From a letter from Hieromonk Kyriakos: “When you came to us, our foreigners had a lot of conversation about you. The shamans especially hated you. And I, damned one, wanted to laugh at you - for the sake of fun, to receive baptism from you. You gave me the name Ilya. And my abuse of you turned into reality. Something bright dawned on my whole mind. I was literally reborn spiritually in a few days and I wanted so badly to be just like you.”
And by the will of God, Elijah (Elijah) became the same as his successor at baptism, Hieromonk Nestor. He lived a life similar to the life of Lord Nestor. Ilya and a merchant he knew ended up in Blagoveshchensk in 1908. There he said that he was baptized by Fr. Nestor and confessed to Bishop Vladimir of the Amur region in the sin of blasphemy and asked him to be tonsured a monk. Bishop Vladimir sent him to Kazan to study as a missionary. They assigned him, like novice Nikolai Anisimov, to the Mongolian department. Ilya was tonsured a monk with the name Cyriacus by His Eminence Alexy (Dorodnitsyn), the rector of the Theological Academy. Yes, the same bishop who ordained Hierodeacon Nestor to the rank of hieromonk in 1907. In the same Kazan Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior. After completing the courses Fr. Kiriak was sent as a missionary to Bishop Nicholas (Kasatkin) of Japan, the future Saint.
Further coincidences in the life events of Metropolitan Nestor and Hieromonk Kyriak continued. Saint Nicholas of Japan, and after him Bishop Sergius, sent the hieromonk as a missionary to the pagans of Japan, Korea and China. In 1916, Bishop Sergius sent him with an assignment to Archbishop of Vladivostok and Kamchatka Eusebius (Nikolsky) - the first priest of Hieromonk Nestor. There about. Kyriakos was present at the consecration of Archimandrite Nestor as Bishop of Kamchatka.
« I made many, many efforts to approach you and with tears ask you for forgiveness for that... blasphemous sin, when, for fun... I accepted from you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit the watery sacrament of Holy Baptism.I am still surprised how it could have happened that I confessed this blasphemy to six Saints... But I couldn’t before you. Something unknown prevented me during the period when you received, were honored to receive the rank of Bishop of Kamchatka. It was in autumn".
Let me remind you that this consecration became an outstanding event in the history of the Far East and the Russian Orthodox Church, because in the first and in last time did not take place in the capital.
Upon returning to Russia from China, Hieromonk Kiriak was arrested in 1936 and released in 1955 (that is, he served 19 years in a convict camp in Kolyma). Due to the fact that he had no one left in Kamchatka, he was placed in Kolyma in the Home for the Invalids, and in the summer of 1956 he and the surviving old clergy were transported “to Russia.” At the time of the beginning of the correspondence, Fr. Kiriakou was 88 years old.
The spiritual reunion of Metropolitan Nestor and Hieromonk Kiriak began in August 1960. A letter from Mikhail Vasilyevich Pantyukhin arrived at the diocesan administration (Kirovograd, Ukraine) addressed to the ruling bishop. This man sat with a group of clergy, among whom was Hieromonk Kiriak, the godson of the Vladyka (Ilya). It was he who asked Mikhail Vasilyevich to find Vladyka in order to confess his sin to him. They began a correspondence.
Finally, in November 1960, Metropolitan Nestor received, through Mikhail Vasilyevich, a long-awaited letter from Fr. Kyriak - his spiritual son.
«… Your Eminence! Holy Hierarch of God and my much-loving Master! From the very beginning, I, the sinful and unworthy humble Monk Kyriakos, fall on my face before Your Holiness and ask for Your Hierarchal blessing, kissing Your right hand.
<…>And now my soul was so filled with joy that I thought my heart could not stand it. After all, not only grief, but also unexpected great joy can agitate any person to the point of losing his mind... Your letter reminded me of much of my past sinful life even before your arrival in Gizhiginsky district to our Koryak traveling Orthodox mission. I remember well three houses on the seashore between the hills in which you sheltered the unfortunate lepers and in the corner of one house you built your church for them, as I just now remembered you named it in honor of the long-suffering Job from the Bible. Because he, too, was a leper... I was told a lot about how you came there to the lepers [lepers], performed Divine services for them and brought them food, gifts, holy books and various fun things for the children.
The only reason I remembered you more than fifty years later, and especially since 1936, is that you have always stood in my memory as the Great Holy Philanthropist of the unfortunate sick and poor big children of nature, it was like a pristine one.
When you came to us in Gizhiga as a young priest, I remember well, I was already 35 years old and I was such a desperate thief and scoundrel. After all, I was left an orphan for about six years. The merchant colonists raised me with beatings in their trading posts. From them I learned the Russian language, and then literacy...
My lord and Saint of God, I tearfully beg you, forgive me, the accursed one, for the sake of Christ Jesus. Oh, and I'm really tired of talking. After all, our clerk has been writing this letter for two days, and I lie there and tell him what to write. In 1920 it so happened that I got through Korea to China and whole year I was kept in the city of Yun-Pingfu at the Russian Church of St. John the Baptist of the Lord. And then the time came that it was impossible to travel to my homeland - there was war everywhere - and again the Lord God brought me to Japan.
In 1936, I was again drawn to my homeland, but before I could get off the ship’s ladder, I was arrested. They were convicted and sent first to the banks of the Amur, and then to Kolyma, Chukotka. They were released in 1954 (remember that Metropolitan Nestor was also arrested and served 7.5 years in a hard labor prison in Mordovia - A.B.), but who needs an 82-year-old man? And together with others like me, I was placed in an invalid home.
I am tired, my Lord and Master. And I want to tell you so much, so much about my present life and cry out all my sins before you.”
There is a very intensive correspondence going on. It seems that everyone has the intention of having time to tell everything. Everyone is elderly, everyone is sick and infirm. The residents of the Home for the Invalids are leaving one after another for another world. And every day we live is a gift from God.
Despite his enormous busyness, Metropolitan Nestor answers regularly. Moreover, he writes himself, despite the fact that he is not in good health, that his eyesight is very poor...
O. Kiriak:
“Hello, Your Holy Eminence!<…>After all, no one, no one forced me to take monastic vows. Three times I handed the scissors into the hands of the man who cut the hair, and twice he returned them to me with the words, maybe I’ll come to my senses and refuse him. But the power of your Baptism over me turned out to be so powerful, so overwhelming, that without hesitation I would be ready to go to execution in the name of Jesus Christ.
...After all, it’s easy to say, but for more than fifty years I have not seen the One who put me on the path and eternal life, who enlightened me with the Clear Light of the Gospel Truth, and suddenly receive good things from Him, good message and great signs of His favor... Oh, Lord! How easy my soul feels now! Like Saint Simeon the God-Receiver, I say: “Now you let go, Master!..” For my eyes have seen Him who long ago illuminated my black soul with the Light of the Gospel teaching, and thereby made a faithful Christian who knew the meaning from a cruel bandit and idolater temporary earthly life for the sake of Eternal life in the heavens of your Lord and God."
From a letter from M. Nestor:
“My dear, spiritually close and spiritually dear, my beloved child, God-given godson to me Ilya, and in monasticism hieromonk Kiriak!
...After so many years... The Lord destined us to meet in absentia by letters to each other... God saved your soul and although you did not dare to personally ask for my forgiveness when in Vladivostok they consecrated me as Bishop of Kamchatka and did not dare to approach me, but first it was destined for you confess your sin of mocking your baptism for the purpose of desecration and you asked for forgiveness from six Bishops, telling them how you, having deceived me, were baptized for the purpose of desecration and ridicule. And only half a century later God decided to find me and bring me repentance, asking to forgive you for your blasphemous insolence. You rejoice in this, I rejoice too, through the prayer of your spiritual father in my person - I am your confessor... now Metropolitan Nestor, by the authority given to me by God, I forgive and release you, my child Ilya, from the font of Holy Baptism, and now Hieromonk Kiriak, from the hidden sin of your outrage against the Holy Sacrament of Baptism and against me, your weak Baptist in your young years and from all your sins in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
What a great mercy of the Lord to both you and me, since God destined us both to live to a ripe old age, and the Lord reconciled us through your sincere repentance. Glory to God and thanksgiving for everything!
...It is significant that I received your letter of repentance on October 16/29 of this 1960, i.e. 44 years after my consecration to the rank of Bishop of Kamchatka. On this day in 1916, you were in the cathedral in Vladivostok when I was ordained as a Bishop. 1/XI-1960.”
O. Kiriak in a letter dated November 14, 1960:
“In my earthly life, the Lord helped me reach the desired peak, and this peak is a request for forgiveness of the great sins I committed in the days of my pagan youth against you, my spiritual Father and Teacher. From the day your forgiveness of my sins was read to me, it became very easy for me. Now nothing frightens me and I am ready to die calmly and give my soul to the Eternal Creator of all things who created me.”
After 3 months, Father Kiriak departed to the Lord in peace.
Note: all the above-quoted fragments are taken from a collection of letters stored in the archives of the Museum of the History of Orthodoxy in Kamchatka (AMIP). Case I-MN (Metropolitan Nestor). Folder No. 1 (Correspondence).
A. I. Belashov
Director of the Museum of the History of Orthodoxy in Kamchatka,
full member of the Russian Geographical Society
June 14 2011
The name of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov will forever remain in Russian history as one of the loudest. His stories and plays reflected Russian society late XIX- beginning of the 20th century. The problems that Chekhov wrote about in his works have not lost their relevance in modern times, since the writer exposed eternal human vices: laziness, servility.
Still at the beginning creative path Chekhov was interested in the problem of the spiritual rebirth of man. Over time, the writer’s works became more topical, but the author’s attitude to the problem of spiritual degradation of the individual remains unchanged. Chekhov takes the position of an accuser of the abominations of life.
Already in early stories Chekhov's satire does not so much entertain as it makes you think and be horrified. Thus, in the story “Fat and Thin” he criticizes the slave psychology of man: the joyful picture of the meeting of two old friends turns into a comic one at the moment when the thin one learns that the fat one has already risen to the rank of Privy Councilor. The thin one suddenly “shrank, hunched over, narrowed... His suitcase, bundles and cardboard boxes shrank, winced...” The toadying and crawling of the thin one is so disgusting that it causes nausea not only in the fat one, but also in the author and reader himself.
“The Death of an Official” is devoted to the same topic. The little official Chervyakov accidentally sneezed on the general’s bald head in the theater. This incident made a terrifying impression on the official. Chervyakov was very scared. He tries several times to apologize to the general and in the end the state councilor gets annoyed. Chervyakov “came mechanically home, without taking off his uniform, legnadivan...died.” Small man I was never able to cope with my fear.
It must be said that Chekhov’s attitude towards people was always demanding. The writer is especially outraged by the fact of man's senseless vegetation, lost opportunities, wasted abilities.
This is exactly what Chekhov writes about in the story “Ionych”. The hero of the story, the young doctor Ionych Startsev, has enormous potential. He is full of strength and aspirations, but is placed in constant, daily repeating circumstances. In city C, where Dmitry Ionych ends up, stagnation reigns, the life of the townspeople is boring and monotonous. "The most talented family", with whom Startsev met, disappoints the hero: "... If the most talented people the whole city is so mediocre, then what should the city be like!” Love for Ekaterina Ivanovna Turkina also ends in disappointment - Startsev eventually understands that Kotik is limited. However, over time, the philistine atmosphere gradually tightens. Startsev turns into Ionych. He is glad that he did not marry Turkina at the time. A new and only entertainment appears in his life - counting the money received from clients. He enjoys playing cards and having a bite to eat with the townsfolk, but Startsev avoids any abstract conversations with the townspeople. Ionych is reluctant to walk; he has acquired not a pair, but three horses. The impulses of youth are a thing of the past.
The human one has fallen apart. In the finale, the doctor appears overweight, red-faced, unceremonious with patients and devoid of the concept of honor and conscience. Ionych is constantly irritated. The doctor is absolutely no different from other ordinary people.
Doctor Startsev is unable to resist environment, he becomes like the rest of the townspeople. The hero’s guilt is aggravated by the fact that he is well aware of everything, but does not try to do anything. Thus, the spiritual disintegration of the personality occurs.
Chekhov not only depicts in the story “Ionych” a typical phenomenon of life - the degradation of personality. He tracks this process in two ways: in the foreground is the progressive development - from the hero’s youth to maturity. Deep
All his life A.P. Chekhov was interested in the topic of human spiritual rebirth. The writer thought about how people change. Chekhov always dreamed of changing a person in better side, but saw that his dreams were not always similar to reality.
He was interested in why good-natured, decent people suddenly become rude and hypocritical. What are the reasons for this? Anton Pavlovich in his works always analyzed, assumed and tried to explain the change in people for the better or the worst side.
According to the writer, spiritual rebirth was influenced by changes associated with life: marriage, advancement career ladder, grief that happened in the family and many, many other life situations.
Let's look at several works and try to understand the writer's thoughts, agree with them or, conversely, refute them. For example, in the famous lyrical comedy “ The Cherry Orchard“We meet such a hero as the young footman Yasha, an insignificant person, an ordinary guy from the village. Why did his life change for the worse? Where did you go? good feelings, spiritual qualities of a Russian village man?
Chekhov reveals these changes to us by connecting them with life situation. It's simple: Yasha, after spending five years with his landowner abroad, returned to his native land. But how these five years affected him! When Yasha was told that his mother had come to see him and had been sitting there since yesterday, he did not react to it in any way, he only showed his rotten insides: “God is absolutely with her!” Very necessary. I could come tomorrow.”
Wealth and beauty personal life abroad influenced the lackey negatively. He picked up “cheap things” there: “Yes, sir, it’s nice to smoke a cigar in the fresh air...” But since Yasha is an uneducated person, while he trumps this, he does not understand that this did not make him an intelligent and secular person.
Chekhov hated bookish phrases, fashionable words and everything far-fetched with which the Russian man wanted to portray himself as a European. Using Yasha as an example, the writer makes it clear to the reader that all this is stupid and absolutely unnecessary. Chekhov shows to what extent “lousy” a person can change, striving only for external gloss and despising those who (as it seems to him) are not as developed and enlightened as himself.
Anton Pavlovich always felt sorry for such people and wanted them to become simpler, more truthful, more natural. Chekhov has many such heroes. One of them is Olga Ivanovna Dymova, the heroine of the story “The Jumper”. This is a young woman living off a husband she doesn't care about, making fun of him with her friends who aren't really her friends.
It seems to Olga Ivanovna that Dymov himself does not notice this, because, from her point of view, he is a simple, narrow-minded person, unlike her - sophisticated, artistic, secular. She has many extraordinary acquaintances: artists, artists, among them there is also a “landowner - amateur illustrator.”
All her company are “spoiled by fate”, all are rich, bohemian people. Among this company, Doctor Dymov turns out to be a stranger. His young wife, who loved to sing, play the piano, paint, and sculpt, was drawn to this bohemian audience.
It was she who came to them, and not vice versa, because after the death of her husband, when there was no money and balls, there were no more these so-called friends. Only then did Olga Ivanovna realize how hypocritical and unfair she was towards her husband. After all, Dymov loved her, but did she love him? No, she liked to be loved, she liked his attitude towards her and his reliability in everything.
Olga Ivanovna had great faith in her friends, who constantly praised her: “She is ruining herself: if she had not been lazy and pulled herself together, she would have made a wonderful singer.” It turned out that all the praise was just flattery, and Olga Ivanovna was a person with whom one could spend time, not without pleasure. When her husband died, Olga Ivanovna herself became of no use to anyone.
MENTORING
I started helping newcomers when I had more or less cleared away all my problems and rubble. Until this year and a half, I was taking care of myself and inspiredly making amendments to the existing translation of the Big Book (fortunately, I myself have experience as a translator, and I was very interested in it), and then I had to solve problems in my personal life and return again to those moments in my life. inventory, which I “tactfully” toured for the first time. Since then, I have joked about this topic: “If you don’t try to make the program as carefully and honestly as possible, the program will make you.”
And I started helping because all this personal baggage and what I received from the Big Book could not be taken and shoved under the pillow. Yes, and to help others was in a great way take your mind off personal troubles. The experience with the first mentee who achieved the result promised in the Big Book, what happened to her and what she became - it simply caused me delight and awareness of the greatness of the Higher Power. Before my eyes, she literally went through the entire foundation and was reborn. In fact, this is still my main motivation. I cannot deny myself the pleasure of seeing what a person can achieve together with his Higher Power. Initially, I chose the position: the primary source and what is written in it are more important than my personal experience and understanding of how it should be done. The reason for this was my observations of how the message is distorted during the transmission of “personal experience”. And I also had moments that had nothing to do with the actions described in the Big Book, and they still exist. But this is no reason to convey personal beliefs and misconceptions to an uninformed person. Therefore, I gave the text of the Big Book and asked the person to carry out, to the best of his ability, what is described there. 
In AA there is a principle of “immutability of the message” - the program of action described in the unchanged part of the Big Book is conveyed to the newcomer as an AA message. I tried to adhere to this principle, and time has shown that it was not in vain. My students more than once pointed out to me in the text, “But it’s not written like that, it’s different here...” and did what was written, and not what I did. They saw in the book what I, under the weight of personal prejudices, simply read differently.
This is the kind of mind I have, everything needs to be complicated and colored in its own way. And personal moments, which for some reason do not reach or are not available when I myself am trying to take steps, suddenly become simple and obvious when you help someone else. Probably because there is no obligation at this moment. Mentoring is mutual; each person, without knowing it, invests a lot in my spiritual growth.
In mentoring, my role is small; in the first place is the person himself and his relationship with the Higher Power, as he understands it. Personal experience and I keep understanding in the background so as not to confuse the person and not impose my own. People are unique - where I have a deficiency, a person may have an excess. The most important thing is his personal path to his true self and his concepts. I’ll tell you about mine, of course, but later. Very often I see the expectation from me of the role of a “psychotherapist”, that I will now take and tell the whole truth to a person about his misconceptions. But no, I won’t tell you, because I don’t see. Only the Higher Power can see the innermost things in a person and the person himself, if the Higher Power gives him such an opportunity. Therefore, the most important thing for me is that a person finds answers to questions within himself. I appreciate everything that a person can do, because everyone does exactly as much as they are capable of. this moment, for “depth and width” he will have the rest of his life and mastered tools. For steps 1-9, a month or three is enough, no more.
Not everyone reaches the end, I noticed one turning point that a person either passes and goes to the end or leaves Big book at this point - the transition in the Fourth step to considering your “true self”. If you manage to pass this moment, then a reconstruction takes place in the foundations of your worldview, and sincere steps 5-9 are taken without any effort. A person simply cannot do otherwise. But it seems to me that it’s not scary, if a person doesn’t want to move on, we still remain friends. I trust God, he will bring a person out in his own ways, not necessarily with me, and not necessarily the path that I walked. After a person masters the Tenth, Eleventh and begins the Twelfth Step itself, I am no longer a mentor. As they say, “the Higher Power has all the answers, the tools are in hand,” we are no different now.
And everyone new person teaches me “not to play God”, not to judge, to respect the free will and choices of another person and to trust God.
Ekaterina Sh. (Istanbul)
IN Lately a lot is said about the fact that the soul is immortal, and that it can return to Earth again, but in a different shell. But is it possible to experience rebirth for yourself?
From our article you will learn how you can be reborn physically and spiritually.
Physical rebirth
In Hinduism there is such a thing as rebirth. The human soul does not die, but only changes its shell, so it returns to the world in different guises again and again. This process is continuous, and it is impossible to cancel or influence it. Moreover, you can return to Earth not only in a human body: if a person has committed many unseemly acts, then he will return as an insect or animal.
It turns out that in order to be reborn physically, you only need to believe in the postulates of Hinduism and live according to your conscience, so that thanks to pure karma you can return to the world as a human being.
Spiritual rebirth
There is also the concept of spiritual rebirth - this is the cleansing of the soul from unseemly thoughts and actions, which will allow you to start life with clean slate. How to achieve this? To atone for your sins, you should develop spiritually; help to cleanse yourself daily prayers, as well as helping disadvantaged people. Moreover, you need to help with all your heart, and not for selfish reasons, otherwise nothing will come of it.
The second step will be to sincerely pray for everyone living in the world, including the people who have harmed you. You should let go of your grievances and fears, learn to forgive your enemies and love people.
In addition, you need to live by the eternal law of the Universe, which states: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Therefore, it will be necessary to lead a righteous lifestyle, sowing only goodness. Soon the troubles will go away and the joy of life will return to you.
You might be interested in reading our article about immortal soul - .
