Patriarch Kirill on raising children. Patriarch Kirill: We must vigilantly take care of the moral education of the younger generation

One of the most important tasks for the entire Russian Orthodox Church is work with young people, which should be built both at the diocese level and at the parish level. In carrying out this mission, the clergy must use new forms and methods "in order to convey the Gospel to today's youth, who can not always easily cross the threshold of the temple," His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia expressed his conviction, speaking at the meeting.

“The first impression of a young person’s contact with the church world is of great importance,” His Holiness said. “That is why the participation of the clergy in personal meetings with young people is essential. For them, this is a serious event, to which they approach with genuine interest and which they will remember for a long time. But this form of ministry is not and will never be the only possible or sufficient form. We need to create all the conditions for the churching of people who have responded to the call of the Church. "

Each diocese needs to create an infrastructure for training and educating leaders who are able to further develop and coordinate youth work, His Holiness emphasized, adding: "It is important to introduce a certification system that identifies the most skilled, and to support their enthusiasm with appropriate powers."

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church noted that the experience of the ancient Church is applicable to today's conditions, when the saints themselves, conducting the first meetings with the catechumens, then entrusted them to their assistants, who for a long period taught the believers the basics of faith. “Preparing Orthodox youth leaders is not the same as complete spiritual education available within the walls of seminaries or theological institutions. Such training is a maximally substantive thing, pursuing a threefold task: to give young people a strong church base, to provide tools for educational work and to outline ways for further independent spiritual development and theological education, ”His Holiness Patriarch Kirill believes.

An effective example of work on the training of Orthodox youth leaders, His Holiness called the experience of the Moscow and under him, where the School of Youth Ministry operates, which for two years prepares young people for catechesis, social service, initial missionary work, teaching orthodox culture... In addition, at the Patriarchal Center at the beginning of the current school year for the first time a training course “organization of youth ministry in a parish” was opened.

Noting an important conceptual idea that the Patriarchal Youth Center implements in its work, His Holiness Vladyka continued: “Our time is the time of the loss of tradition and moral relativism. In these conditions, the forms and methods of Orthodox enlightenment, in which the minister of the Church acts as a teacher who knows the truth, are effective in very rare cases. A person, especially a young person, today more and more often seeks to throw off "prejudices" and "stereotypes". Therefore, an unobtrusive transfer of faith, a careful, sensitive and extremely tolerant attitude towards a person is the key to success in church enlightenment. Young people of today, often looking for religious answers to worldview questions, need not only to tell where and how to move, but also to help them find interest and joy on the path of churching. "

In addition, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church called on the archpastors to involve young people in educational work, since a young believer is able to teach by his own example. “A young man or a girl involved in youth ministry should help people move towards God, regardless of whether they themselves have reached the heights of spiritual perfection or not. This is the potential of what is now commonly called "leadership qualities", ”His Holiness is convinced.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill emphasized: “Often a Christian striving for the educational service of the Church does not receive proper support from the rector and even from the bishop. A church-going person, young or old, who wants to serve God in the work of evangelism, should receive such an opportunity. If the pastors do not engage in work with young people, and even do not allow the laity to do it, then visiting missionaries and sectarians will again, like 10-20 years ago, answer the spiritual needs of the youth ”.

His Holiness also considers the creation of conditions for parish reading and discussion of the Holy Scriptures, the development at the diocesan and parish level of the technical base for educational activities among the youth as important areas of work with youth: “There are reputable theologians, teachers and missionaries in our Church. Remote encounters with them should be part of the Church's testimony. And young parishioners engaged in educational work should have the opportunity to replenish their knowledge with the help of modern technologies with material or financial support from the parish. "

Pilgrimage trips are an effective area of \u200b\u200bchurch youth work, said His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

Due to the fact that in recent years, constructive relations have been built with state power, regional and local administrations, His Holiness called on clergy and Orthodox youth activists to initiate negotiations on the provision for the use of the Church of premises, means of supporting the educational process and other resources at the disposal of schools, libraries, public organizations. “All this will help bring church educational work to a qualitatively new level, and on the other hand, it will help to establish constructive, businesslike and friendly relations with the local community,” His Holiness Patriarch Kirill is convinced.

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church identified three problems in the field of work with youth: it is important to avoid populism, an inadequate assessment of the potential of youth, and attempts to flirt with youth culture.

All sorts of major actions addressed to young people and designed to show them the Church, which many young people know only at the level of secular stereotypes, should be only the tip of the iceberg, because without painstaking daily work in parishes they are ineffective. “Every diocese needs to organize youth work in such a way that it is carried out in every parish, in every educational institution. So that after a certain period of time the priest can happily say to himself: my young flock has grown by so many people, ”His Holiness noted, emphasizing that you can understand young people only if you learn to listen to them.

“The youth potential can and should be used for missionary purposes: by promoting youth projects, organizations, initiatives, and not necessarily directly related to church activities, we help to attract young people to the Church. These can be discussion groups, for example, to discuss contemporary social or cultural phenomena, or social projects, ”said His Holiness.

Press Service of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

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On August 30, 2014 at the Regional Drama Theater in Tambov, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with the leaders of the education system of the Central Federal District, rectors of universities, school directors, teachers - participants of the First Cultural and Educational Orthodox Forum "From Heart to Heart" writes Patriarchia.ru.

The topic of the forum is “Spiritual and moral values \u200b\u200band traditions of raising children and youth”.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, Governor of the Tambov Region O.I.Betin, Metropolitan of Tambov and Rasskazovsky Theodosius were in the presidium of the meeting.

The event was hosted by the chairman of the Synodal Information Department V.R. Legoida.

The hall was attended by the manager of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Varsonofy, the head of the Administrative Secretariat of the Moscow Patriarchate, Bishop Sergius of Solnechnogorsk, Bishop of Uvarovsky and Kirsanov Ignatius, Bishop of Michurinsky and Morshansky, Hermogenes of the Church of St. Petersburg and Morshansk; metropolitanate.

More than 500 representatives of the cultural and pedagogical community of the Tambov region and the regions of the Central Federal District took part in the forum.

The Governor of the Tambov Region O.I.Betin addressed the meeting participants. The head of the region presented to His Holiness the Patriarch a unique photo of the performance in the building of the regional theater in Tambov in 1944 by Saint Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky), then His Grace of Tambov. OI Betin also conveyed greetings from the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Central Federal District A.D. Beglov, the initiator of the forum.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia addressed the audience with a word.

“I am very glad that on the eve of September 1 we have the opportunity to meet. I have heard a lot about the work of this forum and I believe that the agenda and directions of its work are very important for both society and the Church. You are involved in education. I would like to say that education is the cornerstone of society and the state. Even at a time when people for the most part could neither read nor write, development - economic, political, social - only happened because there were educated people, whose level of knowledge corresponded to the level of knowledge of the era. Society develops based on knowledge. Without knowledge, there can be no development, and if it happens, it can lead people to a dead end, give rise to disappointment and even big troubles. The destruction of the school, the destruction of education is the destruction of the potential of the nation. It is hard to imagine what could happen to our country if we, through ignorance or inexperience (I don’t want to say “ill will,” I don’t want to believe it), destroy our education, our school - at a time when science, technology, knowledge and education are the main engine for the development of human society, ”said the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

He asks the question: "Why is the Church concerned about this?" “Yes, because we are also faced with the fruits of a low level of education. Indeed, in our seminaries, in our Orthodox universities, we note with alarm a significant decline in the educational level of applicants, especially in the field of the Russian language. The literacy rate is very low - and this is in the 21st century! This is at a time when development is impossible without education and science! We even went to the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating preparatory classes in a number of our seminaries in order to bring up an applicant, a high school graduate, improve his literacy, and at the same time give him general theological knowledge, without which it is impossible to start studying under a bachelor's program in theological educational institutions. So the problems of education directly affect us - and not only in connection with the general concern about the fate of the country, about the fate of our people. Today the Church cannot be effective without a highly educated stratum of the church intelligentsia, to which, among other things, specialists in theology belong. Therefore, we are not indifferent to the level at which our young people receive education in secondary school. But I did not come here to criticize the education system, but simply to express my concerns. For us, criticism, whether it be the education system or any other field of activity, is not aimed at weakening power or compromising political leaders - we are far from that. But all the more sincerely our conversation about the problems our school is facing today, ”continued His Holiness.

Of course, the Patriarch added, there are some positive aspects, and they should also be mentioned. “I believe that the adopted Law on Education opens up quite good prospects. But the law itself is paper. The framework that he opens must be filled with specific content. And the task is to use the opportunities provided by the law for the effective modernization of the Russian education system. Of course, I cannot ignore such a topic as the Unified State Exam. Probably, only lazy ones do not criticize the exam, but I have a more balanced point of view on this matter. Perhaps you know that for many years I headed the external department of the Russian Orthodox Church, lived abroad and is well acquainted with the state of affairs with education in the world. So, my first acquaintance with the Unified State Exam happened back in 1975 in Finland, and I must tell you that I did not see anything wrong with that system. I think that our system of the Unified State Exam under certain conditions can be effective. But there is undoubtedly something that is of great concern. Surprisingly, children in school now not so much gain knowledge as they used to, but rather prepare for the Unified State Exam. The whole process is focused on the USE - you need to pass these tests, and everything else is secondary. And it turns out that we do not prepare a person for higher education, do not arm him with a system of knowledge, but fragmentarily orientate him towards one specific task - correctly putting down crosses and ticks during testing. The test system itself deserves attention, but it cannot be the only one in determining the level of knowledge. There is also a rational kernel in it, but if a person develops a certain philosophy of life, squeezed by this system of tests, then we will lose a lot. We will lose vision, horizon, breadth. Therefore, it is important to correlate the Unified State Exam with other means of stimulating our students so that not only the Unified State Exam questionnaire, but also the whole life is before their eyes, ”the Primate emphasized.

He asks, "What is the purpose of education?" “Some seriously think: why know a lot if there is Wikipedia? But information can stay in consciousness, in memory, only when it is included in the learning process. Obtaining information at once brings only an illusory result. In this case, the information soon disappears from memory, because it is supplanted by a multitude of other information, which are layered, mixed and cannot be added to the system. So, we must destroy this dominant in the existing practice of education - to receive only the knowledge that is necessary to pass the exam. Such an approach cannot create a general picture, a common vision, which in the old days was called a worldview, a scientific picture of the world. I am deeply convinced that in order to form a harmonious personality, we need to balance the USE with a very serious change in school curricula aimed at creating a holistic scientific picture of the world for students. Secondary education should provide basic ideas - including the history of literature and art, the history of philosophical thought, the history of natural science - in the form of a complete system that will accompany the graduate throughout his life. Even if he forgets something, he will know which sources to turn to, because he will not lose the system. However, I am afraid that the modern school does not provide such a system of knowledge, ”added Patriarch Kirill.

He also stressed that he cannot imagine education without upbringing. “If the acquisition of knowledge is not accompanied by the upbringing of the individual, then the school will not be able to solve the problems that it faces. Unfortunately, we are still faced with the position: "There is no need to form any beliefs in children - they will grow up, they will form them; but today, let us offer them various options." What's going on with the history textbook today? We have all gone through a time when the absence of a single history textbook caused enormous damage to the formation of citizenship, a sense of patriotism, and provoked a very dangerous nihilistic attitude towards our own past. The available textbooks contained diametrically opposed views on the most important historical events, which is why it was timely said that one textbook was needed. The Church took an active part in the formation of the concept of this textbook, and much of what we proposed was taken into account. The task was to develop a balanced approach to our history in order to form in students a sense of love for the Motherland. We must not repeat the stereotypes that someone imposes on our people - stereotypes that form a distorted view of history, which belittle the significance of historical events that took place in our country. This does not mean at all that we need to romanticize or idealize our history, but it does mean that there must be a unified concept of presenting historical material. Otherwise, we abandon the most important thing - from shaping the convictions of our youth, and this is in conditions when a colossal information flow falls upon children and youth, working, among other things, to undermine patriotic convictions, ”continued the Primate of the Russian Churches.

He recalled that in the 90s it was argued that there should not be any ideology in schools. “I agree that ideology is a transient phenomenon. As scientists testify, ideology does not live longer than three or four generations, and then dies, even if huge intellectual forces are involved in its development, as was the case in the Soviet Union. Whole scientific institutes worked, doctoral dissertations were defended, a colossal scientific potential was accumulated, but already in the fourth generation it was over. Then, on the ruins of the Soviet Union, experiencing disappointment about everything connected with the past, they began to say that there should be no ideology in the school. Ideology as a system, which I just mentioned, is really unnecessary. But without an idea it is impossible to raise a child. The mother puts the idea into the child when she says: don't do this, don't tell a lie, don't hurt this girl or this boy. These are very simple instructions that the child absorbs with the mother's milk, through the mother's love, but thereby his personality is formed, especially at the age of three to five years. A system of values \u200b\u200bis being formed, outside of which it is impossible to raise a child. So why don't we want to educate our children in a certain value system? This is not about ideological clichés. Sometimes they say: we need a new ideology. No need for new ideologies! But we must defend our own values, which grow out of our spiritual, cultural tradition. These are the traditions of Orthodoxy and the traditions of Islam - for that part of the citizens who profess this religion. It is also ethics associated with our faith and our culture. How can we educate our children outside this system of moral and spiritual coordinates? It won't work! We will get devastated people who are very easy to manipulate. And they will be manipulated by those who are stronger, who have more money, those who control the world's media. A child raised outside the system of values \u200b\u200bdoes not have the ability to distinguish good from evil, because modern postmodern culture imposes another thesis: there are no objective truths; how many heads, so many minds; your own idea is absolute truth for you. But if we want to have people capable of creating a family, if we want to have citizens who love their Fatherland, how can we refuse to form a personality in a system of coordinates determined by our basic, traditional spiritual, moral and cultural values? ”- asks His Holiness.

Therefore, he stressed, "a school without an idea is a dangerous phenomenon." “And if we create such a school with our own hands (and we have almost created it), if we refuse to combine the process of intellectual education with the process of upbringing, we will do something very dangerous for the future of our people and for the future of our citizens. And then we will say: how did we not watch it? We are already saying: how could this happen next to us? The Ukrainian people, one people with us - what happened? And exactly what happened, which can be, when everything goes by itself, - then the influence of a more powerful source and has a strong effect on the personality. Therefore, now it is just time to think about our school and demand that the school form not only intellectual baggage (and not only in fragments, as it was just noted, but at the proper level), but also a personality, ”added the Patriarch.

Finally, His Holiness said a few words about pedagogy. “Strictly speaking, what is an educational, upbringing process? It consists, of course, of the transfer of knowledge, skills and abilities. But there must certainly be a personal example, and our teachers must serve as such an example. I remember a story that happened at the school where I studied. We were very sympathetic to one young teacher, she was a kind of ideal for us. And suddenly we found out that she had divorced her husband. It was a shock for the children. It seemed to us that this could not be. But this was at a time when teachers were educators, when parents coordinated with teachers their actions on raising children, jointly overcoming some of the bad inclinations of the latter. Now nothing of the kind is happening, the school has withdrawn itself from the upbringing process. The image of a teacher, teacher, educator is an indispensable factor for the success of the school. Without this factor, the process is incredibly weakened. I would like to quote the words of the great native of the Tambov region, the Monk Ambrose of Optina. To some of his visitors, he simply said: in every case and in every art, a testimony is needed, and without an testimony a man won't weave a bast shoe, a girl won't knit a stocking. Simple and clear words: it is necessary to show. And a teacher is one who sets an example with his culture, his manner of communication, his competence, his life principles. Then the child has before him an unfading example, which will accompany him all his life, ”he continued.

The Primate also touched upon another very important topic. “Unfortunately, teachers are still not the elite of society - firstly, due to the low material remuneration for their work, due to the lack of some prestige. From my point of view, a teacher is on a par with a doctor, and I would add, along with a priest, this is the most important representative of the national elite, because he, and the other, and the third work on the soul and on the physical health of a person, and there is nothing more important ... Therefore, it is necessary to raise the social status of educators, to raise the level of their material security. Of course, this stimulates the desire of many capable young people to join the wonderful profession of a teacher. Then the level of applicants entering pedagogical educational institutions will be completely different from what we are seeing now. Therefore, from the bottom of my heart I would like to wish all of us to work together to strengthen the system of national education, enlightenment, upbringing, without which it is difficult for us to have a calm and confident look into the future. Thank you for your attention, ”His Holiness Patriarch Kirill concluded.

Then the Primate of the Russian Church answered the questions of the participants of the first forum "From Heart to Heart".

At the end of the meeting, O.I. Betin thanked His Holiness the Patriarch for the meaningful conversation.

On the anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church gave an exclusive interview to RIA Novosti, in which he expressed his attitude to patriotism.

Answering the question of what patriotism is, is it manifested only in war, and how the Primate of the Church evaluates the level of patriotism of Russians of different generations today, His Holiness the Patriarch noted:

For me, patriotism is not only love for the land where you were born, for the people in which you grew up and was brought up. After all, as our history has shown so well, people can betray both the land and their own soul. Patriotism is, first of all, loyalty to the Divine plan for your land and for your people. For this, it is not a pity to lay down a soul, because by this the truth of God is affirmed on earth. But in order to understand this plan, you really need to love your people very much - but honestly, not biased; love and know your history, live by the values \u200b\u200bthat define the spirit of the people.

I don't know what the “level of patriotism” is and how to measure it. But I believe that patriotism is impossible without sincere love. Love for your homeland, for your Church and its shrines, love, in the words of the poet, for your native ashes and fatherly graves. Observing the younger generation, I cannot say that now all the polls are cosmopolitans, far from patriotic sentiments. On the contrary: today a generation of young people is growing up who have not witnessed the terrible crimes of the atheistic state against their own people, the mass extermination of the best people. This cannot but affect the level of trust in the state as such. Over the past years, most of those who wanted to understand how and how they live in other countries had the opportunity to get acquainted - and in sufficient detail - with other civilizations. And many have come to the firm conviction: we must live in Russia, value what we have, what we got thanks to the faith and works of our ancestors.

Against the background of the processes that have to be observed today not only in Western Europe, but also in other countries, the spiritual and moral climate in Russia acquires a completely different weight and significance. We must stop comparing ourselves to others; no need to catch up and overtake anyone. We have our own life, and we must live it in such a way that we would not be ashamed either in front of our descendants or in front of our ancestors. Perhaps this is real patriotism.

In an interview with RIA Novosti, Patriarch Kirill also spoke about the spiritual foundations of war and peace, about the contribution of the Russian Orthodox Church to the victory over fascism, about the prospects for resolving the Ukrainian crisis and preventing the Third World War.

Patriarch Kirill previously covered himself with the words that the OPK is a "cultural subject", since formally the laws that religion is separated from the state were still in force (they are still in force, but now officials are not even paying attention to them), and also that the state guarantees the secular nature of education.

However, now he already openly declares that there is no need to hide behind anything, and it is necessary to propagandize religious obscurantism in secular schools in the most vulgar way. Yes, obviously, the patriarch is not only so-called. "Spiritual schools", he needs to reach as many people as possible for a successful business.

Patriarch Kirill said:

"In all this work on the upbringing of children and youth, the Russian Orthodox Church is called upon to play a very important role today, which is the bearer of national identity, has historical wisdom, is able to convey to children what, unfortunately, a secular school cannot always convey."

It is important to note that the Russian Orthodox Church is not “called upon” in any way, since the only “gift” a person will receive from what the priests tell him is ignorance and intolerance. Do schoolchildren need it?

Back in 1906, at the III Congress of the All-Russian Union of Teachers, they noted how religion affects the school. It has been argued that the lesson of religion ("The Law of God"):

“It does not prepare students for life, but corrodes a critical attitude to reality, destroys the personality, sows hopelessness and despair in one's own strength, cripples the moral nature of children, causes aversion to learning. And extinguishes the national consciousness "

Is this "revival" worthy? After all, this was said by competent people who lived at a time when this subject was considered something ordinary and had been in effect for many years.

It is important to note that the ROC will not be able to convey anything only insofar as its only role is to serve the interests of the "owners", whatever they are. For fooling - just right. However, it is possible that this is a deliberate step by the Russian government. After all, education in the Russian Federation is degrading rapidly, and the introduction of religion in schools will only strengthen this situation. From some time on, it will obviously become simply impossible to get a quality education in a general education school, where mainly ideological panegyrics and propaganda of obscurantism will remain.

"The school should not give up being a place for raising children, and not just transferring knowledge to them."

What can people who are engaged in fraud, weaning of the same schools, building green areas, for the sake of "better broth" can educate? People who sell candles and icons, spoons at exorbitant prices, claiming some magical properties. With the same success, some natives who worship animals can become "teachers" in the school. They, too, obviously have legends, there are rituals, there are tsatski and some kind of priests. You can also connect locals, for example, people with wolf muzzles on their heads.

The school, on the other hand, can actually be engaged in raising children, but competent people must educate them, and priests are not 100% educators. These are people who are deliberately trained in godly deception. Those. they can offer antiknowledge to children.

Today, unfortunately, there really is a danger of religion in schools. The same defense industry complex are worth. However, it is important to say that the patriarch's speech is not related to the defense industry complex. He is probably hinting at the need to expand the influence of religion in schools. Those. it is necessary that religious "fundamentals" be taught not by some teachers, but by priests, and that they should also receive a salary for this from the state (just like in the army). At the same time, of course, it is necessary to expand, i.e. it is necessary that religion be promoted throughout the entire period of the child's education, and not only in grade 4.

MESSENGER: HOW THE IMRIVES INTO A MAN Obsession, the holy fathers believed, can be of two types. There is obsession in its extreme manifestations, when a demon dwells in a person as a second person, and the personality of the possessed person is in a depressed state. But the state of a person, whose will is enslaved by passions, was also called by the saints obsession. Moreover, these two types can be just different forms of obsession. The holy righteous John of Kronstadt, observing a huge number of people, noted: “Demons in ordinary people they enter because of their simplicity ... In educated and intelligent people, the evil spirit infuses in a different form, and it is much more difficult to fight it. " In addition, in our everyday life passions often capture us, and sometimes make us uncontrollable. A striking and very common example of this is irritation. Therefore, as long as the devil has something of his own in our being, we are more or less subject to him, which means that, in a sense, we are also possessed. Through sin our soul is opened to demonic influence! The devil's entry into the human soul can be compared to the entry of pathogenic bacteria into the human body. If a person is physically insufficiently protected, has a weak immunity, then he is open to the penetration of various microbes and viruses into him, the consequence of such an entry is illness. Likewise, the devil, when a person's soul has no protection, gains access to it. But what is the protection of the human soul, its immunity, an obstacle for demons, and by virtue of what can it lose this protection? While a person may slowly but stubbornly improve, while his spirit is directed to God, while the falls are followed by sincere repentance - he is in the sphere of God's action and in spiritual security, but when sin becomes a habit, when the whole being of a person becomes subject to some passion - he loses the protective covering of Divine grace. He is deprived not because the Lord punishes the guilty one: the Lord always loves a person, is always ready to help him. But this is precisely the height and oneness of God's love for man, that the Creator respects the freedom of His creation. And the person himself chooses with whom he wants to be: with God or with the devil. A person is only required to turn to God, heart, thought, whole soul, and accept everything that the Lord offers him. However, if a person turns away from God, he inevitably comes into contact with Satan, the third is not given: in everything good and beautiful - God, in the opposite (even if at first glance it is attractive) - the devil. Sin is our choice in favor of the devil; when we sin, we, as it were, turn our hearts to Satan. And this is the result of our free choice. In sin, a person, like Adam and Eve once did, refuses the gifts of God, leaves, hides from Him and opens up to the influence of demons. Now, not God, but the devil has an influence on a person and gains access to his soul. In the Gospel we find vivid characteristics of the relationship between man and the devil, into which the sinner enters. The Savior, addressing the Jews who questioned Him, once said: "Your father is the devil." What did the Savior mean? Just as to be “sons of God” means to belong to the heavenly world, to be close to God, so to be “children of the devil” means to have close, direct communication with him. From the earthly father, children receive education, character traits, an attitude to life, but, above all, they receive being itself from the father. Likewise, God's children are like their Heavenly Father because they live His life. People who have turned to evil, in their sins, also resemble the devil as their father, because from him they receive their sinful being and live his life. Repeatedly the Savior compares the devil's dwelling in the soul of a sinner with the life of a master in his home. A person ceases to be master of himself, someone else controls his soul and body. The owner is free to do whatever he wants with his house: he can clean up and repair it, or he can destroy it. Proceeding from the fact that the essence of the devil is evil, that he is incapable of creation, but only of destruction, there is no doubt what the devil will do, being the master of the soul. This is what St. John Chrysostom: "Demons, once they have taken possession of the soul, treat it so vile and insulting, as is characteristic of the crafty, passionately desiring our shame and death." And St. Basil the Great explains this passionate desire of Satan in such an interesting way: realizing his powerlessness in the struggle against God, the devil seeks to take revenge on Him, at least by inclinating the image of God - man to sin. The Apostle Paul says about sinners that the devil "caught them in his own will." They are like birds caught in the trap, the hunter who caught them can do whatever he wants with them - they are in his power. Thus, a person who has been seduced by the devil's bait (this bait is the deceptive sweetness of sin) finds himself in his net. "Only birds," St. Innocent of Kherson correctly remarks, "rush about, trying to escape from captivity, we are rare." “The kingdom of God is within you,” says the Savior. This means that not only after death, but now we can join the Kingdom of Heaven, acquire it in our hearts. The Kingdom of God is within us - this is, according to St. Simeon the New Theologian, "when God is with us in unity." But it is in our power to create in ourselves both the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil. They enter the Kingdom of God through perfection in virtues and the knowledge of God, into the kingdom of the devil - “through being rooted in vices” (St. John Cassian). And just as it is in our power to open our soul before God and to admit Divine grace into it, or to remain closed to him, so it is in our power to either let the devil into our heart, or to prevent him. “The devil dwells in possessed people because these people have attracted evil spirits to themselves: they themselves have prepared in themselves a dwelling for the devils - swept out and cleaned; by their unrepentant sins instead of the dwelling place of God they are made a repository of an unclean spirit, ”says St. John Damascene. This is also confirmed by St. Theophan the Recluse: “Our inner is always concluded; The Lord Himself stands outside and knocks to open the door. How does it open? Empathy, disposition, consent. Whoever has all this leaning towards Satan, he enters into that ... That Satan enters, and not the Lord, man himself is to blame for this. " Real life examples fully confirm this pattern. It is important to note that hardly any of the priests are skeptical about the possibility of the devil's instilling in a person, since it is to them, to the temple, that people come to tell about the mysterious and frightening phenomena that they had to face. Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko, a famous priest who lived in the 19th century, has collected a number of characteristic examples of demonic possession in his book Spiritual World. Here are some of them. It is important for us that all these examples illustrate the fact: obsession is not necessarily a consequence of extraordinary sins and threatens people who find themselves in some special situation; most often one has to deal with the instillation of the devil when the most ordinary person becomes ossified in the most banal vices. So, the village father tells about what happened in a peasant family belonging to his parish. The woman, the mistress of the house, was famous for her gloomy disposition and quarrelsomeness, she was constantly seen quarreling with someone. It is not surprising that after one of these quarrels, when she shouted at the neighbour's children for a minor offense, terrible things began to happen to her, about which her husband said in horror: “My wife was so furious that it’s scary to approach her.” In another case, the reason that gave the devil access to the soul was that many consider not only not a sin, but, on the contrary, a positive feature, namely, an easy, frivolous attitude to life. Two girls have chosen the grave of one very sinful person as a place to "rest". When they got drunk, they started jumping over the grave and ... dancing. When the girls returned home from the cemetery, they started screaming and making inhuman sounds. Not knowing what to do in such a situation, the girls were locked in a separate room and a priest was called. If children were in their place, there would be no harm to them, but they were adults, conscientious people ... I must say that there are cases of obsession with children, and at that age when they are not yet responsible for their actions, which means they are not may be guilty of the devil's possession in them. Of course, all this remains a mystery: why the Lord sometimes allows demons to dwell in an innocent creature, but there is still logic here: most likely, this happens to the children of especially sinful people. Just as a child of drug addicts or alcoholics suffers as a result of the sins of his parents, so the soul of a baby may be left to the devil because of the inappropriate behavior of his parents. Just as in the case of parents who are drug addicts, there is no mystical punishment from God, but the laws of spiritual life operate. The child develops in the atmosphere that he sees around him, he does not know anything else. If there is an atmosphere of holiness in the family, then the child learns from birth to communicate with God, learns to pray and a kind, bright life. It is not for nothing that among holy parents and children often become famous saints (remember at least St. Sergius of Radonezh). But if the devil dwells in the souls of the parents, then the child also gets used to sin and his soul is open to demons. Let me give you an incident that happened to us a few years ago, when our whole family was vacationing in the south. We were returning home from the beach by trolleybus. At the next stop, a fairly young man and a woman with children - a girl of about six and a boy of about the same age - entered the trolleybus. Parents were clearly alcoholics, they talked rudely among themselves, laughed at some vulgar jokes. The girl, having shoved everyone, sat down with her brother (or friend) next to us and began to behave so boorishly and vulgarly that Father Constantine had to ask her to behave at least quieter. Then something unexpected happened. The girl turned to us, her face contorted with anger, and she began to shout in a hoarse, shrill voice that she had seen Father Constantine in the church, began to grimace and imitate the actions of the priests. We were dressed completely in beach style, nothing betrayed us a special involvement in the church, moreover, we arrived in this resort town the other day, and Fr. Konstantin had not yet appeared in the church. And from the screams of the girl it was clear that she really did not know anything. The mother tried to silence the girl, as the whole bus looked in surprise at the literally raging child, but she could not, and the whole family got off the trolleybus. And in particular danger are children whose parents are either engaged in occult sciences, or they turn to those who are engaged in these people (for example, they carry a sick child to grandmothers to help in a magical way). So, deigning to sin, we put ourselves (and possibly our children) at the disposal of the devil, who penetrates into the soul and is fixed there as we become rooted in sin. And the holy fathers noted that sin enters the soul not at once, but in stages, passing through the stages of development from an extraneous, external urge knocking on the soul to the master's disposal of it. about. Konstantin Parkhomenko