11.03.2014 Through the labor of the brethren of the monastery 27 056

Great Lent continues. Over the next 40 days, the Orthodox should not only refrain from food of animal origin and moderate entertainment, but also work on themselves, trying to cleanse the soul of all filth.

The spiritual component of Great Lent is put in the first place in monasteries - the cult of food does not exist there. Perhaps that is why monks often call the period of Lenten fertile, and the laity - difficult.

AND main difficulty- gastronomic. On pasta, cereals and vegetables, excluding fish (except for several days of church holidays, they do not eat it either), it is really difficult for many to hold out for almost two months ...

“Every day we get about 600 liters of milk and 600 - 700 eggs,” says Vladimir. - In non-fasting times, most of these products go straight to the table - we send them to the Central Estate, to hermitages, make cottage cheese, sour cream, and cook cheese. During Lent, the picture changes: we send milk, cottage cheese, sour cream and eggs, as usual, only to the local kindergarten, school and military unit stationed on Valaam, and also donate to those in need local residents... Everything else goes to storage and processing - the preparation of cheese.

We start making cottage cheese and sour cream for the needs of the monastery two weeks before Easter.

The monastery has potato, beetroot, carrot fields, gardens, its own fishery... In addition, in summer and autumn, with the help of pilgrims who come to Valaam to work hard, we actively harvest forest gifts - mushrooms and berries. The monastery buys cereals and flour, and the squid allowed during the fast (they are neither fish nor meat), too. Such a variety of foods can be used to make many delicious, healthy foods. Meat in the monastery is not eaten at all - neither on fast days, nor on fast days. It is replaced by fish: in non-fasting times, fish soup, broth for vegetable soups is prepared from it, fried, steamed, boiled, smoked. But smoked fish is served only on holidays ...

In the first three days of Great Lent, according to the statute, dry eating is prescribed. Later, vegetable oil is used on all days except Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

In order to somehow diversify the lean menu, we add squid dishes - soup, salad, gravy, or simply fry it to vegetable dishes, cereals and everyone's favorite potato pancakes (instead of an egg). But, before you can cook anything from squid meat, it must be properly processed.

I take the carcasses that are slightly thawed, but with ice, pour boiling water for half a minute, and drain. I repeat this procedure twice, and then rinse the carcasses under running cold water. Then I boil the water, add some salt and cook the squid for about two minutes. Now he is ready to make, for example, soup from it: I put potatoes, sauteed carrots with onions, salt, spices in a saucepan, and five minutes before the end - chopped squid. In the most last minute add chopped herbs and just a little bit of garlic for flavor.

It is easy to make a salad from squid by mixing cooled and chopped meat and boiled rice in equal proportions. I also cut fresh cucumber, herbs into the salad, put olives and season with vegetable oil.

A tasty and nutritious dish - stuffed squid: I fry the carrots and onions, add herbs, rice or mashed potatoes, mix everything and stuff the carcass. It is better to stab the wide part with a toothpick so that the filling does not come out. I do not completely use the sautéed carrots with onions for the filling - I leave it a little, put it in a saucepan, put the stuffed squid there, add spices and cook for five to seven minutes. Sprinkle with herbs before serving.

You can also cook zrazy with mushrooms. To do this, crush boiled, well drained potatoes (mashed potatoes should turn out to be dry), add about a tablespoon of semolina, flour to it and let the mixture cool slightly. Fry mushrooms with onions (thawed or soaked, if dried), add herbs and also wait until the mixture cools. Then small cakes are molded from mashed potatoes, and in the middle of each a small depression is made into which the mushroom mince is placed. It needs to be completely covered with the edges of the cake - you get something like a potato cutlet, only with a filling. The cutlet should be rolled in breadcrumbs and fried in a pan on both sides.

We usually drink tea with honey, jam or mousse - this is useful. The mousse is prepared very simply: defrost the berries, pass through a blender and add a little sugar. For dessert, you can bake a sweet gingerbread: take about 150 g of water, 100 g of honey, 100 g of sugar, cinnamon and vanilla to taste and heat to a temperature of 75 degrees. On this basis, adding flour and vegetable oil, knead the dough to a consistency similar to that of a pancake. Heat the oven to 180 degrees, cover a baking sheet with parchment, put the mass on it and bake for 40 minutes. It turns out very tasty.

To spring the immune system in people it usually weakens, so during the fast we make sure that there are always dried fruits, honey, and nuts on the table.

Victoria Morozova,

STATUTE OF THE ST. POKROVSKY MEN'S MONASTERY
SOUTH SAKHALIN AND KURIL DIOCESE

CONTENT

Introduction

Chapter 1. The structure of the monastery

Chapter 2. Officials of the monastery

Chapter 3. Conditions for admission to the monastery

Chapter 4. The Behavior of Newborn Monks and Religious

Chapter 5. On Spiritual Guidance

Chapter 6. About church services

Chapter 7. About the brotherly meal

Chapter 8. About bell ringing

Chapter 9. About the cell stay

Chapter 10. Of External Visitors and Mutual Visits to Cells

Chapter 11. Terms of absence from the monastery

Chapter 12. Spiritual Council

Chapter 13. Penance

Chapter 14. Conditions for removal from the monastery

Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

An Orthodox monastery is a Christian community strictly living according to the commandments of God, seeking spiritual perfection in the affairs of the Christian life. The basis of the monastic spirit is the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your property and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow Me" (Matthew 19:21).

St. Basil the Great in one of his conversations gives a detailed description of the monastic life. “A monk,” he says, “must, first of all, acquire a non-acquisitive life, bodily solitude, a decent life, have a moderate voice and a modest word, food and drink that does not cause rebellion, eat in silence, be silent in front of elders, listen to the wise, to equal have love, give loving advice to the lower; retire unsuitable, fleshly and vain people, think more and speak less, not be impudent in words, do not allow excesses in conversation, avoid laughter, adorn with modesty, lower gaze, and lift up grief for the soul, do not answer contradictions with contradictions, be humble ; work with your own hands, always remember death, rejoice with hope, endure sorrow, constantly pray, thank for everything, be humble in front of everyone, hate arrogance, be sober and keep your heart from crafty thoughts ..., take care of the suffering, cry with them , to admonish the outraged, to comfort the faint-hearted, to serve the sick ..., to take care of brotherly love. "

A monk whiter and whiter should strive in his life to embody one of the most important commandments of Christ - the commandment of love: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind; ... and love your neighbor as yourself ”(Matthew 22. 37-39).

A monk creates love for God through unceasing prayers, talking with Him, confessing to Him his weaknesses, sins, and glorifying His goodness and mercy to all. A monk loves his neighbors in patience with their shortcomings, in constant prayer in them, in various help and mercy to them.

There were only solitary monks, the so-called anchorites, they were saved according to the rules given to them by their fathers and their mentors, but with the emergence of monasteries and numerous brotherhoods, a Charter was required that could regulate monastic life in them and contribute to a better development of the monastic spirit.

The Monk Pachomius the Great, an ascetic of the IV century, received such a cenobitic Rite from the Holy Angel, and it formed the basis of all the other monastic Rites: the Monk Anthony the Great, Saint Basil the Great, the Monk Sava the Sanctified and the Monk Theodore the Studite (his Rule was later adopted for the Monk Theodosius Kiev-Pechersk Monastery and later became a model for all other Russian monasteries).

CHAPTER 1. STRUCTURE OF THE MONASTERY

1. The Intercession Monastery of the Yuzhno-Sakhalin and Kuril Diocese is a communal monastery. He is completely subordinate to the ruling
bishop, who is the Holy Archimandrite of the monastery.

2. The names of His Holiness the Patriarch and the ruling bishop with their titles are ascended daily for all monastic services.

3. The ruling bishop appoints the Viceroy of the monastery, whose candidacy is approved by His Holiness the Patriarch and the Holy Synod .

4. The ruling bishop, as advised by the abbot of the monastery:

a) appoints the main officials of the monastery - the assistant to the Governor,
confessor, treasurer, dean, housekeeper, sacristan and some others;

b) teaches a blessing for consecration to the rank of hierodeacon and hieromonk
worthy persons from the brethren, as well as a blessing for tonsure into monasticism
ready-made novices;

c) confers appropriate church awards on the most well-behaved
persons from among the monastics;

d) enroll in the number of brethren those who are represented by the Governor; deducts persons
who grossly violate monastic discipline and maliciously leave

obedience to those in charge, not wanting to heed the voice of admonition.

5. The ruling bishop exercises general supervision over the monastery. From his
blessings The overseer leads the whole monastic life, including
economic.

6. To help the Viceroy, a Spiritual Council should be formed.

7. The present Charter of the monastery provides for linking the way of spiritual
life only by achieving their own goals of holiness and
the perfection of the monks, but also their bringing benefit to the people around in the world, i.e.
spiritual and educational activities, charity and charity.

CHAPTER 2. OFFICERS OF THE MONASTERY

REFEREE

1. The viceroy carries out obediences in the monastery and conducts all the monastic business
according to the blessing of his Superior, in connection with which he should know everything well
the needs of the monastery, in order to have constant care for everything.

2. It is the responsibility of the Viceroy to maintain the highest spiritual discipline and good order in the monastery; concern for spiritual work and the improvement of monks; observing the splendor and orderliness of divine services in monastic churches; taking care of the household, about the external condition of churches and other monastery buildings.

3. The viceroy, as a person who is official and responsible for his monastery before the Rector, the bishop, receives various visitors: pilgrims, foreign and domestic guests, employees of church and state institutions, guided by the good intentions and prudence of the Church, which will serve for the good and benefit of his monastery ...

4. The main concern of the Steward is to take care of the spiritual condition of his brethren, their diligence in prayer, in the worship of the monastery, her zeal in obedience and, especially, in striving for purity and holiness of life. The viceroy constantly keeps in touch with the confessors of the monastery and monitors how often the brethren approach the Sacrament of the Holy Confession and the communion of the Holy Gifts of the Body and Blood of Christ.

5. The viceroy, if health permits, heads all Sunday and festive monastic services, delivering teachings after them or entrusting them to others who are capable of this, persons who have the priesthood.

6. The viceroy, educating the will of the monks, instilling humility in them, checks the fulfillment of the obediences assigned to each of the members of the monastery, and if necessary, according to the fatherly, makes remarks, or even severe reprimands, up to penance, in order to admonish and correct the sinning brother , seeking in a prudent way from him recognition and repentance for the mistakes made.

7. In case of absence, illness or death of the Vicar, the Spiritual Council of the monastery, headed by the Father Assistant to the Viceroy, enters into the temporary dismissal of his duties.

ASSISTANT OFFICER

1. The duty of the Assistant Viceroy is to provide all-round assistance to the Governor of the monastery in the conduct of monastic affairs, and in the absence of the Governor, the performance of his duties in accordance with the blessing.

2. The Assistant to the Governor shall carry out the instructions of the Governor to ensure the statutory life of the monastery and supervise the correctness of the performance by the officials of their duties.

3. All the officials of the monastery are subordinate to him. He reports serious violations of their duties to the Governor.

4. The Deputy Governor has the right to keep in touch in matters related to the activities of the monastery with government departments, in accordance with the blessing of the Governor.

THE SPIRITUARY

1. The main duty of a spiritual father is pastoral care for the brethren of the monastery, their spiritual condition. Performing the Sacrament of Penance for them, he spiritually guides their life, putting them on the path of soul salvation. The confessor, taking care of the brethren, in the event of their sickness or overload, can intercede with the Viceroy for a change or facilitation of obedience for individual monks.

2. The confessor makes sure that all the inhabitants of the monastery unacceptably pass confession and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. For the monks, private conversations of the confessor will also be very useful, which will help them to better understand their monastic affairs.

3. The confessor visits his brethren, gets to know the dwelling of the monks, and in case of illness he consoles and protects such a person. In the field of vision of the confessor - every brother of the monastery, involved in obedience, exercising himself in reading spiritual books, in work and prayer, avoiding idleness, as the mother of all vices. The confessor should pay great attention to the obediences of the brethren of the monastery, observing and clarifying their spiritual attitude towards them.

4. If a confessor for some reason does not have time to take care of all his spiritual children, an assistant may be assigned to him. If the monks evade obedience or carelessly treat them, the Confessor takes this behavior into account and admonishes him at a time convenient for him.

5. The confessor makes sure that each of the brethren of the monastery undergoes the Sacrament of Confession at least once a week, and if one of the brethren avoids this, informs the Steward about it.

6. The confessor is the closest mentor of the novice monks.

7. The brotherly spiritual father oversees the confession of the pilgrims of the monastery, guides their spiritual fathers.

8. The confessor assists his children in their assimilation of the monastery charter, disposes them to obedience and teaches humility before the elder brethren and especially before the Steward, strengthening their authority in the monastery. In confession, he does not so much accept the complaints of the repentant monk against the brethren and the Steward, as he seeks to instruct him in patience and bearing his cross of life.

The circle of questions and answers of the confessor with the brethren is purely spiritual and should not concern the external and administrative side of the monastery, which belongs to the Steward.

TREASURER

1. It is the responsibility of the treasurer to closely monitor the receipts and expenditures of the monastic treasury and keep receipts and expense books, in compliance with the reporting rules. These books are presented annually by the Viceroy to the higher spiritual authorities for familiarization.

2. The treasurer also monitors the condition and movement of all other types of material assets of the monastery.

3. The treasurer maintains an archive of the most important monastic documents, both economic and financial.

4. The treasurer monitors the condition and storage of the inventories of the monastery property and valuables entering the monastery.

5. The treasurer, with the blessing of the assistant governor, issues advance money to the economist and other persons sent for purchases, and demands a report from them.

6. In the last days of the month or in the event of a need arisen, the treasurer, in the presence of the assistant to the Governor or the dean and the accountant, opens the church circles, counts the money and enters the total amount in the cash book.

7. The keys to the monastic circles are kept in the treasury. A candlestick, a shopkeeper, a prosphora seller, a librarian and an accountant are accountable to the treasurer.

BLESSED

1. It is the responsibility of the dean to supervise the brethren of the monastery, their discipline and their attitude towards their obediences, both in the church and in the monastery.

2. The Dean makes sure that complete silence and strict order are observed in the church during the divine service. For this, he puts monks to provide discipline in the temple.

3. In the event of violations of discipline by any of the brethren, the Dean's father gives instruction, admonishing him with the brotherly word.

4. The dean has the right to enter the cells of the brethren in order to know their everyday needs, as well as to keep order and cleanliness in them.

5. In order to preserve monastic discipline, the dean must ensure that there are no strangers in the cells of the monastery - even close relatives, who can only be visited in a reception room specially designated for this purpose, and then with the permission of the dean.

6. The dean places the monastery guests in the living rooms and takes care of them. The dean also takes care of the parishioners of the monastery. Through ordinary priests, their spiritual needs are met.

7. The Dean blesses the persons who have arrived at the monastery for meals in the fraternal and common meal.

8. In the subordination of the dean are the gatekeepers, janitors, church watchmen, vendors of candles and prosphora, bell ringers.

9. The Dean may have an assistant (with the blessing of the Dean) who, in his absence, performs the same functions.

10. It is the duty of the dean to constantly monitor the correct reading of the synodicists and memorials and memorials given by the laity at the Liturgy, prayer services and memorial services.

11. Reports serious violations of discipline among the brethren to the Governor.

SACRISTAN

1. The responsibility of the sacristan lies in the management of church utensils, the vestments of all the temple property, as well as their careful storage and use for their intended purpose.

2. The sacristan shall keep an inventory of all church property and all sacristy things, especially those newly received, with the establishment of an inventory number, an indication of the source of receipt, century, price. If possible, the history of especially valuable relics of the temple, icons, relics is entered into the inventory. Valuables should be stored in a safe place. Without the blessing of the higher monastic authorities, THE DESCRIPTIONS WILL NOT BE GIVEN TO ANYONE. Periodically present them for acquaintance to the Governor of the monastery, assistant to the Governor or treasurer.

3. The sacristan must keep the keys to the sacristy.

4. The sacristan issues vestments for the priestly services and makes sure that things requiring repair or washing are promptly corrected and washed, and church utensils are regularly cleaned and wiped.

5. According to custom, the sacristan disguises the throne, brings the holy Antimension, as well as vessels into the Altar in vestments (epitrachelion, rungs).

6. Worn out vestments, covers, bedspreads, towels and others, upon consideration by the Governor or the treasurer, are destroyed, for which an act is drawn up.

7. The sacristan monitors the illumination of the Altars and temples and, especially, the cleanliness and order in the Altar, starting with the Altar, the Altar and ending with the Ponomar site.

8. The sacristan is subject to the sexton, the monastery tailors.

9. The sacristan may have one or two assistants at his disposal, if necessary (with the blessing of the Governor).
The sacristan, with the blessing of the Governor, can acquire utensils with a subsequent report to the treasurer.

ECONOMY

1. The duties of the economist are the management and supervision of the economic and construction part of the monastery.

2. He takes special care of temples, chapels, as the first shrines of the monastery. The care of the economist extends to the fraternal buildings, as well as to all utility rooms.

3. At the disposal of the economist are both monks engaged in monastic economic work, and hired workers, whom the economist accepts and appoints at the right time to carry out various types of work, coordinating their work plans with the Governor, with his blessing.

4. The distribution of the time of the working brethren depends on the discretion of the Governor or the assistant to the Governor, and the steward only makes sure that at the appointed time everyone is conscientiously engaged in work.

5. The distribution of the time of hired workers depends on the discretion of the economist himself, who assigns the necessary work, monitors the quality of their performance, and also makes payment for their labor, coordinating it with the Governor.

6. Subordinate to the economist are: the cellarer, the head of the workshops, the hotel, all the monks working in the sector of the economy, drivers, electricians, bricklayers, painters, carpenters and others.

7. If in the monastery economy the economist finds it necessary and useful to carry out any improvements, then he is given the right to present his considerations to the Steward, and after approval and blessing, he can begin to implement his plans.

The economy has a special monastic obedience - to carry out construction and household work with minimal costs, protecting the monastic treasury, carefully guarding and spending household materials.

8. The housekeeper, if desired and necessary, can have an assistant (with the blessing of the Governor).

9. The economist receives the right from the monastery to keep in touch in business matters with government departments, according to the blessing of the Viceroy.

10. Work in the monastery economy begins and ends in accordance with the church - prayer.

CELLARER

1. The duties of a cellarer are to purchase the necessary foodstuffs, as well as to monitor their safety.

2. Under the supervision of the keeper is the monastery kitchen, warehouses with food, prosphora and refectory, in which cleanliness and tidiness must be observed.

5. The cellarer observes that the meal is always prepared according to the monastery Rule, so that the food remaining on the tables does not disappear.

4. Without a special blessing from the Governor, the cellarer should not let food go to the monastic cells.

5. Kelare takes care of the timely preparation of vegetables and fruits for the winter.

6. The following persons are subordinate to Kelare: refectory, cook, cellar and all kitchen workers.

7. In the absence of the cellarer, his assistant, the refectory, replaces him in everything.

INSTALLER

1. The duties of the instructor are to strictly monitor the order of all church services, so that they are performed in accordance with the typicon and local monastic customs.

2. The instructor monitors the daily reciters, the correct statutory administration of hours, troparia, kontakion, kathisma and other readings, which must be performed without errors, reverently, distinctly and artlessly.

3. The instructor monitors the correct reading of the teachings in the temple and in the refectory and coordinates the book offered for reading with the Steward.

4. The tutor must draw up a timetable of church services one month in advance, which must be submitted to the Steward for approval in advance.

5. The instructor should teach the correct church reading to the novice and the little knowledgeable.

6. The instructor must monitor the condition of church service books, and those who have come into disrepair should be promptly restored or, with the blessing of the Viceroy, destroyed, if they cannot be repaired.

7. In the obedience of the preceptor are: the regent, the canonarch, ordinary readers and singers.

8. An instructor can have an assistant (with the blessing of the Steward), to whom he must impart his knowledge and experience.

REGENT

1. The duties of the regent are to manage the monastery choir and to establish an exemplary order in the choir.

2. The choir should sing harmoniously and prayerfully, so that the singing touches, touches and brings spiritual benefit to all those praying.

3. Neither the choir director nor the singers should allow jokes, laughter, quarrels, idle talk and noise in the choir.

4. The regent instructs the canonarch to review the texts of the stichera in advance so that he can canon clearly and distinctly, making semantic stops between phrases.

5. The choir director is obliged to systematically organize the choir rehearsals, in which all singers must take part.

6. The Regent is subordinate to the Regent and coordinates all services with him.

7. The list of hymns is presented to the Governor for approval.

SEXTON

1. The duties of a sexton require a very attentive attitude towards oneself, since this obedience is associated with his presence in the Altar near the Holy See and the Altar, during which idle talk, laughter, jokes and everything obscene to this holy place are unacceptable. The sexton must come to the Altar in advance to prepare it for the service.

2. The sexton is obliged to serve at the service, light lamps and censer, prepare prosphora, wine, water, warmth and other things related to the service.

3. The sexton has the duty to look after the purity of the Altar and the temple; clean the censer, candlesticks, remove dust and cobwebs from windows, icons, look behind carpets, pour water from the sink into a specially designated and arranged place, ventilate and sweep the Altar.

4. The sacristan obeys the sacristan.

5. At the end of the service, the sexton carefully checks the Altar for fire safety. Usually the side doors of the Altar are unlocked and locked by the sexton himself.

CLERK

1. The duty of the clerk is to maintain the entire clerical office of the monastery.

2. All written files of the monastery, including archival files, must always be in perfect order and be properly registered.

3. Correspondence of the monastery with various organizations and individuals should be conducted accurately and not delayed.

4. The clerk accepts the monastic correspondence and presents it to the head of the chancellery. He also deals with the issues of postal orders, parcels and prepares them in an appropriate manner.

5. The clerk may have an assistant (with the blessing of the Governor), who hands over all monastic correspondence at the post office and receives there.

BELL RINGER

1. The bell-ringer, with the blessing of the dean, in due time produces the gospel for the divine service.

2. Blagovest or ringing is performed in accordance with the Charter. The nature of the ringing should correspond to the established traditions of church sounds.

3. The ringer should not allow unauthorized persons to enter the bell tower without special order and need.

4. With the help of the housekeeper service monitors the condition of the entire belfry.

LIBRARIAN

1. The librarian is responsible for managing the monastery library, purchasing the necessary books, as well as other publications, compiling a catalog and card index.

2. The librarian issues books to the inhabitants of the monastery on receipt.

3. The position of a librarian requires a person experienced in spiritual work, who would give out books in accordance with the development and spiritual preparation of everyone who wants to borrow a book.

4. The librarian timely gives the damaged books for restoration.
Monitors the book depository, monitors the internal regime in it and, especially, fire safety.

5. Video and audio libraries are part of the library, so the librarian is responsible for turning on and watching the VCR and listening to the audio recorder.

6. The librarian, through the Governor or his assistant, specifies the time and order of work of the library and coordinates with him the circle of persons entitled to use the library.

PROSPHORNIK

1. The prosphora worker is responsible for the quality and timeliness of the prosphora production,
especially liturgical.

2. The prosphora is baked from pure, fresh premium wheat flour.

3. The samphosphorax should live in purity and reverence, abiding in prayer, especially while working in the prosphora, where extraneous conversations, laughter, jokes are unacceptable, since bread is baked for the Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist.

4. While baking prosphora, everyone who takes part in baking prosphora should take turns reading aloud Psalm 50.

5. The prosphoresist obeys the economy, receives flour and everything necessary from the cellarer.

6. The prosphora room is kept in proper cleanliness and order. He reports to the economist of the monastery about the repair work in the prosphora.

FAVORITE

1. The refectory oversees the timely and high-quality preparation of food for the brethren in the cook's room and keeps order during the meal.

2. While eating in the refectory, the life of the saints, a prologue or something from the writings of the holy fathers is usually read.

3. The refectory ensures that the cleanliness of the rooms, tables and dishes is always observed in the refectory.

4. Sets the tables for the set food hours for the brethren and then cleans up the dishes.

HOSPITAL

1. The duties of a sick person are to look after and look after those undergoing treatment in the isolation ward of the monastery.

2. The sick leave should be gentle, patient, compassionate and caring for the sick.

3 The sick person uses food, drink and medicine in due time for the sick.

WORKSHOP HEAD

1. The duties of the head of any workshop (icon painting, sewing, carpentry, etc.) are to supervise the work carried out in it, as well as the workers.

2. Disruption or abuse must be reported to the economy.

3. Tea drinking in workshops is prohibited.

HEAD OF THE OFFICE

1. The main duty of the head of the Chancellery is to diligently maintain the personal correspondence of the Governor.

2. He is obliged to promptly submit to the Governor the personal letters that have come to him, and by his blessing to answer them, to respond to the rest of the correspondence through the clerk.

3. He is responsible for keeping the minutes of the meetings of the Spiritual Council, their correct registration and saving.

4. Make sure that the monastics and novices of the monastery correspond only with the circle of people designated by the Viceroy. In cases of revealing a violation of correspondence, promptly report this to the Governor.

5. To clarify in advance the agenda of the Spiritual Council and systematize the issues proposed for consideration at it.

CHAPTER 3. CONDITIONS FOR ACCEPTANCE TO THE MONASTERY

1. He who for the sake of God rejects the world and enters monasticism, he takes the path of spiritual life. A Christian's motivation for it appears as a result of his faith and inner striving for spiritual perfection, which is based on the renunciation of the evil and passions of the world, as the first condition for the salvation of the soul.

2. No previous moral way of life in the world prevents a Christian from entering a monastery with the aim of saving his soul, as stated in Canon 43 of the VI Ecumenical Council.

3. Only the following cannot be admitted to the monastery:

- persons who have not reached the age of majority;

- a husband with a living wife and a wife with a living husband; as well as parents with young children required by their custody;

- monks who took tonsure in another monastery or in the world;

Spouses, sealed by a church marriage, can enter a monastery on the condition that they take a blessing from the bishop for a new way of life and at the same time each enter their own monastery.

4. Applicants to a monastery must present a passport, a certificate of marital status, a military ID (or a certificate of exemption from military service), write an autobiography and submit a petition to the Governor to be admitted to the monastery. It is advisable to present a recommendation from a clergyman.

5. After submitting a petition to the brethren, the newcomer gets acquainted with the present Statutes and undergoes a test for three years and, if he is worthy, according to the decision of the Spiritual Council, the Viceroy, with the blessing of the ruling bishop, tonsured him into the monastic rank.

6. The term of probation may be reduced depending on the moral stability and goodness of the novice, and also if the tonsured person was known for his pious life before entering the monastery: these include seminary students, students of theological academies, widow priests and others.

CHAPTER 4. BEHAVIOR OF NEW-ORIGINAL MONKEYS AND MONASTERS

1. The beginner, first of all, must carefully read and assimilate the monastery Rule, so that at the very first steps of his stay in the monastery he does not violate the order and discipline established in it.

2. The novice subscribes to the fact that he undertakes to sacredly fulfill everything set forth in this Charter; in case of violation of the mentioned Charter, it is subject to appropriate collection by the administration of the monastery for the purpose of admonition and repentance, and in case of persistent disobedience, it can be removed from the monastery.

3. The beginner should strive in every possible way for spiritual life, as the first goal of his calling, abandoning secular habits, remembering the instruction of St. Basil the Great to novice monks: “To have a modest gait, not to speak loudly, to observe decency in conversation, to eat and drink reverently, to remain silent in the presence of the elders, to be attentive to the wise, obedient and commanding, to have unfeigned love for equals and lesser ones, move away from the evil , it is not enough to speak, to carefully collect knowledge, not to talk too much, not to be quick to laugh, to be adorned with modesty. "

4. In relation to the Viceroy and the inhabitants of the monastery, the novice should show humble respect.

5. The novice should take a blessing when meeting with the Viceroy, as well as with the brethren in the priestly dignity; other inhabitants can be greeted with a bow.

6. You should enter someone else's cell with the Jesus Prayer and only when the answer is received: "Amen."

7. After the evening rule, all idle conversations and walks are prohibited, the brethren in silence disperse to their cells and get ready for bed, reading spiritual literature, as well as handicrafts, is allowed until 24.00.

8. The brethren are not allowed to independently establish a private rule for themselves, as well as to create it at night.

9. It should be unquestioning to obey the Steward, the rulers of the monastery, remembering that Christ Himself said about Himself: “For I came down from Heaven not to do My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 6:38).

10. Diligent and diligent obedience for the beginners is the guarantee of their future spiritual growth and salvation.

11. Avoid self-will: do nothing without the blessing of superiors, even if it seems commendable, so as not to fall into temptation, pride and delight.

12. It is not customary for monastics to discuss or criticize the orders of the Viceroy for the monastery, but, on the contrary, with prayer and humility, carry them out.

13. If a brother does not agree with the orders of the superiors, he, with meekness and in private, may well express his opinion to the person who gave this order at his further discretion.

14. A novice and a monk should be in constant peace and love with all the brethren of the monastery, trying to be friendly and helpful to everyone.

15. No one should, without the blessing of his elders, take into his cell any thing, even the most necessary, remembering that any such acquisition without a blessing is theft.

16. Monastics should not leave unnecessary things in their cells, fall into the sin of money-making. The best decoration of a monastic cell is the holy icons and books of Holy Scripture, as well as the creations of the holy fathers. The monk's cell contains an extreme minimum of everything that cannot be done without. The cell should not be red things, but the spirit of faith and prayer of the monk living in it. Secular and purely worldly things and belongings should not take place in the cell.

17. Monastics and novices are prohibited from drinking tea and eating in the cell, as well as offering food to the cell.

16. Brothers are prohibited from having tape recorders, cameras, refrigerators, musical instruments in their cells.

19. It is indecent for monastics or novices to speak loudly, laugh and be at ease.

20. Chastity or purity of the soul consists not only in keeping oneself from evil deeds and actions, but also from impure thoughts as the first reasons for sin.

21. Everywhere and always it is proper for a monk to refrain from idle talk, remembering the words of the Lord: “I tell you that for every idle word that people say, they will give an answer on the day of Judgment: for from your words you will be justified, and from your words you will be condemned” ( Matthew 12:36).

22. Smoking, drinking alcohol and foul language in a monastery should not even be named in it, that is, it is categorically prohibited, and violation of this ancient rule entails serious punishment, up to and including expulsion from the monastery.

CHAPTER 5. ABOUT SPIRITUAL GUIDE

1. Every monastic and novice should be under special spiritual guidance - a brotherly confessor, who should reveal his spiritual state - bewilderment, doubts, difficulties, temptations and receive instructions and spiritual support from him.

2. Each of the brethren of the monastery should as often as possible reveal their thoughts to the brotherly confessor, but at least once a week.

3. For spiritual cognition and growth, every monastic should, as a rule, read with great attention several chapters of Holy Scripture every day, as well as diligently read the works of the holy fathers and other soulful literature, finding spiritual food and consolation in it.

4. An unspiritual monk must undertake nothing in the spiritual work of salvation by his only thought and will; for example, to impose on oneself a fast in excess of what is prescribed by the Charter, or something else, so as not to fall into delusion and not damage your salvation.

5. If there is any misunderstanding or a quarrel between the brethren, it is necessary to hasten to extinguish them with mutual forgiveness and humility, and immediately restore peace and love, remembering the covenant of Holy Scripture: "Let the sun not go down in your anger" (Eph. 4:28 ).

6. A brother who violates monastic discipline may be subject to spiritual discipline through the imposition of penances, which should be viewed not as a punishing scourge, but as a necessary medicine that heals spiritual diseases and infirmities.

7. If the sick consider doctors to be benefactors, although they give them bitter medicine, so the sinning monk should look at the penances that are given to him, and accept them as good medicine and a sign of mercy for the salvation of the soul (St. Basil the Great, rule 52 ).

8. Every sinner is given a penance in accordance with his spiritual disposition and his weakness. Just as it is impossible to treat bodily illnesses with one and the same medicine, so spiritual forgiveness should be of a varied nature: “Just as there is no one cure for bodily ailments, so there is no one for the soul,” says the Monk Isaac the Syrian.

9. As a correction, the following measures can be used: removal from the fraternal meal for one or several days; fasting all week; transfer from one obedience to another, more difficult; bowing down; excommunication for a certain period from the communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ; removing the hood and cassock; transfer from a cell to another, less convenient, as well as others that the Governor deems necessary to apply.

CHAPTER 6. ON THE CHURCH SERVICE

1. The most important moment of church life is church worship, a general prayer vigil, and therefore participation in these should be the primary concern and aspiration of all those living in the monastery.

2. Avoidance or negligent attitude to temple prayer, to this most sacred work, should be considered an important violation of the order of the spiritual life of the monastery.

3. The purpose of frequent, prolonged prayer is to acquire the skill of unceasing and vivid remembrance of God to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit in your heart.

4. For the sake of the glorious performance of the divine services in the monastery, the dean, together with the instructor, draw up a schedule of church services for a month in advance, indicating the names of the clergy, readers, sextons, canonarchs who take part in them, and notify them of this obedience. All schedules for the temple and monastery are signed by the Governor. Unauthorized violation or change of the service schedule is not allowed.

5. Half an hour before the start of the morning service, the wake-up call goes around all the cells with a bell and makes the brethren rise to prayer.

6. Each of the monks should try to come to church without delay, before the start of the service. Likewise, no one should leave the temple before the end of the service unless there is an urgent matter of obedience. The Dean shall report to the Governor about the most malicious violators.

7. Seven hieromonks and deacons arrive at the service early, at least 15 minutes before the start, put on vestments and prepare everything necessary for the service.

8. Some of the monks, due to their special obedience in the monastery, cannot be at the services every day, for which they receive a blessing from the Steward. Such obedience is imputed to them in the same way as prayer in the temple.

9. Priests, reading, singing in church should carry out their work with unremitting attention, without haste, "with fear and trembling" and without violating the monastery Rule.

10. On the way to and from church, one should not stop with strangers and enter into conversations with them, and if anyone is asked about something, then one should confine oneself to a short answer.

11. In church, one should not talk, look around, but be concentrated, listen to God, worship and oneself.

12. In view of the fact that monastery churches are visited not only by monastics, but also by pilgrims, special rites of divine services and Sacraments can be performed for them - prayers, panikhidas, akathists, unification, but weddings in the monastery cannot be performed.

13. In special cases, with the blessing of the Governor, it is possible to perform the rite of Baptism.

14. Clergymen under no pretext should take money for their services, but give it to the monastic treasury.

15. On all days when the all-night vigil is celebrated, the brethren should be in the church in the established clothes: monastics - in robes, robes and cowls (robes can be removed in warm weather); monks - in robes and hoods; novices - in cassocks (if there is a blessing from the Steward to wear it). The hoods are removed only at the set times of the service.

16. Clothes should be clean and simple. The color of a monk's clothing is always black and no other. For work, it can be gray, brown or other, but not bright. Wearing clothes of a different color is allowed only for the Governor and the priest monk in the rank of hegumen with the blessing of the Governor.

17. If any of the brethren is ill and cannot come to the service, then he must warn about it in advance through someone or himself, the assistant to the Viceroy or the Dean.

18. Priests are allowed to sit in the Altar only during the reading of the Apostle, Parimia and Kathism. In all other cases, it is necessary to seek the blessing of the Viceroy. Deacons can sit in the Altar only when they feel unwell with the permission of the Steward.

CHAPTER 7. ABOUT THE BROTHER'S MEAL

1.In simple days the beginning of the morning meal at 12.00. Before that, 5 minutes before that, the refectory strikes the bell 12 times and the brethren gather in the refectory. The meal begins and ends with prescribed prayer. In the absence of the Steward on it, the food is blessed by the weekly hieromonk.

2.In holidays when the rite "Panagia" is performed, the beginning of the fraternal meal immediately after the end of the service and the arrival of the brethren in the refectory, which also begins and ends with the established prayer. The food is blessed by the Steward, in his absence - by the Steward's assistant or the weekly hieromonk.

3. The evening meal begins immediately after the end of the service and the arrival of the brethren at the refectory. In the absence of the Viceroy, the food is blessed by the weekly hieromonk. 5 minutes before the end of the service, the bell ringer strikes the bell 12 times.

4. On the days when the all-night vigil is celebrated, the brethren arrive at the refectory in the established clothes: monks in robes and hoods, monks in cassocks.

5. The Hieromonk and Hierodeacon of the week always arrives at the refectory in a cassock, robe and klobuk.

6. Eating a meal at a monastery is a continuation of the divine service and is of a sacred nature and requires a sacred attitude from the monk.

7. It is forbidden to talk and laugh at the meal. If someone is missing something on the table, let him call the refectory with a gesture.

If the Vicar needs to clarify something, let the necessary brother come quietly and give an answer to the Vicar.

8. Late entry into or exit from the refectory before the end of the meal without the blessing of the Governor is considered a violation of discipline and is blameworthy.

9. No one should take food in the cell, except for those who are allowed by the Governor or Dean, since they cannot come to the common meal due to illness or for any valid reasons.

10. A monastic should humbly eat the food served and not say: "This is not tasty, it is harmful to me." He can then express his wishes and sorrows on this matter to the confessor or the economist, without spreading them further.

11. For a special dietary meal, a monastic must take a blessing from the Viceroy or confessor.

12. The brethren of the monastery are prohibited from eating food in the common meal, as well as being in it, if this is not related to his obedience.

13. The abbot of the monastery has the right to have a separate meal and a separate kitchen. He can invite whoever he wants from the brethren to his table, as well as guests who have arrived.

CHAPTER 8. ABOUT THE BELL RING

1. The bell ringing in the monastery is performed at the time specified by the Charter
and moments of service and is entrusted to the senior bell ringer, who makes the ringing
either by himself or through his assistants.

2. Bell ringing is required:

a) in the morning, 15 minutes before the beginning of the service - 12 blows to the small bell;

b) before the beginning of the refectory - 12 beats of the small bell;

c) at the end of the morning meal on the eve of the all-night vigil, the bell is struck 12 times;

d) at the meeting of the Bishop - a festive ringing;

e) before the beginning of the liturgy and in all cases stipulated by the Charter.

CHAPTER 9. ABOUT KELEIN STAY

1. The time left from church services and obedience should be spent by monastics in their cells very prudently and carefully, with a desire to acquire as much as possible. more use, but mainly spiritual, avoiding all indulgence of their passions,

2. Such useful private activities can be:

a) private rule according to the Charter and the blessing of the confessor;

b) reading soulful books with an extract from them of the most living and edifying places for monks;

c) an exercise in spiritual reading, the study of the Church Slavonic language, the Church Rite and preparation for the Church service;

d) handicrafts for the benefit of the monastery and for their own needs with the blessing of the confessor;

e) cleaning of cells, cleaning and repairing clothes, shoes, etc.

3. The favorite reference book of a monk should be the Holy Bible with interpretations on it.

4. The cell clothes of the brethren should be clean, simple, without any pretense of luxury.

"From luxurious clothing comes vanity and bitterness," says Isaac the Sirin.

5. In the event of a serious illness, a monk can consult a doctor, having left the monastery, having previously taken a blessing from the superiors for this. The monk uses the medical service of the monastery hospital in case of a sudden illness.

6. Private prayer, reading the Psalter and especially the Holy Gospel - extinguish many passions of the soul and body.

7. Cellular divine thinking uplifts, sanctifies the mind and purifies the heart, brings peace to the soul.

8. The mind, according to the teachings of the holy fathers, should never be idle.

CHAPTER 10. ABOUT EXTERNAL VISITORS AND MUTUAL VISITS OF CELLS

1. Acceptance of foreign visitors is allowed only with the blessing of the monastery authorities, and during the daytime.

2. Women are not allowed in the cell under any guise. If a monastic needs to see close relatives, they are accepted not in a cell, but in a specially designated reception room of the monastery (monastery hotel) with a blessing.

3. Without the blessing of the Governor, no one has the right to leave any outsider in his cell for the night, and also none of the brethren has the right to spend the night in a strange cell of his monastery.

4. Monastics and novices do not have the right to enter into communion with visitors to the monastery and relatives without receiving the blessing of the Viceroy, his assistant or dean.

5. The brethren, with the blessing of the confessor, can visit each other in cells for spiritual conversation or to help the sick and the elderly, but not for empty talk and amusement.

6. After the evening canon, the monastic must remain in his cell, except for those special cases when he calls the spiritual authorities or needs to visit the sick, etc., having received the blessing of the assistant Viceroy or Dean for this.

CHAPTER 11. CONDITIONS OF AWAY FROM THE MONASTERY

1. Leaving a monastery can be twofold: by obedience, by official necessity, at the request of those who have, a respectful personal need.

2. If any of the monastics needs to leave the monastery for a short time during the daytime (before the beginning of the evening service), then for this it is necessary to have the verbal permission of the Governor, and in his absence, his assistant or dean. When traveling home, to other cities or villages, even for the most insignificant period, you must write a petition addressed to the Governor, indicating the reason, the exact address of your trip and the time of return.

3. Regular vacations do not correspond to the monastic way of life, therefore, leaving the monastery for a long period is carried out only when urgently needed (for urgent treatment, illness or death of relatives and other cases), as well as for business trips. But in each individual case, the Governor has a special judgment on this, so that the time spent by the brother outside the walls of the monastery does not harm him spiritually.

4. Those sent in view of a special need for obedience to the city or other places outside the walls of the monastery must immediately return to the monastery at the end of this obedience.

5. Monks in the priesthood, released outside the walls of the monastery, do not have the right to officiate without the permission of the ruling bishop of the area where they are
arrived and where they wish to serve.

6. The brethren of the monastery are prohibited from visiting the monastery hotel without the blessing of the Governor, his assistant or dean.

7. Monastics should in every possible way avoid leaving their monastery, even for the shortest time, remembering that the walls and spirit of the monastery are best protection from various temptations and temptations. Every monk, having been in the world, returns to his cell spiritually worse than he left it: this is how the holy ascetics teach.

8. Let us compel ourselves, brethren, to acquire the good habit of patiently staying in a monastery, leaving it only in extreme need. St. Anthony the Great once said on this occasion: “As fish, remaining on land, die, so monks, being with worldly people, outside the monastery, lose their disposition to silence. As a fish strives for the sea, so we must strive to our cells, so that, slowing down outside it, do not forget about internal storage ”(Alphabetic Patericon).

CHAPTER 12. SPIRITUAL COLLECTION

1. To help the Viceroy, the Spiritual Council of the monastery should be formed,
which includes:

- Governor;

- Assistant to the Governor;

- confessor;

- treasurer;

- Dean;

- economy;

- sacristan;

- kelare;

- head of the office;

as well as, if necessary, other persons of the monastery with the blessing of the Governor.

2. Having heard the opinion of the brethren, the Steward must discuss everything himself and do what he finds more useful.

3. The brethren should offer their opinions with all humble submission, not daring to defend with persistence what they thought of.

4. To decide the last decision lies in the will of the Governor, that he will consider him more salvific, and all must submit to him.

5. No one in a monastery should follow his own will or insolently enter into an argument with the Governor regarding his orders for the monastery. Anyone who does not want to do this should be subject to established remedial measures.

6. Let the Viceroy himself do everything with the fear of God and with the observance of righteousness, remembering that he will give an account of all his judgments to God - the Most Righteous Judge.

7. If it is necessary to do something insignificant for the benefit of the monastery, then the Viceroy can only use the advice of the elder brothers, as it is written: “do nothing without advice, and when you have done, do not repent” (Sir, 32, 21).

8. Questions submitted to the decision of the Spiritual Council, the head of the chancellery in advance clarifies through the Viceroy and reads them in an orderly manner before the Council.

9. The Spiritual Council meets as needed, but at least 4 times a year, its decisions come into force after the approval of the minutes of the meeting by the Governor.

CHAPTER 13. EPITHIMIA

1. Human infirmities are so great that the most beneficial institutions for others remain fruitless, or not always and not in all fruitful. Either because of the weakening of attention, now because of corruption, now because of the enemy's temptation, falls often occur in violation of not only the monastic rules, but also the Divine commandments.

Therefore, it is necessary to use measures of correction and admonition, so that if the need arises to expel someone, expel him in the confidence that there is no more hope of his correction.

2. The rules that are applied to correct the fallen are the rules of punishment or penance.

3. Judge of all - the Governor of the monastery, he alone has the right to punish any of the brethren.

4. The rest of the officials, who are prescribed by the Charter to observe the brethren, must make remarks to the sinner up to 3 times, and if he does not correct himself, then report this to the Steward.

5. If such officials do not care about the correction of the brethren and do not report violations to the Governor, then they themselves should be punished.

CHAPTER 14. TERMS OF REMOVAL FROM THE MONASTERY

1. Monks who betrayed their vows and began to live shamefully, denigrating the Holy Church and their monastery, after repeated admonitions and disciplinary punishments, are removed from the monastery as unfit for monastic life and as tempting monks.

2. A monk removed from a monastery leaves his monastic robes.

3. If any monk who was removed from the monastery or voluntarily left it later, having known his fall, returns and asks back to the monastery, such one can, after considering his case, be accepted, but already in the category of new entrants.

4. From those who have been removed or have voluntarily left the monastery and who have again wished to return to it, a written promise should be required to continue to lead a life consistent with the Gospel and the monastery Rule.

5. In the event of the death of a monk, all his property according to the inventory is transferred to the warehouse and is the common property of the monastery.

CONCLUSION

This monastery Rule, as a guide for monastic life, should be carried out with prayer and diligence, to the best of our ability, for the sake of salvation and spiritual growth.

BY THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS OUR FATHER, THE LORD JESUS ​​CHRIST, OUR GOD, HAVE REGARD ON US. AMEN.

In the monastery they jokingly call potatoes “in uniform” “in a cassock” - after all, monks do not wear uniforms

Recently, I began to notice that when speaking of products, dishes "monastery ...", or "like a monastery ...", people mean: "high quality", "real", "tasty". Honey, bread, lunch ...

Observing already specifically, it was striking that this trend is not only expanding, but is already being used by various manufacturers of products, conscientious and not so. Then the question arose: what is the modern monastery food, monastery products? What is behind the recognition of the consumer - the traditional respect for a religious lifestyle that excludes deception and laziness, or the absence of intelligible state quality guidelines, the same GOSTs, for example?

For answers to these questions, we turned to Father Micah, to the hieromonk of the Holy Danilov Monastery. The path that led this wonderful man to church was not easy.

Let's start with the fact that Father Micah was a paratrooper and knows the concept of "hot spot" firsthand. Already, being in the monastery, Fr. Micah performed difficult obediences: the organization of a skete in the Ryazan region, the organization of a monastery apiary, the duties of a cellarer in the Holy Danilov Monastery itself, and many others that I do not know about.

As a result, we were able to use the questions and answers to compose a picture of how the Russian Orthodox monastery lives today: what it produces, what it eats, whom and how it feeds.

AIF.RU: It is known that the monasteries in Russia for the most part were self-sufficient in the production, storage and distribution of products. The monasteries owned gardens, fields, vegetable gardens, ponds and apiaries. Likewise, since antiquity, the tradition of feeding monastic products not only to the brethren, but also to workers, pilgrims, students, and guests has been preserved. Is this tradition still alive in the St. Daniel Monastery now?

O. Micah: For centuries in Russia monasteries were not only centers of spiritual life, but also of economic life. Not only did they feed themselves, but they also conducted breeding work, grew new varieties of plants, looked for and found new ways of storing and preserving food. For many hundreds of years, the monasteries have not only fed themselves, but also widely helped those in need. Both during normal times and, especially, during the war years, during lean periods, during epidemics.

There is no other way in the monastery: today the household of St. Danilov Monastery feeds up to 900 people every day. Our brethren - a little over 80, lay workers - almost 400. And also pilgrims, guests of the monastery, in need - every day the monastery kitchen, with God's help, provides food for all these people.

Most of the products we have are of our own production. This is flour, from the monastery fields in the Ryazan region, and vegetables, and fruits, and honey. We mostly buy fish for now, but we want to dig ponds and start raising fish in the same place, on the lands of the hermitage. We keep the cows - for butter, cottage cheese, milk. They don't eat meat in the monastery.

- How did the revival of the monastery economy begin?

— The revival of the monastery economy began from the moment of its transfer to the Church in 1983. For five next years the monastery as a whole was restored, and together with it the economy that provided it began to function. However, up to a truly independent structure, producing, preserving and nourishing - we are still only going to this all.

Until 1917, the monastery had extensive land, arable land, apiaries, ponds. There were many good products. The monastery sold a lot, incl. in their own stores and shops. People have always loved them - both Muscovites and pilgrims. Then everything was destroyed, literally - to the ground.

But over the past 17 years, of course, a long way has been done. If you look back today, you will see how much we, with God's help, have achieved! And we ourselves grow on the monastery lands wheat, flour with a mill, we bake our famous baked goods. And we grow and preserve all the vegetables we need: preserve, ferment, salt.

And now the monastery has more than one apiary - in the suburbs of the monastery farm, near Ryazan, near Anapa and from Altai, honey is also supplied from the apiaries of the Archangel Michael Church. The largest apiary near Ryazan. Now we have about 300 beehives here, and in the apiaries we manage to get more than 10 varieties of honey during the season. This is melilot, and linden, and buckwheat, and honeys of forest and field herbs. Every new season, before the bees leave, special prayers are held for the consecration of the apiary, and the beekeepers receive a blessing for the upcoming work.

Honey is such a product - God's blessing. You need to treat him like that. After all, if you put an apiary, for example, near the road, then there is nothing coming from the exhaust pipes: both lead and all sorts of heavy metals. And the bees also collect all this and transfer it to honey. We are responsible before God for the fact that we have apiaries in good, ecologically clean places, and now, we offer pure honey to people.

We love our people and we want people to be healthy and beautiful and that children are born healthy. Beekeeping is a traditional Russian craft. Back in the 16th century, they said: "Russia is a country where honey flows." Honey was practiced in almost every home. He was supplied with wax and abroad. All Russian people ate honey. It is a necessary product for every person.

It is now customary for us to eat honey only during illness. Only this is wrong. Honey should be eaten three times a day: in the morning with a spoon, in the afternoon and in the evening. Honey contains everything the body needs, including vitamins. After all, honey is a natural product that people have been eating for centuries to strengthen their health. Warriors of the past always had honey with them on campaigns. By eating it, they increased their strength before the upcoming battle.

They also began to revive the tradition of monastery bread. People come to buy our baked goods from all over Moscow and even from the Moscow region. A variety of pies, which are prepared according to old monastery recipes, are very popular. Made with soul - and people like it!

Our parishioners and guests of the monastery greatly appreciate the fact that we use not only recipes from our monastery, but also from other holy places: for example, we have yeast-free bread baked according to Athonite recipes, there is bread from the sisters from the Serpukhov convent.

- And the small brethren of the Holy Danilov Monastery are in charge of all this?

— Of course not! Both lay workers and volunteers help us. There are really few monks, especially those who know how to work on earth. Many came to the monastery from cities, some are unable to engage in physical labor. But work in honey apiaries is called "sweet hard labor" ...

Not everyone knows how much work has to be done to get good food on the table and the monastery.

- Please tell us about the monastic food system. What products and dishes make up the monastery table for the brethren?

— We do not come to the monastery to have a tasty meal - we come to attain the Kingdom of Heaven through labor, prayer and obedience. The highest virtue is fasting, prayer, rejection of worldly temptations and obedience.

By the way, according to the monastery charter, there are about 200 fast days a year. Fasts are divided into multi-day (Great, Peter's, Dormition and Christmas) and one-day (Wednesday, Friday of each week). It was during the days of abstinence from fast food in the monastery refectory that thousands of original, simple, affordable dishes were developed.

The main difference between the monastic table and the worldly one is that we do not eat meat. In the monastery they eat vegetables, cereals, dairy products, pastries and fish, mushrooms. A lot of sauerkraut, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms are always prepared in the pantries of the monastery.

The cellarer watches over this, and both the monastic brothers and the lay workers do. And it goes to the table for everyone, without exception. According to the charter, monks eat only twice a day: at lunch and at dinner. The monastery cellarer especially makes sure that the meals are tasty, varied and supportive - after all, the interval before meals is long, and no one sits idly by, everyone has their own housework - obedience.

The everyday menu usually consists of fish soup, if allowed on that day, pickle, vegetable, mushroom or milk soup and fish with a side dish. For dessert - tea, compote or jelly, pies, cookies. The Sunday menu consists of fish borscht, fried fish garnished with mashed potatoes or rice with vegetables, fresh vegetables, fish cuts and products from the monastery courtyard - cheese, sour cream and milk. On the holidays of Christmas and Easter, a festive menu is served at the meal.

We have Father Hermogenes - he was the monastery's cellarer for more than 10 years, so he even wrote a book about the monastery meal, "Father Hermogenes's Kitchen." At the moment, the cellarer in the monastery of Fr. Theognost. I was a cellar for several years, and before that I was obedient in the construction of a skete, restoration of the Church of the Archangel Michael, taking care of apiaries, a bakery ...

Now I have obedience - I offer monastery products for Muscovites, in a honey shop and 2 monastery shops "Monastyrsky honey" and "Monastyrsky grocery store", where you can buy our products: honey, beekeeping products, honey jam, an assortment of fish, cereals, monastic baked goods, yeast-free bread, pies, health products: non-alcoholic balsams, sbitni, teas, herbs.

And also I have obedience in the department of making posters of spiritual and patriotic content of modern and classical artists.

- We thank you, Father Micah, for your attention and story. We wish you joy in your work!

I always thought that monastic food was bread and water. But one day I found myself in the monastery refectory - and my opinion completely changed. I have never tasted more delicious lean dishes in my life. What's the secret? The monks of the Holy Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos always welcome pilgrims warmly. The law of hospitality is strictly observed here - first feed, then ask. However, no one will bother you with inquiries even after dinner: everyone, they believe, has his own way to the temple.

We were not at all surprised at the modestness of the meal: bread, buckwheat porridge seasoned with stewed vegetables, pea chowder with herbs (which you can't even look at in worldly life, and certainly you won't covet), baked potatoes with sauerkraut, fresh cucumbers and kvass. There were also olives (by the way, as we were told, you can eat them with seeds) and dry red wine (on the bottom of a mug). But the taste of these dishes ... He amazed us!

The most appropriate word in this case is ‘unearthly’. I asked one of the monks about this. He silently lifted his eyes to heaven and quietly, without the slightest hint of admonition and edification, replied: “It is important with what thoughts, not to mention words, a person begins to prepare food and the meal itself. Here is what is written about this in the ‘Kiev-Pechersk Paterik’: ‘It was given to one elder to see how the same food differed: those who blaspheme food ate impurities, those who praise - honey. But you, when you eat or drink, glorify God, because the one who blasphemes harms himself.

The sauerkraut was filled with carrots, beets, and aromatic dill seeds. It was they who gave the usual for us, Russians, winter preparation an amazing taste. And, as the monks said, such cabbage is very useful for good stomach function. Above a pile of cabbage, laid out in simple aluminum bowls, towered a glistening, glossy soaked apple. Several of these apples must be placed in each tub when pickling cabbage. They also give it a special flavor.

Meat delicacies and pastries are not for the Athonite monks. In their opinion, gluttony is a dangerous trait that entails diseases of the body and various mental ailments. Fatty foods “grease the soul,” while sauces and canned foods “thin the body.” For the Athonite monks, eating is a spiritual process, somewhat a ritual act.

Prayer - during the preparation of a particular dish (in this case, it will definitely succeed), a short prayer before sitting down at the table, prayer after eating food. And the very atmosphere of the spacious and light refectory, the walls and ceiling of which are painted with paintings on biblical subjects, turns a modest monastic dinner into a festive feast and a feast for the soul. “So a layman’s kitchen,” the monk told me, “should not be a place for family squabbles and political discussions, but only one refectory.”

Most recently, I happened to visit the Goritsky Resurrection Convent, which opened in 1999. Sisters Julia and Nadezhda obeyed in the monastery refectory. Young, each of them could hardly be given a little over twenty, but they managed the kitchen utensils confidently and without fuss. Novelties of technological progress, such as mixers and vegetable cutters, have bypassed these holy places.

The nuns do everything themselves: and the dough is kneaded in large vats by hand, and butter is knocked down with hand buttermilk. Yes, and the monastery meal is prepared not on gas in a dish with a non-stick coating, but on a wood stove, in cast iron pots. That is why, say the nuns, and it turns out more tasty, rich and aromatic.

I watched the younger Nadezhda shred cabbage, and admired: the strips were thin, thin, one to one, as if each were measured out. I salted it lightly, sprinkled it with vegetable oil, put a flower from beads of thawed cranberries and dill sprigs on top - not a dish, but a picture, it's even a pity to eat, and put it aside with words; ‘Let the cabbage give juice, then you can put it on the table’.

I heard somewhere that monks should not furnish their meals beautifully, so I asked Sister Nadezhda about this. “Well, what are you,” she answered, “God cannot be against the beautiful, as long as it comes from a pure heart, does not become an end in itself and does not lead to bitterness if something doesn’t work out. In general, I noticed, - she added, - that I began to cook very well here, although I had never studied it, and I had not yet accumulated a great everyday culinary wisdom. It's just that when there is peace in your soul and love for the world and those who live in it, everything you do turns out well. '

As she said this, she was butchering a herring to make a jellied herring with chopped mushrooms. The nun soaked the dried porcini mushrooms in advance in cold water and now she was putting them on the fire. After they were cooked, I passed it through a meat grinder and mixed with finely chopped herring fillets. I added black pepper, chopped onion to the minced meat and ... started painting a new culinary still life.

She molded a herring from the minced meat, carefully attached the head and tail, put small, parsley, small water lilies from boiled carrots around and poured everything with mushroom broth mixed with swollen gelatin. It turned out to be a lake with an appetizing fish inside.

“You can,” she said, seeing my enthusiastic gaze, “decorate your dish as you like. And it is not necessary to cook it using dried mushrooms. It's just that my sisters and I have collected so many of them over the summer and autumn ... And you, if there are no dried ones, take ordinary champignons. Although, in my opinion, no one grown in captivity can compare with forest mushrooms.

Such a spirit emanates from them! .. I must say that the dinner for which sister Nadezhda prepared her 'culinary masterpieces' was not festive, and of the guests there were only a few travelers like me, who were real. it would be a stretch to call pilgrims. But here they accept everyone and do not ask how strong your faith is: since you have come, then your soul is asking.

In addition to aspic, Nadezhda prepared several more unusual mushroom dishes. For example, mushroom cheese, caviar and some unusually tasty cold appetizer. Dried mushrooms are soaked for her in water for an hour, and then boiled in salted water until tender. They, as the nuns said, can be replaced with fresh ones: champignons or oyster mushrooms.

In this case, it is enough to boil the mushrooms, chop finely, mix with chopped onions, add salt if necessary and pour over the sauce. It is prepared from grated horseradish diluted with a small amount of strong bread kvass and mushroom broth. The dish is not spicy, but only with a slight horseradish flavor, which should not interrupt the taste of mushrooms.

Of the cold appetizers on the table, there was also boiled beets with a spicy sauce made from boiled egg yolks, grated horseradish and vegetable oil. This dish was familiar to me, but I tried boiled beans fried in oil for the first time - very tasty. The dish, as the sisters told me, is easy to prepare, but it takes quite a long time.

First, the beans must be soaked in water for 6-10 hours, then boiled in salted water until tender, but so as not to boil, put in a colander, dry slightly on fresh air and only then fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. A couple of minutes before being ready, add sautéed onions to the cauldron, season with salt, spice to taste and remove from heat. Beans are served cold.

While Nadezhda conjured (although such a word is not very suitable for a nun) over cold dishes, Julia cooked the first and second. The first course included monastery borscht with beans and kalya (soup cooked in cucumber brine) with fish. For the second - pilaf with vegetables and raisins, lean cabbage rolls, pumpkin baking - something like a pumpkin casserole with rice: pumpkin and rice for this dish are pre-boiled separately from each other, then mixed, whites and yolks, whipped separately, are also added to the minced meat and put everything in a greased form.

It turns out to be a cross between baked goods and the second course. For dessert, the sisters prepared a pie with apples and pies with poppy seeds and honey - makovniki. And although the dough was kneaded without the use of butter, it turned out to be fluffy, tender, and the filling ... Baking with poppy seeds is generally my weakness.

As you can see, the nuns ate their meals and treated the pilgrims without meat at all. But believe me, we didn't even notice it. On the days of fasting, the number of dishes on the table, as the nuns said, decreases, fish, eggs, and dairy products disappear. But at the same time, the meal does not become less tasty and, of course, remains the same satisfying.

Saying goodbye to the hospitable sisters, I asked if they had heard of Angel Curls jam? They say that this recipe was given to the abbess of one of the Spanish monasteries by the Virgin Mary on the night before Christmas. Pumpkin fibers (in which the seeds are hidden) are boiled in sugar syrup along with mashed hazelnuts. ‘No,’ said the nuns, ‘we haven’t heard, but we also make jam made from pumpkin fibers, which most housewives simply throw away. You just need to separate the fibers from the pulp and seeds, dry slightly (dry in the air).

Prepare sugar syrup, pour over the fibers, leave for a day, and then cook like our jams - five minutes: 3-4 times for five to seven minutes, (It is important after each cooking to completely cool the jam and only then put it on the fire again.) 'Try and you can cook monastery cuisine at home. Perhaps then the upcoming fast will not seem so insipid and difficult.

Recently, I began to notice that when speaking of products, dishes "monastery ...", or "like a monastery ...", people mean: "high quality", "real", "tasty". Honey, bread, lunch ...

Observing already specifically, it was striking that this trend is not only expanding, but is already being used by various manufacturers of products, conscientious and not so. Then the question arose: what is the modern monastery food, monastery products? What is behind the recognition of the consumer - the traditional respect for a religious lifestyle that excludes deception and laziness, or the absence of intelligible state quality guidelines, the same GOSTs, for example?

For answers to these questions, we turned to Father Micah, to the hieromonk of the Holy Danilov Monastery. The path that led this wonderful man to church was not easy.

Our interlocutor

Hieromonk Micah, in the world Gulevsky Alexander Petrovich, was born on November 22, 1964 in Rostov-on-Don. After leaving school in 1980. entered in Rostov School Arts, specialization "Accordion", graduated in 1984 1984-1986 - military service in the Airborne Forces. From 1987 to 1988 Father Micah served as a sexton in the church, and in 1988. entered the seminary, which he graduated in 1991. In the same year he entered the Trinity-Sergius Lavra as a novice, and in 1992 he was transferred to the Danilov Monastery. Obedience in a monastery: 2 years in an icon shop, for 10 years from 1994. construction of a hermitage and apiary in the Ryazan region, since 2004. - a cellarer in the Danilov Monastery, currently obedience in a honey shop, in 2 monastery shops, as well as in the department for making posters of spiritual and patriotic content by modern and classical artists.

Let's start with the fact that Father Micah was a paratrooper and knows the concept of "hot spot" firsthand. Already, being in the monastery, Fr. Micah performed difficult obediences: the organization of a skete in the Ryazan region, the organization of a monastery apiary, the duties of a cellarer in the Holy Danilov Monastery itself, and many others that I do not know about.

As a result, we were able to use the questions and answers to compose a picture of how the Russian Orthodox monastery lives today: what it produces, what it eats, whom and how it feeds.

site:It is known that the monasteries in Russia for the most part were self-sufficient in the production, storage and distribution of products. The monasteries owned gardens, fields, vegetable gardens, ponds and apiaries. Likewise, since antiquity, the tradition of feeding monastic products not only to the brethren, but also to workers, pilgrims, students, and guests has been preserved. Is this tradition still alive in the St. Daniel Monastery now?

O. Micah: For centuries in Russia monasteries were not only centers of spiritual life, but also of economic life. Not only did they feed themselves, but they also conducted breeding work, grew new varieties of plants, looked for and found new ways of storing and preserving food. For many hundreds of years, the monasteries have not only fed themselves, but also widely helped those in need. Both during normal times and, especially, during the war years, during lean periods, during epidemics.

There is no other way in the monastery: today the household of St. Danilov Monastery feeds up to 900 people every day. Our brethren - a little over 80, lay workers - almost 400. And also pilgrims, guests of the monastery, in need - every day the monastery kitchen, with God's help, provides food for all these people.

Most of the products we have are of our own production. This is flour, from the monastery fields in the Ryazan region, and vegetables, and fruits, and honey. We mostly buy fish for now, but we want to dig ponds and start raising fish in the same place, on the lands of the hermitage. We keep the cows - for butter, cottage cheese, milk. They don't eat meat in the monastery.

site:How did the revival of the monastery economy begin?

O. Micah: The revival of the monastery economy began from the moment of its transfer to the Church in 1983. Over the next five years, the monastery as a whole was restored, and together with it, the economy supporting it began to function. However, up to a truly independent structure, producing, preserving and nourishing - we are still only going to this all.

Until 1917, the monastery had extensive land, arable land, apiaries, ponds. There were many good products. The monastery sold a lot, incl. in their own stores and shops. People have always loved them - both Muscovites and pilgrims. Then everything was destroyed, literally - to the ground.

But over the past 17 years, of course, a long way has been done. If you look back today, you will see how much we, with God's help, have achieved! And we ourselves grow on the monastery lands wheat, flour with a mill, we bake our famous baked goods. And we grow and preserve all the vegetables we need: preserve, ferment, salt.

And now the monastery has more than one apiary - in the suburbs of the monastery farm, near Ryazan, near Anapa and from Altai, honey is also supplied from the apiaries of the Church of the Archangel Michael. The largest apiary near Ryazan. Now we have about 300 beehives here, and in the apiaries we manage to get more than 10 varieties of honey during the season. This is melilot, and linden, and buckwheat, and honeys of forest and field herbs. Every new season, before the bees leave, special prayers are held for the consecration of the apiary, and the beekeepers receive a blessing for the upcoming work.

Honey is such a product - God's blessing. You need to treat him like that. After all, if you put an apiary, for example, near the road, then there is nothing coming from the exhaust pipes: both lead and all sorts of heavy metals. And the bees also collect all this and transfer it to honey. We are responsible before God for the fact that we have apiaries in good, ecologically clean places, and now, we offer pure honey to people.

We love our people and we want people to be healthy and beautiful and that children are born healthy. Beekeeping is a traditional Russian craft. Back in the 16th century, they said: "Russia is a country where honey flows." Honey was practiced in almost every home. He was supplied with wax and abroad. All Russian people ate honey. It is a necessary product for every person.

It is now customary for us to eat honey only during illness. Only this is wrong. Honey should be eaten three times a day: in the morning with a spoon, in the afternoon and in the evening. Honey contains everything the body needs, including vitamins. After all, honey is a natural product that people have been eating for centuries to strengthen their health. Warriors of the past always had honey with them on campaigns. By eating it, they increased their strength before the upcoming battle.

They also began to revive the tradition of monastery bread. People come to buy our baked goods from all over Moscow and even from the Moscow region. A variety of pies, which are prepared according to old monastery recipes, are very popular. Made with soul - and people like it!

From a sermon

The Kiev prince Izyaslav came to the Monk Theodosius, and after the conversation the monastery meal was offered to the guest. Having tasted it, the Grand Duke was amazed at how tasty the simple monastery food was, that he did not have such food in the Grand Duke's palace. To this the Monk Theodosius replied: “This is because food in our monastery is prepared with the blessing of the abbot. Therefore, despite its simplicity, with the blessing of God received through the blessing of the abbot, it turns out to be so nutritious, wholesome and tasty " Sermon by the abbot of the New Jerusalem Monastery, Hegumen Theophylact on the 20th week after Pentecost. Wonderful fish catch.

Our parishioners and guests of the monastery greatly appreciate the fact that we use not only recipes from our monastery, but also from other holy places: for example, we have yeast-free bread baked according to Athonite recipes, there is bread from the sisters from the Serpukhov convent.

site:And the small brethren of the Holy Danilov Monastery are in charge of all this?

O. Micah: Of course not! Both lay workers and volunteers help us. There are really few monks, especially those who know how to work on earth. Many came to the monastery from cities, some are unable to engage in physical labor. But work in honey apiaries is called "sweet hard labor" ...

Not everyone knows how much work it takes to get good food on the table and the monastery.

site:Please tell us about the monastic food system. What products and dishes make up the monastery table for the brethren?

O. Micah: We do not come to the monastery to have a tasty meal - we come to attain the Kingdom of Heaven through labor, prayer and obedience. The highest virtue is fasting, prayer, rejection of worldly temptations and obedience.

By the way, according to the monastery charter, there are about 200 fast days a year. Fasts are divided into multi-day (Great, Peter's, Dormition and Christmas) and one-day (Wednesday, Friday of each week). It was during the days of abstinence from fast food in the monastery refectory that thousands of original, simple, affordable dishes were developed.

Lunch menu for the brethren of St. Danilov Monastery
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
No post 7	No post 8	Fir 9	No post 10	Fir 11	No post 12	No post 13
Vegetable salad Squid salad Sliced ​​cheese	Beetroot salad with mayonnaise Sliced ​​cheese Cucumber, egg and green salad Luke	Vegetable salad Daikon with carrots	Vegetable salad Sliced ​​cheese Salad with shrimp	Vegetable salad Cabbage salad with carrots	Beetroot salad with mayonnaise Greek salad Sliced ​​cheese	Fish slicing Squid salad with egg
Pickle soup	Cabbage soup	Mushroom soup	Meatball soup	Pea soup	Ear	Borsch
Fried fish Pasta Tomato sauce	Fried fish in egg and bread crumbs Puree Bechamel sauce	Broccoli with onions and carrots Buckwheat	Fried fish in egg and bread crumbs Pasta Tomato sauce	Ratatouille Rice Tomato sauce	Fried perch Pasta Tomato sauce	Fried pike perch Mashed potatoes
Compote Milk Sour cream	Compote Milk Sour cream	-	Compote Milk Sour cream	-	Compote Milk Sour cream	-
Tea Biscuits Apples	Tea Biscuits Apples	Compote Tea Biscuits Apples	Tea Biscuits Apples	Compote Tea Biscuits Apples	Tea Candies Apples	Morse Tea Candies Apples

Dinner menu for the brethren of St. Danilov Monastery
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
No post 7	No post 8	Fir 9	No post 10	Fir 11	No post 12	No post 13
Vegetable salad	Vegetable salad Egg with mayonnaise	Lobio Squash caviar	Crab stick salad	Rustic salad Vegetable salad	Herring with onions and green peas Vegetable salad	Tomato salad with onions Egg with mayonnaise
Zrazy Millet porridge Sauce	Marinated fish Rice	Potato meatballs Stewed cabbage	Fish cabbage rolls in a leaf	Potatoes with mushrooms and onions	Meatballs with sauce Fried potatoes	Fried fish Rice with vegetables
Compote Milk Sour cream	Compote Milk Sour cream	-	Omelette	-	Compote Milk Sour cream	Compote Milk Sour cream
Cottage cheese casserole	Syrniki	-	-	-	-	Casserole
Tea Candies	Cocoa Candies	Tea Candies Compote	Tea Candies Compote	Tea Candies Compote	Tea Candies	Tea Candies

The main difference between the monastic table and the worldly one is that we do not eat meat. In the monastery they eat vegetables, cereals, dairy products, pastries and fish, mushrooms. A lot of sauerkraut, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms are always prepared in the pantries of the monastery.

The cellarer watches over this, and both the monastic brothers and the lay workers do. And it goes to the table for everyone, without exception. According to the charter, monks eat only twice a day: at lunch and at dinner. The monastery cellarer especially makes sure that the meals are tasty, varied and supportive - after all, the interval before meals is long, and no one sits idly by, everyone has their own housework - obedience.

The everyday menu usually consists of fish soup, if allowed on that day, pickle, vegetable, mushroom or milk soup and fish with a side dish. For dessert - tea, compote or jelly, pies, cookies. The Sunday menu consists of fish borscht, fried fish garnished with mashed potatoes or rice with vegetables, fresh vegetables, fish cuts and products from the monastery courtyard - cheese, sour cream and milk. On the holidays of Christmas and Easter, a festive menu is served at the meal.

We have Father Hermogenes - he was the monastery's cellarer for more than 10 years, so he even wrote a book about the monastery meal, "Father Hermogenes's Kitchen." At the moment, the cellarer in the monastery of Fr. Theognost. I was a cellar for several years, and before that I was obedient in the construction of a skete, restoration of the Church of the Archangel Michael, taking care of apiaries, a bakery ...

Now I have obedience - I offer monastery products for Muscovites, in a honey shop and 2 monastery shops "Monastyrsky honey" and "Monastyrsky grocery store", where you can buy our products: honey, beekeeping products, honey jam, an assortment of fish, cereals, monastic baked goods, yeast-free bread, pies, health products: non-alcoholic balsams, sbitni, teas, herbs.

And also I have obedience in the department of making posters of spiritual and patriotic content of modern and classical artists.

site:We thank you, Father Micah, for your attention and story. We wish you joy in your work!

PRAYERS BEFORE AND AFTER INSULATIONFOOD

BEFORE TASKING

Our Father, Who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as in heaven and on earth. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we also leave our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. All eyes trust in You, Lord, and You give them food in good timing, You open Your generous hand and fulfilling every animal favor.

AFTER TASTING

We thank Thee, Christ our God, for thou hast filled us with Thy earthly blessings; Do not deprive us of Thy Heavenly Kingdom, but as among Thy disciples you came, Savior, give them peace, come to us and save us.

SECRET PRAYER BEFORE EATING FOOD FOR DISEASED IN NUTRITION (prayer for weight loss)

I also pray to You, Lord, to save me from satiety, voluptuousness and grant me in the peace of mind with reverence to accept Your generous gifts, and by eating them, I will receive the strengthening of my mental and physical strength to serve You, Lord, in the small remainder of my life on Earth.

Editor's note

Dear Readers!

On November 28, Orthodox Christians begin the Nativity Fast. This is one of four multi-day fasts in Orthodoxy, which prepares believers for the bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ. This fast is less strict than the Great and the Assumption fast, but here, too, questions arise: what can and cannot be eaten, what Orthodox holidays at this time must be known to every believer who is allowed indulgences, is there any benefit to the soul if you observe only a physical post? These days Fr. Micah. And then at the meeting you will receive comprehensive answers to them.