“...Do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, covetousness and idle talk! Lust is a sin. Power is not a sin - the word of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill on the first week of Great Lent, do not give me the spirit of idleness and despondency

Slave porters transport their master (Brazil, 1831)

I want to be the first!

And this latent steering captivates a person so much that he believes that if he is steering, then everyone else must necessarily give way to him, and he owes nothing to anyone.

And he will beep furiously, cut off, flash his high beams, and call everyone an asshole. A picture familiar to many, I think.

At the same time, in all other situations and relationships, the same person may not behave like a leader at all. At work, he can be a completely quiet employee who obeys his, for example, very tough boss in everything.

Moreover, a quiet employee may just love strong hand and in every possible way declare their personal respect for the dictatorial system of government. But as soon as he gets behind the wheel, the little dictator awakens in him.

We are not slaves, are we not slaves?

By its very nature, lust is a slavish feeling. The feeling is not that of a servant of God, but a base, downtrodden, envious, greedy for power, even the smallest, vile feeling that can manifest itself in the smallest things. And a person can be a despot in relation to those who are weaker than him or are in some way subordinate to him.

The dictator can be the house manager or the concierge in the house. There is even a special expression - “watchman syndrome”, when a small person, vested with little power, asserts himself to the fullest over those who are dependent on him.

This can manifest itself in a person completely unexpectedly, just give it a reason.

It turns out that he is, as it were, recouping his constant slavery on those who are safe. This is the nature of hazing. Any hazing is based on the principle: “I was a slave, I was humiliated, I hated everyone like a slave, and now I will take it out on those who cannot defend themselves.”

An example opposite to covetousness is given to us by Christ Himself. In the Gospel, the Lord does not simply say: Whoever among you wants to be first will be your servant. I came to you not to be served, but to serve Myself. Christ acts: he goes and washes the feet of the disciples.

And in this action there is a spirit of humility, nobility, generosity, and inner freedom.

Great Lent, if we go through it correctly, should bring us closer to the image that Christ gives us: to the image of someone who serves, who gives way, who gives room for life to another.

Power or love?

Pushkin very accurately called the spirit of covetousness a “hidden snake.” After all, a person may think that he does not have this spirit.

We, church people, all gladly take upon ourselves the image of external humility: we joyfully say that we are unworthy and indecent servants of God.

But at the same time, we maintain a tough spirit and a desire to always displace others, to take the place that we consider to be ours by right, and from this place we begin to look down on others.

In fact, there are two ways for a person to rise: the slave way and the evangelical way.

First: elevate yourself by humiliating others. This is the way of the Pharisee, who exalted himself at the expense of the publican, saying: Thank you, Lord, that I am not like this publican.

The second is the path of Zacchaeus, who from the Gospel, who, in order to become “bigger”, first put up with ridicule and, like a boy, climbed a tree to see Christ passing by. And when he saw Christ, something mysterious happened in his soul, he suddenly realized what true wealth was: not in collecting money, which obviously had previously given Zacchaeus, whom others despised, the illusion of power and security, but in giving from the heart.

Zacchaeus on the tree; fresco vt.pol. 17th century, Yaroslavl. Image from comorinemuritoare.ro

Feeling this, Zacchaeus truly humbles himself: from a miserly tax collector, he turns into a generous and kind one, who wants to repay those he has offended fourfold.

Zacchaeus ceased to be a slave of lust and became a servant of God, noble and generous, because his meeting with Christ, a real one, and not just an eventual one, revealed to him what the main value of life is: in love, and not in power.

After all, power and the desire for power are often just a distorted need for love. And if it doesn’t work out with love, a person begins to dominate. “If they don’t like it, then at least let them be afraid.”

The less love there is in a person’s heart, the more he strives to command, at least in this way feeling his “significance”, his presence in life.

Learn to control yourself

But is the desire for power never good? After all, a person can feel the potential of a leader and desire power in order to do good? He may be able to do this good, and even on a large scale, and even inspire people to do good deeds!

Unfortunately, this is another great illusion. The desire for power never leads to good things, unless it is the desire to dominate oneself.

Until a person has learned to control himself, has not understood what motivates him, evil or good, he, even having come to power with good intentions, will deviate into untruth. Oranges will not be born from aspen trees. The desire to rule, to rule is the desire to excel, to be superior, there is no love here, and since there is no love, the deed will not bear good fruit.

M.V. Nesterov, “Desert Fathers and Immaculate Wives” (1932).

During Great Lent, during each prayer rule or prayer, it is read repentance prayer St. Ephraim the Syrian "Lord and Master of my life."

St. Ephraim the Syrian, the son of a farmer from the city of Nisibia in Mesopotamia, lived in the 4th century, being reckless and irritable in his youth, but having accidentally ended up in prison on charges of stealing sheep, he received his sight, was honored to hear the Voice of God and humbled himself. After this, he went to Jacob of Nisibia, studied the Holy Scriptures and led an ascetic lifestyle in the mountains until the capture of Nisibia in 363 by the Persians. From that time on, he settled on a mountain near the city of Edessa, taught the people, preached Christianity to the pagans, refusing the rank of bishop offered to him by St. Basil the Great in Caesarea. St. Ephraim died in 373 as a deacon.

Lord and Master of my life,
do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, covetousness and idle talk.
Grant me the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Your servant.
Hey, Lord the King,
grant me to see my sins,
and do not condemn my brother,
for blessed art thou unto the ages of ages, amen.
God, cleanse me, a sinner!

The special significance of this prayer for believers is that it lists the most important components of repentance, indicates what exactly needs to be done, what efforts should be made. For the purpose of these efforts and exploits is to free ourselves, first of all, from the illness that prevents our communication with God

A general explanation of the prayer is given in the Law of God of Archpriest Seraphim Slobodsky:
My belly- my life
Spirit of idleness- tendency towards idleness or laziness
Dejection- hopelessness
Lover's beginning- lust for power, i.e. love to rule and rule over others
Idle talk- pronunciation of empty words (idle talk), as well as pronunciation of bad and swear words
Don't let me- don't let me
Chastity- sanity, prudence, as well as purity and integrity of soul
Humility- awareness of our imperfection and unworthiness before God and when we do not think about ourselves that we are better than others (humility)
Patience- patience is needed when enduring any inconvenience, deprivation and dishonesty; and it is also necessary in order to bring the good work started to completion
Love- love (to God and neighbors).
By God- Oh my God!
Grant me vision- let me see, realize.
Under my brother of course, every other person.
Blessed are you- because You are worthy of glorification"
God, cleanse me, a sinner!

Saint Ephraim the Syrian expressed in prayer the pain and suffering of the human soul hungry for God, seeking salvation in Him.

"Lord and Master of my life"

Appeal to the Lord God: “Lord and Master of my life”

You are my mentor, my wisdom, my inspirer and my comforter. Lord, strengthen me in faith in You and in Your saving teaching.

“Do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, covetousness and idle talk”

“Deliver me from the spirit of idleness, despondency, covetousness and idle talk”

"Spirit of Idleness". Lord forbid me to be idle, empty and spend my time carelessly. Each person has talents and knowledge given by You, which must be used for the benefit of people and Your glory. Idleness is the root of all sins because it poisons spiritual energy.

"Spirit of Dejection". The fruit of idleness is despondency. A person, being in the grip of despondency, is deprived of the opportunity to see anything good and positive; everything is bad for him, he denies everything. Pessimism is truly the devil's power over us. Lord, do not let me lose heart. Those who succumb to despondency do not believe in God’s Providence, in God’s care for us, that each of us has a task and that everything has its own reason. Therefore, you always need to believe, pray, hope and expect help from You.

"Spirit of Lust". Lust for power is the love of power, of power in the family, in a team of colleagues, in politics. It is idleness, laziness and despondency that fill our lives with lust. Laziness and despondency distort our attitude to life, deprive it of meaning, and, as if compensating for this, a thirst for power is born in us. God forbid that I love to be in charge of others, to command everyone, to manage, to always be in first place, to insist on my own, to be proud. Don't let me put my desire above others. Let me do only Your will. Help me to be humble.

"The Spirit of Idle Talk". Man alone among all creatures created by God received the gift of speech. The Holy Fathers see in this “the imprint of the image of God in man.” But, being the highest gift, speech at the same time is a judgment to man, for the word can become a means of fall, self-destruction, deception and sin. The word can save and kill, inspire and poison. Lord forbid me to talk idlely - to speak idle words, to talk about idle objects that no one needs. Do not let me sin with verbosity, idle talk - which gives rise to condemnation and insult.

“Give me the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love.”

"Spirit of Chastity". The distortion of our opinions, concepts, our entire life, the inability to see things as they are, in their integrity - this is idleness.

The opposite of it is precisely chastity, internal unity with the whole world, a sense of true values, spiritual control over one’s own emotions and over one’s own body.

Help me Lord to be chaste. (Chaste - preserving himself in virgin purity or marital purity, immaculate). Help me, Lord, to be morally pure: in deeds, in words and thoughts.

"Spirit of Humility and Patience". The first wonderful fruit of integrity and chastity is humility. We learn humility by contemplating Christ, measuring and comparing every word, every action, our entire life with Christ. Humility is the opposite of the vanity that plagues our world.

Following humility, we pray to be granted patience. Patience is forgiving and allows you to see the depth of things.

And, finally, the request for love, it is the fruit and foundation of all virtues and deeds and can be given by God alone - this is the gift and goal of the entire spiritual path and experience. God is love, says the New Testament (I John 4:8). Only through love does a person become deified, that is, become like God. Help me, Lord, to be humble, calm, not to be indignant in vain - help me to be patient. All these sins close our spiritual eyes and we do not see everything as it is. Humility and patience resolve many of our difficulties.

Help me, Lord, to love everyone in word, deed and thought.

“Hey, Lord the King, grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother.”

“Lord King, help me to see my sins and not judge others.”

In the last request: “Let me see my sins and not condemn my brother”- everything is brought together. Now we face one danger - pride. Everything can turn into pride: the good deeds that we remember, and the sight of our sins, and false piety and humility, and self-condemnation for show. And only when chastity, humility, patience, and love are united in us into one whole, then our main enemy - pride - begins to be destroyed and melt away.

Judging people is a great sin and comes from our selfishness, ill will and envy towards people. As a rule, we do not notice our sins, we justify them, they seem insignificant to us. We see the sins of others clearly, even the smallest ones. The Lord Jesus Christ teaches us “And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the plank that is in your own eye” (Matthew 7:3). In order not to sin with condemnation, we need to learn to see our sins, then it will be easier for us to endure the weaknesses of others and we will be less inclined to condemn them.

Lord, help me see my sins and not judge others.

“Blessed are you forever and ever, Amen.” Conclusion of prayer: Lord, may You be blessed forever, Amen.

Lord, may You and Your Holy will be done always, everywhere and everywhere.

Here is the main content of the Lenten prayer of Ephraim the Syrian.

The repentant prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian inspired Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin to create a beautiful poem “Desert fathers and blameless wives”:

Desert fathers and blameless wives,
To fly with your heart into the field of correspondence,
To strengthen it in the midst of long storms and battles,
They composed many divine prayers;
But none of them touches me,
Like the one the priest repeats
During the sad days of Lent;
Most often it comes to my lips
And he strengthens the fallen with an unknown force:
Lord of my days! The spirit of sad idleness,
Lust of power, this hidden serpent,
And do not give idle talk to my soul.
But let me see my sins, O God.
Yes, my brother will not accept condemnation from me,
And the spirit of humility, patience, love
And revive chastity in my heart.

The prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian touches the poet and strengthens the fallen with an unknown strength. According to the word of the prophet Zechariah, tenderness is a gift of God that comes to a person along with grace and instructs him to look at God, Whom they have pierced... to weep... and grieve (Zech. 12:10); tenderness is, first of all, a feeling of repentance.

“Touches” means “causes a feeling of repentance”, “excites the desire to pray.”

This recognition is very significant, since the poem was written on July 22, four months after Lent ended. The last time in the church in 1836 it was pronounced on March 25 on Great Wednesday during the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.

Both the transcription of the prayer and the poetic “preface” to it indicate that the poet had an idea of ​​the experience of prayer and knew well the liturgical texts of the Great
post. That is why Pushkin managed to convey the “meaning and spirit” of the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian.

A. Sokolovsky

PROT. MAXIM KOZLOV

A special kind of spiritual food, dear brothers and sisters, are the services of the Holy Pentecost - Great Lent. There is a certain spiritual law: when a person works at least to refine his flesh, the soul begins to live more freely and breathe easier. Of course, there is also a law that this time is the tithe of the year, which both the Church and all of us must especially devote to God.

Over the centuries, both the Church Charter and the piety of the people highlighted certain prayers and services in the services of the Holy Pentecost, which became milestones. Skip or not notice them for Orthodox man was and remains impossible. Among such prayers of the Holy Pentecost, Lenten Triodion The first place is, of course, occupied by the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian: “Lord and Master of my life...”. Now we will pay attention and try to somehow internally better understand the first of the three parts of this prayer: Lord and Master of my life, do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, covetousness and idle talk..

The first thing that Holy Father Ephraim the Syrian asks for, and with him the whole Church calls us to ask, is that God would deliver us from the spirit of idleness. It is easy to talk about idleness in relation to a simple moralistic assessment of this state. But the fact is that the holy fathers in divine services testify not so much about ethics, not so much about how to be a little more good or a little less bad, but about ontology, about the essence, about what is essentially important for a person on his path to salvation. And in this sense, the question may arise: is idleness one of those vices and passions that, if we ask ourselves, we will put in first place or in one of the first places? Wouldn't we say in relation to ourselves, and even more so in relation to the abstract list of passions, that we know things that are both heavier and more terrible than idleness? And the Monk Ephraim begins precisely with this passion, with this inner state. Let's think about this word.

The word “idleness” does not mean at all what it has been reduced to in the reduced Russian language of recent centuries. Idleness is not “inactivity”, it is not passivity, it is not the opposition of an idle person to an active, laborious and diligent person. In Greek and in the language of Scripture, the word "idleness" means "emptiness." An idle person is one who is empty, not filled, and has no inner content. If we think about this word like this, it turns out that this is not some minor passion at all, but ontologically, essentially a very harmful state.

The Gospel tells us what happens to a person who frees his soul from some demon tormenting it, from a demon, and does not work to ensure that his soul is filled with good. Passes short time, and this cleansed place is filled with an immeasurably larger number of demons than previously possessed the person (see Matthew: 12:43-45).

The fact is that God is the Creator of existence. Every being was created by God as good, as good, as good. Any absence of being, good being, good being is that same evil emptiness, idleness that gives place to evil, the enemy of the human race and its angels. They, who do not possess true being, with which one can go into that eternity when God will be “ everything in everyone"(1 Cor:15:28), have only an evil existence. This is the existence of a hole in a beautiful dress and rubbish in a wondrous creation, dark spot in a painting created by the Greatest Artist. And it is clear from here that idleness is what it is internal state, which pushes God away from a person’s life, and lets this bad darkness into the soul.

And this emptiness can indeed manifest itself in different ways. It may manifest itself as visible inactivity. And we know, albeit from a speculative example of a literary narrative, what a tragedy it is when by nature good man through visible inactivity, he destroys everything that God has given him as the opportunity to realize in himself the image and likeness of God in this life. Idleness can manifest itself in the states that are discussed further in the prayer. It can be resolved either into despondency or into love.

A person who does not have true fulfillment of the soul begins to be tormented by this, as at some point Judas was tormented by what he did. But it was, as we heard, torment that led him to suicide. St. Augustine says that the soul of a person, if it does not find God and peace in God, will always remain restless, or, we can say differently, it will always remain in despondency. It becomes like this from the creation outside of God of other idols, idols, attachments - from that in which disappointment will be inevitable, be it people, be it ideas and ideologies, be it these or those “values”. Ultimately, without God and outside of God, nothing can save a person from despondency. For a while a person can somehow occupy himself, but in the end he doesn’t, and despondency sets in.

The second way to resolve idleness is through lust. A person who does not have the filling of the soul strives to organize life around him. He is trying to create the illusion that he can become the architect of his own happiness, the organizer of the existence of other people around his own existence. Lust for power is not necessarily a crude passion to rule, a desire to become a king or president, to become a boss in this or that business, to be in sight, to command other people. Lust for ambition is, ultimately, setting oneself up as an organizer - of course, a false one, of course, only in an illusion - of life around oneself. Lust for leadership is the feeling of being the boss of what happens to me and to the people around me. This also speaks of the unfilledness of the soul with life in God, of the idleness of the soul, of its emptiness. Both of these solutions - one for despondency, one for love - are the soul-destroying things from which we ask to be delivered from during Great Lent and in our lives in general.

Finally, the fourth petition of this first part. Many will even say about him: what kind of trouble is this - idle talk? Murder, theft, fornication and other things are much more terrible than idle talk, which we so often remember at the services of Great Lent. But here too we have something to think about. The Monk John of Damascus says that the image of God in man is manifested in three main properties, in three of his features. The image of God is manifested in free will, in reason and in the ability to speak. The Word is an integral feature of the image of God in us, and exchanging it for verbosity, a meaningless “celebration” of the word is, indeed, a grave sin.

Celebration can be expressed in different ways. It can take the form of pious verbosity, when behind many words about the holy, the holy is lost. Then words about what should be significant for us and have final value lose their weight. When we say: “God”, “salvation”, “Church”, “shrine”, “holy”, “Redemption” and other words, and they no longer mean anything except some combination of sounds, dots on paper, pixels on the monitor a computer that has no meaning behind it. Idle talk takes us away from the awareness of what stands behind the word and the concept expressed by this word. And this is truly scary.

The second resolution of idle talk, described in the terrible scenarios of the Apocalypse, is that a language is created in which it is no longer possible to express the final or significant truths of faith. In our time we see this clearly. Some words that are fundamentally inseparable from the Christian gospel, in the context of modern civilization and modern culture They don’t let it slip. Try to leave the church and say the word “chastity” somewhere among your peers at the place of study or work (I’m not talking from the TV screen). They will look at you as half-crazed people, as those who say something, of course, that seems to be perceived as a combination of sounds, but meaningless from the point of view of implementation. Through idle talk and through the distortion of words, a language is created in which it is no longer possible to say what the Gospel preaches. And this is also the end result of idle talk. It can be in the life of society, it can also be in the life of a particular person, when behind many empty words, not filled with awareness and experience, a wall blocks what we should believe in and what we should preach. And we ask the Lord to deliver us from this too. So that we do not turn the God-given gift of speech into something that will block us from God with many idle words.

Now, my dears, we have only very briefly and only in a very narrow sense of meaning looked at only one of the church prayers. I want to encourage you not to get used to church language, our church prayers are no strangers to the fact that we seem to have begun to understand them. Barely a hundredth or a thousandth part of the meaning is retained in our consciousness. Every time with humility, and thus with the humility that we will talk about next time, let us remind ourselves that we are at a distance of orders of magnitude, hundreds, thousands of kilometers of spiritual life away from the holy fathers. If it seems to us that we have understood their prayers, then this can only seem to us from conceit. This is the path and task for life, including in relation to such a well-known prayer as the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian. May God grant us to also think with all responsibility into the meaning of each divine service that will be performed this Great Lent, and to go towards the Easter of Christ, and before that, the Holy Days.