What is a cell in a monastery? Monastic cells in the Solovetsky Monastery

I got married late. In fact, I wasn't even sure if I would ever get married. Although the only thing I always wanted to be was a wife and mother. When all my school friends wanted to be firefighters, doctors, police officers and mail carriers, I just wanted to be a wife and mom.

Years of being single among all my married friends gave me an inside look at what this verse really means: “Every wise woman builds her home, but a foolish woman destroys it with her own hands.”(Proverbs 14:1)

Over the years I have observed those who built their homes while others destroyed them with theirs. with my own hands.

This is a pretty amazing statement. They didn't just tear apart or blow up their homes. Literally, with their bare hands, they destroyed their families stone by stone. Were you responsible for such destruction? From time to time I was too.

THREE WAYS TO DESTROY OUR HOMES

1. Spirit of criticism

If we allow the spirit of criticism, bitterness and gossip into our hearts, we destroy the spirit of our marriage, home and children. The critical spirit quickly destroys the house, but the joyful spirit encourages and fills the house with praise, turning the house into a luxurious mansion and a paradise for the family!

We build our home by charging first our thoughts and then our tongue, filling our hearts, spirits and lips with praise. Replace every negative and critical thought with praise and positive thoughts. Allow God to cleanse your heart of bitterness and aim to never gossip in your heart or with other women.

Wait a minute! “You mean you can gossip in your heart?” Yes, it's possible! Thinking, ruminating and replaying in your mind judgmental conversations about or with someone you are angry with. And this breeds anger, criticism and bitterness. Let's not be stupid women, destroying our homes with criticism, bitterness and gossip. Let us be wise women, building our homes with praise, gratitude, faith and charity.

2. Restless Heart

As mothers and guardians hearth and home, we often allow worry and worry to take over our hearts. We worry about how to take care of our families when money is tight or when illness strikes. We worry about the future of our children and the job security of our husbands. Anxiety is a cancer that eats away our hearts and spirit. He guts our houses and leaves them cold and empty.

However, a quiet spirit is a spirit at peace, knowing that God will always provide and provide:

“I was young, and I have become old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants asking for bread.”(Psalm 36:25)

The quiet spirit knows that God loves and wants to care for our family even more than we do ourselves, and He provides from the most unexpected and unknown sources. It is a faith-filled spirit that fills its home with promises. God's Word and the warmth of His peace, which wraps the house in the loving comfort of His presence. The book of Hebrews says that if we do not have faith, we cannot please God.

If we want to please God, then we need to have strong and unshakable faith that He will provide and bring health to those we love.

We can build our houses with the bricks of faith by memorizing verses about not worrying; read the books of great men and women of faith and encourage our children to join us in prayer for supernatural provision. You can also keep a faith chart:

Draw a thermometer and color it in at each level as God answers prayers. Write down answers to prayers next to each level. This will give you a visual picture of how God provides and it will also be a visible reminder to your children.

This is creating your home with your own hands, like wise wives!

3. Grumpy and whining tongue

There's nothing worse than a nagging wife. Even Proverbs says that it is better to be terribly poor or live in a corner on the roof than with a grumpy wife who does not stop endlessly grumbling.

Here are a few tips I learned from my husband:

1. Lists and men don’t mix.. Do you want to disappoint your man? Give him a list of 10 points. This does not bode well for their nervous system.

2. Men don't mind being reminded. But don't remind them of what they need to do all the time, every day. Gentle but clear reminders, voiced from time to time, are helpful, but they should never be presented in the form of a complaint laced with sarcasm.

3. Men don't mind being reminded as long as they feel grateful for everything they already do.: go to work every day, help with children or around the house. A reminder combined with a feeling of gratitude will earn you a “thank you very much”!

A wise woman can create her home by first cultivating gratitude in her own heart for what her husband is already doing and reminding herself that her husband needs Saturdays for “doing nothing.” If they become “honey, do this and do that” days, he will quickly become exhausted. Let your husband's first thought about you be a grateful heart.

And then wisely build your home with love and gratitude - everything else will be done in due time!

So let us aim to be wise builders of our homes and marriages. This is a lifelong commitment.

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We can start today by answering the following questions:

What makes you grateful when it comes to your family and marriage?
What do you find unique and wonderful about your family?
What attracted you to your husband in the first place?
What character traits do your children have?
What does your family and marriage have to offer your community and church?
What answers to prayer or supernatural provision have you received recently?

I'm starting today. Who would like to join me?

A monastery is not only a stone or wooden religious building. People live in the monastery - novices, monks. And each of them has his own small home - a cell.

The meaning of the word cell

Words similar in sound and meaning exist in many languages. IN Greek there is a word κελλίον, in Latin– сella, in Old Russian – kelia. They all mean approximately the same thing. The meaning of the word cell is a small room, a modest dwelling of a monk.

Most likely, this word came into the Russian language during the baptism of Rus'. Since Rus' was baptized according to the Greek model Orthodox Church, then the word itself is apparently of Greek origin.

Monastic cells

The cells are located in special buildings - fraternal buildings or dormitories. In Russian monasteries, one or two monks live in cells. The rooms have a simple appearance. Furniture usually includes a table, a chair or stool and a bed. Instead of a bed there can be a trestle bed.

Often in a monastery cell there is a small individual iconostasis made of small icons. Almost every room has a shelf for books. These are monastic and religious books. He spends all his free time, of which the monk has little, in his cell. Here the monks spend time in prayer, doing handicrafts or reading spiritual books.

Actually, monastic life has remained almost unchanged over the centuries. Usually monks are busy with obediences or prayers. Obedience, speaking in simple language- These are chores. Monasteries maintain their buildings and structures in good condition on our own. Only for special or dangerous work are outside specialists hired.

Sometimes, especially in ancient times, monasteries were located in secluded places, sometimes in caves and mountains. And, accordingly, the cells were carved into the rocks. The most famous such structure is the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Of course, today monks no longer live in these caves.

Monks - chroniclers

When there was no printing in the Russian state, books were written by hand. And it was the monks who wrote them in their cells. It took months and even years to produce—write—one book. They wrote them on separate sheets of paper, which were then stapled and covered with a strong cover.

Books were not only written anew, but also rewritten. These were unique printing houses. From one book many copies were made. The circulation, of course, was not in the millions, as it is now. These were still single copies. You can't write much by hand.

In general, in ancient times education was concentrated in monasteries and churches. There are still Sunday schools. And once upon a time this was the main type of education available to the bulk of the country’s population. At that time these were parochial schools.

Not only books were written in the narrow monastery cell. The history of the country was recorded in the cell of the monk-chronicler. It is from such chronicles that today it is possible to find out what happened in those distant times.

The most famous monk chronicler is Nestor. This monk lived in the above-mentioned Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. It was thanks to his works that “The Tale of Bygone Years” was born in 1113. It tells the history of the Russian state from 852 to 1117. Subsequently, the chronicle was rewritten and supplemented many times.

Men's and women's monasteries

Monasteries are a complex of buildings and structures for religious and economic purposes. As a rule, there are several churches and temples on the territory of the monastery. And they are kept in working and safe condition by the monks. They live here, on the territory of the monastery, in cells located in separate, special buildings.

How do people get into monasteries? Differently. Each person who decides to devote his life to serving God has his own destiny. And those who come to the monastery are rarely asked the reasons that led him to this. Unless the person himself wants to talk about it.

The holidays continue. And the State Duma New Year holidays are over. The people are returning to life, and we are returning to work at the Leushinsky farmstead. Labor workers returned from Veliky Novgorod.

Metropolitan Barsanuphius set us the task of preparing the Leushinsky metochion for the opening of the Leushinsky monastery as soon as possible. There's a lot to do. You don't know what to do first. But what is the most important thing at this stage? There is no monastery without nuns, and nuns without monastic cells. So we threw all our efforts into repairing the cells.

How many cells - and, accordingly, nuns - were there at the Leushinsky metochion?
It is impossible to do without historical research. I had to rummage through the archives.
In the RGIA it was possible to find a “List of sisters living at the metochion of the Leushinsky St. John the Baptist Monastery in St. Petersburg for 1910,” according to which 2 robed nuns, 6 “designated novices” and 33 “living on probation” lived here. There are 41 nuns in total.
The same archive contains another list of sisters for 1914. The compound is already called “Petrogradsky”. According to this list, 6 robed nuns, 26 “designated novices” and 24 “tested novices” lived here. There are 46 nuns in total. This list is valuable because it indicates the obediences of each nun. More than half of the sisters performed the obedience of singers. From this fact it is clear what great value gave church singing in the courtyard is the abbess of the monastery, Abbess Taisiya.
Both lists are striking in the number of sisters who lived. Now only very large monasteries can boast such figures: Diveevo, Shamordino, Pyukhtitsy.
This fact both surprised and puzzled me. I was surprised by the fact that in the center of St. Petersburg there was essentially a whole monastery even then. And I was puzzled by where they were located? There is not much space in the yard. Apparently, the sisters lived quite closely - several people in a cell.
Abbess Taisiya herself wrote that the courtyard “consisted of a stone 3-storey house, opening onto the courtyard with an outbuilding on the right side, including the Church on the 3rd floor, and below from the entrance there is a Chapel, on the second floor there are cells” . Currently, there are six cells on the second floor, three of them overlook Nekrasova Street (historical name - Basseynaya), and three - inside the courtyard. Four cells were restored earlier. In one of them we equipped and opened the Memorial Cell-Office of St. John of Kronstadt. The sisters of the Ioanno-Taisi Sisterhood live in two of them. Another cell is reserved as a guest cell. Thus, there are two more cells left on the second floor of the temple building, which we are now restoring. Literally these holidays- on the eve of the feast of St. John of Kronstadt - they completed their restoration.

What do we know about the monastic cell? The very word “cell” exudes something mysterious and enigmatic. The life of people who renounced the world has always aroused the interest of society. So in our courtyard, visitors ask how our sisters live, what they do, do they watch TV? Many people are interested in looking into the cell.
Let's take a spiritual look into the nun's home and try to understand what a monastic cell is? In the classical sense, this is a separate living room in a monastery; in fact, the Greek word κελλίον, derived from the Latin cella, means nothing more than “room”.
But a cell is not just a room, it’s a whole world monastic life: a world of peace and quiet, which in monastic language is called hesychia. The fathers of monasticism teach to love your cell, to strive for it, and not to leave it. St. Anthony of Egypt said: “Just as fish, remaining on land for a long time, die, so do monks, being outside their cells for a long time or staying with worldly people, lose their love for silence."
A cell for a monk/nun is not a “rest room”, but first of all a House of Prayer, a “laboratory of unceasing prayer”, a place of spiritual work and obedience: here cell prayers are read daily, the rosary rule of the Jesus Prayer is performed, spiritual reading. Nowadays, of course, we cannot do without “Internet rules”. In their cell, nuns can perform handicraft obediences. In general, the cell is the center of a nun’s life, which is why Abba Moses said: “Your cell will teach you everything.”
An understanding of what a cell is will not be complete without remembering one thing: important point. Visitors to the nun's cell are allowed only with the blessing of the abbess, and the presence of women in the cells monasteries, and men, accordingly, are strictly prohibited in women's rooms.

I won’t hide that restoring monastic cells is not easy for a white priest. I have never lived in them myself. I visited monks I knew a couple of times. The first thing that comes to mind is the cell of Elder John Krestyankin in the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery.
Many technical, design, and spiritual questions arise. What should a nun's cell be like? Which wallpaper to choose? Which colors to choose? What kind of lamps should I hang? What kind of furniture should I put in? A designer for monastic cells does not yet exist in nature (although, who knows?!) Everything has to be decided by oneself, of course, in consultation with the sisters.
As a result, I compiled the following description of the ideal (Leushin) cell:
1. The cell should be simple and cozy, because people will live here permanently. For some, it will become their home for many years, and maybe forever.
2. The cell should not be flashy, modest, not distracting, helping internal concentration, because prayer and communion with God are being performed.
3. The cell should contain only the most necessary things, without excesses, so as not to burden life with unnecessary things.
4. I think that the cell should be a little antique in order to be out of this time.
5. At the same time, the cell should not be wretched; after all, our monastery, although Leushinsky, is located in the center of St. Petersburg. The cell must be worthy of this city.
6. In a word, the cell should be such that staying in it brings spiritual benefit to the nun, so that she strives to return to it.
7. A holy corner is needed, a place for prostrations.
It seems that I haven’t forgotten anything (maybe the “experts” will suggest or add something).

But as you know, building a theory is easier than putting it into practice. I treated this matter as an artistic creation. I selected antique lamps, handles and door fittings. A particular problem was choosing wallpaper, which largely determines the appearance of the cell. I had to visit more than one wallpaper store. As with any creative work, there were drafts. In one cell I completely replaced the already pasted wallpaper with new ones. My assistant was a wonderful wallpaper master, Svetlana, whom I found through the Dostoevsky Museum. She hung wallpaper there during the last renovation.

I consider it my merit that I managed to preserve the historical doors of the Leushinsky monastery. There was a choice: dismantle or repair, make new ones or keep the old ones. The second option required restoration, which turned out to be much more expensive than making new doors. But everything old from Leushin is of historical and spiritual value for us. After all, these doors were opened by Abbess Taisiya herself, the Leushin sisters used them, and the doors of the guest cell were opened by John of Kronstadt. To do this, the doors had to be dismantled together with the frame, delivered to production, where they were almost completely disassembled, aligned, prosthetized, and several layers of paint were removed. When they were brought back a month later, it was difficult to recognize them. If you don't know, you might mistake them for new ones. But we know that these are the same ones - our Leushinskys. We open them with trepidation and memory of those who labored here before us.

We also managed to save all the windows on the second floor facing Basseynaya, which is 7 windows. The same procedure was done with them as with the doors. If I walk along Basseynaya (Nekrasova) past the Leushinsky courtyard, look at the beautiful ones on the 2nd floor, know that they are genuine, real, still the same. (The windows to the courtyard were made new - double-glazed windows).

We didn't have special day the opening of new cells, but the feeling of celebration does not leave you when you look into them. They are still empty, there is no furniture in them (this is another creative issue that needs to be resolved).
The cells are waiting for their nuns. By the way, in this regard the question arises, how many nuns can there be in one cell? Different monasteries have different experiences. In modern Greek convents, in particular in the famous monastery of Ormilia, nuns live only one at a time. But we have our own Leushin tradition. Abbess Taisiya, in the “Charter of the Leushinsky Monastery” compiled by her, determined the following: the sisters “in external order live in common cells, that is, not one at a time, like hermits, but two or three, at the discretion of the abbess (only the eldest with the younger ones). for leadership, and not equal in age and success)". Therefore, the cells in the courtyard are designed for two nuns. They still have a long way to go...

The stated topic is very important for the life of the cenobitic monastery. From the very beginning, I would like to clarify that I intend to rely on the spirit and prayer experience of Elder Emilian1 and the monks of our monastery in to a greater extent than on your own poor and insufficient experience. In itself, the fullness of the Church is already community life. For monks who have renounced all worldly ties and their old life, the monastery becomes the place where they discovered God; their life moves into another reality, namely into the reality of the Kingdom and last days, where everything will be filled with the glory of God. Their life, freed from any compromises with the world, is a constant presence before the Throne of God, like the angels. The indicative gospel saying that some of those standing here... will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom (Matthew 16:28) is addressed to the monks. Each monk heeded the call of Christ directed to him personally. Either as a result of enforcement action or life circumstances, or in the process of consistent Christian education, but, one way or another, the gaze of Christ stopped on him and called him to leave everything and follow Him. But perfect following of Christ occurs among monks through prayer, in which they imitate the apostles. Thus, we will try to explain how the private prayer into the life of a communal monastery, revealing several aspects of both.

Continuous service to God

Just as the disciples followed Christ to Mount Tabor, so the monk enters the monastery, and there - mainly, of course, thanks to serving God - the light of the Lord is revealed to him. This light is similar to the light with which the face of the Lord shone. The same thing happens in other manifestations of communal life: in work, in relations between brethren, at meals, when receiving guests, when caring for the infirm and elderly, at general fraternal conversations, etc., that is, all this in the monastery is likened to vestments Lord, who became white from what was reflected in them Divine light. In the monastery everything is God-bearing, everything is constant service. Service to God is at the center of life, services regulate every moment, and any activity begins and ends in the temple, with prayer and chants. The initial calling from the Lord is like a spark that flared up in the heart to give an impetus that delivers us from the temptations of this world. This spark in highest degree facilitates the testing and teaching of the rigors of ascetic life, but there is a danger that it will fade away if it is not nourished, so the monk is called to perceive the mystery of God's revelation, which is clearly and mysteriously expressed in church worship.

This perception occurs in two ways: through ascetic warfare and cell prayer. Asceticism aims to help the monk to cleanse himself of passions, the beginning of which is selfishness, and makes him a vessel that receives Divine energies; prayer is the connecting link connecting the monk with God - through prayer he speaks with the Lord and hears His answer.

Prayer as an essential component of a monk's life

Since the monastery is a place of the unceasing presence of God, it is impossible for prayer not to be the center of a monk’s life. “Monastic life is unthinkable without prayer - and since the service is carried out unceasingly, without unceasing prayer,” Elder Emilian told us and added: “When a monk prays, he becomes a person who shows, first of all, that he lives in God. He lives insofar as he remains in prayer... Prayer serves as a prerequisite for his spiritual growth.”2 The main thing that justifies his presence in the monastery is the pursuit of unceasing communication with God through prayer. There are many types of prayer, but only cell prayer truly transforms our existence.

Community and silent monasticism

Some argue that cell or mental prayer is used only by the sacredly silent and that cenobitic monks are busy only with divine services, and this should be enough for them. However, there are not two different types monasticism. Of course, there is some difference, but it is mainly due to living conditions and the organization of time free from common prayer and obedience.

The goal of both forms of monastic life was and is the same: to gain intimacy with God and personal experience of deification in Christ. The history of monasticism, which has always implied these two parallel and complementary types, demonstrates a tendency towards their mutual rapprochement. As we see, from the time of St. Paisius (Velichkovsky) to the present day, an attempt has been made to introduce hesychast spiritual teaching into the monastic community. This is one of the characteristic features the current revival and flourishing of Svyatogorsk monasticism. Today, young people who come to the Holy Mountain (I suspect that the same thing happens in Russian monasteries) for the most part strive to live according to the norms of the community, while having the opportunity to live an individual spiritual life. Let's see how cell silent prayer is carried out in a communal monastery.

Monk's cell: Babylonian oven

When in the evening, after Compline, the monk returns to his cell, he is not separated from common body brotherhood. The cell represents his personal space, but at the same time it integrally belongs to the hostel. Everything that is in it - furniture, icons, books, vestments, etc. - is located there with blessing. Whatever the monk does in his cell - rest, pray, reflect on his life, prepare for confession and Communion - all this has an organic connection with the rest of the life of the monastery. Of course, the monk rests in his cell, but the cell is not a place for rest. In reality, it is an arena of ascetic warfare and a meeting place with God. Some ancient monastic texts compare the cell to the Babylonian furnace, where the monk, like the three youths, is tested, purified and prepared to meet God. The cell is a reserved place for the monk, where nothing from the world should penetrate in order to allow him to fight with God to receive blessings from Him (see Gen. 32:24-30), and then he can be called, like Jacob, the one who saw God.

Cell rule, or “private liturgy”

In the cell, the monk fulfills his rule, which consists of a number of prostrations determined by the elder, prayers on the rosary, reading holy books and any other prayers. There is - and should exist - great diversity in terms of content, method of execution, time and duration of the cell rule, due to the fact that people are different from each other and have different degrees of bodily endurance, temperament and character. The confessor must take all this into account when appointing prayer rule for his novice. In some way cell rule for the personal life of a monk it has the same meaning as the liturgical rules for a temple, with the only difference being that the rule, firstly, must be within the monk’s strength, and secondly, it must become more complicated as he spiritual growth. One thing is a rule for a novice, another for a monk carrying out some kind of difficult obedience, another rule for the infirm, another for the elderly. At a meeting with the elder, the monk, of course, confesses all his sins to him, reveals his thoughts, asks for advice, but the main conversation will concern the rule: how does prayer go? do you have problems sleeping? does he get tired of bowing? Should I exercise more? what ascetic works should be read to inflame the heart more, etc. Regular revision of the cell rule is a significant indicator of the spiritual growth of every conscious monk.

Spiritual life as such should not be reduced to cell rule. It simply represents the necessary minimum that a monk must perform daily and at a certain time in order to “remember that he is excommunicated from God and deprived of His Grace,” as Elder Emilian taught us. The issue of constancy of the rule is of significant importance, which is invariably emphasized by the spiritual fathers. You cannot follow the rule only when you are in the mood for it, and if you have already missed it, you should inform your elder and confessor about this as a deviation from your monastic duty. Therefore, the rule must be designed so that it can be fulfilled daily, with attention, humility and full awareness of the fact that you are not offering something to God, but you are appearing before Him, asking for His mercy. Thus, the rule does not degenerate into a simple habit and does not become a formal duty performed by the monk “just to get rid of it”, and with thoughts of something else. Since it is during the execution of the cell rule that the monk makes every effort to fight for a meeting with God, we in our monastery prefer to call it “vigil” or “cell liturgy,” not only because it is performed mainly at night, but mainly because it represents the expectation and aspiration of God, the upward-directed tension of all the forces of the monk. The minimum determined for him by the elder out of condescension can become the fuse that will ignite in him the burning of divine zeal, and then the rule will stretch over time and increase in strength, filling the whole night. In the brethren of Elder Joseph the Hesychast, the rule lasted six hours and consisted exclusively of mental prayer, and in many Svyatogorsk hostels the monk is given the opportunity to devote at least four hours to prayer every night, in addition to the daily cycle of services. The “cell liturgy” represents a space of sacramental experience, an entrance into the “cloud” that covered the three apostles after the appearance of the Light, an abyss of divine knowledge, and therefore is performed at night.

Night is the time of divine revelations, great epiphanies in Holy Scripture, this is the hour when God bends over people. That is why both the prophets and our Lord Jesus Christ prayed at night (see Matt. 26:36, Luke 21:37). During these hours, a person, having gotten rid of the distraction of the mind, can raise a battle against thoughts, ascend to God, speak with Him, know Him, so that He becomes from an unknown and abstract God his own God. Without nightly prayer, the Holy Spirit will not act in us and speak to us - as Elder Emilian taught, who placed this part of the monk’s work at the very center of his life3.

Therefore, the cell rule is so important that performing it in church immediately before the morning service depreciates it. Of course, such a transfer guarantees that the monks will fulfill the rule, but at the same time its personal character is lost. In a cell, a monk can dissolve his heart, kneel, pray, cry, change his position to fight sleep, but in a temple these possibilities become unavailable, and the rule acquires a liturgical and objective character, taking the place of service. At the same time, it contains all the same elements, but takes on a liturgical form.

Prerequisites for night prayer

Just as worship has its own charter, so “liturgy in the cell” has certain prerequisites, in the absence of which its goal cannot be achieved. When a monk enters his cell, or rather after he has rested for a few hours and wakes up in the middle of the night to fulfill his rule of prayer, he should not bring anything from the world into his cell. He must be free from worldly cares and activities related to his obedience, and have no attachments or curiosity for anything. He must also be able to inner world and unity with all your brothers, not to feel resentment or envy towards anyone, or even remorse for possible sins. This peace reigns in the conscience primarily as a result of pure confession and revelation of thoughts, as well as after a brief examination of oneself, which may precede the fulfillment of the prayer rule. Elder Emilian instructed in much the same way: “We must empty ourselves, constantly awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit. We must abide in things above in order to receive Him at all times. In fasting, in hardships, in pain, with a thirst for humiliation, in detachment and silence, in order to be worthy to receive the Holy Spirit... The Spirit usually descends into empty stomachs and into watchful eyes.”4

Only by not caring about anything can you acquire contrition of heart, piety, a humble awareness that you are filled with lawlessness and darkness, and do everything to “touch God” and attract the Spirit so that it will overshadow you.

Temperance and the Jesus Prayer

In addition to what the monk will do at this hour, following the instructions given to him by the elder, his main task will be to empty the mind of everything, be it good or bad, “so that we cultivate our capacity through sobriety, vigilance, silence and digging a well of joy, peace and heavenly life, which is called the Prayer of Jesus"5. “Capacity depends not only on our attitude and how much we love God, but also on our work, effort and sweat, and the more our capacity increases, the more God gives us.”6

This devastation in patristic spiritual terminology is called “sobriety.” It consists of attention, vigilance, observation of the thoughts that come to the mind and strive to enter the heart in order to master the strength of the soul. Sobriety is the main activity of a monk, since, for the most part, it does not include the fight against bodily temptations. This is “the art of arts and the science of sciences,” which is difficult to comprehend for one who still lives in the confusion of the distractions of the mind and worldly passions. Therefore, we cannot talk about sobriety and internal struggle when there is no corresponding “silence.” In the silence of the night, a monk can follow his thoughts and reflect various thoughts in order to devote himself to only one invocation of the Name of Christ. Sobriety and monosyllabic prayer are integral companions of the sacramental life, so that it is impossible to strive in one without the other, due to the mobility of the mind, which always needs some kind of activity. For this reason, in order to repel the attacks of various thoughts, I give my mind one single occupation - the invocation of the Name of Christ as an invincible weapon and means of sanctification. Therefore, the Jesus Prayer, mental prayer, this royal path is the main weapon of a monk in this battle, and it contains a clot of all the experience accumulated by the Church. There is no need to dwell here in more detail on the art of the Jesus Prayer, carefully described in the texts of the sober fathers and clearly explained by the great Russian God-bearing fathers of the 19th century. The Jesus Prayer is the most effective form of prayer, but it is not the only one, so it would be unwise to force it on all monks. For some, the monosyllabic Jesus Prayer may become boring and become an obstacle to free communication with the longed-for Lord, not because of succumbing to passions or immaturity, but simply due to temperament and state of mind.

According to the faithful disciple of St. Paisius (Velichkovsky), St. George of Cherniksky, the imposition of a single rule of the Jesus Prayer was one of the reasons for the rapid collapse of the large brotherhood of the Nyamets monastery after the death of St. Paisius8. Accordingly, we can recommend the monosyllabic Jesus Prayer for the night rule, but it is better not to impose it, since there should be some variety for the brethren.

We should also not forget that the great desert fathers and great theologians of the sacramental life did not resort to the Jesus Prayer, but rather read the psalms and Holy Scripture.

In deepening your experience and in spiritual guidance, what Abba Cassian the Roman says in his conversations from the desert about different types of prayer (supplication, prayers, petition and thanksgiving), about deanery during various prayers, about who is suitable for or another type of prayer, as well as about the meaning of prayer performed in the silence of a cell.

The main thing that a waking monk should follow, regardless of whether he occupies his mind with the monosyllabic Jesus Prayer or its other types, is the feeling of standing before Christ, which is spoken of in the psalm: the sight of the Lord before me (Ps. 15: 8). Here we need to make a distinction between unceasing prayer or prayer, on the one hand, and, on the other, constant remembrance of God, which is the desired result. This constant remembrance of God is achieved not only by prayer, but also by all sober activities and life in the community. Particular emphasis should be placed on keeping the mind in every possible way, but the words themselves, repeated incessantly, are very useful and soar the mind. The prayer cry of the ancient fathers, for example, God, come to my help, Lord help me, strive (Ps. 69:2) was not chosen by chance, as well as the later “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,” because they express everything experiences that it can contain human nature. These words can be spoken under any circumstances, suitable to repel every temptation and satisfy every need. They must be used both in difficulties and in good times in order to observe the unspeakable and protect oneself from pride. These words become a foretaste of salvation, the breath of the Divine, your constant sweetest companion.

We should not be concerned that prayer will have a “result”, or that the Lord will give us a gift as some kind of reward. This attitude exposes a selfish and vain soul. The only thing I need is to stand before God and be patient. I realized that I was nothing, good for nothing and not capable of anything, “I stand here” and say: “My God, if you want, take me, if you want, give me years of life, but I am dying before You.” . “Presence” in the temple becomes a revelation of God, both explicitly and sacramentally. During the internal “cell liturgy” the monk himself will invisible God and longs to see Him in person.

It would be delightful to believe that with many years of everyday abuse, prayer rule and through prayers, we will acquire the right to see God as many saints saw Him, to see Him in the light of the transfiguration of His face. No. Our “task” is to stand before God so that He sees us, to become like Him as much as possible in acquiring the gospel virtues.

Waiting for the Holy Spirit is the purpose of the prayer rule and our night vigil. The criterion of success is not so much the talents and gifts of grace that we acquire through prayer, but labor and self-sacrifice.

Thus, after we acquire the skill of extreme precaution, which we can develop over the years, laboring in sobriety, our prayer ceases to be supplication and petition, even if God has given us something, but becomes simple listening to the steps of the approaching God and the swaying of the Spirit. Naturally, our books are full of experiences of the prayer of saints. There is no shortage of similar experiences among modern monks and nuns. I have accumulated many of their letters, in which they personally testify to their own life in God.

Problems in Prayer

Standing in the cell can be difficult when, despite persistent efforts, the monk experiences problems related to sleep, physical or heartache, with fatigue, with melancholy, with devastation of the heart, with darkness, unbelief, confusion of thoughts, with despondency, with an enemy attack and, perhaps, even with difficulty pronouncing the words of the Jesus Prayer out loud. Then the darkness in the cell becomes gloomy, and these hours become painful. In such cases, Elder Emilian repeatedly told us: “A monk experiences the greatest problems in prayer... But we should not forget that this is no coincidence... This confirms that prayer begins to become our real experience... our real occupation. May God grant that you receive true pleasure from prayer. This is very, very useful. But know that in the beginning (not to say for many years, and sometimes once and for all) it is much more useful to have problems, obstacles, and difficulties than pleasure. Because when we face obstacles, our will, our freedom and our love for God are truly tested: do I have love in the depths of my soul; is there inside me divine love; Is my will turned to the Lord?”9

So these difficulties can turn into real bloodless martyrdom (μαρτύριο) for a monk who does not abandon his goal and continues to struggle every night for many years, perhaps feeling nothing and relying only on his faith and on the testimonies (μαρτυρία) of the saints.

When a monk is sufficiently rooted in the tradition of the Church, he is not shaken by the difficulties he encounters during prayer, but rather takes joy from his humble struggle. When the church bell rings at the end of the night, he leaves his cell to meet the brethren as having fought a good fight and proud even of his defeats.

Return to the temple and offering to the brotherhood

At the hour when the brethren gather again for prayer, each brings his night battle as a kind of offering that will be offered along with the gifts of the Divine Eucharist on the altar. Where everything is common, there is common struggle, common joy and common gifts. Each divine mysterious experience does not belong to any one monk, but is offered to the whole Brotherhood and becomes driving force prosperity and acceptance of the Holy Spirit by all members of the Body of Christ.

Church services are enriched by the nightly experience of the brethren, who, in the hostel, thus have the opportunity to partake a little of the experience of genuine hesychasts. While during the day, in the cycle of obedience, the authenticity of the night is tested spiritual experience, since it gives the monk the strength to endure, for God's sake, the difficulties that he may encounter during the day in carrying out his obedience.

The above considerations show us that cell night prayer is an integral and organic part of the life of a cenobitic monastery. In it, the experience of the sacrament of salvation is mastered, and the joy that the monk receives from it is a confirmation of the authenticity of his vows before God - for the Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21) - and a foretaste of the life of the future century.

Translation from Greek: Maxim Klimenko, Alexey Grishin.

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1. Archimandrite Emilian (Vafidis) - abbot of the monastery of Simonopetra from 1973 to 2000, one of the most revered elders of Holy Mount Athos. Now he rests in the monastery of Ormilia (Chalkidiki).

2. Ἀρχιμ. Αἰμιλιανός. Σύναξις στήν Σιμωνόπετρα. 1978.

3. Ἀρχιμ. Αἰμιλιανός. Σχέσις Γέροντος καί ὐποτακτικοῦ στόν τόμο Νηπτική ζωή καί ἀσκητικ οί κανόνες, ἐκδ. Ἴνδικτος, Ἀθήνα, 2011, σ. 451.

4. Ibid. P. 437.

5. Ἀρχιμ. Αἰμιλιανός. Λόγος περί νήψεως, ἐκδ. Ἴνδικτος, Ἀθήνα, 2007, σ. 407.

7.” ? ἐντρέχειαν. → ίαν τοῦ σκοποῦ" (Diadochos of Photicus. One hundred Gnostic chapters about spiritual improvement. 59, SC 5bis, 119).

8. Νεός Συναξαριστής, 3ῃ Δεκεμβρίου, τ. 4, ἐκδ. Ἴνδικτος, Ἀθήνα, 2005, σ. 39 (New Synaxarion, December 3. T. 2. P. 445).

Kalinina L., 7th grade.

Municipal educational institution "Secondary school No. 34 with UIP"

Saratov

Teacher: Strekalova N.V.

“I knew only the power of the thought,

.......................

She called my dreams

From cell stuffy and prayers..."

(M.Yu. Lermontov, “Mtsyri”. Literature. 7th grade, p. 126).

Pronunciation

Cell

Lexical meaning

Cell or cell(from avg.- Greek κελλίον , plural -ία, κέλλα, from lat. cella - “room, closet”; Old Russian keli ɪ A ) - monk's dwelling , usually a separate room in monastery

Religious:a separate room or separate dwelling of a monk, nun in a monastery

Portable: small room of a lonely person

Etymology

From Middle Greek κελλίον, plural -ία, κέλλα, from cella "room, closet", connection. With celare"to hide, conceal "(goes back to Proto-Indo-European kel- « hide, hide")

According to monastic regulations, most Russian monasteries allowed each monk or nun to build his own cell. As a result, monks from wealthy families had comfortable, spacious cells . In Russian monasteries, a cell, as a rule, is a room for one or two monks with minimal interior decoration: a table, chair, bed or hard trestle bed. Very often in monastery cells there is a shelf for books, as well as an individual iconostasis consisting of paper icons. Monastic tradition suggests that all the time that a monk is not busy with obediences or monastic services, he spends in his cell praying, doing handicrafts and reading spiritual books. According to charter monastery, in the fraternal building in general, and in the cell in particular, it is not recommended for strangers to enter, and persons of the opposite sex are categorically prohibited (an exception is made only for relatives, and then only in the most extreme cases.

Synonyms: Shutter, cell, room, hermitage

Antonyms: No

Hypernyms: Room, premises; housing, dwelling

Similar words:

Cellular(adj.) - transl. secret, secret, committed by a narrow circle of people. Examples: Cell discussion. Solve the matter privately (adv.).

In the future, we will meet this word in 8th grade when studying A.S. Pushkin’s drama “Boris Godunov” and in 9th grade, reading Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”.

1. Pushkin uses the word “cell” in the poem “Eugene Onegin” in a figurative meaning and means a cramped honeycomb:

Driven by spring rays,

There is already snow from the surrounding mountains

................................

Bee for field tribute

Flies from cells wax.

(A.S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”. Ch.VII)

2. In Pushkin’s drama “Boris Godunov” part of the action takes place in cell Miracle Monastery:

Monk Pimen

I saw here - in this very cell

(The long-suffering Kirill then lived in it,

The husband is righteous. Then me too