Spiritual tradition - what is it? Traditions: what is it? Types of traditions - national, social, cultural, religious and others. Family traditions of different countries and peoples of the world

For what modern man who longs to become stronger and more secure, to know what ancient religions, teachings and traditions thought about this? In addition to the flavor of ancient cultures and the color of the past, born when immersed in the history of the issue, knowing the point of view that spiritual systems contain always clarifies the picture. After all, behind every tradition there is an endless line of transmission of the subtlest spiritual impulses, the experience of millennia, each particle of which is paid for with the blood of the hearts of entire generations of seekers. The high canons that set religious and esoteric approaches to the problem of security help to observe moral standards when repelling unfair blows: after all, an ethical position based on the principle of conscience, for all its external vulnerability, is the most powerful. And, finally, religious and esoteric experience is indispensable for searching and finding the highest, true and reliable protector from all misfortunes - the Lord God.

Eastern tradition

The Eastern tradition paid considerable attention to the problem of protecting a person from evil forces, dark energies, influences and blows. She divided attacks into those that come from a person and are aimed at oppressing the personal principle (slander, insult, dispute, pressure, deceit, etc.), and those that are generated by the influence of dark forces from the subtle world. At the same time, subtle blows can be aimed both against the energy shell of a person and against his deep spiritual essence, free will, higher aspirations and motives. The defense against psychological blows offered by the Eastern teachings is to change the very perception of the attack. One should not exaggerate its importance, as all people who are self-absorbed do, but on the contrary, try to look at unexpected circumstances, blows, the people who inflict them, and their own reaction, as something insignificant, third-rate, illusory in the eyes of God and Eternity. Yoga, Vedanta, Taoism, and Buddhism advised to apply a similar methodology.

The history of Buddhism has left many legends about the protection of spiritual masters, saints, and, finally, Gautama Buddha himself. A holy life and spiritual concentration on the Highest eventually led to the fact that a person wrapped himself in a powerful protective net that deflected the most powerful blows from him. In Buddhism, of course, the Buddha himself was considered the highest model of a being who ideally owns this power. Let us recall his struggle with the eternal enemy, the Buddhist Judas - Devadatta, in which he did not disdain the most black means - he threw down on the Buddha from a height huge stone, unleashed a huge mad elephant on him, sent murderous robbers. But in all cases these attempts were in vain. Some unknown force took away death blows. The stone deviated from the target and did not kill the Buddha, but only slightly injured his toe. The elephant, a few meters before the location of the Buddha, suddenly stopped as if rooted to the spot, subdued by a powerful impulse of love and kindness emanating from the Great Teacher. The robbers, coming closer to the Buddha, suddenly abandoned their criminal plan, repented and asked the founder of the Buddhist teaching to take them as students.

The Buddha obtained this power as a result of titanic efforts aimed at achieving enlightenment and liberation from the influence of the circumstances of earthly existence.

In the case of psycho-energetic or magical blows, it does not matter whether they are inflicted by people or evil spirits from the invisible world - Eastern methodology relied either on the utterance of protective mantras, or on the visualization of protective yantras - sacred images and symbols. Spiritual protection was intended to combat the illusions that break through into the consciousness of the aspiring student in order to lead him astray, as well as to repel strong magical blows that could damage the soul of their victim. The East associated such protection with those methods that develop spiritual insight in a person, as well as the ability to sacrifice personal desires to the divine will. As a result of such a sacrifice, the Supreme Deity begins to fight against all attacking forces. holy book Hinduism "Bhagavad Gita" offers one of the main characters, Prince Arjuna, to subordinate his will to the commander Krishna so that he can lead his battle with enemies.

The Eastern defense system focused on repelling subtle and spiritual blows (if we are talking about higher yoga), as well as on protecting your body (when it comes to martial arts). Psychological methods of repelling blows were not developed in detail - the man of ancient times was internally more holistic, harmonious and unified than the modern vulnerable neurotic.

Western spiritual traditions

Western spiritual traditions have had fairly well-developed systems for repelling a variety of blows. Thus, the ancient systems of ethics and spirituality tuned a person either to heroism, with the help of which a person defeated all types of evil, including those directed against him personally, or to stoic patience, helping to endure unexpected blows of fate and adversity. Occult-hermetic systems relied on the construction of thin energy shields, the creation of magic circles, the pronunciation of formulas and spells. Christian tradition taught its followers to repel enemy intrigues with the power of the name of Christ and the power of grace, in which one had to clothe one's spirit at the moment of attack.

Multi-volume Christian literature captured great amount cases when a prayer appeal to God attracted protective forces and deflected blows and attacks that a person could not cope with on his own. Prayer reached the Divine World, which sent spiritual power to a person, helping to cope with insults, humiliation and persecution at the psychological level of communication with hostile people. The protective divine power turned into an invincible fortress, easily reflecting all the subtle dark blows and attacks from magicians, sorcerers and just evil dark haters. Prayer energy protected Christians from numerous temptations and temptations that lie in wait for them on spiritual path and constituting a type of attack. Prayer helped to save spiritual energy (acquisition of the Holy Spirit) and helped to defeat any kind of energy vampirism.

The power of sincere Christian prayer was so great that it helped people repel not only psychological or psychoenergetic attacks, but even direct blows of fate and circumstances. Once I had a conversation with a deeply Orthodox person who went through the Great Patriotic War. He told me an amazing incident from his life at the front, which convinced him of the reality of Divine protection.

A column of German tanks broke through the defenses of our troops and came close to miserable shelters, behind which were hiding the scattered remnants of the retreating unit. My interlocutor told me what horror he experienced in those minutes: at first he saw how, literally a few meters near him, a German tank flattened his comrade, and then he noticed that another tank was moving straight at him. Since he had nowhere to run - there was an open area all around, and the frail hillock behind which he had taken cover clearly could not save - he realized that he had no more than thirty seconds left to live. And, crossing himself, he prayed with all his being: "Lord, if You exist, hear me and save me!" The request to God, which he shouted several times, was so powerful and shook his being so much that he almost lost consciousness. He no longer hoped for anything, when suddenly a miracle happened: about ten meters from him, the tank suddenly turned around and moved to the side, firing at some distant targets. So a person really came across the protective power of Christian prayer.

Western religious methods, as well as Eastern schools of spiritual protection, as befits traditional systems, did not attach much importance to repelling psychological blows. "Human, too human" has never been a special concern of either the world or national religions. They proceeded from the fact that it is much more important to protect the soul from temptations, and the spirit from damage.

Esoteric teachings reveal in detail the methods and secrets of protection from attacks. As a rule, they talk about the protection of a person at all levels - psychological, mental, and spiritual. Eastern esotericism invites a person to change the very view of the "attack-defense" problem, generated by the dual perception of the world, and rise to such spiritual heights where there is neither an attacker nor a defender, and everything is in inseparable unity. Western esotericism relies primarily on hermeticism and therefore sees in defense the erection of walls, complete isolation from the source of attack, deep withdrawal into oneself, delineation of magic circles. Characteristic protective means offered by esoteric teachings - unlike religions, they are significantly more include psychology. And the closer to the 20th century, the more psychological methods of protection in esoteric systems. This is due to the fact that the personality of a person of an ancient traditional society was a transparent conductor of higher spiritual forces and influences, but over time it lost its integrity, became multiple, complex, vulnerable to conflicts, requiring special measures to harmonize it.

Traditions are some historically established group experience embodied in social stereotypes, which is accumulated and reproduced in society. It is necessary to distinguish this concept from art, which represents a more individual creative activity. Through traditions, a certain group of individuals inherits the knowledge necessary for self-development and even survival. That is this term can be interpreted as a certain mechanism of collective communication. Experts identify the main types of traditions: folk (ethnic), social, national, religious and cultural.

Origin of the term

The well-known word "tradition" for many has a fairly clear meaning. If we talk about literal translation, then in Latin the term means "transmission".

Initially, the concept of "tradition" was used only in a literal sense and denoted an action. The ancient Romans used it when they had to give someone a material object or marry a daughter. Subsequently material objects faded into the background, they were pushed aside by the transferred skills and abilities. Thus "tradition", or rather, its semantic spectrum, indicates the main difference from everything that could be summed up under this concept. Tradition is something that does not belong to a certain individual, as it is transferred from outside. The derived meaning is associated with everything that is connected with the distant past, which has irrevocably lost its novelty, is unchanged and symbolically stable. And strict adherence to customs relieves many of the need to independently comprehend the situation and make a decision.

Traditions and society

Each new generation, having at its disposal a certain set of traditional samples, does not accept and assimilate them in finished form, it involuntarily carries out their own interpretation. It turns out that society chooses not only its coming future, but also the past that has sunk into oblivion. Social groups and society as a whole, selectively accepting some elements of the social heritage, simultaneously reject others. Therefore, social traditions may well be both positive and negative.

national heritage

In general, traditions are the so-called element of culture, which arises in one generation and is transmitted from ancestors to descendants, remaining for a long time. These are certain norms, rules of conduct, rituals, procedures that must be followed. Considering the definition of the word “heritage” together with this term, we can say that the concepts are almost identical.

If we talk about national traditions, then these are rules that are manifested in almost everything. This applies not only to clothing, style and behavior in general, they are also manifested in movements, gestures and other elements that are present in the psychology of people. Such concepts and manifestations are very important for a person, since it is they that are able to trigger an unconscious mechanism in a person who is clearly able to determine the line between "one's own" and "alien".

National traditions are a phenomenon that has been formed as a result of the life of each people or nation, regulated by functions in the human mind. In other words, regulation occurs in family life, in communication, and behavior. Traditions have their own characteristics, namely, they have high stability, continuity and even stereotyping. They are characterized by a long-term factor, which is the regulator of social phenomena.

Modern attitude to cultural traditions

The variety of traditions of most countries is sometimes simply amazing. What is the norm for a certain people everyday life, in another country can often be perceived as a personal insult. We can say that traditions are one of the fundamental things in the cultures of various countries of the world. Therefore, if you decide to relax in some exotic country, you must first familiarize yourself with its customs in order not to get into an awkward position. For example, in Turkey, one of the important traditions is the need to remove shoes when entering a house and a temple. In no case should you refuse an offer to drink a cup of tea, this can be perceived as an insult.

Not just a set of rules

Cultural traditions are not only a set of etiquette rules, they are a certain semantic flow aimed at showing the depth of the history of a particular country, these are values ​​laid down over the centuries, passed down from generation to generation to maintain and reveal the unique mentality of its inhabitants. For example: countries where Buddhism is widespread, consider that touching a person’s head is unacceptable, since it is inhabited by human soul. Unfortunately, in many countries traditional rites went out of fashion, so to speak, and lost their value due to technological progress. I would like the interest in preserving one's culture not to lose its relevance in any corner of the world.

Word synonym

The word "tradition" is a noun female, if necessary, it can be replaced by the concepts custom, practice(masculine nouns), legacy, tradition(nouns of the middle gender). Instead of a single term, you can use phrases with the word "so", for example: so it is, so it is. Among writers, and not only among them, traditions are called unwritten laws. One of the most unusual synonyms in Russian for this noun is the word "itihasa", which means "that's exactly what happened." Most sources define a synonym for the word "tradition" in several variants, in which, in addition to those presented above, norm, establishment, habit, value. An interesting option is the use of the word "khashar" (a term that has long been included in the Turkic and Tajik languages ​​and means "joint work").

Religious traditions

Religion also has its own traditions, which makes it a spiritual and cultural treasure. represent a set of stable forms and methods of worshiping the gods (God). Each of the religions existing on earth carefully preserves and in every possible way maintains its tradition, but most often in each religion there are several traditions at once, for example: Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Protestantism - in Christianity, Shiites and Sunnis - in Islam, Mahayana and Hinayana - in Buddhism. The religious traditions of the East practice a certain technique of working with both the body and consciousness, which is aimed at enlightenment, i.e. getting extremely high states human consciousness. Christian religious traditions include church attendance, prayers, confession and worship. The most famous holidays are Easter, Christmas, Epiphany, Trinity, Ascension, Annunciation. Also, not all traditions are observed, if only because in the digital age people have become not as pious as their ancestors were. Now, few people at the festive table ask for harvest or rain. Just a holiday has become another reason to get together with the whole family.

There is no future without a past

Traditions are a heritage that is unshakably authoritative, they are meekly accepted and transmitted in accordance with the fact that the departed ancestors - "carriers" - have a solid foundation in the life of their heirs - "followers".

The family is a small world, a small society, and our Orthodox ancestors called it a "small church." Probably, there is no such person who would not want to have a friendly family with whom he could share both grief and joy. Today, when a lot of families are breaking up, it is simply necessary to tell children about the spiritual traditions of the Russian family.

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Information and educational conversation

"SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FAMILY"

Goals: expand students' understanding of national family traditions; form a positive assessment of family values; encourage students to self-knowledge, self-education, to study and observe the laws on family and marriage, to respect the rights of the individual.

Conduct form: conversation.

Equipment: multimedia installation, presentation, books by M. Sholokhov “The Fate of a Man”, “Quiet Flows the Don”, L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace".

Event progress.

I. Organizing time. Creating an emotional state of students.

II. Problematic situation.

Raise your hands, please, those who want to be happy. What do you think it takes to be happy?

Yes, I agree with you, of course, you need a family to be happy."Happy is he who is happy at home"- these words belong to Leo Tolstoy.

III. Event theme message.

slide 1. Today, ahead of international day family, which is celebrated on May 15, I invite you to talk about the spiritual traditions of the Russian family.

It has already become a tradition in our school to hold such events in May.

The family is a small world, a small society, and our Orthodox ancestors called it a "small church." Probably, there is no such person who would not want to have a friendly family with whom he could share both sorrow and joy.

There is a legend that there was no separation of the sexes before, but there were 2 creatures fused together, carrying both male and female principles. Perfect harmony, the great power of love was inherent in them. All their thoughts, actions, aspirations were common. The great god Zeus could not allow such relations to exist between people outside Olympus and cut these single creatures in half, scattering them across the Earth. But their love did not weaken, the desire to be together even more intensified. And since then, everyone in this world has been looking for their half, but it is not always possible to find it. A sad and beautiful story...

But in reality, things are not so smooth. Slide 2. Russia is the leader in the number of divorces. Just imagine, every second marriage breaks up, every third child is born out of wedlock.

Family ties are lost. Nothing is sacred.

Reading a poem.

In more than once already darned robe
Made from brightly colored fibers
In a crowded hospital room
An old woman is standing, crying at the window.

No one consoles her anymore.
Everyone knows about the reason for these tears.
They visit neighbors in the ward,
And to her, only once, her son brought a bathrobe.

I forgot about the slippers, he said embarrassedly:
- I'll bring it tomorrow ... Will you be patient, mother?
- Of course I will. I'm on the feather
And I can lie in woolen socks.
Where can I go here? There is little space.
The nurses will bring food.
I've been sick so much,
What would I just lie down and rest.

The son sighed and looked away.
- Here ... You understand ... It's up to you ...
It's all very confusing and subtle...
But don't think badly of me!
Your apartment is empty
And my wife and I thought about
What are you here and there ... Alone ... Sick ...
Get better - we'll take you with us!
And the grandchildren will be happy, you know!
They do not have a soul in you, mother!
All! Decided! You are moving in with us!
We will sell your apartment!

He took out papers, said without a doubt:
-I thought of everything, trust me, mom ...
As soon as we see improvements,
From here you will immediately go to live with us.

What do you say here? He is her son, her own blood ...
And grandchildren - for the sake of them it is worth living!
And signed without suspecting
How things really work.

Days go by, weeks go by...
There is no son. And he is unlikely to come.
The old woman was amused and pitied ...
But who and what does not understand here?

And every day the old woman is getting weaker,
And at night more and more dreams
As the porridge in the morning warms the son,
But he cries and does not want to eat.
And the first steps of a baby son,
And the word that he said for the first time
And the first scratches and bumps,
Both kindergarten and school - first grade ...

Doctors are silent, trying their best
At least somehow alleviate her suffering.
And relatives strictly forbade
Tell the old woman about the diagnosis.
She does not know that this hospital is -
Not a city simple hospital,
That there is no more chance for a correction ...
But, for her, ignorance is not a nightmare.
"Hospice" sign on the wall at the entrance
She doesn't say anything bad.
Strange words have long been fashionable
And should anyone be blamed for that?

She doesn't know what son is doing right
Calls doctors, twice a week:
- You said - dying ... Strange ...
That she is still alive...

She is alive. She waits and believes
That the son will come, hug, explain,
Now the chamber doors will open,
She understands everything and forgives everything.
With the last of her strength, she gets out of bed.
Holding on to the wall, he will approach the window.
How much more patience does she have?
So to believe the indifferent son?
She is ready to try her best.
And the forces that are not, she must find.
Will he suddenly come? She must wait!
He will come ... Well, how can he not come?
Standing and crying... Waiting for news from his son...
Just look at the sky casually
And shakes his hand pectoral cross -
Like, wait, Lord, don't take

Why is this happening? What to do?

Of course, the experience of past generations cannot be ignored.

IV. Let's turn to history.

Slide 3.

A serious "document" in Rus', regulating human behavior in the state, in family life, everyday life, was the famous "Domostroy" (compiled by Sylvester). In the Moscow text of the 17th century, 64 chapters clearly define the duties of a person in relation to the church and the king, to his relatives, wife, children, etc.

Slides 4, 5 The main idea of ​​Domostroy is the idea of ​​responsibility and authority: the husband is the master of his family and is responsible before God and the sovereign for his family, for raising children. The very concept of "House" in "Domostroy" is much broader, a house is not only a family, but also a society, clan, country, world. The rules of "Domostroy" are given by God himself, by the Church, endured by the people. People did not just read it, rewrote it, they stopped only in 1940-1950.

A very important role in the family belonged to the mother. (An excerpt from "The Fate of a Man" by M. Sholokhov is read).

Peasant children received basics in the family spiritual education. It was no coincidence that the family was called the "small church", here the child was introduced to prayerful communion, he comprehended the basics of the Orthodox faith. The "red" corner of the hut served for the children as a visible confirmation of the constancy of the Divine presence. Regular participation in divine services, the sacraments of confession and communion kept the fire of Divine love in young souls.

Blessing before parting, the custom of sitting together in silence in silent prayer before leaving is characteristic of the Russian family. The severity of separation is brightened up by the bridge of blessing thrown over it. Children released to a foreign land, sons going to war, were given so many blessings and prayers on the road, and there were so many stories in the old days about how a mother's blessing - an icon hung around the mother's neck before leaving - deflected the flight of an enemy bullet. We are here touching the most sacred, secret and intimate in the life of the family. From here grow those invisible bonds and threads that make the family a single spiritual organism, give so much warmth and charm to its inner “air”.

slide 6 . Let us turn to the well-known family of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II.

1894 Nicholas II writes in his diary:“April 8th. A wonderful unforgettable day in my life - the day of my engagement to dear beloved Alix.

1916 Alexandra Fedorovna in a letter to her husband:“My precious, tomorrow I will think of you more than ever, this is the 22nd anniversary of the engagement. God, how time flies ... Unforgettable are the days and the love that you gave me.

And the children grew up in the rays of this mutual love.

“At exactly 9 o'clock we heard a child's squeak, and we all breathed freely! We named our God-sent daughter Olga! When all the excitement passed, just a blissful state about what had happened began.(Nicholas II. Diaries).

Despite their enormous duties as the main family of the country, or perhaps precisely because of their deep understanding, both the king and the queen honored the family and were happy in the family. According to the memoirs of the heir's teacher, Pierre Gilliard, "Nicholas II was for his children at the same time Tsar, father and comrade."

« The very first place for us, where we learn truth, honesty, love, is our home, the most native place for us in the world,- Alexandra Fedorovna writes in her diary.

V. Summing up the conversation. "Foundation" of the family. Slide 7.

VI. Job creative groups. (3 groups of students are created, headed by a teacher. Each group is jointly looking for an answer to the question posed).

1 group.

What traditions can you “start” in your family?

2 group

How can you rationally distribute household chores among family members? (Cooking, washing dishes, cleaning the apartment, taking out the trash, shopping for groceries, supervising the children's studies, attending parent-teacher meetings, etc.).

3 group

What measures, in your opinion, should be taken by the Government to strengthen the family, to increase the birth rate?

While the groups discuss the questions put to them, the audience answers the questions of the quiz. slide 8, 9. discussion of proverbs. slide 10.

VII. Report of creative groups.

VIII. Summing up.

There was a custom at Russian weddings: when the celebration was over, small gingerbread cookies were handed out to the guests. They were called overclockers. Thus, the guests were hinted that it was time to go home.

I also want to give you these gingerbread cookies.

IX. Reflection.

Article

Author: Klimeshina Galina Vasilievna, teacher of Russian language and literature, MBOU "OOSH No. 3", Astrakhan
The article can be used to prepare for speeches at various public events on the Russian language, literature, culture.

Spiritual traditions in ancient and modern Russian literature

Culture is that general and special, created by the people in the past and carried out in the present, which unites the country, which is in every person, in every part of him. This is a single set of private and general meanings, images and symbols, structuring a sign picture of reality, creating a certain super-image of the world and an attitude towards it, and activities in accordance with it. In the dictionary of Vladimir Dahl, for example, only the last, active aspect stands out: culture - processing, cultivation, care for something. Like the education of someone, mental and moral, teaching something. A certain phenomenon, action in accordance with some ideal, model, following the custom, tradition of society. Culture is also associated with the creation of values, including the highest spiritual values. In a narrow sense, it is a sphere of people's spiritual life (both material and the result of personal achievements: knowledge, skills, morality, intelligence level, aesthetics, worldview, type of people's communication). In a broad sense, this is the creation of ideals and material values, the creation of stereotypes of social behavior in accordance with the original Prototype, the original mythologeme.
The culture of a people determines its moral and spiritual appearance, without it, the coexistence of such different countries on earth is impossible. However, the cultural traditions of each ethnic group are formed on many pillars associated with history and literature. The richer and more developed literary traditions, the more highly moral culture of the people.
Slavic culture in our country is represented primarily by Russian literature, which is more than a thousand years old. The variety of genres and styles, the versatility of topics, the sincerity and truthfulness of presentation, the depth and breadth of views amaze even today's reader, and after all, only a small part has come down to us. Old Russian works. What were the ideas of our ancestors about the spiritual culture of man? The answer to this question will be works from the treasury of ancient Russian literature.
The works of Ancient Rus' captivate with their chaste purity. Old Russian literature does not linger on the description of atrocities, does not cherish the dream of retribution to enemies. She calls for the sublime, the good. In it we find noble ideals. Almost every writer of Ancient Rus' could, like A.S. Pushkin, say about himself that he “awakened good feelings” with his work. He could declare, together with N.A. Nekrasov, that he "sowed the reasonable, the good, the eternal." Therefore, the works of ancient Russian authors so vividly correspond to our time.
For ancient Russian literature, as well as for Russian literature as a whole, life-affirmation, lightness and clarity are characteristic. The resilience of her characters is amazing.
Another feature of ancient Russian literature is especially attractive in our time: ancient Russian writers treated other peoples with deep respect, their customs, traditions, and beliefs. Tolerance is manifested in the relationship between the Russian governor Pretich and the Pecheneg prince in The Tale of Bygone Years, in the Tale of the Emshan Grass, in the sermons of Bishop Serapion of Vladimir, who wrote about the torments of the Russian people under the Tatar oppression, lamented the loss of the former glory of Rus' and in At the same time, he spoke about the moral virtues of the Tatars. Respect for other peoples, sympathy for their troubles sounds with particular force in Afanasy Nikitin's Journey Beyond the Three Seas. The best traditions of ancient literature continue in the new Russian literature of the 18th-21st centuries.
Today, ancient Russian literature seems to be especially significant, because it has features that are consonant with our era. The works of antiquity are marked by high citizenship, sincere love for the motherland. Writers separated from us for many centuries were proud of the greatness of Rus', its vastness, the beauty of fields and forests, the lordship of the soul of people, their "daring" (courage), high moral qualities.
Deep connection with culture and history ancient Rus', oral folk poetry and folk fine arts we see in the work of many contemporary writers. Especially this connection can be traced in the work of S.A. Yesenin. It was she who determined, according to V.G. Bazanov, "the appearance in Yesenin's poetry of a whole group of poetic symbols, images and motifs that are directly related to the structure of the myth of the world tree." (A tree is a mythological symbol denoting the universe, harmony, as well as a person likened to this world). Yesenin's poetry, even the most tragic years (1922-1925), is marked by a desire for a harmonious worldview. It is no coincidence that the influence of two principles is increasingly felt - folklore and classical poetry. Acceptance of life, gratitude for it finds a declarative expression in the poet: “I accept everything. I accept everything as it is ... ". The image of a pink horse - a symbol of sunrise, spring, the joy of life (“I do not regret, I do not call, I do not cry ...”) is next to him with a peasant horse-worker, which at dawn becomes pink in the rays rising sun. That is why the named and many other poems of the poet became romances. This feature links the work of the poet with folk song, with a folk soul. They reflect the openness of a person who feels himself a part of the universe, which is why even sadness is not gloomy, but bright.
Yesenin's traditional images: "country of birch chintz", " pink horse”, “white apple trees smoke”, maple with copper leaves, autumn as a time of maturity and summing up, even the surname itself, which goes back to the common Slavic “esen” (autumn), preserved in the Ryazan dialect - all this speaks of an inextricable connection with the Russians folk traditions, with Russian culture. Accepting the revolution and all subsequent events that took place in his native land, the poet is not changed in one thing, he is infinitely devoted to his native land, he serves it until his last breath. The heroes of his works are ambiguous, cause a lot of controversy and questions, but they are real characters - heroes of their time ("The Advent", "Pugachev", "Anna Snegina", etc.). As before, the poet makes it clear that love and loyalty are valuable at any time and in any society, that it is impossible to achieve happiness for someone by drowning countries and peoples in blood, that people should not be a blind tool in the rivers of clever politicians-dealers, that duty and honor are not empty words, but symbols of human consciousness. Is it possible to consider the words of the lyrical hero of the poem "The Coming" as outdated, who, turning to the motherland, prepares her for enlightenment, for the realization of her new destiny and greatness:
Oh Rus', Ever-Virgin
Correcting death!
From the starry womb
You went down to the firmament ...
Look at the fields, at the harvested oats, -
Under the snowy willow
Your Christ has fallen!
Almost a hundred years have passed, and the role of Russia - the Ever-Virgin (recognized by the Church of the martyr for Christ) is unchanged as before, especially in the light of recent events in Ukraine, and throughout the world.
Looking back at our society, I would like to ask the question put by Yesenin into the mouth of Pugachev and repeated three times: “People! Are you crazy? This repetition, borrowed from folklore, secondary meanings of words make the pattern of the verse unique and still relevant. A little more time will pass, and in the poems of the poet, readers will see behind the ideals of romanticism and rebellion the former Rus', the “meek homeland”, which has returned to its origins, to its shores.
What is a century for history, for an epoch? Just an episode, a small event that can then fit into the lines of school textbooks. And for the country, this is the life of several generations of people. This is what happened to us, to our Russia in the 1990s. It seemed that the connection between generations and cultural traditions had broken off, ideas about life had changed, and as at the beginning of the century, "Violent Rus' is dancing in front of our eyes." But we survived, suffered through these difficult years, the period of immoral obsession and permissiveness, passed the test of strength, and the wheel of time gradually returned to what this hundred-year path began from.
Once upon a time, in 1913 in the Crimea, in Koktebel, Marina Tsvetaeva wrote:
To my poems written so early
That I did not know that I am a poet,
Ripped off like spray from a fountain
Like sparks from rockets

Bursting like little devils
In the sanctuary where sleep and incense
To my poems about youth and death,
- Unread verses! -

Scattered in the dust at the shops
(Where no one took them and does not take them!),
My poems are like precious wines
Your turn will come.
These old lines turned out to be prophetic. For the works of Tsvetaeva, a period has come when they are read, understood, loved, admired. This means that the time has come when all moral categories have returned to their place, when no one will call black white, when lies and hypocrisy began to be called by their true names. Without cultural ties to the past, this would not have been possible. The time has come when the true meaning of such concepts as mercy, sympathy, good-heartedness, nobility, patriotism, compassion is being revived in Russia. Once these words were considered the basis not only of Russian spiritual culture, but of other Slavic peoples. For a long time they were undeservedly forgotten, and now, rediscovering them for themselves, people are learning to live according to their conscience, to their hearts. Many representatives wrote about this in their works. modern literature, including A.I. Solzhenitsyn and V.P. Astafiev. Both became recognized defenders moral attitude to people, the creators of the gallery of Russian characters, revived interest in the origins of spirituality. Each of the writers in his own way manifested the idea of ​​the peasantry as the basis of humanity, which can still be revived in Russian society. They also foresaw that this return to their spiritual principles would be long and difficult for our society, but it is coming. According to T.M. Vakhitova, “Astafiev concentrated his artistic observations in the field national character. At the same time, he always touches on the most acute, painful, controversial problems of social development, trying to follow Dostoevsky in these matters.
The Russian village in the works of Astafiev appears before us spiritually pure and beautiful. The bright image of the Motherland resurrects the historical past of our country, its connection with modern society is felt more deeply. For us, it is that life-giving source to which we turn in times of troubles and trials, “in days of doubt and painful reflection,” as well as in times of upsurge. The spiritual kinship of the past and the present is becoming more and more tangible. We draw deep thoughts from the culture of our ancestors, find high ideals, beautiful images in it. Her faith in goodness and justice, her "ardent patriotism" strengthen and inspire us. M.V. Lomonosov called Russian chronicles "books of glorious deeds." It is gratifying that the glorious deeds continue, they create a new person according to the same canons of spirituality that his ancestors could be proud of.
The revival of spirituality and a return to its sources explains the interest in modern society in everything folk, primordial. There are enough examples of this. I would like to add to what has been said just a few strokes, or rather photographs.

the page breakdown of the document is made by:

RUSSIAN FAMILY CULTURE AND ITS RELIGIOUS ROOTS

Chapter from the book: "From the Russian spiritual and creative tradition."

The beauty and comfort and inner warmth of patriarchal family life - what a wealth it is! How a whole world of spiritual and spiritual values ​​is revealed here in this family warmth, in this richness. cultural tradition, in this living connection with the living world of the past. In this quiet, inconspicuous tradition, nourished from the same vital sources that flow in the world of the Russian family, new seeds are thrown, giving sprouts. And we sometimes see—but still much more often we don’t see—the very throwing of seeds and the first sprouts and the ovary of the fruit, and then we see the rich fruit and the harvest. AS Khomyakov, already an elderly man, admitted that he owed all his spiritual direction to his mother. 1 The philosopher Prince Evgeny Trubetskoy, in his childhood memoirs, shows in small episodes how their mother influenced the receptive souls of children, so that consciousness of moral impossibility offend the weak or another equally important consciousness: the all-seeing, everywhere-present Eye of God: “I don’t remember what my mother said to that. I only remember that from that moment on, with some extraordinary force of hypnosis, a religious sensation sank into my soul, which forever remained for me one of the central, most powerful, sensations,

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1 “As for me, I know that how much I can be useful to her (my mother) I owe both my direction and my steadfastness in this direction, although she did not think so. Happy is the one who had such a mother and mentor in childhood, and at the same time what a lesson in humility such a conviction gives. How little of the good that is in a man belongs to him.” (Letter to M.S. Mukhanova).

a clear and bright Eye penetrating darkness, penetrating into the soul, and into the very depths of the world, and nowhere can you hide from this look. Such suggestions are the very essence of education, and mother, like no one else, knew how to make them.

And what a monument of gratitude Leo Tolstoy erected to the one who “with selfless love replaced his mother and his brothers and sister. (He lost his mother at a very early age): “Aunt Tatyana Alexandrovna had the most big influence on my life: this influence was, firstly, in the fact that even in childhood she taught me the spiritual pleasure of love! She did not teach me this with words, but with her whole being she infected me with love. I saw, I felt how good it was for her to love, and I understood the happiness of love.

This is how life is built, this is how a great deed is done. spiritual fertilization This is how an often invisible, often hardly noticeable, but powerful stream of spiritual, vital dynamics flows, constituting the stronghold of the life of the people, its core, the connection between its past and future.

The background — or rather, the nourishing basis or the spiritual atmosphere that embraces such a quiet, inconspicuous and at the same time creatively warmed Russian family — is religious life, a stream of faith flowing from the depths of the Church, peaceful and enveloping with blissful warmth. How close this family was to the life of the Church, how this life of the Church intertwined with the life of the family - both in the first religious instructions, and in the very element of the mother, nourished from this grace-filled stream and saturated with it, and in pious household rituals, and, finally, through participation the whole family in church services and fasts, feasts and sacraments of the church. The whole fabric of life is permeated with this: the blessing of parents, joint prayers, cherished, ancestral icons that pass from generation to generation, or, for example, icons that were ordered on a child’s birthday according to his height - the “birth measure” of a child. The last one is very old custom, extending into the depths of pre-Petrine Rus'. We meet him in family life

Russian tsars of the 17th century. So, for example, in the old records of the Moscow Armory of the times of Alexei Mikhailovich we read: “17 (1666) September 19. Krestovoy Foma Borisov brought to the Armory a wooden measure half an inch long, half a quarter inch wide, and said this de measure gave out Anna Mikhailovna Velyaminova from the choir of the Queen of the Territory, and said that V. G. Ts. and V. K. Alexei Mikhailovich and others had directed against this measure to be taken to Arms. The chamber is a figurative cypress board, and on it to write the Angel of V. G. Tsarevich John Alekseevich, the image of John the Baptist ”2.

The blessing of parents to children is the core and guiding beacon in the lives of children under all circumstances of life: both in the everyday, daily atmosphere of family warmth and comfort, and at parting, and at moments of decisive events in the life of children - during departures, separations, especially when children establish their own a new family, and, finally, at the dying farewell of parents with children. The blessing of children by parents or the mutual blessing of all family members for the coming sleep is a feature that is characteristic of patriarchal Russian families even to this day: I am talking about such families that have managed to convey to our time the living treasure of prayer communication between children and parents. From this warmth of evening family experiences and from longing for them, famous poem A. S. Khomyakova:

It used to be, in the deep midnight hour,

Little ones, I will come to admire you,

I used to love to mark you with a cross,

Pray that grace be upon you,

Love of the Almighty God... (1838)

Blessing before parting, the custom in silence to "sit" together in silent prayer before leaving, is characteristic of our family. The severity of separation is brightened by the bridge of blessing and prayer thrown over it. Children released to a foreign land, sons going to war - so many blessings were given with them.

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2 I. Zabelin. "The domestic life of Russian tsars in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries". Part II , p. 558. Moscow 1915.

prayers for the journey, and there were so many stories in the old days about how a mother's "blessing" - an icon hung around the mother's neck before leaving - deflected the flight of an enemy bullet: the icon bent, and the bullet flew past. We are here touching the most sacred, secret and intimate in the life of the family. From here grow those invisible bonds and threads that make the family a single spiritual organism, give so much warmth and charm to its inner “air”. No, more than that: they give so much depth and religious value to her life, make her the highest of human shrines, make her, as it were, a kind of "home church" in the face of God. The greatest artist of Russian patriarchal family life, L. N. Tolstoy, managed, like no one else, to convey the beauty of this inner “air” of the family, especially in War and Peace. The most sacred human relations indescribably, but how truly and subtly this scene of Princess Marya’s blessing of brother Andrei, who is going to the front, is written: excitement in his voice, with a solemn gesture, holding in both hands in front of his brother an oval, ancient icon of the Savior with a black face, in a silver chasuble on a silver chain of fine workmanship. She crossed herself, kissed the icon and handed it to Andrey. — Please, for me... From big eyes beams of kind and timid light shone from her. These eyes illuminated the whole sickly, thin face and made it beautiful. The brother wanted to take the scapular, but she stopped him. Andrei understood, crossed himself and kissed the icon "...

This scene is inspired by a Tolstoyan family tradition, according to which Lev Nikolayevich's great-grandfather, Prince Sergei Fedorovich Volkonsky, was protected from a bullet during the Seven Years' War by an icon of his mother's blessing.

One of the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812, General D.S. Dokhturov, wrote to his wife in Moscow immediately after the Battle of Borodino, where he commanded the left flank, replacing the mortally wounded Bagration: “Thank you

for the image, my soul, I will immediately put it on myself. I clearly see God's mercy to me, in terrible danger He saved me. I thank the Almighty" 3 .

In the notes of A. M. Turgenev (1772-1863), written in 1848, it is described how his 14-year-old boy (in 1786) was sent by his parents to the royal service in St. Petersburg: “Before departure, my parents blessed me with the icon of our Savior, Not Made by Hands called. On top of this, the parent put a small life-giving cross with a palm around my neck and gave me a bag with copper kopecks and money, severely punishing me so as not to be able to refuse the one who asks for alms for Christ's sake.

When Konstantin Leontiev went to war in the Crimea in 1854, his mother gave him a family golden reliquary with relics as a parental blessing.

Or this is how Nekrasov’s “Russian Women” begins (the farewell of the old father, Count Laval, with his daughter Princess Trubetskoy, who is going forever to Siberia to her husband):

Calm, durable and light

A marvelously well-coordinated carriage,

The count-father himself more than once, not twice

Tried it first...

Making a prayer, scapular

Hung in the right corner

And sobbed ... the princess-daughter

Goes somewhere tonight...

An old Russian epic depicts a parental blessing to a hero setting out on his exploits:

Not a damp oak tends to the ground,

Non-paper leaves spread out:

The son spreads himself before the father,

He asks himself a blessing:

“Oh, you are a goy, dear dear father,

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4 "Russian Antiquities" 1885 p. 375.

Give me your blessing...

The old peasant Ivan Timofeevich answers:

“I will give you a blessing for good deeds,

And there is no blessing for bad deeds ...

Do not think evil of the Tatar,

Do not kill a peasant in an open field.

(From the epic about Ilya Muromets).

And in the epic about Duke Stepanovich we read:

To that mother to the dear

Honest widow Omelfa Timofeevna,

The Duke then fell to mother in frisky legs,

The blessed lady asks her to go to Kyiv-grad ...

Even the violent Vaska Buslaev meekly asks for a mother's blessing:

Vasenka decided to go to Jerusalem city,

He began to ask his mother for a blessing,

He has a wild head to the damp earth,

How not a white birch bends,

Not silk leaves spread,

Vasenka bows to mother.

A new life, a new family begins with the blessing of the grooms and newlyweds by the parents, is built on it, it “establishes the homes of the children.” In all-Russian, for example, and peasant life, it was firmly preserved until the very last times - before the revolution and even longer. In the consciously religious tradition of strong Russian families that ended up in emigration, for example, in many families from the old Russian cultural layer, this central role of parental blessing in building a new family is still fully preserved to this day.

And here are a few sketches of the ceremony of blessing the newlyweds in the Russian peasant life of the middle and end of the 19th century. R. Tereshchenko in his famous book"Life of the Russian people" (part II, weddings. Petersburg, 1848) collected a lot of valuable material.

In the Smolensk province, fathers, native and planted,

and the mother instruct and bless the groom, he bows at their feet, the matchmakers sing:

Not a black horse digs the ground with its hoof,

Our young prince of blessing asks:

At the father of the parent, at the father of the blessing,

At the mother of the parents, at the mother of the blessing.

In the Nizhny Novgorod province, when everything is ready for the train to church, each of the young is blessed by their parents in their home in the following way: they advance the table to the corner under the icons and cover it with a white cloth, then they put rye bread with salt, pie and white bread on the table, candles and a lampada are lighted under the images, all households and relatives pray with the bride. Then the father and mother put on fur coats turned inside out, and the godfather takes the groom’s right hand by one of his hands, holding the turned-out fur coat in his right hand, the friend or brother takes the groom’s other hand and brings him to his parents, who stand behind table: father with an icon, and mother with bread. Druzhko says: “Dear father, bless the dear child, the golden crown of acceptance and the fruit from the tree of paradise.” He repeats these words three times, and the groom falls three times at the feet of his father, on the spread out coat that the matchmaker has prepared. Then the father blesses his son with an icon in the shape of a cross, which he kisses first himself, then gives it to his son to kiss, and, finally, they kiss each other. In exactly the same way, the mother blesses her son, then the father and mother bless him alternately with bread and salt and let him go to the crown 5.

The rite of blessing was very solemn during the celebration of the wedding of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich on February 5, 1626.

The sovereign listened to the early mass, then he was blessed by his father, the most holy patriarch, and spoke to him: “Our great sovereign, our father, Filaret Nikitich,

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5 See Tereshchenko, p. 448, p. 269, p. 3, 6, 7, p. N. Kharuzin vol. 1. Moscow, 1889, pp. 112-113.

His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. By the will of the All-Good and the permission of you and our mother, the nun of the Great Empress Marfa Feodorovna, it is appointed to be our wedding, and this day is my joy. Holy Patriarch, bless your son." The patriarch, blessing his son, said: “The Almighty and indescribable in mercy, who raised you to the royal throne for piety, He blesses you. May He give you and your wife longevity and reproduction of the family. May you see on the throne the sons of your sons and the daughters of your daughters, and may He protect you all from enemies, spread your power from sea to sea, and from rivers to the ends of the universe. Then the patriarch blessed him with the image of the Most Holy Theotokos.

Family icons are visual bearers of parental blessing, moreover, symbols of God's blessing, sacred for children and families. They are passed down from generation to generation, as if embodying the spiritual connection, the spiritual succession of fathers and children. Countless strong Russian families, simple and noble, of meager means, prosperous and rich, had these cherished family or family icons, “parental” or “grandfather’s” blessings. In the old merchants, among the Old Believers, in the old noble and princely families, among the clergy, in the strong nests of peasant family life, especially, for example, in the north of Russia. Some family or tribal icons, as it were, embodied the life of generations, the history of a family or clan from the paternal or maternal side.

In an old Russian house, a “red corner” with icons, a shrine or a home chapel was the center of the religious and spiritual life of the family. What a huge role these icons played in the life of a house in ancient Rus' is clear at least from the instructions of Sylvester's "Domostroy":

Chapter 8: “How to decorate your house with holy images, and have a clean house. In every Christian’s house, in every temple, holy and honest images are written on icons, put on the walls, having arranged a magnificent place with every decoration and from lamps, in them candles before the holy images are lit at every praise of God, and after the requiem they extinguish, with a veil close,

all for the sake of cleanliness, and from dust, for the sake of deanery and care, but always sweep them with a clean wing, and wipe them with a soft lip, and always keep that temple clean, and touch the holy images worthy, in a clear conscience, and on the praise of God and on the holy singing and prayer, dare to burn, and incense with fragrant incense, and incense, in prayers and in vigils, and in bows and in all praise of God, always honor them, with tears, and with sobbing, and with a contrite heart, confess, asking for the remission of sins " .

When an old Russian person entered a house, he first of all looked for icons with his eyes. At first he bowed before them, then he only bowed to the hosts and to everyone else present. This is what foreigners tell us who visited Muscovite Rus' in the 16th and 17th centuries, for example, Herberstein, who was in Moscow under Vasily the Third in 1517 and 1526, and Meyerbeer, the Caesar's ambassador in 1660-63. to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. And how much authenticity there is in this scene in Leo Tolstoy’s unfinished novel The Decembrists, where a simple village old woman, Tikhonovna, comes to Moscow on foot from a distant village to her masters Chernyshev to fuss about her old husband, who, due to a misunderstanding, without guilt, went to prison. Shy, she enters in bast shoes and white shoes into the noisy people's hut of the Moscow estate of the Chernyshevs, but does not lose her temper, although she is shy. “Perspective”, “in the right village attire”, first she lays down crosses and bows to the front corner, not embarrassed by the unfamiliar situation to her, then she bows to those present. As in this picture written off from nature, the "magnificent" "devout" rootedness in the grandfather's custom of the then strong ordinary people was vividly expressed.

For Konstantin Leontiev, the flickering of the lamp in front of the icon was mysteriously connected with unforgettable memories of his mother, with the best childhood memories. All Russian domestic life in its true manifestations is alive with this, sanctified by this. Prayerful life flowed abundantly in the bowels of the family. Already in the same “Domostroy” by Sylvester we read:

Chapter 12. “How men and women and households in the house

pray for yours. All days, in the evening, to a husband and wife, and with children, and with household members, who knows how to read and write Vespers, Vespers, Midnight Office, with silence and attention, and with meekness, and with prayer, and with bows. Petit clearly and unanimously. After the rule, neither drink, nor eat, nor create a rumor ... And going to bed, every Christian should bow three times to the ground before God. And at midnight, always, secretly getting up, with tears diligently pray to God, as much as possible, about your sin: and when you get up in the morning, also, and to anyone according to your strength and desire ... Every Christian prays for his sin and forgiveness of sin. .

Of course, this is an idealized image, this is what the author of "Domostroy" exposes as an ideal - not everyone did this. But the prayer structure was strong in the old Russian family. The danger for old Russian piety consisted, as we know, in religious formalism, in a certain tendency to attach paramount importance to the external, ritual, secondary, and thereby materialize religion, turn it into a rigid ritual law, into a tendency that was the fatal cause of the split and not always overcome later. But the inner deep acceptance of the faith also lived, as we have partly already seen, in the patriarchal Russian families, spiritualized them with its breath, gave them strength for the struggle of life, gave inner light and warmth to their whole way of life. How many religiously fortified, morally strong, enlightened, righteous and blissful, radiant quiet light love, personalities, well-known, and even more unknown, who, perhaps, constitute the highest decoration of Russian national life, came out of the depths of the pious Russian family, merged closely with this way of life and sanctified it; we will dwell on this in more detail in the chapter on Russian righteous men of various times, various degrees of culture, various classes and states.

The charm of the patriarchal family life of the old Russian educated noble environment of the 19th century - this time is especially magnificent and creative flourishing Russian culture - consists, among other things, in the harmonious mutual combination of two cultural principles - Western European and native Russian - in the bosom of many of these families. Here, that creative synthesis was obtained, which is so characteristic of the Russian cultural, especially artistic and philosophical tradition of the 19th century. This is also a huge historical merit of family life.

And in Western culture Russian religious feeling, Russian family culture was looking for this old and undying religious-rooted, life-creating. Therefore, in a whole series of old Russian religious-minded cultural families, the spirit of true "Ecumenism" was so strong - universality, the search for the rays of the Logos of God - the Word of God wherever they met, and rejoicing in their radiance, spiritual openness for them, the spirit of true Christian fraternal love for the spiritual and religious treasures of the West, for its searches and acquisitions, for its great thinkers, artists, religious lights and righteous people, with deep spiritual fusion with the bosom of its Mother - the Eastern Church.

The warmth and comfort of old Moscow, old Moscow families rooted in tradition and at the same time living an enhanced cultural life! However, not only Moscow, but in general Russian Old Testament cultural families. But let us first dwell on Moscow, especially on this peculiar world of Moscow lanes full of great charm, for example, in the area of ​​​​the Arbat and Prechistenka, Povarskaya - the center of a concentrated, hospitable, patriarchal-cosy, simple-hearted, and at the same time often so refined and cultural life, so breathing tradition, so inextricably linked with him

known and at the same time often so dynamic and creative spiritually. This is, indeed, a whole special world connected with the rest of the world, but at the same time living its own special, concentrated life. Small, sometimes crooked lanes, mansions, partly hidden in the depths of a courtyard or garden, partly facing the street, mostly one-story, with a mezzanine, with several Empire columns and 8-9 facade windows (but often this house, which seems small from the street , stretches deep into the courtyard and turns out to be a huge house). And right next to it is the parish church (often two in the same lane, sometimes three), small, with green, blue or gold domes or bulbs, often five-domed, with a small, detached belfry, half-grown into the ground, with a planted a yard with trees, sometimes a walk-through, in which the wooden houses of the clergy peacefully stretch along the sides, and in the middle sometimes there is a large puddle with ducks lapping in it. From here, from this little church, the bell ringing is heard at any time of the day - in the morning, and in the evening, and in the afternoon, if, for example, someone is being buried. In the church itself, what a gracious peace, what concentration, especially during the hours of the evening service! The parishioners have their favorite, more or less permanent places. They stand and pray, some alone, others in families, the elderly are closer to the walls, sometimes with a chair. Lampadas are flickering, reflected on the salaries of icons, it is semi-dark in the church. They sing: “Quiet light, holy glory... Having come to the setting of the sun, having seen the light of the evening, let us sing to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit of God”... This gathered church life is pleasing and quiet, and not only soothing, but also invigorating. And in these mansions it is so warm and peaceful. A yard with numerous services, a garden to the street, often a garden stretches behind the house, sometimes a large one, with a gazebo, dense thickets of lilacs, where nightingales sing loudly in spring, with silvery poplars (there are especially many of them in Moscow). Their fallen buds are fragrant on spring evenings in the yard and garden, especially after a short, warm and blessed rain. A great lover and connoisseur of old Russia and especially old Moscow remarkably wrote about the charm of these mansions and life in them in his memoirs,

a man of knightly nobility, a fighter for the national cause against Bolshevism, and at the same time an artist at heart - Nikolai Nikolaevich Lvov.

“... The children grew up, studied at home with visiting teachers and teachers, skated from the mountains and skated on the Patriarch's Ponds and on Presnya, with childlike joy they played with simple handicraft toys, a carved wooden horse, amusingly painted dolls from the Trinity or a ruddy Matryoshka in sundress, ate raisins, halva, pods, sunflowers, and there was nothing better than a fig in the nanny's room. On Maslenaya they were taken to festivities in booths on Podnovinsky, during Great Lent everyone fasted, on Strastnaya everyone fasted, and confessed at their parish priest or in the monastery, where it was so scary to enter a small cell to an old confessor in a black cassock, met the Bright Resurrection of Christ in their parish and experienced all the mysterious joy of a dark spring night, when the first rumble of the bell of Ivan the Great is heard, and the oncoming inviting voices of Moscow bells rush towards him in the night air from all over and merge into one mysterious joyful iridescent ringing, going far, far into the sky over a city plunged into darkness.

Parents were not separated from their children by their daily activities or service, they lived a common life with them, in the summer in the countryside, in the winter in Moscow in their mansions, and the upbringing of children was warmed by such a warm feeling of love that nothing can replace. The words of the prayer, repeated in a child's whisper and learned from mother and nanny, and the child's fear of the first confession, and the joyful feeling, and the child's grief, and the tears—everything was connected in recollection with dear faces, with the kindness of the old nanny, with the tenderness of the mother, with her in a quiet voice and the soft, gentle touch of her hand on the hot forehead of a sick child, and then in these general readings and in the music in the evenings in the large living room, the whole impression of reading and playing the piano merges in memory with the sound of a mother’s voice reading aloud, with a smell lilacs and bird cherry, pouring into the room through the open window, with laughter and childish tears when reading

sad story or funny story, and the sounds of the Beethoven Sonata penetrate deeply into the child's soul, and just like reading aloud and the words of a prayer, everything remains for life - as one bright joyful childhood memory.

I would like to dwell especially on this inner family world. How much spiritual light and softness and warmth is in it. It is captured, for example, by Leo Tolstoy in an unforgettable way both in "Childhood" and in "War and Peace". For example, I will refer to the inimitable, fragrant scene of the return of Nikolai Rostov to parental home from the theater of war.

And these maternal concerns about the upbringing of children, this diary of children's behavior, which is kept by Marie Bolkonskaya, in the marriage of Rostov.

Tolstoy got it right. The center of all this life, its inspiring source, is the mother. The significance of the mother, the woman in the Russian patriarchal, cultural family, is decisive and fundamental. In the Russian cultural family, a woman - mother and wife - plays a spiritually more important role than a man, and not only in the upbringing of children. She is the inner hearth of family life, exuding warmth and affection, pouring out this maternal-female affection on family members, and on all household members, on relatives, friends and acquaintances, and even on outsiders, especially lonely, abandoned, unfortunate ones who have fallen into the sphere the impact of this family, who fell under her hospitable shelter, who come to bask in her warm soulful flame. She is the center of this hostel, a cheerful and gentle sun in the sky of this small world, a source of affection, compassion and comfort, and at the same time through her, through her prayers, through her participation in the prayer of children, through her example, through her instruction, the flow religious energy, a jet of another - beneficent being, in which all the best that this family possesses is rooted, pour into its daily, most everyday and ordinary, life manifestations. Here we touch on the deepest, most sacred of the creative roots of Russian

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6 "Past years", in "Russian Thought", Prague, 1923 kN. I-II, pp. 104, 98-99.

family culture and Russian culture in general. And this image of the Russian mother and wife, the center of the family and family charm and the bearer of the religious principle, has not died, has not outlived itself. He lives to this day in many Russian mothers!

The one who replaced his mother from the very early age, his aunt Tatyana Alexandrovna Ergolskaya, Leo Tolstoy commemorates in his senile memoirs the following words, filled with noble tenderness: “The main feature of her life, which involuntarily infected me, was her amazing, universal kindness to everyone without exception. I try to remember, and I can’t, not a single case when she got angry, said a harsh word, condemned - I can’t remember a single case in 30 years of her life ... She never taught how to live, in words, never didn't read the lectures. All moral work there was processing in her inside, and only her deeds came out - and not deeds, ... but her whole life, calm, meek, submissive and loving not with anxious, admiring herself, but with quiet, imperceptible love. She was doing the inner work of love, and therefore she did not need to rush anywhere. And these two qualities - love and slowness - imperceptibly attracted to society to her and gave a special charm to this closeness ... More than one love for me was joyful. Joyful was this atmosphere of love for all those present and absent, the living and the dead, people and even animals. The image of the mother, who, judging by all the data, was an amazing woman, according to the blessed, meek radiance of her spirit, but whom he knew only from the stories of loved ones (he was 2 years old when she died), was one of the most cherished and holy; his wealth inner world. In his memoirs, Tolstoy writes about his mother in the following way: “She seemed to me such a high, pure, spiritual being that often in the middle period of my life, during the struggle with the temptations that overcame me, I prayed to her soul, asking her to help me, and these prayers have always helped me.” N. G. Molostov says that when in the summer of 1908 in Yasnaya Polyana there was a conversation about what amazing person was Maria Nikolaevna, Lev Nikolaevich softly and quietly, apparently holding back tears,

said, “Well, I don’t know that; I only know that I have c u lte to her." The entry in Tolstoy's diary dates back to the same time: "I can't talk about my mother without tears" (June 13, 1908). And a few days before that, he writes: “This morning I go around the garden and, as always, I remember my mother, about “mother”, whom I don’t remember at all, but who remained for me a holy ideal” ... (June 10th 1908). And a day later: "... the dearest ... being for me is my mother." It is not for nothing that N. N. Gusev dedicates his “Life of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy” to “her blessed memory” 7 .

Prince Evgeny Nikolaevich Trubetskoy in his childhood memoirs depicts the spiritual atmosphere that surrounded his childhood in this way: “Maybe this is self-deception, maybe this is just my personal feeling, but now, 40 years after our last departure from Akhtyrka, it seems to me that we breathed grace there, as if every breath of air was full of grace there. I remember four cribs in the nursery, in my very early childhood, when we boys were not yet separated from our sisters; on the cots - muslin curtains from mosquitoes and swatches. Through the open window, all sorts of evening country sounds burst in - the monotonous and, as it were, violin unison of mosquitoes, the drawn-out top note of a song in the distance, the rare and all the more mysterious strike of a church bell - and above all this - a loud affirmation of the joy of life - whole symphony, performed by an orchestra of numerous swifts that flew out at sunset from their nests above the windows of the master's house 9 . The decisive factor in this atmosphere of peace and grace was his mother. “The more conscious, the more I became, the more these golden grains in my memories of her. I remember how deliberately incomprehensible reading in the evenings was replaced by reading the Gospel when we began to grow up. I remember how we got into the habit of confessing to her every day in our

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7 N. N. Gusev. The life of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Young Tolstoy. Moscow, 1927. Page. 26, 23, 33-37.

8 Trubetskoy's estate.

9 Book. E. N. Trubetskoy. "From the Past", p. 31.

children's crimes. I remember how she knew how to cut through to tears and arouse a deep consciousness of guilt. For a grievously delinquent, she had words of deep fiery indignation” 10 .

I will finish again with a reminiscence related to my family. What silence and peace the evenings breathed in the house of my grandfather, Vasily Sergeevich Arsenyev, in Moscow on Sadovaya. The old grandfather reads aloud to two unmarried daughters, my aunts, Nadezhda and Maria Vasilievna (the “Martha and Mary” of our family, individuals of an unusually high spiritual level, great kindness and spiritual radiance) in a cozy living room under the old Dolgorukovsky portraits by Borovikovsky and Levitsky. Both aunts work - they knit or embroider; I need to go upstairs to study, but I want to sit for an extra 5-10 minutes.

And here is an excerpt from my grandfather's letter:

Letter to the eldest son (about the relationship between him and his wife).

“... Our tenderness and love unites us in such a way that it is like your perfect love to each other, with the only difference being that we are elders, and that the miracle of Christ in the exaltation of marriage, symbolized by the turning of water into wine, at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, we now feel more and more strongly ...

Here we involuntarily again touched the inner Holy of Holies of this family life.

The family is not the last. The atmosphere of family warmth and comfort and mutual self-forgetting love is one of the highest human values, but it itself suggests a nourishing principle. There are still greater depths that are revealed in the bosom of the same believing family, the depths of a grace-filled life, which I have already spoken about more than once. Not only were her nourishing roots here, but here she was touching something Immeasurably Superior.

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10 Book. E. N. Trubetskoy. "From the Past", p. 34.

walking towards the Ultimate and Highest Reality, where the family principle found its highest limit, but also its overcoming or completion. The ideal of domestic warmth, the precious reality of family happiness, were shattered by life, or rather by death, tearing the dearest members of the family out of the family circle, and then the image of another, imperishable House, the Father's house, in which "there are many abodes" grew before the eyes. But this is the great significance of a believing family, that the first news about this House of the Father - the first, still unclear feeling of it and the first inner meeting with this Father took place in its depths. “Every family in heaven and on earth is named after Him,” says the Apostle Paul (Eph. 3:15). In believing families, the bearers of this principle of “Fatherland” – father and mother, were looking for the last, decisive point of support for themselves and their children in this heavenly “Fatherland”, their children’s eyes were directed to it. Therefore, as we have already seen, joint prayer, joint kneeling before the Heavenly Father, surrendering ourselves and each other into His hands - this is one of the main pillars of the life of this family.

We started with the religious, and we finish this image of the Russian Old Testament family culture with the religious. But if, at the beginning of our exposition, we especially paid attention to the ritual, more external, albeit deeply saturated with prayer jets, side of this life, that is, to life, to the way of life, the enormous importance of which as background, as a framework and moral support of family and, in general, all folk culture is undoubted, now I would like to touch a little more on what is even more important, essential and deep - namely, the living, nourishing dynamics, the prayer element and the life of inner achievement associated with it, how they manifest themselves in the family.

However, I will not dwell on the description, for example, of the joint fasting of children and parents during Great Lent, on the pictures of joint going to the services of Holy Week, on the enormous significance of the elements of prayer and the sacraments of the Church in the life of patriarchal Russians, including old cultural families.

mei, approved in this world of religious Reality - all this is known even without books. How, for example, was the religious atmosphere of Aksakov's house reflected in Ivan Aksakov's well-known poetic depiction of evening church service in the village parish church - paintings, well known and close to him from childhood.

Come, you weak

Come, joyous one.

Calling for Vespers

To a blessed prayer.

And the sound of peace

Everyone asks for the soul;

The neighborhood is calling

It spreads in the fields...

And slenderly clear

There is singing,

And the deacon is peaceful

Creates an announcement.

About gratitude

Labor of those who pray

About the royal city

About all workers

About those who are in favor

Suffering is given...

And smoke hangs in the church,

Thick with incense...

There were leaders of these families in religious life. The close connection between patriarchal believing families—especially the mothers of these families and the Russian elders—is a phenomenon of great significance in the history of Russian culture and spiritual life, which has not yet been adequately explored. Characteristic is the following episode from the life of Ivan Kireevsky, the founder of Russian religious philosophy, the first Russian philosopher who fertilized his thought by turning to the inner experience of the great ascetics and mystics of the Eastern Church. As is well known, he was initially fascinated by the religious philosophy of Schelling. With delight, he read aloud some passages from Schelling's works to his young wife Natalia Petrovna. She answered him that all this was not new to her, she had already met all this in the works of the holy fathers. Kireevsky then himself began to read the works of the fathers and mystics Orthodox Church, and his wife introduced him to the wonderful old man Filaret of the Moscow Novospassky Monastery. After the death of the old

in 1842, both spouses of the Kireevskys came under the spiritual leadership of the remarkable elder Macarius of Optinsky. Of interest are the preserved letters of the Kireevsky spouses, especially Natalia Petrovna, to the elder Macarius. She confides her spiritual difficulties to him and asks for consolation and encouragement: ... “I am no good, my heart suffers incessantly: fear arises and produces sadness. Sometimes prayer makes it easier, and sometimes there is no strength to pray. Sometimes in the present I see the past and what has happened, unknown or hidden, I am distracted by the thought: spiritual suffering is increasing, while mental and physical strength is diminishing ... Here, father, my worthless sin, I confess to you, as to my merciful father, and I hope to receive from you healing of my infirmity of soul" 11 ...

Many, many Russian families, especially mothers of families, received spiritual support and guidance from the elders. One of these spiritual leaders was the famous recluse Vyshinsky, Bishop Feofan. Here, for example, is how he writes to one mother, burdened with many family trials:

“The grace of God be with you. Everything that is from the Lord, apart from our arbitrariness, is the best for us. This is not only by faith, it is abstractly so, but no matter what the circumstances of life are, you will palpably see that this is always the case. So now your embarrassment from everywhere - and your own illness and filial, and those difficult things about which you hint - all this is the best for you and for all of yours. Just pray and, praying, thank God. And for mournful things we must give thanks even more—to kiss the punishing and teaching right hand of God. Our blindness, not seeing anything, and too pretentious pride are the same - the reasons are the essence of your sorrows and the fact that my heart is too sick under unfavorable circumstances. Of course, you understand all this in such a way and know how to insert your feelings into a frame that Heavenly Providence makes with inimitable art. I wish you b-

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11 See Prot. Sergiy Chetverikov Optina Pustyn. Paris, YMCA-Press, pp. 149-150 (Letters from N.P. Kireevskaya to the Optina Elder Hieromonk Father Macarius).

goodwill. A heart devoted to the Lord always knows how to find peace. May the Mother of God warm you with maternal consolation in your soul. What is it like for you now? My desire is for the Lord to lighten you and clear your horizon a little. (November 15, 1872).

And here again is a whole series of letters to another mother, Princess N.I.

... “It is the duty of parents to admonish children,” so did yours. And be afraid of what? The word love never irritates. Commander only does not produce any fruit. In order for the Lord to bless the children to avoid dangers, one must pray day and night. God is merciful, He has many means to prevent - which we cannot even think of. God rules everything. He is a wise, all-good and all-powerful Ruler. And we belong to His Kingdom. Why be discouraged? He will not let His own be hurt. One thing is to be taken care of—how not to offend Him—and He has not struck you out of His number... (September 21, 1875).

He gives advice to mothers about fasting together with children:

“The grace of God be with you. Bless the Lord - to tell you all and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. More contrition about sinfulness is needed than enumeration of sins, although this is necessary. More prayerful sighs from the heart than reading prayers, although this is necessary. Fussiness must be expelled from the soul and reverence before God should be established there. Having established this reverence, then remain with it. Let the beauties revere: "Rise, sleep." This will be a good introduction to repentance... Pray for your husband, but refrain from judging. It is not surprising for the Lord to turn his heart in one minute. And God forbid the high school student to succeed ... ".

Theophan writes to the father of the family, who has turned to faith, inciting him to works of mercy:

...“For the fact that the Lord called you to faith, nothing special is required, except to be sincerely faithful to the faith. And be grateful that the Lord has called you out of darkness into light. Help the most

needy. Whoever comes to you with tears, do not let him go without drying this tear. Blessed are the merciful ones, for there will be mercy... Because of the hand of the needy, always behold the hand of the Lord Himself, who converted You, extended to You. He Himself said, “Whatever you do to them—the poor, you will do to Me”... (September 14, 1874)

We have seen how streams of grace-filled instructions, of a grace-filled inner life poured through parents, especially through the mother of the family, into the environment of the family and did not remain without influence. To this I could give a number of examples from personal experience and personal meetings.

And the grief of a mother who has lost her children finds a lively response in a loving spiritual leader and adviser who knows how to support a soul shaken by sadness. In this regard, the correspondence between Ekaterina Vladimirovna Novosiltseva, born Countess Orlova, who lost in a duel only son, with her spiritual mentor, Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow. On September 21, 1825, Filaret wrote to Novosiltseva from the Lavra:

“May the God of patience and consolation grant His servant not to become exhausted in the feat of patience, and may He send His consolation in sorrow, in which human consolations fail. “The Mother of the Crucified for us, who experienced the greatest of Mother’s sorrows, may she accept the prayer of a grieving mother in order to bring her to the throne of Her Son and God.” (September 21, 1825) 12.

A reassessment of values ​​occurs in this internal struggle, in this grief and the loss of the dearest and closest. And the gaze is directed to other, the highest plane of being, to the House of the Heavenly Father, when the most precious thing that was in this life, which gave comfort and value hearth gone there from this life. The soul is shocked, wounded, the crust of earthly well-being and some kind of earthly, even the most innocent, self-satisfaction, focusing mainly on one's earthly happiness has been cut through.

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12 Letters of the Most Reverend. Filaret Metropolitan of Moscow to E. V. Novosiltseva. Moscow. 1911, p. 61.

and comfort, and an impulse is revealed — in the most real, albeit painful way — into the depths of the highest and decisive Reality, not as before, but with all one’s strength, all one’s will, all one’s mind. And earthly love is transformed and grows and helps the soul in this new life of service, and itself visits the soul thrown into its languor - undying, already purified and deepened love. Such a reassessment of values, such an overcoming of attachments to earthly warmth and comfort occurred in Khomyakov's soul after the death of his infinitely beloved wife. A record made by Yuri Samarin of his conversation with Khomyakov, which took place shortly after this event, and published many years later in the Tatev collection of S. A. Rachinsky. This is perhaps one of the most significant documents of Russian intimate and family and at the same time mystical life. I bring the full story of Samarin 13.

“... Khomyakov understood Christian revelation as a living, continuous speech of God, directly addressed to the personal consciousness of each person, and he listened to it with intense attention. Our conversations often touched on this topic with regard to the general question of the significance of Providence in the history of mankind, a people, or an individual, but he never introduced me to the realm of my own inner feelings. Only once was it given to me to penetrate into the secret of this uninterrupted conversation between him and God. This conversation is so deeply engraved in my memory that I can repeat it almost from word to word.

Having learned about the death of Ekaterina Mikhailovna, I took a vacation and, having arrived in Moscow, hurried to him. When I entered his office, he stood up, took me by both hands and for some time could not utter a single word. Soon, however, he regained control of himself and told me in detail the whole course of the illness and treatment. The meaning of his story was that Ekaterina Mikhailovna died, contrary to all probabilities, due to a necessary combination of circumstances. He himself clearly understood the root of the disease and,

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13 See “Tataevsky Collection” by S. A. Rachinsky, St. Petersburg. 1899, pp. 128-133.

knowing firmly what means were to help, in spite of his usual determination, he hesitated to use them. The two doctors, not recognizing the disease, of which the symptoms, according to him, were obvious, fell into a deep error and, by wrong treatment, produced a new disease, first exhausting all the forces of the body. He saw it all and yielded to them. After listening to him, I noticed that all this seemed obvious to him now, because the unfortunate outcome of the disease justified his fears and at the same time erased from his memory all other signs on which he himself probably last minutes based hope for recovery. I added that in reproducing now in his own way and in reverse order the consequences to the causes of the whole course of the disease, he only exposes himself to fruitless torment. Then he stopped me, taking my hand: “You did not understand me; I didn't mean to say that it was easy to save her. On the contrary, I see with crushing clarity that she had to die for me, precisely because there was no reason to die. The blow was directed not at her, but at me. I know that she is better now than she was here, but I forgot myself in the fullness of my happiness. I neglected the first blow; the second is such that it cannot be forgotten. His voice trembled and he lowered his head. A few minutes later he continued: “I want to tell you what happened to me. A few years ago, I came home from church after communion and, unfolding the Gospel of John, I attacked the last conversation of the Savior with the disciples after the Last Supper. As I read these words, from which the jet beats with a living spring boundless love, came to me stronger and stronger, as if someone was saying them next to me. Having reached the words: "You are my friends," I stopped reading and listened to them for a long time. They penetrated right through me. On this I fell asleep. My heart felt unusually light and light. Some kind of force lifted me higher and higher, streams of light poured from above and washed over me; I felt that a voice would soon be heard. Trembling penetrated all the veins. But in one minute everything stopped; I can't tell you what happened to me. It was not a ghost, but some kind of dark, impenetrable veil that suddenly lowered

hovered before me and separated me from the realm of light. What was on it, I could not make out; but at the same instant all the idle moments of my life, all my fruitless conversations, my vain vanity, my laziness, my attachment to worldly squabbles flashed through my memory like a whirlwind. What was not there. Familiar faces with whom, God knows why, I met and diverged, delicious dinners, cards, a game of billiards, many such things that, apparently, I never think about and which, it seemed, I did not value at all. All this together merged into some kind of ugly mass, leaned on my chest and crushed me to the ground. I woke up with a feeling of crushing shame. For the first time, I felt like a slave to the bustle of life from head to toe. Remember, in passages, it seems to John of the Ladder these words: “Blessed is he who has seen an angel; a hundred times more blessed is he who has seen himself." For a long time I could not recover from this lesson, but then life took its toll. It was hard not to lose myself in that fullness of imperturbable happiness which I enjoyed. You can't understand what this life together means. You are too young to appreciate her." Here he stopped and was silent for some time, then added: “On the eve of her death, when the doctors had already hung their heads and there was no hope of salvation, I threw myself on my knees in front of the image in a state close to frenzy and began - let alone pray, but ask God for it. We all repeat that prayer is omnipotent, but we ourselves do not know its power, because it rarely happens to pray with all our soul. I felt such a power of prayer that could melt away everything that seems to be a solid and inexorable obstacle; I felt that God's omnipotence, as if summoned by me, was coming towards my prayer, and that the life of a wife could be given to me. At that moment the black veil descended upon me again; what had already happened to me the first time was repeated, and my powerless prayer fell to the ground. Now all the charm of life is lost for me. I cannot enjoy life. Joy was available to me only through her, as what comforted me was reflected on her face. It remains to fulfill my lesson. Now, thanks to God, there will be no need to

remind myself of death, she will go with me inseparably to the end.

I wrote this story from word to word, as it was preserved in my memory; but, after rereading it, I feel that I am unable to convey the calmly concentrated tone in which he spoke to me. His words made a deep impression on me precisely because it was in him alone that not a shadow of self-delusion could be supposed. There was not a person in the world who was to such an extent disgusted and unusual to be carried away by his own sensations and give way to clarity of consciousness to nervous irritation. His inner life was distinguished by sobriety - this was the predominant feature of his piety. He was even afraid of emotion, knowing that a person is too inclined to take credit for every earthly feeling, every shed tear; and when tenderness came over him, he deliberately poured a stream of cold mockery on himself in order not to let his soul evaporate in fruitless impulses and to direct all its forces to the cause. That everything that he told me really happened to him, that in those moments of his life his self-consciousness was illumined by a revelation from above - I am as sure of this as that he was sitting opposite me, that he, and no one else, spoke with me.

His whole subsequent life is explained by this story. The death of Ekaterina Mikhailovna produced a decisive turning point in her. Even those who did not know him very closely could notice that from that moment on, his ability to get carried away by anything that was not directly related to his vocation had cooled down. He no longer allowed himself to do anything. Apparently, he retained his former gaiety and sociability, but the memory of his wife and the thought of death did not leave him. How many times I noticed, by the expression of his face, how this thought interrupted the cheerful stream of his good-natured laughter. His life was split in two. During the day he worked, read, talked, went about his business, gave himself to everyone who cared about him. But when night fell and everything around him settled down and fell silent, another time began for him. Here memories of the former bright and happy

In the early years of his life, the image of his dead wife was resurrected before him, and only in these moments of complete solitude did he give vent to restrained longing.

Once I lived with him in Ivanovskoye. Several guests came to him, so that all the rooms were occupied, and he moved my bed to him. After supper, after long conversations animated by his inexhaustible gaiety, we lay down, put out the candles, and I fell asleep. Long after midnight, I woke up from some conversation in the room. The morning dawn barely illuminated her. Without moving or raising my voice, I began to peer and listen. He knelt in front of his marching icon, his hands were folded in a cross on the chair cushion, his head rested in his hands. Repressed sobs reached my ears. This went on until the morning. Of course, I pretended to be asleep. The next day he came out to us cheerful, cheerful, with his usual good-natured laugh. From the man who accompanied him everywhere, I heard that this was repeated almost every night.

Here, for a moment, the innermost, intimate depths flashed before us, where the highest rise human feeling touches the highest and ultimate Reality, that Reality from which the meaning and life of an individual person and all spiritual and creative tradition family and people.

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