How to prepare for confession and communion? Preparing for confession and communion, especially for the first time, raises many, many questions. I remember my first communion. How difficult it was for me to figure everything out. In this article you will get answers to the questions: what to say in confession to a priest - an example? How to take communion and confession correctly? rules for communion in church? How to confess for the first time? how to prepare for communion? The answer to these questions is given by the modern Greek preacher Archimandrite Andrei (Konanos) and other priests.

Communion was instituted by Jesus Christ Himself at his last meal with the Apostles. The modern Greek preacher and theologian Archimandrite Andrei (Konanos) says, if people realized what a gift of unity with God they receive during communion, because now the blood of Christ flows in their veins... if they realized this fully, their lives would change a lot!

But, unfortunately, most people during communion are like children playing with precious stones and those who do not understand their value.

Rules for communion can be found in any Temple. They are usually presented in a small book called “HOW TO PREPARATE FOR HOLY COMMUNION.” These are the simple rules:

• Before communion you need Fast for 3 days- eat only plant foods (no meat, dairy products and eggs).
• Need to be at the evening service the day before communion.
• Need to confess either at the evening service or on the day of communion at the very beginning of the liturgy (the morning service, during which communion takes place).
• Need a few more days pray hard- for this, read morning and evening prayers and read the canons: Canon of repentance to our Lord Jesus Christ ,
  Canon of prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos,
  Canon to the Guardian Angel,
  Follow-up to Holy Communion *. * If you have never read the Canons (in Church Slavonic), you can listen to the audio (available on prayer book sites at the links provided).
• You need to take communion on an empty stomach (do not eat or drink anything in the morning). An exception is made for sick people, such as diabetics, for whom food and medicine are vital.

If you begin to receive communion at every liturgy, every Sunday, your confessor will be able to allow you to fast less and not read all the indicated prayers. Don’t be afraid to ask the priest and consult with him.

How is communion celebrated in church?

Suppose you decide to take communion on Sunday. This means that the night before (Saturday) you need to come to evening service. Usually the evening service in Temples begins at 17:00. Find out what time the liturgy begins ( morning service) on Sunday, where the communion itself will take place. Usually, the morning service in Temples begins at 9:00. If there was no confession at the evening service, then you confess at the beginning of the morning service.

About halfway through the service, the Priest will remove the Chalice from the altar. Everyone who was preparing for communion gathers near the chalice and folds their hands on their chest, right over left. They approach the bowl carefully so as not to tip it over. The priest gives the communicants the Holy Gifts with a spoon - a piece of the body and blood of Christ under the guise of bread and wine.

After this, you need to go to the end of the Temple, where you will be given a drink. This is water diluted with wine. You need to drink it down so that not a single drop or crumb of the Eucharist is wasted. Only after this can you cross yourself. At the end of the service you need to listen thanksgiving prayers.

How to prepare for confession? What to say to a priest in confession - an example? List of sins

The main rule in confession, which priests always remind us of, is not to recount sins. Because if you start retelling the story of how you committed a sin, then you will unwittingly begin to justify yourself and blame others. Therefore, in confession, sins are simply named. For example: pride, envy, foul language, etc. And so as not to forget anything, use a list of sins against God, against neighbors, against oneself(usually such a list is in the book “HOW TO PREPARE FOR HOLY COMMUNION.”

Write down your sins on a piece of paper so you don’t forget anything. Come to the Temple early in the morning so as not to be late for confession and common prayer before confession. Before confession, go to the priest, cross yourself, venerate the Gospel and the cross, and begin listing your pre-recorded sins. After confession, the priest will read a prayer of permission and tell you whether you are allowed to receive communion.

It very rarely happens when a priest, for your correction, does not allow you to take communion. This is also a test of your pride.

It is important during confession, naming a sin, to promise yourself not to repeat it. It is very important on the eve of communion to reconcile with your enemies and forgive your offenders.

How to confess for the first time?

The first confession is often called the general confession. As a rule, a piece of paper with a list of sins includes almost all the sins from the list of sins against God, one’s neighbor and oneself. The priest will probably understand that you have come to confession for the first time and will help you with advice on how to try not to repeat sins and mistakes.

I hope the article “How to prepare for confession and communion?” will help you decide and go to confession and communion. This is important for your soul, because confession is the cleansing of the soul. We wash our bodies every day, but we don’t care about the purity of our souls!

If you have never confessed or received communion and it seems to you that it is very difficult to prepare, I recommend that you still perform this feat. The reward will be great. I assure you that you have never experienced anything like this before. After communion, you will feel an extraordinary and incomparable spiritual joy.

The most difficult thing usually seems to be reading the canons and following to Holy Communion. Indeed, it is difficult to read the first time. Use the audio recording and listen to all these prayers over 2-3 evenings.

Listen in this video to the story of priest Andrei Tkachev about how much time (usually several years) separates a person from the desire to go to the first confession until the moment of the first confession.

I wish everyone to enjoy life and thank God for everything!

Alena Kraeva

Should I come to all-night vigil on the eve of communion?

The question is provocative, I would say. If you want to expose a priest who allows those who have not “defended” the all-night vigil to receive communion in advance, ask him this question publicly.

Archpriest Igor Prekup

For some reason I remembered an old Catholic joke. A Jesuit and a Franciscan argue about smoking. The Franciscan is categorically against it, the Jesuit is for it. Then the Franciscan puts forward the following argument: “The criterion of good and evil is prayer. Is smoking compatible with prayer? - "Why not"? – the Jesuit smiles.

"Fine. Let’s ask this question to the Pope,” the Franciscan suggests and calls the Servant of the Servants of God. After waiting for the connection, he asks: “Your Holiness, is it possible to smoke while praying?” Having received a negative answer, accompanied by an indignant chain of interjections, he looked with satisfaction at the Jesuit, who, not at all embarrassed, asked for a phone number and asked the Pope if it was possible to pray while smoking. To which I heard: “It is said in Scripture: pray without ceasing(1 Thess. 5; 17).”

Show me a priest who will tell you: “No, no, no, why? Stay at home. In general, only religious fanatics go to church every Sunday, don’t be like them, don’t…”

Firstly, if it comes to that, the question is posed logically incorrectly, but this incorrectness is justified precisely because it reflects a flawed approach to communion as a individual act carried out in company with other people, accidentally simultaneously those who came to the liturgy.

Secondly, it was also posed twice incorrectly, again due to the fact that it is impossible to answer without tempting some and depriving others. In fact, just dare to say that there is no point in going to the all-night vigil on the eve of the liturgy. In addition to the fact that such an attitude is simply false and vicious in itself, there are many “zealots” who will classify you as church liberals, brand you a “fifth column”, or even a “Judaizer” (it is not clear from which side, and it doesn’t matter; the main thing is to “expose” and “qualify”).

After this, you can hit yourself in the chest with your heel as much as you like, proving that you didn’t mean to say something and were misunderstood; consider that you have already seduced “these little ones” - go, try on the millstone...

But let’s return to defectiveness, which, like any other defectiveness, is not recognized, as a rule, by its carriers - to inferiority of the Eucharistic. After all, in fact, basically, why can a statement about the unnecessaryness of attending the all-night vigil before communion cause indignation? Because this is an element of fasting, and before communion it is necessary to fast. The key word is “supposed”. Who and where it’s supposed to be – it doesn’t matter. We're supposed to. For what? This, they say, is not of our mind, our job is to carry it out. All. The circle is closed.

“Ordained”... Along with the three-day fast, “reading” the adherence to holy communion is one of the elements of what must be done, one of our duties, having fulfilled which it will be possible, while continuing to call ourselves unworthy, to console our conscience with the knowledge that we “have received communion worthily,” thus transferring dignity from the formal fulfillment of what is “supposed” to the idea of ​​the quality of our soul (i.e. We will continue to call ourselves “unworthy”, as “it’s supposed to be”, but thanks to how great we are, we will do this, as if winking at ourselves: because we know…).

Anyone who dares to question the obligatory nature of “upholding” the All-Night Vigil on the eve of communion is considered by the “Orthodox people” as a troublemaker-renovationist precisely because he breaks the harmonious structure of this vicious pseudo-church consciousness, which surrounds communion with a sort of strip of obstacles that must be overcome with effort. , and in overcoming, suffer in order to receive communion as if as a reward for the “sorrowful labor and high aspirations” suffered.

Thus it turns out that initially true idea of ​​importance participation communicant in daily circle worship is profaned by the “zealots” themselves, as a result of which participation in public worship degenerates into “defending the service”, into “listening to it” (they say, for example, “listen to mass”).

It turns out that a person came to a “public place” (which a temple, if we understand this in the church spirit, is not), where a religious worship session is taking place.

The session is conducted by authorized persons (clergy). The rest are present each on their own (not even on session, but as if just at its completion), without any claim to participate in it - so, on their own, everyone can individually pray for something along the way, about their own; well, even when the choir sings: “Lord, have mercy!” You can cross yourself together with others (fortunately, at least these two words are understandable), but the text of the litany pronounced by the clergyman is not always accessible to the ear. And to pray together with the choir or at least with the reader is an unaffordable luxury, considering how much attention we usually pay to the intelligibility of singing and reading.

How to be? So, you need to understand a few important things. The All-Night Vigil is not a duty for which a reward is given in the form of admission to the sacrament. This is a complex divine service of the daily cycle, enriching us with both grace and theological knowledge. Liturgy, unlike Vespers, Compline, Midnight Office, Matins, 1st, 3rd, 6th and 9th o’clock, is not one of daily services. It is built into one or another section of it, depending on the instructions of the Charter, but in itself is not its component part.

Thirdly, the liturgy, regardless of which specific one (St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, Presanctified or Holy Apostle James, etc.), is still served precisely in the space of the daily circle, therefore a person is called to participate in the liturgy, immersed in the richness of meanings, concluded in the services preceding it.

All of the above applies to any daily service performed the night before, and not just to the all-night vigil, which in practice has long been no longer an “all-night vigil.” Today, this is a type of especially solemn evening service, performed, according to the Charter, on important church holidays, incl. and on Sundays, because every Sunday is a little Easter. Not the day before holidays, please note, namely V holidays, because the liturgical day (and therefore the holiday itself, including Sunday services) begins in the evening.

We started talking about the all-night vigil because people mostly take communion on Sundays, and on the eve of Sunday, on Saturday evening, an all-night vigil is celebrated.

So this is what is important: it should not just be a visit to the temple, because it's supposed to go to church on holidays, or because This(regardless of whether it is a holiday or an ordinary memorial of saints) required on the eve of communion.

Participation(not “advocating” and not “listening”, namely participation ) V evening worship- this is immersion into eternity through unity with the Church - the Kingdom of God on earth - through a service dedicated to some significant event or saint, and immersion not from some intermediate stage or at the “one tenth hour”, but from the very beginning daily circle.

Calling us to come to church not only on the day of communion, but already the day before, the Church invites back to the beginning liturgical cycle, within the framework of which we hope to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. It is better to do any task completely, and therefore it is good on the day of communion to devote not a few minutes to unity with God, and not even a couple of hours, not counting the time “killed” on the road, and not some other time there, but... all God's day give away- that very day which “and there was evening, and there was morning...”, at least in the volume of one day, one liturgical cycle, one - but the whole.

It's not just good. This is wonderful. Does everyone always have the opportunity to be at work in the evening? Especially when the temple is not within “walking distance”? The question is rhetorical, inducing sadness, melancholy and despondency with despair. Now what happens? There is no opportunity to participate in worship in the evening, and don’t even think about regular communion? Are we returning to the pre-revolutionary vicious practice of taking communion once a year, four at most?

In response to this cry from the soul, I propose to remember the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20: 1-16). The owner goes out early in the morning to hire workers and negotiates with each of them for one denarius. During the day, he repeatedly went out and hired new workers, until the evening. However, if he promised the first a denarius, he promises to give to the others only that he will “follow” them, but nothing specific. In the end, everyone receives a denarius: both those who worked for only an hour, and those who “endured the burden of the day and the heat” (Matthew 20; 12).

Let us also remember the word of St. John Chrysostom on Easter, in which, referring to the feat of fasting, he says: “If anyone missed the ninth hour, let him come up, not embarrassed by anything, not afraid of anything. If anyone has arrived at the eleventh hour, let him not be embarrassed by his delay: for the ruler is generous and loves to give gifts, and accepts the last as the first; and the one who comes at the eleventh hour lets him go to rest, just as he who worked from the first hour: he has mercy on the last, and pleases the first, and rewards him, and bestows gifts on him, and accepts what has been done, and welcomes intentions, and honors deeds, and praises plans” (translation Olga Sedakova).

Yes, it would be better “from the first hour”, i.e. from the very beginning of the liturgical day, we should work hard, but if, for example, this is impossible without conflict or other meaningless complications of life, then we will try not to lose sight of the fact that the Lord is calling us to His Table, as the owner in the parable called people to his vineyard, including and those whom I found completely in the evening, when there was no need for them at all.

He calls us to give; to refuse... it’s not even disgusting - it’s much worse. Therefore, it is better to come at least “at the tenth hour” than to refuse Him. Only now, what time does this “one tenth hour” begin, where is the limit after which there is no longer any need to “run to receive communion”: the beginning of confession, the clock, the exclamation “Blessed is the Kingdom!..”, the Cherubic Hymn, the Eucharistic canon, the beginning of communion - when already “ it's too late"? - Let's leave this to the discretion of each confessor.

The meaning of the sacrament

The first step in preparing for communion will be to understand the meaning of communion, so many go to church because it is fashionable and one could say that you took communion and confessed, but in fact such communion is a sin. When preparing for communion, you need to understand that you go to church to see the priest, first of all, to draw closer to the Lord God and repent of your sins, and not to arrange a holiday and an extra reason to drink and eat. At the same time, going to receive communion just because you were forced is not good; you must go to this sacrament at will, cleansing your soul of sins.

So, anyone who wants to worthily partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ must prayerfully prepare himself for this in two or three days: pray at home in the morning and evening, visit church services. Before the day of communion, you must be at the evening service. To the family evening prayers a rule is added (from the prayer book) to Holy Communion.

The main thing is the living faith of the heart and the warmth of repentance for sins.

Prayer is combined with abstinence from fast food - meat, eggs, milk and dairy products, during strict fasting and from fish. The rest of your food should be kept in moderation.

Those who wish to receive communion must, preferably the day before, before or after the evening service, bring sincere repentance of their sins to the priest, sincerely revealing their soul and not hiding a single sin. Before confession, you must certainly reconcile both with your offenders and with those whom you have offended. During confession, it is better not to wait for the priest’s questions, but to tell him everything that is on your conscience, without justifying yourself in anything and without shifting the blame to others. Under no circumstances should you condemn someone or talk about the sins of others during confession. If it is not possible to confess in the evening, you need to do this before the start of the liturgy, or, in extreme cases, before the Cherubic Song. Without confession, no one except infants under seven years of age can be admitted to Holy Communion. After midnight, it is forbidden to eat or drink; you must come to Communion strictly on an empty stomach. Children should also be taught to abstain from food and drink before Holy Communion.

How to prepare for communion?

The days of fasting usually last a week, in extreme cases - three days. Fasting is prescribed on these days. Meal food is excluded from the diet - meat, dairy products, eggs, and on days strict posts- and fish. Spouses refrain from physical intimacy. The family refuses entertainment and watching television. If circumstances permit, you should attend church services on these days. The morning and evening prayer rules are followed more diligently, with the addition of the reading of the Penitential Canon.

Regardless of when the Sacrament of Confession is celebrated in the church - in the evening or in the morning, it is necessary to attend the evening service on the eve of communion. In the evening, before reading prayers for bedtime, three canons are read: Repentance to our Lord Jesus Christ, Mother of God, Guardian Angel. You can read each canon separately, or use prayer books where these three canons are combined. Then the canon for Holy Communion is read before the prayers for Holy Communion, which are read in the morning. For those who find it difficult to perform such a prayer rule in one day, take the priest’s blessing to read three canons in advance during the days of fasting.

It is quite difficult for children to follow all the prayer rules for preparing for communion. Parents need to, together with their confessor, choose the optimal number of prayers that the child can handle, then gradually increase the number necessary prayers necessary to prepare for communion, up to full prayer rule to Holy Communion.

For some, it is very difficult to read the necessary canons and prayers. For this reason, others do not confess or receive communion for years. Many people confuse preparation for confession (which does not require such a large volume of prayers read) and preparation for communion. Such people can be recommended to begin the Sacraments of Confession and Communion in stages. First, you need to properly prepare for confession and, when confessing your sins, ask your confessor for advice. We need to pray to the Lord to help us overcome difficulties and give us strength to adequately prepare for the Sacrament of Communion.

Since it is customary to begin the Sacrament of Communion on an empty stomach, from twelve o’clock at night they no longer eat or drink (smokers do not smoke). The exception is infants (children under seven years of age). But children from a certain age (starting from 5–6 years, and if possible earlier) must be taught to the existing rule.

In the morning, they also don’t eat or drink anything and, of course, don’t smoke, you can only brush your teeth. After reading morning prayers prayers for Holy Communion are read. If reading prayers for Holy Communion in the morning is difficult, then you need to take a blessing from the priest to read them the evening before. If confession is performed in the church in the morning, you must arrive on time, before confession begins. If confession was made the night before, then the person confessing comes to the beginning of the service and prays with everyone.

Fasting before confession

People who are resorting to Communion of the Holy Sacraments of Christ for the first time need to fast for a week, those who take communion less than twice a month, or do not observe Wednesday and Friday fasts, or often multi-day posts doesn’t really observe it - he fasts for three days before communion. Do not eat animal food, do not drink alcohol. And don’t overeat yourself with lean food, but eat as much as necessary to fill yourself up and that’s all. But those who resort to the Sacraments every Sunday (as a good Christian should) can fast only Wednesday and Friday, as usual. Some also add - and at least on Saturday evening, or on Saturday - not to eat meat. Before communion, do not eat or drink anything for 24 hours. On the prescribed days of fasting, eat only plant-based foods.

It is also very important these days to keep yourself from anger, envy, condemnation, empty talk and physical communication between spouses, as well as on the night after communion. Children under 7 years old do not need to fast or confess.

Also, if for the first time man walking for communion, you need to try to read the entire rule, read all the canons (you can buy a special book in the store, called “Rule for Holy Communion” or “Prayer book with the rule for communion”, everything is clear there). To make it not so difficult, you can do this by dividing the reading of this rule over several days.

Clean body

Remember that you are not allowed to go to the temple dirty, unless of course it is required life situation. Therefore, preparing for communion means that on the day you go to the sacrament of communion, you must wash your body from physical dirt, that is, take a bath, shower or go to the sauna.

Preparing for Confession

Before confession itself, which is a separate sacrament (it does not have to be followed by Communion, but it is desirable), you can not fast. A person can confess at any time when he feels in his heart that he needs to repent, confess his sins, and as quickly as possible so that his soul is not burdened. And if you are properly prepared, you can take communion later. Ideally, if possible, it would be good to attend the evening service, and especially before holidays or the day of your angel.

It is absolutely unacceptable to fast in food, but not change the course of your life in any way: continue to go to entertainment events, to the cinema for the next blockbuster, to visit, sit all day with computer toys, etc. The main thing in the days of preparation for Communion is to live They are different from other days of everyday life; you don’t have to work hard for the Lord. Talk to your soul, feel why it is spiritually bored. And do something that has been put off for a long time. Read the Gospel or spiritual book; visit people we love but have forgotten; ask for forgiveness from someone from whom we were ashamed to ask for it and we put it off until later; try these days to give up numerous attachments and bad habits. Simply put, these days you have to be bolder and be better than usual.

Communion in Church

The Sacrament of Communion itself takes place in the Church at a service called liturgy . As a rule, the liturgy is celebrated in the first half of the day; The exact start time of services and the days they take place should be found out directly in the temple you are going to go to. Services usually begin between seven and ten o'clock in the morning; The duration of the liturgy, depending on the nature of the service and partly on the number of communicants, is from one and a half to four to five hours. In cathedrals and monasteries, liturgies are served daily; in parish churches Sundays and on church holidays. It is advisable for those preparing for Communion to attend the service from the beginning (for this is a single spiritual action), and also to attend the evening service the day before, which is prayerful preparation for the Liturgy and the Eucharist.

During the liturgy, you need to stay in the church without going out, prayerfully participating in the service until the priest comes out of the altar with a cup and proclaims: “Approach with the fear of God and faith.” Then the communicants line up one after another in front of the pulpit (first children and the infirm, then men and then women). Hands should be folded crosswise on the chest; You are not supposed to be baptized in front of the cup. When your turn comes, you need to stand in front of the priest, say your name and open your mouth so that you can put in a spoon with a particle of the Body and Blood of Christ. The liar must be thoroughly licked with his lips, and after wiping his lips with the cloth, reverently kiss the edge of the bowl. Then, without venerating the icons or talking, you need to move away from the pulpit and take a drink - St. water with wine and a particle of prosphora (in this way, it is as if the oral cavity is washed, so that the smallest particles of the Gifts are not accidentally expelled from oneself, for example, when sneezing). After communion, you need to read (or listen in Church) prayers of thanksgiving and in the future carefully guard your soul from sins and passions.

How to approach the Holy Chalice?

Each communicant needs to know well how to approach the Holy Chalice so that communion occurs orderly and without fuss.

Before approaching the Chalice, you must bow to the ground. If there are many communicants, then in order not to disturb others, you need to bow in advance. When the royal doors open, you must cross yourself and fold your arms crosswise on your chest, right hand over the left, and with such a folding of hands, take communion; you need to move away from the Chalice without releasing your hands. You must approach from the right side of the temple, and leave the left free. The altar servers receive communion first, then the monks, the children, and only then everyone else. You need to give way to your neighbors, and under no circumstances push. Women need to erase before communion. lipstick. Women should approach communion with their heads covered.

Approaching the Chalice, you should loudly and clearly call your name, accept the Holy Gifts, chew them (if necessary) and immediately swallow them, and kiss the lower edge of the Chalice like the rib of Christ. You cannot touch the Chalice with your hands and kiss the priest’s hand. It is forbidden to be baptized at the Chalice! Raising your hand for sign of the cross, you can accidentally push the priest and spill the Holy Gifts. Having gone to the table with a drink, you need to eat antidor or prosphora and drink some warmth. Only after this can you venerate the icons.

If the Holy Gifts are given from several Chalice, they can only be received from one. You cannot receive communion twice a day. On the day of Communion, it is not customary to kneel, with the exception of bows during Great Lent when reading the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian, bows before the Shroud of Christ in Holy Saturday and kneeling prayers on the day of the Holy Trinity. Arriving home, you should first of all read prayers of thanksgiving for Holy Communion; if they are read in church at the end of the service, you need to listen to the prayers there. After communion, you should also not spit out anything or rinse your mouth until the morning. Participants should try to protect themselves from idle talk, especially from condemnation, and to avoid idle talk, they must read the Gospel, the Jesus Prayer, akathists, and the Holy Scriptures.

Is it necessary to attend the evening service? You can confess right during the liturgy. Or should attendance at the all-night vigil become as mandatory for believers as attendance at the liturgy?

Our sacrifice to God

Archpriest Igor Fomin, rector of the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky at MGIMO (Moscow):

A liturgical day is the totality of all the services of the daily circle, the crown of which is the liturgy.

Why is it so difficult to pray at the all-night vigil and so easy at the liturgy? Because the all-night vigil is our sacrifice to God, when we sacrifice our time and some external circumstances to Him. And the liturgy is God’s sacrifice to us. And taking it is often much easier. But oddly enough, the degree to which this sacrifice is accepted by God depends on how much we are willing to sacrifice to Him.

In formal terms, the All-Night Vigil is an obligatory service before communion.

The entire structure of worship reminds us of the events of the divine world order; it should make us better, tune us to the sacrifice that Christ prepares for us during holy communion.

But there are various circumstances under which a person cannot attend the all-night vigil: a grumpy wife, a jealous husband, urgent work, and so on. And these are reasons that can justify a person. But if he is not present at the all-night vigil because he is watching the football championship or his favorite TV series (note, I am not talking about guests here - after all, this is a little different), then, probably, the person is sinning internally. And not before the church charter, not even before God. He's just robbing himself.

In general, it is impossible to rob a Church or a temple, even if you take out all the icons and some material values. Spiritual world– this is not a bank or a store. You will not harm the Church with your unworthy behavior. But for you, the internal consequences of this are disastrous.

Everyone should think for themselves. If he has the opportunity to attend the all-night vigil, then he should do so. If this is not possible, then it is worth thinking: how can I worthily spend this evening before communion in order to prepare for the reception of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Maybe you shouldn’t watch TV, but rather focus on spiritual reflection?

If a person wants to take communion every Sunday and worries if he will also be in church every Saturday and remain without days off, without rest, the question arises - why should he take communion every Sunday?

The Lord says: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). If your treasure is in the cinema, at the TV, at the stadium, put off the sacrament until better times: for a week, for a month, for a year.

The motivation that drives a person is very important here. If you are used to receiving communion every Sunday, and this does not change you spiritually, does not transform you, then why do you need it?

Maybe then take the measure of frequency that is in the church charter: communion - once every three weeks. The time of preparation for communion in the statute is defined as follows: for a week - you prepare, fast with dry food, and read prayers. Then you take communion, internally store what you receive for a week, rest for a week and prepare again. There is an option when everyone discusses the form of preparation for communion with their confessor.

If a person sets himself a certain schedule for communion, that’s good. Only then should he treat this sacrament accordingly.

Not just debt...

Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko, rector of the Church of the All-Merciful Savior in the former Sorrowful Monastery (Moscow):

First of all, it is necessary to say about the beauty of the all-night vigil, its content, its spiritual and factual richness: the service reveals the history of the holiday, its significance, and meaning.

But since, as a rule, people do not understand what is read and sung in church, they simply do not perceive much.

It's surprising that Russian Orthodox Church preserved in its entirety a very complex, thoughtful service. For example, in Greece there is no such thing in parishes. There they adjusted to modern life, and this is justified in its own way. There is no evening service, no vespers are served, the morning begins with Matins.

We serve both Vespers and Matins in the evening. This is a kind of convention, but it was thought out, and those who made the decision about this particular course of worship understood the charter better than us and decided that it would be more correct to maintain fidelity to tradition.

In Greece they made a different decision. Matins is served there, as a rule, according to one type. We have an all-night vigil - solemn, bright, colorful, during which many chants are sung. In Greece it’s more monotonous, but it’s fast. The entire service, including the liturgy, takes about two hours. But this is precisely in parish churches.

In monasteries, and especially on Mount Athos, the rules are preserved in all strictness. Their all-night vigil actually goes on all night.

With us, no, and this is also a kind of convention, a kind of reduction. But those who developed this decided to reduce it based on certain circumstances; they still wanted to preserve the beauty of Orthodox worship for the laity.

But here a difficulty arises - we live in the 21st century: we are busy, the distances are long, people are tired, the environment is terrible, health, or better yet, ill health, corresponds to it. Although I think that the peasants who worked tirelessly in the summer from morning to evening were more physically tired than we were. But still, they had enough strength to finish the work day early on Saturday, wash in the bathhouse and go to church for the all-night vigil, and in the morning for the liturgy.

It may be more difficult for us in some ways than for our recent ancestors; physically we are much weaker. But, nevertheless, we urge you not to hide behind your weaknesses, but to find strength and go to the all-night vigil, especially those who want to receive communion. So that they can confess on the eve of the liturgy without taking up the time of the Sunday service.

But if people have small children who have no one to leave with, or there are some other objective reasons, you cannot tell them: “If you have not been to the all-night vigil, then you will not receive communion.” Although it is possible to say so to someone: if a person showed sloppiness, laziness, relaxation...

It is important to strive to ensure that our parishioners love the worship of our Church and consider it not only a duty, but also a joy to be present in church.

Without "social protection"

Archpriest Alexy Uminsky, rector of the temple Life-Giving Trinity in Khokhly (Moscow):

There is a certain circle of services, and the all-night vigil is a necessary part of the Sunday service. But there are life circumstances of a certain level when a person is not able to go to the all-night vigil. But he can go to the liturgy and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

A completely common practice of worship in our Russians. Orthodox churches abroad is such that the majority of parishioners living in different cities, come only for Sunday services. Therefore, in most cases, only Sunday liturgy exists in churches.

This is also due to the fact that if the priest serves not only the liturgy, but also adds, say, Matins to it, then the service will take about four hours. This is not only difficult to understand, but also connected with transport schedules, parking fees...

But the fact that only the liturgy is served is not an obstacle for parishioners who come to receive communion to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

But if a person has the opportunity to attend an all-night vigil, and simply out of laziness, carelessness, does not want to go, then this can become an obstacle to receiving communion.

Yes, it turns out that the temple “occupies” both weekends of an ordinary person working five days a week. But only those living in XX, XXI centuries are used to things like two days off. Previously people didn't have such " social protection" They worked for six days, and dedicated the seventh to the Lord God.

The question is not whether it is possible to lie on the sofa instead of the all-night vigil. The answer here is clear. Another thing is that people may have completely justified family concerns. In the end, it is at this time that the ordered furniture from the store should be delivered. Or - they invited a person dear to the whole family to the anniversary. If we spent this anniversary piously, why can it become an obstacle to receiving communion?

But all this does not happen every Saturday. But simply deciding that the all-night vigil is an optional thing, and I won’t go to it, is wrong.