The Feast of the Entry into the Temple in the Russian Orthodox Church is celebrated on December 4. It is the second twelfth feast of the Mother of God church year. These holidays reflect events from the life of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary on earth. One of them is dedicated to Jesus Christ, and the second to the Mother of God.

What does this holiday mean?

Righteous Joachim and Anna lived together for a long time, but they had no children. They prayed to the Lord God and asked him to send them a child, promising, at the same time, that if the child was born, then they dedicate it to serving God.

So, they lived for almost 50 years, but still their prayers were heard and they had a daughter. It was decided that the baby would be named Maria, translated from Hebrew as “hope”, “mistress”.

After the Virgin Mary turned three years old, her parents decided to fulfill their vow to the Lord and dedicate the girl to the service of God. They called their relatives and friends and took their daughter to the church, where they were solemnly greeted virgins with candles in hands.

Fifteen steps led up. According to Holy Tradition, the parents placed the Mother of God on the first step, and then she began to quickly climb up herself, without turning around, despite the fact that the steps were steep and Mary was still very small. The high priest was waiting for her upstairs. According to some sources, the high priest was Saint Zechariah (father of John the Baptist).

He met the Blessed Virgin, kissed and blessed her. He received an inspiration from above to introduce the Virgin Mary, who was the animated ark of God, into the Holy of Holies, where even priests were forbidden to enter. Only the high priest could go there once a year and bring sacrificial blood. Everyone who was nearby at that moment was very surprised, because this was considered a violation of the Law of Piety.

Having handed over their daughter to the Lord God, her righteous parents returned home, and Holy Virgin Mary remained to live in the premises of the temple along with other virgins. From this day began the difficult and glorious life of the Mother of God on earth.

According to legend, the Virgin Mary stayed in this church until until she was 14 years old. She spent all this time in prayer, studying the Holy Scriptures, and doing other godly deeds. Her upbringing in this place was ending and she needed to get married after that. But she refused to get married, citing the fact that she wanted to remain a virgin before the Lord. Due to the fact that Mary’s parents were no longer alive at that time, the priests decided to find her a patron. By a special lot, the carpenter Joseph, who belonged to the family of King David, became Mary’s patron.

How this event became one of the Twelve church holidays? Research shows that the holiday began to be celebrated during the rise to power of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian the First. On his instructions in 543 in honor Holy Mother of God A large church was built on the site where the Jerusalem Temple had previously been located. But this version is not documented - it is just a hypothesis.

The date of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary, December 4, is unchanged - it is not a moving holiday.

In the West this event became known in the 9th century in Sicily. At that time there was a large number of Orthodox Greeks. The holiday came to England with the Normans, who captured this island. This happened in the 11th century. In the 14th century (in the second half), the holiday of Entry into the Temple spread throughout Europe. Since 1340, this holiday was introduced into the Catholic Church.

Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple for children

Before you start talking with your children about this holiday, need to prepare. It is best to go to church for services on the eve of this holiday and there you can hear in detail all the necessary information. Sometimes children themselves ask what an Introduction is, then your story will be the answer to their question. If you have children of different ages, then you can start the story, and the older children can continue it for the younger ones. This way, they will remember what they heard earlier.

To consolidate the knowledge gained, you can look at images (icons, paintings) dedicated to this event together with your children. They can be easily found on the Internet.

Icons and paintings depicting the entry of the Virgin Mary into the temple

Icons are called the visible teaching of the Church. On them you can see any of the events in the life of Jesus Christ and other saints. For example, the icon of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple reflects everything that happened on that day. On it we see:

• large steps of the temple;
• the little Virgin Mary, who was dressed in maforia;
• righteous Zechariah;
• Next to Mary, the icons always depict her righteous parents, who brought her to the temple.

In addition to icons, artists have painted a huge number of paintings that show the event of that day. Many artists dedicated their canvases to the arrival of the Mother of God in the Jerusalem Temple. Among them we can name such, How:

• Titian Vecellio;
• Cima da Conegliano;
• Alfonso Boschi;
• Victor Carpaccio.

What is the spiritual significance of the holiday?

This holiday, like all great events - this is a stage on the path of God's Economy, one of the stages of man’s comprehension of it, a sign of the coming event of the Nativity of the Son of God. The future Mother of God entered the “Holy of Holies” and this was her preparation for later becoming the Mother of God on Earth.

Prayer to the Mother of God protects believers from temptations and falls. Through her we are reconciled with God and saved by her prayers, she protects us from all evil.

Abstract read on January 25, 1902, at a meeting of the Church-Archaeological Department of the Society of Lovers of Spiritual Enlightenment

Before starting to write this essay, I needed to study the very construction of the second Temple of Jerusalem. Having read from great attention The Bible, “History of the Jews” - Josephus and considering the Gospel stories and traditions, I found that the description of the vision of the prophet Ezekiel gives detailed and accurate instructions about the second Temple of Jerusalem and the buildings surrounding it.

Both Zerubbabel and Herod the Great and other builders only gradually completed these buildings according to the plan and dimensions specified by the Lord.

Having compiled according to the description of the prophet. Ezekiel's plan, I hope to draw up in free time the facade and section of the temple with all the details, which have now become clearer to me, which is why I dare to express my assumption about how the Most Holy Theotokos could enter the temple and the Holy of Holies.

Near the entire temple, that is, the courtyards of the temple, a wall was built, which from the inside of the courtyard was 6 cubits high and the same measure of thickness; the yard was 500 liters long and wide. Roman soldiers, watching over the Jews in the temple, and other pagans could stand on this wall, and this place was called the “court of the pagans,” since it was not located inside the fence, but on it itself. On this wall Herod built a gallery with a roof on columns and a pediment. The devil raised the Lord Jesus Christ to the roof of the gallery on the western side, or, as the gospel says, “to the wing of the temple” to tempt him; this side was in front of the Kidron stream, which contained a lot different stone. The wall in this place reached up to 70 meters from the outside, so that the temple itself from the stream was 120 meters high. There were no entrances from this side to the temple fence: the entrances were on three sides, namely: on the northern and southern sides, where the temple reached up to 60 cubits in height, from the entrance on the eastern side, from the ravine, where the temple was 100 cubits high. height. Across the ravine, Herod built a gallery with a museum in it, on the walls of which were hung shields and other weapons captured by the Jews from their enemies. The gallery had 400 l. length and 50 l. lat. From there there was a 15-step ascent to the vestibule of the temple, built with a tower protruding from the wall.

Josephus writes that Jews entered the eastern gate together with their wives after complete purification, that is, after the birth of their first child.

The tower was divided into two halves by a wall surrounding the temple, in which there was a gate. Both halves of the gate slid behind pillars and were, like the pillars themselves, decorated with carvings; there was a cornice on the pillars. On the sides of the porch, which went outside the fence, there were 3 square rooms, each 6 cubits; their windows were facing the outside of the temple, and the doors opened into the passage of the vestibule; Near them there were ledges for the people's seats, a cubit wide and high, and above them, on the columns, there were canopies, 5 liters wide, under which pigeon sellers and money changers were allowed to be.

Behind the gates of the temple wall, i.e. already inside the temple, there was a second, identical half of the tower, protruding into the temple courtyard, with the same arrangement of rooms and buildings. In one of these rooms on the north side, in the second half of the tower, Jews could bring a sinner to Christ; here He, sitting on a ledge built for a seat, could write in the sand, since the rooms were unpaved, without floors. From this room the Jews could freely leave one by one through the doors leading into the passage, and Christ could remain alone with the sinner.

The length of both halves of the tower inside, without walls, was 60 l., and the width was 50 l. In the vestibule of the first half of the tower, as can be seen, there was little space for traders; therefore, one must think that they moved to the other half, which was already in the temple; This is probably where the Lord drove them out during his earthly life, although they traded in sacrificial items.

It is a pity that modern church buildings do not have porches, as was indicated by the Lord; meanwhile, these porches would be useful in many respects, for example, for sale wax candles, for women to stand until the forty-day cleansing prayer, etc. In ancient church buildings there were vestibules, where the women were until the priest read the cleansing prayer and where the elders sold candles.

So, the second half of the eastern, northern and southern towers opened into the first courtyard of the temple, which had 50 liters. width and was called by the prophet “the road” because it walked around the temple, inside its outer wall. On the western side of this courtyard, kitchens were built, 40 years long; sacrificial offerings were prepared in them for the people.

Behind the towers, between the second courtyard, there were vestibules, 10 l each. width; on the northern side of such a vestibule there were 8 tables for the slaughter of victims and small tables, one elbow high, for weapons. Near the gate there was an entrance to the room where the sacrifices were washed, from where they, washed and prepared, were carried and carried to the altar.

At the corners of the first courtyard, called the road, there were 4 squares of 100 square cubits, where the women were; they were called the “courtyard of the women.”

In one of the courtyards there was a cistern filled with rainwater; this water was considered sacred, as it flowed from the roofs of the temple; The people in the temple drank it. A ditch was built to drain the water.

The second gate on the eastern side opened onto a second courtyard, rising 4 steps, paved with stone slabs, 50 l. width; he walked between a courtyard called a road and four square areas 100 l each and formed a cross, each end of which had 100 liters; the cross had 12 sides, according to the number of tribes of Israel, and it was called the “Israelite court.”

The third courtyard, called the “sacred”, formed a second cross, each wing of which was 100 square cubits; in the middle of it stood the temple itself.

The eastern area of ​​the courtyard remained free, and in the middle of the western area there was an altar on which sacrifices were made.

On the northern and southern squares of the sacred courtyard, three-story houses were built for a thousand priests, who ate here and changed into clothes. sacred robes before the service, and after the service, they put on ordinary clothes and had supper; From here they went out to teach the people; Storerooms were also built at these houses.

The temple itself stood in the middle of the squares and was surrounded by a stone fence, which had 100 l. length and width; on the western side there were four gates, on the northern and southern sides there was one passage each for the priests, and on the eastern side there was one gate called “princely” and 2 passages to the living quarters of the girls. On the sides of the temple, on the north and south sides, there were 2 three-story houses; both had 33 rooms with windows into the temple, and doors and porches to the fence; there was also a staircase to the roof of the buildings and the temple. At the corners of the buildings there were 4 courtyards of 20 liters each. square; on one of them there was a stove in which the priests baked sacred bread. The buildings and the temple also had a cross in their plan. At the corners of the buildings there were 4 rooms for the regular priests at the altar and altar, which connected the buildings of the maidens with the temple; on the western side of the fence there were two buildings on the sides of the temple porch: for singers and musicians.

The temple itself was divided into 3 parts: the porch, the temple and the Holy of Holies; on the east and west sides the temple had one door each; according to the legend of Josephus, on the doors, broad. and 10 liters high, there were curtains, one of which, on the western side, was “torn in two, from top to bottom,” after the death of the Savior on the cross, and the Mother of God entered behind the second.

The temple was 40 years old inside. long and 20 l. width; the porch was 20 l long and wide. – at 11 years old; The Holy of Holies had 20 l. square. The inside wall of the temple was built in 3 tiers, with ledges; so the temple in the 1st tier had 20 l. width, in the 2nd – 22 l., in the 3rd – 24 l.; the temple also expanded in length and, after Herod built it, reached up to 60 years. height.

In the Holy of Holies there was a stone slab consisting of 12 stones, laid as an altar by Abraham and Isaac; then, at the command of the Lord and Abraham, 25-year-old Isaac lay down on them voluntarily; It was on them that the ram, caught in a thorn bush, was sacrificed, after testing their faith by the Lord. During his burnt offering, the Lord merged all 12 stones into one. Josephus writes that Jacob saw a ladder on this stone in a dream, and Moses saw a fireproof thorn bush and heard the voice of the Lord. When David bought this mountain, there was a threshing floor in this place for threshing bread. In the first Jerusalem temple, the ark of the covenant stood on this stone, but in the second there was no ark of the covenant, since the Lord promised Himself to be constantly present at that place in the temple. In the second temple, on the sides of the stone, two walls were built, 2 cubits thick and 6 liters long, the size of the tabernacle. On the eastern and western sides there were tightly closed doors, made of cedar wood and had 7 l. wide; and above them is a verya, in our opinion a frieze with a cornice. On each half of the door were carved life-size cherubs facing human faces to the palm trees located in the middle of the doors, and the lion trees in opposite directions; In addition to cherubs, the doors were decorated with ornaments like growing flowers and plants, which were so skillfully carved, as Josephus writes, that they seemed to be alive.

The inner walls of the temple, as well as the doors, were decorated with cherubs with palm trees and ornaments, with gilded backgrounds, and in some places with ornaments, and the outer walls were also decorated with cherubs and ornaments carved from limestone. Every week these decorations were washed, and for major holidays they were whitened, as soot from the sacrifice settled on them; to prevent smoke from entering the temple, the windows and doors were covered with curtains.

On the western side of the Holy of Holies there was a seven-lampstand, and on the eastern side, between the sanctuary and the eastern door, there was an altar of incense, and this place was called the “altar of incense.”

On the north side of the temple there was 1 l. a wide passage through which the successive high priests entered to light the lamps in the morning and evening and to lay incense on the incense altar.

The Most Holy Theotokos with her parents and companions, having ascended 15 steps into the vestibule of the temple and passing through the second half of the tower and the vestibule, enters four steps into a paved courtyard, in front of the second, “Israelite gate,” and through these gates into a courtyard 100 yards wide. , and 50 years long, on each side of which there were 3 separate, small buildings; inside the buildings there was 1 room, 6 sq. l., with seats. Around separate buildings, in the Israeli courtyard there were 30 buildings in which the priests taught the people, and in one of which the 12-year-old Lord was found by the Mother of God sitting among the teachers of the Jews.

Having passed this courtyard and climbed another 4 steps, Presv. The Mother of God entered the square of the sacred courtyard, in front of the third gate, in front of which only Zacharias could meet Her with other clergy in vestments, since they did not have the right to go out in vestments from the sacred courtyard to other courtyards. When She passed the third gate, Zechariah could take Her by the hand and lead Her through a courtyard of 100 liters. to the eastern gate, which was located in the fence of the temple and stood, like the temple itself, 10 steps above the sacred courtyard.

Zechariah was to conduct the Most Rev. The maiden into the side passage of the vestibule, into the living quarters of the maidens.

Probably, the introduction to the temple took place on the days of the new moon, when the gates, called “red, princely and golden,” were open, and they were opened only on these days, on Saturdays and on major holidays. They were called "red" because they were made of cedar wood, which is red in color; “golden” - because the backgrounds, and in some places the ornaments, were gilded; “princely” - because the prince, standing under their faith, ate the sacred bread in front of the people and sat near them during public meetings.

Through this gate the second curtain of the eastern door was visible; According to the prophet, neither the prince nor the high priest had the right to enter them. St. Joachim and Anna and the girls walking with candles, the same age as the Mother of God, that is, those who were no more than 4 and no less than 3 years old, were supposed to remain at the entrance to the stairs. The Mother of God, obviously, was not warned that it was forbidden to enter these gates, but St. Zechariah probably explained that behind this veil the Lord is constantly present; therefore she is attracted higher power and prepared by her parents to serve God, she ran up the 10 steps through the open gate and through the porch. Perhaps, at the command of the Lord, the curtain of the door was miraculously lifted, or perhaps She Herself drew it back and entered the Holy of Holies; in total She walked 33 steps: 15 to the temple, 8 to the temple and 10 to the Holy of Holies.

Zechariah and the other priests might have fallen into a sort of numbness, so that they could not stop Her. It was impossible to follow Her through the gates of Zechariah, since there would have been an indignation among the people and they would have stoned him; he had to go around the porch, go through the room of the next priests and follow Her into the incense altar through the passage. Tradition says that St. Zechariah, having followed Her into the Holy of Holies, raised Her above himself, that is, as if above the priesthood, kissed her and seated her on the third step of the sanctuary, and the Mother of God, sitting on the steps, trembled with joy.

And the church hymn sings: “Rejoice, boundless mountain; Rejoice, high ladder; Rejoice, burning bush: the Lord is with you!

Through a side passage, the Mother of God could then enter the Holy of Holies, unnoticed by anyone except the next priest at the temple.

I believe that the prophet Ezekiel points to the Most Holy Theotokos as the glory of the Lord who entered, sanctifying the entire temple and all its departments, and, according to legend, Angels entered with Her and served Her; and She entered solemnly, both in divine and human glory, surrounded by divine purity - virgins with candles. And the man in linen clothing, with a measuring stick and a rope in his hand, standing next to the prophet, was none other than the Word of God, our Lord.

St. Zechariah cannot be painted on icons in high priestly clothing, since he was not a high priest, but was only the first priest of his order and did not have the right to wear it; the high priests themselves wore it only once a year and in it they entered behind the second veil, and then through the porch, and not into the princely gates, into which, in my assumption, the Most Holy Theotokos alone entered, and neither before Her nor after Her did anyone enter like that solemnly.

IN Orthodox world icons Mother of God are of great importance. Their incredible power helps everyone overcome adversity, recover from illnesses and find Right way in life.

The Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple is reflected in the icon. This event is associated with the story of the Virgin Mary, whose parents fulfilled given to God vow and gave their long-awaited daughter to the service of the Lord. For a long time they were childless, and the Lord gave them a child.

History of the icon

The history of the holiday is known from ancient sources of the ninth century. He is mentioned in the Proto-Gospel of James, as well as in the Latin Gospel, and in some ancient biblical books. Painted in honor of a great action, the icon has incredible power. As you know, little Mary was brought to the temple by her parents, Joachim and Anna. They prayed to the Higher Powers to give them a child and vowed that they would give him to the service of God. The birth of the long-awaited daughter left no doubt for the couple: Divine providence had come true, and they were able to enjoy the happiness of being parents. At the age of three, Mary was taken to the temple, where she continued her life and teaching.

Description of the icon “Introduction of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple”

The icon depicts Mary standing in front of the entrance to the Temple of the Lord. On her face we see a completely adult expression, indicating an extraordinary mind and fortitude. The high priest Zechariah bowed next to her. On the left side are Mary's parents. Spiritual feat, committed by Mary, was the beginning of a new round of history. Upon reaching the age of twelve, the Virgin Mary decided to devote her entire life to serving the Lord, and Joseph the Betrothed became her mentor.

Where is the icon of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple?

Many temples, churches and monasteries in Russia were consecrated in honor of the Mother of God. Now the icon can be found in many parts of the country, and Orthodox Christians turn to it every day with requests and gratitude for protection and patronage. You will find the most ancient icons in Russian museums. Most famous following places:

• Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow;
• Russian Museum in St. Petersburg;
• Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art named after Andrei Rublev in Moscow.

You can venerate the icon in Sergiev Posad, in Vladimir, in the village of Palekh in the Ivanovo region, in Kostroma, in Pskov, in the city of Kirillov Vologda region, in Omsk, in the city of Kargopol, Astrakhan region.

Almost every such museum has an image of the Virgin Mary, who goes to serve the Lord.

Also in Russia there are at least four hundred churches dedicated to the icon of the same name. The most famous are the following:

• churches of the same name in Moscow, on Samokatnaya Street, in Barashevsky Lane;
• in Sergiev Posad, Red Army Avenue;
• in Kozelsk, Kaluga region;
• in Ivanovo, on Basic Street;
• in Pskov, on Nabat street;
• in Tula, on Herzen Street;
• in Kursk, on Dubrovinsky Street;
• in Bryansk, on Kulkova street.

Almost every church in the populated areas of Russia has a copy of the icon “The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple,” which is worshiped by millions of parishioners.

How does the icon “The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple” help?

In front of the icon they pray for advancement in work, for healing from all kinds of illnesses. They often turn to the icon with requests for good marriage. People creative professions they turn to the shrine in the hope of revealing their gift. They ask for help in any difficult matters, when solving difficult issues. Everyone receives Divine support and finds peace of mind.

Celebration date

The date of veneration of the icon coincides with the holiday of the same name. The celebration is accompanied by a solemn service, and among the people the date December 4 considered the beginning of winter. According to folk traditions, from this day on, peasants transferred from carts to sleighs, which were decorated with multi-colored ribbons. At this time, the newlyweds, who got married in the fall, went to the bride to show themselves to the whole village. Traditionally, gifts are prepared for children for the holiday. Particular attention is paid to girls: gift rag dolls are sewn for them.

Prayer before the icon “Entry of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple”

“Blessed Virgin Mary, protector and intercessor of the human race! We turn to You in our sincere prayers. By your vow you gave yourself to the service of our Lord Almighty and gave birth to a child called Savior. We pray to You, do not leave us in this hour of anxiety and confusion. Help me cope with all difficulties and withstand trials with honor. Send grace upon us and upon the entire human race. Give me strength to fight both enemies and illnesses. Do not let us stumble and pray to the Lord for our sinful souls. Amen".

The celebration of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple takes place annually on December 4th. On this day you can visit the church and pray for your health, ask the Higher Forces for protection and patronage. Spend time with your family to strengthen the bonds that bind you. We wish you all the best and don't forget to press the buttons and

Presentation of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, the twelfth immutable feast celebrated Orthodox Church December 4, 2018 in honor of the legendary event described in the apocrypha, to which the icon “Introduction of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple” is dedicated.

The parents of the Most Holy Theotokos, righteous Joachim and Anna, did not have children for a long time. Praying for the gift of a child, they made a vow to the Lord to devote the future child to the service of God.

When Prisnedova Maria turned three years old, Joachim and Anna decided to fulfill their earlier promise. They brought their daughter to the Jerusalem Temple, where the high priest Zechariah met her.

Mary climbed the 15 large steps of the staircase without looking back, which caused the delighted amazement of the high priest, who joyfully opened his arms to her. The people who were in the temple were also surprised by this. Maria remained to live in the temple.

What is depicted on the icons dedicated to this event, what is the meaning of the icon “Entry of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple”, what does this icon help with? This is what our story will be about.

Over the course of several centuries, certain canons for painting the icons “Introduction of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple” have developed. The Virgin Mary is depicted in the center. On one side of her are her parents; on the other, the high priest Zechariah is depicted meeting the girl.

Also depicted are the stairs along which little Mary climbed, and the Jerusalem Temple, where she was raised until she was 14 years old.

The meaning of the icon “Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple” is to glorify the feat of the Ever-Virgin Mary, with early childhood who dedicated her life to God, and her pious parents.

How does the icon “The Presentation of the Virgin Mary into the Temple” help?

This image is believed to help women heal from infertility. Believers also ask the Mother of God for healing from various diseases.

The prayer said on this day by all believers gives praise to the Ever-Virgin Mary and asks for the intercession of the Mother of God before the Lord for everyone who prays.

This icon is also approached with requests for strengthening in faith and forgiveness of sins. Parents pray for the health and well-being of their children. The Mother of God is also asked to instruct children in Orthodox faith, that they grow up to be kind and good people.

The Feast of the Entry of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple resembles in its structure a drawing of a multi-tiered palace. Historical background holiday - the dedication of the Virgin Mary to God according to the vow of Her parents, the saints and righteous Joachim and Anna; symbolic and spiritual plane - the mysticism of the temple, its meaning for a Christian, the dedication of the human soul to God, the purpose and meaning of Orthodox monasticism.

When the Virgin Mary was three years old, Her parents, together with their Daughter, accompanied by numerous relatives, set off on foot from Nazareth to Jerusalem. At dawn on the third day they approached the Holy City. Wonderful picture opened up to their gaze. The temple on the ledge of Mount Moriah looked like a ship standing at the pier with snow-white sails spread out, it seemed that it was ready to rise up and sail across the azure ocean of the sky. Rays rising sun, reflecting and sparkling on the golden spokes of the dome, surrounded the Temple with an iridescent ghostly cloud of light, like a shining halo.

The high priest, according to legend, the righteous Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, came out to meet the pilgrims. The Virgin Mary, leaving her parents, quickly ascended the high steps of the Temple, not supported by anyone, and hugged the robe of the high priest. He took Her by the hand and led her into the Temple, to the amazement of the priests and Levites - into the altar, which was called the Holy of Holies. For ten years Mary lived at the Temple. Her soul under its sacred arches itself became a living Temple of the Divine.

The temple is an icon of Heaven, the temple is the place of the invisible presence of God, the field of Divine forces and energies. In the temple, the earthly Church is united with the Heavenly Church. In the temple, the chants of Angels flow incessantly, like the waves of a river, and one can hear their heavenly chorales. human soul immersed in prayer; the temple is filled with spiritual light, invisible to the eyes, but visible to the human heart, washed with tears of repentance. The entire history of mankind takes place in the temple in sacred symbols and images. In the temple, time loses its linear extension, the future and past become the present in interpenetrating cycles. In the temple, time, sanctified by the rhythms of the Divine Service, reflects the light image of eternity. In the temple worship, the voice of the Prophets is heard, announcing the coming of Christ, and the sermon of the Apostles that the salvation of the world has been accomplished; in the temple the singing of the seraphim, with which they glorified God during the creation of the universe, sounds silently; in the temple the future Last Judgment of Angels and people is foreshadowed. In the temple, space and time itself open up in new mysterious depths and dimensions, in huge internal containers that contain the entire history of the world and the entire space of the Universe. The temple is the Bible embodied in stone; it is a hierarchical series of sacred symbols through which the human soul ascends to God. The temple is the place of the intimate meeting of the soul with the Divine.

The circle of temple worship becomes a golden ring with which a person is betrothed to eternity. People who are not included in spiritual life usually perceive the temple as a synthesis of architecture different eras, cultures and peoples, as an achievement of human thought and the embodiment of the aesthetic genius of the artist. But this is not so: the temple is the revelation of the Divine Logos on Earth, part Sacred Tradition. A Christian temple contains eternal and unchanging content, therefore the forms of the temple, its sign-symbolic language must be solid and stable, common to all regions and times. The image of the Old Testament Tabernacle - a camp church - was shown to Moses during the Theophany on Mount Sinai.

The plan of the Jerusalem Temple was drawn up by the prophet kings David and Solomon. One of them wrote the “Psalter” - the basis of the liturgical prayers, the other - the “Song of Songs”, which the ancient mystics compared to the Holy of Holies of the temple. Everything in the temple is sacred, everything has a mysterious meaning. The Bible details the shapes and proportions of the temple and describes interior decoration and utensils, even the material for its construction and for the manufacture of liturgical objects was determined (perhaps because each substance has radiations unknown to us - emanations).

In the image of a majestic temple, the apostles Paul and John contemplated the Kingdom of Heaven. The ideas and prophecies of the Old Testament Temple were revealed and embodied in the New Testament Temple. Here is their genetic unity and historical difference - like between the testaments themselves - the Old and the New. The Old Testament temple is the temple of hope; the New Testament is the temple of grace.

The mystical meaning of the temple service lies in the fact that the prayer of everyone is imputed to everyone, and the prayer of everyone present is offered for everyone. Temple prayer becomes united and integral, just as the light from many burning candles is inseparable, just as raindrops in a common stream are inseparable from each other.

The higher a person’s spiritual culture, the deeper his inner religious experience, the more he values ​​tradition - like a treasury from which he is afraid of losing at least one gem. Some say: “If the temple is an image of the sky, then our idea of ​​the Cosmos is changing, which means the form of the temple must change and evolve.” But, firstly, the temple is an image of the spiritual Heaven, knowledge about which throughout the history of mankind is rather not acquired, but lost; secondly, the temple is not a model or a mirror image of the Universe, but complex symbolism.

The temple is a living Bible. The temple gives a person the opportunity to participate in the events of Sacred History as a actor. In temple worship, a person through sacred symbols and rituals is present at the creation of the world, prays in the Tabernacle, accompanies the Lord during His earthly life, is at the Last Supper with the Apostles, receives communion from the hands of the Savior, hears the message of the myrrh-bearers about the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, sees pictures Last Judgment. How White color is not the absence of colors, but a synthesis of the colors of the entire spectrum of the rainbow, so the silence of the temple contains prayers and sacred chants of the Heavenly and earthly Church. The temple is an image of the lost Eden and the restored Paradise.

The symbolism of the Temple teaches a person to look at visible world as images and symbols, shadows and likenesses of the spiritual world, to feel the infinite in the finite, to see, like gaps in the fog, the reflection of the eternal in the temporal.

The Feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos is more than the Feast of Her Nativity. This is the day of Her spiritual birth. Under the shadow of the Old Testament Temple, the flower of the New Testament grew - the Virgin Mary.

Archimandrite Rafail (Karelin)