home Psychologist's advice M.I. Galyaev: Why do we celebrate Sunday. Sunday Birthday What a Christian Should Do on Sunday

M.I. Galyaev: Why do we celebrate Sunday. Sunday Birthday What a Christian Should Do on Sunday

IV God's commandment says: "Remember the Sabbath day, so that spend it holy: work for six days and do all your work in them, and let the day of rest (Saturday) be dedicated to the Lord your God.” (Ex. 20, 8-10).

The fourth commandment strictly commands us to devote one day a week to the Lord. The commandment about the Sabbath was given by God to the Jewish people in ancient times. The worship of the Sabbath was understood as one of the signs of the covenant between God and people. The Saturday day of weekly rest is dedicated to God, so that a person remembers the Creator, to whom his whole life belongs. The observance of the Sabbath has received special significance since the Babylonian captivity and has become one of the hallmarks of Judaism. But the legalistic spirit turned the joy of this day into something forced. According to the Old Testament law, Sabbath violators were even stoned to death (Num. 15:32).

Christians, fulfilling the commandment to honor the seventh day, celebrate Sunday, since on this day Christ rose from the dead, defeating death, hell and the devil by His death, and gave eternal life to all humanity. And the Holy Fathers say that the work of human salvation (incarnation, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ) exceeds in significance the creation of the world. That is, the salvation of man is an act of greater love of God for man than even the creation of the world. That's why we celebrate Sunday. The veneration of Sunday began from the time of the Resurrection of Christ. The book of the Acts of the Apostles mentions the gathering of disciples, Christians, “as one from the Sabbath,” that is, on the first day of the week, or Sunday, for the breaking of bread, that is, for the celebration of the Sacrament of Communion (Acts 20:7). The Apocalypse of John the Theologian also mentions a “weekly day,” or Sunday (Rev. 1:10).

An Orthodox Christian must necessarily participate in the Divine Liturgy on Sunday. Pious Christian families give communion to their young children in church every Sunday.

To understand the importance of going to church on Sunday, you need to understand that Sunday is a little Easter. This is the day of the victory of Jesus Christ over the devil and the victory of Life over death. Can we imagine that a war veteran stayed at home on Victory Day, May 9? NEVER! If he remains, it means he is sick. Likewise, a Christian, if he is at war with sin, if he is on the side of Christ, then he will certainly come to share the joy of the RESURRECTION OF CHRIST! For victory over sin becomes his personal victory. Anyone who does not attend Sunday worship not only violates the Law of God, but also deprives himself of spiritual joy and spiritual strengthening. You must love God with all your heart and all your mind. Of course, this needs to be learned. But how can you learn if you don’t go to church, where can you find a teacher? The Church always emphasizes conciliarity. Not everyone prays on their own, but everyone prays together. Even in the most important prayer, Jesus Christ teaches his disciples to call God not theirs, but ours: “Our Father...”. Now, if you say that you love the Lord, then show it with your deeds. Honor the Day of the Resurrection of Christ and come to church at least once a week and thank God for everything you have received in life. God loves you and always waits for you with love.

Many new Christians ask themselves the question: How to spend Sunday in an Orthodox way? Let's try to answer this question. Holiday time is a time of special service to God. And since God especially dwells in the temple, on holidays it is necessary to visit the temple of God.

With what zeal must we respond to the invitation of the Heavenly King, to whom every holiday, every Sunday, with special strength and insistence, the Holy Church calls us to the house of God, where the Heavenly King Himself is present with His grace! “For those people,” says Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, who, out of weakness, out of need, out of duty of obedience during sacred times, are forced to remain in their homes, we must say: at least when they hear the sublime voice of the bell, announcing the high moment of bloodless sacrifice, let them send to the church, a reverent thought, a pious desire, let them sanctify themselves with the sign of the cross, as if together with those standing at the altar; the angel of the temple will meet them and in the distance will number them among those who are really coming and will lift up their memory on the altar of the Lord.”

Returning home from church, a Christian must maintain a prayerful mood here too.

If on weekdays, when a person is entertained by everyday worries and labors, he cannot always devote a lot of time to prayer, which is so necessary for his soul, then on Sundays and holidays he must devote most of his day to this pious and saving activity.

Saint Tikhon, Bishop of Voronezh, went to church almost every day for Liturgy and Vespers and sang himself in the choir. He spent nights without sleep and went to bed at dawn.

Prophet David prayed at the beginning of the night, got up to pray at midnight, prayed in the morning, evening and at noon.

Therefore he said: by day of the seven days we praised Thee (Ps. 119:164).

Abba Dula, a disciple of the Monk Vissarion, said: “I entered my elder’s cell and found him standing in prayer; his hands were stretched out to heaven, and he remained in this feat for fourteen days.”

Prayer is a reverent conversation between the human soul and God. On holidays, it is quite decent to have a conversation with people, but, of course, not every conversation, but only about divine objects.

After pious conversations, the soul is filled with holy thoughts, feelings and desires. The mind becomes clearer, brighter; Regret for the poorly spent past penetrates into the heart - the will would like to do only one thing that is pleasing before God.

Oh, that each of us would love to talk and listen more about what concerns God and the soul; then we would not have faith and virtue only in words, but would be the life and property of the heart, of our entire being.

Both conducting soul-saving conversations and reading soul-saving books are equally useful and saving. The Holy Apostle Paul commands his beloved disciple, Bishop Timothy, to read holy and soul-helping books as one of the main means for success in spiritual life. Listen to the reading (1 Tim. 4:13), he writes to him. And the holy fathers, following the Apostle, command everyone to read holy books, as one of the important means to spiritual improvement.

It is especially helpful to read the Holy Scriptures. “If we read the Holy Scriptures with faith,” says St. Basil the Great, “we feel that we see and hear Christ Himself. What needs do we need—whether by a living voice or through scripture, who speaks to us? It's all the same. So in the Holy Scriptures God speaks to us as truly as we speak to Him through prayer.”

It is very useful and soul-saving to do charity on holidays. The Holy Apostle Paul advised the Christians of the Corinthian church to establish a constant collection for the benefit of the needy: do as I established in the churches of Galatia. On the first day of the week (that is, every Sunday - Ed.), let each of you set aside and collect as much as his fortune allows (1 Cor. 16: 1-2). Saint John Chrysostom, instilling this commandment in the Christians of Constantinople, says: “Let us build in our house an ark for the poor, which should be located near the place where you stand for prayer. Let everyone put aside the Lord's money at home on Sunday. If we make it a rule for ourselves on Sunday to put something aside for the benefit of the poor, we will not break this rule. A craftsman, having sold one of his works, should bring the firstfruits of the price to God and share this part with God. I don’t ask for much, I just ask you to put aside at least a tenth. Do the same not only when selling, but also when buying. Let all who acquire righteousness observe these rules.”

Ancient Christians lovingly honored holidays with abundant offerings to the church, one part of which went to support church employees and church needs, and the other to help the poor. “These offerings,” says one ancient Christian writer, “serve as a guarantee of piety; because they do not go to feasts, not to drunkenness, not to overeat, but to feed and bury the poor, to boys and girls who have lost their property and parents, to elders who, due to weakness, can no longer leave the house and do work, and also to those who suffered misfortune and were imprisoned for their faith in mines, islands and dungeons.”

Many of the people who were sufficient to honor the holidays themselves distributed generous alms to the poor brethren, fed the hungry, looked after the strange and went to hospitals, trying with words of consolation and various services to alleviate the suffering of the sick. Thus, the writer of the life of St. Martha, talking about how she revered the divine holidays, among other things, says: “she was indescribably merciful to the poor, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. Often entering hospitals, serving with your own hands to the sick, giving burial services to those dying from your labors, and also giving white clothes from your handicraft to those being baptized.”

The general custom of ancient Christians was to arrange holiday meals for orphans, strangers and all the poor. In the first times of Christianity, meals of this kind were established at churches and tombs of martyrs; but later they began to be hosted by benefactors only in their own homes. The generosity of some Christians extended to the point that sometimes, due to a large crowd of beggars, they organized several meals one after another on one holiday. It is known that one Christ-loving brother, named Isaiah, was distinguished by his special charity during the holidays: having created a hospice and a hospital, he tried to give peace to everyone who came to him and served the sick with all zeal: “on Saturdays and on weekdays, two at a time, Three and four meals are presented to the poor for the sake of the poor.” If one of your relatives or friends is sick, go to the sick person and console him as best you can. Maybe someone close to your heart is lying in the cemetery. Go to the grave of the deceased, pray for him. Now, on holidays, many churches organize non-liturgical interviews between pastors and people. It's good to visit them too.

This is how a Christian should spend a Sunday or holiday. But is this how we really spend it?

Many Christians, dissatisfied with their constant income, also devote time of sacred rest to their work, thinking through this to increase their wealth. But they are in vain to think so. The Prologue contains such a story.

Two artisans lived nearby, who both practiced the same craft: they were tailors. One of them had a wife, father, mother and many children; but he went to church every day. However, despite the fact that through this he took a lot of time from himself to work at his craft, he sufficiently supported and fed himself and his entire family, thanks to the blessing of God, sought daily for his work and his home. The other devoted too much to his craft, so that often on holidays, which should be dedicated to serving God, he was not in the temple of God, but sat at work, but was not rich and had difficulty feeding himself. So he began to envy the first; One day he couldn’t stand it and asked his neighbor with irritation: “Why is this and how do you get rich? after all, I work harder than you, but I’m poor.”

And he, wanting his neighbor to remember God more often, replied: “Here I am, going to church every day, often finding gold along the way; and little by little I am gaining. If you want, we’ll go to church together, I’ll call you every day; but only everything that each of us finds should be divided in half.” The poor man believed, agreed, and together they began to visit the temple of God every day, where the soul is involuntarily disposed to prayer and where the grace of God invisibly touches the human heart; The other one soon got used to such a pious custom. But what? God apparently blessed him and his work: he began to get better and get richer. Then the first, having suppressed the good thought, admitted to his neighbor: “I didn’t tell you the whole truth before, but what I said for the sake of God and your salvation is of what benefit to your soul and to your property! Believe me, I didn’t find anything on earth, no gold, and I didn’t visit the temple of God because of gold, but precisely because God said: seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6: 33). However, if I said that I found gold, I did not sin: after all, you found it and acquired it.” - Thus, the blessing of the Lord on those who sacredly honor the Lord serves as the best and most reliable accomplice to their labors.

Those who disrespect holy holidays can always suffer God's punishment. After all, having a holiday completely free from work, they are too lazy to even go to the temple of God, and even if they come, they stand in the church of God absent-mindedly, praying carelessly, thinking about how they can spend the holiday more cheerfully. And when they come home, they indulge in unbridled fun.

Of course, there is no sin in innocent pleasures and complete rest from constant work. The Monk Anthony the Great often said to his disciples: “just as one cannot constantly and strongly strain a bow, otherwise it will burst, so a person cannot be constantly under tension, but he also needs rest.” But the best joy for a Christian is in God; - therefore, the best joy of a Christian on the day of the holiday should be the joy of reading soul-saving books, conducting pious conversations and performing godly deeds. However, not only is a Christian not prohibited from any reasonable entertainment on this day, such as visiting any museum or exhibition, visiting relatives or friends, etc., but these healthy and useful entertainments are even strongly recommended. But it is completely inconsistent with the holiness of Sunday to indulge in drunkenness, sing disorderly songs and indulge in excesses of all kinds. Saint John Chrysostom says: “The holiday is not for us to commit outrages and multiply our sins, but to cleanse those that we have.”

Once the Lord God, through the mouth of His prophet, spoke to the Jews, who spent their holidays in the service of one sensuality: My soul hates your holidays (Isa. 1:14). This is a scary word. Let us fear the wrath of God, let us spend the holidays holy, not indulging in feasting and drunkenness, nor sensuality and debauchery, nor quarrels and envy (Rom. 13:13), but let us spend the holidays in purity and righteousness.

ABC of Faith

Most of us consider Sunday a day off when we can relax and do nothing. But in the Church the attitude towards him is somewhat different. How to spend the seventh day of the week according to Orthodox tradition, we will learn from the cleric of the Nativity Cathedral in Uvarovo, Priest Vladimir Kryuchkov.

- Father Vladimir, tell us what spiritual meaning does Sunday have for Orthodox people?

— Sunday takes its origins from the Old Testament (the Book of Genesis, the Pentateuch of Moses). It says that when the world was being created, the Lord left the seventh day as a day of rest. There were six days of creation, and on the seventh day the Lord rested from His labors. In addition, on the tablets of the Covenant, which were handed to the Prophet Moses, commandments were written on how to honor the Sabbath day: “Remember the Sabbath day to spend it holy: work for six days and do all your works during them, and the seventh day “You shall dedicate the Sabbath day to the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:8-10). Therefore, the Old Testament Saturday is a prototype of today's Sunday. We all know that the Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected on this day. And therefore, Sunday is honored by Orthodox Christians as a small Easter, a small Resurrection.

There is a popular belief that “nothing can be done” on Sunday, at least until lunch. According to the Charter of the Orthodox Church, how should Sunday be spent?

This question can be answered by referring to both the Old and New Testaments. Because in the Old Testament times the Jews revered the Sabbath sacredly, but they revered it in such a way that, in the end, it came to the point of being ridiculous. They did nothing, and that was the most important thing for them. Nothing could be done - it was a sin, it was a crime. What about the New Testament? The Holy Gospel tells how Jesus Christ and His disciples walked through a field, and the disciples became hungry, that is, they wanted to eat. They began to pick the ears of grain, rub them in their hands and eat them. And then the Pharisees, who were in the ranks of His disciples, grumbled: Why are Your disciples doing this on the Sabbath? Saturday is a holy day, nothing can be done, and rubbing the ears of grain, in their opinion, was already work. Then the Lord said these words: “Man is not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is for man” (Mark 2:27).

Also, many times the Pharisees tried to catch Jesus Christ in the fact that on the Sabbath He did good deeds: He healed a withered hand and a demoniac. Then He, seeing the deceit of their hearts, one day asked: “What do you think? If someone had a hundred sheep, and one of them got lost, would he not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains and go looking for the lost one?” (Matthew 18:12) Therefore, to the question - is it possible to heal on Saturday or not, is it possible to do good deeds on Saturday or not, the question, of course, is unequivocal - it is possible.

Father Vladimir, it happens that Sunday, due to work or urgent matters, cannot be freed up for visiting church, reading holy books, or praying. How, in this case, can you maintain the spirit of Sunday so as not to forget about its Christian significance?

Of course, our time is very crafty, very fast. And sometimes things accumulate over six days; not everyone has two days off, but only one - Sunday. And I want to do the things that have accumulated over the week. It is still necessary to observe Sunday as follows: if a person does not have the opportunity to come to church, then he needs to pray at home, remember the health, the repose of his loved ones, and read some spiritual books. After that, you can get down to business.

And any business must begin with prayer. Our ancestors always did this, and they succeeded much more than we did. And there was no fuss, and there was no race, in which we all now live, willingly or unwillingly. The fact is that every business that our grandparents started began with holy prayer, with God's blessing. And they ended a small or big task with a prayer, but this time of thanksgiving. Then, taking on another task, they read the same thing: “To the King of Heaven” they read. And when a person finished the day, he lit a lamp and prayed, read the evening rule, and he had such a feeling, a feeling that he had spent the whole day in church. Because prayer, intertwined with our secular and physical affairs, went on continuously, and a person did two things: he was in social service, did physical things, and at the same time prayed to God, that is, did spiritual things. We also need to follow this.

- How can you determine that a person correctly fulfills the commandment to keep Sunday?

Sunday is given to us, first of all, to honor God. And the second is for relaxation. Because a person, from a physical point of view, will not give himself rest, sooner or later he will break down, become seriously ill, or some other infirmity will visit him. You don’t need to burden yourself with big things, but you don’t need to go from one extreme to the other, because if it’s Sunday, then the Russian soul always strives to unwind. You cannot do any outrages on this day, remembering that this is the Lord’s day. This day is pious, quiet and holy.

— Father Vladimir, God bless you for your advice.

- May the Lord bless you all. Goodbye.

And since it is obvious that God did not need rest, what follows from this if not that this decree had in mind man, that is, that the Sabbath, as Jesus Christ proclaims, was given for man who the most ancient times and celebrated it much earlier than the celebration of the Sabbath rest was legalized in the form of law at Sinai. This is the original basis for establishing a day of rest.

So, before us is a Divine decree: the Sabbath is for man, for man of all times and places. We will add: for a person until his fall. If she was necessary for him in his state of innocence, then did not fallen man need her all the more; a person subject to the flesh, the visible world, the harsh necessity of work, and finally, sin, which constantly erases from his heart the image of God and the consciousness of a high human purpose?

The book of Exodus (16:23-30) is the first time the Sabbath is mentioned, and this mention only preceded Jewish law. The very way in which Moses reminds the Israelites of this decree regarding the collection of manna on the eve of this day shows that he does not at all give them a new commandment, but restores an old one, weakened and, perhaps, forgotten among the hard work in Egypt. Now, in the desert, in freedom, it was possible and should have been restored. Why is the very expression in which the fourth commandment is prescribed: remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, shows that they remember only what they already know, just as they cherish only what they have. Therefore, it is impossible to attribute to the Sinai legislation the ruling that it itself carries over 25 centuries ago and borrows from the first traditions of mankind. It is obvious that even before the Law of Sinai, the establishment and observance of the day of rest was known and applied even outside the Jewish people, everywhere being a universal and eternal decree. The centuries have not destroyed it; it remains as necessary and sacred for us both in our business life and in a noisy civilization, as it was among the first believers, who brought with them under the desert tent faith in God, the original traditions of the world and the future of humanity.

Its very severity shows us how necessary God considered this decree for the religious education of His chosen people. But, having learned from the holy Apostle Paul that we are not under the law, but under grace (see), let us not take this ancient decree lightly. What is most worthy of notice here is that the institution of the Sabbath found its place in the Decalogue, instead of being mixed up with the many different small regulations of the Mosaic Law. The Decalogue, in a brief but wonderful form, sets out the entire moral law, and all the requirements contained in it are directly related to the religious life of every person who would wish to serve the Lord God in any era. Thus, seeing that the observance of the day of rest occupies such a prominent place and is prescribed in such an insistent and precise form, we conclude that it is based on the most fundamental conditions of the religious and moral life of man and must have eternal significance.

The Pharisees added their petty regulations to the law; They accurately determined what activities should be allowed on this day, even calculated the number of steps that could be taken, and decided that instead of caring for the sick person, it was better to leave him to die, glorifying God with his complete inaction.

Jesus Christ, by His teaching, freed us from such pharisaism. He destroyed the collections of their instructions and prescriptions. Redeemed by grace, we are no longer under the yoke of the law and its ritual regulations. But if Jesus Christ removed from the Jewish Sabbath its legal, ritual and purely external character, does it follow from this that He condemned the very establishment of the Sabbath? No. On the contrary, He returns to it its eternal meaning with these memorable words: “Sabbath is for man.” He only raises us with this expression to the original establishment of this day. On various occasions He shows us in what spirit this day should be celebrated. By allowing His disciples to pluck ears of corn for food, He thereby resolves an extremely necessary matter of everyday need; by healing the sick, He blesses the works of mercy; does not forbid pulling out a sheep, or a donkey, or an ox that has fallen into a pit or a well (see ; ), showing that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and that if it comes to serving God, then we can be called on this day to the most difficult and difficult feats.

The New Testament Church inherits the spirit of its Teacher: it refuses external observance of the Jewish Sabbath and obeys the instructions of the Apostle, who clearly says to those hearts that such a thought could frighten: let no one condemn you for ... the Sabbath ().

And as if wanting to show that the Church enjoys the spiritual freedom given to her, she changes the day of rest: she boldly devotes the day dedicated to the Father to the Son, celebrating the memory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, by whom all things were made new. The Church itself, back in the time of the apostles, sanctified the first day of the week. So, in the book of the Acts of the Apostles we clearly see this day established for the breaking of bread (). This custom was immediately introduced into the churches founded by the Holy Apostle Paul, and this is clearly proven by the fact that, during his stay in Troas, the Holy Apostle Paul, despite the fact that he was in a hurry to continue his journey, remained to wait for the first day of the week, when the disciples gathered to break bread, and talked with them until midnight (see Acts. 20:7). This is, although indirect, but, as it seems to us, quite clear evidence that this day was established, that is, the celebration was moved from Saturday to Sunday, by the first Christians. In the apostolic epistles we find exhortations relating to charity, especially on this day; finally, the last book of Holy Scripture - the Apocalypse - tells us in its first verses that on one of the Sundays the holy Apostle and Evangelist John, exiled to Patmos, had a vision, which he talks about, calling this day directly Sunday (see. ).

This is the teaching of Scripture regarding the day of rest. This day, as we have seen, was preserved at all times by God’s chosen people, and if in some periods it took on a formal character, then, nevertheless, from the same Jewish form it is reborn in the New Testament, as a Divine, universal and eternal decree .

Having risen on the first day of the week, the Savior, the true Lord of the Sabbath, connected with Sunday memories that were more important for Christians than those that were connected with the Old Testament Sabbath. The Sabbath recalled the creation of the ancient world, which, due to the fall of man, fell under the power of the “prince of this world” and found itself in evil; The very first day of the week reminds of redemption from the power of sin and the devil, of the re-creation of humanity.

We already find an indirect indication of the peace observed on Sunday in the Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-Bearer in his Epistle to the Magnesians. Then the presence of Christians of the primal church on Sundays during divine services and at love suppers shows that they stopped their everyday affairs at least in the first half of the day. But one can guess that Christians, out of respect for Sunday, which replaced Saturday, did not work all day. The observance of rest on Sunday is spoken of in the Apostolic Decrees (book 7, chapter 33; book 8, chapter 33). The first church rule that legitimizes the custom of resting on Sunday is the 29th rule of the Council of Laodicea, which took place at the end of the 4th century. “It is not proper,” says this rule, for Christians to practice Judaism and celebrate on Saturday, but to do so on this day; and Sunday is celebrated primarily, if they can, like Christians.” Here the contrast between Sunday, which must be celebrated, and Saturday, on which one must work, shows that the celebration of Sunday must consist of rest, and the words: “if they can,” make it clear that necessary, important and urgent matters can be performed on Sunday, without violating its holiness - that Christians do not need the coercive and petty regulations with which the Jewish celebration of the Sabbath was burdened in later times - that they must act according to conscience and be guided by moral freedom.

The custom of observing Sunday rest, in addition to church rules, was also approved by the authority of the emperors. Saint Constantine the Great freed Christian soldiers from military training on Sundays so that they could more freely come to church for public worship. He also prohibited trading on Sundays, and this was later confirmed by the law of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. It was allowed to trade only items necessary for life. In addition, the saint and many subsequent emperors forbade court proceedings to be carried out on Sunday, unless the duty of philanthropy and the preservation of public order did not allow a delay.

The Church forbade carrying out everyday activities on holidays. But acts of reverence and piety, such as: visiting a temple and being present at public worship, home prayer, burying the dead, religious processions, selfless help to neighbors, especially the unfortunate, reading religious books, explaining Scripture, etc., she not only prohibited, but either directly and persistently legitimized, or at least approved, because with such deeds Sunday is mainly sanctified.

The Church has always recognized Sunday as a day of spiritual joy. She expressed this, first of all, in the prohibition of fasting on Sunday (see 64th Apostolic Canon; 18th Canon of the Gangra Council).

Both conducting soul-saving conversations and reading soul-saving books are equally useful and saving. The Holy Apostle Paul commands his beloved disciple, Bishop Timothy, to read holy and soul-helping books as one of the main means for success in spiritual life. Listen to reading (), he writes to him. And the holy fathers, following the Apostle, command everyone to read holy books, as one of the important means to spiritual improvement.

It is especially helpful to read the Holy Scriptures. “If we read the Holy Scriptures with faith,” says the saint, “we feel that we see and hear Christ Himself. What needs do we need—whether by a living voice or through scripture, who speaks to us? It's all the same. So in the Holy Scriptures God speaks to us as truly as we speak to Him through prayer.”

It is very useful and soul-saving to do charity on holidays. The Holy Apostle Paul advised the Christians of the Corinthian church to establish a constant collection for the benefit of the needy: do as I established in the churches of Galatia. On the first day of the week (i.e., every Sunday - Ed.), let each of you set aside and collect as much as his fortune allows (). The saint, instilling this commandment in the Christians of Constantinople, says: “Let us build in our house an ark for the poor, which should be located near the place where you stand for prayer. Let everyone put aside the Lord's money at home on Sunday. If we make it a rule for ourselves on Sunday to put something aside for the benefit of the poor, we will not break this rule. A craftsman, having sold one of his works, should bring the firstfruits of the price to God and share this part with God. I don’t ask for much, I just ask you to put aside at least a tenth. Do the same not only when selling, but also when buying. Let all who acquire righteousness observe these rules.”

The general custom of ancient Christians was to arrange holiday meals for orphans, strangers and all the poor. In the first times of Christianity, meals of this kind were established at churches and tombs of martyrs; but later they began to be hosted by benefactors only in their own homes. The generosity of some Christians extended to the point that sometimes, due to a large crowd of beggars, they organized several meals one after another on one holiday. Thus, it is known that one Christ-loving brother, named Isaiah, was distinguished by his special charity during the holidays: having created a hospice and a hospital, he tried to give peace to everyone who came to him and served the sick with all zeal: “on Saturdays and on weekdays, two , three and four meals are presented to the poor for the sake of the poor.” If one of your relatives or friends is sick, go to the sick person and console him as best you can. Maybe someone close to your heart is lying in the cemetery. Go to the grave of the deceased, pray for him. Now, on holidays, many churches organize non-liturgical interviews between pastors and people. It's good to visit them too.

This is how a Christian should spend a Sunday or holiday. But is this how we really spend it?

And he, wanting his neighbor to remember God more often, replied: “Here I am, going to church every day, often finding gold along the way; and little by little I am gaining. If you want, we’ll go to church together, I’ll call you every day; but only everything that each of us finds should be divided in half.” The poor man believed, agreed, and together they began to visit the temple of God every day, where the soul is involuntarily disposed to prayer and where the grace of God invisibly touches the human heart; The other one soon got used to such a pious custom. But what? God apparently blessed him and his work: he began to get better and get richer. Then the first one to give a good thought admitted to his neighbor: “I didn’t tell you the whole truth before, but what I said for the sake of God and your salvation is of what benefit to your soul and to your property! Believe me, I didn’t find anything on earth, no gold, and I didn’t visit the temple of God because of gold, but precisely because God said: seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you (). However, if I said that I found gold, I did not sin: after all, you found it and acquired it.” - Thus, the blessing of the Lord on those who sacredly honor the Lord serves as the best and most reliable accomplice to their labors.

Of course, there is no sin in innocent pleasures and complete rest from constant work. The monk often told his disciples: “just as one cannot constantly and strongly strain a bow, otherwise it will burst, so a person cannot be constantly under tension, but he also needs rest.” But the best joy for a Christian is in God; - therefore, the best joy of a Christian on the day of the holiday should be the joy of reading soul-saving books, conducting pious conversations and performing godly deeds. However, not only is a Christian not prohibited from any reasonable entertainment on this day, such as visiting any museum or exhibition, visiting relatives or friends, etc., but these healthy and useful entertainments are even strongly recommended. But it is completely inconsistent with the holiness of Sunday to indulge in drunkenness, sing disorderly songs and indulge in excesses of all kinds. The saint says: “The holiday is not for us to commit outrages and multiply our sins, but to cleanse those that we have.”

Once the Lord God, through the mouth of His prophet, spoke to the Jews, who spent their holidays in the service of one sensuality: My soul hates your holidays (). This is a scary word. Let us fear the wrath of God, let us spend the holidays holy, not indulging in feasting and drunkenness, nor sensuality and debauchery, nor quarrels and envy (), but we will spend the holidays in purity and righteousness.

CONCLUSION

In Christianity, the very first day was a day of bright joy for the disciples of Christ. Since then, the day of the Lord's resurrection has always been a day of joy for Christians.

Therefore, the word “holiday” is associated with spiritual joy. This does not include manifold worldly entertainments, which, even if sublime in their form, cannot in any way sanctify the holy day.

The celebration of Sunday is a direct service to God, consisting primarily in the remembrance of the Resurrection of Christ. Peace from worldly affairs is a necessary condition for celebration, and joy is its natural result.

Communication with God, which constitutes the essence of celebration, is more conveniently achieved in the company of people, for the Lord said: where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them (). The celebration must first of all take place in the temple - this place of the special grace-filled presence of God. Here the Sacrament of the Eucharist is celebrated, here the clergy teach the word of God, appointed by God Himself to shepherd His flock and who have received special grace-filled means for this. Here all believers with one mouth and one heart offer their prayers, petitions and thanksgiving to God. Here the members of the Body of Christ enter into the closest spiritual communion with their head Christ and among themselves. Solemn silence and reverence lift hearts to God. The communication of all believers and mutual example excite and strengthen the reverence and prayer of each individual. Performing holy and spiritual deeds on Sunday satisfies the most essential needs of the human soul. This in itself is a good thing, and at the same time it is the most important means of achieving heaven, unity with God and eternal bliss.

Orthodox Christians! Let us strictly and unswervingly celebrate Sunday and all other holidays established by the Holy Church for our earthly happiness and eternal salvation.

When a person just begins to get acquainted with the way of life of Orthodox Christians, he pays attention to one feature: on Saturday evening and Sunday morning they rush to church for worship. At first, this surprises relatives and friends a little - it’s understandable if it’s on big holidays, but why go to church every week? It turns out that this tradition is of great importance for a person’s spiritual life. Priest Kirill Baukov will tell our students about this.

Orthodox church service is called service, or service, to God, consisting of reading and singing prayers, reading the Word of God, as well as sacred rites performed according to a certain order, that is, in order, led by a clergyman (bishop or priest).

The purpose of the service is to edify the believers in reading and singing, to set forth the true teaching of Christ and to dispose them to prayer and repentance, and to depict in persons and actions the most important events from Sacred history that took place for our salvation, both before and after the Nativity of Christ.

In this case, it is meant to arouse in those praying gratitude to God for all the blessings received, to strengthen the prayer for further mercies to us from Him and to receive peace of mind for our souls. And most importantly, through worship, Orthodox Christians enter into mysterious communion with God through the performance of the sacraments during worship, and especially through the Sacrament of Holy Communion, and receive from God grace-filled strength for a righteous life.

Little Easter

The first day of the week after the Old Testament Sabbath is marked by the event of the glorious Resurrection of Christ. Hence its name - the day of the Lord. Sunday is called Week (ecclesiastical - rest, peace), according to the name of the Old Testament Saturday (Hebrew-Aramic Shabbat - rest, peace) - not doing worldly affairs and dedicating oneself on this day to serving God.

Sunday is a small Easter, which we have the happiness of celebrating every week. But this frequency also has the opposite effect for us: it would seem that we should enjoy Sunday more, appreciate more, wait more, worry more, but for us this day, on the contrary, becomes ordinary. Let us remember, for example, that in the Sunday service of the sixth tone on the first stichera the same stichera is sung, which also sounds on the first day of Easter during the procession before Easter Matins: “Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Savior, the Angels are singing in heaven...”. When this stichera is sung on Sunday, it immediately smells like Easter. “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ...” - a bright Easter text - stands in the center of Sunday Matins. This is truly a small Easter that does not leave us all year. One wonderful charter member said this: “I would not have the strength to part with Great Easter if there were no Sundays.” They leave the light of Easter for us for the whole year.

The most common designation for Sunday is “the first day of the week.” This expression is found in the stories about the Resurrection of Christ. One of the earliest evidence of the special significance attached to the first day of the week in the life of church communities is contained in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, where the Apostle Paul recommends that the Corinthian Christians collect offerings on this day, just as was done in the churches of Galatia. From this it is still impossible to conclude that the first day of the week was the time when meetings of Christians necessarily took place, since the Apostle Paul speaks of collecting funds privately from house to house. However, the private nature of the gatherings recommended by the Apostle Paul does not exclude meetings on this day, especially since the Acts speaks of the meeting of Christians of Troas for the Eucharistic meal precisely on the first day of the week. Since the connection of the Eucharist with the appearances of the Risen Christ is already visible in the Gospel (see: Luke 24, 1, 13-32 and John 20, 1, 19, 26), the Eucharistic meeting and, probably, the collection of donations should have been timed very early to the memory of the Resurrection of Christ.

In the 2nd century, Sunday was already the main day of liturgical gatherings for Christians. A certain “established day” for church meetings is mentioned in the letter of Pliny the Younger; Sunday is called the day of the Eucharist in the “Didache” and by the martyr Justin the Philosopher. Participation in the Sunday Eucharistic meeting has become one of the main duties of a Christian; refusal to fulfill it is condemned already in many church monuments of the second century. The twenty-first rule of the Elvira Council prescribes the excommunication from church communion of those who miss the Sunday services of three meetings in a row without a good reason.

On this day, everyday worries were put aside in order to participate in Sunday worship - Tertullian was one of the first to speak about this.

The special meaning of worship

Every Orthodox Christian should attend Sunday services whenever possible. Why is this so important? Sunday is a special day, a holiday. This is not just a day of rest from obtaining “daily bread”, from everyday, everyday work. This is a day dedicated to God. You shall work for six days and do all your work in them, and the seventh day...to the Lord your God... (Ex. 20:9-10).

The place of Sunday service in the Charter can be compared with the place of the Resurrection of Christ in the life of every Christian, because without faith in the Resurrection our faith is in vain. And therefore the Sunday service has a completely exceptional position in worship.

Easter is the pinnacle of the whole year, the center of the year, an incomparable holiday. And the Sunday service is the beginning and culmination of the weekly service. The week begins from its peak, from such a height that not a single day of the week rises to.

How to spend a Sunday worthily? First of all, of course, by praying in church and participating in church services. At the Divine Liturgy, the Bloodless Sacrifice is offered for us, for our sins, therefore, it is the duty of the faithful children of the Church to reverently attend this Great Sacrament and prayerfully participate in it.

It must also be remembered that, according to Canon 80 of the VI Ecumenical Council, a Christian who misses three consecutive Sunday services in church is excommunicated from union with the Church of Christ.

It is important to remember that it is advisable to attend not only the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, but also the Sunday all-night vigil.

Sunday evening worship is edifying and moralizing in nature. For example, the Sunday stichera on “Lord Liar,” which are sung at the all-night vigil, are truly monuments of Byzantine poetry. Most stichera talk about the Savior's death on the cross, His descent into hell, the Resurrection and victory over death. “Come, people, let us sing and worship Christ, glorifying His Resurrection from the dead: for He is our God, who has delivered the world from the deception of the enemy” (Great Vespers. Stichera on “I have cried unto the Lord”).

Several stichera have a pronounced dogmatic content. They speak about the eternal birth of the Son of God from the Father, about the Second Coming of Christ, about the indivisible power of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, about the omnipresence of God: “Before the ages, the Word of God who was born from the Father, who was incarnate from the Virgin Mary, come, let us worship: having endured the cross, I harmed the burial, as I pleased: and rose from the dead, saving me an erring man.”

A special place in the Sunday evening service is occupied by the reading of the Sunday Gospel at Matins. There are eleven Sunday Gospels, and they are read in order, regardless of the voice in which the service is performed. Accordingly, the full cycle of the Sunday Gospels is read over eleven Sundays.

The most varied part of Sunday Matins in content is the canon. The Sunday service of the Octoechos contains three canons - the Sunday, the Cross and the Theotokos. Their names indicate that the first canon is always dedicated to the Resurrection of Christ, in the second canon the theme of the resurrection is combined with the theme of the Savior's suffering on the cross, and the third canon is dedicated to the Mother of God. The first of the three Sunday canons is the most ancient in origin: its authorship is attributed to the Monk John of Damascus.

Sunday as a day of joy is incompatible with fasting or mourning. This aspect is reflected in a number of church canons prohibiting fasting and kneeling on Sunday. Associated with fasting and kneeling is the question of the duration of the celebration - it is customary to begin the celebration on Saturday evening and end on Sunday evening.

The main sign of Sunday joy and the absence of fasting is the obligatory celebration of the Eucharist on Sunday. The prohibition of fasting on Sunday does not mean complete liberation from ascetic deeds, but some relaxation of them, as well as a prohibition of complete fasting (that is, abstaining from eating any food) during daylight hours. That is why, according to a tradition dating back to early Christian times and preserved in the Orthodox Church to the present day, the Sunday Liturgy should always be in the morning and never joins Vespers.

As a believer grows spiritually, it becomes necessary to participate in, if not all, then at least Sunday and holiday church services. The Christian who spares no time and effort to attend divine services will certainly feel their beneficial influence on the soul.