The Catalog of Good Deeds: Orthodoxy and Culture

Showing posts with label Orthodoxy and Culture. Show all posts

Tinian people preserve their local manners and customs as sacred. Besides, many of those stem from ancient religious traditions. These customs survive mostly in the villages, although the Main Town also has its own traditions. In addition, the locals often combine their deep religious faith with their love for dancing and singing, regularly organizing local festivities and fairs.

A custom that proves the deep religious faith of Tinians is the lighting of Vigil Lights. It is an unwritten law, binding the locals to light all the country chapels this way every Saturday afternoon and on the eve of the celebration of a Saint’s memory. Every chapel has a permanent or temporary owner, responsible for keeping the custom. Non-fulfillment of this obligation is considered a moral offence not tolerated by the locals.

This custom sometimes takes the form of a solemn religious promise. Thus, many Tinians often as a token of gratitude, supplication or thanks to a Saint, vow to go to the chapel dedicated to the Saint’s name. The pilgrims arrive at the chapel early in the morning. If the oil lamps are already lit, they add some oil to keep them burning and they leave the oil bottle they brought with them next to the candelabrum so it can be used later.

In every case, the ritual includes candle lighting and incense burning. These three ritual elements are the only material sacrifice that has survived since the early Christian years. Its nature is symbolic. Its value is not measured by the materials offered, but by the pilgrim’s devoutness. In general, oil lamp lighting represents the light in their souls. The flame symbolizes the light of the Holy Spirit and the resplendence of all the Saints who are deep in the locals’ hearts.

An old Christian custom, of monastic origin, is held during the Christmas season in Tripotamos. Every year, one family, whose leader receives the title of ‘Kavos’, takes on the responsibility of taking care of the village church, which is dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin Mary. Among their responsibilities is to keep the oil lamp (vigil light) hanging over the Icon of the Nativity lit all year round. In addition, they keep the church clean, they pay the costs for the Christmas Divine Liturgy, the provision of candles, while they are also responsible for the making of a huge candle for the New Year’s Day Service.

On Christmas day, at noon, the Kavos invites the priest and the men – the head of families of the village – for lunch. Each one of the guests has to bring his own fork, spoon, bread and wine, all wrapped in a napkin. The Kavos has to make provisions for a lavish meal, with soup, veal stew, and braised meat with tomato sauce, stuffed vine leaves and several other local specialties. Wine is served in goblets, special mugs of hemispherical shape made of brass that are used only on this occasion.

After the meal, the priest and some of the table-companions carry the Icon of the Nativity from the church to their host’s house chanting Christmas hymns. The Icon is placed on the table, the priest hands out the holy bread, while everyone lights candles, similar to those used in the morning service. This is the moment when the priest appoints the next ‘Kavos’. After eating the traditional sweets, the Icon is taken back to church while the crowd chants Christmas hymns.

On the next day (26^th of December) all the men of the village gather again in the house of the former Kavos, to finish up the leftovers from the previous day. Typically, the responsibilities of the former Kavos end with the Christmas meal. However, the oil lamp has to remain lit till the last day of the year. After Divine Liturgy on the 31^st of December, there is a procession of the Icon around the houses of the village according to the custom of ‘podariko’ (=first visitor at a house on New Year’s Day is considered to bring good luck).

Today the list for the title of Kavos runs till 2025, which means that this custom is very popular with the locals. In earlier days though, the Kavos would be a last-minute choice, since most of the families were not well-off.

Source: https://stjohntheforerunnerblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-christmas-tradition-on-island-of-tinos.html

There are just two Lavras in Russia: one is Holy Trinity Saint Sergius Lavra near Moscow; the other is St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Saint Petersburg. There are lots of visitors in St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra, both pilgrims and tourists. It seems that there isn’t anything new to be told about this Lavra. Is that the case? What do most people know about it except the most basic “tourist-oriented” stuff? Nowadays, during the 300^th anniversary of St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra, we would like to offer you several interesting facts about this monastery.

1. The place where the monastery was founded in the beginning of the 18^th century, was called Victoria because, according to one account, it was there that the victorious battle of Holy Prince Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky against the Swedes took place.

2. The first printing house in Saint Petersburg was opened in the monastery in 1720. The Slavic School “for teaching young children to read and write” was opened here in 1721. That school laid the foundation of a whole network of church-operated schools. Saint Petersburg Orthodox Theological Academy and Seminary has its origins in that school.

3. There are relics of Holy Right-Believing Prince Alexander Nevsky and a particle of relics of Saint Innocent of Irkutsk in St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra. These relics were taken away from the Lavra to the Museum of Religion and Atheism in 1922 and returned to the Lavra in 1989.

4. Many monks of the Lavra were persecuted for Christ’s sake. Almost all namestniks of the Lavra since 1917 until it was closed in 1933 were executed. Archbishop Prokopius (Titov) of Odessa and Kherson who was the namestnik of the Lavra since 1917, was killed by a firing squad, too. When Red Army soldiers attempted to seize the Lavra in January 1918, he refused to give them keys from the storehouses, which led to his arrest and subsequent release after believers’ protests.

Memorial Sign in honor of the New Martyrs, St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra

5. The memorial cemetery of St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra is the place of eternal rest for many famous people, e.g., Fyodor Dostoyevsky (whose last will was to be buried there), Vassily Zhukovsky, Nikolai Karamzin, Mikhail Lomonosov, Alexander Suvorov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky (who was buried there upon a direct order of Emperor Alexander III).

6. The Soviet government, which was based in Petrograd at that time, decided to confiscate the buildings of the Lavra in January of 1918. Alexandra Kollontai, the People’s Commissar of Social Welfare, issued a decree and sent armed soldiers to the Lavra. However, they were blocked by a religious procession of 500,000 locals who came to defend the Lavra. It’s hard to imagine a crowd of such size nowadays… The Soviet officials gave up. The Lavra continued to exist for fifteen more years.

7. St. Alexander Nevsky Fraternity, established in the Lavra on January 21, 1918, was a unique phenomenon for the post-Revolution Russia. In spite of the ban on missionary and social work of the Church, the members of that Fraternity continued their spiritual education and charity efforts in Petrograd illegally until 1932. When the God’s Law was excluded from school curriculum, the Fraternity members led by Hieromonk Leo (Egorov) rolled out an extensive project of Christian education for children and adolescents. The monks of the Lavra and lay brothers taught church singing and Church Slavonic to the children, held special meals and even special “children’s” Liturgies where children could sing, read, and help the priest.

Church of the Holy Annunciation of St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra

8. Holy Annunciation Church (the first stone church in the Lavra) is located on the territory of St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra but isn’t monastery property even now. It is used as a museum of urban sculpture now. The monastery attempts to get this church back.

9. However paradoxical it may sound, there is a Communist Memorial in the center of the Lavra. There are graves of famous proletarian warriors and heroes, party officials of the early days of the Soviet rule, party leaders, generals, and engineers near the entrance to Holy Trinity Cathedral on both sides of the alley that leads to the Metropolitan’s Office.

10. When the Lavra was re-opened in 1994, its first namestnik was Archimandrite Kirill (Nachis), a former prisoner of Nazi and Soviet labor camps. The current namestnik, Bishop Nazarius (Lavrinenko), actively uses modern technologies, such as Facebook.

Article and Photos by Vitaly Kaplan

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: https://foma.ru/aleksandro-nevskaya-lavra.html

On September 26/October 9, the Orthodox Church commemorates the 1989 glorification of New Hiero-confessor Tikhon (Bellavin), patriarch of Moscow and all Russia. St. Tikhon is of course best remembered as the first Patriarch of Russia, elected in 1918, since the 1721 abolition of the patriarchate by Peter I. He guided the Church as a firm and steady anchor during the early years of the communist regime, suffering imprisonment in Donskoy Monastery from 1922 to 1923 for opposing the government’s confiscation of Church property. He entered into repose on the great feast of Annunciation in 1925 and is considered a confessor of the Orthodox faith.

Before taking up the yoke of arch-pastor for the entire Russian nation, St. Tikhon served as a missionary bishop in the burgeoning American mission. He was appointed as bishop of the Aleutians and Alaska in 1898 and he traveled throughout America, visiting parishes, comforting the faithful, and consecrating new parishes. In 1905 he was raised to the dignity of archbishop and he relocated the center of the diocese to New York, before being called back to Russia in 1907.

St. Tikhon of Moscow and St. Tikhon of Zadonsk holding the monastery church at St. Tikhon's

One of his great and lasting achievements in America is surely the founding of St. Tikhon’s Monastery in South Canaan, PA in 1905, named for his own patron, St. Tikhon the Wonderworker of Zadonsk. St. Tikhon’s is the oldest Orthodox monastery in America and throughout its 110 years, while it has known highs and lows, it has become a center of Orthodoxy in America, offering up countless liturgies and prayers as sweet incense before the throne of God, enjoying the presence of many saints, and, along with the seminary established in 1938, molding and refining innumerable servants of Christ’s Church in the form of monastics, clergymen, and hierarchs. Every year the monastic, seminary, and parish community of St. Tikhon’s commemorates the Sunday nearest to St. Tikhon’s October 9^th feast as its “Founder’s Day” with a festive liturgy and meal, to which all are warmly welcomed.

St. Tikhon’s is home to a rich history and a great many “treasures” of Orthodoxy, some known, some relatively unknown, which stand as a testament to the prayers and labors of our American apostle, St. Tikhon, and his continuing heavenly protection.

Relics

St. Alexis Toth

The relics of St. Alexis Toth

St. Alexis was a Uniate priest from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, assigned to serve a parish in Minneapolis in 1889. Upon arrival in America he found the Latin bishop quite hostile to Catholics of the Byzantine Rite, and found himself without a parish. By God’s providence this led to his reception into the holy Orthodox Church on March 25, 1891, after which he worked tirelessly, delivering fiery sermons throughout all of America to bring thousands of Uniates into the true Church. He reposed in 1909, being laid to rest in the monastery cemetery at St. Tikhon’s. Seven years later his body was relocated to a special crypt built behind the Church. Today his relics lie in a reliquary on the right kliros in the monastery church, where all are welcome to venerate and pray to this faithful missionary of Orthodoxy in America.

Archbishop Arseny

The idea of founding a monastery on American soil belongs actually to Hieromonk Arseny (Chagovtsev), later the archbishop of Winnipeg, Canada. He arrived in America in 1902 to serve the parish of St. John the Baptist in Mayfield, PA, just a few miles from the future site of St. Tikhon’s Monastery. He envisioned a monastery to serve the spiritual needs of the monastic clergy serving in America, and he eagerly promoted the idea to all who would listen. In 1905 he sought out land with St. Tikhon and they eventually purchased the present property in South Canaan, PA, with Fr. Arseny becoming the monastery’s first superior. St. Tikhon provided the necessary episcopal oversight and spiritual guidance, as well as financial support, while credit for the concept and physical labor in establishing St. Tikhon’s Monastery belongs to Archbishop Arseny.

After more service in America, Canada, Russia, and Serbia, Archbishop Arseny returned to Canada as the bishop of Winnipeg in 1926. In 1937 he retired to the monastery which he had founded, and the following year he founded the pastoral school which became St. Tikhon’s Seminary.

Archbishop Arseny, locally venerated as a saint in the Canadian diocese, is buried in a simple grave next to the chapel in the monastery cemetery.

Metropolitan Leonty

Metropolitan Leonty faithfully served the Church in America for many decades. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1905 and became one of St. Tikhon’s closest advisors. He became a bishop in 1933 and the primate of the American Metropolia in 1950, serving until his death in 1965. During his tenure the first English-language parishes were opened and various pan-Orthodox initiatives were undertaken, including efforts to reunite the various Russian jurisdictions in the diaspora. He is remembered as a man of humility, prayerfulness, meekness, dignity, kindness, generosity, forbearance, thoughtfulness, sense of humor, vision, erudition and wisdom. He is buried behind the church at St. Tikhon’s, and is considered a saint by many.

***

St. Tikhon’s Monastery also knows the blessing of the relics of many other saints, including its revered founder St. Tikhon of Moscow, its patron St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, St. Panteleimon, St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, St. Raphael (Hawaweeny), and many others, notably including a piece of the True Cross.

Miraculous Icons

She Who is Quick to Hear

The monastery church is home to a miraculous icon of the Mother of God “She Who is Quick to Hear” which hangs on the left side of the iconostasis. Upon its founding in 1905 the monastery was gifted with a copy of the miraculous icon of the same name of Dochariou Monastery on Mt. Athos, which is commemorated on November 9. This copy has also become known as a miraculous icon, through which the Mother of God especially deigns to help those couples who are unable to conceive. The icon, radiant in its beauty, travels throughout America to bring comfort, healing, and peace to the Orthodox faithful.

St. Anna

St. Tikhon’s is also home to a miraculous icon of St. Anna painted in the Holy Land which began to stream myrrh in 2004. Subsequently traveling throughout America, St. Anna is also known for helping couples conceive, and also many miraculous healings. In the Fall of 2012 Archimandrite Athanasy (Mastalsky), the owner of the miraculous icon, relocated to St. Tikhon’s Monastery. St. Anna is not currently streaming myrrh but she continues to emit a heavenly fragrance and to answer prayers. A Moleben to St. Anna is prayed in the monastery church every Sunday, and bottles of myrrh from the icon are available at the monastery.

We recently published an interview on the miraculos icon of St. Anna with Fr. Athanasy, conducted by Khouria Frederica Mathewes-Green.

Where Saints Have Walked

In addition to Sts. Tikhon, Arseny, and Alexis, St. Tikhon’s has been blessed with the ministry and prayers of several other venerable American saints.

St. Raphael of Brooklyn

St. Raphael (Hawaweeny) was born in Lebanon in 1860 and received his theological training in Halki and Russia. He came to America in 1895 to assist St. Tikhon, heading up the Syro-Arab Orthodox mission in America. On the third Sunday in Great Lent, 1904 he became the first Orthodox bishop consecrated in America. In 1905 St. Raphael traveled to St. Tikhon’s Monastery to dedicate the hundreds of acres upon which it sits, serving also the monastery’s first Divine Liturgy. He was canonized at St. Tikhon’s Monastery in 2000, and his relics currently lie on the property of the Antiochian Village in Bolivar, PA.

St. Alexander Hotovitsky

St. Alexander was born in today’s western Ukraine and was ordained to the priesthood in San Francisco in 1896. He undertook vast missionary labors with the blessing of St. Tikhon both in America and later in Russia. He served as editor of the American Orthodox Messenger and he visited St. Tikhon’s Monastery on several occasions, leaving an intriguing account of the 1906 pilgrimage and consecration. He later served as the rector of Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, and was arrested by communist authorities in 1937 which led to his martyric death.

St. Nicholai of Zhicha

The seminary chapel of St. Nicholai of Zhicha

St. Nicholai is one of the greatest saints of the twentieth century. Known as the New Chrysostom for his penetrating preaching, St. Nicholai brought much comfort to the suffering Serbian Church during the years of the Second World War. He too suffered, being imprisoned for two years at the Dachau concentration camp. St. Nicholai also served the Church in America, living at St. Tikhon’s Monastery from 1951 until 1956 and teaching at the seminary, for which he served as rector in the 1955-1956 school year. It was in the St. Tikhon’s Seminary building that this giant of Orthodoxy reposed on March 18, 1956 under suspect circumstances. The seminary chapel is dedicated to his memory.

Fr. Vasily (Philipoff)

One of St. Tikhon’s Monastery’s most intriguing “treasures” is the monk Archimandrite Vasily (Philipoff) who lived the quiet monastic life there from 1934 until his repose on March 29, 1986. Fr. Vasily seems to be mostly unknown—it is nearly impossible to find any information about him on the internet, but those who knew him in his decades of prayer and struggle at the monastery remember a saintly man. He served in various obediences but is best remembered as the bread baker for the monastery and for the orphanage that used to function also at St. Tikhon’s. He communed as often as possible and always gave simple and direct advice: pray, work hard, be faithful in Church attendance, obey God’s laws, and never hold anger against another man, and by all accounts, he lived his life thusly.

Igumen Gregory (Zaiens) who lived several years at St. Tikhon’s with Fr. Vasily recalls:

As to his spiritual life, Fr. Vasily could be described as a pillar of Orthodox piety—blagochestie. He held that which was God's in honor; he had a holy, blessed, humble, fearless fear of God. He had assimilated this as a natural, organic part of his being. To live with such a person is a great lesson in the Orthodox way of life even if one is never given a word of instruction. There are a few small words which I remember that I could pass on. One time I asked Father: “What is the meaning of humility of wisdom?” He replied, “When you repent, you become humble and then God gives you wisdom.” He once said in a sermon, “Some people say that if you read the Bible too much you will lose your mind. That is true. You will lose your carnal mind and get a spiritual one.”

Once after the evening service I was going to venerate the central icon in the Church. Fr. Vasily who had served was approaching the icon so I waited. As he neared the icon and I looked at him his physical appearance changed so that he physically looked somewhat smaller than he actually was. He looked extremely humble and it seemed as though he was on fire with prayer.

Archimandrite Vasily is buried in the cemetery at St. Tikhon’s where pilgrims can come to seek his intercession.

Museum and Icon Repository

St. Tikhon’s is also home to a great many beautiful artifacts in its museum and icon repository, which traces the history of Orthodoxy in America and houses icons, vestments, and other Church items that date back several hundred years. The oldest of the 400 icons is from the fifteenth century.

Among the most notable articles in the museum are the a Gospel book gifted by Tsar Michael Romanov to a convent in Russia which dates to 1636, the mantia of St. Tikhon of Moscow from his time as the metropolitan of Moscow, vestments of St. Nicholai Velimirovich, and hand-written letters of St. Alexis Toth.

The museum is an evangelical effort as many non-Orthodox come out of an interest in art or history and learn about our holy Orthodox faith. The museum is open by appointment to all who are interested.

***

The monastery brotherhood, which has known sixty bishops, currently under its sixteenth abbot, Schema-Archimandrite Sergius (Bowyer), is growing and continues to serve the Church in America and beyond through its many endeavors including the St. Tikhon’s Monastery Press and Bookstore, iconography, and support of the training of new clergy in the seminary through providing several professors as well as the church in which the seminary community prays and is shaped.

Of course the main task of a monastery is always to pray, which is a constant emphasis of Abbot Sergius. Perhaps the greatest treasure the monastery offers to America and to the world is the daily serving of the Divine Liturgy since 1905. Few places in America offer the holy Eucharist daily, and certainly none for as long as St. Tikhon’s. The grace and power of the Divine Liturgy is inestimable, and the presence of Christ that is manifest in holy Communion sustains the world.

St. Tikhon’s Monastery and Seminary sits on a quiet property in north-eastern Pennsylvania surrounded by nature ideal for fostering prayer, humility and love for God. St. Tikhon’s is indeed a center of Orthodoxy in America, ever being offered for the benefit of others who are always welcome to go on pilgrimage to experience the grace and many “treasures” of St. Tikhon’s—St. Tikhon of Moscow’s offering to America.

By Jesse Dominick

Source: http://orthochristian.com/86627.html

Editor's Note: The Amish have been capturing the imagination of Americans for decades, challenging the status quo with their utter rejection of the 'goods' of modern life.

The Russians have their own version of the Amish phenomenon in the face of the Old Believers, also called Edinovertsi (One-Faithers), who disdainfully turn down a sparkling, crude materialism in exchange for a strict, simple life.

Old Believers are Russian Christians who did not accept the reforms of the Official Russian Church in the 1600s. Since then, they have maintained a strict, vividly separate culture and identity, settling in separate communities and farming the land.

Old Believers usually have large families and dress traditionally; phones and washing machines are forbidden. Children do not attend school and are taught to read religious books in Old Slavonic, an old, complex language used in Russian Church services.

Throughout the 20th century, religious persecution forced the Russian Old Believers to wander through countries and continents. Today, however, with the support of the Russian government, they have been slowly returning and settling in conservative communities throughout Russia.

This is a series of mini-interviews with adherents talking about their lifestyle. This particular one explains how the Old Believers maintain a very strict, semi-monastic rule and tradition of prayer and piety.

From the time of Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich’s liturgical “reforms,” daily life and even the worldview of the Orthodox person has changed considerably.

We routinely hear from our pastors, and then from the laity echoing them: “What’s the difference, if at least there is love, and your conscience doesn’t reprove you…” and other variations on the theme of fulfilling this or that Church rule.

Indeed, the two main commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ were put in these words: Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart (Mt. 22:37) and Love thy neighbour as thyself (Mt. 22:39). Without that, all of our labors on religious soil turn into legalism, hypocrisy, and phariseeism.

However, our pious ancestors—and before them no less than the pious Byzantines, heirs to the works of the holy hierarchs Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, and Gregory the Theologian—tried to baptize their entire lives and everything around them.

It is no accident that the highest works of art, the most significant monuments of ancient Rus’, surviving until this day, have a clearly expressed religious character and are directly related with Church culture.

Architecture, painting, literature… It’s as if Russia was one continuous church. Let’s not idealize it: There are times in the history of our country when many events happened that are quite bitter to remember today, but the presence of the Christian ideal as the orientation of the life of the state and society cannot be denied.

It seems those pious times have sunk into oblivion, and we live in that world and those conditions in which we live…

There are no longer long services and plangent, angelic singing in our city parishes, and icons of the Rublev school are found far from everywhere.

But grains of these olden times, of this semi-monastic life have been preserved, by the will of God, and survived to our day in the Edinoverie (United Faith, Old Rite) parishes of the Russian Church.

Let the reader not be scared of the words “Edinoverie”, “Old Rite parishes”, “Orthodox Old Believers”, and simply “Old Believers”. We’re not talking about representatives of some Christian confession or, God forbid, about schismatics, but about the same ecclesial fullness.

The Edinoverie arose as a movement of unity between the old and new rites already in the end of the eighteenth century.

Since that time, two rites with unity of faith have been active in the Russian Orthodox Church on equal footing. As Edinovertsi can freely visit new rite parishes and participate in their Sacraments, so the parishioners of regular Orthodox churches can freely come to our “ancient” services and even become members of our communities if desired.

Edinovertsi approach the Divine services very tremulously. Having decided to go to such a church, already from the outskirts you will see parishioners hurrying to the service, like the heroes from some film on ancient Rus’.

The men have unshaven and untrimmed beards, dressed in traditional untucked side-button high collar shirts, girded with a belt, and in pants and boots! Inside the church many wear black kaftans down to the floor.

The woman wear sarafans and opaque head coverings, held together in a specific way with a pin, and which cover the chest and back. Married women wear a povoinik under their head covering—knitted bonnets, testifying to the wearer’s marriage.

In their hands parishioners carry a long leather (as a rule) chotki—lestovka, or “ladder” prayer rope—with triangles sewn on the end.

If you’re planning to go to a Edinoverie parish and you don’t have special liturgical clothing, it’s no problem. Just remember the most important rule: Clothing should be discreet and tidy, like in a regular Orthodox parish. Sleeves should be long and opaque, and women must be dressed in a skirt, and headscarves are better held together with a safety pin.

Before the entrance of the church, and entering into it, Edinovertsi make the Sign of the Cross with three bows from the waist, silently praying, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (bow). “Thou hast created me, O Lord, have mercy upon me!” (bow). “Countless times have I sinned, O Lord, have mercy and forgive me, a sinner!” (bow). They take a special embroidered prayer mat — podruchnik — from a stack usually piled up inside the entrance. Later they lay their heads and hands on it, prostrating to the ground, to preserve them in cleanliness. Men and women stand strictly on their own sides, on the right and left respectively. Extra walking around the church is best avoided. If there is enough time before the start of the service, you can sit on a bench by the wall.

They don’t use electric lighting during the services in Edinoverie churches. The space of the church is illuminated by lampadas and candles. Such dimness better disposes a man to prayer, not distracting his gaze. Vegetable oil is used in the lampadas, and the candles are necessarily of wax. If they want to light candles, it’s better to do so before the start of the service. In some Edinoverie churches, before lighting a candle, they make three bows with the above-mentioned prayer “O God, be merciful…”, and also pray to the saint depicted on the icon.

Before the beginning of the service the priest leaves the altar and stands before the Royal Doors and reads the Seven Bow Beginning. This is a special “preparatory” prayer. It attunes us internally, calling us to gather ourselves. Preserved custom has this prayer read before leaving home and after returning from common prayer, and in the most extreme cases it replaces the morning and evening rule. It goes:

O God, be merciful to me, a sinner. (bow)

Thou hast created me, O Lord, have mercy upon me! (bow)

Countless times have I sinned, O Lord, have mercy and forgive me, a sinner! (bow)

It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos, ever blessed and most pure and the Mother of our God; more honorable than the Cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, without corruption thou gavest birth to God the Word; true Theotokos, thee do we magnify. (prostration, always)

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit! (bow)

Both now and ever and unto the ages of ages, amen! (bow)

Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord bless. (bow)

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, for the sake of the prayers of Thy Most Pure Mother, by the power of the precious and life-giving Cross, and my holy guardian angel, and for the sake of all the saints, have mercy and save me, a sinner, for Thou art good and lovest mankind. Amen. (Prostration, without the Sign of the Cross).

After the dismissal “Lord Jesus Christ…” there are three more bows with the prayer “O God, be merciful…”

If you arrive at an Edinoverie church after the beginning of the service, say the “Beginning” yourself, and then carefully stand in a free place and join the common prayer. Here note that parishioners stand in church with their arms folded over their chest. According to patristic interpretation, such a stance symbolizes the folding of angels’ wings, standing before the throne of God. And you will note, to your great surprise, that it’s much easier to endure the long services in this position.

Don’t be confused by the differences in some words and endings of the prayers. This is how they were everywhere in ancient Rus’ until the middle of the seventeenth century. For example, you might hear the unfamiliar “… i vo veki vekom” or “And in the Holy Spirit, True Lord, the Giver of Life…” in the Nicene Creed.

If you wind up at the All-Night Vigil, you will note that the people sit in Matins at the Kathismas, rising only during the “Glory” to make the Sign of the Cross. There are opportunities to sit during the reading of the instructions, if they are given. The All-Night Vigil is long in Edinoverie churches; it can take from four to six hours. However, many newcomers have noticed an inexplicable ease and even an invisible “help” in standing.

Pay special attention to the kliros. There can be two klirosi—right and left, but usually there’s one. The kliros is led by a cantor, holding a pointer in his hands, with which he sets the singing, and points to important points in the hymns in the books, including when he hears if someone has slipped up. The cantor stands in the very center of the singers, and they align around him in “battle formation.” In Edinoverie churches, Znamenny singing, the main type of ancient Russian singing, coming to Rus’ from Byzantium, is used in the Divine services. The choir sings in one voice; instead of notes, hooked notation, peculiar for modern man, is used to indicate voice intervals. Even just looking at them, there inevitably arises a feeling of contact with something ancient, and at the same time eternal. Precisely such angelic singing was once heard by the ambassadors of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir in the church in Constantinople. Znamenny “chant” is quite extended, ascetical, unemotional, and collected. Of course, if you compare Byzantine and Russian Znamenny singing, there are clear differences. The sound of our equivalent is free and loud, and the performance is quite strict—manifesting the national, northern color. Such singing helps the faithful to focus on prayer.

The prayers are read in a special way, as well as the liturgical readings from the Gospel and Epistle and the Six Psalms. This reading style is called poglasitsi—it is a kind of word pronunciation in plain chant. Poglasitsi is used for the Psalms, the Old Testament readings, the Epistle readings, the Gospel readings, the instructions, and so on. Reprints of seventeenth century books are used in reading and singing. Sometimes you can see ancient books of past centuries in leather bindings on the analogion, with yellowed pages, and ancient ornamentation and illustrations. Before the beginning of a reading, every reader, as a rule, does a prostration on a podruchnik, and, receiving a blessing from the priest, starts to pray.

The services end the same way they began—with the Seven Bow Beginning. Then the priest reads the homily from the ambo. Then the community follows into the trapeza. In some parishes, they have preserved the wonderful tradition of processing to the trapeza accompanied by the singing of the troparion of the day or feast. Before eating, all ceremoniously pray together. During trapeza you can read from a soul-profiting book, and on feasts it is customary to sing ancient Russian spiritual verses. Singing, as you know, is the soul of the people. It expresses its national character through its contents, which make you relive the events reflected in it. That is why it’s very important for Edinovertsi to sing Christian, and not worldly songs, in times of rest. This is another echo of a bygone era, and the desire to “draw near to the Kingdom of God,” Christianizing all the space around you.

During Edinoverie gatherings they read the Sacred Scripture with commentaries, the lives of the saints, the works of the holy fathers, and other edifying literature.

Because of the small number of parishioners, Old Rite churches are in close communication with one another, with active inter-parish cooperation. Edinovertsi of neighboring dioceses often visit one another; it can happen that faithful from various corners of the country, and even the world, come together for patronal feasts.

Those treasures of the liturgical and parish life that from the time of ancient Rus’ until our day have been borne by the Old Ritualists (Edinovertsi), are common to the entire Russian Church. Today they receive individual elements of Church piety in completely different churches and monasteries. Some use Znamenny singing on the kliros, somewhere they paint the churches according to the canons, others do not use electric light in the services. All these tools contribute to a better perception of God, deeper contact with Him for all those desiring of it, and for private prayer.

Interest in the Old Rite in the Church is growing with every year, attracting more and more supporters of a life according to the laws of ancient Rus’. May God grant that this interest not fade, but only increase, and most importantly—that it unswervingly help us all to move towards the salvation of our souls.

Vladimir Basenkov

Translated by Jesse Dominick

Originally appeared at: Pravoslavie.ru (http://orthochristian.com/104149.html)

Source: https://russian-faith.com/people/russian-amish-old-believers-guardians-ancient-russian-discipline-prayer-n1300

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