffered much from the waves of sin, that has often seen drowning and destruction before itself, that has found rest in one refuge: in confession of one’s sins.

On the virtues opposite to the eight main sinful passions

1. Abstinence

Avoidance of excessive consumption of food and nutrition, especially excessive consumption of wine. Maintaining strict fasts established by the Church, curbing the flesh with moderate and constantly equal consumption of food, from which all passions in general begin to weaken, and especially self-love, which consists of a wordless love of the flesh, its life and peace.

2. Chastity

Avoidance of all kinds of fornication. Avoidance of voluptuous conversations and reading, from the pronunciation of voluptuous, nasty and ambiguous words. Storing the senses, especially sight and hearing, and even more so the sense of touch. Modesty. Rejection of the thoughts and dreams of prodigals. Silence. Silence. Ministry to the sick and disabled. Memories of death and hell. The beginning of chastity is a mind that does not waver from lustful thoughts and dreams; the perfection of chastity is purity that sees God.

3. Non-covetousness

Satisfying yourself with one thing necessary. Hatred of luxury and bliss. Mercy for the poor. Loving the poverty of the Gospel. Trust in God's providence. Following Christ's commandments. Calmness and freedom of spirit and carelessness. Softness of heart.

4. Meekness

Avoidance of angry thoughts and indignation of the heart with rage. Patience. Following Christ, who calls His disciple to the cross. Peace of the heart. Silence of the mind. Christian firmness and courage. Not feeling insulted. Kindness.

5. Blessed crying

A feeling of decline, common to all people, and of one’s own spiritual poverty. Lamentation about them. Cry of the mind. Painful contrition of the heart. The lightness of conscience, grace-filled consolation and joy that vegetates from them. Hope in God's mercy. Thanks be to God in sorrows, their humble enduring from the sight of their multitude of sins. Willingness to endure. Cleansing the mind. Relief from passions. Mortification of the world. The desire for prayer, solitude, obedience, humility, confession of one’s sins.

6. Sobriety

Zeal for every good deed. Non-slothful correction of church and cell rules. Attention when praying. Careful observation of all your deeds, words, thoughts and feelings. Extreme self-distrust. Continuous stay in prayer and the Word of God. Awe. Constant vigilance over oneself. Keeping yourself from a lot of sleep and effeminacy, idle talk, jokes and sharp words. Love of night vigils, bows and other feats that bring cheerfulness to the soul. Rare, if possible, departure from cells. Remembrance of eternal blessings, desire and expectation of them.

7. Humility

Fear of God. Feeling it during prayer. Fear that arises during especially pure prayer, when the presence and greatness of God is felt especially strongly, so as not to disappear and turn into nothing. Deep knowledge of one's insignificance. A change in view of neighbors, and they, without any coercion, seem to the humbled person to be superior to him in all respects. The manifestation of simplicity from living faith. Hatred of human praise. Constant blaming and beating yourself up. Rightness and directness. Impartiality. Deadness to everything. Tenderness. Knowledge of the mystery hidden in the Cross of Christ. The desire to crucify oneself to the world and passions, the desire for this crucifixion. Rejection and oblivion of flattering customs and words, modest due to compulsion or intent, or the skill of pretending. Perception of the riot of the gospel. Rejection of earthly wisdom as unbecoming before God (Luke 16:15). Leaving word justification. Silence before those who offend, studied in the Gospel. Putting aside all your own speculations and accepting the mind of the Gospel. The casting down of every thought placed upon the mind of Christ. Humility or spiritual reasoning. Conscious obedience to the Church in everything.

8. Love

Changing during prayer the fear of God into the love of God. Loyalty to the Lord, proven by the constant rejection of every sinful thought and feeling. The indescribable, sweet attraction of the whole person with love for the Lord Jesus Christ and for the worshiped Holy Trinity. Seeing the image of God and Christ in others; resulting from this spiritual vision, the preference for oneself over all neighbors, their reverent veneration for the Lord. Love for neighbors is brotherly, pure, equal to everyone, joyful, impartial, flaming equally towards friends and enemies. Admiration for prayer and love of the mind, heart and whole body. Indescribable pleasure of the body with spiritual joy. Spiritual intoxication. Relaxation of bodily members with spiritual consolation (St. Isaac of Syria. Sermon 44). Inactivity of the bodily senses during prayer. Resolution from the muteness of the heart's tongue. Stopping prayer from spiritual sweetness. Silence of the mind. Enlightening the mind and heart. Prayer power that overcomes sin. Peace of Christ. Retreat of all passions. The absorption of all understandings into the superior mind of Christ. Theology. Knowledge of incorporeal beings. The weakness of sinful thoughts that cannot be imagined in the mind.
Sweetness and abundant consolation in times of sorrow. Vision of human structures. The depth of humility and the most humiliating opinion of oneself... The end is endless!

Add-ons from various sources

The shortest confession

Sins against the Lord God

Belief in dreams, fortune telling, meetings and other signs. Doubts about faith. Laziness towards prayer and absent-mindedness during it. Not going to Church, long absence from confession and Holy Communion. Hypocrisy in Divine Worship. Blasphemy or just murmuring against God in the soul and in words. The intention to raise your hands. In vain. An unfulfilled promise to God. Blasphemy of the sacred. Anger with mention of evil spirits (trait). Eating or drinking on Sundays and holidays before the end of the Liturgy. Violation of fasts or inaccurate observance of them is a work issue on holidays.

Sins against one's neighbor

Lack of diligence in one's position or one's work in the dormitory. Disrespect for superiors or elders. Failure to fulfill a promise to a person. Non-payment of debts. Taking by force or secret appropriation of someone else's property. Stinginess in alms. Personal insult to one's neighbor. Gossip. Slander. Cursing others. Unnecessary suspicions. Failure to protect an innocent person or a just cause with loss for them. Murder. Disrespect for parents. Failure to look after children with Christian care. Anger is hostility in family or home life.

Sins against yourself

Idle or bad thoughts in the soul. Desires evil for one's neighbor. Falsity of words, speech. Irritability. Obstinacy or pride. Envy. Hard-heartedness. Sensitivity to upsets or insults. Vengeance. Love of money. Passion for pleasure. Foul language. The songs are seductive. Drunkenness and heavy eating. Fornication. Adultery. Unnatural fornication. Not fixing your life.

Of all these sins against the Ten Commandments of God, some, reaching the highest stage of development in a person, passing into vicious states and hardening his heart with unrepentance, are recognized as especially serious and contrary to God.

Mortal sins, that is, those that make a person guilty of eternal death or destruction

1. Pride, despising everyone, demanding servility from others, ready to ascend to heaven and become like the Most High: in a word - pride to the point of self-adoration.

2. Love of money. An insatiable soul, or Judas’s greed for money, mostly combined with unrighteous acquisitions, not allowing a person even a moment to think about spiritual things.

3. Gluttony or carnality, not knowing any fasting, combined with a passionate attachment to various amusements, following the example of the Evangelical rich man, who had fun all day long.

4. Fornication. Fornication, or the dissolute life of the prodigal son, who squandered all his father’s estate on such a life.

5. Envy, leading to every possible crime against one’s neighbor.

6. Vanity is the desire for vain, that is, vain, empty glory.

7. Irreconcilable anger and resolving to terrible destruction, following the example of Herod, who in his anger beat the infants of Bethlehem. Grudge.

8. Sadness. Dejection. Laziness, or complete carelessness about the soul, carelessness about repentance until last days life, such as in the days of Noah.

Sins of Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit

Excessive reliance on God or continuation is difficult sinful life in one hope of God's mercy.
Despair or the feeling opposite to excessive trust in God in relation to God’s mercy, which denies the fatherly goodness in God and leads to thoughts of suicide.
Stubborn unbelief, not convinced by any evidence of truth, even obvious miracles, rejecting the most established truth.

Sins crying out to heaven for vengeance

In general, intentional homicide (abortion), and especially parricide (fratricide and regicide).
Sin of Sodom.
Unnecessary oppression of a poor, defenseless person, a defenseless widow and young orphans.
Withholding from a wretched worker the wages he deserves.
Taking away from a person in his extreme situation the last piece of bread or the last mite, which he obtained with sweat and blood, as well as the forcible or secret appropriation of alms, food, warmth or clothing from prisoners in prison, which are determined by him, and generally oppressing them.
Sadness and insults to parents to the point of daring beatings.

Confession

I confess that I am a great sinner (name) to the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ and to you, honorable father, all my sins and all my evil deeds, which I have done in all the days of my life, which I have thought even to this day.

He sinned: he did not keep the vows of Holy Baptism, he did not keep his monastic promise, but he lied about everything and created indecent things for himself before the Face of God.
Forgive us, Merciful Lord (for the people.
Forgive me, honest father (for singles).

I sinned: before the Lord by lack of faith and sluggishness in thoughts, all from the enemy against faith and the Holy. Churches; ingratitude for all His great and unceasing benefits, calling on the name of God without need - in vain.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: lack of love for the Lord below fear, failure to fulfill the holy. His will and St. commandments, careless depiction of the sign of the cross, irreverent veneration of St. icons; did not wear a cross, was ashamed to baptize and confess the Lord.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: I did not preserve love for my neighbor, did not feed the hungry and thirsty, did not clothe the naked, did not visit the sick and prisoners in prison; the law of God and St. I did not learn the traditions of my fathers out of laziness and negligence.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by not fulfilling church and cell rules, by going to the temple of God without diligence, with laziness and negligence; leaving morning, evening and other prayers; during a church service - he sinned by idle talk, laughter, dozing, inattention to reading and singing, absent-mindedness, leaving the temple during the service and not going to the temple of God due to laziness and negligence.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by daring to go to the temple of God in uncleanness and touch all holy things.
Forgive me, honest father.

Sinned: by not honoring the feasts of God; violation of St. posts and non-storage. fast days– Wednesdays and Fridays; intemperance in food and drink, polyeating, secret eating, disordered eating, drunkenness, dissatisfaction with food and drink, clothing, parasitism (tune - for nothing, illegally; poison - eating, eating bread for nothing).
One’s own will and reason through fulfillment, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and self-justification; undue reverence for parents, failure to raise children in the Orthodox faith, cursing their children and their neighbors.
Forgive me, honest father.

Sinned by: unbelief, superstition, doubt, despair, despondency, blasphemy, false religion, dancing, smoking, playing cards, fortune telling, witchcraft, sorcery, gossip, remembering the living for their repose, eating the blood of animals (Ecumenical Council, 67 canon. Act of the Apostles , 15 chapters).
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: pride, conceit, arrogance, self-love, ambition, envy, conceit, suspicion, irritability.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by condemning all people - living and dead, by slander and anger, by malicious malice, hatred, evil for evil, retribution, slander, reproach, deceit, laziness, deception, hypocrisy, gossip, disputes, stubbornness, unwillingness to give in and serve one's neighbor; sinned with gloating, malice, malice, insult, ridicule, reproach and man-pleasing.
Forgive me, honest father.

Sinned: incontinence of mental and physical feelings; spiritual and physical impurity, pleasure and procrastination in unclean thoughts, addiction, voluptuousness, immodest views of wives and young men; in a dream, prodigal night defilement, intemperance in married life.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by impatience with illnesses and sorrows, by loving the comforts of this life, by captivity of the mind and hardening of the heart, by not forcing myself to do any good deed.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by inattention to the promptings of my conscience, negligence, laziness in reading the word of God and negligence in acquiring the Jesus Prayer. I sinned through covetousness, love of money, unrighteous acquisition, embezzlement, theft, stinginess, attachment to various kinds things and people.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by condemning and disobeying my spiritual fathers, by murmuring and resenting them and by not confessing my sins to them through oblivion, negligence and false shame.
Forgive me, honest father.

Sinned: by unmercifulness, contempt and condemnation of the poor; going to the temple of God without fear and reverence, deviating into heresy and sectarian teaching.
Forgive me, honest father.

Sinned: by laziness, relaxation, love of bodily rest, excessive sleeping, voluptuous dreams, biased views, shameless body movements, touching, fornication, adultery, corruption, masturbation, unmarried marriages, those who performed abortions on themselves or others, or persuaded someone, gravely sinned. something to this great sin - infanticide. He spent his time in empty and idle pursuits, in empty conversations, jokes, laughter and other shameful sins.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: despondency, cowardice, impatience, murmuring, despair of salvation, lack of hope in God’s mercy, insensibility, ignorance, arrogance, shamelessness.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by slandering my neighbor, anger, insult, irritation and ridicule, non-reconciliation, enmity and hatred, dissent, spying on other people's sins and eavesdropping on other people's conversations.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by coldness and insensitivity during confession, by belittling sins, by blaming others rather than by condemning myself.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: against the Life-giving and Holy Mysteries of Christ, approaching Them without proper preparation, without contrition and the fear of God.
Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: in word, in thought and with all my senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch - voluntarily or involuntarily, knowledge or ignorance, in reason and unreason, and it is not possible to list all my sins according to their multitude. But in all of these, as well as in those unspeakable through oblivion, I repent and regret, and henceforth, with the help of God, I promise to take care.

You, honest father, forgive me and release me from all of this and pray for me, a sinner, and on that day of judgment testify before God about the sins I have confessed. Amen.

Sins confessed and resolved earlier should not be repeated in confession, for they, as the Holy Church teaches, have already been forgiven, but if we repeated them again, then we need to repent of them again. We must repent of those sins that were forgotten, but are now remembered.