His Holiness Patriarch Alexy: “The spiritual revival of Russia is the task of the Church, the authorities, and the entire people. Revival (spiritual) - Theological Encyclopedic Dictionary

Conversion is man's response to God's offer of salvation, to God's call to man. Spiritual revival is the other side of conversion. That's what God does. It is a God-made transformation of the believer's personality, giving him life, new spiritual vitality and a new direction after accepting Christ.

The doctrine of spiritual rebirth is based on a certain assumption about human nature. Human nature needs to be transformed. Man is spiritually dead and therefore needs a second birth or spiritual birth 1434 . We have noted before that man in his natural state is unaware of spiritual influences and does not respond to stimuli (pp. 519 and 785). The image of an unregenerate person drawn in the Bible as blind, deaf and dead indicates his lack of spiritual receptivity and sensitivity. Not only are unbelievers incapable of perceiving spiritual truths; they are also unable to do anything to change their state of blindness and natural inclination to sin. From the description of sinful man in Rom. 3:9-20 it becomes clear that the person needs a radical change or transformation, not just a correction or correction. This seems to some to be a very pessimistic view of human nature, and it is true, as far as the natural possibilities of man are concerned; but our point of view does not reduce all hopes and expectations only to natural, natural possibilities.

The Bible contains numerous vivid and varied descriptions of the second birth. Even in the Old Testament we find a striking reference to God's work of spiritual regeneration. God promises: "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my statutes, and do them; and they shall be my people, but I will be their God" (Ezek. 11:19-20). Although the terms and images differ from the New Testament, here we also see the main idea of ​​the transformation of life and spirit.

The idea of ​​spiritual rebirth in the New Testament is most literally conveyed by the term paliggenesia. It appears only twice in the New Testament. The first time - in Matt. 19:28, where he refers to "resurrection", the new world that will become part of the eschaton. The second time - in Tit. 3:5, which refers to salvation: God our Savior "saved us, not according to the works of righteousness that we would have done, but according to His mercy, by the bath of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit." Here we see the idea of ​​the second birth. Although the term paliggenesia does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament, the idea itself undoubtedly figures prominently in it.

The most famous and most extensive exposition of the concept of the second birth is given in Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in Jn. 3. Jesus tells Nicodemus, "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Later in the conversation, He remarks: "Do not marvel at what I have said to you: you must be born again" (John 3:7). The Greek word used here, anwqen, can be translated as "above". However, the correct translation is “anew” or “again”, which is clear from Nicodemus’ answer: “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” (John 3:4). Nicodemus understood the words of Jesus in such a way that a person must be born again.

This idea occurs elsewhere in the New Testament, although different terminology is used to express it. In the same conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus spoke of being "born of the Spirit" (John 3:5-8). He had in mind the divine work that transforms the life of man. This work, necessary for man's entry into the kingdom of God, cannot be done by human effort or according to the plans and designs of man. It is also spoken of as "born from God", "born from the word of God" (John 1:12-13; Jas. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:3, 23; 1 John 2:29; 5 :fourteen). Anyone who has experienced this becomes a new creature: "Therefore, whoever is in Christ, the same is a new creation; the old has passed away, now everything is new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Paul speaks of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Tit. 3:5), quickening (Eph. 2:1, 5), resurrection from the dead (Eph. 2:6). The same idea is implied in Jesus' declaration that He came to give life (John 6:63; 10:10, 28).

It is very easy to enumerate the cases where the idea of ​​a second birth occurs, but it is not so easy to establish its meaning. However, we should not be surprised that the second birth is difficult to understand 1435 . To Nicodemus, who found it very difficult to understand the meaning of what was said, Jesus pointed out that this idea was really difficult to understand. It is like the wind: a person hears its sound ("voice"), although he does not know where he comes from and where he goes (John 3:8). Since the second birth is connected with things that are not perceived by the senses, it cannot be examined in the same way as most objects are examined. There is also a natural resistance to the idea of ​​a second birth, which makes it difficult to objectively consider this concept. The necessity of the second birth is an indictment against us all, for it shows that none of us has sufficient righteousness in our natural state; we all must undergo a radical transformation in order to become pleasing to God.

Despite the problems associated with understanding this idea, some considerations can still be made about spiritual rebirth. First of all, it suggests something new - a 180-degree turn from the natural inclinations of man. This is not just an enhancement of some already existing qualities. For one of the aspects of spiritual rebirth is connected with the putting to death or the crucifixion of the existing properties of a person. Contrasting life in the Spirit with life according to the flesh, Paul writes: "But those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live by the Spirit, we must also walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:24-25). Other indications of the necessity of the death of the old man or some of his qualities are given, in particular, in Rom. 6:1-11 and Gal. 2:20; 6:14. The idea that a person is mortified to the flesh (to the natural way of acting and living) and made alive in the Spirit proves that spiritual regeneration produces a completely new creation (as Paul aptly put it), and does not merely enhance or elevate what is already mainstream. human life.

By committing the flesh to death, the second birth ensures that the effects of sin are neutralized. This is perhaps most clearly stated by Paul in Eph. 2:1-10. The state of death requiring transformation is the result of the sin in which we live in obedience to the will of the prince of the power of the air. Although spiritual rebirth is something completely new to us, it does not lead to anything that is alien to human nature. On the contrary, the second birth is the return of human nature to the state for which it was originally intended and in which it actually was before sin entered the life of the human race at the moment of the fall. This is both the beginning of a new life and a return to the previous state.

Further, the second birth is instantaneous. Nowhere in the descriptions of the second birth is there any indication that this is a process and not a one-time action. Nowhere is it described or characterized as incomplete. In Scripture, believers are called "regenerate" and not "reborn" - Jn. 1:12-13; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:1, 5-6; Jacob. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:3, 23; 1 In. 2:29; 5:1, 4 (in all these passages of Scripture, the corresponding Greek verbs are either in the aorist, which indicates a one-time, momentary, rather than continuing action, or in the perfect, which indicates a state of completion). Although it may be impossible to determine the exact time of the second birth, and it is possible that it involves a number of previous events, nevertheless the second birth itself occurs instantly 1436 .

Spiritual revival is completed instantly, but in itself it does not represent the ultimate goal. Being a change in spiritual impulses, spiritual rebirth becomes the beginning of a process of development that continues throughout a person's life. This process of spiritual maturation is sanctification. Noting that his readers were formerly dead but are now alive, Paul adds, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph. 2:10). In Flp. 1:6 Paul speaks of the continuation and completion of what was begun: "Being confident that he who began a good work in you will continue (it) until the day of Jesus Christ." Spiritual revival is the beginning, but much more must happen after it. The manifestations of this spiritual maturation are called "the fruit of the spirit." They are in direct opposition to the works of the old nature, the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-23).

Further, the second birth is a supernatural event. It cannot be accomplished by human forces. Jesus made this very clear in Jn. 3:6: "What is born of the flesh is flesh, but what is born of the Spirit is spirit." He was answering Nnkodim's question whether the second birth does not take place by returning to the mother's womb. It is also important to keep in mind that spiritual revival is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit. Although the plan of salvation belongs to the Father, Who is the source of salvation, and the Son actually fulfills the plan of salvation, it is the Holy Spirit that applies the intended and fulfilled to the life of the believer, thereby leading to the full realization of the divine plan for people.

There were times in the past when spiritual rebirth was considered a change in the substance of the soul 1437 . This idea doesn't make much sense to us, partly because the meaning of the word substance not very clear. It is better to simply think of spiritual regeneration as a change in a person's inclinations and urges, rather than theorizing about the exact nature of the change that is taking place.

The doctrine of spiritual rebirth places Christian teaching in an unusual position. On the one hand, Christians reject the now widespread secular belief that man is naturally good, as well as the optimistic expectations that follow from this belief. A firm belief in the need for spiritual rebirth is in itself tantamount to declaring that without external help and without a complete transformation of man, it is absolutely impossible for human nature to produce anything truly good on any significant scale. On the other hand, despite the pessimistic assessment of the natural possibilities of man, Christianity is very optimistic: with help from above, people can undergo a transformation and return to their original perfection. It was about this ability of God to change a person's heart to enable him to enter His kingdom that Jesus said, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matt. 19:26).

Summary of Special Calling, Conversion, and Regeneration

1. Human nature cannot be changed by social reforms or education. It must be transformed by the supernatural work of the Triune God.

2. No one can predict who will experience the second birth, and no one can control the process. Ultimately, this is the work of God, even conversion depends on His special calling.

3. The beginning of the Christian life requires a person's awareness and recognition of his sinfulness, as well as the determination to abandon the selfish lifestyle.

4. Saving faith requires correct views of the nature of God and what He has done. But correct views are not enough. It also requires active devotion and fidelity to Christ.

5. The conversion of one person may be fundamentally different from that of another. What is important is sincere repentance and faith.

6. The second birth is not felt at the moment it occurs. But it manifests itself and proves its existence by producing in man a new susceptibility to everything spiritual, a new direction of life and an increasing ability to obey God.

These days, more than ever, there is a lot of talk about spirituality. The reason is clear - today the focus of attention of Kazakhstanis is the work of the head of state "Looking into the future: modernization of public consciousness". But first, it is worth remembering that at the beginning of the year, Nursultan Nazarbayev, in his message, announced to the people of Kazakhstan the beginning of the third modernization of the country, which includes political reform and modernization of the economy.

The maximum goal is the entry of our state into the ranks of the 30 most developed countries in the world. As it turned out, this is impossible without spiritual rebirth.

In his new work, the head of state noted that the spiritual revival of Kazakhstan did not begin today. Since 2004, the program "Cultural Heritage" has been implemented, aimed at updating historical and cultural monuments, in 2013, as part of another program - "People on the Waves of History" - the world's leading archives collected the most important documents relating to the history of our country and people . And now, according to the President, we must begin more ambitious and fundamental work. According to the president, the preservation of one's own culture, one's own national code is the first condition for a new type of modernization. History and national traditions must be taken into account. Nursultan Nazarbayev calls the spiritual revival and unity of the nation one of the tasks of modernization...

Let's digress a little from the President's article and try to remember what the concept of "spirituality" includes? Of course, this is a very complex and multifaceted concept. And each of us understands it in our own way. Yet there are commonalities here. First of all, spirituality is not just some wonderful character trait, no. Rather, it is a combination of certain qualities of the human soul, feelings, beliefs.

We, people who received education in the Soviet era, had a clear idea - the bearer of spirituality is the intelligentsia, primarily teachers. Remember how unattainably high was the authority of a school teacher, not to mention a university teacher. A teacher is not only an educated person, but also a model of morality, high morality, including in everyday life. Our teachers were albeit modestly, but "defiantly" neatly dressed, did not use foul language, and did not allow slang words in the lexicon. Alcoholism, smoking, immorality - this is not about them. As a teacher, one could turn to him for practical advice. He commanded respect. It was them, the teachers, that we referred to as spiritual people.

For a spiritual person, it is not private, selfish interests that are paramount, but above all the interests of the common cause, the honor of the Motherland. And one more sign of a spiritual person is that he constantly learns, develops and realizes his destiny. He is tolerant and respectful of other people. This is what spirituality has been and is for us. It seems that today this concept is being updated.

Returning to the work of the president, what does he write about the most important mission of spiritual modernization? According to Nursultan Nazarbayev, it, in particular, consists in reconciliation of various poles of national consciousness. The head of state identifies several directions for the modernization of the consciousness of both society as a whole and every citizen of Kazakhstan.

First direction- competitiveness. “The peculiarity of tomorrow is that it is the competitiveness of a person, and not the availability of mineral resources, that becomes a factor in the success of a nation.

Therefore, any Kazakhstani, as well as the nation as a whole, must have a set of qualities worthy of the 21st century. And among the unconditional prerequisites for this are such factors as computer literacy, knowledge of foreign languages, cultural openness,” the president says.

Second- pragmatism. In his words: “The age of radical ideologies has passed. We need clear, understandable and forward-looking attitudes. Such an attitude can be an orientation towards the achievement of specific goals with the calculation of one's capabilities and limits both by a person and the nation as a whole. Realism and pragmatism are the watchwords of the coming decades.”

Third- preservation of national identity. Here I personally liked it: “We are building a meritocratic society (meritocracy -“ the power of the worthy ”- ed.), Where everyone should be evaluated by personal contribution and by personal professional qualities. Such a system does not tolerate nepotism. It is a form of career development in backward societies.”

Fourth- the cult of knowledge. “But the cult of education should be universal,” writes N. Nazarbayev. “And there is a strong and clear reason for that. The technological revolution is leading to the fact that in the coming decades, half of the existing professions will disappear. We must be ready for change, to relearn.

Fifth- evolutionary, not revolutionary development of Kazakhstan. Nursultan Abishevich writes: “We must clearly understand the lessons of history. The era of revolutions has not passed. They have changed a lot in form and content. But all of our recent history speaks directly and unambiguously: only evolutionary development gives a nation a chance to prosper. Otherwise, we will again fall into a historical trap.”

sixth- open mind. “Openness and susceptibility to the best achievements, and not the deliberate rejection of everything “not one's own” is the key to success and one of the indicators of an open mind,” the president says. – Why is an open mind so important in the future world? If Kazakhstanis judge the world from the windows of their houses, then one may not see what storms are coming in the world, on the mainland or in neighboring countries. You may not see the forest for the trees, you may not even understand the external springs that sometimes force us to seriously change our approaches.”

The President is very concerned about the future of the country. He was given the gift to see the future of Kazakhstan. His main advice to us: "To survive, we must change." This primarily applies to spiritual renewal.

Farida SHARAFUTDINOVA

Question: Tell me, please, what is meant by reborn people?

Thank you for a very good and important question about spiritual revival. Spiritual rebirth is the spiritual renewal of the soul and the creation by God in our mortal body of a new spiritual person. The Bible advises believers to "put on the new man, created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24).

How is a new person created?

Through spiritual birth, the need for which Christ spoke to the religious teacher Nicodemus: “ Jesus answered and said to him: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus says to Him: How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don't be surprised at what I said to you: You must be born again"(John 3:3-7).

Means of revival

The means of regeneration according to the word of Christ are water and the Spirit. Some erroneously interpret that we are talking about the sacrament of baptism, but this is not so. Material water cannot produce spiritual changes. This is also proved by the observation of people baptized in infancy: there are no signs of spiritual life in them either. Prisons, casinos, dens are filled with people baptized in childhood. The baptized speak foul language, get drunk, fornicate, and show by their whole way of life that they are strangers to God and rebirth. And according to the Bible, those born of God cannot remain in sin.

If we take into account other texts of Scripture, it becomes clear that under the water Jesus meant the Word of God:

« [as] reborn, not from a corruptible seed, but from an incorruptible one, from the word of God, which lives and abides forever» (1 Peter 1:23).

« Having willed, He gave birth to us by the word of truth, so that we might be some firstfruits of His creatures."(James 1:18).

The Acts of the Apostles vividly describe how the birth of water and the Spirit practically takes place: people listened to the sermon, believed the Gospel, and were baptized in the name of Christ. the essence of the gospel is that the Son of God came to our earth, according to the promises of the prophets, and accepted death for the atonement of our sins, and everyone who believes this from the heart receives the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

« And so, an Ethiopian husband, a eunuch, a nobleman of Candace, the queen of Ethiopia, the keeper of all her treasures, who came to Jerusalem to worship, returned and, sitting on his chariot, read the prophet Isaiah. The Spirit said to Philip, Come and join this chariot. Philip approached and, hearing that he was reading the prophet Isaiah, said: Do you understand what you are reading? He said, How can I understand unless someone guides me? and asked Philip to come up and sit down with him.

And the place from the Scripture which he read was this: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so He does not open His mouth. In His humiliation, His judgment was accomplished. But who will explain His generation? for his life is taken up from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, I ask you [to say], about whom does the prophet speak this? about yourself, or about someone else? Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus. Meanwhile, continuing on their way, they came to the water; and the eunuch said, Here is water; what prevents me from being baptized? Philip said to him: if you believe with all your heart, you can. He answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he ordered the chariot to stop, and both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch; and baptized him"(Acts 8:27-38).

« And one woman from the city of Thyatira, named Lydia, who sold purple, honoring God, listened; and the Lord opened her heart to hear what Paul was saying. When she and her household were baptized, she asked us, saying: if you recognized me as faithful to the Lord, then enter my house and live [with] [me]. And convinced us» (Acts 16:14,15).

Qualities of a reborn person

The qualities of a regenerate person are well described by the apostle John in the first epistle:

« If you know that He is righteous, know also that everyone who does what is right is born of Him.» (1 John 2:29)

« Whoever is born of God commits no sin, because his seed abides in him; and he cannot sin because he was born of God» (1 John 3:9)

« Beloved! let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God"(1 John 4:7).

« Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Begotten loves the One who is born of Him."(1 John 5:1).

On the eve of the feast of the Epiphany, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia answered the questions of a Rossiyskaya Gazeta correspondent (Federal issue, No. 4273 of January 19, 2007).

glory through pain

- Your Holiness, we are now between two big holidays and. Tell me, how do you celebrate these days, which Christmas celebration in your life do you remember the most?

The entire Christian world again sings along with the Angels: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men!” (Luke 2:14). We are celebrating - an event that returned people's adoption to the Heavenly Father, returned their hope, bestowed God's grace, invisibly, but clearly helping in every good deed.

And - one of the brightest and most joyful holidays, and their main component is worship. Therefore, many people strive to visit the temple on these holy days, glorify the born baby Christ or draw Jordanian grace.

Recalling the past years, I can single out the year 2000, when the celebration of the 2000th anniversary of the Nativity of Christ took place. I will never forget the divine service in Bethlehem, at the very place where the Savior of the world was born, and all of us - most of the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches - gathered there to offer up praise to Him, as once the shepherds at the call of an angel. Upon our return to Moscow, another, incomparable joy awaited us - the first divine service in the revived Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which again rose to its former glory in the very heart of our Fatherland.

- These two wonderful holidays are overshadowed by two tragedies - in the Sverdlovsk region and in the Tver region. The first social diagnosis that was made was the incredible moral degradation of both the priests responsible for the deaths and society itself. As the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, what can you say about the moral state of modern Russian society - what causes concern in you, what inspires hope?

The secular ideology of modern society, which today claims to dominate and universalize, seeks to make morality and ethics the lot of an exclusively private life of a person, narrowing its social dimension to the limit. But even theorists of this ideology are beginning to look with horror at the extremely low level of morality in society. We are especially concerned about the collapse of the institution of the family. Phenomena such as adultery, extramarital affairs, generally depravity and licentiousness, propaganda of violence, drug addiction and alcoholism in the public mind are gradually gaining some approval, or at least the right to exist. Pedagogy is limited to the transfer of certain knowledge to our children, while the educational functions of the school are emasculated.

The younger generation is growing up unprepared to face the darker sides of adulthood. That is why most parents advocate the introduction of the Fundamentals of Orthodox culture into schools. Over the centuries of its existence, our country has accumulated a deep and diverse experience. The achievements of Russian culture and worldview are being studied all over the world, why deprive our children of this experience? Another problem arising from the first one is the demographic crisis. The demographic problem consists of different aspects, but in addition to the economic tasks that the state has now taken up, we are faced with a spiritual task - to help destroy the cult of pleasure and gain, self-sufficiency and complacency, to return to people's consciousness the desire for goodness and love, sacrifice and truth, make sure that society itself encourages chastity, honesty, modesty, patience, good intentions, generosity.

But at the same time, it is impossible not to notice that the last one and a half to two decades have become a time for gaining spiritual guidance. It is gratifying that even today faith is awakening in the souls of people, moral foundations and the desire for eternal values, for the ideal fullness of being, are reviving. And more and more deeply we realize that this being is inseparable from religion, from a living connection with the Creator.

Life brings new trials to all of us, which can be overcome only by strengthening ourselves with moral purity and by putting on the truth. Often human souls, according to the thought of the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, “are broken, broken due to our negligence, negligence, frivolity - we need to restore them and make them whole; they are darkened, it is necessary to make them bright through repentance, humility, good deeds.

City and country religion

- Two tragic events, which got into the first news, concern the village parishes. But quite often you can hear from priests that the modern faith in Russia is moving to the cities. City temples are overcrowded, people come here more often with questions, open their souls. What is the situation in the outback, how is the village spiritually nourished?

Indeed, in the last decade, sociologists have noted that Orthodoxy is becoming more and more an “urban” religion, that more and more young people go to city churches, and that the number of men among Orthodox has noticeably increased. In cities and district centers, in addition to worship, clergy have the opportunity to perform a variety of missionary tasks: some churches are engaged in educational activities, others work with youth, others help the sick, the elderly, orphanages, and so on.

In rural conditions, a priest is a teacher, a doctor, a social worker, a foreman, and sometimes a policeman. A village priest has more care for his family than a city priest. Many villages in the central and northern parts of Russia today are catastrophically poor, deprived of a social structure, culturally disadvantaged, and the people living there are not financially secure. All these hardships of the present village are shared by the rural clergy. For some of them, this is truly ascetic service.

But I noticed that in those settlements, small towns, district centers where churches were not closed during the years of the theomachic government, moral principles were preserved there, and drunkenness was not honored, and there were families with many children, and people lived better.

In villages where the pastor has to start everything from scratch, there is a difficult task of restoring spiritual life, converting people to faith, giving them hope in those conditions when life sometimes seems unpromising. Rural priests are thus those centers of Christ's love that attract people with their zealous burning, light and warmth.

Although I would not draw such a sharp division between urban and rural clergy. The population of our cities, the parishioners of city churches experience the same difficulties - worldly, spiritual, as the inhabitants of the village, perhaps only in other forms. And to support, strengthen and instruct believers on the path of gaining religious experience is a task facing every minister of the Church. The task is not easy for both the village and the city.

Priest as teacher

- The priest in Russian culture is a "teaching" figure: the priest has always been listened to as a teacher, an authoritative person. Opinion polls show that the Russian Orthodox Church is one of the institutions of our society that enjoys the greatest confidence of the population. In your opinion, is the tribune provided to priests today enough for them to speak about the most urgent problems of modern society, primarily spiritual and moral ones? On television, radio, in newspapers, in everyday life, is a priest perceived as a teacher?

It is interesting that you used the word "educational". This is how the Church calls those ascetics who possessed the gift of clarifying the mysteries of the faith, the gift of preaching. And the most prominent preachers - Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom - are called by church tradition "great universal teachers." Yes, indeed, the clergyman from ancient times was a figure on which the views of others were fixed, in the literal and figurative sense. And these views have always expressed an inner expectation - the expectation of the flock to hear from their shepherd words that would proclaim to people not some political ideas or scientific revelations, but - "verbs of eternal life."

By the way, among the numerous duties of a clergyman - a priest and especially a bishop - the duty of incessant preaching is considered one of the main ones. Remember the words of Christ the Savior, spoken by Him at the Ascension to the Apostles: “Go, teach all nations…” That is, the Savior commanded his disciples to preach the Gospel first of all, which then leads a person to the church: the clergy baptize those who believe “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” .

In recent years, when the Church has been given the opportunity to restore the shrines destroyed in the past and to freely celebrate divine services in our churches and monasteries, we feel the need to preach the truth of the Gospel with particular acuteness. Decades of godless ideology have done their job: the overwhelming majority of our fellow citizens, even those who have come to church and accepted Orthodoxy in their hearts, know very little about it.

This forces the Orthodox clergy to try by all available means to convey to their flock and those who are just approaching the church fence the gospel truths. And since we live in the 21st century and take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that modern technology provides us, we try to spread our sermon with the involvement of the printed word, the Internet, and radio, and, of course, television.

The Church develops and maintains its own information resources - newspapers, magazines, radio companies and television channels. However, we are well aware that their share in the modern information space of our country is small. And in this sense, we, of course, count on cooperation with federal TV channels, all-Russian newspapers, radio companies, in the plots, articles and programs of which there is a lack of Orthodox-oriented materials.

Church - against censorship

- And how can this interaction develop?

Here I will turn to that part of your question, which concerned the possibility for clergy to convey to a mass audience a spiritual and moral assessment of the events taking place. This assessment, this view of the world from the point of view of eternal religious truths form the public interest in the Church. I believe that at present there is an opportunity and, most importantly, a need to expand religious topics, to increase the share of programs, programs and articles of spiritual and moral content on television, radio, and in the press. After all, the experience of our cooperation in recent years has shown that many excellent lay journalists have appeared among the employees of the secular media, who quite competently and balancedly cover religious topics and the life of the Church, in particular. This path, in my opinion, can be of great benefit to everyone - both secular and church journalists, and, of course, the audience of these media.

The past year has shown that there is a huge layer of national history, which is an inexhaustible material for creative reflection. I mean the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. Part of the interest in this topic was manifested in the fact that the Orthodox film and television company "Orthodox Encyclopedia" in cooperation with various federal television channels created a number of documentaries that were highly appreciated by both the audience and professionals. In addition, as it became known, last year a department of church history was opened at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. These are all very revealing facts.

However, we are far from perfection. Despite many positive examples, the Church is still concerned about the nature of the activities of many secular media - primarily due to the fact that they propagate (it is propagated, it is difficult to find another word here) the cult of consumerism, a superficial and thoughtless attitude to life, immorality and permissiveness.

This is especially worrisome for the Church because a huge number of them are aimed primarily at the youth audience. And today's young people tomorrow will be called upon to take the lead in state, political and public organizations, they will have to determine the path of development of our society.

Unfortunately, many media outlets prioritize not the public benefit and not even the reliability of information, but the extraction of profits and the cheap popularity of their publications. At the same time, a new understanding of the postulate of freedom of speech is being affirmed - as the untouchability of even the most unscrupulous businessmen from journalism, as capitulation before their openly provocative attacks that offend the religious feelings of believers. This state of affairs indicates that moral guidelines, moral duty have not yet become an obligatory and inalienable attribute of domestic journalism. The Church has neither the ability nor the desire to create anything like a censoring body. However, we call and will continue to call on all those who are not indifferent to the future of our country to take joint action to create mechanisms to influence those media that, through their activities, harm the moral health of our fellow citizens.

"Island" as a new depth

- The theme of church life has been updated by the release of Pavel Lungin's film "The Island" on screens and on TV. You met with its creators. Tell me why you liked the movie? I heard from believers that wonderful actors are not able to comprehend and convey the spiritual phenomenon of monasticism. Why did you accept the film, what turned out to be decisive for you?

I don't agree that actors can't comprehend the phenomenon of monasticism. It is not for nothing that a variety of people come to monasticism, including actors. Monasticism as pure repentance can be understood by any believer. “There is no man who lives and does not sin,” the Bible says. But the Lord says: "Ask - and you will find; knock - and it will be revealed to you." The path of repentance as a special state of the soul is the goal and meaning of Christian achievement, and in this sense there is not much difference between a layman and a monk.

The value of the film is that its creators were able to show the deep, sincere repentance of a person. It is difficult for me to judge what played a decisive role in the fact that the picture turned out to be so reliable and internally convincing. I think the pure and sincere motives of the filmmakers and actors were a necessary condition that influenced the result. Here the problems of spiritual life and salvation are brought to the fore, and the audience, who, perhaps, first came into contact with these problems, thought deeply. The viewer, thanks to the creators of the film, believes the truth of the characters, and then only in what these characters believe.

The ancient church teacher Tertullian once said: "The soul of man is by nature a Christian." I think the movie "The Island" is another confirmation of this truth. It is no coincidence that the picture received such a wide response, it made even non-believers think about religion and God, about sin and repentance. This is a great achievement of the authors of the picture. In addition, the film is also interesting because it showed the filmmakers themselves: it is possible to create pictures on church subjects if you only approach this with seriousness and try to display not only the external side of church life, but also its inner content. I would like the film "The Island" to bring a new depth of religious outlook on the world to the domestic cinema, and there would be more and more such films.

Pure evil

- Today society is shocked by tragic events - the death and murder of priests ...

The tragic death of the priest Andrei Nikolaev and his family in the Tver diocese resonated with pain in the hearts of many people. Telegrams and letters of condolence are still coming to us, and the Archbishop of Tver and Kashinsky, Victor, also receives them. I have already spoken at the Moscow Diocesan Assembly about what happened - right after this tragedy took place. But even now the end of the official investigation has not yet been set. The death of innocent people once again pushes us to think about the meaning of life, about the purpose of man, about eternity, about the freedom of choice for each of us - which way to go in a world where evil is rampant. We have evidence that Fr Andrei was a good shepherd, aching in soul for the Church he served, for the temple that was entrusted to him by God, and for the people among whom he lived.

The villainous murder of Father Oleg from the Yekaterinburg diocese suggests that the violent death of clergy is becoming a terrible pattern that warns us all. The innocent death of any person is a tragedy, the murder of a priest is a pure atrocity. And what can be said about the murder committed on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, joyful for all people?! This testifies to the moral degradation of society. The society itself must realize that an indifferent attitude to the problems of morality, to the upbringing of the younger generation is paid dearly for the nation.

Growth of conscience

- When will church life cease to be understood by the majority of commentators who like to emphasize that the Church is separated from the state, as a spiritual exotic? When will it really become the axis of our common life? What needs to be done and what can be done?

On the one hand, the answer to your question is simple. A superficial view of the Church will go away when the religious worldview becomes an organic part of the life of each of us. On the other hand, it is difficult for me to say exactly when this will happen.

Church life can be considered exotic only by those who judge it from the outside, who have no experience of communion with God, who are not interested in the history and culture of our country. For them, indeed, the main argument in discussions about church life is the fact that the Church in our country is separated from the state. But they either cannot or do not want to understand that the Church, as a kind of integral organism, of which all of us, believers, are a part, cannot be separated from the people, protected, driven into a ghetto - in the literal and figurative sense. The most striking evidence of this is the history of the Russian Church in the 20th century. It was a story of terrible persecution and persecution for the faith - on the one hand, but at the same time - the story of the greatest feat of confession of thousands and thousands of new martyrs.

In order for spiritual truths to take their place in our lives, each of us needs to make an effort to do so. And the most faithful guide in this spiritual growth is the conscience, which the Fathers of the Church called the voice of God in the human soul. If we can harmonize all our actions and thoughts with the voice of conscience, if we do not let this voice be silenced in our souls, but listen to it, then I am sure that the richest spiritual traditions of our people will be revived. And together with them, we ourselves and our Fatherland will be spiritually reborn.

We are together

- What could you wish the readers on the feast of Epiphany?

Joy and peace, sent down by our Lord Jesus Christ, overwhelm our hearts these days. And with all my heart I congratulate you, my dears, on the joyful feast of the Baptism of the Lord, as well as on the past Christmas.

As recently as fifteen years ago, such joy in the soul of an Orthodox person would have been unthinkable. But today we are together: Church and society - state leadership, military leaders and cultural figures, doctors and teachers, industrialists and entrepreneurs, politicians and journalists. God grant that this community is not limited to holidays. After all, the spiritual revival of Russia, serving the welfare of people with concrete deeds, is the task of the Church, and the authorities, and the whole people.

Under normal circumstances, the subconscious certainty of death is invisibly present in all sorts of human relationships and behavior. When the system of barriers that usually protect the ego from the perinatal level begins to disintegrate or is partially broken, these components penetrate the consciousness and awaken various neurotic and psychosomatic reactions. The complete collapse of the protective system manifests itself in psychotic episodes, during which the content of perinatal matrices completely absorbs the ego and becomes an empirical world for the individual.

One of the most common ways to protect oneself from the morbid effects of perinatal components is what LSD users refer to as a "mechanistic" approach to existence. Those who live life in this way experience a deep sense of dissatisfaction with themselves and the situation in which they find themselves, as a result, most of their thinking is directed to the past and future. They constantly chew on the past, regretting the decisions they once made, dreaming about what could have been if they had done better, or exposing their actions to a moral assessment. Their dissatisfaction with the present leads to the emergence of compensatory fantasies in which the desired is achieved or they make exaggerated plans for future success. Regardless of the achievement of what should have brought satisfaction, their bitterness and feeling of not fulfilling what they wanted will remain and require the development of new ambitious goals and plans. This constant focus on future achievement is called "auto-projection" by existentialist philosophers. Such a cycle never ends and only perpetuates dissatisfaction, for people who fall into this category misunderstand the nature of their needs and focus on external substitutes, be it money, position, fame, or sexual achievement. You can spend your whole life in this way, striving for various activities, which, however, at the end never bring the expected satisfaction. Often this situation is accompanied by a sense of the meaninglessness of being and the inability to enjoy the fruits of one's labor. A person caught in a vicious circle of this kind, as a rule, suffers from a keen awareness of the brevity of human life in the light of all that could be experienced and should be done.

Anyone who has gone through psychological death and rebirth understands that a positive attitude towards life and a deep sense of the meaning of one's existence do not depend on difficult external circumstances. They represent the original state of the organism and a way of being in the world, independent, except in some extreme cases, of the material circumstances of life. When this fundamental acceptance of life is present, even the humblest conditions of existence can be experienced as worthwhile. When it is not there, no success in the outer world can bestow it. It arises in the course of deep self-exploration and inner transformation.

Although the manifestation of the death-rebirth phenomenon is most likely in specially planned and organized structures, such as rites of passage or psychedelic therapy, deep experiences of this phenomenon can sometimes occur spontaneously or as a result of trivial events of everyday life. The fact that deep episodes of death-rebirth can take place outside the framework of their special programming and without the use of a powerful technique aimed at changing the level of consciousness indicates, to a much greater extent than our own observations, the existence of matrices in the human subconscious that give rise to such phenomena. Since the spontaneous experience of death and rebirth is so relevant to our discussion, we will give as an example the description of an incident that took place in the life of a well-known psychologist. The event he describes in retrospect occurred when he was twenty-one years old. It had a powerful and lasting impact on his personal and professional life.

It all started when I was at a party in San Francisco. The woman I met that evening suggested we go for a ride. As we drove up to the Golden Gate Bridge, she mentioned that we were driving a retractable Mercedes. The woman said that sometimes, when crossing a bridge, she removes the top of the car, leans back in the seat and looks up at the sky. She almost killed herself with this. As we pulled up to the bridge, she removed the top and invited me to lean back in my seat and look up at the stars. I still remember how, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the cables rising to the first support posts of the bridge. I looked at every rack; the verticals were brightly lit and looked like golden threads rising towards the stars. When we drove up to the first pillar, I took a look at it, and suddenly I had the feeling that something was pulling my face, mouth, pulling me up to the level of the bridge pillars. I felt like an instantaneous expansion in all directions. I also remember that as I approached the next row of racks, I felt a pressure, as if something was pulling me back into my body like a genie in a bottle. The feeling of lightness and flight was an enchanting experience. Then I realized that I was sitting in the car and looking up through the retracted roof. When we drove up to the second support post, I felt a strong impulse of fun, lightness, and again I could see the cables converging to the second post of the bridge out of the corner of my eye. I began to be pulled out again, and this time there was a clear feeling that I was actually being pulled out of the body. I felt myself rising higher and higher, until finally I could look down from the top of the bridge at the cars moving below me. It seemed to me that the upward movement was accelerating and continuing beyond the bridge pillars. I started asking myself what is going on here, what am I doing, what has happened. I got answers instantly, and then I had a feeling of ever-increasing exaltation, expansion in all directions, and answers coming even before the questions were formulated. I continued to feel the exaltation and expansion until the moment when I felt a silent white explosion, now I was already expanding in all directions in the form of something like a soft white light. I felt that I had reached infinity, and I knew everything there was to know, and all questions had an answer.

That's what I experienced. What I am about to state below was later conveyed to me by a companion. She said: when we drove up to the first support post, I groaned, and she looked back. When we got to the second one, I suddenly screamed. She said that it was not a cry of pain, but of exaltation. I had a spellbound expression on my face and my body was very tense. Another part of what I experienced at that moment was the feeling that, being in a clear space filled with white light, I felt some kind of slowdown, something like a cosmic monotonous sound. In the car at that moment, apparently, the following was happening: when I screamed, the woman turned around, let off the gas, and the engine died down. I thought then that I was dead. I was completely, absolutely and utterly convinced that I died, that it happened in the blink of an eye, that there was a car accident, and I was dead - because everything in my Christian tradition said: you see God only when you die. At that moment, I felt and somehow knew that I was in the presence of God, and therefore I came to the conclusion that I must be dead.

Suddenly, at the moment of thinking about death, I was very frightened. I remember that gripping feeling of fear. I felt like a genie being sucked into a tiny cold bottle. I felt constricted until I was hard, cold, heavy and marble-like, and then I found myself back in the body, very much in the body, with joint pain, coldness and tightness. I looked at my companion, who was driving, and there seemed to be miles between us. The dimensions of the machine seemed colossal, and the woman turned into some kind of stone, gray, cold figure, very similar to a corpse. Everything around was inanimate, dead and cold. At that moment, I thought that I had passed away, that there had been a very bad car accident, and that I had abruptly passed into a post-mortem state. I thought: to be sure of my death, I would have to experience a car falling off a bridge, a crunch of metal that would tear my flesh. Suddenly realizing that I would not need to do all this in fear and torment, I felt myself rising again into the white radiance, feeling peace and ecstasy. At that moment, as the companion later said, I began to sob, repeating: "Why - me?". Not - "Why did I die?", But - "Why me, why was it given to me to survive all this?".

The study of death is key to understanding mental processes. There is no doubt that a true understanding of religion, mysticism, shamanism, rites, transition or mythology was not possible without a close acquaintance with the experience of death and the death-rebirth process. This information is important for an in-depth understanding of the nature of mental disorders, especially schizophrenia. Ignoring the perinatal and transpersonal levels of the subconscious inevitably leads to artificial and distorted ideas about the structure of human consciousness, to a fragmentary understanding of the nature of emotional disorders, and to limiting the possibilities of medical practice.

Understanding the psychological meaning of death should not be accompanied by negative associations. Serious symbolic contact with it in a well-organized and supportive environment can lead to very beneficial results and serve as a means of overcoming both negative ideas about death and the fear associated with it. Such contact can lead to better emotional and physical functioning, a greater degree of self-fulfillment, and a more satisfying and harmonious adjustment to the process of life.

Death and life, usually regarded as incompatible opposites, appear in fact to be interdependent. A full existence, filled with the consciousness of every moment of life, leads to the acceptance of death and reconciliation with it. On the other hand, such an approach to human existence requires that we come to terms with our mortality and the frailty of being. This position seems to be the essence of the ancient mysteries, various types of spiritual practice and rituals of transition.

Rabbi Herschel Limon, who participated in our LSD-based psychedelic training program, expressed his extraordinary insight into the essence of this dialectical relationship of life and death. As he emerged from an LSD session in which he experienced a crushing encounter with death, followed by a sense of spiritual rebirth, he was reminded of a famous saying five hundred years earlier by Leonardo da Vinci. At the hour of his death, Leonardo summed up his attitude towards the rich and fruitful life that he lived, saying: "I thought I was living, but I was only preparing to die." Rabbi Lemon, describing the struggle of death and rebirth he experienced during an LSD session, paraphrased Leonardo's words as follows: "I thought I was dying, but I was only preparing to live."